I have broken an ironclad rule in this article by accepting unverified birth data from astrotheme.com ! I have no idea where 23:00pm came from, but I like this chart for Pink Floyd’s singer-guitarist.
David Gilmour was drafted into Pink Floyd in 1968, at the tail end of his Venus-Rahu period, owing to the mental deterioration of band founder member Syd Barret. Lagna lord Venus with Mercury in Pisces describes the 70s-era Floyd’s floating, ethereal music, underpinned by Gilmour’s voice and guitar. It’s also a 'high-fidelity, first-class travelling set' wealth signature: Yogakaraka Saturn with second lord Mars and Rahu in the ninth, while exalted Venus and ninth lord Mercury together is a variant of Lakshmi Yoga.
Apart from his stellar musical career, Gilmour is a known humanitarian, with a history of quiet philanthropy. Gaja Kesari Yoga across the ascendant makes a noble spirit, and in 2003 he gave £3.5m from the sale of his London house to Crisis, the charity for the homeless of which he is vice-chairman. His second and fourth lords - Saturn and Mars - both have strong Shadbala ratings and meet in the 9th, showing wealth from property. Together they also influence Rahu, in whose dasha he made this donation (Rahu-Ketu period).
Tenth ruler Moon in the 4th shows a man who works with his partner - or is married to his work – and Gilmour’s second wife Polly Samson is a novelist who writes most of the lyrics to his solo material. Gilmour has six children of his own, plus acts as a supportive stepfather to his wife's son Charlie - who served four months in prison for violent disorder offences in 2011. Jupiter aspects Sun, lord of 11th house of stepchildren, in the 5th.
David Gilmour: 6th March 1946, 23:00pm, Cambridge, England.
With malefics all in the 9th house, Gilmour’s own parental experience was distant at best. Packed off to boarding school aged five while his academic father went to America, he speaks today of resentments over missed birthdays and general neglect. “I could have emasculated [my father] a little bit. A serious scientist doing brilliant work, but not earning anything like as much as his guitar-strumming son”. Ninth lord Mercury in the sixth does well for his personal wealth but is not a signature for a good father figure.
The same 9th house stellium, particularly Rahu planet of adharma, makes a heterodox, and David Gilmour is an atheist, an unusual stance for a musician. Artists generally have a keen sense of the numinous, whether or not they are able to reconcile it with organized religion. He did not write Pink Floyd’s lyrics, but Gilmour’s personal philosophy suits the band’s bleak and sardonic message, shot through with an undercurrent of empathy.
Gilmour is also famous for his decades-long feud with Roger Waters over control of their band, and Mars-Saturn-Rahu here reveals a prickly customer. Waters is notoriously not an easy man, but it takes two: “I’m a control freak, I confess, I can’t do anything about it”, Gilmour said. Venus in the Sixth house of rivals, exchanging signs with Jupiter, is more diplomatic, but aspected by Saturn brings disputes and challenges. Gilmour did not instigate the infamous 1987 lawsuit over the use of Pink Floyd’s name, but it occurred in his feisty Mars-Rahu period (Mars is exalted in the navamasha). And Mercury, likewise, disposing the malefics in the 9th, will wriggle or charm its way out of trouble rather than stand up and fight, though its placement with Venus in the ‘improving’ (upachaya) sixth house shows that by this point in his life, Gilmour had greater confidence and was ready to stand his ground: 'Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie'.
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