Leonard Bernstein
The movie about Leonard Bernstein highlights many of the traits he displayed throughout his life which illuminate for us the natal placements in his chart. Traits mentioned in various bios:
Emotionally outgoing, including hugging everyone: Jupiter- Pluto conjunct in Cancer.
Addiction to constant smoking and scotch: Mars in Scorpio, Jupiter- Pluto conjunct in Cancer. Venus- Neptune in Leo.
Musical abilities: Venus Neptune in Leo.
Bisexual: Hm. Uranus opposition to the Leo planets? Mars in Scorpio high sex drive?
I wanted to keep this study short, so looked at just two important incidents; his debut as a conductor and the death of his wife.
His debut took place at the New York Philharmonic at sudden notice when Bruno Walter could not conduct because of the flu. The transits are strikingly apparent, even more so with a significant retrograde. We see:
Sun exact on his ascendent (from Astro database) @ 21* Virgo.
Mars retrograde @ 19* Gemini over his N Node! (Don’t tell me not to start something on a retrograde, this lasted the rest of his life!)
Pluto -North Node conjunct his Venus Neptune conjunction in Leo; taking it to the ultimate next level, I would say!
Jupiter having passed over his Saturn. Opportunity, but he was also prepared for it.
Venus Neptune conjunct and sextile his natal Venus Neptune, transiting in his 11th house, supportive of the idea of the 11th house is social contacts.
Finally, Uranus quincunx his natal Mars, and squares his Sun sign. Lots of new opportunities to get into romantic trouble, and perhaps more importantly, in his mind, for the rest of his years, thinking that conducting took him away from composing.
Filicia’s, his wife’s death: He had left her for a male friend and project in Northern California and did come back to take care of her when she was dying. June 16, 1978. What I find interesting is the correlations to the chart of Bernstein’s debut as well as his natal chart.
Mars at 1* Virgo on Leonard’s Sun sign. No surprise there; Mars can bring a situation up in your face.
Sun and Mercury 24* and 26* around the position of Saturn in the debut chart. Her death triggered a severe depression in Bernstein. Interesting, I would say. Part of the reason he married was because he was bisexual, mostly gay, and wanted to validate his sexual persona publicly. This of course, pulled Felicia into involvement with his career, as well as personal and family.
Jupiter and Saturn, just past the returns. Bernstein’s actual Saturn Return was in August 1977, and the Jupiter Return in May 1978. The Saturn at her death was direct at 25*; however, by late July had hit his Sun @ 1* Virgo. This brings up what I always say about so-called “orbs.” There may well be approaching orbs, but to delineate that an issue would be over according to a pre-determined departing orb just shows an ignorance of human nature and the events that affect it. In this case, the Saturn was a double whammy and could have well-triggered guilt over the way he treated her over the years, as well as the relatively normal reassessments that happen at the second Saturn Return.
This also happened with Neptune transiting his N Node. I don’t want to pretend to know what was in Bernstein’s mind, but I am sure that a Neptune transit can trigger highs and lows that are not necessarily reality oriented. He was apparently severely depressed for about a year.
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Finally: Leonard Bernstein promoted more obscure composers, notably Gustav Mahler. I thought it interesting to see if there were connections in their charts. Born July 7,1860, he has a few planets that connect with Berstein’s Mercury is @ 10* Leo, near Berstein’s Venus Neptune and the debut chat’s Pluto N Node. It is as if the conductor was destined to bring Mahler’s music to a renewal. Mahler had a Venus Jupiter conjunction in Leo and a probable moon in Pisces. His orchestral movements can be sublimely gentle and emotive to grand moving finales. Both have Saturn in Leo (58 years apart), with transiting Jupiter in the debut chart triggering both. Grandness and Destiny?
And: if the movie triggers a new interest in Mahler, Neptune today is almost exactly where it was in Mahler’s natal chart; it is at 25* Pisces, Mahler’s @ 29* Pisces.
Isn’t Astrology incredible?