When looking at the horoscope of the American mathematician John Forbes Nash, it wasn't immediately clear what kind of play was unfolding, but it certainly didn't seem like a comedy. The concentration of planets in the 10th house appears to have a love/hate relationship with the group in the 12th house, forming squares and sextiles that create a somewhat contradictory scenario. Nearly half of the planets are center stage, at the highest point of the chart, while others are squeezed backstage, acting as prompters. The Moon, ruler of the Ascendant, screams for recognition, distinction, action, and primacy, while the life-giving Sun, in the communicative sign of Gemini, is discreet, almost invisible, almost mute in the 12th house. The plot is complex, perhaps multifaceted. His career and public image are undeniably unconventional, marked by intense professional activity and successes, ambition. In contrast, the presence of planets in the dark 12th house suggests internal challenges and spiritual, mental battles.

Additionally, the chart seems "marked" by two heavy presences: Pluto on the Ascendant and Uranus near the Midheaven, both unmissable. And the big winner/loser? The besieged Mercury, both the blessing and curse of this chart. As the ruler of the 3rd and 12th houses, Mercury is trapped and relentlessly bombarded by Uranus. Although proximity to Pluto might empower it, it also casts a shadow on thought, mind, and psyche. Uranus' electric discharges bring original, out-of-the-blue ideas, pioneering thoughts, and flashes of brilliance, but they also bring tension, overstimulation, and overexcitement of the mind. This, combined with the depth Pluto forces Mercury to delve into, birthed his genius theories but also opened the gates of hell, leading him down dark, labyrinthine paths. The relationship between the Moon and Mercury is also significant, with its strategic position and the bellicose Mars neighbour contributing to the mental and emotional challenges.

The concentration of planets in the 10th and 12th houses suggests that a series of conjunctions, sextiles, and squares will form at a relatively young age due to progressions. In trying to determine which forces prevail, I started counting, only to quickly lose track and have to start over, as time early on created a rapidly changing, complex network of aspects, seemingly infinite in number. So I try again:

• In the 1st year, Mars meets the Moon and Pluto the Ascendant.
• In the 4th year, Mercury touches Pluto.
• In the 5th year, progressed Uranus squares natal Mercury and progressed Mercury is on the Ascendant.
• In the 8th year, Mercury completes a square with Mars.
• In the 9th year, the Moon meets Jupiter and Uranus squares Pluto.
• In the 10th year, Mars touches Jupiter, Uranus squares the Ascendant and sextiles Venus, and at 11, Jupiter sextiles Mercury.
• At 13, Uranus reaches Mars, at 14 the Moon, and at 15 sextiles the Sun while Jupiter sextiles the Ascendant.

The list doesn't end here. We also haven't included the trines Neptune and Saturn make with the stellium in Aries, forming a grand trine in fire signs, enhancing imagination (Neptune) and providing stability (Saturn) to avoid complete derailment, nor the harsh aspects of the ruler of the 7th and 8th from the 6th house with the Sun and Venus, nor the transits of the 10th house planets over Chiron.

We see that this endless play of aspects begins from John's very first year, suggesting that his youth provided the resilience needed to stave off illness. However, knowing his later life, it's hard not to connect this constant flux of harsh aspects with both his eventual brilliance and his mind's dark pathways. It seems this barrage of aspects left its mark from an early age, perhaps laying the foundation for a unique intellect, albeit at a tremendous cost, as it went hand-in-hand with mental and emotional illness.

We read that John's early school performance was rather disappointing. He had poor grades, struggled with discipline, appeared distracted, and couldn't even hold his pencil properly. His writing was nearly illegible, prompting his mother to enrol him in calligraphy lessons. The square of Uranus with Mercury, the natural ruler of knowledge, writing, and movement, and ruler of the 3rd house in this horoscope, aligns with these descriptions. As for his parents, they seemed particularly supportive, providing ample help for his education, even allowing him to take advanced mathematics courses at the local college while still a student. The sextile aspect of the lights, natural significators of parents, confirms their good relationship and cooperation with this information.

Despite early difficulties, by age 22, Nash was a professor at Princeton, where his mathematical work impressed mathematicians worldwide. "Whenever he presented a paper," recalls MIT¹ professor Gian-Carlo Rota, "someone in the audience would always say 'unbelievable!'..." In 1950, he received his Ph.D. with a 28-page dissertation on "Non-Cooperative Games." His dissertation, written under the supervision of Albert W. Tucker,² defined and proved what later became known as the "Nash Equilibrium." This theorem is immensely significant today, with wide applications in economics, computer science, artificial intelligence, and even politics. During this period, progressed Pluto formed an exact trine with Uranus in the 10th house, and the progressed Midheaven was conjunct the natal Moon, ruler of his Ascendant.

In 1951, Nash went to MIT as a mathematics professor, where he met Alicia Lardé, a physics student from El Salvador, marrying her in February 1957. In May 1959, their son John Charles Martin was born,³ but Nash was unwell. His progressed Venus was conjunct natal Pluto, and his progressed Sun squared natal Moon. The progressed Midheaven was in the last degree of Aries, indicating a significant change. Soon it would enter Taurus, where it would remain for the next 30 years, during which Nash would not work. Additionally, the activation of difficult aspects from the first Saturn return, natal Mercury, which had retrograded at age three, now turned direct again at 30, and nearly simultaneously natal Uranus turned retrograde. Combined with the chart's problematic background, Nash experienced visions, hallucinations, and was deemed dangerous to others. His wife admitted him to a psychiatric hospital in 1959, following a schizophrenia diagnosis. Nash and Lardé divorced in 1963, but after Nash's final discharge in 1970, they continued to live together. Alicia stood by him with great courage, strength, and determination, helping him recover slowly but steadily, providing a safe, caring, and loving family environment. Saturn, ruler of Nash's 7th house, forms trines with the 10th house stellium, aspects consistent with Alicia's supportive role during his prolonged health struggle. Nash stayed out of the workforce for 30 years, returning to active professional life during his second Saturn return. This was when natal Chiron retrograded, followed by natal Saturn turning direct. During this time, progressed planets formed sextiles with natal ones, and the progressed Midheaven was about to leave Taurus and enter the more dynamic realm of Gemini.

Alicia's earth-heavy chart, a missing element in Nash's chart, provided him with relief, offering security, stability, and a realistic view of life. Her earthly planets occupied Nash's troubled and tumultuous 3rd house, easing his stress, while her Venus, Mercury, and Uranus strengthened his grand fire trine, positively impacting his external image and professional career.

John Nash was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 for his contributions to game theory. His life became widely known through the movie "A Beautiful Mind," based on Sylvia Nasar's book of the same name, published in 1995. Nasar, an American journalist, believed Nash's choice of Alicia as his wife revealed that his intelligence surpassed mathematics. It was his genius that guided him to choose a woman so crucial for his survival. John Nash was indeed A Beautiful Bind, but equally Beautiful was Alicia. They remarried in 2001 and died together in a car accident on May 23, 2015, when their taxi driver lost control of the vehicle, causing it to veer off and crash into a guardrail. A few days earlier, John had been awarded the Abel Prize⁴ alongside American mathematician Louis Nirenberg for their remarkable and influential contributions to the theory of non-linear partial differential equations and their applications in geometric analysis. This would be his final accolade.

There were numerous significant aspects that day. Notably, transiting Venus was precisely conjunct natal Pluto, secondary Moon was close to natal Pluto and exactly opposite transiting Pluto. Progressed Sun formed a square with natal Saturn, and progressed Chiron was exactly square natal Jupiter. Transiting Chiron was square natal Sun, and one of the previous year's eclipses occurred precisely at 8° Taurus. The first eclipse of 2015 occurred on March 20, three months before the fateful event, at 29° Pisces, conjunct the ominous fixed star Scheat and Nash's Midheaven. Transiting Neptune was square natal nodes, and the eclipse's Mars was at 21° Aries, precisely on Nash's natal Moon, ruler of his Ascendant, with Chiron on the eclipse's Midheaven and square his natal Venus.

Constantinos Daskalakis, a prominent figure in the Greek intellectual scene and an internationally recognized leader in modern computer science and game theory, is connected to Nash's name, as he solved Nash's famous riddle in 2008, almost 60 years after its formulation.

Reading about the scientific achievements of this extraordinary figure, who teetered between genius and madness, words closely tied to his work, like "non-cooperative games" and "Nash equilibrium," kept resonating in my mind. I couldn't help but think about how his theories, which made him famous, were so closely linked to the astrological setup of his chart. Wasn't it these non-cooperative planetary games that drove him to madness and simultaneously challenged his brain to create his theories, in a desperate attempt to find balance in his life?

¹ Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT.

² American mathematician.

³ Nash had another son, John David Stier, born in 1953 with Eleanor Stier.

⁴ The Abel Prize is one of the two most prestigious awards in mathematics, along with the Fields Medal. Both are considered equivalent to the Nobel Prize, which does not exist for this science.

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