Philip K. Dick
Fever Dreaming on Mars
Philip K. Dick was a multifaceted science-fiction writer and eclectic philosopher. The passing of his twin sister, Jane, only six weeks after their birth, left a deep imprint on his existence. In exploring Philip’s chart, I was blown away when I discovered that the astrological alignment marking Jane's departure mirrored the exact same configuration that later plunged him into despair, leading him to seek a reunion with her. But first, let’s start with his philosophical side.
Fiery Waves
Located in the basement of the chart, Mars in Cancer is an active ingredient for family conflict. Philip's childhood was marked by emotional turmoil that shaped his worldview and creative imagination. Residing in the 4th house of home and family, Mars adds restless waves that ebb and flow in the Moon’s Water temple. Philip’s tumultuous environment was initially expressed through his parents, Joseph and Dorothy Dick, and their troubled marriage, marked by frequent separations and reconciliations, as well as financial instability. At age 5, his parents divorced, and the subsequent absence of his father likely instilled in him a fear of abandonment. These experiences contributed to Philip’s struggles with trust and intimacy in his adult relationships – he was married five times - and to many of his novels and stories, which feature characters grappling with dysfunctional or fractured relationships. Additionally, his writing had an obvious preoccupation with themes of poverty, social inequality, and the struggle for survival.
Navigating the 1st house – the steering wheel of his life – ruler Mars paints a picture of Philip’s character. Starting from a burdensome place in life – as fallen planets such as Mars in Cancer suggest – it took him some time to overcome adversity and frustration. Despite the challenges of his upbringing, Philip demonstrated intellectual curiosity and a thirst for knowledge from a young age. The three-planet stellium in the 9th house of higher knowledge points to his interest in philosophy, psychology, and the nature of reality, interests that would later find expression in his thought-provoking and intellectually complex science fiction novels.
I am a reader. I am a writer. People assume I do these things to escape. You couldn't be more right. I'm escaping a world I don't like. A world I have no control in. In this world, I am nothing. I am a color, a height, a weight, a number. But in the world of books and writing, I am amazing. I am powerful. I am different. People are better. Worlds are endless. Change is possible. Life is manageable. – Philip K. Dick
The Dark Prophet
Extending his Martial mistrustfulness, he harbored a deep-seated distrust of authority, particularly government institutions. It was not entirely unjustified, as he had been monitored by the FBI due to his involvement in various political and countercultural movements in the 1960s. He frequently encountered difficulties with tax authorities and other government agencies, which further fueled his distrust and served as fodder for his writing. The novel "A Scanner Darkly" reflects Philip's own fears about the erosion of privacy and individual freedom.
Some consider Philip a prophet due to his uncanny ability to foresee and explore themes and concepts that resonate deeply with our contemporary society. His imaginative explorations anticipated many technological advancements, societal shifts, and ethical dilemmas that have become increasingly relevant in the modern world. He tackled topics such as government surveillance, authoritarianism, consumerism, and the erosion of individual identity, all of which remain pertinent in today's world.
There will come a time when it isn't 'They're spying on me through my phone' anymore. Eventually, it will be 'My phone is spying on me'. – Philip K. Dick
In traditional astrology, one’s worldview and potential extrasensory gifts like clairvoyance and precognition were typically embedded in the 9th house, which was called the Place of God. In its joy there, the visionary Sun sheds light on the great enigmas with his ability to see through the veil of time. Gatekeeper Saturn, uncomfortably young at the very beginning of a new synodic cycle, is loosened up by his ruler Jupiter and lets the Sun’s rays pierce through the great beyond. Ruling the 5th house of the creative process and joined by Mercury, the Sun in Sagittarius funnels inspiration and Jupiterian proliferation to his writings. No less than 44 novels and more than 120 short stories carry his name, all of which deal with alternate realities or parallel universes and metaphysical explorations of what is real and what is artificial. Through the scientifically inclined Mercury/Saturn duo, Philip's experience of spirituality was imbued with a technological perspective.
The dark and skeptical Mercury/Saturn combination paints an image of the cosmos as indifferent or even hostile to human concerns, devoid of any overarching divine plan or significance. Philip came to recognize himself as an acosmic panentheist, expressing a complex “Solar-Saturnian” worldview that combined elements of existential nihilism (acosmism) with a belief in a transcendent divine reality that imbues the universe with a spiritual dimension (panentheism). In other words, he acknowledged the apparent absence of cosmic meaning or order (Saturn) while also holding onto the notion of a divine presence that transcends the material world (Sun). This perspective is evident in many of Philip's works, which often grapple with themes of existential despair, the search for meaning in a seemingly indifferent universe, and the possibility of transcendent experiences or realities that lie beyond conventional understanding.
Ripples in Time
Philip’s personal existential despair reached a peak several times in his life. The loss of his twin sister Jane, who died when she was six weeks old, would haunt Philip for the rest of his life and permeate his writings as a recurrent motif of “phantom twins” and characters who confront multiple versions of themselves. Note that Mercury, the ruler of Gemini – the Twins – in the 3rd house of siblings, is not only exiled in double-bodied Sagittarius but also invisible because of its proximity to the Sun, aptly describing the “disappearance” of his sister. I imagine him to have suffered from a profound sense of incompleteness.
I’m deliberately connecting one particular attempt to take his own life with his sister’s passing because there is an undeniably strong astrological connection. The exact date of Jane’s death was January 26, 1929, on the day that Mars stationed direct at 20° Gemini. Note that this falls into Philip’s 3rd house of siblings, opposite his natal Saturn, the God of Death.
Forty-two years later, on March 2, 1971, Philip ingested a large dose of the sedative sodium secobarbital with the intention of ending his own life. He was discovered unconscious by his third wife, Anne, who rushed him to the hospital in time to save his life. This suicide attempt occurred during a particularly difficult period in Philip's life, marked by personal and professional challenges, including financial difficulties, marital problems, and struggles with substance abuse.
Now, here’s what’s so uncanny about the timing. When we examine Philip’s secondary progressions on the date of his suicide attempt, we see Mars stationing direct at – you can’t make this up – 20° Gemini. This is not just any transit; this is the very same Mars transit that marked Jane’s death. The progressed chart is used as a timing tool where the transit chart of 1 day after a person’s birth symbolically represents a person’s life at age 1. In other words, one day equals one year. Jane passed away 42 days after she was born. Philip attempted suicide at 42 years old.
For that same year, the Solar Return chart shows us the natural signifier of sisters, Venus, his Lord of the Year by Profection, in Scorpio, Philip’s natal 8th house of death, in a mutually applying opposition to Saturn, aptly describing his yearning to bridge the abyss between him and Jane.
Visits from his Daimon
In the 4th house, we find a symbolic association with the occult or the hidden realm of the dead. According to Marcus Manilius (fl. 1st century AD), the ancient Greeks called this house Daimonion (δαιμόνιον), which refers to a divine or supernatural power often associated with a guiding spirit or intermediary between gods and humans. These daimonia were not necessarily good or evil in the modern sense but were seen as forces that could either help or hinder individuals, depending on the circumstances.
As we find his personal planet Mars in Daimonion, I can’t help wondering if it could have been his Daimon’s voice that Philip heard when he completed his college entrance exam. He had felt overwhelmed by the test and was unsure of how to proceed. In that moment of uncertainty, he heard a voice that offered him guidance. Instructing him to relax and trust his intuition, assuring him that he would find the answers within himself, the voice's guidance led Philip to feel a sudden surge of clarity and confidence. He proceeded to complete the exam with ease and achieved a perfect score.
The retrograde motion of Mars usually hints at a potential “revolution” in one’s life, and this was the case in Philip’s life. A major shift happened in the form of a profound mystical experience, often referred to as the "2-3-74" experience. Over the course of February-March 1974, Philip was submitted to a series of visions and downloaded overwhelmingly divine insights. He felt that he had encountered a powerful and benevolent intelligence that communicated with him telepathically – much like the voice at college - conveying a sense of divine love and wisdom. New insights into the nature of reality challenged his previous worldview. Philip reported experiencing temporal anomalies during the mystical encounter, including moments of timelessness and a sense of the past, present, and future merging into a unified whole. The divine or alien entity emerged as a central concept in Dick's 1981 novel "VALIS" (Vast Active Living Intelligence System) and its sequels.
Mostly, though, what I get is a lot of information, floods of it night after night, on and on, about the religions of the Antique World–from Egypt, India, Persian, Greece and Rome. [Bishop] Jim [Pike] never loses interest in that stuff, especially the Zoroastrian religion and the Pythagorean mystery cults and the Orphic cults and the Gnostics–on and on. I’m even being given special terms in Greek, such as syntonic [derived from the Greek συντονος]. I’m told to be that. In harmony with, it means. And the Logos doctrine. All this comes to me in dreams, many dreams, hundreds of dreams, on and on, forever. As soon as I close my eyes information in the form of printed matter, visual matter such as photographs, audio stuff in the form of phonograph records–it all floods over me at a high rate of print-out. – Philip K. Dick
While many sources dismiss Philip’s mystical experiences due to his mental health struggles and substance abuse, I recall Theodore Roethke’s wise line, “What is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?” Or, in Philip’s own words, “It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”
And, more importantly, is it madness if it works? This phase in his life ushered in positive developments. Following the advice of the messages he received, he started making better decisions and taking care of his health and business. At one point, he was able to save the life of his infant son. The entity had told him about the exact condition he suffered from, which allowed Philip to take his son to the hospital for surgery just in time. (Isn’t the fact that astrology works completely crazy?)
The Grim Reaper Speaks
Philip also had a recurring dream where he would find himself encountering a dead body lying on the floor in various settings. The body would typically be in a face-down position, with the arms stretched out and the hands clenched into fists. The image of the dead body haunted Dick, evoking feelings of unease and foreboding. This dream is particularly notable because it bears resemblance to the circumstances of Dick's own death. After having a stroke on February 17, 1982, two days before Mars stationed retrograde at 19° Libra, he was found unconscious in his apartment, lying face-down on the floor, much like the dreams had predicted. Two weeks later, under a Gemini Moon on March 2nd, he was taken off life support.
If I were half as prolific as Philip K. Dick was, I would write a book about him. I would love to hear your thoughts on his chart. Let me know in the comments!
I’m excited about my upcoming webinar for the Bedford Astrology Club! I’ll talk about antiscia on March 8 at 8 pm GMT. Visiting attendees can join for a fee. I hope to see you there!
How interesting that you published a post about someone born at a triple conjunction of the Sun, Mercury, and Saturn on the day of a transiting triple conjunction of the Sun, Mercury, and Saturn. Was that intentional?
I wonder how often that triple conjunction occurs. I have a friend born in 1974 who has Sun, Mercury, and Saturn conjunct in Cancer -- do they meet at least once per Saturn sign? I am not sure what to plug in to Solar Fire to find out.
Once again, Michelle, you hit it out of the park!
P.S. You can't make this stuff up.