Fellow musicians spoke in awe of Glen Campbell's voice, instrumental skills and perfect pitch, and wondered that these gifts were all found in one man. The late singer, who passed in August 2017, had all his natal planets bar Mercury and the Nodes either exalted or in mooltrikona, which, while not quite perhaps on the level of the mythic chart proposed for Lord Rama, is still a rare showing. In one unusual but telling tribute, session guitarist Mat Sweeney spoke of him as being his childhood ‘paragon of manhood and perfection’.
This type of chart shows raw talent, certainly, but also a conservative with conventional tastes and a sense of propriety, expressed in a high form. Home signs show the natural pattern of things, so it is unlikely to make a rebel or atheist, even though spirituality per se is shown in the navamsha (Campbell's D9 chart is only moderately strong). Such nobility does not save the individual from all problems – plenty of lucky and talented people crash and burn, and in any event wealth and fame are far from the only yardsticks of success. Even Avatars have earthly vicissitudes and their lives are held up as examples of how to deal with them on the human plane.
April 22nd 1936, 18:14, Delight, Arkanas
Navamsha
Campbell’s stardom came during Rahu dasha, first as a top studio guitarist, then with his string of late 60s hits. Rahu takes power from its sign lord and planets aspecting it, and both here are Jupiter in Sagittarius, in the third house, which gives promise of lottery-like success. Conversely, Campbell’s Jupiter dasha beginning in 1975 was initially successful, but altogether a more troubled time with long period of drug and drink related problems. It seems Rahu took charge in this Guru-Chandala yoga: it was empowered in its own period and acted as a malefic in Jupiter’s. Mercury in the seventh house is his only physical planet not outstandingly strong and is also aspected by all the malefics. Campbell had four marriages, producing eight children, though his seventh house shubh katari yoga seems to have worked finally in the form of his fourth wife Kimberly Woolen, to whom he remained married from 1982. Afflicted Mercury is also ruler of the mind and its dasha starting 2010 coincided with Campbell being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which he fought bravely and publicly until the end of his life. RIP.