Robin Williams Exits Stage Left

An essay by Mike Zizis —

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED August 12/14

For the record: there is absolutely no historical evidence and record of happy people becoming professional comedians.

Here we all are — the survivors. This is the first evening after the brilliant comedic light of Robin Williams was extinguished. Now we on the planet are left with just the serious faces and the passive aggressives, and Vladimir Putin.

What can be said about Mr. Williams voluntarily checking out? As an astrologer, I find that he was at the end, the very end of a long Pluto transit opposed his natal Mars. This combination is said to confer great power and recklessness.

From The Future Minders by Kim Castella: (http://www.thefutureminders.com/Pluto-transits/pluto-conjunct-mars.cfm)

Transit Pluto Opposed Mars

During this period of time, you feel a great surge of physical energy and determination to achieve your goals. Projects demand your full attention and are not without problems and frustrations. You’re capable of a great amount of hard work and will often be unaware of how much energy you’re actually expending. You may suffer from exhaustion at times, but be unwilling or unable to slow down and catch your breath. You’re driven by ambition and the promise of great rewards, and have to be very aware of your motives. Your desire for power, wealth and success may lead you to use unfair or manipulative tactics to get what you want, and you’re capable of being quite ruthless, especially if you’re normally inclined in that way. You may see any opposition as an excuse to fight, and have to deal with intense anger when things don’t go your way. You may use anger to dominate other people and bend them to your will, or have to deal with another person who’s expressing unbridled anger toward you. This will be most apparent when you’re dealing with professional partnerships or involved in negotiations and contracts. There’s great potential for coercion or intimidation and although your powers of strategy are formidable, you may meet your match. If you put yourself in dangerous situations you may be exposed to violence, and in extreme situations, be the victim of violence.

As a man, I am a survivor of both father and brother committing slow passive suicide with alcohol in the case of my father, and alcohol and drugs in the case of my slightly younger brother. I also saw the manic escape from life-long depression in Robin. I received his humour both as astounding genius and a ragged run from the black beast with every breath. As he got older that race finally exhausted the runner, and the black beast claimed its tawdry prize.

Robin was born according to the astrological web sites on July 21, 1951, at 3:21 pm Chicago, Illinois.

This is a classic birth chart of addictive substance abuse tendencies. He was born with four powerful quintiles. The primary quintiles in my belief were the ones to Chiron; Moon quintile Chiron, south node quintile Chiron, Neptune quintile Chiron, as well as Pluto quintile His Scorpio (zero degrees) ascendant.

In my craft Chiron is the symbol of how we heal from our wounds. The nature of the quintile is often expressed as a special gift brought to the world. More than three and the individual will tend to live in a self-created fantasy world. With Chiron in laugh-loving Sagittarius, Robin’s healing came thru weaving his own reality to explain a painful insane world, and moreover the pain in the body and the muscles and joints that depression brings with it — a gift that never stops giving.

Its popular myth that depression calls the mind home. The black beast loves claiming the body, soma as well as psyche; there is no place where the mind ends and the body begins. The body feels dense leaden and heavy, every daytime movement sparks the recollection of severity by way of self-judgment. And the night conjures the darkness of isolation, as well as the endless waves of more punishing memories of real and imagined misdeeds.

The birth chart sets the parameters of growth, freedoms and lessons that the person will evolve thru in this life. Buddhists stress how difficult and courageous is life in the physical form. We who incarnate on the planet will in this sense quicken our forward development.

The astrological birth chart is the logos, the light that we bring to understanding our particular journey. It also represents the timing of events. A child of three can’t in good faith be given a gigantic 777-jet liner to operate. But at five or six she can be given a crude model to fly on the ground.

Robin’s chart is rife with articulating gifts and difficulties of a particular nature. Starting with the Moon in eight degrees watery oceanic Pisces, we observe that its water’s nature to receive. The soft receptive moon in Pisces beautifully articulated Robin’s gift of mimicry. “I do voices.” Robin said. The moon placed there is sensitized to pain. The moon also yearns to merge, to end the sense of otherlessness, isolation. My father had moon in Scorpio, and my younger brother had moon in Pisces. Robin’s particular moon in Pisces was opposite complex Venus in ten degrees Virgo. These feminine planets by opposition stress the crises of self-indulgence versus caring for others. This pairing is primarily set in motion thru a needy mother.

The opposition seems, at least at first, to serve two masters, thus bringing a conflicted mind-set over humility and service symbolized by Venus (Virgo), and turning the world into play via the Moon (Pisces). Venus loves pleasure and the moon plays out repetitive emotions and actions.

Taken alone the north node was at ten degrees Virgo opposed by the south node in ten degrees Pisces. Both were conjunct Venus (north node) and Moon (south node) by one degree. From Cafe Astrology:

( http://www.cafeastrology.com/ )

The Nodes of the Moon in Astrology:

The theory behind the Nodes of the Moon (the North Node and South Node) suggests that we all come into this world with some underdeveloped and overdeveloped aspects of our character. The Nodes of the Moon point us to these specific qualities: the South Node suggests our overdeveloped character traits that are easy for us to fall back on, but that may undermine our lives if we hold on to these traits for security; while the North Node suggests the qualities that we need to develop in order to find inner balance.

The North Node and South Node points are directly opposite each other. They are not planetary bodies; rather, they are points that take into account the relationship between the Sun, Moon, and Earth at the time of our birth.

The Nodes of the Moon suggest personal karmic imbalance. Thus, consciously working on these “life lessons” can bring us to increased happiness and fulfillment. If we over-emphasize and fall back on the qualities of our South Node, at the expense of developing our North Node, we may have a difficult time feeling personally successful.

Whether or not we consciously work on these lessons, events in our lives are likely to force us to confront them. In my experience, people often begin to confront and work on their North Node lessons in their thirties, whether or not they are aware of the issues through Astrology. Before this stage of our lives, we may be somewhat blind to our South Node tendencies.

Fear is associated with South Node issues. The South Node position is very often a point of great insecurity. We very much want what is represented by the South Node position, whether that is order in our lives (South Node in Virgo/6th house) or satisfaction in partnerships (South Node in Libra/7th house). However, the only way we can feel successful in these areas is through working on the qualities of the opposite sign (North Node position). We may resist doing this quite fervently, especially in the first 30 years of our lives, partly because we cannot see that letting go of some of our obsessions, and working on the polarity, will bring satisfaction to the South Node areas. Thus, the North Node represents a point of challenge and growth. One feels somewhat awkward and uncertain in the areas represented by the North Node (its sign and house). The North Node can also be considered a point of inflow. We need help with our North Node issues, and we often meet people who will help us confront these issues.

Look to the North Node by sign and house as an area of our lives and personalities that we may neglect or avoid, possibly due to fear and resistance. The North Node can feel like the unknown to us. The house position of the North Node shows the context for these challenges, and the sign position reveals the qualities we need to develop.

Here is an excellent explanation of natal nodes in Virgo/Pisces:

( http://www.truenode.org/north-node-signs/north-node-in-virgo-south-node-in-pisces/ )

In terms of reincarnation Robin has faced an addictive nature before this life. It’s quite difficult to access the north node in some one’s chart. It symbolizes the very essence of difficulty for an adult: the beginner. Virgo is a survivor sign. Pisces south node at the other end of the opposition (the nodes are always opposed) represents the old destructive comforts and habits we bring to this life. Pisces placements tend to yearn for softening of reality’s edges. This includes the heart that bleeds for the world, and sometimes over indulgence in self-pity. In our culture we associate telling our own story with self-pity and self-censoring. This is heart breaking in its implications because we all have stories to tell.

Robin’s powerful Saturn in twenty-seven degrees Virgo cast a great shadow over his entire life. Those with this placement seem the natural inheritors of depression, severe self-judgment and perfectionism. They seem to have the market cornered on anxiety and worry worry worry.

His Mars at eleven degrees Cancer conjunct Uranus in Cancer at ten degrees powerfully expresses extroversion in contrast to the intuitive and introverted planets mentioned above. This is the ultimate reckless and explosive combination. Mars in Cancer expresses anger thru a capacitor-like building of tensions. Uranus releases any inhibition either in healthy ways like sports and martial arts or by sudden bursts of accidents and breakage seemingly ‘out of nowhere’.

Taken together Mars and Uranus in the ninth symbolizes the devoted and gifted icon breaker, the person who points out at every opportunity that the emperor ain’t wearing any clothes. The words won’t keep their secrets.

This is underscored by Robin’s Mercury (yakyakyak!) in twenty-two degrees Leo conjunct Pluto at eighteen degrees Leo in the tenth house. Pluto in Leo is a generational placement journeying thru the sign of Leo from 1941 to 1956/7. This is the defiant anti war generation.

Taken together this placement means the native speaks the unpleasant underside of truth, which can be trained to use the weapon of humour. RW called this his 2009 show; Weapons of Self Destruction … too true Robin too true.