The King of Cool

Dean Martin Returns Under The Taurus Lunar Eclipse

Dean Martin epitomized mid-20th century cool. He did so much, so seemingly effortlessly — sing, dance, act, play the straight man — with a smile, a laugh, a cigarette trailing smoke, and a playboy’s unflappable veneer and appeal.

He’s back in the spotlight now, some 25 years after his death, in the documentary The King of Cool, which premiered on Turner Classic Movies November 19, hours after the longest lunar eclipse in our lifetimes. No surprise, the Taurus Full Moon and its planetary companions energize Martin’s chart from just about every direction. It would be hard to imagine a more appropriate day to summon him back into the public eye.

The Full Moon falls across his 2nd / 8th axis, which represents his talents, earning capacity, investments and shared resources. And look at his personal talents and resources: a tight tight tight conjunction of Mercury (communicating), Jupiter (ease and expansion) and Mars (drive), showing the smoothness, popularity and financial success of his singing and artistry.

The Taurus Full Moon hits the reset button on this trio. The Moon has just moved over the three of them (and by the time of the premiere that evening, has just barely moved into Gemini and his 3rd house of communication). The Sun opposite the trio is traveling Mercury and Mars, which pits a current, investigative look into a deceased man against his native Mercury and Mars. It’s an astrological signature for a long-distance, deep examination of his talents.

Another indicator of coming back from the dead is transiting Pluto directly on top of his Capricorn moon, in the 11th house of group associations, and opposing his Saturn in Cancer in his fifth house of children and creative self-expression. Pluto has been hanging out in the vicinity all year, which is in keeping with the final touches and release of a documentary filled with interviews with colleagues and friends and family. Pluto is also in the easy flow of a trine to his Taurus trio in his house of money and talents, which is having the effect of resuscitating and reinvigorating them.

It’s worth a foray into looking at his earth placements, because they are the foundation of his cool. A Capricorn moon is serious at the core, hard-working, devoted to family and heritage, especially when linked to the permanence and responsibilities of Saturn in Cancer. (He moved his parents from his Ohio hometown to LA; in his last years frequented a restaurant called La Famiglia.)

A Capricorn moon would retreat the to TV in the den during parties in his own house, sip apple juice from a highball juice while celebrating inebriation onstage, and go to his hotel room after a show while the rest of the Rat Pack caroused all night. Add the stress of that opposition to Saturn in Cancer, and you’ve got a family member with a near-inescapable sense of duty and priorities.

The close trine between that moon and the Taurus trio makes for ease, smoothness, and incremental and then lasting success and financial gain. (The trio is also sextile Saturn in Cancer, which has an appreciation for both making money and involving family.) This interplay inspired, for one example, recording in his first language, Italian, and those songs becoming hits in an English-speaking market.

Oh, and one more indicator of his appeal: his natal Venus (women, creativity, money) in Gemini enjoys an out-of-sign conjunction with his Pluto in Cancer, which gives the ability to be casual and distant and attractive as all get out. That’s a combo for animal magnetism and star power, and Venus at the end of Gemini is another explanation for being linked to so many people (including women) who said they knew him for years without knowing him.

Back to the eclipse: other contacts to his chart show the appropriate timing of the documentary’s premiere. Neptune, which rules film and Hollywood and glamour, is right on his ascendant (how he presented himself) and casting a softened, shimmery glow on his identity.

Venus in Capricorn, which loves durability and money making, is tight on his North Node of destiny. It’s also being awakened by a tight trine to Uranus in his house of money and talents. (Might a surge of recording sales result?)

And Jupiter, which expands whatever it touches, is right on Uranus in Aquarius in the most hidden part of his chart, the 12th house, which rules retreat. This aspect fits members of his social and working networks surfacing to elaborate on what he was like in private, and speculate on what made him tick (as well as unique).

Interestingly, December’s solar eclipse also shows up in Martin’s chart. The Sagittarius New Moon on December 4 opposes his Gemini sun, the source of his affability, light-heartedness, and career versatility and flexibility. It’s unlikely he’s slipping back into the shadows any time soon.

Oddly, the eclipse did eclipse out one of the documentary’s interviewees. Billy Hinsche, who was in the 1960s rock trio Dino, Desi & Billy, with the namesake sons of Martin and Desi Arnaz, died November 20, 2021, the day after the documentary aired.