A discussion of the Inner and Outer Charts of Janis Joplin as found in my book follows below. The focus is on the Righteousness Rectangle but there is some discussion on an overview of the chart. Here are the two charts:
Inner Chart
Outer Chart
Janis Joplin was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful rock performers of her era, Joplin died of a heroin overdose in 1970, at the age of 27.
Before we look at the Righteousness Rectangle in the Outer Chart, we need to try to understand what Janis was built like internally. Jupiter is unaspected in both the Inner and Outer Charts exalted in Cancer. Basically, this seems to show itself in Joplin’s life as an expansion of everything, of all the tension and conflict as well as all the abilities. Jupiter ruled her MC and worked its magic there positively as an outlet for her talents. But the interception of Pisces as its additional ruler traditionally in the 1st house expanded the attraction of her persona but offered no ready outlet for her to respond. Jupiter is ruled by the Moon, also in the 5th, which added a deep emotional expression to her creative function but also her emotions themselves. The Inner Chart is dominated by the Grand Trine which holds both the Sun and Saturn, along with Neptune. Saturn at the base of the chart conjunct Uranus depicts the theme of sensing of conformity and its structural restrictions and wanting to rebel from it. Mercury conjunct Venus in Aquarius/12th adds fuel to the fire and, along with a demanding Capricorn Sun also in 12th, which can speak to strong negative views of the self. Add Neptune in the psychological 8th in Libra and we get a physical structuring of the world (Saturn) and self that mentally creates a Self (Sun) that is comfortable being not just different, but a rebel, a very talented rebel. The Inner Chart is mostly blue, with only two red aspects, the strong Pluto opposition to Mercury/Venus and the wider Pluto opposition to Sun. The main theme of the Inner Chart is that there is conflict and tension that feeds the negativity but an overall inner ability to be comfortable side-stepping that conflict by focusing on the sense of Self that found comfort in itself. Meanwhile the Moon, as the focus of and internal EYE which, as part of a Megaphone Figure, gathered information about conventional verses non-conventional issues bubbling up from the collective via the Saturn/Uranus placement, and about personal conflicts and habits of the self from Pluto’s placement in 6th. These were all collected as issues of interest for her Moon which sought to creatively express the distillation of these perceptions in emotive ways. This is shown in her music and her personality and image. Sadly, a plutonian event tied to that opposition ended her life before she reached any solutions or resolutions that might have come from working with the Megaphone. I will discuss this further in the Megaphone section. This is hopefully a picture of what the internal life was like for her as she faced the world of her Outer Chart.
The Righteousness Rectangle holds the Mercury/Venus and Saturn/Uranus as well as Pluto and the MC. The oppositions tell the story of the conflict and tension. The Pluto opposed Mercury/Venus is carried from inside and this conflict and tension was present in the outer world. The Mercury/Venus in Aquarius/12th, with the tendency towards an unusual approach to what it enjoys and enjoying being different is in tension with a 6th house Pluto that can create personal conflicts and negative body issues. She was ostracized and bullied in high school and became overweight and suffered from heavy acne. When asked if she had been popular in school, she admitted that when in high school, her schoolmates “laughed me out of class, out of town and out of the state”. Meanwhile the other opposition with Saturn/Uranus opposed the MC became about how to create a public image and later a career that could be in balance with that non-conventional person she saw herself as in a conventional world. She was in the middle of a struggle to reach for her individuality and rise above the masses, not be defined by them. But, in order to complete this process, we have to come to a point where we can be an individual but still see others as being in the same human dimension. This is what is at work when the 4th/10th Individuality Axis is involved.
Her parents felt that Janis needed more attention than their other children. This most likely is spoken by parents who did not understand the needs of a child with 12th house planets. As a teenager, Joplin befriended a group of outcasts, one of whom had albums by blues artists Besse Smith, Ma Rainey and Lead Belly, which Joplin later credited with influencing her decision to become a singer. While in college the campus newspaper ran a profile of her headlined “She Dares to Be Different.” The article began, “She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Jeans to class because they’re more comfortable, and carries her autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break into song, it will be handy. Her name is Janis Joplin.” Joplin cultivated a rebellious manner and styled herself partly after her female blues heroines and partly after the Beat Poets (Ginsberg, Kerouac, etc.). She left Texas in January 1963, “Just to get away,” she said, “because my head was in a much different place”
So, we see the tension and conflict present in both oppositions. She did try to put a good face on it all and might have finally been able to resolve all the issues in ways that would have allowed her to use her public image and creative output in ways that would have helped benefit others in similar situations. However, the struggle with drugs and alcohol, which she had once tried to move away from before coming back to San Francisco and the music scene there, took over and the accidental overdose ended the story way too early. Personal issues coming from the 6th-12 Existence Axis can be difficult to overcome and usually only happen after the completion of the Saturn return and other cycles of that time which are discussed later in the book. Also, although she did not actually break down, it is clear that she had not built up the character necessary to overcome the struggles that she was dealing with. This is an example of the process involved when there are oppositions, which run through the Center. The polar energies need to be unblocked and resolved and this process was only beginning.
Possibly, if she had been allowed to mature and come to some resolutions, the unaspected Jupiter, tied both to the moon as ruler and the MC being ruled by it, could have blossomed as part of a higher understanding of what the path of her life and could manifest into.
Additional quotes here amplify her situation:
At one point when back in her home town she was seeing a therapist who later stated: “Joplin had been baffled by how she could pursue a professional career as a singer without relapsing into drugs, and her drug-related memories from immediately prior to returning to Port Arthur continued to frighten her”. The ridicule and the humiliation that took place at that most delicate period in [Joplin’s] early teens, her own inability to surmount the obstacles to regular growth, devastated her a great deal more than most people comprehended. Janis was not heir to an ego so cohesive as to permit her an identity one way or the other.
She also said that if she were to avoid singing professionally, she would have to become a keypunch operator, as she had done a few years earlier, or a secretary, and then a wife and mother, and she would have to become similar to all the other women in Port Arthur.