There were no new tweets today on J. K. Rowling’s twitter page but there was a big change. As you can see above, we have a new header for the page and a fresh cameo. Beatrice Groves, who reminded The Presence six days ago of her annual tweeted apology for the casualty-laden Battle of Hogwarts (today is the 21st anniversary of the Battle), has already identified the stars in the picture as a “close-up” of the Capricorn constellation; read about that here.

We know that Rowling is an amateur astrologer who has drawn up detailed natal charts for friends with longish interpretations. Does Capricorm have a hidden meaning in astrological lore connected with the Battle of Hogwarts? We only know of one astrological reference that Rowling is familiar with because she used it almost exclusively in the charts which have been posted online: Louis MacNeice’s Astrology (Doubleday, 1964). I own a copy but found very little in the pages dedicated to Capricorn except for MacNiece’s concern about “Capricorn’s ruler… frosty old Saturn.”  “Saturn is casting a chill or a shadow and yet he may be a liberator. If Saturn the ruler is actually in this sign [i.e., Capricorn on the natal chart], then everything is cut to the bone” (p 98).

In the discussion of the planet Saturn and its influences we find “In the Middle Ages Saturn was said to carry a scythe or a sickle because he does more execution when receding than when advancing” (p 60). It is also “much connected with magic” (p 62). Mostly, though, Saturn is bad news: melancholy, depression, illness, and death.

Which, at a stretch, is a pointer to the deaths at the Battle of Hogwarts? If you like. Saturn the planet might have been pictured rather than the Capricorn constellation if this was the message. I’m hopeful that the picture means instead what Rowling has said each of her headers reflect, what she is working on and thinking about now.

What do you make of the new header on the J. K. Rowling twitter page? Is there astrological meaning, something we will learn about in Strike5 or Beasts3, or something else? Click on the ‘Leave a Comment’ link at the top of this post and let me know what you think!

I think we can assume, on the model of someone being declared ‘officially dead’ after disappearing for a sufficient period of time, that J. K. Rowling has abandoned her Twitter page and will not be returning to it. She has not posted since 10 January 2019, just shy of sixteen weeks ago today, and I think we are obliged to think this is not a vacation from the twitter wars but a turning away from the mindless, endless distraction of it all in order to return to her vocation as writer, both screenwriter and novelist.

Three thoughts on this occasion:

(1) The File: I keep an imaginary file in which to store ‘Things True Only of J. K. Rowling.’ You’ll find in it, if the file existed outside my interior ‘cloud,’ Rowling’s claim that she does not ‘see’ Daniel Radcliffe in her mind’s eye when she thinks “Harry Potter.” And that a film studio pledged its bankroll to make five blockbuster films on the pledge of a screenwriter who had not yet written a screenplay to write five stories, sight unseen. Add to this file Rowling’s walking away from 14.7 million followers on twitter, the largest social media platform for any living author. Forgive me for thinking that Warner Brothers, Harry Potter Theatrical Productions (Cursed Child), her various publishers, and Lumos cannot be thrilled by her decision to #JustWalkAway. I won’t mention the Remainer faithful and anti-anti-Semitism activists who will miss her daily, sometimes seven-times-a-day, notes for their causes. This is truly a remarkable decision, even if only temporary.

(2) She Told Us It Was Coming: As noted in previous tweets about Rowling on Twitter and her absence since 10 January, there have been signs. First there was the blowback from the online Harry Potter generation about Rowling’s being insufficiently ‘woke’ with respect to Jonny Depp, Nagini, Gay Dumbledore, etc. Rowling’s last picture that was posted on 10 January was a screenshot of a tweet that said the Rowling ‘Cinderella Story’ was a “lie.” [Read more…]