David Bowie

[etherea]

Bowie's demise came as a shock to most, as he had battled his cancer privately (I was told it was pancreatic, but ADB states it was liver).

Anyway, his passing date was 10 Jan 2016, just after his 69th birthday.

More commonly known was his tinkering with drugs, which certainly could not have done his liver any favours.
There is also the issue of mental health/depression, whilst he was spending time in Germany, making albums through that time.

There is a lot in his work showing his embrace of some corners of esoteric/occult practice. He was reputed to be a member of OTO (Order Temple Orientalis), and the visual imagery of that was more than present in his last album, Blackstar. Probably that had a lot to do with Neptune, found in 8h, and intercepted in 1h - his music and his private life (there have been some hair-raising stories and videos, some now scrubbed from the internet).

Here is his chart, for the learning curve:

 

[Stefan]

When it comes to David Bowie and medical astrology.
One interesting factor is his eye problem.

Eyes are related to the luminaries sun and Moon which are a bit challenged in his chart.

His Saturn is also on * fixed stars in beginning of Leo which is related to blindness and eye issues.

I did myself suddenly have to do en eye operation in december.
I have natal Mars in 6'Leo - same degree as Bowies Saturn in Leo on that fixed stars.
And I am in a Leo profection year so my Mars at that fixed star is activated.
As was Bowies natal Saturn when the accident hit his left eye 1962.
(Don't remember which transit or progression it was. I checked his chart for this some time ago.)

(7°12 Leo - *Praesaepe: Inner drive, reclusive, blindness, murder, tragedy, fires. Unfortunate; Mars/ Moon )

He received a serious injury at school in 1962 when his friend George Underwood punched him in the left eye during a fight over a girl. After a series of operations during a four-month hospitalisation,[20] his doctors determined that the damage could not be fully repaired and Bowie was left with faulty depth perception and anisocoria (a permanently dilated pupil)

 

[etherea]

I had forgotten about his eyes - odd that, as it was such a notable feature, but I had "overlooked" it

I understand also that there has been some doubt about his depression, but here is a quote from him, so there really is no denying it:

I'm really quite bipolar, and the depressed times, when everything felt like night, sometimes you get to such a low point that you physically beat at it until it bleeds - as you would say - bleeds till sunshine.

Looking at his Moon/Saturn conjunct, that comes as little surprise and also, the 12h with Sun/Mars conjunct ("bleeds till sunshine").

It has also been reported that similar issues were present in his family.

 

[Stefan]

Shame on you

 

[Rachael]

He had an older half-brother who was in and out of psychiatric hospitals due to schizophrenia.
Also one of his aunt's had a lobotomy, while yet another was institutionalized

 

[MariaVittoria]

It was said that his multiple personalities, such as Ziggy, were a way of making peace with his schizophrenic tendencies.

In addition his first wife set up many promiscuous meetings for the both of them. He has always stated that he disliked them. Notably he had Neptune in the 8th, square to his Sun/Mercury/Mars but also trine to his Moon/Saturn in Leo.

 

[etherea]

He had Mercury conjunct his natal Mars/Sun 12h, and also transiting Pluto had been going over the same points, in 2016.

Oddly enough, those two (Mars/Sun) were on the BlackSun/Diamond axis, mid Cancer/Cap. His last album was BlackStar, and I often wonder if he was telling us that he was celebrated but not a good person, or if something else more to do with his esoteric interests was referenced there.

Certainly, the video of the the song, Blackstar, referenced some very OTO themes, as did some of the other tracks (e.g. the Baphomet, ritual sex, the All-Seeing Eye, etc.).

Quite dark, actually.

He admitted he had dabbled in satanism, but then there was that incident that he had been so freaked out at what happened to him in a house he rented in the US (with Angie, his first wife), that he went on his knees on stage at his next performance, and recited the Lord's Prayer.

So I think he dabbled in and out of it. The Black Sun has been hijacked and referenced as a very negative symbol (not going into it) but its real theme is the inner central, spiritual Sun. The Diamond is its opposition point, the point where we go seeking, pondering, meditating, doing all the stuff that is associated with people on the spiritual path.

From his natal Sun/Mars/Mercury in Cap square to Neptune, I suspect he was quite introverted, and it was from there that his lyrics and creativity sprung. The Moon/Saturn does indicate depression as mentioned above, even though it fell in sunny Leo. I suspect that was a bit of a "front".

 

[xphi.]

In the music thread at the old astro.com forum, @Sitina wrote a day after David Bowie passed away that she had once met him in Berlin*:

Link to the post (will likely disappear in a few weeks and the music thread is not in the PDF archive) of 11 Jan 2016:

Forum

Das Astrodienst Forum ist in kurzer Zeit zur zentralen Diskussionsplattform der deutschsprachigen Astrologie-Szene geworden. Diskutieren sie mit!

forum.astro.com

Sobald die staendige Sucht nach ewigem Wachstum aufhoert, wird auch der Krebs keine Sterbeursache mehr sein.

Ich habe mit Bowie ( in Berlin) mal ne Partie Billard gespielt, in einer Schoeneberger Kneipe,

Da waren wir voll auf Droge

Seine Musik hat mich allerdings nie wirklich begeistert.

English (my manual translation):

As soon as the perpetual addiction for eternal growth stops, cancer will not longer be a cause of death.

I once played a game of billards with Bowie ( in Berlin), in a Schöneberg pub,

We were (fully) high on drugs then

His music never really excited me, though.

* I asked her if it was OK to share this here, and she said yes, actually she had already considered to contribute here, but would have been more work for her because her English is not so fluent... I hope the way I presented it, was ok...

I would be very interested to sort of know his houses... I guess the asymmetric eyes would in my "symbolic world" be something with (early?) Aries, also Bohême, with Libra rather the symmetry and thus likely Aries oppsite Aries the asymmetry, also necessary to break things up for growth after winter (and Aries attributed to the head), plus also a Moon theme, also since I guess the left eye would rather be the moon and the right one the sun? But again, curious to maybe learn a bit more...

To me was also so that his music never really spoke to me in his lifetime, but that has somewhat changed since then, also via some exchanges in the old forum, I had not been aware that there was also some kind of Avantgarde angle to Bowie...

 

[etherea]

Interesting point about the eyes.

Perception and sight is (mostly) attributed to Neptune, and what also springs to mind is his song, "Sound & Vision" (Neptune also one of the correspondences to music - Venus being the other main one).

With that rulership, I would suggest something about the square between Mercury and Neptune plays a part in the eye? Except his pupil was paralysed open, so that is immobility, which indicates perhaps Saturn - and Mercury/Saturn are in quincunx.

@Stefan - any further thoughts on this? I agree with the Sun and Moon thing, but I think it may show in different ways in an individual chart (and hoping your own surgery went well, by the way ).

 

[Stefan]

Thanks for asking Etherea.
Yes my eyes got a surgery this year. Profected Leo/12th house year. With my Mars in that Leo at 6' degrees which hold
a fixed star not good for the eyes.
Saw this too in an artists chart recently btw Mary Cassat with moon in 7 leo opposing saturn. She was blind her last years.

Mary Cassatt, horoscope for birth date 22 May 1844, born in Pittsburgh, with Astrodatabank biography - Astro-Databank

Horoscope and astrology data of Mary Cassatt born on 22 May 1844 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with biography

www.astro.com

Bowie was a quite spiritual man. His brother was a signficant influence who introduced him to jazz and Buddhism, which David Bowie
pursued seriously, intending to be a monk at one phase of his early life. Almost like Leonard Cohen.
But the monk at the monastry told him to do music. Luckily for us.
3rd house ruler mars is in the 12th house of institutions. And also sun as exaltation ruler (almuten) of aries at his 3rd cusp is also in
12th house. Showing the state of the institutionalised brother.

 

[Stefan]

David Bowie says himself that why he is such a 'shapeshifter' is his way of expressing the cosmic truth
that everything is by law impermament.
A key concept in the Buddhism belief.

 

[ebe]

I love this

 

[etherea]

Wonder his midpoint Venus Neptune. Most musicians have this is somewhere. Neptune Venus.
Neptune sq sun mars mercury.
I guess either music or crazy.
Sixth house the moon ruled.
Moon in seventh with Saturn Pluto.
Yea! I believe music was this man s outlet.
Moon everything. I imagine full moons really hit him or moon phases.
Neptune in ninth. He absorbed his surroundings.
Interesting chart. Thanks
Sensitive person

Yes, Chiron is there, in 8h - so making a lot of money (Chiron is a money planet) and also, dealing with his inner pain via music.

The "Letter to Hermione" (very beautiful song - very raw, very honest) he wrote after she left him is a perfect descriptor of that - he was heartbroken and continued to love her all his life. When had a fatal diagnosis, he went to visit the house where she had grown up.

She visited him at one of his concerts, by which time he had already married Imam and didn't want to break up his marriage, but it was a powerful moment for him.