Jimi Hendrix
by Adam Smith
(page 3 of 3)For some, Jimi's compositions are harsh and dissonant, difficult to listen to. But the sensitive Little Wing, for example, astonishes scholarly musicians with its strange, complex, yet flowing chord-melody. Mastery of this stellar song has become every bedroom guitarist's benchmark, as much as the opening bars of Stairway to Heaven. The best of his onstage recordings are where Jimi comes into his own, however. The extended live improvisations show someone grounded in a blues and soul tradition, yet utterly original, making the music completely his own. The unexpected Uranian twists and turns, the sense of man and guitar being at one defy any mere copyist.
Can genius be located in the horoscope? No. The clues astrology gives are only of the outward manifestation of genius, its particular type and character. Jimi Hendrix will be remembered for his incredible free-flowing style that seemed to come from a different dimension. The frizzy hair, flowing clothes and upside-down Stratocaster, have become 20th Century icons, up there with Marlon, Marilyn and Che. Mentioning Jimi Hendrix's name is not only to recall the ferocious music, but to conjure up the 60s zeitgeist, an exotic ambience of freedom, sex, style and spontaneity. In novelist Michael Moorcock's words, 'only Jimi could make a guitar come alive in that way, turning the machine into an organic creature, simultaneously a woman, a white horse, a sliding snake'. Though his playing has passed into the vocabulary of virtually every guitarist since his time, his individuality and sheer genius stand alone.Notes
1. ‘Double Sagittarian’ – His Sun-sign also rising sign, i.e. his Ascendant in Sag.
2. ‘Stellium’ – Sun, Mercury and Venus were all together within 5°.
3. ‘When he turned down the volume, like in hotel rooms, and was forced to play very quietly, his music was like running water. It was dreamy and fluid with whispering singing lines. Very introspective and poetic.’ Paul Caruso on Jimi Hendrix, Jimpress, Oct 2000.
4. ‘Absence of earth’ – i.e., no planets in Taurus, Virgo or Capricorn, the Earth-signs.
5. That opposition SA-UR was then crossing over his MC-IC axis.
6. For comparison, Hendrix’s natal Venus was conjunct Antares, ‘Heart of the Scorpion’ at 9° Sagittarius, as too was William Blake’s natal Sun.
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_HendrixStar-Axis: Antares, 9º SAG 2', his Venus 7º SA 36.' Aldebaran 8º GEM 58', his Saturn 9º GE 22'
Jimi on Drugs:
‘I have to say that if you become dependent on drugs for better experiences, they destroy your spiritual potential. A state of alertness is really essential. To enjoy a concert, for an example, the audience should put just as much into enjoying a concert as a musician might do in playing for them, You can be possessed by a voodoo of sounds. In biblical times, fasting was a method of preparedness for the acceptance of the divine spiritual light. But truth, peace and love are the true paths that we should walk. Not the drug trail, because that only leads to a dead end. If you are true believers, destiny will show you the way.’ (Jimi Hendrix Starchild Curtis Knight 1992)About Adam Smith
Adam is a London based astrologer, previous editor of the Astrological Journal and has a website AstroBoogie.
© Adam Smith 2006
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