I need to share a little story about how astrology shows up in my life. Last weekend, I started listening to Annie Lennox – I’d heard her music and her name before but never really connected all of her great songs together and attributed them to her and her overall collection. In fact, when I was 14 or so, I did a jazz dance with a few girls to Annie’s fantastic track, Little Bird, which is now a sure song on my life’s soundtrack. It was a fantastic number and we wore these strange, white, feather-covered unitards that gave us all a most unfortunate case of camel toe, but anyway, back to my astrology story…

On Monday afternoon, as I was dancing and singing to the Eurythmics (Annie was the lead singer of the smash sensation that produced the infamous Sweet Dreams), I was feeling so profoundly moved by her incredible artistry that naturally I became insatiably curious about her astrology chart. A quick Google search revealed a truly brilliant natal chart and the most marvellous coincidence...

Annie Lennox’ ascendant (the point of sky ascending on the eastern horizon at the precise moment of birth) falls in the sign of perfectionist Virgo. When I discovered this on Monday afternoon, the Moon was currently crossing over the exact same degree as Annie’s ascendant: 23 degrees of Virgo! Luna moves quickly and functions as a connector, gently nudging our attention and perceptions to the changing flows and cycles. So as Luna passed through the sign of Virgo, I (re)discovered Annie Lennox’ music and as Luna precisely passed over the 23rd degree of Virgo, I was inexplicably drawn into Annie’s chart which features this exact degree in a very prominent position!

Encouraged and inspired by this synchronistic discovery, I continued listening to her music and analyzing her birth chart. Virgo rising beautifully expresses the refined technical skill and graceful clarity of Annie Lennox’ expression. She is ruled by shapeshifting Mercury, rather fitting for her genderfluid and androgynous manner, and Mercury is spectacularly placed in a nearly perfect conjunction to a freshly re-born Capricorn Sun. When a planet is perfectly conjoined to the Sun, astrologers call the condition cazimi – meaning ‘in the throne’ or 'in the heart' of the Sun.

The Sun is the King or Queen of the skies and when a planet is invited into the royal chambers, that planet receives a purely elevating infusion of solar energy. Indeed, Annie’s ability to communicate emotion and passion to her audience is dazzling – she appears to effortlessly receive and transmit both a depth and bounty of feeling and drama through her music.

To emphasize the wonder of this placement even more, Mercury is cazimi the Sun right around the time of a new moon solar eclipse, occurring on Christmas! We know Christmas to be the birthday celebration of Jesus and of course this story is anciently rooted to the winter Solstice, as after this day passes, the days begin to stretch and grow once more in their length and brightness, lending our ancestors to have rejoiced at this time of year - the Sun is reborn!

So Annie was born on Christmas day during an eclipse while Mercury was in a rare and magickal position; she is an alchemical concoction of dark and light, famous and private, starkly cold and fiercely fiery, running on instinct but haughtily ambitious. Transcendent Neptune, potent Pluto, and a mature Mars each baptize the rejoicing Sun-Mercury-Moon conversation, stimulating a passionate flight into the heights of social impact through her art.

Annie has a second cazimi relationship – Lilith cazimi Venus - a particularly interesting one to me as I share this aspect with her. This pairing of the Goddess of love and beauty with the ravenous, sultry, repressed feminine aspect creates a potent, sexually-charged, and so-magnetic-it's-nearly-vampirous type of energy (here is her song about Vampires).

Lilith is the repressed feminine consciousness: the shadowy, destructively lustful, powerfully present, instinctually vicious, devouring feminine.  Venus depicts our capacity for receiving and enjoying pleasure and beauty so this combination imbues Annie with a lust for the raw, powerful, and revealing aspects of life. Annie uncompromisingly draws on her pain to create art that shakes us with deep feeling and revelation (Would I Lie to You?). The Lilith cazimi Venus relationship is intensified because wise, heavy, stern Saturn pressures the sexual energies to be expressed via a steady commitment to uncovering her body's rich talents.

The Lilith-Venus-Saturn grouping is energized by flowing Mars and electrified by an eccentric, righteous Jupiter-Uranus conjunction from the powerful 10th house of career and reputation. An unconventional relationship to belief and faith is entertainingly portrayed in her Missionary Man song. 

To close, a delightful, powerful mixture of cosmic blessings highlighting the contrast between instinct and forethought, ambition and presence, depths and heights, imbues Annie Lennox with talent, drive, compassion, and a most gloriously authentic self-expression. I feel blessed and humbled to have listened to that little bird that drew me into her dazzling existence.