Maybe it’s just because the Moon is in Cancer as I write this — which always makes me a little melancholy — but I still miss Prince. Fortunately, it reminded me of an unpublished blog entry of mine from twelve years ago, singing the praises of his birth chart. This, despite the fact that at the time, Prince was rapidly fighting the spread of his music on YouTube and other places on the Internet… making it much harder to hear his work.
So if you miss Prince like I do? Head on over to your On Demand menu, find that copy of Sign O The Times, put it on loud… then read this:
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Crazy/Genius: Prince The Gemini Is Both
Although Prince (formerly known as Formerly Known As) has been on the charts since the early 1980s, he continues to produce the same thoughtful, introspective, wildly shag-worthy music he always did. Like many artists (Cyndi Lauper comes to mind), he has produced consistently excellent work, but mainstream sales haven’t always reflected this.
One thing most people don’t know about Prince is that he is, at times, a business genius as well. After all, only a lunatic would give away three million copies of his new CD with the Sunday paper in London, right? That’s even worse than not selling albums… that’s guaranteeing a loss. The same would apply just as surely to Prince, who did just that a few years ago. Except of course afterwards he played twenty one sold-out concerts in London alone as a result.
I don’t know how much you paid for concert tickets last time you went… but I’m willing to bet our Gemini (June 7, 1958, 6:17 PM, Minneapolis MN) friend made a mountain off of money off the deal.
So I have to wonder what’s behind Prince’s recent unprecedented Internet rampage to eliminate all unauthorized images of himself and all trace of his music (Remember, this was written in 2007). Being worried about losing out because someone downloaded your song for free is one thing… but demanding a woman remove her home video of a toddler dancing to “Let’s Go Crazy”? Jeez.
Prince has Pluto right smack on his Midheaven, opposite his Moon. Right there we have a recipe for emotional volatility, and given the Midheaven’s involvement, this is going to come out in the career. This is the sort of guy who can pull off a genius marketing ploy like the London giveaway. This is also the sort of guy who, at the peak of his fame, could suddenly change his name to a weird symbol with no proper pronunciation, thus leading to a spate of “The Artist Formerly Known As…” jokes.
Transiting Pluto is trining that natal Pluto/Midheaven now (remember, this was 2007). Normally, most astrologers would say that this is a time when Prince would be making radical moves for the better in his career. Trying to get rid of every unauthorized trace of yourself on the Internet is certainly radical… but I wouldn’t normally think that threatening your biggest fans with legal action is so good for business. Then again, I would have thought giving your album away was nuts. Either way, the Pluto transit is adding plenty of fuel to the fire. In time, we’ll see whether the Genius or the Lunatic wins the battle, this time around. Although with Saturn currently squaring his natal Mercury… which also rules his Eighth House Sun… and transiting Uranus squaring that Sun… I think the smart money may be on “lunatic.”
UPDATE: According to various sources, it was around this time that Prince’s opioid issues started to rapidly accelerate. Sigh.
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