Amy Winehouse, born 14 September 1983 and who died recently on the 23rd July, 2011, was coming up to her Saturn Return. She was born under the astrological sign Virgo.
My cousin has just returned home to New Zealand, bringingt me back a book of quotations from famous musicians, which she bought at Chatsworth Castle, in the United Kingdom. This wonderful little book has a quotation from Amy Winehouse in it, which says: “I only write about stuff I can’t get past personally. Luckily, I’m quite self-destructive.” This self-destructiveness she talks about so often fuels the lives of very creative people, and you can usually detect signs of this self-challenging behaviour, with highly charged emotions, in creative people’s astrological charts. This means that when Saturn’s Return arrives at around 27 to 29 years, and every 28 years afterward, the person with such creative tendencies will be seriously challenged – more so than an average, emotionally stable person.
The Saturn Return is one of the most vulnerable times in a person’s life. This is when Saturn, after having ‘gone around the clock’ of the astrological signs, arrives at the point where it was at the moment of birth. This is usually around the 27th to 28th year of life, because Saturn takes roughly 28 years to circuit the Sun. The following Saturn Return, after the one at 28 years, is roughly another 28 years later, around the 56th year of life, and so on.
The cycle of Saturn can be broken into four squares – each square of the circle of signs taking about 7 years to transverse. This is why we have what is known as ‘the seven year cycle’. Around every seven years, we often have disturbances and challenges in the life, and these usually correspond to the cycle of Saturn and its ‘squares’. The times of most challenges usually occur when Saturn is square to Saturn, or opposite, or when Saturn is over a major planet such as the Sun or Moon.
Many young people have ended their lives during the time of the Saturn Return, or died of some other accident which has come about because of emotional reasons. Heath Ledger is one famous Australian actor who died only about a year ago during the period of the Saturn Return. He, sadly, committed suicide. Things would have changed for him once Saturn, which was retrograde at the time of his death, became direct again. Saturn, when it goes retrograde over your own Saturn, often gives the feeling of doom, of things remaining in a perpetual negative frame. When Mercury is Retrograde at the same time, then you can feel as if your world is caving in. If you are having relationship difficulties, or some other challenges in the life, then it might seem that life will stay this way for the rest of your life during the Saturn Return. Depression is often a characteristic of the Saturn Return.
Many others have died around this time of the Saturn Return: I know of several young people who gave up the ghost when they were 27 or 28. Some other famous people who died during the Saturn Return are: Jim Morrison of ‘The Doors’, who died of heart failure, exacerbated by heavy drinking according to the papers, in Paris, when he was 27 years old, and Kurt Cobain, born 29 February 1967, who died April 5th, 1994, at the age of 27. Jimi Hendrix was just at the end of his Saturn Return cycle when he died. Janis Joplin, born Janurary 19 1943, died October 4th, 1970 aged 27 years.
Of course, the severity of the Saturn Return depends upon the other planets and how they are placed to each other, and in relation to the placement of Saturn in the chart.
Amy Winehouse still had a little way to go before Saturn would meet her own Natal Saturn in the ‘Saturn Return’, but the pressure would have been building up because of other aspects, which I will mention a little further on.
Amy had Moon conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius, opposite her Moon’s Node which was in Gemini. Moon conjunct Neptune gave her wonderful creativity and a sense of mysticism in her work, and about her, which captivated the world. But when the Moon’s Node, travelling about the zodiac, hit her Moon/Neptune opposite Node, the emotional pressure would have become very intense for her.
The moving Node of the Moon had moved forward, striking her Natal Moon/Neptune conjunction, which was directly opposite her Natal Moon’s Node. These Natal configurations which were both in Square to her Sun and Retrograde Mercury, then became afflicted by the current moving Node of the Moon.
So the current Node of the Moon triggered off an intense and overwhelmingly negative chain of events. On the day she died, the moving Node of the Moon was right over her own Moon/Neptune conjunction, and opposite her own Natal moon Node Square her Sun/Mercury retrograde.
Neptune often figures strongly in the charts of artists and musicians. I know about Neptune, because I have it strongly in my own chart.
Neptune is the Planet of imagination, of creativity, of mysticism and invention. It is also the Planet of deception, and self deception, and this is why people with a prominent Neptune, besides having exceptional artistic and musical skills, will often have difficulty with drugs and alcohol, and with partnerships. The wool is very easily pulled over the eyes of these Neptune-prominent people. They are usually very good at fantasizing about themselves, other people, and being unrealistic in their expectations. Sometimes they will pull the wool over another’s eyes, too, although this is not necessarily done with the intention to deceive. They are just not so good at thinking things through logically when it comes to matters of the heart. That is not to say that Amy’s relationship was a negative one – I do not know anything about her relationships – but, generally, there are often problems with relationships, because these Neptune-prominent people have a habit of choosing unsuitable people, and will attribute many qualities and things to their partners which often they do not possess. They are wonderful dreamers. And drugs and alcohol only make this state of unreality, and lack of good judgement, even worse. So coping in the real world is not an easy thing for these Neptune-inspired dreamers and charmers.
What a sad loss Amy’s death is to her family, especially, as well as to the music world. Rest in Peace, Amy.