Tributes are flowing for acclaimed songwriter Kris Kristofferson (06/22/1936, Cancer Rat), who has died aged 88. 

Kristofferson brought a rare depth and poetic style to his song lyrics, perhaps most famously in the classic “Me and Bobby McGee”: “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose/Nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’ but it’s free”. The song is best known as a posthumous hit for Janis Joplin (01/19/1943, Capricorn Horse), with whom Kristofferson had a brief romantic relationship. The New York Times has described how, in exploring “themes of freedom and commitment, alienation and desire, darkness and light”, Kristofferson’s work owed as much to Romantic poets like John Keats (10/31/1795, Scorpio Rabbit) as to contemporaries like Bob Dylan (05/24/1941, Gemini Snake) or Willie Nelson (04/29/1933, Taurus Rooster). 

The sensitive reflectiveness of Kristofferson’s lyrics may owe much to the influence of his Western Cancer sign, where the element of Water is at its most impressionable and empathic. But being born so close to the cusp with the zodiac’s great intellectual adventurer, Gemini, suggests Kristofferson was predestined for a life of creative rebellion. He certainly fulfilled this role stunningly, when after graduating from Oxford University in the UK and receiving an appointment to teach at West Point (he was also a helicopter pilot in the army), he shocked his family and headed to Nashville to pursue songwriting. In the mid–1960s he even worked as a janitor emptying ashtrays during Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde recording sessions. As he explained, 

Not many cats I knew bailed out like I did. When I made the break I didn’t realize how much I was shocking the folks, because I always thought they knew I was going to be a writer. But I think they thought a writer was a guy in tweeds with a pipe. And I quit and didn’t hear from ’em for a while. 

Writing as a vocation is a common theme for people born under the Chinese sign of the Rat, who tend to be equally fascinated by and adept at navigating social dynamics. Other impactful individuals who like Kristofferson were born on the Gemini/Cancer cusp in a Rat year include English author Ian McEwan (06/21/1948, Cancer Rat), a six-time Booker prize nominee who won the award in 1998, and author of The Witcher series Andrzej Sapkowski (06/21/1948, Cancer Rat), who has been called the Polish version of J.R.R. Tolkien (01/03/1892, Capricorn Rabbit). A writer who like Kristofferson was also an air pilot and whose works similarly explore deeper existential themes is Richard Bach (06/23/1936, Cancer Rat), author of the hugely successful Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970). An obvious comparison could be drawn with the tragic songsmith Nick Drake (06/19/1948, Gemini Rat), whose works similarly showcase profound sensitivity and who, like Kristofferson, was known to experience intense stage fright. 

Even when people who share Kristofferson’s energy matrix achieve success in other fields, writing is often a critical outlet for them. Perhaps the most celebrated computer scientist of all time, mathematician Alan Turing (06/23/1912, Cancer Rat), wrote many important works including the article, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, where he outlined what has become known as the “Turing test” as a way to assess the effectiveness of artificial intelligence. Actress Selma Blair (06/23/1972, Cancer Rat) penned a candid and sometimes confronting autobiography, Mean Baby (2022), about which the Guardian wrote: “Written in vignettes and sharply observed, the sometimes harrowing subject matter never weighs Mean Baby down. At times, you feel like you shouldn’t be having quite as much fun as you are.” The versatile and award-winning actor Paul Dano (06/19/1984, Gemini Rat) is also a cartoonist and co-wrote the film Wildlife (2018) with his partner, Zoe Kazan (09/09/1983, Virgo Pig). High-profile environmental activist Erin Brockovich (06/22/1960, Cancer Rat) has written several books, including Take It from Me: Life’s a Struggle But You Can Win (2001). 

Other notables sharing Kristofferson’s energy matrix include the soccer player and manager Zinedine Zidane (06/23/1972, Cancer Rat), the first French actor to win an Oscar for Best Actor, Jean Dujardin (06/19/1972, Gemini Rat), guitar-player Chet Atkins (06/20/1924, Gemini Rat) (credited with helping to create the “Nashville sound”), and Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas (06/23/1948, Cancer Rat).

One of the most heartwarming stories recounted by the New York Times obituary about Kristofferson records how, at the Newport Folk Festival in 1969, he was so paralyzed by stage fright that he almost did not perform—until, that is, he was almost physically dragged out by June Carter (06/23/1929, Cancer Snake) to play with her and her husband, Johnny Cash (02/26/1932, Pisces Monkey). The energy combinations between Carter and Cash and Kristofferson and Cash are both Golden Nine, the best of the best in the combined Western and Chinese zodiacs. 

The ripples of that beautifully harmonious energy trio have been felt ever since. “If there was one thing that got my performing career started,” Kristofferson said about Newport, “that was it right there.”