I’m very sad to hear that Mr Jonathan
Cainer has left the earth plane so early.
He was a huge influence and inspiration to me when I was first learning
astrology and it felt right that I acknowledge that here and to tell this magical story which changed my life path very clearly
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a child I knew I would learn
astrology. When I started school I was
fascinated by those whose dates of birth were the closest. I was convinced as a small child that this
meant we’d come into the world with something similar. I didn’t know the word astrology, or anything
about the planets at this point but I remember being very happy when we first
learned the names and positions of the planets when I was around 6 or 7 years
old.
When I was around 12 years old I bought one
of those books which touched lightly upon most of those subjects which are
grouped together. There was a little
about feng shui, the I Ching, tasseography, oneiromancy, palmistry,
shamanism and an overview of the astrological signs and the meaning of the
houses. I remember glancing over
astrology and thinking, “not yet,” and reading about every other subject. I was fairly content with dealing superficially
with the other topics I suppose.
As a teenager I would stop by the shops and
read the horoscopes with my friend, I often referred to a little Collins pocket
book that I had for when we wanted to know a little more about the signs. Needless to say by the time I began to study
astrology as a subject I’d assimilated it for years and had a very good
understanding of the Sun signs and the concepts and qualities associated with
each.
I became a fan of Jonathan Cainer
horoscopes as soon as I saw them. In my
opinion they were superior to all the others I’d come across and had a depth,
empathy and spiritual element which I’d always been seeking. It became a ‘thing’ and I would look forward to
reading the weekly scopes and read them out to my friends when they were
published of a weekend.
At this point I lived in a shared house
with a friend called Nick who often dropped by at weekends. He had no time for astrology and so I made a
concerted effort to tease him by reading his horoscopes aloud each week. As so many people I’ve met, he always paid
avid attention when I did so but over time it became a standard joke between us
too. He declared that I was ‘obsessed’
with Jonathan Cainer and on cue I got hold of a book Jonathan had written about
astrology and started to read about the Moon signs and Venus and Mars
signs.
Around this time Nick was going to a lot of
festivals over the Summer in his camper van and on arrival he’d set up his huge
yellow and red circus tent and make it festival feature. I’m not sure he was ever paid or thanked for doing
this. Nick didn’t care much for money,
he lived his own life, in his own way and things just worked out. He was loud, brash, an ex-cabaret star who
had met many famous people over the years and most of all he was an exceedingly
talented trombonist and I suppose this was probably how he made his
living.
Early Autumn one time Nick returned from a
festival, as always on a very upbeat enthusiastic note and with many stories to
tell. I was happy to sit down with a cup
of tea and listen. On this occasion
however, he appeared a little sheepish and less inclined to regale me with
tales. He sat down and said, “You won’t
guess who I met?” Of course I proceed to
list the most unlikely people that I could come up with; I didn’t confine my
annoying traits to merely reading horoscopes.
Even I wasn’t expecting what came next though.
Nick had arrived at one of his festivals
late at night as usual, and got talking to a guy camped next to him as normal
also. At the time he had this idea to
build a pyramidal tent and technicalities of how to build it were his main
topic of conversation. It turns out the
guy parked next to him had a great deal more patience than I, and also a lot
more money; some of which he offered to invest in the creation of this complicated
tent construction. It was then that he
told me that this new business partner / friend was Jonathan Cainer. I couldn’t stop laughing. I was a genuine fan of his work, very keen to
meet him and suddenly he was catapulted into my world. Nick wasn’t planning on introducing us, in
fact quite the reverse, he still regarded me as ‘obsessed’ and all I’d done was
play up to this for my own entertainment.
A couple of months later Nick was in talks
with Jonathan and Jon was still being exceedingly patient – bearing in mind he
wasn’t an engineer, a fabric salesman, a metal worker, or a tent salesmen, he
had no reason to get so involved in the logistics of this tent design. He did though and when Nick told him he’d
made a little prototype of his design Jon invited him up to Yorkshire to show
him in person. There was one catch
though; Jon was clear that Nick needed to bring somebody with him and whilst
Nick was convinced I would be an absolute embarrassment with him he also knew
there was nobody else who would make a 6 hour round trip to listen to him
talking about tents. He had no choice
but to invite me. Again, I couldn’t stop
laughing!!
And that is the story of how I came to spend
a weekend at Jonathan Cainer’s house!
The weekend itself was unremarkable compared to the story. Jon was a
truly lovely man, a gracious house and made us feel absolutely at home. He was a fellow vegetarian and so, soon after
arrival we were treated to a fabulous healthy meal with lots of ‘help yourself
components’ and a large table around which his large and friendly family was
sat. At the time he was making some
professional decisions about the direction of his career and so after dinner
everyone sat and discussed it.
Equally. Mine and Nick’s views
were invited as much as his youngest children who were children and his
partner. It was true democracy and the idyll
of a warm, happy, loving family home.
The next day he showed us some footage of
the Maharishi who was a lovely little prophet-time man from India who Jon would
watch on a distant TV channel and visit in person from time to time. The Maharishi gave me a solar plexus warmth
and the feeling of laughter bubbling from within me, such was the joy emanating
from him – even via the hazy satellite connection. That room was a heaven of sorts for me also,
it housed Tudor style carved cabinets, sumptuous big comfortable chairs and
sofas and most importantly had congas, a piano, guitars, and a drum kit set up
in the corner, all amidst large wooden carved elephants which had been carted
back from India. Jon explained that he loved
music but for him it was recreational, whereas his brother Daniel had made a
decent name for himself in the music world.
On the evening we popped down to a local
pub, which was a walk down a completely dark, unlit country lane from the field
ensconced house we were staying. All I
remember about that night was that the stars in the sky were the brightest I’d
ever seen them before (or since) and I was overwhelmed by the truth that this
whole scenario was a very clear message to me that I, also, was meant to be an
astrologer.
We returned to Birmingham the next day, but
first visited a place called ‘Rosedale bank’ which Jon recommended we visit
since it was so near – to where we were just North of York and so
beautiful. It was indeed; stunning,
memorably so.
The stand-out memory on the journey back
was Nick having a go at me for directing him down all the A roads when there
was a much bigger, straighter road we could go down. I had to show him that the road map we were
using was so old the road wasn’t marked on there yet. We were both very amused.
I spent the next few completely committed
to learning astrology. What I didn’t
know at the time was that Uranus transiting conjunct my Sun already had it
planned out that way. One of my best
repositories of information was a place called ‘astro-chat’ which was a
creation from Jonathan Cainer’s website.
It was where many talented astrologers of all ages and levels of
knowledge congregated and hung out and I learned more from my experiential
sharing on that site than I could have ever learned studying alone. I’m glad to say that I remain in touch with a
few people I met there also, including a very close friend who for a while was
my partner.
Sadly the next time I got in touch with
Jonathan Cainer it was to inform him that Nick had died. He had collapsed and died of a heart attack
next to his camper van, at a festival in France. Nick had lived a very big life, survived a
very major accident when he broke his neck, travelled extensively around India,
enjoyed a taste of fame in the 60s and he had two grown up children of whom he
was very proud.
I know that Jon also spent a lot of time
travelling, visiting festivals, meeting people; sometimes writing his horoscopes
whilst travelling by road through India.
He is survived by a large family, including a wife and eight children
and I know he will be missed hugely. He
did fulfill many of his ambitions though, of that I am sure. I am also certain that he knew he would die
suddenly. Any astrologer with Uranus in
the 8th House would expect to leave this world quickly and
surprisingly. His final horoscope
written for his own sign of Sagittarius talks about us all believing we have more
time than we think but that life is finite.
Perhaps he knew it was his time.
Much love Jonathan, thank for everything
you taught me and for being such an intrinsic part of my journey. May there be lots of purple, and sparkly loveliness
wherever you are.
If you ever look at the sky and see a huge
pyramid; you’ll know that Nick and Jonathan have finally completed their
visionary tent! ♥
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