Monthly Archives: December 2014

Lady Gaga and Saturn

Radio City Music Hall continues selling tickets to Lady Gaga in concert with old-time crooner Tony Bennett. Their album of jazz standards, Cheek to Cheek was released in September of 2014, and quickly rose to #1 on the Billboard charts. This is Gaga’s third consecutive #1 album, and at 88, Bennett maintains his distinction of being the oldest singer with a #1 hit. But aside from their NY Italian-American roots, what are these two doing together? If you consider Saturn, it’s obvious.

Gaga has the Moon at 11 Scorpio 27. She underwent hip surgery as Saturn stationed exactly on her Moon in February of 2013, perhaps forcing her to consider simpler, more basic music for a time. Bennett has Saturn at 19 Scorpio 29 and becomes for her the personification of Saturn – quite literally in the form of an old man (he experienced his third Saturn return this year). His Saturn conjoins her Moon, making long-term collaboration between them a very real possibility. And Gaga’s Saturn also trines Bennett’s Leo Sun within about a degree. If Saturn provides the glue that makes relationships stick, this commitment goes both ways.

And fascinatingly, they both make each other sound better! Lady Gaga is known as more of a Uranian type of performer – it’s often more about theatrics and technology than her vocals. While she actually has a beautiful, strong voice, you almost need to see her at the piano or raised on some contraption over the floor – there’s something missing from her solos. And Tony Bennett used to be able to sing, but that was decades ago. (A PBS broadcast of the duo’s concert showed audiences giving him a standing ovation for a solo – they’re just glad he’s still alive.) However something wonderful happens when they’re together and they seem to compensate for any liabilities in each other’s performances. Such an emphasis on Saturn in their relationship suggests that they’ve worked on it.

As Saturn passes into Sagittarius in 2015-2016, Gaga will experience her first Saturn return. With so much success behind her, it’s hard to remember that she’s still only 28. It’ll be interesting to see what her next act will be.

Lady Gaga was born on March 28, 1986 at 9:53 AM in Manhattan (rated “B” on Astrodatabank; the source is her Twitter page. Tony Bennett was born on August 3, 1926 in Long Island City, NY, with no time available.

I Can’t Breathe

Protesters chanting “I can’t breathe” took to the streets in New York City last night, blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, the West Side Highway and the Lincoln Tunnel. They expressed their anger after a grand jury failed to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, who died of a chokehold on 7/14/14. The “I can’t breathe” cry for help reflects Garner’s repeated words during his fateful arrest. Why has this catch-phrase caught on in New York?

Breathing and respiration are ruled by the mutable signs, especially Gemini, ruler of the lungs, and Sagittarius, which rules exhalation. Eric Garner suffered from asthma. According to medical astrologer Diane Cramer in How to Give an Astrological Health Reading, this may relate to afflictions in Gemini, Saturn in Gemini or Sagittarius, Saturn afflicted in the 3rd house and an angular Moon. The horoscope for New York City (1/1/1898 at 12:01 AM) has these placements.

The City’s Neptune-Pluto conjunction in Gemini in the 9th house along with Saturn, Venus and Mars in Sagittarius in the 3rd house cover these mutable signs. Eric Garner was born on 9/15/70, and has the Sun, Mercury and Pluto all conjunct in Virgo along with Mars in Virgo and a probable Moon in Pisces. By quadruplicity rulership, all of the mutable signs may affect respiration. Garner’s placements also activate the City’s horoscope, creating a grand cross. His Mars in Virgo exactly squares the City’s Saturn, showing his conflict with authority. His natal Pluto also squares the City’s Venus and Mars, bringing up a conflict of wills and inappropriate force.

Why are these issues being expressed right now? Transiting Neptune in Pisces stationed exactly square the City’s Saturn in June of 2014, shortly before Eric Garner’s death. Neptune again stationed in November, when the officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri was also released by a grand jury, sparking protests in New York and elsewhere in the country last week.

Transiting Neptune will square NYC’s Saturn throughout 2015. As Mayor DeBlasio stated, this is “not the end of the story, only the end of a chapter.” Astrologically, it seems to me that protests will continue. The Mayor and Police Commissioner Bratton have promised an internal affairs investigation into police actions surrounding the incident. And Daniel Pantaleo also faces Federal civil rights charges. Hopefully the continuing aspects from Neptune will help address “the larger issues” that President Obama sees as necessary.