(photo acknowledgment below)

Introduction
Medical examiners have a term for cause of death of individuals who die from overdoses of, and conflict between, prescription drugs. It is polypharmacy (sounds pretty neutral, doesn't it?) Elvis Presley died of polypharmacy.

The laboratory report for Presley’s autopsy “detected fourteen drugs in Elvis’ system, two in significant quantity: codeine appeared at ten times the therapeutic level and methaqualone (Quaalude) in an arguably toxic amount. Three other drugs appeared to be on the borderline of toxicity taken in and of themselves, and ‘the combined effect of the central nervous system depressants and the codeine’ had to be given heavy consideration.” (Guralnick, 2nd book cited below, 652).

So far in my work with this method I have found the 1st chart contains the susceptibility to drug addiction and drug reaction. Since Presley died from drug consumption, his 1st chart shows his death. Since drug consumption, including barbiturates, dominated the last years of his life, Presley's 1st chart may also have been his predominant chart for those years.

Elvis Presley, 1st Chart
I have highlighted both of Presley’s 4th houses in the partial harmonic chart below. Presley died young. He was 42 years old when he died August 16, 1977.

As an aside, that sun conjunct mars in Pisces, which is non-harmonic and therefore in all his charts, is the astrological source of Elvis’ bouts of self-loathing.

(More is written about mars in Pisces, its influence to various houses and Angles, in the papers on Charles Whitman and the Unabomber, in the section on Gregory Godzik in the paper about Polly Klaas, and in the appendix for Nikola Tesla in this paper about Dag Hammarskjöld. Links to all occur on the Home Page. All those links are also found in the second appendix for this paper: Appendix 2 )

Conception 4th house (shown above) contains two harmonic saturns, with b1 saturn squaring his C Asc (I failed to put it in the drawing--the value of b1 saturn is 5 Leo 44). That is, he has an already lighted, Angular saturn in his b 4th. Our 4th houses show conditions during the last part of our lives. Saturn in the 4th means feeling isolated, alone, vulnerable, unable to connect, even surrounded by others. It also adds to depression.

Presley's birth 4th house (shown above) is worse. It contains his shell (that is, it occurs in all charts) sun and mars in Pisces. In this chart it acquires moon and neptune in Pisces. Because two lights are involved, we can consider this a loose conjunction involving sun/moon/mars/neptune. C sun co-rules (15 of 29°) c 4th house, so Presley has both his 4th houses influenced by this set, so suggestive of drugs and fantasy (lights in Pisces/neptune) and toxic reactions (mars/neptune).

There is more to this last set. C1 mercury and b mars in Virgo are also a part of it. Each has a 6th influence. C1 mercury rules c 6th. B mars rules B Asc as well as b 6th, making this whole set involving Pisces and Virgo forefront and influencing his health (6th) as well as the end of his life (4th).

Since the above shows he started out in life with saturn and mars/neptune influencing an Angle and 4ths, Presley was heavily inclined to addiction (neptune) and adverse (mars) reactions to it. He was also inclined to self-destructive behavior (sun is Pisces conjoined with virulent mars in Pisces).

B Asc is in b 7th house. It is ruled by b mars in Virgo (above), so his light/mars/neptune in the same set with mars in Virgo influences b 7th house. And b 4th house overlaps c 11th house. So Presley’s light/mars/neptune in his b 4th house also influences his 11th house. These likely describe the many individuals--“enablers” (or, at least not preventers)--who lived with him throughout the time he was self-destructing with drugs.

Conception 4th house was most active on the date he died, August 16, 1977 (note that since b and b1 mercury rule an Angle, they act like lights and have a static orb of 5° and pull the set below into one cohesive set):

All of the Leo planets are in c 4th house, giving him lighted mars/saturn in a 4th which has multiple Angular influence.

Presley did have an afflicted 6th chart.

Elvis Presley, 6th Chart
Presley’s 6th chart started out afflicted. His C Asc at 4 Taurus 56 is conjunct c6 saturn (ruler of C MC in b 2nd house) at 3 Taurus 41. His B MC at 2 Virgo 59 is square b6 mars (5th, 6th and Asc ruler) at 1 Gemini 52.

B Asc is in a loose set with all the malefics:

Containing lighted mars/saturn/neptune with 4th and Angular influence, Set 1 is serious fault in Presley health chart. However, it is only a fault. Mars and saturn, both below B Asc, are over two degrees apart and would be separated by a progressing Angle.

A progressing light, however, could keep them together. On the date of his death Presley had progressed c6 North Node at 15 Aquarius 16, giving him node/moon/mars/saturn/neptune, with 4th influence. It would need progressed Angles to mars and saturn to influence his death.

Progressed b mercury, ruler of B MC, was at 0 Aquarius 42R conjunct c saturn at 0 Aquarius 28, giving him the progressed Angle/saturn. Progressed b6 mars, ruler of b 6th and B Asc, was at 3 Virgo 35 conjunct B MC at 2 Virgo 59--a little late, but this is not a rectified chart.

Conclusion
So, it turns out, Presley’s 1st and 6th charts were active at the time and instrumental in representing his death. Did they have to represent death? Right now I can only answer that those conditions--lighted mars and saturn influence to a 4th house, and progressed Angles to mars and saturn or vice versa--are always present for death. But Presley died of long-term drug abuse. Would an individual with his chart who did not abuse drugs also have died? Would s/he even have been able to resist some kind of addiction?

Presley’s drug compulsion appeared in his 1st chart, and the effect it had on his health appeared in his 6th. The two combined were the dynamo for his drug addiction. Being young, and starting with a healthy body, he found another way--drug abuse--to experience the serious health problems suggested by his 6th chart.

Bibliography
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, by Peter Guralnick. New York, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1994.

Photo Acknowledgment
The picture at top is a "color drawing" scan of a photo by Alfred Wertheimer from page 234 of the first Guralnick book cited above.

Data Acknowledgments
Elvis Presley
Birth: 1/08/1935, 4:35 a.m. CST, Tupelo, Mississippi. From Astrodatabank by Lois Rodden and Mark McDonough. B.C. in hand from Eugene Moore. CSH has the same data. One source reported 3:30 a.m.
Conception: 3/28/1934, 8:22:39 a.m. CST, Tupelo, Mississippi.