“People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy… and I keep it in a jar on my desk.”
–Stephen King
I consider Stephen King to be the Shakespeare of our times. Like Shakespeare he is heartily appreciated by the masses and the validity of his writing is often undermined by its popularity. Most people who have never read his books are aware of his writing through popular movies made from the books. What is not so widely known is his ability to craft whole and beautiful characters within the framework of his often creepy stories.
King has a Virgo sun, a Sagittarius Moon and a Libra stellium which includes Venus and a Mercury Neptune conjunction. Sagittarius moon always has a bit of the youthful charm. He has an appreciation for beauty which he communicates through his stories which he writes with a feeling for adventure and a Virgo’s aptitude for detail. His sun squares Uranus and conjuncts his Venus. He can be shocking but knows how to balance it with a simple loveliness of character.
His Saturn Pluto conjunction sextiles Libra Mercury Neptune. Well-written stories contain both the taboo and the truly frightening, underscored by a deeply moral structure. The Sagittarius moon trines Saturn Pluto and sextiles Neptune Mercury adding an element of adventure, written from the heart.
With Mars in Cancer sextiling his sun and trining Jupiter he has the ability to appear both gregarious and reclusive. He moves in and out of the limelight. Many details are known about his life but he is able to live in a way that affords his family a modicum of privacy. He protects himself and his family while still maintaining a public persona that elevates and enhances his career objectives.
Who are your favorite authors? Have your ever looked at their charts?
I notice people who have Virgo in their charts are great writers! Not a big surprise because Virgo is ruled by Mercury.
Stephen Kings is a Virgo.
JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, though a Leo Sun, has a HUGE Virgo stellium in her chart!
And finally singer Pink, who is a song writer and singer, is a Virgo, and is a great song writer.
Aspects to mercury can make a great writer. Also, A lot of Gemini.
There’s lots more when it comes to being a great writer, but I notice a Gemini/Virgo/Mercury influence in a lot of great writers!
my favourite writers have strong earth planets for some reason. Paulo Coelho comes to mind, and H.G. Wells, both Virgo suns, and I really really enjoy reading Capricorn writing. Those two stand out a lot for me. But I realize there are some Cap suns I am not fond of writing but they can write really sensational stuff, (ie, Stephenie Meyer) but there are the Capricorn writers that are not mainstream that I really like. Also Aries sun for some reason, and a couple of Scorpio writers ( one is a female feminist writer)
@Conoco, definitely JKRowling is one of my faves. lol
A lot of people are unaware that King wrote “The Green Mile”, as well as the “The Shawshank Redemption” (I believe the book is called “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”). It’s just interesting because he’s so associated with the horror genre and the two stories I mentioned are two of the most beautiful I’ve ever read. My personal favorite is “Dolores Claiborne”. I highly recommend the movie, as well. It is excellent!
(To answer the question of favorite authors, I love David Sedaris.)
holy snot, StarF, I just had a wave of anxiety when I read your comment as I thought you were quoting me. I wrote your first sentence VERBATIM and then took it out when I didn’t find quick backup proof. I thought Shawshank was right but then I was thinking, “oh I must have just made that up in my head.” !!!! 😀
I love Sedaris too. my favorites are his stories about The Rooster.
@Satori That is so weird! It’s always the first thing that comes to mind when I hear his name. I think those stories stand out so much because I’ve read tons of his horror books, but I cannot, for the life of me, get through even the first chapter of “IT”. That book is absolutely terrifying. They seem like such opposite ends of the spectrum. It’s just crazy. He said that he often gets his story ideas through his dreams.
I love IT. it’s SO scary. we keep it at my dad’s house.
I’m re-reading Lisey’s Story, my favorite. with that one I start in the middle, read to the end and then read the beginning. I’m a nut.
My favorite authors are Milan Kundera and Shashi Desphande. Deshpande is an anglo-Indian writer (she was bornn/lives in India and write almost exclusively in the English language). I bought a book of hers when I was traveling in India and then ended up buying every single book I could of hers, ended up carrying around a bag of books! (I usually do this when I travel anyway, for some reason…?)
I fist read Kundera on a ferry in Greece. I don’t know why reading and travel are so entwined for me. Reading in the car on the trips to/from town when I was a kid? Reading is the last great escape?
No idea what her birth data is. Figures.
Kundera is an Aries…Moon is either Aqua of Cap (no birthtime).
He used to write astrological forecasts before he went into exile. He was born in the year of the Snake, like me.
One of my fave authors of all time is James Herbert – Stephen King is said to be a fan. He wrote things like The Rats trilogy, Fluke and The Fog.
I don’t have full birth data but I do have date and he has sun conj mercury, and moon conj uranus and saturn in gemini.
Given the grisly and beautiful violence he writes, I’m betting on a heavy 8th house influence in there somewhere!
I’m not a horror fan, but he has several books that I LOVE that don’t fall into that genre – The Stand and The Gunslinger series to name a few.
I think it’s fascinating how he manages to make references in his books to places/characters from other books. I looked into this point a lot when reading the Gunslinger series and was amazed to find that the references were extremely common and fans have catalogued them. Now that takes real organization skills to keep all that straight.
Satori, I love S. King’s writing as well and found your description of him very sensitive and feelings wise accurate with my impressions as well. I also read books oddly…frequently starting at the end and going to the middle and then at the beginning. I jump around a bit. Nice to see someone else admitting the same.
I am drooling. I absolutely LOVE Stephen King. I’ve been reading his books since I was a kid. Yes, I was the geek walking around with The Stand..sue me.
My favorite authors besides King..Paulo Coehlo, Kahlil Gibran, Anne Rice, Dean Koontz. I’ve looked them all up except the last two.
Thank you for this Satori…a Virgo with a Libra Stellium–Yum 🙂
I just picked a few favorites to look up: Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Interesting findings:
1. Vonnegut and Dostoevsky were born on the same day, 101 years apart.
2. All three of them have placements in Leo and in Sag, which at least loosely conjunct my Saturn-Neptune trine and sextile my Sun.
3. Vonnegut and Dostoevsky’s Suns sit conjunct my Venus-Descendant-Chart Ruler.
4. They all have one non-personal planet in Pisces: Saturn, Uranus, Pluto.
I used to read Stephen King, and then stopped. Maybe ’cause my life was scary enuf. One of the books I really loved was his book “On Writing.” (I think that’s what it’s called.)
His method of writing was really cool. I enjoyed the book a lot.
@Satori You should google “Stephen King house” and take a lot at his home in Maine. It’s creeptastic. There’s iron bats and spiders on the gates around the property.
Also, I never read the story, but I love the movie “Storm of the Century”. I have the DVD and it is one of my favorites. It’s very long, as it was made for TV as a mini-series. It is so awesome! I watch it every time there’s a big snow storm. I also really REALLY loved the show he did called “Kingdom Hospital.” I highly recommend buying it or Netflixing it. I was so bummed out when it was cancelled.
I was just espousing the virtues of The Stand last night in a conversation with a friend. One of those books that just changed my life. I love Ray Bradbury too and follow a few obscure fantasy/romance novelists. The entire Sedaris family is amazing.