In tonight’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I look at the charts associated with the life and death of Robin Williams, one of the most beloved actors and comedians of our times. I also comment on the nature of suicide and suicide patterns.
Here are the natal and death transit charts of Robin Williams, sourced AA from Astrodatabank. I distributed charts cast in the wrong time zone this morning to the Planet Waves lists. These are the correct charts, cast in Central Standard Time.
Thank you for your comment, Jaimie. I so agree with what you say about Eric’s exceptional treatment of such a difficult issue as suicide. I am so sorry that you suffered such terrible loss, but glad that Robin William’s death has served as a catalyst for your grieving.
There were several attempted suicides in my family – so I know the unbearable suffering it causes.
I wish you much love and care for the process you’re now going through dear Jaimie.
I just listened to this. The wee hours of the morning knocked down my resistance to doing so and I am full of lots of emotional stuff. I’ll try to limit my comment with this in mind.
My mom killed herself four years ago. The energetic & economic upheavals occurring right before the BP oil spill drove her over her edge. She was the same age as Robin when he went over his. You might think, well, four years, move on with yourself & live your life. But when one has been annihilated, it is not so easily done. Robin’s suicide has removed a layer of infected tissue from the wound of my complicated grief; I have never before felt deep grief over the death of an artist, an entertainer, a celebrity. My mom loved his work so much, and I learned to love his work at a young age because of her.
I was expecting this to be another long-winded stream of bullshit from someone who considers themself an expert on suicide. This broadcast was contrary to my expectations & helpful in a very great way to me. Thank you, Eric, for delving into this taboo territory. It is exceedingly rare to encounter someone who will address suicide at all, let alone have worked with the material in and around it intimately to come to the understandings you have. I am grateful for this work.
Fe, I am sorry for the loss of your friend. It is difficult to grieve someone who has killed themselves and requires a willingness to go into scary territory to do it, or so I have found. May you receive the support necessary to grieve your friend deeply & well.
And by Fool, I also mean God’s Clown. Our Clown. Our Truthteller. Our person without a filter, telling us the truth he/she feels authentically unfiltered.
Somehow, I think this needs to be viewed, not just as a loss, which it is, or a tragedy, which it is, but a blessing too:
Here is something I found on Wikipedia about the Fool in Tarot (the Joker) and its mystical interpretation:
“Symbolism
This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (October 2010)
The Fool is the spirit in search of experience. He represents the mystical cleverness bereft of reason within us, the childlike ability to tune into the inner workings of the world. The sun shining behind him represents the divine nature of the Fool’s wisdom and exuberance, holy madness or ‘crazy wisdom’. On his back are all the possessions he might need. In his hand there is a flower, showing his appreciation of beauty. He is frequently accompanied by a dog, sometimes seen as his animal desires, sometimes as the call of the “real world”, nipping at his heels and distracting him. He is seemingly oblivious that he is walking toward a precipice, apparently about to step off. One of the keys to the card is the paradigm of the precipice, Zero and the sometimes represented oblivious Fool’s near-step into the oblivion (The Void) of the jaws of a crocodile, for example, are all mutually informing polysemy within evocations of the iconography of The Fool. The staff is the offset and complement to the void and this in many traditions represents wisdom and renunciation, e.g. ‘danda’ (Sanskrit) of a Sanyassin, ‘danda’ (Sanskrit) is also a punctuation mark with the function analogous to a ‘full-stop’ which is appropriately termed a period in American English. The Fool is both the beginning and the end, neither and otherwise, betwixt and between, liminal.
The number 0 is a perfect significator for the Fool, as it can become anything when he reaches his destination as in the sense of ‘joker’s wild’. Zero plus anything equals the same thing. Zero times anything equals zero.[5] Zero is nothing, a lack of hard substance, and as such it may reflect a non-issue or lack of cohesiveness for the subject at hand.
Interpretations
In many esoteric systems of interpretation, the Fool is usually interpreted as the protagonist of a story, and the Major Arcana is the path the Fool takes through the great mysteries of life and the main human archetypes. This path is known traditionally in Tarot as the Fool’s Journey, and is frequently used to introduce the meaning of Major Arcana cards to beginners.[6]
In his Manual of Cartomancy, Grand Orient has a curious suggestion of the office of Mystic Fool, as a part of his process in higher divination. The conventional explanations say that The Fool signifies the flesh, the sensitive life, depicting folly at the most insensate stage. When The Fool appears in a spread, he is a signal to strip down to the irreducible core, and interrogate whether the Querant’s self-vision is obscured. It may also be a warning that significant change is coming. Another interpretation of the card is that of taking action where the circumstances are unknown, confronting one’s fears, taking risks, and so on…”
Food for thought…
Wow. Thank you Eric.
“King’s Crossing”
By Elliott Smith
The king’s crossing was the main attraction
Dominoes falling in a chain reaction
A scraping subject ruled by fear
Told me whiskey works better than beer
The judge is on vinyl, decisions are final
And nobody gets a reprieve
And every wave is tidal – if you hang around
You’re going to get wet
I can’t prepare for death any more than I already have
All you can do now is watch the shells
The game looks easy, that’s why it sells
Frustrated fireworks inside your head
Are going to stand and deliver talk instead
The method acting that pays my bills
Keeps a fat man feeding in Beverly Hills
I got a heavy metal mouth that hurls obscenity
And I get my check from the trash treasury
Because I took my own insides out
It don’t matter ‘cos I have no sex life
And all I want to do now is inject my ex-wife
I’ve seen the movie and I know what happens
It’s Christmas time, and the needles on the tree
A skinny Santa is bringing something to me
His voice is overwhelming, but his speech is slurred
And I only understand every other word
Open your parachute and grab your gun
Falling down like an omen, a setting sun
Read the part and return at five
It’s a hell of a role if you can keep it alive
But I don’t care if I fuck up
I’m going on a date with a rich white lady
Ain’t life great?
Give me one good reason not to do it
So do it
This is the place where time reverses
Dead men talk to all the pretty nurses
Instruments shine on a silver tray
Don’t let me get carried away
Don’t let me get carried away
Don’t let me be carried away
My thanks go out to you, Eric. My heart goes out to you, Fe. You are both living treasures who make me appreciate how good life really is.
I’m so sorry about your friend, Fe. ((()))
Thank you for this magnificent programme, dear Eric. Other wonderful, gifted and sensitive souls who took their lives come to mind, such as Nick Drake and David Foster Wallace.
All this has made me think about my twin brother(born last day of Cancer), who has estranged himself from the family for many years now – and it’s so hard to make contact with him. Wondering how he has been hit by the current astrology. Sending him light and love. And would love to know how it works with twins’ astrological charts.
Thank you Eric, that helps understand the depth of discomfort and even sadness I sense, from his eyes, when looking at him or his photo’s.
I am not an astrologer but learning from you and your team, I wonder how that Sunday Aquarius full super-moon hitting his whole sign 8th house (right?) may have made the call of the GC too much to not heed.
Having a similar line up to his sun-moon-ascendant, but with Gemini as sun, though I could never know what it felt like to be him, in his mind, I do have experience with the deep feelings of feeling mismatched here, that may have been an intimate and constant companion for him.
The kind of feelings that can only be healed by communing with Home, as he is right now.
For me- thank god I learned about Yoga Nidra as a child. For him- I will always remember how he made us laugh and, marvel at his genius.
I hope the GC gussyed-up for our King.
Eric:
Truly one of the most haunting and heartfelt shows I’ve heard. A friend of mine committed suicide three months ago and it still lingers, the shock felt by those of us around him has just begun to subside. He hung himself as well.