Can You Live Large When You Hate Your Self?
What I learnt from Thom Yorke, Radiohead's rock star who despises celebrity culture
Thom Yorke of rock band Radiohead does not like celebrity culture.
When people like Jack Black, Miley Cyrus expressed a desire to meet the UK alt rock star and legend, he spurned their requests. “I’m surrounded by a world of grinning idiots and I don’t want to be another one.”
I dig into the archetypal energies to learn how we harness our energies to flow better in life.
Thom Yorke—Boy with an Eye Patch to Musical Genius of Radiohead
Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) was born in Wellingborough, England to a father who was also an amateur boxer.
Yorke suffered as a kid because of his eye. It was closed and paralyzed when he was born, and he had five operations on it within his first six years of life.
Doctors performed surgery taking a muscle graft from Yorke’s buttocks to make his eyelid more functional. He endured five eye operations by age six and wore an eye patch through much of his childhood. This left him with a permanent droopy eyelid.
Yorke attended the boys' private school Abingdon in Oxfordshire. He felt out of place, and got into physical fights with other students.
He wore an eye patch at school, which wasn’t easy for the boy. His father as an amateur boxer, and encouraged his son to take up the hobby – without much success.
But that was where Yorke and his friends formed Radiohead.
In 1992, Radiohead released their first EP in May 1992, Drill (first chorus "I'm better off dead"). It won them a fierce following.
Their debut single "Creep" took them into the big time. Radiohead became one of the biggest bands in the world, achieving acclaim and sales of more than 30 million albums.
Yorke has managed to keep his personal life—including a marriage and children—under wraps out of the public eye for years before the media found out.
“I think we’re all born with something wrong with us (…) I decided I liked the fact that it wasn't the same, and I've liked it ever since. And when people say stuff, I kind of thought it was a badge of pride, and still do.” —Thom Yorke
How Yorke Took to His Challenging Yod Pattern--Creating Discipline through Perspective and Transformation
On the day that Yorke was born, one yod marked the sky—a rare and powerful energetic pattern.
It’s associated with much restlessness. Perpetual discomfortiture is hard enough. But throw in a fated quality to life beyond control.
Until you harness it.
Saturn is the planet of material limits and restrictions. It’s the zodiac’s taskmaster.
In 22° Aries, you detest the self-centred and egotistical.
Yorke was born with a physical (Saturn) marker that made him stand alone (Aries). He grew up being used to treated like a victim. But he didn’t become one.
Yorke found his own room for individuality in music at the all-boys private school that he attended.
“The music school and the art school was my sanctuary.”—Thom Yorke
With Radiohead, Thom Yorke's unique vocals are one of the many distinct parts of the band that continues to defy definition. They’re a band not known to shy away from the unorthodox.
“There's nothing more boring than a rock'n'roll star. Someone who has been on the road for 10 years, expecting attention wherever he goes, drinking himself stupid, who is obnoxious, incoherent, uncreative, and has a massive ego. There's nothing more pointless.” ― Thom Yorke
“I tell you what's really ridiculous--going into a bookstore and there's all these books about yourself. In a way, it feels like you're already dead.” ― Thom Yorke
Jupiter is the planet of higher perspectives and vision. It’s the Philosopher.
In 22° Virgo, you don’t tend to believe things like luck. Service, hard work, and orderly details capture your intellectual imagination more. On the flip side, you perceive the world through a paranoid over-analytical lens.
Jupiter doesn’t to be his usual jolly self here. It’s joined by the Destroyer, which gives it darker shades.
Pluto is the planet of transformation.
In 23° Virgo, you’re born part of a generation to reform and transmute how we organise our systems.
Yorke is known to enjoy tinkering to create the perfect sound. This trait started young. At 10, he made his own guitar, inspired by May's homemade Red Special. By 11, he had joined his first band and written his first song.
Yorke’s obsessive about refining his musical skills. He once described singing as a precise skill:
I remember during OK Computer, I still thought "I need to be slightly drunk" or "I need to do something beforehand so that I'm in the right space, man", but it's all bollocks, because basically you just gotta learn to be there with it when you do it.”—Thom Yorke
Once in an interview, Radiohead drummer Philip Selway talked how Thom gives them "musical puzzles" that they work on to decipher. If you’re Virgo-dominant, you love nothing more than to fix things.
It’s ironic because in 2021, Radiohead did sell a new jigsaw puzzle based on their 2007 album ‘In Rainbows’.
“And I know I'm paranoid and neurotic, I've made a career out of it.” ― Thom Yorke
Now we’ve Saturn, Pluto on Jupiter, and finally we come to the planet of Dreams, Neptune.
Surely, a respite?
Not so fast. Neptune lies in dark Scorpio.
Neptune is the planet of dreams, faith and beauty. It’s the Dreamer.
In Scorpio, you’re part of a soul group here to re-idealise how we live relationships. Sex, power, money are not taboos but necessary parts of the equations to create truly uplifting, enlightening relationships. Nothing less fills your soul.
Many consider their music "depressing". It’s hard to argue not. Their music can be like the longest stream of anxiety and unease amidst the world.
Yorke’s lyrics offer dark sentimentality, at best.
It is also the reason why so many people love Radiohead and Thom Yorke. They create music that allow people to relate to being depressed and finding comfort.
It’s also the reason Yorke averted the disastrous path of self-destruction as many of his rock peers have gone. While their massive success , they stuck to their true selves. Achieving longevity amidst their generation and subsequent ones to come.
"It took a year and a half to get back to the people we were ... to cope with it, emotionally”—Thom Yorke
“The reason you create music or art or write is in order to put things in a way you can possibly deal with them, and death is one of those areas... If you're accused of being morbid or bleak then you're onto a good thing, I'd say. Our culture is the most fucking desperate culture, desperately trying to avoid anything vaguely depressing.” ― Thom Yorke
Notes:
Thom Yorke’s birthday chart (sans time).
Do you have another person you’d like to read about?
Do you want to know more about your natal promise?
As above, so below,
Mel, i.e.,