DMX, the American rapper, has died young at 50 of a heart attack brought on by years of drug abuse to a litany of anguished praise by music critics. One described him as a “colossus, a fire-starter and a healer.” Another said “he was a force of nature, an all-or-nothing character who could be profound but also self-destructive.” He fathered 15 kids, sold 23m records, totalled sports car after sports car and moved in and out of prison for petty crimes – drug possession, aggravated assault, driving without a license, tax evasion. He rescued stray dogs, but also pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges.
The source of his pain and chaos was a childhood from hell, in which he was physically abused by his mother and her boyfriends, spent time in group homes, was introduced to vodka aged 7 by an aunt and to crack cocaine by a music mentor in his teens. In his performance he barked like a dog because angry strays became rare friends during spells of teenage homelessness.
He was born 18 December 1970, no birth time sadly, New York and had a Sagittarius Sun square Pluto, the legacy of an absent father who was literally out of his control. He also had that emotionally impulsive and super-intense Venus Mars conjunction, in his case even more ramped up being in Scorpio. Though it would be warped by an opposition to Saturn in Taurus, giving him major anger issues. His Mercury in Capricorn was in an outspoken square to Uranus and trine Saturn.
His Jupiter in Scorpio was square the North/South Node axis which may have been a minor saving grace for him, giving him highs to counter-balance the crashing suicidal lows he suffered from and sang about.
His creative 5th and 7th harmonic are strong; as was his self-defeating ‘Wheel of Fortune’ 10H and can-be-fanatical 11H.
It’s a tragic comparison to Prince Philip, also born with an absent father and otherwise occupied mother, but somehow got it together. It’s drugs that are the real killer in terms of damaging lives beyond repair.
I have quite a bit of scorpio and I note so does DMX. I think this describes an element of this sign perfectly.
Again, the chart aspect is there, but it is personal choice how one plays it out.
From Penny Thornton
*With Pluto as your ruler, whenever this “planet” is centre stage it brings out your best and worst. Your best is invariably your ability to transcend your circumstances and prove what a hero you are; and your worst is when that self-destructive response kicks in, and you make a situation far worse than it need be.*
Coming back from apalling brutal horrendous long term abusive childhood and early adulthood is possible, but difficult. There are success stories all over the place, if one looks.
I think recovery requires a combination of luck, acute stubborness, phoenix rising from the ashes, endurance, and a sharp eye to find the threads of rope in even the worst situation. Possibly all embedded in one’s chart as well as the choices one makes with what is thrown in one’s path. It is also requires time. It is a process, not an on/off switch.
But of course, sometimes time runs out from the cumulative choices one has made in one’s past. I am sorry for him.
One thing that can make a difference is having one positive person, not necessarily the mother, around early on even for a brief time. Without a decent caretaker of any sort it becomes much more difficult. Prince Philip, I imagine, had some support from a variety of people – older sisters and others. DMX may have had no one at all – and drugs do make a staggering difference in a negative way. Some old rock stars do come back from them but they may not have started so early.
Absolutely.
Just one positive person, even temporarily, can make all the difference.
As usual, you are so right.
I had my first 5 years being raised on my own by my doting adoring grandmother. “Real parents” were on a different continent with minimal contact. To this day, I know the strong foundation my grandmother gave me has saved me more than once.
There is rage among Black men in the USA because their moms emasculated them by beating them and humiliating them. Add to that dad is not present and is no role model, and that is pretty miserable. I think that is why as adult men, not many seem to want to get married and have kind of a dismissive attitude towards women, like they are a commodity. They have a complicated culture and the women can be very dominating. This is my opinion and experience; I guess you could say my observation. Not in all cases, of course.
The roots lay in the conditioning experienced by ancestors in slavery for many generations and apply to both the men and women. Ancestral memory is a real thing.
Just watched again, the great documentary series “The Civil War” by Ken Burns. Early in the first episode, it is mentioned that, once the slaves were freed, many scoured the country by foot, trying to find relatives that had been sold to other plantations. Those who could afford it took out ads in newspapers to see if they could reunite with their loved ones (the ads were shown in print – most not really having last names at that point). Like Jennifer E, I am the descendant of slaves and each time I read/see the re-telling of these stories I am overwhelmed by sadness. The documentary also states that as a slave, you could be expected to be sold to another plantation at least once (no matter your age) with three being the average number of times. As Jennifer E mentioned on another of Marjorie’s pieces, male slaves were often sold if they were considered to be “good breeders”, for good money to the owner. This was of course, accelerated when slaves could no longer be imported to the Americas. Now, I ask, who would have given those freed slaves the therapy they would have needed in order to recover from their “experience”? And who might have counselled them so that they might not have passed that trauma onto the next generation? And who might have been waiting at the gates to tell the freed black men that they were worth more than their physical prowess and might have given them gainful and fitting employment so that they could have nurtured a sense of pride in themselves? And who do you think might have helped those freed women understand that they were more than just vessels used for rape and childbearing? Hmmm… doesn’t seem there was anyone nor was there any provision made to house and feed those free slaves, not even some of the settler land given to the newly-arrived immigrant groups. Slavery was just 8 generations ago and I would just like people to think for a minute about how many “disorders” are passed down the generations in all groups, things like drinking, gambling, etc and ask themselves how could it be expected that the template of a fractured family would not be passed on in many black people. Did you ever stop to think that this particular “disorder” is not so prevalent in native African society? So if it is “learnt behaviour”, who taught it?
Sorry, just wanted to add this to what I have said below: there are many recorded accounts of male slaves, in particular, running away from their new owners, trying to get back to where their “family” was. A lucky runaway was one who managed to do it more than once but often the penalty was the death or punishment of those loved ones on that far away plantation. How many times would a slave have to do that do you think, before he starts to imagine that his family is safer if he stays away from them and how distorted would that message become – as it traveled down the 8 generations without honest and open debate and acknowledgement – to end up where it is today?
Thanks @ Barb, well said!
I think it is very simplistic to suggest that black men’s rage from the mothers of black men who beat and humiliate them as a norm. Yes, discipline is a strong part of black culture and there are different ways to do that but where did they learn how to do it the way they do it? Ancestral memory. Mental slavery is still alive and well.
@Diane forgets (or did she know) that beating and humiliation was actually how our ancestors were taught and treated as a mainstay of daily life for generation after generation. As descendants and a freer people since abolition but still not free enough, we are in the early days and still learning. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
So labeling black mothers and black men is not helpful to put it lightly. What that does is negatively stereotype, categorize and create preconceived ideas that are inaccurate, mostly.
@barb – Is ‘The Civil War’ being streamed on Netflix or such sites? I’d like to check it out. I know Ken Burns also did ‘The Vietnam War’ which was a brilliant piece of documentary film-making.
I agree with both barb and Jennifer E on this. Many of us are always prepared to look at generational violence and how to understand it and break it within our own families. But I often hear lots of dismissals when it comes to black people and violence and misogyny in the family/relationships. Many are not willing to entertain the same complexities within African-American households the same way as white households. As if only black people get a primal delight in causing such pain. I keep saying this, ‘hurt people, hurt people,’ and needs to be dealt with. “If it is “learnt behaviour”, who taught it?” – Indeed! Put so succinctly barb!
And speaking of slavery in the day, interestingly, just today, I was watching Great Canal Journies and they stopped off at a cemetery in London that housed the graves of some very famous names. One was a Victorian actress called Fanny Kemble (1809-1893) who was quite famous in her time. She married an American plantation master, Pierce Mease Butler, only to be horrified by the slavery institution (she hadn’t visited his plantations in the early part of their marriage) and ended up fiercely opposed to it. Her husband was horrified by her anti-slavery views and forbade her to ever publish but the marriage ultimately became abusive. She split from her husband and came back to England with her daughters and he ended up squandering a LOT of money. Her writing became well-known in abolitionist circles and she was especially supportive towards black slave women in particular. But I had never heard of the woman. Why don’t we learn things like this about history? In Britain, I recall never being taught about the slave trade at all. I learned it through films, tv and books. I think it’s a fundamental failing. You can’t brush the biggest elephant in the room under a threadbare carpet!
Wow! Thank you Jennifer E and Jo!! Jo, you GET it! That’s what I’m talking about…people don’t have to change their outlook if they don’t want to but if they consider themselves intelligent and broadminded, they ought to at least factor in as many elements as they would do for others– to not do so is racist.
The Civil War has been aired recently on the PBS Channel in the UK. They rotate Burns’ docs — all excellent. I learnt so much on The Vietnam War, Jazz and the Dust Bowl series. Do watch if you can. They just finished airing Country Music too; this man is a genius!
On my mother’s side: a family of white English missionaries left Luton to campaign against slavery in Jamaica in the 1830’s. They had their fourth child while there and when she grew up, she married a half Scottish, half African man and decided to remain there and raise a family…Her parents moved to Ireland and one of my cousins has contacted those relatives who sent copies of her marriage, birth and death certificates to us. Her husband’s black mother had been a slave on a plantation — her name was Maud. There is still so much to learn (still working on my Dad’s) but I am so grateful for Uranus going through my 4th house a few years ago which forced me to really take a look at my ancestry and to “awaken” to all of the people who walked before me. Uranus is the great liberator and the great disruptor and I am so glad that it made me stop swallowing the common narrative about “my people” and come to my own understanding of what we as a race have been through.
If his Jupiter was square the nodes, his task was to get control of that Jupiter over the course of his lifetime. He may have had suicidal lows (very unfortunate), but had he tamed his big highs and tackled that Jupiterian energy in a more dedicated way, he might have beaten a better path to that North Node. Sorry for his loss.
I rectified DMX’s birth time to 2 pm, Asc 9Cp29. Trans Uranus was conj this Asc at his
Death. From Maurice Weymss’s TABLE FOR AGE INCIDENCE OF DISEASE, next post,
we see that at age 50, the axis activated was 25Aq/25 Leo. This axis runs thru’ his
his 5th Leo House, the heart. At death, the other end of this axis, 25 Aq, had trans
Jupiter, ruler of his 8th House of death, square natal Jupiter in the 8th House.
In her book, Medical Astrology, Jane Ridder-Patrick, gives 9Capricorn, as
heart disease, and DMX had tr Uranus conj this degree at death.
In my own experience, I have Mercury at 9Cp, and when this degree was activated
by trans and arc, my artery was 97% blocked, requiring angioplasty and insertion of a
stent.
I know Jane Ridder’s work as I have a keen interest in health from a holistic standpoint.
Fascinating.
Maurice Weymss’s TABLE FOR AGE INCIDENCE OF DISEASE
Years Degrees
of Age of Sign
60 0 to 2.5
58 2.5 to 5
57 5 to 7.5
56 7.5 to 10
…. …..
…. ….
53 17.5 to 20
52 20 to 22.5
51 22.5 to 25
50 25 to 27.5
49 27.5 to 30
Just add increments of 2.5 for each year of life.
From the above we see at age 50, DMX’s axis activated was 25 Leo/Aquarius.
@Martha, very interesting. Is this just related to the degree of the Sun?
Sorry I mean nodal axis ?
What a tragic and traumatic childhood, poor lad. I notice his nodal axis is at 25 degrees of Aquarius/Leo. This degree is known as the degree of alcoholism/addiction and also the degree of suicide.
I rectified his chart to 2 pm, Asc 9Cp29, tr Uranus conj Asc at death. Maurice Weymss, gave a TABLE FOR INCIDENCE OF DISEASE. DMX was 50 yrs old and from this table, the axis 25Aq/25Le was activated.
This axis ran thru’ his Leo 5th House which rules the heart. In addition, trans Jupiter, ruler 8th of death,
25Aq, was on this axis, squaring his natal Jupiter in the 8th House. If you would like Maurice Weymss’s
TABLE OF INCIDENCE OF DISEASE, which is extremely accurate, please email me at
mbodnar1@cogeco.ca
I will try to post this table, but am not sure it will work.
Regarding DMX, no amount of fame and fortune could have saved him from his
truly appalling background. Tragically his script had already been written.
Noting Stella Tennant who committed suicide back in December was born the day before.