Cat Stevens has always struck me as quite an enigmatic character, but I had never looked at his chart until now. I was fond of his music as a teenager, and I can still appreciate it. In fact, I randomly encountered a performance of“Oh Very Young“ on YouTube recently which prompted me to search for his chart. I have been aware that he converted to Islam and changed his name some years ago, but beyond that I haven’t ever been curious enough about him to find out more about his life story.
I want to explore one particular pivotal event in his life here: his near drowning in 1976. It was clearly a profound and cathartic experience for him and it is mentioned as being a catalyst in his orientation towards spirituality that culminated in his conversion to Islam. I cannot find a specific date for the event, but sometime in 1976 he nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, and during this ordeal he shouted, “Oh, God! If you save me I will work for you.” He claims that his prayer was promptly answered through a wave that came along and ushered him back to the shore.
There’s something profoundly symbolic about this event. The ocean represents the limitless vastness of the universe, and as such it has a certain spiritual connotation. We see this in the astrological symbolism of the sign Pisces and the planet Neptune. Pisces as the final sign of the zodiac represents the “return to source”, our surrender to the great oneness in which all boundaries and distinctions are dissolved. This can be experienced as the bliss of communion with the divine, or it can be the terrifying experience of a complete annihilation of our autonomous and distinct selfhood. Neptune, similarly, induces a longing for the spiritual and transcendental, and this yearning, this idealistic aspiration, is often the muse that imbues the work of artists with a soul-stirring magical quality. It is also true that Neptune can induce a state of complete paralysis and overwhelm.
It is perhaps no surprise, with all this in mind, that Cat Stevens was born with Neptune conjunct his Ascendant. Apart from the fact that Neptune conjunct the Ascendant can be the signature of an artist or musician, it appears reasonable to ask whether it also hinted at him having a fated appointment with Neptune’s possible manifestation as the physical ocean’s formidable power?
So, what happened, astrologically speaking, to Cat Stevens in 1976 to bring about this near drowning with all its consequent inner transformation? It would have been ideal to know the actual date of the event, but considering that this experience was such a major life milestone, it’s likely that it would be described by some of the longer terms cyclic factors affecting him in that year. Such a profound and cathartic event won’t be the result of some transient short-term influence relating only to that day.
I’ve calculated his secondary and solar arc progressed charts for 1 June 1976 since it’s approximately the middle of the year. We find that the progressed Sun is approaching a conjunction with secondary progressed Saturn, both semi-square his natal and progressed Neptune! That is pretty much exactly the kind of thing I was expecting to see.
But what about transits? Without knowing the actual date of the event, we can only consider the slowest moving of the planets, but it is a curious fact that during this year of his life the transiting nodal axis is overlaying his natal nodal axis, and that on the 27th of April 1976 there was an annular solar eclipse overlaying his natal node axis. Now, bear in mind that eclipses are said to have an impact, potentially for several months, both before and after they occur. He needn’t have had his near-drowning experience on the date of the eclipse for this eclipse to be relevant to the event.
Note that the eclipse occurred in his 8th House, but, very importantly, it was quincunx his ascendant and natal Neptune! Moreover, this eclipse was closely conjunct religious and protective Jupiter. This quincunx aspect formed by the eclipse (with Jupiter) to the ascendant could be viewed as the eclipse occurring in the epicentre and most potent and sensitive part of the 8th House from the perspective of the Bhava Chalit (or Vehlow) house system.
During practically that entire year transiting Pluto was hovering around his natal Neptune/Ascendant conjunction! Transiting Pluto conjunct natal Neptune by itself is a transit that would affect everyone born during a given year or two, but with Neptune conjunct his Ascendant, Cat Stevens became individually and personally the very embodiment of the significance of this transpersonal influence. Neptune’s capacity to bring about a feeling of being overwhelmed and submerged becomes brutally powerful when combined with Pluto; it could potentially bring about a sense of complete and total loss of control and individual agency, which is how it is likely to feel when the ocean is threatening to swallow you and cause your very existence to disappear without a trace.
To top it off transiting Saturn was at the time of the eclipse less than two whole degrees from conjunct his natal Sun; this latter transit itself tends to bring about a confrontation with your mortality!
So many layers of appropriate symbolism here, and much of it implicating Neptune! One last curious layer of synchronicity: when we look at that chart for the April 1976 solar eclipse in Malibu, Neptune is on the MC! That particular location was more primed than usual that year to produce the full gamut of Neptune’s business, from frightening overwhelm to conversations with God.
