A one-of-a-kind fan art illustration of the character and his creator, Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling.
#PotterArt by theimaginativeillustrator
Just recently there was a Harry Potter Movie Marathon on the USA Network. There’s also a Harry Potter TV series in the works. It seems as if Harry Potter is being reborn. This got me thinking about JK Rowling and astrology.
I’ve known for years that the author of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, had more than a cursory knowledge of astrology. Still perhaps some, who are not Potter fans may not know that Rowling, like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Margaret Mitchell (Gone with the Wind) and CS Lewis (Narnia) is part of an renowned group of writers who were inspired by astrology.
Young JK Rowling
In 1976, when Rowling was 11 years old, she attended Wyedean comprehensive School in Sedbury, Gloucestershire. Steve Eddy, co-author of The New Astrology: The Art and Science of the Stars with Dr Nicholas Campion was her English teacher.
Another interesting fact is that “One (of her friends from school) recalls, ‘Jo would entertain us with her brilliant wit and colorful stories. She was very inventive and clever at reading tarot cards and palms and weaving a story around it which was pure make believe but had us alternately gripped and then laughing” (Sean Smith, JK Rowling: A Biography, p 62).
If Rowlings was so clever at reading tarot cards and palms when she was a schoolgirl, she certainly also had to know something about astrology.
Then in July of 2005 when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was published, Rowling told two fandom interviewers the intentional element correspondences she had made with the Four Houses:
“It is the tradition to have four houses, but in this case, I wanted them to correspond roughly to the four elements. So Gryffindor is fire, Ravenclaw is air, Hufflepuff is earth, and Slytherin is water, hence the fact that their common room is under the lake. So again, it was this idea of harmony and balance, that you had four necessary components and by integrating them you would make a very strong place. But they remain fragmented, as we know.”
Amusing But I don’t Believe in Astrology … Really?
In 2007 JK Rowling said “I did a lot of research into astrology for her character (Professor Trelawney, the Professor of Divination at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry). I found it all highly amusing, but I don’t believe in it.” Source
Well, that’s a bit amusing to me because “astrological symbolism lurks in the background of the Harry Potter Books” and astrology was taught in fourth year Divination at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Trelawney, the Professor of Divination at Hogwarts, even introduces astrology to her fourth years class with the following passage:
“My dear, it is time for us to consider the stars,” she said. “The movements of the planets and the mysterious portents they reveal only to those who understand the steps of the celestial dance. Human destiny may be deciphered by the planetary rays, which intermingle…”
Rowling Spent Her Free Time Casting Astrological Charts
Even more revealing is that at the time Rowing was writing her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, much of her free time was spent casting astrological charts for friends.
A 2012 profile in The New Yorker, ‘Mugglemarch,’ even tells us that “Rowling did write a long, illustrated astrological birth chart for the newborn son of a friend.”
Surprise Discovery in 2010
Rowling’s knowledge of astrology was only speculation when her illustrated birth chart interpretations came to light on a 2010 episode of the British TV series, Antiques Roadshow. This was when a friend of Rowling brought two horoscopes of her own children for appraisal. She said Rowing had given them to her as a gift around the time she was writing her first Harry Potter book. They were in typed form with hand illustrated covers.
To find out more read; “How author, J K Rowling practiced astrology while writing her first Harry Potter Book”
The Rowling Library
The Rowling Library publishes articles, magazines, and books about JK Rowling and Harry Potter. The library also has Rowling’s astrological interpretation from 1994 (pre-Potter) avaliable for reading online, This beautifully illustrated cover (above) and 12 page interpretation was…
“Made specially for Roger Julian Tosswill, born on 13 October 1966, 11:05 PM, this Personal Horoscope mixes her interest in astrology (proven through a surprising depth of knowledge of the art and history of Astrology) with her funny prose and wry humour, very much associated with the kind of author she would become in the future.” – The Rowling Library
You can see another cover below and a bit of the interpretation online at Paul Fraser Collectibles.
Astrology and the Harry Potter Books
Rowling may not have been a professional astrologer but she certainly had studied astrology and used that knowledge when writing the Harry Potter Books.
Alice Sparky Kat’s writes:
“I’ve often wondered at what JK Rowling’s actual relationship to astrology is. A lot of the Sun signs of her character make sense. Fred and George are quintessential Aries and Hermione is such a Virgo. However, JK Rowling doesn’t just do Sun sign astrology. In the Divination classes that Harry and Ron take in their third to fifth years, we get to learn a lot more from astrology, that Lavender Brown has an unaspected Uranus, for example, and that a square of Mars and Saturn puts one in danger of burns.
We know that astrology is deeply important to the wizarding world. Instead of birthdays, the Ministry of Magic issues ID cards based on astrological Sun and Moon and the Daily Prophet has a longstanding horoscope column.
A deeper read into books four and five actually provide us with three different ethos of astrology. While many characters describe Divination in general as a “wooly” subject, little Easter eggs hidden in the text imply that astrology has a far more serious meaning in Harry Potter than it appears on the surface. ~ Read Alice Sparky Kat’s “Astrological Easter Eggs in Harry Potter.”
If you’re an astrologer who’s also a Harry Potter fan, The Growing Pains of Harry Potter written by Alex Trenoweth is one of the best articles I’ve read about Rowling, Harry Potter, and astrology.
JK Rowling Birth Chart
Like Einstein, Rowling has a Bucket Pattern in her birth chart. The handle of the bucket is Saturn in Pisces.
“A bucket pattern chart is one in which all except one planet occupy half of the chart. The lone planet is significant because it becomes the handle, typically carries the others along, and becomes a lifelong theme. Said another way, the lone planet is very strong and dominates the rest of the chart. With this type of chart, the individual is often single-minded and focused on one theme throughout life. The planet that is the bucket handle can reveal a special talent that dominates the chart.” ~ Einstein’s Superhuman Intellectual Ability and Uranus.
Curiously Rowling’s first Harry Potter Book was published just after her first Saturn return. Now Harry Potter is being reborn for a new generation just after her second Saturn return.