JC Birthtime

The other night I introduced my friend Kitty the eminent celebrity astrologer to Lewis Porter, the eminent Coltrane biographer. Inevitably, a conversation about JC's chart ensued.

Lewis surprised us by sharing that Coltrane was actually really into astrology and knew all about his chart. But one thing Lewis found interesting was that Coltrane's birth certificate was ambiguous as to his birth time. He showed us the photocopy of the birth certificate which is included in the appendix to his excellent book. He was right! It was very difficult to see whether the number written in was a 3 or a 5, because you could see the bottom loop, but the top part of the number was just a slanty line. Lewis said he had polled his college students as to which number they thought it was and that they had been split down the middle. I noticed, though, that there were other 3's on the birth certificate (which is handwritten) that looked different from the mysterious number, so I voted for five.

Kitty just wrote me to say:

Hey Sarah, I thought your friend might like to know that Astrotheme has the 5pm time which gives Coltrane Pisces rising. I don’t know if this is consistent with what he said/wrote about his own birth chart. My software that has a bunch of birth charts bundled into it also has the 5pm time.

So, perhaps the mystery is solved. JC does seem like he could have been a pisces rising, which would mean he projected an image of a dreamy, spiritual, wise soul. Sounds about right to me.

I found this interesting article about Coltrane's A Love Supreme viewed in terms of astrology, faith, and the cyclical nature of life. I have no idea if it is accurate, but it was fun to read. (This is actually my feeling about all of astrology. Systems are fascinating.) An example:

On June 29, 1964, five months before recording A Love Supreme, Coltrane was saddened by news of the mysterious accidental death of his good friend, multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy. Dolphy, who had been in Coltrane’s band during 1961 and had since played with him intermittently, though never diagnosed with diabetes, died of insulin shock in a Berlin hotel room.

Just two months after Dolphy’s death, on August 26, 1964, Coltrane’s first son, John W. Coltrane, was born. Immediately following the birth, in early September, Coltrane disappeared into his workshop, emerging a few days later with the completed score for A Love Supreme.

It is no simple coincidence that Coltrane’s compositional tribute followed a personal experience with the cycles of both death and birth. . .

John Coltrane has a Jupiter-Neptune opposition in his horoscope (in Aquarius and Leo, respectively), in a grand cross configuration (i.e. two oppositions square to each other) with another planetary opposition: Mars in Taurus and Saturn in Scorpio.

Jupiter and Neptune were also in opposition during the recording of A Love Supreme. As Jupiter’s cycle lasts around twelve years, Jupiter-Neptune oppositions occur every twelve to thirteen years. . .

The Jupiter-Neptune opposition in a given horoscope represents a polarity between one’s personal faith and the zeitgeist of the greater human collective. An individual with this configuration is driven to reconcile his spiritual life with the force of the human collective.