Chart Profile

Leonardo da Vinci

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Maybe it was hearing the words da Vinci da Vinci over and over. I had to check out the chart. Can we tell that this was a genius truly ahead of his time?

While there are different types of intelligence - artistic, musical, literary, scientific, mathematical and so on - Leonardo is famous for a variety of abilities, so we should see something striking in his chart.

We wouldn't automatically expect stellar IQ with a slow Mercury in Aries. Mercury had just recently direct and was moving only half a degree a day.  Pioneering, perhaps, but slow to fruition. This is true - many of his works took years to complete, if they were finished at all. He took his time. However Mercury does trine the Ascendant and Leonardo was born Mercury hour, so though slow this was an energy that was working for him.

When we look to the Moon, though, we see a different story. The Moon is conjunct a very dignified Jupiter, and it was Leonardo's inspired inner imagination (Moon-Jupiter) for which he was most famous. We also note that the Moon is in exact sextile to the Sun, further strengthened with Moon's reception of Sun in Taurus by exaltation. The two lights - Sun symbolizing the more rational action in the material world, Moon in Pisces the incredibly creative imagination - are cooperating to an extraordinary degree.

This brings us to an essential point. While we may see a very dignified Mercury in the charts of some geniuses, Mercury alone may not do it. Mercury the messenger can only take cue from King Sun and perhaps aided by Queen Moon in creative types. So to be truly intelligent in a beneficial way the Sun needs to have some extraordinary placement (ditto Moon for artists), which we clearly have here.

Yet why is Leonardo famous for being a genius as much as an artist? The answer (as usual) lies with the antiscia and the duads.

When we check antiscia, we see Uranus smack on the Descendant at 7 Gemini. Any planet on an angle takes over the chart. Uranus is the planet of being ahead of one's time, so things are starting to make sense. The antiscion position of Mercury at 20 Virgo helps too. This the sign of exaltation (even just 6 degrees from *the* max degree), near enough to the MC, and sextile natal Uranus as well. All this means he was much smarter, and likely to be known for this, than the chart first indicates.

The kicker is in the duads, said by Firmicus Maternus to represent the true power of the planet. The duad position of Leonardo's Mercury is 21 Cancer, conjunct natal Uranus by just 1 degree! There you have it. If we looked a chart and saw Mercury conjunct Uranus, our first thought would be someone who is at least intelligent and perhaps truly innovative. We don't see this in the chart, but we see it exactly in the duads.

And for those who want to be strictly traditional and ignore the outer planets, we still see something remarkable with the terms. Mercury itself is in terms of Venus, and she is strong in  Taurus. The duad position of Mercury is in the terms of Jupiter, and he is strong in Pisces. For those of you who think I am going out on a limb, these are simply the instructions of Firmicus: to determine the true power of the planet, check its terms, the duodecima (aka duad) position and its terms. When we do that in Leonardo's case we see that the Mercury is quite notable indeed.