Matthew Perry RIP

[Jim Eshelman]

Actor Matthew Perry was born August 19, 1969, 4:47 AM EDT, North Adams, MA. He was found dead today (10/28/23) from drowning in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home.

Besides the role of Chandler Bing that most defined his career, I likely will remember him best for his strong run on West Wing and the canceled-too-soon excellence of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Perry had a Leo Sun exactly square Neptune and Libra Moon closely opposite Saturn, in addition to a moderate Mercury-Pluto conjunction and Mercury-Mars square. Sun also squared Saturn mundanely, and Sun and Neptune were at the Ma/Ne midpoint. I suspect these (plus his mundane Mercury-Mars square) are the patterns behind the particular troubles he had in his life (recurring Vicodin addiction secondary to physical injury). For those curious or looking, he had the distant planet Quaoar about a degree off his IC.

Transits for his death included the long-term Neptune opposite natal Pluto (normally a psychological aspect, but one can't ignore "death by drowning" as one metaphor of Neptune to Pluto!). Since Neptune was also octile his Saturn, we may not have heard all the final details yet. Various transits to his Saturn had come and gone all week. Progressed Venus was only 5' from conjunct his natal Pluto and progressed Sun 29' past square to his Venus (I don't know anything about his recent personal life).

His SSR two months ago has to be judged positive with Moon conjunct natal Jupiter closely (foreground). All three natal benefics are angular (Venus closest), though the strongest angularity is natal Pluto 0°22' from Descendant. It's a really good chart but does have a strong climactic indicator.

However, his October 16 SLR was rough. Transiting Saturn was 0°49' from Zenith (though with some wider benefics). His natal malefics were next strongest, especially those that mean either great depression or really bad luck involving water:

13°21 Lib - r Moon
14°38' Ari - r Saturn
15°57' Cap - SLR MC

1°40' Sco - r Neptune (0°56' below)
4°56' Tau - SLR Asc
17°54' Sco - r Mars (7°29' above)

Then his Demi-SLR occurred today (6:55 PM PDT, though he was already dead; but these are felt about a day early). Nine planets are foreground with the very closest being transiting Sun (WP 0°01'), t Mercury (WP-a 0°51'), t Uranus (Asc 0°48'), and natal Saturn (EP-a 0°23'). Right behind them were t Mars (WP-a 1°24'), t Jupiter (EP-a 1°30'), and natal Neptune (Dsc 3°51'). Transiting Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter were all in partile aspect close to an angle (was he attempting something athletic), closely opposite his Saturn.

Something I have no idea what it means: t Jupiter opposed r Saturn 0°00' in mundo. Usually this mean that one gets a break, resolves problems, gets out from under something deeply troubling.

[Jim Eshelman]

Police were called at 4:07 PM 10/29, apparently by his personal assistant. According to at least one report (the Daily Mail), Perry had played pickleball for two hours then sent his assistant on an errand. The assistant found him unresponsive in the hot tub when he returned.

Prescription anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs were found in his home, as well as a COPD medication. Reports so far are that there were none in his system.

[Jim Eshelman]

I just posted in the Experimental section about his NLR but won't go into that here.

His relocated natal for LA (what I've started calling the first layer of predictive astrology) had natal Mars 0°46' from WP-a and Uranus 1°11' from Nadir. It's pretty amazing to me how many people die where they have Mars on an angle natally, even when they have lived in the location for years. (LA was pretty much always a destructive place for Perry despite his enormous success.)

Checking his quotidians...

SNQ: p MC opposed p Mars within 1°. The other point of interest was natal and progressed Eris on Descendant.

SQ: This wasn't as good, since natal Jupiter on Nadir 0°35' was the main contact. Transiting Venus was also near IC but not within 1°. Solar Mercury was conjunct natal Mercury on IC also. With what I know so far, none of this seems to fit.

PSSR: Nothing exact, though several things nearby. This resembles his transits, where in addition to some exact hits there were a LOT of transits that had peaked in the week earlier or were going to peak later in the week. Looking at transits around his natal planets felt like a swarm hits around a general period. (A graphic ephemeris makes this obvious, especially if transiting Moon is added to the mix, though it would make a lousy graphic for me to reproduce here.)

Though he died almost exactly at his Kinetic Demi-Lunar, the chart was pretty worthless. (The SLR, DSLR, and NLR had already zeroed in on the time and place.) The Ennead and 10-day had interesting hits but, overall, were nowhere near as strong as the lunars.

[Arena]

RIP MP.

He had been sober for a very long time.
According to the sources I've seen he did not drown. It was a cardiac arrest, his heart stopped. It seems to be happening a lot lately.

#diedsuddenly

[Jim Eshelman]

According to the sources I've seen he did not drown. It was a cardiac arrest, his heart stopped. It seems to be happening a lot lately.

That would make a lot more sense - I suspected something like that but haven't been able to find anything concrete in the press yet. The autopsy hasn't been released yet, has it?

[Jim Eshelman]

Transits for his death included the long-term Neptune opposite natal Pluto (normally a psychological aspect, but one can't ignore "death by drowning" as one metaphor of Neptune to Pluto!). Since Neptune was also octile his Saturn, we may not have heard all the final details yet. Various transits to his Saturn had come and gone all week. Progressed Venus was only 5' from conjunct his natal Pluto and progressed Sun 29' past square to his Venus (I don't know anything about his recent personal life).

...his October 16 SLR was rough. Transiting Saturn was 0°49' from Zenith (though with some wider benefics). His natal malefics were next strongest, especially those that mean either great depression or really bad luck involving water...

The autopsy report is in. Cause of death was "acute effects of ketamine" and subsequent drowning. The ketamine was being used under doctor administration to treat his acute depression and anxiety, but his last treatment was a week and a half earlier, too long for that amount to still be in his blood.

The report says, "At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression."

[James Condor]

He was my favorite Friends character!!! I loved him in Almost Hero’s, too.