Mystery Chart No 12 Revealed

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This, I?m afraid will be short and sweet and I am going away for a few days and did not want to leave before at least giving some biographical details. I?ll let others note the astrology, all of which was, as usual, very good. Our native is tennis champion James Scott ?Jimmy? Connors. Now I may have missed this in the posts, but I don?t recall seeing mentioned the one part of the native?s personality for which he is best known, among tennis fans at least ? his fierce will to win and inability to give up on himself even in a hopeless situation. Famed boxing manager Angelo Dundee once said, while watching Connors play on TV, ?What a fighter I could have made him.? When asked how he could make a tennis player a fighter when he probably didn?t know the first thing about boxing, Dundee replied, ?I can teach him to box, but look at that killer instinct. You can?t teach that.?

Killer instinct was correct. Connors mercilessly pummeled aging Australian star Ken Rosewall in the Wimbeldon Final in 1974 and in the US Open Final the same year. He would also, until this year, hold the record for remaining the No. 1 player for the most consecutive weeks of any player since the ranking system began. Connors suffered a wrist injury late in his career and it was thought he was through. But a doctor watching him play saw him after a match and suggested a particular type of surgery. Connors listened and consulted his own physician about it. His wrist was subsequently rebuilt and Connors enjoyed a few more good years. His last hurrah came in 1991, where he played a spectacular, but excruciating match in the French Open losing to a much younger former French Open champion, Michael Chang (?Chang has two good things going for him,? Connors would later say, ?His legs.?) But he saved is best that year for the US Open. Although he would lose in the semi finals to Jim Courier, he played one spectacular match after another. The most thrilling was his come from behind victory against Aaron Krickstein in a match that literally brought the entire US Tennis Center to a standstill. Everyone at the tennis center who couldn?t get into Stadium Court stood outside watching the match on TV. Ladies? champion Steffi Graf wouldn?t start her match until she saw the outcome of Connors - Krickstein. Your humble servant recalls refusing to leave his chair in front of the TV for the nearly five hours it took to play the match.

While the tennis insiders might best remember Connors for his game, the general public best remembers him for his mouth. Connors could be just plain mean on the court, when he wasn?t being vulgar. His slightly younger contemporary and equal in the childishness department, John McEnroe, rarely sunk to Connors lowest levels of behavior, although at times he came close. A young Connors also could do some seriously stupid things like in 1977 the centennial of the Wimbledon tournament, he refused to join the parade of former champions assembled to celebrate the most illustrious of tennis tournaments, preferring to practice instead.

Connors turned pro at age 19 (summer of 1972). He quickly established himself as a maverick by refusing to join the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals). He joined a rival organization and because of that in 1974 he was refused entry into the French Open. He won the other three majors that year and if allowed to play, had he won the tournament (something he would never do), he would have been the first man since Rod Laver to win all four majors in a single year. The feat has still not been accomplished since Laver did it (for the second time) in 1969. The following year, 1975, he would be runner up in the same three tournaments that he won losing a memorable final to then 32-year-old Arthur Ashe at Wimbledon. Ironically Connors was engaged in a lawsuit against Ashe at the time of their match stemming from the refusal of entry into the French open the previous year. Ashe was the head of the ATP.

At the personal level Connors was once engaged to American tennis star Chris Everett, but it was broken off. He had a stormy marriage that is still intact as a result of a persevering wife and perhaps his finally growing up.

Connors was taught the game and was coached for the longest time by his mother Gloria who passed away in January 2007. I have no idea what happened to his father.

Currently Jimmy has recently undergone hip replacement surgery and lives with his wife Patti. He has two children. His personality is what it is, and what it is, isn?t or wasn?t pretty. But he was a once in a generation, maybe a once in a lifetime athlete who wouldn?t quit, wouldn?t accept defeat, and never stopped trying to improve. Those are the qualities he best embodied and the ones people should attempt to emulate.
Last edited by Tom on Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Many thanks Tom for yet another fascinating Mystery Chart and excellent exercise in chart delineation; and congratulations everyone on your expert, insightful contributions. Very enjoyable and enlightening!

Unfortunately, I guessed Jimmy Connors early on so had to stay in lurk mode. Christina's comment: "He enjoys a strong interaction, spar or volley" immediately got me thinking of a tennis player!

As for Connors' renowned fighting qualities: I find it hard to go past that powerful, exalted Saturn in the 12th, in wide sextile to Mercury, and wide-ish trine to the Moon - he had the capacity to endure and persist despite everything against him, including, sometimes, himself! And the Moon, Mercury and Jupiter are all in fixed signs. Saturn being the nearest planet to the Ascendant might explain the hip problems too.

All in all, great stuff. Can't wait for the next MC Tom!

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I?d like to address the following two apparently contradictory statements about Mystery Chart No. 12, Jimmy Connors, because seeming contradictions aside they are both accurate.

Christina wrote:

The natal combo of very fast Moon with fast Mercury and Venus inclines towards being emotionally outspoken, often rash and impulsive (possibly fool hardy, but he is no fool) as the emotions race ahead of the rational.
And SusanaA wrote (and my money says she is a tennis fan)
As for Connors' renowned fighting qualities: I find it hard to go past that powerful, exalted Saturn in the 12th, in wide sextile to Mercury, and wide-ish trine to the Moon - he had the capacity to endure and persist despite everything against him, including, sometimes, himself!
Rash and persistent? Impulsive yet self disciplined? They seem inherently at odds yet this is precisely what Connors was. His on court explosions were legendary. And they were often a combination of righteousness and self-pity. At the 1991 US Open during the Krickstein match, a line judge called one of Connors shots ?in? giving Connors the point. Aaron Krickstein thought the ball was out and immediately protested to the chair umpire, who originally said nothing, but when Krickstein complained he reversed the line judge?s call. Connors erupted, and justifiably so. While the chair umpire is the final arbiter, the custom is to overrule immediately or not at all. The chair umpire had inadvertently given the impression he was simply doing Krickstein?s bidding. Furthermore, the dirty little not so well-kept secret is that despite his authority, the chair umpire has the very worst vantage point of anyone on the court.

Connors righteous wrath was well placed under the circumstances and his anger was understandable until he started screaming, ?I?m 39 years old out here busting my butt and you pull a stunt like that? Get out of that chair!? Connors age and work ethic had nothing to do with the call, and was totally outside the scope of the ?discussion.? Personally, I much preferred Ille Nastase?s technique during an argument of insisting that the chair umpire call him ?Mr. Nastase.?

My point is that contradictory observations in the chart are consistent with human nature. We are not consistent in our behavior 100% of the time. It is possible to be rash, and impulsive, qualities associated with children'sbehavior, and at the same time be persistent and self disciplined (adult behavior). Besides, rash and persistent is a pretty good description of a choleric/melancholic temperament.

Tom

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Hi Tom,

Great sport these mystery charts. Thanks for another thought provoking adventure in astrology.
??look at that killer instinct. You can?t teach that.?
Connors could be just plain mean on the court
Sounds like his Sun (L10) square Mars.

Hi SusanA,
Unfortunately, I guessed Jimmy Connors early on so had to stay in lurk mode. Christina's comment: "He enjoys a strong interaction, spar or volley" immediately got me thinking of a tennis player!
Funny how things work out :D ? I wish I had seen tennis! When I made the ?strong interaction, spar or volley" comment about his ?L7 Mars in 2nd house trine MC and Mercury/Node in 10th by sign?, I was not thinking athlete exclusively. I was still considering athlete against a wide range of other possibilities for ?verbal volley? or strategic tactician such as a lawyer, debater, political activist, military, or talk show host hyping people to extremes. For example, I was somewhat weighing Martin Luther King who also has L7 Mars in the 2nd trine Merucry in 10th. My words were mere sports metaphors for all kinds of life activities. Keeping my eye on the ball (Moon?s nodes), per Tom?s initial post, I had not shot very far along on the profession. Even so, I?m not sure I would have ever wagered tennis. What a fabulous leap for you.

Following up on my Storm comments (from the Mystery thread) it turns out that there was a hurricane in the Atlantic the day Connors was born, and growing stronger, it did not hit land (no destruction). Some people believe there is a correlation between world events and birth charts. I?m not sure, however, it is curious. I found this comment from the BBC:
He was the master at playing the crowd, whipping up a frenzied atmosphere and then feeding off it to blow his opponent off court.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/ ... 186379.stm

To others it may seem like a stretch, but to those of us who live where cyclones bear down, this description of Connors is analogous to a hurricane.

Christina

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Quote:
??look at that killer instinct. You can?t teach that.?
Quote:
Connors could be just plain mean on the court

Sounds like his Sun (L10) square Mars.
That Sun-Mars square looks pretty dull to me. Six and a half degrees and separating ? There isn?t much to grab the attention. We need to wander over to the T-square for excitement. Most teachers of astrology, including traditional astrology, say to stick to small orbs of 3-4 degrees or so for the important stuff, so we really shouldn?t try to milk too much out of Sun-Mars.

Now ? put Pluto in the 10th, crammed tight with the Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and the nodes in the T-square, and there is a lot of action concerning power, domination, control, force. You just can?t ignore Pluto in this chart once you are aware of his personality. If we really want to pretend that Pluto doesn?t exist, then we can concentrate on the Sun-Mars square.

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I've just had a look at John McEnroe's chart (from data posted on the Astropro site, no source given: 16 Feb 1959, 10:30 pm CET -1:00 Wisbaden, Germany) and found he has a similar T-square involving Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and a (possibly too) widely aspected Moon:

Jupiter 1 Sagg, 2nd house
Mercury 30 Aqu, 5th house
Mars 3 Gem, 8th house
Moon 10 Gem, 8th house

And, making Kirk happy (!), retro Pluto makes it a grand cross: 4 Virgo, 11th house.

The differences are that McEnroe's pattern is mutable (except for the very late Aqu Mercury), rather than fixed; involves Jupiter-Mercury-Mars, rather than Moon-Jupiter-Mercury; and is placed in succedent rather than angular signs. None of that toned down McEnroe's on-court antics which were, if anything, more spectacular and offensive than Connors'. However, he also had tremendous courage and persistence (he has a strong Saturn too, in Capricorn), and has enhanced his long-term reputation with great work as a commentator.

And yes, Tom, I do enjoy watching tennis, with a special interest in the stars of my own generation, including these two very gifted, very brave bad boys!