Capricorn/Aquarius Balsamic Moon—February 17
Janis Joplin was a prominent energy of force in the 60s, through the anti-war statements of the hippie movement, emerging fiercely within the music scene of that time, sang at Woodstock, and even contributed a total of five singles making it to the charts… one of which made No.1, and that was Me & Bobby McGee.
Joplin was a Capricorn and had a Taurus moon, with both Mercury and Venus conjunct in Aquarius in the twelfth, with an Aquarius rising, and Mars in Sagittarius in her tenth house…
So, clearly, Joplin struggled to cohesively ‘walk her planets’ in a way which served each in a balanced manner—as many of us struggle—instead, she catered to the appeasement of the majority of her planets while leaving the moon in sheer agony.
Agony she expressed lyrically. Her agony accomplished fame. But at what cost?
Her moon…
The moon, within our charts, is one of the squishiest places—a very vulnerable place to never forsake, for when we forsake our moon’s needs we forsake our own happiness and inner contentment.
This is typically the price.
Essentially, the moon is our floatation device.
This is not to say, of course, that we should indulge every impulse the moon’s pull has over us (yikes!), as this would never create the appropriate (or healthy) foundations through which to receive personal depth…
I’ve read nearly everything ever written about Joplin and from a very early age she wanted to be famous, even before ‘being famous’ meant what it means today. Naturally, with all that Aquarius, she was quite different from others—particularly from those born and raised in small-town Texas in the fifties. And with an Aquarius rising she was meant for different walks of life, she was destined to be set apart in countless ways…
Joplin wanted to sing. But not as others did—she did it her way and would not be ‘constructively’ criticized.
And with her Capricorn sun, she needed to be the best—to be on top—to go all the way in a way never considered before…
She was very early on acknowledged as being given the rare gift of such a bluesy, throaty voice for a vocally untrained white woman, and this likely meant much to Joplin as she coveted the blues and its particular agony from a very early age… though again, she never quite fit into any specific box in any regard, in any way—she simply was—and you either loved it or thoroughly disliked it.
She would occasionally move back to Port Arthur (Texas) when life became too much for her (more or less to get clean again, or when in need of money), and nearly immediately feel extreme longing for the life she had been living in San Francisco… and, very much inspired by her Mars in Sagittarius, within a month off, again, she’d go.
Unfortunately, her natal and natural proclivities to extremes were inclusive to extremes involving expressive states of consciousness under the influence of heroin, particularly, as well as alcohol. Typically mixed. Extremes in depressives on top of a naturally depressive energy (Capricorn sun in the twelfth/Taurus moon in the fifth) may have fueled much of her lyrical essence—it did little for her overall ambitions that may have been better directed and/or motivated otherwise.
For Joplin, however, her ambitions were never truly targeted toward professional pursuits–again, at least not in the traditional way—but toward love.
She was once quoted that “on stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone…”
This tormented her. For her, this was agonizing.
Sex was one thing… love was quite another.
Her Mercury/Venus conjunction in Aquarius absolutely allowed her sexual pursuits and emotionally detached preferences for freedom and unorthodox pastimes, and Mars in Sagittarius assured her that there was something much better around the next corner, and the next, and the next… that conquests of any kind were to be seriously pursued, forever seeking this illusion—forever seeking beyond herself.
Some, even today, will tell you that Joplin was never really taken seriously, and that she wouldn’t have continued her musical trajectory had she lived… and we’ll never know—though near the end she gained a new sobriety for herself and was honoring it, she changed labels, found a new band, and was beginning to redirect her values and visions.
She even (finally) found real love.
Someone who took her seriously. Someone who adored her. Someone who was emotionally committing to her while also allowing her to be who she really was, simultaneously, without any of the typical arrangements otherwise more traditionally practiced.
Her agonized Taurean moon was finally illuminated…
Joplin was finally beginning to walk all of her planets in a more balanced manner, utilizing them more appropriately to suit her needs, to support her values, and to open her heart… ‘through all kinds of weather, through everything that we done—yea, Bobby baby, kept my from the cold world…’
Joplin’s last months were bittersweet… she was only able to enjoy this rerouted landscaping for a handful of months.
Endlessly fascinating (for me), her progressed sun was just preparing to cross her natal ascendant—which is to say, then, that through her entire existence in this lifetime, progressively, it consisted of her progressed sun moving only through her twelfth house… which is to say that her entire life was lived within her twelfth house.
And then, that last year, her progressed sun began applying just into the doorway of her first house—I think, had Joplin lived, had she taken two years or so to sober up quite seriously, with much more of a strategically prepared support plan, she would have really soared.
I think she was quite brutally both physically and emotionally exhausted… to an extreme she wasn’t as comfortable or familiar with.
I think her own potential scared the hell out of her.
She was quoted once saying “at least we know we tend to be afraid… if you object to my plural noun, I’ll retract it…”
I think in that year before she overdosed she was haunted daily by the brightness of her light—by the vulnerabilities she would need to contend with—and by the darkness of the agony she feared she’d feel again, and perhaps always…
Joplin would’ve turned 80 in January… and I’ve always been sort of convinced that after her sixties, when her progressed sun moved into Aries, that she would’ve been acknowledged more seriously and more graciously for some independently matured source of talented expression, honed only from those who have found grace from truly knowing real loneliness.
Sadly, she settled for the devil she knew best.
•
One of my favorite quotes of Janis Joplin is ‘don’t ever compromise yourself—because you’re all you’ve got.’
Today’s moon moves from a balsamic Capricorn to balsamic Aquarius—continuing that heavy Saturnian excess of depressives, influencing otherwise the feelin near as faded as your jeans—and through this shift, as the moon continues to move toward its eventual newness, in Pisces, on Sunday, and through whatever literal or metaphorical darkness or heaviness you’re currently navigating…
Though, despite however heavy or excessive, depressive or agonizing it may be—don’t compromise yourself ever.
Don’t dwell within the doorways of darkness.
Don’t compromise your values, or your vision—don’t compromise your needs—don’t allow the weight of fear to begin compromising what you actually really need in this lifetime (typically conveyed through where your moon is within your chart and how it aspects) to be genuinely fulfilled by contentment.
Joplin was also quoted, words to truly live by, “you’re what you settle for—you are only as much as you settle for.”
Perhaps you’ll begin to recognize your inner light, and the excessive weight of your potential, and perhaps you’ll allow it to guide you forward in a new way.
Perhaps you’ll recognize it staring directly back at you, and perhaps you will decide not to blink, but stare back.
In other words—do everything within your power not to trade any of your tomorrow’s for a single yesterday…
Because Janis did.
Any now we go without.
Though, weirdly, she was once quoted for saying that ‘you can destroy your now by worrying about tomorrow…’
I suppose sometimes we all too frequently ignore our own best advice.
Anyway.
Sorry if this post was a bit heavy—but as these current energies are becoming quite heavy in and of themselves—today’s moon connects to Pluto in conjunction… and we only have one more lunarly conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn—occurring March 16/17th.
Gotta get this while you can.
This degree in conjunction is associated with opportunities—the kind that are illuminated from within… the kind you stare back at directly as it stares into you.
Perhaps staring back at your own potential will further illuminate some extraordinarily resourceful strategic planning—the twelfth house kind that you keep to yourself for awhile. Although, I would recommend you arrange for an eventual system of support, whatever that looks like for you—hopefully one that isn’t all the way back in Port Arthur, or a familiar demon—and by late March you will likely be ready to begin stepping into your potentials.
And I simply can’t not, please forgive me—but you’ll know you’ve illuminated your inner needs, which is to say your moon, which is to say the personal gaining of a sustaining sensation of inner contentment—
You’ll know you’ve got it, if it makes you feel good.
❝To be true to myself, to be the person that was on the inside of me, and not play games. That’s what I’m trying to do mostly in the whole world—not bullshit myself and not bullshit anybody else… to be righteous to myself, I mean, to be real, you know? And so far, you know, I’m just tryin’ to… I’m not wearin’ cardboard eyelashes, you know?❞
—Janis Joplin, near the end
☽♒︎ by 9:35pm PST; 10:35pm MST; 11:35pm CST; 12:35am EST tomorrow
🖋 by Jamie James
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Rudhyar, D. ‘An Astrological Mandala.’ Vintage Books; ©1973.