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Three-time
Super Bowl champion Troy Aikman is hurting, and so is his team. There
was a time, not so very long ago, when Aikman and the Dallas Cowboys dominated
the NFL. Now the 33-year old quarterback can barely make it through a
week of practice. Last week, at home against the Jacksonville
Jaguars, Aikman’s back pain was too severe for even the Cowboys’ pharmaceutical
arsenal, and he was forced out of the game early in the first quarter.
His retirement seems imminent, and lamentable, for at an age when many
other quarterbacks are still in their prime, there should be a lot more
football left in this falling star. Perhaps astrology can help us to chart
his trajectory.
 Troy
Aikman was born on November 21, 1966, at 10:05 am in West Covina, California.
His birth chart is uniquely well-organized. The various planets and points
are all woven together into interrelated patterns, each separate force
integrated into the whole through a network of supportive aspects. The
largest pattern consists of the Moon, Ascendant, Mercury, Mars, Saturn,
Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the Moon’s North Node, all found between
16 and 23 degrees of the water and earth signs. The placements are all
linked together through a web of angular aspects; trines, sextiles, oppositions—what
affects one affects them all. This unites the disparate forces of the
personality into a more functional whole.
At the conscious
command of that tight-knit personality is the ego, symbolized by the
Sun in the astrology chart. Troy Aikman’s Sun is in Scorpio, conjunct his
Venus in Sagittarius, and trine (making a 120 degree angle to) his
Jupiter in Leo. Having the Sun so closely involved with benefic (good) planets
like Jupiter and Venus is just about as good as it gets. Aikman is handsome,
rich, talented, famous, successful, well-educated and well-traveled. Not
bad for a boy from Oklahoma. Venus and Jupiter have been very generous
with their gifts.
Troy Aikman
had won three Super Bowl championships by the time of his first Saturn
return. The planet Saturn takes approximately 28 years to orbit the Sun,
returning to the place it occupied at our birth sometime between the age
of 27 and 30. This is a time when most of us mortal slackers are just
getting our first taste of success and maturity. Aikman had already made
it to the mountain top. There was only one way to go from there.
Reversal
of Fortune
The Cowboys’
fortunes turned after their third Super Bowl victory in January of 1996.
What changed? Aikman still has a brilliant chart, but why doesn’t it work
for him like it used to? The answer may well lie in the transits, the
current positions of the planets as they interact with Troy’s birth chart.
From Aikman’s
first Super Bowl victory in January of 1993, through his third in January
1996, transiting Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were all making powerful contacts
to the positions in his birth chart. We have already seen how Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto are interrelated within Aikman’s chart, so when one
is affected by a transit, they all are. In late January of 1993, when
Aikman won his first Super Bowl and was voted the most valuable player
of the game, transiting Uranus and Neptune were conjunct at 19 degrees
Capricorn, aspecting Aikman’s natal network of planets in the earth and
water signs.
The situation
intensified in January of 1994 as the Cowboys won their second straight
Super Bowl. By that time, transiting Pluto in Scorpio had closed in on
the conjunction to Aikman’s Scorpio Sun. Pluto packs a punch, imparting
power and depth, and is right at home in Scorpio’s dark waters. Aikman’s
strength and leadership intensified dramatically during this transit,
and he emerged as the most powerful quarterback in the league.
In the meantime,
transiting Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn, at 23 and 21 degrees respectively,
were both making tight aspects to Aikman’s natal Mars, Saturn, Chiron,
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The Cowboys were stopped one game short of
the Super Bowl at the NFC Championship in January 1995, but returned again
in January of 1996. At Aikman’s final Super Bowl victory, transiting Pluto
was exactly conjunct his natal Venus at 2 degrees Sagittarius.
Since then,
Pluto has moved on through Sagittarius, out of range of Aikman’s natal
Sun and Venus. Neptune and Uranus have moved into airy Aquarius, no longer
aspecting Aikman’s earth and water sign planets. The once dominant Cowboys
have come undone, becoming more famous for their off-field legal problems
than for their onfield performance. As Pluto moved over Aikman’s natal
Sun and Venus, his team ruled the league. While Uranus and Neptune were
in Capricorn, aspecting Aikman’s network of water and earth planets, he
was right on time and on target. Now, bereft of the planetary assistance,
he can barely make it to work.
It always
hurts to see a hero go down, but don’t cry for Troy Aikman. He has given
us so many great moments and memories, packing so much action into such
a short span. Most would be grateful for even a fraction of his success.
As the lone Cowboy rides off into the sunset, he’ll be making a stop at
the Hall of Fame before heading off to greener pastures and a new frontier.
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