Star Wars’ George Lucas
Star Wars’ George Lucas
Horoscope as personal mythology (Part 1)
By Glenn Perry
In December (2015), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII) is released in cinemas,
reviving the most famous and lucrative sci-fi series in movie history. Glenn Perry examines
in depth the natal chart of the Star Wars creator, George Lucas – and discovers that the
movie franchise’s violent power struggles are a metaphor for Lucas’ own primal strivings
for independence from his mother, father and Hollywood suits, thanks to a Moon-Pluto
opposition. As Perry observes, “Lucas’ band of rebels at Skywalker Ranch bear a startling
resemblance to the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars”.
I have always marvelled at how the charts
of creative artists are reflected in the
nature of their creations. In what follows,
we will explore how the struggles of Luke
Skywalker and friends are little different
from the struggles of George Lucas,
author and creator of the film series Star
Wars. In fact, each character of Star
Wars can be seen to embody an aspect
of Lucas’ own personality as revealed by
his astrological chart. More to the point,
the conflicts between characters in Star
Wars symbolise the intrapsychic conflicts
of George Lucas.
Astrology has its roots in mythology. The
mythological symbols we call signs and
planets are the gods within that form the
relationships of our psychic life. In modern
terms, planetary relations constitute
psychodynamics – the movement and
distribution of energies within the psyche.
The structural dynamics of the psyche not
only account for our outward behaviour
but shape our artistic creations as well.
That which is created is a metaphor of the
consciousness from whence it springs.
Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy has an epic,
mythological quality, as if emerging from
deep within the collective psyche. Because
it touches upon needs and aspirations
common to humanity, Jung would call
such films archetypal. By now it’s almost
legendary that Lucas purposefully set out
to refashion ancient myths for modern
audiences. He was reading a lot of Joseph
Campbell when he penned the script for
Star Wars.
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Sep/Oct 2015 The Astrological Journal
“Myths are public dreams,” wrote
Campbell, “and dreams are personal
myths”. Just as myths are symbolic
of the collective life of humankind, so
dreams are symbolic of the personal
life of the individual. And dreams, or
fantasy, are the stuff of which films are
made. The gods within George Lucas
take their form in the heroes and villains
of his films, battling across the galaxy in
a grand homage to their creator. In this
sense, Lucas’ space fantasies are actually
self-portraits, metaphorical expressions
of a rich and complex personal life. By
making his dreams public, and in so doing
creating a new, contemporary mythology,
Lucas has unwittingly exposed the bare
bones of his own psyche.
Conflict in George Lucas
Lucas has Moon Aquarius in the 10th
opposing Pluto in Leo in the 4th with
both planets forming a t-square with a
Mercury-Venus conjunction in the 12th
(see Lucas’ natal chart). While it is not
possible here to give a full interpretation
of Lucas’ chart, suffice to say this aspect
represents a key theme in Star Wars.
One might argue that Star Wars is just
fiction, just a story. But the point is
that every life is a story, including the
life of George Lucas. His Moon-Pluto
opposition not only shows up in his
fantasy life but is alive and well in his
real life too. If everything is a metaphor
of deeper, archetypal forces, it doesn’t
matter whether we analyse Lucas’ films
or his own personal experiences. The
same archetypal patterns will be there.
George Lucas
Suffice to say that ‘Luke’ is an equivalent
of ‘Lucas’. Symbolically speaking, the
Star Wars series is autobiographical.
The Moon, of course, symbolises one’s
feelings and dependency needs; it is our
capacity for tender, loving relations.
It represents the feminine component
of the male psyche. The Moon also
signifies our experiences with mother,
home and family. Pluto, on the other
hand, symbolises one’s capacity for
transformation
through
encounters
with the shadow, evil, and death. The
archetype of the wounded healer is
Pluto’s role.
When these two planets are in opposition,
there is a potential conflict between the
George Lucas
Natal Chart
May 14 1944
5:40 am PWT +7:00
Modesto, California
functions they symbolise. This often
means that the Moon, the feminine, is
‘killed off’ by Pluto, at least initially.
One’s capacity to love is wounded;
feelings and dependency needs are
repressed. Ultimately, this is what needs
to be healed. To the extent that healing
occurs, the individual’s capacity to love
is powerful indeed. Feelings are potent
and deep, and one is able to penetrate
others emotionally in a manner that is
transformative.
Since Lucas’ Moon is in the 10th, and
the 10th house signifies father, we can
assume that the injury is to the feminine
component of the father’s psyche. That
is, the father is wounded in his feeling
function. Since Pluto darkens the 4th
house, which represents home and family,
we can also assume that the problem
originated in some crisis in, or wounding
to, the family. The Moon-Pluto opposition
between the 4th and 10th suggests that the
native’s career (10th) requires him to
regenerate a sense of family by healing
his capacity to love. Also, he must attain
mastery of his emotions and become a
protector of the public. This, in effect, is
his destiny.
In the beginning of one’s life, the core
conflict of the chart is generally operating
at its most disintegrated state. We
could speculate that Lucas’ Moon-Pluto
opposition initially manifested as some
sort of loyalty conflict between his mother
(4th house) and father (10th house). In
other words, loving one parent might be
perceived as damaging to the other. Also,
an unintegrated Moon-Pluto opposition
can signify a fear of being controlled,
dominated, or devoured by a parent. In
Lucas’ chart, this could be mother and/or
father, sinc