Nick Jeffery and I last September played with the idea that Rowling-Galbraith had given characters names or behaviors that strongly suggested they were meant to be read as ciphers or types of astrological signs, Aquarius and Aries to Taurus and Virgo. It was a game we enjoyed on the moderator’s channel, a role-playing exercise in which we were the fanatic readers who saw things-no-one-else-can-see and created towers of argument and evidence that Rowling the Astrologer was sending us Zodiac-encrypted messages. Like the best jokes, ‘Hallmarked Astrology’ died a natural death and we took off our Sorcerer’s Apprentice pointy, velvet, midnight blue hats with radiant stars to post about other things.
I revived the game last week with Ed Shardlow and, being Ed, he immediately came up with a few associations Nick and I had missed. I resolved to post these “findings” on the off-chance that Rowling-Galbraith did this deliberately as a game for her family to enjoy, in which each of her children and husband placed a wager on the date that someone in Strike fandom would post on the secret astrological backdrop to Strike 8. My hope, of course, is, in addition to the family member with the best guess for the date winning the prize, that Rowling will buy the person who spotted this pattern a new house from a prize fund she keeps in an off-shore tax haven.
So, let’s begin.
The twelve signs of the zodiac are in the order of the astrological houses: Aries, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. The astrological signs by month are a bit different; starting with Aries they are: Aries (March 21 - April 20), Taurus (April 21 - May 20), Gemini (May 21 - June 20), Cancer (June 21 - July 22), Leo (July 23 - August 22), Virgo (August 23 - September 22), Libra (September 23 - October 22), Scorpio (October 23 - November 21), Sagittarius (November 22 - December 21), Capricorn (December 22 - January 19), Aquarius (January 20 - February 18), and Pisces (February 19 - March 20). Let’s go with the houses for our starting line and proceed with the calendar.
Aries, appropriately enough, was the first one we spotted, the one that launched the Find The Sign mad-reader role-playing game. Kenneth Ramsay, owner of the silver shop in the basement of which William Wright was murdered, has a surname that means “like a ram,” the symbol of Aries. You can read the accepted qualities of a person born with Aries as their star sign here; not much of a match, frankly, but there’s no disputing the Ram-Aries connection.
Taurus has as its symbol the Bull and we encounter her in an adjacent square to Kenneth Ramsay, Pamela Bullen-Driscoll, another silver shop owner and Ramsay’s sister-in-law and sometime part-time employee. ‘Bullen’ means ‘from Boulogne’ per Reaney & Wilson but it certainly syncs with the astrological sign. For Taurus’ natal qualities, see here; I’m not seeing Pamela as a cartoon Taurean but the name-link is a strong one.
Gemini has as its symbol the Twins, stand-ins for Castor and Pollux. Robin the horse rider (and car driver) is the one and Strike the Boxer is the other (see here for much more on that and here for the astrological sign’s natal signatures). In Troubled Blood we had a ‘Gemma,’ but Hallmarked Man’s twins are either the two Ellacott cousins, Dirk and Barnaby, or Decima and Rupert, the latter of whom refers to his beloved half-sister as his soul twin, anime gemelle (hat tip, Ed Shardlow).
Cancer? We have Jonny Rokeby in recovery from stress-induced prostate cancer, for starters, but Todd Jameson and William Wright are described twice as carrying the heavy crate in the silver shop “walking crab like” (chs 20 and 113). Cancer’s defining characteristics can be found here.
Leo the Lion has a host of representatives and representations; see Ed’s post on the lions of Hallmarked Man (and here) and my notes on the characters with leonine names in Strike 8 for more on that. I think the newborn Lion Mullins is the first lion we meet in the book with Hafsa Mohamed being his lioness shadow. Rokeby has the middle name Leonard and was saved by his drummer friend Leo. Read about the Leo qualities per astrology here.
Virgo — astrology here — is a soft point in our collection. The symbol for virgo is a young woman carrying wheat which could be reflected in Fiona Freeman’s relationship with Craig Wheaton. Or not? Ed points out that there is a “shief of corn” in a building’s ornamentation.
We’re back on stronger ground with Libra whose scales are a charm on the beloved Christmas gift bracelet and a token for Robin [“a tiny pair of silver scales (‘That’s Libra, it’s my sign, I used to have a keyring with that on it.’ ‘Yeah, well, I’m team rational.’)”]. Astrology notes here — and yes, Robin is a real match, carefully drawn.
Scorpio seemed a miss — no scorpions anywhere — but the other Scorpio symbol is the eagle. There’s one on the masonic sash on Tyler’s corpse and, wait for it, Sapphire n-Eagle, Tyler’s reflection in the Ironbridge basement. Astrology here. Being Team Scorpio I’d like to think the sacrificially loving and heroic Tyler, the Christian knight, was one, too, but I’ll let the less biased make the call there.
Sagittarius is the archer and Hallmarked Man is crowded with them, especially of the False Cupid variety. Start with the Longcasters, especially Dino and Valentine, and move on to deadbeat adoptive dad Ivor Powell and Susan Iverson (Ivor is a synonym for bowman). Supposedly averse to commitment, check out their erotic qualities per the zodiac here.
Capricorn the goat — astrology here — is not nearly as well reprsented. Todd Jameson makes a reference to “sacrificial goats” in the Masonic Hall (ch 28) and Bradley (the Gibson Delivery Service’s doorman) and Gretchen’s boyfriend both sport goatees (chs 25 and 45).
We get a strong come-back in the Zodiac game with Aquarius the water bearer (astrology here). Ryan F. Murphy is carrying his water bottle everywhere and Pat fills the office aquarium with water.
And for the finale, Pisces the fish. The three prominent animals frolicking about Strike 8 are lions, sheep (rams!). and fish. As Ed Shardlow’s noted just last week, “Fish are a recurring theme of The Hallmarked Man – with Strike-the-fish, countless servings of fish and chips, and the strongly seafood-themed dinner at the Dorchester.” Astrology here.
So the Cancer, Virgo, and Capricorn echoes in character names and behaviors or story symbols are real stretches. The other nine are pretty good, emough to at least foster a smile.
So what? I cannot see any possible meaning here. I post it for your amusement and in the ridiculous hope of winning a new house down payment from the interest off Rowling’s horde of galleons in her Cayman Island Gringott’s vault. Those who find better signatures of Cancer, Virgo, and Capricorn than I have, please report your discoveries in the comment boxes below!
This is so fun!
Are we talking about the new Twitter header yet?
A) Sunday schools!
B) unveiled by the Earl of Shaftesbury - the subject of the Eros/Anteros statue in Cuckoo’s calling