Constantine P. Cavafy, was the pseudonym of Konstantínos Pétrou Kaváfis.
He was born April 29, 1863, in Alexandria, Egypt, and died 70 years later on his birthday, April 29, 1933, in Alexandria. His parents were both from the Greek community in Constantinople (now Istanbul) Turkey. Historically, this was Anatolia.
He was a Greek poet who consciously developed his own style and became important in Western poetry. T.s Eliot and Ezra Pound were fans as was the novelist Lawrence Durrell. He lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt, read English and French literature voraciously, and wrote in English. A skeptic, he ignored the traditional values of Christianity, patriotism, and heterosexuality, yet he was uncomfortable with that.
A list of his poems is here.
His ascendant is 20 Pisces, or A table set for an evening meal. Jones writes this symbol represents nature’s prodigality revealed in the channels within which man exists. The individual discovers at this point that there is no part of the universe he cannot explore if he is sensitive to it. The keyword is Familiarity. Odd for a poet, Cavafy outside of his ascendant, has no water on his chart; perhaps that is enough. He is a locomotive temperament type, — they listen to themselves and ignore outside structures.
He also has a strong preponderance in Aries in the first house, making him a self-starter but also self-preoccupied and conceited. That would have increased his temperament type, excluding all others from his conversation and thoughts; Jupiter in the eighth house may be the key to poetic abilities and why the lack of obvious water did not matter for a poetic career, particularly as it is the opposite to his Mercury (23 Aries 25) hovering on the second house cusp. Jupiter would bring him money in his lifetime and fame afterward. Should we all be so fortunate?
Best wishes, my friends, always.
