Marx The Taurus

Two Centuries. Dozens of biographies. Thousands of pages. Tens of thousands of hours of research. And yet, not a single mention of what is obviously the most important aspect of Karl Marx’s life, and the biggest influence on his philosophy: his birth chart. 

Comrades, let us correct this folly.

We are lucky to have an accurate birth certificate in the documentary record. Having the precise date, time, and place of his entry into the world allows us to conduct a very scientific reading of his birth chart. 

Little Karl was born in Trier, Germany on May 5, 1818, around 2:00 AM, to Henriette Presborck and 37-year-old barrister, Heinrich Marx. The sun, moon, and planets were in the following position when he was born:

Three areas of his chart demand attention. 

First and foremost, Karl’s chart is dominated by the sign of Taurus, with his Sun, Moon, Venus, and North Node in the Epicurean sign of the Bull. Tauruses are most commonly described as hard-working, practical, earthy, nature-loving, sensual, honest, and willful. As a fixed Earth sign, they are known for stubbornness, determination, and endurance. In astrology, the Second House of Taurus is known as the House of Value. It’s concerned with possessions, money, and material things. 

With this new information,  snapshots from Marx’s life take on a undeniable Taurean glint: here he is squirreled away in the British Library, steadfastly filling  notebook after notebook with  his investigations into political economy; here he is locating the mysteries of capitalist accumulation in the practical, sensuous activity of labour; here he is struggling year after year, doggedly trying to identify  and track the complex transformations  of value under capitalism. Adamantly grounded in  the material and the practical, Marx’s critique of political economy is quintessentially Taurean.

The second critical aspect of Marx’s birth chart is his Ascendant in Aquarius and his Uranus in Sagittarius.  The Ascendant refers to a person’s outward style and how they appear to others around them. Aquarians are curious, creative, independent, unconventional, and rebellious, and Marx clearly displays such qualities in his thinking. His work is characterized by openness, creativity, originality, non-conformity, independence, and individualism. Russian literary critic Pavel Annenkov confirms this in his reflections on Marx in 1846: “All his movements were angular, but bold and confident; his manners directly violated all accepted social conventions.” 

Uranus, meanwhile, represents freedom, innovation, and progressive thinking, and those with Uranus in Sagittarius strive to collect as much information as possible, with a constant need for change and adventure. The way German philosopher Arnold Ruge described Marx to Ludwig von Feuerbach certainly aligns with this characterization: “He reads a great deal, he works with unusual intensity [. . .]  but he does not complete anything, he is constantly breaking off and plunging anew into an endless sea of books.” The notebooks on the wide ranging topics of Marx’s interest in the thousands of pages in the 65 volumes of Die Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) also speak to the individualistic and adventurous patterns in his reading and thinking.

The third and last element of Marx’s chart that deserves attention is his Mercury in Gemini. Mercury is concerned with intellect, information, and communication. Under the influence of  Gemini, the sign which means “twins” in Latin, Marx’s thinking is defined  by the desire to learn and communicate. With a speedy, racing mind making connections and moving in many directions, Marx was enamored by all knowledge. Influenced by Gemini, Marx’s thinking, much like the twins, is inherently dualistic, or… dialectical, if you will.

This brief analysis of Marx’s birth chart is my gift to Marxology. Despite persistent resistance to my doctrine of astrological-historical materialism from charlatans in the so-called “Left,” I maintain that this line of inquiry at least goes further to explain Marx’s life and thought than some earlier attempts. “Poor health, Jewish origin, and the fact that he was firstborn,” is all we got from Otto Rühle. Meanwhile, Francis Wheen offered little more than, “squat and swarthy, a Jew tormented by self-loathing.” 

Well, from one squat, swarthy, self-loathing double Taurus to another: Happy Birthday, Karl!