Michael Jackson was a classic Virgo. His life, from the very start, was dedicated to serving up a constant source of catharsis for those of us that watched him dance and sing. He gave every single ounce of his energy to perfecting his art and then sending it out for public consumption. Over the last few days everyone has been talking about his precision, his work-ethic, his drive, his perfectionism. Barry Gordy, the head of Motown, remarked on Larry King that of all the Jackson Five, Michael was the most focused — even as the youngest, he was always “studying” everything around him, trying to get it right. With his sun (life force) conjunct Pluto (fear, darkness) in his fourth house of home, his father Joseph was the demon patriarch who drove Michael to work as hard as he did, or face a beating. He literally had to dance for his dinner, or he’d be blamed for his father’s failings. The immense guilt and responsibility Michael felt as an innocent child was transmuted into his relentless drive to get it right, and his drive to be the King of Pop. You don’t manifest what Michael did without wanting it more than anything else in the world. The truth behind Michael’s Plutonian, Virgoan striving is that he probably did it all to please his father. The unconscious is a powerful force and Michael, with his Plutonian signature, was completely driven by its longings. If it is indeed true that MJ sexually abused young boys, one can lay the blame directly at his father’s feet.

Although his birth time is disputed, the Gemini rising chart seems the most accurate. Gemini is the sign of youth, the Puer Aeternus, of ambiguous sexuality, of never wanting to grow up, Peter Pan complexes, media savvy, trends, and a wiry, flexible body type. His ascendant is most evident in the videos that he made for the 1979 record Off the Wall. Check out “Rock with You”, where his costume of silver sequins, with vertical stripes on his pants looks almost court jesterish, perfectly fitting the Gemini rising persona. In “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” he wears a tux, floating over a moving background of stars like a sprite. MJ bought the Neverland Ranch during his Saturn return — an overt admission that he never wanted to grow up. This was also around the time that things started to shift for Michael after his career apotheosis with Thriller in 1983. (Note the lyrics to “Thriller” – “It’s close to midnight, and something evil’s lurking in the dark.” This is a deeply Plutonian line.) During his Saturn return he let his freak flag fly, practically giving the finger to the media while at the same time courting it. He was rumored to attempt to buy the bones of the Elephant Man, and his addiction to plastic surgery began. When his SR was almost exact, Bad was released. People found it rather hilarious that this gentle-voiced shy singer would be compelled to tell the world that he was “Bad” as if he was trying to compete with gangsta rappers. But what he was really saying was that inside, he felt like he was a bad boy — probably because that’s what his father told him over and over again, no matter how hard he tried. “Man in the Mirror”, one of the most popular tracks on that record, is in many ways an acknowledgement that Michael understood what the universe wanted for him.

The lyrics include these lines:

As I, Turn Up The Collar On My
Favourite Winter Coat
This Wind Is Blowin’ My Mind

I’m Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I’m Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change

Everyone in their Saturn return needs to heed these words if he or she wants to survive the transition and thrive. For Michael, the Saturn return was the beginning of a downward spiral that ended in his death. Because he could not find any kind of real, personal one-to-one love in his life due to a warped sexuality and damaged trust, Michael turned to the love of his fans for succor. In the months before his death, transiting Saturn was opposing his Moon, squaring his natal Saturn and opposing his ascendant. These on their own are not signatures for death, but most certainly signs of exhaustion, depression, alienation, and desperation. And in the end, as he prepared for a comeback, Michael finally succumbed to all those challenges. The quintessential Virgo can finally rest; may he do so in peace.