Stars & Artists: Tony Iommi, Mars, and the Factory Accident that Birthed Heavy Metal

Photo of Tony Iommi playing with Heaven and Hell in 2009 by Adam Bielawki

Anthony “Tony” Iommi was born in Birmingham, England on February 19, 1948. His birth time is unknown. He is best known as the founding guitarist and sole continuous member of the legendary band Black Sabbath who pioneered heavy metal itself. He is frequently ranked as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. His style has had a particular influence upon the subgenre of Doom Metal, to the point where he’s nearly become sanctified by die-hard Doom fans (see Sleep’s Iommic Life EP). Unfortunately, Tony’s birthtime is not in the public record. Here is the chart for his birthday with the time set to 12 noon local time:

Tony Iommi’s untimed natal chart.

Without an accurate birthtime, it’s unclear what Tony’s Ascendant may be. Moreover, Tony was also born on the day when the Sun changed signs from Aquarius to Pisces, so his Sun sign is also uncertain without rectification or obtaining a copy of his birth certificate. However, a few key features of the chart immediately leap out. For instance, the chart contains two tense oppositions between benefic planets and outer planets. A triumphant Jupiter in Sagittarius opposes both the Moon and Uranus in Gemini while brash Venus in Aries opposes Neptune in Libra. What really draws my eye though are the three Malefic planets of Mars, Saturn, and Pluto concentrated in the very performative sign of Leo. From a Whole-Sign House perspective, its tempting to speculate that either his 1st or 10th houses correspond to Leo, as Iommi’s identity and career have centered upon introducing and performing a monstrously heavy music genre famous for its malefic themes such as war, strife, struggle, occultism, darkness, and mental anguish.

Although the world has come to love the dense, dark sound he pioneered, Tony’s unique guitar style came from a horrible industrial accident. It was 1965, and a 17-year old Tony Iommi was working in a sheet metal factory in his hometown of Birmingham, England. He had recently started playing in a band called the Byrds & the Bees, and the band had just scored a string of tour dates in Europe. Determined to embrace life as a musician and escape his working class origins, Tony went home on lunch break one Friday and told his mother he wasn’t going back. She famously (and fatefully) encouraged him to return, saying “Iommi’s don’t quit! You want to go back and finish the day off, finish it proper!” (Iommi, Lammers)

So young Tony returned to the factory. When he arrived, he was asked to operate a machine he was unfamiliar with: a huge guillotine-like press that bent pieces of metal before they were sent down the line to the welder. While daydreaming of being on tour in Europe, Iommi lost focus. Suddenly, the press slammed down on his right hand. He looked down and gasped. Two of the fingertips on his right hand were gone!

That Metal Show’s fantastic animated depiction of the incident is narrated by Tony himself!

At the hospital, doctors were unable to reattach his fingertips. Tony was dejected, thinking he would never play guitar ever again. But after the accident, the factory foreman introduced Tony to the music of Django Reinhardt, a jazz guitarist who played with only two fingers on the fret-board after losing two of his own fingertips in a fire. Feeling inspired, Tony made his own prosthetic tips to fit on the ends of his fingers from melted plastic and scraps of leather. He also replaced his guitar strings with banjo strings and started down-tuning his guitar so that the extra slack would make bending the strings easier. In the process, he created a richer, more ominous sound, and the rest is history.

Since we have no birth time for Tony, my research tools were limited to transits and annual profections. Luckily, from Tony’s biography and multiple interviews recounting the incident, I gleaned a few key pieces of data:

1. It had to be a Friday

2. in 1965

3. after his 17th birthday on Feb 19

4. in an astrological alignment involving Mars.

I inferred the last point from the story itself. When read with astrological eyes, the incident has Mars written all over it. From the setting (a hot, loud factory) to the injury (a bodily severing), the story is thoroughly Martial. Dubbed the “Lesser Malefic,” Mars governs life’s painful parts that are delivered in acute, sharp stings rather than the grinding, chronic suffering that Saturn serves. Appearing in adrenaline-drenched moments of intensity, Mars manifests in the urges to fight, fly, or fuck. Glowing ruby red like the crimson blood flowing through our veins, Mars’ hand guides our corporeal existence and the burning passions that animate the flesh. Reveling in sweat, iron, and fire, Mars is also the patron planet of those who work with their hands like carpenters, mechanics, blacksmiths, and welders like young Tony Iommi.

Having reached age 17, Tony was also in a 6th House annual profection year. When the 6th House is activated, its topics such as physical health, injuries, sacrifice, and menial labor are highlighted. In Hellenistic astrology, the 6th House is known as the House of Mala Fortuna or Bad Fortune, and sometimes its simply the place where subjectively negative events befall the native. The fact that Tony was in a 6th House year adds further testimony to Mars’ involvement, as the 6th House is also called the Joy of Mars. The Red Dread Planet rejoices in the toil of incarnate existence, the urgency of unexpected change, the courage cultivated in confrontation, and the occasional necessity of “going under the knife” to maintain physical health.

In this pivotal moment of Tony’s life, we can perceive a multitude of 6th House themes cropping up. Obviously, there is the grinding, menial labor of factory work and its meager compensation. There is the literal bodily injury to Tony’s hands and the spilling of blood. There is also the subsequent emergency visit to the hospital and the inability of surgeons to reattach Tony’s severed fingertips. But there is also Tony’s steely determination to pursue his dream of becoming a musician despite being impeded by a physical injury. Yes, Mars revels in sacrifices of blood, but he also delights in delayed gratification. Tony’s aspirations of jetting off to Europe to play with the Byrds & the Bees were immediately cut short. However, by working creatively within his new material circumstances, Tony developed a whole new way of playing guitar, achieving a legendary status for himself in the annals of music history. Just think how different the landscape of music today would be if his adolescent dream of playing in the Byrds & the Bees had been realized rather than enduring this injury and finding a new form for his dreams and creative output to take.

Just ask yourself: How many people have heard of the Byrds & the Bees anyway?

Having taken stock of all dates that meet the above criteria, I propose the accident occurred on March 26, 1965. Check out the chart below:

An untimed chart for March 26, 1965

The early months of 1965 were dominated by a Mars retrograde in Virgo that was opposite to Saturn in Pisces and co-present with Uranus and Pluto in Virgo. The retrograde began on January 28 and concluded on April 19. On Friday, March 26, Mars was applying to a conjunction with Uranus within less than a degree of exactitude. Meanwhile, both planets in Virgo were within less than two degrees of an opposition with Saturn in Pisces.

Uranus and Mars are both revolutionary, unruly, combative planets, eager to hurl Molotov cocktails and tear down obstacles and institutions. When their energies are melded, the results are explosive, often manifesting in accidents, injuries, unexpected surges of anger or strife, and technologies that are deleterious to human life. Moreover, this supercharged, impulsive pair were diametrically opposed in the sky to Saturn in Pisces. Mars is an extremely hot planet who encourages acting on instinct whereas chilly Saturn favors acting methodically and incrementally over a long timescale. Mars says “go,” and Saturn says “no.” This highly pressurized planetary combination suggests intense pressure, the shattering of patterns, and the frustration of encountering massive obstacles - the thwarting of the Will and challenges that deny desires. Nearby Pluto amplifies the danger inherent in this volatile brew and injects its own themes of death, rebirth, and transformation. It’s easy to see how this archetypal combination can speak to Tony’s violent injury and its concordant frustration, but what is really fascinating is what happened in the following days.

An untimed chart for April 8, 1965

As if the wicked pileup of Mars, Uranus, and Pluto retrograde in Virgo opposite to Saturn in Pisces wasn’t enough, there was a Mercury retrograde in Aries that started on March 29, 1965, a mere 3 days after the day I suspect the accident occurred. Since Virgo is one of Mercury’s home signs, this means that Mercury was informing the character of all the planets in Virgo (including Mars) while slowing down and preparing to suddenly change direction. Since the Mercury retrograde fell in Aries, one of Mars’ home signs, Mercury was in turn taking its cues from Mars. Therefore Mars and Mercury were actually in a state of mutual reception, abiding in each other’s signs. Traditionally speaking, Aries and Virgo are averse to one another, but this mutual reception suggests that the processes described by the retrogrades were intimately interlinked.

Now retrogrades signify reversals of fortune, as from our standpoint on Earth, it appears that planets move backwards across the ecliptic, in defiance of their typical orderly procession. They go against the grain. On a tactile level, this manifests as revision, review, rearrangement, and the adjustment of plans to fit shifting circumstances. With Mercury ruling thought, communication, and travel, its retrogrades often bring about a shift in thinking, revising what one has spoken or written, or alterations of travel plans. Tony’s plans to tour Europe and his musical aspirations were completely upended. The path he thought his life was taking was completely flipped on its head. Like a planet stationing retrograde, he had to stop, quit his job, leave the Byrds & the Bees, change course, and move in a new direction musically.

The midpoint of every Mercury retrograde cycle is its inferior conjunction with the Sun. These conjunctions highlight moments of clarity amidst the general confusion and frustration of the retrograde. They are the eye of the storm. Oftentimes, solutions arise for whatever problem arose at the start of the retrograde. Revelations dawn, penetrating insights are gleaned, and new strategies appear.

The midpoint for Mercury’s retrograde in Aries in 1965 fell on April 8 at 18 degrees of Aries. Interestingly, Venus was very close at hand for this conjunction at 17 degrees of Aries, and Venus in Aries is actually Tony’s natal Venus placement. Every time Venus returns to its original place in the birthchart, it presents a reaffirmation of one’s images of beauty and ways of relating and creating. I wager that it is around this time that Tony was introduced to the work of Django Reinhardt and was inspired to take up the guitar once more. Arguably, in early April, Tony began to apprehend a path forward in which he could continue to write righteous riffs, but with a new technique guiding his hands. Although the Martial incident at the factory brought a setback and injury, it is through the related Mercury retrograde and its Venusian cazimi that Tony began to rethink and re-envision the course of his life as a musician.

As I mentioned above, Tony’s birthtime is unknown, so until a timed chart emerges or Tony shares the date of the gruesome accident, all this talk of retrogrades is speculation. However, through studying the story and sitting with these transits, what emerges is an inspiring tale of human determination and the triumph of genius over debilitating setbacks. Tony easily could have packed up his guitar and carried on with his life, perhaps continuing a career in welding. Instead, he summoned courage and perseverance, experimenting with strings and faux fingertips until he gave birth to brand new way of playing guitar that has utterly remade the musical landscape. A new form of beauty was born from his blood.

Bibliography

Iommi, Tony, and T. J. Lammers. Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. Simon & Schuster, 2012.

Who are the Planets?

Previously, we laid a historical foundation and defined astrology as the study of the correlation between celestial and earthly events. We learned that horoscopic astrology as practiced in the West today has its roots in the Hellenistic era (323-33 BC) when the first natal charts were calculated. The founders of the Hellenistic tradition were drawing upon earlier advancements in mathematics, astronomy, and celestial observation carried out in Egypt and Mesopotamia over several millennia. Although Egypt and Babylon both held complex calendrical and divinatory systems involving the planets, their practice was primarily carried out for kings and the state. The Hellenistic era is notable for focusing upon the fate and fortune of individuals and introducing the natal chart, whose elements of the planets, signs, aspects, and houses are still in use today. 

Of these four components, the planets are the most vital. Astrology without the planets would be like a story without characters. Their predictable movements along the ecliptic forms an endless dance which astrologers constantly interpret and analyze. To best grasp their character and meanings, one really ought to stargaze. Seeing the twinkling of Venus, the deep crimson of Mars, or Saturn’s ruddy brown color provides an embodied experience in which to ground the planets’ significations. In fact, much of the conceptual framework upholding Hellenistic doctrines come from the everyday experience of looking at the night sky, beholding these seemingly “wandering stars” with the naked eye. 

With this sense of wonder in mind, the question still lingers: what are the planets? Or better put, who are the planets? The contemporary mind may seek to answer this question with recourse to science. Although modern astronomy provides useful descriptions of the planet’s material composition and their orbits, it cannot furnish us with myths or meanings. Science assumes the Cosmos is mute and inanimate, lacking purpose and awareness. Not so to the ancient mind or contemporary animist. The movements of the planets display an inherent purposiveness that suggests to many cultures that they are divine beings, cosmic forces, or omens expressing a divine language. When taking a broad view of diverse beliefs about the planets, one sees that they are best understood as archetypes and polyvalent symbols.

Writing in 1919, the renowned Swiss psychologist Carl Jung first coined the term “archetype” to refer to primordial images of the unconscious. In his studies, he came to the conclusion that the unconscious is something collectively shared and that deep within it are psychological forces which manifest in mythology as deities and demons. These deep forces also emerge as motifs and themes throughout human lives and history. Employing horoscopes in his psychiatric sessions, Jung was in fact fascinated by astrology, finding in it the "sum of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity." Both the Greeks and the Babylonians before them intentionally named the planets after gods of their pantheons whom they believed best represented the sum total of that planet’s nature. Therefore, we find in ancient astrology an understanding that the planets are visible manifestations of cosmic forces. The names and stories surrounding these forces may change from culture to culture, but the archetype remains. For example, whether called Inanna or Aphrodite, the planet Venus often signifies beauty, love, and sensuality.

The next aspect to understand about the archetypes is their polyvalence, meaning "having many forms, functions, or facets." In astrology, this polyvalence manifests in the ability for planets to symbolically represent many interconnected things, depending upon the context. Take the planet Mars for example. In a natal consultation, Mars may represent the native's military career or their boisterous, brusque personality. Mundane astrology studies world events and the history of nations. Therefore, in a mundane chart, Mars may stand for a conflict or battle or war. Horary astrology answers specific questions about personal situations. So in a horary consultation Mars may be something literal like a knife, a car, or an accident. Underneath this range of distinct manifestations is the underlying archetype of Mars.

What follows are descriptions and keywords which I feel cut to the core of each planet’s archetypal meaning. My primary influences for these significations are William Lilly’s Christian Astrology, Chris Brennan’s translation of Vettius Valens’ Anthology, the archetypal astrologer Richard Tarnas’ book Cosmos and Psyche, and the Hygromanteia of Solomon, a Byzantine-era grimoire. I only included the seven classical planets, however astrologers also incorporate the outer planets like Uranus and Neptune, exotic celestial bodies like Chiron, or calculated points like Nodes of the Moon. In the future, I may address these newer additions to the astrological lexicon, but I feel that the seven original planets provide us with a wealth of meaning.

Planetary Keywords

Sun: Vital energy, animating force, ascension, ambitions, achievements, ideals, individuality, creativity, luminosity, the Will, self-awareness and self-expression. That which stands out, shines, and initiates.

Moon: The body, the soul, the collective, the world. Inclusion, intuition, instinct, care, comfort, security, and safety. That which nurtures, gestates, and births. 

Mercury: The mind, thought, reason, communication, language, perception, translation, transmission, and transportation. That which studies, grasps, and articulates. 

Venus: Desire, love, friendship, romance, beauty, peace, harmony, value, attraction, romance, sensual pleasure, art, and aesthetics. That which is admirable and enjoyable to experience. 

Mars: Raw force, division, conflict, vigor, violence, war, competition, courage, struggle, strife, assertion, and ignition. That which is adverse and painful. 

Jupiter: Joy, nobility, fortune, wisdom, law, religion, philosophy, growth, progression, plenty, piety, advancement, and abundance. That which encompasses and includes. 

Saturn: Gravity, limitation, constriction, containment, structure, sorrow, suffering, endurance, elders, tradition, discipline, depression, and death. That which opposes and oppresses.

What is Astrology?

Etymologically, the word astrology comes to us from the Greeks and has two parts: astro and logos. Logos means “a branch of study” and astro means “stars,” so astrology literally means the study of the stars, much as biology is the study of life. Studying the stars may sound like a misnomer however, since most astrologers focus on planets such as Mars, Mercury, and Uranus, not stars like Sirius or Betelgeuse. Why not call it planetology?

To the ancient mind beholding the glimmering night sky, there was little apparent difference between the stars and planets. In fact, the planets were known as asteres planetai or “wandering stars,” because they roamed across the heavens, rather than remaining fixed in place upon the firmament. Crossing constellations, moving backward and forward upon the ecliptic, the wandering stars displayed an inherent agency that marveled the ancients.

Before the advent of television, electric light, and the printing press, both the fixed and wandering stars were an integral part of myth and meaning for all peoples.

Although all human societies globally are bound, in some way, to the observation of the night sky, some ancient cultures specifically focused upon the study of the wandering stars, obsessively measuring their movements and comparing them against earthly events. Astrology as we know it in the West emerged from this study.

During the 6th millennium BCE, astral priests in Mesopotamia read omens in the sky for mundane purposes such as the rulership of kings, health of crops, spread of disease, and outcome of warfare. Their observations were collected and collated over the centuries. The first major astrological almanac, the Enuma Anu Enlil, emerged some time in the 2nd millennium BCE. Composed on a vast series of cuneiform tablets, the EAE contains instructions for interpreting celestial phenomena and is presented as a series “if x/then y” statements. For example, one tablet reads, "If in Nisannu the sunrise (looks) sprinkled with blood and the light is cool: rebellion will not stop in the country, there will be devouring by Adad." While their if/then statements are a far cry from any horoscope, the Mesopotamian civilization of Babylon is credited with dividing the apparent path of the sun, known as the “ecliptic,”' into 360 degrees spread evenly across 12 signs, essentially creating the zodiac we know today. Through these key contributions, the Babylonians laid the foundation of Western astrology as the study of the correlation between celestial and earthly events.

At this time, astrology remained an art for elites and kings, practiced by a scholarly class. About 900 miles to the west, the ancient Egyptians created several calendrical systems, including a solar calendar consisting of 36 parts connected to various stars and constellations. They too had an elite class of priests who enlisted astrology, in addition to other divination systems, to advise the pharaoh, schedule rituals, and forecast the future. Both cultures developed astrology as a high form of divination, one more predictable and empirical than reading animal entrails, yet connected to complex astral theologies.

These foundations laid by the Babylonians and Egyptians experienced rapid growth and development during the Hellenistic era. In fact, the system we call "astrology" in the West today congealed during Hellenistic era of the 3rd and 2nd century BC. Following the conquest of Alexander the Great, Greek became the lingua franca of the Classical world. People from as far afield as Northern India to Mesopotamia to Egypt could converse and compare ideas. Advancements in mathematics and astronomy and the rich diversity of religious, philosophical, and mystery traditions around the Mediterranean were exchanged across vast trade routes. In the port city of Alexandria in Egypt, native temple priests, Indian Buddhists, Greek philosophers, and Jewish mystics exchanged beliefs in the marketplace of ideas. Amidst this multicultural milieu emerged Hellenistic astrology.

Synthesizing the 12 signs of the Mesopotamian zodiac, the 36 Egyptian decans, and Greek metaphysics, Hellenistic astrology emerges onto the historical record seemingly fully formed. It stands in contrast to older systems of celestial study because it presented the horoskopos, or what we call the "natal chart" today, as a brand new invention. Before this point, astrological prognostication was primarily done only for kings and countries, whose fate was of paramount importance. After the conquest of Alexander, the fate of individuals took on equal, if not greater, significance. By roughly 200 BCE, we see the earliest evidence of birth charts calculated according to the ascending degree, just like the charts calculated today on apps and websites. Key features arise at this time including planets, signs, houses, and aspects.

These four features form the basis for any kind of chart interpretation today, no matter what branch of astrology one practices. The planets are the primary voices, giving testimony about the question at hand. Signs qualify the voices of the planets, either strengthening or weakening what they have to say, while aspects describe the relationship of the planets to one another. Finally, charts are divided into 12 houses. In any given chart, the signs and planets can fall in any one of these 12 houses. One classic metaphor is that, if life is a play, the planets are the actors, the signs are their costumes, the aspects are their relationships, and the houses are the backdrop of the drama.

Over the next four weeks, we will examine each of these features in detail, beginning with the planets.