Alan Alexander Milne was a prolific playwright, novelist, and journalist who wrote for adults and children. His greatest and most enduring successes were his books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. Interestingly, Milen earned a B.A. in mathematics at Cambridge, but, as luck would have it while studying at Cambridge, his writing came to the attention of the leading British humor magazine Punch; he became a contributor and then lucked into an assistant editor position. Milne’s literary career was off and running.
Milne Considered Himself Lucky
Below is an excerpt from Chapter One of A. A. Milne’s autobiography, It’s Too Late Now
“We may ‘carve out’ careers for ourselves, but our parentage gave us the implements with which to do it, and we certainly didn’t carve out our parents. Everybody’s luck, good or ill, begins on the day on which he was born. I was lucky.”
A. A. Milne’s Lucky Birth Chart
A. A. Milne was born on January 18, 1882, in London, England (Rodden rating X, no birth time available.)
Gifted with Multiple Trines
I once read that trines (120° aspects) are “gifts that carry you forward like a river.” Below is a list of the numerous trines in Milne’s birth chart. Note: The tighter the orbs, the more powerful the connection.
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- Mercury in Aquarius Trine Gemini South Node – orb: 0 ° (Sextile Sagittarius North Node – orb: 0 °)
- Uranus in Virgo Trine Chiron in Taurus – orb: 1 °
- Sun in Capricorn Trine Pluto in Taurus – orb: 1 °
- Jupiter in Taurus Trine Uranus in Virgo – orb: 2 °
- Venus in Capricorn Trine Uranus in Virgo – orb: 2 °
- Venus Capricorn Trine Chiron in Taurus – orb: 3 °
- Venus in Capricorn Trine Jupiter in Taurus – orb: 4 ° (Venus trine Jupiter, in a birth chart, is considered one of the luckiest planetary aspects in astrology.)
- Uranus in Virgo Trine Neptune in Taurus – orb: 5 °
- Venus in Capricorn Trine Pluto in Taurus – orb: 7 °
- Venus in Capricorn Trine Neptune in Taurus – orb: 7 °
Depending upon his time of birth, Milne’s Capricorn Moon could also be Trine Neptune/Jupiter in Taurus and Uranus in Virgo.
In his Chart Interpretation Handbook, Steven Arroyo says that a trine…
“represents an easy flow of energy into established channels of expression…One does not need to build a new structure or to make marked adjustments in one’s life in order to utilize this energy creatively. The planets involved in the trine reveal dimensions of life and specific energies, which are naturally integrated and which flow together harmoniously.”
The Grand Trine
Milne’s birth appears to be filled with Grand Trines. It’s said that people born with a Grand Trine in their birth chart have received a gift from the Universe and are considered to be very lucky individuals.
In Dynamics of Aspect Analysis, astrologer Bill Tierney writes,
“The Grand Trine suggests an extra measure of inspiration and vision.”
Tierney also writes:
“An individual with a Grand Trine may find many of his personal needs are provided by people or general circumstances early in his life. He is apt to feel insulated from the harsher realities of living.”
Milne, writing about his early life in his autobiography, says:
“No echoes of that struggle to live came down to us…. we had all the food we wanted and all the fun we wanted, and never knew that we were poor.”
Milne’s Grand Earth Trine
Milen has a stellium of planets in ambitious and high-achieving Capricorn – Sun, Moon, Venus. He also has a Stellium of planets in stable, pleasure-seeking, and nature-loving Taurus – Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Chiron, and Pluto. Saturn in Taurus rules his Capricorn stellium. Venus in Capricorn rules his Taurus stellium. Note: Venus in Capricorn and Saturn in Taurus are in mutual reception, which creates a cooperative dynamic.
All the planets in these two earthy stelliums are dragged into his Grand Earth Trine, with Uranus in Virgo being the third leg of his Grand Trine.
Still, even Grand Trines don’t speak of fame, success, or great talent. They are merely three or more planets that are passing energy around in an endless, unquestioning way. A Grand Trine can be comforting but euphorically lazy without an outlet for its creative potential.
According to Dane Rudyhar:
“If one of the planets (or groups of planets) entering into this configuration forms a square aspect to another planet, then this square acts as a ‘channel of release’ for the energies locked in the Grand Trine.”
Milen’s Creative Outlet – Mercury in Aquarius
The only really challenging aspect in Milne’s horoscope is Saturn (the ruler of his Capricorn stellium) in 5° Taurus Square Mercury in 6° Aquarius. This Saturn/Mercury square turned on Milen’s creative potential.
Of course, Mercury in Aquarius’ creative, imaginative, out-of-the-box thinking was directed by its ruler, Uranus in Virgo (the urge for originality with practical application), and spurred on by a disciplined and tenacious Saturn in Taurus, the ruler of his Sun, Moon, and Venus in Capricorn. Note: Mercury in Aquarius and Uranus in Virgo are also in a cooperative mutual reception.
Gemini South Node – Sagittarius North Node
I’ve always considered the Lunar Nodes as a birth chart’s unifying theme or genre. The nodes reveal the “why” of your life, and the rest of the birth chart unfolds the storyline.
In brief, the South Node (SN) is natural, instinctive, and comfortable. It tells you what comes naturally to you and what you’ve brought into this life to facilitate (or hinder) your North Node’s (NN) mission.
Milne’s Gemini SN is at 6° Gemini (Mars is Rx at 28° Gemini.) His NN is at 6° Sagittarius. Mercury, the ruler of his Gemini SN, is at 6° Aquarius. Gemini SN is trine its ruler Mercury, and Mercury is sextile his Sagittarian NN. The ruler of his NN, Jupiter, is closely trine Uranus, the ruler of his Mercury in Aquarius.
Milen’s SN in Gemini reveals that due to his innate quick wit, intellectual curiosity, playful attitude, and way with words (SN Gemini), there was ease (trine Mercury) and opportunity (Mercury sextile NN) to embrace his Sagittarian NN mission, which seems to have been to use his innate youthful playfulness and way with words, to spin some adventurous Saggitarian NN tales about a little boy, his animal friends, and their forest adventures… and in doing so share some Sagittarian wisdom along the way.
The Story Telling Nodal Axis
When the nodes are in Gemini/Sagittarius, telling stories is important because Gemini/Sagittarius are considered the storytellers of the zodiac. Childhood stories can define a person’s entire life when the nodes are on this storytelling axis.
A way with words came naturally for Milen (Gemini SN.) According to Milne’s autobiography, his first “fully signed article” was published when he was only eight years old. It was the story of the Fifteen-Years-War between the Boarders and Day-Boys at his school, in which he exaggerated the number of Day-Boys involved. He writes:
“and in all that I have written since, I have held to my creed that Art is exaggeration.”
Sounds like Jupiter (ruler of his NN) conjunct Neptune in trine Venus.
Milne’s Childhood Stories
Milne grew up exploring the woods with his brother and writing poems about their adventures. He brought those wonderful childhood memories into his adult life by telling bedtime stories and exploring the woods with his son, Christopher Robin. He then carried these memories into his Winnie the Pooh books. With their sense of wonder, playfulness, and unbounded energy, Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh, and his other friends represent an idealized version of his childhood,
Milne Didn’t Want to Grow Up
Milne’s Gemini/Sagittarius nodal axis, along with Mars in Gemini, does have an adventurous Peter Pan in Neverland quality that Milne captured in his Winnie the Pooh books. This is alluded to by his son Christopher Robin when he wrote about his father and Winnie the Pooh in his autobiography, The Enchanted Place.
“When I was three, my father was three. When I was six, he was six… he needed me to escape from being fifty.”
Milne himself wrote these words in The House at Pooh Corner.
“So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest, a little boy and his bear will always be playing.”
A.A. Milen’s Valuable Life Lessons
Many have learned valuable life lessons from Winnie the Pooh and his friends. Milne’s inspiring words have been printed on cards, quoted in yearbooks, and can be found all over social media. Why? Because they’re simple, meaningful, and true.
Below are a few Sagittarian NN pearls of wisdom written by Milne and spoken by Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends:
- “When life throws you a rainy day, play in puddles.”
- “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
- “One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries.”
- “The things that make me different are the things that make me.”
- “Friendship,” said Christopher Robin, “is a very comforting thing to have.”
- “Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”
- “Pay attention to where you are going because without meaning you might get nowhere.”
Milen Knew About Life
Christopher Robin says this about his father:
“My father did not write the books for children. He didn’t write for any specific market; he knew nothing about marketing. He knew about me, he knew about himself, he knew about the Garrick Club — he was ignorant about anything else. Except, perhaps, about life.”
Milen’s Life Wasn’t Always a Bed of Roses
Milen did have challenges and hardships in his life. He served in both World Wars, which greatly disturbed him, and later in life had a strained relationship with his son. Milen also felt frustrated because he’d been typecast as a children’s author and was not recognized for his other works.
Still, Milen seems to have come to terms with being a children’s author when he explained in the introduction of his autobiography why he titled the book It’s Too Late Now.
“Perhaps some explanation of the title is needed. It does not mean that if I had my life again, I should be an engineer or a clergyman or a stockbroker or a better man, and that, unfortunately, it is too late now to be any of these things.
It means that heredity and environment make the child, and the child makes the man, and the man makes the writer; so that it is too late now — it was probably too late forty years ago — for me to be a different writer.”
Why Was Milne Lucky?
Milen was loyal and faithful to the people and things that he loved (Capricorn stellium) and saw the beauty and value (Taurus stellium) in everything. Still, I believe Milne was lucky because he had a unique mind (Gemini SN with Mercury in Aquarius), an optimistic outlook on life, and seized every lucky opportunity that came his way (Sagittarius NN with Jupiter trine Venus.) And in the end, his cheerful and wise words taught life lessons and brought joy to millions of readers.