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TAJ
MAHAL: First published in The Mountain Astrologer, Feb./March 1997
That powerful Gemini conjunction is what makes Mahal, in the African parlance, a griot - storyteller, history-keeper. He's been singing the blues all over the world since the late 1960s, keeping the traditions alive, touring over 200 days a year. And though he still doesn't get recognized much on the street, now that he has relocated from Hawaii to Los Angeles (when his progressed Moon left comfy Cancer and entered Gemini, heading for its conjunction to natal Moon-Mercury in November of 1996), don't be surprised if you see him popping up on movie screens. He's been developing his acting skills, with transiting Uranus hovering around his Aquarian Ascendant and activating his Pluto in Leo by opposition. His song, Lovin' in My Baby's Eyes, is getting lots of airplay, and he's just finished a collaboration with Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir on a musical play about the life of baseball great Leroy Satchel Paige. His 1993 release, Dancing the Blues, was Grammy-nominated, and his latest effort, Phantom Blues, which features the contributions of Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt, continues the trend toward rollicking, 1950s-style New Orleans R&B dance music. Mahal is a Taurus with his Sun trine musical Neptune - he claims to hear music in his head on a constant basis. That earthy Sun has kept him going for 30 years as a music professional, with 35 albums to his credit. His Sun is conjunct both Saturn and Uranus, giving him stability and a fierce determination to make it on his own terms. Born Henry St. Clair Fredericks and raised in a culturally sophisticated home in Springfield, Massachusetts, he was eleven when his father died as the result of standing up to racial prejudice on the job. Henry determined then and there that he would never be dependent on anybody else for his income. "It's last hired, first fired. So fire me from playing the guitar!" he chuckles. Originally, Mahal was going to make a career for himself in agricultural farming, since a career in music didn't seem viable at the time. No stranger to hard work (Taurus Sun conjunct Saturn), he started picking tobacco at age 14 and put himself through vocational agriculture school working on a dairy farm. "A lot of people just don't know how to work," he says. "They think work is just sitting down at a desk all day long." He's got a big garden in his Pasadena backyard, where he experiments with permaculture and other alternative forms of growing food (Sun conjunct Uranus and Aquarius rising). Mars in Cancer in the 6th house gives him extra drive toward self-sufficiency. With the rising wave of interest in the blues, Taj Mahal may soon become a household name as something other than a 17th-century Indian monument to undying love. The Aquarian theme comes through loud and clear in his decision to choose that particular handle. "As I was surfing the names that were out there," there wasn't nothing as hip as Taj Mahal," he says. 'Still, it's way far out for people. I just can't believe that people are so limited, but I guess they are. If I had it to do over again, I might have called myself Timbuktu, which is closer to the heart of where I'm coming from, musically." Mahal's Pluto in the 7th house and his Venus-Mars square speak of an intense and abiding, but erratic interest in women. Now divorced, he maintains plenty of contact with female fans. Does he consider himself a monument to love like his namesake? He laughs in that rich gravelly voice that's been honey-cured over the years by an endless succession of cigars. "I sure am. I would daresay that the majority of my fans are women, and they are legion. They love the music, and are constantly writing me, letting me know how it affects them." With transiting Pluto opposing his 4th-house Uranus and Saturn, Mahal not only relocated, but took charge of his life in other profound ways. "I've changed my work habits," he says. "It's the first year I've stepped up to the plate and said, 'Hey, I'm in control here.' I had to get out of the fog of touring all the time." With most of his planets below the horizon, fame is not what motivates this musician. "I was never thrust out into that Michael Jackson space," he says with evident relief. "When have you seen a video of Taj Mahal? There's not even the Taj Mahal blow-up doll! At a recent concert, he brought his guitar out to the parking lot before the show, just to connect with the folks a little. Such a heavy emphasis on the western half of the chart makes him very much a people person, and those 5th-house planets do need applause and attention. It's really the love of the blues, however, that keeps him going. When asked how he has survived the vicissitudes of a 30-year performing career, Mahal replies, "By not considering the career to be anything" (Mars, ruler of the Midheaven, in the humble 6th house). "I'm about the music, and the music is alive every day, every second." © 1997 Simone Butler. All rights reserved.
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When
you interview celebrities by phone, you're usually given only 20-30
minutes in which to ask your questions. If the person likes you,
maybe you'll get 40. On the day of my interview with blues legend
Taj Mahal, he showed no signs of losing steam after an hour had
passed. This man likes to talk. So I'm thinking Sagittarius, maybe
Gemini. I laughed out loud to discover that he has a Moon-Mercury-Jupiter
conjunction in Gemini, and that the transiting Moon was exactly
conjunct the Moon and Mercury at the time of our conversation!