STELLA!

OK so I am wasting time on a Sunday afternoon, flip on the tube and find "A Streetcar Named Desire", the original 1951 version. (Is there any other?) I am hooked instantly. At one point Blanche asks Stanley about his astrological sign. (She may have been a little nutty but the girl was enlightened, no?) She says, correctly in my humble opinion, that he was to be Aries the Ram because of the way he bounds around the house so. However, his wife responds that he was born 2 days after Christmas which would make him a Capricorn. Capricorn? Stanley? Mr. Williams you were a magnificent writer but rotten astrologer.

I will give you that he might have been a Capricorn Sun but he had to have Aries rising. The rising sign or ascendant is our projected personality. Aries rising people are prone to rages, they want what they want when they want it and being the "enfant terrible" of the zodiac they find a way of making everyone uncomfortable until they get it. Now, I am talking about the shadow aspect of Aries of course but didn't Stanly exhibit the shadow aspects of life?

So if Stanley was Aries rising, what was Blanche? Let's see, she lived in a dream world, couldn't stand the harshness of the Earth, escaped into the bottle and lived in her childhood fantasies. Can you say Pisces? Again, we are talking shadow here so don't start getting your scales in a tizzy you Fish!

Stella was strongly Virgo. She gave up the trappings of her ancestral home and became the long suffering wife of Stanley. Virgo's in shadow have a thing for being victims. In the movie they made her leave Stanley because of the ethics of the day in the play she stayed with him even though she was fairly certain he did rape her sister. That is a total Virgo action. However, and some people may disagree with me on this, I am going to give her a Scorpio Sun. Yes, Scorpio is known to be dynamic and strong but what drew her to Stanley? His passion - these two were great in the sack. He was forbidden, the other side of the tracks kind of guy with great passion, all things that spark Scorpio interest.

I take that back Mr. Williams perhaps you were a great astrologer and understood that rising signs are much more powerful indicators of who we are then Sun signs. The Sun signs give us our inner energy but the persona is all ascendant.

Ironically, in her other great incarnation the great Vivien Leigh embodied the ultimate depiction of an Aries woman. I am speaking of Scarlett O’Hara. Fiery, impulsive, courageous yet very childlike in some of her thinking, Scarlett was all Ram.

What makes these great characters is that they embody the extremes of each sign.

Why did Rhett and Scarlett hit it off? He was the perfect Leo man - fire attracts fire. Brash, arrogant, hot tempered and seeking the spot light always, Rhett was the archetypal Leo rising although I am sure his Sun was Aquarius. He was detached for such a handsome man and slapped society in the face with his war views and his taking up with "painted women."

Melanie Wilkes, Scarlett's demure but intelligent, sweet, nurturing but tough as nails sister-in-law was Cancerian through and through with a touch of Scorpio. Her first reaction was to forgive and mother and she called on her Cancerian sense of patriotism to get through the years she was separated from Ashley. (Who by the way was all Pisces.)

Most great fictional characters are archetypes for the various signs. Hmmm what sign do you think was Miss Havisham?