As we are fast approaching the Full Moon in Cancer, I thought I would take some time to analyse the late, great Janis Joplin’s birth chart- someone I enjoy not just for her music and her style, but for the pure soul she exudes even in death. For she was born with her Sun in Capricorn and her Moon in Cancer- not quite at the Full Moon itself, but with the moon applying to oppose the Sun. With the Moon as it is in domicile in Cancer, the Full Moon personality is still very apparent in her- the erratic artists’ nature, the psychic sensitivity, the great emotionality. Janis Joplin’s birth chart is just this: the Full Moon given voice.
Let’s have a look at this chart…
Right off the bat the huge amount of 12th house energy here is very clear. To some of my readers, this might not look like a *particularly* crowded 12th house, but those of you who follow my work know that I view the South Node in particular as a very dense form of energy, almost like a black hole.
Those planets which fall into our 12th house, if any, were put there by ourselves in childhood when we did not know what else to do with them, so to speak. If the individuality is not encouraged or is outright crushed and repressed, it gets squashed into that place. With Mercury, the child was not heard and her intelligence was not encouraged. With Venus, that which she finds of value is likewise not valued and she might be regarded as an ugly duckling- I do know that in her younger years, before she was famous, people were said to tease her for being an unattractive “pig”. She came from a very upright and religious background, which did not necessarily encourage anyone who was born different, born a rebel (Aquarius Rising).
What I also note is that these planets are all in Saturn-ruled signs, with the rising sign and the Sun sign likewise ruled by Saturn. The Moon, in stark contrast, is in a house ruled by the Sun and in its own sign. The father figure is repressive and at odds with the mother, who is nurturing but perhaps dogmatic and irresponsible. There is a terrible absence in regards to both parents- the Moon’s square to Neptune is an acute sense of inner loneliness that can only be assuaged by reckless fantasy. The twelfth house trine to Neptune, although out of sign, is a close orb and indicates a sense of self that can easily be dissolved by nefarious friends and love interests (Neptune is in the seventh house). Mercury trines Neptune as well- a wonderful placement for an artist, but not a great one for a steady and realistic thinker. The ruling planet (Saturn) trines Neptune as well- here is the chart of someone easily led, strangely enough- despite all the independent rebelliousness shown elsewhere in the chart! It is also the chart of someone who will definitely take solace in drugs and in dysfunctional relationships.
Leaving Neptune to one side for a minute, let’s look at Uranus conjunct Saturn in the third house, both of which trine that Capricorn Sun (out of sign, but still a trine). Uranus trine Sun is an aspect that denotes the eccentric, sometimes the genius- especially with Uranus at 0 degrees as it is. Saturn throws a damper on that combination, and its being in the third house with Uranus in the context of that Mercury trine Neptune and opposite Pluto makes me think of someone ADHD- maybe autistic- with a brilliant unique mind that could not and would not be accepted in 1940s-1950s Texas. It would not be accepted by her siblings either. Home, family and roots being what they are to the Moon in Cancer, even if Janis found fame and fortune and excitement elsewhere- would it ever be possible to paper over the pain of not being accepted and understood at home, in her own backyard?
Jupiter is retrograde and in exaltation in the fifth house. It is unaspected, unless you count a very wide opposition to the Sun. Unaspected planets tend to go a bit wild, and Jupiter in retrograde is unstable and forceful. The Leo-ruled fifth house here is also important in the context of her Leo north node. This is someone with an immense and soulful creativity, who channels excess emotional exuberance into works of art that push new boundaries. All that highly repressed twelfth house energy and that retrograde Mercury would come charging out here, on stage, in front of people- I could imagine she would go from stony silence to glorious diva in two seconds, with no warning in between. Jupiter RX can often be behind sudden leaps towards fame- this could be a key to her sudden stardom.
This brings us to all those oppositions to Pluto, which no doubt have drawn the attention of my readers. This is the placement of a hard worker (very Capricornian), someone who obsessively strives for perfection, to be good enough. All that energy that would otherwise be cowering away with her south node in the twelwth house is dragged out, kicking and screaming, to prove itself to the world and fulful the nodal mission. This is not someone who would miss practice with the band but would be on everyone’s case making sure they practice, so that the puny little minds of the audience could be blown and the childhood pain assuaged by a great big hit of glory and cocaine.
Chiron is in Leo, in the seventh house- very close to the descendant and to the North Node. The theme of life is pain and low self-worth, but when it is explored it is pain and low self worth that brings a lot of joy and a lot of healing to others. There was no luck in love for Janis, but she brought an incredible amount of joy to millions and millions of people- and will do so for millions more. Despite a sad death choked on blood, stomach contents and heroin in a hotel room at the age of 27- this was a life’s mission magnificently and beautifully fulfilled. Could it have been a karmic balancing of scales for her entire conservative family, locked away as they were in their little Texas town with no chance at fame or adventure outside their closeted religion? Could a star in the bloodline redress the karmic heaviness of hundreds of years of repression? Some say people with charts like this are advanced souls from other worlds that walk into overly solid Earth families to stir them up as an act of love, to liberate future generations of that blood- and I would not think that was far wrong in this case.
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