Robyn Archer
Lesbian Feminist Australian Singer, Cabaret Playwright &
Theatre Director, Writer, Actor, Arts Activist, Festival Director
I’m more of a dangerous individualist . . . I never believed that a political position was death to an artist’s career, although there has always been advice around to that effect. I decided early on never to hide my politics or my sexuality."
-- Robyn Archer (Uranus Rising).
astrology chart, profile, links
Gemini Ascendant, Gemini Sun, Scorpio Moon
ASTRoDATA:
18 June 1948, 06:30 (6:30AM) ACST (9h30e), Prospect, Adelaide, SA, Australia (138e35, 34s54). RR: A. Sy Scholfield [copyright] quotes data from her as quoted in both Jane Bennett and Craig McIntosh's A Handbook of Astrology
For Australia and New Zealand (Richmond, Vic.: Greenhouse, 1986, p. 196)
& Stephanie Johnson's
Australian Data Collection.
CHART FEATURES: PERSONALIZED PLANETS:
Cancer MERCURY (rules Ascendant, conjunct & dispositing Sun, trine Moon),
Leo PLUTO (semi-square Sun, square and dispositing Moon), Virgo MARS (on Base, sextile Moon),
Sagittarius JUPITER (on Descendant, opposite Sun), SAPPHO (conjunct Midheaven). PATTERNS:
Gemini-Cancer STELLIUM (Uranus, Sun, Mercury, Venus). SHAPE: BOWL.
CHINESE SIGN: EARTH RAT. NUMEROLOGY: "10/1" LIFEPATH.
Robyn Archer was born in a caravan to financially disadvantaged,
hard-working parents who ran a delicatessen -- her mother was a sandwich-maker
and talented (but non-professional) singer (motherly Moon ruling 2nd House of singing),
while her father worked nights as a Vaudeville comedian and singer
(Venus, ruler of the 5th House of stage perfomance, conjunct the fatherly Sun
which is opposed by comedic Jupiter).
From 2 years old, Archer suffered from severe asthma and needed her own room
(Progressed Moon conjunct cusp of 6th House of health), having explained that her
only-child status was due to her "mum and dad [being] on a budget [while] I was taking
up a lot of extra time and expenses."
Robyn Archer started singing publically at 12 (progressed Gemini Ascendant conjunct her
natal Uranus/Sun conjunction, with progressed Mercury/Venus semi-sextile natal
career-orientated Saturn in performative Leo). At 15, she was on Bandstand,
singing in Adelaide's Hindley Street district from 16, and later on radio and in coffee
houses at university. Speaking of Adelaide's West End, Archer has said
I participated in my first Festival in 1970 in a show called, On the Fringe.
I was spotted by Bill Boyley who ran the Trocodero. In those days the Troc was a wild
place. It was the favourite haunt of opal miners down in the big smoke for a big weekend.
Favoured girls would be offered opals from a little bag, I remember one Greek God's
Metaxa bill for the night was over $300. The rival to the Troc was the Paprika.
("Robyn Archer: On the West End")
Archer has said that
singing has been "biologically part of my life" since then, and that she needs
"to have a big blast from time to time" in order to balance out her energies
(Moon/Chiron midpoint on the cusp of the 6th House of health, with Moon ruling
her 2nd House of singing, and Chiron-the-healer ruling the energy-grounding base of her chart).
As a reflection of her diverse musical repertoire, she has recorded over 10 CDs.
In 1974 (as progressed Neptune -- the ruler of her 10th House of
aspirations and fame -- trined her natal Mercury/Venus conjunction), Archer began
singing German Cabaret songs of the Weimar period, and she has since become recognised
as one of the world's foremost interpreters of this tradition.
Archer said in 1999 that her favourite piece of music of the 2nd millennium
is Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time" -- which was
written "in a concentration camp, ... for the busted, broken and out-of-tune
instruments they had at the time, [thus] signify[ing] a great deal about the
history of music ... composed under such threat of difficult death [it] signifies
to me that music has always existed in the bad times and the good ... [and that] the
abstraction of music has a very powerful ability to express compelling impressions
of the infinite scope of the universe." (Meanwhile, progressed Moon at 4°
Capricorn was opposing her natal Mercury/Venus, while progressed power-planet
Pluto at 4° Libra was T-squared by these planets).
At about 15, Archer had her first crush on another girl (progressed Jupiter -- ruler of
her 7th House of relationships -- opposite natal Venus in Cancer), and had her "first
serious lesbian lover" at university (progressed Jupiter sextile Moon which
disposits her Venus). As of 2000, her lover is Erika -- a cinematographer.
REFERENCES
Archer, Robyn. "Curating
a Festival -- A View From the Inside"
---. "My Favourite Piece of Music." Sydney Morning Herald
27 November 1999.
---. A Star Is Torn.
Debelle, Penelope. "Two Of Us: Robyn Archer & Mary Smith." Good Weekend
11 March 2000.
"Lesbians in Australia"
O'Callaghan, Anne. "`What
I really want to do is sing'" (Review of Lee Sappho sings the Blues),
Green Left Weekly 1997.
O'Donnell, Marcus. "Getting Ahead." Outrage (July 1997) 58-60.
Rees, Paul. "Robyn Archer:
Paul Rees Catches Up with One of Australia's Cultural Whirlwinds"
Interview, New Internationalist issue 315 (August 1999).
"Robyn Archer" Festival Mushroom Records 2000.
"Robyn
Archer: On the West End" Adelaide Festival, 1998-2000.
"Robyn
Archer: Papers 1973-1995" National Library of Australia.<
p>
Rodger, Freya. "Going For Gold." Lesbians
On the Loose October 1999: 21.
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