For a near perfect rendering of the positive infp personality, check out Rene Zellweger as Beatrix Potter in the movie, "Miss Potter". Beatrix Potter wrote "Peter Rabbit" and other stories for children at the turn of the last Century.

The movie sticks close to the facts. Beatrix grew up like a "poor little rich girl". Her parents showered the children with material gifts but were preoccupied with spending their inherited wealth, relaxing at private clubs and receiving guests at home to improve their social status.

Beatrix was isolated as a child, so typical of the infp personality. She was educated at home by a governess. Her only brother was sent to boarding school. Beatrix enjoyed nature and had many small pets that she loved. These little creatures are beautifully - very subtly - animated in the film. In a very touchin way they became her friends. Infp's have a magical relationship with the world. They can love things real.

The subtly and whimsy of Peter Rabbit and the other Potter creatures are a good indicator of the infp personality. I have Mister Rogers, a famous infp, on video saying ecstatically, "Oh how I love whimsy!" I find this quality often in the first degrees of Leo as well. Beatrix' Sun is at 5 degrees Leo. A birth mate of Beatrix is Jacquie Kennedy Onassis. Also born July 28, Jacquie is usually designated an infp.

Beatrix has a tough Grand Cross in her chart (see my page on Lisa Nowak http://www.bemyastrologer.com/lisa_nowak_horoscope.html ). This shows how differently a Grand Cross can be used. The fixed nature of Beatrix' Grand Cross includes Sun, Moon, Saturn and Pluto in the fixed signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. Jupiter is loosely included being in the last degrees of Capricorn.

Beatrix' Sun and Moon are sorely afflicted by Saturn and Pluto showing the parental estrangement and "orphaned" feeling so often associated with the infp personality. It would seem that a fey, creative and childlike creature incarnated into a family that cared nothing about children and everything about money and status. This in itself is not so bad but the dichotomy in this family reached a level of cruelty and isolation. It is an early childhood environment that would send a little girl running to small furry animals for comfort. This little girl was magical and could endow them with human qualities. See my article "Loved Real" at http://www.theintrovertzcoach.com/loved_real.html .

A Grand Cross can portend a big mark on the world. Beatrix' first book "Peter Rabbit" sold 28,000 copies its first year (1902). She was 36 when it was published. By now "Peter Rabbit" has sold over 40 million copies worldwide.

Beatrix' ability to stand up for herself, evidently refusing to marry men of her parents' choosing, is shown by the Aries South Node and particularly its sextile to the Sun. Inside every sweet and gentle infp is an absolute warrior.

There is often a tragic element in the love lives of infp's. See my article "Unrequited Love for INFPs" at http://www.theintrovertzcoach.com/infp_unrequited_love.html . In Beatrix' case, she finally met her true love at 36 but he was rejected as a potential marriage partner by her snobby parents. She became engaged to him anyway. During this secret engagement, he died of pernicious anemia. Such tragedy is sometimes seen with Saturn in Scorpio. In the movie this gentleman is played by Ewen McGregor (the last name being one of those delightful coincidences that abound with intuition).

Much later Beatrix married a fellow landholder in the Lake District where she purchased her own home after a break with her parents. She worked with her husband to conserve the natural farming and ecofriendly way of life there. Every infp has a burning cause!

Like most people, Beatrix had an eventful watershed at her first Saturn Return. This is a transit that occurs to everyone between the ages of 28 and 30. Since Beatrix' Saturn is included in the Grand Cross, hers was overwhelming but the pressure resulted in fine creative and intellectual work.

At her first Saturn Return, Beatrix officially became a Victorian Era "Old Maid" and was expected to remain at home and care for her aging parents. Nevertheless, her accomplishments began a few years later. Aside from her fanciful children's stories ("Peter Rabbit" was published in 1902), Beatrix was a serious botanist and one of the first to suggest that lichens were a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae. That's the kind of thing that puts the "np" in "infp".

Also at Beatrix' Saturn Return in 1897, a paper she wrote on the germination of spores was presented by her uncle to the Linnean Society in London (after Linnaeus). She could not present it herself because women were barred from attending meetings. In 1997, the Society issued a posthumous official apology to Potter for the way she had been treated. The Royal Society also refused to publish at least one of her technical papers. This bunch of energy may be summed up on that Grand Cross and "posthumous" fame with Uranus trine Saturn.

Like many infp's, Beatrix was a brilliant intellectual deeply gifted with the ability to perceive and convey the most subtle things in life. She was as gentle as her drawings and as warlike as her Crusade to marry only for love, leave intolerable conditions at home, create a better life for herself and preserve her chosen way of life for posterity in the Lake Country.

About the Author

Nancy R. Fenn is an advocate for introversion as a legitimate personality type.