Florence Farr: The Bohemian’s Bohemian

 

1: Florence Farr: Wisdom Given to the Wise 

2: Farr as Bohemian Muse of the Era. 

3: Mistress of the Isis-Urania Temple

4: The Four Asteroid Archetypes of the Golden Dawn

5: Farr’s Personal Asteroids

5:1 Florence

5:2 Vesta

5:3 Urania

5:4 Polyhymnia

5:5 Isis

6: Final Years in Ceylon

See the video version here

 

1: Florence Farr: Wisdom Given to the Wise

On July 8th, 2023 Florence Farr is centre stage and one of her little-known Egyptian plays will be recited in London once again-  The Shrine of the Golden Hawk.* This happens on her Neptune return- as a chart lives on after death, the wheels are forever turning. It somehow affects us all as Neptune is at the same place at the end of Pisces where it was when she was born back in 1860, only this time it is square to the Galactic centre until 2025. It could helps us to tune in even better to what Florence Far was about, to understand her message: how movements in the invisible mould what happens in the  visible world.

Charts continue to resonate after death. Often it is the nodes and nodal returns tend to be significant when the native comes back into prominence for any reason. Currently Farr’s progressed Sun is close to the Galactic Centre shining a light from beyond this galaxy on her solar return celebration of July 2023 when her plays will see life again. But very interesting that this also happens to be the point of her Lot of Spirit- her Guardian Angel so to speak is at this same point,27° of Sagittarius and the Moon  is conjunct Chiron in Aquarius by progression.

Her actual centenary would have been in 1960 and the commemoration of her death in 2017.  She could claim to be the first of the so called  ‘Bromley’ contingent, but just a century ahead of her time- we’ll get to the mysterious link to Siouxsie Sue later on.

Florence Farr’s sun was in Cancer so she was highly intuitive and artistic, inspirational to others, but she was a Leo Ascendant with a stellium of planets in Leo. So  she shone on the London stage in theatrical productions. There’s a Moon-Sun dynamic here of emotion and passion creating a lot of impact.  She was certainly noticed and hugely admired in her time in London’s West End. She had Venus opposite Mars and a Moon and Neptune stacked like bookends – alpha and omega- at the starting and endpoint of Pisces. She was born in Bromley in 1860 yet died faraway in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and what drove her there was an interest in Theosophy. I will mention her asteroid placements as well those shine a light on lesser known facets of her life. They especially shine for a woman who appeared to embody very specific mythological energies.

 

Why was there all this interest in Egyptian magic we may ask? This is where the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s influence-with its Masonic overtones- is paramount.  What captures the essence of the Golden Dawn’s gift to the tradition is where she stated in 1893, much more succinctly than Blavatsky ever could, that “The first principles of Egyptian Magic were based on an elaborate system of correspondences, depending on the formula that, the evolution of what is material follows the type and symbol of the emanation of the spiritual; that spirit and matter are opposite faces of the self- same mystery.”

She wrote plays to be performed with this ritual and initiatory element woven into them. Her most honed tool for these events would have been her resonant voice, an octave above her natural voice tone, which she perfected through intense concentration and her deep study of the mysteries.

 

2: Farr as Bohemian Muse of the Era.

A Sun in the 12th house often confers psychic gifts and an inexplicable allure so it is not surprising that Farr inspired people around her. It is not given to most people to be a muse, let alone a good one, or to play of two of the leading writers of the day. There are qualities you must have: the ability to inspire others, to be enigmatic, to be a lover, yet also to be elusive about the type of love it is, perhaps leaving the besotted one completely unrequited, appearing and disappearing as you please with a certain cat-like independence. A muse, whether male or female, has an element of the tease. They are idealised beauties who can also inflict pain and ruin as with the Sidhe lore in Ireland. Consider what a pain Bosie- a male muse or sidhe– inflicted on Oscar Wilde.

To be muse to one artist is accolade enough, but Florence Farr was known to visibly and personally inspire not only playwright George Bernard Shaw, but poet W.B. Yeats as well. Later on, this allure even included inspiring the poet, Ezra Pound. She took that adulation in her stride and still pursued her own interests and floated on regardless.

But added to that was her luminous ‘look’ which was captured most elegantly by Edward Burne-Jones for his painting ‘The Golden Stairs’ (1876).  She was the artist’s model for Burne-Jones along with Jane Morris when she was only 19.  The figure centre right halfway down the staircase holding a musical instrument is said to be Florence. Her Sun was directly on his north node and her Mars on his Neptune. You could say that she was depicted as a waif-life ethereal creature, with an eternally youthful slightly appearance that was the Arts Crafts ‘look’ which must have been emulated by others generating Florence Farr clones.

Yeats had an on off relationship with her. His Eros Psyche conjunction in Taurus was on her natal Pluto. But he was notoriously also obsessed with Maude Gonne, his other muse, even though she spurned him numerous times, and unable to marry her. Gonne also had psychic ability and flirted with magic. She belonged to the Golden Dawn and was a whole other phenomenon in herself quite different to Farr. Yet it is Yeats’ relationship to Florence Farr that has a special place in his work. He was partial to Farr as she was the one who could truly embody his poetry in the style he wished it to be heard, i.e. musically intoned as if in a sacred rite with the strange tones of the psaltery as a backdrop. It is interesting that Yeats after putting it off for years, made the decision to get married soon after Florence Farr died, perhaps finally released from her spell?

With Venus in Leo opposite Mars out of sign in Capricorn in Farr’s natal chart, it must have kept admirers in a merry old ‘Round’ dance with some friction and guesswork needed as to what she really thought. She could be showy, yet had a firm edge to go her own way. She was the first to say to George Bernard Shaw to kiss and get that bit over with after all the niceties and prevarication. So she had no problem taking the lead in male-female relations in the social sphere which was ahead of her time.

Her Venus rules her fourth house of home and family but Mars rules her 10^th of reputation, allowing her to be first and others second.  But the 10^th is also softened by the rulership of Venus making a career in the arts and theatre almost inevitable. The men around her would be enraptured and intrigued and then given the cold shoulder. To be baffling to others is the muses’ lot in life- it is what keep’s others interest high and boredom low.

It was said she had difficulty saying ‘no’ to advances from men. But this was rumour to imply she was a loose woman. Yet there’s little evidence of more than three men in her life, despite what the gossips said.  Shaw, who eventually became that most hybrid of creatures – an irascible millionaire communist who subjected her to relentless criticism as would a dentist strapping his victim in a chair to go for a tooth, was the one who started the rumour. He first said she was ‘loose’ and complained her acting was ‘feeble’. Yet Shaw was a self-declared ‘fluent liar’, and was well known for leading on the leading ladies of the era: Ellen Terry and Mrs Patrick Campbell among them. He would let them think his interest was amorous and then suddenly declare it ‘platonic’ leaving them baffled.

Farr’s first man was her husband Edward Emery. He was a gambler and became a huge disappointment to her. So she was not inclined to make any further mistake or lose her newly gained independence after her separation from Emery. Then came Shaw and Yeats who both truly admired her skills as much as the way she looked, though Shaw was more critical of her acting.In 1894 she divorced Emery.

With the two Irish bards at least there was some intellectual frisson that maintained their mutual interest to the end. Both Shaw- a Leo- and Yeats – a Gemini- have one thing in common which may explain this being in-love-with-love effect, the obsessional dalliances that tormented them – strong Eros placements. Shaw’s Eros was in Taurus conjunct Pluto and opposite Mars so that he was highly sexed and quite likely power-hungry in relationships is a given; and for Yeats he had an actual Eros-Psyche conjunction, also in earthy Taurus. Eros placed in Taurus is most connected to Epithemia, the truly sensual side of love i.e. simply being ‘horny’ yet this marks the ‘in love with love’ feeling. Yeats said Farr had a poetic gift and a ‘Demeter-like face’ that was contra-realistic, so Ibsen’s realistic plays did not suit her so much as his own more lyrically-intoned mystical plays.

Farr herself has Eros in Cancer, 7° away from her Sun so not with the 3° orb required for an asteroid to be significant. Nevertheless, it is co-present in the sign that houses her Sun.

Her Venus is conjunct Jupiter amplifying the spirit of being there at the right time and place to be noticed- that special kind of luck bestowed by Jupiter in a fire sign. Yet that Venus was also square to Pluto in Taurus adding an intensity to the compulsions, and perhaps unconsciously an ability to control her admirers and keep them hanging on for whatever reason. This could have evolved her ideas about power and how to wield it as she said: “To become an adept of power is to possess the key to the secrets of all nature because you possess the key to your own nature.”

Farr, Yeats, and Bernard-Shaw- are roughly all of the same generation, born around the time, so they all had similar outer planet placements. Neptune was in late Pisces in their charts as it is for those born today. The four most famous asteroids Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta had all been discovered. They were even counted as planets until 1845. I have noted elsewhere too that this was also the 15-year highly fertile period from 1850-1865 when most of the Muse asteroids were discovered and Neptune stimulated people to be more spiritually creative- Spiritualism and table tapping became the vogue. So that these three would have a similar outlook is not remarkable- the the outer planetary influences tend to do that for a whole generation, but clearly there was something attractive and alluring about Florence Farr that stood out from the rest- she was named by her peers as the ‘bohemian’s bohemian.’

Her admirer, George Bernard Shaw was in league with the Fabians who were the architects of today’s social engineering schemes. He wanted to mould Farr into the so-called ‘the new woman’ that everyone talked about, and she did not always fit the mould.

Also, W.B. Yeats, whose reputation was growing, was a member of the Golden Dawn. It was from occult literature and the hermetic tradition that he drew his profound control of metaphors. He saw her as the perfect expression of the mystical characters in his plays, and for her use of her voice. So, she was a kind of tuning fork by which others resonated.

Cancer sun signs ruled by the Moon can often have this instinctive magnetic pulling power and her stellium in Leo made her the centre stage personality that dramatised this concept of the ‘new woman’ able to hold her own among men as far as was permitted in that late-Victorian era. But she had hidden depths than how she appeared. She was often searching for something more than the conditions of life offered.

 

3: Mistress of the Isis-Urania Temple

What many do not realise was that Florence Far was appointed head of the Golden Dawn in London, while the instigator of the order,  McGreggor Mathers and his wife Moina attempted to control the London groups remotely from Paris. This may have made Farr not just ‘Mistress of the Isis-Urania temple as it was known, but also, behind the scenes, one of the most influential women of the era. It is worth delving in to the Golden Dawn history as it is fascinating in its own right. It helps explain what Florence Farr was really about.  The correct designation was of the ‘inner’ temple of ‘Isis-Urania- rooms they rented to do rituals- and it is probably the least explained part of what they did. But we can say that these two goddesses were emblematic of the energies that came through the Golden Dawn and so I’ve used their astrological placements here to discover more about what they meant.

The influence of the Golden Dawn through the 20^th Century cannot be underestimated. The Tarot, the Qabbalah regained prominence because of them. But the word ‘Hermetic’ was used liberally to give sources a lineage that perhaps was not theirs. That influence is still increasing in fact as more books are published.

What’s fascinating is to track the complex family tree of all the interrelated cluster groups at the time- the last decade of the 19^th century the signature aspect of which was the Pluto-Neptune in Gemini. These groups stretched across the world of politics, the theatre, literature, the arts, the masons, occult orders, spiritualists and bohemians and miscellaneous oddball characters. Remember that the images of the Tarot most popular today by Pixie Smith come directly from Golden Dawn symbolism. There were authors: Sax Rohmer, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, E. Nesbit, and even Constance Wilde, who were, if not full members, at least associated with the Golden Dawn. But there’s no evidence that Bram Stoker had joined.

There was also Alan Bennett, the first accredited teacher of Buddhism in the UK, and then Arthur Edward Waite, William Wynn Westcott, Moina Mathers (nee Bergson, sister of the philosopher, Henri Bergson), Annie Horniman, the tea magnate, hence known as ‘Hornibags‘, poet W.B. Yeats and then of course the enfant terrible Aleister Crowley The Golden Dawn cut across classes as well, but it was was mostly a bunch of aristocrats dabbling in magic, while still being co-educational and quite innovative for its time.

Samuel Liddell MgGreggor Mathers identified with Bulwer Lytton’s novel ‘Zanoni’ (1842)  which revealed a secret order, a Rosicrucian brotherhood active in Europe. He himself acted like an eccentric character from Zanoni. Whether the source documents by Anna Sprengler were authentic or not, the occult world reached its apogee and the Golden Dawn established its authority and elevated women to priest-like status for the first time.

It was established on March 1^st 1888 and strikingly named the Temple of Isis-Urania No 3- there was apparently no number 1 or 2 – it started at 3. The chart for that inauguration day has the Sun at 11° in Pisces. This is square to the Pluto-Neptune conjunction across the cusp of Taurus/Gemini opposite an expansive higher knowledge-hungry Jupiter in Sagittarius, all boding well for an Occult order of power and influence. But there’s a fixed square of Saturn 0° in Leo and Mars at 0° of Scorpio that could spell out all the later divisions. There is a rectangle linking and locking in the energies of Pluto, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.  Rectangles can confer wisdom, but also can keep the energy trapped and the cross accusations flying.

The asteroids cannot be overlooked since the nature of the order was to restore the understanding of pagan goddesses. So what is curious is a triple conjunction of the asteroid Ceres at 0° , Urania, muse of astrology, at 1°, and asteroid Isis, at 3° – all earthed in Taurus.  Asteroid Ceres would put women into the picture, even with her dark side of grief and loss; and asteroid Isis was the goddess most of the female Golden Dawn members identified with especially Moina Mathers and  Florence Farr. Asteroid Urania points to their study and restoration of astrology. These three were opposite the planet Mars and asteroid Sappho in early Scorpio hinting at all the intense battles that lead to the splintering of the order.

That the Golden Dawn inspired a good deal of heavily spiritualised love poetry is indicated too by the conjunction of Mercury with both asteroid Eros and muse asteroid Erato around 11° of Pisces. These all close to the Sun in the chart give it a signature style that at its core is to do with sex and love, perhaps sex magic. I note also that Venus was in the forward-thinking sign of Aquarius so they were definitely progressive in disseminating new ideas though still during an era where it was not possible to talk openly and secrets filtered out mainly through metaphor and allusions.

 

4: The Four Asteroid Archetypes

Mary K. Greer sought to restore attention to the women in her 1996 book Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses. This was largely to acknowledge their contribution which was often overlooked. She drew parallels from these women to the four major asteroids discovered in the early part of the 19^th Century: Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta. These female archetypes are not usually included in a natal analysis, but they align with the four functions of the Psyche as laid out by Jung:  Feeling, Thinking Sensation and Intuition, Water, Air, Earth and Fire. Astrologers will recognise these as the four elements.

Greer did not omit to mention the shadow side of each goddess however which is interesting as the dynamic then becomes more real, and they are more complete. Often, the more popular, shiny virtue-signalling side of the archetype is favoured and that obscures their dark side as archetypes have a tendency to do when they possess the mind through shadow projection.

Now it is possible to add the asteroid planet placements in their charts just to verify Greer’s assessment :  Moina Mathers’s Juno is at 10° of airy. idealistic Aquarius square to her South Node and Pluto : Annie Horniman’s Pallas is at 19° of combative  Aries opposite her Sun and Mercury in Libra, but her Sun is conjunct the asteroid Klio which fits her personality very well also as she was an ardent student and teacher who controlled all the records and archives at the Golden Dawn; Maud Gonne’s Ceres is at 11° of intense Scorpio in the 3rd House- incidentally conjunct the asteroid Walruke- the Valkyrie is a female creature that guides the souls of the dead to Odin’s hall, and some said she looked like a Valkyrie as she was statuesque.

Farr’s Vesta is at 24° of intellectually curious Gemini giving it an adaptable, quick-minded flavour. Vesta, the asteroid itself, was discovered by Heinrich Olbers in 1807. She represents our ability to hold the sacred flame of votive energy and to sublimate that within the body and so matches the personality of Florence Farr quite well. Asteroid Vesta was designated as number 4.

But other female characters in the Golden Dawn also deserve mention:  the woman the actress Ellen Terry called ‘Pixie’ could be said to have the greater legacy. This was Pamela Colman Smith who designed the artwork for the Rider-Waite-Smith deck of Tarot Cards among many other talents. Also William Horton painter and illustrator whom not much is known about but favoured by W.B. Yeats. Some biographers also say that author Edith Nesbit was also a member but this is not clear from documented sources. However, Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a member.

But things did not go well for the Golden Dawn. It started with huge potential and then crashed horribly. They did not successfully knit together as a group of people under Mathers’ leadership, so there were several conflicts that disintegrated the core members into splinter groups. The most infamous clash was that was the so called ‘Battle of Blythe Road’ where Yeats allegedly threw Crowley out of the building. Crowley, ever divisive, decked out in highland dress and black mask had made his point. The Dawn splintered thereafter.

Florence Farr took the motto Sapientia Sapienti Dono Data- ‘Wisdom is Given as a Gift to the Wise’ for her first initiation. Some might say she represented the best of the Golden Dawn as she was kind, noble, authentic, talented and alluring, interested in fighting for women’s rights, and for workplace equality and being true to yourself. But she also sided with Yeats against Crowley in that fight on Blythe Road enabling herself to be appointed as leader but Yeats later sided against her on in a fight against Horniman for control of the Golden Dawn order.

She was a poet herself and wrote many articles and books gaining her knowledge from her long studies at the British Library in the British Museum. While they were not well known in her lifetime, she had ideas over a hundred years ago that sound relevant today. In ‘Our Evil Stars’ (1907) she wrote : “We must kill the force in us that says we cannot become all we desire for that force is our evil star that turns all opportunity into grotesque failure. So let us each recognise the truth that our first business is to change ourselves, and then we can change our circumstances.“ There are other comments scattered among her writings that have a similar ‘modern’ feel to them.

 

5: Farr’s Personal Asteroid Placements

5:1 Florence

In asteroid astrology there are Personal Name asteroids such as Kevin, Mary and even Pecker  which give a wealth of personalised detail to the chart and often the asteroid is closely placed to people in the life of that native. I understand the idea those pesky little asteroids just bring clutter to the universe as they are in their thousands and that there’s a beauty and symmetry to sticking only to the traditional planets.

I agree with that, but I can’t help feeling also that we are ready for more, and that’s why they keep on popping up to describe facets of someone better and in a more personal way. And there are asteroids of place and of things that provide a backdrop to a person’s life and their travels, their interests. We might look for the asteroid Tea in the chart of Annie Horniman for example which is square to her Sun. Her family were Tea magnates and all the money she donated to the Golden Dawn and to the Abbey Theatre came from tea.

But occasionally you come across a startling synchronicity: the asteroid Florence which has the number 3211 is neatly conjunct Florence Farr’s Sun. The personal name asteroid Florence is at 17° of Cancer and the Sun is at 15° of Cancer. That’s amazing enough, perhaps a kind of quantum entanglement aligning the heavens with her name for this particular incarnation.

Her parents consciously chose the name of Florence to venerate Florence Nightingale. Nightingale, the nurse administrator, herself was named Florence because she was actually born in Florence, Italy.  The asteroid Florence for Florence Nightingale was at 1° of Gemini just 7° from her Moon and Sun in Taurus. The asteroid Florence (3211) was on Yeats’ Descendant in his personal chart, marking the area where he was interested in others, but also curiously asteroid Florence is on McGreggor Mathers’ Sun. He aligned himself totally with Moina in a sexless marriage of high ‘chastity’ but he actually relied on Florence to be the leader of the Golden Dawn while he lived in Paris.

Farr may not have been perfect, and was not successful at everything- Horniman found her executive abilities lacking for example, and that was a bone of contention between them – but Florence Farr was most perfectly herself.  My suggestion is that when a personal name asteroid conjuncts your Sun- you have no trouble becoming you, when others may struggle with the whole process of individuation, so there’s an authenticity, a realness, a naturalness.

5:1 Vesta

Vesta is the sacred flame and associated with Virgo intacta– where the meaning is less about sex than self-containment– even her symbol represents flames but this is the spiritual fire.  Otherwise she is known as goddess Hestia -the home or hearth, the fireplace the core of safety and warmth within and what keeps the fire burning.

Farr’s asteroid Vesta is at 24° of Gemini in the 11th conjunct asteroid Terpsichore, the muse of Dance and that points to her integration of artistic, theatrical and ritual magic techniques. Her motivation to speak out in favour of prostitutes put her at the forefront of this controversial territory about the rights of women over their bodies, and that was daring to do so in her time as society’s attitudes towards the uses and abuses of sex are so easily polarised and misrepresented.

Vesta is sextile to Saturn in Leo giving it strength. It is also trine to Chiron at 27° of Aquarius  as well as  square to Neptune at the final degree of Pisces, tipping it towards passion for the ultimate ending. This is where it also conjuncts dwarf planet Sedna which according to Alan Clay oscillates between victimisation and transcendence, but takes anything it can find to propel it along the spiritual path.

Vesta makes sacred the acts that many deem as ‘bodily’ and the body has a bad rap in the culture which deems it as dirty or immoral somehow. Farr attempted to restore the idea of the mind-body connection and to judge the body much less than her contemporaries.

She supported the rights of prostitutes whom she called ‘daughters of Joy’ which is interesting as even today, this is controversial. The symbology of Vesta is also related to a supportive network of sisterhood- of nuns and virgins, but symbolically it represents purity of any kind, of the mind and the soul. There is a chastity and discernment involved in the right to deny sex and well as offer it.

It may have been Vesta that fired her up to consider the rights of sex workers so ahead of her time. In an article called ‘Astaroth’ (1907) Farr wrote that “ Ancient Egyptians, ancient Hindus agreed that the vagaries of nature must be obeyed; and certain women, trained as dancers, were dedicated to the gods and their worshippers. In their temples prostitution was a sacred institution…”  The Vestal virgins were of this type. She added that “The Hindu, for instance, considers that woman is part of the Immortal Mother of Life herself and to unite with a woman is to clasp the Universe in your arms and taste the ecstasy of Being.”

This flame could also relate to Kundalini-the rising creative energy curled at the base of the spine which is also associated with Uranus and mid-life awakenings. With Vesta the image that comes to mind is of a torch held up against all the odds still singing while all around are dropping. It is enshrined in her glyph of a burning flame. She could therefore also be the mascot of torch-singers who put their passion and pain into their voice.

5:2  Urania

Urania is the muse of astrology/astronomy so for this asteroid to be prominent in the Golden Dawn natal chart fits very well as they taught all their students astrology. To locate this asteroid in any of the charts of members also would point to a particular love of or alignment with astrology and/or having a scientific mindset at least for empirical research into natural cycles in the cosmos.

Urania is the muse also of science and measurement and philosophy, so she is often portrayed holding a compass over a globe. Other indicators of a strong interest in astrology would be a prominent Uranus or the midpoint between Mercury and Uranus, especially if that hits any other significant planet or point in the chart.

Astrology, along with Hermetic wisdom, the Qabballah, and the Tarot,  was the bedrock of all studies at the Golden Dawn. Farr clearly used astrology for all her workings, rituals and choices and as an adjunct tool to her intuition.  She even taught classes on the subject along with ritual magic and Egyptology.

While asteroid Urania is not conjunct any major personal planet in her chart, it is placed at 24° of the sign of Virgo – where painstaking and meticulous research is a definite strength- and her asteroid Urania is trine to Mars in Capricorn to underscore the organisational power. It is opposite that fated Neptune at the end of Pisces. So it had its influence on her life in curious ways.

The signature conjunction of the 1890s was the Pluto-Neptune which was fairly close for several years.  Let’s call it the ‘mauve’ conjunction as it signalled the unveiling of the shadow side, knowledge of the unconscious and disturbing areas of psychic life. The novels written at the time reveal this of which Picture of Dorian Gray (1991) was but the most well known. By October 31st 1991, this emergent energy at its most intense because it was square to Jupiter in Pisces. But it was also conjunct asteroid Urania, so Urania helped to configure the trend, not just as a significator of the power of unconscious forces, but also of this reawakened interest in hidden lore of the stars and knowledge of how the universe unfolds.

William Wynn Westcott, one of the founders of the Golden Dawn, had asteroid Urania conjunct his North Node in Virgo, and he wrote a book on the History of Astrology. But it is the other personality of the era, Pamela Colman-Smith, who has her asteroid Urania conjunct Uranus itself in Leo. That’s a standout conjunction for someone who created the most popular tarot deck still the most widely used today and which is ridden with astrological symbolism. So she is marked by Urania.

Also, the other girl from Bromley Siouxsie Sue has this distinctive Urania signature- so here is the ‘Bromley connection’. Asteroid Urania is directly conjunct her Sun. Siouxsie Sue, a Gemini,  emerged as the queen of post-punk with that alienation, dark mascara, exploding hair, and stark rejection of female prettiness in her style which was heavily laden with references to Egyptian goddesses.

5:3 Polyhymnia

Another striking point in Farr’s chart is that the Sun is conjunct muse asteroid Polyhymnia – this hits a perfect note of resonance as this is the muse of sacred music. Yes, she presided over the temple named Isis-Urania – and they appeared more significant but Florence was multi-faceted and this was possibly the most noticeable of her talents – her musical voice along with the haunting tones of the Psaltery.  Polyhymnia represents the lyrical pull of the sacred so that she is relevant here does not surprise. Farr used a technique of voice intoning verse in a lyric way, almost like singing but not quite.

Muses themselves do not offer their story in any obvious way, and they rarely trump the personal planets. You can read  a character from the basic elements in the chart; the angles, the planets and points.  Yet the asteroids pencil in this extra colouring and detail, especially in a tight orb to the Sun or Moon as it is here.

Polyhymnia is along with the Personal Name asteroid Florence a ‘marker’ of her soul’s path and of that refined quality of her voice and demeanour that was noted especially by W.B. Yeats  and that she was able to cultivate. She seemed in tune with her dharma.  She had this ability to turn prose and verse into a sacred chant, and to raise it up to a higher level, just as she must have done in her Egyptian rites. Yeats was so enamored of this skill that he wanted to collaborate with her to demonstrate the skill in the plays they produced.

With Polyhymnia there is nothing profane in her realm. To be touched by Polyhymnia in any chart raises the vibration to the level of mystical union and for an artist to have this quality would confer a soulfulness a heightened awareness of the interconnectivity of life.  She had a theory about ‘words of power’ being recited for their occult purpose. In her book ‘The Music of Speech’ (1909) she wrote that of the many ways to utter these words, they were designed “to create moods of the soul or set in motion operative forces” and that the “sound of the intoned chant is efficacious.” She specifically compared her way of intonation to the reciting of mantras -the repetition of sacred formulas in Hindu practices

5:4  Isis

Isis was  first restored to prominence  by Blavatsky and then became the presiding goddess for the renaissance of interest in a more pagan understanding of the world. She is synonymous with Nature herself. The Golden Dawn chose to name Isis as their presiding divinity along with Urania. Farr identified with Isis as with many ancient Egyptian deities and studied her all her life. She did much to restore awareness of this goddess in the West.

Farr’s asteroid Isis was at 11° Capricorn- this is in opposition to her Sun at 15° Cancer. So this is a strong enough placement to be noticeable and to cause friction.

As mentioned, there is this striking conjunction of asteroid Isis with asteroid Urania in the chart -Temple of ‘Isis-Urania’  chart. Along with asteroid Ceres, it was there in the early degrees of Taurus and able to bring these higher energies down to earth. Whether McGreggor Mathers knew that or whether it was just inspired timing is not clear.

But it was Moina Mathers rather than Florence who acted this out in full. She actually dressed up for public performances as priestess Anari to invoke Isis to her husband’s  Ramesis – Osiris.  These rites were performed in Paris. Moina’s  asteroid Isis is distinct as it was conjunct Venus in Aries and many commented that Moina looked very much the part and was believable when she embodied this priestess Anari. Moina’s Isis was given this booster of artistic expression from a forceful Venus ruled by Mars.

 

6: Final Years in Ceylon

Florence Farr made a momentous decision to go off to Ceylon and did so on September 5th in 1912. She went to teach at the Udivil Ramathanan Girls College in Jaffna. This was a Tamil girls school. Jupiter, the representative of long voyages, in Sagittarius and Juno were trine to her natal Jupiter/South Node/Venus on that day. Perhaps this was following in the footsteps of Allan Bennett, who had lived in Ceylon for a while, and who had mastered Sanskrit and Pali for Buddhist scriptures. He was proficient in Yoga-and Meditation and respected by his teachers.

Her choice puzzled many but Farr may also have been thinking of Florence Nightingale whom her father had known well.  Nightingale had gone off to Constantinople in 1854, to minister to soldiers from the Crimea. I think this did fulfil her in some ways as her role was as ‘principal’ to 800 girls whom she treated with care  and concern, so they came to call her ‘mother. ‘ This activated both the Leo stellium as ‘teacher’ archetype and the Cancer sun as ‘mother’.

Farr had by then become a Theosophist. She was invited by another Theosophist, Sri Ponnambalam Ramanathan, to visit Ceylon. Ramanathan -an Aries born in 1851- was a a Shaivite Tamil who actually had taught Allan Bennett,  yoga and meditation and wrote that the Gospel of St. John can be understood as a set of instructions in yoga. Ramanathan was an Aries, and Bennett was a Sagittarian.

Farr was following her dharma no doubt as a Cancer sun sign- but the sun is alone in Cancer and a cluster of planets are in Leo. With this Leo stellium she was a born teacher appointed as Lady Principal but her duties were mainly administrative. Her south node is in Leo, so this was her default mode enabling a natural instinctive role as a teacher and role model. But with Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and Saturn all in Leo the picture is clear. She could amplify, and make beautiful the delivery of any content but it also rested on her beliefs in the rights of young women to be properly educated. Saturn in the first House though could give it a stern veneer and be disciplinarian. Her esoteric knowledge encouraged an authenticity to emerge as the proper self development process – a kind of ‘to thine own self be true’ philosophy as stated in her 1907 essay ‘Our Evil Stars’.

She was made for the stage and for performing but revealed in her letters that she had too much personality to be a really good actress, that her energies might be better served through this teaching role. She had in fact organised the education programme at the Golden Dawn. They say teachers are natural performers- in the classroom anyway- and having all eyes on her was not unusual. She was a major influencer through the stories she told and most likely in the eyes of her students.

With Neptune in the 9^th House  too she would have had a powerfully spiritualised and romantic notion of travelling to other countries to become school principal mingled with an interest in  meditation practice and understanding Vedanta.

Some said she went to Ceylon knowing these were her five final years and she could escape being seen getting older by the London crowd- it was W.B. Yeats who said this. But she wanted to be she said ‘among the wise’. With the Moon in Pisces and Neptune at 29° of Pisces, the decan ruled by Mars, it suggests going along with end-of-life feelings,  surrendering, or wafting away out of life on the river of reincarnation. She had Mars in the 6^th House which can trigger health problems, allergies and irritations in daily life.  She suffered from breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and she even joked to Yeats in a letter about her new relationship with the patterned scar that remained on her chest.

The astro-locational map for Florence Farr in Ceylon/Sri Lanka has the Sun/MC line running through just to the East so she found a visibility in her public role there almost like the Sun was setting on her life.  In London, it was her Mercury line, with communications, networks, contacts being at their height crossed with a Pluto on the angle so intense depth research into the occult happened there. But in Jaffna, she was more isolated, able to be quiet and able to shine in a relaxed way, probably happy to end her days there. The fact that it was breast cancer is apt considering that breast milk is nourishment for the child and symbolic of a Cancerian sun sign.

She died in the hospital in Colombo on the 29^th April 1917. The transiting South Node was conjunct her Sun at 15° of Cancer. Transiting Saturn at 26° of Cancer was closely aligned to transiting Neptune at 2° of Leo which conjuncted her natal Jupiter/South Node/Venus in Leo. But this also triggered the opposition to her natal Mars/South Node in Capricorn/Aquarius.

And transiting Chiron was conjunct her natal Neptune at the zoned out final earth-quitting degrees of Pisces. She was cremated and her ashes were thrown in the Kalylaani River – a perfect expression of that Neptune at 29° of Pisces  in the waters she was born and to the waters she returned.

Any assessment of Florence Farr has to take into account that she is not as well known as she could be, but that once you do learn about her, appreciation of all she did, tends to grow. She even played Herodias in a revived production of Wilde’s Salome in London in 1905. But less known is that she also  also directed it. She played not just a side role as muse to leading writers of the day, but a pivotal, leading role in the Golden Dawn, studying, teaching, channelling the core work that has made them still so influential today.  She was an artist who played in the imaginal realms and the impact of that is not always obvious.

Her definition of magic was ‘unlimiting experience’ which she demonstrated in her unusual choices. This is what baffled people about her and left them wondering why someone with so many talents did not make more of herself. But she was true to herself which is an achievement in itself.

I look to her Daemon, her lot of Spirit, and think it probably guided her as it is on the Galactic Centre at 27° of Sagittarius. So she was in tune with something beyond as well that prompted powerful urges to do things differently.

Her experiments with voice technique, (Pluto in Taurus in the 10th, Mercury conjunct the Ascendant, Sun conjunct Polyhymnia) involved what sounded like half-song in monotone interrupted by half tones, were not always understood well and divided people: Yeats loved it; Shaw did not.

What it may have boiled down to was that fundamentally she was a mystic wanting to go beyond all traditional beliefs and achievements, so that placed her completely at odds with the world’s understanding of success.

 

© Kieron Devlin, Proteus Astrology, July 8th, 2023, All Rights Reserved.

 

* ‘Florence Farr and the Magical Imagination’ organised by Starfire Publishing, July 8th, 2023 hosted at the Theosophical Society, London.

References

Greer, M. K. (1996) Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses, Rochester: Park Street Press.