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Uranus/Pluto conjunction in 1966 and 1967 was the celestial dynamic
that coincided with a global cultural and social revolution, active
over a period of a couple years, but forever changing the world from
post-war
conservatism. Though the radicalization of consciousness was most
immediately apparent in North American universities and youth culture,through
their music, style and consciousness, within two years following
the conjunction this historical phenomenon became global. The active
participants in that cultural revolution of the mid nineteen-sixties,
were the post-war babies, now called the Baby Boomers, the majority
of whom were born immediate after the Second World War and had the
Saturn Pluto conjunction - many with Mars therein - in their
horoscopes.
The most dramatic and forceful focal point of the mid nineteen-sixties
revolution was activated by the transit of Saturn moving into opposition
to this powerful conjunction. The individuals born with UR/PL conjunct
came in with the imperative to blow the last of the superficiality
off the surface of society. Whether or not "society" wanted
or liked this, is quite beside the point. Clearly it was needed, or
it would not have happened.
All individuals who take it upon themselves, consciously or unconsciously,
to live out the drama of the heavenly imperative, have profoundly
disturbing aspects in their natal charts. How they are able to translate
those aspects depends on myriad circumstance. Since we are looking
at a "collective aspect" - that is, one that is long term,
involving planets that are both personal and global in their agency
- it is important to realize that only a few people will be activators
of the conjunction when they come of age. The most active revolutionaries
- whether that is in literature, consciousness, or inventions - have
aspects in their charts that set them apart from the
general mass of people.
They are born to live out life in ways which take consummate courage,
consciousness and are often fated to have major confrontations with
the status quo.
The planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, though deeply personal in transits
to natal charts, causing people to look more deeply into heir hidden
parts, thus are "evolutionary" in individual development,
are primarily motivators for large groups and cultures to undergo
massive reorganization and transformation.
When an individual is born with one of the cultural collective aspects
in a personal placement in his or her chart, he or she is called to
take on the responsibility as well as the supervision of cultural
revolution. People who have the 1947-48 aspects of Mars/Saturn/Pluto,
for example, in personal configurations such as conjunct their Sun
or
Moon, or on any one of the angles; or secondarily, implicated into
the Gestalt of their horoscope in certain houses, such as the fourth
and the first, then we have a signature of an individual whose process
of self-becoming is tied directly into social and global movements.
Kurt Cobain was born to ask serious questions to which there are no
satisfactory answers. With that, his "symptoms" of collective
disease, killed him. I have several clients who have the "same"
chart, in that they have monumental collective aspects in personal
points of their natal charts, such as the Uranus/Saturn in Gemini
and Taurus, or the MA/SA/PL of the mid-forties, and then this one,
the one that Kurt
carried on his ascendant/descendant axis.
There is no way to predict how an individual will carry a collective
aspect. This is information that astrology does not have privy to.
The element of fate and destiny is so entwined in the individual's
soul, that astrology can only define the astrology, and the soul and
Individual must find its way to work with it.
When one is born with even one of the outer planets on his or her
angles, or conjunct or in hard aspect to a personal planet, then their
task on earth is exceptional and difficult. The most sensitive place
for an outer planet, or combination of those to be found, is on the
ascendant, because not only does that place describes the conditions
surrounding the birth itself, but also is the place in which one imprints
the collective environment into his or her personal receptive zone.
Thus, setting a predisposition to view the world through those "eyes",
and have the world project that aspect onto the persona of that person.
Kurt's ascendant, with Pluto Uranus on it, talks about existential
questions that simply must be pondered, and that he would have been
aware from the first breath that he was "selected" to take
on a major role in his culture as a spokesperson for cultural angst.
The fact that he endured a chaotic and non supportive childhood is
not helpful at all, and indeed, all heroic births are marked by immediate
threat to the life, and an endangered childhood, followed by various
tests and trials - very often to "find their father". In
a more modern context, the hero seeks to find his authority, authenticity
and be author of his own destiny in the eyes of the archetypal "father"
- society.
The most shocking and sad part of his childhood is the Victorian concept
that children should be "seen and not heard". Unfortunately
for many parents, little boy's behaviour is over demanding. There
is nothing to suggest that Kurt was any of the diagnosed popular acronyms
of today - ADD, ADAD, hyperactive or anything. Nothing more than a
typical boy with vast amounts of energy, living in an imaginary world
of heroes and dragons - and they drugged him. Ritalin is the single
most psychoactively destructive drug to a child's developing neurology
and
cognitive mind.
Any drug introduced in childhood predisposes that child to more drugs
- later if not immediately. Of various kinds. With Neptune in his
natal third house, he should never have been given drugs in his early
childhood, but rather, a more compassionate understanding. However,
with the UR/PL on the ascendant, he was not "made" to be
given such a response, but one which was further alienating and isolating.
The hyperactivity of Kurt as a little boy should have been seen Individually
- and here is where astrology is so very important. We can see in
a second, that he was filled with energy, anxiety and very likely,
prescient. His level of gut and psychic responsiveness to his
environment is likely the cause of his over active behaviour. As well
as him being the first of the newly emerging Indigo Children, a term
that originates in the cosmic spectrum.
At one end of the spectrum is the colour red, at the extreme other
end, is violet. Red has a low wave frequency, while indigo/violet
is the high frequency wave. Hence the term "indigo child"
is about the frequency at which the child's mind vibrates. . . in
Kurt's case, as in the case of a majority of children born after 1966,
increasing in
numbers of children (2002) are operating with an high frequency neurology.
This is another intimation that Kurt Cobain was a high powered, visionary
and active person in the collective changes in the third millennium.
More small boys than girls demonstrate aggression, inattention, "inappropriate"
behaviour and are more often badly treated for this behavior. It is
really the adults who should be drugged, because the children - unless
there truly is a disorder or dysfunction - will prove to be more interesting,
more innovative and more contributing to novelty and change as adults.
There is a level at which this is normal, and just simply must be
understood - men are more difficult to civilize than women, we all
know that. But, must they be drugged or beaten into
submission - I think not.
In Kurt's chart, his Cancer Moon trine his Sun/Mars midpoint, which
is tied into his Mars in Scorpio (creating an operative grand trine
in water, which means his emotions are running in a closed circuit,
enriching his inner imagination, but not easily externalized) his
need for love and sympathy and gentleness, peaceful quiet times filled
with reflection, reading, drawing and listening to music. He was coming
of age to the music that was so revolutionary in his birth generation.
He was born to rebel, since his "reception" to his birth
was marked by the
UR/PL 180 SA.
His mother's rejection must have gutted him - literally - because
his Cancer moon loved his mother, needed her badly, and being sent
to his father at age nine, a man who is clearly demonstrated by the
Saturn configuration in his chart, was likely the last straw for this
boy. Saturn conjunct Venus in any chart speaks of the ability of the
'wearer' to take more pain than they even know, and accept less than
they are worth, virtually starving themselves of love - and with that
aspect, in the seventh house, opposite to the UR/PL, it is clearly
the father who was the "stoic", the wrestler-jock and "The
Man" who said, "you are a wimp".
And, being a bit of a wimp, or rather, a sensitive little boy, he
introjected this cultural epithet, taking it in with all the pain
of a good Pisces with a Cancer moon. With his soulful eyes, set in
a heart rendingly beautiful face, he must have turned the soul of
every person he met. But, would he know that? Could he feel the love
he received?
Apparently not.
After leaving his father, moving to his grandparents in his adolescence,
during which the first half-Saturn was transiting his loaded ascendant,
conjoining Uranus/Pluto and opposing his sad little Venus/Saturn -
he spent time ridiculing jocks, and blowing weed. Makes perfect sense.
His mother set his dark anima pattern up perfectly - and it too is
reflected in the Saturn/Venus conjunction 180 Uranus/Pluto Ascendant.
Women, to him, had to be in pain, angry, revolutionary, unavailable,
dark, and, in the case of his lover, Courtney, a drug addict as well.
Theirs was a match made in astrology, for sure, but that is another
article.
The Cancer Moon is his stomach, and the Moon is trine to his Sun/Venus
(and thus his Sun/Saturn as well) so his lack of deep and consistent
affection from his mother, and the anima mundi (world soul) would
be both the source of and the symptom his stomach pains. Those very
pains that could not be diagnosed, partly because when there are Neptunian
influences in the sixth house of "soma", the body is enacting
the problems of the "psyche" - he was a psycho-somatic person,
where the soma/body and the psyche/soul were entwined. In part, this
is a manifestation of the Virgo/Pisces axis, as well as a symbol for
the currently dying age - the age of Pisces.
More Virgo/Pisces persons now suffer from environmental sensitivity
and illness today because the epoch of Pisces is in the death throes,
and thus they exhibit the pains of the world in their very bodies.
Also, his idealism was loaded with impossible feelings - Since his
natal Saturn and Venus are trine to his natal Neptune, he longed for
the ultimate love and acceptance from the very father, and the archetypal
father - "society" - that he hated - the society that dashed
his dreams, and the collective dreams of his generation. With Neptune
in Scorpio,
that generations dreams have an inherent nuclear quality - another
legacy from the Pluto in Leo generation, out of which his generation
emerged.
He was an idealist with a dark realism. As the one polarity to the
axis of victim/voice, Kurt screamed out his
existential passion, and introjected the collective dark shadow of
the grunge. No culture is exempt from their shadow, and the American
dream does not allow for the catabolic elements to be present within
its own
mean. America is highly polarized where the darkness is either projected
on to cultural enemies, or relegated to the subcultures of the county.
By nature he was attracted to the shadow, and the counter-cultural
expression so needed by any culture. As Jung said, mediating the inner
conflict is the life work - but Kurt didn't live long enough, nor
maybe simply could not muster the sturdy, sane world-view that such
individuation needs. He had only two earth representatives in his
chart
- and those are the Uranus/Pluto conjunction. To repeat, because it
is on his ascendant, his "karmic" lesson is to learn about
earthiness, he was not essentially earthy. He had eight planets of
ten in water and the south node too! . . .and the violent earthy component
on his ascendant drew him to his destiny as a revolutionary voice
and victim of
the collective.
The Movement toward Suicide
In the spring just before Kurt shot himself in the head, he took an
overdose of some form of tranquilizer and loads of champagne. This
put him into a deeply subliminal state of temporary coma. On that
date, Venus had returned to his natal Venus at 25/6 of Pisces, and
the Sun at 13 Pisces, was in a perfect trine to his natal Moon. Jupiter
retrograde was at 14 Scorpio, so he was really on a "trip",
on a journey back (Rx) to the womb. Symbolically this is a chilling
feature, but I would have to say that it must have felt beautiful,
as he was back to the womb, the place where two hearts beat as one,
and the unification of all is present. His longing to be fused with
the divine, and to not be Individuated was temporarily satisfied.
He was on the verge of his secondary progressed Lunar Return, as his
Progressed Moon was at 9 Cancer, in a matter of three to four months,
he would have achieved the astrological "emotional coming of
age". . .the precursor to the arrival to the threshold of adulthood
at the Saturn Return. Many people who become archetypes, who lose
their individuality to the collective fold, collapse or even die under
this loss of self. When an individual takes on the archetype (in this
case "Rock Star") without tending to the inner Self, and
thus are wholly their persona, are dead in a way. Kurt was not exempt
from this phenomenon, and introjected the projection of the collective
to the point of toxicity. The Moon being in the natal tenth house
has "fame" connotations, in that he felt the needs of the
collective, and voiced them. His dark soulful beauty reflected back
to his generation the despair anger and existentialism that is contained
in the Uranus/Pluto generation. He also, in the obverse fashion, needed
love and mothering from his public, but in reality that is never the
love that makes your dinner, kisses you, makes love to you and understands
you unconditionally. But, due to various and sundry circumstances,
such as his sad childhood, violent treatment, desecration of his psyche
with Ritalin as a developing child, the constant use of aggressive
drugs to self-medicate - and the times, we must never forget the context
of the times when we look at a chart - there are so many factors leading
into his psychotic break which was apparent by the 28th of March,
when he went into "rehab" (absurd euphemism) in California,
and then left 36 hours later, on the 30th of March.
As he left the clinic, he was already in deep danger - crazy, guilt
ridden, frightened, all the boundaries that are normally in place
between the conscious and the unconscious mind totally disintegrated,
he must have been dreadfully ill with no inner resource left at all.
By then Jupiter had retrogressed to the exact trine of the natal Moon
(stranger in a strange land I call Jupiter retrograde) and this likely
had brought up all his past longings for love, affection, mothering,
and even thought his natal moon is in the tenth, the love and care
from the public simply was not personal enough.
The transit of Jupiter seems omnipresent in the charts of individuals
who die - the presence of Jupiter in death charts is usually outstanding,
and in Kurt's it was thus. He was preparing for the "long journey"
from early FEBRUARY (not to say this was not something that might
have been designed from the very moment of his birth) when Saturn
was transiting his natal Sun, and Jupiter, moving direct, was trine
his natal moon. The station of Jupiter occurred on March 1, 1994,
at 14 Scorpio, thus it was trine his Moon for almost two months. Ah,
the journey, to recall the steps back to the place of perfect harmony,
where there are no hard edges, and things to scream about. Kurt has
a Mars/Neptune midpoint in 13 Scorpio, precisely where Jupiter sat
for almost two months, stationing and retrogressing. So, his passionate
fantasy of the Utopian place was activated powerfully by
Jupiter sitting virtually motionless, then drawing back to sit exactly
on that midpoint on April 2nd - just two days before he shot himself
in the head (Mars ruled, as well as the Sun being at 16 Aries in his
eighth house). The violence of his death-choice characterizes the
rage he felt toward his body and soul, which not only had violated
him, but also had been violated.
Ultimately, the two days between entering the rehab clinic and walking
out were the trigger. Transiting Mars was moving across his natal
Mercury between 16 - 18 Pisces in those couple of days, aggravating
his rage, anger, and making his physical state acute (Mars is acute,
while Saturn is chronic in health matters). And, the planet Saturn
had been conjunct his Sun, between the 6th and 14th of February, just
three to four weeks prior to his overdose. His drug needs and addiction
were chronic by then, truly systemic (Saturn) and the Mars transit
brought it
to the acute stage. He departed the clinic in a drug originated psychotic
fog with Mercury conjunct the natal Venus at - oh love, where are
you? (Again the relationship with Courtney Love - what a perfect name
for an anima figure - is redolent with mythic imagery, but again,
that is another, if adjacent, story).
So, with Saturn in his sixth, and making strong aspects, his body
was falling into disintegration, and his soul was too, and the result
is a too too classic "health problem".
With someone who had arrived to the "existential transit"
of Saturn in the sixth house, with such a conflict within, it is no
wonder, really, that the end of his life sought him out. He had no
real sense of the path in front of him, as most people feel when they
have Saturn transiting the sixth, but the context in which he arrived
to this time is the key to his voluntary departure.
Saturn is here again, only this time, with the progressed Sun (and
the Solar Arc Sun) conjunct his natal Saturn in t he seventh house.
So, not only was he having transiting Saturn on his natal Sun, but
also the progression of the Sun to Saturn amplified the depression,
addiction, entrenchment in his psychosomatic state of hopelessness.
The outer world was bleak, and his inner world too.
What is it all for, then?
One Man's Heroic Journey
Saturn transiting the Sun by conjunction is a time when even the most
"whole" person feels his or her limitations, and the unconscious
intent of that transit is to break down the old Ego and begin he reconstruction
of a new way of being. Since his natal saturn is it the Seventh house,
and he was not but a few months from his "Call to Return"
in his heroic journey, we must consider what it was exactly that he
was bringing to
the world.
When Saturn transits the descendant, and begins its transit of the
upper horizon, according to the Heroic Journey paradigm, the person
is "bringing the boon to mankind, in J. Campbell's terms, but
in everyday language, he is bringing the sum and total of his life
experience to the world as an exemplar. In the case of Kurt, his death
was his "boon to mankind", and the profound effect it had
not only on his contemporaries but on a vast and global spectra of
myriad people, it seems there is more to be said about him than not.
The release of his personal stories, drawings, letters, band memos
- and his cries from the soul - in November 2002 -occurred with Saturn
in his tenth house. The title of which is "Journals", the
root of the word, obviously, to do with journeying and is related
to the Latin "itinerary" - a story of travels and the diurnal
motion of an individual in a
itinerant mode.
The culmination for the Heroic Journey is at the Midheaven, when Saturn
transits the MC and "the hero, is lured, called, forced or voluntarily
proceeds to the threshold of adventure" (J. Campbell, in The
Hero with a Thousand Faces). ( As well, refer to Saturn in Transit:
boundaries of Mind body and Soul, by Erin Sullivan, and her personalized
reports "Your Personal Heroic Journey" available online
at this site.)
At that stage in the astrological "Call to Adventure" when
Saturn crests the MC and moves through he tenth house, we leave the
past behind and venture to the unknown, the place in which we will
find our fame/infamy.
Well, Kurt, your public
now know the most intimate aspects of your self, your heart, your
soul and all the things we don't know if you wanted us to know - in
this, your second "Call to Adventure", were you lured, called,
forced to the threshold of adventure - or have you voluntarily contributed
your voice to the collective once again? I hope many are
truly listening to your journey.
.:: Kurt
Cobain Chart CLICK HERE ::.
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