Under Construction

Examples of Endurance - Joe Simpson

It was a strange feeling, like touching a void - Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore

Index

Joe Simpson's background

What makes Joe Simpson such a great example?

Why Boney M?

Touching The Void

Early Influences

Joe Simpson's background

Joe Simpson was famously cut loose by his climbing partner, Simon Yates, while dangling in midair. Simon received some criticism [from fools] for cutting the rope, but he had no alternative other than being dragged off the mountain himself.

Information sourced from Wikipedia.

Joe Simpson (born 13 August 1960 ) is a British mountaineer, author, and motivational speaker. While climbing in Peru in 1985, he suffered severe injuries and was assumed dead by his climbing companion Simon Yates after falling into a crevasse, but he survived and managed to crawl back to his base camp. He described the ordeal in his 1988 book Touching the Void, which has been adapted into a 2003 documentary film and a 2018 stage play, both of the same name. - Wikipedia

His memoir is Touching The Void, the title of which comes from Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore.

Many of Haruki Murakami's stories deal with people responding to the emptiness that they feel inside, the void, that presents an existential threat.

What makes Joe Simpson such a great example?

We don't have a birth time for Joe, but even so the striking feature of his natal chart is that he has two planetary pairs; Sun conjunct Uranus, and Venus conjunct Pluto. Unfortunately we only have the month of Simon's birth, May 1963.

We really need to take Joe Simpson's example in contrast to those of Doug Scott and Aron Lee Ralston who had experiences in some ways similar to that of Joe.

At the time Joe reached his camp and safety, his transits were

Venus trine Venus and Pluto

Mars trine Chiron

Neptune trine Venus and Pluto

Pluto trine Chiron

The chart shown is Joe Simpson's birthchart at midday, with transits on outer for when he finally reached camp.

Why Boney M?

Joe Simpson and Brown Girl In The Ring

As Joe was making the final crawl over the glacier and murrain at the bottom of the mountain, he was in and out of consciousness, thinking that he had gone as far as he could, and plagued by an earworm of Boney M's 1978 hit Brown Girl In The Ring, which he was unhappily convinced was going to be the soundtrack he died to.

The song does include these lyrics:

Show me your motion
Tra la la la la
Come on show me your motion
Tra la la la la la

Happily, Joe maintained enough consciousness to make it back to camp, perhaps we may think, aided by the incessant Boney M. So, why Boney M? we might ask. Well, looking at the release date of the single, 3 April 1978, as transits to Joe's natal chart, we do get something of a clue. Plus, of course, his subconscious wish to keep moving!

The nature of the song, its meaning, is reflected in its release date - its birthday, and so its meaning becomes a part of Joe's culture, and is there to egg him on when he needed a little extra.

The chart shown is Joe Simpson's birthchart at midday, with transits on outer for the release of Boney M's hit, Brown Girl In The Ring.

Sun square natal Saturn - a feature in Aron Ralston's birth chart

Jupiter trine Chiron

Venus sextile Chiron

Saturn trine Jupiter

Saturn conjunct Uranus and so Sun

Chiron square Mercury

Chiron trine Venus and Neptune

Neptune trine Sun and so Uranus

Possibly Pluto also square natal Saturn

Touching The Void

Joe Simpson and Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami, the Japanese author of Kafka on the Shore, is the source of 'Touching the Void', the title of Joe's autobiography, and the subsequent film.

The chart shown is Joe Simpson's birthchart at midday, with transits on outer for the birth of Haruki Murakami.

Haruki's Jupiter is conjunct Joe's Saturn.

Haruki's Saturn is conjunct Joe's Venus and Pluto conjunction.

The quote from Kafka on the Shore, 'Touching the Void', is the key to a large part of Haruki's work [traditionally Saturn], and it is telling that there is an elemental connection between his Saturn and Joe's Venus and Pluto conjunction.

What do these connections tell us? I would hazard to say that Jupiter Saturn shows Joe's direct experience, his Saturn, corresponding to Haruki's imagination, his Jupiter. Jupiter, I say, is the alchemy of elemental earth to fire, and while that is objective sameness from objective difference, and can manifest as direct consciousness of reality, it can also be described as spirit from difference, and that would include using one's imagination in regard to differences of the self or of others.

Saturn, and Venus conjunct Pluto, present a different dynamic. Through Saturn Haruki experiences his own life, and perhaps the strictures of being Japanese, while Venus is Joe desiring the spirit of something, its fact, and Pluto responds to facts by changing reality.

It is also notable that Haruki has no planets in water, and water is the element of the void. Absent elements are an ineresting phenomenon, with people very often over-compensating by emphasising that element, especially when it occurs as their ascendant element. We know neither Joe's, nor Haruki's, time of birth, so frustratingly cannot say anything about their ascendants.

Early Influences

Joe Simpson and Heinrich Harrer

Heinrich Harrer, the Austrian mountaineer and author of Seven Years In Tibet, is cited as a big influence on Joe climbing, as Joe read Heinrich's book, The White Spider, when he was 14.

The chart shown is Joe Simpson's birthchart at midday, with transits on outer for the birth of Heinrich Harrer.

Heinrich's Mercury is conjunct Joe's Mercury, i.e. they are both asking the same question of themselves.

Joe Simpson and Doug Scott

Doug Scott was a well known mountaineer who when climbing The Ogre, with Chris Bonington, broke both legs and had to crawl down the mountain on his knees. It seems he was also inspirational for Joe.

The chart shown is Joe Simpson's birthchart at midday, with transits on outer for the birth of Doug Scott.