ASTROLOGY ARTICLES BY JON

The Astrology of Nikki Sixx's Heroin Diaries

Mötley Crüe was my favorite rock band back in the 80's and it's still fun to see what they are up to, because they are usually up to no good. Being bad is profitable though and Nikki Sixx's new book, The Heroine Diaries debuted on The New York Times Best Seller's List at #7. The book is a detailed account of Nikki's own harrowing battle with addiction leading up to the point where he actually overdosed and died and was brought back to life. I have Nikki's chart on file so let's take a look.

Right away we see four planets, including the Sun in the Sagittarius, Ascendant, along with the Moon, in the early degrees of Capricorn in the First house. All this Sagittarian energy amounts to soaring idealism and a grand enthusiasm for life, heroin addiction was just another Sagittarian journey to him.

Unfortunately, or as fate would have it, fortunately for Nikki, Saturn, the cosmic cop is one of those planets in Sagittarius and his Moon is also in Saturn's sign of Capricorn. Saturn provided the reality check and gave him the discipline necessary to walk away from heroin which by all accounts is not a stroll through the park.

Looking at the transits and progressions for the day of his overdose, December 23, 1987, we see that transiting Uranus, the cosmic rebel, had come to an exact conjunction with the cosmic cop Saturn, it was time for a reality check and this time Saturn won. What was that song, "I Fight Authority and Authority Always Wins?"

This was also Nikki's Saturn Return and quite often during the Saturn Return an event happens that causes us to "Wake Up" to our true purpose. Saturn exclaims, "Your childhood is now over; it's time to get your ass in gear." Of course, as we all saw on the now infamous "Behind the Music" episode, he escaped from the hospital, hitch-hiked home, and promptly got high again; but fortunately shortly after that, he made a serious attempt at rehab and was able to get clean. A successful first Saturn Return relieves us of all the "junk" that we accumulated thus far, and sets on our own unique course in life free from past conditioning.

We normally associate the planet Neptune with drugs, addiction and rock star glamour. Transiting Neptune was in his first house and had just cleared the Moon, the last of his first house planets. Neptune is a really dreamy planet and it weakens your defenses, so it's no shock that such an idealistic person such as Nikki would invent this super rock star image and then fall victim to its excesses during Neptune's transit through his first house of identity. Neptune (music of the spheres) enhanced his vision and the creativity during these years; I still to this day think Nikki is a fabulous writer. I love those songs, especially the first three albums.

Notice that the Progressed Midheaven (MC) had come to a conjunction with natal Neptune symbolizing a period of about a year of just feeling lost and wiped out. He was unsure (Neptune) of his position in the world (MC). We often self-medicate, turning to drugs and alcohol during Neptune times. Luckily his Saturn was just strong enough to pull him back from the brink enabling him to write a book about his experiences with addiction all these years later.