(photo acknowledgment below)

Set 1, starting with Virgo and moving counterclockwise, containing moon/B MC/mars/mercury/jupiter/sun/venus/mars, shows his success and fame during his lifetime (because it contains a golden benefic--light/venus/jupiter--with influence to an Angle). It also shows his love of knowledge (venus in Gemini) and his essential intellectuality (sun in Gemini). Not only is this set on an Angle, but of the planets in it, jupiter rules b 9th and B MC, mercury rules b 3rd, c mars rules c 3rd and co-rules c 10th, and b mars rules B Asc in c 3rd house. This set, with doubly lighted venus/jupiter, influence an Angle twice (the same Angle, B MC), both 3rd houses (lower mind), and a 9th house (higher mind).

Aspects to his B Asc (in c 3rd house) are shown in set 2. It shows uranus/NN/pluto in Aries conjunct B Asc and opposition mercury/neptune. These together for set 2. It can be read he will be rewarded (NN) for deeply (pluto) innovative (uranus) mental (3rd house and mercury) discoveries aided by his creativity (neptune). There are other ways to say it, but that is one way.

Note the sun/venus/jupiter conjunction in Virgo. Of those planets, jupiter rules b MC and b 9th house and venus rules C MC and c 9th house.

Then there is a second sun/venus/jupiter conjunction in Pisces. Of those planets, jupiter rules B MC and b 9th house, and venus rules C MC and c 9th. The benefics function very well in Pisces, bringing unseen (Pisces) help (conjunction of benefics) from all over the universe to the task at hand.

The above, all one set, pick up b3 neptune in Gemini in b 3rd house, making it a lighted neptune in Gemini in the 3rd, which is intellectually (Gemini/3rd) creative (neptune).

The set also includes b saturn at 12 Gemini 50. It progressed to exact square of his c sun and his c3 sun when he was in his early twenties, before he came to this country. Its movement was from 15 Gemini 09 on January 1, 1875, to 15 Gemini 16 January 1, 1876, to 15 Gemini 23, on January 1, 1877. That may have been during the period when he was being told by famous European professors that his ideas about alternating current were completely impracticable.

In this, his 3rd chart, Tesla loses the uranus that was conjunct B Asc/NN/pluto in Aries in c 3rd house. He still has the Asc/NN/pluto emphasis. He acquires an innovative set through b3 moon at 16 Aries 23 conjunct c3 uranus at 18 Aries 02. That gives him a lighted uranus in c 3rd house. It shows, again, an innovative (uranus), pioneering (Aries) mind (3rd)

For some time after I first calculated Tesla’s chart I was befuddled by the fact his two benefic sets in his 3rd chart did not rule 3rd houses. Both have Angle influence, but no planet in either rules a 3rd house. I have two tentative solutions which dissolve the problem. First, since this is a harmonic chart for the 3rd house, it is not absolutely necessary for sets to influence 3rds within it in order to have 3rd house implications. It is an old solution and more clarity about it is needed.

The second gives us the reason the first should be solid. The two sets do influence 9th houses. Tesla’s 3rd chart shows his ordinary mind (3rd chart) functioning superbly (multiple forefront benefic influence) in a special way via his higher mind (9th houses). His higher mind (9th house) functioned through the channel of, or at the service of, his lower one (3rd chart) to bring unprecedented, far-reaching knowledge (3rd chart) to the world.

In the case of spiritual teachers renowned for their spiritual gifts, the benefic influence operates primarily through the 7th and 9th charts. (These are only for Eastern teachers. I have examined few charts of non-Eastern ones.) The 7th shows their religious impact on others as well as some part of their own experience. Tentatively, the 9th shows their spiritual potential independent of interactions with others. Unlike Tesla, they are not here so much to bring new knowledge as to impress on given others the reality of spirituality, to show them the way. The knowledge of spiritual dimensions has existed for a long, long time. The experience of it is individual.

Of all the 3rd charts I have calculated (in the hundreds), only Tesla’s showed this kind of overwhelmingly benefic influence. [2010: add 3rd charts of Chariji and Osho.] The benefic influence Tesla has in his 3rd chart is similar to the powerful benefic influence Yogananda and Muktananda have in their 7th and 9th charts, or, for that matter, that Bill Gates has in his 2nd (money) chart.

Mark Seifer, in his book (cited below) includes quotes from Tesla’s autobiography which indicate the power of Tesla’s mental joy through his 3rd chart:

In less than two months, Tesla wrote, I evolved [writing of the AC motor] virtually all the types of motors and modifications of the system now identified with my name....It was a mental state of happiness as complete as I have ever known in my life. Ideas came in an uninterrupted stream and the only difficulty I had was to hold them fast. (Seifer, 23, from page 65 of Tesla’s autobiography.)

and

(again quoting Tesla) The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Its ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of the forces of nature to human needs. This is the difficult task of the inventor who is often misunderstood and unrewarded. But he finds ample compensation in the pleasing exercises of his powers and in the knowledge of being one of that exceptionally privileged class without whom the race would have long ago perished in the bitter struggle against pitiless elements. Speaking for myself, I have already had more than my full measure of this exquisite enjoyment, so much that for many years my life was little short of continuous rapture. [italics mine] (Seifer, xiv, from Tesla’s autobiography, no page given).

The condition of Tesla’s 3rd chart was interesting for the years 1904 to 1906, years Seifer labeled Tesla’s years of “dissolution” (chapter 35). Here I cannot adequately portray forces operative in Tesla’s life during this time. Seifer’s superb account covers several chapters. Here I will give a few preliminaries. On March 1, 1901 Tesla entered into a contract with J. Pierpont Morgan (Seifer, 260).

”Morgan was sought out for the very reason he was a demigod... Just as Faust was tempted by Mephistopheles, Tesla was lured by the House of Morgan. In the financier’s ‘strong hands’ Tesla willingly, and alas irrationally, handed over the 51 percent control, insisting on it. Knowing that the contract involved relinquishing his cornucopia of past and future patent applications, the inventor still sealed the Faustian pact, as ‘the terms were immaterial’ to him.” (Seifer, 308)

During the years 1904-1906, as revealed by his correspondence with Morgan, Tesla realized the degree of his folly. Seifer writes, “Throughout the year [1906], Tesla’s handwriting began to unglue, and by August it had completely disintegrated, supporting the hypothesis that he had suffered a nervous collapse at the time.” His last letter of the series to Morgan, dated October 15, 1906, was barely legible. (Seifer, 323)

Since Tesla’s collapse increased throughout 1906, I used July 1, 1906, the approximate midpoint of that year, as a date useful for examining the two most salient conditions of his 3rd chart.

Three Angles--C Asc, progressed C Asc, and B Asc--are influenced by mars with saturn. (One year later, July 1, 1907 gives, pb3 mars at 5 Libra 57, pc Asc at 5 Aries 42, aspecting each other, and pb3 saturn at 3 Capricorn 15, in close conjunction C Asc at 3 Capricorn 13. These suggest Tesla’s birth time could have been minutes earlier.)

Two Angles, C MC and C Asc, are influenced by progressed saturn. (July 1, 1907 shows pc3 saturn at 29 Libra 27, still one his Midheaven.)

We saw prominence of mars and saturn in the 3rd chart of Vaslav Nijinsky (see paper listed on home page on Woolf, Neitzsche, Nijinsky, and Van Gogh.) . Nijinsky started out with mercury/mars/saturn influence to 3rd houses within the chart, and an Angular and 3rd house sun/saturn influence in Gemini. His breakdown occurred when pb mars entered the sun/saturn set. Tesla’s mars/saturn was forefront only for several years, had Angular but not 3rd house influence, and its devastation was diminished by the exceptionally benefic 3rd chart he started with. Nijinsky had moon in Pisces in his 4th house within his 3rd chart, suggesting spaced out states late in life. Tesla’s 3rd chart had no such baleful condition. Nijinsky had harmonic uranus in Pisces, co-ruling c 3rd house (22 of 39°), in a 4th house of his 3rd chart, suggesting powerful, unforseen upsets late in life. Tesla did not.

Even a profoundly stable and creative mind such as Tesla’s can founder when mars and saturn become forefront and are excessive in the 3rd chart.

What made Tesla do it? By “it,” I mean sign over 51%--control--to Morgan. I have not erected his 2nd and 8th charts. They should contain information that helps explain Tesla's continuing financial problems. The following set, which occurs in his 10th chart, probably also played an important part. By not living up to contracts, by scattering his energies (Gemini), and by making unwise contractual agreements, Tesla engaged in a kind of economic and professional self-immolation throughout his life. The 10th chart shows the individual’s projection into society as “career” and "social standing." It also shows his early relationship with his mother.

Two Angles--B Asc and B MC--are influenced by this set. Jupiter in Pisces, ruler of B MC is a benefic influence, but in this case it also serves to connect both of Tesla’s mars in Pisces (lighted by his c10 South Node) to his birth Midheaven. I did not calculate all his progressions in this chart for 1904-1906. The path of his progressed b jupiter was interesting. It started out direct, moved up to 16 Pisces 27, then turned retrograde in 1875. It was at 14 Pisces 56R in 1906. It was at 14 Pisces 51R in 1907. Rather than bringing relief from his penchant for self-denial, because of its Angular influence, it appears more to have brought out his automatic (South Node) tendency (South Node) to self-diminishment (mars in Pisces) regarding the shared resources (8th houses) of partnerships (7th house) in career (10th chart)..

Since Tesla was reported to have adored his mother, the above set--in his “mother chart” as well as his career chart--brings up an interesting question. Was this set, with its influence also to b 8th house, characteristic of his relationship with his mother? In his relationship (8th house) with her (10th chart), had he relinquished (mars in Pisces) his separate identity? Or had he never achieved it? Was that tendency safe with her, but a disaster with Morgan?

Biographers attest that Tesla adored his mother. In 1863, when he was seven and his older brother, Dane, was fourteen, Dane was killed in a riding accident. (Seifer, 10) It may have had something to do with Tesla’s 10th chart mars in Pisces. Its psychoanalytic perspective, as well as a counterhypothesis, is covered by Seifer (465-467).

More is written about mars in Pisces, its influence to various houses and Angles, in the papers on Charles Whitman (the U of Texas tower sniper), the Unabomber, and Eric Harris. Here are their links: Paper About Whitman, Paper About Kaczynski, the Unabomber, About Harris and Klebold, and in the section about Gregory Godzik in the paper about Polly Klaas: To Paper About Klaas, and in the appendix about Elvis Presley : About Elvis Presley
in this paper.

Photo Acknowledgment
The picture at top is a "color drawing" scan of a photo at the Smithsonian Institution (the caption did not give the photographer). It was taken from among photos between pages 370-371 in the book Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, by Marc J. Seifer.

Bibliography
Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, by Marc J. Seifer. Seacaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, 1996 (A Birch Lane Press Book). I am still working my way through this fascinating, well-researched book, which I can read only in fits and starts. This is not just because the physical science it presents is beyond my education. It is also because it is painful reading. One of the greatest inventors of all time, Tesla died with dignity. He had spent a great deal of money, but he died poor like Van Gogh, Nietzsche, Mozart, Nijinsky, and many others who have contributed so much to Mankind. He was nearly unknown and much of his potential was unrealized. At least he, unlike those others, died sane in his old age.

My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla,” by Nikola Tesla. Wiliston, VT: Hart Brothers, 1982. (originally published, 1919) [I did not read this book. I did not even know it existed. I cite it because Seifer’s quotes come from it.]

Data Acknowledgments
Nikola Tesla
Birth: 7/10/1856, midnight LMT, Smiljan, Yugoslavia. From The American Book of Charts by Lois Rodden. Data in the biography by J.J. O’Neill, The Prodigal Genius (1944), “the stroke of midnight.”
Conception: 10/1/1855, 2:41:37 p.m. LMT, Smiljan, Yugoslavia.