With the passing of singer Amy Winehouse on July 23rd at the age of 27, the issue was raised again regarding the ‘coincidence’ of the deaths of various musicians at the age of 27. The list of musicians who passed over at the age of 27 is long. Among the best known musicians who died at the age of 27 are: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, bluesman Robert Johnson, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan of the Grateful Dead and musicians from such bands as Uriah Heep, The Stooges, Canned Heat, Stone the Crows and various others.
While one might merely cast ‘The Forever Club’ or ‘The 27 Club’ as but a bizarre case of coincidence, astrology tells a different story, the story of a significant energy configuration that highlights the personal paradigm shift from one phase to another, from adolescence to adulthood.
Astrologically, The Forever Club or The 27 Club could also be called ‘The First Lunar Return Club’, for around the age of 27, the progressed Moon returns to its natal position and conjuncts the natal Moon. This progressed lunar return precedes the Saturn return, the time that Saturn by transit returns to its natal position, which occurs between the ages of 27-30.
Society may assume that adolescence ends at the age of 18 or 21 or whatever age it denotes, but in truth we move from adolescence into adulthood during this period of age 27-30.
When we are 27-30 can be an especially difficult time, a time when we are asked to grow up. The securities and the stabilities of our younger years are ripped asunder and at this period in our lives we may feel as though we are in deed on shaky ground. This is a time when we question what we are doing and what we have been doing. It is also a time when to borrow from the Christian Bible’s book of 1 Corinthians 13:11: “when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways.”
The transition between childhood and adulthood begins with the first Lunar return which then segues into the Saturn return.
During this phase of our lives, relationships can go through tremendous pressure, even breakups. Our career path might seem less like our intended dream job and more like a bramble path. Women start to feel their biological clock. Men feel like their youthfulness is slipping away.
We are asked to look back, see what is working for us and what no longer does, then clear out much of the foundations of our past and move forward, although often moving forward without a clear playbook or a defined destination.
Although the 27 Club has been memorialized by the number of musicians who passed at that age, it is a Club that each one of us pauses at, must consider where we have been and then determine to cross the threshold, go through the transition, the transformation, and the alchemical process from childhood into adulthood.
