Alice in Wonderland and The Wall

Two Saturn in Virgo masterpieces

Remember a more innocent time when a really juicy conspiracy theory was the idea that Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon was intentionally made to synchronize with the movie The Wizard of Oz?

Andrew C. Wendland provides an elaborate guide to many movie-music synchronicities of that sort. The one I like better, although I haven’t seen the whole thing in some time, is Pink Floyd’s album The Wall with Disney’s animated movie Alice in Wonderland.

Sometimes the mashup is referred to as “Alice in the Wall” or “Alice on the Wall.” It’s hard to find videos of this on YouTube because Disney aggressively reports them for copyright violation. The main one available, below, provides grainy footage of cards stomping along with “Run Like Hell.”

eBaum’s World provides a clearer video of the movie’s opening scenes.

As an astrologer, of course, there’s a chart for that. I got release dates for both Alice in Wonderland and The Wall from Wikipedia and constructed a biwheel in Solar Fire.

For both charts, time is unknown, so houses and angles are also unknown. Moon positions could also wobble a bit, though The Wall’s Moon Aries - Pluto Libra opposition makes perfect thematic sense given the album’s open references to feeling suffocated by an overbearing mother. Alice in Wonderland has a Moon Taurus - Pluto Leo square, and it conveys ambivalence about separating from the security of one’s mother in a subtler way; although Alice succeeds in getting out and exploring on her own, she ultimately finds herself on trial against an angry queen. The Wall also ends with a trial.

Alice in Wonderland has a broad Mercury-Pluto conjunction in Leo. Much of the movie’s action takes place underground, and it explores material that could rightly be described as unconscious. Overall, I see the movie as an allegory for female puberty.

The Wall, meanwhile, has a Mercury-Uranus conjunction in Scorpio square Alice in Wonderland’s Mercury-Pluto conjunction. If anything could bring shocking insight to the mysteries lurking within Alice in Wonderland, it might be The Wall.

Perhaps more saliently, The Wall was made on Alice in Wonderland’s Saturn return. Both have Saturn late in the sign of Virgo.

Almost one Saturn cycle later, I found out about and watched Dark Side of the Moon + The Wizard of Oz. During the summer of 2007, Saturn was moving from Leo into Virgo. Neptune was still in Aquarius, opposing my Leo Sun. Pluto was in the last few degrees of Sagittarius. I had just graduated from the University of Oregon in June and was waiting to start a job teaching English in Japan in September.

Saturn in Virgo is an odd placement for content that would rightly be described as trippy. Isn’t Virgo supposed to be all about practicality and working hard? Saturn is the planet of restriction and limitation, though, and sometimes Saturn’s transit through a particular sign can result in the absence of the positive qualities associated with that sign.

I hadn’t thought about Nova Group in years, but they were the company I was supposed to teach English for in Japan. They ran out of money to pay their teachers just a couple weeks before I was to depart — an early sign of the Great Recession that would grow darker in 2008 and 2009. During that Saturn in Virgo transit, people who desperately wanted to work often couldn’t find jobs.

Instead of going to Japan, I stayed at my parents’ house and chased an interest in fiction writing. As 2007 continued, I took in all the art and literature I could for research purposes, from The Wall + Alice in Wonderland to more serious stuff. As described in Booby Prize: An Astrological Novel, that effort led me to my accidental discovery of astrology half a Saturn cycle ago.

Pluto doesn’t spend the same amount of time in each zodiac sign due to an irregular orbit. It may be of interest that, this time around, Pluto’s sixteen years in Capricorn began with Saturn in Virgo and will end with Saturn in Pisces, the opposite sign. Someone might want to grab that topic for my next essay anthology, Changing of the Guards: Pluto on the Precipice. A formal call for essays will go out once Impossible Dreams: Hopes, Fears, and Expectations for Saturn in Pisces starts selling enough to fund it.

News and opportunities

• This is the most Saturn in Pisces scientific study ever! Researchers at Azrieli National Center for Human Brain Imaging and Research in Israel and Duke University found that men who sniffed female tears before playing a computer game played less aggressively than men who sniffed saline. Previous research had already demonstrated that similar chemosignaling in rodent tears blocked aggression in male rodents. Don’t tell Richard Hanania, but we now have scientific proof that tears are a weapon. See my essay “Rules of Combat” in Impossible Dreams: Hopes, Fears, and Expectations for Saturn in Pisces for my comments on related themes.

• I’m still hoping to hire a freelance graphic designer for the new edition of Booby Prize: An Astrological Novel as well as subsequent essay anthologies. I need someone who can make astrological charts that look good in both print and digital formats at 300 dpi. I also want assistance with book covers. Please email my new business address if you are interested: astrologybooks@proton.me