Category Archives: Addiction

All Aboard !

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 Iron Man, Ozzy Osbourne

A new friend (microbiologist) asked me to look up Ozzy and expound upon his longevity as found in the OZ natal chart.  We had a curious discussion about Ozzy’s career, a near fatal crash on a 4 -wheeler, hams flying across the fence at loud neighbors, and Ozzy’s genome being studied.  See the TEDMED genome talk here.  Speaking of his resiliency, hilarious as usual, Sharon says, ” I have always said, at the end of the world there will be roaches, Ozzy and Keith Richards.”

I like Ozzy, an old friend of mine was an Ozzy / Sabbath freak so I grew up hearing lots and lots of him.  All my Ozzy is on cassette and a bit draggy, the one Sabbath record I had was so party worn it was in another bands sleeve with a piece of notebook paper slapped on the front that said Sabbath in black sharpie.  I know who has it – did it start their vinyl mania – ? – haha I like to think so.  x

Well, of course, for longevity, it helps to have a decent amount of Capricorn or Saturn.  He does.  Mars tightly conjunct Jupiter in Capricorn and Moon (not conjunct).  All three trine Saturn in Virgo.  Mars is exalted in Capricorn, while conjunct Jupiter which expands what it touches – Ozzy has energy and a lot of it – Mars in Capricorn is like time -release capsules of energy, lol.  It means stamina and energy over the long haul, climbing Denali type obstacles one step at a time.

Ozzy is a Sagittarius with Mercury and Chiron oriental (rising before Sun) both of which square Saturn which causes friction and restriction with the mind (Ozzy has dyslexia)and ego – negative thinking, tendency to melancholy, low self- esteem that sort of thing.
(In the TEDTALK above, Ozzy mentions a hindered sense of smell, which Mercury rules.)  His ace in the hole – Pluto the metamorph trines his Sagittarius Sun from Leo, he has heart and the strength of will to overcome any difficulty through perseverance.

Drug use, well that is Neptune square Moon and Mars in Capricorn, and Capricorn is long-term.  Clean and sober now, Ozzy has survived 40 years of abuse.  Neptune sextiles Sun and Pluto (which trine each other), so the opportunity to pull through and regenerate is right there in his natal.  Sun is life – trine Plutonic regeneration.

Scorpio Venus sextiles Moon, Mars and Jupiter in Capricorn; as well as Saturn in Virgo.  Obviously Sharon is a major positive influence in his life, he credits her for saving him when she offered to become his manager in the late 70’s.  Ozzy’s Venus trines his 29th degree Uranus in Gemini.  Hilarious.  Venus (wife, Sharon) tossed a leg of ham (odd and frankly hilarious) at the neighbors (Gemini) for being loud and annoying.  Classic.  It’s here if you wanna watch – F bombs galore, etc… – nsfw, this is the Osbournes after all, so fair warning.

Also Ozzy’s Uranus in Gemini is a help to the Saturn square to Mercury because Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, placed in the sign Mercury rules.  He is communicator, albeit an unusual one, known for being a bit eccentric.

Case in point: When transiting Mars was coming to conjunct his natal Neptune (Jan ’82)which squares his natal Mars and Moon, we had the bat incident.  Mars is bite; Uranus, bats (sonar + flight), Neptune is illusion – and Ozzy bit the head off a bat someone threw onstage and had to undergo a series of painful preventative rabies shots.  It qualifies as something Uranian, or unusual, and the rumor (Gemini) was a wild one !  Neptune sextiles both his Sun and Pluto – so he did garner one hell of a rep, lol.  Ozzy thought it was plastic, ( Neptune, oy ! bad Neptune ) bit the head off and of course, Uranus rules surprises !  Poor guy, you know afterwards his Mercury square Saturn wonders wtf was I thinking ?!  …eh, everyone makes mistakes. !

Hang tough Ozzy, we love ya

peace out
gneissmoonastrology.net

appetite for instruction

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Michael Andrew “Duff” McKagan

One of the first things I did was go to the grocery store to buy food. It was a novel idea at the time, for I hadn’t really shopped for food in about 10 years. Now here I was, 30 years old, and probably doing the first good grocery shopping in my life. I was an adult with a credit card, a checkbook, and an ATM card. I could buy whatever I wanted in the store, but I had no idea where to start. I thought that everyone was staring at me. It had been so long that I had been anywhere sober that I didn’t know how to act or how to deal.

It was like being on LSD. The lights in the store were blaringly bright to me and the music seemed to be playing hidden messages. I bought some milk and barbecue sauce and cigarettes, and that is all. My shirt was drenched in sweat and I was having a full-blown panic attack. As I drove my car home, I stiffly steered my machine out of the way of three accidents as I rode the brakes the whole way. I could smell my brake pads when I got home.

~Duff McKagan, on his sobriety from “It’s so Easy and other lies” (click here)
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Duff McKagan rose to fame as bassist for Guns ‘N’ Roses in 1987, when the band released Appetite for Destruction.  
It is is the highest selling debut album of all time in the US, with more than 28 million copies sold worldwide.

Next year’s class of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be headlined by Guns N’ Roses, the only group on the ballot to be inducted in their first year of eligibility.  Click here for Cleveland R&RHoF

I’ve been reading Duff McKagan’s autobiography and obviously GN’R partied, but I had no idea how far it had gone for Duff personally.  He is brutally honest, candid and wryly funny in his accounts of his life as bassist of GN’R.

On May 10, 1994, Duff’s pancreas burst and he was told by his doctor if he had one more drink he would die.  He spent two weeks in the hospital recovering and taking small steps in the early stages of detox.  He credits his sobriety in large part to guilt over seeing his mother suffering from worry while he was in critical care.

He describes his recovery from addiction through a love of mountain biking, and his voracious appetite for reading.  He began to write columns for Seattle Weekly, and later many other publications.  For Seattle Weekly McKagan archives, click here.

While in recovery Duff read GN’R financial documents and found he couldn’t understand them.  He decided to enroll in financial accounting courses (got an A in his first class) and discovered his love of academics.  He earned a 4.0 and was on the President’s list, quite an achievement from the earlier addictions he describes in his book.  When he saw a need for musicians to be educated about their financial holdings and business deals, it lead him to start his own wealth management firm, Meridian Rock, to educate musicians and give them the power to make good business decisions on their own behalf.

Duff is a 9 life path, meaning he is in a lifetime of completion.  Nine is the culminated knowledge of all the numbers before it, and is a number of utopian ideals.  Nines are spiritual and often have a lifetime of overcoming difficulties.  They learn how to succeed themselves, in order to teach the world how to do the same.  (I’m a nine too.)
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This is a solar chart, I don’t have the correct birth time, so keep in mind the planets in signs remain the same, houses may change.  

First off, I was struck by how Duff has several difficult fixed (ingrained over several lifetimes) squares (inner conflict, obstacles)  involving the Sun (ego, spirit) and Moon (feelings, fluctuation) – they are the luminaries, the conscious (Sun), and unconscious (Moon).
Hopes (Sun) and Dreams (Moon) forming an obstacle to one another.

Moon and Neptune in Scorpio are quiet, secretive and perceptive, if they do not find stimulation, (speaking from my personal experience here; and Duff speaks of facing it in the ring)  they can turn the Scorpio stinger on themselves to feel something, anything.

Moon (habits, instincts) conjunct Neptune can mean addiction in its low vibration, or spiritual healing at its highest vibration.  This conjunction is intuitive, and feels the cosmos coming in.  It is a conjunction that can bring mystical emotions, heightened perceptions, illusions, daydreams and imagination into the waking life 24/7.

Note also the asteroid Dionysus 3671 is opposite Sun and Mars and square Neptune.  Dionysus is symbolic not only of wine and merriment, but also of the sharp pruning of the vine in order for it to bear the best fruit.   Sun (life, spirit), Mars (the blade) and Saturn (pruning) conjunction in Aquarius has indeed led to the bearing of Duff’s best life / fruit.

Coupled with a hedonistic Sun / Mars conjunction in square ( inner tension ) to the often delusional energies of Neptune, that’s one heck of an obstacle.  Sun conjunct Mars is raw power, tempered by Saturn (the tester, restriction, karma) the need to restrict and rein in the wild tendencies inherent to the nature of Aquarius.  That trio of planets in Aquarius, is in itself a hurdle.

Here’s his ace in the hole : Mercury trine Uranus.  Mercury is thinking; Uranus intuition and innovation.  Mercury in good aspect to Uranus is the sign of genius, a quick study.   The mental faculties are very sharp and capable of radical trail-blazing ideas.  Through his love of learning (Mercury is study and is sextile {opportunity} Venus, love) he transformed his life (Sun) his habits, (Moon conjunct Neptune) and his creativity, his love and spiritual health (Venus exalted in Pisces) all by taking the opportunity (sextiles) to learn and stimulate his intellect.

He also took the opportunity (sextile) to keep actively busy through sports (Mars), higher education (Jupiter), and he continually pushes his endurance (Aries) physically in order to improve his self-esteem (Sun).

Duff’s North Node of Destiny is in Cancer, the sign of nurturing.  Once he got himself on his feet, he will push ahead helping others too.  Now Duff is strong in heart, mind, body, and spirit and has a loving family.   He is, by building (Saturn rules building, the earth and rocks)  Meridian Rock  (perfect name- I love it !) reaching out to help his fellow musicians learn how to handle their finances so they can take care of themselves too.
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Very quickly I want to say a few words about the day Duff was admitted into the hospital with a burst pancreas.  Moon rules the pancreas, and conjunct Neptune in the natal, it can indicate a weakness.  If circumstances in the life and transits activate it, trouble may arise.  Duff speaks in his book of alcoholism and drug use spiraling out of control, and that will further weaken the body.
Transiting Sun 19 Taurus (life-force) was opposite (call for compromise) Moon 19 / Neptune 17 conjunction (addiction) in Scorpio (the house of death and rebirth).  Transiting Moon was also nearing opposition at 11 Taurus.  Transiting Neptune was conjunct natal Mercury (which is trine Uranus in the natal – that’s a wake up call !)   Transiting Pluto and North Node of Destiny were conjunct in Scorpio as well – a call for transformation, rebirth, and rising to meet your destiny.
Ohm mani padme hum

Duff’s band, Loaded released their 3rd studio album, The Taking, earlier this year, see the video below for an acoustic version of Flatline.


namaste~
gneissmoonastrology.net

blind spot

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Popped cork.  Pitchfork.  Tuning fork.  Mystical torque.

Lucky Lucky Late Leos get another baptism in the waters of Neptune.
Via Opposition. Other.
Venus smoosh Saturn is trine Neptune.  Sun conjunct Mercury opposite Uranus and it looks like I am gonna pop the cork on Neptune, fuq yeah.
Moon opposite Jupiter and the time is ripe, it surfaces.

First things first.  I have natal Neptune in Scorp on the 11th – that means you, You and YOU see me suffer and squirm under the microscope.  That Neptune is squaring my Heart in Leo on the 8th – specifically, Venus conjunct Jupiter.  Both of which are presently in a stranglehold with Neptune again.
I’m gonna tell you straight up, it’s a bitch. *

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Scorpios DO the penetrating, they hate being exposed  to the crowd, their weaknesses on public display in broad daylight, no less.  Neptuning fork turned onto itself in Leo is heartless, cruel and selfish – The Will bent and twisted to wield power over others.  It is the absolute refusal  to give up the shiny object, come death and  re-birth, the shiny ‘mine’ will still be clutched tightly  in the talons.

It is self-delusion, self-deception, and escapism to the microscopic Scorpionic degree of depths that only the soul knows.  The belief that going dark cave deep in a haze of addiction will keep the secret sorrows hidden from others is truly an unconscious desperation that they will be hidden from the self.  Over-sensitivity to the environs due to an overactive Neptune in Scorpio can lead to irrational fear of others, self-induced seclusion and a flat-out refusal to face life.

A Scorped up Neptuned Leo WILL obsess over the soulless meatsack staring back from the mirror.  It will poke, provoke and power the ugly thing with unswerving penetrating attention, willing it to rise for yet another death.  It is a power struggle to the death – internal vs. external – the need to transform fighting the need to fixate.  It is the deeply ingrained fixed habits of many lifetimes – the WILL carved so deeply it turns on itself to find the source of the offense and root it out.

Strangled Leo is Plutonic sexual desire metamorphosed and warped, a lack of willpower and reckless gambling of the heart and soul of self and others.  It is vain pride, mining for energy from others, taking – always taking without giving.  It is intolerance of others who do not share the same beliefs, the instinctive Scorpionic need to control – twisted to manipulate the other, a vampirism of the unconscious self and others in the collective.

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Solution ?
Quit being a puss.  Suck it up, sweetheart – quit giving yourself a free pass out of anything difficult.  Be honest with yourself and others.  Use your WILL POWER for healthy thoughts and deeds.  Channel the inner energy to EVOLVE instead of control and manipulate.  Say kind things to yourself in the quiet moments.  Go through EVERY letter in the alphabet and choose a groovy word starting with that letter to describe yourself.  Now do it AGAIN and AGAIN choosing a different word each time.  Open your heart, fear keeps the friends out too.  Speak your kind thoughts aloud.   Train your attention – feed the things that make you feel good about yourself.
Be mindful of your thoughts.  Focus on the positive.
I love you and I have excellent taste.  You dig ?
Now quit fucking around and use your talents wisely – you are brilliant – shine.

* (Being In Total Control of Herself)

~The divine in me greets the divine in you.
gneissmoonastrology.net