Madge Gill, Outsider Artist
an astrological exploration
From my recent time in Switzerland I became acquainted with a genre of art referred to as ‘Outsider Art’, or Art Brut. I found the works confronting, exciting, compelling, intriguing, sometimes beautiful, and almost always touching. Given the number of these artists creating out of mental torture from within asylums or psychiatric institutions after often excruciating starts to their lives I was fascinated by implications: who defines ‘normal’ or ‘inside’ (as opposed to ‘outside’)? Is the impulse (and therefore perhaps all art?) Self-generated ‘healing’ or self-soothing? If so, could it lead to ‘cure’? How might the average person, less troubled than these, learn from this? What might we learn from their horoscopes?
Sadly none of the artists have publicly-known birth times, so I’ve found it impossible to explore their charts with confidence or specificity. Here I will introduce you to one of its major and well-known artists, Madge Gill, and will make a short exploration of her chart from a speculative birth time based on a brief birth time rectification. For a fuller encounter with this, including images of a diverse range of Outsider artists, see, for example, the website of La Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Madge Gill was a UK artist who lived from 1882 until 1961. Completely artistically untrained, she rarely exhibited and sold no paintings throughout her life. For these reasons she has been classified as an ‘Outsider Artist’, the English equivalent of the term ‘Art Brut’, coined by rebellious French artist Jean Dubuffet (b.31/7/1901 - 1985) to describe art works “created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses – where the worries of competition, acclaim and social promotion do not interfere”. The artists are, by definition, self-taught, and they mostly are un-exhibited in their lifetimes, creating for reasons other than economic or recognition. Collections of Outsider Art, like the one in Lausanne and the Whitworth Gallery in the University of Manchester, UK, include the art of prisoners and the mentally tormented or incarcerated. Works, despite being naive, unabashed, chaotic, are often spiritually inspired, and could be seen as arising out of a sort of spontaneous self-therapy.
Gill’s art has a striking consistency to it: dense, full of geometric patterns, complex designs often involving extensive checker-board areas (snake-skin?), bricks/tiles and architectural features, lotus-like flowers, stairways, and almost inevitably somewhat ghostlike, often female faces or figures. These are thought to be her depictions of otherworldly realms encountered in her trance states, and the figures spirits (see images below).
Gill had a life of enormous trial, grief and suffering. She was born to unmarried parents, and being Victorian London and her mother being of “feeble mind", was hidden, given away and brought up by others from soon after birth. She was then sent to an orphanage at age 9, only to be sent away to Canada at 14 until she was able to return to London as an independent 18 year old. Soon after returning from Canada she moved in with her aunt, a spiritualist and medium.
She had a difficult marriage that produced 4 children, losing one to Spanish Flu and her only daughter during a life-threatening labour. Over that period, 1918-21, she had almost died of sepsis, all her teeth were taken out, and melanoma resulted in the removal of her left eye (the eye of the Sun in women, leaving her right, lunar, ‘night’/unconscious/spirit eye intact). From these traumatic events she suffered chronic depression and a breakdown. In 1922, hearing voices and seeing visions, she was a patient for 3 months at a pioneering psychiatric hospital.
Her artistry began on the 3rd March 1920 after seeing the crucified Christ in the clouds and experiencing a presence beyond the threshold. This presence was called Myrninerest, and remained a spiritual guide for her throughout her life; his/her name is often found on her art works. Her art, including drawings, paintings, embroidery, knitting, clothing, tapestry and music, was compulsive and incredibly prodigious, all of it produced with the inspiration and help of the spiritual world. Some of her painting are massive: done on rolls of calico, the longest measures 40 metres!
During this time, inspired also by theosophy, she was also an active clairvoyant, trance medium and astrologer. As you see here, some of her drawing include obvious as well as more symbolic astrological references (see left).
More on her biography and the significance of the spiritual source of her creativity can be found here and here.
Gill’s time of birth is, as far as I know, unknown. The chart here (below) is the result of my brief attempt at a rectification, based on key moments in her biography (these are listed at the end).
No matter what the time is, I am intrigued to see artistic Venus in a close earth grand trine with wounded Chiron and eccentric Uranus, both planets of the ‘outsider’: Chiron being a centaur, a race of outsiders, and, being the only civilised one of them, an outsider even from his own kind. Moreover, it is said astronomically to be an outside in our solar system; and Uranus, being the rebellious or maverick one, depicts the upsetting of the status quo. Arguably, however, all the trans-Saturnian are ‘Outsiders’, having upset the traditional and visible solar system that defined our cosmos for thousands of years until Uranus’ discovery in the late 18th century broke this old, traditional order. And so it’s unsurprising to see that all these planets - Uranus Chiron, Neptune and Pluto - have significant positions in Madge’s chart. My initial observations of the charts of the dozen or so Outsider artists I’ve researched are that these outer planets play significant and challenging roles, picturing the artists’ suffering in the face of these powerful, ego-destroying pressures.
In this chart I would especially note the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Taurus. Since first being made aware of this in Liz Greene’s book on Neptune I have seen countless times, in clients’ and public figures’ charts, how Neptune’s imagination, spiritual openness, and longing for source penetrates the ego boundaries (Saturn), bringing flowing artistry, spiritual embodyment or mentorship and healing gifts, but often alongside a challenging earthy life, addictions or self-sabotage.
Uranus in the proposed 4th house speaks of the shocking and unstable childhood and family background Gill had, and is perhaps even the major symbol of her ‘outsider’ status. And you will see that the IC (home) progressed onto this disruptive Uranus (progressed) at age 14 and a half, when she was sent away to Canada. Around this time there was a destabilising lunar eclipse at 0º36’ Pisces/Virgo, on her proposed MC/IC axis, so connected with one’s rooted belonging.
But back to the Venus grand trine. In the chart I am working with, Venus rules the 5th house of creativity, thus her planetary ‘friends’ reinforce this image of the “outsider artist”. Perhaps the soft nature of the trines allowed her to channel this positively. Moreover, the 5th being also the house of children, Venus’ placement of the cusp of the 8th house of death makes complete sense given the loss of her own children, and the haunting quality of her dead/spirit faces (children?) in her art works.
The chart is almost entirely earth, with only Mercury and Mars in air. No wonder there was so much material productivity in her life, through a variety of artistic and craft-based media. Yet her earthly life was so connected with the spiritual, perhaps shown to her as the safest, most loving place after an earlier life of such struggle on the physical and emotional planes. The dark moon (Sun-Mon conjunction), Hekate’s Moon, has a mediumistic quality, and here we see it in a close trine with underworld Pluto in the 12th house, a house I associate with the deep ancestors, the gods, the archetypes. The Sun-Moon pairing in the 8th house of death, crisis and anguish describes some significant biographical and personality features of Gill. It’s unsurprising that her art - to say nothing of the intense fervour with which it was carried out - appears to be completely dominated by the dead, mostly females (Moon in the 8th, Venus on the 8th cusp), perhaps children. And I might associate the skewed checker-board-like white-black motifs with this as well. Despite the other-worldly aspect to her art, there is a definite earthly quality; the nature images, but particularly the structural, architectural dimensions that have a decidedly Capricornian sense to them.
This chart has caring, family-oriented Cancer rising: family appeared to play a big part in her life, throughout but particularly as she withdrew from the outside world. Her oldest son, who lived with her until her death, was an important support and champion throughout her life. A delightful nod to this Cancer ascendant comes from the story that at the time of her creative/spiritual ‘awakening’ she had been singing Home, Sweet Home at the top of her voice!
Here are a few transits that support this proposed chart, including: the traumatic period of 1918-21 had Pluto transiting between 3-9º Cancer, crossing her proposed Ascendant at 6º; and the awakening to her spirit guide and the beginning of her creative outpouring had Uranus transiting at 2º17’Pisces, right on the proposed MC, aptly symbolising such an apparition (Christ on the cross surrounded by angels, appearing in the clouds) and subsequent epiphany-like creative/spiritual catalyst.
By the way, the name of her spirit guide, Myrninerest, brings to mind Jupiter in Taurus in the 11th house (‘The Good Daimon’), which is conjunct Neptune. It’s fascinating to see that this guide made itself available to her on the day of the exact conjunction of these two by transit at 9ºLeo, falling on her 3rd house cusp of communications, opposite Mercury on her 9th.
She was born at a once-every-20-year Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, and died at another, four cycles later, in 1961, at the cusp of her proposed 8th house.
You will see that, at 27º Capricorn, the current position of transiting Pluto - an important player in the drama of this chart - is crossing her Sun-Moon conjunction over 2021-24. Could this suggest this is a significant time in the reevaluation and resurrection of this artist’s life and work
Appendix:
Dates used in birth time rectification
sent to Canada, 30/7/1896
Returned from Canada, November 1900
First child born, September 1906
Marriage, 1/1/1907
Child Reggie died, 27/10/1918
Life-threatening illness, including the removal of her eye, Jan/Feb 1920
Stillborn daughter, Feb 1921
First encounter with Myrninerest, 3/3/1920
Death, 28/1/1961