Debilitated Planets are Clowns

By Blair Bogin *Sisterbride

© Blair Bogin - published by The Career Astrologer, March 2022 / 20.04.2022

We’ve all had those face-palm moments: misjudgements, overreactions, lousy timing, crossed wires…our poised sense of self inverted. In a culture of perfectionism, one mistake can feel like a significant ego-death.

Luckily, astrology loves mistakes. Training to be an astrologer means training your eye for where a chart gets stuck. Thus, astrology has many techniques for finding the “whoops”…one of those being Essential Dignity. Essential Dignity assumes that planets are more potent and more effective in certain signs. Mars in Aries knows how to get what it wants; Sun in Leo knows how to be seen. Effortlessly embodying their signs with the privilege of coherence, these planets are said to be Exalted or in Rulership. Thus, some see the planets opposite this easy environment as a bad omen—a place where planets struggle to perform—Mars in Libra’s indecisiveness, Sun in Aquarius getting lost in the crowd—these are flagged as Debilitated Planets.

Because debilitated planets must cope in a climate opposite their nature, they are said to be weakened. Yet, there is one character in the world who is strengthened by this conundrum: The Clown. The clown knows that comedy results from two unlikely contexts clashing, making events absurd. The clown actively seeks out trouble and discord. Mistakes fortify the clown. And so, I’d like to posit that debilitated planets are just as powerful as those in rulership—as long as we let them be clowns.

No, not killer clowns, rather Bozo, or party balloon animals. Playing the clown is an art form that has been present in every part of the world at every point in time. The jesters of Ancient Egypt and China, the tricksters in Greek and Roman theater, or the Native American Heyoka, the individual who does everything in reverse. The history of the clown is the history of humans not “fitting in.” Even some Euro and Western clown traditions were at the expense of actual marginalized suffering, co-opting clown as a tool for oppression with racist and transphobic depictions. Yet, most iterations of the clown archetype across the world were likened to shamans—extraordinary individuals who exposed community imbalances by breaking social order. Likewise, debilitated planets are outcasts in the zodiac who hold similar magical extremes.

When the divine has been exiled from the table of serious art and intellectual discussion, you have to look for it in what the elite culture thinks of as trash
Philip K. Dick.

Thus, what if our debilitated planets were the divine key to our personal and collective liberation? What if we actively sought out their trouble? What if we let them be clowns? If you’re curious to try, here are three essential guidelines…

1. Learn to love the flop.

Debilitated planets need room for margins of error beyond the “oughts” and “shoulds.” Mercury in Pisces needs to find the soulful words by losing them in the poetically wordless. Venus in Scorpio’s ability to transform you with their uncanny art is the same ability they use to Facebook-stalk you. Debilitated planets aren’t always pretty and clean of pain. They often take effort. Likewise, the clown lives in the flop. The clown turns towards the darkest shadows of our collective psyche and converts it into anxiety-releasing laughter. The most sophisticated clown schools literally call it “being in the shit.” Clowns find amusement in these shadows, not by avoiding grief with toxic positivity, rather the opposite —the clown is free because it is not scared to feel anything…which is why Sue Morrison says, “if acting is wearing a mask, clowning is to get rid of all masks, leaving the “smallest mask,” the red nose.”

Clowns see all emotions as a sort of lovemaking with life. Clowns don’t only want good things—they want it all. Whether the good, the bad —the clown infinitely consents. Buddhists may liken this to non-dual mystical states. Austin Osman Spare calls it “Neither-Neither,” and Jesus probably called it “down for whatevs.”

An excellent way to safely practice clowning in real life is to try a new thing that has little consequence —ideally, something in the realm of your debilitated planet —a dance class for Venus, a pottery class for Saturn, a creative writing project for Mercury. Let it be an extracurricular event that is low stakes for you to fail at. Focus on the journey of getting a little lost or uncomfortable. Find the function in which your debilitated planet feels the most foolish and see what answers can be found there. Your chart yearns to stumble into the world; it is the world, it is your life, let yourself be in the shit.

An excellent way to safely practice clowning in real life is to try a new thing that has little consequence—ideally, something in the realm of your debilitated planet.

Example:

Lucille Ball spent most of her early career in the shit. With three debilitated planets in her chart, she described drama school as: "learning how to be frightened." Even after facing harsh criticism from all her acting teachers, she stayed the course. She spent 18 years starring in B movies as a mostly uncredited actress. After millions of lackluster roles in every corner of Hollywood, Lucille Ball finally finds the character to help liberate her debilitated planets: an oddball housewife who always gets into trouble.

Lucille Ball has Mars debilitated in Taurus in her 5th house of creative expression. Mars has a hard time in Taurus because Mars is a fast, hip-thrusty planet, and Taurus is a slow and steady earth sign. This difference in pacing can create discord and manifest as pent-up anger or obstinance. To add molasses to the oatmeal, her Mars is approaching a deadlock with stubborn Saturn in Taurus. Yet, I find Mars in her chart to be the driving force of her genius. With her iconic red hair, she was devoted to this red planet’s unflinching endurance. It is said that much of her fame was because she playfully agreed to take on anything - she saw success in failure, like the clown, she did not fear the flop.

2. Be an optimist.

The clown never pretends; it fully accepts its circumstances —yet in the face of even the darkest reality, it still finds pleasure and hope. How might our chart play with the full reality of what it is? If our debilitated planets are clowns, then the chart is a map of rare pleasure.

Clown stems from humanity’s capacity to bounce back and persevere in the face of certain doom. Doom for clowns, of course, can be anything from the existential dread of mortality to a hangnail. Either way, most clowns are taught to consider themselves avatars for buoyancy and resilience amidst the suffering of existence.
Amrita Dhaliwal

The clown asks us to feel the discomfort of our debilitated planets and bounce back —to disappoint people and bounce back. The clown keeps bouncing back because it fully believes what it will do next. The clown is an optimist.

Example:

Comedian Eddie Murphy has four debilitated planets in his chart. His father was stabbed to death when he was eight. His mother grew ill soon after, placing him in foster care - all of which he attributes to developing his sense of humor. Eddie Murphy auditioned for Saturday Night Live six times before getting a place as an extra on the show. Murphy’s Mercury is in Pisces. Essential Dignity would claim that Pisces is too flooded with fantasy for Mercury to do its clear-headed, discerning task. Yet, Murphy turned this fluidity into genius —known for his outstanding skill of slipping in and out of impersonations, "my mother says I never talked in my own voice." Even more, this Mercury is in a grand trine with two other debilitated planets: a craggy Mars in Cancer and a ruthless Moon in Scorpio, which is a (mutually receptive) combination that gave Murphy the hilarious agility to bounce back with harsh, witty insults.

3. Make direct contact with your community.

Last, clowns profoundly depend on their audience. Unlike regular theater, in which actors are turned away from us, looking at each other on stage as if the audience doesn’t exist…the clown turns towards us. The clown holds eye contact. The clown has no plan at all and so needs the audience to know what to do next. It delicately listens to what makes us laugh and moves each impulse towards the direction of our laughter.

How might our healing be enmeshed with the healing of our friends and neighbors? Our birth chart is a personal piece of a sky that everyone is under. Likewise, a clown is bold enough to stand out, to get on stage and be looked at, yet the audience is their stage partner. Through this interdependency, clowns relieve the audience by embodying mistakes that usually evoke shame and then infuse them with pleasure. Clowns dissolve our fears in solidarity. Likewise, debilitated planets may be the doorway to our mutual well-being.

Example:

Charlie Chaplin has 3-4 debilitated planets in his chart and is known best for inventing the bumbling character of The Tramp.

The Tramp’s appearance alone was a blooper. Giant pants, tiny hat, funky facial hair.

Likewise, Chaplin’s character lived in the idea that sometimes bad things lead to good things and good things lead to bad things. Falling off a truck leads to interrupting a bank robbery which leads to getting shot in the foot… which leads to falling in love with the bank teller. All fortune and misfortune are relative. Failure or success, the Tramp stays buoyant, thriving on inconsistencies… This leads us to one of his biggest stunts —having two birth charts.

Yes, even the birth data of Chaplin is a contradiction, toggling between fact and fiction, April 15th or April 16th —with no records to back up either date. An audience of desperate astrologers watches, cringing at the punchline. Yet, let us be optimists and lean into the possibility of both charts.

Fortunately, both claim Scorpio Rising - yet the placement of the Moon shifts. The April 15th chart has the Moon in Libra in the 12th house, passing the light from his Uranus opposite Mercury to round off a full moon. Alternatively, the April 16th chart puts a debilitated Moon in Scorpio right on the rising degree opposite a debilitated Mars in Taurus.

Both charts are a rubber-band snapping, whether it’s the tension of a full moon or a Moon, Mars, Saturn T-square. Both placements of the Moon seem to emphasize his adept skill to mime - to communicate abstract shapes from either the void of the 12th house or from the watery maw of a Scorpio rising. Both charts hold the tension of relationships, a Libra Full Moon or a 1st to 7th house tug of war, which is why we see his screen character constantly trying to survive a conflict with others. Chaplin explains:

”He wears an air of romantic hunger, forever seeking romance, but his feet won't let him.”

Furthermore, let us not forget that most of Chaplin’s relational conflicts were often with corrupt leaders or boss figures. And so whatever chart we chose —what seems to be most prevalent in both, is the story of his debilitated Saturn in Leo in the 10th house.

Chaplin’s character was constantly highlighting the hypocrisy of power dynamics, exemplifying an idea that I first learned from Austin Coppock that sometimes our debilitated planets want to be the best at the bad thing they do. A debilitated Saturn in Leo may create a fear of success or authority. Instead, Chaplin leaned into this planetary combination to create a character who was the best at disappointing authority figures. Using his antics to turn status on its head, he relieved his audience of their own suffering within capitalism.

Although these are the basic tenets of clowning, I invite you to stumble upon your own style. In the same way, there are two kinds of debilitation: Detriment (sleepy planets) and Fall (messy planets), there are also many different types of clown.

I find Mercury in Sagittarius, Jupiter in Gemini, Venus in Aries to exude more of the Jester Clown —adept at witty jabs and mockery. I find Venus in Scorpio and Moon in Scorpio or Capricorn to excel in Bouffon Clown —the grotesque provocateur, some Sasha Baron Cohen-style of sussing out the farce. Sun in Aquarius is the obvious social-awakening Trickster Clown, and Mars in Libra, Mercury in Pisces have the innocence of The Fool. This is all to say, each debilitated planet may have its unique style of annihilating duality and accessing the clown state, and I invite you to find a unique combination that suits the flow of your chart.

In my research, it has been extremely rare to find any iconic comedian without a prominent debilitated planet. Thus, what would it be like celebrating debilitated planets with as much credo as planets in rulership? To see debilitated planets as agents of personal and social change? As within, so without —these planets hold a natural clash within themselves, so they possess the ability to clash against the outer status quo and reform it. May we learn to love the flop, may we connect to our play, may we make eye contact with our community and collectively laugh over what a mess everything is.

Published in: The Career Astrologer, March 2022.

Author: Blair Bogin is an artist and astrological mutant. Outside of formal consultations, she is abstracting astrology into videos, performances, comedy, and community events. She is a life coach, teacher, and perpetual student of the hermetic arts. She's a former apprentice at Lunaria Tarot & Mystic School, has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and co-runs the creative activist group Operation Project in LA.  www.sisterbride.com @sisterbride

Images:

• Clowns and Pierrot: Ancient French postcard, public domain
• Lucille Ball: Wikipedia, public domain
• Eddie Murphy: Photographer: David Shankbone - Source Flickr - License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
• Charles Chaplin: Wikipedia, public domain

© 2022 - Blair Bogin - The Career Astrologer

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