Jeff Buckley: Fallen Angel
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| Jeff Buckley (1966-1997) |
His natal chart is compellingly simple. Almost everything is tightly aspected, He was born in the vortex of the mid-60s clash between Saturn and Pluto-Uranus. Mars is sandwiched between the two heavy planets, all in the second house of talent and value. Indeed, he was powerfully gifted.
But this harsh opposition is alleviated by such a close stellium in Scorpio. Neptune (music), Mercury (communication-singing), Sun (his self), Venus (art and beauty) all in the depths of the chart in the deepest sign. Creating art and beauty with his voice and talent helped him to get over the emotional pain that must have come with that opposition.
North Node is conjunct the MC: he certainly is known to millions. South Node is conjunct Neptune and the IC. Music was like breathing for him, it came so naturally. But also listening to him, it’s almost as if he is channelling the emotion from another place. And he does have the voice of an angel.
But he wasn’t so lucky maybe. Jupiter trines Venus and the Sun but it’s wide and out of sign and the Aquarius Moon floats alone except for the opposition to Jupiter – a potential combination of alienation and overwhelming emotions that must have been hard to deal with. Listening to him now, he seems so sad.
He never really had a place that was home (Neptune on the IC, that floating Moon), except possibly in his head.
It was Neptune, of course, in his guise as the god of rivers, who eventually swallowed Jeff Buckley up. The singer drowned.
I wonder what more Buckley could have made if he’d lived. But it’s hard not to believe that in some ways, he had delivered his gift to the world, so it was OK for him to leave again so soon.
RIP.
I wrote about his death previously here and about his generation here.
Some of his best songs are cover versions – like the one here – I wonder if that shows in his chart?
Good question. I think it would be stretching it a bit to say that it is definitely the natal retrograde Mercury, but that’s what I think. Why?
Mercury is the mimic, the planet of doubling. And he’s conjunct the music and he’s going backwards, going over old stuff.
Dare I say it – I prefer Buckley’s version of I know it’s over to Morrissey’s.
Thanks for this, Christina. When I listen to his version of the Corpus Christi Carol I hear Sun/Neptune/Venus in Scorpio. Death, love, spirit, transcendence. It’s an extraordinary and beautiful piece of music ……
I believe his father (the singer Jeff Buckley) whom he rarely saw, died young of a drug overdose. The Neptune/Sun link again perhaps?
Also Halleluljah. There’s a powerful spiritual energy to his singing, which is quite different in character from the powerful emotional singing of say, Billie Holiday.
Thanks, .
often people forget that we are spirit beings having a human experience