Looking at his chart, one is immediately struck by how incredibly sensitive Kurt was. In contrast to the whiny it's-so-hard-to-be-famous posturing of ambitious Capricorn Eddie Vedder, Kurt really was cut to the quick by the total cold shoulder the fickle, too-cool public gave him simply for being successful, when all he wanted was to be heard and to make a difference. Kurt's chart is that of someone who was quite simply uncomfortable in his own skin, who had trouble asserting himself and initiating action, who internalized pretty much all the negative energy that came his way but still managed to be his own harshest critic, and who wanted in an idealistic, guileless way to change the world through his music.

Now, astrology can never predict a choice such as suicide, because the individual is always free to choose how to use planetary energies, but it can show tendencies and the modus operandis that are easiest for a person to fall back on and, conversely, hardest to initiate. In retrospect it is clear that a tremendous number of factors were weighing on Kurt Cobain. If the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, a conspiracy theory is totally ludicrous, and "copout" just isn't an adequate term to describe the intense feelings of guilt and self-doubt that plagued Kurt up until his suicide. This anal*ysis will give a brief outline of Kurt's character, and some insights into his work as musician and lyricist, as elucidated in his natal chart, then proceed to discuss some of the forces acting on and around him at the time of his death.

With a late degree of Virgo rising, making Kurt shy and self-critical -- though with a biting, ironic wit -- most of the planets in Kurt's chart were placed in the opposite houses from those where they are naturally at home. His sun, representing his sense of self and basic ego structure, was in Pisces, a sensitive, empathic sign concerned with helping the less fortunate and prone to absorbing the energies of others -- often to the point of negating one's self (the Aries "I" as it completes its cycle.) Creative Pisces is the classic artist's or musician's sign, but also the classic sign of self-destruction in the form of drug addiction or other self-undoing behaviors. The placement of Kurt's Sun in the 6th house, the house of service toward others, responsibility and day-to-day affairs, enhanced his Pisces tendency to put others before himself. In "On A Plain", Kurt sings "Love myself better than you/ I know that it's wrong, but what can I do..." -- simultaneously apologizing for and trying to convince himself of a level of self-involvement that most people take for granted.

But the 6th house is the natural home of meticulous, controlling, detail-oriented and even compulsive Virgo, the sign that has to do everything itself if it wants it done right (and usually won't let you forget it), and Kurt's scattered, dreamy, whimsical Pisces energy must have had a very difficult time flowing freely in this rather anal-retentive house. His 6th house Sun must have been constantly preoccupied with minute, detailed concerns and nagging worries ("Hey, wait, I've got a new complaint") that with typical Pisces ephereality seemed constantly to be slipping away; he felt the constant need to maintain control even as this control was constantly being undermined through Pisces flakiness. The Virgo tendency toward guilt and self-criticism could only have intensified feelings of stress, guilt, and fear of failing to deal with or take responsibility for what needed to be done. Pisces in the 6th house of day-to-day affairs could also mean Kurt lived in something of a fantasy world -- in part drug-induced, in part simply because he made his living doing the most creative, expressive thing he could have hoped to do. But consequently he must have been tremendously sensitive to the shattering of Neptunian/Piscean illusions (such as the harsh criticism he received from others about what he had to do to get by, mirroring his own self-generated guilt), and also must have felt Virgoan guilt at indulging self-destructive urges like drug abuse (and perhaps the dreaded concept of Selling Out to Pay the Bills.) Kurt's Mercury, ruler of his Virgo Ascendant and signifying his mental functions and communicative abilities, was also in Pisces in the 6th, suggesting that his mental energy -- and, referring back to the first-house rulership, the image of himself he sought to project -- was largely concerned with these same issues.

It's interesting and, like so many other aspects of his chart, sad in retrospect to note that none of Kurt's Pisces planets (the others being Venus, Saturn and Chiron in the 7th, conjunct to each other in an unfortunate linking of inhibition and woundedness to relationship issues) were conjunct to his Sun. The conjunction signifies a consolidation or reinforcement of energies by virtue of two planets or other chart points (such as house cusps) being close (within 5 degrees, give or take) together. Kurt had very few conjunctions in his chart, suggesting that his energies felt dissipated or at odds with each other; his different drives did not reinforce one another, adding to his Virgo rising/ Sun in the 6th tendency toward self-doubt.

At least, if Kurt was very hard on himself, his Pisces influence made for a very giving as well as a very creative person. His Venus is in his 7th house, the house of partnerships and one-to-one relationships as well as the natural home of Libra, another creative, artistic sign where Venus was much more comfortable and able to express than most of his other planetary placements. You couldn't ask for a more giving, sensitive, truly self-sacrificing partner than someone with Venus in Libra in the 7th ("She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak . . . I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for a week"); again this reinforces Kurt's tendency to take care of others often at the expense of taking care of his own needs. Chiron's conjunction to Venus suggests that relationships brought up a lot of painful issues for Kurt, which he was able to use to heal and touch others better than he was capable of healing himself. Especially given his Virgo rising shyness, Kurt was no doubt able to open up and reveal his giving side most easily in intimate relationships, more comfortable with private interaction than being in groups or in the spotlight.

One might wonder how, with all this shyness, Kurt managed to project himself to the extent that he did, and to make such a momentous impact on the world of music. While his Virgo Ascendant may have made him painfully shy, it was conjuncted on either side by two powerful outer planets, Uranus and Pluto. First, his Uranus was closely conjunct to his 20° Virgo Ascendant in the first house. Uranus rules spontaneity, unpredictability, unconventionality, breaks with tradition, radical change and progressive, humanitarian ideals. It was certainly very important to Kurt to project these qualities in his personality or surface persona, on a large scale in his role as world-historical individual of the alternative music scene and in relatively minor instances such as wearing dresses and smashing instruments in the "In Bloom" video. Since Kurt had no planets in fire and Uranus was his only planet in a house of life (i.e. a natural home of a fire sign, associated tellingly with the will to live and to express oneself), the unconventional, anti-traditional urges Uranus embodies were no doubt a strong outlet for Kurt to project his personality and toward which to direct his will. Though his Uranus was in meticulous Virgo (another uncomfortable planetary placement), its position in the first house endowed its energy with the fiery, spontaneous, willful, assertive Aries energy that Kurt largely lacked (though Aries was found on the cusp of his 8th house, house of death -- more on this later...) Further confirmation of the importance of Uranus in Kurt's chart is found in that it rules his Aquarius 6th house, where his Sun and Ascendant ruler (Mercury), as previously discussed, are found.

An interesting aspect of the strong Uranian influence, aside from the fact that Uranus, with its love of rebellion for its own sake, is that Uranian/ Aquarian unconventionality is often associated with homosexuality -- more in terms of its social and cultural significance than in terms of actual sexual desire, which is ruled by Mars and Pluto. Kurt's Uranus in the first house, the house of how one seeks to project oneself but not necessarily what one actually is, certainly reflected this idea; Kurt talked about himself as gay in spirit and spoke out adamantly, refreshingly against homophobia, despite the fact that he himself was straight in terms of his sexual preference (and with all his prudish Virgo influence, probably on some level rather sexually repressed, although with Aries on the 8th he could probably express himself quite forcefully in bed once he was comfortable wth someone.) Kurt's self-identification as being on some level gay also reflected his larger Uranian concerns of being generally progressive and casting off the shackles of patriarchal tradition, as well as his Piscean tendency to identify with marginalized and outcast people.

While Kurt's Uranian urges to shake things up might have been very apparent on the surface of his personality, his Ascendant's other conjunction to Pluto in the 12th house -- natural home of Pisces and house of the subconscious, sorrows, and that which we usually keep hidden -- was less obvious. Kurt's brash, radical Uranian exterior represented more than just a desire for change for change's sake; he did not merely want to shake things up, but really to transform society in a profound and regenerative way -- perhaps completely redefining concepts of power. Since Pluto ruled Kurt's Scorpio 3rd house of communication, this powerful intensity came through in his way of communicating. Indeed, the powerful Scorpionic themes of angst and catharsis were very present in his music -- probably only a Scorpio 3rd house could have penned the line "I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black." Though Kurt's Mars in Scorpio in the 3rd and Virgo rising meant that a great deal of his action and mental functioning took place under the surface, in the deepest part of his being, what he did bring to the surface was totally charged with raw and painful emotion. This process of cathartic regurgitation is characteristically Plutonian, and this modus operandi was certainly in evidence in his final act of catharsis, his suicide; more on this later.

In addition to Kurt's Plutonian desire to change the world, he wanted to take care of it. Kurt's Cancer Moon, representing his emotions and nurturing capacities, in the 10th house (profession, ambition, aspirations, status in the community), ruler of his Cancer 11th house (natural home of Aquarius, concerned with friends, acquaintances, peers, and humanity or humanitarian ideals generally) indicates a strong desire to take care of the public, to use his profession and status to do good. Indeed, Kurt certainly tried to use his fame to take care of others and was appalled by instances of insensitivity and cruelty in his fans; the liner notes to Incesticide speak out against homophobia, violence against women, and the treatment his wife, Courtney Love, was receiving in the press. It's worth noting that men with Cancer prominent in their charts are often very much in touch with their femininity -- not effeminate per se, but capable of nurturing and sensitivity not usually associated with the masculine archetype. (In a word, they're the guys who don't get grossed out by the very mention of menstruation.) Kurt certainly was woman-identified in many ways, as evidenced by the abovementioned instance of crossdressing and his ability to conceptualize homosexuality as something not threatening to his masculinity, as many straight American men today are incapable of doing.

The Moon is dignified in sensitive, nurturing, mothering Cancer, but like Kurt's Pisces Sun in the 6th, is completely uncomfortable in the status-oriented 10th house, ruled by the opposite sign Capricorn. Kurt's moon placement signifies that he was incredibly sensitive to judgments on his status or career, and with Cancer ruling the 11th he may have felt a need to prove himself to his peers, to define his success by the way he was received in the (Aquarian punk rock) community. With his Gemini 10th house cusp, a common placement for writers signifying a powerful verbal capacity, Kurt placed a lot of importance in his lyrics and in verbality generally -- again, echoing his Scorpio 3rd, the idea of "speaking out" to make things right.

But while naive Pisces Kurt may have seen his fans as warm and supportive (Cancer on the 11th), and the alternative music community as a nurturing place for growth (Jupiter, planet of benevolence, growth and expansion, is also in Cancer in the 11th), clearly this desire for nurturing and support was somewhat one-sided. The approval of the masses of kids who were, like Kurt, Uranian outsiders -- which his empathic Pisces Sun and sensitive Cancer Moon craved so much for validation -- was thwarted by the very success he sought in order to get it; the kids ultimately saw Kurt as part of the conventional, success-oriented Capricorn establishment, and turned on him. I hope all you alterna-hipsters are very proud of yourselves.

Kurt's naivete and the extent to which he lived in a drug-induced self-destructive fantasy world were clearly his undoing, in a very chicken-and-egg way. Kurt's Neptune, representing fantasies, dreams and delusions -- including drug-induced states -- was in intense, introspective Scorpio in his 3rd house (indicating a need to communicate his fantasies and delusions to others, however painful and self-destructive they might be), close to his South Node in the 2nd. The South Node is not a planet but a point in the chart, and signifies the unproductive habits that one tends to fall back or rely on rather than learning new and constructive ways of being. Clearly for Kurt, Scorpionic brooding and Neptunian escapism were all too easy to fall back on in times of stress; as if one needed further confirmation, Neptune also forms a grand trine with his Venus and Jupiter, two planets prone to sensual and emotional overindulgence. That Neptune sextiled his Ascendant/Uranus/Pluto conjunction also suggests that Kurt felt his escape into a fantasy world gave him an opportunity to relax, let go and express himself in a way his shy Virgo rising might not otherwise feel comfortable doing, especially since Pluto rules his 3rd house of communication. In some ways, his self-destructive behavior was a plea for attention, trite as that sounds. It was certainly easier for him to express than lighter, more superficial emotions, which Kurt may not really have known how to deal with -- as suggested when he sings, "I think I'm dumb/ Maybe just happy."

It is clear that a great deal of Kurt's energy took place under the surface, making it hard for him to express openly and directly. Kurt's Mars, indicating his drive and way of exerting energy, was also in Scorpio, trine to his Sun; it was easy for him to express his sense of self through his actions, but this kind of "ease" with water signs like Pisces and Scorpio is likely to entail an introspectively directed, even self-pitying, flow of energies. Both Scorpio and Pisces have a tendency to escape into drugs and alcohol to shut off some of the overpowering feelings they are prone to indulging; with his South Node conjunct to Neptune it was very difficult for Kurt to resist this tendency. Interestingly, Kurt's North Node, representing possible directions of positive growth, was in his 8th house of death, rebirth, sexuality and regenerative change. For Kurt to break destructive habits he really had to look at himself, evaluate his life and discard that which was no longer useful to him -- he had to experience cathartic loss in order to grow. It is tremendously sad that Kurt didn't see any other way to make the cathartic 8th house changes he needed to move on than literally ending his own life. With almost no planets in initiatory cardinal signs and no planets in willful fire signs, Kurt must have felt extremely powerless in many ways, and extremely frustrated and angry at himself when the Plutonian change he craved and needed did not come soon enough.

Kurt's suicide took place around April 3, 1994, at a period of his life which astrologically marks the onset of adulthood and the assumption of adult responsibilities. Kurt's Saturn was in Pisces in his 7th house (conjunct to his Venus, reinforcing his shyness and hesitation with regard to intimate relationships, and opposing his Ascendant and its two conjunctions, making him uncomfortably aware of his "image" and how he projected himself, and inhibiting his ability to express himself), signifying that the lessons he needed to learn in life were to curb his tendency toward self-destructive, overemotional behavior, and to learn to reach out to others without negating his own sense of self in the process. The Saturn return, when Saturn returns to the sign of one's birth, occurs every 28 years, and the first one traditionally marks a period of transition into adulthood and coming into one's own, out of the shadow of the father and early life. Saturn is often a feared planet because it is exacting; if one has not worked on one's Saturn issues, this transit may entail a harsh crash to earth. Clearly for Kurt with his tendency to fall back on self-destructive patterns and his Virgo inclination to be his own harshest critic ("I'm worst at what I do best..."), the Saturn return marked just this kind of self-evaluation, and apparently in his own eyes he came up short.

The Saturn return coincides roughly with the progressed Moon return, when one's emotional life or way of dealing with emotions also completes a cycle (of roughly 29 years.) In Kurt's progressed chart, his Moon was about to conjunct his Midheaven or 10th house cusp, which was now Cancer; his urge to nurture and care for the world through his own position in the spotlight had crystallized, just as these aspirations were likely being disillusioned by his experience of just how superficial fame was and how unlikely it was to lead to the truly regenerative Plutonian change he sought (evidenced by songs like "Radio-Friendly Unit Shifter" -- "And if you sell yourself, then you'll think you're happy" -- and "Rape Me," whose opening riff bastardizes their huge hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit.")

Also, Saturn represents the father and the Moon the mother, so part of their returns' significance for the entry into adulthood means coming out of the shadow of one's parents (Kurt was after all newly a father himself.) Perhaps in addition to his disillusionment with the public sphere and the changes it was (in)capable of effecting, Kurt was still unable to resolve childhood issues with his parents. We know that Kurt's parents split at an early age; with his Moon in the 10th, we can assume that his mother was the more powerful presence or figure of authority in his life, as represented by his 10th house (another reason Kurt was so comfortable relating to and respecting women.) Kurt's 4/10 axis, showing how he saw his parents, was Sagittarius/Gemini, two very unreliable mutable signs. Sagittarius is the sign of travel, and Kurt probably experienced a lot of travel in his early life, as well as a father who basically took off ("I tried hard to have a father but still I had a dad" is suggestive of this perhaps-too-easygoing Sagittarian 4th). The 4th house not only shows one's early home life but how one feels secure, and the placement of Jupiter, ruler of Kurt's Sagittarius 4th, in his 11th, is further confirmation that Kurt looked to his peers or community for security and validation. Whatever rejection he felt from the public during his Saturn return resonated with childhood feelings of rejection from his father and no doubt opened those wounds anew.

At the time of Kurt's death, the Sun was about to or had just entered his 8th house, as previously mentioned the house of death. The sign on the cusp of that house was Aries, an impulsive, assertive sign which represents the primordial "I," the birth of the self, and physically speaking rules the head. Aries on the 8th can signify a violent, sudden death, particularly due to head injury and perhaps self-willed (Ernest Hemingway also had Aries on the 8th.) Obviously Kurt did not shoot himself every year when the Sun approached 13 degrees of Aries, so we must speculate on additional factors motivating him to take this particularly tragic form of cathartic self-assertion. We have already remarked on his Saturn and progressed Moon returns signalling the end of a major life cycle and the need to assess one's progress and face up to responsibilities. (Other rock star suicides like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin coincided with these two major astrological milestones.) Further, at the time of Kurt's death, Saturn, prior to its own return (Saturn conjunct Saturn) had just conjuncted his Sun, giving him a chance to evaluate his sense of self and, evidently, to take radical action if he found himself lacking. Further, transiting Pluto in Scorpio was conjuncting Kurt's natal Neptune and his South Node, intensifying his tendency to indulge self-destructive patterns and deluding him into believing that his own self-destructiveness could have some sort of profound regenerative effect or could mamke a difference in the world. Kurt's suicide note quoting the trope of untimely rock-star demise "It's better to burn out than to fade away" illustrates his deluded (Neptunian) belief that death (Pluto) would somehow be glamorous or picturesque (Neptune) and would communicate something to the world (3rd house.)

More unheimlich is the fact that at the time of Kurt's death, the Capricorn Moon opposed his natal Moon in his 4th house of (in)security as well as of the end of one's life, and transiting Mercury and Mars conjuncted his progressed Part of Suicide at 24° Pisces 09". His progressed Sun was also conjunct to these planets and the progressed Part of Suicide, as well as almost exactly conjunct to his natal Saturn. Remember, Kurt's natal chart had very few conjunctions, so all this mutually reinforcing energy, combined with the assertive, impulsive, self-absorbed influence of the transiting Aries Sun activating his natal 8th house cusp, may have given Kurt an uprecedented sense of singlemindedness -- unfortunately, directed in a self-destructive way. Again, Neptune conjuncting his natal Pluto gave him a false sense of what could be accomplished through Plutonian/ 8th house issues.

The number of transits taking place to Kurt's natal and progressed chart at the time of his suicide is too great to mention them all here. At least, as in the case of many deaths, there were several transits to Jupiter signifying release: the expansive, benevolent power of Jupiter suggesting in some way the act of passing on to another, higher state of being. Transiting Jupiter at the time of his death formed a grand trine with his natal Moon and Mercury, signifying release of both emotional and mental energy, and progressed Jupiter conjuncted his progressed Sun and Neptune (which was conjunct to transiting Pluto), representing again the expansive, releasing flow of energy. Kurt's suicide provided him with an outlet for both his ego and his self-destructiveness as they had developed in the course of his life, as well as appearing to offer him a way to assert himself on a level he had never approached before. We will never know if ultimately it was worth it to him, if this action brought him some kind of peace.