Following the death of Amy Winehouse, it’s been widely reported that a number of musicians have died at the age of twenty-seven. Aside from Amy Winehouse and Janis Joplin, there’s Brian Jones, Jimmy Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison, to name the major ones.
We then have to ask if there is anything special about the number twenty-seven. From an astrological point of view the Moon takes just over twenty-seven days to return to the same place, as measured against the background of the stars. If one regards a day as being symbolic of a year, then we have our twenty-seven years.
However there is still the question of why musicians in particular should drop dead of unnatural causes at the end of this cycle.
When you have any cycle, you are dealing, by definition, with a beginning and an end. And in astrology the Moon is associated with the public, and the ebb and flow of public attention. Successful pop musicians will associate themselves with the public, and in the process they might lose control of their own destiny. This means, at the crudest level, that the lunar cycle might be associated with shelf life. Some people are put on this planet to satisfy a public demand, and when this demand has been satisfied it’s time to go.
Interestingly, UK reality TV star Jade Goody died at the age of 27. Or to be precise, 27 years, 9 months and 17 days. She was not a musician. But she was the ultimate and original item, a person who made her name through Big Brother. The public identified with her, and gave her fame and fortune. Yet the identification was too strong, and once tastes started to change she died.
The musical members of the 27 Club seemed to lose the plot before their deaths. They didn’t know when to stop, and they took things to extremes. This is very lunar behaviour – being at the mercy of currents beyond one’s control. As the cycle closes the behaviour becomes more extreme, and the energy that was once incredibly creative becomes fatally destructive.
Copyright © 2011 Archie Dunlop
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Amy Whinehouse, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain all had Chiron in their 7th house. Could that be something to explore?