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Most of the people I've talked to are most familiar with the Studio Ghibli film adaptation of the book Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. But if that's your only familiarity with the material, you're missing out on a lot! Although I adore the film and rewatch it regularly, it changes or removes a number of fairly important details, such as the third Hatter sister, Howl's origins and family, the Witch of the Waste's fire demon, etc. I'll probably go into more detail on the differences between the two versions in a future post, but for today I just wanted to have a little fun and talk about how the wizard Howl is Taurus and why this is perfect. In order to explain, I bring up lots of examples from the book, so consider this your spoiler warning! (Also I'm so new to astrology, this is just for fun so don't take it too seriously lol.)
Now sadly, it's almost impossible to know Howl's full birthdate and place of birth, so we can't build a full chart for him, but we can do the calculations and make a reasonable guess that he's a Taurus sun. The witch's curse takes hold when Howl is 10,000 days old on Midsummer, traditionally June 24th, so he's about 27 and a half. We'll assume that despite the fantasy nature of whatever planet Ingary inhabits, they abide by the same rules of space and time, and we'll also assume that there's no time difference between Ingary and Howl's home country of Wales (ie. it's January 1st in both Ingary and Wales at the exact same moment). A little bit of math tells us that Howl's birthday is about 138 days before Midsummer (June 24th) which gives us an approximate birthday of February 6th. Even allowing for a few days as a margin of error, this puts us solidly in Aquarius season.
Now before we get into the details, Aquarius is an air sign, not water as one might assume from the name. The three air signs are Aquarius, Gemini (hey y'all 😜), and Libra. Air signs tend to be analytical, level headed thinkers, intellectuals who can keep their emotions out of it when making a decision. They tend to keep their feelings to themselves, not shouting them to the world, and Howl definitely plays his cards close to his chest. Not only that, but the fact that he actually gave up his heart to Calcifer is basically the definition of keeping emotions out of things. Air signs tend to also be charming, sociable, and easy to talk to, traits that Howl uses regularly while wooing the lady of the week. (Air signs can also be indecisive or fickle and get bored easily, which is one explanation for why Howl is done the moment the chase ends and the poor girl finally falls for him.) Air signs are often employed or moonlight as teachers, a role Howl fills for his apprentice Michael.
Okay so getting into the more Aquarius-specific traits, they're all about individuality, intuition, ideas and inspiration, the rebel or black sheep of the family. They need space and freedom to do their own thing, constant mental and intellectual stimulation, and may gravitate towards friendships where they get social dynamics without deep feelings and connection.
Howl doesn't want to be tied down by anything. He's clearly the odd one out in his family, only his little niece Mari appears to be truly accepting of who he is without wanting him to change in some way. As soon as one of the girls he's pursuing expresses affection, he heads for the hills, avoiding them and any family members who may come after him. This ties into keeping a superficial emotional level in relationships, personal freedom and maintaining a lack of commitments, as well as intellectual stimulation. As soon as he doesn't have to work for it anymore, he's bored and on to the next thing.
With his apprentice Michael, he clearly doesn't get emotionally involved, flitting in and out of the castle with no clear schedule or routine. Any magical instruction Michael receives almost feels like an afterthought and they certainly don't sit around talking about ~feelings~ (at least not before Sophie came!). Howl keeps his distance from Sophie too, only opening up to her after rescuing her from the Witch of the Waste as her curse is being fulfilled. He knows Sophie herself is under a curse the whole time, but doesn't really stop to wonder why she ended up with him or who she is outside of the old woman persona she's let herself adopt and wear like armor.
For all of his flaws though, Howl is clearly brilliant. As a child, he just went out and caught himself a demon to bargain for immortality! He brags about being more innovative than Wizard Suliman but this isn't just him tooting his own horn, as he is the very next choice for Royal Wizard after Suliman disappears. The king trusts him to outfit the army with spells and supplies, and in the instances we see him teaching Michael, he obviously knows his stuff and is actually a good teacher.
There's plenty more to say about Howl and his Aquarius traits, but I'll leave it at this for today. What did you think about this zodiac analysis of Howl? Did I get it right? Is there another character from this book or another piece of media who I should try and analyze? Let me know in the comments!
References
Air Signs
Aquarius
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