Snape and Slytherin as the House of Water (Was: Snape as Scorpio)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154189

Carol earlier:
> > It may be relevant that both Tom Riddle (born December 31 or
possibly January 1) and Severus Snape (born January 9, according to
JKR's  website) are Scorpios. (Please note that I don't have any
actual interest in astrology and am only following up this idea to see
where it leads.)
> <snip-o-rama>
> 
> akh quips:
> There's one small problem: astrologically speaking, they're
Capricorns. In fact, the typical Capricorn does fit their
personalities rather well.  The description Trelawney gives in POA for
Harry is much of the Capricorn description: they tend to be dark, the
often brood, they have logical, systematic natures and are very detail
oriented, but they can be extremely stubborn.  They are often happy
working behind the scenes as the  "brains behind the brawn."  They can
take the limelight, though.  Richard Nixon was a Capricorn, if my
memory serves me correctly.

> I long thought Snape would just have to be a Capricorn; he too
perfectly embodies most of the personality traits to be anything else.
<snip>

Carol responds:

Oops! <Blush!> Told you I wasn't into astrology. 

Even so, I always wondered (before JKR gave us Snape's birtday)
whether Trelawney's remarks in PoA relating being born under the
planet Saturn to small stature (in childhood), suffering early in
life, and dark coloring (hair and eyes, anyway) referred to Snape
rather than Harry, and the description appears to be applicable if
being skinny and looking like a plant that's been kept out of the sun
counts as "small stature." (There's no evidence that Teen!Snape is
actually short, but he's smaller than the adult Snape, who is shorter
than Sirius. Maybe, like Harry, Severus took a while to reach adult
stature because he was neglected at home.) 

Again, I obviously don't know anything about astrology, but Trelawney
talks about being born in "midwinter" as equivalent to being born
under Saturn, and I did check to be sure that Saturn is the ruling
planet of Capricorn (Snape's correct birth sign!) before posting this
time. (Interesting that the British would consider December 22 to
January 19 to be "midwinter" when technically it's early winter, but I
suppose that's what happens when you live so far north. Cf. Christina
Rossetti's Christmas carol, "In the Bleak Midwinter." If you live in a
warmer climate, you know that midwinter is essentially February.) At
any rate, Saturn as ruling planet fits Snape rather than Harry, whose
ruling "planet" is Sol (the Sun), FWIW. I'm wondering if there's
something to it.

But the main point of my post is the part that you snipped, about the
relevance of the "positive" water sign traits to Snape. And since
Slytherin House is definitively associated with water, the idea still
applies, whether Snape himself is a Scorpio or a Capricorn. Any
comments on those thoughts, which can be found upthread?

Carol, blushing for her error and hoping that it hasn't caused her
main point to be disregarded