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- Urban Shaman

- Nov 28
- 10 min read
An Astrological Look at the Life of Steve Jobs

The neighbors generally did not have much knowledge or awareness of what Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were working on in the garage. Little did they know that a company that would transform the world was being born just down the street. Stunningly, from these modest beginnings, today as of November 26, 2025, Apple, the company these two entrepreneurs founded, has a total market capitalization of approximately $4.1 trillion. Its logo, an apple with a bite out of it, has become ubiquitous, a nod to knowledge.
Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Fransico, California and adopted. Jobs dropped out of Reed College, traveled to India for spiritual enlightenment, and practiced Zen Buddhism before starting Apple in his family's garage. Steve Jobs was with Apple for approximately 9 years before his ouster in September 1985. This arose due to a major conflict with the then CEO John Scully. He eventually returned to Apple but during his time away he founded NeXT Computer and acquired Pixar, producing hits like Toy Story before returning as Apple's CEO in 1997, launching the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad that transformed technology.
Steve Jobs was often described as having a fiery, brash, impulsive, and freedom-loving temperament. He was intensely passionate and driven, yet his moods and reactions could be impulsive and volatile. Jobs had a sharp and sometimes abrasive communication style, often being brutally honest to the point of harshness or hurtfulness. He was also known for his strong desire for independence and rebellion against conformity, placing a high value on creative freedom.

The unique combination of a spiritually minded, imaginative, and creative persona contrasted with his reactionary, brazen, and competitive emotional nature, is an intriguing energetic mix that made Steve Job's the subject of critique and psychological analysis. As mentioned, Jobs journeyed to India early in life and began a deep engagement with Zen Buddhism, leading to an emphasis on simplicity, intuition, and higher purpose in his life and in Apple’s products. At the same time, reports of his autocratic, abrasive, and intense outbursts, including public tirades, harsh criticism of employees’ work, and impulsive firings in front of others were abundant. Is there evidence of this paradoxical behavior in Steve's birth chart? Let's take a look. Here is Steve Jobs birth chart:

Steve Jobs was born with his natal Sun positioned at 5 degrees and 44 minutes of Pisces in his sixth house. Notably, conjunct his vertex which we will return to in a moment. A Pisces Sun is associated with energies that are directly connected with spiritual matters, the mystical, things that exist beyond the veil of forgetfulness we dwell in as humans. This is the zodiac sign most associated with the visionaries, dreamers, and even prophets. Pisceans live in the world of the abstract, exploring deep cisterns of mystery, and escaping into watery worlds where limitations and boundaries dissolve. They see life as a poem and the material world as a prison from which we need to transcend. Highly sensitive to the undercurrents of our existence they are able to extract form from the formless and create what others cannot see.
This side of Jobs is definitely evident. Steve Jobs traveled to India at age 19 in 1974. His intent was to attend the Kumbh Mela starting in April and departing around March. Accompanied by friend Daniel Kottke, Jobs visited Neem Karoli Baba's Kainchi ashram in Uttarakhand but found the guru had died in 1973, leading him to stay for about seven months immersing in spiritual teachings. This is not your normal desire of a 19-year-old male living in the United States at that time, however, in California at this time it was much more prevalent. Something was calling his Piscean soul to take flight and explore life's deeper meaning. When he returned, he did so with a shaved head, Indian robes, and sun-darkened skin.
Withdrawing from the typical life of a 19-year-old amid the prevailing noise of 1974, this journey deeply influenced his philosophy, highlighting simplicity, intuition, and Zen Buddhism, which later impacted Apple's design principles.
Remarkably, Steve's natal Sun resides in the natural Virgo house but in the sign of Pisces. These two signs are known for their propensity toward dedication and service to others. One being on a spiritual and emotional level, Pisces, and one being of a practical and tangible nature, Virgo. Of note, Jobs natal Sun is in a conjunction with the vertex in this same house. This points to a powerful alignment between his identity and his destined life path. The Sun represents our essential self, ego, and life force, while the Vertex is often called a "point of fate" or "destiny's gate" in astrology, marking fated encounters and significant turning points.
Looking at two of the most influential and significant events in Steve's life, going to India and meeting Steve Wozniak, we glean the following fateful backstories. First, Jobs had met Wozniak in mid-1971 at age 16 through mutual friend Bill Fernandez, who introduced them while neighborhood walking in Cupertino; Wozniak, then 21, was washing his car. They bonded instantly over electronics, pranks, and tech projects, including building "blue boxes" to hack phone networks for free calls, which became their first business venture and laid groundwork for Apple. Destiny's gate number one had opened.
Second, at 19, Jobs immersed himself in Eastern philosophy through books like Be Here Now by Ram Dass, which highlighted Neem Karoli Baba, and other spiritual texts on Nirvana and intuition. A mutual friend Robert Friedland informed him of the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar/Rishikesh that summer, providing the immediate catalyst, while his job at Atari supplied the funds for the trip with companion Daniel Kottke. Destiny's gate number two had opened.

Prior to delving into Jobs natal moon, which resided in Aries at his birth, let's peek into the world of asteroids to see if we can further uncover the origins his professional and spiritual yearnings. To pursue this, we will examine the placement of the asteroids Vesta and Samadhi. In order to understand the context in which these appear, however, the elephant in the room is the mothership Apple that dominated Steve's life and has transformed life for so many.
Is there an asteroid Apple? There is not, but as mentioned in previous biographies, in what is still considered the experimental period of delineation and defining the meaning and how to use them, early results have been jaw-dropping by identifying asteroids containing a name that might be close or a variation of an actual name. In the case of Apple, this applies. There is an asteroid named Applegate, number 30779 and at Jobs' birth it resided in his ninth house in the sign of Gemini, the sign associated with computers. See Below:

Talk about your auspicious placement of an asteroid. Let's break down the correspondences to Steve's life. To be more specific, Asteroid Applegate is at 16:02 of Gemini in ninth house and in a trine aspect to Jobs' Aquarius Mercury at 14:22 in his fifth house. So, here is the asteroid Apple(gate) in the zodiac sign Gemini. This is a sign that has the following synchronistic attributions to what Apple actually evolved into: bookkeeping, broadcasting, communication of all means, computers, crystals, education (primary and secondary), information (gathering and dissemination), inquiries, learning, merchandising, messages, publishing, reading, schools, storytelling, transportation, typing, versatility, wireless, and writers. It's not hard to connect the various ways in which this companies' products revolutionized so many of these areas.
Further when we consider its position in the ninth house, we can see that even more of the story is present. Again, looking through the lens of attributions, the ninth house has the following items that directly relate to what Apple is as a company. They are distant communications, commerce in general, worldwide contacts, higher education, foreign affairs and trade, knowledge, publishing and published writings, teachers and teaching, universities.
If we were to stop here, this would be extremely informative about what transpired in Steve Jobs's life. However, there is more. Usually, in the world of asteroids in aspect to planets, orbs (degrees of separation between two planetary bodies) are kept to 1 degree or less due to the smaller size of asteroids in general. In this case, the asteroid Apple(gate) is in a slightly wider orb, at 1 degree and 40 minutes, Apple(gate) at 16:02 and Mercury at 14:22. However, when you look at the actual delineation of the favorable trine from Jobs's Aquarius Mercury to a Gemini Apple(gate), there is powerful evidence this configuration shows up in a major way in his life.
Steve Jobs was born with Mercury in Aquarius in his fifth house. This, again, is remarkably representative of the persona we all know. Mercury, when placed in Aquarius, imbues the persona with a mental approach that leans into innovative, unique, and revolutionary thinking and ideas. This is also a person who thinks in terms of the collective, and how things will impact society as a whole. People with this placement are the freethinking idealists of the world. When we further examine the attributions of both the Aquarian energy and the fifth house, we find an undeniable connection with real-life events.
Before providing these attributions, in its simplest form, having the two zodiacal Air signs (those most associated with communication), Gemini and Aquarius, involved in a trine aspect (one of cooperation and opportunity) between the company Jobs co-founded as signified by the asteroid, a Gemini Apple(gate), and his ideas, thoughts, and musings as signified by his Aquarius Mercury is stunning enough. But then when we add the attributions of Aquarius that apply, which are: colleagues, cooperation, electricity, electrical engineering (Steve Wozniak did have engineering training. Wozniak earned a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley), electronics, explorers, freethinking, idealists, modernization, motion pictures, progress, photography, revolutions, co-operative societies, telephones, television, and wireless with the fifth house's connections to artistic endeavors, chances, creativity, gambling, hobbies, passions, and risks, the clarity is enhanced.
Wrapped neatly into the fabric of these ancient symbols lies the story of Steve Jobs transformative life. The siren call of the energies swirling in his natal promise were heard and heeded.

When adding one additional asteroid to this already salient set of sentinels in this chart, the asteroid Vesta is found to be in conjunction with the asteroid Apple(gate). Vesta is domiciled at 17 degrees and 57 minutes of Gemini, and Apple(gate), as previously mentioned, was at 16 degrees and 2 minutes. Again, a wider separation than 1 degree; however, the story confirms the blending of these two bodies. Vesta represents devotion, focus, and the place one feels a sacred fire. As an aside, Vesta is also correspondent with the wisdom of knowing the value of periodic retreat from others in order to cleanse and regenerate the self to glean clarity and purpose. It resides in the house where, in astrology, we find the topic of long-distance travel and foreign persons. Are you seeing it? Steve Jobs traveled to India, where he retreated to regenerate and find greater clarity. And yes, remarkably, this archetypal energy sits next to the elegant and simple computer company he founded (possessing Zen-like attributes), Apple. This became his focus and devotion.
Shifting now to the asteroids cited earlier, let's first look at Samadhi (12472). The energies associated with this asteroid bring a focus to deep meditation, enlightenment, nirvana, and the "zero point of mind" state central to Zen and other contemplative traditions. Where was it located in Jobs' chart at birth? It was in his sixth house, the place of service, daily routines, health, work, and healing, at 20 degrees and 45 minutes of Pisces. This is, as you may recall, the house where his natal Pisces Sun was located at birth. The first astounding factor surrounding this placement is that this asteroid associated with meditation is in the zodiac sign associated with meditation, Pisces. Further, this is the house of daily rituals we maintain in order to sustain our health.
Moreover, the asteroid Pisces Samadhi forms a tight trine to Steve Jobs' Cancer Jupiter and Uranus conjunction in his house of career, ambitions, and how one contributes to the world, the tenth house. It also forms a similar trine to his Scorpio Saturn. This represents a water trine, an astrological configuration connected to an easy flow of emotional, intuitive, and imaginative energy. On a high level, Samadhi (a focus on the zero-point mind), Jupiter (deep beliefs and philosophy), and Saturn (dedication and commitment) aligned in an easy flow of creativity and imagination.
Multiple sources speak to this dynamic, indicating Jobs crediting meditation with sharpening his intuition, which guided innovations like the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad by emphasizing "simplicity" and filtering distractions (e.g., reducing Apple's product lines from 40+ to 4). Biographers and associates note his Zen training fostered concentration and aesthetics, directly influencing Apple's clean interfaces, user-centered design, and removal of unnecessary features like physical keyboards or floppy drives.
Let's now circle back to the element of Steve Jobs' persona that drew widespread criticism. At birth, Jobs' moon, one's emotional nature in astrology, was in the assertive, aggressive, and fiery sign of Aries. This Moon was in his seventh house of close relationships, partnerships, and open enemies. Of note, his Moon is square the nodes of the moon while his Sun is sextile and trine these same nodes. This speaks of his fiery emotions pushing him toward his destiny and his imaginative and visionary Sun providing the fuel or opportunity to achieve it. Interestingly, the moon’s dispositor in his chart is a 29-degree Mars also in Aries.
Importantly, this Mars is in an aspect of opposition to Steve Jobs' natal Neptune, the planet that represents our creative, imaginative, and visionary abilities. Planets in opposition are said to have competing agendas that need to find balance. Being that Jobs' Neptune was in the sign of Libra, which also is associated with creative pursuits, in his house of financial security, and his Aries Mars is in the place where we work in a cooperative and beneficial way with others, the issues he had seem to be very visible through this lens.
Several sources confirm that his leadership style emphasized traits like all‑or‑nothing thinking, blaming others, and unmanaged emotions, portraying him as a “difficult” or even “high‑conflict” personality in one‑on‑one and team settings. Ultimately, though, it seems the trine aspect from this same Neptune to his visionary, charismatic, and creative Pisces Sun provided enough of a counterforce in his life for success to occur despite his tendency to get embroiled in interpersonal conflicts in the workplace.
Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, at age 56 due to complications from a rare form of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (a less common type of pancreatic cancer). One of his most famous last quotes reflects his perspective on life and death:
"Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."
He reportedly repeated this phrase in his final moments, capturing a sense of wonder and acceptance.




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