Pandora's Box: The Mysterious 8th House

By Martin Sebastian Moritz

Pandoraʹs Box: The mysterious 8th house
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Entanglements

Crises can materialise in the form of dramatic entanglements. We might find ourselves caught up in complicated situations with no easy way out. The 8th house, more than any other place in the chart, is associated with entanglements, and can indeed hold serious troubles in store. These might arise through power games, boundary crossings, or dealing with taboos. Maybe we don’t see the writing on the wall until we actually hit it. Or we can’t imagine how a situation could turn from promising to disastrous.

We may find ourselves attracted to people who turn out to be clingy and manipulative. We might experience dark facets of our own psyche which have been hidden before. What strikes me as particularly interesting here is the fact that in this house it is almost impossible to differentiate between good and evil, black and white, hero and villain. As a matter of fact, things are more often than not muddled and mixed up.

A pertinent example of a fatal entanglement is that of famous gay writer Truman Capote and murderer Perry Smith. Capote embarked on digging as deeply as possible into the background story of the gruesome homicide of an innocent country family in Kansas, in which Smith was involved. During the research, which also involved interviews with convicts Smith and his partner in crime, Hickock, Capote became close with Smith, too close. Their relationship was highly passionate and involved sympathy as well as mistrust and frustration. The book which Capote wrote about this case took several years, because the actual execution of Smith was delayed several times. In Cold Blood was an unparalleled success at the time, but Capote was so drained that he never wrote another hit.

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, a true story of bloody murder in rural Kansas opens a window on the dark underbelly of post- war America.
‘The Guardian’, ranking ‘In Cold Blood’ at number 84 of the 100 best novels

No one will ever know what In Cold Blood took out of me. It scraped me right down to the marrow of my bones. It nearly killed me. I think, in a way, it did kill me.
Truman Capote (1924 – 1984)

America is innocent no longer

Truman Capote in 1959
 Source: New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Higgins, Roger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

15th November, 1959. In the early morning hours, four single gun shots sound from the Clutter home of Holcomb, Kansas. The Clutter family - Herb, his wife Bonnie and their children, Nancy and Kenyon, have been most brutally murdered. This crime is like no other in the state’s history. An entire family killed for no apparent motive; culprits unknown. Kansas, a typical mid-western state, is a region of friendly, God-fearing people, known for its vast plains, and probably the safest place in America. Kansans are people who trust one another and don’t lock their doors. A massacre like this in New York or Los Angeles would have been expected, but in Kansas? This incident shakes the very foundation of trust, not only in Kansas, but all over the country. The heartland of America is innocent no longer. Until the culprits are caught, the citizens of Holcomb have all kinds of ideas about who committed the crime, which is truly scary. Who knows? Maybe the murderers are someone in their very midst? Paranoia, for the first time, grips Kansans. The Clutters had been an admired family and the least likely candidates to be murder victims. Herb Clutter was a Kansas success story; a wealthy farmer, college educated, a pillar of the community. President Eisenhower had selected him to serve on the Federal Farmer Credit Board. And although the Clutters were well-to-do, they never kept a lot of cash in the house, so what is the motive?

A much, much bigger story...

A short article about the crime appears in the New York Times, which catches the attention of celebrated author Truman Capote (Breakfast at Tiffany‘s). A total sucker for crime, he is instantly intrigued by the story, as well as the urban setting. Kansas is as far away as possible from his glamorous and sophisticated New York lifestyle; a strangely foreign world worthy of exploration. He wants to write an article for the magazine The New Yorker about the impact of such a heinous crime on a small sheltered community. Accompanied by his childhood-friend, fellow author Nelle Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), he boards the train; a trip which will change his life and lead to his greatest success as well as his final downfall. Welcome to the rollercoaster of the 8th house.

The gay, eccentric and tiny Truman Capote (5ft 2in), is a sight which none of the Western Kansans has ever seen before. His effeminate mannerisms, high pitched voice and flamboyant way of dressing stands out strikingly in this conservative macho land, where men wear high heel cowboy boots with pointed toes and Stetson hats. He could just as easily be an alien from outer space, popping out of a flying saucer. But his friendly manners and entertaining personality, assisted by his friend Nelle, soon bring people to like him and open up. Eventually he even becomes the toast of the town and everyone wants to have him over for dinner. Just as Capote has finished his article and is about to return to New York, the culprits are captured on 30 December, following an extensive manhunt which had stretched as far as Mexico. This changes everything. He simply must stay to meet the murderers to find out everything about their motives, so he prolongs his visit. Little does he know that he will have to come back to Kansas again and again, for the next five years. At first he decides to stay detached, as any professional should. But after spending endless hours with the protagonists, making thousands of pages of notes, he gets more and more personally involved. He becomes attached to the murderers, even feeling sympathy, particularly for one of the two, Smith. This is totally against his will, but there is nothing he can do about it - it feels like being caught in a vortex. Soon he is sucked into the tragedy, and in the process turns what was originally only a very sad and disturbing piece of news into a major national tragedy. And he feels this has to become a book, with the makings of a bestseller.

The two culprits, 28-year-old Richard Eugene Hickock and 31-year- old Perry Smith, both have a history of petty crime, although neither of them has ever been involved in murder before. While serving time in Lancing penitentiary, Richard Eugene Hickock is told by a cellmate about Herb Clutter and his alleged home safe containing some ten thousand dollars. Hickock is obsessed by the idea of robbing this Clutter. After his release he contacts an old friend, Perry Smith. Smith is a drifter and a dreamer. They prove a deadly combination, because they agree that they will leave no witnesses alive. Hickock later repeatedly tries to pin the actual shootings on Smith, who in turn claims that he only accounted for the father and the boy, while Hickock shot the mother and the girl.

From a psychological viewpoint Hickock, although talkative and blessed with an uncanny memory for details, is rather exhausting and uninspiring. Smith, on the other hand, is in another league. His moods can change from whining self-pity to feeling utterly elated about some book or whim. While undoubtedly sly and cruel, he has also surprisingly sensitive and tender sides to him. Capote finds his sad eyes and melodic voice irresistible. What also makes him special is the fact that he is remarkably short, measuring only 5ft 2in, exactly like Capote. Soon they form a sort of friendship. Although, judging from the outside, the sophisticated and celebrated author and the white-trash criminal can’t possibly have anything in common, there is an invisible bond: a deeply troubled and joyless childhood.

Abandonment

Smith: Ending up the wrong path

Perry Smith, natal chart, 27 October 1928, 09:30 EST, Huntingdon, Nevada, RR:AA
8th house constellations

• Pluto in 8th
• Pluto ruler of 12th
• Moon, ruler of 8th, in 4th, square Pluto
• Pluto square Mercury in 11th and quincunx Saturn in 1st

 Source: Astrodatabank

In the chart of Perry Smith, Pluto immediately jumps out with its prominent placement in Cancer in the 8th house; being the classical collective ruler here. Mars is in a square with Uranus in the 4th house of childhood and home, which the planet of disruptions shares with the sensitive Moon. Since the Moon is also ruler of the 8th, these two water houses gain momentum. Transformative crises (8th) in childhood (4th), with many changes in living situations. The house in which the Moon is placed often indicates the area in life where we are most vulnerable and prone to experience intense fluctuation. Also interesting are the squares between Moon and Mars and Moon and Pluto, both indicative of a nervous, highly-strung, over-sensitive nature. Since the Moon in good-natured and optimistic Aries particularly depends on authentic and loving support from a mother-figure, these challenging aspects seem very harsh. Saturn in the 1st on the other hand often comes with a somewhat stoic outlook in life. One doesn’t expect to get anything for free, but rather has to work hard and be content with very little. The Moon also forms a trine with Saturn, a combination which supports the feeling of being able to deal with disappointments in life.

The Sun at 4° Scorpio in the 11th is in opposition to Jupiter/Chiron, which indicates a hyperbolic and at the same time wounded self-perception. The quincunx between Sun and Uranus supports the likelihood of a dis- ruptive childhood as well as a certain general moodiness and unpredictable episodes of feeling detached from the world. On the other hand, we have a retrograde Mercury in art-loving Libra in a square with Pluto and Venus/ Lilith rising, so there are also definitely softer, more feminine sides to con- sider. Pluto rules the 12th house, which is about fantasy, subconsciousness, but also about underhanded actions, detention and obstructing the truth.

Smith and his siblings suffer under their alcoholic and abusive mother, who leaves his father when the boy is 7 and who dies from choking on her own vomit when he is 13. After that he is put into a Catholic orphanage, where he is constantly punished for bed wetting, allegedly a result of malnutrition. There is also an incident in another orphanage where one of the caretakers tries to drown him. Later he reunites with his father. The two of them try to live an itinerant existence, travelling across the country, barely making ends meet and constantly quarrelling. Eventually Smith goes off the rails, joins a street gang and gets mixed up in various petty crimes, finally ending in juvenile detention. A tendency for suicide runs in the family; Smith’s father takes his own life, aged 92, as do two of Smith’s siblings. He himself is almost killed in a motorcycle accident; both legs are horribly shattered and only badly patched up, causing him constant pain and leading him to becoming addicted to Aspirin. To overcompensate for his childlike height, he lifts dumbbells, resulting in a thick, crouching torso, which looks somewhat over-sized, especially against his skinny legs and tiny girl feet. He also has quite elaborate tattoos all over his arms. Living inside his own fantasy world, he likes to look in the mirror all the time, a narcissistic need for reassurance, often found with neglected children who have no clue who they are and what makes them loveable. Capote’s Moon, conjunct Saturn, sits at 4° Scorpio, exactly on Smith’s Sun. Luminary conjunctions in synastry are an indication for a strong bond, albeit not necessarily without ambivalence, especially when Saturn plays its part as well. Capote is a kind of mentor/friend for Smith and wields a huge influence on how the criminal grows to define his own identity (Sun). Capote, on the other hand, feels a deep bond (Moon), but also a guilty conscience (Saturn).

Capote: Escape to fame

Like Smith, Capote is also haunted by his lonely and melancholy boyhood. His real name, under which he lived the first years of his life, indicates the presence (or rather, absence) of a father figure: Truman Streckfuss Persons. His mother Lilli Mae is just 17 when she meets and marries the charming and ambitious salesman, Arch Persons, in a small town in Alabama. Shortly after little Truman is born it becomes increasingly clear that the marriage is in trouble. Lilli Mae wants more out of life and attempts to realise her dreams from a series of fly-by-night lovers, a lifestyle which is ill-suited to a little boy. Truman is left with babysitters or locked up for the night in a hotel room, his cries left unanswered. He often waits up the whole night until his parents eventually return, each time fearing that they might never come back at all and have just abandoned him. When he’s just six years old they leave him for good and dump him with three old spinster aunts. They live in a strange, highly organized and very religious household, leading a monotonously rigid existence. Since everyone is constantly bickering there is a lot of tension in the air. Although not exactly a happy life for young Truman, it is however the source of his interest in studying human nature and storytelling. In the evenings all the neighbours would assemble on the porch, telling strange sad stories of human tragedies, ghosts and inexplicable phenomena. To fill his many lonely hours he teaches himself to read and write, which soon becomes his whole world. He is fascinated by stories and details and can never get enough of them, carrying his notepad wherever he goes. Unlike other children he never wants to play, preferring instead to spend many hours each day after school writing, like an obsession. At age eleven, he wins a children’s writing contest. There is no doubt he has talent.

Then his mother turns up out of the blue and takes him with her to exciting New York where her husband, José García Capote, a rich bookkeeper, adopts him. But the new father figure soon disappears again, convicted for embezzlement. Sun in the 8th house...

Fame comes to Truman at the young age of 24 when his first novel Other Voices, Other Rooms is published and is an instant success. Its Southern Gothic style and atmosphere of isolation and decay has strong autobiographical traits. It is mostly about a son’s search for his father.

Truman Capote, natal chart, 30 September 1924, 15:00 CST New Orleans, Louisiana, RR:B
8th house constellations

• Sun in 8th as ruler of 10th
• Sun square Pluto on cusp of 6th
• Ruler of 8th, Mercury, on cusp of 8th, as part of T-square with Jupiter and Uranus

 Source: Astrodatabank

Capote has Sun in the 8th in Libra, an odd combination of a diplomatic, harmony-loving sign and a house of border-crossing, trouble and crisis. The square with Pluto at the cusp of the 6th house indicates a tendency to become obsessive. For him, from childhood on, there are no shades of grey, but only the two extremes of being either totally consumed (with work, love, society, drugs) or completely detached and indifferent. Since the Sun is involved, it involves both his journey into self-discovery and his perception of an (inner) father figure. Mercury, ruler of the 8th, in Virgo, is the only earth placement in his chart, thus of some significance. The great astrologer, Richard Idemon, called these placements ‘singletons’. Mercury sits on the 8th house cusp, which means that both motives and actions meet here, without any detours or roundabouts involving other houses. Mercury in Virgo is razor sharp and witty; a brilliant observer and stickler for details. The opposition with Uranus on the 2nd house cusp suggests that the native needs to distance himself from time to time in order not to get sucked too deeply into drama. This is maybe Capote’s biggest challenge. The Sun rules the descendant and brings a need for social interaction into the 8th. He is very keen on gossip and known to be a good listener, being entrusted with many intimate secrets by his friends. Unfortunately, he cannot always keep these to himself. When, in the 1970s he spills the beans about his New York society ladies, movie star friends and writer colleagues, he is punished very hard by many of them who turn away from him for good. His Sun is in opposition to Smith’s Uranus, the signifier of a classic closeness-distance conflict. Since Mars is square Smith’s Uranus, there is also a contradiction between being both passionately involved (Mars) and feeling alienated (Uranus). The Moon/ Saturn conjunction, which is arguably one of the most challenging aspects one can find, is trine Pluto in the 6th, thus offering an escape from feeling lonely and abandoned by hard and dedicated work. His dramatic, artistic side is indicated by Venus/Neptune in Leo on the North Node in the 7th, in a passionate opposition with Mars in Aquarius in the 1st.

On death row

The trial in March 1960 ends, as expected, with the death sentence, which in Kansas is execution by hanging. However, due to successive appeals over the next few years the judgement isn’t enforced until 14 May 1965. During this time Truman Capote writes In Cold Blood, which naturally wouldn’t have a proper ending before the final fate of the two murderers is eventually decided. In consequence, this means that he is left in limbo for five long years, experiencing a roller coaster of hope and agony.

Likewise, Smith and Hickock, who from 1963 onwards live on death row under the most reduced circumstances, having to wait out their final fate, gradually become more and more desperate and hopeless.

Smith’s and Hickock’s letters to Capote number in the hundreds, and give a vivid testimony of life on death row. Capote becomes the chief focus of their lives, but Smith always claims that he takes priority over Hickock in Capote’s affection and is probably right.

Composite Smith/Capote
8th house constellations

• Neptune in 8th as ruler of 3rd
• Neptune apex of yod with Moon and Uranus
• Neptune square Saturn
• Neptune trine Mars/Chiron
• Neptune opposition Jupiter
• Neptune sextile Sun at MC

The Capote-Smith composite (reference place method) is charged with ambivalence and tension. Neptune, the planet of deception and longing for peace, acts as a key player at the tip of a striking yod figure in the 8th, involving quincunxes with Mars/Chiron in the 4th and the Moon in the 1st, as well as an opposition with chart ruler Jupiter in the 2nd. A yod is a signifier for a tendency to feel torn apart, nervous and being caught between three different places. It’s like trying to sit on a wobbly chair with just three legs. Between 1960 and 1965 Capote finds it hard to stay in Kansas for too long. He feels restless and overwhelmed by the situation, as well as guilty and useless. It’s hard to accept his feelings of sympathy and pity for Smith, he is a murderer after all. They are both stuck with each other, each having taken possession over the other. Until Capote’s death in 1984, his fate is inescapably intertwined with Smith’s.

Smith lives for Capote’s letters and for everything he sends into his dim cell; books, magazines, photographs. Neptune rules the 3rd, the house of communication and seeks cross-border merging in the 8th. Unfortunately, this is inevitably frustrated by the rather toughened-up Moon in Capricorn in the 1st and the distant and unreliable Uranus in the 3rd. The placement of the yod in the 1st (Moon), 3rd (Uranus) and 8th (Neptune) houses captures the great pressure under which both of them suffer. While none of Capote’s letters have survived, those from Smith to the author have. They often express his tender feelings for Capote. A photograph with Capote and his dog brings Smith to tears.

I cannot believe that I have ever seen a more pleasing and contented expression (on Capote’s face) – it appears to have an effect on me similar to an anodyne and it would be useless for you to ask me to return it.

The Moon in Capricorn often indicates difficulties with being emotionally at ease and sharing tender feelings. There are many times when Capote can hardly bear the feeling of ambivalence between longing to be freed at last by their execution and suffering from a terribly guilty conscience of using the two young men. On the other hand, they had committed a heinous crime and cold-bloodedly killed four innocent people. Don’t they deserve to pay with their own lives for this? Jupiter in the 2nd opposite Neptune in the 8th brings out a manipulative streak in both partners, albeit presumably unintentionally. Each one becomes a victim of his own hidden agenda, which makes it hard to trust, at some point even resulting in paranoia. There is a source of contention which is projected on to the other person causing problems in following through, where intentions can be foiled by an inability to realise them. And sadly, at the end of the day, they will never be completed in a satisfactory way. The T-square with Saturn as apex additionally emphasizes the issue of ‘painful sacrifices’ in the 11th (friendship).

Capote is present at the execution, an experience which will haunt him for the rest of his life. At least he can publish his book, which turns out to be a major bestseller. But the book is a mixed blessing. While it earns him millions of dollars, it also plunges him into bouts of depression and despair. He takes to alcohol and drugs, which only worsens his condition and causes serious episodes of hallucinations. He can never pick up on the success of In Cold Blood. After publishing a tell-it-all book about his glamorous society friends, he finds himself alone and defeated. He dies in 1984, shortly before his 60th birthday.

Published in: Timelords Magazine, Jun. 2022.

Author:
Martin Sebastian Moritz Martin Sebastian Moritz lives in Hamburg and Berlin. He started out as actor and dancer before his life took a different turn and he decided to study psychology and astrology. With ten years of teaching psychodrama under his belt, he now specialises in couples therapy, often supported by astrological readings, and has been a consulting psychological astrologer for more than two decades.
Martin lectures all over Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK and has given talks at NORWAC, the AA conference and the London-based Astrological Lodge. He also lectures for MISPA. He writes articles for German and Swiss astrology magazines, as well as for the Astrological Journal. His keen interests besides psychological astrology are working with karma, biography work and gender studies. An Anglophile, for a while he lived in London, his home away from home. His first book The Mysterious 8th House – The Shadow in the Chart was originally published in German. His website is astro-via.com.

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