Was Vincent 'mad'?
by Andrew McDonald
A traditional approach to the question of Dutch
Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh's sanity.
"On the following day, December twenty-fourth, a
telegram arrived from Gauguin that called Theo to Arles. Vincent, in a
state of terrible excitement and high fever, had cut off a piece of his
own ear and brought it as a gift to a woman in a brothel."
(Johanna van Gogh, Vincent's sister-in-law)
Though I am not a psychiatrist, I trained and worked for years as an analytic hypnotherapist and had plenty of clients who came to me who felt they were indeed 'mad' or 'going mad'. The reality was often vastly different from what they believed or had been told. Therefore, I thought it interesting to look astrologically at Vincent van Gogh's 'madness'. Van Gogh is often seen as a cast-iron example of someone, who due to their actions, such as cutting off a piece of his ear and giving it to a prostitute, could only be seen as 'mad'.
And yet, looking specifically at van Gogh's time at the asylum at Saint-Rémy, the astrology tells us a different story – as does van Gogh himself.
Before we journey with Vincent to
Saint-Rémy let us take a look at his natal chart (see inner wheel of
triwheel chart). For if we do not have an initial understanding of
someone, then how can we possibly understand what might be happening to
them?
Vincent's artistic ability stems from who he is. His art and his life cannot be separated. One is a manifestation of the other and therefore one cannot have one without the other. In looking at 'who someone is', a good place to start is with the temperament. To find this we look at the condition and placement of the Ascendant and Lord Ascendant, the season of the year and the phase of the Moon. Also, we look at the Lord of the Geniture; the planet with the most essential and accidental dignities.i Traditionally planets are in certain 'dignities' due to their location in the chart. These dignities are called 'essential' and 'accidental'. Essential dignities derive from the sign a planet is in. A planet in its own sign, exaltation or triplicity and to lesser extent, term and face, is considered 'good' strong or 'happy'. A planet in its detriment or fall is considered weak or problematic. Also, we can see a planet's attitude towards other planets by their essential dignities. Accidental dignities show how much ability a planet has to act. This is assessed by factors such as the planet's position in the houses, aspects by other planets, speed, direction and placement on fixed stars.
Vincent's temperament is predominantly phlegmatic, cold and moist; this tells us he is a man driven by his emotions. His Lord Ascendant is conjunct malefic fixed star Rasalhague [not shown in chart], also known as the Serpent Charmer. Rasalhague is of a Saturn and Venus nature bringing among other things, misfortune through women. The Moon, natural ruler of women, is also Vincent's Lord Ascendant, signifying Vincent himself. Vincent's brother Theo felt that if Vincent could find a woman who truly loved and cared for him then he would not suffer so intensely.
A person's manner is how they express themselves in the world. All planets influence a person's manner but some influence it more than others. The main significator of Vincent's manner is Venus in conjunction with Mars. This conjunction is in Pisces, a Jupiterian water sign. This suggests Vincent expressed himself in a passionate, tumultuous and extravagant fashion. The water element is ruled by Mars and this passionate instability is happening on the Midheaven – in clear view of the world. As an artist Vincent tried to capture nature through the liquid medium of paint. With Lord Ascendant Moon, the natural ruler of liquids, conjunct fixed star Rasalhague and the Venus-Mars conjunction on the Midheaven, his attempt to do this and his mental instability are intimately connected.
But this is as it should be, as Vincent was not a
collection of planets; he was a whole man. When Vincent experienced
problems it was often via an attempt to reconcile his powerful emotional
nature with his mental approach to things as signified by his Mercury.
With no planets in Air signs, no planets in any Mercury dignities and four
planets in the detriment or fall of Mercury this mental approach would
only ever leave him isolated and lonely; cut off from others. Though
phlegmatic he had a sanguine streak in his temperament. Both phlegmatic
and sanguine are moist. Vincent was periodically flooded by this excess
moisture in the form of overwhelming emotion; he felt the reality of the
world just too sensitively. The only thing he could hold onto in this
torrent was his Saturn in Taurus. But this is peregrineii a wandering
Saturn in the middle of a fixed earth sign, going over the same things,
again and again. The powerful natal Venus-Mars conjunction falls on fixed
star Scheat (not shown in chart). Scheat is situated on the left leg of
Pegasus, aspirational but malefic; it suggests Vincent suffering through
his own acts and the danger of his imprisonment.
It also suggests that confinement and suffering are entwined with his art.
At the asylum in Saint-Rémy
In December 1888, Vincent suffered his first mental breakdown. He cut off a piece of his ear and brought it as a gift to a woman in a brothel. The next day he was admitted to hospital. He left hospital in January. In May 1889, after suffering a series of mental breakdowns, and frightened by the unpredictable nature of his illness, van Gogh admitted himself to the asylum of Saint-Paul de Mausole at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The episodic attacks were diagnosed as a form of epilepsy. He was also suffering from melancholy. His brother Theo was very worried, but shortly after arriving at the asylum Vincent writes to Theo:
I assure you that I'm very well here...I have a little room with grey-green paper with two water-green curtains with designs of very pale roses enlivened with thin lines of blood-red. These curtains, probably the leftovers of a ruined, deceased rich man, are very pretty in design. Probably from the same source comes a very worn armchair covered with a tapestry flecked in…red-brown, pink, creamy white, black, forget-me-not blue and bottle green. Through the iron-barred window I can make out a square of wheat in an enclosure...above which in the morning I see the sun rise in its glory.
He tells Theo of his fellow patients:
For although there are some who howl or usually rave, here there is much true friendship that they have for each other. They say, one must suffer others for the others to suffer us, and other very true reasonings that they thus put into practice. And between ourselves we understand each other very well, I can, for example, chat sometimes with one who doesn't reply except in incoherent sounds, because he isn't afraid of me.
Though Vincent is trapped in his circumstances, he has insight into his condition and focuses on the future:
My hope would be that at the end of a year I'll know better than now what I can do and what I want. Then, little by little, an idea will come to me for beginning again...I feel that I'm in the right place here. In my opinion, what most of those who have been here for years are suffering from is an extreme sluggishness. Now, my work will preserve me from that to a certain extent.
Saint-Paul de Musole asylum was a former Romanesque
monastery, and initially van Gogh was not allowed to leave the grounds.
Despite his illness he was encouraged by his doctors to continue with his
art. He sat in his room and painted the walled garden he could see through
his window. He tells his brother Theo:
The neglected garden planted with tall pines under which grows tall and badly tended grass intermingled with various weeds has provided me with enough work, and I haven't yet gone outside.
Vincent was at rock bottom. Yet, it was
during his time at the asylum that Vincent produced some of his best and
most well-loved paintings. His artistic abilities, both aesthetic and
technical, were at their peak. That this coincided with episodic mental
breakdowns does not mean his breakdowns caused his increased artistic
powers. For as we see in his progressed chart for that time, two things
were happening simultaneously. Often in life; great trials accompany great
triumph. This does not mean that one is the efficient cause of the other
but merely that some things walk hand in hand to the same destination.(See
triwheel chart comprising nativity (inner), secondary progressions for 30
March 1889, Zundert, Netherlands (middle), and solar return for 30 March
1889, Zundert, Netherlands (outer).)
In the year that Vincent cut off a piece of his ear, his progressed Ascendant squared his natal Saturn. The following year he was admitted to the asylum. His exalted Sun, symbolic of the highest ideals of truth with which Vincent identified, progressed onto his natal Saturn. All his ideals, his dreams and aspirations plummeted to the ground. The solar return Saturn is conjunct his natal Saturn by antiscion,iii and his solar return optimistic Jupiter is conjunct the miserable South Node. The solar return Venus is conjunct natal Saturn and is also conjunct his solar return Saturn by antiscion. It was a frightening, miserable and utterly restrictive time as can be seen by the large amount of paintings and drawings he did of the walled field visible from his window. He can see the sky and landscape beyond but is trapped both literally and figuratively. He writes to Theo:
"Speaking of my condition, I'm still so grateful for yet another thing. I observe in others that, like me, they too have heard sounds and strange voices during their crises, that things also appeared to change before their eyes. And that softens the horror that I retained at first of the crisis I had, and which when it comes to you unexpectedly, cannot but frighten you beyond measure. Once one knows that it's part of the illness one takes it like other things. Had I not seen other mad people at close hand I wouldn't have been able to rid myself of thinking about it all the time. For the sufferings of anguish aren't funny when you're caught in a crisis."
What could Vincent do? To his canvas he goes. But despite this drive, and the encouragement from the doctors, he is dissatisfied with his work. Trying to find a way forward Vincent abandons extreme colour combinations in his paintings: "I feel tempted to begin again with the simpler colours, the ochres for example". In keeping with the Saturn that is afflicting him, he moves towards more sombre colours, the yellow and red ochre, the browns, the raw and burnt umber. Black.
Vincent considered portraits of great importance. Since the beginning of his career he strived to master the portrait. He said to Theo:
I'd like to paint men or women with the je ne sais quoi of the eternal....
Yet during his time at the asylum he hardly painted any people. Instead, he found painting nature soothing; it calmed him. This drive towards the external reality of the landscape anchored him. Though he was being destroyed by his difficult Saturn he was simultaneously holding onto it; using the very thing that was pulling him down as a rock to support him, to give him foundation and stability. He was taking his problems and transmuting them to the best of his ability. Vincent realised that abstraction was dangerous for him; that it could fragment his sensitive psyche. In a letter to his friend, the painter Emile Bernard Vincent, he refers to his time in Arles just before his mental breakdown:
I 'once' or twice allowed myself to be led into abstraction...and at that time abstraction seemed an attractive route to me. But that's enchanted ground, – my good fellow – and one soon finds oneself up against a wall. I'm not saying that one may not take the risk after a whole manly life of searching, of fighting hand-to-hand with reality, but as far as I'm concerned I don't want to rack my brains over that sort of thing.
Yet, abstraction still had its glamour, its lure, referring to his 'Starry Night' painting he says, "Once again I'm allowing myself to do stars too big, a new setback, and I've enough of that".
He sank himself into the earthy reality of the asylum gardens. Describing a canvas that he is working on to Emile Bernard:
A view of the garden of the asylum where I am, on the right of a grey terrace, a section of house, some rosebushes that have lost their flowers; on the left, the earth of the garden – red ochre – earth burnt by the sun, covered in fallen pine twigs. This edge of the garden is planted with large pines with red ochre trunks and branches, with green foliage saddened by a mixture of black. These tall trees stand out against an evening sky streaked with violet against a yellow background.
This numbering and naming of external reality enabled
Vincent to paint some of his best loved pieces of work. It enabled him to
increase his artistic powers and stretch his observation and ability. It
also enabled him to deal with his excess melancholy and the overwhelming
afflictions from Saturn. He says to Theo: "I'm obliged to ask you for
some more colours, and especially some canvas. When I send you the 4
canvases of the garden I have on the go you'll see that, considering that
life happens above all in the garden, it isn't so sad."
His progressed Midheaven is now under the rulership of his exalted Venus (not shown in chart) and we see him mastering his medium and his artistic talent peaking – his command of brush and line was never better. His paintings of olive trees and cypresses from this period are full of the calligraphic patterns which Vincent felt comparable to wood engravings. These are more signs of his driven Mars and the melancholic earth-bound Saturn. In this work the staccato and rhythmic lines capture the movement of air as well as colour. He was an artist struggling to realise his vision; he was a man struggling with illness and with a life without someone, apart from his brother, who would love him. Despite all this he had deep insight into his situation and those of others. He was aware of the difficulties and anguish that life can bring and yet entranced by the inordinate beauty of that same life.
He certainly doesn't sound very mad to me. I'll give the last word to Vincent. From the asylum at Saint-Rémy, on Tuesday, 2 July 1889, he writes to his brother Theo:
It is precisely in learning to suffer without complaining, learning to consider pain without repugnance, that one risks vertigo a little; and yet it might be possible, yet one glimpses even a vague probability that on the other side of life we'll glimpse justifications for pain, which seen from here sometimes takes up the whole horizon so much that it takes on the despairing proportions of a deluge. Of that we know very little, of proportions, and it's better to look at a wheat-field, even in the state of a painting.
Endnotes:
i See The Pattern of Time for further discussion of this and other
techniques. Following traditional practice, I do not refer to Neptune,
Uranus, and Pluto.
ii
A planet without any essential dignity is traditionally considered
'peregrine' a wandering planet.
iii
In the traditional technique of antiscion, a planet is reflected
through the solstice points of 0 degrees Cancer and 0 degrees Capricorn,
thus giving the planet an alternate or second placement.
First published by: The Astrological Journal, Sep/Oct 2018
Author:
Andrew McDonald is a professional astrologer with
clients in many countries across the world. He is the author of The
Pattern of Time and is also an artist. www.andymcdonaldartist.com
Image sources:
Chart provided by the author
Van Gogh pictures: Public Domain, CC0 Creative Commons, via Wikimedia
Commons.
© Andrew McDonald - 2018
