Sir Isaac Newton's Nervous Breakdown

Just watched a DVD show put out by NOVA or PBS on Sir Isaac Newton. Knew that he was into Alchemy and was hoping they would give the down and dirty on his Astrological Knowledge. No such thing. Fun show at any rate making one of the greatest mathematicians and scientists into some sort of Rod Serling character.

The show covered Newton's genius and his great discoveries and also his Theological Interests. His personality was really bizarre. He apparently was very introverted and withdrawn for the whole first half of his life and then, in his early 50's, had a nervous breakdown, left Academia and became a much more public person, working as Warden of the Mint in London.

The Nervous Breakdown was in 1693 and was brought on due to the departure of a close friend. In his chart it coincides with his Progressed Ascendant and Progressed Mars changing signs and opposing each other at the same time. His new Prog. Ascendant was Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter which rules his 3d house of mentality. Mars moved into Gemini which is the natural ruler of the 3d house, again emphasizing mental state. Alone this means that his mind was just really busy and, considering what he had in the first place, I guess this could be a scary proposition. But, this progressed opposition superimposed by conjunction onto his natal Neptune-Pluto opposition. Tripping off an opposition like this can bring a great Spiritual Crisis. It's emphasized by the natal square from Venus, which rules his Libra Ascendant. In his case, it happened in his H2 of Values and H8 of other's values. This would definitely be a good time to start working with money. Venus rules relationships so everything that he felt vulnerable about in relationships came out at this time.

Interesting that he went through a complete physical change right after this (Ascendant) and basically did a complete flip-flop with regards to his public/private life. This really shows the emphasis of Venus and Libra Ascendant and the transformative effects of Neptune and Pluto working together. Pluto also transited his Leo MC along with Chiron at this time. He was supposedly Knighted not for having created Calculus or for his discoveries in Gravity, Optics and Light. He was rewarded for changing England's currency from the Silver Standard to the Gold Standard. How appropriate for someone with Leo MC! Interesting also that much of his earlier life was spent studying Alchemy which tries to figure out how to create Gold.

Sir Isaac Newton
b. Jan 4, 1643 5am Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England

Astrology