7 Oct 2011

Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

Steve Jobs, 24 February 1955 at 19.15, San Francisco

People around the world are mourning the loss of entrepreneur and creative, forward-looking technological innnovator Steve Jobs, who died on 5th October. Jobs was one of the originators of the computer revolution, and was the co-founder of Apple Computer Corporation and Pixar Animation Studios. His legacy is the success of Apple; the end products of his creative genius are carried in the pockets, handbags and briefcases of men, women and children all over the world (how old do they have to be before they want an ipod, iphone or ipad? Not that old in my experience!)

Jobs' chart shows something of the inner motivation and drive for which he was famous. Composed of mainly red and blue aspects, he would have had very little time for half measures, approaching life in an either/or way, where it was a matter of all or nothing. He is reputed to have been moody and difficult to work with, and the red opposition aspects spanning the 5/11 house axis of relationships are indicative of this, with Venus stressed just before the 5th cusp and Jupiter/Uranus strongly placed on the 11th cusp.

His chart shows, in the aspect pattern shaping, a mixture of restlessness and the drive to move on, change and grow. But the overwhelming red/blue nature of the aspects indicate that there will be little room for half measures. The one green aspect between Sun and Moon is part of a Small Learning triangle, which is completed by the North Node in 4th. This was the place and area of life for Jobs to move towards and develop in his life - the area of the collective, the human family. The impact that his passing has had reflects his success in tapping into the zeitgeist and tapping into the lives of the ordinary people who would not be without the seductive and attractive Apple technologies.

Before I saw his chart I expected to find some indicators for his technological genius in his chart - and there it is - Jupiter/Uranus are the highest planets in the chart, they are strongly placed on 11th cusp and are opposite Venus. This embodies quite a different expression of these planets to the one I explored above and here we need to look at this oppostion in the whole aspect pattern it is a part of - the Ambivalence Figure. The work - the creative genius, the visionary ideas, the pure aesthetics - take place across the opposition, where the energy is active but held in tension, awaiting release. This takes place via the planet at the blue corner of the figure - in Jobs' chart this is Saturn very strongly placed on 3rd cusp.

Saturn = materialising, grounding and making manifest.
The 3rd house = communication.

What better placement could there be for the man who has been at the forefront of computer technology and has had a huge influence of the way we communicate globally with each other?

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