Jackie Collins: wild child does Hollywood

Although her sister Joan achieved fame first, Jackie Collins found her own path and ultimately worked her niche as romance novelist to achieve blockbuster status. Along the way, many of her highly popular novels, eg, The Stud, The Bitch, Hollywood Wives, and many more, were made into movies and TV series, for most of which she also wrote the scripts. Her books have sold more than 500 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages.

Jackie Collins’ dad was a theatrical agent whose clients at one time or another included Tom Jones and the Beatles. The sisters were thus introduced early on to the world of stage and cinema. As a consequence, Jackie met and had a brief affair with a 29-year-old Marlon Brando when she was still a teenager. Although she went to a posh private school for girls in London, she was a bit of a wild child and was expelled at age 15.

Although Jackie aspired at first to be an actor like her sister, even following Joan to Hollywood to appear in several low-budget movies and TV shows, she eventually abandoned that career path and switched to writing. After several years of learning the craft, her first published book, The World is Full of Married Men, came out when she was 21. Although romance novelist Barbara Cartland called the book “nasty, filthy and disgusting”, the novel went on to become a bestseller. Jackie was on her way…

Jackie was born October 4, 1937, at 3:00 AM in London. Her chart contains multiple positive yogas reflecting her talent, fame and subsequent wealth. First off, she has three Dharma-Karma Adhipati yogas, formed by the association or mutual aspect of kendra and trikona lords.

The most powerful of these, and in fact the only one of the three that qualifies as a true Raja yoga, is that formed by the association of 4th lord Mars with 5th lord Jupiter in the 5th house. Its strength arises from the consequence of Jupiter being swarashi, while its placement in the 5th house reflects her interest in, and creative contribution to, the world of arts and entertainment.

The other two DKA yogas do not rise to the level of Raja yogas, but are nonetheless substantive. In the first, lagnesh Sun and 7th lord Saturn are in mutual aspect across the axis of the 2nd and 8th houses. The Sun is ordinary, but Saturn is strong by virtue of being retrograde. In the second, 7th lord Saturn and 9th lord Mars are in sambandha (strong relation) by virtue of their special mutual aspects. Mars is ordinary, Saturn strong.

Her horoscope also boasts two robust Dhana yogas. Note that, for Leo lagna, Mercury is lord of both money houses, the 2nd and 11th. Thus, the association of lagnesh with Mercury creates two strong Dhana yogas, since Mercury is exalted in Virgo. The fact that the yogas also occur in the 2nd house is icing on the cake.

Incidentally, the association of her Sun and Mercury also creates Budhaditya yoga. This occurs, not just because of the Sun/Mercury pairing which is common enough in itself, but because one or the other of them provides a vital link to the lagna (reflecting the Self) or the 5th house (reflecting the intelligence). In this case, it’s the Sun’s lordship of the lagna that qualifies the yoga, while Mercury’s exaltation renders it powerful.

One of the signatures for authorship is a strong 2nd house, reflecting possession of information, knowledge or “something to say.” The other signature is a strong 5th house, reflecting intelligence and creativity. In Jackie’s case, she has both. Her 2nd lord Mercury is swarashi in the 2nd, and forms Budhaditya plus two Dhana yogas with the Sun. Meanwhile, her 5th lord Jupiter is swarashi in the 5th, and forms Raja yoga with Mars.

Seeing these two natural benefics, Mercury and Jupiter, strong and well-placed should prompt the astute student of jyotish to look further and see whether the remaining benefic, Venus, is also strong. Although it’s not readily obvious, closer inspection of her Venus in the lagna (itself an indicator of artistic inclination) reveals that Venus is swa nakshatra. Although Saraswati yoga can be created with a strong Jupiter in a positive house, and at least one other natural benefic similarly dignified, in Jackie’s horoscope she seems to have won an astrological trifecta, with all three benefics strong and well-placed.

Last but not least, the Moon and Jupiter in mutual kendras creates Kesari yoga. Although the Moon is dark, Jupiter is powerful in its own sign. This pattern creates the “shmooze factor” so valued in teachers, consultants of every variety, and social networkers. To quote Jackie, “If you wish to be successful, there is a place you should be at a certain time. And Los Angeles in the 1980s was it.” While living in the hills above Sunset Boulevard, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, Collins collected the anecdotes and background to write her most commercially successful novel, Hollywood Wives.

Although Jackie admitted being a “juvenile delinquent” and a “wild child” in her younger years, she ultimately embraced marriage three times over, yet suffered personal loss in each of them. Her first marriage was at age 23 and lasted only four years, when she chose to separate from her husband who’d become addicted to drugs for manic depression. At age 28 she married again, this time to a man 18 years her senior, owner of an art gallery and London’s famous nightclub, Tramp. Although their marriage lasted 27 years, he died in 1992 of prostate cancer. At age 57 she married a third time, only to see that husband die four years later of brain cancer.

In her horoscope, 7th lord Saturn occupies the 8th house and is afflicted, not only by natural malefics Sun and Mars, but also by the Moon whose dark phase renders it problematic. In addition, the Moon is the 12th lord of loss. Indeed, three of her horoscope’s grahas are in a Moon nakshatra. Thus, according to Nadi principles, one third of her planetary periods – dashas or bhuktis – will invoke results on behalf of that loss-making Moon.

But since the Moon rules the 12th house, it also rules sex, and that’s certainly a vein of human behavior that Jackie successfully mined in her 32 novels. Despite Barbara Cartland, romance author of yesteryear, railing against Collins’s early work, accusing her of pandering to every pervert in Britain, Jackie’s formula of jet-setting heroines in torrid romances with married men has left her laughing all the way to the bank.

There’s little doubt that Jackie enjoyed a normal, if not varied, sex life. When asked in 2011, long after the death of her third husband, whether she was dating anyone, Jackie said, “I have a man for every occasion.” Whether she was being facetious or not, her horoscope reveals a classic passion combination wherein the romantic Moon is in mutual aspect with lusty Saturn. Both grahas are in exaggerated condition – the Moon dark, Saturn retrograde – thus providing them the necessary “juice” to manifest in life. Between the two, they activate all of the sexual bhavas – the Moon by lordship of the 12th, Saturn by lordship of the 7th and occupation of the 8th.

Her life, and indeed her entire creative output through novels, films and TV series might be summed up in a quote from 2015, the same year she died of breast cancer. “There are so many bad boys out there, especially in Hollywood. And yes, I know so many of them. I loved writing about them, and you love reading about them. Unfortunately, that type attracts many young, naive girls who don’t know better, but I do. With age comes experience.”

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Alan Annand studied with Hart deFouw. He’s a graduate of the American College of Vedic Astrology and a former tutor for the British Faculty of Astrological Studies.

He’s also the author of several books. Kala Sarpa is a first-of-its-kind reference text on a unique pattern in jyotisha that is not discussed in shastra yet is part of India’s rich oral tradition. Stellar Astrology, Volumes 1-3 offer a wealth of time-tested techniques via 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 jyotisha.

Aside from his Montreal-based crime novels, his New Age Noir crime series (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.