DAVID BOWIE: THE GIFT OF SOUND AND VISION 1947-2016

Excellent, in depth perspective of Bowie’s chart from the Cosmic Intelligence Agency:

“His 28th studio album, BLACKSTAR, was released on his 69^th Birthday January 8^th to great critical acclaim. Bowie, as we know had been secretly battling liver cancer for the last 18 months and had been off the world scene for quite a few more. His leaving legacy the album Blackstar bravely explores the themes of death and dying throughout with lines like:

“I can’t give everything away. I know there is something very wrong” –  Can’t give everything away.

Here’s the entire article: https://cosmicintelligenceagency.com/david-bowie-the-gift-of-sound-and-vision/

“I’m trying to, I’m dying to” – Dollar Days

“Where the fuck did Monday go? “  – Girl Loves me

“With skull designs  on my shoes” – Can’t give everything away

For those of us that listened to the album and watched the videos before finding out about the death of our rock star and hero, we knew something was up! After the news, it seemed at first that his whole leaving the planet was so well planned and thought out, that he couldn’t have just died 2 days after the release of this album, after the release of his next piece of art, so spooky, frightening and profoundly symbolic. At first it seemed that maybe euthanasia was involved as he timed his death so perfectly in the end. Yet apparently no, as his producer Tony Visconti has said, that since last November, David didn’t know if he had 4 weeks or 4 months left to live, yet was planning to produce another song. His strength and health declined rapidly in the last two days after his birthday and release of the album, he was gone. His body was cremated, with no ceremony and he wanted to be remembered for his songs, not his funeral but his haunting and touching parting gift.

“Look up here, I’m in heaven

I’ve got scars that can’t be seen

I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen

Everybody knows me now

Look up here, man, I’m in danger

I’ve got nothing left to lose”  – Lazarus

The Lazarus video shows Bowie on a hospital bed with bandaged eyes, writhing around singing “Look up here, I’m in heaven”. The biblical story of Lazarus is that of Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life, telling his followers that “This sickness will not end in death”  sending us a message, that this is not the end, but another beginning, although a sad one. As the video concludes with Bowie spookily backing up into a wardrobe you know he is not well. Even in death his natal Jupiter in Scorpio in the 9th house of beliefs and philosophy, Scorpio the sign of transformation, mystery and esoteric leanings comes out strong. Of note is that his Jupiter in Scorpio is also an unaspected planet, bringing more depth, intensity and rarity to this signature, somewhat like a wildcard on it’s own,  commanding lots of power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JqH1M4Ya8

In the Blackstar video we see an eclipsed landscape, a dead spaceman, a jewel encrusted skull and a single burning flame. The hypnotic surreal De Chirico landscape of the video, we discover the fate of Major Tom who became a beautiful mysterious bejewelled skull, and was honoured as a shamanic totem throughout the rest of the video.  The Black Star is a solar eclipse or a dying star, about to be reborn. The Black Star can also be seen as the Black Sun, another word for Saturn in esoterica. Saturn’s metal lead, alchemically, is the prima matera, or primal matter, that represents the putrefaction and decay necessary for new life. Saturn also known as the grim reaper who carries the scythe of death in his hands. David Bowie has the Moon, Saturn and Pluto conjunct in creative Leo and his Sun Mars and Mercury are ruled by planet Saturn as well as his Aquarian ascendent. The last Solar Eclipse before his death was on September 13, 2015 and was at 20 degrees Virgo, in Bowie’s 8^th house of death, squaring his Uranus at his North Node in the 4th house of endings, and sextile his Jupiter in Scorpio in his 9th house, whilst making a magical quintile to his Midheaven.  He knew it was coming. he was staring death in the face. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw

These last works are provocative, prophetic, fresh and disturbing all at once,  inventive and fearless, yet somehow more magnificent now that we know the reason for them . As Bowie was staring death in the face, he shared his leaving with his fans as a final potent, prophetic piece of ART.

DAVID BOWIE’S BIRTH CHART

By examining David Bowies astrology chart, which many of us have now done as a tribute to the great legend, we can see how his astrology was a living breathing representation of his personality and life. Many hit songs and lyrics are revealed in his Astrology chart.  Discovering these connections makes us further realise as astrologers, how powerful the archetypal symbols of the planets, signs and houses are, in defining our characters and who we will become. For example, Venus is Bowies most elevated planet being the closest to the Midheaven the part of the chart that shows us what we aspire to be the most and what potentially we will be known for. Well yes, he became famous and the world loved him, he became a mega fashion icon, a leader in fashion trends, of being different, of following his own road,  it seems so natural for him, he was just doing what he loved. His media and video’s of course broke new ground in so many areas, MTV, the digital world, sound experimentation came together as his Art, Venus rules what we love, art, artists and cultural trends. Mostly,  he had that unforgettable, most unique and powerful voice. Venus rules the voice and throat. In Sagittarius and in the 9th house Venus is was also the visionary, way ahead of its time, with a focus on the meaning and philosophy of life, the knowledge, the truth. For Bowie we see Venus in Sagittarius takes on the freedom to move boldly into the future, to be the gypsy, the metaphysician, the world traveler, the androgynous tart wearing latex and glitter and mesmerising his fans and the one who married an exotic Somalian supermodel goddess, Iman. 

With VENUS  in Sagittarius right on his world midheaven, the FAME spot in a chart,  one of his top 10 hits was the song called Fame and other romantic, sensitive and touching songs we remember so well:

Fame
Golden Years
Sorrow
Heroes
Sound and Vision
China Girl
Suffragette City

His 3 degree Aquarius Ascendant, Venus in Sagittarius on the Midheaven, Uranus in Gemini,  Jupiter in the 9th house and all Leo planets describe his visionary, rebellious and daring signature, a revolutionary, higher-consciousness being. His androgynous appearance and proclaimed bi-sexuality made him a leader which opened many to sexual taboos during  the 70’s, inviting us all somehow to be unique and individual. The symbol of lightning, a symbol belonging to the sky Gods, Uranus and Jupiter, freedom and rebellion and bringing in the new and fresh ideas, became one of the most famous icons for Bowie, boldly adorning Bowie’s face on the 1973’s “ALADDIN SANE” album cover…

…On Bowie’s ascendant we also find asteroid Pallas Athena, a somewhat androgynous female in mythology, born fully grown from the head of Jupiter, without a mother, who became the wise mentor, strategist and advisor of war and heroes… URANUS the modern ruler of Aquarius (traditional Saturn) is in his 4th house, the house of his roots, in GEMINI, the sign of the twins, conjunct to the North Node. He was born to break the mould, to do things differently. The song Aladdin Sane (A Lad Insane) stems from his fear of  depression and schizophrenia as it ran in the family, with mother, aunt and older brother suffering from it. A Gemini North Node focuses on communicating, media and remaining intellectually curious. In a more esoteric meaning Gemini represents the duality of life, integrating opposites, black and white, life and death, good and evil.  NEPTUNE, fantasy, glamour, mystery in Libra, in the 8th house of sexuality, money, power and transformation is in trine aspect to Uranus and his North node, bringing in the fantasy, inventiveness, otherworldliness and super creative energy that was this man.

Bowie was a Capricorn Sun, an earthy, creative and hard-working business man and many of his  songs perfectly describe Bowie’s Capricorn Sun conjunct Mars in the 12^th house. The 12^th house brings in the collective fervour that was his music, the chameleon-like person ever changing and tells of his struggles with addictions and his deeply creative, yet worldly wise spiritual side, (together with Neptune in the 8th house, and Jupiter in Scorpio). The 12th house is connected to the shamanic dreamtime, deception, illusion, magic, the genius and the insane, all of which feature in his art.
“ALADDIN SANE”  previously mentioned also reveals the hounding by his own demons, he was a cocaine addict for many years. Ziggy Stardust’s, backup band were called the Spiders from Mars.  These two planets together bring extra drive, passion and purpose to an individual and helped drive him towards his worldly fame. Mars is exalted in Capricorn yet makes confronting aspects to Uranus and Venus, showing the difficulties he had with the drive for self expression. David was an astute business man who protected the copyright of his music and invested wisely. Ruled by Saturn he aged well and had a long and prosperous career.

David’s Moon is conjunct retrograde Saturn and retrograde Pluto in Leo in his 7th house of others in our life, loves and marriage and this powerful combination indicates a past life karma of commanding power. Pluto is in harmonious aspect to his nodal axis and shows how he used his personality, Leo, what he felt right doing, Moon to structure an empowered life that was his, Saturn, and become a world changing individual, Pluto and 12th house Sun, and now so revered in his death. Of course his whole life was not a walk in the park, but filled with many ups and downs, extremes and personal tests. David was every inch the actor, a larger than life hero to many, a royal star a showman that refused a knighthood from the Queen, twice. He possessed an intense obsessive drive to creatively express himself and to be successful in his own right. Saturn rules his 12^th house Sun and his Aquarius ascendant , making him both a hard worker and a visionary that could ground his visions and became a leader in his field. He seemed to burn with passion by doing so.

Related to this aspect is another of David’s most alien like features, the enlarged pupil of his left eye. Caused by an injury from a jealous schoolboy’s punch in the spring of 1962, he had two eye operations. The left eye is ruled by the MOON, which conjunct Saturn and Pluto indicate eye problems, but literally symbolized enlarged visionary capabilities and suited his already different appearance and the Aquarius Ascendant. To add to the the symbols and imagery of this signature, the Sabian symbol for his Saturn at 7° Leo is “A constellation of Stars”. The stars being a huge source of inspiration for him over the years. Definitely our kinda bloke!”

The rest of the article can be found here: https://cosmicintelligenceagency.com/david-bowie-the-gift-of-sound-and-vision/

I love this piece I found from Sady Doyle:

“Kids I knew called themselves artists, and waited for it to happen to them — waited for their future selves to drop out of the sky, finished and perfect. But art is not an event. Art is work. And great artists, geniuses, are the people who work harder than anyone else. David Bowie worked so hard it could seem superhuman; he was working, we now know, on his deathbed. Even when he got in serious trouble with cocaine, dwindled down to 90 pounds and started crying in public and thinking the Devil lived in his swimming pool, it was in part because he needed, or wanted, to work more than was humanly possible: “I hate sleep,” he said. “I would much prefer staying up, just working, all the time. It makes me so mad that we can’t do anything about sleep or the common cold… The reason Station to Station sounds so much better than “The Laughing Gnome” is because, at some point in that process, David Bowie decided that Station to Station was more important than eating or sleeping.”