As an avid reader of the obituary column in ‘The Guardian Newspaper’, I always check the birth date given at the bottom of each piece. This will obviously only give the day, month and year of both the birth and death of each subject. However, it means that I can check the Sun Sign of whoever has died. And I find that the lives of those who are deemed worthy of having an obituary written, are most clearly described by their Sun Signs.

When I was Chair of the Association of Professional Astrologers at the turn of this century, I was surprised by the loathing of the idea that the Sun Sign meant anything, by many members of the organisation. In fact, at the time, the rule was that no one sitting on the council could write a Sun Sign column. This I saw as a deliberate prevention of livelihood of we who were running the organisation as a voluntary pursuit. Together with another council member, we lobbied to delete the regulation and succeeded.

So, I pursued my private interest in Sun Signs through reading obituary columns. And I kept quiet lest I was thrown out of respectable astrological society and banished to the woods for my sins.

The reason that I tell you this is to alert you to the fact that I am coming to think the sign in which our Sun shines could reveal our Life Purpose. And maybe that is all anyone would need to know about themselves. The Zodiac Sign where the Sun is placed shows how that person “shines” – whether brightly and loudly in Aries, or quietly and gently in Virgo, stubbornly in Taurus or wilfully in Scorpio.

We must remember that the Sun is central to our system around which everything else orbits; which is why we call it the Solar system. So the Sun Sign could be the most important factor – after all, the Sun gives its light to all the other planets, which is how we see them in the sky in the first place. Maybe each planet could be read as being modified by the Sun’s light that it reflects. For example, Sun in Sagittarius with Venus in Capricorn – could it be that the reflection of the positive elements of Sagittarius will warm the coldness of Capricorn on Venus? So that the planets could be understood to support and augment the power of the Sun, rather than fragmenting the psyche away from it.

And yesterdays’ obituary subject was just such one of those. The death of Augusto Odone was announced with his birthdate given as 6th March, 1933. He was famous for an oil that he made to help his 6 year old son Lorenzo’s neurological disorder that causes the degeneration of the brain in young boys. “We were told to go home and watch Lorenzo die,” Odone recalled.

A determined man – who said Pisceans are wimps? – Augusto went away and researched the disorder. He came up with the information that it was due to a lack of certain oils without which the child’s brain would deteriorate, and so he set about to make up a potion of these oils. Which, after many setbacks and trials, worked and Lorenzo lived until he was 30 years old.

The sign of Pisces is associated with tireless self-sacrifice to a cause, at its highest expression – his desire to give his son a chance of life. Pisces is also associated with oil, from its rulership by Neptune. In fact, his Sun was opposite Neptune in Virgo, the sign of chemistry.

The story of this family was made into a film “Lorenzo’s Oil” starring Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon as Augusto and his wife Michaela. It was a moving tale of parental love and determination to save their son’s life and those of other children suffering from the condition.

I have always been fascinated by the idea that a million babies are born worldwide on the same day and will share the same characteristics on their charts. This goes without saying. The Sun represents the “I am”, the identity on a chart. Ask anyone in the street what their Sun Sign is and they will tell you because they know it. However, they will reply by saying “I am a Taurus/Gemini/Capricorn” not “I have my Sun in Taurus”. In other words, they identify themselves with their Solar position along the circle of the Zodiac.

However, what was it that made Augusto Odone, who was an economist by profession, stand up to experts in the field of genetic disorders, risking ridicule from them and still holding to his avowed path – i.e. to help his son and the other boy sufferers in the world?

Eventually, he won through and succeeded and his oil was recognised as a valid treatment. But why him? If an oak tree produces a hundred acorns, why will only one of them grow to magnificence?

This is a question that I have long asked myself – and am still working on.

There may be no such thing as a “strong” Sun Sign. There may simply be your inner directive to fulfil the demands of your sign. In astrology there are many “rules” to judge a chart – even the word “judge” sets my teeth on edge. However, the rules will tell us that to be a Sun Aries is a wonderful thing as it produces warriors; and to be a reasonable Libran is a bad thing as we don’t need diplomats as much as we need soldiers. Really? Maybe 2000 years ago – but now in a world that still glorifies war and pursues it without thought , we really do need Librans, Pisceans and Aquarians to create a brave new world to raise our children in.

Perhaps I could suggest that our Life Purpose could be to live our lives to the best and greatest expression of the bright shining Sun in the sign of our birth and raise it to an art form. Each one of us could become the best outworking of Leo, or Aquarius, or Cancer in order to fulfil the demand made of us by the Cosmos. If the idea that we choose our lifetime in order to experience this life in all its flavours is correct, then we had better get on with it and not waste time messing about.

And yes, I do know that there are the rest of the planets operating in our lives, but they must serve and reflect the Sun Sign, not usurp it. If that happens it is like the patients taking over the hospital – which will always result in chaos.

I look forward to your comments as I think that this is worthy of discussion.

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