R.I.P. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys.

Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys died today. 

I guess it's a morbid practice of astrologers, to look at the charts of famous people when they die.  For me, there's something about 'I wish I'd paid more attention when he was alive' I guess. I got Adam Yauch's data from Wikipedia, so I'm not sure how reliable that is. There's no time available, so ignore Ascendant and house placements. (He's not on Astrodatabank.) 

Adam Yauch - note, no time.

It does feel a little to me as though a piece of my 'rebellious' youth has suddenly gone. Not that I was hugely rebellious :) It certainly feels wrong that cancer should claim one of these guys though, and at such a young age (47).  According to the news he'd been fighting the disease for the last three years, and it was announced publicly in July 2009. 

Astrologically, the performer stands out in his Leo Sun (square to Neptune - through music) and the Mars/Venus conjunction. His natal Mercury is sandwiched between the generational Pluto-Uranus conjunction of his time. He thought (Mercury) unconventionally, rebelliously, brilliantly, unpredictably, and 'outside the box' (Uranus) and communicated in the same manner. Not to mention the offbeat comedy genius :) This was empowered and intensified by Pluto being in the mix too. Saturn, opposing this conjunction, correlates to the conventional that was being fought against, the status quo, society, authority. This seems appropriate not only as expressed through his punk and rap music, but also as the voice of protest in his work in support of Tibet. He was also a practising Buddhist, which perhaps reflects the Sun-Neptune square too.

Transit-wise, it was his Jupiter return when he died, and those natal planets in Cancer - Venus, Mars and the Moon caught my eye - they've been under pressure from Pluto for a few years now - since the year before he announced his illness publicly. and then from Uranus, as the current Pluto-Uranus square becomes more exact. It's hard to know exactly where his Moon would be, it could be up to 7 degrees either side of that 13 degree Cancer position. Neptune and Chiron have also been crossing his natal Saturn.
I'm also noting that he was born under the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s and died under the first major aspect of these two heavy-weight outer planets since then. A 'recurrence transit'. 

So, respect to Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. They made me smile and jump around. Lots. Thanks for the music... and the comedy. Here's 'Sabotage'....

More photos from BBC News here. 
BBC Obituary with part of "Fight For Your Right To Party" video :)