I have been reading about creative illness these days, and remembered a couple old posts about sf writer, Philip K Dick and occultist, Aleister Crowley.
I don’t think Dick’s episode was a creative illness so much as a bizarre psychic time travel phenomena but it’s still interesting to explore. A quick scan of Dick’s astrological transits show that at the onset of his illness, sun had just entered Pisces and transiting Saturn was moving into to conjunct Mars, the apex of a natal kite formation involving Neptune, Jupiter and a sun-Mars-Saturn stellium in Sagittarius. During that year, Saturn transited through his 4th house, while Jupiter through his 12th.
More on Crowley’s transits after the link.
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Original Title: Philip K Dick’s schizophrenic fugue
Original Post Date: May 22, 2006 @ 3:45 pm
The Religious Experience of Philip K Dick by R. Crumb
What is interesting about this account is that Dick is clearly in total possession by the unconscious, but he manages to keep his ego in tact – for an entire year! A most impressive feat if you ask me.
FYI: Philip K. Dick was a very popular sci-fi writer whose books have been adapted into popular films like Bladerunner. Robert Crumb is a prolific illustrator of underground, independent comics.
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Original Title: Crowley, transits & the Liber Legis
Original Post Date: September 14, 2004 @ 11:24 pm
Crowley channeled the Liber Legis over a period of 3 days while he was in Egypt. He later published his thoughts on the text, and it seems he never really got a grasp on the third book. Curious about the whole deal, I pulled up his birthdata to have a look at what was happening to his chart during that time. The transits just blew me away. Since I couldn’t find this info after a brief search, I figured I’d post it here. (conjunctions denoted w/a slash, orb of 5 degrees allowed, although most aspects fell w/i 1-2 degrees)
Transiting Saturn
conjunct Saturn (yes, the infamous Saturn Return)
squaring Mercury
squaring Pluto
trining Sun/Venus
opposing Uranus
Transiting Jupiter
conjunct north node
Transiting Mercury/Mars
conjunct Neptune
Transiting Neptune
sextile Neptune
trine Jupiter
Transiting Pluto
trine Sun
trine Saturn
Oculus divinorum v.4 