Kate Bush – an enduring talent

25 thoughts on “Kate Bush – an enduring talent”

1. Just reading a BBC article about Kate’s “Hounds of Love” album …

   https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4MmgcKBf0V13M0r8jNQPH18/8-things-you-might-not-know-about-kate-bushs-hounds-of-love-album

   She says it explores many supernatural themes that she finds creepy. That the songs express her own personal nightmares. Also that it’s about being alone in water, witch-hunting being about suppressing women’s power etc.

   But it also details the pressure she was feeling about producing the album after the relative failure of the previous one. About people not wanting her to be in control. The whole article is amazing when you put it in relation to the transits she was undergoing at the time.

   Transiting Pluto was just entering Scorpio in 84-85 when the album would have been being written. It will certaiinly have contacted her Scorpio Neptune but may also have been exposing some of the deeper fears in her Moon (which could range from about 27Cap – 10Aqua depending on time of birth). Meanwhile transiting Neptune in Capricorn would have been trining her Virgo Pluto-Mercury.

2. “Half Grand Sextile”
   What’s that? Is it always talented, or only with the particular signs and planets involved in her chart?

   I’ve always enjoyed and admired her fascinating, compelling music.

   “Running Up That Hill” came out when I was in high school. The public library had a few of the expensive, exotic new wonder machines – the CD player, with very good headphones and several albums on CD. It was a mind-expanding treat to hear this song with such clarity. Early CD players were so expensive in their early years that I couldn’t afford one til many years later, when I was in college.

   She was known for using the Fairlight Computer Music Instrument, which was groundbreaking and extremely expensive new technology then. She kept the exact, unique technique used for this song’s omininous low drone a secret for as long as she could. Other music technology enthusiasts eventually figured it out: it’s a short recording of cellos, continuously looped and played back several octaves below the actual range of a cello.

   Double checking the date on Wikipedia just now, I discovered this: “The album launch party was held at the London Planetarium on 5 September 1985, which was the first occasion when Bush and her bass player boyfriend Del Palmer officially appeared in public as a couple. The invited guests were treated to a playback of the entire album while watching a laser show inside the Planetarium.” That must have been quite the event!

   21 November 2011 album release of 50 Words for Snow includes ten minute long, gorgeous heartbreaking sounding duet “Snowflake” with her son Albert, then 13, before his voice had changed. An amazing art music piece symbolizing cycles of life and love across generations. Highly recommended. It’s the most beautiful, moving, and original piece I’ve heard of hers. (I haven’t heard everything by her.)

   • A Half Grand Sextile is formed from two trines and two sextiles, bounded by an opposition. Sextiles and trines flow energy easily and are ‘talented’ – short hand for not having to make an effort. Too many trines and sextiles are not necessarily good but they make for easier lives on the whole.

     • Many years ago, when I was very young and reading about chart shapes in an astrology book, there was no description of a half grand sextile.

       I’d attempted to roughly sketch my chart by hand and there was a (very negative) write up about my t-square.
       “But what’s this bowl shape it’s sitting in?” I thought
       “Looks like a skip! Must be even worse…” 🙂

     • Thanks Marjorie!

3. She certainly is a dark horse. She kept her son a secret and he didn’t know ‘who’ she was until as a teen a schoolfriend asked if his mother wasn’t THE Kate Bush! He then encouraged his mother to take up her career again and appeared on stage with her in 2014. A friend who saw her concert in London said it was awesome, a real mix of music, theatre and art. Which figures. A Leo stellium myself, I too cannot stand to be in the spotlight but love theatre and the arts.

4. Katrina, Kate has a Venus in Cancer and a Neptune in Scorpio. She loves motherhood.

5. Interesting that her moon is in aquarius. I thought it would be in scorpio. Her songs have something scorpionic about them.

6. ‘Running up that hill’ is such a beautiful, intense, dark song… Kate Bush wrote that song when Pluto in Scorpio was moving into a square with her natal Sun-Uranus conjunction in Leo. She was channeling Pluto in Scorpio, for sure

7. Thank you, Marjorie. A fixed Grand Cross isn’t easy. She came onto the scene when I was a schoolkid and she was like a breath of fresh air in a music industry which was extremely male-dominated and when prog rock had become so horribly self-indulgent and middle class, you’d have a whole double album containing one track with several movements! (Sorry prog rock fans, but…). Having said that, it was David Gilmore of Pink Floyd who initially helped to promote her and who encouraged record companies to sign her.

   Every song she writes has a story behind it and in a sense she uses music (and dance) to weave a narrative. Mars/Neptune seems to get a bit of a bad rep in astrology but you see it in the charts of dancers because the strength of the body (Mars) is moved in harmony with music (Neptune) and I have a very beautiful and graceful Leo Sun friend with this aspect in Scorpio who is a dancer and dance teacher. Moon/Neptune, as Hugh points out can produce fear of the glare of the lights which can be excruciating for a performer but it also can have a tendency to reclusiveness.

   In the 90s she was close to a spiritual teacher and healer, Lily Cornford. She may have been at a crisis point at this point — her mother, Hannah died, she broke with her partner at the time and a band member died. ‘The Red Shoes’ emerged from this bedrock of loss and features the song ‘Lily’ in which the protagonist is told how to protect herself against crippling fear and is a tribute to Cornford. It’s a wonderful album. It’s great to see a new generation appreciate her music.

8. I have such admiration for Kate Bush’s talent and creativity. For some reason, I have never looked up her astrology chart!! And lo and behold.. another 1958 baby!

   Kate Bush, Prince, Madonna, and Michael Jackson.

   All born with a strong Uranus in Leo, close to Sun or Mercury… and a Leo/Virgo focus… esp. Pluto in early, early Virgo, (Prince at 29 Leo). And that pile up of planets around the nodes.. esp. the N. Node.
   Trail Blazers… but I’d say all of them struggled with the fame and the desire for deep privacy.

   I, too, was born close to this. I think of Pluto in early Virgo as the very beginning of Generation X. This ingress happened in mid 1958. Most of my friends are Baby Boomer, Pluto in Leo people… and there is SUCH a difference between us in terms of values. Pluto in Virgo… more a realist, more cynical, a work/life balance focus for sure. I have often been quite envious of their life…. like I was born a bit too late!!

   On a much smaller, less famous scale… I certainly connect

   What a powerful force of change each of these people were… so unique!
   Yet also kind of “behind the scenes”… weirdly.

   • Sandra, exactly! I have Pluto in early Virgo too, born in September 1958, and I also have most of my friends from the Pluto in Leo generation and have noted the big differences. But such a line-up of musical talents! I saw an analysis online somewhere that focused on them all having Neptune and Jupiter in close aspect, mostly conjunct, among other aspects in common. I think Marjorie has referred to Neptune-Jupiter as head-in-the-clouds if I recall. Certainly bigger than life in the case of these talented people.

   • I agree with the admirable unique creativity of the ’58 artists. LOVE their work. Other musicians born in ’58: Grandmaster Flash, Jools Holland, Anita Baker, Ice-T, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Andy Gibb, Gary Numan, Paul Weller, Neil Finn, Marie Fredriksson, Jello Biafra, Bruce Dickenson, Madonna, Belinda Carlisle, Lita Ford, Andrea Bocelli, Joan Jett, Tanya Tucker, Mark King, Simon Le Bon, and Nikki Sixx.

     What a talented and diverse cohort! Any record collection could be improved by adding some more of their work!

     I was born at the end of the ’60’s, with Pluto still in Virgo. I agree it’s a completely different generational tone than the Pluto in Virgo Boomers.

     I’m very interested in generational demographics.

     I’ve seen “Generation Jones” used for this demographic that includes the ’58 creatives. I like that.

     The key difference with Generation X is this. When Boomers were born, there was an unprecedented huge number of children born every year. For a U.S. Boomer, EVERY year they’ve been alive, the question has always been: Since there are so many of us around the same age, how does society deal with what we collectively need and want?

     For example, enormous numbers of new schools and new houses had to be built to deal with the Boomers needing education and then housing.

     Boomers have NEVER had to worry about being outvoted or disregarded in society – IF they are unified.

     That key question has only just started to wane as the total number of Millennials finally exceeds the total number of Boomers, within just the last few years.

     For GenX, that question has NEVER had any meaning at all.
     EVERY year of my life, there have been FAR FEWER people around my age than in ANY other age group in the U.S.

     If EVERY GenX person had exactly the same idea about how society should work, it would not matter at all – if EITHER Boomers OR Millennialls disagree with us!

     Schools consolidated and closed in my youth. If not for immigration into an always-appealing area, there would have been a surplus of housing. Just two examples, but everything in life has been this way. By the time people my age show up, the party’s long since been over bcause nobody’s around any more, in relative terms. In the five year span around the year of your birth, there are MORE THAN HALF AGAIN as many Americans as within the five year span around my birth.

     As clearly shown here https://www.infoplease.com/us/population/live-births-and-birth-rates-year
     Every year from 1954 to 1964, more than 4 million children were born in the U.S.
     ’58 is actually the fourth highest number of births ever.
     Every year from 1965 to 1985, there were no more than 3.7 million children born in the U.S. As an example, in 1972 there were MORE THAN A MILLION children who DIDN’T come into existence that year, compared to the number of births in 1958.

     There are other family and personal factors in my own chart, of course. But the key painful question of the GenX experience has always been this. Since there are NOT enough people “just like me” for society to give a damn if I live or die or to support what I think is best, how can I fight for a piece of an ever shrinking pie that is always being snatched away from me?

     Generation Jones definitely aren’t Boomer optimists, but they are also not GenXers for whom a slide to nihilism is the eternal temptation.

   • Sandra, totally agree with your thoughts about GenX. I’ve long thought the conventional wisdom about the end date of the Baby Boom is mistaken. A while back, I sat down and looked at the Uranus and Pluto ingresses into Virgo, and the time when they were both done retrograding back into Leo was in early July 1959. Since then, I’ve used that date in my head as the beginning of GenX. As a baby born late 1962 myself, I’ve never been able to relate to the Boomers at all. I was already a latchkey kid in the early 70’s with a mom who was going to college. I’m kind of chuckling about “Generation Jones”… that moniker has never quite caught on, in my view. Quite happy to think of myself as a proto-GenX’er. However, my husband was born in early 1959, and he has much about him that’s Boomer-ish. His Pluto had ingressed Virgo, but his Uranus was still back in mid-Leo. Another guide I use to tease out Boomer vs. GenX is: does the person have firsthand memories of the day of, or the time period shortly following, the Kennedy assassination. If yes, Boomer; if not, GenX. My husband was nearing his 5th birthday at the time and does remember.

     • Relate to the Boomers’ cultural touchstones, I mean. My Boomer-ish husband and I actually get on very well on a personal level. 😉

     • Also, my husband is quite a musical guy, though born a few months after the big names mentioned. He plays guitar and clarinet. Was in the school band as a student and played in a couple of bands in his younger adulthood. These days, he pretty much sticks to playing Irish drinking songs on his guitar at parties, which is certainly great fun and brings joy to us all.

     • My husband is a boomer and I’m a 60s baby – we’re totally different generations (he’s 14 years older) with totally different cultural references and memories – also most of my friends are Generation X.

       • That’s interesting. I know someone 14 years older and we are supposedly both Gen X by most descriptions – but a few put us at Boomer and Millennial. Based on this I don’t think 1963 is Boomer, definitely a different generation to my 1950’s born relatives. I sometimes think I am more borderline – I was only 22 on Millennium Eve.

         However, despite it being 14 years we have a surprising amount in common. We both grew up with television, but not the internet. That is culturally quite significant and the environment we developed in will have many similarities. I suppose the cold war may be seen as a factor, but I feel that it’s a far lesser one.

         Having said that, I think anyone borderline will feel it – people born around the same time as me will have spent their entire childhood in an analogue world and their entire adulthood in a digital one – that’s quite unique to mid-late 1970’s I think

         • Forgot to add a main point, duh. This “X” period was book-ended by Pluto/Uranus in the 60’s to Uranus in Scorpio in the 70’s, which may explain this TV-watching, latchkey kid generation astrologically.
           Quite different to the Pluto in Leo and Pluto in Scorpio generations that came before and after with their Pluto/Saturn conjunctions. I’m intrigued to see what Pluto in Aquarius will bring the hitherto quieter “X’ers”

         • “ This “X” period was book-ended by Pluto/Uranus in the 60’s to Uranus in Scorpio in the 70’s, which may explain this TV-watching, latchkey kid generation astrologically.”

           That’s an interesting point Tara, because the kind of TV programs made for kids in the 70s were frequently SciFi and supernatural based and a touchstone for those of us who grew up in that era — Doctor Who, The Stone Tapes, The Changes, Children of the Stones, The Tomorrow People as well as programmes our parents watched — Play For Today, etc. And many of these programs had an eerie quality to them, a uniquely 70s atmosphere — it was an era in which there was a renewed interest in our pagan past, ghosts, the paranormal, etc. We all watched that episode of Blue Peter where Uri Geller bent spoons and were told we could try it at home. That’s very Neptune in Scorpio as well as Uranus in Scorpio I feel. There’s certainly something Uranus as well as Neptune in Scorpio in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop sound.

           A couple of years ago, writer Bob Fischer set up a website called “The Haunted Generation”, specifically aimed at the generation who grew up watching these shows in an attempt to revisit and recapture this unique period. He calls these children ‘The Haunted Generation’.

         • “And many of these programs had an eerie quality to them, a uniquely 70s atmosphere — it was an era in which there was a renewed interest in our pagan past, ghosts, the paranormal, etc.”

           Virgoflake I immediately thought of the show “In Search Of,” hosted by Leonard Nimoy, which in its original version aired from April 1977 – March 1982. Uranus in Scorpio was September 1975 to November 1981. As well, works such as Margot Adler’s “Drawing Down the Moon,” published in 1979, and Merlin Stone’s “When God Was a Woman,” published in 1976.

         • TrisKit, yes! — and Carl Sagan too, that was more my sister’s era who is 5 years younger; for her age group the early 80s viewing was ‘Hammer House of Horror’ or ‘Tales of the Unexpected’, etc. we both remember doing our homework by candlelight due to power cuts. Also remember my parents reading books by Lyle Watson, specifically one titled ‘Supernature’ which was a best seller in its day. There was also a magazine published in the UK, I think in the late 60s called ‘Man, Myth & Magic’, definitely riding on that wave of renewed interest in the esoteric and the strange, my mother used to get it delivered.

         • I remember some of those because everything was repeated endlessly well into the 80’s! They were still showing things like Trumpton, Camberwick Green and The Wombles and even stuff from the 60’s like Gentle Ben! Contrast that to now when a Tik Tok video has a shelf life of 5 minutes and everyone goes off to watch their own select channels and content.

           I think the Moors murders in the early 60’s changed the way this generation grew up; “the world inside with the television is safer”. You’re right about the Neptune-to-Uranus-to-Pluto prolonged outer trip through Scorpio influence. We weren’t out playing as much as the boomer kids, but we have these shared cultural memories through TV.

           But with the death of television as it was, that seemed to be changing until all the kids started watching a show set in the 80’s together and downloading Kate Bush tracks 🙂 Perhaps something about that “distant togetherness” is coming back with Pluto going into Aquarius

     • “does the person have firsthand memories of the day of, or the time period shortly following, the Kennedy assassination.”

       Yes!

       Mom says I saw the moon landing on TV… while crawling on the living room floor! I don’t remember!

       I remember, and feel these are cultural touchstones, EXACTLY in great detail the days of the Challenger explosion, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first Gulf War’s start, an uneventful 1/1/2000 evening with friends, and 9/11. It’s easy for me to imagine how the personal experiences around JFK’s death would be permanently etched into the memories and attitudes of those who were alive at the time.

       I think the “Generation Jones” label is funny because it emphasizes the “overlooked folks next door” vibe. I have always enjoyed friends and relatives in that generation, including my oldest siblings.

       Cultural touchstones less important as all get older and pursue those interests. As a musician (amateur) I probably know a lot more 60’s music than many people my age. I would guess that someone really into sports would recognize a lot of Boomer/Jones age athletes who are cultural touchstones not known by many X’ers.

       And as we get older, hopefully “I remember when that was the thing we all noticed” becomes less important with personal maturity, and “this connects with own character, values, life goals and choices” matters far more. I’ve had some great connections and some miserable disagreements with people of all generations. I’m sure we all have. I tend to do well with both personally Boomers and Millennials. I got back in touch with a close friend from high school, who had some very funny anecdotes about “kids these days” (early 20’s) with unrealistic, entitled attitudes in the work force. He lives in a townhouse with landscape provided, so I couldn’t tell him he was getting great at “Get off my lawn!”

9. That Moon square Neptune would make her intuitive and perceptive but also not too keen on the limelight. Kate Bush needs the creative outlet but was probably happiest performing in front of a mirror with only her reflection as an audience.