His progressed Mars for the beginning of 1970 is on natal Venus and Sun. Jupiter is on natal Saturn by antiscion. There is trouble brewing. His flame is burning bright and he is burning out.
Let’s look at his 1969 Solar Return.
Mars afflicts the ascendant by opposition.
The Moon will oppose Mercury then the Sun by antiscion as it enters the 12th house that is: his Moon takes his natal L6 to the Sun. The nodal axis emphasizes house 8 and house 2. Mercury is on the star Antares opposing his natal Saturn. We cannot possibly draw a clear significance of this here, unless you already know how he died. But it will be crystal clear in the lunar return for the period of his death, as Mercury is the SR L2 and natal L6, while Saturn is natal L2.
In the days before his death, Hendrix had been in poor health, due in part to fatigue caused by overworking, a chronic lack of sleep, and an illness assumed (by the doctors) to be influenza-related, but more likely was simply his body trying to expel all the poison he was taking in.
We see an abundance of testimonies corroborating every one of those facts in the Lunar Return for the period of his death (August 8, 1970). Basically, the whole chart spells his demise.
Below is the Lunar Return for the period of his death.
Both the LR ascendant and Mars are on the star Alfard, the Heart of the Hydra — the heart of the “desire nature” as is represented in every myth where large beasts appear.
A star of Venus and Saturn nature, echoing the problematic Venus-Saturn connection from the radix.
Mars and the ascendant are exactly on the natal North Node. We have the picture of a man going full steam into whatever he is into (his desires), strong passions and of lack of self-control. Unfortunately the time to transform all the experience into wisdom, and then express it, is nearly over for him.
Mars on his LR ascendant clearly depicts his overactivity and overwork. His Sun is on the South Node: his vitality is low, fatigue. (Strong Mars, weak Sun: bad combination. Recipe for burnout. If you do not know how to stop, rest, eliminate and rejuvenate you are in trouble.)
Jupiter, LR L8 and L5, is on the natal South Node by antiscion. Jupiter has just entered the sign of Mars. Another picture of excess in the form of overactivity. Jupiter is also natal L1, and its antiscion, being just above the descendant, is setting by primary motion. A testimony for “going down” or death.
Mercury, his natal L6, translates the light from an angular Saturn (LR L6) to the Moon (Moon as Moon is static in an LR). Notice that Saturn is also an agent of house 6 matters given by his position right inside house 6 in the radix. It is not surprising that it is active in such major event, largely due to illness, as his death was.
The Moon is on the 12th cusp so we see house 12 is heavily in play: literally Hendrix was overwhelmed by self-undoing or self-harm, a string of bad habits which became a major contributing factor in becoming weak and ill, which in turn fed his house 12: his desire to soothe his pain which, let’s not forget, is the essence of addiction .
Besides the overwhelming general house 6 and house 12 testimonies we have also a literal description of his death:
Mercury is the LR L2: “what he ate and drank”. (Remember Mercury on Antares in the SR!) So we have his food connecting Saturn to the Moon. He died of asphyxiation due to inhalation of his vomit. This was largely due to the fact that he took an excessive amount of sleeping pills: Saturn (sleep/melatonin) in house 10 (medication). Mercury being on Pluto points at the gruesomeness of the picture of how yet another genius of artistic expression was “dragged down to the underworld”, as the myth of Pluto and Persephone shows us.
This is the script for the life of the man who said years before his own death: “I will not live past 30; and it’s alright”. And so it proved. He passed away on September 18, 1970 at age 27.
