Kurt Cobain’s horoscope is complex. And it’s one of the most ‘challenging’ I’ve seen.
His horoscope contains a difficult combination of factors. The overall picture is certainly a ‘big ask’.
Cobain was a talented musician and grunge-rock icon of the 1990s who battled drug addiction and depression for much of his adult life.
The unexpected success of his band Nirvana made him famous. Particularly after the massive impact of their album Nevermind in 1991. Predicted to sell 250,000 at best, it sold 30 million copies.
The pressures of fame, drugs, depression and illness all took their toll. Cobain took his own life by shooting himself on April 5th, 1994, at the age of 27.
He was born February 20th, 1967 at 7:38pm in Aberdeen, Washington, according to astrodatabank.
Let’s now look at the main factors in Kurt Cobain’s horoscope.
No planets in fire or air
All the planets in his horoscope are in earth and water signs.
Earth and water are traditionally associated with a ‘yin’ or ‘feminine’ energy. Meaning intuitive, reflective, emotion-based, and a tendency towards introversion.
While its common to find a horoscope with no planets in one element, it’s rare to find one with no planets in two elements.
This lack of fire and air describes an emotional, sensitive, intuitive and grounded/earthy person. Someone who is perhaps likely at times to feel overwhelmed by (watery) emotion and the (earthy) weight of the world.
Fire and air are the ‘yang’ masculine elements. If some of Cobain’s horoscope planets were in these elements, his overall emotional complexion would be more balanced, and perhaps easier to manage.
Uranus conjunct Ascendant-Pluto
Uranus is the planet of restlessness and change; the unusual. It has a magnetic, electrical quality. The Ascendant is how we present to the world, our personality.
Cobain therefore projects a restless Uranian personality and presence. He is someone who surprises others. He changes direction when least expected, projects a changeable and unpredictable personality. This actually might have been something people liked about him — a magnetic personality, always interesting.
Pluto adds a further dimension here. It adds additional force, power and intensity to Cobain’s Uranus-Ascendant combination. It turbocharges his Uranian personality. Resulting in a powerful charisma and uniqueness, yet within an overall water/earth package of sensitivity and intuition.
Venus-Saturn opposite Uranus
Uranus is in an opposition aspect (about 180°) to Cobain’s Venus and Saturn in Pisces. This aspect is shown by the red arrow below.
Venus represents what we and how love, and what we value. It also reflects our artistic inclinations, our taste.
Cobain’s Venus is in Pisces, located in the 7th house of relationships, partnerships and ‘other people’. This indicates a desire for the love for/from others in a sensual, sensitive and unconditional (Pisces) way — both individually and collectively.
However, in Kurt Cobain’s horoscope this all-embracing Venus is heavily influenced by a planet of a very different nature.
And that planet is Saturn. Which is conjunct (i.e. ‘close to’) his Venus. Saturn energy is (at worst) perceived as restrictive, authoritarian, heavy and structured.
Expressed more positively, Saturn can denote responsibility and discipline. In Cobain’s case this would be around love, relationships and artistic matters.
The gentleness and sensitivity of Venus in Pisces could feel weighed-down and blocked by Saturn’s influence here. Particularly in the broader context of ‘no planets in fire or air’ I mentioned earlier.
This Venus-Saturn conjunction is further modified by its opposition to Uranus. Uranus makes Venus and Saturn unpredictable and subject to sudden change, reversals.
This is all a difficult and challenging combination — a worldly and dreamy love of others, imbued with responsibility and weight. And subject to Uranian instability and change when least expected.
Mercury opposite Pluto
This is shown by the blue arrow above. Mercury represents our speech, communication, thinking. Cobain’s Mercury, like his Venus, is in watery and sensitive Pisces. This tells us his communication and thinking are sensitive, empathetic, emotion-based.
And being close to the 7th house cusp (aka ‘boundary’) means Cobain communicates in this way particularly through, and with, other people — an audience. It is a good placement for a performer, as their songs (Mercury) connects with other people (7th house).
Mercury’s opposition aspect to Pluto powerfully amplifies what Cobain and his band have to say. Force, intensity and focus are Pluto’s contribution here. And this is entirely consistent with Cobain’s vocal and musical intensity demonstrated in Nirvana songs such as Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Grand trine in water
A Grand Trine is a rare astrological signature.
Its when three or more planets in a horoscope are in trine aspect (about 120° apart) to each other. It denotes a ‘talent’. You’ll find a Grand Trine in Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s horoscope.
Clues about the nature of the Grand Trine’s talent are found by considering the planets involved.
Hubbard’s Grand Trine was Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury. His talent was to imagine (Neptune) grand (Jupiter) stories all at once. He just had to prolifically write (Mercury) them down.
In Cobain’s case, the planets are Jupiter, Neptune and Venus (see arrows, below). The talent will also express through the most personal of the planets involved. For Cobain, that planet is Venus.
In Kurt Cobain’s case, he likewise imagines a large (Jupiter) emotional (water signs) landscape that he wants to convey and express imaginatively to others (7th house) through art and love (Venus).
But Saturn conjunct his Venus will tend to say ‘no’.
Saturn, at best, shapes idealism into something more down-to-earth, structured and real. Which can be a blessing or a curse. At worst, it is heaviness and harshness, an unwanted burden to a big-picture romantic and sensitive imagination.
And as we have seen, this Venus expression is not only ‘sat on’ by Saturn, it is also disrupted by its connection to his Uranus, playing out through Cobain’s personality (Ascendant).
So while Kurt Cobain has a beautiful and poetic underlying talent for artistic sensitivity, it is nevertheless roughened, toughened and perhaps ‘brutalised’ by the Saturn and Uranus forces involved.
Relationship with Courtney Love
Cobain met Love in 1990 and they married in February 1992. Below are Cobain’s horoscope (inner) and Courtney Love’s (outer). Love was born July 9th, 1964 at 2:08pm in San Francisco, California.
Interconnections between two horoscopes is known as ‘synastry’. The synastry between Cobain and Love shows a strong ‘soul’ connection.
The blue oval, above, shows Love’s Moon conjunct Cobain’s Jupiter. And Love’s Sun conjunct Cobain’s Moon. Love’s Venus is also conjunct Cobain’s Midheaven (or ‘M.C.’), shown by the red arrow.
So there are strong emotional connections here, in the watery sign of Cancer. Cobain’s Jupiter enlarges Love’s emotions (Moon). And Love’s sense of self (Sun) provides a sense of security and emotional support to Cobain, via his Moon.
Her Venus to his M.C. means he probably ‘looks up’ to Love as an inspiration, perhaps puts her on a pedestal.
Life event: Nevermind
The Nirvana album that changed everything for Cobain was Nevermind.
It was released on September 24th, 1991. Below is Cobain’s horoscope (inner wheel) using the ’90° degree dial’ method of presenting a horoscope.
This method re-arranges the planets and points so that all hard aspects (conjunction, square, opposition) display as conjunctions.
It might look a bit weird, but its simplicity makes key patterns easily identifiable.
In the middle wheel are Cobain’s Solar Arc Directions (SADs) for the album release date. And on the outer are planetary transits for that day.
The blue oval above shows Solar Arc Directed (SAD) Sun in close aspect to his Venus.
This tells us that his identity and self (Sun) and his artistic expression (Venus) are closely tied at this time in his life. It indicates that this time in his life is central to his self-expression.
Transiting Neptune (red oval) also aspects his Moon. This is the signature of a sensitive emotional life period. Also visible in the red oval is Pluto separating from his Moon. This correlates with events of the previous 12 months, including recording the album.
Pluto-Moon reflects the emotional intensity of Cobain recording Nevermind.
Life event: suicide
Cobain died April 5th, 1994. Using the same method as above, here’s that day:
Most striking are the Saturn themes here.
SAD Saturn to his Jupiter, and transiting Uranus to Jupiter (red oval). As I mentioned above, Jupiter is part of his Grand Trine. Saturn is the principle of structure and discipline. But also inhibition and heaviness.
It is likely at this time he’d simply ‘had enough’ of the weight of his life, and how it was impacting his artistic and overall sensitive nature around this time. Transiting Uranus gives an impetus to ‘do something’ — make a change, perhaps abruptly.
Secondly, there is SAD Sun just separating from his Saturn (blue oval). Since it is separating by about a degree or so, it tells us that this will tell us about his past year (1° = roughly a year with SADs). Which combines Sun (ego, self, identity) again with Saturn.
So it was a time of culminating hardship and ‘weight’, right across the board.
Shortly before his death, Cobain wrote a ‘suicide note’. Below is an excerpt. It encapsulates some of what we’ve learned of the man (emphasis mine):
“…but I still can’t get over the frustration, the guilt and empathy I have for everyone. There’s good in all of us and I think I simply love people too much, so much that it makes me feel too fucking sad. The sad little, sensitive, unappreciative, Pisces, Jesus man. Why don’t you just enjoy it? I don’t know!”
Kurt Cobain’s horoscope: summary
Fundamentally an emotional, sensitive and artistic soul. Someone with much love to give. Yet this simple signature is made difficult by all the factors mentioned above. Lack of air and fire meant it was harder for him to ‘fight back’ against the bigger forces at play in the world.
Yet in his own way he succeeded, despite the odds. He and Nirvana had a profound and liberating energy that inspired the youth of that generation.
I’m not a fan of their music, but I still appreciate Smells Like Teen Spirit as a unique and powerful anthem. One that channelled intense Plutonian energy.
“While its common to find a horoscope with no planets in one element, it’s rare to find one with no planets in two elements.”
It’s actually not that rare to find charts with no planets in two elements. Between the last Neptune—Pluto opposition in 1646 and the next one in 2140, there were or will be an approximate total of 1,213 days with no planets in two elements, or about one day in 149. However, the frequency varies over the Neptune—Pluto cycle. There were none between 1823 and 1844, between 1949 and 1963 nor between 2002 and 2017, but in 2061 there will be over forty days, and in 1808 there were over thirty, whilst 2107 will also exceed that number. The seven-year periods centred on 1772, 1880 and 2062 average over ten days with no planets in two elements.
Between 1943 and 2039, the number of days with no planets in two elements is severely reduced by the Neptune—Pluto waxing sextile, which means that at least two elements will always be occupied, and the fact that no Uranus—Neptune or Uranus—Pluto trine occurs between 1943 and 2028. In contrast, around the next waxing square in the 2060s there will be 87 days with no planets in two elements between 2059 and 2066 (or eleven per year).
I would say one day in 149 qualifies as ‘rare.’
I have also examined many hundreds of charts, and it has been rare to see no planets in two elements. Likewise rare to see a tight Grand Trine.
Charles,
whilst one day in 149 is rare, charts with unusual features like no planets in two elements are something that I tend to “seek out” on ephemerides or astrology websites. If there are no known birth times, I still seek out such dates.
That the phenomenon of having no planets in two elements is much rarer for people alive today than on average over the whole Neptune—Pluto cycle is nonetheless important and worth emphasising.
Between 1942 and 2052, the percentage of days with no planets in two elements is approximately one in 424, or fewer than once every year, and 92 of 111 years have no occurrences. Even if we take the period since 1917 (corresponding effectively to all people alive today), the frequency is only one day in 264 – still substantially less than for the whole Neptune—Pluto cycle.
Much more interestingly and importantly, over the period from 1942 to 2052 only two of the possible pairs of empty elements – the complementary pairs of empty fire/empty air and empty earth/empty water – occur at all. In contrast, over the whole Neptune—Pluto cycle from 1646 to 2149, these two pairs account for only 375 of the 1,213 days with no planets in two elements, or 30.90 percent. Outside the long waxing sextile, noncomplementary pairs (empty fire/empty earth, empty fire/empty water, empty earth/empty air or empty air/empty water) account for 75 percent of the time with no planets in two elements, and for all of the most “productive” periods for this occurrence (e.g. in 1710, 1714, 1808, 1880, 1914, 1939, 2061 and 2107-2108).