Michael Jackson, 29.08.1958, 23:45 local time, 30.08.1958, 04:45 GMT . Gary, Indiana USA 41:36 N, 087:20 W
(A number of possible birth times exist for Michael. This birth data is taken from Astrocora. Biographical information is from Lois Rodden's Astrodatabank. Quotes are from www.mjfanclub.net.)
Michael Jackson is an exceptionally talented singer, dancer and entertainer whose private life has repeatedly made international headlines in recent years. His chart image powerfully describes his public life. The party hat or paper crown of the entertainer sitting above a cluster of sextiles reminiscent of his trademark moonwalking. A signature image for the King of Pop.
Michael performed as one of the Jackson Five from age five and it's perhaps unsurprising to find his Moon high in the chart in Pisces, entertaining the masses and connecting with the public at large.
With such an exposed Moon, Michael is likely to have felt thrust out into the world to stand up for himself, irrespective of his inner feelings. It was his father, Joseph Jackson, who formed the Jackson Five and the family model reinforces suggestions that Michael felt himself to be the most important person in the family, using his talent as a singer to take the Jackson Five to musical heights and recording contracts that they may not have achieved without him. The Moon is intercepted and although a Moon at the top of the chart often seeks recognition and feedback, it's likely that Michael feels the world ignores his emotions.
He certainly grew up isolated from normal childhood and adolescence. Michael says of his father: "He had great difficulty showing me affection. He never really told me he loved me. And he never really complimented me either. If I did a great show, he would tell me it was a good show. And if I did an OK show, he would say nothing." His father was a steel mill worker - with the Sun symbolic of the father, look at the power inherent in the Sun-Pluto conjunction. The concentration of planets around the IC reinforces the power of Michael's early home environment in shaping and forming his life. Until 1987 Michael was a Jehovah's Witness, the dogma of which is encapsulated in the Mercury/Pluto/Sun conjunction. The influence of Mercury and Virgo in this conjunction is seen in the Jehovah's Witnesses belief that the bible is God's Word and is truth and that all religious teachings should be subjected to a test of agreement with the scriptures. The Will of Pluto can perhaps be heard in the beliefs that there is only one road to life and that we are now in 'the time of the end'.
Michael's life has a continuing spiritual dimension as might be expected with a 12th house Mars, Moon in Pisces, Saturn in Sagittarius and a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction. Is it the 5th house Jupiter/Neptune conjunction being expressed when Michael says of his creativity the "art of song writing is a totally different art. It really is. It really is a gift from God. It really is. I feel guilty putting my name on it. It falls into my lap. It's a gift from Heaven. It really is". Michael is well known for his changing appearance. His father reportedly called him 'big nose' as a child and Michael's obsession with his appearance is reflected in the chart image, presenting a sharply focussed, very pointed image to the 'you', whilst the remainder of the chart is more shielded. Saturn, facing others at the DC, is linked to the body and Michael's body has been an extraordinary outlet for Michael, perhaps an inevitable outlet given that his two other ego planets are intercepted.
The chameleon-like nature of Michael's constantly changing appearance is also found in his Piscean Moon, Gemini Ascendant, mutable chart shaping and the influence of Neptune in the 5th house of impress behaviour. With three learning triangles in his chart, Michael's life could be expected to be an essay in the workings of learning triangles. The large retrograde learning triangle (Mercury/Mars/Jupiter) across the first quadrant reinforces Michael's need to repeatedly search for an authentic self-expression and an impulse to survive, whatever the circumstances.
Dominant learning triangles are a significator of a need for radical growth and transformation, often manifest in a revised image and self-expression (!) and the need to learn from life and forge a personality. Freedom is often important with dominant learning triangles and, given the weight of planets at the IC tying Michael to his early upbringing, the learning triangles can perhaps be heard when he says "my most precious days as a child were those Sundays when I was able to be free. That is what the Sabbath has always been for me. A day of freedom. Now I find this freedom and magic every day in my role as a father".
"Everyone's taking control of me
Seems that the world's
Got a role for me
I'm so confused
Will you show to me
You'll be there for me
And care enough to bear me
Will You Be There ?"
By the Cheshire Study Group, August 2005
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