An Open Letter dated March 13, 2022
from Jude Cowell
Thomas Hardy, frontispiece page, Augustus John, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
My Dear Reader,
If you've never viewed the natal horoscope of novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, you may find it curiously interesting. Predictably, the writer's sign of Mercury-ruled Gemini is well represented by his Sun, Mercury, and Mars (1-12 degrees), plus, the identity trio enjoys a close relationship with art-lover Venus @27Tau23. And as you know, a Mercury-Venus conjunction suggests one who writes and communicates in a pleasant way. For me in school, this was the case with Thomas Hardy novels which I read with much fascination, but if there was a clunker in the bunch, it would have to be Jude the Obscure which closes with a simply hideous tragedy described by Mr. Hardy's deft pen all too well.
You see, my Pisces Moon can take little if any stories or articles in which children are harmed or abused. Actually, add mistreated wives and women to that no-no list, while you're at it. But, since 'Jude' is something of a namesake for me, I had haplessly waded into the story, little suspecting what awaited the novel's characters near book's end. Yes, it's one of the many classics that I read in school, but I re-read 'Jude' about three years ago, and left the novel wishing I hadn't.
Now astrologically, this harsh event could be seen as an expression of Mr. Hardy's 10th house Pluto (@19Ari33 - ruled by Mars), a planetary pair of death, harm, and other catastrophic occurrences. Yet since his natal horoscope is RR:B, house cusps such as his career-related Midheaven @11Ari48 ('MC' - and visible-to-the-world 10th house in the Placidus House System) may not be as accurate as we would want, plus his birth hour is listed as "8:00 am" LMT, and we know that often such perfection is merely a rounded-off estimate when the true time of a baby's birth could easily have been before or after the hour. It was 1840, after all.
Literature-History-Astrology-Genealogy - and Jude
Now please note that Thomas Hardy's natal planets of June 2, 1840 are not actually my focus in this post, for earlier today, as I researched some of my distant relations - cousins, to be exact, as is Mr. Hardy! - I came across a certain Moore family, some of whom were based in Fawley, UK which is the town that features in Jude the Obscure and which he renamed, "Marygreen," where the main character, Jude 'Fawley' spent his childhood. This location relates to Hardy's mother, if memory serves, so today's post is primarily published to provide you with a link to what for me is an intriguing blog post written and published on WordPress by 'RecentlyRetiredMan' back in May 2017, in which the writer details his search for the old cottage, or what's left of it, located in the novel on 'The White Road' (photo included!) to Fawley.
What he found, using maps of the 1800s and other references, plus, by actually visiting and photographing the area, you must read and see for yourself, and I hope you will!
So here's a link to his Ex Libris Ad Rem blog: "The books and stuff that fill my day":
Back on the trail of Thomas Hardy's Jude - the missing cottage.
Enjoy!
Signed,
Jude C.
P.S. For readers with Facebook accounts who are interested in the history that comes along with genealogical research, a new group is available for joining called Genealogy plus History. In fact, I'll soon be sharing this very post with the group so why not Join Us! jc
No comments:
Post a Comment