Jim Morrison was in many ways a typical Sagittarian. He was an extrovert with a large appetite for all types of experience. Powerfully open and scathingly honest. His extreme personality and stage presence gave him a platform to be one of the most iconic and influential front men in rock music history. But Jim had a much darker side that he may not have even understood. In many ways his depth and fascination with the unknown brought to him in his life a deep emotional transformation that was present for all who watched and knew him personally.
Polarizing, electrifying and enigmatic Jim Morrison was one of the most iconic people in our world. Born on December 8, 1943 in Melbourne Florida, James Douglas Morrison would move often with his family since his father was in the United States Navy. He was on duty at the time of Jim’s birth and did not see him for the first two years. According to Jim, one of the most important and formative events of his life occurred in 1947 when he was just four years old. The family was taking a road trip through the desert of New Mexico, when Jim and his parents came across the scene of a road accident in which a family of Native Americans were injured and killed. He said that as a child he felt deeply afraid as he witnessed the event. He believed that the souls of the newly-dead Indians were running around, “freaked out”, and one of whom was the tribal shaman, leaped into his soul as they lay dying. Jim referred to the incident repeatedly in song, poems and lyrics throughout his life.
Sun in Sagittarius-Break on Through to the Other Side
Like a lot of fire signs Jim had a liking for alcohol and lots of it. Sagittarius, especially, with Jupiter being its ruler doesn’t always know when they have had enough of anything. “More Please” is the Sagittarius’s frequency and it can be prone to excess in dangerous areas. Booze and Sagittarius go very well together due to the Sagittarian psyche: thinking too much and too deeply. When you think too much you sort of lose your choices and your options. Jim was a very complex person in this way. By drinking alcoholically Jim was able to anesthetize and express himself to his fullest capacity. Some thought that Jim loved being out of control. He liked to push his boundaries and everyone else’s. Jim Morrisons strong Sagittarian intellect was a mixed blessing. It imbued him with deep insights but it also exposed the darkness of our world. With his sensitivities it may have been very difficult to just turn this off. Despite his shenanigans as a child he was well read and an intelligent student. Jim always wanted to come across a philosopher a common archetype associated with the sign Sagittarius, and he was. His interest in philosophy and world religions and were present even at a very young age. It was a more poignant part of his soul.
Aquarius Rising – Do You Have the Will to Be Weird ?
Aquarius is the rebel of the zodiac. They love to shock. Anti-authoritarian Aquarius likes to push the limits, irrespective of the consequences. When the Doors got a regular gig at the Whiskey a Go Go on the Sunset Strip he made an Oedipal reference in his song “The End” which got him fired. He did this with his mother sitting in the front row audience. They didn’t speak after that. Jim’s choice. He shocked her and then cut her off. When Jim was a kid he had an obsessions with sex and vulgarity. He and his friends would cut out clippings of Charlie Brown in fowl configurations and vulgar dialogue. Anything to add to the shock value. His charge of indecent exposure in Florida could be seen as the most shocking of his antics. He would be charged with this crime that drew the attention of the police, FBI and The Nixon Administration. It was a cry for help and fueled by his drinking it would eventually lead to his undoing and death by leading him to evade and escape to France where he would pass away.
Saturn Retrograde-The End My Only Friend
Saturn rules discipline, structure, order and the father. When Saturn is retrograde in ones chart the native will need to carve out for himself a pathway. Usually the father has been absent on some level or just doesn’t understand the child-feels disconnected from the child. With Jim, he wrote to his father announcing his plans to start a band with a few friends. His father wrote back to him calling his plans a “crock” and bashing him for throwing away four years of college when he had no musical skills. He never wrote or spoke to him again after receiving the letter. Later, after the debut of The Doors first album he told Jim in a letter to give up any idea of singing because of his lack of talent. If it wasn’t for Saturn Retrograde and his father’s limited vision, perhaps Jim wouldn’t have had a reason to succeed.
Jim’s Chart Ruler (Uranus) in the 4th House -People Are Strange
Since Jim was an Aquarius Jim’s ruling planet was Uranus. To really understand him we can notate that his Uranus is in Gemini and in his Fourth house placement. The Fourth House is often called The House of Home and Family. Though his Fourth house is ruled by Taurus, with iconoclastic Uranus in the Fourth, the native is likely to break free from his family and home and its clear that he did. When Jim’s first album came out they had to write his bio. Jim told the writer that his family was dead. He told other people this too. The Fourth House does relate to home and family but it’s really the house of emotional security. It’s where we go to decompress and rest. To feel safe and nourished. With rebellious and unpredictable and detached Uranus in his Fourth house it is possible that Jim made himself feel safe by propelling himself from beholden situations. It could have been some type of a self-protection or coping mechanism to avoid someone else abandoning him. Jim’s nomadic childhood of moving from town to town, being the new kid at different schools due to his father’s military career, could have been the start of this behavior pattern. Having to move so many times could have been difficult for Jim who had stability loving Taurus moon and a fixed Aquarius rising sign. In such a predicament one might become the genius of unpredictability in order to survive and stay one step ahead of the chaos of his early childhood.
Taurus Moon- You Live on Love Street
If you listen to Jim Morrison’s slower, more tender songs you will notice that he has a very soothing and melodious voice. A Baritone, one that could only come forth from a grounded comfortable place. Stable and comfortable does not describe Jim on the surface level, but the moon placement in the chart depicts the most vulnerable and hidden aspects. It also shows their needs. Taurus rules music and the voice, which may account for Jim’s gifts. Taurus is an earth sign and very connected to the body. Taurus rules the senses and hedonism at its purity which may be attributable to his moon. But what Taurus is known for-more than their stubbornness-more than their musicality or appetite-is their loyalty, Jim considered Pamela his soulmate. Their charts combined denotes a past life connections and the union this time perhaps was to continue to work on their karma in this lifetime. There were many arguments and accusations of cheating but they always got back together. The loved each other profoundly. Pam gave Jim such a strong love, unconditional that he could feel it in every cell of his being. Grounded. Rich. Pure.
Moon Square Pluto Taurus – There’s Danger on the Edge of Town
Jim Morrison had many masks and even created names associated with the different facets of his personality. Mr. Mojo Risin, The Lizard King both reflect the power of Pluto in his chart. Jim’s Taurus moon makes an awkward square (90 degree angle) to deep Pluto. This often makes the native emotionally intense, prone to dark emotions and self-destructive behaviors. Emotional reactions come from hidden place (Pluto) which makes self-control difficult. Plutonian pain is often related to past emotional trauma.
When Pluto connects with the Moon taboo sexual behavior can be expressed which may be why Jim’s six arrests include lewd behavior and indecency. These Plutonian themes concern factors that involve the taboo, the hidden, and the darker aspects of human experience. These themes include issues of power and abuse of what is acceptable and what must be rejected in order to keep society together. The deep and the inexplicable areas of our lives here on earth. These are all places people with a strong Pluto influence in the chart often find themselves in. Jim Morrison had his Pluto on an angle bringing his emotional demons into the open making them something he simply had to bring to his fans and to his intimates. In his angular Pluto Square the Moon Jim was unique amongst his peers. This placement meant that his emotional extremes, lusts, loves and hates were played out with full capacity although sometimes away from the public glare (Pluto prefers to remain hidden). Additionally, the exact Semi -Square between his Moon and Saturn we see the extreme control, complexity and his powerful self-loathing that Jim experienced intrinsically from a young age. These energies have found their expression in his devilish and deviant behavior. Bullying his family members and his obsession with cruelty and acting out. His status as an outsider and his ability to be cutthroat and hold an audience in his spell is the epitome of the Pluto influence. Once Jim achieved success he would divorce himself from all he was before. When he was interviewed by reporters he sometimes claimed that his family were in fact dead. This is a pure and cruel expression of the Pluto-Saturn combination rejecting the Moon its rightful connection with his past. With its family and Jim’s vulnerability. Sadly this is a quite logical conclusion if the stories of his father’s abuse are true.
Scorpio Midheaven-The Lizard King
The Scorpio archetype is profoundly constellated in Jim’s chart. Scorpio rules matters associated with that which is related to the “Dark Side “of life. . Death, taboo idea, sex, and the Mysteries of the Universe. As the ruler of his Mid-heaven Scorpio’s ruler Pluto is located on the cusp of the seventh house in Leo and is disposed of by his Sun in Sagittarius in the tenth so it’s easy to see that themes relating to darkness and death were his primary themes of the expression of his life’s work. Sometimes Jim would quote William Blake by saying that “the road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom”. We could see why by noticing the mutual reception with Jupiter in Leo in the seventh and the sun in Sagittarius in the tenth. During Jim’s performances he would interact with his audience deeply, while at the same time be completely drunk and elusive in his own private world of dreams and expansion. Jim used drugs and alcohol to bridge his psyche to the “Other side”. It may reflect the other side of himself which would put him in touch with this deeply primal force where human limitations are dissolved and spiritual and transformative information was obtained which enlightened and infused Jim’s life force.
He was inspired by Charles Mackay’s “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds-insights regarding influencing and manipulating crowds.” He said to a friend “You’ve got to make them believe you’re doing them a favor by being on stage”. “The more abusive you are, the more they’ll love it.” Jim love pushing the limits, he loved to see how far he could push people before they pushed back. Often, because of Jim’s intensity, they didn’t push back which, only reinforced the pattern and worsened his behavior interpersonally. This could have had something to do with his sun in Sagittarius opposite Saturn, Mars, and Uranus in Gemini in the fourth suggesting that perhaps there were some unpredictable and spontaneous fits of anger that involved punishment and discipline, in particular with his father and family, all of which he incorporated as part of his identity. According to Jim’s brother Andy their parents decided never to use corporeal punishment on the children and instead disciplined the children using the military tradition known as “Dressing Down.” This practice consists of loud scolding and beratement until the children acknowledged their failings. According to Andy this practice never drew a tear from Jim. He stood stoic, without emotion.
Mercury in Capricorn- Come on Baby Light My Fire
With Mercury in Capricorn in the eleventh house opposite Saturn in Gemini in the fifth house Jim would often intimidate and bully his siblings. This behavior would continue throughout his adult life. Constantly pushing people and situations as far as he could. With Mars and Uranus both found in Gemini in the fourth house Jim’s famous anger appeared to mushroom out of his poor home environment. Both planets oppose the sun in Sagittarius, suggesting his anger may have been so out of control. He used it to justify his actions, hurting others especially if they were in opposition to his own beliefs. This was the trigger. During his childhood Jim was an obedient and respectful son who shined at school, at least on the outside. He however became a libertine and a discipline problem in school and at home when he discovered alcohol in his teenage years. This manifested into a life-long pattern of alcoholism and drug use which would cut off his life force prematurely.
T-Square-L A Women
Women seemed to be a common channel for Jim’s anger. As the focal point of a T-square to Venus in Scorpio in the ninth and moon in Taurus in the third, Pluto in Leo near the descendent seemed to be severely stressed. One woman that knew Jim stated that Jim “had a sadistic streak that was easily provoked.” On one occasion, after a girlfriend said something that angered him, Jim twisted her arm behind her back and threatened to cut her face with a knife. The tight square the moon in Taurus makes to Pluto in Leo may indicate intense connections with his mother. Not much information is available about Jim’s mother other than that she was an intense, eccentric and strong-willed individual who had a powerful influence in his life. Jim once set a room on fire that his girlfriend Pamela had locked herself in because she refused to come out. He nearly burned the entire house down. Jim’ s life was heavily influenced by women.
Neptunes Influence
Together with his Pluto Power, Neptune sits in a critical place of overwhelming power in Jim’s chart. Precisely square the Ascendant-Midheaven midpoint is a point where any planet gains immense strength to find expression as a consistent energy in a persons chart. Jim spent nearly a decade in a physical and mental state of what one doctor had said was one of the worst cases of alcoholism that he had ever witnessed coincide with this pattern. This also highlights his fascination of vagueness, confusion and altering his states of consciousness through ideas, drugs and alcohol. Jim used this in his performances to bring his crowds of fans to places they hadn’t been nor could go on their own.
It seems that one of the major challenges that Jim had to face in his life was his need to feel secure and within his family and ultimately in his career and relationships. It is said that he never truly felt that he belonged to his family. Constant moving around in his early nomadic childhood due to his father’s work, being verbally abused at home it must have been difficult for Jim to develop a sense of feeling safe and secure. His home environment was in constant flux and that may have lead him to feel unsure. The incident with the dead Native Indians in the New Mexican desert may have compounded the issue even further by influencing him to believe the world out there is truly a dangerous mystery that cannot be trusted. Fear of the existential may be one of the reasons that lead Jim to turn to powerful hallucinogenic drugs and alcohol in order for the fear to subside as he may have felt a return to his own source of physical existence. His perceptions were cleansed by this process and his truth could be revealed. Jim used the power and wisdom extracted from these experiences to combat and deal with his fear of death and the world. Through performances and writing Jim gave death and dark side a vehicle in which to speak from. It was his way of making himself whole again here on earth. It was destructive though and proved lethal as he tested his own mortality by taking it to the limit dying of a heroin overdose in a bathtub in Paris at the young age of twenty-seven. He died in water-in that bath-Neptune’s influence washing through him pulling him in the undertow.
Not Your Typical Sagittarian After All….
I loved the Doors and was fascinated by Jim Morrison. I was always trying to understand what he was trying to say and who he was and why he did the things he did. To this day I am mesmerized by him. I think he did what he came to do here on earth, bringing our attention to the unseen and our own darkness. I miss him sometimes, although I never knew him. I don’t think it would be possible to really know Jim Morrison fully. There is something elusive and ethereal about this man who briefly allowed us to see parts of our shadows-dark and light through his life here on earth. If there is anything to see here through the lens of astrology above and beyond Jim’s chart is that we get the sense that he was more than a little complicit in his own fate. There is a feeling that he chose to go to extremes and that he directed his life story more than he knew. He made an indelible imprint on our society and our souls and he rocks on forever in this flower child.
