(Astrology.com asked me to write about MJ but they never ran with it – so I’m offering it to you, here.)

I never wanted to Beat It, but I did ID with the song PYT, to which I used to dance in my room alone (unless you count the MJ Thriller poster as a dance partner, which I did). I danced as the King of Pop lounged in his white suit on my wall, looking suave, sexy and probably for one of the last times naturally handsome, or close to it.

When I broke the news to my family, my thirteen year old impervious Gemini stepdaughter replied, ‘Who’s Michael Jackson?’ My seventeen year old said she knew who Michael was – a celebrity, right? She never knew Michael the performer, the innovator, the Moon Walker and originator of the single white glove look. So I took it upon my self to educate them, as best I could, as to what it must have been like growing up Jackson, about how in his case ‘eccentricity’ was a polite word for troubled and bizarre. As my thirteen year old listened to my description of Neverland, with a look of disbelief, appreciation and awe, I offered that it’s hard to let go of childhood when you feel you never had one. 

He wasn’t my family member, yet had that kind of presence in it. Michael Jackson was as alive in my own childhood, tucked between school dances and AM radio on bored Saturday afternoons, as my memories of birthday roller rink parties. Michael provided me with the soundtrack so in a way he was actually there with me. This changed proportionally through the years, of course, but for as bizarre as his personal life got his music always sounded good. Still does.

He also was a profound mirror for culture, for the decadent eighties, consumerism and pop everything – including Pepsi. Yes, the man currently known for his strange mannerisms was a colossal and awesome talent, having influenced millions of lives in myriad ways. His life mattered. It seemed important that they knew this.

And now his life brings us to the subject of death. Death is inconvenient, mysterious and final – rarely leaving a note or explanation. Death also often reminds us of our insignificance. It’s easy to feel about as important as a speck of dust floating around in the Cosmos and then people like Michael come into the world carrying star-power so bright you’d think he was a planet, it makes you wonder: are some people destined to shine in such a grand way? It’s a fair question. Astrology says that all of us come into this world with a calling, to which their life is that answer and that no matter the scale, no single life is insignificant. Every life matters. 

Yet I’ll take an educated guess that Michael often experienced him self as insignificant, invisible even. Michael’s Sun sign was Virgo. He was born in the sign of the invisible servant, the laboring craftsman, the perfectionist and hypochondriac, which explains a lot when you think about it. Michael’s growing edge, or North Node, was in the sign of Libra so his destiny was bound with creating perfectly crafted experiences of peace & tranquility for and with others. He did this through creating great music. He also did this in a big way – with Jupiter and Neptune nearby, Michael was ‘destined’ to go gangbusters. While we can hope that Michael experienced himself as precious and significant (after all, he dubbed himself the King of Pop, a title which he apparently enjoyed) we will never know that answer. We also have more questions. Like,

Why are so many people dying right now?