By Elizabeth Michaud
Robin Williams died Monday in his California home at the age of 63. His death has been confirmed to be a suicide.
It’s important to recognize that no astrology can explain or predict suicide. And many people will have similar natal placements or transits as someone who takes their own life, without ever considered doing that themselves. It is however worth looking at the astrology to discern what can be learned, in the spirit of understanding the human condition and understanding emotional pain before it manifests in an extreme way.
Astrology interpretation is always an opinion. With that in mind, let’s take a look at his charts.
Williams’ natal chart (viewable here, along with the chart for his death) is evocative of a boundless intensity, one that at times consumed his ability to cope. The volatile yet passionate conjunction of Mars and Uranus in Cancer was a driving force for his creativity, but also spoke of an internalized struggle to find security. Williams had battled alcohol and drug addiction, and also had been diagnosed with depression (and possibly bipolar disorder). His rapid-fire and erratic humor masked a world of sorrow below.
The water element permeating his chart indicates his fluid and intuitive nature. But a real key into his reach is Chiron at the same degree as the Galactic Core, the center of our Milky Way galaxy that functions as a “cosmic homing signal.”
That conjunction, in combination with some other placements, connected Williams with what Eric has described as a “life-or-death struggle with faith” — something driving him at the soul level. He was in touch with another world, and seems to have had difficulty reconciling it with the confines of this one. It may be that embodying that schism and bringing it to the public through his performances was the core of his purpose in being here. Williams’ personal vulnerability touched a chord in audiences worldwide, as viewers couldn’t help but open up to his awkward and hyper wit, a thin veneer over the depth of sensitivity he grappled with.
Born July 21, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, Williams grew up in Michigan with his mother, a former model, and father, a senior executive at Ford Motor Company. He attended a private all-boys high school until the family moved to Marin County, California in the late 1960s.