Tina Turner - Thunder & Lightning

by Shawn Nygaard

© Shawn Nygaard - published by The Evolving Astrologer, September 2023 / 16.10.2023

Tina Turner in 2009: 50th anniversary tour
Source: Philip Spittle, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Natal chart, 26 November 1939 at 10:10 PM, Brownsville (Haywood County), Tennessee
Source: Astrodatabank

Rock-pop singing legend Tina Turner passed away on May 24, 2023, at the age of 83. Tina was born with Uranus retrograde at 19° Taurus 12’, and on the day of her death Uranus was at 19° Taurus 46’. She died one week into her Uranus Return, just following the first of what would be three conjunctions total. To take a brief look at the life of this extraordinary woman from an astrological perspective, what does her birth chart reveal?

While Tina’s chart is characterized by two t-squares, which we will look at separately, perhaps Saturn retrograde in Aries conjunct the South Node is the best place to begin. Here we can see that Tina, born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, arrived about three months into World War 2, which began September 1, 1939. Tina Turner was born into a world at war. The global backdrop of fighting would prove to be quite personal too, as Tina says,

My mother and father – oh, they fought from the very beginning. But my mother always fought back. (1)

This fighting spirit emerged in Tina’s infamous first marriage to rock and roll musician Ike Turner, an extremely violent man. Looking back to the time when she had left Ike and embarked on a solo career, very little ever came easily: “Considering my age, my gender, my color, and the time … everything was strong winds against me.” Saturn in Aries comes through when she continues, “And you know what I say to the people? Keep going. You just don’t stop.” And Tina did not stop.

With Saturn in Aries ruled by Mars, we can open up Tina’s chart more by looking to her Mars, which is placed in a t-square configuration featuring a Full Moon in Gemini (10th House) opposing a Sun-Mercury conjunction in Sagittarius (4th House), with both ends of the opposition squaring Mars in Pisces (7th House). This martial t-square rules not only her South Node and Saturn in Aries but her IC in Scorpio as well, at the base of her chart. Moreover, with each of these planets – including both luminaries (the Moon full, no less) – placed in angular houses, we can see Tina as a force to be reckoned with. She was often described as a force of nature, with boundless energy and strength, and she toured into her 70s with little sign of wear or tear. Speaking of Aunty Entity, the character she plays in the movie “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” as a figure whose life paralleled her own in many respects, she says,

[Entity] had to go through so much when all was lost, when the world seemed to be coming to an end. She could not be anything else but very strong, and that’s why I could really relate to her life. (2)

An altogether different t-square in Tina’s chart features Jupiter in Pisces opposing Neptune in Virgo, with both planets squaring Venus in Sagittarius. Much “softer” characteristically in many ways than her martial t-square, this Venusian counterpart shows itself not only through her life as a singer but also as a woman in love. “When I am in love, I am totally vulnerable. I don’t have shallow relationships. They’re very much in depth. It’s a waste of time for me otherwise.” Perhaps unexpected to hear from a woman most famous for singing a song called, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” Speaking of love seems to bring out Tina’s deeper spiritual life, given Jupiter-Neptune’s presence in the t-square. She references past lives in her songs here and there, and once revealed in an interview that she could really only be with a man with whom she felt such a strong connection, as if evoking another lifetime.

To really see how these two t-squares operate on a larger level in Tina’s chart, we can look to the MC/IC axis. It’s already been mentioned that the martial configuration rules her Scorpio IC, and we can now add that her MC in the sign of Taurus is ruled by Venus. In other words, these t-squares and their tremendous power come to life via the MC/IC axis, the “spine” of her chart. Tina Turner had quite the backbone!

One last point to mention for now takes us full circle, returning to where we began: Uranus in Taurus, sitting atop Tina’s chart in the 10th House. In discussing why she named her 1986 album “Break Every Rule,” Tina says, “It seems I have broken all the rules.” Uranus – true to character, through and through! As an inspiration to women, especially older women, Tina showed up to one performance at the Fairmont Hotel (a San Francisco venue famous for glittering balls, presidential visits, and political gatherings), where she describes, “I went in with a rock and roll band, wearing karate clothes with different color belts, and I took an old mini dress from a French designer, and I pulled my hair up in a punk style, and we had a standing ovation. And the reviews said, Tina Turner broke all the rules last night. She went into the Fairmont and pulled the cobwebs down from Nob Hill.” She notes,

I’ve been breaking the rules for the last ten years.

For a more in-depth look at Tina’s chart and the stunning set of transits that took place over a 10-year period of time and marked her transformation from a capable but struggling solo singer, singing mostly to pay off debts, into a renowned and beloved global superstar, you can check out Shawn’s “Imagine That!” podcast episode: “Thunder and Lightning – A Tribute to Tina Turner.”

References:
1. TINA. Directed by T. J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay. HBO, 2021.
2. ina Turner, tina … that’s my life, Rizzoli, 2020, p. 54
All other quotes are from a 1986 untitled promotional radio interview supporting Tina’s “Break Every Rule” album.

Published in: The Evolving Astrologer, September 2023.

Author:
Shawn Nygaard is a professional astrologer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He produces and hosts the “Imagine That!” podcast focusing on astrology and archetypes. He is a Tutor for MISPA (Mercury Internet School of Psychological Astrology) and has been a speaker at the AA, NCGR, UAC, SOTA, and NORWAC conferences, as well as the Minnesota Jung Association. His writing has been published in WellBeing Astrology Guide (Australia) and The Mountain Astrologer. Shawn is a graduate of the CMED Institute in Chicago, where he studied archetypes and symbolism with Caroline Myss. Shawn’s website is www.imagineastrology.com.

© 2023 - Shawn Nygaard - The Evolving Astrologer

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