Data News by Frank C. Clifford
Not the astrology column
An astro-snapshot of Paul Merton
By Anne Whitaker
How an encounter in a launderette turned me from Marxist to astrologer
“It’s cool these days to actually think. My optimistic hope is that it will become very cool to really think about things… rather
than do reactive bullshit based on no knowledge.”
(Professor Brian Cox, from an interview with Eleanor Mills, The Sunday Times Magazine, 27.2.2011, p 17)
Paul Merton will be most familiar to AJ readers as a regular on
Have I Got News for You, which first aired on 28 September
1990 (by solar arc, Merton’s MC-ruler Mercury had moved into
his Equal 10th house). Over the years, the show has showcased
his merciless wit and gift for satire.
A strongly aspected or positioned Uranus is one of the key
signatures in a comedian’s chart. Merton has Uranus in Leo
in the 9th and conjunct Venus and co-Ascendant-ruler Mars.
The public, however, tends to see his Scorpio Ascendant and
Saturn in the 1st: the deadpan manner, the sardonic delivery,
and the surly, taciturn persona that suggests fools will not be
entertained.
As a child, Merton was fascinated with the art of making people
laugh. With a Virgo MC, “I was an avid consumer of comedy…I
was trying to learn as much as I could about it without actually
doing it… [I learned that] it’s all about dedication, tunnel
vision, pursuit of perfection, getting the gag right”. (The
Observer, 29/10/2000)
Paul Merton
put on a show at the Edinburgh Festival, but broke his leg after
the first night and was out of work for months.
On 23 September 1988, the improvisational comedy series
Whose Line is it Anyway? debuted on Channel 4, and Merton
was in the original lineup. It proved to be his big break (aptly,
his SA Equal 10th house was close to Jupiter, the SA Sun in
Leo was square to the Nodes, and the SA Midheaven squared
natal Sun). He stayed with the show while taking on Have I Got
News for You a year later.
Paul Merton
Natal Chart
Jul 9 1957, Tue
5:05 pm BST -1:00
London, United Kingdom
Equal
Merton worked for the Civil Service but, following TR Neptune
over his Moon, he knew he needed to focus on comedy fulltime, so he quit his job on 29 February 1980 and signed on (TR
Uranus was on his Ascendant). It took him two years to build
up the confidence to perform, but he was a hit when he finally
went on stage in April 1982 at the Comedy Store in Soho. In
August 1987 (as TR Uranus caught up to his SA Ascendant), he
20
Sep/Oct 2015 The Astrological Journal
Shock and awe just about covered it for
me. Seamus’ accuracy was astounding.
I am most grateful to Professor Cox for
providing my opening quote. I could not
agree more, as I tell you the tale of how I,
too, was guilty of “reactive bullshit based
on no knowledge” – until a very strange
encounter challenged my ignorant
dismissal of astrology as something not
worth wrapping round my fish supper.
Merton has lived through some harrowing experiences.
In January 1990, anti-malarial medication he took while
on holiday in Kenya resulted in Merton being committed
to a psychiatric ward for six weeks. Merton’s marriage to
comedy actress Caroline Quentin effectively ended when they
separated on 14 April 1997 (following Merton’s Uranus halfreturn and TR Neptune on SA Moon). He remarried but his
new wife, Sarah Parkinson, was diagnosed with breast cancer
in February 2002 (SA MC on Neptune and at 0° Scorpio, TR
Pluto square MC). As TR Neptune opposed Venus–Mars and
TR Pluto squared the MC again, Merton was widowed on 23
September 2003.
Paul Merton, born 9 July 1957 at 17:05 GDT (-1), Parsons Green,
London, England (51N28, 0W12) Source: Sy Scholfield quotes
Only When I Laugh: My Autobiography by Paul Merton (Ebury,
2014). RR: B. Asc: 25 Scorpio.
Caroline Quentin, born 11 July 1960 at 08:30 GDT (-1), Reigate,
England (51N14, 0W13) Source: Kim Farnell quotes her on
TV’s The Best of British, 15/11/2000. RR: A. Asc: 25 Leo.
At the time of this encounter, I fancied
myself a Marxist. Having joined the
now long-defunct Communist Party
of Great Britain (in perhaps not the
most appropriate setting for rampant
Communism, i.e. the fair city of Bath,
Somerset, England), all fourteen of us
in the Party’s Bath chapter met every
second Thursday to plan the overthrow of
the British State – or something equally
ridiculous.
This information should offer a clue
that I was not going through a terribly
spiritual, symbolism-oriented phase of
my life at that stage. Quite the opposite.
The previous year (as an adult education
English tutor at the time) I had taken
great pleasure in demolishing one of
my brightest student’s enthusiasm for
and enjoyment of astrology. How I did
that, I cannot quite recall. However, I do
remember my squirming apology to her
a decade later, having by then become
a devoted practitioner of the very art I
had decried – from a position, of course,
dictated by ignorance and prejudice.
Cut to a Sunday evening, late June, a
launderette on the London Road, Bath.
There I was, peacefully doing my laundry.
In shambled a small, unruly-haired man
who looked rather like an unmade bed.
Let us call him Seamus. Accompanying
him was Cher, of Sonny and Cher fame…
I did a double-take. It wasn’t Cher, but
looked very like her. Let’s call her Gloria.
Their little daughter Anya and I became
firm friends over her delight in shoving
my coins into the washing machine and
drier.
Her parents invited me home for a cup
of tea – they lived in the next street to
me, just off the London Road. They were
both artists – and, as I found out whilst
strolling along the road enjoying their
company, astrologers. Oh dear, I thought.
Oh well… they seem nice people. I don’t
have anything b