Cat Power Musical Musing
Moon Pix to the Sun, a cycle complete.
Charlyn “Chan” Marshall aka Cat Power
January 21, 1972; Atlanta, Georgia
Chart Rectified
As I designed my website, Cat Power was a constant in the background. Chan’s voice always soothing, moving and it seems to push creative focus forward. Since the release of the ablum “Moon Pix” in the late 90’s, she has been a constant in my life. Many nights, I fell asleep to her haunting tones tinged by her southern-upbringing twang. Two decades later, the emotional response has not changed only an appreciation deepened. Soothing, poetically haunting, and at times you feel like you are with her in a smoky seedy bar as she pours her heart out at the piano.
She is a Leo rising, with the Sun in Aquarius at the very first degree of Aquarius, a heavy-laden Saturnian weight. Her music has the distant cool Saturnian vibe, where she is singing to the human condition and all the toils that are wrapped up in it. Saturn ruling both her sixth and seventh house, it is no surprise that her music touches on pain, heartbreak and loss. There is this sense that she is on the outside of it all looking in, reflecting as an outsider.
Natal Saturn falls in her tenth house Taurus, a Venus ruled house, denoting her public image and what she puts into the world. Known for her melancholic singer/songwriter style with an edgy, punk rawness. There is a coolness to her art, an isolating energy colors her music. It is earthy like Taurus, and her style has been consistent and steady overall. Venus, the creative is in Pisces, eighth house, a house where our deeper psychological fears and entangled karma lives. Venus is exalted in Pisces, the art can be deep, murky, emotional and etheral. Mercury, signifying communication and mind, is in the sixth house, Saturn-ruled Capricorn. Again, she sees the struggles of love and loss and what is means to human, and brings forth her poetic perception in her music to the world.
If you ever see her perform, she is shy and introverted, but her guitar, piano and her voice is strong. It is the dichotomy, there is strength and fragility. Perhaps this is due to the contra-antisica with Saturn and the Sun, this is a secret opposition. The tension between Sun and Saturn is reflected in the inner draw to get the art out, and challenged with bouts of stage fright and anxiety. I saw her perform once, and it was a very disjointed performance, unfortunately. She would stop in the middle of a song, or her lyrics would trail off, and this has been a pattern in her performances in the past. You did not have to be an empath that night to feel the struggle. There is speculation that much of this panic could of been attributed to alcoholism, she found sobriety in 2006 and her performances have been much more fluid and polished.
In her chart, we can see the potential for alcoholism with Jupiter in its rulership in Sagittarius, 5th house. The 5th house is the joy of Venus, what brings us pleasure. Jupiter seeks to expand, so there is the real potential to inflating any pleasure past the point of healthy measures. Neptune is co-present with Jupiter which could easily blur the lines of self-control and lead to overconsumption of any earthly pleasure. The shadow aspect of Sagittarius can be nihilism. The light aspect is her intense creativity.
A significant signature in her chart is the Moon and Mars presence in Aries, ninth house. The ancients named the ninth house the place of God and the joy of the Sun. The Sun being associated with the divine, the ideal image. The ninth house deals with matters of spirituality, higher education and long distance travel. Long distance travel is derived from the association with the Sun, the Sun takes exactly one year to move through the heavens and the birth chart. The Moon is a guest in the Sun’s joy, and Mars is present. This can be an uncomfortable pair at times. Mars being in its rulership in Aries has great dignity, power and pull. Mars is a fire starter in many cases, he burns hot, can be assertive and competitive, and can sever severely as well. The Moon represents many things; the general environment, the mother, nurturing aspects, the body and the community. The Moon is seeking to conjoin with Mars, this combination will color her environment in matters of spiritual topics, education and foreign lands. Mars and the Moon in Aries want to move and burn fast.
Chan has toured extensively throughout the world, a clear signature of Mars/Moon moving through the ninth house, and has liven abroad. She has also produced a large amount of work, including acting and modeling. One fascinating project that ties into the Aries-Mars in the ninth, is she composed music for a silent film on Joan of Arc. This is a very spiritual warrior creative energy. Chan has also been involved in raising awareness and resources for HIV, AIDS and PETA causes.
Chan was raised in a religious upbringing, and religion played a large role in her life. Her father was a Jehovah Witness, and she often attended Southern Baptist churches with her grandmother where she learned to sing hymns that would color her bluesy style. She moved and traveled a lot as a child, attending ten different schools. It is reported at 16, she was estranged from her mother, which we can see with the moon and Mars seeking union, Mars really seeking estrangement from the moon (mother).
Natal Mercury is squaring both the moon and Mars, and this can be reflected in the emotional pain she pulls through in her lyrics. This planetary signature could also be reflected in an inherited inflammatory health issue in her lungs, angioedema. The inflammation being represented by Mars, lungs and breathing symbolized by Mercury in the sixth house (sixth house can denote health matters), and the Moon representing the body and health. These planets are squaring one another, which is a configuration that brings real struggle and conflict. Mars is also the ruler of her fourth house,Scorpio, representing ancestral topics. Inheriting an inflammatory condition can be seen through this Mercury/ Moon-Mars square as well.
“Moon Pix”, an album inspired by nightmarish dreams that she experienced when living in an old farmhouse in Australia (again the Venus signature in the eight house appears). The emphasis on heavy lunar influence in her life appears over and over. Born just as the sun kissed the horzion, albeit late, the solar still rises. After receiving treatment for substance abuse, the next album she began working on was an upbeat poppy album titled “The Sun”. The circular irony is not lost on me, moving from the lunar luminary to the solar, a cycle complete.