STEPHEN KING

I LOVE Stephen King and so excited he has a new book out right now, If It Bleeds. Since he’s in the (entertainment) news right now, I thought he’d make a good case study. With all his success, I figured there would be some interesting things in his chart and I wasn’t disappointed!

First of all, it took a lot longer than I thought. Sure, I definitely procrastinated (hello to my natal stellium in Libra.) and there’s the whole global pandemic thing to deal with, but the chart is so integrated that going through via the method of interpretation I learned took quite a while.

I used Wikipedia for his general history and career highlights, but I found this Rolling Stone feature from 2014 as well, where he talks about his history of drug and alcohol abuse and I thought brought out a lot of his inner thinking and motivation for writing. I’m sure there’s more recent interviews I could have used, but the quotes here are just excellent. I felt like I could hear his voice in my head as I was reading them. And if I may say, his comments about the “future” are pretty prescient.

If you’re a fan of Stephen King, what’s your favorite book? I love The Shining and IT, but my absolute favorite of his is On Writing. It’s sort of an autobiography/instruction manual that connected with me very deeply. I lost my copy for a bit but recently found it again so I think I’ll be picking it up to read again this week.

UPDATE 5/22: I finally re-read On Writing and I’m kicking myself I didn’t do it earlier. There’s so much more information about his childhood that I could have used here. Anyway, it’s an excellent book.

GENERAL OVERVIEW

We have Leo rising with Aries on the MC, giving us a bit of distortion with a trine between 1 & 10 instead of a square. In the Archetype, Aries should be on the cusp of his 9th house so we get the sense that he sees his career as his calling (9th house), and in Aries, he drives to achieve without anything getting in his way. The 9th house governs publishing as well, which is a notable extra connection here. This distortion also puts Scorpio on the 5th cusp instead of Sagittarius. It’s a great boost for his creativity, but my guess is that his personal relationships, especially early on, were difficult due to his sensitivity. 8/10 planets are also below the horizon meaning he’s more inner directed and private.

General Chart Features

A quick 16-point analysis brings out the idea that Aries – masculine cardinal fire - is a strong energy in his chart. Coupled with the Leo ASC and Aries MC, all this fire has a lot to do with his motivation and drive. King also benefits from multiple conjunctions, several sharp aspects, and planets in the angles of the chart, each indicators of additional strength.

PERSONALITY/MOTIVATION  

When we look at his Ascendant, we see Leo on the cusp, giving the sense he’s very self-possessed, organized and outgoing. The ruler, the Sun, is nicely placed in 3rd in Virgo, ensuring his energy/will is directed towards communication and education. An excellent placement for a writer and former teacher. In fact, the Sun is extremely important to his outlook and achievements, but we’ll dig deeper there in a bit. If we look to the dispositor of the Sun, Mercury, it’s in high honor in Libra. His thinking is organized and detailed, and he must be charming in person thanks to the influence of Venus, which is the planet most closely aspecting the cusp of his ASC.

Personality - Sun as Ruler of the ASC

All of this energy seems so light and lovely, more suited to maybe a publicist or history teacher, until we get to the Pluto and Saturn conjunction. These two planets are connected to obligations (Saturn) and destruction and renewal (Pluto). Pluto is the modern co-ruler of his 5th house, and placed in the first, there’s the sense of an inborn talent. It also gives a magnetism and intensity to the personality. Saturn adds discipline and seriousness, which helps him stick to his daily writing schedule, and working for the 2nd, is an indicator of the family’s poverty when he was young. Saturn is also ruler of his 6th, 7th and 8th, showing how his work and the public (as well as the public’s money) come to him.

Pluto and Saturn aren’t the easiest planets to deal with however, so there’s definitely self-destructive behavior and a heaviness that he carries with him. He mentions in the Rolling Stone interview an obsessive compulsion to write, feeling insecure and a fear of failure. Early on, in the late 70’s and 80’s, he had a drug & alcohol problem but thankfully he’s been able to channel most of this energy into his writing. He’s able to control and direct this energy in a positive way thanks to the Sun.  

Personality - Pluto/Saturn Conjunction

If we take a deeper dive into analyzing his chart, we see the Sun is not only ruler of his Ascendant, but connected to all 4 angles and every other planet in the chart.

Angles: The Sun is ruler of the Ascendant, ruler of the MC by exaltation, dispositor of Saturn, traditional ruler of Aquarius on the 7th, and Venus, ruler of the 4th, is both conjunct the Sun and it’s final dispositor. (Note: I was taught that you look to both the dispositor of a planet and the final dispositor to see the progression of the influence through the life. So with the Sun in Virgo, Mercury in Libra is the dispositor, but Venus is the final dispositor.)

Planets: The Sun is square Uranus (drawn to the unusual), sextile Mars (hidden fears), sextile Jupiter (limitless creativity), square Moon (push for emotional freedom), conjunct Venus (charm & desire to please), in a wide conjunction with Neptune (imagination), dispositor of Pluto (obsessive) and Saturn (obligations), and disposed by Mercury (fast, organized mind).

Personality - Power of and Connections to the Sun

Most of us ordinary folk have a couple of planets connected to our ASC, but to have this many connections puts tremendous energy at his disposal. He benefits from the Leo ascendant with the Sun in a good state so he’s able to organize and direct the energy in a constructive way through the outlet of the 3rd house, where the Sun is physically placed. With a weak Sun, all of this energy would need to get out in other ways, for example chaotic emotions, destructive obsessive behavior and anxiety.

EARLY LIFE

King’s early life was unsettled to say the least, with his father leaving and his family bouncing around to different relatives before coming back to Maine to care for his mom’s ailing parents. Just a few things to point out here, like the 4th house, which is under Libra and ruled by a wonderful Venus in the 3rd house in domicile. To me this represents the support his extended family provide while the wide trine from Uranus in Gemini shows the unpredictable movement from place to place.

The trouble comes again from the Pluto and Saturn. They send sextiles to the cusp of the 4th and to Mercury, the planet physically in the 4th, acting with a negative influence on his family through destruction and isolation.

Pluto and Saturn also explain the early poverty in his life. Both the 1st and 2nd houses have Leo on the cusps, ruled by the Sun. Since both planets are also disposed by the Sun, it’s like they’re brought into the second house, causing upheavals, restriction and ultimately, transformation. This later reversal in fortune is also seen through Mercury and Venus in high honor in Libra, which as dispositor (Mercury) and final dispositor (Venus) of the Sun, became more influential as he got older.

Early Life - Influence of Pluto/Saturn and Mercury/Libra

King was said to be very sickly as a child as well, and his bio mentions him being rejected from the military in college due to a host of problems, like punctured ear drums and flat feet. We can see this from the Saturn, ruler of the 6th (sicknesses) conjunct Pluto and the detrimental influence of Mars in dishonor in the 12th (hospitalizations). Mars is also the ruler of Capricorn by exhaltation, adding another connection.

Speaking of Mars, this planet is very important from the consideration of his thinking and definitely is root of his early love of horror and fantasy writing. In dishonor and in the 12th house of secrets and psychology, it would give fears, repressed yet intense feelings, and a tendency towards self-destructive behavior on top of the impact on his health. The dispositors of Mars are the Moon in Sagittarius and Jupiter in Scorpio (Jupiter is the dispositor by exaltation), both in the 5th, helping him release these pent-up feelings through his creativity. Also notice that Jupiter is the dispositor of the Moon and Mars is in a razor sharp trine to Jupiter, adding more layers to the integration.

Early Life - Significant Influence of Mars

As a quick aside, if we do a little derivation of the chart, I would put his father as the 10th house, Aries, with Pluto/Saturn in his 4th, a strong Neptune, and Jupiter in Scorpio in his 8th. My guess is his father had a pretty horrible childhood, and difficulty holding on to a career (Saturn & Uranus rules his 10th, Aquarius) which led to some type of addiction, likely alcohol. His mother would be the 4th house, Libra, which means the Pluto/Saturn would fall in her 10th house, signifying the difficult future as a single mom also caring for her ailing parents. With the Venus, Neptune and Mercury, she must have had an excellent mind, and a few biographies mention her love of reading and her encouragement of King’s natural writing ability.

Early Life - Where to See the Parental Influences

TALENT/MOTIVATION

We already mentioned the Sun as a huge motivating force affecting his entire chart, but let’s look at Pluto. It’s ruler of the 5th, which is the house of creativity, love, self-expression, and in the 1st house, it’s an indicator of inborn talent. Notice also it’s connected to Mercury by aspect, ruler of his intellect and 3rd house (communications and learning). So, his mind is incredibly perceptive, especially in regard to human motivation, and he brings that out through his writing. This Mercury is also in a sextile with his Moon in Sagittarius and conjunct Neptune, strengthening his memory, giving him a talent for creating fantasy, and providing a depth of inspiration.

Talent - Pluto/Mercury Connections

So, he’s clearly talented and we touched a bit on the influence of Mars in the 12th in Cancer with regard to his family life and love of horror, but let’s look further into the connections of houses 12 & 5 with 1 & 3.

We mentioned above Scorpio is on the cusp of the 5th house with the rulers in 1 (Pluto in Leo) and 12 (Mars in Cancer). This connection gives a sense that he has a talent to tap into the darker emotions from the 12th house and filter them through his 5th. Jupiter sitting on the cusp of the 5th in Scorpio ensures there’s no end to his creativity and he’s incredibly perceptive in terms of psychological motivation. Also notice the element of water on both 12 and 5. In the Rolling Stone interview, he mentions when he was writing in college, “…I had this huge aquifer underneath of stories that I wanted to tell and I stuck a pipe down in there and everything just gushed out.” An excellent description of Jupiter (abundance) and Mars (action) in the emotional element of water.  

The 3rd house is where he’s able to let this dark energy come out thanks to the Sun’s connections to Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Moon. He says again in Rolling Stone, “…whatever machinery that you have that goes into writing stories, it doesn’t want to stop. So, if it’s not going on the page, it has to go somewhere, and I have these mind dreams. They’re always dreams that focus on some kind of shame or insecurity.” 

We’ve already mentioned the Sun in connection to the 1st, and here we see how the aspects with Jupiter (sextile) and the Moon (square) bring his 5th house into the mix. So, we get the sense that the Sun is able to organize his dark thinking and emotions and channel it in a beneficial way. Why beneficial vs., say, serial killer? I’d say because Venus and Mercury are exceptionally powerful and in high honor in Libra. Venus is an out of sign conjunction, dispositor of Mercury and the final dispositor of the Sun, so it gives a beauty and rhythm to his writing and thinking, even if the subject matter is horrific.  

Talent - 12/5 Connections

SUCCESS

We’ve covered the natural talent, the limitless inspiration, and his creativity, but lots of writers have these qualities and don’t even come close to the 50+ year career at the top of the best-seller charts. Where do we see the incredible success in the chart?

First, we see Aries on the cusp of the MC. One of the first things we mentioned is the distortion that puts the 9th sign on the 10th house, giving him tremendous energy (fire) and giving him a sense that his career is his calling. Aries is also a cardinal sign so once he set a goal, he wasn’t going to let anything stop him from achieving it. Mars, as ruler of Aries, is important here as well. We’ve already talked about Mars in connection to his ASC, the 12th house, 5th house, 3rd house, Jupiter and the Sun, which is the ruler of Aries by exaltation. The Sun is the general significator of honors so to have it connected to the ASC, the MC, the 5th, the 12th and the 3rd multiple times through position, aspects and disposition is an excellent indicator to success and honors. Notice also the trine to the MC from the Moon in Sagittarius. My teacher always said if the “light” shines on you (the Sun and the Moon), you’ll achieve a certain amount of fame. The strong integration of both increases the potential.

Success - Connections to the MC

The two Benefic planets, Jupiter and Venus, are also very integrated in his chart and in good zodiacial state. The good state means they can amplify the good and mitigate the bad from a house meaning or more destructive planet. Venus in domicile provides the benefits of that planet life long, while Jupiter in Scorpio will mitigate some of the difficulties from the houses it’s connected to in the chart.

Adding to that, Neptune and Mercury are also in good zodiacal state so not only benefit his 3rd and 4th house, but also his 10th through ricochet.

One last thing to point out here is that we have the constructive energies of Saturn and Pluto giving him the discipline (ok, yes, and also the obsessive compulsion) to write daily. It’s this consistency that allows him to perfect his craft.

WIFE/MARRIAGE

This is a pretty long analysis, and there’s still so much more here if you want to dig deeper – his feelings about celebrity, his attitude towards social justice and charitable giving, addiction and recovery, etc. – but I’m going to wrap this up with a quick shout out to his wife, Tabitha. She’s clearly an immensely positive force in his life and a big factor in his success. She’s represented by his 7th house, Aquarius, and we immediately see her rulers in her 7th (Saturn in Leo) and in her 5th (Uranus in Gemini). To me, she comes off as the support structure for him, giving him the freedom to write, keeping him grounded, and helping lighten his darkness with her airy nature. Her MC is Libra, his 4th house, with Mercury, Neptune and Venus also in Libra. She has the full air trine represented so must be extremely intelligent and able to keep up with him mentally.

Where to Find King’s Wife in His Chart

So, that’s where I’m cutting it off. I hope you liked the analysis, and if something else caught your eye, let me know in the comments.