Paperware to Vaporware, The Nativity of Tyrone Slothrop

– 7 –

What does this astrological diagram with its symbols, divisions, numbers, and lines tell us about the character, biography and destiny of Tyrone Slothrop? Although Thomas Pynchon proposes a 13th sign waiting to have a name for it [302], the Zodiac consists of twelve signs and, presently, ten planets. {Many astronomers and astrologers are both advocating and claiming the existence of other planets, asteroids, etc.; but this is a totally different story.} A horoscope is cast for the day, month, year, and time of birth at the geographical location of the birth – the exact time of birth being the decisive factor. This moment of birth, the “original scream,” fills the lungs of the new-born with Prana, determines the Ascendant which thus determines the positions of the ten celestial bodies in the twelve terrestrial houses.

The planets (yes, I realize astrology mistakenly uses the term “planet” for the Sun and the Moon) represent archetypical entities. The signs indicate the basic individual nature, character, and temperament. The houses correspond to the concrete fields of interest, channels of expression, and direction of manifestation. The aspects between the planets modify these combinations and are the major triggers of events, experiences, and development in the lifetime of any given individual.

Although Astrology itself has a long deep-rooted scholarly tradition, it is NOT an exact science, and I am not proclaiming it to be such! There is just as much art, religion, mythology, psychology, and intuitive factors combined with astrology as there is empirical science. One can perhaps best sum it all up in these terms: astrology is the mirror of time. . . . And, yes, in Pynchonesque terms, there is a “zero,” a “zero-point” in astrology. Whether or not astrology goes beyond the zero or just keeps on repeating itself in various well-regulated cyclic periods is yet another matter beyond this article.

From what I have already stated as clues, hints, and references in Gravity’s Rainbow I have derived, deducted, and decided upon August 31, 1918, 7:15 a.m. EWT in Mingeborough, MA., as the most plausible date and time of birth for Tyrone Slothrop, the second son of Broderick and Nalline Slothrop, a tenth generation Berkshire County New England Congregationalist family, which at the time of his birth was not prospering. This is the nativity of a “double Virgo” – both the Sun and the Ascendant placed in this Mercury-ruled, mutable earth sign.

However, instead of being placed in the self-assertive, center-staged First House, both the Sun and the ruling retrograde Mercury are placed in the misty, dispersing, transcendental, yet anonymous Twelfth House – the “House of Preterition.” As a member of the earth signs, Virgo rules trees and paper more than soil (Taurus) or minerals (Capricorn). Virgo is the sign of the book-keeper, the proof-reader, the technician, the clock-maker, the clinical nurse or doctor, the stamp-collector, and the sceptic. Virgo is the sign of the servant and not the master – definitely not a hero! Virgo is orderly, methodic, analytical, pedantic and pragmatic; basically simple, shy, and withdrawn, yet correct and helpful. Virgo’s natural ruler, quicksilver messenger Mercury, also placed in Virgo, endows the native with a practical, technical and scientific intellect as well as a talent for languages and “a way with words” [293].

Yet both the Sun and Mercury are placed in the debilitated Twelfth House and Mercury is retrograde! Virgo is the ruler of the Sixth House and Mercury is the “Lord” of the Sixth House. Thus, of all the twelve double-sign combinations, this is the only possible polarized twelfth-house binary opposite. Orderly, health-conscious, and scientific agnostic Virgo is transformed into this messy, heavy-drinking, chainsmoking (“Lucky Strikes!”) superstitious paranoid sap of a comic book-like figure named Tyrone Slothrop, one unhappy loner reporting to No One yet one of the “Faithful,” a truth seeker with a trustworthy face, a soft touch with a knack for costume theatricals, getting ideas about Destiny itself, forced to pass his own tests, commercially fearful yet harmless (not even armed!) desiring invisibility and seeking grace [20, 269, 390-1, 492].

Destiny is clearly present in this chart. Practical earthbound Virgo’s main task in life is to administer and further continuity: serving, improving, and holding together the system. The main direction of expression in the Twelfth House is dissolution, dispersement, transcendence. Virgo is a mental sign with a profound intellect, the Twelfth House is a psychic house with intuitive instincts. Through its Virgo twelfth-house retrograde position, analytical objective fact-finding Mercury is inverted to subjective synthesis of signs, symbols, and reflexes. Slothrop is a clinical example of the ultraparadoxical state: response before stimulii!! Yet he doesn't even realize it until there is no turning back, no way home to Mingeborough. The message is received before it was sent and the town has been occupied, even the short cuts are blocked. A Virgo Mercury retrograde in the Twelfth House doomed to hiding in garbage cans, scratching graffiti on toilet walls, and sending messages no one will receive [597, 624, 744].

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© all rights reserved, alle Rechte beim Autor, Douglas Kløvedal Lannark, Kopenhagen und Berlin, 2000-2005.

Links zu Douglas Kløvedal Lannark:

Douglas Kløvedal Lannark: MASON & DIXON: An Astrological Review — on this server.

Douglas Kløvedal Lannark: Hand–drawn Chart of Tyrone Slothrop — on this server.

Douglas Kløvedal Lannark: Venus Rules — Love — on this server.

The Fifth Gate – A documentary by Bente Milton: “Douglas Lannark is an acclaimed astrologer and expert in the various calendar systems used around the world.”

Douglas Kløvedal Lannark: Wann beginnt das neue Jahrtausend ? Kalender und Zeitrechnung – Meridian, 21.Jhg. 1999 / Heft 6.


Index Hauptseite Vorwort Die Parabel Dekonstruktion Michael D. Bell Summary Biographie Richard Fariña Robert Frost Galerie Literatur Luddism Mason & Dixon Monographien u. Aufsätze Patterns–Muster Proverbs for Paranoids Schweine Slow Learner Soccer Sterblichkeit und Erbarmen in Wien Vineland Weblinks Weiterführende Literatur The Wizard of Oz Fay Wray The Zero Homepage Seitenanfang/page up

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