Exoteric Astrology
Archive
Monday, October 26, 2009
New Astrology Video Series
I am beginning to produce a series of short astrology videos that I will be posting on YouTube. Hillary Clinton: Mars Retrograde Transits in Cancer-to-Gemini was posted today, on what happens to be her birthday. Check it out and enjoy!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Now posting on the Celebrity Astrology Blog
Dear readers,
I have been out of the blog-writing game for two years, due to health and professional circumstances, but am making a comeback: with a vengeance!
I am now posting articles at celebrityastrologyblog.com and will soon also be posting at politicalastrologyblog.com. From now on, this blog is reserved for updates and non-article postings.
My first article for CAB was a piece on Michael Jackson's Jupiter-Neptune recurrence transits. I am now in the midst of posting a eleven-part series (I know, I know), contrasting two of the existing birth times posited for MJ. I assure you, I have many non-Michael Jackson related projects in the works, so stay tuned!
NDB
I have been out of the blog-writing game for two years, due to health and professional circumstances, but am making a comeback: with a vengeance!
I am now posting articles at celebrityastrologyblog.com and will soon also be posting at politicalastrologyblog.com. From now on, this blog is reserved for updates and non-article postings.
My first article for CAB was a piece on Michael Jackson's Jupiter-Neptune recurrence transits. I am now in the midst of posting a eleven-part series (I know, I know), contrasting two of the existing birth times posited for MJ. I assure you, I have many non-Michael Jackson related projects in the works, so stay tuned!
NDB
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Venus Retrograde: Cycles of Injustice
The following article was mostly written in April 2007, for the summer edition of the NCGR (National Council for Geocosmic Research) Journal, which was mailed to subscribers in early August. This version is expanded with further research I've done since making my submission in early May. Thanks to Leigh Westin and Paula Gassman for their help with editing the initial version. Caution: Some of the images are disturbing....actually, it's all pretty disturbing.
Planetary synodic cycles can be used as timing devices in astrology. This article examines a historical parallel between the synodic cycle of Venus and the Sun relative to explosive moments in U.S. black-white race relations over a span of 160 years.
When it comes to looking at longer spans of time with astrology, either in a single person's biography or in a larger historical context, using the solar synodic cycles of the visible planets for timing purposes is a handy and illuminating way to unearth longstanding patterns of events or circumstances.
A synodic cycle ("synod", from the Greek synodos, means "meeting place") refers to a conjunction cycle between any two planets, though for astrological purposes the most relevant and useful are those that pair any of the visible planets with the Sun. Among the most vital sections of such periods are the retrograde and solar conjunction phases, as these extreme points in the planetary cycles often coincide with major events and changes in matters related to the planet in question.
To show one facet of how cycles work in astrology, I will demonstrate a parallel between one very particular section of the Venus retrograde cycle and its conjunction counterpart with a timeline of events that appear to be related to a specific theme, and that together span 160 years at regular intervals.
The Venus retrograde period last about 40-43 days, not including the "shadow" periods that occur before and after its duration. Preceding it, there is a pre-retrograde shadow period, during which Venus transits through the degrees of its impending retrograde; following the retrograde, there is a post-retrograde shadow period, during which Venus transits forward again through the degrees it just retreated. Each of these shadow periods last about 30-34 days. One full Venus retrograde phase – from shadow through retrograde through shadow again – lasts between 100 and 110 days.
Within the span of its eight-year cycle, Venus turns retrograde five times at pretty much the same five points of the zodiac at each return. There is a gradual shift of approximately two days and two zodiacal degrees earlier at each successive time, so that over a period of 120 years, the position of a given Venus retrograde or direct station will fall back thirty degrees, or one full sign.
The same is true for the superior conjunctions of Venus (direct motion Venus making a conjunction with the Sun): there are five superior conjunctions within an eight-year cycle, occurring in the same five areas of the zodiac as the retrogrades. The retrograde and superior conjunction cycles overlap perfectly as a pair, in what works out to be four-year increments at very close zodiacal positions. For instance, Venus will station retrograde during the summer of 2007 (2 Virgo 46), and it did in Virgo-to-Leo during the summer of 1999 (4 Virgo 59, see Diagram 1), 1991 (7 Virgo14), 1983 (9 Virgo 29), 1975 (11 Virgo39), etc. Conversely, there will be a Sun-Venus superior conjunction in 2011 (23 Leo 18), as there was in late Leo-early Virgo during the summer of 2003 (25 Leo 23, see Diagram 2), in 1995 (27 Leo 30), 1987 (29 Leo 37), 1979 (1 Virgo 44), etc.
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Drawing from these two parallel groups of five points, this one pair appears to have a profound connection with a historical chronology of race relations in the U.S., going back at least to the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831. The retrograde that currently stations in Virgo, then goes direct in Leo (during the 19th century it was stationing retrograde in Libra and direct in Virgo), and its counterpart superior conjunction, which now occurs in the late degrees of Leo every other four years, has a peculiar prominence in the timeline of tensions between races in U.S. history, largely black-white tensions.
According to Robert Schmidt, translator of ancient Hellenistic astrological texts for Project Hindsight, the essential nature of Venus is to unify that which is different or divided. In my view, the superior conjunction and retrograde phases of Venus are periods when its principle aims are challenged, with each successive point in the cycle marking new shifts in ongoing life narratives, in this case the gradual-but-painful integration of two distinct factions in American society.
Listed below is a chronology of events relevant to the history of U.S. race relations from 1831-1999 that occurred during periods of 25 recurring Venus retrograde and conjunction returns. Other than the Bellingham riots of 1907, all of the events listed have to do specifically with relations between African-Americans and Caucasian Americans, though some pertain to how factions within these two groups differed on the terms by which they defined their stand on race relations. All events occurred close to either the retrograde phases or superior conjunctions of Venus in Virgo-to-Leo (before 1903, Libra-to-Virgo). It is by no means a definitive chronology of racial or social conflict in the U.S. However, taken as a whole, it is striking that such a weighty list of thematically-related incidents all happen to have occurred within these two brief phases of an overall eight-year cycle.
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Nat Turner captured by Benjamin Phipps
Oct 30, 1831, noon, Southampton County, VA 1
One day following Venus direct station
Nat Turner was a deeply religious black slave in Virginia who, following a series of mystical visions, led a rebellion against white slave-owners and citizens, killing at least 55 people in a single night-long massacre. It was 26 days preceding the Venus retrograde station when the rebellion began in the early morning hours of August 22, 1831. However, Turner was caught a little over two months later, on October 30th, just one day after the Venus direct station. At least 55 were executed for their part in the rebellion, and more than 200 blacks in the area were subsequently killed at random by white mobs. The Turner rebellion occurred one full Saturn cycle before the American Civil War (less than one degree from its position during the siege at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on Apr 12 1861), indicating an important reference point for what would come to be called the Antebellum period.
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Amistad schooner captured by U.S. ship
Aug 26, 1839, evening, Long Island, NY 2
Nineteen days preceding Venus retrograde station
On July 2nd, 49 slaves, led by Joseph Cinqué, rebelled against their white captors while aboard the schooner Amistad, en route from Havana to Puerto Principe. Almost two months later, they arrived off the coast of Long Island, NY, where they were captured, and a lengthy legal battle was fought over their right to freedom. The court proceedings began in Hartford on November 19th, just 24 days following the direct station of Venus. By the time a final decision in their favor was reached by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 9, 1841, the next Venus retrograde station, on April 23rd, was only six weeks away.
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John McClintock and citizens trial begins
Aug 25, 1847, Carlisle, PA 3
Eighteen days preceding Venus retrograde station
A riot in Carlisle, Pennsylvania erupted after a series of events beginning June 2, 1847 when two Maryland slave owners, in town hunting down escaped slaves, were arrested for breaking and entering. When the local sheriff agreed to also detain their "property" during their brief incarceration, local black residents of this free-state were appalled, as was a local white university professor and theologian named John McClintock. When the Marylanders and their slaves attempted to leave town upon their release on June 30th, a brawl broke out between them and members of the black community, during which one of the slave owners was killed. McClintock and 26 other citizens were put on trial, which began just over two weeks before the retrograde station of Venus. Eventually, all participants were acquitted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
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Southern slave owner killed in Christiana, PA conflict
Sep 11, 1851, dawn, Christiana, PA 4
Nineteen days preceding superior conjunction
A violent confrontation erupted at dawn on the property of mulatto farmer William Parker, a vital stop on the underground railway in the Pennsylvania village of Christiana. Parker, a member of the Lancaster Black Self-Protection Society, and other abolitionist locals were involved in a shootout against a Maryland slave owner named Edward Gorsuch, accompanied by a U.S. Marshall and deputies, who had arrived looking for four escaped slaves named Noah Buley, Nelson Ford, George Ford, and Joshua Hammond. Gorsuch was legally entitled to cross the Mason-Dixon line in his pursuit, thanks to the recently passed Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, but was killed in the gunfire. The resulting trial, in which the lone defendant was ultimately found not guilty, was a national media event and provided an important legal challenge to the Fugitive Slave Act.
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Topeka constitution convention outlaws slavery
Oct 23, 1855, Topeka, KS 5
One day following Venus direct station
Following two Kansas free-state conventions in Lawrence (August 14) and Big Spring (September 5, five days preceding the Venus retrograde station), delegates assembled in Topeka to draft a new free soil constitution, angering pro-slavery factions in the outbreak of a feud known as Bleeding Kansas. By the time the document was approved on December 15, the Wakarusa war had broken out in the Lawrence area when a local pro-slavery advocate shot and killed a free-state neighbor during an argument. President Franklin Pierce denounced the Topeka convention as an act of treason and demanded that its government disband. The brief Wakarusa conflict didn't result in too much violence, though Lawrence was later attacked and brutally sacked during the Civil War, at the Venus synodic return from this period, on August 21, 1863, by a band of Confederate guerillas led by William Clarke Quantrill (and probably including future outlaw extraordinaire Jesse James, born on the verge of the Venus retrograde station during this same synodic return on September 5, 1847 in Centerville, MO).
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John Brown leads Harpers Ferry raid
Oct 16, 1859, night, Harpers Ferry, VA 6
Nineteen days following Venus superior conjunction
Militant abolitionist John Brown and about 19 of his men began their raid on an armory at Harpers Ferry on this evening, an attempt to secure munitions for their war against slavery. The siege was ultimately thwarted, with most of the men dying at the scene or by execution in the aftermath, but the incident managed to sway Virginian popular sympathy toward the Confederacy. Robert E. Lee, despite being personally opposed to secession, ultimately decided to side with his home state and fight against the Union. The time of the assault occurred less than three weeks after the Venus superior conjunction, though by the time of the raid, transiting Mercury had moved in between the Sun and Venus.
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New York draft riots
Jul 18, 1863, evening, New York City 7
Fifty-six days preceding Venus retrograde station
Although this event did not occur exactly within the retrograde phase or its shadow periods, I decided to include it anyway, since it still came awfully close and was certainly a significant moment in the Civil War, having come just days after the legendary battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. In fact, Union troops returning straight from the fields of Gettysburg were called upon to help handle this riot, a foreshadowing of the urban race riots at the turn of the century, essentially mass lynchings perpetrated by hordes of angry whites. In this case, the matter at hand was the Union war draft, widely resented by recent European (largely Irish) immigrants who in turn took their frustrations out on random African-Americans on the streets of New York.
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President Grant sends troops to South Carolina to disperse KKK
Oct 17, 1871, Washington, DC 8
Venus stations direct this day
Having passed the Civil Rights Act, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, the previous April, giving him the power (until 1872) to suspend habeas corpus, President Ulysses S. Grant did just that when he sent troops to nine counties in South Carolina to arrest hundreds of Klansmen. This was following a period of severe Klan activity, all the more so during the Venus retrograde phase that led to Grant's proclamation of October 12 (five days prior to this), ordering the South Carolina Klan to disarm and disperse. With over 3,000 indictments handed down following this clampdown, violence in the South took a sharp turn downward following trials in late 1871-early 1872.
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Decatur racial violence follows manhunt for gunman
Aug 27, 1887, 3:00 PM, Decatur, GA 9
Four days preceding Venus retrograde station
A Sunday school celebration in Decatur, Georgia turned into a violent racial clash after an unknown black man pulled out a gun, prompting someone to call the police. Both whites and black rallied against each other during the ensuing chase, and the shootout continued even after the original gunman was ambushed and killed. The incident was blamed by some on ill-feelings among local residents following a lynching in nearby Redan a few weeks earlier.
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Race riot erupts at mining camp near Birmingham, Alabama
Jul 30, 1895, 10:00 PM, Brookside, AL 10
Twenty-nine days preceding Venus retrograde station
Two policemen were killed during a shootout with disgruntled black miner Jim Biggers at a mining camp in Brookside, Alabama, sparking a racially-divided gun battle that killed at least seven or eight people.
Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Compromise"
Sep 18, 1895, Atlanta, GA 11
Venus inferior conjunction with Sun and Moon
Just as Venus retrograde was making its conjunction with the New Moon in Virgo, the Southern black educator and activist Booker T. Washington gave his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech to an audience of mostly whites at the Cotton States and International Exposition. Said to be among the most important speeches in American history, Washington's appeal for working cooperation between races was a milestone in establishing better relations between them, though he also drew, and would continue to draw, considerable criticism for being too accommodating to white social domination.
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Boston riot at Booker T. Washington speech
Jul 30, 1903, evening, Boston, MA 12
Twenty-eight days preceding Venus retrograde station
A heated confrontation between Washington and a faction of black dissenters, led by his chief critic William Monroe Trotter, during a hot night's gathering at Boston's A.M.E. Zion Church, led to a riot and several arrests, including that of Trotter and his wife. The criticism leveled at Washington on this night was not unlike the initial reaction to his "compromise" speech, which he had given just one Venus synodic cycle earlier.
Stabbing incident triggers white riot against blacks in the Bronx
Aug 15, 1903, evening, Bronx, NY 13
Twelve days preceding Venus retrograde station
The fatal stabbing of a white man named John Finnessy in the Bronx, triggered a mob hunt of at least fifty for the unknown black man said to have committed the act during a bar brawl. The mob attacked dozens of blacks who happened along the streets that night, until police were finally able to calm things down.
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Bellingham riot
Sep 5, 1907, night, Bellingham, WA 14
Nine days preceding Venus superior conjunction
The Washington state frontier town of Bellingham erupted in a mob of about 500 white men rampaging against a neighborhood of East Indian immigrant families, as the local police force stood by complacently.
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Midtown Manhattan race riot erupts following shooting
Jul 22, 1911, one hour after sunset, Manhattan, NY 15
Thirty-four days preceding Venus direct station
A race riot broke out on Seventh Avenue outside the new Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan, following a street altercation turned violent when an off-duty fireman named George Duke was shot in the neck, allegedly by a black man named Silas Seabrook, who was apprehended at the scene. Seabrook's alleged accomplice, a razor-wielding black man who attempted to prevent his arrest, managed to escape. Within minutes of the shooting, scores of whites and blacks gathered at the scene, squared off in an ugly confrontation. Duke apparently survived his injury.
Critics of Booker T. Washington issue appeal to Europe
Oct 26, 1911 16
Twenty days following Venus direct station
At the synodic return of this particular Venus retrograde, Washington was again taken to task for his moderate position. On this day, 32 notable African-Americans issued an appeal to Europe, in response to statements he had made during a recent tour there. Again, he was accused of being overly conciliatory and accommodating to white domination. "It is one thing to be optimistic self-forgetful and forgiving, but it is quite a different thing, consciously or unconsciously, to misrepresent the truth." Washington died on Nov 14 1915, just two months following the Venus superior conjunction in Virgo.
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Longview riot
Jul 11, 1919, approx. 1:00 AM, Longview, TX 17
Forty-one days preceding Venus retrograde station
As a white vigilante mob was ambushed during an attempt at retribution over a rumored mix-race love affair, so began the second of what would be 25 major urban riots during the summer of 1919, in what has since become known as "Red Summer". At this point, Venus was still outside its pre-station shadow, though by the time most of the worst rioting got underway, that was not the case.
Washington D.C. riot
Jul 19, 1919, evening, Washington, DC 18
Thirty-four days preceding Venus retrograde station
Lasting more than three days, this riot erupted over an alleged assault on a white Navy man's wife by a black man. Unlike most riots from this period, resistance to the white mob was organized and effective, more like the riots of the 1960's than most of the others that occurred at this time. With the "Red Summer" heating up, Venus was now entering its pre-retrograde shadow.
Chicago riot
Jul 27, 1919, 2:00 PM, Chicago, IL 19
Twenty-six days preceding Venus retrograde station
A black youth was drowned at the lakeside beach after a rock attack by whites who were angry over his wandering out of the "colored" section of the water. The following riot lasted five days, resulting in the deaths of 23 blacks and 15 whites, with close to 300 wounded or maimed. Venus was well into its pre-retrograde shadow at this point.
Omaha riot
Sep 28, 1919, 11:00 PM, Omaha, NE 20
Venus retrograde, six days preceding direct station
Another alleged assault on a white woman by a black man triggered this massive riot, in which a mob of up to 20,000 people participated, leaving the suspect in question bullet-ridden and burned on a pyre, Omaha's mayor hanged, and the city's courthouse in flames. Venus retrograde was now less than a week from its direct station.
Elaine riot
Sep 30, 1919, 11:00 PM, Elaine, AR 21
Venus retrograde, four days preceding direct station
A shootout erupted when a local sheriff and his squad raided a black sharecroppers meeting, during which a detective was killed. Rumors of a black uprising brought together a mob from both sides of the Mississippi for what amounted to a slaughter, yet another mass lynching with a black body count being possibly as high as 800. Many of the ensuing trials against black defendants for riot-related indictments wound up being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, an important early victory for the NAACP.
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Oklahoma governor declares state-wide martial law
Sep 15, 1923, Oklahoma City, OK 22
Five days following Venus superior conjunction
Following the Tulsa race riot of May 31-June 1, 1921 (having ignited 18 days after the Venus direct station in Aries), Ku Klux Klan influence rose sharply in Oklahoma. To combat a continuing assault of Klan-related violence, Governor John C. Walton declared martial law throughout the state, and ordered 6000 Oklahoma guardsmen to active duty. Walton was soon forced out of office for his actions, suspending habeas corpus not being permitted by the Oklahoma constitution.
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Rubin Stacy lynched
Jul 19, 1935, Fort Lauderdale, FL 23
Twenty-nine days preceding Venus retrograde station
Despite pressure from both the NAACP and Eleanor Roosevelt to support an anti-lynching bill (the Costian-Wagner Act) that would punish sheriffs who failed to protect lynching victims in their custody, President Franklin D. Roosevelt refused to comply, for fear of alienating his Southern voter base. Following the lynching of a man named Rubin Stacy (as Venus edged closer to its retrograde station), who was captured in Florida while in the custody of Dade county deputies, it was hoped - in vain - that Roosevelt's mind would be swayed by the grisly photo of the event making the rounds.
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Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit Debuts at #16 on sales charts
Jul 22, 1939, New York, NY 24
Forty-five days preceding Venus superior conjunction
Billie Holiday's haunting song about lynching, recorded April 20, 1939, was making its peak on the sales charts as an impending Venus superior conjunction drew closer. Holiday had been singing the song at Café Society, New York's first integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village (opened on December 30, 1938 at 11:30 PM, 20 days following the previous Venus direct station in Scorpio) since the beginning of the year. It was already a local phenomenon by the time of its release in June, when it became a nationwide cause célèbre and an enduring anthem for the emerging Civil Rights movement.
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Detroit riot
Jun 20, 1943, approx. 10:00 PM, Belle Isle, MI 25
Fifty-six days preceding Venus retrograde station
In a city where the black population had doubled within the previous 10 years, racial tensions had already come to blows in Detroit on the morning of February 28, 1942 (just five days after the Venus direct station in Aquarius), at the brand new Sojourner Truth housing project, when local whites clashed with blacks who were trying to move into their new homes. Although that skirmish was relatively mild, matters exploded as Venus was moving closer toward its retrograde station, when a minor brawl escalated to major mob violence, much of it caused by false rumors on both sides of the racial divide that women and children were being attacked. Again, this particular event occurred outside the span of the Venus retrograde and its shadow periods. It was worth including in this chronology, not only because it came close to the cycle, but also because Detroit has since been the scene of mob incident during the Virgo-to-Leo Venus retrograde (see 1967 and 1975). Furthermore, the summer of 1943 was a hotbed of American rioting, with the notorious "Zoot Suit" riots in Los Angeles having just happened on June 3rd, and the big Harlem riot was still to come.
Harlem riot
Aug 1, 1943, 10:00 PM, Harlem, NY 26
Fourteen days preceding Venus retrograde station
As Venus was slowing down to its station, Harlem's most destructive riot ever erupted over a rumor that a policeman had shot and killed a black solider (when he had apparently only wounded his shoulder). Looting was rampant, with more than 1,000 people arrested and six shot dead. During the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, Harlem would again ignite in a riot on July 18 1964, just eight days after its direct station in Gemini.
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Cicero riot
Jul 10-12, 1951, Cicero, IL 27
Thirty-four days preceding Venus retrograde station
Following the Second World War, it was not unusual for black families attempting to move into an otherwise white-only neighborhood to find themselves greeted with strong resistance, sometimes even violence, from local whites, incidents that were common but almost never reported. However, this time in Cicero, IL, such an incident was reported internationally, even receiving coverage in Time magazine. On this occasion, the unruly mob tossed the family's furniture out a window and set it on fire, also causing a lot of other general mayhem until the National Guard was called in to clean things up.
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Emmett Till Abducted by Lynch Mob
Aug 28, 1955, 2:30 AM, Jackson, MS 28
Four days preceding Venus superior conjunction
As with the Cicero incident, this event was mainly unique because it received widespread press coverage, even though it was typical of the times. A 14 year-old black kid from Illinois, in Mississippi visiting family, whistled at a white woman outside a grocery store, and then wound up being abducted and murdered by a lynch mob later that night. When his devastated mother allowed a photograph of his severely beaten and disfigured face to be printed in newspapers across the world, an outcry of protest was heard. Three months later, in Birmingham, Alabama, it was the image of young Emmett Till's death face that haunted Rosa Parks as she defiantly kept her seat on a city bus.
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Policemen attacked by mob in the Bronx
Aug 9, 1959, shortly after 1:00 PM, Bronx, NY 29
One day preceding Venus retrograde station
Two NYPD officers attempting to arrest a black man and woman in the East Bronx for illegal possession of alcohol found themselves surrounded by a large angry mob. Four people were injured and four were arrested in the ensuing confrontation as police backup attempted disperse the crowd.
Miles Davis attacked by policeman
Aug 26, 1959, early morning, Manhattan, NY 30
Venus retrograde, fourteen days following station
As with the Cicero and Emmett Till incidents, what set this otherwise-ordinary event apart was that it received major international publicity. Trumpet player Miles Davis, at this point a big name in the music industry for over a decade, stepped outside the Birdland Club in Manhattan on a night his band was booked for numerous sets. Having just helped a white woman friend of his hail down a cab, he was simply smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk when an NYPD officer came by and started giving him trouble. Davis was hit hard on the head with the cop's nightstick, and then arrested for disorderly conduct and assaulting an officer. In the end, Davis won a lawsuit against the city of New York, and a major symbolic victory in the war against oppression.
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Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" Speech at the March on Washington
Aug 28, 1963, mid-late afternoon, Washington, DC 31
One day preceding Venus superior conjunction
Probably the best-known event in this timeline, the March on Washington was the biggest Civil Rights protest in history, with estimates of 200,000 to 500,000 people in attendance. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, among the greatest moments in modern oratory. The Venus superior conjunction was just a day away; in fact, marking this special occasion was a tight triple conjunction of Venus-Sun-Uranus.
Birmingham church bombing
Sep 15, 1963, 10:19 AM, Birmingham, AL 32
Seventeen days following Venus superior conjunction
One of the great tragedies of the Civil Rights era occurred a little over two weeks after the March on Washington. A Klan-planted bomb explosion at a black Birmingham, Alabama church killed four young girls, injuring another 22 people. This blast was Birmingham's 21st bombing in eight years, and its third in the last 11 days. Again, during this part of the Venus synodic cycle, more international attention is paid to the event.
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Newark riot
Jul 12, 1967, 9:40 PM, Newark, NJ 33
Twenty-seven days preceding Venus retrograde station
As Venus was easing into its pre-retrograde shadow, a cab driver was arrested and beaten badly. A rumor that he had died spread around Newark, triggering the first in a series of riots this summer, lasting six days and leaving 26 dead and an estimated 1500 arrested. Like its Venus retrograde in Virgo counterpart (the "Red Summer" of 1919), the summer of 1967 saw a wave of rioting in American cities, fewer in number but much longer in duration. Each incident was more like a miniature civil war than a simple case of civil unrest. Looking at the broader context, obviously it can be said that riots were a very regular occurrence throughout the 1960s, and certainly not all of them happened during Venus retrograde phases. However, these were, after all, the 1960s and as with the Los Angeles riots of 1992 (which also did not occur during a Venus retrograde or superior conjunction), there were outer planet conjunctions in effect at the time, marking them as volatile periods for social unrest.
Plainfield riot
Jul 14, 1967, evening, Plainfield, NJ 34
Twenty-five days preceding Venus retrograde station
Eighteen miles southwest of Newark, and two days into the rioting there, hot tempers spread to Plainfield this night, beginning with a brawl at a local diner that escalated into a chain of events that would take a full week to play out. The only death, however, occurred on the night of the 16th, when a mob turned on a white policeman who had just shot and wounded a black youth. Ultimately, as with Newark, the New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard.
Detroit riot
Jul 23, 1967, early morning, Detroit, MI 35
Sixteen days preceding Venus retrograde station
A five-day long riot ignited when the vice squad attempted to shut down an illegal after-hours drinking establishment. The so-called "12th Street Riots" occurred 24 years after the Detroit riot of 1943 mentioned earlier, only this time well within the pre-retrograde shadow phase of Venus. The riot was also far more severe this time around, with a reported 43 people dead, and more than 2,000 buildings burned down. To this day, it stands as one of the most destructive riots in U.S. history.
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George Jackson killed at San Quentin prison
Aug 21, 1971, afternoon, San Quentin, CA 36
Six days preceding Venus superior conjunction
Black panther/author George Jackson, incarcerated for the last 12 years of his life for stealing $70 from a gas station, was about to go on trial for killing a prison guard, but instead was gunned down during what was described as an escape attempt from the San Quentin prison yard. The Attica prison riots, which began nineteen days after Jackson's death, were said to have been at least partly caused in reaction to it.
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Detroit near-riot
Jul 28, 1975, 9:00 PM, Detroit, MI 37
Nine days preceding Venus retrograde station
A white bar owner shot a black youth during an alleged car burglary, triggering what was shaping up to be yet another bad riot in Detroit during this particular retrograde cycle. However, within two days Coleman Young, the city's first black mayor, managed to quell the situation, partly due to his keeping a largely black police force on duty to enforce the peace. This crucial early victory during his first year in office helped develop Young's legend, which in turn helped keep him in power until 1993.
Louisville & Boston busing riots
September 12, 1975, Louisville, KY and Boston, MA 38
Venus retrograde, five days preceding direct station
As Venus was slowing down to its direct station, white and black parents and youths clashed over enforced school busing, intended as a solution to segregation problems in urban public school systems. On this day early in the school year, tempers exploded at protests in Boston and Louisville, the latter escalating into a riot by an estimated 10,000 people. Although no deaths were reported, there was a lot of damage and the National Guard was called in to calm things down.
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Graffiti artist Michael Stewart killed during NYPD arrest
Sep 15, 1983, 2:50 AM, Manhattan, NY 39
Venus stations direct this day
A young graffiti artist caught in the act at a subway station at First Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan was said to have resisted arrest and lapsed into a coma while being subdued by at least six NYPD officers. He arrived at Bellevue hospital bruised, hogtied and unconscious, dying thirteen days later. Charges of police brutality sparked New York's longest criminal trial, which resulted in acquittals for the accused officers on November 24, 1985.
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Crown Heights riot
Aug 19, 1991, 8:00 PM, Brooklyn, NY 40
Venus retrograde, twenty-five days preceding direct station
During the Venus retrograde of summer 1991, a car belonging to a procession led by Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Schneerson crashed and accidentally killed seven year-old Gavin Cato on a street in Brooklyn's Crown Heights district. Enraged black citizens clashed with whites, particularly Jews and policemen, over the next three days, during which time an Orthodox Jewish man (not, however of the Lubavitch movement) died from injuries sustained from an assault by a black mob.
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East Coast-West Coast hip hop wars begin
Aug 3, 1995, evening, Manhattan, NY 41
Seventeen days preceding Venus superior conjunction
One-upmanship between West and East Coast hip hop music factions grew more and more aggressive over the course of this evening's proceedings at the Second Annual Source Music Awards (a hip hop culture magazine's awards gala held at Madison Square Garden in New York City), triggering a brief-but-era-defining cultural rift that is understood to have led to the gun deaths of artists Tupac Shakur (shot in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996 at 11:15 PM, during a separating Venus-Mars conjunction in late Cancer-early Leo) and Biggie Smalls (shot about forty minutes after midnight on March 9, 1997 in Los Angeles, during a Mars retrograde). Although not really a racial schism, it was a factional rift within an African- American cultural context rooted in this same given Venus superior conjunction cycle. Rapper's Delight by Sugar Hill Gang, said to be the first hip hop record, was released on September 16, 1979, 22 days following the Venus superior conjunction at 1 Virgo. Eight years later, DJ Scott La Rock, of Boogie Down Productions, was the first major hip hop artist to be shot dead on August 27, 1987 (1:25 AM in The Bronx, NY), four days following the Venus superior conjunction at 29 Leo.
Mark Fuhrman tape reveals "N-word" use
Aug 29, 1995, Los Angeles, CA 42
Nine days following Venus superior conjunction
The verdict on O.J. Simpson's murder trial was just over a month away, and as the days led up to that fateful moment, the court (minus the jury) heard taped conversations between Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman and screenwriter Laura Hart McKinny, during which Fuhrman used the "N-word" 41 times and also described police brutality towards blacks. As sympathies in this case are notoriously divided largely along racial lines, it is fair to say revelations heard in court on this day are among the top reasons this is so. The jury was allowed to hear these tapes a week later, on September 5th.
________________________________________________________________________
1999: New Twists
There was plenty of American social violence during the Venus retrograde of 1999, but the pattern of racial conflict set by previous points in the cycle was not nearly as evident. Although some of the violence was racially charged, this time the scope of the racism was broader than a simple black/white schism. The Illinois shooting spree of Benjamin Smith, which began on July 2 at 8:20 PM in Chicago 43 (27 days preceding the Venus retrograde station), targeted blacks, Jews and Asians, with two of his 11 victims failing to survive their wounds. Buford Furrow's shooting at a Jewish daycare center in Granada Hills, California on August 10 at 10:49 AM 44 (12 days into the Venus retrograde), injuring five and killing one, was clearly motivated by racial hatred. But there were also a number of non-racially motivated high-profile murders committed during this period. There was a homophobic hate crime with the murder of Army Private Barry Winchell, who was beaten in his bed at a barracks with a baseball bat for his rumored affair with a trans-gendered woman, on July 5 at approximately 2:30 AM in Fort Campbell, Kentucky 45 (24 days preceding the retrograde station). More random were the office shooting sprees of Mark O. Barton on July 29 at 3:00 PM in Atlanta 46 (the day of the retrograde station), and Alan Miller seven days later on August 5 at 7:00 AM in Pelham, Alabama 47 , neither of which appears to have been racially motivated. Nor was Larry Gene Ashbrook's shoot-up of a Fort Worth Baptist Church, killing seven, on September 15 just after 7:00 PM. 48 (five days following Venus' direct station).
There was a serious riot in the United States during the 1999 Venus retrograde phase as well, except this time it did not appear to be racially motivated at all. The disastrous Woodstock music festival of July 23-25 in Rome, New York 49 ended in mob retaliation against overpriced bottled water and other indignities incurred at the site, a product of white suburban ennui that exploded in a fury of burning cars and numerous reported sexual assaults.
________________________________________________________________________
Coming This Summer?
During the writing of this article, the Virginia Tech shootings occurred (April 16 2007, 7:15AM, Blacksburg, VA 50), at what was virtually the exact Venus synodic return of the Columbine shootings of 1999 (April 19, 1999, 11:19 AM, Littleton, CO 51). Although these events both occurred about three months before the Venus retrograde station, well out of the range of even the pre-station shadow phase, the fact that they were almost exactly eight years apart means that their respective Venus positions are close to identical zodiacally and relative to the position of the Sun (which was at 26 Aries at Virginia Tech and 0 Taurus at Columbine).
The violent events of the summer of 1999 suggest that whatever potential turmoil in American life that happens to coincide with the Venus retrograde phase of summer 2007 doesn't necessarily have to be divided along strictly black-white lines anymore. However, with black-white divisions having an escalating prominence lately ( e.g., the Duke Lacrosse Team rape case, and the Rutgers Basketball Team racial slur case with Don Imus), it is fair to say we are already entering this historically volatile phase of the Venus cycle with the matter on our minds.
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Endnotes
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30 New York Times: August 26, 1959
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Planetary synodic cycles can be used as timing devices in astrology. This article examines a historical parallel between the synodic cycle of Venus and the Sun relative to explosive moments in U.S. black-white race relations over a span of 160 years.
When it comes to looking at longer spans of time with astrology, either in a single person's biography or in a larger historical context, using the solar synodic cycles of the visible planets for timing purposes is a handy and illuminating way to unearth longstanding patterns of events or circumstances.
A synodic cycle ("synod", from the Greek synodos, means "meeting place") refers to a conjunction cycle between any two planets, though for astrological purposes the most relevant and useful are those that pair any of the visible planets with the Sun. Among the most vital sections of such periods are the retrograde and solar conjunction phases, as these extreme points in the planetary cycles often coincide with major events and changes in matters related to the planet in question.
To show one facet of how cycles work in astrology, I will demonstrate a parallel between one very particular section of the Venus retrograde cycle and its conjunction counterpart with a timeline of events that appear to be related to a specific theme, and that together span 160 years at regular intervals.
Venus Retrograde
The Venus retrograde period last about 40-43 days, not including the "shadow" periods that occur before and after its duration. Preceding it, there is a pre-retrograde shadow period, during which Venus transits through the degrees of its impending retrograde; following the retrograde, there is a post-retrograde shadow period, during which Venus transits forward again through the degrees it just retreated. Each of these shadow periods last about 30-34 days. One full Venus retrograde phase – from shadow through retrograde through shadow again – lasts between 100 and 110 days.
Within the span of its eight-year cycle, Venus turns retrograde five times at pretty much the same five points of the zodiac at each return. There is a gradual shift of approximately two days and two zodiacal degrees earlier at each successive time, so that over a period of 120 years, the position of a given Venus retrograde or direct station will fall back thirty degrees, or one full sign.
The same is true for the superior conjunctions of Venus (direct motion Venus making a conjunction with the Sun): there are five superior conjunctions within an eight-year cycle, occurring in the same five areas of the zodiac as the retrogrades. The retrograde and superior conjunction cycles overlap perfectly as a pair, in what works out to be four-year increments at very close zodiacal positions. For instance, Venus will station retrograde during the summer of 2007 (2 Virgo 46), and it did in Virgo-to-Leo during the summer of 1999 (4 Virgo 59, see Diagram 1), 1991 (7 Virgo14), 1983 (9 Virgo 29), 1975 (11 Virgo39), etc. Conversely, there will be a Sun-Venus superior conjunction in 2011 (23 Leo 18), as there was in late Leo-early Virgo during the summer of 2003 (25 Leo 23, see Diagram 2), in 1995 (27 Leo 30), 1987 (29 Leo 37), 1979 (1 Virgo 44), etc.
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Cycles of Social Conflict
Drawing from these two parallel groups of five points, this one pair appears to have a profound connection with a historical chronology of race relations in the U.S., going back at least to the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831. The retrograde that currently stations in Virgo, then goes direct in Leo (during the 19th century it was stationing retrograde in Libra and direct in Virgo), and its counterpart superior conjunction, which now occurs in the late degrees of Leo every other four years, has a peculiar prominence in the timeline of tensions between races in U.S. history, largely black-white tensions.
According to Robert Schmidt, translator of ancient Hellenistic astrological texts for Project Hindsight, the essential nature of Venus is to unify that which is different or divided. In my view, the superior conjunction and retrograde phases of Venus are periods when its principle aims are challenged, with each successive point in the cycle marking new shifts in ongoing life narratives, in this case the gradual-but-painful integration of two distinct factions in American society.
Listed below is a chronology of events relevant to the history of U.S. race relations from 1831-1999 that occurred during periods of 25 recurring Venus retrograde and conjunction returns. Other than the Bellingham riots of 1907, all of the events listed have to do specifically with relations between African-Americans and Caucasian Americans, though some pertain to how factions within these two groups differed on the terms by which they defined their stand on race relations. All events occurred close to either the retrograde phases or superior conjunctions of Venus in Virgo-to-Leo (before 1903, Libra-to-Virgo). It is by no means a definitive chronology of racial or social conflict in the U.S. However, taken as a whole, it is striking that such a weighty list of thematically-related incidents all happen to have occurred within these two brief phases of an overall eight-year cycle.
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Sep 17-Oct 29, 1831: Venus retrograde 22 Libra-6 Libra
Nat Turner captured by Benjamin Phipps
Oct 30, 1831, noon, Southampton County, VA 1
One day following Venus direct station
Nat Turner was a deeply religious black slave in Virginia who, following a series of mystical visions, led a rebellion against white slave-owners and citizens, killing at least 55 people in a single night-long massacre. It was 26 days preceding the Venus retrograde station when the rebellion began in the early morning hours of August 22, 1831. However, Turner was caught a little over two months later, on October 30th, just one day after the Venus direct station. At least 55 were executed for their part in the rebellion, and more than 200 blacks in the area were subsequently killed at random by white mobs. The Turner rebellion occurred one full Saturn cycle before the American Civil War (less than one degree from its position during the siege at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on Apr 12 1861), indicating an important reference point for what would come to be called the Antebellum period.
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Sep 14-Oct 26, 1839: Venus retrograde 19 Libra-4 Libra
Amistad schooner captured by U.S. ship
Aug 26, 1839, evening, Long Island, NY 2
Nineteen days preceding Venus retrograde station
On July 2nd, 49 slaves, led by Joseph Cinqué, rebelled against their white captors while aboard the schooner Amistad, en route from Havana to Puerto Principe. Almost two months later, they arrived off the coast of Long Island, NY, where they were captured, and a lengthy legal battle was fought over their right to freedom. The court proceedings began in Hartford on November 19th, just 24 days following the direct station of Venus. By the time a final decision in their favor was reached by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 9, 1841, the next Venus retrograde station, on April 23rd, was only six weeks away.
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Sep 12-Oct 24, 1847: Venus retrograde 17 Libra-1 Libra
John McClintock and citizens trial begins
Aug 25, 1847, Carlisle, PA 3
Eighteen days preceding Venus retrograde station
A riot in Carlisle, Pennsylvania erupted after a series of events beginning June 2, 1847 when two Maryland slave owners, in town hunting down escaped slaves, were arrested for breaking and entering. When the local sheriff agreed to also detain their "property" during their brief incarceration, local black residents of this free-state were appalled, as was a local white university professor and theologian named John McClintock. When the Marylanders and their slaves attempted to leave town upon their release on June 30th, a brawl broke out between them and members of the black community, during which one of the slave owners was killed. McClintock and 26 other citizens were put on trial, which began just over two weeks before the retrograde station of Venus. Eventually, all participants were acquitted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
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Sep 30, 1851: Venus superior conjunction 6 Libra
Southern slave owner killed in Christiana, PA conflict
Sep 11, 1851, dawn, Christiana, PA 4
Nineteen days preceding superior conjunction
A violent confrontation erupted at dawn on the property of mulatto farmer William Parker, a vital stop on the underground railway in the Pennsylvania village of Christiana. Parker, a member of the Lancaster Black Self-Protection Society, and other abolitionist locals were involved in a shootout against a Maryland slave owner named Edward Gorsuch, accompanied by a U.S. Marshall and deputies, who had arrived looking for four escaped slaves named Noah Buley, Nelson Ford, George Ford, and Joshua Hammond. Gorsuch was legally entitled to cross the Mason-Dixon line in his pursuit, thanks to the recently passed Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, but was killed in the gunfire. The resulting trial, in which the lone defendant was ultimately found not guilty, was a national media event and provided an important legal challenge to the Fugitive Slave Act.
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Sep 10-Oct 22, 1855: Venus retrograde 15 Libra-29 Virgo
Topeka constitution convention outlaws slavery
Oct 23, 1855, Topeka, KS 5
One day following Venus direct station
Following two Kansas free-state conventions in Lawrence (August 14) and Big Spring (September 5, five days preceding the Venus retrograde station), delegates assembled in Topeka to draft a new free soil constitution, angering pro-slavery factions in the outbreak of a feud known as Bleeding Kansas. By the time the document was approved on December 15, the Wakarusa war had broken out in the Lawrence area when a local pro-slavery advocate shot and killed a free-state neighbor during an argument. President Franklin Pierce denounced the Topeka convention as an act of treason and demanded that its government disband. The brief Wakarusa conflict didn't result in too much violence, though Lawrence was later attacked and brutally sacked during the Civil War, at the Venus synodic return from this period, on August 21, 1863, by a band of Confederate guerillas led by William Clarke Quantrill (and probably including future outlaw extraordinaire Jesse James, born on the verge of the Venus retrograde station during this same synodic return on September 5, 1847 in Centerville, MO).
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Sep 27, 1859: Venus superior conjunction 4 Libra
John Brown leads Harpers Ferry raid
Oct 16, 1859, night, Harpers Ferry, VA 6
Nineteen days following Venus superior conjunction
Militant abolitionist John Brown and about 19 of his men began their raid on an armory at Harpers Ferry on this evening, an attempt to secure munitions for their war against slavery. The siege was ultimately thwarted, with most of the men dying at the scene or by execution in the aftermath, but the incident managed to sway Virginian popular sympathy toward the Confederacy. Robert E. Lee, despite being personally opposed to secession, ultimately decided to side with his home state and fight against the Union. The time of the assault occurred less than three weeks after the Venus superior conjunction, though by the time of the raid, transiting Mercury had moved in between the Sun and Venus.
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Sep 7-Oct 19, 1863: Venus retrograde 13 Libra-27 Virgo
New York draft riots
Jul 18, 1863, evening, New York City 7
Fifty-six days preceding Venus retrograde station
Although this event did not occur exactly within the retrograde phase or its shadow periods, I decided to include it anyway, since it still came awfully close and was certainly a significant moment in the Civil War, having come just days after the legendary battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. In fact, Union troops returning straight from the fields of Gettysburg were called upon to help handle this riot, a foreshadowing of the urban race riots at the turn of the century, essentially mass lynchings perpetrated by hordes of angry whites. In this case, the matter at hand was the Union war draft, widely resented by recent European (largely Irish) immigrants who in turn took their frustrations out on random African-Americans on the streets of New York.
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Sep 5-Oct 17, 1871: Venus retrograde 10 Libra-24 Virgo
President Grant sends troops to South Carolina to disperse KKK
Oct 17, 1871, Washington, DC 8
Venus stations direct this day
Having passed the Civil Rights Act, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, the previous April, giving him the power (until 1872) to suspend habeas corpus, President Ulysses S. Grant did just that when he sent troops to nine counties in South Carolina to arrest hundreds of Klansmen. This was following a period of severe Klan activity, all the more so during the Venus retrograde phase that led to Grant's proclamation of October 12 (five days prior to this), ordering the South Carolina Klan to disarm and disperse. With over 3,000 indictments handed down following this clampdown, violence in the South took a sharp turn downward following trials in late 1871-early 1872.
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Aug 31-Oct 12, 1887: Venus retrograde 6 Libra-20 Virgo
Decatur racial violence follows manhunt for gunman
Aug 27, 1887, 3:00 PM, Decatur, GA 9
Four days preceding Venus retrograde station
A Sunday school celebration in Decatur, Georgia turned into a violent racial clash after an unknown black man pulled out a gun, prompting someone to call the police. Both whites and black rallied against each other during the ensuing chase, and the shootout continued even after the original gunman was ambushed and killed. The incident was blamed by some on ill-feelings among local residents following a lynching in nearby Redan a few weeks earlier.
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Aug 28-Oct 10, 1895: Venus retrograde 4 Libra-17 Virgo
Race riot erupts at mining camp near Birmingham, Alabama
Jul 30, 1895, 10:00 PM, Brookside, AL 10
Twenty-nine days preceding Venus retrograde station
Two policemen were killed during a shootout with disgruntled black miner Jim Biggers at a mining camp in Brookside, Alabama, sparking a racially-divided gun battle that killed at least seven or eight people.
Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Compromise"
Sep 18, 1895, Atlanta, GA 11
Venus inferior conjunction with Sun and Moon
Just as Venus retrograde was making its conjunction with the New Moon in Virgo, the Southern black educator and activist Booker T. Washington gave his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech to an audience of mostly whites at the Cotton States and International Exposition. Said to be among the most important speeches in American history, Washington's appeal for working cooperation between races was a milestone in establishing better relations between them, though he also drew, and would continue to draw, considerable criticism for being too accommodating to white social domination.
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Aug 27-Oct 8, 1903: Venus retrograde 1 Libra-15 Virgo
Boston riot at Booker T. Washington speech
Jul 30, 1903, evening, Boston, MA 12
Twenty-eight days preceding Venus retrograde station
A heated confrontation between Washington and a faction of black dissenters, led by his chief critic William Monroe Trotter, during a hot night's gathering at Boston's A.M.E. Zion Church, led to a riot and several arrests, including that of Trotter and his wife. The criticism leveled at Washington on this night was not unlike the initial reaction to his "compromise" speech, which he had given just one Venus synodic cycle earlier.
Stabbing incident triggers white riot against blacks in the Bronx
Aug 15, 1903, evening, Bronx, NY 13
Twelve days preceding Venus retrograde station
The fatal stabbing of a white man named John Finnessy in the Bronx, triggered a mob hunt of at least fifty for the unknown black man said to have committed the act during a bar brawl. The mob attacked dozens of blacks who happened along the streets that night, until police were finally able to calm things down.
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Sep 14, 1907: Venus superior conjunction 21 Virgo
Bellingham riot
Sep 5, 1907, night, Bellingham, WA 14
Nine days preceding Venus superior conjunction
The Washington state frontier town of Bellingham erupted in a mob of about 500 white men rampaging against a neighborhood of East Indian immigrant families, as the local police force stood by complacently.
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Aug 25-Oct 6, 1911: Venus retrograde 29 Virgo-13 Virgo
Midtown Manhattan race riot erupts following shooting
Jul 22, 1911, one hour after sunset, Manhattan, NY 15
Thirty-four days preceding Venus direct station
A race riot broke out on Seventh Avenue outside the new Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan, following a street altercation turned violent when an off-duty fireman named George Duke was shot in the neck, allegedly by a black man named Silas Seabrook, who was apprehended at the scene. Seabrook's alleged accomplice, a razor-wielding black man who attempted to prevent his arrest, managed to escape. Within minutes of the shooting, scores of whites and blacks gathered at the scene, squared off in an ugly confrontation. Duke apparently survived his injury.
Critics of Booker T. Washington issue appeal to Europe
Oct 26, 1911 16
Twenty days following Venus direct station
At the synodic return of this particular Venus retrograde, Washington was again taken to task for his moderate position. On this day, 32 notable African-Americans issued an appeal to Europe, in response to statements he had made during a recent tour there. Again, he was accused of being overly conciliatory and accommodating to white domination. "It is one thing to be optimistic self-forgetful and forgiving, but it is quite a different thing, consciously or unconsciously, to misrepresent the truth." Washington died on Nov 14 1915, just two months following the Venus superior conjunction in Virgo.
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Aug 22-Oct 4, 1919: Venus retrograde 27 Virgo-11 Virgo
Longview riot
Jul 11, 1919, approx. 1:00 AM, Longview, TX 17
Forty-one days preceding Venus retrograde station
As a white vigilante mob was ambushed during an attempt at retribution over a rumored mix-race love affair, so began the second of what would be 25 major urban riots during the summer of 1919, in what has since become known as "Red Summer". At this point, Venus was still outside its pre-station shadow, though by the time most of the worst rioting got underway, that was not the case.
Washington D.C. riot
Jul 19, 1919, evening, Washington, DC 18
Thirty-four days preceding Venus retrograde station
Lasting more than three days, this riot erupted over an alleged assault on a white Navy man's wife by a black man. Unlike most riots from this period, resistance to the white mob was organized and effective, more like the riots of the 1960's than most of the others that occurred at this time. With the "Red Summer" heating up, Venus was now entering its pre-retrograde shadow.
Chicago riot
Jul 27, 1919, 2:00 PM, Chicago, IL 19
Twenty-six days preceding Venus retrograde station
A black youth was drowned at the lakeside beach after a rock attack by whites who were angry over his wandering out of the "colored" section of the water. The following riot lasted five days, resulting in the deaths of 23 blacks and 15 whites, with close to 300 wounded or maimed. Venus was well into its pre-retrograde shadow at this point.
Omaha riot
Sep 28, 1919, 11:00 PM, Omaha, NE 20
Venus retrograde, six days preceding direct station
Another alleged assault on a white woman by a black man triggered this massive riot, in which a mob of up to 20,000 people participated, leaving the suspect in question bullet-ridden and burned on a pyre, Omaha's mayor hanged, and the city's courthouse in flames. Venus retrograde was now less than a week from its direct station.
Elaine riot
Sep 30, 1919, 11:00 PM, Elaine, AR 21
Venus retrograde, four days preceding direct station
A shootout erupted when a local sheriff and his squad raided a black sharecroppers meeting, during which a detective was killed. Rumors of a black uprising brought together a mob from both sides of the Mississippi for what amounted to a slaughter, yet another mass lynching with a black body count being possibly as high as 800. Many of the ensuing trials against black defendants for riot-related indictments wound up being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, an important early victory for the NAACP.
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Sep 10, 1923: Venus superior conjunction 16 Virgo
Oklahoma governor declares state-wide martial law
Sep 15, 1923, Oklahoma City, OK 22
Five days following Venus superior conjunction
Following the Tulsa race riot of May 31-June 1, 1921 (having ignited 18 days after the Venus direct station in Aries), Ku Klux Klan influence rose sharply in Oklahoma. To combat a continuing assault of Klan-related violence, Governor John C. Walton declared martial law throughout the state, and ordered 6000 Oklahoma guardsmen to active duty. Walton was soon forced out of office for his actions, suspending habeas corpus not being permitted by the Oklahoma constitution.
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Aug 17-Sep 29, 1935: Venus retrograde 22 Virgo-6 Virgo
Rubin Stacy lynched
Jul 19, 1935, Fort Lauderdale, FL 23
Twenty-nine days preceding Venus retrograde station
Despite pressure from both the NAACP and Eleanor Roosevelt to support an anti-lynching bill (the Costian-Wagner Act) that would punish sheriffs who failed to protect lynching victims in their custody, President Franklin D. Roosevelt refused to comply, for fear of alienating his Southern voter base. Following the lynching of a man named Rubin Stacy (as Venus edged closer to its retrograde station), who was captured in Florida while in the custody of Dade county deputies, it was hoped - in vain - that Roosevelt's mind would be swayed by the grisly photo of the event making the rounds.
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Sep 5, 1939: Venus superior conjunction 12 Virgo
Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit Debuts at #16 on sales charts
Jul 22, 1939, New York, NY 24
Forty-five days preceding Venus superior conjunction
Billie Holiday's haunting song about lynching, recorded April 20, 1939, was making its peak on the sales charts as an impending Venus superior conjunction drew closer. Holiday had been singing the song at Café Society, New York's first integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village (opened on December 30, 1938 at 11:30 PM, 20 days following the previous Venus direct station in Scorpio) since the beginning of the year. It was already a local phenomenon by the time of its release in June, when it became a nationwide cause célèbre and an enduring anthem for the emerging Civil Rights movement.
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Aug 15-Sep 27, 1943: Venus retrograde 20 Virgo-4 Virgo
Detroit riot
Jun 20, 1943, approx. 10:00 PM, Belle Isle, MI 25
Fifty-six days preceding Venus retrograde station
In a city where the black population had doubled within the previous 10 years, racial tensions had already come to blows in Detroit on the morning of February 28, 1942 (just five days after the Venus direct station in Aquarius), at the brand new Sojourner Truth housing project, when local whites clashed with blacks who were trying to move into their new homes. Although that skirmish was relatively mild, matters exploded as Venus was moving closer toward its retrograde station, when a minor brawl escalated to major mob violence, much of it caused by false rumors on both sides of the racial divide that women and children were being attacked. Again, this particular event occurred outside the span of the Venus retrograde and its shadow periods. It was worth including in this chronology, not only because it came close to the cycle, but also because Detroit has since been the scene of mob incident during the Virgo-to-Leo Venus retrograde (see 1967 and 1975). Furthermore, the summer of 1943 was a hotbed of American rioting, with the notorious "Zoot Suit" riots in Los Angeles having just happened on June 3rd, and the big Harlem riot was still to come.
Harlem riot
Aug 1, 1943, 10:00 PM, Harlem, NY 26
Fourteen days preceding Venus retrograde station
As Venus was slowing down to its station, Harlem's most destructive riot ever erupted over a rumor that a policeman had shot and killed a black solider (when he had apparently only wounded his shoulder). Looting was rampant, with more than 1,000 people arrested and six shot dead. During the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, Harlem would again ignite in a riot on July 18 1964, just eight days after its direct station in Gemini.
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Aug 13-Sep 24, 1951: Venus retrograde 18 Virgo-2 Virgo
Cicero riot
Jul 10-12, 1951, Cicero, IL 27
Thirty-four days preceding Venus retrograde station
Following the Second World War, it was not unusual for black families attempting to move into an otherwise white-only neighborhood to find themselves greeted with strong resistance, sometimes even violence, from local whites, incidents that were common but almost never reported. However, this time in Cicero, IL, such an incident was reported internationally, even receiving coverage in Time magazine. On this occasion, the unruly mob tossed the family's furniture out a window and set it on fire, also causing a lot of other general mayhem until the National Guard was called in to clean things up.
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Sep 1, 1955: Venus superior conjunction 8 Virgo
Emmett Till Abducted by Lynch Mob
Aug 28, 1955, 2:30 AM, Jackson, MS 28
Four days preceding Venus superior conjunction
As with the Cicero incident, this event was mainly unique because it received widespread press coverage, even though it was typical of the times. A 14 year-old black kid from Illinois, in Mississippi visiting family, whistled at a white woman outside a grocery store, and then wound up being abducted and murdered by a lynch mob later that night. When his devastated mother allowed a photograph of his severely beaten and disfigured face to be printed in newspapers across the world, an outcry of protest was heard. Three months later, in Birmingham, Alabama, it was the image of young Emmett Till's death face that haunted Rosa Parks as she defiantly kept her seat on a city bus.
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Aug 10-Sep 22, 1959: Venus retrograde 16 Virgo-29 Leo
Policemen attacked by mob in the Bronx
Aug 9, 1959, shortly after 1:00 PM, Bronx, NY 29
One day preceding Venus retrograde station
Two NYPD officers attempting to arrest a black man and woman in the East Bronx for illegal possession of alcohol found themselves surrounded by a large angry mob. Four people were injured and four were arrested in the ensuing confrontation as police backup attempted disperse the crowd.
Miles Davis attacked by policeman
Aug 26, 1959, early morning, Manhattan, NY 30
Venus retrograde, fourteen days following station
As with the Cicero and Emmett Till incidents, what set this otherwise-ordinary event apart was that it received major international publicity. Trumpet player Miles Davis, at this point a big name in the music industry for over a decade, stepped outside the Birdland Club in Manhattan on a night his band was booked for numerous sets. Having just helped a white woman friend of his hail down a cab, he was simply smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk when an NYPD officer came by and started giving him trouble. Davis was hit hard on the head with the cop's nightstick, and then arrested for disorderly conduct and assaulting an officer. In the end, Davis won a lawsuit against the city of New York, and a major symbolic victory in the war against oppression.
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Aug 29, 1963: Venus superior conjunction 5 Virgo
Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" Speech at the March on Washington
Aug 28, 1963, mid-late afternoon, Washington, DC 31
One day preceding Venus superior conjunction
Probably the best-known event in this timeline, the March on Washington was the biggest Civil Rights protest in history, with estimates of 200,000 to 500,000 people in attendance. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, among the greatest moments in modern oratory. The Venus superior conjunction was just a day away; in fact, marking this special occasion was a tight triple conjunction of Venus-Sun-Uranus.
Birmingham church bombing
Sep 15, 1963, 10:19 AM, Birmingham, AL 32
Seventeen days following Venus superior conjunction
One of the great tragedies of the Civil Rights era occurred a little over two weeks after the March on Washington. A Klan-planted bomb explosion at a black Birmingham, Alabama church killed four young girls, injuring another 22 people. This blast was Birmingham's 21st bombing in eight years, and its third in the last 11 days. Again, during this part of the Venus synodic cycle, more international attention is paid to the event.
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Aug 8-Sep 20, 1967: Venus retrograde 13 Virgo-27 Leo
Newark riot
Jul 12, 1967, 9:40 PM, Newark, NJ 33
Twenty-seven days preceding Venus retrograde station
As Venus was easing into its pre-retrograde shadow, a cab driver was arrested and beaten badly. A rumor that he had died spread around Newark, triggering the first in a series of riots this summer, lasting six days and leaving 26 dead and an estimated 1500 arrested. Like its Venus retrograde in Virgo counterpart (the "Red Summer" of 1919), the summer of 1967 saw a wave of rioting in American cities, fewer in number but much longer in duration. Each incident was more like a miniature civil war than a simple case of civil unrest. Looking at the broader context, obviously it can be said that riots were a very regular occurrence throughout the 1960s, and certainly not all of them happened during Venus retrograde phases. However, these were, after all, the 1960s and as with the Los Angeles riots of 1992 (which also did not occur during a Venus retrograde or superior conjunction), there were outer planet conjunctions in effect at the time, marking them as volatile periods for social unrest.
Plainfield riot
Jul 14, 1967, evening, Plainfield, NJ 34
Twenty-five days preceding Venus retrograde station
Eighteen miles southwest of Newark, and two days into the rioting there, hot tempers spread to Plainfield this night, beginning with a brawl at a local diner that escalated into a chain of events that would take a full week to play out. The only death, however, occurred on the night of the 16th, when a mob turned on a white policeman who had just shot and wounded a black youth. Ultimately, as with Newark, the New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard.
Detroit riot
Jul 23, 1967, early morning, Detroit, MI 35
Sixteen days preceding Venus retrograde station
A five-day long riot ignited when the vice squad attempted to shut down an illegal after-hours drinking establishment. The so-called "12th Street Riots" occurred 24 years after the Detroit riot of 1943 mentioned earlier, only this time well within the pre-retrograde shadow phase of Venus. The riot was also far more severe this time around, with a reported 43 people dead, and more than 2,000 buildings burned down. To this day, it stands as one of the most destructive riots in U.S. history.
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Aug 27, 1971: Venus superior conjunction 3 Virgo
George Jackson killed at San Quentin prison
Aug 21, 1971, afternoon, San Quentin, CA 36
Six days preceding Venus superior conjunction
Black panther/author George Jackson, incarcerated for the last 12 years of his life for stealing $70 from a gas station, was about to go on trial for killing a prison guard, but instead was gunned down during what was described as an escape attempt from the San Quentin prison yard. The Attica prison riots, which began nineteen days after Jackson's death, were said to have been at least partly caused in reaction to it.
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Aug 6-Sep 17, 1975: Venus retrograde 11 Virgo-25 Leo
Detroit near-riot
Jul 28, 1975, 9:00 PM, Detroit, MI 37
Nine days preceding Venus retrograde station
A white bar owner shot a black youth during an alleged car burglary, triggering what was shaping up to be yet another bad riot in Detroit during this particular retrograde cycle. However, within two days Coleman Young, the city's first black mayor, managed to quell the situation, partly due to his keeping a largely black police force on duty to enforce the peace. This crucial early victory during his first year in office helped develop Young's legend, which in turn helped keep him in power until 1993.
Louisville & Boston busing riots
September 12, 1975, Louisville, KY and Boston, MA 38
Venus retrograde, five days preceding direct station
As Venus was slowing down to its direct station, white and black parents and youths clashed over enforced school busing, intended as a solution to segregation problems in urban public school systems. On this day early in the school year, tempers exploded at protests in Boston and Louisville, the latter escalating into a riot by an estimated 10,000 people. Although no deaths were reported, there was a lot of damage and the National Guard was called in to calm things down.
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Aug 3-Sep 15, 1983: Venus retrograde 9 Virgo-23 Leo
Graffiti artist Michael Stewart killed during NYPD arrest
Sep 15, 1983, 2:50 AM, Manhattan, NY 39
Venus stations direct this day
A young graffiti artist caught in the act at a subway station at First Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan was said to have resisted arrest and lapsed into a coma while being subdued by at least six NYPD officers. He arrived at Bellevue hospital bruised, hogtied and unconscious, dying thirteen days later. Charges of police brutality sparked New York's longest criminal trial, which resulted in acquittals for the accused officers on November 24, 1985.
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Aug 1-Sep 13, 1991: Venus retrograde 7 Virgo-21 Leo
Crown Heights riot
Aug 19, 1991, 8:00 PM, Brooklyn, NY 40
Venus retrograde, twenty-five days preceding direct station
During the Venus retrograde of summer 1991, a car belonging to a procession led by Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Schneerson crashed and accidentally killed seven year-old Gavin Cato on a street in Brooklyn's Crown Heights district. Enraged black citizens clashed with whites, particularly Jews and policemen, over the next three days, during which time an Orthodox Jewish man (not, however of the Lubavitch movement) died from injuries sustained from an assault by a black mob.
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Aug 20, 1995: Venus superior conjunction 27 Leo
East Coast-West Coast hip hop wars begin
Aug 3, 1995, evening, Manhattan, NY 41
Seventeen days preceding Venus superior conjunction
One-upmanship between West and East Coast hip hop music factions grew more and more aggressive over the course of this evening's proceedings at the Second Annual Source Music Awards (a hip hop culture magazine's awards gala held at Madison Square Garden in New York City), triggering a brief-but-era-defining cultural rift that is understood to have led to the gun deaths of artists Tupac Shakur (shot in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996 at 11:15 PM, during a separating Venus-Mars conjunction in late Cancer-early Leo) and Biggie Smalls (shot about forty minutes after midnight on March 9, 1997 in Los Angeles, during a Mars retrograde). Although not really a racial schism, it was a factional rift within an African- American cultural context rooted in this same given Venus superior conjunction cycle. Rapper's Delight by Sugar Hill Gang, said to be the first hip hop record, was released on September 16, 1979, 22 days following the Venus superior conjunction at 1 Virgo. Eight years later, DJ Scott La Rock, of Boogie Down Productions, was the first major hip hop artist to be shot dead on August 27, 1987 (1:25 AM in The Bronx, NY), four days following the Venus superior conjunction at 29 Leo.
Mark Fuhrman tape reveals "N-word" use
Aug 29, 1995, Los Angeles, CA 42
Nine days following Venus superior conjunction
The verdict on O.J. Simpson's murder trial was just over a month away, and as the days led up to that fateful moment, the court (minus the jury) heard taped conversations between Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman and screenwriter Laura Hart McKinny, during which Fuhrman used the "N-word" 41 times and also described police brutality towards blacks. As sympathies in this case are notoriously divided largely along racial lines, it is fair to say revelations heard in court on this day are among the top reasons this is so. The jury was allowed to hear these tapes a week later, on September 5th.
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Jul 29-Sep 10, 1999: Venus retrograde 5 Virgo-18 Leo
1999: New Twists
There was plenty of American social violence during the Venus retrograde of 1999, but the pattern of racial conflict set by previous points in the cycle was not nearly as evident. Although some of the violence was racially charged, this time the scope of the racism was broader than a simple black/white schism. The Illinois shooting spree of Benjamin Smith, which began on July 2 at 8:20 PM in Chicago 43 (27 days preceding the Venus retrograde station), targeted blacks, Jews and Asians, with two of his 11 victims failing to survive their wounds. Buford Furrow's shooting at a Jewish daycare center in Granada Hills, California on August 10 at 10:49 AM 44 (12 days into the Venus retrograde), injuring five and killing one, was clearly motivated by racial hatred. But there were also a number of non-racially motivated high-profile murders committed during this period. There was a homophobic hate crime with the murder of Army Private Barry Winchell, who was beaten in his bed at a barracks with a baseball bat for his rumored affair with a trans-gendered woman, on July 5 at approximately 2:30 AM in Fort Campbell, Kentucky 45 (24 days preceding the retrograde station). More random were the office shooting sprees of Mark O. Barton on July 29 at 3:00 PM in Atlanta 46 (the day of the retrograde station), and Alan Miller seven days later on August 5 at 7:00 AM in Pelham, Alabama 47 , neither of which appears to have been racially motivated. Nor was Larry Gene Ashbrook's shoot-up of a Fort Worth Baptist Church, killing seven, on September 15 just after 7:00 PM. 48 (five days following Venus' direct station).
There was a serious riot in the United States during the 1999 Venus retrograde phase as well, except this time it did not appear to be racially motivated at all. The disastrous Woodstock music festival of July 23-25 in Rome, New York 49 ended in mob retaliation against overpriced bottled water and other indignities incurred at the site, a product of white suburban ennui that exploded in a fury of burning cars and numerous reported sexual assaults.
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Jul 27-Sep 8, 2007: Venus retrograde 2 Virgo-16 Leo
Coming This Summer?
During the writing of this article, the Virginia Tech shootings occurred (April 16 2007, 7:15AM, Blacksburg, VA 50), at what was virtually the exact Venus synodic return of the Columbine shootings of 1999 (April 19, 1999, 11:19 AM, Littleton, CO 51). Although these events both occurred about three months before the Venus retrograde station, well out of the range of even the pre-station shadow phase, the fact that they were almost exactly eight years apart means that their respective Venus positions are close to identical zodiacally and relative to the position of the Sun (which was at 26 Aries at Virginia Tech and 0 Taurus at Columbine).
The violent events of the summer of 1999 suggest that whatever potential turmoil in American life that happens to coincide with the Venus retrograde phase of summer 2007 doesn't necessarily have to be divided along strictly black-white lines anymore. However, with black-white divisions having an escalating prominence lately ( e.g., the Duke Lacrosse Team rape case, and the Rutgers Basketball Team racial slur case with Don Imus), it is fair to say we are already entering this historically volatile phase of the Venus cycle with the matter on our minds.
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Endnotes
1 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1518.html
http://www.historybuff.com/library/refslave.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/nat_turner.html
2 http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/library/news/chas.cour/1839.09.02.capture.html
http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/timeline/amistad.html
3 http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/m/ed_mcClintockriot.htm
http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/m/mcClresolution.jpg
http://alpha.dickinson.edu/departments/hist/NEHworkshops/NEH/resource/timeline.htm
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29 New York Times: August 10, 1959, p. 1; August 11, 1959, p. 23; August 14, 1959, p. 10
30 New York Times: August 26, 1959
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40 New York Times: August 20, 1991
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Sunday, April 22, 2007
Miles Davis, Marilyn Monroe & Allen Ginsberg
Gemini 1926: Profections and Venus Cycles
Miles Davis: May 26, 1926, 5:00 a.m. CST; Alton IL  |  |
Marilyn Monroe: June 1, 1926, 9:30 a.m. PST; Los Angeles CA  |  |
Allen Ginsberg: June 3, 1926, 2:00 a.m. EDT; Newark NJ  |  |
Note:
________________________________________________________________________
Miles Davis, Marilyn Monroe and Allen Ginsberg: three very different individuals, all born within about a week of each other.
What I'm going to do is run through all three of their chronologies and list all key events that occurred during either a Venus retrograde (including the shadow period, more on that in a sec) or Sun-Venus superior conjunctions, during which the direct-in-motion transiting Venus is conjunct the Sun. Ill also be explaining the use of annual profections to highlight planets at given periods, with regard to transits.
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Venus Cycles
The really interesting thing about Venus is that its cycle is so regular and precise. Every eight years, Venus goes retrograde in the same sign, at close to the same place, making its station just two degrees earlier every time, so that every century the sign of the retro changes to the previous sign.
There are five Venus retrogrades within that eight-year cycle (what we call a synodic cycle, because Venus returns to its exact relationship to the Sun) - the retrograde lasts about 40 days, and there are 30 days of shadow period on either side of that.
"Shadow period" is the term we use for when planets are entering and leaving a retro phase: from the time the planet hits the degree that it will eventually station direct at to the time it hits the degree that it had originally stationed retro at.
If you take that overall 100 day retro period (the shadow periods absolutely count in this), multiply it by five and you've got five hundred days. So, out of the 2922 days in a given eight year period, the Venus retro phase accounts for about one-sixth of that period.
The other half of the cycle is the superior conjunctions of the Sun and Venus (when Venus is direct), which also fall into the eight-year synodic cycle, in the same five signs as the retrogrades.
For instance, there is currently a superior conjunction between the Sun and Venus in Aries-Taurus. Four years ago, 2001, was the period when Venus was retrograde in Aries. Get it?
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Profections
Profection is the term used for a time-lord technique that dates back to the Hellenistic period. Various time-lord systems were used by astrologers to determine which planets in a given nativity would be active at a given time, and in what manner.
So how are profections calculated? Easiest thing in the world: the first year of life is ruled by the sign of the Ascendant. The second year of life is ruled by the sign following the Ascendant. The third year of life is ruled by the sign following that, and so on.
On the 12th, 24th, 36th, 48th, 60th, etc birthdays, the profected sign returns to the Ascendant and the cycle begins again.
Note that I said the "sign" is the ruler of the year. That will include the ruler of that sign, but it is important to see the profection in the context of the sign, not just its ruler.
What does it mean for a sign to rule a year? Well, essentially, at every Solar Return, when the profection hands over, the new sign "lights up" in the chart. Natal planets in that sign become very active, and transits through that sign are especially dominant in the context of that person's life.
Also, match that information with the transit of the sign's ruler. If Sagittarius is the profected ruler of the year, it will matter whether transiting Jupiter is in Taurus or Cancer or whatever, especially if it is an angular sign or there are other natal planets in that sign.
________________________________________________________________________
The Study
I wont be covering their entire lives, mainly events from 1945 61, with a couple of items from Marilyns life in earlier years. I will only be looking at time periods where Venus was either retrograde or making a superior conjunction to the Sun.
Naturally, this doesnt cover every single important event in these peoples lives, but it does show how, in some way, the Venus cycle acts as a rhythm for peoples lives, bringing up old issues to deal with on a regular basis.
So, the reader shouldnt be alarmed that Ive left out some of Marilyns best-known films, or some of Miles best-known recording sessions. Those are equally interesting events that can be studied, and maybe Ill revisit them later, but for the time being, Im using these phases of the Venus cycle to highlight its rhythm.
Ill list whatever profected signs and planets are in effect for the more notable events. The profections always appear to be relevant, with regard to transits (according to the conditions I outlined earlier).
The case for the effect of Venus retrogrades varies from chart to chart: Marilyn Monroe, for instance, had really big events, usually involving mother issues, during times when Venus was retrograde in Aquarius. The superior conjunction in Aquarius appears to have been important in at least one instance, when she married Joe DiMaggio in 1954.
Allen Ginsberg and Miles Davis seem to have fairly big events occurring during the Venus retrograde and superior conjunction in Aries, though the same can be said for the retro in Virgo for Miles as well. More than anything, the Venus returns to their natal degrees seem to be relevant.
However, Venus is not a major planet in any three of these charts. Allen has his in Taurus, which is a bit more dignified, but overall, there are other planets that dominate his chart more.
There is certainly no argument in the following evidence that the influence of the Venus synodic cycle has anything to do with the profected signs or planets in most of the following instances, there is no clear link.
That being said, all of these entries provide enough evidence, IMO, to suspect that the cycles have a significant influence on the way these peoples lives unfolded. This may be explained by other timelord systems, but that is part of the work ahead of me here. Nuff said: now you be the judge:
________________________________________________________________________
Venus retrograde 23 Aqu - 7 Aqu; January 15 - February 25, 1934
 | February 1934: Norma Jean(e) Mortensen's (future Marilyn Monroe) mother, Gladys Pearl Monroe Baker Mortensen, is committed to a rest home in Santa Monica, leaving young Norma Jean in the care of Gladys' friend Grace McKee, her third mother-figure in her lifetime (including an earlier foster mother). It is Grace McKee who will fill the young girl's head with notions of becoming a famous movie star... |
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Venus retrograde 22 Vir - 6 Vir; August 17 - September 29, 1935
September 13, 1935: Newly married Grace McKee ships Norma Jean off to a Los Angeles orphanage, as her new husbands children are more than enough to feed. |  |
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Venus retrograde 5 Tau - 19 Ari; March 27 - May 9, 1937
 |  June 7, 1937: Just following the death of movie idol Jean Harlow, whom Marilyn Monroe will someday emulate, Grace McKee becomes Norma Jeans legal guardian and brings her home from the orphanage. |
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Venus retrograde 21 Aqu - 5 Aqu; January 12 - February 22, 1942
 |  New Year 1942: Grace McKee's husband is transferred to work in West Virginia, and the family can no longer afford to look after Norma Jean, who will have to stay behind in Los Angeles. |
This turn of events leads to her marrying her boyfriend, neighbor James Dougherty, on June 19, shortly after her sixteenth birthday. Venus again stationed opposite her natal |
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Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Tau-Can; May-July, 1944
 |  June 1944: Allen Ginsberg is introduced to Jack Kerouac, through their mutual friend, Lucien Carr, who also introduces them to William S. Burroughs around this time. |
Transiting Uranus was conjunct his natal Sun and Mercury in Gemini. He had just begun his 7th house/Virgo profection year, so Mercury was his profected planet at the time. |
 |  Allen's natal Uranus was conjunct Kerouacs natal Venus in Pisces, while Kerouacs natal Uranus was conjunct Allen's natal Moon. |
________________________________________________________________________
Venus retrograde 3 Tau - 17 Ari; March 25-May 6, 1945
 |  Spring 1945: Norma Jean(e) Mortensen Baker Dougherty (Marilyn Monroe) begins modeling professionally, mostly to preoccupy herself while her husband is away serving with the Merchant Marine. |
Norma Jean was first discovered by a photographer in September 1944, the same month Miles began classes at Julliard, and one month after Allens friend Lucien Carr's killed David Kammerer during an argument (August 14, 1944, approx. 3:00 a.m., Upper West Side NYC), the first of many sensational events Allen would one day immortalize in his poem, Howl. |
Being eighteen years-old, all three were in a 7th house profection year.
The transiting Sun was also conjunct his natal Neptune. |
 |  |
Miles' profected sign that year was Sagittarius. He had first met Charlie "Bird" Parker a few months earlier (probably June), when Parker was playing an engagement in St. Louis and Miles managed to talk his way onto the bandstand for part of the gig. A casual comment from Bird ("if you're ever in New York, look me up") inspired Miles to convince his father to send him to Julliard. Once Miles arrived (late September-ish), he spent the next few weeks searching the city's nightclubs and jam spots, looking for Bird. Miles started playing with Bird by the end of the year, by which time planets were moving through Sagittarius, his profected sign of the year. Bird even moved in with Miles for a while, taking full advantage of the innocent and impressionable kid. |
While the Venus return by retrograde is not a profected planet, this does appear to be significant part of the Venus cycle in Miles' career. More on that later
________________________________________________________________________
Venus retrograde 11 Can 24 Gem; June 2 July 16, 1948
Early July 1948: The newly-bleached blonde Marilyn Monroe successfully auditions for her first starring film role, Ladies of the Chorus, though the film isnt a hit and her film contract isnt renewed. |
July 1948: Allen Ginsberg has his William Blake vision, an experience that will strongly influence him as a poet over the next fifteen years. |
 |  July 6-11, 1948: The Charlie Parker Quintet, with Miles Davis on trumpet, plays an engagement at The Onyx club in New York, a high point in Miles live work with Bird. |
All three were in an 11th house profection year. More on this in the next section.
________________________________________________________________________
Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Tau-Gem; April-May 1949
 |  April 22, 1949: Miles Davis records the second of three Birth of the Cool sessions in NYC with his nonet. |
The group grew out of a small group of musician friends who congregated regularly at arranger-conductor Gil Evans' apartment in Midtown Manhattan. Due to an industry recording ban this year, the last of these sessions won't occur until early the next year (more on that a few paragraphs down). |
There is a recurring event in many biographies of African-Americans (from Jack Johnson to Paul Robeson to Malcolm X, among others), which is when they visit Europe for the first time and are suddenly faced with an eye-opening alternate reality: i.e., being treated with human dignity in everyday life. Miles was no different, and he even had an affair with the famous French actress Juliet Greco (February 7, 1927, 9:00 pm UT, Montpelier, France - Moon at 3 Tau, conj the Sun-Venus degree of late April) at this time, with no social stigma imposed on their inter-racial coupling (unlike when Greco later visited Miles in the U.S.). In this recurring story involving African-Americans visiting |
All three were still 22 years-old during this period, in the last months of an 11th house profection year.
 |  For Miles, the profected sign was Aries, where he has natal Venus, and transiting Mars was in Aries at the time of the second Birth of the Cool session. |
This is especially noteworthy because on the day of the first session, January 21, 1949, transiting Mars was conjunct his natal Midheaven. |
Also, transiting Jupiter had just ingressed into Aquarius, from Capricorn (the profected sign: remember, planets leaving a sign make as much of an impact on that sign as planets entering it). |
 | Curiously, it was just a couple of months prior to this that Allens friend/object of desire, Neal Cassady, arrived with an entourage in NYC from out west on December 29, 1948, and then left again, taking Jack Kerouac with him on January 19, 1949. |
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Venus retrograde 18 Aqu 3 Aqu; January 10 February 20, 1950
From then on, Agnes was Marilyns personal stylist on most her films and Marilyn often dined with her family. Although Marilyn WAS prone to repeatedly finding surrogate families throughout her life, Agnes was to be the longest-standing mother-figure of her lifetime. One of the last things she did before she died in 1962 was buy Agnes a garden swing set and arrange for its delivery to her home. Remember, this is the third Venus in Aquarius retrograde of Marilyns life, and the previous two coincided with periods when she lost an important mother-figure. This time, the Venus station was within a degree of her natal Moon, and the reverse was true this time. Again the profections play out here: she was in a 12th house/Cancer profection year, so the Moon was the profected planet and it was the Venus retrograde station on her Moon that coincided with this latest turn. Remember that the retrograde station of 1934 had occurred during an 8th house/Pisces profection year, close to conjunction with Jupiter, that years profected planet. |
 |  |  A month later, Allen meets poet William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883, Rutherford NJ), who will encourage Allens aspirations as a writer. |
Also during March 1950, Ginsbergs friend Williams S. Burroughs (February 5, 1914, 7:40 a.m. CST, St. Louis MO) begins work on his first novel, Junkie. Both Williams and Burroughs were born during exact Sun-Venus superior conjunctions! In both cases, Uranus is in the same sign as the conjunction, and both men had natal Saturn at 11 Gemini, conjunct Allens natal Sun-Mercury! Talk about synastry Allen was also in a 12th house profection year (Aquarius), the sign of his natal Jupiter, the planet that rules his Ascendant. For much of this profection year, transiting Jupiter was in Capricorn, but it made its Aquarius ingress in November and was a few degrees away from making its natal return when he was released, in a grand cross to his natal Jupiter-Neptune-Saturn t-square. |
March 3, 1950: Marilyn Monroe has a small but memorable role in the Marx Brothers Love Happy, which premieres on this date. |
Miles natal Mercury is in Taurus, and transiting Mercury was in Pisces in an exact square to his natal Sun on this day. |
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Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Lib-Sco; October-November 1950
 |  October 13, 1950: Marilyn Monroes first major film role, All About Eve, premieres in New York City, beginning her true ascension to becoming a movie star. |
Allen and Marilyn were in 1st house profection years at this point.
 |  Marilyn's profected sign this year was Leo, and transiting Pluto was in Leo exactly opposite her natal Moon at this time. |
Venus retrograde 18 Vir 2 Vir; August 12 September 24, 1951
Allen wasnt around for this event, but had paid them a visit just the previous month. |
September 8, 1951: Marilyn Monroe is the subject of her first full-length article in a national magazine, written by Robert Cahn for Colliers. |
 |  October 5, 1951: Miles Davis, despite his sinking drug addiction, leads a strong sextet session with newcomers Jackie Maclean and Sonny Rollins. |
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Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Tau-Can; May-July 1952
 |  May 9, 1952: Miles Davis only recording session of 1952, during one of his lowest periods of drug addiction. This is the first of three sessions he does for the Blue Note record label, which will be spread out over two years, due to his problems. |
 |  June 1952: Marilyn Monroe on set, filming Niagara in Niagara Falls NY. |
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Venus retrograde 1 Tau 15 Ari; March 22-May 4, 1953
March 9, 1953: Marilyn Monroe awarded Photoplay magazines Fastest Rising Star of 1952. |
 |  April 20, 1953: Miles Davis second Blue Note recording session takes place. |
May 1953: William S. Burroughs first book, Junkie, is published. |
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Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Cap-Pis; January-March 1954
 |  January 4, 1954: Marilyn Monroe is suspended by Fox studios for failing to appear on the set of a film called Pink Tights. |
 |  January 14, 1954: The month following the publication of her nude photos in the debut issue of Playboy, Marilyn Monroe marries Joe DiMaggio at one-thirty p.m. at San Franciscos City Hall. |
 |  February 16, 1954: Marilyn takes a detour from her honeymoon to spend four days entertaining U.S. troops stationed in Korea. |
Marilyn and Miles were both in a 4th house profection year.
 |  For Miles, the profected sign was Virgo. The profected planet, Mercury, was about to station direct in Pisces, square his natal Sun. |
 |  For Marilyn, the profected sign was Scorpio, where her natal Saturn is placed. Transiting Saturn AND Mars were both in Scorpio when she was suspended by Fox and married to DiMaggio. |
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Venus retrograde 0 Sag 14 Sco; October 25 December 5, 1954
 |  October 27, 1954: One month after the famous skirt-blowing scene is filmed for The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn Monroe files to divorce Joe DiMaggio in Santa Monica. |
 |  December 1954: Allen Ginsberg meets Peter Orlovsky in San Francisco, who will be his lover and closest companion for the rest of his life. |
 |  December 24, 1954: Miles Davis does a recording session with Thelonious Monk and the members of the Modern Jazz Quartet. |
Although there is considerable tension between Davis and Monk, the session is considered a classic. |
A 5th house profection year for all three.
 |  For Marilyn, the profected sign was Sagittarius, which is the sign that Venus stationed retrograde in, just two days before she filed for divorce. Curiously, Joe DiMaggio (November 25, 1914, 7:00 a.m. or p.m., |
Allens profected sign was Cancer, where he has his natal North Node and Pluto. Transiting Uranus and Jupiter were in Cancer during this month. Since I dont know the exact date he met Orlovsky, I cant speculate on the sign placement of the Moon. |
 |  Miles profected sign was Libra, which is where transiting Neptune was. Venus, the profected planet, was in Scorpio on the day of the recording session, exactly conjunct his natal Saturn and Moon. |
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Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Leo-Lib; August-October 1955
 |  September 29, 1955: Marilyn Monroe meets future-husband Arthur Millers parents at the NYC premiere of his play, A View from the Bridge. The still-married Miller announces to them his intention to marry Marilyn. |
This period coincided with the Saturn return of all three, during a 6th house profection year.
 |  For Miles, the profected sign was Scorpio, the sign of his natal Moon and Saturn (Coltrane was also having his Saturn return at the time). |
The joining of these two musical giants marks the beginning of Miles rise to the top of the jazz world. Over the next five years together (on and off), they would take the music to a whole new level. |
 |  For Marilyn, the profected sign was Capricorn. Of course, the profected planet, Saturn, was making its return at this time. |
As with Miles, this period marks Allens ascension to fame and prominence as a leader and innovator. |
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Venus retrograde 9 Can 22 Gem; May 31 July 13, 1956
 |  May 3, 1956: Marilyn Monroe begins filming Bus Stop with director Joshua Logan. |
 |  June 3, 1956: Marilyn Monroe returns to NYC after completing filming Bus Stop with director Joshua Logan. |
 |  June 5, 1956: Miles' Quintet records their first session for Miles debut on the Columbia record label, the first in a series of classic albums by the group: Round About Midnight. |
 |  June 9, 1956: Allen Ginsbergs mother, Naomi, who has been in and out of mental institutions since his childhood, dies of a brain hemorrhage at a state mental hospital. |
 |  June 29, 1956: Marilyn Monroe marries Arthur Miller in a civil ceremony in New York City. A Jewish ceremony follows on July 1st. |
 |  July 14, 1956: Marilyn Monroe arrives in London to begin filmingThe Prince and the Showgirl with co-star Lawrence Olivier. |
The three had just entered a 7th house profection year.
 |  Allens profected sign was Virgo. Mercury, the profected planet, had just stationed direct at 0 Gemini. |
| Once again, notice how Mercury stations really show themselves during years when Mercury is the profected planet! |
 |  Marilyns profected sign was Aquarius, the sign of her natal Moon and Jupiter. Transiting Saturn, the profected planet, was exactly square her natal Jupiter at this time, with transiting Pluto in Leo forming a perfect t-square. |
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Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Ari-Gem; April-June, 1957
 |  May 21, 1957: The City Lights bookstore in San Francisco is raided by police, to seize copies of Allen Ginsbergs Howl, which is suspected of breaking obscenity laws. |
At the time of the bust, Allen is in |
 |  May 31, 1957: Marilyns husband Arthur Miller is found guilty on two counts of failing to answer questions for HUAC (he is finally cleared on August 7, 1958). Marilyn herself is embroiled in legal controversy with a co-producer over the cut of her new film, The Prince and the Showgirl, which premieres the following month. |
 |  Note that there was a Lunar Eclipse at 21 Scorpio this month (May 13th), conjunct the natal Saturn of all three. |
The three are at the end of their 7th house profection year.
 |  For Miles, transiting Saturn was in his profected sign, Sagittarius, while transiting Jupiter, the profected planet, made a direct station during the course of this month (May 18th). |
 |  At the same time, transiting Saturn was opposite his natal Mercury (the profected planet) and Sun, while transiting Venus was conjunct those same points. |
 |  Marilyns profected sign, Scorpio, is the sign of this months lunar eclipse, conjunct her natal Saturn. At the same time, transiting Saturn was opposite her natal Sun. |
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Venus retrograde 16 Aqu 0 Aqu; January 7 February 17, 1958
 |  Early 1958: Marilyn Monroes marriage to Arthur Miller begins to show its first signs of strain, as Miller struggles with the script for The Misfits, which will eventually be the screenplay for her last completed film. |
This is the only Venus retrograde in Aquarius during the course of Marilyns life that I cant connect directly to an event involving her mother issues (see the previous three in 1934, 1942 and 1950). Of course, by this point, the retrograde station was happening in an earlier degree than her natal Moon and Jupiter, though it would still cross back over her natal Descendant. |
During his stay, Allen and friends meet such notable figures as Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Benjamin Peret, Tristan Tzara and Louise Ferdinand Celine. |
 |  February 4, 1958: With Coltrane and Jones back, and Julian Cannonball Adderley added on alto sax, Miles' Sextet records the first of two sessions for the Milestones album. |
The three were now in an 8th house profection year.
 |  For Marilyn, the profected sign is Pisces, where she has natal Mars and Uranus. It was over the course of this year, as Marilyn was in a down period in her career (she would film Some Like It Hot at the end of this year, her first American-produced film in over two years), that transiting Uranus was crossing her Ascendant. Marilyns substance abuse problems are said to have increased around this period. |
For Allen, the profected sign was Libra. The profected planet, Venus, was, of course, retrograde at this time, as his current lover left Paris while his former lover had just arrived. |
 |  For Miles, the profected sign was Capricorn. Transiting Mars made its ingress to Capricorn on the day of this important recording session. |
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Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Lib-Sag; October-December, 1958
 |  November 6, 1958: Having only recently learned that she is pregnant again (having had two previously failed pregnancies), Marilyn Monroe wraps up shooting Billy Wilders Some Like It Hot on this day. The three-month shoot has been tense and difficult, with no love lost between director and star. |
However, Evans returned for the two Kind of Blue sessions (March 2 & April 22, 1959), a work he played a key role in developing. |
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Venus retrograde 15 Vir 0 Vir; August 10 September 22, 1959
 |  August 17, 1959: The Miles Davis Sextets Kind of Blue album is released, eventually becoming one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time. |
 |  August 25, 1959: Miles Davis is attacked on the street by a New York City policeman. Following his arrest, Miles successfully sues the city for damages. |
 |  September 19, 1959: Marilyn Monroe, as a U.S. goodwill ambassador, meets Soviet premiere Nikita Khruschev. He looked at me the way a man looks at a woman, she reports. |
The three were now in their 10th house profection year.
 |  For Miles, the profected sign was Pisces, the sign of his natal Mars and Uranus. |
Jupiter, the profected planet, was transiting through Scorpio at this time, having just made a conjunction to his natal Saturn. |
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Venus retrograde 29 Ari 12 Ari; March 20 May 1, 1961
 |  March 5, 1961: Marilyn Monroe, having been tricked into being committed to a psychiatric ward in NYC on February 5th, turns to the one man she can count on to rescue her: former husband Joe DiMaggio, whom she hasnt seen in six years. |
DiMaggio has her transferred to Columbia-Presbyterian hospital, where she remains until March 5th. Upon her release, she attends the funeral for Arthur Millers mother, and then leaves with DiMaggio to recuperate in Florida for the next month. |
 |  March 20-21, 1961: John Coltrane, who left the Miles Davis Quintet the previous year, returns for a two-day studio session, to record two tracks for Miles next album, Someday My Prince Will Come. |
 |  The sessions the last time these men played together - occurred just as Venus stationed retrograde conjunct Coltranes natal Moon (29 Aries). |
 |  April 29, 1961: Allen Ginsbergs poem, Kaddish, which was written about his late mother, is published. |
 |  May 19, 1961: Miles Davis performs a special concert at Carnegie Hall, featuring both his quintet and Gil Evans conducting a full orchestra. |
The special event is interrupted mid-show by a group of protestors, led by Miles former band mate, drummer Max Roach, who suspect the shows promoters of having investments in South Africa. The show continues after the protestors are removed, but Miles is visibly shaken by the experience. |
The three were now in an 11th house profection year.
 |  For Marilyn, the profected sign was Gemini, her Sun and Mercury sign. Yet again, during a year when Mercury was the profected planet, the retrograde station appears to have a factor in the timing: transiting Mercury stationed retrograde at 8 Pisces on February 12 (square her natal Sun-Mercury), just a week after she was first committed. |
It stationed direct at 24 Aquarius, conjunct her natal Jupiter, on March 6, the day after she was finally released. |
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Endings
 |  August 4-5, 1962: Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her bed. She was in a 1st house/Leo profection year, and the transiting Sun was exactly conjunct her natal Ascendant when she died. |
Although she died about two months before Venus went retrograde, there are still some curious connections to the time of her death, relative to the eight-year Venus synodic cycle: |
 |  Sixteen years earlier, on August 26, 1946, Norma Jean Baker, having just adopted the name Marilyn Monroe, signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. |
 |  Three weeks later, on September 13, she divorced her first husband, James Dougherty. |
She was in a 9th house/Aries profection year: the sign of her natal Venus, while Mars, the profected ruler, was in the opposite sign, Libra. Note that transiting Pluto was conjunct her natal Ascendant. |
 |  Eight years later, on September 15, 1954, she filmed her famous "skirt-blowing" scene for The Seven Year Itch in Manhattan, which prompted a fight between her and then-husband, Joe DiMaggio, about a month before divorce papers were filed (see October 27, 1954). |
She was in a 5th house/Sagittarius profection year at the time, with the profected planet, Jupiter, conjunct Uranus in Cancer. She died just one month short of the next eight-year return, on August 5, 1962. At the time of her death, she was set to remarry DiMaggio within the next few days. |
This was, of course, the same Venus retro cycle that Kind of Blue was released under. Miles was in a 6th house/Scorpio profection year, and transiting Pluto was just approaching a conjunction to his natal Saturn in that sign at the time of his death. |
 |  Curiously, former key members in Miles band of the late 50s, John Coltrane and Julian Cannonball Adderley, also died around the time of this same retro cycle: Coltrane died on July 17, 1967, 23 days before the retro station. |
 |  Adderley died on August 8, 1975, just three days after the retro station. Coltrane and Adderley both played on Kind of Blue. |
He was in an 11th house/Capricorn profection year again, and transiting Neptune was at the very end of that sign. Transiting Saturn, the profected planet, was conjunct the Sun and Venus in Aries. |
Note: A complete bibliography is available for this work upon request.
Copyright 2005 Nick Dagan Best
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Jimi Hendrix & Kurt Cobain
The Nirvana Experience
Rock legends Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain may have reigned during different eras, but there are more than just a few parallels between them.
Many are obvious, surface parallels: they both played guitar left-handed, they were both from northern Washington State, they both radicalized the music industry while fronting hard rock trios, and they both died tragically at the age of twenty-seven. But to an astrologer, their similarities are much more significant:
Jimi Hendrix: November 27, 1942, 10:15 a.m. PWT; Seattle WA [1]  |  |
Kurt Cobain: February 20, 1967, 7:20 p.m. PST, Aberdeen WA [2]  |  |
Days that changed everything
 |  On September 1, 1957, fourteen year-old Jimmy Hendrix attended an Elvis Presley concert at Sicks' Stadium in Seattle.[3] Presley was at the peak of his fame, and his tour through the Northwest that week included a series of intense fan rioting. |
 | Jimmy couldn't help but absorb some of the more notable factors he observed in Presley’s success: his wild stage antics - the impact of which wouldn't be repeated until he (as "Jimi") took the stage a decade later - and the fact that he inspired awe by crossing racial boundaries with music. |
The Little Rock Nine crisis in Arkansas - whereby nine black students were challenging segregation in schools - was just heating up that same month. It would only take the small miracle of an Elvis concert experience to awaken the imagination of a young mixed black and Cherokee teenager to the possibility that some forbidden lines were ready to be crossed...
 |  On September 25, 1985, seventeen year-old Kurt Cobain attended a Black Flag concert at the Mountaineer Club in Seattle, for which he sold his record collection so that he could afford to go. [4] |
 | Kurt, already an avid rock fan, found his ideal vision of what a rock band should be – musically and otherwise – when he saw them play that night. The hardcore punk band, which had been releasing its own records since forming in 1978, was a lightning rod of passionate anti-commercialism crammed in the face of the commercial music industry. By the time Kurt saw Black Flag that night, the band had morphed its look and sound from a more basic punk rock style – Mohawk haircuts or shaved heads playing short, fast songs laced with acerbic humor – to a heavier, Black Sabbath-inspired sound, delivered by band members sporting long rocker hair and gritted teeth. |
Kurt imagined starting a band that could sound, look and exist as Black Flag did, defiantly producing music exclusively on it own terms...
Initiation Rituals
What is curious about these two concert events, in astrological terms, is that they both happened at times when transiting outer planets were making ingresses (moving from one sign to another). The changing of signs for outer planets tends to coincide with major cultural shifts, representing a new context to correspond with a new era.
 |  At the time of Elvis Presley’s Seattle concert, transiting Pluto had just recently made an ingress (entered) into the sign of Virgo and transiting Neptune into the sign of Scorpio. |
 |  During the time of the Black Flag concert, transiting Pluto had recently moved into Scorpio, and transiting Neptune was between its first and second ingresses into the sign of Capricorn. |
By the time these transiting outer planets were at the end of these same signs, these two adolescent boys would both be dead - by which time they had grown into men who shook the world with their music.
Considering their influence on these impressionable teenagers, these two concerts were like tribal initiation rituals, aimed at transferring command of the zeitgeist from one open soul to another. Whether or not anybody knew it at the time, young prophets were being prepared for their future…
Hendrix (natal Sun in Sagittarius) and Cobain (Sun in Pisces) both have their natal Suns in signs traditionally ruled by Jupiter.
The sign Cancer is ruled by the Moon and is the exaltation sign of Jupiter, giving both planets a special prominence in the planetary hierarchy when they occupy that sign in a given horoscope.
Procyon & Sirius: Sudden Flash of Success
The co-presence of the Moon and Jupiter in the sign of Cancer in both Hendrix and Cobain's natal charts reflects the profound sensitivity that both men possessed, their ability to create music that was a direct reflection of their emotional core.
 |  Curiously, both men had natal Jupiter conjunct the fixed star Procyon, the brightest star of the constellation Canis Minor. Author Bernadette Brady associates Procyon with "short, quick success",[5] which is certainly true of the way both men's careers were cut short by their untimely deaths. |
Historically, Procyon has more than just a passing relationship with rock and roll.
 |  Transiting Jupiter and Uranus made a conjunction to Procyon in the summer of 1954, as Elvis Presley's first Sun Records single, That's All Right/Blue Moon of Kentucky went racing up local sales charts in Memphis,[6] marking the first hints of a phenomenon that would lead to Hendrix, Cobain and beyond. |
Presley's rock 'n' roll career during the mid-50's, though not cut short by death, was brought to a sudden halt when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in early 1958.
As the brightest star of the "little dog" constellation, Procyon appears to have an underdog quality. The appeal of a rock phenomenon, certainly in the cases of Presley, Hendrix and Cobain, is that the short, quick success is achieved by an underdog-rebel figure whose unlikely candidacy in the pop music world can only stir things up.
Cobain Gets Sirius: Beyond Expectations
 |  For Cobain, who was born with his natal Sun below the horizon (making his a nocturnal chart), the Moon is the dominant light in his chart, which along with the fact that the Moon rules Cancer, places it at the top of his planetary hierarchy. |
 |  Cobain's Moon is conjunct the fixed star Sirius (Canis Major), one of the brightest in the sky, which Brady associates with "gain far more than what is expected" from one's efforts.[7] |
Indeed, it was when transiting Uranus in Capricorn – the planet signifying radical principles and rapid-fire change - made an opposition to Cobain's natal Moon, that his career went through the stratosphere, far beyond his (or anyone's) expectations.
  | The first of three times Uranus made an exact opposition to Cobain's Moon (in the course of its direct-retrograde motion through an overall period of about sixteen months), coincided with the period when Nirvana's hit song Smells Like Teen Spirit was first performed live (April 27, 1991; evening; Seattle WA)[8] and the subsequent recording of their classic Nevermind album (May-June 1991), on which Smells Like Teen Spirit appeared.[9] |
 |  Transiting Neptune was also in Capricorn at this time, and like Uranus, was also headed for opposition to Cobain's Moon – the last pass of this exact transit occurred in August-September 1991, when Nevermind was released.[10] |
As Uranus and Neptune approached their conjunction in Capricorn (which would occur in 1993 – more on this ahead), popular culture rebelled against itself, adopting a look, sound and attitude that was defiantly rugged and anti-mainstream. Of course, it wasn’t long before that aesthetic itself was swallowed up by the mainstream, forever blurring the lines between the rebels and the establishment.
However, Nevermind was released just at the time when these lines were being drawn. Youth culture, after almost a decade of being co-opted by the sterile commerciality of MTV, was finally seized by the generation it supposedly represented. The growing popularity of a wide variety of bands that were emerging from the independent music scene forced a huge turnover in the industry.
Smell Like Teen Spirit's rousing chorus – which Cobain adeptly screamed in melody – made its success all the more poignant, as it represented a real break from the musical aesthetics of commercial rock's past. Radio stations and nightclubs that had never played anything remotely punk-sounding were now forced to play Nirvana, by simple virtue of the fact that they were the most popular band around at the time.
Out of Control: Riding the Crest of a Double Opposition
Cobain's reaction to the rapid changes in his life at this time reflects the intensity of this double opposition transit of Uranus and Neptune to his natal Moon.
Despite his success, Cobain was highly uncomfortable with the spotlight. Like many youths born during the 1960s, he was contemptuous of the clichés of rock stardom and did not accept record sales as an automatic gauge of musical merit. Ironically, he felt that having enormous popularity undermined his legitimacy among his peers, and even to himself.
 |  The second pass of Uranus' opposition to Cobain's Moon occurred in late 1991-early 1992, while Nevermind was at the top of the charts and the band made its notorious performance on NBC television's Saturday Night Live.[11] |
 |  The third opposition occurred in August – October 1992, coinciding with the birth of his daughter Frances (with wife Courtney Love), the publishing of a scathing profile in Vanity Fair magazine, and Nirvana's colorful appearances at both the Reading Festival in England[12] (where Cobain hammed it up Pisces-style, sporting a hospital gown and riding a wheelchair) and the MTV Video Awards (where he famously clashed with Guns 'n Roses singer Axl Rose backstage).[13] |
 |  Cobain was so traumatized by his experiences at these times that he largely withdrew from public life, all the while falling deeper at the mercy of his personal demons. Although Nirvana more than managed to develop musically in the last year and a half of his life, from this point on he was so psychically damaged that he would, sadly, never recover. |
Hendrix: Moon Turn the Tides
 |  Even though Hendrix had a diurnal chart, transits to his natal Moon were apparently quite powerful as well. Hendrix had been playing and recording with his London-based band the Experience for a few months, when he met inventor and sound experimenter Roger Mayer at an Experience show in Chislehurst, England on January 27, 1967.[14] |
Mayer was a pioneer in designing sound-altering gadgets for guitar players, and Hendrix – who had already begun using powerful Marshall Amplifiers to drive his feedback-driven sound – was a prime candidate to put Mayer's work to use.
 |  Mayer attended Hendrix's next recording session at London's Olympic Sound studio on February 3rd, where Hendrix employed Mayer's new octave-divider invention for his overdub solo on a song called Purple Haze.[15] |
The far-out, psychedelic jolt of Hendrix's guitar work on Purple Haze was to become his most identifiable sonic trademark. Transiting Jupiter was making a conjunction to his natal Cancer Moon at the time he met Mayer and recorded his Purple Haze solo.
Jupiter's transit was especially powerful at the time, not only because it was in its exaltation sign (Cancer), but also because it was moving into a grand trine with transiting Saturn in Pisces and Neptune in Scorpio , which were both also trine Hendrix's natal Jupiter at the time.
Hendrix's transits truly reflect the open channel he was sharing with the cosmos at this time. As any serious Hendrix fan has always suspected, Jimi's musical message was sent directly from the highest authority.
Merging in time: grand water trine
Of course, the grand water trine transit of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune in 1967 is of great relevance to Cobain as well, since he was born not long after Jimi put Purple Haze down on tape. In fact, Jimi was still hard at work in the recording studio on February 20th, the day Kurt Cobain was born.
 |  In what could only be considered an eerie cosmic foreshadowing, Hendrix recorded the gritty, noisy, angst-ridden I Don't Live Today,[16] a song so emotionally bleak ("No sun comin' through my windows, feel like I'm livin' at the bottom of a grave") it could have been written by Cobain himself. |
The grand water trine of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune in early 1967 reflected the merging of the diverse principles these planets represent. While Jupiter was making its transit to Procyon, its "quick flash of success" was aligned equally to the visionary collectivism represented by Neptune and the isolation and despair signified by Saturn.
 | For Hendrix, this grand trine period coincided with his emergence as an innovator, a time when he took his craft to a level that no one had dreamed possible. For Cobain, however, this same grand trine in his natal chart suggested not only the complexities of his creative genius, but also the sense that life for him would involve making compromises he would find hard to live with. |
Jupiter’s co-presence with the Moon in the sign of Cancer increases the strength of the natal Sun in both Hendrix (Sagittarius) and Cobain's (Pisces) charts, since those are the two Jupiter-ruled signs.
Ingress: The Intensity of an Experience
 | Both men wrote lyrics that reflect the spiritual/philosophical concerns of their respective Sun signs, from Hendrix's Sagittarian cosmic laissez-faire in If 6 Was 9 ("I've got my own world to live through and I ain't gonna copy you") to Cobain’s odd-but-thoughtful Piscean-style humanism in Something in the Way ("It’s okay to eat fish 'cause they don’t have any feelings"). |
 | Hendrix and Cobain not only have their natal Suns in Jupiter-ruled signs, but in both cases their Suns are in the early degrees of their sign. What is mainly significant about this is the fact that their natal Suns would receive transits from planets that have just made an ingress (changed sign), as we saw in the introduction to this article. Hendrix would have had transiting Pluto in Virgo square his natal Sun (as well as his natal Mercury in Sagittarius and Uranus in Gemini) not too long after he saw the Elvis concert, by which time he had acquired an electric guitar and started playing in his first band. |
Cobain had transiting Pluto trine his natal Sun (conjunct his natal Mars in Scorpio) not long after he saw Black Flag play live, during which time he also began playing in his first bands.
In both cases, the impact of Pluto's transit to their respective natal Suns coincided with a time when they were sparked into action, heading both of them on a course for infamy.
Uranus Ingress: Cosmic Genius
Earlier I demonstrated how the opposition transits of Uranus to Cobain's natal Moon coincided with Nirvana's tremendous success in 1991-92. As with the example of the Pluto and Neptune ingresses at the time of the Elvis and Black Flag concerts given in the introduction, the ingresses of Uranus also coincided with important stages in the lives of Hendrix and Cobain.
 |  For Hendrix, transiting Uranus made its first Virgo ingress (it always makes two for every sign, the second following a retrograde regression back into the previous sign) on November 1, 1961, just as he arrived for parachute training in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.[17] |
Until his arrival in Kentucky, Hendrix had mainly been exposed to mainstream R & B or rock music, as variety was limited on local Seattle radio at the time. But in Kentucky, he came into much closer contact with Southern blues music, immersing himself in the more obscure but genuine style of music that he would later take to a whole new level.[18]
Although Hendrix had left for Kentucky without his guitar, he soon asked his father to send it by mail. Once reunited with his instrument, he reportedly slept with it by his side every night in the barracks, while practicing constantly during off-hours in the day, tuning in to the influences around him.
Cycles of Friendship
 |  It was also in Kentucky that Hendrix first met Billy Cox, a bass player with whom he played in several bands.[19] Years later, Hendrix would summon the trusted Cox to play in his band for what was to be the last fourteen months of his life. |
Hendrix's time in Kentucky was short but critical in his growth as a musician. He was discharged from the army after breaking his ankle on July 2, 1962[20] a month before the second Uranus ingress into Virgo.
He soon moved to Memphis, Tennessee and began playing music professionally, gradually shaping his playing technique and flair for performance – all the elements that would make him famous a few years later.
Soon after he first moved to Memphis, Uranus moved up to 4 Virgo, making an exact square to Hendrix's Sagittarius Sun, coinciding with his blossoming talent as a blues guitar player.
 |  His rapid rise to fame began in the autumn of 1966.[21] He moved to London to form his band, The Experience, and at this time Uranus had moved far enough through Virgo that it was now square his Ascendant at 24 degrees Sagittarius. |
 | Interestingly, the original line-up of the Experience played its last concert on June 29, 1969 in Denver[22] – just after Uranus made its second ingress into Libra , beginning a whole new cycle of influence. Cox would rejoin Hendrix’s fold not long after that, reflecting the earlier Uranus ingress that first brought them together, though sadly not for very long. |
Cobain's First Chords
 |  In Kurt Cobain's case, the Uranus square transit in Sagittarius to his Pisces Sun happened at a much earlier stage in his development than Hendrix. For Cobain, Uranus made its first ingress into Sagittarius on February 16, 1981, just four days before he received his first guitar as a fourteenth birthday present.[23] |
 |  Once Uranus moved its way up through Sagittarius square Cobain’s Virgo Ascendant in 1986, he began playing in a band with a local bass player named Krist Novoselic,[24] who would play alongside Cobain in Nirvana to the very end. |
 |  The next transiting Uranus sign ingress, into Capricorn (now making a sextile aspect to Cobain's natal Sun), occurred on February 14, 1988 – right around the time Cobain and Novoselic first met Jonathan Poneman of Seattle's Sub Pop records.[25] |
Poneman recognized the band's emerging talent and released its earliest records (several singles and one LP), until they graduated to David Geffen’s major label in 1991.
 |  The second Uranus ingress into Capricorn happened on December 2, 1988, shortly before Cobain and Novoselic's band – by now named "Nirvana" – recorded the tracks for their first album, Bleach,[26] with their new drummer, Chad Channing, on board. |
Uranus Transits: Backward Transference
Just as a new Uranus ingress coincided with major shifts in Hendrix's life, as it was with Cobain. What is different between the two men's charts, in terms of how they responded to the transit of Uranus, is the timing in regard to major success in their respective lives.
 | For Hendrix, transiting Uranus' exact square to his Ascendant coincided exactly with the periods in which he recorded the Experience’s three acclaimed studio albums: Are You Experienced (November 1966 – February 1967,[27] during which time he was also launched like an explosion on the London music scene), Axis: Bold as Love (October 1967) and Electric Ladyland (April – June 1968).[28] |
 |  |  |
In Cobain's case, transiting Uranus' exact square to his Ascendant merely coincided with his partnership with Novoselic. Success was still five years away for Cobain at the time of this transit.
 | Hendrix's period of highest professional success coincided with Uranus' transit (from his 10th house) to his natal Ascendant, while Cobain's period of highest professional success coincided with Uranus' transit (from his 5th house) to his natal Moon. However, natally, Cobain had natal Uranus conjunct his Ascendant in his birth chart, while Hendrix had it opposite his natal Sun and Mercury. |
In other words, there appears to be a two-way transference in the nature of these transits, from light-to-angle and angle-to-light: Cobain's natal Uranus is on an angle and therefore its transit to his dominant light (the Moon) triggered his sudden rise to success; Hendrix has natal Uranus opposite his Sun (his dominant light) and Mercury, and its transit to his Ascendant (by square) triggered his sudden rise to success.
Since the three outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) move slowly through the zodiac, their transit conjunctions to each other are quite rare. Uranus and Pluto will make a conjunction at alternate intervals of approximately 110 and 140 years. Uranus and Neptune make a conjunction approximately every 170 years.
Outer Planet Conjunctions: the Quality of an Era
Hendrix and Cobain are remembered not only for their music, but also for their significance to the larger cultural context of the time. Hendrix is associated with the psychedelic 60’s, a brief period where an entire sub-culture fled the dark reality of social unrest and reached for an idealized worldview too beautiful to resist.
Cobain will always be linked with the post-punk/metal hybrid style that emerged as the so-called "grunge" period of the early 90's: an era when the indie rock scene that had sparked from the ashes of independent post-punk bands of the 1980's, including Black Flag, peaked with Nirvana’s enormous success just following their departure from Seattle’s Sub Pop label.
Astrologically, what is special about the mid-sixties and the early nineties is that they were the only two periods in the twentieth-century during which there were conjunctions being made by two of the three outer planets.
Uranus and Pluto were conjunct in Virgo during the time Hendrix was making his initial impact in Britain in 1966 (where he first became a star), and Uranus and Neptune were conjunct in Capricorn during the brief time Cobain and Nirvana was the most influential band in the world (note that Cobain had natal Pluto and Uranus straddling his Ascendant).
In Hendrix's case, we have seen how transiting Uranus square to his natal Ascendant in Sagittarius coincided with the recording of his first three albums. But immediately following that time (from about late 1968 to the summer of 1970), his career hit a series of bumps.
It was at this point that transiting Pluto followed Uranus with its transiting square to his natal Ascendant: the Experience broke up, the band he launched at Woodstock didn’t cut it,[29] and he had to release a record with another band, on a different record label, to settle an old contract dispute.[30]
Hendrix’s eminence as a black celebrity, who happened to have a predominantly white audience, was also caving in on him at this time.
Following the disbanding of the Experience, Hendrix was struggling with pressure both ends of the racial spectrum: his management wanted him to continue to perform with the original members of the Experience (both of whom were white), largely in order to maintain his interest among white audiences.
At the same time, he was personally drawn to playing with musicians (including his old army buddy Billy Cox) who happened to be black, and was becoming more vocal on social - particularly racial - issues, including playing various benefits and speaking out in support of the Black Panthers during interviews for teen magazines.
Just as Hendrix was a witness to Elvis Presley's popularizing of a largely black music style for a white audience during Pluto's Virgo ingress in 1957, he was now himself aiming to reconcile racial biases as transiting Pluto squared his Ascendant.
After a bit of shuffling, Hendrix eventually settled on a new Experience lineup featuring Cox and original Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, ultimately basing his choice not strictly along racial lines, but rather on overall musical compatibility.
Although he continued to make great music throughout this period, it did seem like all that had been promising during Uranus’ square transit to his Ascendant in 1967-68 was now going to pieces. Hendrix died - allegedly following a drug mishap - in London at approximately 11:25 a.m. on September 18, 1970,[31] as transiting Neptune was making its way to its Sagittarius ingress in three months time.
Uranus-Neptune Conjunction: Live Through This
Cobain, as is widely known, died at the same age Hendrix did (27), from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was found on his property in the Seattle area about three days after he died, at 8:40 a.m. on April 8, 1994.[32]
Cobain died just as Uranus was moving away from its conjunction with Neptune. Although both planets, when they had been opposite his natal Moon, had been astrological players in his whirlwind experience as a rock star (see Part One), upon his demise it seemed to be those closest to him who were now receiving the fruits of their own transits.
Nirvana's drummer Dave Grohl (January 14, 1969; 7:33 a.m.; Warren OH, AA)[33] had the Uranus-Neptune transit conjunction of 1993 on his natal Ascendant, during a time that he was growing more and more disenchanted with being Nirvana’s drummer.
Grohl, a talented singer-guitarist-songwriter in his own right, had transiting Neptune conjunct his natal Sun when Cobain died (Uranus was still hovering around it too), marking an opportunity for him to come out from behind the drum set and have his own shot at the spotlight.
The following year he released his acclaimed album Foo Fighters,[34], while transiting Neptune was still conjunct his natal Sun, and transiting Pluto was conjunct his natal Neptune in Scorpio.
Another contender for the spotlight upon Cobain’s death was his wife Courtney Love (July 9, 1964 (not 1965, as is so widely reported); 2:08 p.m.; San Francisco CA, AA)[35], who had had the transiting Uranus-Neptune conjunction of 1993 exactly opposite her natal Sun, during which time she, like Grohl, spent working on her own music, preparing for her own opportunities.
When Cobain died, transiting Neptune was now opposite her natal Moon (again, with Uranus still hovering around), which by bizarre design coincided with the release of her band Hole’s album, Live Through This, which, like Grohl’s Foo Fighters, went on to considerable success.
Closing Time: Return to Seattle
Both Hendrix and Cobain died with transiting outer planets in the very last degrees of their tropical sign, signifying the ending of eras that their very deaths helped bring down. When Hendrix died, Neptune was at the end of Scorpio, and in less than two months would make its ingress into Sagittarius, where it would soon make a conjunction to his natal Sun.
Cobain died when transiting Pluto was at the very end of Scorpio, tying into his natal grand water trine by virtue of transiting Pluto’s conjunction to the North Node . By January of the following year, it made its ingress into Sagittarius , where it would soon make a square transit to his natal Sun in Pisces .
The fact that both men died just as transiting outer planets were set to make powerful new ingresses directed at their natal Suns connects to their respective legacies, which show no sign of waning. In both cases, the circumstances of their deaths not only contributed to their respective cults of personality, but also wild conspiracy theories that refuse to go away.
As cultural figures, they represent very specific micro-eras in time when a unique sense of community emerged from popular culture. Their rise and fall over the course of specific outer planet transits through a given sign provides the astrologer with some idea of what those periods of time were “about”, what large numbers of people were experiencing at the time.
The music Hendrix and Cobain made during those brief spans of time continues to fascinate millions. That these two periods were the 20th Century’s only instances of outer planet conjunctions underlines their special place in the lexicon of popular culture.
Notes:
[1] Rodden Rating: AA
Source: B.C. in hand from Janice Mackay, 2/1996.
His birth certificate originally read Johnny Allen Hendrix, but was corrected by affidavit on 9/11/1946 to James Marshall Hendrix.
[2] Rodden Rating: A
Source: Muriel Foltz quotes his mom in WTPE Gemini/1994
(Thomas Germine obtained the B.C., same date, no time given.)
[3] http://www.elvisconcerts.com/liv1957.htm
http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3440
Two conflicting sources give September 2, 1957:
Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and Post-War Pop, Charles Shaar Murray, (Faber and Faber, 2001), p. 46
http://www.elvis.org/live/liv57.html
[4] http://www.livenirvana.com/history/84.php
Heavier Than Heaven, Charles R. Cross, (Hyperion, 2001), p. 63
Nirvana: The Day by Day Eyewitness Chronicle, Carrie Borzillo, (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2000), p. 13
Conflicting source:
Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana (Doubleday, 1994), Michael Azerrad, p. 31 gives "August 1984", which has since been corrected to the given date of September 25th.
[5] The Fixed Stars, Bernadette Brady, (Samuel Weiser, 1998), p. 89
[6] http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis_presley_sun_recordings.shtml
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, Peter Guralnick, (Abacus, 1994), p. 123
[7] Brady, p. 85
[8] Cross, p. 180
Borzillo, p. 68
http://www.livenirvana.com/tourhistory/banter/1991/t_04-17-91.php
http://www.livenirvana.com/tourhistory/index.html
[9] Cross, p. 181
Borzillo, p. 69-70
Azerrad, p. 173
http://www.livenirvana.com/sessions/studio/may-june-1991.php
http://www.livenirvana.com/documents/mojonevermind.html
http://www.livenirvana.com/history/index.html
[10] Cross, p. 204
Borzillo, p. 81
Azerrad, p. 228
http://www.livenirvana.com/official/index.html
[11] Cross, p. 226-228
Borzillo, p. 98
http://www.livenirvana.com/tourhistory/index.htmlhttp://tvtome.com/SaturdayNightLive/season17.html
[12] Cross, p. 251-253
Borzillo, p. 119
Azerrad, p. 271-275
http://www.livenirvana.com/tourhistory/index.html
[13] Cross, p. 256-260
Borzillo, p. 120-121
Azerrad, p. 276-280
http://www.livenirvana.com/tourhistory/index.html
[14] Jimi Hendrix and the Making of Are You Experienced, Sean Egan, (Unanimous, 2002), quoted from an excerpt published in the May 2002 issue of Uncut magazine (UK), p. 59
http://www.nii.net/~obie/jimi_hendrix_live.htm
[15] Hendrix had started writing Purple Haze backstage at a show London’s Upper Cut club on December 26, 1966 and recorded the basic tracks with the Experience on January 11, 1967.
[16] Egan in Uncut, p. 60
http://hendrix.free.fr/chansons/i-dont-live-today.htm
[17] Murray, p. 47-48
http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/biography.html
[18] Murray, p. 47-48
[19] Murray, p. 47-48
[20] Murray, p. 47-48
http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/biography.html
[21] Egan in Uncut, p. 50, 53
http://www.nii.net/~obie/jimi_hendrix_live.htm
[22] http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/encyclopedia/document,19690629,1.html
Murray, p. 66
http://www.nii.net/~obie/jimi_hendrix_live.htm
[23] Cross, p. 37
Borzillo, p. 11
Azerrad, p. 22
[24] Cross, p. 74
Borzillo, p. 16
[25] Cross, p. 102-103
Borzillo, p. 21
[26] Cross, p. 125
Borzillo, p. 29
http://www.livenirvana.com/sessions/studio/december-1988.php
http://www.livenirvana.com/history/88.php
[27] Egan in Uncut, p. 53-61
http://www.chromeoxide.com/hendrix.htm#Areyou
http://hendrix.free.fr/chansons/foxy.htm
[28] http://www.inet.hr/~abubalo/albums/chronology.txt
[29] http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/encyclopedia/document,19690818,1.html
[30] http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/encyclopedia/document,19700325,1.html
[31] Murray, p. 72
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Balcony/5802/jimisdeath.htm
[32] Cross, p. 356
Borzillo, p. 183
http://www.livenirvana.com/history/index.html
[33] Rodden Rating: AA
Source: B.C. in hand from Frank C. Clifford
[34]
[35] Rodden Rating: AA
Source: B.C. in hand from Nancy Hastings, Love's astrologer for four years. The B.C. reads Courtney Michelle Rodriguez Menely. Every time her mother remarried, the new stepfather would adopt her, a string of them. The B.C. only shows the last two. Her biological father is Hank Harrison, a former groupie with the Grateful Dead. Love herself gives both 1964 and 1965, 2:08 PM on the Internet.)
(Dennis Sutton quoted biographer Poppy Z. Brite, 'Courtney Love, The Real Story', p.21, "born at St. Francis Memorial Hospital," giving July 9, 1965, 9:15 AM.
(Melissa Adams quotes her dad for the same date and place with 9:18 AM.)
(Sy Scholfield quotes her bio by Poppy Z. Brite in which her data is given as 7/09/1965, 9:15AM, San Francisco, birth name: Love Michelle Harrison. Ed gives the same but name of "Courtney Michelle Love Harrison/C.Menely" and 2.08 PM as time from mother, year uncertain (1964/65?). However, the on-line California Birth Index gives her data as: Courtney M. Harrison, 7/09/1964, San Francisco County, CA. Mother = RISI. She was therefore definitely born on this day with this name in 1964 in San Francisco, so the Brite bio has the wrong year, wrong name and quite possibly the wrong time.")
Keith Richards & Brian Jones
I Can't Get No Satisfaction
Mars: Mars has an aggressive or divisive character and, among other things, represents a masculine principle (i.e. male individuals, groups of men, etc).
Uranus: Uranus has a destabilizing character, and is associated with qualities or subjects like rebellious or generally extreme behavior, inspired flashes of brilliance, very sudden changes in circumstances, and modern technology.
Conjunction: Two planets or more in a given sign can be said to be conjunct, but the term is generally used for when they are joined at the same degree, or relatively close, as it is in this article. The significations of any two or more conjunct planets are "blended" and grouped as a singular astrological force.
The Rolling Stones perform (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (2:50) May 20, 1965; Shindig!, ABC-TV, Los Angeles
In early 1965, the Rolling Stones had been together for almost three years. They started off as a rhythm & blues band, playing cover versions of old standards by people like Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters - whose song Mannish Boy featured the line "like a rolling stone", from which the group derived its name. However, on the heels of the Beatles’ international success, the Stones' manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was pressuring guitarist Keith Richards and singer Mick Jagger to write their own material, in the more contemporary pop style of the time.
The band's other guitarist, Brian Jones, a talented multi-instrumentalist and "blues purist", was desperately fighting to maintain the group's style to its traditional format. He had been the group's original leader, but his lack of songwriting skills and unreliable behavior on tour had gradually robbed him of his influence. With Richards and Jagger now in charge, the group was having relative success with original compositions like The Last Time, though they still had not had a number one hit in America.
Sometime during the night of May 6th/7th – during the course of an American tour - Richards woke up in his motel room in Clearwater FL with a distinctive three-note "riff" (melody) in his head. He quickly played the tune into a tape recorder he kept by his bed and then went back to sleep. The next day, he played the riff for Jagger, telling him, "The line that goes with this (tune) is 'I can't get no satisfaction'". Jagger completed the lyrics within the next few days, and the soon-to-be classic song was recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood on May 12th.
 |  |
Keith Richards' natal horoscope, with Mars-Uranus conjunction highlighted
Richards had originally intended his riff to be played by horns, but wound up playing it himself on the guitar, with the use of a "fuzz" effect created by a new gadget that happened to be around. This piece of equipment was among the first of its kind, and its inclusion on the recording introduced a whole new sound for the electric guitar. Today, such gadgets are standard tools for most rock guitarists. The resulting song – (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - was released as a single on June 4th, and hit number one on the U.S. pop charts on July 10th, remaining there for the next four weeks. The Stones had finally hit the big time in America.
The Rolling Stones perform (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (3:03) February 13, 1966; The Ed Sullivan Show, CBS-TV, NYC
Curiously, earlier that same day (May 6), Jones fell completely from grace in the eyes of his band mates. Having already fathered a number of illegitimate children by the time he was in his early 20s, Jones was also known to be physically abusive with women.
 |  |
Brian Jones' natal horoscope, with Mars-Uranus conjunction highlighted
One night after a concert, he brought a young girl back to his hotel room. When she emerged the next morning –crying, bruised and sporting two black eyes – his indignant band mates cut him off socially, even sanctioning his beating by one of their roadies for his serious offence, from which he sustained two broken ribs. Although he would remain in the group until a month before his death in 1969, Jones' influence in the group was now completely diminished and he spent the rest of his life slowly wasting away.
Recurrence Transits
This story can be used to demonstrate the use of recurrence transits in astrology. Most astrology books and articles that discuss planetary transits to points on a natal chart usually refer to what I call "zodiacal contact". If, for instance, someone has the planet Mars at, say, the 2nd degree of Pisces in their natal chart, and the planet Uranus comes around by transit and moves to that same degree, then any astrologer will tell you that the person has just had a Uranus to Mars conjunction transit.
The Rolling Stones perform (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (5:28) in the documentary Gimme Shelter, November 28, 1969; Madison Square Garden, NYC
However, recurrence transits refer to times when specific planetary combinations, such as Mars-Uranus conjunctions, are repeated in the sky on a given day or series of days. If someone has a Mars-Uranus conjunction in their natal chart, and Mars and Uranus are conjoined at a given time, then that person’s natal conjunction gets "activated". That is, there is some form of event or set of circumstances that somehow reflects whatever the Mars-Uranus conjunction means in that person's life.
What is special about the recurrence transit is the fact that this "activation" will occur even if the transiting conjunction doesn’t make any kind of contact or aspect to a point in that person's chart. Needless to say, if someone has a recurrence transit of any kind that does make "zodiacal contact" to a given point in that person's chart, then it is likely to coincide with something really big in his/her life.
 |  |
Bi-wheel: Keith Richards' natal horoscope (inside) & transits for the night he wrote Satisfaction, with both Mars-Uranus conjunctions highlighted
There was a Mars-Uranus conjunction transit at 10 Virgo on May 7, 1965; hence, both Richards and Jones were experiencing a recurrence of their natal conjunctions at this time. Five days later, sometime on May 12, 1965, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction was recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California, while Mars was at 11+ Virgo, and Uranus was at 10+ Virgo--still during the Mars-Uranus Conjunction.
 |  |
Bi-wheel: Keith Richards' natal horoscope (inside) & transits for the Satisfaction recording session, with both Mars-Uranus conjunctions highlighted
Stevie Wonder & Rolling Stones perform Uptight/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (4:36) July 25, 1972; Madison Square Garden, NYC (2nd show)
Inspired Protest and Gadgetry
In Keith Richards' case, the transiting conjunction met exactly on his Midheaven (at 10 Virgo) – the horoscopic point that refers specifically to a person's "career" or "place in the world". The recurrence transit, for him, coincided with a flash of inspiration that allowed him to express himself in such a way that would distinguish him in the public eye. Even the song’s title reflects the sort of restless, protesting nature associated with the Mars-Uranus combination.
Importantly, a square aspect from his natal Moon at 7 Virgo intercepts his natal Mars-Uranus conjunction; that is, in numerical order of degrees, it comes between Mars at 8 Gemini and Uranus at 6 Gemini. As the Moon represents an unconscious, "receiving" influence in astrology, it is interesting that the song's melody came to him in his sleep. He has often stated in interviews that great songs are not "written", but "received", like an antennae picking up a signal.
The fact that he used a very new form of technological gadgetry to produce a distinct sound for the song’s recording, also finds a symbolic reference to Mars-Uranus, in that the employment of technology (Uranus) was used to create a harsh, distorted (Mars) sound.
The Rolling Stones perform (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (4:41) December 12, 1997; TWA Dome, St. Louis
Although the Beatles had included a hint of “natural” guitar feedback (which is produced when a loud electric guitar is turned to face its amplifier) on their hit song I Feel Fine (a sentiment that is pretty much opposite to not feeling "satisfied"), this was the first instance – at least in the case of a “hit” song – that a gadget that was specifically produced to create this effect was used. Of course, the Beatles song in question - which was released as a single in the last week of November 1964 – also came out during (but was not recorded during) a Mars-Uranus conjunction, but that is another matter entirely. Whether the inclusion of guitar distortion on the Beatles’ track was a direct inspiration for the Rolling Stones is unknown, but not unreasonable to presume.
Irrational Expression of Rage
 |  |
Bi-wheel: Brian Jones' natal horoscope (inside) & transits for the day following his assault on a female acquaintance, with both Mars-Uranus conjunctions highlighted
For Brian Jones, his experience of the Mars-Uranus recurrence transit was, sadly, not channeled through musical innovation (though he was a tremendously innovative musician in his time). It is hard to fathom why the blonde and charismatic Jones – who, at this time, was probably one of the pop world’s most desirable sex symbols – would be impelled to express himself through violence against women. It is well documented in numerous biographies that this was a fairly regular form of behavior for him.
Keith Richards demonstrates the quick-to-anger side of his natal Mars-Uranus conjunction toward an intrusive fan during a performance of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (0:13) (Mars and Uranus were in an exact sextile on this night), December 18, 1981; Hampton Coliseum, Virgina
But again, that is another view of what a Mars-Uranus conjunction can represent in a given horoscope: a seemingly irrational (Uranus) expression of rage and even violence (Mars). It is worth noting that the planet Venus – which, as the converse force to Mars, represents a sort of feminine principle in astrology – was transiting through the last degrees of Taurus during this week, "triggering" his natal Mars-Uranus conjunction at the time of the assault, along with the recurrence transit. This added transit reflects the fact that it was a woman who unwittingly "wandered" into the path of Jones’ unstable temperament at this time.
Even if Jones had been able to control his violent impulses, this was still a pivotal and highly unsatisfying week in his life. Although the Rolling Stones had been gradually leaning towards a more "pop" direction in their sound over the past year or so, it was only with the success of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction that they moved on, more or less completely, from their R & B roots – at least until long after Jones was dead. The Stones' rising popularity following the song's success marked the real end of his grip on a band that he had, basically, started three years previously – with the explicit intention of playing traditional rhythm and blues music.
The Mars-Uranus recurrence was in an opposition aspect to Jones’ Sun (the astrological ego and creative force) at 9 Pisces, pointing to the fact that his own interests were at odds with the band’s new direction – not to mention the fact that he was thrashed and humiliated in lieu of his violent tendencies. Ironically, while Jones hated the song (he was known to obnoxiously play the melody to Popeye the Sailor Man when it was performed live), it was he – more than anyone else in the group – who truly couldn’t get any satisfaction.
Brian Jones interviewed in Charlie Is My Darling (4:21), a Rolling Stones documentary filmed in Ireland on September 3-4, 1965.
Biographical Sources:
Stone Alone by Bill Wyman & Ray Coleman (Signet, 1991) is the primary source used for dates and times of events
Other sources used:
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll: The Ultimate Guide to the Rolling Stones by James Karnbach & Carol Bernson (Facts on File, 1997)
Old Gods Almost Dead by Stephen Davis (Broadway, 2001)
Rolling with the Stones by Bill Wyman & Richard Havers (DK Publishing, 2002)
Mojo magazine, article by Paul Trynka, Rolling Stones feature issue, (#107, October 2002)
http://www.holysmoke.org/cw30.htm
Data Sources:
* Keith Richards' birth data quoted from Astro Data Bank (Rodden Rating: A). Arthur Blackwell quotes him to Ruth F. Nobel (same from other astrologers).
* Brian Jones' birth date & place is quoted from numerous sources, including his tombstone in the case of his date, and all of the above biographical sources. Davis (p.5) states that he was born "on a winter Saturday night". 7:00 p.m. has been used arbitrarily for the purpose of this article, although any birth time on that given day would give him a Mars-Uranus conjunction. It is the author’s opinion, for both astrological and biographical reasons, that Jones had Virgo rising (which would mean he was born in the early evening), but that is, clearly, speculative.
Notes:
* There is a minor conflict as to the exact time Satisfaction was recorded. Bill Wyman 's Stone Alone (p. 381), which is drawn from diaries he kept in 1965, cleary states that the recording session in Hollywood took place between 10:00 a.m. on May 12 and lasted until 2:15 the next morning. Since his account is contemporary and first hand, this book is my primary source (I arbitrarily used 8:00 p.m. for the session chart, since the song was recorded closer to, but not at, the end of the session). However, for the record, Karnbach & Bernson (p.225) state that the song was recorded during sessions that took place in Hollywood between May 11th/12th. Davis claims (p.124), "The final stereo mix of Satisfaction was finished by 5 a.m. on May 11, 1965." This is clearly wrong, since both Wyman and Karnbach & Bernson claim the Stones had been at a recording session at Chess Studios in Chicago on May 10th (where they made their first attempt at recording Satisfaction), making it pretty much impossible for them to make it over to Hollywood and complete the song by five o’clock the next morning. Regardless of this conflict between sources, the Mars-Uranus conjunction would be present at any of these times.
* Mars was conjunct Uranus during both the release of the Beatles' I Feel Fine in late November 1964 and the recording of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction in May 1965 because Mars had been retrograde between January and April of 1965 – making three exact conjunctions to Uranus between Nov/Dec 1964 and May 1965. Interestingly, there were only three instances during the 20th century where a Mars retrograde coincided with multiple conjunctions to Uranus: 1907 (long before the Stones or probably even their parents were born), 1943-44 (when Keith Richards was born) and of course 1964-65.
Bob Marley & Sinéad O'Connor
One Love and War
Venus: Venus' essential function is to unify separate forces. Symbolically, it represents a feminine principle and, among other things, is associated with one's personal sense of communal harmony.
Saturn: Saturn's essential function is to reject, ignore or control other forces and, among other things, represents authority figures and personal limitations; it is associated with the restrictions imposed on one's existence, including those enforced by governments and other authorities.
Square: The square aspect represents a discordant relationship between any two planets within range of 90 zodiacal degrees of each other, or between any two signs that are three signs apart from each other. As the Mars ruled signs, Aries and Scorpio, form square aspects to the Lunar and Solar ruled signs respectively, Cancer and Leo, the square aspect is associated with the essential character of the planet Mars, i.e. disassociating, aggressive, etc.
While the following article details events in the lives of two musicians from different cultures and eras, there are important links between them, astrological and otherwise, that tie these stories together.
Bob Marley: One Love
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On the evening of December 3, 1976 - two days before Bob Marley was to appear at the Smile Jamaica free concert at Heroes Park Circle in Kingston (which, against Marley's wishes, had been surreptitiously turned into a political event for Prime Minister Michael Manley's election campaign) - unknown gunmen opened fire on Marley's home during a break in his group's rehearsal.
Though no one was killed, three people, including Marley's wife Rita, were injured. Although Marley had intended the concert to be a call for peace during a period of great political unrest, he was now unwittingly caught in the middle of a state of emergency.
Though apprehensive about appearing at the highly controversial event, Marley gave a triumphant performance, which he opened with a new song called War. The song was a protest anthem featuring lyrics adapted from an excerpt of H.I.M. Haile Selassie's (Ethiopian Emperor and Rastafarian prophet) speech to the United Nations on October 6, 1963 - a powerful message against institutionalized racial oppression (see Notes below).
Marley left Jamaica almost immediately following the show, and did not return for over a year. When he did, it was to headline the monumental One Love concert in Kingston on April 22, 1978, where he successfully united the leaders of Jamaicas two rival political factions the socialist Manley and right-wing Edward Seaga - onstage at the closing of his performance (he was later awarded for the gesture with the Third World Peace Medal by all the African delegations to the United Nations).
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Once again, toward the end of this historic performance, Marley sang the song War to address the power division that continued to fuel violence in his country.
Sinead O'Connor: Fight the Real Enemy
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Almost fifteen years later, on October 4, 1992, Irish singer Sinead O'Connor appeared as the musical guest on the popular American television program Saturday Night Live. O'Connor was a notorious figure on the pop scene at the time, known as much for her shaved head and strong vocal abilities as her less-than-diplomatic relationship with the press.
She first made scandal headlines in the United States on May 12, 1990, when she cancelled a scheduled appearance on SNL in protest of the shows inclusion of shock-comedian Andrew Dice Clay, known for his macho-misogynist persona, who was to host the show that night (see Notes below).
When she finally did appear on the program a year and a half later, she once again used the opportunity to make a statement that was bound to be controversial.
At the closing of her second musical number, an a capella version of Bob Marley's War, she shocked the nation by pulling out a photograph of Pope John Paul II, which she held to face the camera before tearing it up, while repeating the phrase "fight the real enemy".
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Unbeknownst to the majority of her American audience, this was done in response to recent scandals in her native Ireland regarding reports of abuse committed by certain Catholic priests.
However, public reaction to this incident was, for the most part, harsh and unforgiving. The backlash reached its climax twelve days later when O'Connor appeared, along with a host of music stars, at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary celebration concert at New Yorks Madison Square Garden.
As she was beginning her rendition of Dylan's I Believe In You, certain members of the audience began to boo her, presumably in response to her SNL appearance - an ironic twist considering the show was held to celebrate an artist who himself had endured hostile audience reactions during the peak of his career (Dylan was booed by audiences in 1965-66 when he first began playing "electric" music).
O'Connor responded by abruptly stopping the Dylan song and launching into a fierce, abridged version of Marley's War, before being led offstage in tears. The fallout over O'Connor's bold actions appeared to be a direct cause of her professional decline, as she didn't release an album for the next four years.
She later explained that her performance on SNL was provoked by memories of abuse she suffered as a child, though she did eventually apologize for the incident during an interview on September 22, 1997.
Recurrence Transits
These stories can be used to demonstrate the use of recurrence transits in astrology. Most astrology books and articles that discuss planetary transits to a natal chart usually refer to what I call zodiacal contact.
If, for instance, someone has the planet Venus at, say, the 25th degree of Pisces in their natal chart, and the planet Saturn comes around by transit and moves to the same degree of one of the two signs that make a ninety degree angle to Pisces (Gemini and Sagittarius), then any astrologer will tell you that the person has just had a Saturn to Venus square transit.
However, recurrence transits refer to times when specific planetary combinations, such as Venus-Saturn squares, are repeated in the sky on a given day or series of days.
If someone has a Venus-Saturn square in his or her natal chart, and Venus and Saturn are squared at a given time, then that persons natal square gets activated. That is, there is some form of event or set of circumstances that somehow reflects whatever the Venus-Saturn square means in that persons life.
What is special about the recurrence transit is the fact that this activation will occur even if the transiting aspect doesn't make any kind of contact or aspect to a point in that persons chart. Needless to say, if someone has a recurrence transit of any kind that does make zodiacal contact to a given point in that persons chart, then it is likely to coincide with something really big in his/her life.
Rules and Rulership
Both Marley and O'Connor have Venus-Saturn squares in their natal charts, though in both cases they are contained in t-squares with outer planets.
A t-square is a term used for a configuration containing an opposition aspect between two or more planets, that makes a square to a third planet or set of planets from either side (for Marley the other planets are Neptune & Chiron; for O'Connor, the configuration includes Uranus, Pluto & Chiron - more on these natal t-squares in the following section).
The Venus-Saturn square on its own was in recurrence during both Marleys momentous One Love concert and O'Connor's startling SNL appearance. As landmark events in their respective lives, they can be seen as statements inspired by deeply personal motivations, both of which correspond to a basic interpretation of the Venus-Saturn square ones sense of communal harmony being at odds with the actions of authority figures.
However, despite this fundamental similarity in motivation, there is a clear difference in the manner in which it was expressed in the two instances. Marley's action was to unite two disparate factions - an effective solution to restoring communal harmony (at least temporarily), while maintaining his strict apolitical stance. On the other hand, O'Connor's action made no attempt at resolution, but rather was an outright revolt against an established authority that she felt undermined communal harmony, if not her own inner peace.
One way this marked difference between the two events can be explained is by examining the sign placement of both Venus and Saturn, with regard to rulerships, in each event chart. Planets are usually considered to be stronger when placed in signs they rule, and weaker when placed in signs opposite their own rulership.
In other words, while the Venus-Saturn square represents discordance between two basic principles in life (peace and authority), the stronger planet during a given recurrence transit will dictate the direction in which a related event will take.
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In the case of Marley's One Love concert, Venus was in Taurus, one of its own domiciles (signs of rulership), while Saturn was in Leo, a sign opposite one of its own traditional domiciles (Aquarius). As Venus represents a uniting principle, it had dominance over Saturn in the context of the square on this particular day.
Conversely, on the evening of O'Connor's SNL appearance, Saturn was in Aquarius, its own traditional domicile, while Venus was in Scorpio, a sign opposite its own domicile of Taurus. Hence, Saturn, representing the principle of rejection, had the dominating influence in its square to Venus on that particular day.
Natural Mystic
Important details to note in both Marley and O'Connor's respective natal t-squares would be the planets found at the apex. For Marley, that planet would be Saturn in Cancer, which squares both his Venus in Aries and Neptune-Chiron in Libra.
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While Venus was the dominant planet by transit that day - hence resulting in a Venusian expression of his recurrence transit - Marley's dominating motive was to remain outside (Saturn) the system. He wanted to maintain his resistance (Saturn) to what Rastafarians refer to as Babylon, anything in society that does not appeal directly to Jah (God).
Neptune, among other things, represents the masses (in an idealized sense) or humanity as a united collective. As a singer-songwriter, Marley remains one of the 20th century's principle voices against socio-political oppression and injustice. His message, relayed throughout his music, was directed at promoting universality, a distinctively Neptunian aim.
In addition to the fact that Venus was the dominating planet during his recurrence transit and the One Love concert, the presence of Neptune in his natal t-square reflects his drive to bring together warring factions and inspire peaceful resolution to conflict. Also, Chiron's conjunction to Neptune in Marley's chart elevates his humanitarian sentiments to a distinctly spiritual aim his Rastafarian faith.
Although astrological understanding of Chiron - a celestial body (most likely a comet) discovered between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus in 1977 - remains ambiguous at best, its most common associations to date are with alternative forms of healing and faith.
Marley's death of cancer in 1981 was the result of his refusal to amputate a toe a few years earlier (1977, in fact), opting instead for an alternative treatment, after melanoma had developed in the digit. Neptune is often associated with a sort of insidious nature, relating to important matters that manage to go unnoticed until after they have had their full effect (some astrologers even link Neptune to infections).
Faith and Courage
Sinead OConnor's public image, that of the razor-tongued and razor-shaved warrior woman, is well portrayed in her horoscope (even without a given birth time). She has the Sun & Venus in Sagittarius, with Venus at the center of a t-square to the outer planet opposition common to most people born between 1965-67: Uranus & Pluto in Virgo and Saturn & Chiron in Pisces.
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Along with the fact that Saturn was the dominating planet during her recurrence transit, the presence of Uranus and Pluto outer planets with a more radical (Uranus) and imposing (Pluto) nature than Neptune in her natal t-square with Venus and Saturn, characterize the severity of her actions that night.
With regards to Chiron's influence in her t-square, it is interesting to note that, following her apology to the Pope in 1997, O'Connor joined the congregation of controversial Irish Bishop Michael Cox, who eventually ordained her as a priest.
Again, as in Marley's case with regard to the Rastafarian faith, Chiron appears to have some relationship with the emerging new contexts for spiritual beliefs and practices in this case, the advent of female Catholic priests. With Chiron's conjunction to Saturn in O'Connor's t-square, her burgeoning wisdom directed her to more a more effective method of fighting the abuse of authority from within the system.
Lunar Eclipses
Finally, there is one other astrological thread common to these events the conspicuous presence of Lunar Eclipses in close contact with planets contained in the t-squares of Marley & O'Connor's natal charts. Long before the emergence of horoscopic astrology (the use of a horoscope to read the life of a given individual), eclipses were interpreted by stargazers as omens, indicators of important events that would ultimately affect the community at large.
Indeed, both of these events in some way reflected the collective anxieties of their respective communities, anticipating larger issues that would have to be faced down the road.
Long after Marley's death, Jamaica continued to suffer from hooliganism and random street violence, which had initially erupted because of tension between the islands stratified political factions. Ten years after O'Connor's daring and, at the time, baffling protest, church officials were finally compelled to face reports of serious abuse committed within their system.
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In Marley's case, the Lunar Eclipse that occurred before the One Love concert was at 3 Libra, conjunct his natal Chiron-Neptune, emphasized his position as a spiritual leader (Chiron) in Jamaicas fight for peace and unity. His early demise raised him to a martyr-like status (Neptune), a symbolic representation of the struggle at hand, as well as a reminder of the consequences of a societys failure to resolve political differences peacefully.
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For O'Connor, the Lunar Eclipse that preceded her appearances on SNL and the Bob Dylan concert was at 24 Sagittarius, conjunct her natal Venus, indicated the crusaders ultimate desire to remain within (Venus) the faith that she was rebelling against.
Interestingly, just before her apology to the Pope in 1997, there was a Lunar Eclipse at 24 Pisces, conjunct her natal Saturn-Chiron conjunction, reflecting not only her regret (Saturn) over "the gesture of a girl rebel," but also her renewed allegiance to the faith (Chiron) she had acted against.
Notes:
Curiously, Sinead O'Connor's refusal to appear on SNL on May 12, 1990 occurred during a Venus-Uranus square recurrence transit - another facet of her crusading nature.
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Also, keen-eyed observers will note that Venus was at 11 Scorpio on the day her apology to the Pope was published (September 22, 1997) its exact position on the night she tore his photograph. The planets return to this position at this time represents the completion of a cycle, her renewed commitment to her beliefs.
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H.I.M. Haile Selassies given birth date is July 22, 1891, near Harar, Ethiopia
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Modern Astrology July 1936 quotes data from the Emperor's private secretary, given as the date of 16th Hamle, year 7384 Abyssinian, computer to a modern July 22, 1891 NS. Time of 6:00 AM Ethiopian time from a French magazine which stated Church Records.
(The time tends to be somewhat shaky due to the translation from an Abyssinian calendar. British Journal of Astrology gave July 17, 1891, 11:30 AM and the editor remaked that L'Astrosophie had July 24, 1891 "but it needs to be authenticated." SS #420 gives July 23, 1891, 11:15 AM LMT at Addis Abera. Two encyclopedias gave 1892.)
Lyrics from the song War, adapted from an excerpt of Ethiopian Emperor H.I.M. Haile Selassies address to the United Nations on October 6, 1963. Music by Alan Cole and Carlton Barrett, originally performed by Bob Marley.
What life has taught me
I would like to share with
Those who want to learn...
Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war
That until there are no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war
That until the basic human rights are equally
Guaranteed to all, without regard to race
Dis a war
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion
To be pursued, but never attained
Now everywhere is war, war
Of good over evil, good over evil, good over evil
Good over evil, good over evil, good over evil
Data Sources:
Bob Marley's birth data - February 6, 1945, 2:30 a.m., in St. Anns, Jamaica quoted from Astro Data Bank (Rodden Rating: C). Wayne Moody quotes 'Marley and Me: The Real Bob Marley Story', told by his manager Don Taylor, given in WTPE Sagittarius/1996.
David Fisher quotes Stephen King's biography 'Bob Marley' which quotes his passport for February 6 but Marley himself said that was the wrong date. Robert Duncan 'Only the Good Die Young', 1986, wrote, "there is a question of the accuracy of the data." However, the same date is quoted in the biography included on his official website (http://www.wailers.co.uk/biog_bob.html), which is run by his estate. Also, Cedellah Malcolm, Marleys mother, is quoted in Sheridans book for his birth date, and even the time of his conception (early May). Even if the birth time is questionable (though it is quoted in several biographies, not just Taylors), the confirmation of this date concludes that Marley was born with the Venus-Saturn square in his horoscope.
Sinead OConnor's birth data is quoted from her birth certificate and student i.d. card, images of which used to be included on this fan site: http://www.sinead-oconnor.com/ (unfortunately it is no longer online). Sadly, no time of birth is included, however, no matter what time she was born, the Venus-Saturn square would be present in her horoscope.
Biographical Sources:
Bob Marley
Catch A Fire: The Life of Bob Marley by Timothy White
Soul Survivor: The Stories Behind Every Bob Marley Song, 1962-1981 by Maureen Sheridan
Official Bob Marley website biography: http://www.wailers.co.uk/biog_bob.html
Sinead OConnorhttp://www.cd.sc.ehu.es/FileRoom/documents/Cases/391sinead.html
http://www.notbored.org/sinead.html
http://www.sinead-oconnor.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=12
http://www.geocities.com/snlra/live/9293.html
http://edition.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9711/12/sinead.lat/
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