11/9/61: Brian Epstein Meets the Beatles on Their Turf - The Cavern Club

“He was incredibly honest and a little naive, but he entered a world that was totally alien to him. I don’t think the Beatles will ever acknowledge how lucky they were to meet up with a man who was devoted to them so completely and an honest man to boot.” -- George Martin, the Beatles' producer

Since it's been nearly a year since I've posted on this site, I thought I'd warm up with something that makes me feel, well, warm instead of numb, despairing, and anxious.

And it just so happens that it was 63 years ago today that Brian Epstein spent what would turn out to be most crucial lunch hour of his life witnessing the Beatles play a set at the Cavern Club, a jazz club in Liverpool that was turning toward pop music. By then, the Beatles had become the Cavern's house band. It was most likely at high noon on that November day that Brian Epstein first laid eyes on the group on their home turf. The Beatles already knew of Brian as they were all customers at the nearby NEMS (North End Music Store) he managed -- the hip component of his retailer family's business. What's more of a question mark is how Brian knew (or did not know) of the Beatles: the official story is that Raymond Jones, a teenage boy shopping at NEMS, asked Brian for the "My Bonnie" single, which had been pressed in Hamburg with the Beatles backing British rock star Tony Sheridan. Brian then apparently asked around about the Beatles, which led to his decision to check them out at the Cavern. Yet this version has been contested, as the Beatles were already being written up in Mersey Beat, a popular periodical Brian would've been aware of. Also, by that time, rock records were outselling classical records at his store. Finally, the Cavern Club itself was already on Brian's radar: not only was it a stone's throw from NEMS, but he'd gone there to book a jazz band for his 21st birthday several years back.

But whatever the truth was, Brian knew that he would stick out like a sore thumb in the gritty basement of a club crowded with young, working-class rock 'n' roll fans on their lunch break. (Indeed, caverns are very Scorpionic places.) So he wisely alerted the club's manager, Bob Wooler, in advance of his arrival (with a newly minted "assistant" in tow to make him look even more impressive). Brian was only 27, but in 1961, he was far more middle-aged "establishment" than the young men he was soon to manage and shephard to stardom. He dressed conservatively and was also from a far cushier class than the Beatles. Not that Brian had an easy time of it: he was Jewish in an environment that condoned casual antisemitism, and he was gay at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. But that day at the Cavern, he received the club's equivalent of the VIP treatment: he did not have to stand in line to enter the club, and Bob Wooler, announced Brian's presence over the PA system.

Unfortunately I do not have Brian Epstein's exact birth chart, but his noon chart (which would seem a good fit: a 10th-house Sun, a Venus-Neptune conjunction at the MC, and the Nov. 9 Sun at 16 Scorpio close to his ASC) interacts very strongly with the noon chart for the Cavern Club.

The ruler of the Cavern Club lunchtime-set chart is Saturn in its ruling sign of Capricorn, placed in the 1st house; by the time Brian said hello to the Beatles backstage, Saturn was probably conjunct the ASC. Saturn was also moving into a trine to Brian's Sun at 25/26 Virgo. While Saturn, Capricorn, and Virgo do not seem at all conducive to the wildness of rock 'n' roll in general and the Beatles rough style in particular, keep in mind that Brian Epstein was destined to become the band's manager -- very Saturn/Capricorn -- and he also "branded" them in a highly detailed-oriented way (Virgo), remaking them from an unkempt, all-over-the-place act who sometimes ate onstage into polished, suit-wearing perfomers who bowed at the end of pre-planned sets. Brian was also very much a father figure (Saturn) to the band.

What must have hooked Brian from the get-go is apparent in the Cavern Club chart: the Moon at 0 Sagittarius square Uranus at 0 Virgo and sextile Jupiter at 0 Aquarius. Three planets at zero degrees of a sign signal something new; in this case, the seeds of the 1960s revolution. The first iteration of the Beatles, the Quarrymen (talk about literal rock!), had formed four years earlier, but it was not until Uranus entered Virgo that they became stars, not just "big in Hamburg" or "big in Liverpool." Not only was Brian Epstein a Virgo; he was born with Uranus at 0 Taurus, exactly trine transiting Uranus. So Uranus moving into Virgo was like a bolt of lightning for him, and it manifested in the band known as the Beatles. Pluto was a little farther along in Virgo on 11/9/61 -- conjunct Brian's Venus, and as I mentioned before, Brian was born with a Venus-Neptune conjunction, giving him refined taste, a love of the arts (he'd studied acting in London before coming home to run his family's music store), but also an unhappy love life (he was attracted to the "rough trade" who beat him up, robbed him, even blackmailed him) and, thanks to insomnia, an addiction to sedatives that made the Beatles' drug use look like a teddy bears' picnic.

Brian later claimed to have been "immediately struck by their music, their beat, and their sense of humor on stage -- and, even afterwards, when I met them. I was struck again by their personal charm. And it was there that, really, it all started." What he could not say was that these slovenly yet attractive young men in leather jackets were the embodiment of his rough-trade fantasy -- especially John Lennon. Interestingly, Lennon shared an important placement with Brian: the Moon at an early degree of rebellious, eccentric, iconoclastic Aquarius -- the sign Jupiter, planet of good luck and expansion, had just entered in November 1961. Combine that with the Moon-Uranus square that occurred during this fateful lunchtime set, and it really was electric. After the set, when Brian went backstage to say hello to the Beatles, George Harrison asked cheekily, "And what brings Mr. Epstein here?"

Brian himself could not answer that question. He was a shop manager, not a rock manager, and they were clearly from different worlds. But a few minutes later, while Brian was having lunch with his assistant, Alistair Taylor, the truth came out: Alistair thought the band was a train wreck, but Brian thought they were phenomenal, and he wondered aloud if he should manage them. After returning to the Cavern Club several times over the next month, Brian broached the subject, and in January 1962 they signed a five-year management contract. In an interesting twist of karma, Brian would literally die of an overdose, either by accident or on purpose, in 1967, when the band was at the pinnacle of their success. For John Lennon, at least, this was the beginning of the end of the Beatles: their father figure, the man who turned a group of immature, provincial young men into a global phenomenon and the symbol of the Age of Aquarius, was gone.

In Which Your Intrepid Astrologer Performs Her Poetry to a Largely Indifferent Audience!

Ironically, my progressed Moon was exactly conjunct my critical-degree Jupiter at 26 degrees of Libra the night of this featured performance, and I actually received a travel stipend from the curator. I'd thought the Sun in late Scorpio and the Moon in Sagittarius would only add to the luster of the evening, but I was so wrong. Still and all, I am proud to have gotten through it. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6mwivmkaBY

Update from My Exploding Head: 4 Major Transits to Natal Planets

I knew it wasn't going be easy. Somehow, though, I thought if I knew to watch out for things coming to a head on December 3, I'd be able to prepare for it.

But nothing on earth could've prepared me for so many transits to my natal planets that my head really feels like it's about to explode. Even though I've seen some of these transits before.

If even one person who is going through one or more of these transits sees this and doesn't feel as alone, I will feel slightly better. And I know that writing this down will make me feel slightly better anyway. Here goes:

Neptune in Pisces has been opposing my natal Pluto in Virgo for the past year and a half, while also conjuncting my Pisces Descendant. This is a generational opposition about which not nearly enough has been written (just as Gen X has been more or less invisible except for the first half of the '90s, from the publication of Douglas Coupland's Generation X novel to Kurt Cobain's suicide), and it's a heavy one that has more than earned the right to sing the blues. When an outer-planet transit of this magnitude occurs on the angles (whether it's Asc./Desc. or MC/IC), it's amped to the max, unavoidable to deal with. In my case, this opposition largely manifested in the long goodbye that was the dissolution of my not quite a dozen-year relationship with a Pisces Sun. Another person was involved, though not in the usual way (i.e., a current lover), but my first love, who'd broken my heart and ghosted me before such a term existed, before we technically Did It. Neptune in Pisces is like a supersize, deep-fried order of the past. This particular ghost from my past was a bit too old for me at the time and probably did me a favor leaving me relatively intact, but ... Older Ghost Guy contacted me out of the blue to apologize, and we had this messy correspondence that turned even messier when I went back to reread my teenage wasteland diary from the spring I knew him and realized how cruel he'd been, far crueler than he'd acknowledged or that I'd allowed myself to remember. It made me question everything about all my relationships, and I recognized a pattern of no boundaries, a Pisces specialty: both intruding and being intruded upon emotionally, even psychically. Here, there, everywhere, and nowhere. As a Cancer Sun with a Scorpio Moon, Pisces has always "completed" me, but now that feeling began to dissolve ... and my Pisces did not have my back because I was so infuriated about the correspondence gone wrong. My Mars (anger) conjunct Mercury (communication) is very close to his Moon (emotions/instincts/home), and that was really his main beef with me: I was just too damned angry all the time. OGG contacted me twice more, most recently two weeks ago (by which time I finally knew better than to respond), but I have to wait till New Year's Eve before the fifth and final opposition. (No pressure there!) Note the number: not one, not three, but five passes for an extended wake-up call from the front desk. I only hope I've really, truly learned my lesson this time as they pertain to relationships. And for the first time in my life, I am not looking to jump back into one.

Next up we have transiting Pluto in Capricorn opposing my natal Mercury in Cancer from the 5th-house cusp to the 11th, which also began in the spring of '22. In fact, both oppositions were exact when I first heard from OGG. I believe that it was this opposition that saved me from forgiving OGG too soon, because Pluto is the planet of investigation, and That Little Voice Inside My Head told me to excavate my diary. It really, really hurt, but it was better this way, because my 15-year-old self saved my 51-year-old self. Just like the Neptune-Pluto opposition, this one also had to happen five times (final pass exact tomorrow). The fourth pass, exact this past August, was when I realized I had to break up with my Pisces; I'd done it before (with Pluto coming up on an opposition to my Sun) and had hoped with all my heart that it wouldn't happen again, but I felt like I was dying (Pluto opposing my Mars hadn't helped matters). The fifth and final opposition finds me single again in a place I fought like hell to get back to, with my head about to explode from the stress of being utterly lost in my new part-time job; I need to pick up nitpicky formatting skills ASAP so I can relieve my overworked supervisor. I am also unable to set up my new apartment because I have too much stuff for a studio, not enough money to put stuff in storage, and suck at assembling semi-disposable shelving units. If only I'd Marie Kondo'd most of my things (not counting books; sorry, but I have to draw the line somewhere). I haven't had the energy to go on Nextdoor or Facebook Marketplace or see if Goodwill or Salvation Army can pick up stuff. What else? Feeling closer to my Scorpio sister (Mercury) but estranged from some other friends (11th house). Deep thinking, even to the point of obsession. Heightened sensitivity to power-tripping while tripping over my own shadow.

The third opposition involves transiting Saturn in Pisces opposing my natal Venus in Virgo. Same signs as the first opposition, but this time from the 12th house to the 6th, and this time I "only" get it the standard three passes instead of five. Still, it's been enough to manifest in health issues (not just my own, but my precious cats) and Venus troubles in both love and money. I was unexpectedly laid off from my full-time salaried position this spring, less than a month after the first pass. I miraculously managed to secure an apartment this fall, shortly before the retrograde second pass, but now, on the third pass (also exact tomorrow), I am officially losing money and do not feel at all optimistic over getting back my security deposit on the apartment my ex and I shared, even though my ex, who has just moved to greener pastures, has enlisted the assistance of the city council. I am back where I want to be, but I am literally paying a very high price for it. How, you may well be asking, could I possibly be taking such a gamble on myself given this particular sobering opposition?

Because transiting Uranus, the planet of reform and revolution, is also conjuncting my stodgy-pants banker-wannabe Saturn in the money sign of Taurus, that's how. All bets are off. And since it involves the cusp of my 9th house, at least I can still write. The second pass is exact tomorrow, and the third pass happens next March. Since this foundation-shaking conjunction sextiles my Sun as well, I have to have faith (the opposite of Saturn) that this revolutionary-for-me gamble will pay off in 9th-house areas such as publishing, education, and travel. Wouldn't that be nice?

It's been such a long time since I've posted on this blog I have no idea if I even have any readers left, but I do hope that someone searching for the meaning of any or all of the above transits will find this and know they're in good company.