Astrological Profiles of Prominence – Bob Dylan
‘Even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked’ – Bob Dylan
‘In ceremonies of the horsemen, even the pawns must hold a grudge’
You can always count on someone with several planets in the lunar mansion of Krittika to tell the truth. People take offense at truth-tellers because they cannot face up to the lies that they have been living. It shatters their paradigms and causes their entire world to crash down around them like a house of cards.
Bob Dylan was recently criticised by Maureen Dowd of the New York Times for not playing to American politics by saying, “The idea that the raspy troubadour of ’60s freedom anthems would go to a dictatorship and not sing those anthems is a whole new kind of sellout,”
“He sang his censored set, took his pile of Communist cash and left,” Dowd said further.
Dylan has responded on his website, simplistically, maintaining his dignity by stating, “As far as censorship goes, the Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing. There’s no logical answer to that, so we sent them the set lists from the previous three months. If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play.”
He added further, “The Chinese press did tout me as a sixties icon, however, and posted my picture all over the place with Joan Baez, Che Guevara, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg,”
“The concert attendees probably wouldn’t have known about any of those people.
“Regardless, they responded enthusiastically to the songs on my last 4 or 5 records. Ask anyone who was there. They were young and my feeling was that they wouldn’t have known my early songs anyway.”
So quick we are to judge the motives of others, and how reluctant to approach self-analysis, as in the case of the New York Times columnist.
The lunar mansion of Krittika purifies and will broker no falseness or superficiality. Dylan, a Gemini Sun Sign with Sagittarius rising is not afraid to be who he is and say what he needs to say. The lunar mansion of Krittika occupies the tropical sign of Taurus, lending tenacity. In Dylan’s birth chart, Saturn, the Moon, Jupiter and Uranus all occupy a closely knit sector of Taurus and Krittika. All of the aforementioned planets are placed in Dylan’s sixth house, giving him a confrontational energy. But this also is the foundation of his hardworking attitude, sometimes playing a hundred shows a year at the age of 69.
His cluster of planets in Taurus and Krittika form a harmonious aspect with Neptune in Virgo and the lunar mansion of Uttara Phalguni. His Neptune is closely conjunct the North Node, lending a surreal quality to his lyrics. With this placement in Virgo and Uttara Phalguni, he comes across as highly critical, but always with an intent of realness and righteousness. Forming a harmonious aspect with his cluster of planets in Krittika means that although somewhat ethereal, his words contain truth for those with minds made to listen.
The same cluster of planets in Krittika form a harmonious aspect with Pluto in Cancer and the lunar mansion of Pushya. Dylan has always been a voice of the people, and not the elite. It is no wonder that Dowd took offense. He was thinking of his fans, she was merely tooting the horn of a government, namely the US, itself guilty of countless human rights offenses. Pluto in Cancer gives Dylan a sensitivity and understanding. With Pluto in Pushya, he has the natural intent of right action at the root of his work.
There is much beneath the surface that an ignorant mind cannot see. But one blessed with cutting insight can see right through to the core. Saturn, the Moon, Jupiter and Uranus in Krittika, and forming aspects with both Neptune and Pluto confer just such a blessing.
‘Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
Dignity never been photographed’
