It is known to most who lived through the 1960s that the activist singers Bob Dylan and Joan Baez enjoyed a personal relationship that fell just short of marriage.
There are astrological aspects between the planets in their charts showing the reasons for their attraction. The major factors are highlighted and can be compared with other celebrity couples, such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Sandra Dee and Bobbie Darin.
CROSS TIES
The most powerful magnetic factor between the songwriters is identified by their exact Sun-Moon conjunction. Baez has her emotionally charged Moon in the exact same degree as Dylan’s purposeful Sun. The tie between the Lights in a horoscope can create a feeling of a personal destiny and perhaps even a carryover from a past life.
The iconic couple was also drawn by their shared interest in political activism, shown in the close opposition of Dylan’s mental prowess of Mercury to Baez’s idealistic and compassionate Venus close to his ascendant. Baez’s Mars is exactly opposite Dylan’s Sun which profoundly stimulates their Sun-Moon conjunction and promotes exciting chemistry and physical passion. Dylan’s Sun, representing self, is sandwiched between Baez’s tight Mars to Moon opposition. This must have brought them together in dramatic fashion but also could have been the force that pulled them apart. Oppositions act much like a magnet. When the positive and negative poles face each other, similarly with a man and a woman, it generates a powerful attraction. If, however, one pole is
reversed, the magnets repel each other, as can happen when two individuals find their differences are too much to endure.
Baez’s Uranus is in close contact with Dylan’s Moon and further draws them together, albeit in a detached Uranian manner, especially for her. The Moon indicates that Dylan was emotionally responsive to Baez’s obviously liberated spirit as a feminist. Her Uranus brought spontaneity to their relationship which was the substance that nurtured the independence demanded in a career in entertainment. Both natives had to maintain composure within the push and pull of the contradictory emotional attachment of the Moon versus the detached Uranian impulse. Often couples mirror the other’s planet meanings. For example, one could say that Dylan felt detached in response to Baez’s emotionalism. Only they knew what they felt and experienced, and perhaps a few individuals observing them from outside.
Dylan has no oppositions in his horoscope and that fits with his reputation as one who is extremely private and hard to approach. However, with so many planet crossties between the two charts in the form of conjunctions and oppositions, Dylan was able to experience a strong engagement with outer experience that normally comes with oppositions in one’s own chart.
SABIAN SYMBOLS
The Sabian symbol for Venus in Dylan’s chart is outstanding in that it is quite literal. His Venus, the planet representing the fine arts including music, is rounded to 13 Gemini, A great musician at his piano. Although Dylan primarily played the guitar at the onset of his career, he was also proficient on the piano, as seen more often in his performances in recent times. It is obvious Dylan has accomplished all that the keyword and positive interpretation that the Sabian imagery describes:
GEMINI 13 A great musician at his piano This is a symbol of individual artistry as the property of all, with its expression both its strength and the means whereby others are encouraged to like accomplishment. Here is experience at a climax on the side of self-refinement in skills and talent, and at a peak in its gratification and its promise of continuing effort and sharing of rewards. A continually expanded dimension of being becomes the constant revelation of man’s true estate. The keyword is ACHIEVEMENT. When positive, the degree is the creative assurance that contributes enduring overtones to human understanding, and when negative, self-defeat through a delight in momentary attention or superficial adulation.
Joan Baez has an equally revealing Sabian symbol. Her Sun degree is rounded to 20 Capricorn, A hidden choir singing. Her voice is her obvious gift, and the positive description in this one of the many symbols in her chart betrays any desire on her part to keep her talent, goodwill and benefit to herself alone. At a young age Baez was concerned for the good of all mankind. Her natal opposition in mutable signs gives her a Natural Disposition that puts the welfare of others above her own. It is the mark of a humanitarian:
CAPRICORN 20 A hidden choir singing This is a symbol of the eternal music of the spheres, and is an emphasis on the ideality of experience as at root a symphony of cosmic reconciliations. The differences of individual character which have contributed to a person’s initiative and a conscious selfhood are here brought to their point of ultimate and single source in an overall existence, and each and every element of inharmony is reordered as a participating distinctiveness of the whole. All men are at one in the universal pattern. The keyword is WORSHIP. When positive, the degree is a unique gift for establishing a common interest and making it a power for the good of all, and when negative, personal aloofness and lukewarm loyalties.
Both musicians were categorized as folk singers when they started out in their careers. Bob Dylan went on to win numerous awards for his talents, including the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, although he questioned his songs’ relationship to literature. A recipient of several awards herself, Joan Baez remains well known for her efforts in the field of social justice and the pursuit of peace. Among her accomplishments is The Institute for the Study of Nonviolence, which she started in 1961 in Carmel Valley, California. In addition, she is linked to the civil rights movement through her 1963 performance of Pete Seeger’s and Guy Carawan’s version of We Shall Overcome at the March on Washington alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
ELEMENT COMPATIBILITIES
Fire with fire signs, air with air signs, and fire with air signs are compatible with each other. Water with water signs, earth with earth signs, and water with earth are compatible.
Mars, Venus and Mercury Triad
The two famous songsters, although mutually attracted to each other by virtue of compatible Venus elements in air and fire, had no rapport of elements between their Mars’ and Mercuries. Her Mars in fire did not hold up well when saturated by his Mars in water. Their communication also fell short of clarity with his Mercury in air and hers in earth.
Sun, Moon and Ascendant Triad
Baez and Dyan were also not suited well as far as personal Wills were concerned, with his Sun in an air sign and hers in an earth element. Dyan’s Sun in air could have made him flighty while most likely Baez’s “feet” were anchored on the ground. Their Moons also clashing in element meant they would eventually part ways to go down differing paths. The Ascendants are the only match in this triad. Both are in the fire element and point to their similar approach to life and music at the beginning of their careers.
It is best to have two of the three in a triad compatible and one not, so that there is more harmony than discord between the parties. The one incompatibility in element normally brings a necessary stimulus and challenge to the union. For this potential couple, however, there simply were not enough harmonies to bring them lasting joy, and ultimately they went their separate ways.