Ritchie Blackmore

Every so often a musician rises onto the world stage to completely dominate it and entirely captivate its audience. Such a person is Ritchie Blackmore who celebrates his 64th birthday this month. Ritchie has already carved his name in rock history as the legendary guitarist of Deep Purple, Rainbow, and Blackmore's Night. Considered by many as one of the top, if not the best guitarist of his time, Ritchie has also shown remarkable compositional acumen by writing and co-writing such hits as "Highway Star," "Man on the Silver Mountain," and of course, the universally recognized "Smoke on The Water." He is among Rolling Stone's magazine 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Times.

An often enigmatic character, Ritchie is well known for his uncompromising attitude toward his craft. Today he has settled in to bringing renaissance period music into the modern world branded by his unique and exquisite guitar work. This month, Shayn Astrology analyzes Ritchie Blackmore's astrological chart.

Ritchie's rising sign as calculated by the sidereal zodiac is the adventurous, quick-witted, and hold-no-prisoners sign of Sagittarius. The ascendant ruler, Jupiter touches the most effective points (MEPs) of the ninth, first, third, and fifth houses driving his expansive personality to initiate bold new innovations and create new forms of artistic endeavour. Indeed, when he first appeared on the musical scene in Britain in the early 1960s, he was thought to exhibit guitar playing talent not heard in musicians older and more experienced than he. It was said he was using amplified feedback long before Jimi Hendrix made it popular. Even today, with his recent band, Blackmore's Night, Ritchie is breaking new and exciting ground in musical expression playing such instruments as the hurdy-gurdy, lute, and mandola. A strong Mars in the third house with its beneficial aspect to Jupiter helps propel his creative genius and itself contributes to courageous exploration and professional acclamation. His other strong planet, Saturn, lord of the third house, is placed in the seventh house bringing his work to a receptive international arena.

One of the more interesting periods of Ritchie's life was between 1966 and 1973 when he was in his favorable Mars mahadasha (main period). This period saw the rise of the Deep Purple MKI lineup, hailed by many as the premier heavy rock band of its day. His other strong beneficial planet, Saturn, began hosting its period in 2007. We can expect continued and unique contributions from The Man In Black for many more years to come.

It has been shown in this website that Venus is the muse that makes musicians tick. In this chart, Venus, lord of the eleventh house, is in league (conjunct) with Mercury and the Sun bringing together income, career, and travel with musical pursuits. Venus in the fiery sign of Aries further gives evidence of his virtuoso style of playing.

If there is an achille's heel in Ritchie's chart, it is played by the most malefic planet, the Moon, as ruler of his eighth house. It is conjunct the fifth house MEP and aspects the eleventh house. This brings about difficulties related to his only son, emotions (it is said he has a temper), and friendships. Ritchie also is known to be somewhat reclusive (weak Sun) and uncommunicative (very weak Mercury). The following astral remedies are suggested to help strengthen his weak benefic planets and propitiate his malefic planets.

Despite wearing black almost exclusively, Ritchie has said his favorite color is green. By wearing and surrounding himself with this color, he will strengthen the communication and professional areas of his life. He could also wear an emerald of a proper carat worn in an auspicious time. Yellow will give greater self-confidence and blue will enhance his already flawless musicianship, as well as friendships, earnings, and desires. To propitiate the Moon, Ritchie can be charitable to women, especially old-aged, needy women and his wife.

Speaking of his lovely, talented wife...Candice Night's chart will be featured next month on Shayn Astrology.

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