Part II left off after the emergence of a new layer of Hell which Roman Polanski was forced to face, that being Life following the gruesome murders of his wife Sharon Tate and unborn son. As this series has repeatedly shown, the man has been no stranger to horrific tragedy but it must be said the continuity of tragic theme throughout his life is nothing short of astounding when considering his pregnant wife’s murder to that of his pregnant mother’s untimely death in Auschwitz, to even the subject matter of the film he had just finished directing before calamity struck where in “Rosemary’s Baby” a pregnant woman is besieged by the followers of a Satanic cult. This thread of tragic theme is reflected in Polanski’s chart with the most elevated planet being the Moon, the planet of motherhood and pregnancy conjunct the planet of death and anything of cult-like status, Pluto by one degree.

The aspect about the myth of Persephone which I find most fascinating can also be directly applied to the life of Roman Polanski. What binds Persephone to the Underworld is the eating of six seeds which can be interpreted as the innocently pure maiden ingesting the darkness of her captor and it taking hold or in the literal sense takes “seed” to further grow in her psyche. Said another way by being exposed to Hades/Pluto’s violence, lust, and assertion of power, Persephone has the potential for those very same Plutonian expressions at her disposal since she has eaten that which comes from the Lord of the Underworld’s domain. In the same vein, as a helpless child the director had his mother taken from him, followed later by both his wife and helpless unborn child being destroyed, yet when the opportunity arose Mr. Polanski as a 43 year old adult at the time felt the impulsive need to sexually dominate a victim who was herself, a mere child.

Read more "Roman Polanski: The Ever Elusive Search for Security, Part III"