Wellington Burt's "Spite Claus"

Well, in the mind of good children of Christian decent there is the wonderful image of Santa Claus. A strange old man who is chronically jolly and brings secret presents on Christmas Eve. A Jupiterian?

And, I guess sort of to make up for Santa, many good children of White decent at least, also grow up to learn about another Claus, I have just found something called the "Spite Claus" in parents' wills. This is from the resentful, competitive, angry parent. Maybe should be spelled "claws" instead of "claus" for the long lasting bitterness that one's last word of rejection can have. This is probably most understood by those of us who come from divorced families with remarriages, etc. where loyalties are all screwed up. Narcissism is such a common personality trait among the divorced that the parents often seem to delight in screwing up their kids long after they die even.

God, starting off with a little rant here.

Article today about a mean rich old white guy, twice divorced, with 7 kids who totally messed with his heirs' heads through his will. This guy, Wellington Burt, was worth between 60 and 80 million dollars when he died in 1919. And he stipulated in his will that his children and grandchildren would receive nothing. Well, I guess they were bequeathed small annuities of amounts mostly below the amounts he left his employees. He even stipulated that the great-grandchildren, etc. would have to wait 21 years until after the last grandchild had died. This occurred in November 1989.

Burt's astrology chart is pretty amazing to look at. I wanted to look at Burt's chart to understand why he was such a MoFo, and I'll get to that somewhere in there, trust me.

Wellington Burt
b.July 26, 1831 Pike, NY

Sun 3 Leo; Moon Aquarius or Pisces; NN 23 Leo

Burt was a Leo Sun born on or soon after a Full Moon in Aquarius. His chart shape actually emphasizes the opposition between the Sun and Moon and is basically a SeeSaw shape chart layered very close to that Full Moon in the last degrees of Leo/Aquarius.

Funny how his name even seems to be like a seesaw with a typical last name, Wellington, placed first and typical first name, Burt, named last.

Bob Marks has written really great descriptions of chart shapes which I'm too lazy to look up right now (www.bobmarksastrologer.com look in the lessons section).

Burt was strongly Leo/Aquarius. He had Sun at 3 Leo in wide conjunction with Mercury 11 Leo, but otherwise unaspected. Right there we see why he was such an SOB. His ego didn't work with the rest of his chart, let alone with his family or friends.

In addition to Sun-Mercury, there's a conjunction of NN 22 Leo-Mars 23 Leo-Saturn 2 Virgo. This opposes a conjunction of Uranus 13 Aquarius Rx-Jupiter 20 Aquarius Rx-SN 23 Aquarius and possibly Moon in Aquarius.

This means that Burt had Sun in its own sign and Uranus in its own sign, both strong and Fixed, and in a very wide opposition contact with each other of 10 degrees. That's pretty interesting to interpret in terms of describing somebody who wanted to leave everything to relatives of the future. Strangers belong to Uranus and Aquarius, as does all things Futuristic as does weirdness and eccentricity. Adding Jupiter in there describes "lucky" strangers! The part where they are connected with his South Node and possibly Moon sort of casts a long dark shadow on his soul path. Something related to clinging to deep insecurities. Pluto represents resentments and is over at 11 Aries in a sextile to Uranus and trine to Mercury. I ought to like this guy. I have Mercury and Mars in the same sign.

Wellsy well, all is good since the poor kids that this guy spawned are now long dead and released from rejection from their father. Maybe they made the best of it and followed the living well is the best revenge motto.

Right now interestingly enough, Burt's progressed Sun is opposite his natal Sun at 1 Aquarius. And there was a big conjunction of Jupiter-Uranus at the beginning of Aries which sextiles/trines the opposition. The transiting Jupiter-Uranus conjunction mirrors the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in his natal chart. And, as I pointed out, that seems to literally write out the words "Lucky Strangers" which is what his descendants are, except for their genetics. Maybe he did this in order to ensure his blood line? (I doubt it, but nice try).

His big Solar Ego has cast as big a shadow as it possibly could and has redeemed itself. Wish I knew more about that SeeSaw chart shape but I suppose an unaspected Leo sun would be enough to become a big successful industrialist and to have the most patronizing personality in U.S. history.

It's even interesting also that there was a wait of 21 years from the time after the last grandchild died. That's the time it takes for Uranus to square itself from that grandchild's death. He did manage to live long enough to experience a full Uranus Return - 87 years old, died March, 1919. He apparently lived in isolation for his last 30 or so years. And there is other stuff in his chart to show that he might use the Uranian energy in a crueler way than some may prefer: conjunction of Mars-Saturn to NN and absence of water in the chart.

Uranus rules not only strangers, but divorce. I suspect that Burt's bitterness is best explained by his attitudes towards his marriages/divorces. His whole life is interesting to observe through the Retrogrades of his progressions. He divorced his first wife and I'm unclear what happened to his second wife who he married in 1869. He lived alone in his final years. His progressed Venus stationed Retrograde at 23 Libra in 1884 and didn't come out of Retrograde until 1926 after he had died. That would affect his feelings of being loveable (I picked that up from Noel Tyl, hopefully I got it right).

Burt was born with all the outer planets except Saturn in Retrograde. They have now all stationed Direct. That lucky Jupiter-Uranus conjunction stationed direct very close in time relatively speaking for how slowly these things move. Jupiter SD around 1906 when his wealth was at a peak. Uranus SD around 1917 a couple of years before he died. He was apparently senile when he died, perhaps as a result of stomach surgery at Age 80.

Burt's Progressed Pluto (Wills, etc.) Stationed Direct in 1980 at 9 Aries. His progressed Saturn Stationed Rx at 16 Virgo in 1983-84. Then his last granddaughter died Nov. 1989 so that's a pretty interesting comment on the Saturn-Pluto energy regarding loss and selfishness. As someone who went through similar inheritance issues as the kids with my father I know the weirdness of the type of pain that one feels as a result. And I also know the spiteful looks of glee in other's faces when they hear that you've been screwed. And I also know, but don't understand, how creepy and greedy step-parents and siblings can be.

Since Taurus rules money I'll just add that Burt had Chiron (wounded healer) in that sign. Pluto was opposing it when his last granddaughter died.