I have been avoiding the documentary, “Leaving Neverland”. I had heard from others what it was about and didn’t want to watch it. I grew up a huge fan of a Michael Jackson’s music, so it has been and is difficult to confront the probability that he became an abuser. And worse, that this abuse was sexual and involved children. This subject matter is just too reprehensible.

The problem is that his chart has been on my mind for a while. I tried to ignore this as well, but I find myself thinking about his biography quite often. It has become something of an “elephant in the room” in my consciousness. I feel like this is something I need to analyze and release, so I sat down to watch the documentary.

It is as hard to watch as advertised, but it prompted a more comprehensive astrological analysis of all the potentials for the accusations and testimonies.

MICHAEL’S ABUSE[1]

Considering all of his early home life/family issues, Michael’s 4th house is surprisingly empty, so the logical next step is to look to the ruler. This would be Mercury who is in retrograde status. This means that what occurred in his early home life left experiences that were deeply internalized. This was an area that Michael thought about constantly.

Mercury is also in square aspect to Mars. This type of aspect usually deals with verbal combat and arguments, but it can also represent violence. Also, Mars in Taurus is debilitated. It is not comfortable in this sign because it does not express anger in a normal manner. It has been my experience that this specific placement can “bottle-up” frustrations until they become unbearable. When the energy is released, it can be quite explosive. For Michael, it represented the violence and anger he experienced growing up. Mercury’s mutual reception with the Sun (each body placed in the sign ruled by the other) underscores the powerful connection these experiences had on who he is. Michael’s early home life is literally a part of his core energy or ego. To some extent, this would be true for all of us, but here it shows the difficulty he had in detaching from what he experienced. In a way, the combination of retrograde and mutual reception arrested his development and left him as a permanent child in an adult body.

In order to understand how this environment became abusive and destructive, we need a bit more evidence. The best place to start is Pluto. Pluto is the planet of power and unfortunately this sometimes includes power over or manipulation of others. Pluto can be quite ruthless in its expression. It represents dysfunction and toxicity sometimes festering underneath the surface. Here, it is aspecting two important midpoints. First, it is in conjunction with the midpoint of Sun and Mercury so this offers a direct connection between some of the dark dynamics of Pluto and all of the early family issues that defined Michael. Pluto is also in opposition to the midpoint of the Moon and Chiron. The Moon is our emotions and Chiron represents our wounds, where we have been hurt or damaged. Michael’s Moon is in Pisces so he was a very sensitive and emotional individual. It’s square to Saturn (as well as Saturn’s dispositorship of Chiron) shows that this emotional nature was depressed and sad, isolated and lonely. For him, the world was a cold place and this perspective probably started with the coldness he received from his father. Pluto’s connection to all of these dynamics through these midpoints reflect a high potential for toxicity and dysfunction connected to Michael’s ego as a result of his early family. Even as an adult, Michael was still scared of his father. He referred to him as a “monster”. What I have noticed with Pluto problems is that they have the potential to turn us into monsters as well if we are not careful.

MICHEAL & HIS FATHER

The bi-wheel shows the connections and synastry between Joe (outer wheel) and Michael (inner wheel). There are two immediate observations: Michael inherited the placements of Joe’s Saturn and Mars. This highlights the possibility that Joe’s dysfunctions with the expression of these planets could become Michael’s dysfunctions as well.

In Joe’s chart, Mars is in opposition to the Moon. We have already referenced Mars’ debilitated nature, but it should be noted that the Moon is also debilitated and it is disposited by Mars. Moon – Mars oppositions are something of a signature for challenges with tempers and anger. This potential was aggressively exacerbated by their debilitated placements, Joe’s Pluto in Cancer in opposition to Michael’s Chiron and Saturn while also in conjunction with the midpoint of Michael’s Sun and Mars. Michael’s wounding has already been explored, but these connections from Joe’s Pluto who is receiving direction from his ugly Moon and Mars makes it clear that Joe was tearing the child apart. This looks like a picture of discipline escalated to torture. This is the abuse. In a way, Michael’s perspective of his father through the delineation of his Pluto is made explicit and confirmed through the relationship of Joe’s Pluto to him.

But why does he act this way? For these answers, we look to Joe’s Neptune in Leo. It is forming a square aspect to both Moon and Mars. Essentially, Neptune is at the apex of a t-square configuration. It is the driving force. Neptune deals with glamour, icons, ideals and specifically…music. Leo is concerned with the expression of self and greatness. It’s alignment at this apex AND Michael’s Mercury (again, 4th house ruler) reflects how Joe thought he being “tough” on Michael in order to make him great and to become the star that Joe could never be. The problem was that this “toughness” was received as abuse. It destroyed Michael and his childhood.

NESSUS & DEJANIRA

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end here and we can’t let end here. Because from the testimonies and accusations, it appears that Michael eventually devolved into a sexual predator who abused children himself. In order to analyze these possibilities, we can start with a couple of asteroids that are often overlooked: Nessus and Dejanira.[2] They were discovered in 1993 and 1875, respectively. They were named after two characters in the same story, but instead of detailing the full mythology, we will just provide the major high-level significations.

Nessus represents trauma and abuse and its potential for being passed along or inherited through the family line. This trauma can be explicitly sexual in nature. Nessus represents those scenarios where the abused eventually becomes the abuser. Dejanira is an asteroid that represents victims or victimization. Over the years, I have started incorporating these two asteroids into my delineations when scenarios involve extreme degrees of childhood abuse. They reveal some dark stuff.

For Michael’s chart, Nessus is at 25:44 Taurus and in partile (same degree) square aspect with 4th house ruler Mercury. Dejanira is at 18:17 Gemini, roughly one degree away from the IC (4th house cusp). The positions of these two asteroids provide strong confirmation of the physical and emotional abuse reflected through all the other major dynamics. But Nessus’ connection to those dynamics also infers the possibility that they may be repeated in some form upon others later…which is where things appear to go from bad to worse.

MICHAEL’S POTENTIAL AS AN ABUSER

Michael’s Moon rules his 5th house. This house represents creativity, so it is pretty obvious how that area of life manifested. It also represents children. When we consider the emotional hurt and pain represented by the Moon – Saturn square, the midpoint of Pluto = Moon/Chiron along with Pluto’s association with subversion and toxicity festering under the surface, it become plausible that he would target children as a way to satisfy his broken emotional state.

Michael’s Moon is disposited by 8th house Neptune. This particular Neptune placement is a signature for fantasies about sex and had a strong correlation with Michael’s reported fascination with pornography. Neptune is disposited by Mars, Mars is disposited by Venus in Aquarius in opposition to Chiron. The dispositor tree shows a line of influence leading from Michael’s emotional needs to his wounding. Chiron’s opposition reflects his desire for an alternative type of relationship. Venus’ rulership of the 8th shows that this relationship would be sexual in nature and Chiron’s placement in the 12th represents Michael’s desire to keep these urges hidden.

Chiron’s placement represents something else as well. Using derived house methodology, the 12th house becomes the 8th from the 5th. Again, the 8th house is the house of sex, the 5th represents children and Chiron’s opposition to Venus also involves the midpoint of Uranus and Mercury.[3] Venus’s rulership of the 8th house reinforces the sexuality theme. Overall, his associations with children were not innocent. He needed an alternative type of sexual relationship that allowed him to remain a child. The problem is that he had matured into an adult. As a result, his “needs” were actually a reflection of the abuse from his wounds from an early home life that never allowed him to grow up. Nessus’ connection to Mercury and Mercury’s connection to everything brings the whole mess full circle. Michael was the abused who became the abuser.

MICHAEL & HIS ACCUSERS

Regardless of all this, the Jackson foundation and many fans have criticized the “Leaving Neverland” documentary because it is heavily based upon the testimonies and stories of the two alleged victims, James Safechuck and Wade Robson. Since this has become an area of contention, it is probably a good idea to review those relationships as well. The tri-wheel shows the synastry.

Starting with James (middle wheel), the most immediately noticeable connection is James’ Piscean Stellium in conjunction with Michael’s Moon. The other major connection is James’ retrograde Saturn – Moon square aligned with Micheal’s Mars – Mercury square. These connections show the attraction between James’ core energies and Michael’s emotional needs, but also show how Michael’s abusive childhood was translated into abuse that specifically impacted James and left some very heavy emotional issues (depression, etc) that he had to deal with later as an adult. While these connections are concerning, none of them explicitly infer sexual abuse.

Unfortunately, James’ Dejanira does. It is at 19:37 Aquarius in partile conjunction with Michael’s Chiron. Given everything we have already explored with Michael’s Chiron, Dejanira’s tight conjunction is a fairly big red flag that Michael’s involvement with child James would turn him into a victim.

For Wade (outer wheel), his Virgo stellium is opposite Michael’s Moon while his Chiron-Mars opposition is aligned with Michael’s Mars-Mercury square and his Dejanira is at 2:52 Pisces and in partile opposition to Michael’s Pluto. Oddly enough, Wade’s connections to Michael reflect a manifestation very similar to James. Both children were infected by the toxicity that Michael came out and it is a bit surreal that their stelliums are symbolically highlighting both halves of Michael’s full Moon. Finally, each child’s potential to be victimized was activated by critical components of Michael’s chart with the strongest potential to hurt others.

WHEN IT STARTED

The documentary cites June 1988 as the month when the first attack occurred. The tri-wheel was anchored for the new Moon around June 14th and contains both solar arcs (inner wheel) and transits (outer wheel). As it may be anticipated, there are more than a handful of factors the correlate to this pivotal event:

1. Transit Mars to Natal Moon
2. Transit Mercury-Venus to Solar Arc Mars and all in opposition to Natal Saturn
3. Transit Jupiter to Natal Mars
4. Transit Gemini Stellium in Natal 4^th
5. Transit Nessus at 10:17 Virgo, Michael’s Descendant (7th house cusp)

These measurements show a new beginning was occurring and the amount of tight contacts to Mars is stunning. I almost get a sense that Michael was thrilled to have the playmate he never had in his childhood, but that he also needed to satisfy himself sexually as an adult. What makes these dynamics especially troubling is their connection to the bigger themes represented by:

1. Transit Pluto in the 8th approaching Square to Natal Uranus
2. Solar Arc Uranus in the 7th approaching Opposition to Natal Moon

According to the cited chronology, this month triggered off a series of attacks that went on regularly for years. This narrative aligns with the growing intensity of these larger cycles, especially Pluto’s square to Uranus and then Venus and finally Mercury in 1993 when the first set of allegations arose. The potential of these larger cycles offers some horrible foreshadowing that this new Moon was unleashing. This chart reflects a level of confusion that is massive and equivalent to degrees of dysfunction that are wholly toxic and perverse. This timeframe shows that Michael had become the abuser. The debilitated Mars in his natal chart that reflected the violence he experienced as a child became a perverse expression of sexuality as an adult.

“LEAVING NEVERLAND” RELEASE

All of this brings us back to the documentary. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2019. The bi-wheel with Michael’s natal contains many significant tight and partile connections:

1. Transit Neptune Conjunct Natal Moon
2. Transit Venus-Jupiter Conjunct Natal Saturn
3. Transit Mercury Square Natal Neptune and Conjunct Natal Moon/Saturn Midpoint
4. Transit Uranus Opposite Natal Jupiter
5. Transit Nessus rising at 7:36 Pisces

Neptune’s association with movies and film is highly resonant as it highlights the emotional needs Michael had for children, but #2 brings to light the dysfunction that his 12th house ruler (Saturn) was bringing to the situation. #3 makes the first two transits explicit. Mercury is telling the story of the events behind the scenes (12th house) involving Michael’s sexual fantasies (8th house Neptune) that involved his control and abuse of children (Moon/Saturn). This story is sad. #4 contains the chaos being brought to Michael’s expansive image as a popular and well loved artist. #5 nails it all down. Sexual abuse is associated with both Michael’s immediate image to the rest of the world as well as his core energy and ego.

SUMMATION

For some of you, much of this probably isn’t a surprise. Michael Jackson lived a life in public view so many people are fairly aware of his biography, his strange associations and lifestyle. Still, it can be a slightly jarring to see the dynamics autopsied and analyzed. It makes the tragedy much more visible and personal.

Despite the notoriety of this highly publicized nightmare, it is a reality that many families suffer from abusive histories similar to this (and worse). It is almost like a curse. It is passed down the line hurting more and more generations until someone is able to see what is going on and stop the trend of inheritance. That’s why malignancies connected to 4th house dynamics can be so insidious. Their potential to grow and mature into something monstrous becomes the stuff of horror movies. And yet it isn’t fictional. It is a trend that repeats itself constantly. Of course, this does not excuse anyone from actions that may hurt another, but it helps to be armed with knowledge and awareness of the potentials represented by our astrological dynamics. As a result, we can more intentional, careful and humane. I believe it would have helped these families and possibly spared a lot of hurt down the line…as it can for all of us.

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[1] Michael’s birth time is an area of confusion. There is a quite extensive history on Astro Databank with numerous attempts to isolate an accurate time. For this analysis, I am defaulting to the time that corresponds to the cited time from his nephew who cited their grandma who, in turn, cited the birth certificate. Obviously, this level of confirmation doesn’t instill much confidence with anyone, which is why it received a DD rating. Regardless, this chart contains many interesting unique characteristics and specific correlations to the abuse Michael experienced growing up…as well as their impact on what he apparently became.

[2] These are represented on the charts with an “N” for Nessus and “D” for Dejanira.

[3] This should not be interpreted to mean that anyone who has planets in the 12th house or any type of 12th house focus is a sexual predator of children.