“The most remarkable feature of this historical moment is not that we are on the way to destroying our world–we’ve actually been on the way quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millenia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves, and to each other.”

This is not intended to be an in-depth chart analysis, but rather an astrological tribute. Joanna Macy, an eco-Buddhist warrior and teacher, died last weekend at the age of 96. She was a powerful presence and a unique blend of spiritual perspective and activism, teaching that despair and rage can be channeled into productive change. This brand of “spiritual warrior” is exactly what has been prophesized for the current time, with the spiritual teacher Neptune entering into Aries, the sign of the warrior. 

I was unable to find a time of birth for Ms. Macy so I created a noon chart with the Sun on the ascendant. With both the Sun, Mercury and Jupiter in Taurus we would expect to see someone with a deep connection to the Earth. Taurus is the most earthy of the earth signs – fixed in nature, it tends to seek deep roots from which to grow. People with Taurus placements feel deeply connected to the Earth and cherish the ecological balance which seeds a healthy planet, and that was certainly true of Ms. Macy. In an interview on the podcast On Being she said ““Being in the fields, the woods, around the barns gave me a sense the world was very big and wise and intelligent.”

click to enlarge

She was born with Chiron, the planet of soul wounding and healing, conjunct her Sun. This often shows someone who came into this life with deep soul wounds, but also the power and ability to heal them. The early life of someone born under a strong Chiron influence can be painful as these deep wounds emerge for healing, but the process of healing is often followed by great wisdom and a desire to share this wisdom and be a mentor for others.

The biographies that I found refer to a “troubled homelife” without much detail but we would expect this with a Sun/Chiron conjunction. She married in 1953, when she was 24, and remained with her husband Francis until his death in 2009 demonstrating the resilience and longevity of the Taurus nature. Her Venus (relationships) in Aries in tight square to Mars (aggression) virtually ensures a life of leadership and guidance.

Ms. Macy had a visionary Aquarius Moon which can be somewhat detached emotionally, but her Mars in Cancer, a sign in which compassion for the world runs deep. But when Mars, a self-serving planet of action, is in Cancer the need for action isn’t easily expressed. Using the compassion of Cancer to channel her focus and activism into a desire to effect political (Aquarius) and ecological (Taurus) change was an admirable way to integrate these energies into a life of deep meaning. Saturn in the chart is in its own sign of Capricorn – the builder of worlds – and Saturn is the final dispositor in the chart meaning it is of utmost importance. 

Her teachings of the world we live in as a web of interconnectedness is so critical for these times. I’ll close this post with this excerpt from an interview in 2022:

I’ve become convinced that the one thing that any of us can do for our world is to be present, to be fully present. And out of that presence, it’s like an interweaving of our being and our perspective and our curiosity, and the life buzzing in our senses that what we are becoming present to is revealing will help us see, will help, will act through us even without our knowing it necessarily, or even without our having the right words. … There can be a way we become a sensory organ of our world with that kind of deep attention, and it’s almost like prayer and it’s deep, so deep. 

Share this article...