Scott Cunningham a Wiccan writer who died of AIDS over twenty years ago (March 28 1993) , is a great example of how a missing element dominates a chart. Cunningham has no planets in earth, and has an air trine that dominates his Splash temperament type, but his closest square to the trine planets is a midheaven in Taurus — demonstrating his hopes for making himself a writer on the Earth’s bounty.
He did, with his books on Crystals and Gemstones, Herbs, Aromatherapy, Incense & Oils, Household Spells and Rituals and Earth Power, the magic of utilizing the earth for one’s health and happiness.
Read more: Scott Cunningham, Earthless Wiccan
The air trine shows his strong writing ability, he went to San Diego State University and majored in creativity writing, and dominates his chart (see the houses in blue). Pluto right on the first house next to the ascendant encourages this aspect, as Neptune is strong in artist’s charts highlight the link of their belief in the power of fantasy to recreate a better place through the promise of creative redemption. For Cunningham, this aspect between the ascendant and Pluto was self-reflexive as his studies validated his belief in the earth’s healing energies and encouraged him to pursue it further.
Unfortunately Pluto in the first house also is connected with diseases that are connected to accidents and diseases that fall upon the person “accidentally” like Cunningham’s own case of AIDS that renders them dependent upon others. Partile to Jupiter, a co-ruler of Pisces, shows that Cunningham had a longing to extend himself beyond the material confines of his existence and transcend time and space through his craft. His Jupiter is then sextile to to the other co-ruler Neptune in the third house of communication, education and speech as well the means for coping with life’s vicissitudes. With Neptune here, Cunningham had the unique ability to think in “pictures” and visualise what he wanted to say and write.
Jupiter in the first house bestows a religious inclination and makes the native full of faith and belief that through their devotion they will find a way to heal their bodies and souls. For Cunningham that was partly the case as he contracted AIDS in 1983 and died ten years ago, that was 20% longer than the average at the time. Through medical advances, the average lifespan post AIDS contraction is now double that.
