The Outlandish Companion

by Diana Gabaldon

  Jupiter is conjunct the Ascendant, which gives a man who excels at things requiring physical prowess. He is outgoing and friendly, but wants others to respect his moral and ethical standards. He likes to travel and to be outdoors. This position, with Jupiter in the first house, gives increased height and good looks.

  Saturn is trine the midheaven, which makes him patient and painstaking, and gives a systematic approach to problems.

  The last aspect is Pluto trine Neptune, but this applies to everyone born for quite a few years, so applies to a generation.

  I know that it must seem as though I have made a lot of this up to fit, but I was a bit surprised myself and checked through a few books to make sure.

  HOROSCOPE READING FOR CLAIRE BEAUCHAMP RANDALL FRASER

  Birth date: October 20, 1918

  Time of birth: 2:09 P.M.

  Birthplace: London

  Sun in Libra

  This person performs best when part of a partnership, while maintaining her individuality. She is most likely to be married, sometimes more than once. This person is usually diplomatic, social and gregarious, but peace and harmony are important and she will go out of her way to avoid rocking the boat. Librans are interested in psychology and human relationships, like to analyze society and others’ behavior, and often make good counselors. They have an intellectual approach to life, but can always see both sides of any question, and thus often find it hard to make decisions.

  Sun in Ninth House

  This indicates a person who is interested in other cultures and traditions. She is adventurous, likely to travel widely, and may marry a foreigner. She has strong moral convictions, and is a good teacher who is interested in furthering her own education. She may have strong visions of the future, and is certainly open to new experiences.

  Moon in Taurus

  This shows a person who has stable emotions and is very determined, to the point of being stubborn. She rarely makes a quick decision (if she can make one at all, with her Libra sun!), and thinks carefully before taking action. She is a loyal and lasting friend and marriage partner, who has a lot of common sense and a rather conservative outlook. Her singing and speaking voice will be pleasant, and she is fond of dancing, music, and art. She is affectionate and sentimental, and is particularly sensitive to touch. This position usually indicates a “green thumb.”

  Moon in Third House

  This is an intriguing and intellectually curious person, who learns well by listening, and can express herself well. She is rather restless and likes to travel, even if only on short trips. She has a good memory and finds it easy to relate to others (this is also indicated by the Libran sun).

  Mercury in Libra

  This position emphasizes many of the features of the Sun in Libra. This person is friendly and broad-minded, logical and rational, and always fair. She will take her time to make a decision, but the outcome will be well thought out. She likes to have a discussion, but will avoid arguments whenever possible. She needs a partner with whom she can have a mental as well as physical relationship, and prefers the company of well-mannered people. Libran influence gives an interest in others and what makes them tick.

  Mercury in Ninth House

  This gives an intellectual interest in other cultures and countries. She loves to travel and is good at languages. She is interested in higher education, and is an honest and moral person, as well as being intuitive.

  Venus in Libra

  This shows someone who likes companionship and likes to please others. She is often beautiful, and is certainly charming and attractive to the opposite sex. She remains young at heart. Marriage is important and must be an equal intellectual relationship. Too much disharmony in her life may lead to illness. She may be easily hurt, but doesn’t hold a grudge.

  Venus in Eighth House

  Benefits to this person will come through her partner. She can expect a long life and peaceful death. She is sensual and enjoys good sexual relationships, which are important to her. This person will be more intense than many Librans.

  Mars in Sagittarius

  This indicates a cheerful and honest person who likes outdoor activities. She has a good philosophy of life and enjoys new experiences. She has natural rhythm and harmony. This position give’s lots of energy, and she will use it to fight for what she believes in.

  Mars in Tenth House

  She is an active and persistent person who is highly motivated to work toward what she wants. She may be controversial if in a public position, and has the ability to achieve in practical ways.

  Jupiter in Cancer

  This is a good position for public relations, and this person will have grace and sympathy for others. It usually indicates a childhood where good values were evident, and in turn this person will pass on these values to her children. It gives great attachment to the home environment, with many people on the domestic scene, and favors working from the home. She has a strong maternal instinct, but the strong Libran influence in this chart means that her partner will always come first once any children are independent.

  Jupiter in Sixth House

  She is a philanthropic person who prefers to help in a practical way. She has the ability to heal, while enjoying good health herself. She is cheerful and a good organizer who is well respected in her work.

  Saturn in Leo

  This gives leadership qualities, but she is a person who needs attention and respect from others. She has lots of mental energy, but is strict with herself and others, particularly children.

  Saturn in Seventh House

  Here is a person who is social and gregarious, but who needs time on her own to recharge her batteries. She may find that her relationships bring many responsibilities, but she is well able to cope with these. There may be a difference in age with her partner.

  Uranus in First House

  This position gives an independent and original thinker who may appear a bit eccentric to others. She is direct and outspoken (but in a tactful Libran way) and follows her intuition. She may be thought ahead of her time.

  Neptune in Seventh House

  This position shows a psychic and karmic link to her partner. She is easily affected by the moods of others. She needs to take care that she is communicating clearly with her partner, and not to assume others know what she thinks.

  Pluto in Sixth House

  This shows a need to serve others and abilities in the field of healing.

  Ascendant in Capricorn

  This Ascendant indicates a hard worker who likes material achievements, and to prove her capability to others. Generally this indicates a person mainly concerned with material matters, but other things in the chart show interest in people and a well-developed intuition, so Claire is less worldly than this would suggest. She was never really young as a child, but will age gracefully and not look old. She is dignified and persistent and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

  Aspects

  Sun conjunct Mercury gives the ability to communicate easily, but a liking to have the last word. This person is good at stimulating those who lack enthusiasm, and has lots of mental energy.

  Sun sextile Saturn shows clarity of thought, well-developed concentration, and organizational ability. She is patient and self-disciplined, and learns from experience. This person is a loyal friend who should enjoy a long life with good health.

  The Sun is trine Uranus, showing leadership ability and personal magnetism. She is popular and is more interested in others than herself. She is able to use her intuition and creativity to help in humanitarian ways.

  With the Sun square to the Ascendant, there is some conflict between how the person feels about herself and how she presents herself to the world. She has a strong personality with lots of drive, but with so much Libran influence in the chart, she knows how to compromise and get along with others.

  The Moon is in opposition to Mercury, which sometimes may lead to conflict between the emotions and intellect. She is clever, but may be impatie
nt with those who don’t meet her intellectual expectations. She is a loyal friend, and is sensitive and probably easily hurt.

  Having the Moon square to Neptune may cause confusion in life. It is very important for her to find out the facts to avoid misunderstandings. She may have psychic tendencies, and will have many people in her life to help through difficulties.

  The Moon is square to the Ascendant, showing a sensitive, impressionable person who must break away from the past. She may find it hard to handle anger without getting too emotional.

  Mercury makes a sextile to Saturn, which once again confers good memory, good concentration, and disciplined thought. She was comfortable with older people when young, and is responsible and organized. Those with this aspect seek the truth.

  Mercury is trine to Uranus, indicating a person who is not bound by tradition and may be ahead of the times. She has an excellent memory and is a good teacher, intuitive and independent.

  The trine of Mercury to Pluto once again gives great ability to concentrate and to see to the heart of things. This position favors a career in medicine and/or surgery. She expects a lot from others, but gives a lot in return. She can influence and persuade others with her witty and diplomatic manner.

  Mercury is lastly square the Ascendant. This gives ability with the hands, but she may have difficulties with others misunderstanding her. It may indicate a delayed education. Venus is sextile Mars, which shows a person who likes beautiful things, and is warm and affectionate. She is faithful in marriage, and is enriched by it. She has a optimistic and vivacious personality. She likes family life, but likes to retain her independence.

  Venus is trine to Uranus, showing a fun-loving person who enjoys life and always looks on the bright side. Her marriage is characterized by trust and understanding, and she knows how best to express her love. She has sex appeal and may be considered unconventional.

  Mars trine Neptune is another aspect that favors medicine as a career. She can heal others due to her ability to help with spiritual problems as well as physical ones. She has an exciting love life with honest and sincere lovers. She always looks for the best in others. Saturn is square to the mid-heaven, showing this person has responsibilities to others that interfere with her personal life.

  Other aspects are between slow-moving planets and therefore affect generations rather than individuals.

  1If somebody names their child Murtagh or Laoghaire as a result of reading these books, I’d like to know about it.

  2I have friends in the Boise Convention Center.

  3Fortunately, I do.

  4Greenwich Mean Time

  MAGIC, MEDICINE, AND WHITE LADIES

  ell, it’s all Claire Beau-champ’s fault, like so many other things about these books. Once she had informed me (by her habits of speech and her unique perceptions) that she was a time-traveler, I had to determine exactly who she was— where she had come from, and her occupation (if any) in her original time.

  People commonly say to me, in tones of admiration, “But you write such strong women!“ This is gratifying, but the simple fact of the matter is that I really don’t like weak ones. In other words, Claire is not a competent person because I thought it was my social duty to provide a politically correct role model for young women—I just don’t like ninnies and would find it a terrible chore to have to write about one.

  Obviously, Claire was intelligent and competent; I could see that with half an eye. So what had she been doing, before fate decanted her into the Highlands of eighteenth-century Scotland? She might have been doing all sorts of things, from flying to the moon to competing in triathlons (though she seemed not to be very athletic, given what I’d seen of her so far), but the unfortunate fact is that there would be relatively little scope for the exercise of these talents in eighteenth-century Scotland.1

  Given the state of things in the Scottish Highlands at the times—i.e., barbaric, violent, and lacking in hygiene—it struck me that doctoring might be a very useful talent indeed. Of all the assorted skills that might aid survival in the eighteenth century, a minimal knowledge of the healing arts certainly seemed one of the most desirable—and the most feasible.

  Aside from the fact that it would be helpful to know how to dress wounds and treat minor problems like scurvy, I’d noticed in the course of research that there were in fact almost no “official” physicians at all in the Highlands. There was, of course, no formal program for training and licensing physicians at all, in either Britain or France at the time. There were colleges of medicine, to be sure, in places such as Paris, London, and Edinburgh, but most doctors were trained by apprenticeship, autodidactically, or in many cases they simply declared themselves to be doctors and hung out a shingle, with no training at all.

  However, healing is an art that has traditionally been practiced by women in all historical periods, even in those when social trends have caused an increased reliance on “official” physicians (usually male). The reason for that is obvious to anyone who has a family. Kids get sick. So do pets, domestic partners, and livestock.

  In most times and places, there has been no medical assistance save for the wisdom and experience of family and neighbors— and among family and neighbors, those who are most likely to have any knowledge or skill in medical matters are the women because (owing to the undeniable fact that women bear and nourish children) they are the members of the community who are stuck at home, growing plants, feeding all and sundry, and generally keeping things going while the menfolk are out killing mammoths or each other.2

  In short (well, all right, not very short— but I could have gone on a lot longer), it would be entirely reasonable for Claire to have healing skills of some sort, and to be able to use these to her benefit, in a way that would not be feasible for many other modern skills. So …

  Fine, I thought. She’ll be a healer of some kind. Doctor, nurse, EMT? On the whole, I thought a nurse. The main reason for this choice was that I personally am not a doctor,3 don’t have in-depth knowledge appropriate to complex diagnosis and treatment, and didn’t at the time have the resources or desire to do sufficient research to allow Claire to think complicated things about medical conditions.

  Another consideration was that a good modern medical training would be rather wasted, given the materials available in the eighteenth century. No matter that Claire recognized diabetes mellitus, for instance, as she did in Dragonfly—even though she could make the diagnosis and knew the cure, the cure itself was unavailable. No point in being able to diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome or cystic fibrosis in a time like that, I mean.

  It seemed to me, then, that we should be better off with Claire as a nurse. If we came across some interesting condition— such as Colum MacKenzie’s degenerative disease—it would be simple enough for Claire to have heard of it somewhere. But on the whole, her expertise would be limited to the fairly simple dressing of wounds and administration of herbal medicines for nonspecific symptoms—interesting, but relatively simple, and hence better suited to a story where the medical details were part of character and setting, but not the main focus of the story itself (as might be the case in a medical thriller).

  RETURN OF THE LEECH

  I’ve been much interested (not to say amused) by recent news reports of medical research involving the use of leeches and maggots in the treatment of wounds. Seems our invertebrate friends actually are very effective in debriding dead tissue and assisting circulation—just as they were used in the eighteenth century (and earlier) by the ignorant physicians of the period, before modern medicine came rushing in with its technological new broom, to sweep away all those cobwebbed superstitions.

  In the mid-twentieth century, of course no one would have countenanced the notion of using leeches. Really, one might as well resort to burning herbs under people’s noses, and sticking needles in the skin! Smug in the grip of “science,” it was plain to society at large that the relevance of all this magical nonsense was long past—and good riddance!

>   But the wheel of time turns slowly …

  The dichotomy between magic and science occurs explicitly for the first time in the eighteenth century, as part of the evolution of the Age of Enlightenment. The basis of both magic and science is control of one’s personal environment—the body— though magic seeks to do this externally, and science (at least in the sense of medicine) internally.

  The Age of Enlightenment—which occurred in the second half of the eighteenth century—was the first period in which great emphasis was placed on rationality as a thoughtful virtue, making it equivalent in importance to the spiritual virtues. This elevation of analytic thought thus paved the way for development of nineteenth-century science, but didn’t result in immediate changes.

  While science depends ultimately upon rationality (the scientific method) for proof, scientists initially drew material from the old superstitions in their development of theories and hypotheses. In spite of the intellectual ferment of the Enlightenment, the evolution of medicine was thus for a long time still a sort of quasi-science, with a strong metaphysical dimension.

  Then—as schools of thought tend to do—things went too far, and any medical practice not rigorously defensible in rational terms was deemed superstitious, unsanitary, and undoubtedly dangerous to the public health.