Astrolutely Fabulous! | established in 2000

Whitney Houston was the quintessential diva. A Leo, naturellement, her sun conjunct Venus; you could say she was born a star.

The sun and Venus are to be found in the 6th house of service, which gave her a tremendous work ethic; she was no slouch when it came to crafting her natural talent; she gave her all. Yet this astrological factor, combined with sensitive Pisces rising, is also the reason fame and life in the fast lane of the music business took a heavy toll on her. (There is always an element of escapism in Pisces, and often the easiest route out is through drink and drugs.) She would have been happier, singing in the choir of the church in New Jersey where she grew up.

Her complicated love life owes much to the triple conjunction – Uranus, Mercury and Pluto in Virgo – flanking the descendant (the cusp of the house of relationships). She was drawn to bad boys, of whom Bobby Brown (February 5, 1969: 05: 21am, Boston MA) was in a league of his own.

Like many great artists, her horoscope contains a Grand Trine, in this case in fire signs – moon conjunct Jupiter in Aries, trine the sun and Venus in Leo, trine the Mid-heaven in Sagittarius. Grand Trines reveal a God-given talent, one which may have been earned through past incarnations. This Grand Trine generates enormous charisma too. And Whitney had charisma emanating from every pore.

Whitney’s chart also sports a ‘T’-square in Fixed signs – sun and Venus in Leo opposing Saturn in Aquarius, all squaring Neptune – which, although challenging, creates enough tension to manifest the gifts inherent in the Grand Trine, which may otherwise have lain dormant. Squares to Neptune from the personal planets (sun and Venus here) pull the individual towards heightened experience; such a person is often deeply spiritual and compassionate, yet always there is the vulnerability, and the likelihood that he or she will fall prey to various forms of escapism.

Neptune gains even more prominence by being the ruler of the chart, and the most elevated planet, and the apex of the aforementioned ‘T’-square. She danced to a different drum; one might even say she was attuned to a higher vibration, which, as so often happens, ultimately proved her undoing.

The official time of death given for Whitney is 03:55pm on the 11th February, 2012 in Los Angeles. Clearly she passed at some point earlier in the day but we have no way of establishing that precise moment. What we can see from the chart is that the moon (16̊:47 Libra) was almost exactly opposed to her natal moon-Jupiter conjunction, indicating an element of joy to her passing. That the sun and Mercury would have transited her natal Saturn a few days prior to her death suggests that she was at a low point, looking at life through an overly grey lens.

However, I find it difficult to believe Whitney took her own life. It is more likely that she had overwhelmed her system with a cocktail of drink and drugs (no doubt prescription drugs) and slipped into unconsciousness while taking a bath. Like Amy Whitehouse and countless other great stars before her, she simply drifted out of the world, silently and unobserved.