Michael Jackson - The Moon in Pisces

The death of Michael Jackson, like so many events in his life, took us way beyond anything we could have ever expected. There were the usual unintended consequences that included the odd way in which Jackson’s doctor disappeared after his death to the surprising internet crashes that occurred shortly after his death was announced. We still don’t exactly know what happened. In a world of complexity, sometimes astrology can help us see the simplicities, the basic factors that can cut through all of the many opinions that may have formed around a person or event.

There are at least three birth charts being presented for him in the blogosphere and some believe that Jackson deliberately did this to hide his real time of birth. However, no matter what time he was born, we do have his date of birth so we know his Sun was in Virgo while his Moon opposed it in the sign of Pisces. We also know that transiting Saturn was almost exactly opposing his Moon for the third time. This one fact can reveal quite a bit about what Jackson was feeling and how all of it came to a head at this time.

Michael is said to have felt that his father made his life incredibly harsh in a geat many ways, but the chief one was that he programmed him to regard the outer world as a dangerous, unsafe, awful place against which he would have to defend himself. What affect would this have on a person with such a highly sensitive nature? He has the Sun in Virgo (basic modesty) with the shy, sensitive emotions of the Moon in Pisces?

A close friend who has Moon in Pisces once told me that he ‘couldn’t pass a bum on the street without giving him some money’.  Pisces is the last sign in the zodiac and represents the ending or dissolving of all that had been built up in the previous cycle. And when the Moon is in that sign, one’s emotional nature is creating conditions where the person is barely able to know it exists. The world is already seen as a scary, impersonal place even without a father like Joe is said to have been, where there is no room for compassion and love.

Can you see why he would work so hard to remain as a child and adopt the mythos of Peter Pan? The adult world was not a place where he could feel safe to be who he really was. Then the planet Saturn that asks us to face the harsh, stark and severe realities of life transits in opposition to this Moon and every fear he ever had about life must have been boring down on him with the force of a very heavy stone. It also informs us as to why he resorted to prescription drugs and how one drug was added to another until his life force must have already been almost empty.

The task of Pisces is to engage in life WHILE being in a state of compassion and to avoid the temptation of running away and escaping. It is by doing this that the person becomes able to extend its natural gift of love into the world. With the transit of Saturn he was being asked to confront his fears and push through them in order to be able to fulfill his public role in the world. But it is clear he was not even close to being able to do this. According to Lisa Marie Presley, Michael told her 14 years earlier that he knew he would die like her father Elvis did and no one could do anything about it. Was he prescient or was this self-fulfilling prophecy? In my view, Michael didn’t know how to deal with the world and was so identified with being the King of Pop that there simply wasn’t any way to escape the fate he regarded as being destined for him. Pisces always has to deal with the archetype of sacrifice. This can serve to motivate someone to live for the highest principles no matter what the outer cost may be or actually be enacted by taking up the role of martyr. Perhaps in this case the truth lies somewhere in between as I don’t think Jackson would allow himself to grow up and face the hardships of life. My guess is that he was not a pedophile. I suspect that he was playing with the boys as another boy would. He was avoiding the issues of sexuality as part of his need to remain a child. No, that’s not appropriate for a man in his 40’s, but it does show how regressed he seems to have been.

The Moon in Pisces asks us to live in a fully engaged way while being in the midst of life’s sorrows and troubles and to then bear up under the weight of it. It is a very difficult challenge to achieve given the sensitivity of this planet and sign. With Michael’s early life being what it was, perhaps a tragic death was the only possible end for him.

Although I rarely write about the death of famous figures, I decided to write this as it gave me an opportunity to express something important about the real challenges Piscean people face. Many of you will be reading this article, so please know that it is written with you in mind. May you find the ability to face life’s harshness with the compassion that guides your own being! Come out and show us who you are for the world needs you.