I don’t think I’ve seen any of Johnny Depp’s movies, but even I know who he is. When reports surfaced on 2-June-2018 about Mr. Depp looking gaunt and perhaps being ill, I was intrigued. On that day, transiting Pluto, Moon, Mars and the South Node were in his sixth house, the house associated with illness. The sixth is an important house in this chart because it contains both the Moon and the South node.
Now, a week after those reports, there are new reports from “inside sources” claiming Mr. Depp is well and purposely losing weight. His fans are not buying it and if one looks at his chart, his fans are right to be concerned. Progressed Moon entered his sixth house in January 2018 and indicates health concerns for the next 2.5 years.
There are many techniques to look at the past, present and future conditions in a chart. And there are many concurrent cycles we go through in a lifetime. Some of these cycles take decades to complete one circle around the chart and these are the ones that provide the bigger picture of what is happening to a person. Mr. Depp is reaching a climax with two such cycles and both of them have heavy implications regarding his health.
Before prognosticating what will happen to someone, it’s necessary to understand their psychological make-up: what they are like. Because then one can understand why they do the things they do. This post is by no means a full analysis of Mr. Depp’s chart. I’m only looking at aspects of the chart to do with health.
It’s very striking that Mr. Depp has very little water in his make-up. The only planet in water is Neptune in the fourth house. It’s conjunct the IC with a 10-degree orb and strongly squares his ASC and DSC. Astro.com says, “Johnny moved so much as a kid that he does not remember one place as ‘home.’” Neptune’s location is his chart perfectly describes this kind of life: a lack of roots both physical and emotional, a feeling of being unanchored. Neptune’s square to the ASC also give him the ability to become whoever he wants to be and talks about his acting skills.
With little water in the chart, we can safely say that handling one’s emotional life is going to be a challenge. To get a better picture of emotions, we look at the Moon. Mr. Depp’s Capricorn Moon is heavily aspected. In fact, it’s the most aspected planet in the chart. It squares Jupiter, tri-octiles Uranus and is conjunct the south node. It also sextiles Neptune and trines Pluto. The Moon is in its detriment in Capricorn and in this chart, with so little water, and the Moon conjunct the south node indicate that feeling good, feeling light and happy is not easy.
The tightest aspect the Moon make is the square to Jupiter followed by a trine to Neptune. The planet of excess and the planet of escapism both point towards the truth in the rumors behind substance abuse. One can imagine someone with these aspects saying, “Hey, man, I just want to feel good,” and reach for debilitating and quick methods of doing so.
I’ve found that the progressed Sun-Moon cycle is the quickest way to see the big picture of what is happening in a life. Mr. Depp had a Progressed New Moon in Cancer and in his 12th house in September 2004. The 12th house is associated with self-undoing. He’s headed for a Progressed Full Moon, the half-way point in this cycle and always a big water-shed time in anyone’s life. This occurs in March 2020 in the sixth house again bringing in the theme of his health.
His progressed Sun is currently at 10 Leo, two degrees and thus two years away from crossing into the natal first house and squaring the progressed Neptune at 12 Scorpio. Given Mr. Depp’s history, the upcoming square to the progressed Neptune is rather worrying. If ones does not navigate a Neptunian event like this well, one can very easily overdo drugs and other forms of escapism especially when the 12th house is also in the picture. The progressed Sun crossing into the first house is like being re-born, out of the dark and into the light. But to reach this re-birth, Mr. Depp will first need to go through the valley of death. Hence the next two years for him are literally life-or-death.
Transiting Jupiter went over Mr. Depp’s 13 Scorpio Neptune in the December of 2017. It sextiled his 13 Capricorn Moon and quinqunxed the 13 Aries Jupiter. Transiting Jupiter went retrograde on March of 2018 and was at 15 Scorpio when photos of Mr. Depp looking ill surfaced. In July 2018, Jupiter will reach 13 Scorpio and station to go direct exactly on the natal Neptune. Not a good time for him to push his luck when it comes to his physical well-being by using easy ways to feel good. With transiting Jupiter also heading towards an opposition to his Sun, he’s likely to be feeling like overdoing it and thinking he’ll get lucky and get away with it.
But we all have to pay our dues and if Mr. Depp does not clean up his act, transiting Saturn will come collecting in January of 2019 when it enters his sixth house and conjuncts his Moon. The Moon represents the physical body itself and in 2019 it is under a lot of stress. Transiting Pluto has been nearing the south node for a while now and makes a direct hit during March of 2019 followed in April of 2019 by a third nodal return.
Nodal returns are life-changing times in anyone’s life and the presence of Pluto so near the nodal return in this particular chart carries an ominous portent of ill-health or worse. If Mr. Depp manages to address issues that threaten his physical well-being, then May of 2019 will see him being in the news again for the right reasons. This is when transiting Uranus first conjuncts his MC and we can expect him to hit the headlines in some fashion.
Entering therapy to sort himself out would be very helpful at this time because Solar Arc Pluto conjuncts the IC in September 2019. We can use the phoenix metaphor here: this is a time when the phoenix is all ash. It’s a psychologically very fertile time to sort things out internally and recreate oneself. But recreation is preceded by destruction and since the IC indicates the end of matters, in this case, it can literally turn one into ash.
If Mr. Depp can navigate the next years and half safely, he faces the progressed Sun squaring progressed Neptune in January of 2020 triggering another existential crisis. A weak response to this time is to numb oneself and seek escape. Let’s hope for a stronger and a healthier response so that when March 2020 rolls around with Mr. Depp’s secondary progressed full moon, his fans are still glad he’s among the world of the living.
Birth data from https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Depp,_Johnny
Whoa so glad I found you here Neeti, Must say Johnny Depp fascinates me, has for years….thanks for this good post.
Hi Reenie, thanks for the comment. I saw some interviews of his while writing this. He’s rather likable and one wants him to do well.
This was not long after a very bitter divorce with an abusive malignant narcissist, and his mother dying not long before. He was probably severely depressed.