Amy Winehouse

The first time I saw Amy Winehouse perform on TV, several years ago when she was up-and-coming, I thought she had a whole lot of talent. Much water has passed under the bridge since then, and Amy’s profile has been raised and her lifestyle analysed by that section of the media who feed on the cult of personality.

This is the Virgo month and Winehouse is a Sun Virgo. She was born on 14.9.1983 in Enfield. No birth time is available, so her chart is set for noon, and using the Huber Method of astrological psychology we can still find out quite a lot about her inner motivation and what is likely to make her “tick” without having her birth time.

Her chart has a strongly Fixed shaping, being dominated by a large quadrilateral figure - the Animated Figure - meaning she will be motivated towards security and stability and to preserving and maintaining a structured existence. She needs to feel safe and secure in her life and almost certainly to feel secure about herself. However there is one blue but restless linear aspect between Moon/Neptune and Pluto, and her Jupiter/Uranus conjunction is unaspected. I’ve not studied Winehouse’s life or biography in any depth, but I have seen various media reports on her lifestyle, and it is to this linear and tangential aspect and to the unaspected Jupiter/Uranus that I would look for her more wayward, unpredictable and rebellious behaviour, were I to be working on her chart with her.

Her balance of aspect colours, which reflect the amount of energy available, is 3 red: 1 green: 3 blue. Winehouse lacks in green aspects, which give awareness, sensitivity and the ability to bring some kind of balance between the activity of doing which is the realm of the red aspects and their energy, and the ability to relax, rest, indulge and enjoy, which is what the energy of the blue aspects can confer. It could be useful for her to be more aware of how she’s using the red/blue energy she has available. There’s likely to be a high output of activity through her Sun/Mercury conjunction, and this being in Virgo could suggest she’s something of a perfectionist, being her own worst enemy if she doesn’t come up to her own high expectations of herself as a performer.

The Animated Figure is described by the Hubers in Aspect Pattern Astrology and by me in Aspect Patterns in Colour. The Hubers say of this pattern that it requires “...imagination, patience and a lot of hard work”. They also note that “...a person with this figure can rapidly switch from approval to disapproval”. This sounds a bit like some of the media reportage of Winehouse.

There are some interesting planetary conjunctions in the chart, relating to hot spots of potential in her psychological makeup. In addition to those already mentioned, Winehouse has a Pluto/Saturn conjunction (powerful physical appearance and/or presence - who could ignore that beehive hair and the 1960’s eye makeup?). The Moon/Neptune conjunction is perhaps currently being expressed on its lowest level of being drawn to escapism of all kinds, where feelings can be dulled and their intensity at least held at bay by drink or drugs. At their highest level, Moon and Neptune can be a source of compassionate love. The potential is there for her to develop these qualities. The conjunction of Venus/Mars in Leo speaks of being noticed, appreciated and applauded, something she will need like the air she breathes, and of being equally appealing as a performer to men and women alike. This conjunction also suggests the capacity to combine both male and female energies and without doubt Winehouse is a feisty woman.

Update and comment 25th July 2011: I feel sadness and shock to hear of Amy's passing. A talent is lost for the world, and a young life cut short. In the context of Age Progression and her psychological life phase, Amy was on the Low Point of the 5th house in her chart, a crisis point where the demands of the outside world would have been felt keenly along with professional pressures. In their book LifeClock the Hubers say of this period of life "..there is a real danger that the human being, in self-overestimation expects too much of himself, of the environment, and the future". May she now be at peace.