This Pooka's no Spook

Unexpectedly, I happened on the old movie _Harvey_, from 1950—you
know, the tall white rabbit (as opposed to the short one with the
waistcoat and pocket-watch in Alice's Wonderland). I forgot to
mention that Harvey is invisible, which you probably remember if
you've ever met him. I learned a word I never new, or had
forgotten, "pooka" meaning a spirit entity assuming the shape of an
animal, usually a large one. This comes from Celtic lore, it is
said, and the author of _Harvey_, Mary Chase of Denver, Colorado,
learned some of it from her Irish mother. Harvey the pooka is not
dead, but alive and well and still popular on VCR and DVD. Not all
pookas make a successful transition to the digital age.

In the movie, the character Veta, the sister of Elwood who is favored
with the rabbit's friendship, says that Elwood was born April 24, "a
Taurus," and that she herself is a Leo. I started thinking about
Jimmy Stewart (who plays Elwood in the movie) as a Taurus and it made
sense, at least in this role, where he is the essence of smooth. At
one point in the film (which was scripted by Mary Chase the author of
the original play) he even says "I was given the choice of being
intelligent or pleasant. I chose pleasant." Most Taurus individuals
I know are both intelligent and pleasant, but the sentiment is a very
Venusian one, in harmony with Taurus's planetary ruler. I kept
thinking of Stewart's smoothness and his mellow, soothing voice as
Taurean, and felt that it might indeed be his sign. I had never
known his birthdate. Just now I looked it up and he is indeed a
Taurus! May 20, 1908. Rather than his sun being at the beginning of
Taurus (April 24; I wonder what that date meant to Mary Chase?) it is
at the very end, but definitely in Taurus all day (in the town of
Indiana, Pennsylvania; I don't know his birth-time).

Veta, his would-be-aristocratic sister in the film, is the actress
Josephine Hull, who won an academy award for her performance. After
she called herself "Leo" in the film, I started thinking of her as
possibly Leo in fact, and that made sense to me. She displayed all
the pride coupled with basic decency and kindness which Leos at their
best display, like the sun (ruler of the sign) shining warm to keep
us alive or hot to rebuke us.

When I got to her birth-date a minute ago, I find that she is rather
Capricorn (January 3, 1884), but she has both Mars and Jupiter in
Leo. Voila, Veta! That is Leo enough for me! It might even be said
that the fussy yet competent matriarchal-ism, good sense, somewhat
suspicious charitableness, and confident command that she displays in
the film are a superb blend of Capricorn and Leo.

And guess what? Jimmy Stewart has Jupiter in the same face
(decanate) of Leo as hers. He had played Elwood with her on
Broadway, a few years before the two of them starred in the movie.
Further, the author of the script, Mary Chase, has the moon in that
same face of Leo (the first of the three faces or decanates). Leo
seems pre-eminently the "star" sign (think of Madonna), perhaps
because it is the only sign ruled by a "star," namely, our sun.

Ms. Chase was born in (has the sun in) the sign Pisces, accompanied
by Mercury and Saturn. It could be said that Pisces is the sign of
pookas, as well as fairies, elves, leprechauns, and mermaids. It is
also the sign of alcohol, and Elwood is displayed as a gentlemanly
drinker (never a drunk) who spends his afternoons at Charlie's Tavern
with Harvey.

There are subtleties in the film I did not notice many years ago when
I first saw it; I was probably too young. I feel I want to watch it
yet again, to ponder some of the clues beneath the surface. The
character Stewart portrays is surprisingly complex past his apparent
simplicity. He is almost a Dostoevskian Idiot, a saint in the guise
of a fool. I begin to understand why Mary Chase received a Pulitzer
Prize for this play in 1944. It is, and was, "politically correct,"
for Elwood and the rabbit invite drifters, ex-cons, and other
disreputable types, seemingly without discrimination, to the table of
Elwood's aristocratic sister. This is the sort of populism that
pervaded the intellectual world of the forties, before HUAC came
along to inform us that we had better shape up and start despising
and stomping on our weaker neighbors to prove how right we were with
God and Adam Smith. It's likely that both sides of the debate are
oversimplified, but certainly this movie presents the populist
version in a happy light. Does it take an invisible white rabbit to
convince people to follow the teachings of Jesus? Is such a "pooka"
more believable than the Saviour? This may be one irony Mary Chase
had in mind as she wrote this delightful parable (for such it seems).

Yet it is far from preachy. It does not shy from contradiction and
paradox. As it moves toward its conclusion we begin to see some
contradictions and paradoxes dissolve, or reveal their surprising
interrelations. The movie invites a fresh world-view, something any
proper film ought to accomplish, whether intentionally or just by
being good art.

If someone had said to me, "What do you think would be the birth sign
of a playwright who wrote about an invisible being who manages to
convince people to be more tolerant, humane, and loving?" I would
say, without a moment's hesitation, "Probably Pisces." And I would
have been right, for Ms. Chase has the sun and two other planets in
that sign. Further, Josephine Hull has the moon in Pisces, showing
her affinity at some level with the scriptwriter. Stewart has no
planets in Pisces. This keeps him from being too sappy, sentimental,
pretentiously mystical or pseudo-saintly, one pitfall of Pisces when
it takes itself too seriously. Rather he presents the image of the
Taurean gentleman who simply finds it more pleasurable to treat
people well and make everybody as happy as possible. His Venus in
the sign Cancer, trine Mary Chase's three Pisces planets as well as
Josephine Hull's Pisces moon, provides a nice water trine among the
movie's artistes, a sense of completeness through fellow-feeling. It
may be no accident that this is portrayed as happening within the
family, between brother and sister, for Cancer is known as
the "family" sign; not only does Stewart have Venus therein but Mary
Chase is blessed with Jupiter "exalted" in Cancer. The water signs
Pisces and Cancer together spell out compassion and brotherly-
sisterly benevolence. As Elwood says in the movie, "It's wonderful
to make a new friend, because you just can't have too many!"

Cosmic Piper