Robert Burns is celebrated every year on the anniversary of his birth on January 25th with suppers, haggis, bagpipes, accordions and renditions of his best known songs – “A Red, Red Rose”, “A Man’s a Man for A’ That”, “To a Louse”, “To a Mouse”, “Tam o’ Shanter”, “Halloween” and “Ae Fond Kiss”. Hogmanay the world over is welcomed in with his “Auld Lang Syne”. What is extraordinary about him is his prolific output of 300 to 400 songs crammed into a short life which ended when he was 37, especially given his poverty stricken childhood which damaged his health and his struggle to earn money as a bookkeeper and excise man in his adult life. And the global reputation he has sustained since.
He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and a source of inspiration to the founders of liberalism, expressing sympathy with the French, and American Revolutions, for the advocates of democratic reform and votes for all. And became popular even in Russia.
Born on 25 January 1759, at 7am (unverified) in Ayr, Scotland, he was the eldest of seven children of a self-educated tenant farmer. He grew up in hardship, and the severe manual labour of the farm left his constitution weakened.
He had an eye for the ladies and is believed to have fathered a total of 12 children with four different women, though some sources suggest up to 13. Nine of these children were with his wife, Jean Armour. He died on 25 July 1796, a few days before his son Maxwell was born.
Three strands stand out clearly in his chart. He had an Aquarius Sun, Venus and Mars with its humanitarian leanings, inclining him to libertarian and democratic ideas. “A Man’s a Man for aw that” and “We are all Jack Thamson’s bairns” which latter translates as we are all equal in the eyes of God.
His Venus Mars conjunction would give him a strong passionate and sexual drive.
He also had an exact Uranus in Pisces square Pluto giving him a revolutionary fervour.
On this birth time his 8th house creative Neptune would also help to project his reputation far and wide; and in opposition to Mars attract publicity.
When he died tr Saturn was just into his 6th house suggesting the birth time may be accurate; with his Solar Arc Neptune square his Sun.
If you have Facebook, The British Embassy in Helsinki account has published some wonderful content for Burns Night this year. A guard reciting “My Heart’s in the Highland” – I think a favourite here since the Russian Empire, printed to English text books through generations – at Kaivopuisto, where the Embassy is located and a bagpiper performing at Cathedral stairs.
Burns was a brilliant man and Humanist, a product of the “flowering of genius” that was Scottish Enlightenment. Marjorie is there any astrology in the Enlightenment do you think? The sheer number of brilliant world changing people produced mark it as a real crucible in Western and global evolution, not sure if it can be meaningfully dated for Astro purposes…?
Thanks for review of Burns. I think Isabel Hickey had the farming Taurus ascendent, which he resembles and puts the Aquarius stuff on the 10th
The Age of Enlightenment runs (some say) from 1685 to 1815. That is Pluto in mid Cancer to Pluto in mid Pisces.
The triple conjunction of 1713–14: Saturn Uranus Pluto in Virgo may have been a motivator as well. It coincided with the end of the War of Spanish Succession and the Peace of Utrecht between France, Britain, Holland, Portugal and Prussia, effectively established for the first time a European balance of power. Western Europe now begins a period of economic growth.
This triggers the Age of Enlightenment, with scientific inquiry breaking down the old beliefs; academies and observatories proliferate and there are new movements in art, architecture and music, while philosophical thinkers such as Voltaire argue for a more humane social order.
Not all enlightening since the slave trade begins.
I was disappointed in Pluto through Capricorn since the previous span saw Russia’s Catherine the Great bring enlightenment and culture on a grand scale. We seemed to miss the culture altogether (everywhere in artistic terms) this time round and only got puny Putin’s overwheening ambitions and delusions of emulating Catherine’s grandeur.
I, too, was disappointed by Pluto’s latest turn in Capricorn. I hadn’t thought about the culture aspect and you are so right, I’d even venture that we instead saw powerful people erode art and culture.
I hope Pluto’s run in Aquarius is more fruitful.
Also, side note, but with all of that Aquarius Venus mars energy I can totally understand how he had so many children.
Thank you! How can one forget about Rabbie Burns when one’s family celebrated it every year, the recital of the ode to the ‘Great Chieftain of the Pudding race’, bagpipes and all? How fitting that the people’s poet was an Aquarian Sun, Chiron Venus and Mars. I believe there is – or was – a number of Burns Associations in Russia and that the Soviets were particularly fond of him due to his egalitarian and revolutionary leanings, plus he was an admirer of Thomas Paine. and Russia issued a commemorative stamp for Burns in 1956. The connection between Scots and Russians goes back to the 16th century and there are Russo-Scottish names in Russia.