Astrology is the oldest science, it began as a study as soon as human beings made conscious attempts to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles.

Early evidence of such practices appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show that lunar cycles were being noted as long as 25,000 years ago.

By the 3rd millennium BC, many civilisations had developed sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and astrology was considered so important to their lives that they deliberately oriented their temples to create alignment with the heliacal risings of the stars.

For most of the last 5000 years, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition, all astronomers were astrologers, in fact the only reason to study astronomy was to gain a better understanding of astrology.

Nowadays most so called ” thinking people “, dismiss astrology as nonsense and the really annoying thing about this state of affairs is that its all astrologers fault.

The first newspaper horoscope column was written in 1930 just after the birth of Princess Margaret. Richard Harold Naylor then assistant to the astrologer Cheiro, was asked by the Sunday Express to make a few predictions based on the Princess’s birthchart. He did just that – and alongside it, he wrote predictions for those born on each day of that month.

This of course was a perfectly valid and appropriate thing to do, working with charts for individuals. It was also very well received, so the newspapers obviously wanted more. The problem of course was one of space. To do a weekly prediction that could cover every one would be impossible, they would take far more than a week to write and would completely full the whole newspaper, although in most cases that would be a considerable improvement on the dross that is churned out in the press.

So in a search for the lowest possible common denominator, the Sun sign column began.

Astrology is not about Sun signs, it is about the angular relationships between all of the planets. Even if we restrict ourselves to the 10 that are most commonly used, that gives us 41 relationships with at least 5 different aspects. Each planet has 12 possible signs but also 12 possible houses. So we are talking about a minimum 30,000 different possibilities to consider ( 12 x 12 x 41 x 5 ). And that is without even considering transits.

It is true that the Sun’s sign is the most significant single point but we are talking about 12 possibilities out of 30,000. It is simplified to the point of meaninglessness, but more seriously than that it gives a whole arsenal of ammunition to its detractors.

Anyone with half a brain would know it was rubbish. Even the newspapers themselves cottoned on and thought why employ an astrologer to write them when we can make them up ourselves. So for a long time horoscope columns were written by junior sub-editors who had no knowledge of astrology at all.

So pretty quickly this became the market for astrology and astrologers who also had to make a living were forced to compromise their art to pander to it.

So within a few decades, astrology had been turned from an ancient scholastic discipline, into a load of made up cliche ridden platitudes based on some new age ramblings about Sun sign traits.

These columns bear as much relationship to the real thing that the Sunday Sports headlines of double decker buses found on the Moon do to real investigative journalism.

And now we have millions of people who believe they are well informed about this most ancient and intelligent of all sciences who go round spouting complete nonsense. And nowhere is this more obvious than in the field of relationships.

Any relationship between two human beings needs to be considered by looking at all the different factors that make up each person’s astrological profile and comparing all of them in order to decide which ones will have the most significant impact on their lives together. Contrary to the advice given by the magazine columns it is not harmonious connections between Sun signs that is the main driver of successful relationships.

In fact Capricorn Research would be prepared to bet that square aspects between Suns would come up more frequently than the trines between the charts of long term married couples.

The reason for this is that the Sun rules the individuals major life path and so is likely to figure strongly in their choice of career. The Moon is the ruler of our feeling, emotional side and is a far better indicator of how we choose our partners.

In simple terms the Sun rules the day and the Moon rules the night. So we go to our work in the daytime, but come home to our partners in the evening.

There is a law of the attraction of opposites. We are actually drawn by people who have opposite Suns to ours. By and large we don’t want someone with the same Sun sign as ours, because we’ve already got that approach to life nailed down anyway.

If we look at it from a purely evolutionary perspective, we search for a mate that will give us the best chance to produce healthy, secure offspring. So if someone has a different Sun sign, that’s another base covered. We have two different careers going on which gives us more adaptability if life becomes difficult.

When it comes to Moon signs, that’s a different matter. We relate to our partners primarily through the Moon so we like to be singing from the same or at least a broadly sympathetic hymn sheet.

Now of course, every single situation depends on the natal charts of the people concerned.

If someone has a Moon / Pluto conjunction or a Mars / Saturn in the 7th house for example, they would need to explore these issues through their relationships and so would invariably pick someone as a partner whose own Moon was not sympathetic to theirs.

But in terms of longevity and security for most of us, what would probably work best is Suns in opposition or square and Moons in trines or sextile.

There is one classic astrological contact that has always been the favourite for marriage. This a favourable connection between the Moon of one partner and the Sun of the other.

In this situation there is an instinctive understanding and support for the other persons life goals. This combination probably more than any other had the quality of soul mate.

So it’s just no good saying Sagittarians don’t get on with Capricorns. It certainly wouldn’t have summed up the relationship between rock god Jim Morrison of the Doors and Pamela Courson.

Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison was in many ways a typical Sagittarian, an extrovert with a large appetite for all types of experience, direct open and brutally honest. His wild personality and stage presence meant that he was seen as one of the most iconic and influential frontmen in rock music history.

His Sun was opposite three planets, Mars, Uranus and Saturn. His status as sexually magnetic rock star ( Sun opposite Mars ) was well documented. He referred to himself as the “King of Orgasmic Rock”.

He combined this with a truly rebellious indentification with the hippy counter culture ( Mars conjunct Uranus ).

This also brought him considerable opposition from authority figures and contributed to an early death ( Sun opposite Saturn )

If there is any sign that could challenge Sagittarius in terms of physical appetites that would have to be Taurus, and Morrison had the Moon in that sign.

This Moon is also part of a Tsquare and forms an opposition with Venus in Scorpio, a sure indication of a strong and intense sex life. He would be powerfully attracted by a partner who could draw out these deep seated passions.

This Moon / Venus opposition creates a Tsquare focusing on an apex Pluto, a sure sign of a sudden and explosive occurrence that would come directly from his relationships.

That Pluto is conjunct the 7th house cusp confirms this.

There is another T Square in his chart, although it is not so strong because one of the legs of it is over 10 degrees wide.

This is based on an opposition between Mercury at the beginning of Capricorn and Saturn. The opposition focuses onto an apex Neptune. Morrison was a poet and was well known for improvising spoken word poetry passages while the band played live.

The Doors took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception (a reference to the unlocking of doors of perception through psychedelic drug use). Huxley’s own title was a quotation from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in which Blake wrote: “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” Blake was of course another Sagittarian rock and roll poet of his day.

But another important factor about this T square was that the apex Neptune was in the 8th house of death.

Given everything else in his chart, this had to be an indication that Jim Morrison would meet an early death ( 8th house ) as a result of drink and drugs ( Neptune ).

Although he had many affairs, Morrison lived with Pamela Courson, who he called his ” cosmic mate “.

The synastry between the two charts is very powerful.

Pamela’s Moon is at 22 Sagittarius conjunct Jim’s Sun at 16 Sagittarius.
Jim’s Moon is at 9 Taurus trine Pamela’s Sun at 0 Capricorn.

This alone is double astrological soul mate, but this is only the start of it.

Both have that intensely sexual Venus in Scorpio square Pluto. Pamela’s Venus is conjunct Jupiter which points to her having a sexual relationship with someone of rock god like status. This conjunction is in the 8th house of death, suggesting where this relationship will ultimately lead.

Pamela’s Sun is exactly conjunct Jim’s Mercury, another example of the depth and power of their relationship and that she ( Sun ) would be an inspiration for his poetry ( Mercury ) but this also hooks her in to the T Square that indicated his death.

Her Sun is opposite his Saturn and square to his apex 8th house Neptune. So she becomes intrinsically and symbolically involved in his death.

So when would be the critical turning point in these two lives. Given that they both died young, it might tempting to think that their deaths might be their Pluto moments.

This in invariably not the case. Pluto is the planet of death and rebirth. It completely clears the ground of all past conditions in order for a new life within a life to begin. A Pluto / Sun transit seldom means actual death because it needs something new to continue.

Death, in that it can possibly be indicated astrologically is more the province of Saturn, that great Father Time, the planet that to our forebears signified the end and limits of everything.

However for a couple as closely astrologically connected as these two, you would expect their individual Pluto moments to be closely intertwined.

In their sadly short lives, Pluto only made one transit to each of their Suns. For Jim Morrison it was when Pluto was square his Sun in 1965, when the Doors got together. It was also the year he met Pamela Courson.

The track ” Light My Fire ” was on the first album recorded in August 1966, released January 1967 and released as a single in April 1967, it spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late July. It was their breakthrough hit, and is considered their signature song.

It was written by Robby Krieger although the other band members then expanded on the theme. Ray Manzarek said that the distinctive organ intro was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach‘s Two and Three Part Inventions.

The way Morrison sang it however, was entirely devoted to Pamela Courson, particularly with the drug taking references.

“Light My Fire” was performed live on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Doors were asked to change the line “girl, we couldn’t get much higher”, as the sponsors were uncomfortable with the possible reference to drug-taking. The band agreed to do so, and did a rehearsal using the amended lyrics, “girl, we couldn’t get much better“; however, during the live performance, Morrison sang the original lyric. They were informed they would never do the Sullivan show again. Morrison’s response was “We just ‘did’ Sullivan.”

Fire, however as every good student of astrology knows, will burn brightly, illuminating, warming and inspiring every one around it but will eventually burn itself out. In fact they will learn this on the first day of their course, because it is the essence of that first sign, Aries.

If their course is a reputable one, the thing they will probably learn at the end of it is the power of the Pluto / Sun transit.

Morrison died on July 3, 1971 at age 27.

The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison’s cause of death. According to Danny Sugerman’s account in ” Wonderland Avenue “, Pamela Courson stated that Morrison had died of a heroin overdose, having inhaled what he believed to be cocaine. Sugerman added that Courson had given him numerous contradictory versions of Morrison’s death, saying at times that she had killed Morrison, or that his death was her fault. Courson’s story of Morrison’s unintentional ingestion of heroin, followed by his accidental overdose, is supported by the confession of Alain Ronay, who has written that Morrison died of a hemorrhage after snorting Courson’s heroin, and that Courson nodded off instead of phoning for medical help, leaving Morrison bleeding to death.

In July 1971, Pluto was square Pamela Courson’s Sun. Jim Morrison’s death was the turning point of her life.

Pamela died three years after Jim of a heroin overdose, on April 25, 1974 with Saturn opposite her Sun.

Both Jim and Pamela were brought together by powerful synastry contacts and it was the same contacts that caused them to die at a tragically young age.

Human relationships are complex. To say Sagittarians don’t get on with Capricorns is just is not good enough. Sun sign astrology is about as much use as that double decker bus on the Moon.

During one of his live shows, Morrison once exclaimed ” I’m a Sagittarius but I don’t believe any of it. I don’t know what’s gonna happen but I just wanna get my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames ”

Typical Sagittarius.