Johnny Depp’s Natal Chart

This is the translation of my in-depth astrological reading of Johnny Depp’s natal chart, done in May 16th of 2022, and it takes into consideration both the actor’s career, describing the overall symbolism of some of his roles, and also his personal life, including the case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard.

Johnny Depp was born in June 9th, 1963, at 08:44am in Owesboro, in the United States.

Johnny’s charts presents us with a daytime birth, with the sect composed of Sun, Jupiter and Saturn stabilishing government over his chart, while the other planets will represent some sort of opposing force. Sun is the predominant factor and is found in Gemini, in the Eleventh House. The predominant factors symbolically represents Johnny Depp’s “ship of life”. The results of such a life are thus described by the conditions of that ship and its astrological crew, in accordance to certain allegories of classical astrology. The main factor relating to that crew lies in the planet that owns that ship.

Mercury takes that position and becomes the Ruler or Host of the Sun, and so it acts as the significator of Depp’s personal destiny. Mercury is the “Ship Owner”, the planet that decides to where a life is going to. Mercury is Lord over the destiny of this nativity. The planet is found in the sign of Taurus, in conjunction with Venus, Mercury’s dispositor, also gaining an extra empashis and intonation for being positioned in Tenth House — the place of public life, vocation, renown, status and excellence.

Mercury appears high in the skies, increasing in evidence. As Lord of Destiny, Mercury shows off a life that naturally moves forward in search of publicity, thus becoming one among the indicators of his great success. Another element for that success appears on the “favor of the winds” — the luck that pushes him forward unto the intended destiny. The first winds, which are ruling over the first part of his life, are governed by a strong Saturn. Saturn is domiciled in Aquarius and in a angular house. Therefore we speak of strong, favorable, helpful winds, with a right sense of direction, but that in a certain way still inflict trouble over that natives’ life. The reason for that comes from malefic nature of Saturn, which brings about natural difficulties, and also from the fact that Saturn was retrograde at that time, which is a sign of contrariness, annoyances and setbacks; for a retrograde planet is moving against its proper order.

That is especially curious as Johnny Depp was already trying to accomplish his desires through his musical career, something that was denied by the first winds of Saturn. Nonetheless, Saturn gave him fame through other means — means that, at first, Johnny Depp himself didn’t want: acting.

But let’s considerar that Saturn for a brief moment…

Saturn is considered in astrology as the lord of death, anguish, exile, solitude and suffering; the planet speaks about weirdness, darkness and fear, about ugliness and monstrosity, and it rules over everything that may deny, confine or terrify a person’s soul. The planet is found in Aquarius, a sign where the sunlight cannot reach or function properly, symbolically speaking, and the Sun represents all life, conscious and activity. Saturn lies in the Seventh House, the place where the Sun sets and the planets go to disappear below the horizon. Where am I going with all of that?

In 1984, Johnny Depp starred his first movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street, where his character is killed by Freddy Krueger after sinking in his own bed. This is one of the most notorious scenes in the horror genre, and it’s curious to say the least that Depp’s career would start to rise through a scene of horror and death. Nothing could me more typical of Saturn; for Saturn is the planet of fear and death, and of all things that go down or cause other to go that way, like gravity. Depp’s ship was sailling through “deadly and sinking winds”, and those deadly and sinking winds somehow happened to make him raise in fame.

That allows to go deep further into his career, and with a greater empashis on that. The planet that represents Johnny Depp’s vocation is Venus in Taurus, not only for being the ruler of the Tenth House (which refers to one’s vocation), but also because it’s the planet that is rising the best before the Sun. Venus is the Morning Star. Venus will immediately speak of careers with an artistic sense, and mainly because the planet is positioned in Taurus. Venus conjunction with Mercury in particular will indicate things like acting and manual skills. Depp is not only an actor, but also a painter and guitar player.

But an actor is only as famous as his own role, and Johnny Depp has a collection of eccentric and flashy characters heading his careeer. Everybody knows about the pirate Jack Sparrow, but I would also like to briefly talk about other of his roles, and to investigate and to describe which are the astrological factors in common that brought those distinct and memorable characters into pop culture.

As I have described before, Venus signifies Johnny’s career and vocation. In that way, any planet making a proeminent connection or aspect to Venus will transfer its qualities to Her. There are two planets fitting the most that idea: Mercury and Saturn. Saturn is for sure the most preponderant factor, as the planet is overcoming both Venus and Mercury through a sinister suare. Saturn grows in authority above the two planets. Saturn, Venus and Mercury are of utmost importance if we want to understand why Johnny Depp is known for roles so visually iconic — and even more in what regards his partnership with Tim Burton.

Starting from the start, we have Edward Scissorhands: an artificial man who couldn’t be finished by his inventor, and so never receiving proper hands. In Johnny’s natal chart, we have Venus, which signifies all artistic and aesthetic competences, and the power to embellish things up, conjoined with Mercury, the star of dexterity, skill and manual talents. Hands are ruled by Mercury. The two planets are found in a venereal sign, Taurus, strengthening the idea of things pleasant and refined. It’s only natural that Edward would be a gardener, a sculptor and a hairdresser, exactly as one could expect from such conjunction. Furthermore, the strong aspect from Saturn provides a gloomy appearance to the character, like dark and tight clothes, the weirdness and the solitude, and the very artificiality that puts Edward beyond aging. Let me remind you that Saturn rules over time and longevity, and no man could be ever as long-lived as Edward. Similarly, Saturn is the cause of all kinds of imperfections and denials, in such a way that Saturn’s aspect to Venus might not destroy the charm and tenderness of that planet, but will surely take its social consciousness away, making one charming and tender precisely from one’s lack of charming and tenderness. And for Mercury’s case, it’s by taking Edward’s hands away that Saturn confers him the greatest manual skills. And of course, I cannot forget the most poetical element in the whole story: Saturn rules over winter and cold, and is Edward himself who, by carving ice with his scissor hands, makes the snow fall over the city.

The same semotiocs can be perceived in the 2007 musical film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Johnny Depp appears again as a grave and gloomy man, although now in the decrepit Victorian London. It could be enough to say that singing may come from the connection between Mercury and Venus, but that’s hardly anything of interesting. What may be curious, however, is that a planet that represents exile and banishment (Saturn) has domain over the place of relationships (Seventh House). The character Benjamin Barker (Sweeney Todd) was forced into exile by a corrupt judge, who wanted to take his wife from him. Judges are also represented by Saturn, of course; and when Saturn appears in retrograde motion in the Seventh House, one can expect it to restrain, avert, prevent, hinder, impede the development of those areas wherein Saturn is positioned, at least until their ripe enough; or, in that case, to provoke some sort of delay, obstruction, humiliation and tragedy in someone’s love life. And that’s indeed something that the actor do share with many of his played characters. Art imitates life.

But maybe a more obvious example of that crude and mournful literality of Saturn in the Seventh House lies in the animation Corpse Bride, released in 2005, where Victor (dubbed by Johnny Depp) accidentaly proposes marriage to Emily, a dead body. In the same way that Johnny Depp has Saturn, the very representative of everything relating to death and those who have passed away, affecting his astrological house of marriage, his character Victor experienced more directly Saturn’s idea of marrying a literally dead person. And to allow such marriage to manifest all of that sepuchral thematic belonging to Saturn in Aquarius, it was only fair, and somewhat obvious, for the “proposal” to occur in middle of snow, with only crows and leafless trees to witness the event. That’s because Saturn is the cause of winter, for we symbolically understand it as the coldest planet in the sky, and the planet also rules over those scavenger birds like the crow, and tree trunks, and lifeless and leafless trees. Victor does interact with a trunk during his imaginary proposal. That matrimony with Emily, the Corpse Bride, becomes then a hindrance to Victor’s marriage to his real fiancée, Victoria. In other words, Saturn is manifesting itself here as an actual dead person (Emily) to delay one’s actual relationships. Likewise, Victor’s marriage to Emily is also hindered, as they have that line that separates life from death between each other. So the only way to turn these marriage bonds effective would be through Victor’s death. And also so that nobody will say that we forgot the actual “living bride”, it’s fair to say that Saturn also represents those who are dispossessed and miserable, and Victoria and her family are simply broke. Victor would be their big chance to get back on their feet again.

Yet not everything needs to be so dark when we speak about the relationship between those three planets. Saturn and Mercury are profoundly associated with oddity, madness and things which are abnormal. Mercury thanks to its irreverence, lack of worry and comicality; and Saturn thanks to its intoxication, foreignness and seclusion. The first is like the child who wears thirty different clothes without any care or regard for social norm; the latter, like the young man alone in the corner, who constantly wears nothing but dark clothes, and who speaks to nobody and is known to nobody.

There are two characters who match the best this kind of configuration: the first is Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), in which an “eternal child” (Mercury) lives in seclusion in a factory (Saturn) that only produces candies (Venus). Funny enough, Wonka’s factory employees are all from a foreign race of human beings with small bodies and mischievous behavior, bringing the image of Mercury, the childlike god and original trickster, back to play. The story doesn’t end there, as we may consider also the very origin of that factory, which comes from the conflict between Willy Wonka and his harsh dentist father, played by Christopher Lee, who would prohibit Wonka from eating any kind of sugar. Saturn rules over bones, teeth being included. But notice how again and again Saturn appears denying something first only to give it back later in a far better way, and how recurrant is that from character to character. For instead of just eating candies, Wonka has become only the greatest producer of them all — and still has time to take care of his teeth too.

The second is the Mad Hatter from the movie Alice in Wonderland (2010). Saturn here is a cause of overall intoxication, sure, but the planet relates also to anything that may help us to keep ourselves dry, and likewise all those things which oppose the sunlight. Saturn represents the general means of poisoning, and Saturn represents anything that may block the light and casts some shade, like sunglasses and… yes… hats! But if that’s enough for the reader, suffice to say that Erethism (the Mad Hatter Syndrome) has its origin in the mercury used in the production of felt for hats.

However, it would be impossible, to not say shameful, to finish the astrological reading of Johnny’s plays and characters without any brief comment on his most beloved character: the superb Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean (2003–2017). That is Johnny Depp’s character per excellence, and in relation to all aforementioned characters, the captain of the Black Pearl is surely the most mercurial one.

Here is quite important to go back and state once more that Mercury is the indicator of destiny in Johnny Depp’s natal chart. We may say in a sense that Depp was born to play Jack Sparrow and the reciprocal is also true. The relationship between Mercury and Sparrow starts from the very beginning, when his birth in the Indian Ocean is witnessed and marked by nothing but a typhoon (Mercury rules over winds). We then progress to the bird that names him, the sparrow, whose overall nature happens to be in perfect concordance with Mercury’s traditional descriptions, and also with that conjunction between Mercury and Venus in Taurus; for the bird is tiny, common, delicate, of mixed colors, but mostly brown and gray; and the animal feeds on grains, and it sings and it covers itself with earth; and the sparrow is swift, social, adaptable, and has agile arms — because the bird flies by incessantly flapping its wings. On what refers to his personality, Jack Sparrow is a ruffian, liar, deceiver and cheater, and equally chaotic, comical, and almost childish in his sense of freedom; and his mind is quick and sharp, and he is a womanizer, and he never commits to neither woman nor man in any sense. Mercury commands all matters of speech, and the planet doesn’t form any kind of bonds; Mercury itself has no sense of commitment, and becomes lustful and playful when Venus is around.

Now to talk more about Venus, this is a planet symbolically associated with the powers of ressurrection and victory over death. Overcoming death is a constant motif during the series, and especially in what regards Jack Sparrow himself. This is so highly evident in the movies that Jack Sparrow’s own famous ship, the Black Pearl, is nothing more than his old sunken ship, which was raise from the waters by Davy Jones. The original name of the Black Pearl was actually “Wicked Wench”, by the way, which clearly fits the whole idea of Mercury and Venus together, respectively. The new name, however, can be assigned to Taurus, as the sign relates to the color black and is the place where Moon finds its exaltation. While Venus rulership extends to all kinds of jewelry, the pearls are particularly assigned to the Moon. Anyway, few things fits so perfectly than a zombie ship for a pirate who is thirsty for new horizons and life. And we must not forget how many times Death and its minions came to oppose him and defy him; the first time, through the cursed and undead crew of Hector Barbossa; a second time, through the sailors who prefered to serve one hundred years before the Flying Dutchman’s mast rather than face their end at sea; and then, finally, through Blackbeard’s crew of zombies in the battle for the Fountain of Youth. So just as the trickster (Mercury) sought to grasp the very force of immortality (Venus), and the man and his destiny are one, it was Johnny Depp who gave Jack Sparrow a sip unto immortal life.

And things were certain to happen that way, inasmuch as this is poetically describe through Jack Sparrow’s compass, which is a key to everything. For unlike the ordinary compass that is always pointing to the magnetic north, Jack’s compass point to what its owner wants the most. While Mercury rules over keys and compasses, because those objects are functional guides, Venus appears as the source of one’s desires — because it represents all things desirable. As the two planets form a conjunction, desires and guidance are mingled together in one tool, and the tool guides destiny towards the well-desired immortality.

Now that we have described part of his career as an actor and a few of his characters, we may now proceed into Johnny Depp’s personal life; or better, into what is possible to know about his personality through astrology, and above all what might be relevant to the present court case against his ex-wife, the actress Amber Heard, and all the repercussions that came with it.

The first factor that I would like to talk about is Johnny’s temperament: Johny Depp is sanguine, of an airlike nature. That is a testimony in favor of a more open, flexible and interactive character, and mostly because of Jupiter, which is positioned in Aries in the Ninth House. Jupiter rules over all airy humors. Other points of interest are seen in Jupiter’s dispositors, which are Mars and the Sun: the two planets are in signs ruled by Mercury. As we already know, Mercury is in conjunction with Venus, the most amiable among the planets, in the sign of Taurus, which is going to heavily strengthen the amiability of Venus. But Sun and Mars themselves are positioned in signs of humane, friendly and civilized modes, in such a way that the whole configuration promises compliance and kindness to the actor. Any ferocity that could be born from that Jupiter in Aries is canceled and denied by the dispositors, which are impeding Jupiter of expanding too strongly and too much as Aries would entice. Furthermore, Jupiter, the Greater Benefic, is the lord and ruler of Johnny Depp’s chart, while Venus represents the best qualities that the actor possess. In short, Johnny Depp doesn’t look at all like a violent person — and that is fully agrees with what was declared by his former partners and other acquaintances.

What could be said about him, mainly because of that Mars in the Second House, is that he is a foul-mouthed person, and that could be a sign of at least some verbal abuse. But again: Mercury, the ruler of speech and the Second House, is still in conjunction with Venus. Another factor is that Saturn is overcoming both Venus and Mercury, imposing some kind of control or precaution over one’s speech. Meanwhile, Saturn itself in the Seventh House is far more propitious for bad relationships and problems relating to marriage, and it actually brings a possible experience with manipulative partners, since Aquarius can be described by an underhanded nature and Saturn is the particular significator of lovers in Johnny’s chart. When speak about the actor himself, what appears to be the case is that the actor may curse a lot, but doesn’t actually mean it.

That aspect from Saturn can add some oddities also slow someone’s speech, and that possibility becomes far stronger when the Moon precedes Mercury in terms of signs. Johnny speaks really slow in those courtroom videos, but it might be a case of aging, circumstance and lifestyle too.

As Saturn is in an overcoming position towards Venus and Mercury, two planets conneceted with Johnny Depp’s fame and professional life, it is not that strange that his ex-wife (a “dead wife” in a certain sense) would cause such a trauma on his career. Saturn gave him a overwhelming stain, and one is only to hope that its repercussions won’t become worse or remain the same. If things are to follow the same patterns presented in his few described movies, then perhaps the whole trauma might become a pushing force foward to him; an inspiring elixir for a reborn actor.

One particular nuance of that aspect is revealed when Johnny Depp describes his marriage with Amber Heard, which he equates with the one he had with his mother. The mother is seen through the Moon, which is severely afflicted in this chart. First off, the Moon is positioned in Capricorn, which is the place of its detriment; secondly, the Moon receives no support from its dispositor (Saturn), which is also an inimical planet to the Moon. Then we have the Moon in conjunction with the South Node, which is a malefic overshadowing force; and finally, Moon is placed in the Sixth House, which refers to common enemies, distress and bad luck. So it is no mistake to say that such a bad relationship was like a reunion with his mother, as the Moon is so badly afflicted.

This is highly different from what we know about Johnny Depp’s father, who is described as a calm gentleman. While the Moon appears in such oppressive conditions, the planet that represents the father, the Sun, appears in a far better surroundings. Sun is located in a humane sign, which favors a kind behavior, and in a place that provides support, benefit and friendship to the native: the Eleventh House. So while his mother was cruel in so many ways, his father is the “good man” of the chart, because the Sun is placed in the house of the Good Spirit.

But so we can finish the reading of this nativity, we have the obligation to speak once for all about one of the most disastrous moments in Johnny Depp’s life: his addiction to drugs and alcohol. There are some elements that describe that sad reality: Mars in the Second house represents all sort of deleterious consumptions, but mostly those which provide a sense of energy and drive, fire and smoke, and a certain feeling of pleasure, because its dispositor is in conjunction with Venus. Since Mercury in Taurus doesn’t support Mars, and since Mars is the most malefic planet in a nighttime chart, you can see the way it goes. Mars becomes agression through ingestion. The fiery nature of this planet reflects one of Johnny Depp’s statements on his love for cigarettes in an old interview, when the young actor said that he would like to have two mouths just to smoke the double. Well, Mars is placed in Virgo, a double-bodied sign, which does make everything double. Two mouths, two ingestions of fire and smoke.

But Mars is not the only factor suggesting addiction and consumption of poisonous substances. There are many. The conditions of the Moon, which represents mind, emotions and the very physical body, are strongly relevant to understand such tragedy. Take into consideration that the Moon is heavily afflicted and is the one doing the aspect over Mercury, which means that mind becomes far more impulsive and susceptible to fantasty and ephemeral things. Moon’s conjunction with the South Node is another sign of numbness and intoxication, mostly because of the house wherein that conjunction is happening. In the words of Johnny Depp himself, he “didn’t want to feel anything” and the Moon in Capricorn shows someone in aversion to all sort of feelings. Capricorn is insensitive, unexpressive in a certain sense. And we can’t forget to say that the Moon rules the Twelfth House in this chart; the Twelfth House being the place of the Evil Spirit, of all the bad things that one does to oneself.

Without Jupiter and Venus and the overall favourable situation of its dispositors (Saturn and Mars), that Moon would make Johnny’s life far more tragic. And so despite all the problems, it seems that even in misfortune one can get a bit of luck. It’s always favorable to keep that in mind, as it was only through that very sky, with all its good and bad, that Johnny became who we know today, as a man, as a musician, as an actor and as a talent. And now that his ship is sailing not through the gloomy winds of Saturn anymore, but those tricky winds of Mercury instead, we can only wait and hope that this unpredictable planet will be more gentle and favorable to him, marking the tale of a captain who was never caught.