Janis Joplin's chart doesn't say "Janis Joplin" to me.

MoonlightSonata

Well-known member
I recently watched a documentary about her and decided to look at her chart, and I noticed a lot of placements that don't or didn't seem to fit her personality IMO.

Some people say she was the first female Rock n' Roll wild child. She was a rising Aquarius, so that kind of explains that.

But...

She had three 12th house planets: the sun, Mercury of ALL planets, and Venus. And she also had six retrograde planets: Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

All those retrograde planets and the 12th house planets wouldn't make me think she was who she was just by looking at her chart.
 

Cary2

Banned
The most angular planet is Saturn, but it is Saturn conjunct to Uranus. She will be tense and subject to violent mood swings. She will be irascible, paradoxical, enigmatic, and provocative. Already is a stamp upon the chart that suggests a difficult life. It is also a part of a close Grand Trine, Uranus, Neptune, and Sun. It is close enough to suggest an affliction, a Grand Trine tends to be an affliction when it is close. The Grand Trine describes the chaotic and Utopian vibe of the 1960's hippie movement. Uranus/Neptune aspects tend to augur a very difficult life. And Sun, which is part of the Grand Trine is opposed to Jupiter suggesting profligacy with Sun in the Twelfth House suggesting self-undoing. Janis Joplin was a poster child for self-undoing. It was her profligate lifestyle that cut her life short.

Her status as a vocalist is symbolized by Mercury-Venus conjunction sextile the Mc. We see that the planetary contacts surpass the House position in overall effect.

Neptune on a cardinal point suggests glitz and glamor, but the square to Mars suggests substance abuse and confusion.

Jupiter is quintile Neptune and both Jupiter and Neptune biquintile the Ascendant, so the Ascendant was opposite the Jupiter/Neptune midpoint. This qualifies as a configuration. She may have suffered from a mystery illness. She was confused about the very concept of success and abundance. She was gullible and inclined to gamble. She was peculiar and histrionic. This would make for a dramatic presentation.

Moon squared the midpoint of Venus-Uranus. This helped her become a recording artist. It suggests that she was anti-puritanical and liked to enjoy life. She's a bit wild if sentimental.
 

MoonlightSonata

Well-known member
The most angular planet is Saturn, but it is Saturn conjunct to Uranus. She will be tense and subject to violent mood swings. She will be irascible, paradoxical, enigmatic, and provocative. Already is a stamp upon the chart that suggests a difficult life. It is also a part of a close Grand Trine, Uranus, Neptune, and Sun. It is close enough to suggest an affliction, a Grand Trine tends to be an affliction when it is close. The Grand Trine describes the chaotic and Utopian vibe of the 1960's hippie movement. Uranus/Neptune aspects tend to augur a very difficult life. And Sun, which is part of the Grand Trine is opposed to Jupiter suggesting profligacy with Sun in the Twelfth House suggesting self-undoing. Janis Joplin was a poster child for self-undoing. It was her profligate lifestyle that cut her life short.

Her status as a vocalist is symbolized by Mercury-Venus conjunction sextile the Mc. We see that the planetary contacts surpass the House position in overall effect.

Neptune on a cardinal point suggests glitz and glamor, but the square to Mars suggests substance abuse and confusion.

Jupiter is quintile Neptune and both Jupiter and Neptune biquintile the Ascendant, so the Ascendant was opposite the Jupiter/Neptune midpoint. This qualifies as a configuration. She may have suffered from a mystery illness. She was confused about the very concept of success and abundance. She was gullible and inclined to gamble. She was peculiar and histrionic. This would make for a dramatic presentation.

Moon squared the midpoint of Venus-Uranus. This helped her become a recording artist. It suggests that she was anti-puritanical and liked to enjoy life. She's a bit wild if sentimental.

Interesting take.

Just by looking at her chart, especially with Pisces on the cusp of her 2nd house, Jupiter Rx in the 5th and Mercury Rx in the 12th, I would think "poet" more so than "rock star."
 

MoonlightSonata

Well-known member
She was very talented but quite disturbed. Her chart was not easy, as Cary2 outlined.

The documentary said as much. And I saw what looked like sadness in her eyes when she told Dick Cavett that bullies had run her out of town before she became famous.

And although she'd made it and was more famous than anyone from her hometown, it seemed like she still needed to give her bullies the finger by attending her 10th high school reunion as rock star Janis Joplin.

Personal issues aside, that tells me they (bullies) really did a number on her self-esteem.
 
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Cary2

Banned
Interesting take.

Just by looking at her chart, especially with Pisces on the cusp of her 2nd house, Jupiter Rx in the 5th and Mercury Rx in the 12th, I would think "poet" more so than "rock star."

Furthermore, Saturn on an angle (IC) trine Neptune is very poetic.
 

sentR89day

Well-known member
She was actually quite vulnerable, naive, and shy, too. Yes, she was rebellious, but she was also very soulful and sensitive. I respectfully disagree, her 12th house gave her her soulfulness when she sang: You could FEEL her pain!
 

katydid

Well-known member
She was a Poet. But she was a poet living a Rock Star life. And it killed her in the end....:sad:

Her Neptune @ 1Libra rules the intercepted 1st. It is 'who she was' but she couldn't easily carry it out. The Piscean poetic energy was hidden behind the Aquarian Ascendant, which was raucous, bold and rebellious.

Uranus was her chart ruler and it aligned with Saturn in Gemini in her 3rd house.
Uranus conjunct Saturn in Gemini and in the 3rd of communication gives dramatic mixed messages and feels conflicting impulses, resulting in some chaos and confusion.

Her Saturn/Uranus trines Sun/Mercury/Venus in the 12th and Neptune in the 7th. That Air Grand Trine was like a speeding train that she couldn't get off of. It was exciting, exhausting and overwhelming, most likely. :sideways:
 

katydid

Well-known member
I saw a few quotes in her bio that perfectly describe her intense Air Grand trine with her 12th house personal planets and Neptune and the Saturn/Uranus conjunction in her 3rd.

She had an intense inner struggle because she had a strong desire to be a rock singer, but she was afraid she would fall into drug addiction if she did so. Her first attempt at joining a band in San Francisco ended with her being near death from alcohol/heroin use.

In 1963, Joplin was arrested in San Francisco for shoplifting. During the two years that followed, her drug use increased and she acquired a reputation as a "speed freak" and occasional heroin user.[13][16][21] She also used other psychoactive drugs and was a heavy drinker throughout her career; her favorite alcoholic beverage was Southern Comfort.[citation needed]

In May 1965, Joplin's friends in San Francisco, noticing the detrimental effects on her from regularly injecting methamphetamine (she was described as "skeletal"[16] and "emaciated"[13]), persuaded her to return to Port Arthur. During that month, her friends threw her a bus-fare party so she could return to her parents in Texas.


Back in Port Arthur in the spring of 1965, after Joplin's parents noticed her weight of 88 pounds (40 kg),[22] she changed her lifestyle. She avoided drugs and alcohol, adopted a beehive hairdo, and enrolled as an anthropology major at Lamar University in nearby Beaumont, Texas. During her time at Lamar University, she commuted to Austin to sing solo, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar.



In 1965 and 1966, Joplin commuted from her family's Port Arthur home to Beaumont, Texas, where she had regular sessions with a psychiatric social worker named Bernard Giarritano[22]

Interviewed by biographer Myra Friedman after his client's death, Giarritano said Joplin had been baffled by how she could pursue a professional career as a singer without relapsing into drugs, and her drug-related memories from immediately prior to returning to Port Arthur continued to frighten her


Giarritano tried to reassure her that she did not have to use narcotics in order to succeed in the music business.[22]

She also said that if she were to avoid singing professionally, she would have to become a keypunch operator (as she had done a few years earlier) or a secretary, and then a wife and mother, and she would have to become very similar to all the other women in Port Arthur.[22]




The above info sounds very much like her Grand Trine. The Saturn/Uranus conjunction was her inner struggle, with not wanting to be too Saturnian, and being a secretary, settling down in her hometown forever. She wanted the Uranus excitement of following her rock star lifestyle, singing on the big stage and being known for her talents.

But that came with the trine to Neptune, which was overwhelming for her. Her Mars squares Neptune and has no other major aspects. She had no boundaries or self control when it came to drugs alcohol:


1966--

Due to persistent persuading by keyboardist and close friend Stephen Ryder, Joplin avoided drugs for several weeks.

She made Travis Rivers, with whom she shared an apartment upon their arrival in San Francisco, promise that using needles would not be allowed there.[22]

When bandmate Dave Getz accompanied her from a rehearsal to her home, Rivers was not there, but "two or three" (according to Getz' recollection 25 years later) guests whom Rivers had invited were in the process of injecting drugs.[22] "One of them was about to tie off," recalled Getz.[22]

"Janis went nuts! I had never seen anybody explode like that. She was screaming and crying and Travis walked in. She screamed at him: 'We had a pact! You promised me! There wouldn't be any of that in front of me!' I was over my head and I tried to calm her down. I said, 'They're just doing mescaline,' because that's what I thought it was. She said, 'You don't understand! I can't see that! I just can't stand to see that!'"[22
 
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ElenaJ

Well-known member
"She also said that if she were to avoid singing professionally, she would have to become a keypunch operator (as she had done a few years earlier) or a secretary, and then a wife and mother, and she would have to become very similar to all the other women in Port Arthur.[22]"

This is significant. During the early sixties this did in fact seem to be the two alternatives for a woman.... traditional home/family/secretary or wild frenetic freedom.
It was of course a false alternative, and had she been living now she could have chosen a healthy non-conformist lifestyle that better suited her energies.
Barbra Streisand told how she kept her fingernails long, before she became successful, so she wouldn't be tempted to fall back on typing as a secretary.
Hillary Clinton in her famous statement during her husband's administration said, "Of course I could just stay home baking cookies instead of working". For which she was generally criticised for having insulted those women who chose to be homemakers, which is a perfectly valid choice for some women.... when it isn't an imposed choice. Hillary managed to make it into an insult, but that's her style.
With Janis' 12th house turbulence she had a lot of difficulty feeling strong and expressing her soul outwardly, and was a victim of the false alternatives of the times.
 

katydid

Well-known member
During the Festival Express tour, Joplin was accompanied by Rolling Stone writer David Dalton, who later wrote several articles and two books on Joplin. She told Dalton:

I'm a victim of my own insides. There was a time when I wanted to know everything ... It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it. But now I've learned to make that feeling work for me. I'm full of emotion and I want a release, and if you're on stage and if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel.[28]


I LOVE this quote from her---" I'm a victim of my own insides. "

"It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it..."


That ^^^ is so descriptive of her Neptune entangled in a strong Grand Trine that had such tension and intensity.
 

ElenaJ

Well-known member
Planets in 12th have difficulty getting out, and a grand trine is "complete", so there isn't a "handle" to grasp onto for an exit.
 
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