Astrology at Work: John Lennon

I spend a lot of time reading biographies and researching the influence of astrology on famous people. I also spend a lot of time looking at the influence of astrology in the lives of regular people, but I can’t broadcast what I learn from their lives because of ethical and privacy concerns. I can talk about the famous people all I want.

Recently I was reading a biography of John Lennon and I came across an example of astrology at work that kind of gave me goose bumps. It involves secondary progressions.

In the horoscope of John Lennon (click on the name to see the chart) the Moon is in a close opposition aspect from Pluto. This is a classic indicator of alienation from the mother. In Lennon’s case this alienation was two-fold. His birth mother gave him up when he was six years-old. He was brought up by his aunt, a strict, conservative woman with whom he frequently clashed after he got into his rebellious teens.

For a couple of years during this period, Lennon moved back and forth between these two mothers. His aunt provided structure and discipline, while his birth mother behaved more like a fun-loving big sister. Then, on July, 15, 1958, Lennon’s birth mother was hit by a car and killed. It was a blow from which the 17 year-old Lennon never fully recovered.

At the time of his mother’s death, Lennon’s secondary progressed Sun was at 3 degrees 55 minutes of Scorpio, forming a T-square with the Moon and Pluto. (Click here to see a double chart with the secondary progressed aspects.)

 Secondary progressed aspects are often seen as releasing potentials stored up in natal aspects. What this aspect released in Lennon was a flood of anger. He was angry with his absent mother, his controlling aunt and with women in general.

Shortly after his mother died, Lennon moved out of his aunt’s house. Around the same time he developed a relationship with Cynthia Powell. Cynthia later became his first wife and, by all accounts, he treated her poorly. It took Lennon many years to work through the anger that was released by this secondary progressed aspect.

Sometimes astrology is hard. Aspects don’t work exactly the way we expect or at exactly the times we expect. And sometime astrology is easy and the symbolism falls artfully into place. This is an example of the latter.