Aspects for the week beginning 28 May 2023

Tina Turner (1939 – 2023)

“There’s always been an emotion in my voice because it reached back to the life I was living. Where there were tears in stage, it wasn’t Hollywood, it was real”

~ Tina Turner

No prizes for guessing the subject of today’s blog (nor to guessing which stories I swerved this week).  Tina Turner, who died on Wednesday, was universally loved: for her music, and performance, for her bravery in freeing herself from domestic violence, and for her spirituality. I have never seen her live, but have watched and re-watched her concerts, marvelling at her sheer force of nature.

Birth Chart

I wrote in 2014:

“Tina Turner has Sun trine Pluto within one degree…Her Baptist faith sustained her, and then was added to by a later addition of Buddhism.  She espouses a mixture of both faiths.  I happened to catch an interview with her the other day on the Oprah Winfrey show, where she had turned her life around completely, and was happily married as well.  She was asked about the philosophy that brought her there, and replied that she arrived at a point of desiring nothing.  This echoes the philosophy of St. John of the Cross: “In order to arrive at possessing everything, Desire to possess nothing.”  This was facilitated by her Venus being exactly trine Saturn and exactly square Neptune, not the Sun-Pluto trine.  The qualities shown by the working out of Sun trine Pluto in her life are endurance and regeneration.”

To which I would add:

She was born on a Full Moon, with wide open emotions.  She has the Sun exactly square Mars, that’s her raw energy:

You know that big wheel keep on turning
Proud Mary keep on burning
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling yeah
Rolling on the river

She also had a truth seeking trine between the Sun (in Sagittarius) and Jupiter.  Mars square her Moon was quick to react emotionally, and Mercury trine Pluto ensured a depth of thought.  Venus square Jupiter was uninhibited, but Venus exactly square Neptune contributed early on in life to a bizarre relationship, but later this square was transmuted into the opportunity to express a more spiritual relationship.  Venus sextile her North Node showed a karmic mission to sing, while Saturn on the South Node revealed responsibility and strife in early life, and in past lives.  She believed in reincarnation, and once revealed she was a reincarnation of Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt.  Jupiter was trine Pluto, giving her Power (with a capital P!).  With Pluto loosely square the Midheaven (careerpoint) and the Nodal Axis (karmic mission), again you can see the switch in life and career she had to make, eventually rising like a Phoenix.  Her Ascendant was in Performing Leo, which was a prominent part of her personality.

Life and Career

Really, Tina deserves a two-part obituary, but I will do my best to cover what was important, not to short-change the viewer, but neither to waffle or keep the viewer either from their Sunday lunch!  Tina (originally Anna Mae Bullock) was born in Tennessee and brought up largely in Nutbush.  “Ever since then, I have spent my entire life fighting my way through a climate of bad karma”.¹

At an early age she picked cotton with her family, but did not enjoy it, as she recalls in “My Love Story”, her autobiography of 2018.  Her mother was largely absent in her childhood, and had not wanted her daughter, and her parents split up when her mother left when Tina was aged 11.  The family strife is shown in the difficult aspects to her Sun and Moon in her birthchart.  Tina and her sisters spent time with her grandparents, the paternal set being strict, and the maternal set easier. Singing at Church was a strong feature of their lives.  Her grandmother died when she was 16, and she went to live with her mother.

With their love of song and dance, she and her remaining sister (one had died in a car crash) began to frequent nightclubs, and Ike Turner came to their attention.  Tina “almost went into a trance” when she saw him.  She managed to persuade him to let her sing with his band, and later he persuaded her to marry him (though he was a patent womanizer).

The synastry between them was palpably telling.  I wrote in 2014:

“She has Saturn on the South Node of past life karma, and her Sun also squares Mars.  Ike’s Mars connected with her Mars and its square to her Sun directly (their Mars’ in square to each other) which brought out the worst karma between them, and violence towards her from Ike.”

I would add, his Neptune exactly square her natal Moon showed gaslighting, paranoia and entrancement.

He groomed her for his own success (she says he could not sing) and named her Tina, adding three Ikettes to the performing group.  She substituted on a demo record for Ike, and when he presented it to his R & B label, the president preferred Tina’s version.  Although Ike realized that Tina was bringing him success, at the same time he treated her badly – she said he treated her worse than the Ikettes.  The abuse was physical as well as verbal.

Tina would stay with Ike for several more years (her Venus-Saturn trine staying loyal), but there was a turning point of sorts when they came to the notice of Phil Spector, who treated her better (but then would go on to commit murder later on in life!).  He apparently could see how controlling Ike was, and in his own control-freak fashion could see exactly how Tina could make the best performance for his new song “River Deep – Mountain High”. He paid Ike 20,000 dollars to stay away.  He put Tina into a new environment, his own studio, complete with his orchestral “wall of sound”.  It was a revelation to her, and Spector invited her to a new way of singing, too, which suited her better.  He allegedly demanded thousands of takes from her!  I well remember when “River Deep – Mountain High” was released in May 1966.  It was an electrifyingly raw sound, very inspiring.  It went straight to number 1 in the U.K., but failed to make an impression in the U.S.  This was because the white stations put it down as an R & B records, and the black stations thought it was too white.  In mid-66, the record itself had Uranus exactly conjunct Pluto in mid-Virgo (15 degrees); it carried all the explosiveness of that conjunction, of that age.

In 1969, Ike & Tina Turner opened for the Rolling Stones in the U.S.  Her friendship with Mick Jagger was lifelong, and she claims she taught him a dance (the “pony”).  But sometimes, when I see her prancing on stage, there seems to me a huge element of Mick Jagger’s movement, too.  Ike and Tina’s biggest hit of 1971 was the fast-paced “Proud Mary”.

Ike had encouraged Tina to write more songs, and in 1973 she had a hit in Europe with “Nutbush City Limits”, one of her finest records.  In the song Tina recalls her home town with fondness.  Neptune was on her Sun (inspiration) and Pluto sextile her Pluto (some sense of self-empowerment).  By this time, she knew she wanted to leave Ike (she had taken an overdose in 1968, but realized that for her, that was not the way out).

Escape

“In the eleventh hour, something always told me when to run, how to survive”¹

The split with Ike occurred in 1976.  Ike was heavily addicted to cocaine, and indeed his death in 2008 was described as a cocaine overdose.  He took Tina to Dallas to sign a new lucrative record deal, but she walked out of the hotel (without a penny to her name, but with her dignity intact, and a new sense of freedom).  Survivors of domestic violence especially relate to her heroism in this.  The transits for this formative moment in her life show Mars sextile her natal North Node (taking her karma into her own hands), Saturn transiting her natal Pluto (she had reached rock bottom, and had nothing to lose.  Time for a complete break from the past); and Uranus square her natal Pluto (an urgent need to transform her life).  They were divorced on 29th March 1978, with Jupiter trine her North Node (an upturn in her karma).  Change was indicated in Ike’s chart, too, with Uranus transiting his Midheaven (a sudden change in his career) and Pluto opposite his natal Uranus (complete, imposed, forced change).

It took Tina a few years to re-establish her career.  She appeared on some American shows, such as those of Donny & Marie, Sonny & Cher, and the Brady Bunch.  By 1977, she had a raunchier new image.  She was encouraged and supported by various artists in the U.K, making collaborations, such as “Hot Legs” with Rod Stewart.  In 1983, with Pluto entering Scorpio, time was ripe for a resurrection.  She released “Let’s Stay Together” and the following year her new album “Private Dancer”, the song of that name being written by Mark Knopfler.  “What’s Love Got to Do With it” was hugely popular.  The song had been offered to Cliff Richard, Donna Summer and Bucks Fizz.  It is my least favourite of her songs, and she herself disliked it initially.  But it was a real fit for her new image, and helped her resurgence.

She and Mick Jagger made an iconic duo on the stage of Live Aid in 1985, singing “It’s Only Rock and Roll”.  During this period of her life she performed with Lionel Ritchie, Eric Clapton and Bryan Adams.  The second Act of her Career was well under way.  In 1986, she released an autobiography “I, Tina”. A new album in 1989 “Foreign Affair” was especially notable for the song “The Best” (my personal favourite of all her records).  Time for another sing-along:

“You’re simply the best
Better than all the rest
Better than anyone
Anyone I’ve ever met
I’m stuck on your heart
I hang on every word you say
Tear us apart
Baby, I would rather be dead”

The song had been offered to Paul Young, and had been recorded by Bonnie Tyler.

A film was made of her autobiography in 1993, entitled “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, starring Angela Bassett.  At the time, Tina’s Progressed Sun was in a sextile with her natal Jupiter, and it was a validation and expose of all she had gone through with Ike Turner.  She performed with Beyonce in 2008, and officially retired in 2009. In 2018, a musical (“Tina”) opened in London, depicting her story.

Second Marriage

Meanwhile, Love and Health had taken over as top priorities in her life.  She met Erwin Bach in 1986 when he came to escort her to Germany, sent by her record company.  She claims it was love-at-first-sight. He was “the man who made me feel dizzy the first time I saw him”.¹  There was a 16 year age gap.  Their Suns were exactly sextile, which can be one indication of a soul mate connection.  His Pluto is also sextile her North Node, showing a deep karmic connection, and probable Soul Contract.

After several years together, he proposed again, and they arranged to marry on 21st July 2013 in Switzerland, where she lived with him.  The wedding itself went like a dream:  Mars, Saturn and Jupiter trine her Mars (the man in her life, and the life in her man), and Pluto was trine her natal Midheaven (a turnaround in her life).  But Neptune (mysterious ailments) was square her Sun and transiting her Mars).  Signs she was not well appeared on that day, and a few months later she had a stroke, followed by kidney failure.  She was persuaded by Erwin to accept one of his kidneys for transplant, an ultimate gift of life.  She regarded the date of the transplant (7th April 2017) as her new birthday.  Mars was on her Uranus,  Jupiter square her Chiron   and sextile her Ascendant,  Saturn was sextile her NN in Libra (kidneys) and Uranus trine her Venus (kidneys).  Pluto was trine her Uranus exact to the day and opposite her Chiron. For him, the Nodal Axis was square his Saturn and the North Node was sextile his Neptune, both indicating karmic sacrifice.  This enabled her to live another ten years.

Spirituality

Tina was introduced to the Japanese Nichiren Buddhism chanting of  “nam-myoho-renge-kyo” by a friend of Ike Turner’s in 1973, and it probably saved her life, and her sanity.  She also credited one of her sons, Ronnie, as recommending the practice to her, suggesting it might help her.  It is the same strand of Buddhism followed by Boy George.  She noticed positive changes in her life, which she attributed to the practice.  She described the effect: “It is a sound and a rhythm and it touches a place inside you”. In later life, she was known to chant for up to four hours a day.  She has released a recording of this chanting.  She also met the Dalai Lama, the head of the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism, on 2nd August 2005.

Illness and Death

Tina suffered with several illnesses in her latter years, but also personal blows when one son committed suicide and another died from Cancer.  She had parented some of Ike’s children early in life, when establishing her career, and enduring an abusive relationship.  At her death, reportedly “after a long illness”,  Mars was on her Pluto in her 12th House of chronic illness, Saturn was square her Moon and Mercury; she had her Uranus Return, and Uranus was sextile her natal Chiron.  The astrological impact for Erwin is intense, including the Nodal Axis squaring his natal Sun, Saturn square his natal Mars, Pluto opposite his Uranus and square his Neptune.   She may at one time have sung “We don’t need another Hero”, but he certainly was one in her life, and it is hard to imagine what it must be like for him, losing the Legend that he lived with.

“But life has taught me that some of my most meaningful and memorable moments happen when I’m in repose, sitting, meditating, contemplating”

~ Tina Turner

Bibliography (1): “My Love Story” (2018) by Tina Turner. Pub: Century

Aspects

This morning Saturn was squaring the Sun, and this may have brought disappointing or deflating news,  delay or frustration.  I certainly can think of some such issues, brought to our attention on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday morning news programme.  The Sun-Saturn square is an opportunity to think through what you are doing, and your strategies.  If you are making economies, are they the right ones, based on your optimum values?

Midweek is bereft of aspects, so I will highlight the Fixed Star Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus, aligned with our Sun on Wednesday (31st).  “Starlight Elixirs” by Michael Smulkis and Fred Rubenfeld advises us:

“There is a loving energy associated with this star that extends back in time…Individuals coming into contact with this compassionate energy find their own inner love and their own inner strength… With use of Aldebaran there are certainly many ways in which the entire grieving process is accelerated and assisted.  As a result of coming into contact with this compassionate energy, individuals can find their own inner love and their own inner strength.”

Friday (June 2nd) bestows upon us a conjunction of Jupiter with the North Node.  This is a hopeful sign for karma, both individual and group.  There is an emphasis on the lighter side of life.  So take heart, and draw from the Universal Heart.  It is the birthday of Chief Commentator to this blog, Sarah, so all happy birthday wishes are welcome!  And gratitude to her for helping to keep this blog alive.  I know she is not the only reader!

The last aspect of the week, also a beneficent one, is Venus trine Neptune that evening. This is a beautiful aspect from a social point of view, enabling spiritual links with people.  Artistically or musically, you can achieve inspirational heights.

The week in bullet points:

• Today – deflating
• Wednesday – letting go
• Friday – star studded