23.3.21

Jacob Collier's astrological muses



A week ago Jacob Collier won his fifth Granny. Not bad, considering that he was born on the 2nd of August 1994 (in London). Collier has Mozartian levels of musical skill, and he knows how to use Youtube. Watching him perform is a humbling experience for most musicians.

Muse-asteroids

Since Jacob Collier is a musician and a composer, the astrological muses are our first stop. And.. bingo! Two muse-asteroids are conjunct Jacob's planets: Erato, the muse that bestows the gift of supreme lyrical sensitivity is conjunct his Sun. And Polyhymnia, the muse of religious music is conjunct his Pluto, which is quite fitting for a musician who has a natural love for both American gospel music and the intonational acrobatics of great Renaissance composers like Nicola Vicentino and Carlo Gesualdo. Their radical vocal harmonies have shaped some of the most sacred sounding music ever written.

Using the golden aspects/sieve technique (2.5 degree orb) we find that Euterpe (songwriting) and Harmonia (duh...) are the high scoring muses from the geocentric perspective (exterior, every day life). The heliocentric picture (interior, soul, karma) is less sharply defined. Thalia, Euterpe, Harmonia, Terpsichore, Klio and Loreley all have the same heliocentric high score. But since Euterpe and Harmonia have high scores across the board, we may conclude that songwriting and unusual harmonic development are strong astrological influences.

There are more clues if we look at the asteroids, like Photographica conjunct Sun (making video's and doing successful live-streams), and quite a few asteroids that hint at strength, passion, stamina, sensitivity and technical breakthroughs. But let's not dive in too deep - after all, we should also respect the privacy of our musical hero.


The planets
A quick look at the planets is also revealing: Uranus is conjunct Neptune, great for imaginative genius. This conjuction is trining Venus, with Pluto sextiling both Venus and the conjunction. That's a powerful pattern for creative breakthroughs and beautiful music!   

Jacob Collier is a beast when it comes to the formal structure of music (Saturnian) and a great teacher. On a more speculative note, i'm inclined to look at Chiron for at least some part of his teaching qualities, especially because of the relation between Saturn and Chiron (opposition), and their relation to significator asteroids Collier and Jacoby. But Chiron does not account for all of his talents and gifts as a teacher/communicator. The millennial-effect (computer and social media literacy) for example is also a big part of that.

Coda
Finally, here's some extra info for those of you who are intrigued by the just intonation tricks that Jacob Collier performs so effortlessly.