It seems a pretty impossible feat to set a date for the emergence of rock music, let alone to draw a horoscope for it. Yet, according to William Naylor, producer of the BBC documentary “The Seven Ages of Rock” , rock music as we know it, started on the day that the American, Jimi Hendrix, arrived in London and that was on 24 September 1966 at 09.00 am.
Jimi Hendrix’s talent was recognised by English record producers and with a wave of the magic wand modern rock was born. ( Incidentally, Jimi Hendrix first UK gig was played in what is now called the Toucan Bar, in Soho. – there’s a plaque on the wall there to commemorate the event.) So, what does this horoscope say, if anything about rock music?
The first thing that struck me about this horoscope, was the placement of the Sun, ruler of the midheaven, on the World Axis, in 0 degrees Libra. If you care to see rock as an art form, than something radically new, is about to capture the attention of the world. An exalted Jupiter in Cancer – only just in the 9th (house of foreign countries, ruler of the US ascendant, and of Jimi Hendrix’s Sagittarian Sun) announces the arrival of a young lion, a runaway pup, who will show the world how to play guitar.
Venus, the ascendant ruler, is less comfortably off. She is not only in fall, but hemmed in between Pluto and Uranus (the ruler of the electric guitar) and opposed by Saturn. But Venus has put her foot into a generational movement here – a youth culture – itching to break away from the humdrum, comfy, cosy 1950’s, and given suitable expression by the Uranus/Pluto conjunction and the Saturn opposition to it. Music has the power to set people free. But this is going to be the music of revolt. It’s gonna be hard, loud and electric. The Jimi Hendrix Experience…..
The Moon is in the early degrees of Aquarius in the fourth, which gives me a sense of roots and of a new movement. Don’t forget, the Summer of Love hadn’t started yet… We could also view the oppostion from the establishment towards the hippy movement and towards rock music in general, as being linked to the oppositions that Saturn makes. On 18th september 1970, almost exactly four years after he arrived, Hendrix died in London of an overdose. Note the Mars/Neptune square, drugs have been the downfall of many a talented rock musician.
So what do you think…. A suitable horoscope for the birth of rock? Elizabeth