Born under a four-planet stellium in Gemini, poet and teacher Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize. With the Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Mars all gathered in the multifaceted realm of the Twins, Gwendolyn’s captivating personal style expresses a no-nonsense aptness.
Very early in life I became fascinated with the wonders language can achieve. And I began playing with words. - Gwendolyn Brooks
As the close conjunction between the god of writing, Mercury, and Mars’ hot furnace suggests, Gwendolyn is a natural wordsmith. Her rhythmic, compressed style bears witness to her quickened and facetious Mercury/Mars duo. The co-presence of the Sun and Moon, representing the parents, adds to the picture as they were both avid readers.
Words can do wonderful things. They pound, purr. They can urge, they can wheedle, whip, whine. They can sing, sass, singe. They can churn, check, channelize. They can be a "Hup two three four." They can forge a fiery army of a hundred languid men. - Gwendolyn Brooks
Chicago would become her home when her family moved there during the Great Migration. Encouraged by her mother, who was a teacher, as the Moon in the 9th house of education suggests, Gwendolyn started sending her poems to newspapers and magazines. By the time she was 16 years old, she had already published around 75 poems. Mars, co-present with the Moon, ruler of the career house, doesn’t wait! In her work, Gwendolyn treasured everydayness, skillfully transcending it to art. Venus in the Moon’s sign, together with sober Saturn elevates plain stories to a celebration of simplicity.
Writing about what’s lunar or familiar from the perspective from her Bronzeville neighborhood, she was also motivated by the Saturnian theme of rejection. Quiet, isolated, and shy during her time in high school, she had to learn how to cope with a lack of social and athletic competence. Jupiter, making a superior sextile to Saturn, fortunately delivers great support, emphasizing her freedom and independence. She realized she needed to live her own life.
Deepening her concern with social and political problems in the 1960s, she was heavily influenced by young black militant writers. Her racial heritage gained more importance in her life and work. Again, the tight Mercury/Mars conjunction infuses her life with youthfulness. She always enjoyed working and talking with young people and she said learned a lot from them. In turn, Gwendolyn was a teacher and mentor to a new generation of black poets. She taught creative writing to some of Chicago's Blackstone Rangers.
It is brave to be involved. To be not fearful to be unresolved. - Gwendolyn Brooks
Both Mars, an activist, here supported by Mercury’s pen which may be mightier than the sword, and dissenter Saturn are not afraid of controversy. Saturn, exiled in Cancer in the 10th house, likes to put the finger on the sore spot. Gwendolyn gradually committed more and more to her racial identity and she developed into a purposely political writer advocating sexual and racial equality. Saturn as the exaltation ruler of Libra, the scales of justice, is notoriously uncompromising and cannot endure injustice. In the 10th house of social status and reputation, Saturn also signifies the dichotomy between Gwendolyn’s popularity and the disapproval she suffered from both white and colored people.
Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, "Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night." You will be right. For that is the hard home-run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song. Live in the along. - Gwendolyn Brooks
The exaltation ruler of the career house is Jupiter. In the 8th house of social esteem and validation from others, Jupiter brings recognition and gifts in the form of dozens of honors and prizes for Gwendolyn’s work, including the Pulitzer Prize, a fellowship in the Academy of American Poets, and she earned a place in the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
This is the urgency: Live! and have your blooming in the noise of the whirlwind. - Gwendolyn Brooks