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Astrology Chain Saw Massacre

MrRING

MrRING

Android Futureman
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Aug 7, 2002
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Just got through watching Tobe Hooper's seminal Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I had forgotten that a big plot point of the movie is astrology. The kids in the van are reading about astrology, and in particular the main guy Franklin has his horoscope read and it says something to the effect that for him Saturn is in retrograde and he will experience a sharp increase in bad luck if he makes a wrong move - and boy, going into Leatherface territory is one whopper of a wrong move!

When the teens pick up the Hitchhicker and he is later forces out of the van after cutting his own hand, he draws a few symbols on the side of the van in his blood(looks like a half-moon and a part of the symbol for Mercury). The kids wonder if they have been marked, or if he's following them. And just before that, he takes a picture of Franklin who, when he won't buy it, he puts a substance on it, set it on fire, then puts it in a pouch (sympathetic magic?).

It would seem like the film was pulling from the world of astrology and magic to help present a rational world that is pulled apart by larger cosmic forces. THIS SITE says that Saturn in Retrograde: Saturn is the planet of caution, discipline and contraction. When this planet turns retrograde, we tend to work extra hard and think more cautiously about our actions. Saturn was in retrograde at the outbreak of World War II, the Vietnam War and the Faulklands War, and also when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, and the day Diana, Princess of Wales, died.

Is Saturn In Retrograde really a super-negative connontation in an astrological chart?

(BTW, One of the films first titles for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was Saturn In Retrograde! )
 
well, I can think of at least two rock songs that mention this position of saturn as being bad. I can only remember the name of one of them though - Saturn Returns by REM.
 
Saturn is one of the malific planets that don't mean no good to nobody according to medieval astrology.

The correspondences of the planet in magic(k) are complex but Agrippa http://www.renaissanceastrology.com/agrippasaturn.html gets the ideas across pretty well :
But amongst places that are appropriated to the stars, all stinking places, dark, underground, religious and mournful places, as churchyards, tombs, and houses not inhabited by men, and old, tottering, obscure, dreadful houses, and solitary dens, caves and pits, also fishponds, standing pools, fens and such like are appropriated to Saturn.
Click to expand...

not exactly nice, and there are definite death connections, Saturn is sometimes characterised as Old Father Time or the Grim Reaper.


It is rather simplistic but basically true to say that periods of retrograde are generally considered negative in modern astrology.
 
lizard23 said:
Saturn is one of the malific planets that don't mean no good to nobody according to medieval astrology.
Click to expand...
What about Venus? I've been feeling like utter crap this past week or so. I'm pretty sensitive to the cycles of the moon. Do you know what if any effect the transit of Venus is supposed to have?
 
Depending on whereabouts you are, it is midsummer full moon round about now, maybe that's a factor if you feel you are sensitive to lunar cycles.
 
It was a full moon here by me a couple of days ago but this time I was even worse than usual.
 
lizard23 - Don't worry. I don't get the urge to go on a killing spree or anything like that if that's what you're worried about. I don't start howling at the moon either, though sometimes I feel like I'd like to.

When there is a full moon out I feel like there is an immense pressure beating down on my mind. I've felt like that this past week. Usually, though, there is a sense of elation that comes with the full moon. I feel as though my body is flying. I know I'm not flying, but there a physical sensation of flying and it can be quite energizing even with the accompanying insomnia.

This time, however, I've just felt detached from things - disconnected. I've been able to function fine - I'm still able to work and I've been posting even more often than usual in the past few days. It just feels like I'm running on automation. Each passing day I'm coming out of it a little more. I can't thing of any change in my diet or level exercise, so I don't think that's it. I feel better today, maybe because I slept till 9:30.
 
There is at least one positive aspect to Saturn, in that traditionally it rules scholarly pursuits. Ficino says:
"
...by withdrawal from human affairs, by leisure, solitude, constancy, by theology, the more esoteric philosophy, superstition, magic, agriculture, and by sorrow, we come under the influence of Saturn."

The influence of Saturn was held to blame for scholars being of a melancholic temprament. Ficino's Three Books on Life, quoted above, has advice for scholars about counteracting Saturn's negative influences with Jovial things.
 
In case anybody hasn't seen it, this YouTube has the pertinent clip from Texas Chainsaw starting at about the 40 second mark:
 
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