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Bruce Lee, the 12th house, and Early Death


 Bruce Lee's chart. This is an unusual one, in that it's a noteworthy person with a profoundly afflicted chart. He also died at 32 from an utterly freak allergic reaction to an ingredient in a headache remedy.

Sagittarius Rising, day birth. Sun is one degree above the Ascendant, so he was going to be a noteworthy personality no matter what. Jupiter is chart ruler, in the 6th, retrograde, tightly conjunct Saturn (also retrograde). Both are largely out of sect. The 6th house is a bad one for the Chart Ruler, especially considering its associations with health. Uranus (the sudden and unexpected), it should be noted, occupies this house too, also retrograde.

Four planets in Scorpio, in the 12th house: Venus, Mars, the Moon, and Mercury, all rising ahead of the Sun. Mars is a final dispositor. Venus, Mars, and Moon are also in bad relation to sect. Notably, the Moon is also a planet of health indications.

This is made worse by the Part of Fortune (my third health indicator) being also in Scorpio, 12th house, conjunct Mars. This also creates an interesting situation where all these planets and points in Scorpio are conjunct all three of their triplicity lords: Venus, Mars, and Moon. Jupiter, as chart ruler, is opposed all three, but contact (aspect) is better than no aspect.

At this point it's worth noting that Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius are classically not the exaltations of any planet; rather, they were held to be strong positions for all. So even though the Moon and Venus are "weak" in Scorpio, they're not quite as debilitated as most other weakened planets, and, for that matter, they're in their own triplicity. In any event, a Scorpio stellium is, first and foremost, powerful. This can offset some of the negatives of the house position.

Normally, I would expect somebody with this many indicators of poor health to have died even younger, perhaps in infancy. He didn't. It should be noted that he was also a health freak from an early age (there's that Chart Ruler in the 6th), but yet this may have been a cause of his premature death: it's been theorized that overuse of cortisone to treat a ruptured disc in his back (a weightlifting injury) may have caused a fatal interaction with that normally harmless medication, and may have been the true primary cause.

He was driven to overcome all physical limitations, and when he pushed himself beyond those limits and suffered, he still reached for the heavens.

Of further interest is that Pluto in Leo (retrograde again) is in the 9th house (philosophy), the point focus of a T-Square with all those Scorpio placements on one end and Jupiter/Saturn on the other. He had a great interest in philosophy, especially as it applied to martial arts, and the Plutonian theme of trying to transcend all limitation has been discussed already.

Another outer planet emphasized: Neptune in Virgo, fairly tightly conjunct the Midheaven. He certainly captured the collective imagination.

As far as the Parts: Spirit and Basis are in the 2nd, in Capricorn, which puts Saturn in trine position to them, and Fortune in the 11th derived house from them. Fortune and Spirit being in the others' 11th house is a powerful indication of success, even if the houses are middling or bad. Exaltation is at 19 Aries, 5th house, ruled again by Mars. He was happiest (and achieved his greatest success) in the Mar(s)-tial Arts. Even with some indications of success, it's remarkable he got as far as he did, though he was far from an A-list star when he died; his influence has grown with time, more because of his philosophy than his movie roles. That Pluto was very exceptional.



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