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Spiritual Company Newsletter
By Steffan Vanel • Astrologer • Tarot Reader
Author of: The Astrological Karma of the USA
And: Charles & Diana: The Inside Story:
An Astrological-Karmic ViewNow on YouTube: The Astrological Karma of the USA and The New Presidency
The Astrological Karma of Michael Jackson
(2nd Edition)I have been contemplating the various Astrological charts available for Michael Jackson. When I wrote my first article about him I had used a birth time which gave him a Gemini ascendant. Then I was made aware of the various, equally viable birth times which have been promoted as accurate for Michael Jackson.
After watching a TV special about Michael Jackson I am finally convinced of the correct birthtime/chart for Michael Jackson. This has necessitated my rewriting my original article, for I came to realize that the birthtime, which Michael Jackson had given to an Astrologer, 7:33 PM, giving him a Pisces Ascendant, is the one, that really works.
For example, this is what Hilarion says about Pisces Rising:
The sign Pisces rising will color the self-image with hues of melancholy and victimization. The person will feel in many ways downtrodden or under the heavy hand of fate. The “sad sack” image attaches to the self-picture and it is extremely hard to make the individual see that life need not be as glum and pessimistic as he makes out. In this case, the rising sign influence is a test: to see if the heaviness can be overcome by positive effort.
Michael Jackson definitely had that “sad sack” self-image and a tendency to see himself as a victim or martyr. He also had some of the positive Piscean qualities of compassion and sensitivity and imagination.
This sad, subdued self –image was not always apparent to the world because his Pisces Ascendant coincided with a Sagittarian Midheaven, of which Hilarion says:
This sign on the M.C. at birth will cause the individual to tend to project an image of uprightness, candor and a youthful, adventurous spirit. Many with Sagittarius at the M.C. have Pisces rising, and in such cases the purpose of the positive and buoyant sign on the Midheaven is to act as a counter-weight to the more melancholy and subdued inner picture, which Pisces confers.
This new chart still has the intense Pluto/Sun conjunction in Virgo in opposition to Michael’s Moon in Pisces, so these earlier comments are still valid:
His Sun in Virgo would give him an ability to analyze and pay attention to precise details. His Sun was conjunct Pluto, however, making that Virgo perfectionism very intense.
These are Hilarion’s pronouncements for Pluto conjunct Sun:
Pluto conjunct the Sun: The conjunction to the Sun always shows a soul who in a past life has neglected some extremely important area of life, (marriage, children or whatever) and who must now undergo difficult experiences in the same area in order to set aside the accumulated karma.
Because this Pluto/Sun conjunction is opposite to Michael’s Moon it will relate partly to his childhood. The following statements by Hilarion regarding Pluto in the 4th house, which also relate to childhood are also valid here:
Pluto in the fourth, in addition to requiring deep-seated changes in the native’s attitude toward the concept of the home, also indicates that one of the parents is likely to be an autocratic and coercive individual, whose will clashes repeatedly with that of the native. Yet this is a gift for the native, for without that clash of wills, his own pluck and determination would remain undeveloped.
The intense discipline and authoritative control on the part of Michael’s father, Joe Jackson, upon Michael and his siblings is well known. Michael has squares from Mars and Saturn, which also relate to potentials for abuse in childhood as well.
Michael has broken down in tears in sharing publicly the physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father. He has also publicly credited his father’s strict discipline as playing a large part in his success. This would be attributable to this Sun/Pluto conjunction in Virgo, and in the 6th House, the Virgo house of work, service, and activity in the world.
Michael’s Moon in Pisces would indicate another Astrological factor at play in his childhood, however. Besides being in Pisces, it is also in his 1st House, house of self-image.
This is what Hilarion says about the Moon in Pisces:
This sign is ruled by Neptune, the god of the sea and ruler of all that is illusory, over-emotional, feeling-oriented and escapist. When the Moon is here at birth, it is inevitable that something about the early home experience is characterized by one or more of these key words. The possibilities are rather varied, however, and a list would serve no purpose. Regardless of just how the early home reflected the essential nature of the Pisces/Neptune combination, one can safely assume that the individual who lived through it was deeply marked by the experience.
There will be a tendency to expect the later adult home which he creates to reflect the prominent characteristics of the earlier one. This expectation is almost always unconscious (Neptune being the ruler of that which eludes the conscious mind), and therefore it can be expected that if difficulties arise due to these expectations, the individual himself will have extreme difficulty in perceiving that he might be at fault. This is a difficult test to undergo, but the stakes are high and every effort should be made to succeed If the individual does not perceive the truth about himself in relation to his home/marriage, then he will fail to develop that depth of bond with the other person which is necessary to the continuance of the relationship, and both home and marriage will founder on the rocks of reality.
Having a Pisces Moon in difficult aspect, as is Michael’s, is going to bring in difficult Pisces qualities, such as illusion, confusion, delusion, victimhood and martyrdom. I often describe a Pisces Moon as like “growing up in an emotional fog.”
Difficult Pisces placements can also create problems with drugs and alcohol, i.e. a tendency to blur the rough edges of life.
Saturn square to this Moon is indicative of conflict with the parent with the most authority over you as a child. The opposition to the Sun/Pluto conjunction is an even greater tension, such that you can doubt your right to exist.
This is what Hilarion says about having the Moon in the First House:
The first house relates to the self-picture which the native has. Almost inevitably, a first-house Moon designates a weak or inadequate self-image. The symbolic derivation of this characteristic relies on the fact that the Moon is much “weaker” than the Sun in the sense that she shines only by reflecting the Sun’s light. Hence the self-image is a mere “reflected image” symbolically speaking. Since reflected images (as in mirrors, for example) have nothing of substance to them, the self-picture of one who has the Moon in the first is likewise lacking in substance. This is to be contrasted with the first house Sun described in the previous chapter.
The effect of the Moon in the first sector is literally to weaken the self-image, and this placement is often given to an individual who, in previous lives, had a strong and integrated sense of the self but who allowed the power of that strong personality to dominate and limit others. This is then the Karmic implication of Moon in the first – namely the requirement to suffer the feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness that always accompany a poor self-image, as a recompense for having put others through similar pangs in a previous incarnation.
On another level, that of karmic implication, the Moon in the first house points to a need to re-balance the scales of the male-female polarity, arising from a previous life in which the male package of traits was too strongly in evidence. Often that earlier life (or series of lives) was marked by a deliberate “putting down” of women, and by an overbearing assumption of male superiority. Cruelty might also have been involved. In the present life, the karma arising from the mental, emotional or physical pain then inflicted on others must now be met and set aside – through the acute misery of self-deprecation, and the struggle to carry on despite an inner conviction of unworthiness.
The lesson aspect of the Moon in the first house will now be evident: it is to learn to temper the one-sided emphasis carried over subconsciously from that earlier male life, by cultivating some of the gentler, more retiring and compassionate traits which are traditionally associated with womankind. These meanings apply regardless of the present sex of the individual.
From a lesson point of view, it is expected that the person who has the Moon in the first sector will learn to find his self-worth not in external accomplishment or the amassing of material things, but rather from the inner knowledge that he is worthy and loved in the sight of God. The antidote for the weakened self-picture which this lunar placement brings is thus to turn to the true and only source of worthiness, which is an acknowledgement of one’s status as a beloved child of the Eternal Father. For in God’s eyes, all creatures are noble and worthy.
We will return to this 1st House Moon when we look at the time of Michael’s court case for child molestation.
This Moon in Pisces in the 1st House, with a Pisces Ascendant/Self-image is going to create a weakened, sad, foggy self-image.
It is opposite the intense Sun/Pluto conjunction in the 6th House, house of work, service, and daily activity in the world. This configuration in the sign of Virgo is attributable to his intense dedication to his work as a performer and recording artist. Being opposite to his vulnerable, insecure Pisces self-image, he would tend to use his work to dissociate from the insecurity and vulnerability. This was initially in response to the intense Plutonian powerful manipulation on the part of his father.
To some extent, however, Michael did succeed in integrating the Pisces imaginative, sensitive, even spiritually compassionate qualities with his intensive dedication to the details of his work.
One may also note that Pisces rules the feet, and Michael’s imaginative use of his feet in his ‘Moonwalk’ and other dance steps probably also came from this Pisces/Virgo integration.
Michael’s obsession with improving his appearance is also related to this configuration. As a child, Michael’s father would often ridicule Michael’s appearance, telling him that he couldn’t have gotten his big nose from him; he must have gotten it from his mother. To say such a thing to someone who already has a weakened self-image and tends toward a ‘sad sack’ self-image has got to be rather devastating. The opposition to the Pluto/Sun conjunction in Virgo is relatable to this ridicule and criticism on the part of Michael’s father.
Later, however, Michael himself used this intense, transformative, critical, analytical Pluto/Virgo energy to obsessively transform the details of his image through plastic surgery, as a way to try to feel better about the way he saw himself. What he really needed to do, however, was what Hilarion advises:
It is expected that the person who has the Moon in the first sector will learn to find his self-worth not in external accomplishment or the amassing of material things, but rather from the inner knowledge that he is worthy and loved in the sight of God.
Michael’s 6th House planets are in positive aspect to a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in the 8th House, the Scorpio house of sex, birth, and death, (and surprise wealth). This gave Michael the ability to bring into his 6th house performance positive Jupiterian enthusiasm and Neptunian creative imagination and glamour, combined with a virtually mystical exuberant sexuality.
Positive Jupiter/Neptune is also relatable to Michael’s beneficent, generous dedication to charity and efforts towards compassionate healing and spirituality.
However, one cannot view the words, sexuality and Michael Jackson in the same article without evoking other images than his erotic dance moves. There are definitely components to Michael Jackson’s Astrological karma, which indicate either the likelihood that he did indulge himself sexually, or at the least, was karmically required to deal with the accusations of such.
First of all, in psychological terms, Michael Jackson was a classic Puer Aeternus. This phrase means: ‘eternally young,’ sometimes referred to as the ‘Peter Pan’ complex. This Puer Aeternus is an archetype diametrically opposed to the Father archetype. (The feminine components would be the Puella vs. the Mother archetypes).
Both sides have their pluses and minuses. When I studied with Jungian Analyst and Astrologer, Liz Greene, she described them in this way:
The Father or Mother archetype, in positive aspect, provides commitment, security, loyalty, stability, support, devotion, etc. In negative aspect, they are limiting, controlling, suppressive, and un-imaginative, and authoritative.
The Puer or Puella is usually rather androgynous. In positive aspect they give life, excitement, enthusiasm, eroticism, creativity, spontaneity and imagination. In difficult aspect, there is no commitment, loyalty or stability, and they burn themselves out and die young.
The androgynous quality of a Puer is interesting in relation to Hilarion’s comments relatable to Michael’s Uranus/Venus conjunction:
Uranus in close aspect to Venus always shows that the love-nature is in some way unusual or “different”. The positive aspects invariably point to a complex subconscious in which recollections of prior lives as a member of the other sex are as prominent as the imprint of lives in the same sex. By no means does this necessarily suggest that homosexual urges are present at the conscious level. Though this is sometimes the case…. commonly, one will find that the individual with this placement is quite choosy and hard to satisfy in terms of an appropriate partner. This stems from the subconscious awareness of the bisexual nature of the soul and a fear that this nature might bring problems in a physical relationship unless great care is taken in choosing a partner. (End Quote)
The Venus is also conjunct to his Mercury in Leo, and both of these planets are square, in tension with, his Mars in Taurus. This is what Hilarion says about Mars in Taurus:
In this sign, ruled by Venus and opposite to Scorpio, which Mars also rules, Mars is badly placed, regardless of aspects. It is difficult for the Martian energies to express in an unblocked manner when the red planet is in this sign, and usually the blocks that are present relate to self-absorption of one kind or another. The concept of physical self-indulgence is usually present when Mars here is afflicted, as Taurus is an earth sign and sensation-oriented. The major lesson of Mars afflicted in Taurus is to avoid self-indulgent tendencies, especially in the sexual area.
Michael’s Mars is ‘afflicted’ by the square to Mercury in Leo. And it is rather telling to hear what Hilarion says about Mercury in Leo:
Mercury here if afflicted will aggravate feelings of pride, superiority and arrogance. The thoughts will revolve ever and only about the self, and the person’s life will seem to him to be a magnificent play in which he himself is the main actor, and has written all the parts. The main lesson is to see others as whole persons in their own right, living their own life-plays. Again, as with Taurus, shocks are to be expected in order to force the attention away from the self. These will come in relation to love affairs and also to children.
Combining those tensions with a Pisces/Moon self-image, Pisces often giving problems with blurring the rough edges of life through drugs and alcohol, we could easily imagine Michael Jackson as having had blurry boundaries around his sexuality, leading him to ply young boys with wine and calling it ‘Jesus juice.’
At the time of Michael Jackson’s 2005 court case for child molestation Uranus had moved into an exact conjunction with his Pisces self-image and was heading for his 1st House Pisces Moon. It was a time when he really had to deal with that part of himself that tends to see himself as a victim or martyr, through a Uranian surprise, ‘out of the blue’ rupture in his life, involving a shock in relation to children. This period also witnessed Michael’s emotional plea in defense of himself, where he seemed so sad and innocent.
In the years following the court case Neptune, moving through his 12th House, house of relationship to one’s deeper unconscious, had moved into opposition to Michael’s Venus and then square to his Mars in Taurus, hence his vulnerability to his loss of Neptunian glamour through the revelation of his own emotional (Venus) and sexual (Mars in Taurus) indulgences.
In this year of 2009, the year of Michael’s big comeback, Neptune had moved into opposition to his Mercury in Leo. This vulnerability made Michael want to regain his earlier ‘Leonine’ star status. It may have, perhaps, been a better time for him to really surrender to his own unconscious vulnerabilities, to confess, forgive himself, and be healed. I believe that the stress between his efforts to stage a 6th House comeback and this deeper, 12th House unconscious vulnerability, may have led to his using Neptunian drugs to soften things, weakening his heart (Leo rules the heart) and to the ultimate Neptunian surrender to the deeper unconscious of his ability to perform externally.
I saw a cartoon showing Michael Jackson having died and the Devil in hell is looking up at God in Heaven, and the Devil is saying to God: “I don’t know, should we flip a coin?”
I think with this brief run through Michael Jackson’s chart, as is the case with every soul I have looked into, it was definitely a ‘mixed bag.’
I often feel rather wistful when I do an Astrological analysis like this, after someone has already passed, thinking how, if I had done a reading for them, they could perhaps have learned their lessons in a different way. That, for me, is the incredible gift of Astrology.
May God/Goddess/All That Is bless and heal Michael Jackson, wherever he is now.
Blessings,
Steffan VanelPS: If you would like to know what aspects of your own Astrological Curriculum are being triggered at this time, or how your ‘Tree of Life” looks now, or just some quick answers from the Tarot for difficult decisions, give me a call: (206)903-9538 or send an email: steffan5515@yahoo.com Peace. S.