Navamsa

Paris Jackson’s name turned up on social media last month when TMZ reported that she’d allegedly made a suicide attempt back in February. She vehemently denied this, but it’s not the first time she’s been in similar circumstances. Can astrology confirm or deny a rumor such as this?

Normal people don’t understand depression, let alone the extreme act of ending one’s suffering by choosing death. But in the past year there’ve been a spate of high-profile suicides, most of which baffle us. In 2018 there were the suicides of fashion accessory designer Kate Spade, and of celebrity TV chef Anthony Bourdain. And just a month ago there was the suicide of renowned economist Alan Krueger who rose to prominence in the Obama administration.

Astrologically, suicide is sometimes seen as a consequence of a difficult Mars/Saturn placement, either conjoined or mutually opposed across the 1st/7th house axis (because that involves the physical body), or across the 6th/12th house axis (because that involves personal malaise and self-undoing), or across the 4th/10th house axis (especially with Mars in the 10th and Saturn in the 4th, from which position they both aspect the ascendant).

There are, of course, other combinations that could reflect self-harm, but those involving Mars and Saturn are classic, since Mars signifies violence in some form, while Saturn is the karaka for death itself. Needless to say, these two planets alone are often insufficient to make the case for self-harm, and there typically needs to be some connection to the 1st (self), the 4th (one’s happiness or lack thereof), and the 12th house (the self’s undoing).

Paris Jackson was born at 6:26 AM PST on April 3rd, 1998, in Los Angeles, California. She was the second child and only daughter of Michael Jackson and his then-wife Deborah Rowe.

The first thing one might note of her chart is that the kendras are empty. There is a piece of jyotish folk wisdom that says, a person with empty kendras will never make a mark in life, because they can’t get their hands on the wheel, and are therefore incapable of steering themselves in any direction.

Although empty kendras should give us pause for thought, we must be wary of rushing to judgment. Some highly accomplished people, eg, the inventor of the AC electrical system, Nikola Tesla, and rock star Jon Bon Jovi, also had empty-kendra charts, so there are certainly exceptions. So on that score, let’s hold that thought, and see what else arises from a closer look at this chart.

Speaking of empty houses, the astute observer may note that the southwest half of the chart is empty, a consequence of the chart being bisected by the Rahu-Ketu axis, and (almost) all of the planets on one side of the nodal axis. This is a Class 4 Kala Sarpa configuration in which one or more planets (Venus in this case) may lie outside the nodal axis without leaving the sign in which one of the nodes is resident.

Kala Sarpa is a bit like a double-edged sword, oftentimes bequeathing talent and good fortune, or dogging the native with misery and misfortune, sometimes both. In this case, the bias starts on the yoga (positive) side, since both prime benefics Jupiter and Venus lie on the nodal axis, and no other planet is associated with or even aspects either node.

However, both nodal dispositors (Sun and Saturn) are in the 12th house, and that gives this Kala Sarpa a nudge toward dosha, or negative results for the native. That inclination becomes compounded when we notice that Mars and Saturn are in graha yuddha. And it becomes especially pertinent when we further note that Mars is lagnesh.

Whenever the lagnesh of a chart goes to the 12th house, it’s a bit of a red flag to raise concerns about (a) addictions, (b) sexual issues, and (c) losing one’s way in life. Of course the 12th house has positive associations too, eg, charity, spirituality and travel, but with so many malefics in weakened condition here, it’s genuine cause for concern.

As so often happens in a Kala Sarpa configuration when planets are restricted to one half of the chart, several planets will often bunch up in one or more clusters. When four or more planets, ie, counting luminaries and planets but not the nodes, collect in one sign this forms Pravrajya yoga. It’s typically an indicator of concentration in some area of life whose theme may arise from the house itself, or from that of the strongest planet therein.

Since the 12th house embraces so many themes, eg, the “bed pleasures” of sleep and sex, addictions, charity, expenses, incarceration, immigration, suicide, spirituality, travel, etc, we can only speculate for the moment which of these many possibilities might be part of her karma.

As sometimes happens within a cluster or “stellium” of planets, their crowding into one sign may precipitate a case of planetary war, as happens here between Mars and Saturn. Since these two are traditional enemies with antithetical natures, eg, active vs lethargic, hot vs cold, impulsive vs controlled, etc, their association or opposition are usually problematic unless one is clearly stronger than the other.

In this case, neither has any significant dignity in Pisces (Mars in a friend’s sign is trivial). Worse, they’re both weakened by graha yuddha. Planetary war occurs when any two of the true planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn) lie within one degree of arc from each other, no matter whether the cusp of a sign lies between. Symbolically, they crowd each other’s space and struggle for supremacy. And even though there’ll technically be a winner – by virtue of brightness, greater northern declination or higher zodiacal longitude – it’s a bit like two heavyweight boxers going a full 15 rounds. By the end of the fight, there may be a winner, but both fighters are bone-weary and seriously damaged.

In this case, lagnesh Mars has gone to the 12th house where it associates with the Sun and a debilitated Mercury, and competes in planetary war with Saturn. The fact that it’s gandanta (first degree of a fire sign or last degree of a water sign, simultaneously on the cusp of both signs and nakshatras) just compounds matters.

To tease out the likely cause, manifestation or consequence of planetary war, we can always start by considering the people in the life of the native. Lagnesh Mars represents Paris. Its war is with Saturn, lord of the 10th and 11th. If we start from the family and work out way outwards, we can take the 11th house for elder siblings, of which she has just one, Prince. Sibling rivalry is a commonplace dynamic, so that’s one possible source of her angst. Further on out into her social circle, the 11th also represents friends. Perhaps she’s been betrayed by friends, or feels unable to meet the expectations of her social circle. Expanding our orbit, we can also consider Saturn as lord of the 10th, wherein it may stand for authority figures with whom she might have locked horns.

We can also take a different approach to all this by considering the Jaimini karakas. Mars as the planet with the highest zodiacal longitude is the Atmakaraka (AK), or significator of the Self. It’s a bit of a coincidence that Mars is already lagnesh signifying the same thing, but that just gives it confluence. Meanwhile, Saturn as the planet with the second highest zodiacal longitude is the Amatyakaraka (AmK), or significator of the career. Coincidentally, Saturn is already the 10th lord, but that too gives our earlier idea some traction.

To date, Paris has tried her hand at acting, modeling and music, but so far hasn’t managed to make a success of anything in particular. In all fairness, she’s only 21, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of. But her father was a major pop star in his teens, so she stands in a lengthy shadow. Between some psychological need to outshine her brother, or to live up to the expectations of her social circle, or simply to find her professional niche in life, the frustrations of butting her head against a wall (Mars vs Saturn) might at times seem overwhelming.

Does her chart illuminate an appropriate path for her?

Aside from Kala Sarpa and Pravrajya, her chart reveals multiple yogas. For instance, there are several Dharma Karma Adhipati yogas contained within her 12th house cluster. As lord of the 1st, Mars combines with 5th lord Sun and 10th lord Saturn. And 5th lord Sun joins with 10th lord Saturn. But these DKA yogas, although technically present, are weak since all of them involve a planet impaired by graha yuddha. The same weakness is true of the two Dhana yogas formed by 11th lord Saturn with trinal lords Sun and Mars.

On the other hand, the Dharma Karma Adhipati yoga formed by 7th lord Venus and 9th lord Jupiter is not impaired by any obvious weakness. Admittedly, this is the weakest of the DKA yogas, and it’s spoiled by association with the nodal axis, but this may only reflect an eclectic social circle. The Venus/Jupiter pair also forms a Dhana yoga, since Venus rules the 2nd and Jupiter the 9th.

She also has a Dainya Parivartana yoga, a mutual reception or sign exchange of 11th lord Saturn and 12th lord Jupiter. Theoretically, this could relieve her graha yuddha, but it depends on how you visualize the exchange. The first way is to imagine the two planets – Jupiter and Saturn – exchanging places degree-for-degree by stepping directly into the position of the other. So Saturn would move to 19AQ56, and Jupiter would move to 28PI15. But in that case, Jupiter would now be in graha yuddha with Mars. Since Jupiter is also the 9th lord, the planetary war would imply a problematic issue with respect to the father.

The second way to exchange positions is to imagine each planet taking its own degree into the other sign. Under this scenario, Saturn would take its own degree (28:15) into Aquarius, while Jupiter would take its own degree (19:56) into Pisces. But now, even though Jupiter would avoid planetary war with Mars, it would become totally combust with the Sun that sits at 19PI48. Consider again the implications of a 9th lord totally combust. So it’s something of a damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don’t situation.

In either of these two scenarios, other hypothetical considerations arise. By swapping Jupiter and Saturn, we’d now have Saturn on the nodal axis. Thus, by removing the prime benefic and replacing it with the prime malefic, we’d have thrown a virtual switch converting her Kala Sarpa from a yoga to a dosha. This in turn has ramifications for 5th and 11th house issues (the nodal axis), causing some degree of difficulty with respect to intellectual acumen, creative capacity and the prospect for children.

Speaking of creativity, that’s already somewhat impaired, since 5th lord Sun has gone to the 12th where it’s afflicted by Mars and Saturn. Perhaps Paris doesn’t have the same creative spark as her father did. Certainly she wouldn’t seem to have sufficient drive and/or discipline to make it happen. Quite aside from lagnesh Mars being frustrated by war with Saturn, there are other challenges.

In her chart, lagnesh, Sun and Moon are all in dvisvabhava rashis. In fact, five out of nine planets are in dual signs, which can spell ambivalence, indecision, procrastination and self-doubt. Furthermore, Mercury is perhaps the weakest planet in her chart, because (although retrograde) it’s debilitated and moderately combust, and afflicted by Mars and Saturn. Since Mercury owns the 3rd (desire, passion, talent) and the 6th (competition, routine), it’s likely that she lacks the necessary drive to devote herself to the rigors of a world-class performance that could secure her a lasting career.

If we conduct a career analysis from the point of udayalagna, chandralagna and suryalagna, looking at the most influential planet(s) from those three perspectives, we find that Jupiter is the most promising. This might suggest a game plan going forward, which could include (1) seeking trusted guidance via therapist, mentor and/or guru, (2) a strategic withdrawal from “celebrity society” in favor of a rehab clinic and/or spiritual retreat, (3) judicious weaning of friends and associates to reflect her higher social values, and (4) ultimate devotion to some form of not-for-profit charity work.

As of July 2018, Paris is in her Saturn dasha. Since Saturn is in planetary war with lagnesh Mars, she and her family have reason to be concerned about her well-being. And because any period lord will first and foremost deliver results on behalf of its nakshatra lord, we must take note of Mercury’s status. Recall that it is, aside from the Mars/Saturn pair in graha yuddha, perhaps the weakest and least stable planet in her chart.

Saturn bhukti runs until the summer of 2021, after which Mercury bhukti kicks in. Since Mercury is swa nakshatra, it is doubly inclined to give its own results during its period. As weak as it is, the prospects are worrisome.

The clock is ticking. One can only hope that Paris gets the counsel and care that she needs before entering this perilous period.

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For a discussion of the salient features of Paris Jackson’s chart, follow this link to YouTube and subscribe to my channel.

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Alan Annand studied with Hart de Fouw, and is a graduate of the American College of Vedic Astrology. He’s also a former tutor for the British Faculty of Astrological Studies, and the author of several books.

Kala Sarpa is a first-of-its-kind reference book on a unique pattern in jyotish that is not discussed in shastra yet is part of India’s rich oral tradition.

Stellar Astrology, Volumes 1 & 2, offer a wealth of time-tested techniques in the form of biographical profiles, analyses of world events, and technical essays. Parivartana Yoga is a reference text for one of the most common yet powerful planetary combinations in jyotish. His Mutual Reception is an expanded companion volume written for western practitioners, covering the same subject of planetary exchange through the lens of traditional astrology.

His New Age Noir crime novels (Scorpio Rising, Felonious Monk, Soma County) feature astrologer and palmist Axel Crowe, whom one reviewer has dubbed “Sherlock Holmes with a horoscope.”

Websites: www.navamsa.com, www.sextile.com

You can find his books on Amazon, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.