Sylvia Plath’s Tarot, Ted Hughes’ Astrology
Ted Hughes was more influenced by fate – and was perhaps heavily fated – than any other literary giant of the 20th century.
Ted’s library, as sold after his death, included the I Ching Book of Changes (Legge/University Books), numerous books on the Quabbalah and Waite’s Compendium of Natal Astrology. The books were auctioned after he had passed away on 28th October 1998, aged 68.
Ted Hughes’ Ephemeris for 1950-2000
I recently bought an astrology book Ted Hughes had hand-drawn horoscopes in – also containing important dates, underlined in biro.
The Concise Planetary Ephemeris for 1950 to 2000 A.D. at Midnight (Hieratic Publishing, 1977) shows a little of who (and what) mattered most to this poet-astrologer, in the last year of his life.
I recently talked about Ted, Sylvia, astrology and Tarot at The Astrological Lodge of London and we examined his ephemeris, as well as a new edition of the Tarot deck that Ted gave to Sylvia, the Tarot of Marseilles.
Sylvia’s 24th Birthday Present
Sylvia Plath’s Tarot cards were also auctioned, some years after she passed. Sotheby’s final total, fetched US $206,886, or $2,652 per card.
The Tarot de Marseille deck, given to Plath by Ted Hughes on her 24th birthday, turns up in her letters.
Plath wrote this, about the cards –
“We celebrated my birthday yesterday: [Ted] gave me a lovely Tarot pack of cards and a dear rhyme with it, so after the obligations of this term are over your daughter shall start her way on the road to becoming a seeress & will also learn how to do horoscopes, a very difficult art which means reviving my elementary math” (Letter to her mother, Aurelia Plath, 28th October 1956).
Sylvia made Ted famous and Ted made Sylvia famous.
She died on the 11th of February 1963, taking her own life. The letters and the poems from both husband and wife show how astrology and the Tarot were never far away.
Plath and Hughes have since become an industry, most recently captured on film by Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig. This is the trailer from the 2003 film, Sylvia.
The Sylvia Plath Astrology Chart
From A-rated data held at Astrodienst.
This not a house system, nor a set of astrology symbols, ever used by Ted Hughes.
This is my standard Natural House system with all the factors of modern astrology. It’s Sylvia, born in 1932, seen through the lens of 2025. AstroGold software simply did not exist in the 1960s, when Sylvia passed away.
She was an outstanding poet and writer, gorgeous to behold, who suffered from suicidal depression. Sylvia was born with Saturn at 28 Capricorn in the Tenth House of success, quincunx Minerva at 28 Gemini in the Third House of authors and writing. Minerva is Jupiter’s daughter. The Roman goddess of wisdom. Here she is aligned with Saturn. For those of you familiar with astrology, I don’t need to explain the Saturn symbol.
Next, I’ll look at the modern astrology chart for Ted Hughes.
The Ted Hughes Astrology Chart
The hand-drawn horoscopes in the back of Ted’s Concise Planetary Ephemeris for 1950 to 2000 A.D. at Midnight were minimalist by comparison. Modern astrology has a far bigger vocabulary these days.
You would expect the Plath and Hughes charts to show exact aspects, though – and they do. He has Salacia at 28 Scorpio in the Eighth House. It’s possible to draw a line from one chart to the other.
Salacia is Neptune’s wife. She is a minor planet only discovered in 2004. The Plath-Hughes charts prove how strange astrology is. It works from the future, back into the past.
Like Neptune, Salacia is a symbol of escapism, holidays from reality, vacations from the everyday.
Plath and Hughes lived in an occult world of their own. Hidden knowledge. The Eighth House is of course the house of sex, death and money to give it, the modern shorthand.
The Birthday Letters
Ted Hughes’ well-thumbed ephemeris has a hand-drawn chart for the UK publication of The Birthday Letters, his long-awaited book of poems about Sylvia.
It’s set for 29th January 1998 at 12.04am in London, just after midnight, so when the book hit the shelves. I expect the chart was hand-drawn by him for midnight, using the ephemeris, but working backwards from the degrees he’s jotted down on the chart – he was out by four minutes.
Ted never have used the asteroid Vulcano, the husband of Venus, but it’s here at 8 Sagittarius in his chart, in the Ninth House of publishing.
Was the Birthday Letters Chart Chosen?
I don’t know if the chart was chosen (elected) by Hughes or if he just accepted the publishers’ schedule then worked out the transits, to see if they augured well.
When the book appeared, transiting Pluto was at 7 Sagittarius (something not possible in over two centuries) just one degree away from Hughes’ Vulcano at 8 Sagittarius.
Vulcano is a symbol of infidelity in astrology. Hughes and Plath married in 1956 and had two children, Frieda and Nicholas, before separating in 1962. During his marriage to Sylvia Plath and after their separation, Hughes had an affair with Assia Wevill.
“Her Mars, Smack On My Sun.”
Ted Hughes’ sister Olwyn was an astrologer, like him. When he met Sylvia he wrote to her about ‘Her Mars, smack on my Sun.’ He meant his future wife Sylvia’s Mars at 21 Leo and his Sun at 23 Leo. Not smack on, with an orb of two degrees, but very close to a conjunction.
This is Leo – the sign of courtship, the royal bedchamber, heirs, spares and pretenders to the throne. Hughes and Plath were King and Queen of Sixties literary London. He has a Leo stellium in his chart and went on to become Poet Laureate. The Queen read his books.
What Ted Saw in 1956
What Ted saw back on May 22 1956 in a letter to his sister, was quite different to what we see today. Beyond the Sun and Mars loose conjunction, for example, we see Ted’s role in Sylvia’s work – and her role as mother.
Ted’s Sun at 23 Leo was semi-sextile Sylvia’s Venus at 23 Virgo. It was also semi-sextile her Pluto at 23 Cancer. You could write a poem just about those aspects alone.
What I find interesting about the Plath-Hughes story is that it teaches us, that our lives are dictated by the ephemeris we use, the methods we use, the symbols we know, the systems we trust – if we are astrologers.
Choose Your Universe
Today, with over 30 hours systems to choose from in AstroGold software alone, never mind all the asteroids, this kind of divination (the horoscope) is about choice. Quantum theory tells us so. This is not about the horoscope books of the late 20th century any more.
The young Sylvia Plath handed over that choice to what was overhead, astrologically. As if her own filters (and Ted’s) had nothing to do with what she experienced. As if this was immovable fate.
Sylvia Plath’s poem, To Eva Descending the Stair, contains the lines, ‘The asteroids turn traitor in the air/And planets plot with old elliptic cunning.’
Sylvia Plath, Juno and Jupiter
Sylvia’s modern astrology chart shows the Seventh House of marriage and also adultery – separation – accommodating the asteroid Juno, the long-suffering wife of unfaithful Jupiter, at 8 Libra in an exact conjunction with the Moon at 8 Libra.
How could Sylvia have possibly known, about this treacherous-turning asteroid, when she wrote those lines? She didn’t. But that’s astrology. And she was psychic. Perhaps that’s why her husband gave her Tarot cards for her birthday.
Aspects at 7, 8 ,9 Libra
Ted had Venus at 7 Libra and Apollo at 9 Libra, either side of Sylvia’s Juno and Moon at 8.
That is a remarkable line-up of four factors in a sign not only associated with marriage and separation, but also with the law. What is legal. What is fair.
Hughes used the Placidus House System, quite different to the one you see used in this feature – but still found Venus in Sylvia’s Seventh House. It is typical of astrology, that in two alternative house systems, the house of marriage, separation and adultery should dominate twice.
Plath wrote a chapter called Venus in the Seventh in her first novel Falcon Yard.
The Asteroids Turn Traitor in the Air
Sylvia Plath was also born with the asteroid Cupido (Cupid) at 24 Scorpio in the Eighth House of inheritance. This is the house of sex, death and money, as we’ve seen. And here it is again. Cupid is the son of Venus in the mythology which informs modern astrology. (Images: Justin Tabari).
Incredibly, Ted has Cupido at 25 Taurus. One degree off an exact opposition to Sylvia’s Cupido. He managed his wife’s estate after she passed away.
Select Your World in Many Worlds
Before the advent of sophisticated software like AstroGold with all its divination choices (not to mention new ideas about reality, proposed by scientists including Max Tegmark) the ephemeris on the bookshelf was The Known World for any astrologer.
Cosmologist Max Tegmark and the book that changed astrology, Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, let us know in 2014 that those degrees, aspects and orbs were the key to everything. Basically, Tegmark argues that reality is a mathematical structure.
Ordinary people know that their birthdate, their age, the year on the calendar – the day, week, month and clock time – is real. But it’s obviously a construct. The mathematical nature of the universe is what Tegmark argues, with astrophysics and quantum theory – explains it all. It’s a numbers game. He’s as good as explained why astrology works. We just happen to have ended up in a number-defined universe where it does.
The Numbers Game
Ted played that game and so did Sylvia, because of the horoscopes he drew for her. It came in a box of Marseilles Tarot and a square paperback, scribbled with numbers.
Beyond the limits of an old ephemeris with a fixed number of rules – back before advanced software – your mind could not venture.
Ted Hughes knew the Sun, North Node, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto as laid out in the pages of worn-out astrology book. He knew his Chaucer. He knew his aspects and his orbs. His house system cusps.
Poems and Fresh Trout
He was the tall man Sylvia described for posterity, who would turn up with the pockets of his jacket filled with poems, fresh trout and horoscopes. Those horoscopes were his reality. As tangible, everyday and normal to him as fish just caught.
In 1957 Hughes even tried to place a small ad offering chart readings. We could say, he had considered himself a professional astrologer, long before he became Poet Laureate.
Unlike modern seers, though, Hughes did not experiment with different house systems (that we know of) or minor planets (for example). He was fated by – his own perception of his fate. To modern eyes it seems restricted by the narrow confines of just a few symbols. Two are female. The Moon and Venus. The rest are male archetypes. Yet in the modern charts, some archetypal wives emerge. They tell quite a different astrological story, to the one Ted Hughes would have seen in the 20th century.
Asking the Tarot About Hughes and Plath
Asking the Tarot About Hughes and PlathThe Tarot is a good partner to astrology and just one card can show you what matters in a chart.
Using the Tarot of Marseilles, which Ted gave Sylvia for her birthday, I asked the question, ‘What was their marriage all about?’ It was my intention to show the card at the talk for The Astrological Lodge of London so those present could see how Tarot aligned with astrology.
The answer came, with just one card I pulled from an identical deck to Sylvia Plath’s – the Ace of Swords.
The Ace of Swords in the Marseilles Tarot, shows a crown balanced on top of a sword. When I was making notes for this feature, I heard (clairaudiently) ‘Half a crown’. I don’t know who said that to me, or why they said it. As a medium, though, I feel duty-bound to pass it on.
Crowns suggest Leo – of course – and swords suggest Mars, so we are in fact back in Ted’s Sun at 23 Leo and Sylvia’s Mars at 21 Leo, which he noted in the letter to his sister.
I will leave it up to you, to interpret the card, as those present at the Lodge talk, did. For me, the Ace of Swords is a symbol of Charles, Diana and the future King William (for whom Hughes composed his famous poem) and the replacement of Diana with Camilla, who would also become Queen.
Ceres and Uranus in Hughes’ Chart
Hughes was heavily Leo, a true king, courted by many – with five astrology factors in that sign. There is an exact trine from Ceres at 15 Leo to Uranus at 15 Aries.
Ceres is an ancient Roman symbol of separation and return, between mother and child.
Ceres also represents separation, between husband and wife. Proserpina goes to Pluto and back to Ceres. This dwarf planet in the horoscope is a symbol of power but also the endless cycles of spring and summer, autumn and winter. Power is taken away, then handed back. In cycles.
Hughes lost Sylvia, the mother of his children, in a particularly bad winter in London. Then he lost Assia Wevill and their daughter Shura. Assia was also suicidal. Finally, his son Nicholas, took his own life.
Ted’s final partner was nurse Carol Orchard. He is also survived by the poet and painter, his daughter with Sylvia – Frieda Hughes.
Poet by Royal Appointment
Hughes was the heavily Leo poet by royal appointment. He was a guest of the Queen Mother, also Leo.
On the 23rd of November 1974, Ted met the Queen at Buckingham Palace. She presented him with the Queen’s Medal for Poetry. By 1989 he was staying at the Royal Lodge and meeting Princess Margaret.
Hughes’ 1987 poem for Prince William, The Zodiac in the Shape of a Crown, celebrated the birth of the future king and contributed to a new respectability for astrology.
The late 1980’s elevated the horoscope to a curious, watching world. Patric Walker played his part in Harpers and Queen. So did Nancy and Ronald Reagan. In Britain, Diana, Princess of Wales put her trust in counselling astrologers Debbie Frank, Felix Lyle and Penny Thornton.
Ted Hughes made no secret of the role that the zodiac played in his life. And it’s now part of history.
“This is Temporary – So Act Accordingly.”
On 15th January 1975 Hughes wrote to a friend, “Something to be said for astrology – even if it were utterly false. Its main instruction is, when things are good, “This is temporary – so act accordingly.” And when things are bad; ‘This is temporary, so act accordingly.”
(Letters of Ted Hughes, Christopher Reid, Caber and Faber 2009).
As Ted’s hand-drawn chart in the back of his ephemeris shows, with his own particular take on astrology, the timing of Birthday Letters was blessed.
This brilliant and often unbearably sad collection about Sylvia, won the Whitbread Book of the Year, the Forward Poetry Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry.
This collection of eighty-eight poems was good indeed – but more than temporarily good. Frieda Hughes, their daughter, is shown here, with it in her hands (Getty Images). It’s a modern classic.
There are some important asteroid wives in the two astrology charts you see here, created with the time, date and place given for the births of Ted and Sylvia. Juno tells us about Jupiter. Salacia tells us about Neptune. All of them reveal more than either Hughes or Plath would ever have known about their charts.
Here’s another date in Ted’s ephemeris with an asteroid wife playing a central role. It is not the famous date of the party where they met, which Ted immortalised in St. Botolph’s.
“Jupiter and the full moon conjunct
Opposed Venus, Disastrous expense
According to that book. Especially for me.”
No, this is something arguably more interesting.
Friday 13th April 1956
The 13th of April 1956 is mentioned in Hughes’ poem, 18 Rugby Street. He notes it as Sylvia’s father’s birthday. It is also underlined in his ephemeris, with a wobbly line, in pen. 18 Rugby Street was Ted’s address – where the two young lovers met.
If we look at the date in Ted’s ephemeris, today, what stands out is –
Uranus at 28 Cancer square Neptune at 29 Libra. Mars was also at 28 Capricorn on Friday 13th April 1956. So, a T-Square. Rare and notoriously difficult. A crossroads.
Sylvia Plath was born with Saturn at 28 Capricorn. Perhaps that was Hughes’ focus, when he took his pen and underlined the date in his ephemeris – quite apart from it being the rather superstitious date of Friday the 13th.
For the record, Ted was born with Salacia at 28 Scorpio in the Eighth House. His chart is exactly aligned with Sylvia’s and both horoscopes were lit, by the events of 13th April, 1956.
This is an extract from the poem.
“Lucas was bringing you. You were pausing
A night in London on your escape to Paris.
April 13th, your father’s birthday. A Friday.”
As you can see, I am playing Max Tegmark’s numbers game of reality, falling into a universe where the astrology is working, just as I expect it to – just as Ted Hughes did.
Geoffrey Cornelius springs to mind, here. This is The Moment of Astrology. You cannot separate the astrologer and her or his mindset (orbs, degrees, house cusps) from what unfolds. There is no astrology without the astrologer, even though Sylvia Plath wrote a poem, almost blaming what she saw as a fixed universe outside herself – independent of her – and not a kind one.
The Legacy – Literature, Astrology, Tarot
The legacy of both great poets lives on in literature. What Ted Hughes has given us, is just as valuable. It’s evidence of the importance of astrology and Tarot in 20th century culture. It’s a nod to a new way of thinking about reality, by prominent scientists.
What Ted has left us, from hand-drawn horoscopes in a wobbling hand – to truly great poems – also raises core questions about fate, free will and the nature of the universe we fall into, in our own personal numbers game. Given what happened to some of his family, it’s an essential enquiry to follow for any astrologer or psychic. Thanks to The Astrological Lodge of London for hosting the discussion.
The Samaritans – Contact a Samaritan.
Images: Getty/Alamy/Shutterstock/Rawpixel/iStock/Jessica Adams
12 Responses
Half a crown could be a currency reference? https://www.thetimes.com/article/found-after-50-years-first-love-poems-of-ted-hughes-xxphhmsgqnz
This is brilliant, thank you. I did what I should have done, when publishing this feature. I asked Google AI. Back came the reply, “Ted Hughes wrote the line “I used to iron their shirts for half a crown when they were going out,” which is found in his first love poems. You’re absolutely right. I have no idea who was chatting to me from the spirit world, but there is a pun here. Ted’s half a crown – and the crown in the Ace of Swords Tarot card.
When I was a student I had a part time job in an amazing quirky book shop. The owner was the first person to publish Sylvia Plath when she came to the UK andTed Hughes often came in to see him. I can’t believe reading this article that over 40 years ago I turned down the opportunity to have my chart read and an ephemeris explained to me by Ted Hughes himself. I literally sat at my desk and thanked him telling him I wasn’t interested in astrology and didn’t believe in it. A decade later my astrological eyes were opened. I wish I could time travel!
You win my unofficial award for the reader contribution of the year. Thank you.
brilliant article on Ted Hughes and Silvia Platt, Thank you from an Aries and Ascendant Aries ♈
Thank you.
In the late 1970s, Ted Hughes gave a lecture at NYU. I was about 20, and he was the sexiest man I have ever seen. His personal magnetism was incredible. I read that women sometimes passed out when they met him, and that’s believable. I realized then that marriage to such a preternaturally attractive man would have eventually proved impossible for Plath. He was in a league of his own.
Thank you. This is turning out to be a really interesting online conversation and I appreciate the first-hand experience you’re passing on.
Hi Jessica, I love all your articles, but this one “chased” me into my dreams last night. I fell asleep reading it and then dreamt about your “Half a crown” question, well, as in most dreams the answer was instant and very simple – half a crown is a tiara and Sylvia Plath’s Ace of Swords is Trooping of the colour. So now, in the midday, I was talking to mu husband and we are invited to two places on this years June 14th, one in the US and one in London. We realized the Trooping of the colour this year is on the same day and are thinking of avoiding London since it is going to be crowded etc etc.. anyhow, I remembered the dream and then it hit me now to look at the chart for that day and “funny” enough, Sun will be at 23 Gemini, Mars at 28 Leo, Uranus at 28 Taurus and Diana at 23 Sagittarius opposing the Sun, Moon is supposed to be towards the end of Capricorn 24-29 I think. I have no clue, might as well be meaningless. Thanks for reading!
Thank you. Ted Hughes invites synchronicity (we were talking about this at The Astrological Lodge of London) and your dream is a good example. The Trooping of the Colour is in your life and on a day when there are quite a few transits. This will have intensely personal meaning for you, on the day – and possibly with your husband.
I have left open the blog page of this website just to have on my computer screen the image you provide of Ted Hughes. Hawkish penetrating beauty. I thank you. Smiles to you, C.
Thank you. Hughes is a polarising figure and feminists are divided over him, but that photograph is pretty extraordinary.