Barbara Hunt Watters died in 1984 at the age of 76. She practiced in Washington, D. C. but was originally from Chicago. Watters' most famous book is Sex and the Outer Planets. She has also written a book on horary astrology and is often quoted for her interpretations.
Sex and the Outer Planets is available through Barnes and Noble online, so I have linked you directly there if you click the book cover.
I made this page for Barbara Watters because I want to recommend this book as probably the #1 book on easy to understand psychological astrology that I've read. Published in 1971, the book is "dated" in a few insignificant ways but remains one of a kind.
Watters' treatment of the three outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto is exceptionally good. Few people will really tackle Pluto, among them Jeff Green (not recommended), Liz Greene, and Donna Cunningham. Also see The Pluto Club.
I have a real problem with Jeff Green's books on Pluto and do not recommend them.
Watters' treatment is dead on, Green's is seriously flawed, Donna Cunningham has done some very good writing about Pluto but mostly from a recovery perspective. Liz Greene does an excellent Jungian interpretation. She is incomparable.
Highly recommended:
and available online, Liz Greene's book on Pluto is called The Astrology
of Fate (just click the cover).
Pretty good:
Donna Cunningham's book, Healing Pluto Problems includes some of
the recovery work that took place after Watters' book was written. Cunningham
is always a very sincere writer and her books are geniune attempts to
get to the heart of personal matters. (She has also written on the Moon
and other topics.) Cunningham isn't the greatest writer in the world,
but she is reliable as an emotional support in the difficult healing problem
of Pluto issues. Click the cover to order from Barnes and Noble.
Watters' writing style is very dramatic and she packs a terrific wallop. It's a great way to learn because it's easy to remember the points she's making. Her conclusions are based on readings and research with real peoples' charts. I find no other astrologer who writes the way she does. Her willingness to call a spade a spade is very refreshing in a day of euphemisms that make it almost impossible to learn the basics clearly.
Please click here to see Watters' astrology chart. Click here for a quick interpretation.
Whereas in counseling euphemisms, tact, diplomacy,compassion and always an innate human kindness are critical, in teaching and learning, they can impede clarity. I often tell my students that the examples I give in class from the lives of real people are similar to a cadaver that medical students dissect. We respect the need and opportunity to do this, while wishing at some level there was another way to learn. Just as in medicine, when it gets right down to it, the only way to learn about the human body is to dissect one, in astrology, the only way to really learn is to study the charts and lives of real people and to be clean and unequivocal about the hypothetical assumptions and possible conclusions of signs, aspects, transits and progressions.
Watters' chapters on sadism and masochism are also especially good. I might even venture to say that she knows what she's talking about from personal experience, as though she might have observed people like this is her environment at one time (?) I have never been able to find biographical information about her.
In my opinion, she breaks forthrightly and powerfully into the ground that Scott Peck finally busted open in The Road Less Traveled. It is obvious to me she was a major influence on Liz Greene's book on Neptune. It was Watters who first said, "Neptune never fulfills its promises." Another of my favorites among her many dramatic and colorful statements is, "Masochism is the monkey on the back of Neptune."
Look at this woman. She has her Moon and Saturn in Pisces. Her North Node conjuncts Neptune. Who would know better than her? I like to get my astrology from the people who live it and learned it in the School of Hard Knocks.
Barbara Hunt Watters
(scanned from one of her books)
I also like Watters' quote about Uranian guns and Plutonic bombs which is commonly referred to among mundane astrologers.
Watters' book also contains some unforgettable examples. I recently reread her book after a hiatus of fifteen years and discovered that I had gleaned many ideas from it that had become a solid part of my interpretation skills through the years without necessarily remembering where they had come from. I was amazed when I reread the book, how much I now agreed with her observations and interpretations through my own experience reading for others. What I first accepted on faith as theory had proven to be very true in the laboratory of life.
Whereas the book is ostensibly about sexuality, understanding someone's sexuality is the key to their whole personality. As human beings we are absolutely consistent, even in spite of ourselves. We drive like we make love. We eat like we make love. We take up a new sport or visit the astrologer like we make love.
Putting it another way, if you're a thoughtless, careless, sloppy and unconscious driver, you'll be that way in bed, too. If you're a caring, thorough, focused and courteous driver, that's also how you'll make love.
Think about this in the most essential terms and you will see that it is true.
Watters examines the charts of people like Adolf Hitler (sadism), Gertrude Stein (Lesbianism), Somerset Maugham (homosexuality), the Marquis de Sade (sadomasochism) and also the charts of geniuses like Ludwig von Beethoven where sexuality is sublimated.
This graphic is used with permission from the artist ladivinemarquise@hotmail.com.
Visit La Divine Marquise's website Charenton
Walls
Here is an interview with Watters in Mercury Hour. I have requested permission to quote from this article in large part and am awaiting word. This statement by Watters comments on a problem that astrologers with a lot of experience frequently bump into, "the exception to the rule" phenomenon.
" ... I haven't missed out on the "fun" of the grand trine. I was born with 2 of them in my chart. I have only studied astrology for 43 years. I haven't yet decided what I think of grand trines. I told you that the ancient and classical astrologers considered it evil. Marc Edmund Jones, when he was a missionary on the Bowery, found that the charts of the drunks and drifters who came to church to get warm abounded in multiple trines and sextiles and lacked hard aspects. I am not responsible for those observations or opinions. They are worthy of consideration because they are contrary to a commonly accepted view and because they were expressed by astrologers devoted to their art. Years ago I did a study of mental illness and found the grand trine so over-represented in the charts of schizophrenics and manic depressives that I had to end up naming it one of the signatures of psychosis. Now please don't say I called you psychotic because you have a grand trine. I'm sure all but a few were and are depressingly sane. Sex and the Outer Planets is not a statistical study of individual aberrancies. It is a historical study of social cruelty enforced by law and custom against individuals and the misery this causes. Please don't take my word for anything like the prevalence of grand trines in alcoholics' charts. I came to this conclusion during 30 years of active practice with many alcoholic clients - perhaps several hundred. It seemed to form a pattern. Perhaps after 30 years of practice with several thousand clients, you will come to a different conclusion, which would be fine. Astrology is an art, not a science. Rembrandt was a great painter, but that doesn't make Van Gogh a liar.
" ... I am amazed at how many people take everything they hear or read personally. Every aspect manifests in numerous ways, depending on the whole chart. Years ago I gave a lecture in N.Y. on my book about murder. Someone asked me what aspects were common in murderers' charts. I said Mars square Saturn seemed to be one. When I finished, the prominent astrologer in charge came on stage to thank me and said "I want Mrs. Watters to know I have Mars square Saturn and I am not a murderer!" A short time later she had a massive stroke that paralyzed her for the rest of her life. None of us can use all the ways an aspect can express itself. Our charts forbid it
" ... I do not think this personalizing of what are essentially abstractions is good for astrology. Ours is a discipline that works on all levels of being. Claiming that because I'm not a Bowery bum in spite of two grand trines denies the validity of Jones' observations, insults Dr. Jones and demeans astrology.
Copyright 1982 by Barbara Watters and Mercury Hour.
Well, she speaks plainly, doesn't she?
Nancy's comment: Some of my conclusions after twenty-five years' practice are contained on this page. You may come to different conclusions after your first twenty years.
In fact, the intent of my entire website is to pass along many of the things I've learned over the years. In some of those years, I read for as many as 8 people a day, 6 or 7 days a week. I don't recommend that much interaction for an introvert, but it gave me a very wide exposure to people and an opportunity to read a lot of charts. In addition, I read for people from all walks of life, cultures, creeds and heritages.
At the moment, my practice is more limited, partially due to what I charge for a reading. I prefer longer readings, the average being about two hours. It is still possible to get an appointment with me within one to two weeks, however. I recommend an appointment for a reading if you would like an interpretation from someone with a great deal of experience. I prefer dealing with serious questions, crises and turning points in life; also personal and spiritual growth, life path and evolutionary soul information.
Barbara Watters was the recipient of the Marc Edmund Jones Award and I am quoting from the Kepler College website when I present the following information which may be of great general interest as well.
For those who don't know, Kepler College is the first accredited astrological college in America where it is possible to get a bachelor's or master's degree.
It begins : "The Marc Edmund Jones Award is one of the most prestigious awards in astrology. Named after Marc Edmund Jones, who created this award to honor innovative excellence of benefit to all astrologers, it is now administered by Barbara Somerfield. In the past it has been awarded to Dane Rudhyar, Neil Michelson, Jim Valliere, Jim Lewis, Eleanor Bach, Edith Wangemann, Dr. Theodor Landscheidt, Michel Gauquelin, Barbara Watters, Charles Jayne, Edith Custer, Nick Campion and J. Lee Lehman. The winner is selected by a process in which Barbara consults a number of leading astrologers. If they all agree on the same name then the prize is awarded, but this naturally makes it a rare event.
"In
the last ten years the award was presented only twice - to Nick Campion
in 1992 and Lee Lehman in 1995. There is a fair amount of drama involved
in the award ceremonies because there are no public nominees and the winner
has no idea of what is about to happen until their name is announced."
The award was recently presented to Kepler College itself and to the founder.
This is how Al Morrison (1916-1995) began his astrological career based on something Barbara Watters told him.
In 1940 Al H. Morrison was just starting out as a Federal law enforcement investigative officer. Barbara Watters explained to him about Void-of-Course Moons. ["Nothing ever comes of a Void-of-Course Moon".] At first very skeptical, Al investigated case records and proved to himself, to his amazement, that it was impossible to bring criminals in under the Void-of-Course Moon. He became a believer and started studying astrology himself. He was well known in New York and Europe.
This is an adequate explanation of the Void-of-Course Moon. It has much more significance in horary and predictive astrology, but time constraints mean that this definition must suffice for now.
I myself had the experience of reading for a Federal bounty hunter who used horary astrology to track his criminals down. He consulted Ivy Jacobson and swore by her interpretations. He is the one that got me interested in horary. He introduced me to her books (!).
This man was just retiring at around fifty and returned to Chula Vista, California to help his widowed mother with her diabetic weight problem and to make a career transition into daycare for children. He had one of the "heaviest" charts I've ever read. I mentioned that he might just as easily have been on the other side of the equation and he agreed. He said he had had an exceptional father.
Life is a mirror. Since it takes one to know one, this man had the ideal qualities to track down the heaviest criminals. Their charts would be similar to his, but he was using the energy for good and they for evil. As a Federal bounty hunter, he tracked down criminals who had jumped bail and left the country.
Interpretation of Watters' Chart
I don't feel it would be appropriate to do a full interpretation of this chart any more than I would want her doing one of me, but for learning purposes, let me point out four significant features.
One of the striking characteristics of Watters' writing is her ability to present the dark motives of people without flinching. This is a characteristic of people with Saturn in the 8th house.
Note that very powerful 11th house including the North Node. Her destiny was to be one of those bringing in the New Age.
Moon in Pisces in the 7th must have made Watters very psychic and also very easy to talk to. I imagine she had a large clientele. Her compassion is a marked feature of her writing (Saturn in Pisces, Moon in Pisces, North Node in Cancer conjunct Neptune) but it is combined with an 11th house willingness to reveal the highest truth.
Last but not least look at that bright sunny Leo Rising with Jupiter next to it in the 12th.
I love her treatment of Neptune in Sex and the Outer Planets. Many people have done Uranus and Pluto well, but this treatment of Neptune is outstanding and without equal. With Neptune aspecting her North Node, who would have a better right to take a real shot at this planet than Watters?
I personally have seen the most appalling suffering caused by people misusing Neptunian energy. It is, for example, a classic ingredient in the modus operandi of the psychopath, and to some extent, the borderline personality. These people at some level have no boundaries at all and so slide into the imaginative world of a susceptible person they are trying to feed off of for awhile (who plays the Neptunian end of the arrangment) and discovers their deepest needs, the things people "scarcely dare to dream of" and then appears to offer them this. If you doubt that this is possible, read some passages in this book as to the extent of the Neptunian "fog". Of course, the victim at some point wakes up but usually after having been relieved of many things, both material and spiritual.
A rendering of this appears in Hannibal the Cannibal and his uncanny ability to ferret out a person's deepest fears, which are closely akin to their greatest dreams as well, we humans being what we are.
This type of manipulation is particularly evil, I believe, because I have seen time and again that it is possible to use someone's best instincts against them in this manner. In some way, it is the Saturnian beckoning out of the Shadow of the Saint (Neptune). The shadow of the saint is a very big one, indeed. Many people who are victimized in this way, will cooperate unconsciously wiht the plot because subconsciously their greatest fear is that they are NOT unconditionally loving. This is the shadow (greatest fear) of the saintly person. Needless to say, such people are much stronger if they actually comes to terms with how they got waltzed out on the dance floor to begin with. If I have no doubts about my own capacity to love unconditionally, I would never fall for this in the first place, you see. Part of the growth required here is to see that loving unconditionally has nothing to do with being nice to evil people :-) If that seems self evident, it is not to the Neptunian types who encounter this experience in outer reality. Nonetheless, it is particularly atrocious to me and I am outraged when I see it happening to someone else.
Nancy R. Fenn
What Nancy's readers have said:
7.08.2008
Hello Nancy R. Fenn,
Thanks for the article on Babara Watters and thanks for her chart. I just finished reading Sex and the Outer Planets for a second time. I read it the first time some years ago. The book is very useful for me.
I'm not an experienced astrologer, still learning, and I agree with you completely in your statement: "Whereas in counseling euphemisms, tact, diplomacy, compassion and always an innate human kindness are critical, in teaching and learning, they can impede clarity."
I am glad you said that.
My opinion is that, in addition to her eighth house Saturn, Barbara Watters' Mars square Venus conjunct Sun comes through pretty loud and clear in her writing too, and I'm not exactly sure of all the astrological interactions, but I think she may have missed an important connection between theft/deception and the US banking/financial system.
It seems the nature of modern money is fundamentally deceptive/corrupt, a trick. The book was published in 1971, so I expect that she wrote it prior to the US default on its promise to forever back the US dollar with gold (Nixon closed the "gold window" on Aug 15, 1971). Since then, I think that Neptune's role in ruling the US banking/financial system is apparent.
By the way, your website is really very nice. I hope to read more articles....
Thanks, SW
