3/02/2023

Herculine Barbin - life periods/events analysis


The gist of the short, out-of-the-ordinary existence of Herculine Barbin, as individual born with a bio-psychological vehicle not fitting into the pre-established framework of gender categories,
and - albeit themselves not an actually impaired or otherwise incapacitated-from-birth person - based upon this experiencing sharp ostracization from what has been defined as “human”
 (leading eventually to decision to willingly end own life), is so very poignantly depicted by their Natal Moon quintile Uranus 09’ -- which is not only the strongest Luminary aspect, but is the strongest by orb among all chart aspects -- that it simply can not be neglected to be mentioned; for an actually comprehensive and rich in details look up the whole of the chart, of course, needs to be examined - which, with the primary subject of this article being the analysis of period-charts in light of known life events, I must leave to the reader’s own incentive. [The Birth Certificate data is available via astrodatabank]

The biography preview from Wikipedia shows that, before the final period - the personal-annual-tide during which the inner psychological processes matured into their culmination in suicide - there was another highly important, a uniquely “peak” period, of the Native’s life, the annual-tide during which the sequence of events took place, of: them deciding to confide with a trusted authority-from-environment person about own experience, leading to being sent to medical examination, leading to being gender re-assigned, leading to legal change of their document-data and the name used --- all of this happened during the annual-tide SL 1859, while they were residing in the La Rochelle area; consequently to this string of events, the Native then moved to Paris, where, about eight years thereafter, during the SL 1867, the carte blanche step-out choice was made.


______________________________________

 
SL 7/26/1859
La Rochelle


t Mercury AC 50’
t Saturn EPa 58’
t N.Node WP 07’
t Chiron DC 3*31’
t Pluto MC 9*35’
(Node cnj Chi 41’ ecl.)

r Mars AC 2*32’
r Mercury IC 3*03’
r Sun IC 5*19’
r Uranus DC 9*37’

(t Chi sq r Me 18’ mun.)

SL Moon’s aspects:
qnt s Sedna 1*21’ s
sq r Uranus 3*34’ s
qnt r Venus 55’ s


That the Native made the decision and acted upon it, during this personal annual-tide in specific, of taking initiative to speak-up and thus come more into-the-open about otherwise mostly kept-silent-about aspects of own existence and such which are of vital-importance, so simply and directly symbol-represented by the clustering of natal planets foreground in this chart, leave no experienced astrologer much surprised.
The quality of environmental conditions, by what is depicted by the combo of the tr planets foreground, surely has not come as either “light” nor as actually open-hearted and/or benevolently-supportive, for the Native [those who have read the Memoir are probably aware of details which I am unfamiliar with - doing this analysis simply based on what the brief biography info on Wikipedia shows]; nevertheless, we see the trio of t Lunar Node, t Mercury and t Saturn present in most-focalized manner, by their tight angularity orb: important-connectioninformation-exchange (verbal communication) and structurization/organization are the most prominent themes, related to the what’s-coming-from-the-environment-side in the overall quality of the native’s experience during the year. 

No exact time is given online about when the, subsequent to the talk with the bishop, visit to the medical doctor took place; we do know that it was on 6/22/1860 that the legal process of gender re-assignment was officiated, pointing to the final quarter of the year as the period to look into.

On 6/22/1860, the progressed SL Moon was at 47’ s orb sq natal Sedna.

And the chart for this quarter itself, the qSL 4/22/1860 features:

t Mercury DC 3*44’
t Neptune DC 5*02’
t Sedna DC 6*23’
(Ne cnj Se 58’ ecl.)

r N.Node DC 30’
r Chiron MC 4*09’
r Jupiter AC 5*11’
r Pluto DC 5*33’
(DC = t Ne, Se/ r Pl mun.)

qSL Moon’s aspects:
qnt s Eris 00*00’
sq s Saturn 17’ s
oct r N.Node 51’ s
qnt r Moon 1*16’ a
qnt r Uranus 1*25’ a
opp r Mercury 1*45’ s
opp r Sun 3*59’ s

We see again the theme of information-exchange emphasized, by presence of Mercury - but now it is the transiting Mercury in the chart’s foreground, whilst the natal Mercury is brought-to-expression via the qSL Moon's aspect-clustering.

Chiron’s “domain” are the themes of skill, and the honor/pride (often with the emphatic self-righteousness tone to it - but this highly dependent on the chart’s context, and the specific Chiron’s connections with other chart factors), which comes as practical expression of a particularly strongly-held internal orientation-to-a-higher, or an aiming-to-what-overarches. When natal Chiron is emphasized - whether by angularity orb, or its aspects - in a period-chart, the Native tends to be strongly driven by these as motives of behavior, even if it’s a nativity where Chiron is not among the most-prominent ergies (of which the opposite is the case here - it is prominent, with the Sun oct Chi being the strongest-by-orb natal aspect of the Sun).

How the complex clustering of the tr Sedna-Neptune duo forming a Midpoint to the Angle with the natal Pluto came to be expressed in experience, we can only guess. What is certain based on the whole of this picture of transiting-and-natal angularity taken-together is that the Native felt more self-assured, comfortable and relaxed than what is otherwise their “usual”, during this period, and with primary focus on own orientation-openness-for, reaching-out toward connection (rx N.Node as sharpest angular).

The whole picture, taken together - with acknowledging what are, specifically, the tr and what the rx factors involved, as well as what-aspects exactly are involved - of the Lunar aspects of this chart is nothing short of fascinating: not only are the rx Sun, Mercury and Node brought to expression via the cross-based aspects with the qSL Moon (two oppositions, one octile), but together with this, we see the very important and very peculiar for this Nativity rx Moon-Uranus quintile activated, as such (via the qnt aspect with the qSL Moon), and this along with the quintile with tr (qSL) Eris and square with tr Saturn.

The 00*00’ orbed aspect is what warrants special attention (even if it was within 05’ it would be so, but with within 01’ it speaks of such sharpness of focalization which “behaves” in a pitch, razor-blade-kind of manner); we see it is a quintile with the tr Eris here, and along with it, there is the 17’ orbed square with tr Saturn: it may be spiraling-up, or spiraling-down, but it is a whirling pull-stream of events that, seemingly “out of nowhere”, appear, with an intense strong-hold drawing the Native’s energy/attention/movement along a chaotic-kind of course which structures further development in a definitely-defining (“carving” an at-fundamental-level-of-psyches-structuring deep trace, setting-up a path-of-no-return) manner.

What is known from the brief online biography is that, following this period, with the June 22nd legal process/events, the Native moved to Paris, and was thereafter being called Abel (Adelaide-Herculine being the name used prior to this) and entered the life of being referred to, by environment as well as by their own self, with the male-gendered personal pronoun. --- After 22 years of being oppressively mistreated by being force-put-to-fit (by the entirety of their human environment) into one of the two-sided either-or gender division exclusive categories, that exact same “coin” has now flipped - the Native finding themselves simply on the reverse side of it: a not either-or but BOTH She-and-He body and psyche of a human individual in a "defining" - confining - manner having been cut-off push-tossed into, first, fitting the framework of the she-box, and then now of the he-box.



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SL 7/26/1867
Paris


t Eris WP 07’
t N.Node AC 21’
t Jupiter WPa 35’
t Mars AC 4*41’

r Uranus DC 5*32’
r Sedna DC 6*30’
(DC = Ur/Se)


SL Moon’s aspects:
oct s Uranus 13’ s
sq r Eris 00*00’
oct r Jupiter 1*03’ s
opp r Saturn 4*34’ a


Again we see the period chart’s Moon in a 00*00’ orbed aspect with Eris, but here it is with natal Eris, and the aspect is not quintile but square: the mutual pattern-connection between the two planets involved in the aspect is not of the fundamentally-Creative, with the out-of-time, quality to it, but of the fundamentally-tension-maintaining, with maturation-development-during-sequence-of-time, quality to it.  The duo of both Eris and Saturn together aspecting the Moon is present again, yet, the Saturn’s presence (from the rx now, as well as Eris is) being now significantly milder (by orb), and the primary expressive (“activated”) factors through the aspects of the Moon being the tr Uranus and rx Eris, as a duo.

The angular planets repeat the prominence of Eris and Uranus themes, and the picture here is that of the environmental-side Eris (consider this in the whole of the combo-clustering of the tr-planets) with the native-psyche’s-side Uranus --- indicating a peculiar kind of “mutual mirroring-alignment” between these [ - when the whole picture, of angularity together with the Lunar-aspects, is considered], and in whole, emphasizing the themes of Eris and Uranus, as such -- and this “spiced” also with the Jupiter presence/tones-to-it.

No date of death is given, solely information that it happened in February 1868. During the first half of that month, the pSL Moon was in orb (sq) with natal Mars, to then leave and stay within orb (qnt) with the pSL Mercury only. The current quarter-chart, dSL has set on 1/23, so we’ll check what it has to show, and then “inquire” with the monthly and bi-weekly tide-charts, the LSs, for a more short-term level preview, pertinent to this calendar month of February.


dSL 1/23/1868
Paris

t N.Node ND 25’
t Saturn DC 1*22’
t Sun MC 3*58’
t Mercury MC 4*04’
t Pluto AC 5*20’
(Su cnj Me 06’ mun.)

r Saturn IC 37’
r Moon IC 1*16’
r Pluto AC 2*15’
r Venus WPa 2*55’
r Mercury DC 7*56’
r Sun DC 8*33’
r Neptune MC 9*26’
(Mo sq Sa 39’ mun.)


dSL Moon’s aspects:
oct s Saturn 13’ s
qnt s Sedna 38’ s
oct s N.Node 1*28’ a
qnt r Venus 1*10’ s
oct r Mars 1*39’ s
sq r Pluto 2*01’ s


From the double-presence of both Saturn and Pluto among the angular planets, together with double presence of Sun as well, and from the rx-side both Lights being in the fore for the quarter, we see something of-life-importance for the Native is going on, in a prominent way being brought to the very immediate surface-level of overall day-to-day experience quality, with the tone-coloring of it being of oppressive/heavy/burdening kind.
The Lunar aspects themselves repeat the emphasized-presence of Saturn, Pluto and Node together, as a theme.
And we see in the angular clustering that the rx Moon and Saturn are not only mutually tied via the 39’-orbed cross-based-aspect (mundane square; they are connected in the Natal chart itself too, yet there by a 2*56’ orbed trine), but are thus tension-bound together while simultaneously being the two closest-by-orb factors of the from-nativity-side angular planets --- and which duo is followed, by orb-focalization-presence, by the natal Pluto.

--- Within the context of the whole year (the SL), there certainly came in experience the focalization of the heaviness-leaning shift-of-tides with the setting of this quarter, with the main theme brought to the very forefront of awareness being of the Moon-Saturn-Pluto kind in its quality: whether the Native’s focus of perception was brought onto themselves as a specific whole-world’s-burden carrier, or onto the perceived hardly-endurable burdening that they as existing-individual are for the world around them -- most likely both -- the Saturn-Pluto-natured highly saturated gravitas-of-pressure, internal and external, came to its specific peaking during this period.

There is rx Venus tied by quintile to the dSL Moon, and radix Venus angular as well, in the combo, indicating, together with and amidst all the oppressiveness of conditions as these were, the emphasized presence of desire for emotional-connection of shared-happiness, of mutuality-of-togetherness in-loving-harmony, from the Native’s side. -- However it may appear to a sociologist or a historian, for the astrologer, it is clear that the Native’s decision during this period to end own life, and moving into acting-upon-it, has been motivated by an absence-of-selfishness, came as a step of courageous-love, rather than an escape, some weakness-of-personality that seeks to avoid/escape-own-suffering, kind of act. (The Natal chart itself clearly shows that this wasn’t an individual with a low-capacity tendency of enduring hardship, or in any other way someone with the tendency toward evading/escaping, rather than directly-facing, the challenges which they encounter in experience -- emphatically quite on the contrary!)


Can we glean into their time of departure as a living-person-on-Earth, from the bi-weekly level charts as the tool? We can see the experiential quality of tides at this level, and based on it come to a “most-likely, with high probability” estimate, but can not, of course, know with an absolute-kind-of certainty unless/until the actual historical record becomes available.


The LS 1/18/1868, the full-monthly chart, pertinent for the period till 2/14/68, and in most-focalized manner till 2/2/68, has had the natal Venus brought to the fore, reflect-repeating the natal Venus presence in the quarterly chart:

t Uranus DC 5*24’
t Sedna ND 2*13’

r Venus MC 2*50’
r Chiron DC 7*48’

(-- observe how the what’s-focalized themes from the Natal-side flow into each other from one into the next of this sequence of the bi-weekly charts!:)


The dLS 2/2/68 then brought the tide of:

t Pluto DC 04’
t Moon WP 25’
t Mars ND 31’
t Sun IC 3*01’
t Mercury IC 4*55’
(Mo cnj Pl 1*27’ ecl.)

r Venus AC 21’
r Neptune IC 7*47’
r Sun AC 9*45’

(t Pl opp r Ve 17’ mun.)

The direct-Midpoints & major cross-based aspects structuring tapestry of the Sun of this chart (list of everything-thus present, within 1*00’ of ecliptical orb):
sq LS Ve/Ur 58’
cnj LS Me/Ma 29’
sq Rx Chi/Se 10’
sq Rx Me/Ve 50’



Then set the LS 2/14/68, covering the period till the rest of the month:

t Neptune ZN 2*05’
t Jupiter MC 3*27’
t Uranus AC 4*57’
t Chiron MC 757’
t Eris AC 8*39’
t Mercury MC 9*43’
(Ju sq Ur 1*30’ mun.;
Chi sq Er 42’ mun.)


r Eris IC 2*28’
r Chiron AC 5*17’

The direct-Midpoints & aspects involved with the chart’s Sun:
cnj Rx Eris 08’
sq LS Ne/Ur 56’
sq LS Ma/Node 14’
sq LS Mo/Sa 06’

From the picture provided by each of these charts, my conclusion is that the death took place between February 14th and Feb 29th, with aspect-situation of the Secondary Progressed Moon and the transits-to-radix preview indicating February 15th as the high-probability date.

The transiting Sun came to exact opposition with the Sec. Prog. Moon (of Natal) on that day - which by itself is not a “death indicator”, yet is an often seen appearance ( -- the tr Sun coming to touch by a cross-based aspect, “lighting up”, one or more of the Moons of the central pertinent charts) for events of native’s death - and in particular when it’s by suicide.

The transits to the Natal on the day, by orb, for local Noon:
Mars sq Sun 03’ s
Sedna sq Chiron 04’ a
Uranus sq Jupiter 05’ s
Mars oct Chiron 17’ s
Sedna oct Sun 17’ a
Venus sq Chiron 21’ a
Venus oct Sun 34’ a
Venus qnt Venus 22’ s
Chiron cnj Sedna 35’ a
Node qnt Mercury 36’ s
Sedna qnt Venus 38’ s
Sun cnj Eris 50’ s


The natal Eris as a theme is prominently put-forth by the current LS ( -- with the exact combination of factors within the rest of that chart as it is), reflecting the sharply-focalized presence of this in the SL itself, and on this day, we see the tr Sun is still in orb with rx Eris, whilst also tr Mars joined tr Sedna, for a together-simultaneously tension of dynamic “touch-up” on the natal Sun-Chiron octile (--- with rx Chiron being the second, of the sole-two Natal angular factors in the LS! ---> the skill, and the orientation/motivation by what’s-valuable-above-own-physical-existence honor-perspective …), and tr Venus came to touch-on the natal Sun-Chiron with a Tension-bond aspect (oct Su, sq Chi), and the Venus herself with a Creative-leap aspect (qnt Ve).
The current transit of Uranus going by-square to natal Jupiter was within 05’ of orb, meaning: still focalized within its peaking-phase [ --- the reader can consider, for own practical learning through observation, the focalization phasing in-and-out development within 30’ orb for this kind of slower transits] on this day, while in the LS we see the aspect-connection between the angular tr Ju-Ur duo (on of the two such specific pairings in the chart, the other being the tr Chiron-Eris combo). It is beyond doubt that for the pious Barbin, their Good-bye-world transpired with a heart-felt, loving Thank-You-Lord in it.

 

                                               --------------------------------------------------------

[BARBIN - Natal chart, eclipto-view positions]


                                                                   *************************


NOSCE TE IPSVM
~ Know Thyself! ~

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