Moon-ruled Cancer rising leads Dr. John Forbes Nash’s natal chart with its 9-planetary-body Eastern emphasis, 4th quadrant above-the-horizon dominance. With natal Saturn falling in the 6th house, we’re reminded that this beautiful mind had once been a tortured one. His chart points to the signature in Mars-ruled Aries with Mars on the Sabian Symbol Aries 21. Although Mars is conjunct the Moon, Mars plays an integral role in this chart since the heartbeat of his chart is also Mars. Not all signatures to a chart will prove to match the heartbeat, so Mars is crucial to seeing who the man we knew as the man with the beautiful mind was.
According to Lynda Hill‘s 360 Degrees of Wisdom: The Sabian Oracle (© Lynda Hill 2004), Aries 21 is “A BOXER IS ENTERING
THE RING.”

This analysis will not offer a plethora of Sabian Symbols, simply this particular one because it points to the power of Nash’s chart through that single Martian heartbeat:

“Commentary: ‘A Boxer’ shows someone with the ability to stand up, fight or take on a challenge. This person is seen ‘Entering the Ring’—a place where they need to stand up for something, tackle an issue or a person; to prove themselves strong in some measure. Fighting can take many forms, it can be done obviously or subversively. One can throw punches on every level of consciousness: physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally.

“Oracle: It may be time to fight about some issue, but it should be done within the bounds of the ‘Ring’—heeding the rules and regulations of decency. Make sure you possess the skills and have earned the right to defend what you believe. Are “rules” being broken? Is there someone keen to battle? Are they causing problems? At times it may be appropriate or necessary to physically “fight”, however signaling your readiness to fight may cause the other to back down. If you really need to go into the ‘Ring’ be fully prepared for any
consequences. Be aware that you may need to back off if you are losing ground. Standing up to something or someone can lead to a new level of self-confidence, but are you ready for the punches that might be thrown your way? Use your instincts and watch every movement carefully. Knowing where the next punch is coming from can help. Who is the likely victor? Emotionally there are no real winners when lovers or friends fight—both lose in one way or another. Also, it’s often others who judge the real outcome or who’s the “winner” in the end. Are you prepared to lose? It could be a situation of “may the best man win”. ‘Boxing’ is a sport that owes its pleasures to people’s glory, bravery, pain and sometimes humiliation; however, standing up for yourself and your rights can lead to others taking you more seriously.

“Keywords: Physical or psychological self-assertion and determination. Attack or defense? Fighting for emotional, psychological or physical space. Being seen as a person of strength. Throwing punches. Fighting on any level. Being prepared to take a swing at someone or something. Stepping up to the plate. Throwing down the gauntlet. Going after the title. Big vs. small egos.

“The Caution: Using force or power to dominate people or those who challenge. Acting in a combative manner. Not displaying
sportsmanship. Wanting to knock people out. Looking for combat. Throwing punches at anything. Belting, smacking, invading. Being punch-drunk.” (Thanks, Lynda Hill, for the permission to use.)

We think of Mars in many ways–accident, action, aggression, anger, selfish desire–but I have to say I’d imagine most of the time “anger” or “aggression” would come to mind before any other word although “accident” might take a close second. For Dr. Nash and his wife, his life was lived with all of that, especially the aggression. On the other hand, at the end, the accident took their lives.

The New York Times in the breaking story, John Nash, ‘A Beautiful Mind’ Subject and Nobel Winner, Dies at 86, noted that the 86-year-old mathematician and his wife had just returned from their journey to Norway where he and Louis Nirenberg had been honored by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters with the Abel Prize. They had been on their way home from the airport when the accident took place, the result of the cabbie’s having misjudged his timing in an attempt to pass another car.

Tribute to Russell Crowe in “A Beautiful Mind”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnps-bEXoCg

The announcement of Dr. Nash’s death was a profound tribute to the man whose work inspired so many in the fields of mathematics and science. But his courage with his wife by his side became the focus of a book and a movie—“A Beautiful Mind“–about his return to sanity from the demons that had wrenched him away from academia for decades.

So focused on his research, his natal Mercury-Pluto conjunction to the Ascendant fell in the 12th house along with his Sun-Venus conjunction in Gemini in opposition to his natal singleton Saturn. I examined the chart, wondering if I had somehow overlooked a quindecile or two, and to my surprise, he had none!

On the other hand, Dr. Nash’s chart had some remarkable surprises waiting for me and anyone else who was curious enough to look: Saturday’s Sun-Saturn opposition was still in effect at the time of the accident–and while it wasn’t doing more than making a conjunction to Nash’s natal Vertex (a fate point), I found it intriguing to note that his natal chart also had a Sun-Saturn opposition, bringing the transiting one to mind through the Venus-Saturn opposition his natal chart  also possessed.

The chart for the most part was also remarkably devoid of quincunxes and only boasted one from that singleton Saturn to the Pluto-Ascendant conjunction! Mercury, on the other hand, does not come into play because the orb between Saturn and Mercury doesn’t fit the consideration for such an aspect. The quincunx from where I sit is one aspect that needs more precision in identification and cannot be used in bridging. But talk about adjusting with the Pluto-Ascendant conjunction! The sixth house is the working environment where one interacts with co-workers. I read somewhere as I gathered a little understanding of his life, John Nash had not been an especially sociable person. He would simply walk away from conversations even if the other person wasn’t done with a thought, and he also wasn’t the most exemplary student.

To that end as it related to his studies, he acknowledged his own brilliance:  Dr. Nash was widely regarded as one of the great mathematicians of the 20th century, known for the originality of his thinking and for his fearlessness in wrestling down problems so difficult few others dared tackle them. A one-sentence letter written in support of his application to Princeton’s doctoral program in math said simply, “This man is a genius.”  (©2015 The New York Times Company)

Still, people with a bunch of trines in the natal chart are often considered lazy. While it doesn’t seem like he was a lazy person, his self-driven propensity for learning apparently gave him the ease of grasping the most complex subjects as long as he was in the “driver’s seat.” But he had four trines: Moon and Mars in trine to Saturn, and Moon and Mars in trine to Neptune. And even though we can’t say these are Grand Trines with the dramatic variation of degrees between these aspects, I suspect they might have made life too easy for him at times.

On the other hand, these natal trines don’t come without some pain and toughening since they also involve natal squares with the Moon-Mars conjunction in square to the Mercury-Pluto conjunction and the Ascendant. In addition, while the Moon-Mars conjunction doesn’t conjunct Uranus directly, the Mercury-Pluto conjunction squares Uranus at the apex of the chart and offers a necessary bridge to creating an otherwise non-existent Aries stellium in the 10th.

John Forbes Nash – natal inside, Death by Car Crash outside
Transiting Venus in the first house was making a perfected (0°00’00”!) conjunction to the natal Ascendant, and the couple must have been feeling so good about Dr. Nash’s acceptance of the Abel Prize. Perhaps this was the reason why initial reports noted that neither Nash nor his wife had been buckled in. They had been thrown from the taxi at the time of the accident. Reports also mentioned that neither the cab driver nor a fourth person had been injured and that this should not have been a fatal scene.

But Venus in opposition to Pluto on Dr. Nash’s natal horizon in square to that natal Moon-Mars conjunction tells a different tale although one perhaps implying that the two were ready to go. Transiting Mercury on the other hand was opposing his natal Saturn while transiting Mars was conjunct his natal North Node, and the transiting retrograde South Node made a conjunction to his natal Uranus. Uranus rounded out the picture with its transiting conjunction to the Mars-Moon natal conjunction in the 10th.

The transiting Ascendant for the accident falls in his terminal 4th house, a house of endings. And so the chapter for this man with The Beautiful Mind has drawn to a close.

A Beautiful Mind – The Documentary John Nash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSbgHgUGBCU

RIP, Dr. Nash. You were indeed beautiful.

Namaste, I love you.

©2015 Michelle Young