_{Movie still of Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha taken from: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/frances-ha-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness}

What do Charles Bukowski, Greta Gerwig and Arnold Schwarzenegger have in common? Aside from unpronounceable family names, they are all born with Leo Suns. I want to use the space of this article to dive as much as I can into the things that bring them together and also set them apart as the Leonic artists that they are. Of course, I’m only able to ‘gently’ touch upon some of the surface-level aspects in their birth-charts since it might take me the span of a whole book to do a deep astrological comparison, so keep this aspect in mind as you read the analyses below. I first need to mention the very awesome fact that the people I selected for this article are part of 3 different generations: Pluto in Cancer (Bukowski), Pluto in Leo (Schwarzenegger) and Pluto in Libra (Gerwig). This aspect shows that they have very different values and unconscious needs and that they lived within a set of circumstances that made their success possible.

Now the reasons I selected these three Leos is purely personal and selfish: Greta blew up in the media with her latest movie ‘Barbie’ which I really enjoyed seeing but also made me wax nostalgically about her earlier work in fringe movies like ‘Frances Ha’ (one of my favourites). Arnold was recently featured on Netflix as part of a documentary about his legacy. I’ve always had a soft spot towards him after seeing Terminator for the first time when I was about 5 years old (the movie shocked me so much that I recounted the synopsis to anyone who would care to pay me attention). The documentary on Netflix about Arnold’s life as a body-builder, actor and politician revived these memories for me, so I felt compelled to write about his chart.

On the other hand, Charles Bukowski was someone whose literary work I heard of in high-school when I was listening to rock music and read articles with my favorite musicians who would often cite his work or his name at least (nod to Paul Banks from Interpol); but much like Henry Miller, whose work he was often compared to, I didn’t find it interesting enough at the time to read his work (I was more of a Thomas Hardy and Virginia Wolf afficionado back in high school). Last week, as I was browsing through a bookstore in Bucharest, I found his book “The Most Beautiful Woman in Town and Other Stories” and decided it was time to become Bukowski-ed 🙂 So as I’m writing this, his novel rests on my night-stand and I am adequately entertained, shocked and disgusted to sleep, by his feral adventures.

Charles Bukowski (born on August 16th 1920 in Andernach, Germany) is a Leo Sun in the 5th house (conjunct Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury), a Virgo Moon in the 6th house (loosely conjunct Saturn and Venus), and a Taurus Ascendant conjunct his South Node. His destiny points are a South Node in Taurus in the 1st house (the house of the Self) and a Scorpio North Node in the 7th house (conjunct Mars!). The first thing that stands out from his chart is that most of his planetary placements are ‘underground’ or placed below the Ascendant/Descendant line that crosses a chart in half. This is the mark of a true introvert and someone who is meant to live their existence in this incarnation from ‘the inside out’. Another thing that impressed me is that Bukowski is a Moon conjunct Saturn in the purest sign of the zodiac, the Virgo Maiden; not only that but his Venus is also conjunct Saturn. Just the first placement would be difficult for someone’s love life and self-esteem but having Saturn grip both his Venus (pleasure, love, beauty) and Moon (emotions, safety, unconscious) is truly astounding and very difficult to live with. I don’t blame him for turning to alcohol and I certainly understand his need to write about what he was experiencing, because none of these placements is for the light-hearted. When Saturn touches upon someone’s Moon and Venus it gives the native both a deep desire and yearning to be loved but it also delays and prolongs the process of finding a partner that would reciprocate in kind.

_{Image of the birth-chart of Charles Bukowski taken from https://www.astro-seek.com/birth-chart/charles-bukowski-horoscope}

The person is deeply spiritualized through personal, romantic rejections, emotional pain, social awkwardness and communicative misunderstandings in love. The native usually has to deal with low-quality people, who are selfish and mean, people who mostly use them and discard them, people who are old, tired of life and sick. I know this energy intimately since I too was born with a Moon conjunct Saturn, a Mars in the 7th house and a Sun in the 5th house, just like Bukowski. So these placements combined offer the native long periods of emotional deprivation or needing to be stoic (Moon conjunct Saturn) as most of the people you tend to naturally attract (Sun in the 5th) offer your karmic lessons, tend to treat you with aggression or use you for sex (Mars in the 7th). His Mars square the Sun also shows a propensity towards fighting with other men to prove his masculinity, but it can also give him a high sex drive which he needs to learn to control. His Chiron in Aries in the 12th house shows a deep wounding of the Ego that may never be healed, and I feel that it is this wounding that makes his writing something more than just outright pornography. And indeed, his literary works portray someone of such promise and spiritual anointment (Sun conjunct lucky Jupiter and in the blessed 5th house) who chooses to live like a loser, a nobody, an all-American reject (Chiron in Aries in the 12th house in tandem with his self-deprecating Moon conjunct Saturn inner landscape). Reading him is like reading the gospel of everyday fuckery: his prose oozes with this energy, of flesh and fucking that yearns to be saved and spiritualized in some way, of the grace of daily dramas and the cruelty of relating. I remember that at some point in my life I reached the conclusion that everything in the environment either wants to ‘fuck me or kill me’ and all I had back then, was a reliance upon the Divine to show me a way out of this daily gutter. And I feel that Bukowski might have thought this too at some point, even if his cocky Leo Sun conjunct Jupiter might have tempted him to say ‘but it is I who does the fucking too’. He died at the age of 73 just as Pluto in Scorpio was preparing to leave (Sidenote: can you imagine living up until your 70s after a lifetime of drinking, smoking and a poor diet? He was a magician!).

Moving on to a more light-hearted Leo energy, let’s talk about Greta Gerwig! She was born on August 4th 1983 in Sacramento, California (age 39 years), but unfortunately I couldn’t find any information regarding her time of birth. So her analysis will be devoid of house placements or an Ascendant. We know at least that she is a Sun in Leo with a Gemini Moon (conjunct the North Node and Chiron), her Mars is in Cancer and her Venus is in Virgo (conjunct Mercury) and her destiny points are a North Node in Gemini versus a South Node in Sagittarius (conjunct Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune). She has a stellium in her chart which is a very special marker showing how an individual’s life can change dramatically over-night after years of waiting. This is also the marker of a highly intelligent person who prefers her alone time, and it denotes someone who invents things and creates beautiful things to share with the collective, in this precious alone time. A healthy & functioning stellium person rarely gets bored in their solitude.

_{Image of the birth-chart of Greta Gerwig taken from https://www.astro-seek.com/birth-chart/greta-gerwig-horoscope}

I noticed as well that Greta has chosen to settle down with director Noah Baumbach, who directed her in Frances Ha. Noah for his part, is a Virgo Sun and Greta’s Venus is in the sign of Virgo, which tells me clearly that she is very much in love with him. Usually when we meet a person whose Sun touches upon our Venus we tend to instantly feel a sense of attraction and affection towards them. Another example: my Venus is in Aquarius and I was married to an Aquarius Sun man (especially since my Juno placement – the asteroid which usually indicates marriage and the type of spouse a person is – is also in Aquarius). I also like the fact that Greta seems to have gone public with their relationship and started having children with him, after she established herself as a director, following the success of ‘Lady bird’ and ‘Little Women’ and now with this summer’s hit ‘Barbie’.

Greta’s move from actor to director is a very Leonic thing to do, and it is also aligned with her nodal points. She moved from starring in artsy and niche movies in which her performances were applauded for their authenticity (Sagittarius) into directorial features which are more popular, mass-consumed, light-hearted and brimming with witty dialogues (Gemini). I’m sure that now that she has children, her next feature might build on the playful world we saw in Barbie, or focus on children’s adventures in some capacity, since she has a lot of Mercurian energy in her chart (her North Node in Gemini, her Venus and Mercury in Virgo) which usually leads to rather cartoony creations. Leos in general are very good at drawing inspiration in their art from their direct, lived and personal experiences, so I’m sure that Greta is no exception. I really like the direction her career has taken and I’m rooting for her, even if I still go back and rewatch her indie movies.

Now, you could say I saved the most famous Leo for last. Arnold Schwarzenegger was born July 30th 1947 in Thal, Austria (age 76 years) and he is a proud Leo Sun in the 6th house (conjunct Saturn and Pluto), with a Cancer Ascendant (conjunct Mercury & Venus) and a Moon in Capricorn in the 6th house (conjunct Lilith). His destiny points are a his North Node in Taurus in the 11th house versus his South Node in Scorpio in the 5th house (conjunct Jupiter and Chiron). I can already notice a very strong pattern among men who become rich and famous in the entertainment industry and this pattern is tied into their natal Moon in Capricorn placement. Case in point: Johnny Depp has it, Brad Pitt has it, Pedro Pascal has it and the list goes on. A Moon in Capricorn is a stoic placement that doesn’t deal with mushy sentimentality (unless the native had a couple of drinks). It is a traditionally masculine energy in the softest placement of someone’s chart (the Moon shows our emotions, deep desires, capacity to nourish ourselves and others and how we relax). With this Saturnian energy, usually we are dealing here with a person who can easily detach from their emotions and can exercise a lot of emotional control. They mostly pour their hearts into their work and craft, to which they feel more emotionality attached to, rather than to their loved ones.

In all honesty, a native with a Moon in Capricorn in spite of being quite loyal and responsible, can also be someone who is quite a lousy lover, a distant father and often a cruel competitor, because the native represses so much of their emotionality. Feeling like a failure is the harshest thing this lunar placement can experience and they often go through difficult separations, losses and challenges which are meant to strengthen their determination and resolve to persevere no matter what; the thing is they will most likely chose to persevere at work and in making money and not so much in saving their personal relationships from meltdowns. In Arnold’s case this energy is amplified somehow because his North Node is in stubborn Taurus, which channels all its strength to achieve wealth, financial stability and material success. In order to attain that, the native must overcome their inner darkness, obsessive nature and lewd sexual behaviour (South Node in Scorpio); the native needs to heal to attain stability and stop reproducing chaos. So I’m sure Arnold is hiding a lot of things which will probably shock us, if they reached daylight.

_{Image of the birth-chart of Arnold Schwarzenegger taken from https://www.astro-seek.com/birth-chart/arnold-schwarzenegger-horoscope}

However, Arnold was given a natal Moon in Capricorn placement in the 6th house, so that through his work in the service of others, a focus on health and routinized activities (such as weightlifting), he may learn to learn to control his temper (South Node in Scorpio) in order to attain financial success (North Node in Taurus). And this financial success is directly tied into his sense of self-worth since we see a very powerful Saturn placement in his 2nd house (the area in our charts that governs over the body, money and esteem) which also happens to be conjunct his Sun (identity) and Pluto (achieving power through transformation). Having a Sun conjunct Pluto, makes one a powerhouse of pleasure and intensity; a true daredevil with a gangsta side. But having Saturn conjunct the Sun, takes away from that power and karmically binds one into a feeling of always needing to prove yourself to others and to strive to accept who you are. Arnold has both!

So for him, the way in which he could make money and feel worthy of love and attention, was by working on his body and produce a powerful transformation. He was given the gift of having Venus in the 1st house which shows a person who easily attracts love, compliments, admiration and the support of others, especially of women. However a Venus in the 1st has the downside of denoting someone in love with themselves to the detriment of other people. Having Mercury on the Ascendant makes Arnold a more gregarious individual than his shy Cancerian energy would naturally make him be. We see here somebody who used his mind, his words and his capacity to attract love and compliments in order to build a name for himself. It might not be the truth, but I 100% believe that marrying Maria Schriever was not necessarily a move out of love, but a strategic move to get him to has a step in the world of American politics, seeing as he had his cultural foreignness as an Austrian, standing between him and even greater success. Maria is also a pat-life soulmate of his, who was meant to help him move towards his destiny but then could not accompany him fully along the way (her Sun in Scorpio touches upon his South Node and Jupiter in Scorpio; a point of growth by letting people go). Through this powerful alliance and once again, Arnold transformed his work role (Pluto in the 2nd house) and attained more wealth, prestige and an enduring image (North Node in Taurus).

In conclusion, I think that what unites these three Leonic lives is how focused they are on strength: in Arnold’s case it is obvious physical strength turned into entertaining and political strength; in Greta’s case is the strength of humor & that kind of gendered strength required to move from being an actress to becoming a successful director and a mama, embodying the epitome for ‘having it all’; in Bukowski’s case is the strength to keep writing and to endure life, to resist his own self-destructive behaviors but also to exist within a society that rejected him and tried to fit him into a mold he persistently rejected. And that requires balls.

With universal love,

Lexi