If you’re romantically involved with an astrologer, the best way to keep the flame burning is to add to all your stories a date and time. For example, on your first date your astrologer will ask what appears to be an innocent question:

“So when is your birthday?”

You normally would answer something like, “August.”

But if you respond, “August 17, 1995 at 2 pm in Philadelphia,” your date will be excited like a child on Christmas morning. Of course, he/she will also rush off to the bathroom with cell phone in hand to cast your horoscope.

If you don’t get a call for a second date, you know you have a cursed chart. But if you do get a second date, you know the match is made in heaven (or, at least, the sky).

If you’re already married to an astrologer, always add astrological detail to your stories to show your love. For example, if you are talking about a fight with your boss at work, you may be tempted to say:

“We fought over a deadline. He is so inflexible and won’t lift a finger to help.”

Instead, to keep your astrologer spouse interested, say:

“My double Virgo boss (which lets your spouse know that he is a demanding perfectionist) won’t let me extend the deadline (because then you won’t be perfect and get a gold star from authority) and won’t lift a finger to help (your spouse will know it’s because he’s involved in some obsessive-compulsive activity or is afraid to get dirty).”

Or you could just say, “My boss has a lot of Virgo energy” and your spouse will be on your side.

Mickey Mouse

While channel surfing through the Decades channel, which covers daily This Day in History, I learned that Mickey Mouse was born/launched on November 18, 1928.

I’m an astrologer; I got excited.

Exact date in hand, I ran to the ephemeris (book of planet locations) to take a glance at Mickey’s chart. On this date, the sun was in Scorpio, the moon in Capricorn or Aquarius.

Scorpio is charismatic, like Mickey. Moon in Capricorn or Aquarius seemed, however, a bit remote and suspicious and untrusting of others. Was that Mickey?

As I pondered it, I realized that I don’t know the true personality of Mickey Mouse. As I searched for traits to describe Mickey, I could come up with none.

As any researcher would do, I consulted a panel of experts (i.e., Facebook n=104) and asked for adjectives to describe Mickey Mouse. The response was 0 percent.

I then consulted a family member who visits Disney World regularly and asked for five adjectives to describe Mickey Mouse. She produced two then stalled: cute and funny.

Does Mickey Mouse have a personality? If he doesn’t, why does a nation adore him?

Mickey’s Three Personalities

Searching for Mickey’s chart online, I found three different “times of birth.” The first two dates appear to correspond to shorts being released. The third date, November 18, is when Steamboat Willie was officially released and seems the more official date of Mickey’s coming out:

1. May 15, 1928 (Taurus sun, Aries moon)
2. September 19, 1928 (Virgo sun, Scorpio or Sagittarius moon)
3. November 18, 1928 (Scorpio sun, Capricorn or Aquarius moon)

Not a fan of Mickey Mouse myself, I learned more about his personality though the article Siri, Mickey Mouse and Apple’s cult of personality, Mickey’s original manifestation was rougher with emphasis on physical gags:

… In his initial incarnation, Mickey thought nothing of abusing a few animals and taking revenge on his enemies.

As time moved on, Mickey’s rough edges were softened, along with his nose and ears, but what remained was his can-do attitude, a pervasive sense of optimism that hard work would win out in the end. This resonated with depression-era audiences looking for an escape and also for hope that things would get better if they worked hard enough.

It wasn’t always this way. In earlier shorts produced by Walt’s studio Mickey was a main character, but he was also simply a tool to be used for a laugh. There was very little sense of self-awareness or consistency on display and many of his appearances were just strings of physical gag humor.

Walt continued to refine the character in his famous story sessions, where he would act out the parts of all of the cartoon’s cast to his animators and help to define what those characters would or wouldn’t do according to their nature. As attention was paid to Mickey, he grew to be more of a wholesome front man for everything Disney, and in doing so lost some of his mischievous spark.

Now we have an adjective to describe Mickey – wholesome.

What is Mickey Mouse’s True Personality?

Mickey’s true personality may be transpersonal, as he represents so much to a nation but contains so little as an individual. Astrologically, there is one interesting change between the May, September and November charts. The outer planet Neptune moved from Leo to Virgo and was in one degree of Virgo on November 18, 1928.

Neptune is the key to Mickey Mouse.

According to The Astrologers Handbook:

Neptune’s sign position indicates the kind of cultural expression manifested by the imaginative and creative faculties of mankind in a given 13-year period. The generation that has Neptune in a given sign shares a common spiritual destiny. The intuitive and creative faculties of such a generation will take on the qualities of whichever sign Neptune occupies.

Neptune rules image, film and fantasy. Your truly Neptunian soul is often living in a world other than this one and Neptune at its worst is lost in fantasy. Neptune is ethereal, inspiring and difficult to explain to others. Neptune is intuition. Neptune is fog that dissolves boundaries.

Neptune in Leo would spiritualize Leo qualities.

Leo is a fire sign associated with romance and self-expression. Leo is the leader and actor, with loads of charisma, who is often the center of attention. Leo, like all fire signs, seeks the spirit and is filled with energy. Leo seeks the spotlight for the self.

Sound like Mickey?

Maybe this sounds like Mickey to some. But the movement from Leo to Virgo early in Mickey’s development seems to describe the quick evolution of an edgy Mickey to a “cute and funny and wholesome” Mickey with few discerning characteristics.

Virgo is the sign of health, work and service. Back in my early days learning astrology, Virgo was often represented by the servant. Those with strong egos and desire for attention (i.e., Leo) do not make good servants. Servitude requires a weaker or, at least, a more flexible ego. Virgo in its desire for perfection represents a type of purity.

Neptune idealizes the sign in which it is placed. In idealizing Virgo, Neptune is idealizing the opposite of its nature – perfection and purity. Neptune is a watercolor painting while Virgo is a coloring book. Virgo categories and organizes while Neptune dissolves.

Mickey is the manifestation of Neptune in Virgo with an idealization of perfection, a state that does not exist because perfection is different for each person. While Mickey might have been born with a host of characteristics, Neptune in Virgo cast a veil over that personality and presented us with purity. Neptune is sacrifice and the imaginary Mickey clearly had no problem sacrificing his intense Scorpio traits for the spiritual essence of Virgo. Mickey is the servant or “wholesome front man” for all that is Disney.

Mickey does have a personality, a single-trait personality of purity that allows us to find our own personal perfection through his image. This is what makes Disney “the happiest place on earth.”

If only gods could do so much.