Jobs has an interesting chart with the Sun in Pisces. Pisces is the sign of spirituality and transcending the boundaries of ordinary physical reality.  Pisces types are typically creative, inspirational, easygoing and meditative with a thirst for a spiritual experience.  They are also emotional and can be quite sensitive.  After dropping out of college, Jobs spent some time in 1974 backpacking through India, studying meditation and experimenting with psychedelic drugs.  

Jupiter (optimism and confidence) is conjunct Uranus (innovation and radical behavior) in Jobs’ chart, signifying a person with a deeply restless nature, but also an innate ability to innovate and create.  Mars (the planet that defines how we assert our will and express our aggressive instinct) in his chart is in Aries, the sign which it rules.  That is an extremely forceful place for Mars to be; yet Jobs is a sensitive and easygoing Pisces.  

Mars is afflicted in his chart: it is opposed by Neptune, the ruler of Pisces and a very watery planet – you know what happens when you pour a bucket of water (Neptune) over fire (Mars), the fire is likely to go out.  Mars is also in a challenging aspect to the Jupiter/Uranus combination, which shows that Jobs can have a very short fuse, but he may not, with his strongly Piscean nature, be able to release that fiery expression very easily.  

It is said of Steve Jobs that he makes his own rules, which we can see in the Mars (drive) square to Jupiter/Uranus (radical behavior), and that is can be a temperamental manager which we can see in the Mars in Aries aggression opposed by Neptune’s martyrdom and dislike of conflict. 

I have found that what I call “Mars problems” are very common in the charts of people with health problems.  When the aggressive instinct (which includes our ability to express our needs, to assert ourselves, and to express anger appropriately) is blocked, that fire energy is left without an appropriate outlet and often discharges within the body’s energy system, leading to a variety of health problems.  

Since 2004 when Jobs first had a “neuroendocrine” tumor in the pancreas removed, he has had a series of planetary transits affecting this Mars complex in his chart.  First transiting Chiron (wounding and healing) ran across all of the planets in the complex beginning in June of 2003 (the tumor was discovered in October of that year).  Then Saturn (hardship and disappointment) in 2004 and 2005 (the tumor was removed in July of 2004 after a 9-month battle to find an alternative solution), accompanied by Uranus (radical and restless change) which transited the Ascendant and Sun in Jobs’s chart, stirring the emotional pot and creating the need to alter the status quo.  The combination of Uranus restlessness and Saturn restriction can evoke a frustration that implodes into the physical body if not properly expressed outwardly.

Jobs is just completing a cycle of transiting Chiron over Saturn in his chart which started earlier this year.  Transits of Chiron can bring out areas of imbalance in the body which then manifest as health problems, and Jobs has said that his doctors cannot determine why he is losing weight.  I would guess that Steve Jobs is not very well grounded in his body, and the energy imbalance within is eroding his physical vitality.  

In taking a leave of absence, perhaps he will take the steps needed to maintain the inner balance he so badly requires.  If he were my client I would recommend a course of some kind of vigorous physical activity such as Kung Fu which is well suited to Piscean types with Mars problems (the combination of spirituality and aggression in the Eastern martial arts work well here).  Jobs has enough Pisces and Neptune that he will likely pursue just this path.