Nell and Luke, the twins of the Haunting of Hill House, are displayed as soft and innocent souls which end up on traumatic paths of emotional destruction.
For Nell, she is haunted by a dream (ghost) all her life and experiences terrifying sleep paralysis. Toward the end of her life, she appears to act out toward her older brother, Steven, and attempts to reach out and yet isn’t heard by anyone but her father until it is too late. The years before her passing, Nell finds happiness in love and marital life as she marries the doctor who she sees about her sleep paralysis, an unusual and quirky first meeting for future spouses. He continues to help and ease her in her sleep paralysis whilst they are together, until one day he dies seemingly at random, and Nell is forced back into a state of chaotic flux.
In Luke’s case, he finds himself homeless and addicted to drugs when his life is left without structure and support. His family pay for him to go to rehab a few times over, but the traumas and questions from his childhood shadow over him, making his recovery difficult. It isn’t until he finds a friend in rehab that Luke makes a turn for the better, but even this friend ends up being a cautionary tale for Luke. When his twin sister passes, he is distraught and shaken, left with a feeling of numb, cold nothingness over him.
As twins, they represent two paths going the same way. Both Nell and Luke struggle with wounded childhoods which force them into harmful states and events in adulthood (Nell’s obviously linked to the bent neck lady, and Luke’s hinted at by his visuals of the hat man and counting to seven). Their older siblings all somewhat ignore or disregard them, leaving Nell and Luke to feel extremely misunderstood and alone.
So what’re their placements?
Pisces Sun in 5th
This placement is quite simple to see in the twins as this placement mixes together to show people who are deeply emotional and show it. There’s a lot of love and fun in the ego of a Pisces Sun in 5th. It’s especially prominent in their relationship as children, whereby they both protect and love each other a lot, whilst always keeping a happy and jovial vibe between them. As they grow older, their Pisces Sun is seen through how they appear to phase out of reality and into their minds.
Taurus Moon in 7th opposite Scorpio Pluto
From a young age, love is where the heart is at for both of them, beautifully described via Taurus Moon in 7th which resonates with putting loving, nurturing emotions into one on one connections. Their relationship with each other is one with a deep emotional pact. However, we see in their communications and behaviours with others, their emotions can also be volatile and misunderstood when shot to rashly, best described via Nell when she stands up to Steven at his bookshop author session.
Libra Rising with Scorpio Pluto in 1st
Again, this one doesn’t require all too much explaining. There’s an ultimate goal for peace within both of them and yet they seem incapable of getting to it or finding solutions for it. This may be because whilst they want to see the world through a balanced lens, when they look out all that is in front of them is the chaos of Pluto in the 1st.
Pisces Mercury in 5th
This placement represents the interesting dynamic which is hinted to in both of them: needing to say things, but not having the words to. Both are seemingly very deep and emotional people with big hearts, and yet the words never coming out right, only furthered by Moon opposite Pluto. Pisces is the detriment of Mercury, meaning these people can feel tongue tied and incapable of saying things how others will understand them, whilst the 5th house is expression and so they both still feel very verbally expressive. A good moment which shows this placement is when Luke is telling Steven he didn’t use drugs despite how it looked, or when he steals his things and it is for hotel money for a friend, not for drugs, but Luke – whilst trying to express himself – just can’t find the right words.
Aquarius Venus in 4th
A big part of love for both Nell and Luke is friendship and being able to be themselves. For Nell, her love story is also an unusual one as she meets her husband when she goes to see him for advice on her sleep paralysis. For Luke, we see his Venus in his friendship with Joey during rehab, as he feels he can be real and honest with her and perhaps no one else. For both, their love includes a sense of being misunderstood by others until they let them in. The reason it can be seen in the 4th house is because they build metaphorical and physical homes with loved ones. Nell shows us the building of a physical home through her marriage, whilst Luke shows us a metaphorical one through how he cares for Joey and giving her supportive foundations to recover, even when he eventually has to come away from her.
Gemini Mars in 8th
This one compiles fundamental aggregates for Nell and Luke, whilst also being a nice homage to how they are twins. Gemini is literally represented by the twins whilst the 8th house concerns shared resources, and on top of that Mars is energy, so this placement is a sweet head nod to how the two of them are close and connected twins. On a deeper basis, it actually also shows a lot of their power and struggles. Gemini is a mental sign, and as described Mars in 8th is shared energy, which relates this placement clearly to have they can send each other spirit messages and see each other when something is going to go wrong. On top of this is the mental and spiritual chaos of having Gemini Mars in 8th. Gemini is a sign of deep mental pathways, never knowing which one to pursue, and when placed over Mars it can show that there is a lot of mental energy and drive, which is unsurprising when Nell and Luke are (apart from Theodora) some of the most affected by Hill House. Finally, a deeper and darker connotation of the 8th house is it’s link to trauma, again a subtle nod in this chart to Nell and Luke’s ultimate paths over the series.
Taurus Moon quincunx Libra Rising
A minor aspect may seem like a funny one to list here, but it’s actually vitally important to linking this chart together. A quincunx shown in a negative manner shows two placements which misunderstand each other. They aren’t polar opposites which can meet in the middle, they’re skewed opposites with no direct track to each other. There’s a sense of alien worlds staring at each other when a quincunx is negatively manifesting. For Nell and Luke, this shows between their emotions and their lens of life. The Rising is what they saw in the world and to Nell and Luke, the world was scary. The world played directly on their feelings and yet both struggled to find solutions and reasons why, instead having to just live within the trauma and chaos. The Rising is also how others see you, the cover of your book before they open the pages. Throughout the series, we see their siblings reduce this cover within them and not open that internal book, leading Nell and Luke further into isolate and danger as they feel further misunderstood and alone by no one ever stopping to understand their feelings which struggle so much to reach their surface.
Thank you for reading this character review and remember there is no right or wrong with fictional charts!
Astrolofae 