Last week it was fourty years ago that one of the most successful computer games ever came out, Pac-Man. Everybody will know it, this yellow eater wandering in a maze who is to avoid little ghosts and has to eat as many little balls as he can. The name Pac-Man comes from the Japanese Paku Paku Taberu , which means “gobbling”. The game was developed especially for women and that is why the Japaneser designer did not choose for fighting but for eating as a more “feminine” theme. It all had to look soft and cute so that it would attract female players.
It would of course be very interesting to take a look at the chart of such a hugely successful computer game, but how do you get a timing? The day it was brought out is known and the place but the time is not easy to find. So the Pac-Man chart below is a Sun-on-MC chart, less specific of course than a “real” time but it will still show important things. There is inevitably some reluctance to use this instrument but it is captivating enough to give it a chance. Sun on the MC carries the symbolism of “what will it do in the world” and this seems appropriate for a commercial computer game (click on the download button below to view the Pac-Man Sun-on-MC chart).
The result is overwhelming! Striking the eye immediately is the Moon on the Ascendant, narrowly squaring the the Sun on the MC and the Moon can be associated with eating, hunger and women. The famous yellow eater even looks like a Moon!The fascinating thing is that if you place the Sun exactly on the MC the Moon will end up almost on the Asc, in this way very much emphasizing the lunar nature of the game. The Moon is narrowly conjunct Mars mirroring directly the Paku Paku Taberu which can be also translated by “’ very energetically eating up”. This important Moon is in a reception by triplicity and domicile with the other female planet Venus and there we see the cuteness. Venus is also connected by reception with Mars and Jupiter in the first house closely conjuncting the Moon, Jupiter completes the whole picture of gobbling as in its fall it gives gluttony.
No less than six planets are disposed by Mercury, so Mercury is of huge importance. Of course, this is the planet you would need for a good computer game and it could hardly be stronger. Could this have been an election? Most probably not but if it is, the astrologer who did it had some real knowledge. Mercury is very very fast, is very strong in ist domicile and on top of that is placed on royal Aldebaran, a star of great material success. Aldebaran is also the star of spring, the start of a new successful cycle of growth and indeed Pac-Man did a lot to make computer games more generally popular.
If you would also delineate the houses, the opponents of Pac-Man – the little ghosts Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Clyde – are given by the ruler of the seventh house Jupiter in its dertriment placed somewhat deeper in the twelfth house of ghosts. Jupiter however is approaching the Ascendant so it could become dangerous, but it remains firmly under the control of its dispositor Mercury which with high speed and its agility can avoid the ghosts and sometimes even knock them out. This illustrates the essence of the game, as who would want to play a game in which the opponent often wins?