_{Image of Armie Hammer on the cover of OUT magazine. See here: https://www.out.com/tag/armie-hammer#toggle-gdpr}

I will never be able to look at the The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in the same way again. It’s Virgo season, so in today’s post I have the chart of another Virgo Sun male celebrity for your consideration. This is not necessarily the most positive example of a Virgo chart, and it’s slightly sad for me to do this analysis since I had a soft spot for Armier Hammer. I actually found him pretty hot, before the news broke of his mistreatment of women. As we are approaching the Full Moon in Pisces, some things come out of the shadow and become apparent, especially situations involving the secrets of the acting world. This approaching Full Moon in idealistic Pisces is coming up on the 31st of August and it is conjunct Saturn (the energy of karma) and Neptune (the energy of imagination and escapism, the one that rules over the film industry).

Bearing all this in mind, I recently saw the House of Hammer mini series on HBO and felt slightly gob-smacked at the evidence presented against Armie Hammer and his intimate relationships with a number of women who accused him of sexual assault. Now, I am aware that such docu-series can be fabricated to present a certain version of the truth, and to a large extent, as the public we will never truly know what actually happened between two people in an intimate setting, but my gut was telling me this rings somehow true and that was the chilling factor in my bones. Armie is an objectively good looking man, a classic ‘hunk’ some might say, but this is the manufactured public version of his personality, his ‘Hollywood costume’ if you’d like. So I was curious to see what does his chart say about how he his in private? What about the form of masculinity he naturally embodies?

In the series, I found out that Armie was named after his great-grandfather Armand Hammer, a ruthless man who built an empire from scratch and became a wealthy oil tycoon. His grandfather however also had a penchant for exercising domestic violence and covert control tactics to keep his family members in check, especially his wives. And it seems that just like the name he was given, the spectre of a received type of masculine identity seems to be unconsciously haunting Armie. I’ll try to combine in this article my knowledge of sociology, psychology and astrology and analyze this fascinatingly eerie case study of a famous Virgo Sun.

In their book ‘Toxic Masculinity: Mapping the Monstrous in Our Heroes’ (2020) Esther de Dauw and Daniel J. Connell write that:

_{“(…) hegemonic masculinity can be defined as the configuration of gender practices which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy which guarantees (or is taken to guarantee) the dominant position of men and the subordination of women.” This hegemonic masculinity is straight, able-bodied, White and ‘hard’ i.e., not feminine” (p. 4).}

The term ‘hegemon’ comes from Ancient Greek and can be defined as a supreme leader, a king basically. So it could be tempting to consider the form of masculinity which Armie seems to adopt in his private life to be a toxic kind; but rather than seeing his identity as toxic it’s more of a case of him employing toxic behaviors in private in order to maintain his power, a power that gives him so many rewards in his public life. Indeed if you watch the docu-series, the text messages presented there portray Armie as being hungry for absolute power in the sexual coercion he was employing with his lovers. The authors go on to complete that in society, through the means of culture:

_{“(…) men are encouraged to wield a performative “woke-ness” which allows them to act personally in ways that are seemingly divorced from hegemonic or toxic masculinity while simultaneously reinforcing structural inequalities. Hegemonic masculinity has an unfixed nature, encompassing hybrid masculinities, hypermasculinity and toxic masculinity” (p. 5).}

Or to put it bluntly, what distinguishes Armie’s aggressive masculinity from that of any other man who uses violence to punish a woman, is the fact that Armie is rich and well-connected, and thereby he embodies a higher form of toxicity, a hegemonic form of masculinity, the kind that usually walks away and doesn’t suffer harsh consequences even when leaving behind the disturbing evidence of his actions.

So how did he learn to embody this hegemonic masculinity? Well, it seems that the docu-series is putting forward the idea that it was transmitted to him, passed down from grandfather, to father to son. Our parents are able to give us not only material and financial assets or help us develop our intelligence and our skill sets, but they also can give us in unseen ways, some pretty heavy emotional baggage. Family psychologists have a term for this process and they refer to it as ‘inter-generational transmission’, or:

_{“the extent to which behaviors and characteristics of individuals from one generation are recurring in offspring, has been reported for multiple characteristics, such as personality and psychopathology, educational attainment and Socioeconomic Status (SES), Body Mass Index (BMI), life style factors, and health, as well as relational processes, such as quality of parenting or divorce” (from Branje et al., 2020)}

Now that I introduced the terms used in the title, I hope that it is more clear what I am attempting to argue for in this article. Astrologically-speaking, in order to explore the answers to the questions above, we need to examine the placement of his natal Moon, Mars and the North Node, since the Moon shows our unconscious priming, Mars shows the type of masculinity her uses in his daily life, and the North Node shows his destiny or what he is meant to experience in this incarnation. Needless to say, if I was shocked at the allegations of cannibalism and rape, when I had a look into this chart, I was floored again by how the astral placements matched the history of violence and the transmission down his family line of toxic masculinity traits and strong Ego attachments to power. Take a look for yourself:

_{Image of Armie Hammer and his birth-chart taken from https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Armie_Hammer}

First of all, we see a Gemini Ascendant at the chaotic 29th degree (also called the anaretic degree, a fated indicator). His Ascendant is conjunct his Moon and the asteroid Lilith, both in the witty and dual sign of Gemini and placed in the spiritual 12th house. This house is also the house of secrets, bed pleasures and spaces of confinement – make a note of this Gemini energy in the 12th house, because it is the defining clue to what I mean by him being haunted by his great-grandfather’s karma. We also see a dutiful Sun in Virgo conjunct Mercury and the Part of Fortune in the communicative 3rd house. This placement denotes an intelligent person with a penchant for behaving like a trickster. So Armie has a lot of Mercurial energy in his chart, as Gemini and Virgo are co-ruled by the Messenger God, Hermes Trismegistus. The equivalent to Hermes in Scandinavian lore is the mean-spirited God Loki, who had a bone to pick with his brother the more luminous and popular Thor. I’m only bringing up this mythological and familial drama, because it seems to bear a heavy weight in Armie’ relationships to the men in his family. Having a Mercury ruled chart makes someone intelligent, social charming but also contradictory and cunning. And the theme of his destiny seems to be this conflict between mind and heart, since a brilliant mind without a kind heart can make someone quite cruel and calculated.

You’ll also notice that his Mercury (his mind and the way he speaks) is squared by Saturn in Sagittarius in the 6th house, an aspect that denotes someone who suffers from ‘foot in the mouth syndrome’. So Armie clearly has a pattern of saying things (Mercury) that are detrimental to his work (6th house), things that endure in time and can affect his reputation (Saturn). Saturn is also sitting in tension with his Sun, so despite the fact that in the media and in his local environment, things and people will revolve around him (as he is the warmth-bringer with his Sun placed there at the incredibly fortunate 4’44 degree), however in his everyday work he is frequently challenged by older and wiser men who have the capacity to block his growth (Saturn in Sagittarius). Certain ‘truths’ about his personality will emerge from the people he interacts with on a daily basis, people who have the potential to become his open enemies (the 6th house). Some of these enemies are sadly, his own relatives (Moon opposite Saturn and Uranus).

Although, Armie was born with a super-pleasant Venus in Libra energy – which makes one charismatic and sociable, well-mannered and literate in their personal connections – his Venus is conjunct the South Node (his comfort zone), an aspect which tells me that he loves women (Venus), surrounds himself easily with them and tends to fall back on his relationships with beautiful women when things become tough in his life (South Node). However, most of the women he will encounter in his life will be his karmic partners due to that conjunction to the South Node. This means that even if he is attractive and lucky with women on some level, women will continuously hold his accountable for his bad behavior and bring a lot of punishments and responsibilities in his life. Furthermore, he is meant to have mostly short-term romances with them, since his Venus is placed in the fun-loving, non-committal 5th house; this is also the house of skills, so he “ahem” practices his skills on them (such as rope bonding, apparently).

However, things are indeed meant to take a darker turn in his life, because if we look closely there are two massive red flags influencing these rather sweet placements: his Venus is loosely conjunct intense Pluto in Scorpio in the same 5th house, and his Mars in Capricorn in the 7th house is sitting in tension with his Venus in Libra. Now, Mars square Venus is the classic aspect of fights and arguments in someone’s love life; it is an aspect of misfortune in love and some astrologers have went as far as to call it ‘the domestic violence aspect’. Paired with a darkened Venus, which is affected by Pluto (the aspect of the underworld, death and decay), well I can already see that the allegations made by the women in his life carry seeds of truth. A Venus conjunct Pluto personality has a knack for power and domination in love, especially when it is expressed in a lower vibration it can bring up issues such as sadism, fetishes and even murder.

With a Mars in the house of love (the 7 house), Armie is a man who takes initiative in his relationships and can come across as strongly sexual. Mars is also in the sign of Capricorn, which tells me that Armie is adopting a traditional form of masculinity, in which violence and womanizing might be commonplace to his particular understanding of being a ‘man’. Capricorn is a strict disciplinarian, a follower of rules, a conformist that keeps everyone in check. With a Mars in Capricorn, Armie gravitates towards a definition of masculinity which is constructed around control, especially physical, financial and sexual control. This energy is however softened by a conjunction to Neptune, and which placed in the 7th house makes him an individual that could often have messy relationships, in which he doesn’t really see his partners clearly and he could also cheat; this combined energy tells me that Armie easily idealizes love, idealizes women and marriage, while at the same time upholding a 1950s form of relating to the people in his life.

To put it more clearly, I can see that the inner world of Armie Hammer is the world of a Don Draper-like character and lifestyle. It’s a world of wealth, privilege and being the center of attention, while also being at the mercy of some dark, unconscious forces which play out in his personal connections (the 7th house) as well as with women in short-term love affairs (Venus in the 5th). His problem is relating to men, and especially the men in is family, and this under-developed energy is evident in Armie’s North Node in Aries which shows someone obsessed with being a man while also struggling to accept his masculinity. This is interesting since the 7th house is also the place in which we store our Shadow.

His Shadow is actually sitting in conjunction to the North Node of his great-grandfather Armand, who was born with a South Node in Cancer in the 12th house and a North Node in Capricorn in the 6th house. You can see in the image below that Armand’s destiny, that of becoming a power, status and money-obsessed man, the ultimate provider (North Node in Capricorn) is triggering Armie’s Mars in Capricorn in the 7th house, the area in his chart which is showing what he unconsciously received passed on from the older men in his family. Breaking through the obsession with power and financial control that he inherited from great-grandpa and constructing a form of progressive masculinity of his own, was the main task of Armie’s transit led by Pluto in Capricorn in the last 14 years which crossed over his natal Mars and Neptune and reconstituted his relationships (ex. we know he went through a divorce which plunged him into this string of sexual liaisons, in which he projected the trauma he refused to heal onto his victims).

Not only that but Armand was a Gemini stellium! Having his Sun, Moon, Pluto, Venus, Neptune and Lilith in this Mercury-ruled sign and in the 11th house of ideals and co-working. All of these placements fall in Armie’s 12th house, the house of the unconscious, of dissolving the Ego and of collective memories. Remarkably, Armand also had his Mars in Aries which now falls on Armie’s North Node in Aries in the 11th house (where his great-grandfather had his natal stellium in Gemini). The pattern is uncanny! Armand had North Node in Capricorn conjunct Armie’s Mars in Capricorn and Armie has a North Node in Aries conjunct Armand Mars in Aries. This points so strongly to the deep mental connection between these two men, showing that Armie was literally born to psychologically transform the toxic legacy of the men in his family, a legacy which began with Armand.

_{Image of Armand Hammer and his birth-chart taken from https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Armand_Hammer}

How will he be able to achieve this? By having the courage to re-create his identity (Aries), one which is different from what he knows and was taught. He is not supposed to be aggressive with other women, but to compete with the best version of himself, as he builds his masculinity from personal experiences. By becoming aware of his own behaviors’ in privacy but also by investing effort in raising his own children (he had a daughter Grace and a son, Ford) he can gradually become emotionally mature and aware of these patterns and dissolve them. The secrecy and the ignorance are the ingredients which allow this psychological toxicity to keep infecting his family.

In his personal relationships, be they romantic, familial or professional, Armie constantly tries to enact control and the sweet release from it since both his Sun (personality) is in an Earth sign (Virgo) known for preferring order and control, while also having his masculine identity (his Mars) in another earth-sign, Capricorn, who feels comfortable with rules, regulations and bondage. The problem with Earth signs is that they tend to be rather unemotional, and this empathy issue is further underlined in Armie’s chart by his brainy Gemini Moon and Ascendant. So he needs to learn how to feel things, to empathize with others, to show vulnerability and be brave enough to heal the traits of his hegemonic bloodline.

This is because the real problem-bringer of his chart is his North Node in Aries; but in the problem also lies the blissful resolve. Aries is the energy of the first sign of the zodiac, carrying with it the impetus of primal fire. Having a North Node in Aries means that one’s destiny in this lifetime is to pioneer something in their family, to be the first to accomplish what their ancestors were not able to. A poorly functioning Aries North Node would mar a person’s life with violence, sex, drugs and rock’n’roll and a couple of sobering confrontations with the law. A highly functioning Aries North Node is a creative powerhouse, a person who is incredibly passionate about life and shares that unbridled optimism and energy with everyone they come into contact with. Aries works at its best when it defends, protect and is the first to inspire others to have courage.

At its worst, Aries is a thug, a criminal, a rebel with no cause, out to pillage, rape and destroy just for the sheer madness of it (and this description applies to both men and women born with an afflicted North Node in Aries, see for example Amber Heard who shares this placement in common with Armie). With his North Node in the collaborative and collegial 11th house, Armie needs to learn to sacrifice his selfish needs (5th house South Node) and to use language to become a team-player, to ask for consent, to negotiate within social groups and enact equalitarianism. We see how he is currently failing at this; but this year marks his nodal return so he is given a couple more chances to reform and for the sake of other women out there, I hope he does before he hurts them.

In a nutshell, after taking a look over his birth-chart, do I believe the sexual assault claims made against Armie Hammer are true? Yes. Do I believe that he will likely get away with them? Also, yes. Notice his Jupiter placement! When you are curious if someone will get away with something, you should always pay special attention to Jupiter, as the lucky ‘get out of jail’ Monopoly card in a natal chart. Armie has his Jupiter in the 10th house, the house of the public and his career. Not only that but his Jupiter is highly functioning in the blessed and spiritual sign of the arts and cinema, Pisces. So it is highly likely that the public will continue to love him and still watch his movies, even despite SA allegations. But I also think that he is a man that makes enemies easily and that he will constantly have people taking advantage of the trail of communications he leaves behind him.

As Pluto will enter Aquarius and his 8th house from next year – the house of blood, sugar, sex and magic, also the house of healing on a deeper level – it will be interesting to see if he will take on the responsibility to transform his mind and behaviour. Pluto will leave his 7th house from 2023 onwards, moving away from the years-long degradation of his natal Mars in Capricorn conjunct Neptune, and it will be fascinating to see how his public persona will transform. Will he only be offered roles in which he is sarcastically playing the sadistic sexual predator? Will he be given the redemption arc to follow and thereby have the American public fall in love with his atonement? With a North Node in Aries he can smoothly make a career out of being the villain, and to be honest that would be a more authentic career change for him. From my part, I only wish that he becomes increasingly more aware of these energies in his chart and refrains from hurting the people he is dating.

An interesting sidenote is that I chose a good day to write and publish this article since today Armie turned 37 years old. I also found out that he shares a birthday with the amazingly talented Florence Welch (who apparently is celebrating her birthday recovering in the hospital after surgery). I hope that with time, Armie will be able to retreat from the dating game and heal himself from the intense legacy of violence inherited from the emotionally unaware men in his family.

With universal love,

Lexi