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F M Alexander: Originator of the Alexander Technique
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Frederick Matthias Alexander originated the Alexander Technique by consciously discovering the natural poise that adult humans are capable of. His method consists of using the mind to choose not to repeat habits of co-ordination and movement, and instead to send messages to the body from the conscious self, rather than the unconscious self.

In astrological terms, this is primarily about the Moon and Mercury. The Moon is our habitual bodily experience, whereas Mercury is about conscious and rational thought, and co-ordination. Together, the Moon and Mercury correlate with the nervous system: Autonomic Nervous System (Moon), and most of the Central Nervous System (Mercury).

Whilst some caution is required regarding Alexander's birth time, it's fascinating how his Moon is unaspected except for a quintile to Mercury.

The lack of conventional aspects shows a disconnection of the Moon from the rest of the psyche: the Alexander Technique's essence is about disconnecting from the habitual level of functioning and from unconsciousness, and switching more fully to the Mercurial level from which to direct co-ordination and movement.

The quintile between Moon and Mercury indicates that, on some essential level of being, Alexander 'knows about' the interaction of habit and thought, habit and co-ordination. It's this 'knowing' that he drew on in his discoveries that led to his teaching his technique.

With Mercury in Aquarius, there is an additional element of 'rational thought' and 'disconnect from the body's habits and the pull of the past' in this chart.

Alexander's methods were discovered when his work as a reciter (Mercury) were disrupted by problems with his voice (Mercury. He embarked upon nearly ten years of essentially scientific experimentation (Aquarius) and self-observation using mirrors (Mercury is conjunct the 7th house cusp, and quintile the Moon which rules reflection).

His method of teaching (Mercury) his technique (Mercury in Aquarius) involved working on students (Mercury) with his hands (Mercury) and with a process of objective observation combined with bodily feeling (Moon).

A couple of quotes from Alexander to illustrate this astrology:

"You've been trying to use your organism [Moon] by primarily dis-coordinating it [Mercury]."

"We can throw away the habit of a lifetime [Moon] in a few minutes if we use our brains [Mercury]."

If the birthtime is reasonably accurate, Alexander's Moon-Mercury quintile likes with the Ascendant-Descendant axis, also by a quintile aspect. This would mean that his behaviour and relationships revolve around this knowing about habit and thought. It also brings in 'action' (Ascendant axis) with 'observation' (Moon-Mercury).

In the year when his voice problems began to plague him, the Neptune-Pluto conjunction in Gemini (sign of the voice, of reason, and of co-ordination) was close to his MC and trining his Sun.  It was also square his Mars and so there was an activation of his natal Mars-quintile-Jupiter aspect (he knew a lot about horses, ruled by Jupiter).

The transiting lunar south node was conjunct his Sun, and Saturn was moving around his 12th house (unconscious limitations) getting ready to cross his Ascendant and move into his 1st house (ushering in a new and pivotal phase in life).

During the course of his self-observations, Uranus opposed his Moon, activating the lunar quintile with Mercury.

In 1973, Nobel prize winner (physiology/medicine) Niko Tinbergen wrote about Alexander:

"This story of perceptiveness, of intelligence and persistence, shown by a man without medial training, is one of the true epics of medical research and practice. His research started some fifty years before the revival of ethology...yet his procedure was very similar to modern observational methods."

Alexander's process of using open-minded attention to observe himself in action has been described as 'watching and wondering'. This nice little phrase wonderfully encapsulates the reflective process of Moon-Mercury quintile.

There is of course much more to F M Alexander and his chart, however this is a good example of the quintile aspect in action, and illustrates how a person can draw on the potentials within themselves, shown by their natal chart, and contribute something incredibly valuable to society.




Astrology for the 21st Century - Bringing the sky down to Earth
