In 2022 I signed up for a Mubi film membership in order to watch a movie called ‘Transit‘. A year passed and I still couldn’t view that movie as it never became available. Sadly, that was part of the reason why I had to cancel my membership in November of 2023, but before I did that I watched 3 love stories which were intense, surprising and beautifully acted. The people at Mubi recently reminded me of theses movies in an email retrospective. Clicking through their list I was impressed by the fact that I seemed to have forgotten about these 3 movies, deemed as ’emotional’ watches. It may well be that my brain is shielding me from deep emotional memories to protect me from an emotional breakdown, as 2023 was an outwardly successful yet inwardly harrowing year for me. I lost contact with two high-school friends, I lost a relationship with someone who was romantically promising, and I realized just how doomed a reconciliation with my sister is. I spent most of 2023, alone and having random, spontaneous arguments with neighbors and the rough & violent people in the community I just moved into. As a consequence I developed physical issues and a constant pain running through my body. To calm my nerves, I worked, listened to music and watched movies. So let’s talk about these movies, and what I especially enjoyed about them.
The first movie I watched back in May was The Fire (El Incendio), a 2015 Argentinian movie about the suffocating intimate life of a couple who decide to buy a house together. Their plans to acquire the house in the same day when the movie begins are slightly thwarted and they have to wait to complete the transaction. What follows is a couple of days of intense pressure, in which their class and gender dynamics are intertwined with their intimate breakdown: Marcelo is the wealthier one of the two, works a more relaxed job and is still emotionally supported by his relatives, while Lucia comes from a poorer family, works an intense job in a restaurant and has a difficult connection to her estranged mother. Paradoxically, and as the movie slowly reveals, despite the fact that Lucia is disadvantaged in every way in this relationship, she is the strong core of their relationship, holding it together even as Marcelo begins to fall apart.
Movie still of Pilar Gamboa & Juan Barberini from The Fire (2015)
The problem is what happens to them once the transaction is complete and they finally get the key to their house, which is a stylish new-build, situated at the basement level of a building? I’m not going to tell you what happens, because the movie has a powerful psychological ending, but I need to say that this movie offers some of the most intense and passionate couple of performances I have seen in a while. The screen was literally electrified by their arguments, love-making and inevitable moments of deep powerlessness and vulnerability. This movie certainly deserves more attention as it has two highly underrated performances from Pilar Gamboa & Juan Barberini, but it is clearly not something for those weak of heart who are triggered by raised voices. A movie that gets you to truly think about the meaning of ‘toxic love’.
The second movie I watched in July, was 10,000 km, a 2014 Spanish movie about two lovers who are forced by circumstances to have a long-distance relationship for the span of one year. Natalia Tena plays Alexandra, an artist who receives the chance of her lifetime to create some artwork in Los Angeles. Supportive of her dreams, her boyfriend Sergio initially urges her to go. But as time passes they get increasingly frustrated with not being able to have a physically intimate connection and they begin to emotionally unravel, as the longing to be together becomes too intense & Skype doesn’t help to keep them together. The movie felt strangely personal to me, as I also had a year of a long-distance relationship with my ex-husband when we met back in 2007. That year eventually ended with me travelling to Germany to move in with him, as I had just completed my degree and he was continuing his teacher-training. So for us, the technology really helped to keep us together especially as neither of us came from wealthy families and travelling often would not have been economically possible for us. But this movie seems to portray a different and (I felt) more traditional understanding of love being broken apart by distance, professional goals and technological detachment, which is something I don’t necessarily agree with.
Movie still of Natalia Tena & David Verdaguer in 10,000 Km (2014)
The emotional problem that the movie posed is that only one of the two lovers sees this distance as something painful, while the other one relishes it, enjoying the space. So the movie keeps you watching because all you can think about during it is: ‘What happens when they come back together again, physically in the same space? Is their relationship the same? Is physicality really that important to maintain love, or are love relationships mostly lust-zones for consenting adults?’
And the third movie is probably my favorite. The reason for this being is that it was a fierce, funny and creative watch. So the final love story I saw in September is called ‘Love Steaks’, a 2014 German movie with two lesser-known actors in the leading roles of Clemens and Lara. The story begins like a dirty joke you would tell your friends: a cook and a masseur fall in love in a luxurious hotel; the rawness of love ensues, as you can’t tell if they like each other or if they want to kill one another. The movie is filled with embarrassing dialogues, in which people constantly correct each other. As I kept watching, the German word ‘peinlich’ constantly kept popping up in my mind. At some point there is a scene in which Clemens gets sexually groped by an elderly client and the scene is treated in the most hilariously painful way to watch. But the movie also shows the tender and playful side of the relationship that Lara shares with Clemens. Both of them struggle with something: Clemens is weirdly co-dependent and a little bit of a doormat, while Lara is an alcoholic who occasionally self-harms by starting arguments with people. The most shocking part of the film is definitely its ending, which I can tell you right now you won’t be able to guess. And that’s what makes the movie so charming. As soon as it ended I was tempted to re-watch it, constantly thinking ‘What the eff did I just watch?!’ It also made me laugh a lot.
Movie still of Franz Rogowski & Lana Cooper in Love Steaks (2014)
As I am writing this article, I feel like my Mubi experience is coming full circle, because I just realized that the leading actor in Love Steaks, Franz Rogowski – a man whose face is something fascinating and unique to look at – is also the leading actor in ‘Transit’, the movie I initially wanted to watch on Mubi. I just checked his birthday and I can see that he is an Aquarius Sun, born on the 2nd of February 1986. With Pluto beginning to transit over his Sun from next year and for the next two decades, it will be interesting to see him rise to stardom and what other films he may play in.
Anyway, I hope you can give these three small, intimate and crazily underrated movies a try soon. And let me know what you thought about them. In the last two decades, love movies have been few and far in between and were mainly cast aside in cinema in order to promote blockbuster superhero movies. So I am actually grateful that these small love stories were created for our viewing pleasure.
In the meantime, thank you for reading my articles in 2023! I sincerely appreciate the support of each and every one of you who comes here and decides to spend time reading my thoughts, while bearing through some of my many spelling mistakes 🙂
Let’s begin with a disclaimer because I am aware that Taylor Swift’s fans can get intense. I’m not sure if any of them will wander in my part of the Internet but just in case they do: Please take this post in a light-hearted way. I wouldn’t conceive writing it in any other way. I don’t particularly fan-girl over Taylor, nor do I hate her. Personally, I’m kind of ‘meah’ about her public image and music, even as I am aware that for generations of women, she represents a role-model. For this reason, my analysis will be fun & respectful and will mainly represent my honest, astrological views of her relationship to Travis and a little bit about her ex (Joe Alwyn).
I’m writing this piece due to popular demand, as I received messages from you curiously inquiring about the long-term prospects of this relationship. Many people are currently rooting to see Taylor finally dressed in white & walking down the isle, but is Travis Kelce the man to do it?
Special thanks to my crew on Instagram for messaging me about this couple back in October and for determining me to quickly express some of my views regarding their birth-chart synastry. But I felt like I covered the topic a bit too quickly and superficially, at the time. So here’s my in-depth analysis.
Taylor had an eventful year, romantically speaking, as she began 2023 breaking up with her boyfriend of 6 years (the English actor, Joe Alwyn who is a Pisces Sun) and seems to end this year by celebrating Christmas with her father as they both cheer and watch Travis Kelce – an American football tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs – score some goals for the nation. Now, I need to mention that unfortunately, we have unreliable birth-chart information regarding both Taylor’s & Travis’ charts (so strange how they share the same initial to their names too). On some websites you may find her Ascendant as being in Capricorn, while on others it appears to be Scorpio (although if you take a closer look, the reputable astrotheme.com has rated her birth-time accuracy as poor).
As an astrologer this leaves me in the uncomfortable position to choose a chart. And I will go for the Scorpio one as it seems this is the latest astrological data available online and also because I noticed something interesting in how Taylor carries herself: she has the infamous Scorpionic hunch, a self-protective way of carrying her tall and slender body, which makes her look like she is ready to retreat at the slightest hint of an external threat (just for the record I’m not judging her, just stating my impression; I also have this physical marker seeing as my natal Pluto in Scorpio sits cozily in my first house, deforming my Libra Ascendant).
I enjoy the chart in which her Ascendant is in Scorpio because this places Taylor’s Capricorn stellium in the 2nd house, of money, resources and self-worth. For a billionaire like Taylor, who’s net worth is estimated somewhere around 1.1 billion dollars, this is an optimal placement. In addition, based on this chart version I also share another thing in common with her (and arguably the bane of my mortal existence) a Saturn in the 2nd house placement. This means that no matter how rich and beautiful Taylor is naturally, everybody is able to see this about her, except herself. She can be very harsh on herself if something happens in her career. Saturn in the 2nd house pressures an individual’s body into submitting to a lot of hardships and long periods of having to endure (thirst, famine, extreme heat, a gruelling work schedule, tight dance outfits, repetitive performance drills, dry spells in terms of love and sexual pleasure etc).
With Saturn here the body has to be routinely controlled and disciplined, otherwise it breaks down much quicker than for other people. The benefit of this placement is that it keeps one naturally thin and it emphasizes the bone structure of an individual; the native grows to look more attractive and becomes wealthier and more valued by others, the older they grow (see Meryl Streep and Drew Barrymore who share this placement in common with Taylor).
A Scorpio Ascendant would also explain why some people either really like her and her music, or completely dislike her and think she is corny. This is because a Pluto-ruled Ascendant tends to polarize people. It would also account for the army of obsessive fans that Taylor has amassed through the years who are incredibly protective of her and often use the snake symbol to indicate fake media friends, betrayal and power plays. And finally, the last argument I make in defence of her Scorpionic Ascendant is the theme of Taylor’s songs and focus of her work, which is love and relationships. By comparison, we see a Capricorn Ascendant in the case of Lana Del Rey (whom I personally consider a superior singer in terms of quality of voice and lyrics) but Lana experienced a lot more criticism, backlash and setbacks in her career than Taylor has; so again, I am all for the Scorpio Ascendant theory, since it makes a lot of sense if we examine her life and public image.
Taylor’s big threes are a lucky Sun in Sagittarius, a domicile Moon in Cancer (conjunct Jupiter, which adds to her good luck in life), and a Scorpio Ascendant (conjunct Mars, Pluto and Lilith, the Wild Feminine Archetype – a powerful trifecta that smashes her competitors). I guess that after years of looking at photos of Taylor with a pale Englishman by her side, her fans are thrilled to see that Taylor is now in a relationship with a red-blooded American (who occasionally wears misogynistic clothing in his downtime). Don’t get me wrong, the second type of masculinity does seem more fun and less restrained and I think fans are rooting for Taylor to just be happy, seeing Taylor built a whole career around singing tongue-in-cheek and heartfelt songs about romantic disappointment and feminine becoming.
To be honest, Joe did have some massive flaws such as presumably cheating on her after 6 years of being together and also feeling quite ashamed of being together with her and Film Cooper on Youtube did a really sweet and sad breakdown of all the times that Taylor and Joe had spoken of each other in public and how they did it. Moreover, being together with a more traditionally masculine partner does seem to fit Taylor’s second house placements, but does it match her Venus and Mars placements? In a person’s chart these two planets indicate how a person feels desire and acts on it, basically how they get turned on and erotically culminate (Mars), while Venus shows among other things how someone gives and receives affection, whom they love, what they find attractive and how they style themselves.
Before I explain certain issues with their compatibility, let’s have a look at Travis’ chart and what pulled them in together in the first place. Travis is a Sun in Libra, Moon in Sagittarius and (?) mysterious Ascendant. Ok, we’ll need to guide ourselves by his Venus and Mars placements next since we don’t have access to his astrological house placements. His Venus is in Scorpio conjunct Pluto and his Mars is in Libra conjunct his Sun. So, there are some powerful links between them: first of all, they have the spouse link, indicated by a Moon-Sun conjunction, but sadly it isn’t mutual. Travis’ Moon in Sagittarius supports Taylor’s Sun in Sagittarius, in a gentle and reassuring way. This is both a wonderful aspect which shows that he intuitively understands how to praise her and that he has unconditional support for her work goals and her natural, vibrant energy, but this one can lead in time to some big resentments, if the man holds on too tightly to his traditional role.
I think it’s fair to say that out of the two, Taylor is the more famous and the wealthier one. If Travis is ok with this, they can make it work. The problem will arise when Travis will want to shine as radiant as Taylor in their connection and may withdraw affection as a way to dim her light, vitality and energy. The common issue with a man’s Moon supporting a woman’s Sun is that the man ends up feeling emasculated in the relationship and since Travis is active in a profession which promotes hypermasculinity, this will be an issue down the line. Now another problematic aspect is that her natal Moon in Cancer is not at all supportive of his Libra Sun which means that in time he may find her too sensitive for his taste. She may initially laugh at his macho jokes and entertaining, rough-handling of her body, but in time, Taylor needs someone artistic and gentle to share her private world with. After all this is the woman who created Folklore, an album so far removed from Travis’ competitive and aggressive world of American football, that it would be almost like the Sun was touching Pluto by mistake.
It could be that Taylor’s lunar conjunction to Jupiter protects her in some way from being overly shy and sensitive, since a Moon conjunct Jupiter in Cancer acts a little bit like a Sagittarius Moon. But it looks to me like Taylor just got out of a long relationship with her ex, Joe, in which she felt hurt and unsupported by her partner, and she wanted a solid, protective guy who can take her mind off the sadness she endured in that connection. She really wanted a fun man who could be ok with her exuberant, optimistic & also quite sexual Sagittarius Sun energy and she manifested him! But will it last?
Let’s continue with the analysis. Now I can see that Travis definitely makes her happy as his natal Jupiter is exalted in Cancer and it touches upon her Moon and natal Jupiter, also in Cancer. I guess being around these two feels heady and addictingly optimistic, seeing as they are both powerhouses of manifestation for wealth, popularity and good luck. I would say that even if they decide to break up at some point they will remain close friends, but I am a little bit restrained in making that affirmation since they have an explosive whammy in their Venus and Mars placements: they have a conjunction in Scorpio, equally amped up by Pluto and Lilith.
This is the ride-or-die aspect, the kind of love that Hozier was singing about in his Work Song, of having your partner crawl out of the grave to be with you one more time, it’s that super-cheesy Ghost kind of romance, of feeling your partner from miles away, of being haunted by them, and if shit hits the fan also killing for them. It’s 9 and half weeks meets The Batman 🙂 So, no I don’t think they could end up being just friends with this intense sexual chemistry.
A Venus-Mars-Pluto-Lilith combo is passionate and intense to an extreme. It is also secretive and stealth. This is certainly not the domestic, white-picket-fence kind of energy (see my Marina Abramovic astrological analysis, who shares certain placements in common with Taylor, including this Venus in Scorpio placement). However, I am more relaxed when I see that they share an Airy Venus-Mars combo in their synastry, this being her natal Venus in Aquarius trined by his Sun and Mars in Libra. This much needed oxygen in their attraction, helps them understand each other with a dose of rational detachment. This is a friendly trine, a supportive and harmonious energy which tells me that Taylor enjoys the way he courts her, and how he flirts with her and initiates sexual intercourse. I would say that in spite of how he comes across in the public’s eyes, Travis is behaving in a polite and sweet way with her, since Libra energy is about being well-groomed and respectful, attentive to social norms and sensitive to etiquette.
In contrast, she is the one who pursues him in a more intense way, seeing as the Mars in Scorpio placement appears in her chart. I am worried about this, since I believe that a lot of the attraction that Taylor has for Travis is related to the fact that he pursued her and is supportive of her goals, but Taylor may try to hard to impress him and suddenly the roles between them may change: she may end up doing the hardcore supporting of his work, while he begins to just take her for granted (and thereby activating the squares between his Sagittarius Moon and Libra Sun and her Cancer Moon). Because Taylor has her natal Uranus, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn in Capricorn in the 2nd house, maintaining this long-term connection will be a test of self-worth and endurance for her. And it may end up grating on Travis’ nerves seeing as his natal Libra Mars and Sun sit in tension with Taylor’s stellium.
Within this stellar incompatibility, they also have two aspects which concern me a lot: his Mars at 10 degrees Libra sits in an almost perfect square to her Saturn at 13 degrees and Neptune at 11degrees in Capricorn. This is worrying to me, because Mars square Saturn is an aspect which indicates cruelty and physical control and punishment, while Mars square Neptune indicate consuming substances (alcohol, prescription drugs or hallucinogens) and cheating. In combination, such energies may bring up a lot of issues in their private life. If initially Taylor falls in love with a disciplined man (Saturn-Mars) who seems to be a dream come true (Mars-Neptune), as time goes by he may begin to resent her fame and sensitivity, may see that they have very different emotional goals (her domestic Moon in Cancer sits in tension with his freedom-loving Moon in Sagittarius).
One final thing I would say is that they do share a common destiny and they seem to have a similar past-life energy as well, since they share the same North Node in Aquarius & South Node in Leo. They are meant to have an unorthodox and untraditional relationship, and they are both learning how to prioritize the interests of a group over and above their own desire to steal the limelight and be the only leader. The problem is that Travis’ North Node is conjunct Taylor’s Venus, so they way in which she loves him and shows her affection may seem uncomfortable and far too detached for him.
If they can work together as a team, and adapt to some of the difficult aspects between them, I think that this relationship has chances of thriving. But I do need to say that I have a personal reticence in seeing them as a ‘match made in heaven’, when they are both individuals who love to be the best in the eyes of the public and may end up ruthlessly competing with each other as time goes by. In this process, Travis’ team-mates and Taylor’s fanbase may play the dangerous role of gradually breaking them apart, as soon as Pluto begins transiting over their point of destiny – the obsessive and often-times malefic, North Node in Aquarius. This transit will begin next year from the 20th of January and continue for roughly 22 years, and I believe it will be something epic to watch, especially as Pluto in Aquarius will form squares to their natal Venus-Mars-Pluto-Lilith combo in the emotionally volcanic sign of Scorpio.
Lastly, if you feel inspired by my interpretation of Taylor and Travis’ astrological charts, and would like to have a similar analysis done for yourself and your crush/partner, then feel free to get in touch with me for a birth-chart reading or a synastry report.
For Sagittarius season, I thought I would explore the intricate planets, points and aspects in the chart of a daring, Sagittarius Sun pioneer, the Serbian artist Marina Abramovic. Although sticking true to her freedom-loving and boundary-breaking Jupiterian energy, I assume that she would recoil at such categorizations of her personality. Marina just is and she just creates. And in the process she opens our minds by awakening us to the deeper nuances of human nature. As you get to know her from reading her memoir “Walk through walls” (2016) Marina doesn’t distinguish between life and art. Her work is her life, and her life is her art. This year, Marina turned the noble (and numerologically blessed) age of 77 years old. In her book The Secret Science of Numerology author Shirley Blackwell Lawrence describes the energy of the number 77 as “the number of the Christ-consciousness because CHRIST has 77 as its full number, and Jesus was the 77th in his line of ancestry (…) 77 is the analytical thinker. True 7’s are spiritual. The more spiritual, the more they radiate that spiritual-quality, an intensification of inner wisdom”.
So for Marina, we can see that 2023 is a highly spiritual year. And perhaps because of this, or maybe since I am naturally drawn to Sagittarians as I carry a stellium of planets in this sign in my own natal chart, I felt compelled to read her memoir and write this article about her. For years, Marina has been an artist I only knew off in passing, since I grew up in the Eastern-European part of a territory nearest to the Balkans, and she often appeared in news-pieces in this part of the world. I remember when I was a teenager that I got scared seeing some images of her Rhythm series among the art textbooks I was perusing on a weekly basis at the French Institute’s library in Bucharest. In my teenager’s mind, she was someone who looked statuesque, unapproachable and somehow scarily strange but someone who I felt could teach me a lot about human nature (my natal Saturn and Uranus are in Sagittarius). Recently, I got back into my fascination with her life, work and unusual beauty by randomly being recommended a video from a Youtube Channel I follow, Blind Dweller. In a two-part documentary style analysis, Blind Dweller presents her brutal and yet empowering spiritual and artistic journey through life
However, as I picked up and began reading her book, I was surprised to see that most of the things described in this Youtube docu-series were the first chapters from Marina’s memoir. So if you want to know more after having watched the clips, I highly recommend you read the book. It’s a riveting account of a life lived to extremes, the extremes of work, love and real estate. Yes, Marina has the Midas touch with buying property. For example, there is a phenomenal account of how after her painful separation from her twin-flame Ulay, Marina purchased a 6-stories house in the center of Amsterdam for just 40,000 guldens, a house that she later sold for 4 million euros (!) and a place which initially was inhabited by some 35 junkies; she actually helped one of them put his life back on track as they continued to live together despite having no romantic connection. And as I was reading this part of the book I kept thinking of her chart placements and her blessed conjunction between the planet Venus (value, money) and Jupiter (wealth, growth).
So even though, Marina has a Venus in Scorpio – a position which is considered by many astrologers to be a detrimental factor for love, money and harmonious relationships – her Venus is nonetheless helped by the Great Benefic, Jupiter. Marina describes how she was born into a family of war heroes, who saved each other’s lives during World War II only to enact domestic violence upon each other as they entered a suffocating marriage. While her upbringing was replete with violence and arguments, her Jupiter constantly attracted towards her romantic and sexual opportunities, got her to love art, form relations to wealthy individuals and celebrities, gave her a magic touch in real estate issues and helped her pull in the sums of money she needed to accomplish her goals. She often supported the people she loved (such as her second husband, Paolo Canevari), which is another generous characteristic of this aspect.
Marina was born on the 30th of November 1946 in Belgrade, Serbia. Unfortunately we don’t have the time of Marina’s birth, so her Ascendant will be missing and in consequence, my astrological analysis will be rather limited. Despite this, we can see by opening Marina’s chart that there are a couple of heavy-weights sitting together and squaring each other – squares being aspects of tension and deep inner conflict in a person’s chart, that have the benefit of making a person’s life eventful and dynamic.
The first interesting pair is the one formed by the conjunction between Saturn and Pluto in the strong sign of Leo, the next is the Sun sitting together with Mars (a masculine presence that incites violence), the South Node (an aspect denoting past life karma) and the asteroid Lilith (the Wild Feminine Archetype). Furthermore, there is also a cluster of planets in the most intense sign of the zodiac, Scorpio, as Marina has her natal Venus, Mercury and Jupiter bundled together. The asteroid Chiron – the Wounded Healer Archetype and an indicator of deep and unquenchable pain in someone’s chart – is also nearby this darkened Scorpio stellium. With such powerful Water and Fire energies, I am happy to see that her chart is also made lighter by the air it receives from her natal Neptune in Libra, her Moon in Aquarius and her North Node conjunct Uranus in Gemini. It’s noteworthy to mention that this final aspect between her North Node and Uranus is the marker of Marina’s destiny as a controversial & original performance artist.
One important thing to notice is that Marina’s chart is devoid of Earth energy! Which is incredible for someone who manipulates matter to serve the spiritual development of society (an artist). But this absence of Earth also helps Marina maintain her exploratory courage and gets her to disregard conformism in any of its forms. With a Sun in adventurous & blunt Sagittarius, a Moon in prophetic and innovative Aquarius and a stellium in transformational Scorpio, I wouldn’t have imagined Marina living a mundane 9 to 5 life, tending to domestic matters and raising a traditional man’s children. If she would have had such a life, I’m sure that it would’ve been just a front to cover her real occupation, potentially that of an international spy. I say this because judging by the energies contained within her chart, secrets, transcendence and extremism are meant to flavor her life. And she is also meant to develop a light-hearted and detached approach to such life themes, as her North Node is Mercurian, ruled by the sign of the divine trickster, Gemini.
This shows someone whose comfort zone is conflict, drama and passion (South Node conjunct Mars in Sagittarius), someone who is learning from violent and creative episodes how to let go of her Ego (South Node conjunct Mars and the Sun in Sagittarius), and someone who is gradually replacing independence for inter-dependence, and action with thinking. Her thinking can indeed be surprising and innovative and many have challenged her because they were just not on that extreme level that her natal Uranus conjunct the North Node is constantly pushing Mariana to reach towards. The way to reconcile this exclusionary energy is to use humor (Gemini), and indeed having read her memoir I have to say that I laughed out loud at her dark, Balkan comments and the jokes she sprinkled throughout her text.
Let’s now look deeper into the aspects made by her natal planetary placements, because if the Ascendant data is missing I cannot discuss the influence of the zodiac houses in her life. The first aspect that stands out to me is the opposition between her Mars (conjunct Lilith & the South Node) and Uranus (conjunct the North Node). A Mars-Uranus opposition is described by astrologer Sue Tompkins as “a very decisive combination, and having decided, Mars-Uranus will usually let nothing stand in their way”. She adds that this is the aspect indicative of “great extremism” in someone’s chart and that it can make the native have a “talent for generating great sexual excitement”.
The second aspect is a triple one, as her Moon is squared by Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. Again Sue Tompkins explains that a Moon squared by Venus makes one “over-adaptive” & “someone who seems to get hurt and bruise very easily” and gives one “a strong urge to create a pleasing home” and a propensity towards artistic endeavors, while a Moon squared by Mercury makes one work hard to bring their “instinctual, gut feelings into alignment” and can make one prone to worry and gossip and to “fleeting moods and fleeting opinions”. Finally a Moon squared by Jupiter adds a sense of “affectionate greediness” into the native’s life. The author describes how “The Moon-Jupiter person often comes from a background where the maternal figure was rather dramatic and may themselves behave quite instinctively in a larger than life kind of way”. And indeed Marina recalls how her mother was honored for her military efforts and was also an individual who enjoyed art and owning beautiful things, but she was also in the habit of randomly and suddenly slapping Marina for the basic things, like not cleaning her room or sitting on the couch with spread legs while she was reading. One can imagine how a person learns to hide inside of their body if they grow up in an environment where drama and violence may suddenly spring up on them. For Marina the healing and catharsis came through her transcendent performances.
You may think that these aspects by themselves are not really that bad, however they are all squared in turn by her Saturn and Pluto conjunction. Coming back to Sue’s words, a Saturn squaring Venus gives a person “strong issues here about self-valuation” and this is in part because “those with Venus-Saturn contacts come into the world feeling unloved”. Such an individual may not bother so much with physical appearances, and struggles with money until they understand how to use it for their benefit; often, a Venus-Saturn person may try to “buy affection”, and could feel awkward giving and receiving love, especially without any strings attached. While a Pluto squaring Venus shows someone who “can become involved in tense, highly charged relationships”. She goes on to add that the Venus-Pluto person is “not able to let go”, “seems to need deeply intense but quite short bouts of relating” and can “drive their partner into a frenzy of desire” from which jealousy and possessiveness are not excluded. So, Marina has some heavy energies flanking her capacity to not only love herself but also to love others, however both of these energies helped her transform her relational and romantic pain into art, by increasing her sensitivity to what actually matters in love. And she got better at her art, making money, owning property, having famous friends who supported her and receiving awards, but with time. Her memoir ends with her still struggling to truly love and accept herself, as she was healing her broken heart with the help of shamanic experiences in the Amazonian rainforest.
From her work, I think the performance that stayed with me the most was her Balkan Baroque one from 1997, for which she won a Golden Lion in Venice. In this artistic piece she stayed for a couple of days in the airless basement of a building, dressed in white and for 6 hours each day she cleaned the meat off the bones of dead cows with a toothbrush, while singing Serbian lullabies. In this grueling and rank environment she was breaking people’s hearts reminding them of the physical horrors endured especially by women and children during the terrifying Yugoslavian conflict which changed the geography of the Balkans in the 90s. The visual and felt impact of mass pain is immediately felt in this performance.
Her ritual, the mourning, the repetition of cleaning, the smears and stains that cannot be washed away or forgotten, all fall heavily within the psyche of a Saturn-Pluto individual, a person who has the capacity to bring up collective wounds to the surface and heal them in a public way (Leo). I remember very briefly how my mother and grandmother used to switch the television channel whenever news of the conflict reached Bucharest from time to time, so that me and my sister wouldn’t hear of the atrocities which were committed, and I also remember the influx of refugees we got during the 90s, most of which were displaced Albanians. As a sidenote, Marina had Pluto transiting over her Sagittarius Sun when she created this piece. And when she was deeply in love with Ulay, her twin soul and artistic collaborator, she had the transit of Pluto crossing over her Venus, Mercury and Jupiter. Their love story is fascinating and I may focus on it in another article dedicated to real twin-flame couples.
There is so much more to say, but I’d rather you read her memoir or watch the beautiful Youtube analyses done about her life. If you feel inspired by my interpretation of Marina Abramovic’s astrological chart, and would like to have a similar analysis done for yourself, then feel free to get in touch with me for a birth-chart reading here.
The Spiritual Social 