Sunday morning, my boyfriend & I heard an aircraft flying low over our condo in Calabasas, California. It was sputtering & in distress. We assumed it was trying to reach the freeway for an emergency landing. Instead, seconds later, we heard a loud variagated thud as it crashed into the hillside over the road. We walked outside. From our ridge vantage point, through the chilly fog, we saw smoke, fire & another explosion. Shaking, I texted my brother & closest friend. Later in the afternoon we learned that basketball legend Kobe Bryant was aboard that helicopter.

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I guess I’m an astrologer to the core, because to process this tragedy I found myself pulling up Kobe’s chart. Kobe has no birth time available online, only birth date & place of birth. As the sounds of sirens continued late into the night & media helicopters stalked from above, & my sweetie made me tea, I rectified Kobe’s birthtime to 6:11pm. 

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Kobe’s chart turned out to be a fascinating study. Because I had pinpointed the exact minute he was born I could go deep into the Shastiamsa, the D60 soul chart which shows the pinnacle of what can be achieved in this incarnation. I was mesmerized to discover that every planet was supported almost exclusively by benevolent deities.

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Moving to Kobe’s actual birth chart, according to my birth time, his ascendant is in the Capricorn side of the Star of Victory, Uttarashada. The shakti (spiritual power) of this star is to grant permanent victories.  This star speaks to Kobe’s ambition, his conquering his professional realm (it’s also a royal star), his bright countenance, athleticism & his ability to play the role of a team player.  

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As expected there were powerful placements for fame & wealth. However something else interesting revealed itself: a very strong emphasis on Randhra Bhava: the transformative & destructive 8th house. This is the section of a chart that shows personal evolution, regeneration, sacred transformation & sudden endings, among other things. It also shows catastrophes & conditions surrounding one’s death. Planets placed here speed up the cycle of personal evolution & when activated by dasha or transit can create intense unpredictable situations in our lives, for good or bad depending on multiple individual chart factors.

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I was initially surprised to discover both Kobe’s Ascendant lord & ascendant nakshatra lord conjunct in his 8th house, & the 8th lord. There is a myth in astrology that people with their Ascendant lord in the 8th house don’t achieve their full potential in life. While one could argue that Kobe’s tragically early death speaks to this, noone can say he didn’t achieve great things. 

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Kobe was a young NBA star with a meteoric rise to fame in his Sun dasha, was rocked by a very public scandal in Moon dasha & upon retirement reinvented himself as a mentor & philanthropic figure in Rahu dasha. His Mars Serala Yoga from Bharani moon shows how he was ultimately able to shed the tarnish of dropped sexual assault allegations in 2004 & return to being fully embraced as a celebrated sports icon with endorsements in his Mars dasha. (A dasha is a Vedic Astrology technique referring to a period of time when a specific planet’s influence is dominant.)

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Kobe’s Saturn & Sun were in Magha nakshatra, the Mighty Star. Magha is a powerful nakshatra in Sidereal Leo, associated with royalty as its symbol is the throne. Its star Regulus is said to be 100 times brighter than our own sun. Magha is the star of the ancestors – Kobe’s father was also a professional basketball player. So Kobe’s sun placed here boosted his power to influence & to dominate.

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It’s worth noting that Leo is the 5th house from Kobe’s moon. The 5th house is the house of games, luck & purvapunya – past life good credit. In Vedic Astrology analysis these same planets in the same star that signaled some of Kobe’s greatest challenges & shifts in life when viewed as the 8th house from his ascendant were simultaneously key to his phenomenal success when viewed as deposited in the 5th house from his moon. However this article focuses on the 8th house energies at play in Kobe’s chart.

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The fiery sun rules hard muscles. As the Ascendant 8th lord in the 8th house, this can create intense results & empowerment for the physical body including athelticism & pronounced muscle tone. Tragically, this placement (reinforced by other chart factors) can signal transitioning out of this life via an accident that is shockingly fast, with little to no warning. The fiery nature of the stars & planets involved sadly spoke to fire being involved.

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Kobe’s ascendant lord, determined Saturn in the 8th along with his moon in the navamsha 8th, also reveal a complicated emotional journey & extraordinary ability to reinvent himself throughout his lifetime.

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Kobe passed in Rahu-Saturn-Ketu Vimshottari dasha. This planetary period strongly activated his 8th house of transformation even as Ketu the liberator aspected the 8th house by transit & Saturn moved into his Ascendant. At the same time, Kobe’s maraka (death causing) planets were transiting his 1st & 2nd while activating planets in maraka houses. Ketu transiting his 12th house was gazing both at his Bharani moon & the Sun-Saturn conjunction in Magha. Bharani is associated with Yamraj & the guided journey after the soul leaves the body. Ketu is by its nature explosive & causes sudden events, & activated the 2 malefics in fiery Magha.  Caranavamsa dasha also signaled a momentous, difficult event. It was clear the weekend would be very challenging for Kobe.

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Love & deepest condolences to all who knew Kobe personally, as a teacher & mentor & as an NBA icon. Many thanks to the emergency personnel who attended the crash site on the hillside, may the continued investigations provide reassuring answers for those left behind.

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Please note that I do not predict death in my practice, so do not ask. I feel it is almost always inappropriate in our Western culture, not to mention this skill is very difficult – & for good reason. 

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I am however available for birth time rectification (95% of birth certificate times I have checked have not been correct to the minute due to so much happening in the birthing room). I am also available for readings via Zoom & WhatsApp.

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