Koestler’s Deux Ex Machina stirs.
Like Theodore Herzl, Arthur Koestler was also a Hungarian Jew, but unlike Herzl, his parents were wealthy industrialists. and in fact, his father was an inventor, in addition to being a captain of industry where he made his fortune in creating mineral soaps, as opposed to the conventional animal fat soap of the day. In some ways, this informed Koestler’s consciousness in a profound way that would allow him to lead a life, that in retrospect, reads like an epic picaresque that led him to London, Kibbutzes in Palestine, concentration camps in Central Europe, The North Pole and beyond, while pioneering the fields of paranormal research, exploring the concepts of synchronicity (Ghost In The Machine) alongside another important contemporary, Carl Jung. But perhaps his most controversial and in some ways important work is the unflinching examination of his own ethnic authenticity in The Thirteenth Tribe. Before we get to an overview of that book’s explosive narrative, we need to take a look at Koestler’s chart.
Koestler was born on 9/5/05, in Budapest. He is a Virgo Sun, Sag Moon, with Mercury in Virgo, Venus in Leo, Mars in Sag, Jupiter in Gemini, Saturn in Aquarius, Uranus in Capricorn, Neptune in Cancer and Pluto in Gemini. Here we see a chart that has profound critical faculties with Sun and Mercury in Virgo, coupled with an unflinching quest for truth with Mars and Moon in Sag (conjunct). Couple this with his Jupiter in Gemini and you get a prolific writer and communicator. Lastly, with his Uranus in Capricorn, at zero degrees, Koestler had a very interesting relationship with the concept of time, as we’ll later see.
One of the amazing things about Koestler is how curious and fearless he was. Like Herzl, he was drawn to Zionism as he believed at one point that it was an essential part of his heritage and provided a path towards a socio-ethnic unification. While studying psychology at The University of Vienna, he became president of a Zionist fraternity. Just prior to taking his final exam, Koestler burnt his books and made an “Aliyah” to Palestine, then a British Mandate, which is where he participated in the kibbutz. From there he becomes a correspondent in Paris for the German, Ullstein-Verlag newspaper chain. His personal highlight during that time was covering an expedition to The North Pole on a Graf Zeppelin in 1931. This would have been right around the same time that Hitler and other high ranking and esoterically driven, Germans were intensely interested the concept of the hollow Earth, which is the basis of the philosophy of The Thule Society. For Hitler, the entry to The Hollow Earth or “Agartha” as he would have known it from his Tibetan connections, was in Antarctica. The whole concept of a hollow Earth is staggering and I will provide a few links at the end of this piece for those that are interested, but we need to stay close to Koestler.
Koestler tried on the political garments of the day. First with Zionism and then Social/Communism. He joined both parties and eventually recanted his membership, and was particularly vocal against Communism, especially after the great trials of 1938, though that did not deter him from traveling extensively through Russia, where he eventually landed in Turkey, where he climbed Mount Ararat. In Turkmenistan, he hooked up with American writer, Langston Hughes.
Working as a correspondent for The British paper, News Chronicle Koestler travelled to Spain to report on The Spanish Civil War, where he was captured by The Francoists and later exchanged with Britain. His experience there and The Communist trials led him to wholly reject Communism, in his book, The Spanish Testament.
What we see here consistently is a man that cuts against the grain of his time. He rejects Zionism, a rising ideology directly related to his Ashkenazim roots, then he rejects Communism, which is eventually adopted by most countries throughout Europe in the form of Socialism. It would have been easy for Koestler to just put his oar in the water and row with the tide of popular opinion and political expedience, but he did not. This is where I see his Mars in Sag come into play. In a quest for truth, a lifelong pursuit for Koestler driven by Mars in Sag conjunct his Moon, he was unwilling to tow almost any party line. This was never more evident than when he penned the controversial, Thirteenth Tribe where he explores the history of his Jewish ancestry and comes to the conclusion that his relatives and The Ashkenazim line is not a lost tribe of David, expelled from The Holy Land due to their religious virtue and persecution, but are really the descendants of a tribe called, “The Khazars” who controlled the trade routes between Europe and China, dwelling at the base of The Caucasus Mountains. They eventually convert to Judaism and move into Spain and Eastern Europe, moving westward, eventually clustering in Hungary, Bavaria, Austria and Germany. It’s a startling work and one that does not sit well with many, for various and mostly obvious reasons. But Koestler’s Moon in Scorpio, seeking penetrating, emotional insights, married with his Mars in Sag, and it’s unrelenting search for truth. While Koestler was not opposed to return, he saw it on much more equitable terms and not under the the uber-aggressive rules of engagement that were undertaken by The Zionist Congress and later Irgun in expelling The British through the bombing of The King David Hotel and the take-no-prisoners land grab that we are now currently dealing with. Koestler saw a different kind of re-patritaion, one that was more ecumenical in spirit and fair in it’s application. Koestler is not alone in his findings regarding “The Thirteenth Tribe.” Modern day scholar, Schlomo Sand, a professor at The University Of Tel Aviv has come to the same conclusions regarding the origin of the majority of The Jewish people, now occupying the state of Israel. His work is considered extremely controversial as well, and yet his credentials and research are impeccable. So ifbased on the works of these two men, the foundation of and the occupation of Israel, the right of return, etc, is a flawed concept, as a result a social cognitive, dissonance is in play, where the entire logic and rationale behind rights and geography is a flawed premise. If that is the case, the proverbial cat cannot be put back in the bag and what is done cannot be undone, but I firmly believe that a dialog needs to take place in an open and accountable fashion, not determined by the “projection” of prejudice or the knee-jerk reactionism and name calling that ensues when matters like this arise, If and we can stay away from terms like, “anti-semite” and “self-hating,” we might be able to find a solution that is based on reality and not some myth or a convenient re-telling of history that suits one parties slanted, self-interests.
When the countries and the lands of the Earth have all been appropriated and the resources, stolen in global-economic game shell game, in the absence of conquerable lands and resources, the greatest land grab is that of human consciousness, the very soul of man himself. These are the stakes that we are now facing through the extermination of ancient cultures and indigenous peoples–the colonization of the human spirit by something other.
In addition to his historical works, essays, and novels, Koestler was also deeply interested in consciousness, especially as it relates to time. Koestler was right-in-step when it came to exploring the mystery of coincidence. His groundbreaking work on the time and synchronicity, Ghost In The Machine served as the inspiration for two Police records, Ghost In The Machine and Synchronicity.
Koestler had Uranus in Capricorn at 0 degrees. As I have recently noted, the nature of time is changing, speeding up before our very eyes in Pluto In Capricorn. It’s noteworthy to see the connection between Pluto in Capricorn at 0 degrees and Koestler’s chart, where he had his Uranus in Pluto at the exact same degree. While a number of people in 1905 had Uranus in Pluto in their charts, Koestler’s Uranus was in an almost exact trine with his Mercury in Virgo. Here the mind is quick, able to make quantum leaps of understanding and grasp complex concepts, especially as they relate to time.
There are many other layers to this mans remarkable life. He was also a member of The French Foreign Legion, had a fling with Simone De Beauvoir, was a friend of Tim Leary (yes, Koestler was a tripper) and a member of The Hemlock Society. He and his wife ended their lives they way that they lived them–on their own terms.
I will have one last post in this series to wrap it all up and move onto the troubling symbolic transference of Kennedy and Lincoln (particularly the latter) mythologies onto Barack Obama and how it relates to the stars.