The Centaurs Series: Okyrhoe Part III

Two other Okyrhoe individuals who have tried to tell their visions — and
felt the wrath of the powers-that-be — are filmmaker Michael Moore (Sun
at 3° Taurus and Okyrhoe at 5° Taurus trine Mars and the Moon at 3° Capricorn), and environmental activist David Suzuki, whose Sun in Aries opposes Okyrhoe in Libra (charts not shown).

Sometimes you will find a person with a strong Okyrhoe who is in deep pain, feeling that they have an important message that either no one will listen to or that people try to compel them to keep to themselves. Artist Vincent van Gogh said, “I want to get to the point where people say of my work, ‘that man feels deeply’.”1 But he felt that he just could not get his message across, that people did not “hear” him, so he could not find his place in the world. Although his paintings are now loved by many, he took his own life, believing himself to be a failure. His chart (not shown) had Okyrhoe, Mars, and Venus closely conjunct (26°–28° Pisces) and square the Moon and Jupiter at 21°–24° Sagittarius.

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Gerome Bernard Ragni and James Radomski (“Rado”) are best known for co-authoring one of the most iconic musicals of the 1960s, Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. The story asked Americans to take a long, hard look at what they were doing and where they were heading, and it aimed serious jabs at all sorts of sacred cows along the way. There was a sense of outrage about how people were treating other people and, even more, how people were treating the Earth. For example, the character Jeannie sings, “Welcome, sulfur dioxide. Hello, carbon monoxide. The air ... is everywhere ... vapor and fume at the stone of my tomb, breathing like a sullen perfume.”2 And one of the most powerful songs, “Where Do I Go?”, very much expresses the Okyrhoe quest for truth: “Where is the something, where is the someone that tells me why I live and die? ... Down to the gutter, Up to the glitter, Into the city where the truth lies.”3

Okyrhoe is prominent in both men’s charts. Ragni has it closely conjunct his Sun, and Rado has it in a tight square to his Venus. When the two met, Okyhroe became very much a part of their dynamics, since Ragni’s Saturn falls on Rado’s Venus and squares his Okyrhoe, while Ragni’s Okyrhoe is closely trine Rado’s Chiron.

They met in October 1964 and began working together on Hair as transiting Okyrhoe in Sagittarius squared its natal position in Ragni’s chart and formed a quincunx to Rado’s Chiron. Hair, the world’s first rock musical, had its world debut in New York on October 17, 1967. When the curtain went up at 8:30 p.m. EDT, Okyrhoe at 22°20’ Capricorn was on the cusp of the 9th house, trine Pluto, Ceres, and Uranus conjunct in Virgo on the cusp of the 5th (Koch houses, chart not shown). The Sun was just separating from its square to Okyrhoe, but it was the night of a lunar eclipse, which would be exact a few hours later at 24°20’ Aries, still squaring Okyrhoe. A lunar eclipse can be thought of as an amplified Full Moon. Its energy brings things to a head, often releasing intense, built-up emotions in the process. Hair would soon have a major impact on Western culture, even politics. It stirred deep passions and was a force in polarizing society. And its messages could not be silenced: When an attempt was made to ban the musical, it was struck down by the United States Supreme Court, affirming the right of freedom of expression.4

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Joseph Wood Krutch was born with the planet of beauty, Venus, conjunct his Okyrhoe in Capricorn (chart not shown). He was a teacher, drama critic, biographer, editor, journalist, and public speaker who was at first quite pessimistic about the future of humanity, until he went through a personal transformation and discovered the beauty and healing power of nature.

His health was failing, and in early 1950 (while Saturn in Virgo trined his Okyrhoe), his doctor ordered him to leave the damp East Coast and move to a more arid climate, so he soon found himself breathing the dry air of the Sonora Desert in Arizona. There, he fell in love with nature in all its forms and felt reborn. He wrote and illustrated many books sharing his vision of life in the desert, and he became increasingly aware of just how much humanity needs the beauty that nature offers.

In 2006, when Al Gore brought us the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, transiting Uranus conjoined his natal Okyrhoe three times.

A person’s Ascendant shows their view of the immediate world around them, which guides how they interact with the world and, as a result, shapes their outward appearance, the way the world sees them (at least on the surface). To some extent, the Ascendant helps to shape their actual physical appearance as well. Anything that is conjunct the Ascendant has an impact on the worldview and how the person comes across. So, one’s appearance, if Okyrhoe is on the Ascendant, should in some way express the nature of this body.

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Bettie Page — who had Okyrhoe conjunct her Pisces Ascendant — was an American model in the 1950s, but she was truly one of a kind (chart not shown). At a time when the typical woman would not dream of doing as she pleased, Bettie was bold and acted seemingly without concern for social restrictions. She reveled in appearing scantily clad, and in fact she believed that there was nothing wrong with nudity. At first glance, you might think of her as the sweet girl next door, and seconds later, you’d see that there was a kind of naughty twinkle in her eye. But it was more than that.

Professor Michael Cunningham studied Bettie’s facial features and concluded: “The height and width of Bettie Page’s eyes were much greater than average, giving her the appearance of childlike innocence and playfulness. That effect was compounded by her very large smile, and her eyebrows, which were set higher than average. The combination of childlike and expressive features made her face appear both open and non-threatening.”5

Take that image and dress it in black lace, or staged bondage scenes, and you have Bettie Page’s photos. As you can imagine, there were those who wanted to stop her, and at one point the government pulled her in for questioning as part of a crackdown on pornography. But Bettie never felt that she was doing anything wicked — she was just having a lot of fun.

She once told an interviewer something that I think truly expresses her Okyrhoe rising:

I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn’t trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn’t think of myself as liberated, and I don’t believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn’t know any other way to be, or any other way to live.6

I’d like to close with a quote from Werner Erhard, another individual with Venus conjunct Okyrhoe:

The problems we have now in communities and societies are going to be resolved only when we are brought together by a common sense that each of us is a visionary. Each of us must come to the realization that we can function and live at the level of vision rather than following some great leader’s vision. Instead of looking for a great leader, we are in an era where each of us needs to find the great leader in ourselves.7

© 2013 Zane B. Stein – all rights reserved

Zane B. Stein Zane B. Stein is an American astrologer (although now lives in Australia) and is known particularly for his focus on Chiron. He received the Canopus Award For Excellence in 1998. His book, Essence and Application: A View From Chiron, has been called truly groundbreaking. In 2022, he published Chiron – Healer and Wholemaker, which picks up where Essence left off. Zane has specialized in studying the many bodies discovered since Chiron, such as the many other Centaurean bodies like Pholus, Nessus and Chariklo, and TNO’s like Eris, Orcus and Sedna. He has lectured worldwide in person and online. He works with astrologer Lynette Malone to help grow the online community, Astrology Collective astrologycollective.org and his website is zanestein.com.

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(in alphabetical order)

Werner Erhard, September 5, 1935; 10:30 p.m. EDT; Philadelphia, PA, USA (39°N57’, 75°W10’); AA: quoted birth certificate (BC).

Joseph Wood Krutch, November 25, 1893; birth time unknown (noon CST used); Knox- ville, TN, USA (35°N58’, 83°W55’); X: date without a time; data from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wood_Krutch

Michael Moore, April 23, 1954; 12:45 p.m. EST; Flint, MI, USA (43°N01’, 83°W41’); AA: quoted BC.

Bettie Page, April 22, 1923; 3:00 a.m. CST; Nashville, TN, USA (36°N10’, 86°W47’); B: biography.

James Rado, January 23, 1932; birth time unknown (noon PST used); Venice Beach, CA, USA (33°N59’, 118°W28’); X: data from http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rado

Jerry Ragni, September 11, 1935; 4:15 a.m. EDT; Pittsburgh, PA, USA (40°N26’, 79°W59’); C: accuracy in question.

David Suzuki, March 24, 1936; birth time unknown (noon PST used); Vancouver, Brit- ish Columbia, Canada (49°N16’, 123°W07’); X: data from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_ Suzuki

Vincent van Gogh, March 30, 1853; 11:00 a.m. LMT; Zundert, Netherlands (51°N28’, 04°E40’); AA: BC in hand from Steinbrecher.

Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnières) Date: 1887 Artist: Vincent van Gogh Dutch, 1853-1890 https://www.artic.edu/artworks/109314/fishing-in-spring-the-pont-de-clichy-asnieres by Art Institute of Chicago on Unsplash

(All URLs, here and in the body of the article, were accessed in August 2026, unless otherwise noted.)