Change of Vocation Study: Jim Carrey

These days, there's a viral video (actually, a mini documentary) called 'I needed color' - find it here - , of Jim Carrey in his art studio and talking about the cathartic experience of painting, so I thought I'd explore that shift in his interest with astrology and cards, aka Cards of Truth system.

So most of us have known Jim as an actor, especially of comedic roles. He doesn't like to talk about it anymore, but he started pulling exaggerated faces and other physical comedy artifices in his childhood in order to cheer up his ill and bedridden mother. That can be seen in his chart from several perspectives - the natural significator for the mother is the Moon and his Moon is in the 8th house of breaks and vulnerabilities. The temporary significator for the Mother judging from a Jaimini perspective is also the Moon, so double emphasis.

Jim Carrey in his LA art studio. Photo courtesy of Jim Carrey.

.Looking at his Cards of Truth birth spread, we can see another confirmation of the situation.
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Jim is a Jack of Diamonds and his Saturn card is Queen of Hearts, with a great emphasis- no less than 7 (seven being also Saturn's numeric manifestation) grahas in it. When the Saturn card is occupied by a face card, it can show you are in service to a person, and the Queen of Hearts is classically the mother figure. The burdensome nature of that relationship is revealed by the states (avasthas) the planets there are in, and I'm especially taking about the shaming due to Ketu's presence. So although Jim is a charismatic and magnetic person, with his Rahu in Leo in the 10th cusp, there is a deep underlying feeling of dissatisfaction. To top it off, another indication of the burdensome relationship with his mother is the 4th cusp in the Queen of Hearts, along with the 3rd cusp of siblings (he has 2 older sisters and a brother, and older siblings are also a Saturnian experience).

South Indian Layout of Jim Carrey's Birth Chart 

Cards of Truth Birth Spread of Jim Carrey

 The great and puzzling thing about Jack of Diamonds people is that they have a King of Spades Ecliptic card. I use those two antonyms because the Jack of Diamonds is considered as the most fleeting and temporary card, while the King of Spades brings important changes with long-lasting effects. So while these people may seem superficial and in the moment, they are actually very steadily working on their self-development. Jim has the 10th cusp in the 4 of Hearts, which is a nice card of feeling secure and stable with your loved ones - but having Rahu there is points to separation, and the least pleasant, the Sun as a planet being in the Saturn card with all that shame going on is not really comforting. The Sun also happens to be Jim's Soul Planet (Atma Karaka), which happens to be a bit low in Shad Bala (86.8%) so it gets king of hammered by Sun's enemies Saturn and Venus. This again shows it's difficult for him to fully realize his creative vision of life and doesn't get to run his kingdom as much, being more in service to others instead. This feels very painful to the person, doubled with the shaming caused by Ketu that produces extreme self-doubt and sensitivity, no wonder Jim has been battling with depression. 
Just one last thing about this card- notice how Saturn is the final dispositor to all the planets in Jim's chart, further emphasizing his strong Saturnian influence. This is the planet with the most Shad Bala (active strength) in his chart, so it will tremendously help him to rid himself of things that are not working in his life and high resistance to hardship. Also, in the documentary, he talks a lot of his process of making art as 'service'.

OK so, as we noticed, the Ecliptic card is a King of Spades, and Kings being a manifestation of 7, 8 and 9, any of these cards appearing in the spread will be of particular importance. Jim has an 8 of Hearts on his Mercury card, with the Moon there. That is a really nice card once the person realizes that external love is not fulfilling, and turns to introspection towards the seed of love within. Since Jim has undergone his Rahu maturation, and Rahu manifests as the 8, I would hope he came to that realization. Actually, in the mini documentary he mentions that when the heart is out of love, it's like floating aimless (that reminded me again of the symbolism of the 7 and 8 cards). 

Anyway, his Moon card is a good 4 of Diamonds (the key card of the Diamond suit) of being secure, stable in one's skills and resources, and the 8 of Hearts is also a good card when we get past the victimization at 7. Moon rules music and also poetry and visual arts. Jim mentions that when he was a child, he spent helf the time performing in his livingroom fo his family, and the other half alone in his room, sketching and writing poetry. That further validates the observations on his saturnine side, and I think that by focusing of manifesting his artistic vision in painting he feels more comfortable - as the Moon has sufficient Shad bala and good avasthas (states).

So although he has always been sketching, he says he only started seriously painting after the break-up with Jenny McCarthy in 2010, and that helped him heal his broken heart. I did find interviews and mentions of him painting even in 2008, when he confesses during an Oprah interview that he spent 50 hours on a painting of Jenny for Valentine's day. However, when he talked about painting then, the vocabulary was not so reverential and almost sacred as he does now- he was saying he likes to paint body parts and name them, so he was being buffoonish about it. 

Jim Carrey's year spread the year he broke up with Jenny McCarthy

If we look at the year of the break-up that triggered a more serious approach to art, we see the 2 of Hearts as the Moon card - 2 of Hearts can show a couple or coming together with something you love - and the Moon in a disturbed 3 of Hearts under the Saturn card, with both manifesting and separating factors. Not surprisingly, the break-up happened when the Moon card timeframe was running, in April 2010. The 3 of Hearts is flying apart from the coziness of the couple/doing things together, and moving on with your passion. The Saturn in the Venus card with the 7th cusp and the 7 of Hearts on the Mercury card also don't help relationship-wise, and his health was also impacted as we see the unfortunate placement of the Ascendant on the 2 of Spades on the Mars card.  So it was a rough year for Jim.

Year Spread of 2011 for Jim Carrey

OK, so right of the bat we see the path of that year is a 6 of Spades - fulfillment with self. It could be just physical health as well.  The 6th card is Venus and there we see a destroyer card, a black 7 - so a downfall of his ideas about committed relationships (ruled by Venus and also the 7th cusp being there, with Saturn wich is a separator and his DK). Venus however being in the 2 of Hearts cancels the negative effects to some extent by making sense of the destruction and the relationship being averted. It's important to notice the fixed card that shows up in the year spread and also happens to be the natal ecliptic - King of Spades. That card helps a person destroy their weaknesses, in this case related to their will power, and pursue their vision. In Jim's case it is related to health since the 6th cusp is there, and it's also relating to flying apart from his comfort zone, mars the planet being in the 3 of Spades Saturn card. To me, it looks obvious that it's related to his decision of seriously pursuing his vocation as a painter and that decision would have long-term effects. Also, it served as catharsis/inner healing for him, as he states in his interview. 

Another interesting thing to mention is that his partner/spouse is connected to him making great breakthroughs. Besides what we already went through about the Saturn emphasis and it being the Dara Karaka- spouse planet,  since I peaked at his D24S chart and he has the two manifesting planets (Mercury) in Cancer there with the 7th cusp, and so when those higher abilities of understanding are activated it will surely be linked to his partner.

Anyway, the conclusion would be that his painting vocation is not a dramatic switch, Moon is aspecting his Soul Planet the Sun in the D9 and his Moon avasthas are gentle, so I think it's something that has been there but very hidden, and his less than pleasant experiences helped this passion surface. 

I'll leave you with a few more of Jim's artwork, and would be interested to hear you thoughts on the matter :)

Hurray We're All Broken - Jim Carrey
He describes it as: "So-called reality is energy and color creating forms that rise out of nothing. Broken figures dancing for each other filled with pain and polka dots, sharing one frequency, yet believing they are separate."

She's the Bomb - Jim Carrey 
He describes it as 'A women's sexual power, intoxicating and hypnotic, holds within it both the promise of ecstasy an the threat of desolation.'

Portrait of a child.
Jim Carrey says- 'You can tell what things I love by the color I use. I love yellow.'