I keep waking up to this song every morning since watching “Song Sung Blue” two weeks ago. To me, it’s a spiritual song, although disguised as an autobiographical story of not belonging to the West nor the East in the USA.. Anything said after “I AM” is an instruction to the body from the spiritual realms.
I thought it might be informative to take a look at Diamond’s birth chart:
Every time Neptune shows up in the 12th House (of the Unconscious) or the 1st House (of Personality), it signifies to me that the individual is a performer. This is especially true of females who present a beautiful image to the world when Neptune is on the Ascendant (like Michele Finney).
The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (Star of Bethlehem) as the apex of a T-square to the opposition of the Sun and Pluto makes me wonder if Diamond’s appearance on the world stage was purposeful. His album “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” is the most spiritual I have ever listened to. And, although Diamond is Jewish, he has embraced Christianity in principle along with other world religions. That same conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is also trine to the Moon/Venus conjunction. Says it all, IMHO.
It’s Trump’s latest sign-off on his Truth Social posts. He doesn’t want to be ignored, and mostly, the United States are paying close attention to EVERYTHING he shares. But, unfortunately, he cannot make things happen as he would want them to because there is “so much resistance from behind.”
I guess I’ve skirted around this monster for long enough. Charles Manson was the leader of a cult called the Manson Family. In 1969 they went on a killing spree that became known as the Tate-LaBianca murders.
Manson would often talk about the Beatles, including their eponymous 1968 album. According to Los Angeles County District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi, Manson felt guided by his interpretation of the Beatles’ lyrics and adopted the term “Helter Skelter” to describe an impending apocalyptic race war. During his trial, Bugliosi argued that Manson had intended to start a race war, although Manson and others disputed this. Contemporary interviews and trial witness testimony insisted that the Tate–LaBianca murders were copycat crimes intended to exonerate Manson’s friend Bobby Beausoleil. Manson denied having ordered any murders. He served his time in prison and died from complications from colon cancer in 2017.
Wikipedia
A post on Facebook this morning featured Manson’s birth certificate. It clearly shows a birth time of 4:40 pm. So I looked at the entry on my computer program, and it had the correct time, too.
When a birth chart exhibits a Grand Cross, the individual is usually under a great deal of internal pressure. Depending on the planets concerned, this can be a frustrating feeling, at best; at worst, it can push him too far. The conjunction of Mars and Neptune @ 14° Virgo may have given Manson an outlet.
Mars Conjunct Neptune
The main problem with this aspect is that you tend to get discouraged. You do not have as much energy as other people, usually not because you are physically weak but Because you are too easily discouraged by opposition from persons or circumstances. You are not a very aggressive person. It is not that you are especially shy or reluctant to assert yourself, but you feel sure that in a direct confrontation with someone, you will lose. More than most people, you need abundant support and encouragement from your parents. If they are excessively critical or unsupportive, it will have a very negative effect on you.
The danger is that if this tendency to be discouraged is not checked, you may develop a defeatist attitude toward life. Or what is worse, you may assert yourself in underhanded ways so that no one can see what you are doing and try to stop you.
Robert Hand Planets in Youth (1977) pages 234-5
These two planets are trine the Midheaven.
When comparing his birth and death charts, I was surprised to see two planets return to their original positions after 83 years: Jupiter and Uranus. The Sun and Venus are also near their original positions. His North/South Node axis has flipped in the intervening years. Has the internal fire been quenched? What do you think?
We watched the Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson version from 2025. It was very entertaining, and reminded me of my love of Neil Diamond songs. I presume that’s what it intended to have happen.
Here’s the original preview of the Lightning and Thunder show:
Well, what do you know? The 2025 film may be slicker, with more beautiful stars, but the feelings are the same. It’s a triumph and a tragedy, all rolled into one heart-felt story. I would highly recommend it.
American myth-making was at its finest when the legend of Davy Crockett was written. The coonskin hat was a nice touch, especially since Walt Disney focused us on that feature. We all wanted our parents to buy us one. But was he all that the stories made him out to be? I wonder.
His birth chart is on several astrology sites, but they all have the same birth time, 1:30 pm, although this is unverified. Here’s what it looks like:
That Saturn/Pluto conjunction in his early childhood, as suggested by the video, may be where his headstrong nature came from. At the tender age of 12, Crockett was indentured out to work as a cowboy. That will, more-or-less, be represented by Jupiter in Taurus. But by 25 (the position of the Moon in the 7th House) he had become popular probably from his self-promotion as a frontiersman.
This is my way of advising you that his birth time may be ‘close enough for jazz’, as they say.
The Uranus in Cancer position of the 8th House (of Death) may be the hint that his death was quick.
A lot of men died on the day that Santa Anna defeated the American defenders of The Alamo in 1836. Davy Crockett was amongst them. Did he die in hand=to=hand combat, or was he executed after surrender? We may never know, but the battle’s end chart suggests in battle, since Pluto is conjunct the event Ascendant in Aries. There is one inconjunct linking Jupiter and Neptune, with only 1° difference.
Jupiter Inconjunct Neptune
You are probably an idealist with very vivid dreams about how you want your life to be, and at certain times of your life you will follow those dreams with all your energy. But sometimes these idealistic dreams will let you down, because you are not concerned enough with what is real and possible.
Robert Hand Planets in Youth (1977) page 269
Whatever happened, Davy Crockett’s legend was born and he lives on in our collective memory forever.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Rupert Sheldrake. The scientific community doesn’t like his work because it flies in the face of their cherished thinking. But it also speaks to a reality that is essentially spiritual.
Most developmental biologists accept the need for a holistic or integrative conception of living organization. Otherwise biology will go on floundering, even drowning, in oceans of data, as yet more genomes are sequenced, genes are cloned and proteins are characterized.
I suggest that morphogenetic fields work by imposing patterns on otherwise random or indeterminate patterns of activity. For example they cause microtubules to crystallize in one part of the cell rather than another, even though the subunits from which they are made are present throughout the cell.
Morphogenetic fields are not fixed forever, but evolve. The fields of Afghan hounds and poodles have become different from those of their common ancestors, wolves. How are these fields inherited? I propose that that they are transmitted from past members of the species through a kind of non-local resonance, called morphic resonance.
Experiments with rats have shown us how this works, but not why this works.
Sometimes, peoples’ favourites come in threes: Gordon Lightfoot, Gordie Downie, and this man, Gordon Pinsent. (Of course, there’s also Gordie Howe, after all we are Canadian.)
This birth time is on several astrology as ‘rectified from approximate time’. Really? It’s more likely that they chose sunrise, forgetting that Newfoundland is a half-hour earlier than the Maritime time zone. There is one inconjunct linking Saturn with the Leo Ascendant. I shouldn’t rely on that aspect too much.
However, the T-square(s) linking the opposition between Saturn and Jupiter, with Uranus on the square. The Uranus/Midheaven conjunction is square to a Sun/Pluto conjunction, too. The Rowdyman label is well-deserved, I think. His popularity is enhanced by the Moon in Aquarius on the Descendant.
I’ve set the clock for noon on the day that he died. The planets and lights are all above the horizon line. Hmm. Mars is conjunct the ‘fatal’ Ascendant.
Combining his birth and death charts reveals a spider’s web of aspects, too many to unpick here.
Imagine being born three days before The Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. That has to count for something, doesn’t it? Gord’s story is one of triumph and, ultimately, tragedy.
His birth time is unknown, so I have randomized his birth chart. I cannot answer for the accuracy, but despite that, there is a Yod (Finger of God) pointing at Jupiter, formed by inconjuncts to Neptune and Pluto, signifying that fame and success come with a price.
Gordon Edgar DownieCM (February 6, 1964 – October 17, 2017) was a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, musician, writer, poet, and activist. He was the singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, which he fronted from its formation in 1984 until his death in 2017. He is revered by many as one of the most influential artists in Canada’s music history.
But then:
In December 2015, shortly after attending his father’s funeral, Downie was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. The Tragically Hip announced his diagnosis on their website on May 24, 2016. Doctors at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre confirmed the same day that it was a glioblastoma, which had responded favourably to radiation and chemotherapy treatment but was not curable.
Downie toured with the band in summer 2016 to support Man Machine Poem, the band’s 13th studio album. The tour’s final concert was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario, on August 20 and was broadcast and streamed live by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on television, radio and internet. It was viewed by an estimated 11.7 million people.
The tour was profiled in the 2017 documentary film Long Time Running, directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. The final concert was released on DVD under the title A National Celebration on December 24, 2017
I also randomized the timing of his death chart, knowing that he died in the evening on the day in question. Notice that there are also two inconjuncts this time, connecting Pluto (in the 8th House of Death) with a Gemini Ascendant, and Mars and Uranus, signifying a sudden death. Saturn is in opposition to the Ascendant, while Uranus is in opposition to the Sun/Mercury/Jupiter conjunction.
This is what a ‘natural’ death looks like for a Tragically Hip young man.
We’ve all heard about “Custer’s Last Stand”. Did you ever wonder why he could make such an error in judgement that condemned his whole fighting troop of soldiers to death at the hands of the Lakota Sioux?
There is only one astrology site with his birth chart. I followed their lead because it makes sense that most of the planets and lights would be below the horizon at his birth, with only Pluto signaling his death at age 36. The inconjunct between the Moon and the Midheaven could be the indicator of his ‘pride before the fall’. His natal Sun is also within 10° of the Moon. His mother must have told him he was the best. This quote from the Wikipedia post about his life, relates the story (at age 4) for the Moon/Sun conjunction:
Emanuel Custer was an outspoken Jacksonian Democrat who taught his children politics and toughness at an early age. In a February 3, 1887, letter to his son’s widow Libby, Emanuel related an incident from when George Custer (known as Autie) was about four years old:
“He had to have a tooth drawn, and he was very much afraid of blood. When I took him to the doctor to have the tooth pulled, it was in the night and I told him if it bled well it would get well right away, and he must be a good soldier. When he got to the doctor he took his seat, and the pulling began. The forceps slipped off and he had to make a second trial. He pulled it out, and Autie never even scrunched. Going home, I led him by the arm. He jumped and skipped, and said ‘Father you and me can whip all the Whigs in Michigan.’ I thought that was saying a good deal but I did not contradict him.”
So, yes, I think the accuracy of the timing of his birth fits the story.
The Battle of Little Bighorn is a tale told by the victors. 3:30 pm was the start of the battle, and it lasted only 30 minutes. You do the math. Mercury is inconjunct Jupiter. Jupiter is in opposition to the Pluto/Midheaven conjunction and they are all square to the Moon/Ascendant conjunction in Leo. Bad news: you overestimate your abilities and underestimate the number of your enemies. Deadly mistake.
On the day, Custer’s natal Uranus/North Node conjunction was being transited by his ‘fatal’ Saturn. The “grim reaper” did his ‘best’ work that day.
I know that question seems a little harsh. After all, we all know who he is, and there have been many stories told about his exploits, including what happened at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone. But he wasn’t the main protagonist:
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American lawman and an assistant marshal to his brother, Virgil Earp. Earp was involved in the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which he and other lawmen killed three outlaws. While Earp is usually depicted as the key figure in the shootout, his brother Virgil was both the U.S. Marshal and the Tombstone city marshal and had decided to enforce a city ordinance prohibiting carrying weapons in public in an attempt to neutralize the loosely organized group of outlaws known as the Cochise County Cowboys.
Wikipedia
Only one astrology website has this birth time, but because it is so exact, I’m going to follow suit. The final planet in the train that starts with Mercury in Aquarius, through four in Pisces and the South Node and Uranus in Aries, ending with Pluto, the planet that would have witnessed his young wife die when he was only 21. His path was sealed with that disappointment.
A caricature of Wyatt Earp after the Sharkey-Fitzsimmons fight: The public was outraged by his decision as referee and newspapers pilloried him for many weeks afterward
On December 17, Judge Sanderson finally ruled that prizefighting was illegal in San Francisco and that the courts would not determine the winner. Sharkey retained the purse, but the decision provided no vindication for Earp. Until the fight, Earp had been a minor figure known regionally in California and Arizona; afterward, his name was known from coast to coast. The boxing match left a smear on his public character that followed him until after he died. Eight years later, Dr. B. Brookes Lee was accused of treating Sharkey to make it appear that he had been fouled by Fitzsimmons, and Lee admitted that it was true. “I fixed Sharkey up to look as if he had been fouled,” he confessed. “I got $1,000 for my part in the affair.”
Wikipedia
The position of Mars in Wyatt’s birth chart may be the marker of this slur on his name.
Earp tried to persuade his good friend, well-known cowboy movie star William S. Hart, to help set the record straight about his life and get a movie made. “If the story were exploited on the screen by you,” he wrote Hart, “It would do much toward setting me right before a public which has always been fed lies about me.” Hart encouraged Earp to first find an author to pen his story.
In 1925 Earp began to collaborate on a biography with his friend and former mining engineer John Flood to get his story told in a way that he approved. Flood volunteered his time and attempted to write an authorized biography of Earp’s life, based on Earp’s recollections. The two men sat together every Sunday in the kitchen of Earp’s modest, rented bungalow. While Wyatt sipped a drink and smoked a cigar, they tried to tell Earp’s story, but Josephine was always present. She often interrupted and insisted, “You can’t write that! It needs to be clean.” She also demanded that they add more “pep” to the manuscript, which in her mind meant including the word “CRACK!” in all capitals. In the chapter about the shootout, the manuscript includes 109 uses of “CRACK”. She thought Earp needed to be shown as a hero, and the manuscript includes a chapter titled “Conflagration” in which Earp saves two women, one a cripple, from a Tombstone fire.
Wikipedia
In his birth chart, the unpublished manuscript would have appeared where Jupiter shows up.
The death chart is set for noon, which augments the inconjunct linking the Sun (conjunct the Midheaven) and Mars. Jupiter, again, is conjunct the (presumed) Ascendant @ 6° Taurus. These may not be accurate, but they are symbolic. After his death, his legendary life grew to what we remember today.
cdsmiller17 