Tom JacobsRecently, I saw Rock as part of the television series, “African American Lives 2.” Historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. sat down with 12 prominent African Americans to trace their genealogies back as far as possible (it’s fascinating – I highly recommend it). Most of what was shared was new to them, as many families leaving the South and heading to cities in the early part of the 20th century left their histories behind. Many left their homes because of racism, and not many carried fond memories and stories of that kind of life with them to their new realities. Add to the disempowerment that goes with a history of slavery the lack of connection to family and heritage, and there’s a lot to be healed that this kind of work can support.
Rock in particular had some epiphanic moments. I was surprised to see him open and vulnerable, and admitting his emotional responses to the information. We all know he’s brilliant, but I hadn’t seen his personal side before. I loved the series as a whole, but he stood out to me in the impact the information on his family history had.
In one of those moments, he’s told that he has an ancestor who enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War not long after being freed from slavery. In another, he’s told that same ancestor was a state legislator during Reconstruction, about a decade later – that he was a state representative.
Rock says that if he’d known that, his happening into comedy wouldn’t have ended his assumption that he’d spend the rest of his life picking things up after white people. He says he wouldn’t have had a lifelong sense of inevitability that he would turn out to be nothing.
February 6 1966, 10 AM, Andrews SC (rated B)
I don’t usually do profiles on people with birth data rated less than A, but even without houses, Rock’s story is evident. He has worked a lot with themes of race, and his chart has a lot to say with Rock’s karmic experiences with inequality and dealing with the power other people get to have.
We can start with Pluto in Virgo. This sign is inherently about inequality, whether it shows up as master-apprentice relationships or master-slave relationships. In Virgo, we recognize that everyone isn’t on the same page with experience, knowledge and abilities. It’s therefore when we find ourselves faced with choices of opting for humility, or being humbled by circumstances out of our control. The generation born with Pluto in Virgo (1958-1971 or 72 – Pluto went into Libra then back to Virgo) have karmic experiences exploring various ways of having human experiences that fit within this theme.
The opposition of Pluto to Saturn-Chiron in Pisces has some juice in it, but I’m going to look next at the South Node ruler Jupiter, which represents his role in various lives. Jupiter is retrograde in Gemini, in a T-square with Moon-Pluto-Uranus and Saturn-Chiron. In his various lives, he gets himself in positions given friction by different sorts of people in powerful positions. He will therefore be especially attuned in this life to any and all issues of when people do and don’t get to have power. Rock was born to an African American family, but if he were born into any other background, he would be attuned to the same issues, and might feel drawn to speak out about them. The evolutionary intention is to learn about power by learning exactly what it is – when you’re knocked off course by strong others, you have the choice to feel worthless because you couldn’t stand up for yourself or develop inner strength, a resilience that ends you giving power to other people to affect you in the same way again.
This Jupiter in inconjunct Neptune in Scorpio underscores and intensifies his issues with those in power, bringing inspiration to criticize those with power who misuse or don’t deserve it. The inconjunct is a difficult relationship, where each party is not sure how to be in the same room with the other. Like the town isn’t big enough for the two of them. There’s a sense that no negotiations are possible.
Rock’s famous “Niggas vs. Black People” track on his 1997 album Roll with the New, and the aftermath and his reaction to it, exemplify this. A lot of people were seriously offended by his language as well as the depiction of blacks. Rock drew much criticism from, among others, Bill Cosby. Rock’s humor is brashly honest, and when you bring that kind of thing out, you will make people uncomfortable.
This inconjunct speaks to a karmic need to speak out even if powerful others are ruffled by what you say. The karmic healing with this kind of signature requires speaking out unapologetically about what one sees is true in the world and one’s experience. But it didn’t have to be comedy/entertainment where this energy came out. Social activism and politics are two other arenas where it would have fit in well; where we find people doing this exact same thing.
His bio in Wikipedia includes: “By the way, I’ve never done that joke again, ever, and I probably never will. ‘Cause some people that were racist thought they had license to say nigger. So, I’m done with that routine.” My take on it is that as he used it to bring up specific issues toward a specific end, the onslaught of emotional reaction and criticism just got to be too much to deal with, which is a common way an inconjunct between the South Node ruler and Neptune can manifest.
Tom Jacobs is an astrologer, medium and channel offering private astrological and spiritual counseling, as well as mediumship services and astrological tutoring. In addition, he trains people in intuitive skills development (setting the stage for mediumship and channeling). His teleclass “Seeing With Spiritual Eyes” – intuitive skills development – begins 2/24. Contact Tom via his site, https://tdjacobs.com.