Farrah Fawcett’s transition touched me on a deep level. Perhaps it’s because I associate her so strongly with my youth, and her passing reminds me that it too has passed. Perhaps it’s because I’ve always admired how she believed in herself, created her own path despite the naysayers, and followed her heart even when it seemed to lead her into one emotional land mine after another.

If you were in your teens in the 1970’s, you probably had (or at least tried to have) a Farrah Fawcett hairdo.  In Brooklyn, that was “the look,” and not only did it dominate the disco scene, but that style lived on long after Farrah (with true Aquarian defiance) cut off her trademark tresses and went to the opposite extreme and began sporting a short style that was more boyish than feminine.

Refusing to be defined by her hair, Farrah made a significant contribution to women and their self-esteem. In addition, her toned athletic body proved to young women everywhere that you didn’t need great curves or big boobs to be sexy, a stark contrast to today’s message perpetuated by Victoria’s Secret in the form of 3-5 catalogs a week.

I also admired Farrah because she took chances. Whether it was shedding her locks or playing vile characters (“Small Sacrifices”), Farrah was a risk taker. Yes, she seemed to play with fire in her personal relationships as well, but hey, we all have our karma to work out.

When I first heard Farrah was diagnosed with cancer, I (like many other astrologers I’m sure) rushed to examine her natal chart.  Through the years, I kept an eye on it and witnessed the connection between the news reports and her planetary cycles, and every step of the way, I continued to root for her.

People often ask me if one can predict death in a chart.  The answer is no — and sometimes yes. The reason you can’t predict death is that the horoscope continues to live on after the person has made his or her transition.  Ever notice how every so often a dead celebrity suddenly becomes famous or popular all over again?  If you looked at that person’s chart, odds are you might find Saturn at the midheaven (tenth house), a transit that is associated with significant achievement and success.

Sometimes you can predict when death is approaching with a degree of accuracy, such as in a case like this, when someone is fighting a terminal illness, but even then you can be wrong. Keep in mind that “death” extends beyond the physical. We experience the “death” of friendships, marriages, jobs, ideas, etc.  As any astrologer will tell you, it’s so much easier to see death in a chart in hindsight.

As Farrah made her transition, Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron were huddled together in her ninth house and sextiling her natal Venus in her sixth house of health.  The ninth house is a spiritual house, and since it is naturally ruled by Jupiter, it is a house of release.  For Farrah, the days of illness and suffering are over.

Uranus, ruler of her ninth house and planet of separation, was transiting her tenth house of public recognition and squaring her natal Venus in her sixth house of health.  In Farrah’s chart, Venus rules her fifth house, which represents her son, as well as her long-time lover, Ryan O’Neal. In addition, the transiting Sun was conjunct her natal Moon, which focuses the spotlight  on her personal and emotional life and indicates a new beginning for her.

As the news continues to spread that the Goddess of the Seventies has left us, transiting Venus and Mars are not only separating from a conjunction in sensual Taurus, but they are squaring Farrah’s natal Mercury in her eighth house of death. Transiting Mercury was traveling through her twelfth house of confinement, and was moving towards an exact conjunction with her natal Uranus, signifying the media reports that are yet to inundate the internet about her “last days.”

Finally, the transiting Sun is one degree off of her Ascendant, which means that in the coming days, the Sun will conjunct her Ascendant and cross into her First House, guaranteeing that not only will much attention be given to her, but much acclaim as well.

Farrah left this life the way she lived it:  on her own terms.  A true daughter of Uranus, she was never afraid of blazing a new trail.  She halted treatment, said her good-byes, and prepared for the next journey.

So instead of just mourning her passing, I am going to celebrate her life.

I know I still have a curling iron somewhere.