The Muse of Tori Amos
Tori was made for the stage, she incarnated to perform. It was written in the stars, it was the light from another dimension dancing in her toddler’s eyes, speaking directly to heart and to her fingers. Yet it wasn’t just performance for entertainment sake, but the performance was and is an expression for the more subterranean, illusive moments of life that stir, bubble, crack, rise and seek to expel.
Tori’s path as a performer was a straight arrow, but not one on the pop circuit, the themes she explored were too intense for the sugary Top 10, and yet as time progressed and so did we as humans, she did find herself hitting charts, but never, ever, bending to the masses. Tori’s songwriting, her piano playing, her voice, is at times otherworldly, heartbreaking, innovative. She layers her complex musical pieces with personal narratives of deep grief and pain, but also backed by enduring love and a never ending journey to understand humanity and our relationship to something hidden, more divine. She explores the hidden and darker side of humanity, femininity and religion.
Let’s look at her chart and see where her musical genius lies. Where do we find endless wells of creativity and her relentless drive to keep exploring and supporting the more challenging side of being human in a world that doesn’t always accommodate the explorative and sensitive souls. Tori has produced 16 studio albums and various projects, colloborations.
Scorpio Rising, ruled by Mars, with her Ascendant degree touching down near Neptune. Endless wells of spiritual mystery for her muse to draw from. This shows the first mark on her individuality, as her spirit dropped into soul matter. Scorpio, known for the need to explore the depths of the soul, of humanity, of the darkness, and Neptune knows no bounds. Neptune in Scorpio can be likened to a spiritual warrior, one always willing to push the mind-bending realities, seeking deeper meaning, greater purpose. Tori’s first house Scorpio, with the creative and divine overtones illuminates her onstage presence with a hybrid of heightened feminine sexuality and mystery. Her bright red Martian hair springing wildly, and her body language at the piano, legs normally spread as if she is welcoming her creative muse to impregante her own artistic spirit. Scorpio rules the loins and fluids associated with sexuality, and her music always seems to teeter between the sacred and profane, pushing boundaries each way, never fully giving over to either side completely. The listener also oscillates between these two worlds, never really knowing whether they want to cry out in pleasure or sorrow, but you can be certain if you listen to her long enough, tears are inevitable.
The presence of music was very much alive in Tori’s life at near infancy. Tori reports seeing music as light structures when she was just a toddler, and despite never having proper piano lessons, by age two she was teaching herself how to listen and play piano. At age 3, she was composing her own songs.
Tori describes her light spirit encounters as a child in a interview by Anne Powers titled Piece by Piece, “The song appears as light filament once I've cracked it. As long as I've been doing this, which is more than thirty-five years, I've never seen the same light creature in my life. Obviously similar chord progressions follow similar light patterns, but try to imagine the best kaleidoscope ever—after the initial excitement, you start to focus on each element's stunning original detail. For instance, the sound of the words with the sound of the chord progression combined with the rhythm manifests itself in a unique expression of the architecture of color-and-light. ... I started visiting this world when I was three, listening to a piece by Béla Bartók; I visited a configuration that day that wasn't on this earth. ... It was euphoric.”
Uranus and Pluto together joining Mercury in Virgo, the 11th house, and aspecting Neptune by sextile, may lend some otherworldly insight into the world of how music works in her own brain. Intuitively sensing and visualizing chord structure as light beings, Uranus is a revolutionary planet, one that gives new perspective, alternative perception and Pluto brings forth tectonic change and insight from hidden places.
Mercury in her chart is both in rulership and exaltation in Virgo, and Mercury is associated with being able to explore multiple dimensions. Mercury is the pyschopomp, Mercury has insight into layered dimensions and how they relate to one another, especially with Pluto and Uranus, two gods ruling the underworld and a spirited revolution. Tori’s Mercury is well resourced in her chart, allowing her to transport her listeners and her music between liminal spaces. Creative impulses and abilities are strong. Yet what is so striking about Tori is how early this all began in her own life.
Her teacher is not of this world. We can liken this also to her creative muse, her daimon. We turn to the planet often associated with the creative spirit, Venus, and we can see she sits tightly conjoined to her MC degree and her natal Sun, which has ultimate rulership in Leo in the 10th house. The 10th house, associated with our most public self, our daily praxis, our reputation, joined with the MC marker denoting career, doubles down on a very public, performative Leo presence. I often say those with strong Leo placements often have a very good mane, and Tori is no exception with her wild, red curls, a mane fit for a lioness. Venus and the Sun, shine bright and hot in the 10th house of center-stage Leo, and even trines the Lot of Fortune in her 2nd house, the house of wealth and assets, her fortune, how she brings in material wealth. There is a direct line from her creative impulses, her art influencing her wealth.
As a classic astrologer, we don’t always consider outer planets in the birth chart as lending clues into the character of a native, yet it is pertinent we look at how these slow moving outer planets are coursing her chart in the first 3 years of her life as she was already intuiting music structure and clearly receiving messages from another dimension. Neptune and Pluto are moving closer and closer in conjunction over natal Mercury, allowing her to ferry further and further into creative wells of unlimited potential. Transiting Mercury is spending more time in her 10th house through an extended retrograde, over natal Venus and Sun, and then makes his return to Virgo. Meanwhile, Saturn is transiting through her 5th house of Pisces, the house of creative spirit, which in reality feels like it can be an artist creative block. Yet as a toddler, who has no boundaries, knows no rules, Saturn can bring in greater structure, begin applying words to images, theories to ideas. It seems Tori is enrolled in a “spiritual master class”, priming her for early success and a trajectory that she may have little conscious control over. It seems at this point her own creative daimon is navigating her chariot on a very specific path. In the future, Saturn returning to the 5th house signals a leveling up in her own artistic career.
By the age of 5, Tori receives a full scholarship to the Peabody Institue at John Hopkins University. She is the youngest child to ever be admitted. If we were to look at her solar return chart for her 5th birthday, she has a New Moon in Leo with a Mars presence that occurs at the same degree of her natal Sun and the planets Jupiter, Mercury, Venus,Uranus and Pluto are on a stellium parade marching through her 11th house of good fortune, all highlighting a very fortuitous year ahead.
Tori hit the road to perform at a very young age, with her father as her manager, a Methodist minister. Let us speak about her father for a moment. She speaks of a complicated but nonetheless loving relationship with her father. He was strict, but also supportive. He not only managed her, but he would accompany her to gigs that often were places he may not be wholly comfortable with, like gay bars. Remember this was the 80’s and alternative lifestyles were not necessarily as open or common.
Tori has Saturn in her 4th house Aquarius, and we can see this representative in her home life and her relationship with her father. Saturn is in his home sign, so another planet that functions well. Close, but distant. Revolutionary, but challenging. She had other siblings, but she certainly took an innovative, unique path, and this pattern would continue into her adult years.
She was dismissed from Peabody at age 11, her scholarship revoked, citing her own rebellion to reading sheet music and loving rock music. This would be the period of a reversed nodal return in her 3rd and 9th houses (both houses of primary and higher education), along with Saturn in the 9th house Cancer, imposing a limitation. The eclipses and Saturn both denoting a closing of doors around higher education, and a change around her day to day routines, her schedule, and a real change around her own philosophy towards her musical education.
One last natal placement that leaves a heavier, emotional mark in her chart is Mars and the Moon. Mars, the ruler of her first, planet of severing and war, and the Moon which highlights her emotional needs, environment, mother and her own mothering instinct live in Libra in the 12th house. The 12th house is the house of hidden enemies, those who do not have our best interests and it can reflect how we can be harmful to ourself, and it is a place of isolation and alienation. Mars in Libra can produce a fighting spirit, one who stands up for the underdog, and paired with the Moon, this can double down on the mama bear inner pull. Mars and Moon in the hidden shadows of the 12th house, can be symbolic to violence and assault, and with the Moon’s presence, directly against women.
In January of 1985, Tori Amos experienced the greatest nightmare, being held hostage, and raped numerous times at knife point, while being forced to sing religious hymns. This would be an incident that she would not report initially. It wasn’t until public until the spirit moved her enough to work through the incident through the album Little Earthquakes, and more directly the song “Me and a Gun.” Looking at her chart during the month of the violent crime, the ruler of the 12H, Mars is sharing space with Venus in the 5th house of passion, creativity and joy, but it is conjunct to the asteroid Chiron, the wounded warrior. This incident would rob her of many things, and induce immense fear, shame, and anger, but it would eventually lead her to assist in establishing RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) and being their first spokeswoman, with the desire to help those who have been violently, sexually harmed and find them a safe haven to shelter in. This point of her healing by helping, which is signature Chiron, also comes directly after her first Saturn return and transiting Venus is moving through her 12th house in strong rulership. Through her own pain and trauma, she learns to expel it through her music and establish a forward moving project to help others who have experienced similar trauma. Channeling the violence, the raw pain, the grief into pearls, this is a 12th house that is ruled by Venus, her muse.
Her 12th house placements would also play pivotal roles in the themes she explores of more taboo topics, mainly with women. Whether it be sexual violence, miscarriages, or oppresion of women throughout history.
Tori’s chart also holds two secret aspects in her chart, a antiscia and a contra-antiscia. I have described both of these here, which will further explain their nature. The antiscia in her chart is a secret conjunction between the planets Pluto in Virgo and Jupiter in Aries. Jupiter is in a Mars ruled house and opposes natal Mars in the 12th house. Jupiter is also the ruler of her house of creative influence and personal finances. Pluto and Jupiter lend a chthonic depth to her art and how she even makes a living. The contra-antiscia, a secret opposition is between Mars in Libra in the 12th house and Neptune in Scorpio in the 1st house. This opposition can show secret enemies, sometimes it can be our own self, that threaten our environment and effect our own psychology. What I do notice between both of these secret aspects, is that they each have the power for her to find secret wells of strength, transform her insight on more challenging themes and provide a direct line to her creativity, even through the greatest hardship.
When I analyze her album release dates in correspondence to her natal chart, the most relevant planet that is activated time and time again is Venus, her creative muse. Whether it is a Venus return, a natal Venus opposition, or an outer planet activation, her muse burns bright and sparks musical babies.
Listed below are several album release dates and the role of her muse, Venus.
Little Earthquakes-Feb 1992-Saturn return, with Venus present,opposing natal Venus.
Under the Pink-Feb 1994- Venus in exaltation in 5th house Pisces and Saturn has just entered Pisces.
Boys From Pele- Jan 1996-Venus in exaltation in 5th house Pisces and Saturn is also in Pisces.
From the Choirgirl Hotel- May 1998- Venus conjunct natal Jupiter, which rules her 2nd house of finances and her 5th house of creative projects. Her largest debut record sales to date.
One unique album she released in 1999, an ode to her muse, To Venus and Back, was her most experimental album to date. Not only was this a Venus-return year for the release of the album, but Uranus transiting Aquarius was in direct opposition to her natal Venus, prompting her experimentation.
The album Strange Little Girls was also released under a Venus return in 2001, with Uranus still in opposition. This album covered all male songs, and was a nod to reversing gender roles, and was a personal statement to the record industry and a record contract she was under. Here we see the Uranus*Venus tension, prompting her muse to flip the script and break out of set structures.
An album she released in her later years, The Beekeeper, explores themes of feminity, fertility, the role of women in Christianity. The title itself is a nod to ancient beekeeping and female empowerment. All of the songs have a spiritual thread, and even astrological winks, including the track Goodbye Pisces. This album was released on the first day of Pisces season, her 5th house of creative joy. Tori was experiencing a natal Venus opposition. Venus was conjunct her natal Saturn in Aquarius, meanwhile she was also receiving a direct natal Jupiter opposition. Both benefic planets, rule and exalt her 5th house Pisces, and were opposing natal benefics. All of this benefic tension highlights the tension of women through history, through the lens of Christianity, and female empowerment and the need to pull it through into the light in the form of art.
A direct quote from Amos from The Beekeeper DVD, "The Beekeeper really explores the story from the Creative Mother's perspective because we know from the bible the Creative Father's perspective. And in this garden, we do not call this the garden of original sin, we call this the garden of Original Sinsuality. You will see when you open up the album itself of The Beekeeper, which songs live in which gardens and you can take a journey with them. They're their own Garden of Eden. They're their own shape. It's a sonic shape, so it's not a physical space. This is a place where male or female may enter, it's not just emotions of a woman. We all experience disappointment and we all experience transformation and we all experience passion. Even if it's not passion for another human being, but passion is an essence in itself."
During Tori’s Saturn opposition in 2007, when it went exact, she released a fascinating project/album, The Doll Posse. This was an album based on five different female archetypes, based loosely on Greek and Roman mythology. These five personalities or dolls, included Artemis, Athena, Persephone, Aphrodite, and Demeter/Dionsysus. She also began a blog to accompany each one of these characters, and different entries were written by each female perspective. Tori believed each woman held an aspect of each one of these persona’s or archetypes within them. The album and blog was more political than personal, it focused on opposing the Iraq war, misogny in the record industry, female empowerment, and sexuality. The release of this album not only correlated with her Saturn opposition, which can have us reviewing our last 15 years, but also asking us to level up and adjust for the next 15. Saturn oppositions can usually highlight areas we need to clean up, and this would fall in her 10th house, shining a light on her most public persona, her reputation. Shifting from personal to political, moving past her early maiden years and preparing the road ahead. Tori was entering a new chapter.
Whether its lyrics, the particular key instruments she employs, the subject matter, Amos is never superficial. Layers and layers of meaning and emotions are laid down with each track, like sacred geometry, she understands the energetic structure in the language of music. The listener can return again and again, always pulling at a new thread. I begun my own journey with Amos at 15 years old, and now at 45, I am still moved in ways that are original and holy, her music is a mandala of light and shadow.