Today is the 79th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s birth. The Sun is closely transiting the exact degree of the Zodiac at which it stood at 10:15am on November 27, 1942 in Seattle Washington.
79 years after that baby was born and managed in less than a Saturn cycle to influence and inspire millions of like minded music lovers for generations to come, I’m on a laptop in LA looking at Jimi Hendrix’s natal chart 👇, which to me looks like a blue fez with a red trim and tassel and an elegant asymmetrical criss-cross design.
The symbols for the Sun and The Planets Mercury and Venus tellingly and compellingly draw my eye to their tightly huddled stellium in the bottom left hand corner of the fez, straddling the 12th house cusp in the early degrees of The Sign of Sagittarius which stretches all the way into the first 6 degrees of the 1st house, therefore including the Ascendant.
Pushed along by passionate, sexy, competitive Mars in Scorpio, the Sun and personal planets and the Ascendant have magnetized and held my attention for many minutes before I have even wondered about The Moon. There she is, right at home in The Sign of Cancer, even more so riding and hiding in the tides to which she is eternally tied, thanks to The Planet Jupiter who makes everything especially the case … where The Moon in The Sign of Cancer is concerned, we project an emotional, sensitive person to whom home and family are particularly important and better kept private. Jupiter, as the ruler of Sagittarius, the rising sign, is considered to be the ruling planet of the chart, adding a further level of power to the expansive qualities Jupiter bestows on every part of the chart he touches. For example Jupiter in the 7th house in Cancer filled Jimi’s life with an abundance of emotionally charged one on one relationships, particularly with women.
The opposition of his generational Saturn/Uranus conjunction to his 11th/12th house Mercury/Venus conjunction (the red brim of the “fez”) practically screams that this person, by creating and communicating an original body of work the likes of which the world hadn’t yet hitherto seen, heard, felt or EXPERIENCED, would invent a highly distinctive personalized aesthetic, reflected in his quick to catch on iconic appearance and constituting an inextricable part of his music compositions and performances.
The reason, in my opinion, that the music of Jimi Hendrix is so resonant and relevant to a worldwide 11th house Sagittarian tribe spanning generations is that Jimi Hendrix’s self expression was purely experiential, as well as experimental. His revolutionary work and aesthetic undermined a lot of conventions, not just in music but also in popular culture; this is backed up astrologically by Uranus and Saturn in Gemini in the 5th and 6th houses respectively. His radical use of language has stood the test of time and his lyrics are in the canon of American poetry; indeed many are in every day parlance.
The first thing which jumps to my mind about Young Mr. Hendrix’s Libra Midheaven point is that he became famous for his beauty. The Libra Midheaven, in an exact square to chart ruler Planet Jupiter in The Sign of Cancer, an aspect of tension may suggest that Jimi perhaps felt conflicted about this. That the world was ready across continents for his wild and singular beauty may have seemed somehow like an illusory trick to him; famously he investigated many aspects of reality which would be widely considered illusory. The 9th house Libra Neptune in the motivational sextile with Planet Mercury and The Sun frames him as an exotic ideal to many. Neptune’s harmonious relationship to Uranus in Gemini shows how his radical turn of phrase flowed easily into his poetry, evoking dreams of freedom.
The Pluto in Leo generation transformed, among many aspects of life, at least in Western Culture, the performing arts and self expression. While Jimi Hendrix was one of many leading lights of this movement, his 8th house Pluto infused his performances with a controversial next level of sexuality sending taboo busting shockwaves through American and European society.
When you look at Jimi's chart above, you can see the preponderance of planets in the top half of the chart. The astrological theory behind this says that he "experienced" himself and his life through his relationship with the world at large, and as he grew, integrating his soul "back in" to the cosmos. I think this imagery correlates quite perfectly with the trajectory of Jimi's life/afterlife.
Leaving this world within months of his Progressed Lunar Return, Jimi Hendrix is survived by a powerful legacy in a body of work that has inspired musicians and music lovers everywhere. If you're burning the midnight lamp this Jimi Hendrix birthday, lend your ears to some of the cover versions of his amazing songs in my Jupiterian Jimi Zodiac Soundtrack under the Velvet Virgo Moon. In the more likely case that you're listening further along in Sagittarius season, listen anyway; the music of Jimi Hendrix is timeless, enriching and enlightening, any time.
