Born with a stellium of luminaries in an Aries 5th house, Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola was a powerful, outspoken, creative and prolific individual.

His Mercury closely conjunct Mars, Pluto and Moon in Aries gave him the energy and compulsion to write, to communicate and express himself. He had an ultra sharp, critical mentality, with imagination (Neptune 3rd house sextile Sun 5th) which made him a fine journalist as well as novelist and playwright. This conjunction’s close trine to the 1st house Saturn provides an important resolve and determination to keep going, forged through earlier disappointments.

His powerful and incise Mercury is ruler of the 7th and 10th houses of relationships and career, energising both areas. His relationship with the painter Cezanne was important to him, but they fell out over Zola’s portrayal of the bohemian tendencies of artists.

Controversy

He also courted controversy later in his reaction to the Dreyfus affair. Venus, always a significator of relationships, is conjunct disruptive Uranus in the 4th house; relationships in general seem to have been unusual and something of a challenge, a difficulty, although he remained close to his mother and cared for her (Jupiter trine Venus/Uranus 4th house).

His Saturn is not really at home in his Sagittarian first house; he could be quite reticent with people, at first. His chart ruler, Jupiter is equally awkwardly placed in the Scorpio 12th house; despite his many natural creative talents, loneliness and disappointment were often visitors, though periods of deep introspection could be beneficial. A writer must essentially work alone, so such experiences would have been formative in the long run.

Copyright Francis 2022