continued from previous page

PLUTO CONTACTS THE MOON

It wasn’t until two years later, in December 1998 when Pluto reached the first probable contact of a square to her Pisces Moon (symbolizing her emotions and domestic life), that Amy’s emotional awareness was deepened to the point that she felt the planetary pressure to make a big change.  Amy and her husband Gary separated in January 1999, and her divorce was final on the second pass of Pluto’s square to her Moon in June 1999.

At times this process of separation from her husband, children and the life she had known must have been exceptionally painful.  In addition to being a popular musician, Amy had become something of a standard bearer among her fans for the Christian ideal of lifelong fidelity in marriage.  Her divorce created a crack in this public perception, surprised many, and even caused some Christian radio stations to refuse to play her songs.  Yet Amy seems ultimately to have taken the strongly Piscean-Neptunian attitude that the river of life can take one places one doesn’t expect.  “Sometimes it’s an innocent third party, “ Amy said, “that makes you realize relationships can be easier.”  

The transit of Pluto to Amy’s Sun and Moon also forced her to look at the underbelly of her Jupiter-based idealism.  What was a good Christian woman to make of the emerging idea that her marriage could end?  How had her Pisces-Neptune tendencies to let others dictate her life direction contributed to her unhappiness in her situation?  She may have asked herself many times the common question for spiritual people in times of crisis, “Am I being selfish (to leave this marriage) – or is this the move God wants me to make?”  Amy might have felt that she would hurt someone – herself, her husband, her children, Vince’s wife or child -- no matter what she did.  Pluto transits can present us with these types of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” choices. 

WALKING AMID DESTRUCTION

In the aftermath of her divorce, Amy gradually worked toward building a new life to carry her forward.  Yet Pluto’s transformative transit to her Sun and Moon left a lasting impact.  Pluto pressed her to understand that her seemingly socially acceptable life needed to end in its current form in order to reach a greater and more fitting environment for all involved.  Pluto lies beyond Saturn in the solar system, suggesting that Pluto’s lessons are beyond those that our social structure (Saturn) considers safe or appropriate.  Some of the extreme events that can arise during Pluto transits include divorce, abduction, sexual difficulties, financial upheaval, destruction of property, death of loved ones, psychological obsession or possession, and other areas into which we’d rather not tread. 

Yet when Persephone, the maiden abducted by Pluto in the Greek legend, reemerges from her contact with Pluto’s dark forces, she becomes Queen of her destiny, able to both direct her life from a stronger emotional position and surrender to a balanced rather than idealized image of other people and of God.   Pluto is paradoxically not only the god of destruction, but also the god of spiritual and material wealth.  Ask any lottery winner, stockbroker, farmer at harvest time, spiritual aspirant in touch with the divine, sexually fulfilled person or pirate gleaming with booty -- Pluto is always present when the big gains arrive.   Yet it takes fertilizer to make those beautiful roses.  And it’s always darkest just before the dawn.

NEW LIFE

With luck, Amy Grant’s second marriage to Vince Gill will be as creatively fruitful and spiritually nourishing as her first marriage to Gary Chapman was in its prime.  Already Amy and Vince have embarked on plans to perform together on a 2001 holiday music tour.  There is news that Gary Chapman and Janis Gill have each formed new attachments as well.  Though there are astrological indications that Amy and Vince’s new baby daughter, Corrina, may not enjoy the naturally humble temperament and easy faith for which Amy and Vince are known, perhaps the challenge of raising her as well as their children from previous marriages will bring Amy and Vince closer together.

In light of her strong Christian background, my brother jokingly says of Amy’s marriage to Vince, “This one better work out…or she’s going to hell for sure.”  Yet chances are good that since Amy has managed the difficult transits of Pluto to her Sun and Moon with skill and awareness, she’s going somewhere much brighter.  Amy has married a man and created an extended family with whom she can express love and service at the level her soul has grown to require.  Ideally, that can give others the courage to step into more of what they need to flourish as well. 

CHART INFO
Amy Grant
11-25-1960
Augusta, GA
time unknown (speculative time of 8:00 p.m. used)
Source:  imdb.com, Jim Maynard’s Pocket Astrologer

Additional reference source:
Millard, Bob.  Amy Grant:  A Biography.  Dolphin/Doubleday, New York, 1986.