astrobytes

A Legend of Debilitation — Pablo Picasso March 7, 2009

Pablo Picasso, the great artist of the 20th Century.

The most astonishing thing about this chart is that it contains no less than four debilitated planets, excluding the debilitated nodes! Sun, Moon, Venus and Saturn are all debilitated, and none of the remaining planets are in ideal places.

Ascendant sign is Cancer, with its lord the Moon debilitated in the 5th house in Scorpio in close conjunction with Rahu. Further, the Moon (and Rahu) are aspected by Jupiter, which adds some grace and strength it would not otherwise have. There are two notable things about this – first, that although the arts in general may be signified by the 3rd house, painting has its special place in the 5th house. Picasso started painting as a child and never stopped. The second thing about the Moon-Rahu-Jupiter pattern is Picasso spent his life around women; his childhood with his mother & sisters, and his adult life with not only his wives but numerous mistresses and lovers. There were also many problems in those relationships, and he was by all accounts a controlling and difficult partner.. in this we see the bad side of his Moon.

Picasso was a great painter but not always an admirable character – hardly surprising with so many debilitated planets! His biographers describe him as manipulative, one of the possible effects of 12th house Mars. Venus represents the arts generally, here it debilitates in the 3rd house but adds weight to Picasso’s immersion in art. Its debilitation is slightly ameliorated because it receives an aspect from Jupiter; but it’s also less beneficially aspected by Mars, so it’s a mixed bag.

It’s interesting that the art Picasso became famous for was Cubism and his modernistic style. He abandoned traditional forms and proportions of art in favor of a more spiky, less aesthetically graceful, but strong style. In this may be seen the influence of all those debilitated planets, especially Venus. Saturn in the 10th signifies Picasso’s fame and pre-eminent position in modern art, but again it’s a debilitated Saturn; he became famous above all for breaking the mould in art. Saturn also rules his relationships with women, and Picasso was quite notorious.