Frankenstein

Here's a fun coincidence concerning Mars Returns and Creativity.

There's a book published recently that claims that Mary Shelley based her Frankenstein Character on a real Dr. Frankenstein who lived in Frankenstein Castle in Germany in the 1600's. The guy was an Alchemist/Anatomist who dug up dead bodies and tried to either sew them back together and bring them back to life or transfer their energies from one to the other or maybe just bring them back to life. The towns folk didn't like him so they ran out him out. He moved to France and invented the pigment Prussian Blue. Prussian Blue is an interesting pigment that could only have been invented by an Alchemist. It has such an intense staining quality that once you start using it on your palette it will take over all the other colors. Dr. Frankenstein was probably intentionally trying to create an "Immortal" pigment. He probably reincarnated into the guy who invented Twinkies which have a shelf life of a hundred thousand billion years.

So enough for the ramble. The book is called In Search of Frankenstein and it's written by Radu Florescu.

The connection between "Creation" and the planet Mars is really interesting. I've found connections between artists/writers and their creations as products of Mars Returns. Mostly, I've found a connection between the inspiration or muse for one's creations. Here's a cool one.

Mary Shelley
b. Aug. 30, 1797 London, England

Sun 8 Virgo; Moon Sagittarius; NN 20 Gemini

Mary Shelley eloped with Percy Shelley and holed up with Lord Byron and others down in Switzerland or wherever they were. Apparently they boated up the Rhine to Frankenstein's Castle. But the Summer was drab, alas, they brought England with them, and so sat around in Byron's castle telling stories. Mary Shelley drummed up the story of Dr. Frankenstein, a gear head Doctor in a castle who brought a creature back to life. The horrors of modern medicine was born.

Mary Shelley had Sun conjunct Mars and Uranus plus Mercury in Virgo, sign of Medicine, so you can imagine she'd be pretty good at thinking along these lines. Her Mars is at 1 Virgo; Sun 8 Virgo; Uranus 13 Virgo; Mercury 28 Virgo. She also would have been quite a gear head herself, if she were alive today she'd be running half the companies in the Silicon Valley.

Summer of 1816 her progressed Mars was exactly conjunct n. Uranus, that's a good rebellious signature for eloping with a freaky poet against Daddy's wishes, but, in Virgo, it's also a sign of futuristic vision of the technological age especially since this conjunction is squaring transiting Neptune in Sagittarius-natal Nodes in Sagittarius-Gemini. Natally, Shelley's Mars is opposite her Pluto in Aquarius so she also understood Wilfullness and life force. By coincidence, the Summer of 1816, Mars was in Leo from middle of June to end of July and then was in Virgo for the rest of the Summer. On August 1, middle of Summer, Shelley would have had an exact Mars Return.

Then I looked up the chart of the original Dr. Frankenstein who's real name was:

Johann Conrad Dippel
b. Aug. 10, 1673 Frankenstein Castle, Darmstadt, Germany

Sun 18 Leo; Moon Cancer; NN 18 Aquarius

Dippel's Mars is at 1 Virgo exactly conjunct Mary Shelley's!!!!! It's as if he was psychically infusing his soul into her head! Oh come on! Believe it! Just think about all the creepy inventions going on when Pluto and Uranus passed over this spot of Virgo back in the 60s.

There are other connections as well. Their Nodal Axes trined/sextiled. I was wondering about the Uranus connection, seems there should be a strong one as the subtitle for the book was called "The Modern Prometheus." Dippel had a conjunction of Uranus and Chiron in Pisces that opposed Shelley's Mercury-Venus-Chiron (Virgo-Libra cusp.) Shelley's Progressed Sun was passing through this natal conjunction when she wrote her book and it was opposing transiting Pluto (which would have been conjunct his Uranus-Chiron).

Oh, and I checked a couple of aspects connected with the movie Frankenstein. Neptune, ruler of Film, was conjunct Mary Shelley's natal Sun, to the degree. Colin Clive, who played Dr. Frankenstein, had a Virgo Moon, and Boris Karloff, who played the monster, had a Virgo Mars.