Tiger Woods: Collisions With Mars
Golf champion and Athlete of the Decade Tiger Woods’ life has taken a turn for the sand trap lately, as a post-Thanksgiving late night vehicle accident sparked a media frenzy that has led to revelations about multiple marital affairs, a subsequent slew of revoked sponsorship deals, and a sudden withdrawal from competitive golfing. And the the controversies keep piling up.
As transiting Mars was slowing down to enter its retrograde station in Leo on December 19th, Woods’ clean-cut reputation was turned upside down by a series of lurid headlines in the celebrity gossip press.
Woods, who was born on December 30, 1975 at 10:50 p.m. in Long Beach, California, was born with natal Mars retrograde at 17 Gemini. Interestingly, the retrograde transit of Mars – which occurs once every twenty-six months, lasting over a period of two-to-three months – has often coincided with some of the most striking highs and lows of his personal and professional life.
The Car Crash
Woods suffered only minor injuries after crashing his black Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and tree close to his home in Windermere, Florida at 2:25 a.m. on November 27, 2009.
However, police and media inquiries soon uncovered rumors that strife in Woods’ five-year marriage to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish former nanny, was somehow behind his collision. Rumors of marital infidelity led to news that Woods had been carrying affairs with at least fourteen different women, and that his accident had occurred immediately after being confronted by Nordegren.
Transiting Mars was twenty-three days prior to its retrograde station in Leo, already moving slowly toward the moment it appears to stop completely and then start moving in a reverse direction.
Mugged at Stanford
Fifteen years earlier, on November 30, 1994, eighteen year-old freshman Woods was mugged at knifepoint outside his Stanford University dormitory. The robber took his watch and neck-chain before striking him with the handle of his knife.
On that night, transiting Mars was at 26 Leo, thirty-two days prior to is retrograde station at 2 Virgo.
In fact, the fifteen-year time period between Woods’ mugging in 1994 and his accident in 2009 represents one complete synodic cycle of Mars, in that its retrograde phases have completed one full turn around the zodiac.
Taken as a pair of astrologically-connected events, these are two very rare known instances of violence in his life.
Household Name
Woods became a household name at the age of twenty-one when he became the youngest player to ever win the 61st U.S. Masters Tournament on April 13, 1997, with a 12-stroke victory over his 47 year-old opponent, Tom Kite, the widest margin of any major U.S. championship ever at the time.
Woods did more than set a new record in golf. His mixed ethnic background – a combination of black, Chinese, native American, Thai and Caucasian – also made him the first non-white golf superstar, no small achievement in a sport with a racist past.
The day he won this tournament transiting Mars was retrograde at 18 Virgo, square Woods’ natal Mars retrograde in Gemini.
New Caddy
Woods began working with New Zealander caddy Steve Williams at the Arnold Parlmer tournament in Orlando on March 19, 1999, while transiting Mars was again retrograde, this time at 12 Scorpio. Woods had recently fired his previous caddy, Mike “Fluff” Cowan, for taking money for speaking to the U.S. press.
Williams has worked exclusively as Woods’ caddy ever since, a faithful assistant and defender, who is credited with helping Woods with some of his key shots and putts. When asked about recent revelations regarding his boss, Williams has only admitted to having a working relationship with Woods, and knows nothing about his private troubles.
Four Titles, Meeting Elin
Woods became the first golfer in history to hold all four major titles at once when he won the 65th Masters Tournament on April 8, 2001. Transiting Mars was at 23 Sagittarius, 32 days prior to its retrograde station.
Three and a half months later, on July 19, 2001, Woods met Swedish nanny Elin Nordegren at the British Open. At that time transiting Mars was just making its direct station at 15 Sagittarius, opposite Woods’ natal Mars retrograde in Gemini.
Lynching Controversy
It was during the Mars retrograde prior to the current one that Woods indirectly became the subject of controversy. On January 4, 2008, Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman laughingly suggested during a broadcast at the Mercedes-Benz Championship that young players who wanted to challenge Woods should “lynch him the back alley,” a remark with unavoidable racial connotations in a sport with a long racist past.
As part of the news cycle that week, the remark posed a striking contrast to the fact that Senator Barack Obama had just broken a new race barrier at the Iowa Caucus the previous night.
Transiting Mars was retrograde at 28 Gemini, headed back toward Woods’ natal Midheaven.
The Future
Given that the Mars retrograde that follows this one will be the synodic return of the retrograde that coincided with his 1997 win at the 61st Masters, it seems likely that Woods’ will return to glory, being taken to some interesting new heights during the course of January-April 2012, when transiting Mars goes retrograde conjunct Woods’ natal Ascendant at 24 Virgo, heading back to 3 Virgo, crossing the same path it did when he first rose to golf superstardom.
Related posts:
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- Miley Cyrus Gets Into Trouble With Mars
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Tiger Woods: Collisions With Mars » The Celebrity Astrology Blog…
The Mars retrograde transit, which occurs every twenty-six months, lasting two-three months, has coincided with some remarkable events in the life of golf superstar Tiger Woods….
Hey Nick great article. I’ve been kind of possessed with curiosity over this whole Tiger Woods deal. He was my role model throughout adolescence. Really interesting about the Mars cycle. Hope you’re doing good!
Homey, great to hear from you. Montreal misses you, but I know you are doing great out there. I thought you might like this article, knowing that you were so involved in golf for a longtime. Glad you liked it. Obviously, it isn’t the whole astrological picture of the story (the Uranus transit to his Desc being an obvious thing omitted here), but yeah, as a general survey of what we know about his life and career, the Mars retrograde timeline corresponds with some pretty big turning points, good and bad.
Of course, you know that I am utterly ignorant about the sport and culture of golf, I have merely studied Woods’ life to some degree because we have a time of birth for him, and my policy is to study the life of any well-known person who has a good birth time.
Would you agree with my impression that his 61st and 65th Masters tournaments are probably two of his most important or special victories? I mean, he constantly wins tournaments, it almost becomes meaningless relative to his daily life, but out of all those trophies, weren’t those two wins symbolically more relevant for him because they meant breaking major milestones? I think a big part of why this article works is because of how they stand out.
Also, I only included a few examples, but there are other interesting Mars retrograde events in his life that I had to leave out for space reasons. Maybe the whole thing will be a book chapter at some point.
Thanks again!
Yeah, definitely think the first Masters he won was a milestone. That’s when he really broke into the scene, not just for golf but for sports worldwide, breaking something like 12 records.
Talk about a nasty Mars rx cycle this time being 8th harmonically tied right into the Saturn-Pluto square and then square his Nodal axis (separations of ties (nodes), and an afflicted public figure and popularity (nodes)). Lots of other neat stuff too but the article really brings the Mars cycle to light.
Yes, been good, and very busy with the job and the family but I’ve been working on something (astrologically speaking) and look forward to getting it up to par (I hope) and sharing it one day. Slow process!
Sweet, looking forward to seeing you back on the astrology scene, or at least visible again. Thanks for weighing in about Tiger, having read what I had over the years, this certainly seemed like an accurate observation to me. I don’t appear to be mistaken.