First Impressions: John and Yoko
A series in which I look at the chart of a great individual or couple/duo in history and describe for you the stand out elements of their natal or synastry chart that jump out at me, almost as an initial sketch - which is exactly how I begin when working with a client's chart. My focus here is on explaining what I see and how the energy has potentially played out. This is a way to show you how a chart works and to highlight how everyone expresses their chart in a completely individual way. We are much, much more than our sun sign.
BIO’S
JOHN LENNON
DATE AND TIME OF BIRTH
9th October 1940, 18:30
LOCATION
Liverpool, England
CHART
Sun in Libra, Moon in Aquarius, Ascendant in Aries
YOKO ONO
DATE AND TIME OF BIRTH
February 18, 1933, 20:30
LOCATION
Tokyo, Japan
CHART
Sun in Aquarius, Moon in Sagittarius, Ascendant in Libra
I need to preface this by saying that I could have written about ten times the length of this article and its been hard for me to keep this as a first impression as there is so much richness to be mined here. However, I've had to practice restraint and keep it within the parameters of a first impression, otherwise, I would still be writing this in a month's time. As such, I have had to limit the amount of contacts between their charts that I discuss here. I'll profile each of them individually in the coming months because a) I love both of them and b) their charts are both primo.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono are both striking in their depth of individuality and creative explorations. The two of them together, John + Yoko, is as captivating, timeless and sustaining as their individual personas. Just by looking at each of their Sun/Moon/Ascendant's, its evident that these two would have felt a free flow of magnetic energy from the get-go; both have charts very strong in air and fire and their seduction of each other would have begun as an exchange of ideas, knowledge and conversation. An air sign makes love in their mind first.
Yoko's Aquarian Sun, Sagittarian Moon and Libran Ascendant (as well as the rest of her chart) comes across as a beautiful alien being, deep in experiential learning's that have given her a broad range of emotional understanding and a very wide scope through which she perceives and interacts with existence, all of which comes through loud and clear in her work. I imagine she probably felt/feels like an outsider a lot of the time, purely because her perspective on reality is so large and she can pan-out her vision to the extent that she may sometimes feel remote from people - she is a big thinker, a big feeler and has the capacity to birth and hold big visions. She's not your average Joe.
John's Libran Sun sits opposite his Aries Ascendant; creating a (potentially) inherent struggle between asserting himself and his own identity in a very direct manner (Aries) while at the same time, his solar force (Sun) was striving for social harmony, peace keeping and the pursuit of artistic beauty (Libra). His Libran Sun sits conjunct (aka in alignment) with Yoko's outer identity (her Libran Ascendant), meaning that how Yoko presented herself (Libran Ascendant's usually have an innate sense of aesthetics and social graces and enjoy visually expressing themselves) was in alignment with John's core. I think we can see this play out with their mirroring aesthetics.
Yoko's Aquarian Sun (this somewhat remote observer of humanity whose landed on Earth via another planet, full of curiosity) shined straight on to John's Aquarian Moon, meaning that her core self innately understood John's emotional self (his Moon) and I imagine this must have felt like paradise for someone who was so hyper-cerebral. For him to be understood emotionally and intellectually and to have felt seen would have been a rather unique experience for him. I get the vibe that a lot of his formative years were spent oscillating between a sometimes aggro outside that demanded to lead (Aries Asc) and a more malleable side of him that could adapt to the wants and needs of others (Libran Sun conj Desc) while at the same time, probably feeling quite remote from his own feelings...walking around with an emotional wall blocking him from most people (Aquarian Moon if in its lower expression). To have someone meet him where he is and innately get him while also being able to go as far if not further 'out there' than him in terms of ideas and expressions...well, it must have felt like heaven. Having a Sun and Moon connection is very a-typical of a close connection with someone and is dominant in a lot of Royal unions.
“I’d never met a woman I considered as intelligent as me. That sounds bigheaded, but every woman I met was either a dolly-chick, or a sort of screwed-up intellectual chick. And of course, in the field I was in, I didn’t meet many intellectual people anyway. I always had this dream of meeting an artist, an artist girl who would be like me. And I thought it was a myth, but then I met Yoko and that was it”
- John Lennon
John + Yoko have a number of the classic signature markings of a couple who would have felt very early on that their was some level of destiny to their union. This would never have felt casual. If you look at their synastry charts here and here you can see that the bold lines marked IC/MC (vertical) and ASC/DSC (horizontal) are more or less in alignment with one another. Not only that, Lennon's nodal axis sits across Ono's Asc/Dsc line. That's astrology speak that equates to very, very strong feelings of destiny...that feeling you sometimes get with people where its as though you have known each other for eons, not hours. Its the feeling of strong magnetic forces pulling you together with another person. If I was to read this in a synastry session, it would be clear that these two had known each other very well before and would know each other very well if they were to meet in this lifetime. It's written in the couple's mythology that Lennon apparently invited Yoko to come and stay while his then wife, Cynthia, was in Greece. When Cynthia arrived back home she found John and Yoko in the kitchen, Yoko wrapped up in Cynthia's bathrobe. As the story goes, John just looked up from his breakfast and said, 'Oh, hi'. Once the bond was formed it was formed for life and not even a Lost Weekend/18 months could get in the way of these two being together.
“She forced me to become avant-garde and take my clothes off, when all I wanted was to become Tom Jones.”
— John Lennon
Let’s look at their composite chart. The composite is essentially the chart of the relationship, this is separate to the individual's and dictates the energy and direction of the relationship. As my teacher said, the relationship always gets what it wants. An easy way to explain this; have you ever been in a relationship that went in directions that were different to either of you? Perhaps you were both yang/action people but combined, you couldn't really get anything going or moving as a unit? That's more than likely the influence of the relationship/composite chart.
The composite of John and Yoko (which you can view here) is stunning. They have a grand trine in earth and a grand trine in water. Meaning that there are planets in each of the earth and water signs in the chart, all in a supportive relationship to each other (these are the two blue triangles that you can see in the chart). Water and earth are very complimentary elements and the two work to nurture each other. Remember though that both John and Yoko are majority air and fire (aka masculine)…but here is their relationship, which is predominantly water and earth (aka feminine).
This relationship may have felt foreign to both of them at first and probably pushed them in to new territories as individuals. What it translates to though is that just in being together they would have felt nurtured, held and content.
I could talk about this for a long time to come, however, I think you all get the gist that these two fit together in perfect unison. There was a shared and innate understanding of one another emotionally, intellectually and spiritually and the relationship itself was a source of nutrience for both of these cerebral, airy individuals; the relationship grounded them both.
In 'Beautiful Boys', Yoko sings, 'Don't be afraid to go to hell and back' - this could be THE motto for a brave Sagittarian Moon (Yoko) who knows that experience grows an individual and births wisdom.