I wanted to keep this story for Sagittarius season but it blew up in the collective sooner. It is a personal disclosure of romantic misery which fits well with the spirit of Halloween and with Scorpio season. So Britney Spears released her memoir last week and with it, the collective was made aware of some pretty shocking revelations. For some years now, Britney has been struggling in her personal & professional life due to a conservatorship which has taken control of her life and forced her into situations that caused her a lot of pain. People were aware of the restrictions but I guess no one could understand the intense emotions created by this situation, experienced on a personal level. Keep in mind that Britney is a Sagittarius Sun and the worse thing you could do to a Sagittarius is to block their freedom. Not only that but her Sun is conjunct her natal Lilith (The Wild Feminine), Mercury and Uranus, increasing exponentially her need for space, independence and the resistance to fight the status quo.

And to add to this energy of ‘fencing her in, would be her worst nightmare’, Britney also has an independent Aquarius Moon, placed in the loveable 5th house. Britney is ultimately, emotionally invested in her creative work and her public – she is a performer at heart and caging her into a conservatorship would be the equivalent to a slow death of her inner light & talent. Moreover, with a Mars in Virgo in the 12th house, she lacks the necessary energy to properly defend herself in this lifetime, as planets in the 12th house usually ‘win’ by letting go, and exercise their power when the person is made vulnerable and powerless. She needs to rely on God and other mysterious forces – like the collective 🙂 – to defend and protect her. And the most touching part of this whole story, is just how loyal and supportive her fans have been through her personal ordeal.

But why are we hearing about her feelings so late, considering this has been going on for years? Well, because time is a key component in the painful story of Britney’s life, who has been in the grips of one of the most difficult and traumatic transits of a person’s life since 2008, that being the transit of Pluto (the planet of death and rebirth) over her natal Venus in the karmic sign of Capricorn. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, and this planet is associated in astrology with limits, heaviness, karma, time and punishment. So when the planet of limits meets the planet of the underworld and they both camp over your natal Venus (describing your capacity to love, earn money and feel worthy of affection) then you get Britney’s conservatorship. I wrote about Britney’s chart in a previous post, in which I discussed the energy of having Pluto on the Ascendant/the1st House, but now after the release of her book I pulled up her chart again and noticed some really interesting things.

For one, Britney also has her South Node (our past life stories) perfectly conjunct her Venus, which makes for a very karmic energy in an individual life’ as it describes paying back old karmic debts through romantic relationships, using money to meditate connections with soulmates and having to negotiate your sense of self-worth in this lifetime. In addition, the transit of Pluto conjunct her Venus has been squaring her natal Pluto in Libra conjunct the Ascendant, bringing up a tug of war in her life, and numerous power plays in which her Venus energy has been destroyed and rebuilt, over and over again. I can’t even begin to imagine the super-human strength you need to have in such a case, but also the fears and worries she may have privately went through. Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn brings fear wherever it touches in our charts as not only was her Sagittarius Sun blocked from exerting her freedom and natural optimism but also her natal Pluto had to keep silent about the abuses for fear of being separated from that and those whom she loved for good. Pluto brings life-and-death types of experiences, criminal threats, terror and a deep sense of powerlessness, when it is challenged in a person’s chart. And Britney’s natal Pluto in Libra conjunct her Ascendant – which has been so supported by a beautiful sextile aspect during the Pluto in Sagittarius transit era, that is when she became a global star – was brought down into murky power plays when Pluto started transiting Capricorn back in 2008.

However, the fears she had to overcome ended up strengthening her and I think that with the publication of this memoir we see that Britney has finally realized that it is better to live alone than surrounded by loved ones who disturb your inner peace, use you for money and constantly betray you. Her father, her sister, her mother, her ‘baby daddy’, her soon to be ex-husband, all of them took something from her without giving her the respect and love she deserves. The love she mostly got was from those she wasn’t physically closer to, her public and fans, who continued to be on her side and to support her liberation (see the content under #freeBritney). I think that was the most touching thing about this story which carefully resembles the myth of Persephone being dragged into the underworld by Pluto.

I also need to bring up Justin Timberlake’s chart, the person whose public image will undoubtedly & irrevocably be transformed by Britney’s memoir. In the book, sources say that Britney describes how she became pregnant with Justin’s child and that after finding out, he more or less forced her to give up the baby because he was not ready to become a father. She apparently describes the pain she endured as she had to have a home abortion to keep everything as secret as possible. An adjacent piece of news that emerged from this, is that a couple of years following this event, Justin did have a child ‘out of wedlock’, a daughter called Iris Timberlake which he is also keeping secret. So what is happening in this man’s astrology, that all of Justin’s secrets seem to be spilling out at the seams? Well, Pluto again!

Or better said the fact that Pluto is getting ready to leave Capricorn. As Pluto is nearing Aquarius (a sign it will switch into on the 27th of January of 2024) it will enter a 22 year-long process of dismantling Justin’s personality, or to be more precise it will shed light on his inner darkness and help him get rid of his mask, his inauthentic self. And with a natal Venus in Capricorn this man’s whole career was a mask meant to help him acquire more money and social popularity and prestige. Interesting that Britney’s Venus nestles in a conjunct with Justin’s Venus in Capricorn and that his Sun in Aquarius is in a tight conjunction to her Aquarius Moon, while his Moon in Sagittarius falls on her natal Sun in Sagittarius (Sun-Moon conjunctions are called the marriage aspects in astrology and these two have a double whammy!). But Justin’s Moon is also perfectly conjunct Neptune, making his feelings confusing and with a propensity to ebb and flow, while his proud Leo Ascendant always strives to come out on top in any kind of competitive struggle or personal situation.

I believe that it is this pride which will come to bite him back, as Pluto will begin its transit in Aquarius, approaching his Sun and sitting in opposition to his Ascendant. This means that he will have to transform his work relationships & habits if he wants to continue to attract towards him lucrative business collaborations (and no, I don’t think fleeing to Mexico amid this fiasco is a good PR strategy for him). To make matters epic, Pluto will rattle around his natal South Node in Aquarius and North Node in Leo, the axis of destiny, which is similar to what happened to Britney as she had Pluto in Capricorn disturbing her past life legacy (the South Node in Capricorn) and pushing her into the emotional direction of her destiny (the North Node in Cancer). In some perfectly designed way, I believe this is the karmic payback for what Justin did to Britney (and who knows how many other women in his past).

The problem is that I genuinely think she still loves him, as it is hard to shake off someone who has this great of Sun-Moon and Venus compatibility with you. But the bitter betrayal she had to endure for years has activated Britney’s natal Lilith, and what we are witnessing now is not only the coming back into her power – a power that Pluto usually grants an individual who has survived its crushing might – but also she is being allowed to finally embody the energy of her Sagittarius stellium, that is catching ground and expanding at rapid speed. In the following decades, Britney will continue to grow in popularity and increase in her number of fans (Pluto in Aquarius will sextile her Sagittarius Sun), while Justin will be scorned by the media and analyzed to an obsessive degree (Pluto in Aquarius conjunct his Sun will oppose his Ascendant), but he may cozily retreat into his patriarchal privileges and use sarcastic snaps to defend himself (Pluto will sextile his natal Moon in Sagittarius). I just hope that with so much Pluto energy, whatever happens in both of their careers & lives, that nothing too final or drastic knocks on their front doorstep. With gnarly Pluto & Saturn transits, death is also a possibility.

In this post I do want to celebrate the homecoming of Pluto, and from what it looks like the passing of the Pluto baton, as Britney is released and Justin is just beginning his karmic lessons. Britney’s ongoing spiritualization will now become an emotional one as she is on the cusp of beginning her Pluto conjunct the Moon transit (sidenote: for an interesting case study in Moon-Pluto transits, see Christina’s Ricci romantic relationships in the past 14 years). Britney’s Moon is squared by Chiron in Taurus in the 8th house, so the emotional healing which she will do through how she speaks (Aquarius) may block certain financial resources from coming her way and lead her into litigation territory at worst, or cut her off from financial leeches at best (Chiron in Taurus in the 8th house). But Britney has a powerful trifecta in her 1st house, as her Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter sit very closely one to the other and in the beautiful sign of Libra (well technically her Jupiter is in her 2nd house, very close to the cusp, which is a sign that Britney will always do well financially). With this large number of planets in the house of her identity, her solar consciousness and the opportunities she attracts in her life, so Brittney is here to learn about her own power, by working through personal fears and limitations. With this powerful combination of outer luminaries grouped together, she will receive the greatest success in life, followed by the toughest lessons.

There is a deep survival energy in her chart, amplified by massive amounts of self-belief. Britney also has the mogul aspect, as her Pluto and Jupiter are close to each other and in an angular house, an aspect which describes the attainment of fame, riches and wealth in a person’s life, mostly because the native is endowed with a mindset of abundance. But with Saturn present (even if her Saturn is exalted in beautiful and fair Libra), she is heavily criticized and ignored by those closest to her, and people will continue to try to use her for what she provides for them. Interestingly, her mother’s Sun sign falls in Taurus which is conjunct’s Britney’s Chiron in Taurus, and this means that her relationship to her mother is painful and pushed her into a premature growth, while Britney’s North Node in Cancer is conjunct her father’s Sun in Cancer, which again shows an uncomfortable but also obsessive relationships between the two. In this scenario, boundaries will be essential for the preservation of her mental health and I do hope that after this long trip into the underworld of her relationships, Britney will be better able to say ‘no’ and discover ways to protect the fruits of her labor, her children & herself, fulfilling therefore the unconscious demands of her North Node in Cancer (or a destiny of care, art and protection).

With plutonic love,

Lexi

Initially, I began this article by focusing on whether Travis Barker is more compatible with Kim or Kourtney Kardashian and I wanted to publish it for Scorpio season. But while I waited on it, new information came to light which made me understand that the focus of my astrological interpretation had always been Kim Kardashian and her empire of ‘love slaves’. Not only has Kim been linked to her bigger sister Kourtney’s husband, Travis Barker but now she seems to be taking sibling rivalry to a whole new level by allegedly romancing her sister Khloe’s ex, Tristan Thompson. There’s a real K to the T energy about these relationships – sorry, had to get that off my chest. In all honesty, I can’t believe I am writing about these people, especially since my last post was about Vincent Van Gogh, and there’s a world of nuance in between, of the people I could’ve focused upon. But my astrological curiosity knows no limits, and it seems to have led me into ‘spicy’ territory, as I am challenging myself to break down the chart of an infamous Libra Sun and her magical world of emotional intrigues. As an astrologer, I actually see this salacious gossip as an opportunity to do two things at the same time: discuss more sibling synastry charts and also run a couple of romantic compatibility ones. So let’s look into this apparent double ‘love triangle’ and see what ‘uncut gems’ we may discover (keep in mind that the analysis will be superficial at best, since I am comparing many charts & I don’t want to make this article too long).

Let’s begin with Kim’s alleged involvement in the first couple. It all started with Travis’ memoir “Can I Say: Living large, cheating death and drums, drums, drums”, in the pages on whom he confesses that he always had a crush on Kim. The book was published in 2015, but someone in Kim’s PR team must’ve dragged it out from a bookstores dusty shelf or it may have been recently reissued (?), because otherwise I fail to understand why this is news to us now. The crush seemed to have started when Travis was still married to his first wife, who actually noticed the tension between Travis and Kim and apparently threw a drink on Kim at the a party once (a real ‘hold my poodle’ moment). This event happened long before Kourtney entered the picture as the love-smitten wife, and I’m wondering if Kim might have low-key introduced them to each other, behind the scenes? In Kim’s calculated mind (Mercury conjunct Uranus in Scorpio), she knew on some level the level of drama to be unleashed if her beleaguered sister tied the knot with a secret fan of hers. Oh the shock! But then again, Kim has a natal North Node in Leo, so she unconsciously lives for the drama, and soaks up in the glory of getting attention by any means necessary.

_{Photo and natal chart of Travis Barker taken from https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Travis_Barker}

Let’s look at the agent of change in this trio. Travis is a Scorpio Sun with a stellium surrounding his natal Sun, involving the controversial planet Uranus, fast and chatty Mercury and the North Node, a malefic energy of obsessive growth. His Ascendant is in shy and repressed Cancer, and his Moon is in fierce Aries conjunct Jupiter. Already we are dealing with a Water and Fire combo individual (an alchemist), who finds it hard to be himself (Sun conjunct North Node) and may exagerate his emotions through addictions (Moon conjunct Jupiter). At the same time, this is an artistic person who can refine his personality to help it become more spiritual. With Saturn in Leo smack next to the Ascendant, here is someone who is very fearful of starting new things in life, and may over-compensate once he makes long-term decisions by appearing more excited about them then he actually is. With a North Node in Scorpio he is needing to come to terms with intense emotions, sexuality, his Shadow and his own self-destructive impulses, while letting go of dogma and preaching to the masses about family virtues (South Node in Taurus). This is a man who actually has traditional beliefs about life and love, while also doing everything to work against them as he comes to grips with the growth of his impulses, instincts and desires. This is a person who transforms stability into chaos on some level, if he is not aware of his desires.

_{Photo and natal chart of Kourtney Kardashian taken from https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Kourtney_Kardashian}

Now let’s look at Kourtney who was born with an Aries Sun conjunct Mars (and aspect making her a double Aries), a Capricorn Moon (squared by Pluto and Mars!) and a Pisces Ascendant (conjunct beautiful Venus and her South Node). So underneath the cool, mermaid-like and soft persona (Pisces Ascendant), we are dealing here with a fighter (Aries Sun) who can get petty and cruel when her wealth and stability are threatened (Moon in Capricorn). This is someone who is afraid to show her true feelings (Moon gripped by Saturn) and grows softer emotionally the older she grows. Her big three energies are as contradictorily blended as her husband’s and I would imagine that when they argue the fights are epic, as Kourtney can be emotionally volatile with Mars squaring her Moon (an aspect she shares in common with Amber Heard) and also squared by Pluto (her emotions are seething and laden with murderous envy and jealousy). Nonetheless her Moon is rather cold as it sits under the influence of Saturn, and her Pluto is less reactive as other Pluto placements since it is in passive Libra, so I have doubt she acts on her emotions. Like a pressure cooker she stuffs it all in, until it ends up taking the best of her (like in the fight she had with Kim on camera).

With Saturn on the Descendant, conjunct the North Node and Lilith, we can see how difficult it is for Kourtney to relate to other people and empathize with them, since relationships make her feel awkward and anxious; her life may have been controlled by her relatives, lovers and business associates until she learned with time how to take the control back. Her children nonetheless are her biggest joy, and she has a healthy sense of self-esteem drawn mostly from her romantic conquests (Jupiter in the 5th). There is the element of Ego at play here strongly between the Kardashian sisters with many 5th house aspects: Kourtney has her Jupiter in the 5th, Khloe her Sun in the 5th and Kim her North Node in Leo in the 8th house, secretly wishing to be the one with most power and rule over her energetically powerful sisters. Paradoxically, the one with the most wealth & clout from the younger generation turned out to be Kylie, an actual Sun in Leo (whipping the floor with the sibling rivalry initiated by Kim).

_{Photo and natal chart of Kim Kardashian taken from https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Kim_Kardashian}

Coming to the verdict for the first love trio: I can see that Travis and Kourtney have compatible Sun-Jupiter-Ascendant placements, as Travis has a Jupiter in Aries conjunct her Sun, and Kourtney has a Jupiter in Cancer conjunct his Ascendant. These are aspects of joy and growth between them, the happiness bringers. While Travis’ Scorpio Sun is attracted to Kourtney’s Piscean Ascendant, the ways in which Kourtney and Travis express love and relax at home are incompatible. That is because his Moon in Aries is squared by her Moon in Capricorn. As much as they have one leg of the classic Sun-Moon spouse compatibility (his Aries Moon & Jupiter supports her Aries Sun & Mars, which is a traditional indicator of marriage and soulmate-ing), nonetheless this a compatibility in the combative sign of Aries, the sign of individuality rather than partnership; furthermore, Travis may feel emasculated in this connection in the long-run, by having to constantly support her goals. This combination may lead to Mars-like behaviors: arguments and selfish pleasures taken impulsively, which may end up destroying their marriage, that is if the marriage is not gradually eroded in time by their different emotional needs. Despite this, they seem to be going towards a harmonious destiny as his North Node in Scorpio-South Node in Taurus axis forms a supportive pairing to Kourtney’s South Node in Pisces-North Node in Virgo axis.

By transit, Kourtney is having a lot of action since 2012 from Neptune and (more recently) Saturn in Pisces going over her natal Venus, South Node and Ascendant in Pisces. These transits create a lot of romantic illusions and disappointments; this means that her partners aren’t able to see her clearly and as a consequence she runs the risk of being used or having her needs unmet and ignored. Looking now at the stuff that describes a couple’s raw sexual magnetism (Mars) and loving styles (Venus), I see some compatible energies with his Mars in Cancer falling in a harmonious trine on her Venus in Pisces, while her Mars in Aries sits in opposition to his Libra Venus. These aspects are good and supportive, although at times they may have opposite rhythms and desires. I would say that their compatibility is average towards good, and that it is mostly lead by excess & fame, since their strongest compatibility points are their Jupiter markers. So this marriage may make them happy but it may not be something that will last.

In relation to Kim, what concerns me the most about his chart is that a) Travis has a Saturn square Mercury, an aspect which can lead to a lot of verbal and mental cruelty and withholding important information and b) he has the ‘domestic violence’ aspect of Mars in Cancer squaring his Venus conjunct Pluto in Libra (wowza!). Guess where this Venus-Pluto squared by Mars action falls in relation to Kim’s natal chart? Well, on her Sun in Libra, which represents her identity and vitality), on her Pluto (transformation) and on her Saturn (boundaries & karma). The reason why I am slightly concerned about Kim’s proximity to him is that strong aspects to Mars, Venus and Pluto in the synastry of two people denote rape, domestic violence, sexual abuse and even murder (Pluto). In terms of emotional compatibility, Travis doesn’t share a harmonious Moon aspect with Kim either, as her Pisces Moon clashes with his Aries Moon – so again they have different needs and they relax in different ways, but his Scorpio Sun trines with her Moon, and her Libra Sun opposes his Moon conjunct Jupiter in Aries duo. There is attraction there and it is undeniable, it less emotional and more sexual, aka a ticking time-bomb.

Now let’s introduce Khloe and Tristan’s charts into the mix, and see what proverbial damage is Kim’s need for attention bringing to these two.

_{Photo and natal chart of Khloe Kardashian taken from https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Khloe_Kardashian}

We can see that Khloe is a natal Sun in Cancer in the 5th house (conjunct Venus and Mercury), with a Moon in Gemini in the 4th house (conjunct her North Node, which is a nasty emotional aspect in a woman’s chart) and an Aquarius Ascendant. She has the ruler of her Ascendant, Uranus almost perfectly conjunct the Midheaven, which shows a person who is crafting a unique image for herself, highly different than the rest of the family, and this could be why she has such a cool image out of the entire family and she also comes across as clever. But Khloe feels like an alien inside her family and often views her relatives with a sense of detachment. She is afraid to take action and stand up for herself, preferring instead to endure and hope for the best (Saturn conjunct Mars in the 9th house). To make matters worse, she is also highly Neptunian, having her stellium in Cancer sitting in opposition to a Neptune which is amplified by its conjunction to Jupiter in Capricorn. This aspect makes her kind, selfless but also gullible and easily taken advantage of. With her Sun in the 5th conjunct Venus, this is a woman who has a good amount of self-esteem, especially since this energy makes a wonderful trine to her Mars conjunct Saturn in Scorpio duo, although she is isn’t able to enjoy or maximize on her natural beauty and self-esteem due to a suffocating sense of envy from her nearest and dearest. She stays connected to, and endures that which controls her freedom and sense of optimism in life and I believe she will be happier in old age (Saturn in the 9th house).

_{Photo and natal chart of Tristan Thompson taken from https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Tristan_Thompson}

Khloe’s ex, Tristan Thompson is a Cancer Ascendant with a Sun in Pisces (conjunct his Midheaven), and a Moon in Aquarius (conjunct Saturn) in the secretive 8th house. Now we see here someone who is artistic and compassionate but also gullible and easily influenced by beauty (Sun in Pisces). A man who shines in his career but struggles with intimacy due to fears, which may have been created in his relationship to his own mother. He is capable of detaching from his feelings (Aquarius Moon) to an extreme, a fact further amplified by his Moon being conjunct Saturn, a combination which can feel calm to the point of frosty. Tristan’s Mars in Gemini falls on Khloe’s Moon and North Node, while his North Node in Capricorn (conjunct Uranus and Neptune) fall on Khloe’s Jupiter and Neptune. This means that through his actions (Mars), Tristan sets off Khloe’s emotions (the Moon) to a really intense degree (her North Node). We see right off the bat compatible Sun signs (Pisces and Cancer) and compatible Moons (Gemini and Aquarius), but if we take them in the classic stitch formation of compatibility, these energies don’t blend (her Moon squares his Sun, and her Sun squares his Moon). Moon-Sun aspects denote marriage potential in a couple; and even if they have highly compatible Moons (Gemini and Aquarius) – so similar ways of loving, relaxing, similar needs – his Moon sits with cold and stern Saturn (showing someone who is detached, emotionaly controlled and shows loves in pragmatic ways) and her Moon sits with the volatile North Node (giving her passion but also obsessive emotions and mood-swings).

Tristan in helped in his life through his relationship with Khloe (Jupiter conjunct the North Node), while Khloe receives a lot of fresh energy but also emotional suffering by being connected to him (Mars conjunct her North Node). She finds him very physically attractive (her Venus conjunct his Ascendant), while he has a milder physical attraction to her (his Venus in Aries sextile her Aquarius Ascendant). But probably the saddest aspects of their charts are shown by their incompatible Venus & Mars placements: his Venus in Aries irritates her Mars in Scorpio, and his Mars in Gemini feels alien to her Venus in Cancer, which means that in their sensuality they don’t flow very well and there are resentments in between the bedsheets. Lastly, let’s have a look at Mercury (which shows two people’s styles of communication). I see another issue there as Khloe’s natal Mercury in Cancer clashes with Tristan’s Mercury in Cancer. So their overall compatibility as a couple is somewhat 20%, and unfortunately that North Node in Capricorn conjunct Khloe’s Jupiter in Capricorn shows me that he is clearly using her for clout and exposure (or who knows their marriage was a business arrangement behind the scenes, all this time).

Now by comparison, how compatible is Tristan with Kim? One thing that stands out to me about them is that Kim’s South Node in Aquarius is conjunct his Moon and Saturn, while her natal Moon in Pisces is conjunct his Sun, while his natal Moon in Aquarius is trine her Sun in Libra (this spells out the story of a deep past-life link, in which potentially they might’ve been married). So he already scores higher in compatibility with Kim than with Khloe. But their energy flows away from that link, towards something rather incompatible: her North Node in Leo sits in a square with his North Node in Capricorn (although both signs enjoy wealth and name-dropping), while her Sagittarius Ascendant finds his Cancer Ascendant too soft and shy. But there is a game-changer thrown in the mix, which is his Jupiter in Leo in the 2nd house conjunct her North Node. This aspect shows that on some level, Tristan brings Kim wealth and new opportunities for making money, and as the 2nd and 8th houses are involved, it leaves little room to the imagination to understand just exactly how this wealth is trickling in (through some sort of paid sexual arrangements). In addition, Tristan’s Venus in Aries is strongly attracted to Kim’s Mars in Sagittarius, as they find fun & impulsive things to do together (like cheating on Khloe), however his Mars in Gemini doesn’t sit so well with her Venus in Virgo, who needs more stability.

Nonetheless, with her Venus in Virgo sextile his Cancerian Ascendant and his Venus in Aries trine her Sagittarian Ascendant, I think that we can safely say that yes, Tristan is at least 50% more compatible with Kim than he is with Khloe, and if he says they are just friends, most likely it’s a friends with benefits type of arrangement. Expect to hear more from Tristan and Kim in the coming year, as they are having a strong Saturn in Pisces transit (hers to her Moon and his to his Sun), and I wouldn’t put it past them to even announce a cold-blooded engagement. Kim is treading now into a deep karmic emotional territory, with Saturn transiting over her Moon, a period in which she may find herself separated from her mother, sisters, children and her own feelings, as a karmic consequence for her actions. This is a woman who with a flick of her hair, can drag the whole Kardashian clan into a Shakespearian tragedy. And most likely, what she is doing is a direct response to he ex, Kanye West’s shenanigans with his new, trophy wife.

So my friends, where does this leave us? I guess with an understanding that the rumors have a lot of truth to them and that behind the scenes the situation is much worse than what we are shown in the media. As a Cancer (Khloe) and Aries (Kourtney) Sun natives, it’s hard to compete with beauty Queen Libra (Kim), but from their charts I also see that Kim grew from the least luminous of them all, into the most notorious by harnessing her sisters’ strong, natal 5th house energies. From their charts I can see that Tristan is more sexually attracted to Kim and as the charts show they are clearly more than friends, while his relationship to Khloe looks like a business deal from their natal placements. On the other hand, with Kourtney and Travis, I see that Travis is more compatible with Kourtney but that their relationship may not last. Travis indeed has the hots for Kim but he may deny and repress this energy in an effort to protect Kourtney, but he will end up creating this seething tension-cauldron in the family which will eventually erupt in a dramatic divorce (and could even lead to other, darker things – I see you Mars in Cancer squared by Venus conjunct Pluto in Libra!).

I feel that a lot of the romantic decisions taken in this family rely on lust and superficiality rather than emotional attunement to someone, and this may be why real love constantly seems to evade the Kardashian clan and why the karma may eventually catch up with them. Writing this article has been a slightly weird experience for me, and I feel I need to go and burn some white sage and take a shower with salt for a deep cleanse, but feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section below. And if you are curious about getting a sibling synastry report or a romantic synastry report for yourself, then head over to my e-Shop and book one with me today.

With cosmic love,

Lexi

_{During ‘spooky season’ nothing is spookier and more touching than seeing two famous siblings sharing space in the cemetery at Auvers-sur-Oise in France: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grave-of-vincent-and-theo-van-gogh}

I recently introduced a new service in my eShop, called ‘The Synastry Report’ which is the analysis of a diagram combining two charts that explore the compatibility between two people. It is mostly used for romantic pairings, but it can also benefit siblings or other kin relationships, and to demonstrate that I thought I would look into the compatible elements between a couple of famous siblings. It is a slightly chilly October day adorned with grayish clouds, so I thought that exploring the chart of the melancholic expressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh and his brother, would fit well with the scenery.

The idea to look into the synastry of the Van Gogh brothers was given to me by a well-known Romanian astrologer, Teodora Muth who gave a rich and terrific presentation on this topic at the 2023 Conference of The Association of Romanian Astrologers, which took place about a week ago. If most of us are aware of the supportive relationship between Vincent Van Gogh, the world-famous Dutch expressionist painter and Theo van Gogh, an art dealer and his younger brother, what was particularly fascinating was finding out just how into self-destruction Vincent was, as he maintained throughout his tumultuous life a number of intoxicating habits that affected not only his social life but also his capacity to see and paint.

When we witness the unearthly beauty of ‘Starry Night over the Rhone’ (completed in the master number year of 1888), we don’t normally think that those shimmering globes in the sky where influenced by the painter’s declining eye-sight and hallucinatory spells, which were mainly caused by a combination of gonoreea, glaucoma, lead poisoning (he used to eat some of his paint tubes), absinthe addiction, and living in a perpetual state of malnourishment. We think that they may be part of an original process of thinking and a specific way of seeing the world. While this may be true, it is significant that after he completed this painting, shortly after followed the infamous ear cutting event between him and Paul Gauguin, which pushed Vincent into entering the mental asylum at Saint-Remy. Remarkably, while he was in the asylum, Vincent unleashed his creativity to such an extent that it is considered he painted 800 out of the 900 paintings in his lifetime, while he stayed there.

We see here the combined influences of asylum, poor health, art, addiction and one important element of Vincent’s life which he often defined himself by, his spirituality and need for the Divine. It all feels familiar & highly Neptunian to me, as I was born under the Neptune-ruled sign of the zodiac (Pisces), and those are by-and-large some of the themes of my own life (well, minus the artistic genius). Keeping all these themes in mind, I wonder now as an astrologer, if there are other indicators in his natal chart that point towards such manifestations of extreme energy? And another question I have, is why did Theo stand by him, when everyone else seemed to have abandoned him? Below is Vincent’s chart and following on after, is his brother’s Theo’s chart, so you may follow along:

_{Self-portrait of the artist & birth-chart of Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh taken from https://www.astro-seek.com/birth-chart/vincent-van-gogh-horoscope}

We notice that Vincent is a Sun in Aries in the 10th house (so he borrows traits from Capricorn energy), he has a Moon in Sagittarius in the 6th house (so with a Virgoan influence) and an Ascendant in Cancer (which makes his Descendant in the sign of Capricorn). His Sun is also conjunct Mercury and the Part of Fortune, while his Moon sits with Jupiter and the South Node (wow!). Immediately, we spot a considerable influence from Fire and Water signs in his chart which are anchored in Earth houses (the 6th and the 10th houses) and while these may be balancing influences, they nonetheless tell the story of a highly sensitive & spiritual soul, simultaneously endowed with ambition and an Ego build around his public achievements. Vincent was a highly creative person who preferred to work alone and had a tendency to emotionally exagerate and sweat over the small things in life, the daily details of his life (Moon in the 6th).

This is the chart of a man emotionally attached to his work and to his daily routine, although he is also struggling to do his best to transcend the boundaries of his daily life & pursue personal, creative freedom (Sagittarius 6th house). Vincent was a wild man at heart, a ‘savage in the city’ as some astrologers describe someone who is born with a Sagittarian South Node, but he craved to form a deep connection to the Divine which would anchor him into a relationship; he also needed to travel and to move around in order to receive his inspiration and find a deeper purpose to life (North Node in Gemini in the 12th house) and I guess he couldn’t figure out how to reconcile freedom with belonging. When he failed to anchor himself into a romantic relationship (he was rejected by the woman he first proposed to), he did so in the one provided by his nearest and dearest: his brother.

As a Gemini North Node in the house of Neptune (the 12th house), Vincent was destined to lead a life that would gradually unravel at the seams and help him loosen up his karmic legacy (which was defined by tradition, morals and control). He was meant to walk the path of an ordinary man in his life, and this is why he was shunned and never got any success, awards or achievements. This is because his comfort zone was packed with the lucky man’s energy, the winner’s role, but this is kind of energy which he needed to grow out of (Jupiter conjunct the South Node). By pursuing the path of a simple, ordinary man (Gemini), focused on taking himself less seriously while developing his artistic skills, he actually ended up becoming extra-ordinary after his death (the ultimate act of ‘letting go’ required by the 12th house, the final sacrifice). He described in his letters that spirituality meant so much to him, and how he needed to be in nature, outdoors and to roam freely, and I see all of these as expressions of his South Node in Sagittarius speaking to his North Node in Gemini. To also mention that Vincent also had a natal stellium in the sturdy and traditional sign of Taurus – which is a very stubborn and ambitious energy that doesn’t like to be rushed – and in the house of friendships and business associates, local groups and his vocation in life (the 11th), I can see the despite preferring to be alone, Vincent needed other people to help him develop his vocation and find meaning in life.

Vincent’s stellium involves the planets Saturn, Uranus and Pluto and the asteroid Lilith also known as Dark Moon Lilith. With the malefic energies of Saturn, Pluto and Lilith and the surprising touch of Uranus here, he had to weather a lot of nasty surprises and power plays from his co-workers, friends and members of his generation (to which I’m certain he felt he didn’t belong to). The famous ear incident involving the artist Gauguin, whom he admired (and some speculate that Vincent was also in love with) can be categorized as part of this karmic energy of having Saturn in the 11th house, the classic indicator of a man clashing with the generation he was born into and of having disputes and bad luck brought to him by his friends and work associates. This aspect in combination with his Chiron in the sign of Capricorn in the 6th house, is related to a deep wound inside of Vincent’s soul about his incapacity to provide, to earn enough money to prove everyone wrong, a wound about not being seen and admired for his true worth at work and among his colleagues (and even in love, since he ended up paying for his pleasures).

The addictions that have plagued his life are symbolic of Vincent’s attempt to soothe his wounded Ego with sex, narcotics and alcohol, things that would make him ‘travel away’ from his daily duties and escape somewhere else, maybe to a place where people would value him, where God loved him and he felt whole. Now, the more I look at this chart the more I feel that it may have been difficult to have him around as a child, friend or lover since he seems to have indicators that show a person with a bottomless need to be loved, one who would take the small gestures made by those around him and blown them up to apoteotic extremes of mental nitpicking and self-induced pain. So I wonder how much of the rejection he felt in life, really came from other people or from his mind, which gradually played more and more tricks on him, as he dived deeper into self-abuse?

He grew from a person born within a large family and with a traditional and orderly life, to the image of an artistic martyr. We tend to assume he simply fell into this role because his art was so unique and not fitting in with the norms of beauty of that time, but I am thinking now, exactly how much of this image that he had crafted, was left to impulse and how much was the result of a deeper understanding of what it actually took to get people to notice his work and see his value? There is an element of calculated self-making that I can observe from Vincent’s chart, especially as with so many rational influences in his 6th and 10th houses and that clever North Node in Gemini, he may have just weighted his odds and decided that ‘if I die, my art will matter to them’ (that is, the artistic community of his time).

Another concern may have been less ambitious and more family-oriented, as very soon after his death his sisters were able to sell some of his paintings and pay off his medical bills. Imagine the empathy and forethought that was necessary to think ahead and determine that a death could help the family; this is the stuff of 12th house magic, the realm of sacrifice that makes someone seem saintly even as they live out extremes of depravity and self-abuse. So rather than seeing Vincent as a rebel that went against what the art world knew at the time, this is the chart of a man who was deeply sensitive to what others had to say about him, even if he lived his life in a way in which it seemed that he had no shame. The chart also shows someone with a rather intense degree of ambition which was only bypassed (or self-sabotaged) by the intensity of his emotions. Those Jupiterian, larger-than-life emotions served him so well in his art but unfortunately not in his daily life.

_{Photo of Dutch art trader and brother of Vincent, Theo Van Gogh taken from https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Theo_van_Gogh_(art_dealer) – not to be mistaken with the British artist by the same name, born in 1957}

In contrast, we see that Theo, his younger brother has a Sun in Taurus in the 2nd house (conjunct a stellium of luminaries involving Venus, Uranus, Mars and Pluto), a Moon in Leo in the 5th house, and an Aries Ascendant conjunct Jupiter and his North Node (wow!) – talk about sibling twin flames! With his natal Saturn in Cancer in the 4th house and conjunct Vincent’s Ascendant, I feel that Theo found the experience of growing up in their childhood house-hold to be stern, restrictive and emotionally cold. As Vincent has his own natal Saturn in Taurus conjunct Theo’s natal Sun (and an entire stellium), there is a degree of unspoken karmic responsibility between them. Saturn bound them both into a long-term commitment. Despite being the younger brother, Theo ended up playing a caretaker role in Vincent’s life, because he felt some degree of karmic responsibility towards Vincent, but also because Vincent saw him as a man who had his life in order, as someone who managed what he couldn’t: get married and form a family. Even if Theo was the youngest, their dynamic was reversed, as I see that often it was left to Theo to set the boundaries in Vincent’s life.

At the same time, being around Vincent gave Theo the courage to be himself (Jupiter in Aries conjunct Vincent’s Sun) and allowed him to learn how to lead (North Node in Aries). In all honesty, Theo couldn’t quit him, because his soul craved to be like him, in rather obsessive way (North Node in Aries conjunct Vincent’s Sun). I also feel that Theo wished that he had had Vincent’s talent and artistic and bohemian lifestyle, while Vincent valued most of all the support of just having his brother around, of having someone who would tolerate his emotional chaos and narcotic dependencies and just accept him for the wild, free spirit he was.

To be honest, I don’t know much about Theo’s personal life except that he got married and had a son – named after Vincent (which was apparently a move that upset the painter because it unconsciously touched upon a deep family trauma of naming a previously unborn child also Vincent, and thereby locking ‘Vincent the adult’ into a life-time haunting of his dead brother’s ghost) – he was the one holding Vincent when he died, and soon after his death he had an active involvement is preserving his art-work. Moreover, just one year away from Vincent’s death, Theo would also pass away. This is remarkable, as it feels like Vincent and Theo, two brothers born 3 years apart, and who had died one year away from one another, were meant to walk their lives together, like the twins represented by Vincent’s North Node in Gemini. They had complementary professions (art dealer and artist), and complementary lifestyles (married man and bachelor). Who knows what else they would’ve achieved together, if Vincent wouldn’t have decided to leave so early.

Now, after writing the above I cannot help but wonder what kind of synastry did Vincent have with his sisters, the portraits of whom you can see below. It is becoming apparent that the two Van Gogh brothers were close to and kept in touch with their sisters, and that at least one of the sisters’ had an ongoing mental health issue which ended up taking her life. So part of the deeply Neptunian themes of Vincent’s life were not necessarily self-made, as much as they would’ve been inherited both genetically and psychologically, both consciously and unconsciously from the content of his family dynamics. Going so far back in time as the 19th century poses issues related to the accuracy of the birth-date and the time of the birth itself, so please take the above analysis with a grain of salt. It is nonetheless a fascinating life story and family tale that lingers on, long after it ended.

_{Image of Vincent and Theo’s sisters, taken from the Smithsonian Magazine : https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/exploring-lives-van-goghs-sisters-through-their-letters-180977325/}

If you enjoyed this analysis and would like to get in touch with me for a sibling synastry report, feel free to click on the My e-Shop tab in the menu bar of this website. And please follow this blog to receive notifications when I publish astrological analyses; it’s for free and I’ve got plenty of cases coming up for your astrological enchantment.

With cosmic love,

Lexi

_{Image from Revolver Mag: https://www.revolvermag.com/music/doja-cat-i-want-explore-raw-unfiltered-hardcore-punk}

You guys, I need to admit the shameful truth… for a long time I lived under the certainty that Doja Cat (aka Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini) is a Scorpio Sun. So of course, when news of her weird behaviour and sudden (and extreme) style changes appeared in the media, I kept thinking “Yes, makes sense to me. She’s just Scorping out, let the woman do her Pluto-thing”. But her chart is showing me a different story! She is a 27 degrees Libra Sun with a Libra Ascendant at the 29th degree, the dreaded anaretic degree. The anaretic degree is considered by ancient astrologer to be the destroyer of worlds, as it marks the end, a story that comes full circle, and a stage of intense maturation that cannot go any further than meeting its demise. Any planets at 29 degrees in the natal chart are thought to work against the individual, to create self-sabotage and many losses. Doja has her Ascendant there, which means that the anaretic degree is colouring her opportunities in life, her physical changes and style choices into a dark sheen. As a Libra Sun, she is a natural artist, an intelligent creator, incarnated to beautify herself and her environment and everyone in it (if you disagree, see Donald Glover’s chart for another Libra example of excellence). This means that Doja’s identity is meant to go to extremes in this lifetime because she has the inner light and strength to find the middle ground. However, the opportunities & relationships she attracts towards herself might just very well be her demise.

Doja also has a pure but anxious Virgo Moon, sitting in opposition with ‘grandpa’ Saturn, which unfortunately is retrograde (so concentrated) and in sensitive Pisces. Ouch! This hurts, because Saturn drains and freezes whatever it touches. This means that her capacity to rest, to be kind, to dream, to feel feminine and be in her emotions is frozen and blocked, while the desire to do all these things is equally amplified. This makes her a tough cookie, someone who always needs to sacrifice something in order to write off her karma. But judging by her Aries South Node, she’s also a tough combative cookie, who needs to practice the game of relating to others in polite and considerate ways; fairness and being honest are two big issues here. With a Mercurian Moon, Doja was already prone to intellectualize her feelings and to relax mostly by working, but with the opposition aspect to Saturn, this energy is turned up on blast!

This aspect makes her slightly insensitive to the feelings of others, while at the same time deeply hurt by the personal events in her life. Not only that but Doja has a lot of planets which are considered ‘malefic’ by ancient astrologers (such as Pluto and Mars) in the house of her body, her identity and sense of self-confidence, the 1st house. This shows an individual who has to constantly fight for her place under the Sun. And even though resources and money could come to her easily (Jupiter in the 2nd house), this material wealth could further cause power-problems in her personal connections (Pluto conjunct Mars in the 1st house).

_{Image of Doja Cat and her birth-chart taken from https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Doja_Cat}

In addition, with her Moon in aspect to Saturn she has emotional burdens that create contradictions within herself, and by creating art she is able to somehow work through her ‘inner demons‘. So what we are witnessing now as a public, with the release of her album ‘Scarlet‘ and her EP ‘Paint the Town Red‘, is Doja having her Saturn return and showing us her level of emotional maturity and transformation as an artist; but most importantly of all, Doja is showing us her comfort zone (her Mars-primed 6th house that is, the house of work and daily routines). After all, Saturn represents Satan, the imagined of the horny, satyr, the lusty goat. This particular Saturn return is an emotionally draining and painful one to her, and her ‘antics’ are a way to cover up what she is internally struggling to accept and love about herself. When someone goes through a Saturn return, she or he undertakes a journey of the dark night of the soul, a period of aprox. 2 to 3 years in which they are pressured by circumstances to make some tough decisions: to cut out what no longer works and to amplify what already does, through hard work & the proverbial ‘blood, sweat and tears’. Saturn also gets one to focus on money and what are they really worth.

A Moon sitting in opposition to Saturn, like Doja has, shows a person with a difficult childhood and a hard and rejecting mother-figure. The child learns from a young age to toughen up and not to show emotions for fear of being ridiculed or worst, punished. So the work of expressing her feelings in a healthy and mature way is Doja’s lifetime karma. Many of her most difficult lessons will be felt internally, in relation to women and in connection to how she nurtures, loves and accept her own femininity and how careful she is with emotions (her own and those of other people). With Venus loosely conjunct Pluto (also at the final anaretic degree, the 29th) and placed in the first house of the body and conjunct Mars in Sagittarius, we are looking here at a woman with a ridiculous capacity to attract A LOT of attention from both men and women, but this form of attention may be sleezy, sexual and obsessive.

Doja will often need to transform her love life, beauty and finances in this lifetime, in order to revitalize her energy. A Venus in Scorpio is detrimental to an individual, since it makes the act of forming relationships similar to an extreme sport, a life-or-death affair than usually ends in rejection & heartbreak. In general, people take a rather relaxed approach to getting to know someone; not the Scorpio Venusian, who seems engaged in a ‘ride or die’ mentality in love, that is happy either with sketchy and brief, sexual hook-ups or intense, mind-body-soul bonding and nothing in-between. Getting the tone just right in love is a struggle. But Doja was given a Sun in Libra, in order to work at accomplishing this exact tas: keeping things in order, and reconciling sides.

Her Scorpio Venus is showing itself drastically in how Doja interacts with her fans, calling them out in often aggressive ways and then continuing to love on them and thank them for the support. This type of Venus is known to leak life force, and it can only renew itself if it sacrifices something, such as a toxic habit, a bad relationship and an Ego-belief. By beginning and then allowing some toxic relationships to crash and burn, Doja rises more powerful than before. And her Virgo Moon is meant to help her with this task, as Virgo purifies everything it touches. And so by turning to her emotions, and being honest about how she feels, Doja can clean up a lot of negative energy in her life. There is a distinctly playful side about her personality, her image and her music and that’s what I really like about her: she is intelligent enough to play into people’s fears, relying on shock-value to further her career and to move beyond what people expect of her. We all know that doing the same-old is not conducive to world-wide fame.

Most of us grew up seeing how Rihanna went from her ‘Music of the Sun‘ era to her ‘Good girl gone bad‘ period, and I kind of feel Doja is more or less giving Riri a silent nod with her new album (after all, her Saturn in Pisces is touching upon Riri’s Sun in Pisces and Doja’s South Node in Aries is conjunct Riri’s Moon, Venus, Jupiter and Ascendant in Aries, so they are soulfully linked). Doja is pretty honest about preferring fame to harmonious relationships or people-pleasing, even if getting better at PR is her uncomfortable growth-zone (North Node in Libra). It seems to me that after her initial success and her sweet, sugar-coated image (her manufactured North Node growth zone), Doja dived head first into her Aries Shadow, boldly mining it for creative inspiration. And it’s a beautiful thing in essence, even if not necessarily in her new, devilish image and frightening videos. It’s almost as if under the pressure of Saturn, Doja is showing us, who she is when she ‘hides’ in her Aries South Node in the 6th house. By the way, just to add some gasoline to the Internet fire ragging around Doja, the 6th house is traditionally known as the house of Wicca and witchcraft. Make of that what you will.

With both Neptune and Uranus in stoic and hard-working Capricorn in the communicative 3rd house, she’s a wordsmith, the kind of individual that gets a lot of inspiration to write and to come up with clever rhymes, seemingly organic and out of the blue, but almost always, generously creative. This is after all a woman who got tough guys to sign along with glee to the lyrics of a song about pussy power (Downtown). But is also feels like she’s making fun of herself, as she is giving us those heavy Lucifer-vibes, since she knows controversy sells records. That’s why I think that people who take her too seriously are missing the point. In the age when mostly shock-value is giving artists and creators a boost in prestige and income, Doja is a new-age consumate professional.

She’s tapping into taboos to make the dark shine under the neon glow of the almighty dollar. What’s not to love? As we are increasingly blocked from expressing our freedoms, financially frustrated by a socio-political disorder and pushed by scientists, nutritionists and health coaches to look our best and to perfect ourselves, Doja Cat is throwing a grenade into what sociologists call ‘the project of the Self‘ in this bold age of information and individualism. She’s cheekily saying: “It’s fun to be mean. It’s ok to be bad. If the world seems to be crumbling, then why not crumble with it?” And that’s how she shocks but also offers us all a sweet relief. Only those who cannot read beyond the lines or lack a basic introduction to the music world’s industrial complex, are veering into Satanic panic.

With a South Node in Aries and a Lilith in Gemini, Doja takes her power wherever she can and if she managed to scare you and fool you into thinking she’s a demoness, then even better for her and her sales. So rather than being spiritually alarmed, look at the situation with the eyes with which she herself is looking at it: creative liberation. The karmic payback for taking this liberation will come to her towards the end of this Saturnian transit, and I assume that out of all of her critics, nothing compares to how critical Doja can be on herself (again nod to her malefic afflicted Moon). But with a North Node in Libra in the sacrificial 12th house and a Saturn in Pisces in the 5th house, what Doja craves more than anything is to express herself freely and what she gets in return is feeling cramped, limited or suffocated by other people’s sensitivities. This is a woman who has to work hard to feel happy in this lifetime, to create work that is fun for others but especially to her. So cut her some slack and listen to her music – it’s actually really fun and sweet, even if the visuals have recently darkened (but it won’t last long).

With cosmic love,

Lexi

_{Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman as Clara Varner and Ben Quick in the film ‘The Long Hot Summer’. It was based on a novel by William Faulkner and directed by Martin Ritt, circa 1958. The couple remained together until Newman’s death in 2008. (Getty Images)}

I promised you an example of a synastry analysis that is slightly more positive than the Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas debacle, and thank God that HBO saved my a$%! Because I have to say that finding positive examples in the world of celebrity marriages and relationships is a difficult task and mostly because the good ones are not so easily mediatized. People who love well and stay together usually lead relatively quiet lives, fairly removed from scandal & drama (see for example Christian Bale and Sibi Blazic, or George & Amal Clooney). In my romantic search, I found out that in 2022, HBO released a documentary created by an enthusiastic Ethan Hawke, about the intimate life of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. I don’t know why it took me this long to realize that it was available to watch, but I feel like the waiting has a fated quality to it, since I am writing about it now, after the Autumn Equinox of 2023 and during Libra season, the zodiac sign of partnerships.

The 6-parts documentary is emotional and informative and just gorgeous to watch, as you get behind-the-scenes audio interpretations by a slew of famous actors, most of whom appear to be Ethan’s chums; to say that I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen was an understatement, it was such an interesting and emotional ride, and a really welcomed surprise. Called The Last Movie Stars, the documentary revealed some interesting aspects about their 50-years long marriage (the pair got married in 1958!). I mean, even if I were to start a relationship this year, I don’t think I would still have 50 years left to give it my all to love; but I can dream about that possibility, and that’s the beauty of this intimate piece of work: it renews romantic hope. The fascinating part was the relationship that Paul and Joanne had, which by itself and considering its length, becomes almost an institutional entity. So let’s explore their astrological markers and see if there are any clues that may point toward relational durability and love stamina.

Below is Joanne’s chart, which tells us that she is a Sun in Pisces in the 2nd house (conjunct Venus), a Moon in Aquarius in the 2nd house (conjunct Mars, Mercury & Lilith in the 1st house), and an Ascendant in Capricorn (conjunct the Part of Fortune in the 1st house & Saturn in the 12th house). The big threes in someone natal chart (the Sun, Moon and Ascendant) point towards someone’s identity, their public and private Self but in a synastry analysis, we have to look at a person’s relationship markers to sus out the glue that binds two people together. As relationship markers, Joanne has them deeply combined with her personal identity placements, seeing as her Moon is tied up with her Mars & Mercury (making her a passionate and naturally clever woman), and her Sun is hugged by her Venus (some astrologers call the Sun’s nearness to any planet, a combust aspect, something which drains the planet of its energy; however, Joanne is undeniably beautiful so we will ignore that interpretation – in general, I don’t see the point of naming aspects ‘combust’).

_{Photo and birth-chart of actress Joanne Woodward taken from https://www.astro-seek.com/birth-chart/joanne-woodward-horoscope}

In addition, Joanne brings a powerful aspect to the table in terms love and marriage and that is her Pluto retrograde in Cancer in the 7th house conjunct the Descendant. Pluto here can make one highly sexed up, intimidating, mysterious and irresistibly attractive in love; they may also use manipulation, subterfuge and guilt-tripping to control their loved ones, especially since hers is placed in the sign of Cancer (a Water sign) which rules over emotional mood swings. And guess what, Paul has this exact placement too! The reason being is they share an Ascendant. This mutual Pluto aspect can also manifest as a secret love affair. Indeed their love story began when Paul was still married to his ex-wife, Jackie Witte. Paul left Jackie for Joanne, as the latter was too astrologically irresistible. Another reason was, that they had a hefty past-life karma to process together, since Paul’s Saturn in Scorpio was conjunct Joanne’s South Node in Scorpio, and Joanne’s Moon, Mars and Mercury were conjunct Paul’s South Node.

Speaking of Paul’s chart, you can see below that he has a Sun in Aquarius in the 1st house (conjunct his South Node), a Moon in Pisces in the 2nd house (conjunct Uranus) and the same Capricorn Ascendant as Joanne – the difference is that his Asc is conjunct the planet of luck and growth, Jupiter! Not only that but Venus and Mercury are neatly tucked into the Ascendant’s radius, which is wow! It’s like God, on the day of Creation decided to spend some time on Paul, packing in his lunch box some diamonds too. Having Jupiter, Venus and Mercury on the Ascendant obliterates the rather stern and difficult energy that Capricorn brings to anyone’s chances in life. At the same time it adds layers upon layers of fears and responsibilities to someone’s life. In the series he describes how he used drinking as a way to take the edge off things, so that they won’t feel so difficult. Practical responsibilities burdened him more than any other man, since Paul was born with a sensitive Moon in Pisces conjunct Uranus in the 2nd house. Uranus disrupted and fragmented his inner world and gave him some wild emotional ups and downs, but due to his Capricorn Ascendant he kept it all in, repressing the expressionist madness of his inner life; the positive side is that this energy was then sublimated in his movie roles, and transformed into art.

_{Photo and birth-chart of actor Paul Newman taken from https://www.astro-seek.com/birth-chart/paul-newman-horoscope}

Notice here another interesting pattern between their charts? Paul’s Moon falls on Joanne’s Sun and Venus (which is usually an indication of soul-mate marriage), while his Uranus also conjuncts her Sun and Venus (a sign of relational disruption). This means that as much as there was emotional sweetness between the two of them (Sun conjunct Moon) and true love (Sun conjunct Venus), there were also shocks, sudden separations, electricity and awkwardness (Sun conjunct Uranus). They also had an emotional double whammy which guarantees a deep soulmate bond: both of their Sun and Moons were intertwined! So despite the fact that he is an Air sign and she is a Water sign and some classic astrologers might consider them incompatible, her Sun in Pisces fell on his Moon in Pisces, while his Sun in Aquarius fell on her Moon – this kind of synastry gives me goosebumps, since it shows two people who think and feel in similar ways. And indeed in their political views and humanitarian efforts, they were united. On a deeper level it shows two similar souls, made for marriage and embodied to support each other in this lifetime.

Let’s return to their shared Ascendant, since their shared Capricorn energy is the most visible sign of two people who came together to build something durable. Capricorn energy doesn’t play around: it is pragmatic, it looks for something safe, it makes strategic moves to gain something tangible, enduring and reliable; and this is how their relationship seemed to the public, from the outside looking in. The Ascendant represents the opportunities people tend to attract towards themselves, so for Paul it was his destiny to attract fame and fortune (Jupiter), to have many women in his life (Venus) and to develop an image of stoic communication (Mercury). Indeed, in The Last Movie Stars, the most fascinating aspect was how Paul’s career took off in his twenties, around the time he married here, while Joanne’s stagnated as she took on the role of primary caregiver for their children, right after she won an Oscar.

In spite of this power-shift, many actors and directors continued to believe that Joanne was the most talented in the craft of acting from the two of them, if we take into account that she won her Oscar in 1958, while Paul received his as an honorary award in 1986 (for Joanne, Saturn gave her limitations but it also gave her professional respect and enduring skills). This Jupiter in Capricorn versus Saturn in Capricorn energies that they shared are demonstrated in the directions that their lives took. But there is more to this weird shift in power which they experienced in their careers, and this aspect is shown by the placement of their lunar nodal points. Let me bring up their synastry chart so you can have a look at their points and aspects in detail:

_{The synastry chart of Paul and Joanne’s relationship taken from https://famouspeople.astro-seek.com/marriage/paul-newman/joanne-woodward}

Jesus Christ! When I first saw the chart I couldn’t help myself: it looks like a literal battle ground, due to the prevalence of the many red aspects (or points of tension, the squares and the oppositions). But as many red aspects as they have, these are balanced out by the blue ones (or harmonious and friendly energies, the trines and the sextiles). Astro-seek.com is letting me know that the two actors have 7 loving aspects, 9 key aspects, 11 passion aspects and 5 pain aspects between them. Conspicuously, there seems to be no conflict aspect between them… well, this is why getting a synastry analysis from a human being rather than a computer, can be a more satisfying endeavor. The odd description of ’11 passion aspects’ can be better summed up by the fact that Joanne and Paul had a natural, wild chemistry between them as her Mars was conjunct his Sun and this is a classic signifier of being physically turned on by someone while also frequently arguing with them.

In addition, Paul’s Mars in Aries was conjunct Joanne’s Uranus in Aries, another indicator of feeling aroused and electrified by someone’s unique individuality (and with a Mars in Aries it is also not surprising to me that he enjoyed car racing so much). Not only that but their physical passion was supported by emotional aspects with long-term holding potential and stoic durability. Paul’s Saturn in Scorpio in the 10th house was trine (or in harmony) to Joanne’s Sun and Venus in Pisces, showing again how he helped her express her femininity and create a safe haven at home, not with his physical presence in the home but by playing his role as the family provider (the 10th house shows the public arena and the role of the experienced mentor, and any planets here carry a lot of weight, like Atlas holding the world).

Coming into his strength and shinning brightly in the public’s eye was Paul’s uncomfortable growth zone and destiny, as his North Node was in charismatic Leo. While for Joanne, letting go of her sexual power and her artistry was necessary, so that she could focus more on domestics bliss and creating a simple and cozy sense of stability in her life, since her North Node was in stable Taurus. They were interviewed once if they had things in common and aside from the world of acting and their family life, they felt divided in their hobbies and goals. Again, this divide is a manifestation of the placement of their nodal points which were at odds with each other: Scorpio vs. Aquarius South Nodes, and Taurus vs. Leo North Nodes. Nonetheless having nodal points in such fixed signs, contributed to their durability as a couple.

In addition, Paul’s Moon in Pisces was naturally supported by Joanne’s Saturn in Capricorn. In the documentary there is a good portion dedicated to Paul’s alcoholism and there is a memory described in which Joanne was fed up with Paul’s self-destructive drinking and she took the kids and drove them to a house in Malibu. She refused to come out of it, unless Paul quit drinking. It’s almost impossible to convince someone with that much Saturn and Neptune energy in his chart (plus a Saturn in Scorpio) to drop drinking or other habits which help them cope with the sheer heaviness and gravity of being alive. But as he solar light in Pisces (The Sun) influenced Paul’s darker moods (the Moon), Joanne had this inner fortitude which helped him at least improve a toxic habit. She apparently reached a compromise with him so that in the end, he gave up hard liquor and kept drinking only beer. As a Pisces Sun myself and growing up with an alcoholic father who has a Moon in Capricorn, I think I have a certain understanding as to how difficult that must’ve been for her, but nonetheless they reached a solution. Despite their shared interest in acting, their intense physical chemistry and their deep soulmate compatibility, their relationship was far from perfect and it seems like they grew into loving one another after marriage rather than at the time they got married. Joanne describes in the documentary: ‘I don’t think I was in love with him when we met. I was in lust, but no. Love came later’.

And that is the beauty of their relationship and their synastry: it shows two people who saved their love-ship by committing to each other time and time again, even after the power shift in their careers, even after the suicide of his son, even after the secret liaisons with other people, Paul came home to Joanne and Joanne came home to Paul, and when they did they gave each other room to breathe and to grow rather than basking in resentments and fighting. And they did this for 50 years, building their love and commitment brick by brick, after every challenge. In present days, where most people meet online and we block and stonewall those who have different opinions then we do, when we are distracted by all the many sexual options that the social world has to offer, and when we tend to commit more to our jobs rather than our relationships, their love story is truly inspiring and serves as a sober role-model to admire and follow.

There is of course more to say about their synastry, but I shall stop here because this post will become too long. One final interesting tidbit I wanted to add was that the creator of the documentary, Ethan Hawke, also had some fascinating synastry with them. Ethan is a Sun in Scorpio (conjunct a stellium) and a Moon in Aquarius (conjunct his North Node). Sadly, we don’t know his Ascendant, but I bet it might be Capricorn 🙂 If you clicked on Ethan’s highlighted name to see his chart, you may have noticed Ethan’s Scorpio stellium, which was activated in relation to the couple in order to preserve the intimate legacy of Paul (aspects to his Saturn in Scorpio & Sun in Aquarius) and honor the emotional craftsmanship of Joanne as an actress (aspects to her Moon, Mercury and Mars in Aquarius; beautiful trine to her Sun and Venus in Pisces). Bearing this in mind, my intuition is telling me that Ethan was so enthralled with their story because it also helped him heal himself, by unifying the split masculine and feminine energy within himself, as he has this powerful Sun-Moon conjunction aspect to both Paul and Joanne. Outside of a marriage, the Sun and the Moon can also represent the Mother and the Father collective archetypes, and from my public knowledge of his early life and upbringing, Ethan grew up without a father and with a strong, single mother, Leslie (who happens to love visiting Romania). But I guess we can look into Ethan’s chart some other time. For the time being, I hope this analysis inspired you. If you enjoyed this analysis and would like to get in touch with me for your own, personalized synastry report, please see here.

With cosmic love,

Lexi

_{Image of Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner taken from Profimedia Images. Read more at: https://www.digi24.ro/magazin/timp-liber/showbiz/joe-jonas-si-sophie-turner-divorteaza-dupa-patru-ani-de-casnicie-2495341}

…and Joe Jonas’ post-Venus retrograde hangover. This title was too long so I had to shorten it, although it does contain a melancholic reminder of what an accumulation of tense and unfortunate, astrological transits can do to a relationship. I argue that the relationship wasn’t necessarily strong from the beginning, although I believe it was meant to be for them to grow through this marriage and the fact that they also became parents in the meantime. Around the time that Venus went direct in Leo, we found out that the singer Joe Jonas filed for divorce from his wife of 4 years, actress Sophie Turner. This news was rather shocking for the collective, expressing their disappointment with this celebrity brand of ‘true love’ in many TikToks. Through subsequent media updates, we also discovered some strange details about this connection: that their two children mostly lived with him while he was touring, that he was still wearing his wedding ring when news of the divorce filling broke out, that Sophie was suspected of cheating on Joe with a co-star in her latest film, that Joe has an alcoholic addiction, that Sophie is a party girl when everyone knew her as a homebody…and I felt that most of these weird bits of gossip were highly Neptunian in nature, like a cloud, changing colours every day. A Neptunian cloud that hovered over their connection from the beginning and suddenly burst under the weight of a couple of re-vising transits. You see they met when Saturn in Sagittarius was squaring Neptune, in October 2016, a year we mostly all want to forget because of the massive delusions and political disappointments that washed over the collective.

At present, the British actress, Sophie Turner is 27 years old. Already a celebrity, already a wife, already a mom. All brave achievements to have amassed before the age of 27, which is known as the drama-bringer, a year in a person’s life which can often make or brake some people (see the Club 27 story). This is the age at which the energy of the planet Mars, matures and becomes ripe. And Mars doesn’t mess around. Mars or the God of War, Ares, cuts, pierces, stampedes and destroys what it no longer wants. It claims what it desires, it does what it feels like and it cares not one bit for social norms of decorum and politeness. Sophie Turner’s Mars return is happening in her 9th house, a lucky house, also known as the seat of individual freedom in the natal chart. So she feels compelled to chase her freedom at the moment. Just that her Mars is in Pisces, conjunct her Sun and loosely conjunct her natal Saturn in Pisces. So, should we tell her what is coming towards her from next year? The dark night of the soul that a Saturn return can bring to an individual crossing the 28th, 29th and 30th years of their life? I’d rather just see her survive through this divorce, safe and sound and with the possibility to still care for and nurture her children. I know that she will successfully deal with her Saturn return, after Mars loosens the impulsive grip it holds over her life at the moment.

You will have noticed that since Joe Jonas made it public that he filed for divorce, there are some mysterious and confusing facts surrounding this relationship’s end. And it is the nature of Piscean energy – especially the one in which Sophie’s energy is shrouded – to offer us some concealment, some weirdness and some evasiveness. Get ready for some more odd facts to pop up about Sophie and Joe’s relationship until the divorce is finalized. But to clarify some of the weird information that is being ping-ponged around, like we are sitting in line at Wimbledon while scouring the media, here is my take on the astrological energies that Sophie shares with Joe. I’ll tell you what I see and make my own interpretations and you may then decide what you want to believe about these two. Just to get this out of the way, I am 100% team Sophie in this mayhem and not necessarily because I am a big fan of either of them, but mostly because the way she describes herself (and has done for years now) actually fits so well with her birth chart (unlike Joe’s side of the story). So let’s begin with Joe’s chart:

_{Image of Joe Jonas (left) and his natal chart (right) taken from https://astro-charts.com/persons/chart/joe-jonas/}

We can see that Joe is a Sun in Leo (definitely not a homebody), Libra Ascendant (the most sociable sign I know, and I should know since this is also my Ascendant) and a Moon in Aquarius. This is someone who is very charismatic, charming, polite, an intelligent individual who has a problem with accepting his feelings, especially if they are of the negative kind. Air signs (those born with Gemini/Libra/Aquarius Suns) are notorious for trying to reason with feelings such as anger, jealousy and sadness, instead of just accepting them. Going through emotional ups and downs is normal in life and it simply makes someone human, fallible and still loveable. We see in Joe’s chart some heavy rational influences with his stellium in reasonable and control-minded Virgo (comprising of his Venus, Mercury and Mars), his brilliant Moon in Aquarius conjunct his North Node (an aspect which denotes high emotions and emotional volatility in someone’s chart but since they are in Aquarius there is a need to intellectualize his strong emotions and often project them onto others), and his Libra Ascendant. In addition, Joe has some important influences in Capricorn which is another stoic and reasonable sign (his Saturn, Neptune and Chiron), thereby contributing to his innate need to be in control and to think of himself as the rational and morally superior one in a relationship.

We also see that the seat of his joy (Jupiter) is in the motherly sign of Cancer (which falls right on top of Sophie’s lunar Ascendant), while the other watery significator in his chart (Pluto in Scorpio) resides exactly on the cusp between his first and second house (the center of a person’s self-esteem and self-worth). So we are dealing here with somebody who may exhibit self-obsessed tendencies while at the same time still feeling happy around his wife’s physical embodiment. I believe that to Joe, being around Sophie’s body made him feel and look better in the eyes of the public, although I also feel that Joe mostly had a love relationship to himself rather than with her; all this being said, I do think that he is a good father, no matter what went down in the relationship with Sophie. He has the markers of a man who cares about his offspring and wants to protect them (Jupiter in Cancer and Sun in Leo), but he may use the children indirectly to keep tabs on Sophie even after the separation (Virgo stellium).

So Joe draws his power by focusing on his sexual needs (Pluto in Scorpio) and even though the way in which Sophie looks (her Ascendant in Cancer) makes him happy (Jupiter in Cancer) and strongly impacts his public image as a father (Jupiter in nurturing Cancer on his Midheaven), he is nonetheless emotionally misunderstood by her since the ways in which they take action are diametrically opposed: his Mars in Virgo is sitting in opposition to her Mars in Pisces. Worst even is his Venus in Virgo opposing her natal Mars, leading to a hot-and-cold energy in their love life that could wear them down in the long-run.

Finally, what I would say is that his comfort zone is being himself, and being the center of attention since he has a South Node (comfort zone) in Leo conjunct his Sun, and what he needs to learn in this lifetime is how to be more of a team player, how to detach his feelings from his beliefs, and be tolerant and open-minded in love (North Node in Aquarius in the 5th house). However, I can also see here a person obsessed with being wanted by others, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the reason they are breaking up is the fact that he has a wandering eye but he is playing his Cancerian Midheaven ‘concerned father card’ to make the public like him in the wake of this divorce.

Now let’s look at Sophie’s chart:

_{Image of Sophie Turner (left) and her natal chart (right) taken from https://astro-charts.com/persons/chart/sophie-turner/}

We notice her Sun in Pisces in the 9th house (conjunct Saturn and Mars), a Sun which is conjunct her Midheaven in Aquarius (where Joe’s North Node falls upon). An Aquarius Midheaven shows a woman with an unconventional public image, who may seem rebellious and progressive. In addition, her Cancer Ascendant falls conjunct his Jupiter, and she also has a brave and fiery Aries Moon conjunct her Venus – I take this aspect as a justification for her beautiful red hair 🙂 We also see a friendly energy between Joe’s Moon in Aquarius and her Moon in Aries, and we see as well a North Node in Libra (conjunct Joe’s Ascendant). So they met to push each other to grow outside of their comfort zones since their North Nodes are so enmeshed with their public roles; this can provoke fights and irritations and some intimate, dirty laundry which is washed in the public’s eyes.

At the same time there is a generational difference between them: she’s a Pluto in Sagittarius in the 6th house (a Gen Z), while he is a Pluto in Scorpio on the cusp between the 1st and the 2nd houses (a Millennial). There is also an opposition between her Jupiter in Capricorn in the 7th house and his Jupiter in Cancer in the 10th house. So relationally she will come across as more focused on work and her business partnerships (Capricorn), while he will come across as the grieving, involved father (Cancer). Now Sophie does suffer from a certain lack of empathy and an emotional coldness, given to her by her Saturn in Pisces conjunct her Sun. Saturn freezes and blocks her emotional world, her creativity and her capacity to love and be loved, to attain her goals in life, and to shine unproblematically. She is learning in this lifetime how to soften, to forgive, how to process feelings and to deal with emotional pain.

Sophie has to fight her negative feelings and overcome a victim-mentality in order to have success in life. She is destined to attract a lot of partners towards her, for both work and love, and she may also get married a couple of times (Jupiter in the 7th house), until she figures out how to cope emotionally with her Saturn in Pisces karma. I grew up with a mother who has this placement and since I was little, I can say my mom was emotionally blocked; she was both overwhelmed by her intense feelings and fighting against them, to gain control and not seem weak. It took me a while to understand that my feelings are valid and it’s ok to feel, because I never saw this modelled from my mother. In time, I worked together with her to forgive, heal and develop empathy. So I’m holding onto hope for Sophie’s children, who may find themselves in similar circumstances. I can see that as they develop her children may find it easier to feel emotionally close to their father rather than to her, which I can imagine is tough for a mother.

Coming back to their relationship, Joe recently had the Mercury retrograde in Virgo transit spending 3 weeks across his Virgo stellium, activating the Virgoan need to emotionally ‘clean up house’. So clearly he spent some time revising his relationship to his wife. He also might have felt ignored and unloved during the Venus retrograde in Leo which is known to attack our beauty and love energy, and this took place across 44 days and nights crossing over his Sun and South Node. I have the feeling someone from Joe’s past came back to haunt him by catering to his Ego, since both Lilith (betrayal) and Venus (love) played so heavily on his South Node during the retrograde (the karmic past, the comfort zone). Sophie on the other hand was knee-deep in her Mars return sitting in tension with all of Joe’s Leonic, dramatic energy. So as he wanted to fight and control, she felt compelled to let go and dissolve. Her water (Pisces Sun) dampened his fire, his fire (Leo Sun) boiled her water, evaporating the connection. And it seems like things might get increasingly bitter for the two of them as it was just announced that Sophie sues Joe on the grounds of wrongful detainment of her children.

These transits were the final straw in what I think was an emotionally ill-fitting connection from the beginning. I am kind of sorry these two couldn’t find a way to make things work, but as we can see from their charts emotional frost and some significant Ego issues prevented love from truly surviving in such a harsh, intimate climate. To add a humorous note to a sad ending, I always though that had she dyed her hair black and he put on more weight and grew a moustache, they would have made the perfect Morticia and Gomez Adams impersonators 🙂 Some light-hearted levity, but of course it’s never funny when two people decide to throw away what they have carefully built in years of their lives.

This post is also meant to celebrate the introduction of my new service, the Synastry report! The above analysis tends to skew towards a melancholic note, but I shall soon return with a more optimistic example of synastry that works beautifully. The synastry report is a service meant to help you check the compatibility between you and a romantic partner. If you enjoyed the above analysis and feel interested in purchasing a report for yourself, please get in touch by writing me an email. You can find more details about it on my E-Shop page, which is accessible by clicking on the tab by the same name from the website’s menu bar (above). Take care and keep loving against all odds!

With cosmic love,

Lexi

_{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

_{Portrait of British Sci-fi author, China Mieville from: https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/china-mieville}

What if I told you that inside your home lives someone whom you never met? An individual that shares the same space as you, but also someone you were taught to unsee since birth, for fear of breaching your immediate reality? What if the city you live in, had another city superimposed upon it? Or that only through a careful exercise in ignoring certain details about your daily life, both of these parallel worlds could co-exist? However, if there are two cities having this awkward relationship with one another, then what takes place in the space in-between them? What happens when things (and people) spill over conventional boundaries? This is the fascinating premise of China Mieville‘s 2009 novel ‘The City and the City‘, which I just finished reading and couldn’t wait to write about!

I knew of China’s work from before, when in 2012 in Edinburgh (exactly 11 years ago!) I saw him speak at the Edinburgh Book Festival, after spending a feverish 2 weeks tucked into the world of his Perdido Street Station novel. A man whose writing made me reconsider bugs (in a way in which perhaps only Kafka in his brilliant ‘Metamorphosis’ got closest to). Needless to say, a Virgo Sun.

Happy Virgo season & Mercury retrograde, btw! I guess you noticed who is the Virgoan ‘culprit’ who I shall be analyzing in today’s post. As I was reading ‘The City and the city’ and knowing that he is a Virgo Sun with a peculiar fondness for bizarre settings and crimes (labelled in literature as ‘weird fiction’), I wondered what else in his chart could make a man who penned his author’s name to sound like something soft and precious have such a prolific output and a penchant for sci-fi, neo-noirs? Let’s investigate together by peering into his astrological abyss below:

_{Image of China Mieville born on the 6th of September 1972 in Norwich, UK & his birth chart taken from: https://www.astro-seek.com/birth-chart/china-mieville-horoscope}

Remarkably, the first thing that stands out is that he is in his 50s (!) and that he has a Moon in Leo at the anaretic 29th degree. Could it be a mere coincidence that I felt drawn to finish his book and start writing about his chart at the New Moon in Leo which took place on the 16th of August? Not really, I don’t believe in coincidences anyways. A Moon placed at the final degree makes an individual intimately familiar with their creative urges, as they are very comfortable being emotional and exploring their unconscious fantasies. It is a sign of emotional maturity but it also means that the chaos experienced by an individual in their lives is ruled by their relationships with women, emotions and their unconscious desires. So in a way one is dissolved into that very thing one feels like they control the most, and in China’s case these are his strong emotions and his ripe imagination.

Another aspect that stands out to me – aside from the annoying fact that without his birth-time we can’t see his Ascendant* (some advanced astrologers are able to do this but not me, sadly, at least not yet) – is that he has a Venus in Cancer conjunct his South Node and a North Node in Capricorn. Both of these nodal points are in friendly energy to his Virgo Sun, Mercury and Mars, which means that his goals in life and his identity are supported by the forces of his destiny guiding him towards a rather strict and stoic existence. He has to write in order to earn, and writing takes a long time usually, or at least it takes effort and concentration, and the paycheck comes also with the completion of this slow work, so I assume he needs to learn to save up for a rainy day and be cautious with his spendings. He is meant for a modest existence here on Earth that nonetheless can help him create the kind of work that will outlive him, and that is the gift of a Saturnian North Node. If a North Node in Capricorn could talk, it would say to its astrological native: “struggle now in this embodiment so that people will know your name even after your death”.

A Capricorn destiny is a pressure cooker but one which China can easily live up to considering the Martian qualities of his modest and hard-working Virgo Sun. If as a writer, he looks more like a street-fighter than an Oxford professor, this is due to his natal Mars placement which is perfectly conjunct his Sun in Virgo; this special cosmic blending makes his personality borrow traits from Aries energy. By consequence, he looks like a motorcycle-loving rebel rather than a neat and dutiful Virgo man. Judging by his work, I guess we shouldn’t be fooled by this idiosyncrasy. And personally speaking I think this makes him quite interesting and hot 🙂

I can also see that through writing, he is also healing his identity because he has Chiron (the Wounded Healer Archetype) in the sign of charisma, Aries, which might have been frequently produced wounding in his life related to his identity, his masculinity, a feeling of being misunderstood and not being admired enough or allowed to create. With a shy and family-oriented Venus in Cancer, growing up China might’ve preferred having women as friends and been very close to his mother too. I don’t know the facts of his upbringing but his chart shows me someone that had to work hard to develop healthy relationships with other men his age, and especially to feel loved and admired by his father. These are all symptoms of a SN in Cancer / NN in Capricorn life-path, denoting a person who eventually becomes the respectable and admirable father that they wished they had while growing up. So China was brought into this reality in order to work (NN in Capricorn and Sun in Virgo) and to create (Moon in Leo) in order to heal (Chiron in Aries) and to express his skills by paying careful attention to details (Mercury in Virgo).

He is a prolific author because his Saturn is in the sign of communication, reading, writing and learning: witty Gemini. Furthermore, he feels drawn to future topics and hence sci-fi, because he has a Pluto conjunct Uranus pairing in intelligent Libra. This means that he is attracted to space, the future and to wacky ideas, because he is himself a ‘walking & talking’ revolution. From what I can remember he is charming and quite funny in public conversations which I attribute to his Jupiter in Sagittarius, a domicile position which grants him a lot of good luck, especially in terms of creative and imaginative ideas, as his Jupiter (a point of growth) is natally conjunct dreamy Neptune.

Not only that but China has a Lilith placement in Scorpio, which could get quite dark, making him both irrevocably attracted to mysterious, sexy and cruel women or at least to topics which are taboo and involve life or death scenarios. It seems like I got him quite figured out but not really, since I am surprised to see a lack of Aquarius energy in his chart. I am maybe thinking that his Ascendant is in Aquarius, which would make him look attractive in an unconventional way and it would put his Moon in Leo in the communicative 7th house and his Saturn in Gemini in the 4th house, while his strong Libra duo of Pluto and Uranus would then land in his 9th houses the place of travel and the higher mind, which would be perfect for a sci-fi writer.

But this is only speculation. I do need to mention that in parts, his writing does become quite clunky and confused and often I need to re-read a couple of phrases to understand what he is trying to get his characters to convey. He often has a lot of dialogues when I would’ve also preferred a carefully crafted balance of descriptions and dialogues. But overall his ideas are truly something that linger with you. For example, I’ll never forget the interspecies sex scene with which Perdido Street Station begins or the realization I had that perhaps the City and the City offers an interesting interpretation to that weird sensation we have that some places are haunted: if we are to take the two-city theory to heart, we are not haunted by specters but by people who lead lives superimposed upon ours and which our eyes have trained to ignore each day. Huh…

In a global society in which we are becoming increasingly more tuned out of observing the everyday environment as we become more plugged into our gadgets and interests, this realization sent a chilling sensation down my spine. And this is exactly why during this Virgo season, I would recommend giving China Mieville’s prose a try. Let me know what you discover!

_{My sandals and watermelon smoothie match the cover of China’s book, the City & the City}

With universal love,

Lexi

_{Virgo by Salvador Dali, 1969}

From the 23rd of August until the 15th of September 2023, swift planet Mercury will retrograde in the sign of pragmatic Virgo, travelling from Virgo 21’51 degrees to Virgo 8’00 degrees (8 being the esoteric number of power and financial wealth). Needless to say, starting the ‘going back to school’ season with a Mercury retrograde is not ideal since most of the administrative things that will need to be efficiently dealt with, will take up more time than expected, will require more of our attention, focus and effort. However by the end of the retrograde something important will have been cleared up in our lives and following some random expenses brought about by the Venus retrograde which will overlap with this Mercury retrograde, well those expenses will be reorganized and finally dealt with. Financial reconstitution is the main theme of this retrograde and bringing order back into the emotional chaos of the summer is its main goal.

A retrograde brings a confusing energy with it, and it often creates a phenomenon called ‘brain fog’. On a pragmatic level, symptoms of its manifestations might include mixing up delivery addresses, forgetting the passwords that you use daily, making invoice mistakes, losing your keys, dropping your phone or laptop to the ground, messing up spreadsheets and double-booking meetings and events. On a psychological level, retrogrades bring with them the energy of feeling ‘completely out of it’ or as if you just ‘can’t be bothered with it’. This is why a retrograde is a perfect time for a detox, a clean up or a holiday, since you’ll be moving with the energy of release rather than pushing hard to build new things on quick-sand.

Virgo is the energy of the Divine feminine, as she represents the 6th sign of the zodiac and this is the numerological vibration of Venus and beauty in all its manifestations here on Earth. Virgo is a also the flexible Earth sign of the zodiac, the pure, hard-worker who appreciates stability, loyalty and ‘savoir faire’ (or skilled competence). If you struggled to get into some healthy eating habits, if you neglected your self-care routine, if you fell ill and couldn’t work, then the period around the New Moon in Virgo is your ‘health = wealth’ reset time. We need Virgoan analytical magic to parse through the complicated emotions that this Venus in Leo has stirred in us all. The problem is that much as love and beauty tends to be muted during a Venus retrograde, so is logic and order absent during a Mercury retrograde. Without logic and love, or rather with these energies ‘on hold’ for a while, then what are we?

The answer to this is that we are adequately equipped to work on the past and deal with those things that have been haunting us. Reflecting on our relationships with people from the past and with the past itself, reconsidering some things we overlooked when the planets were direct, reviving a beauty routine, clearing up some old objects, catching up with childhood friends or getting closure from an ex are all favorable during this 3 week period. We might have decided on something as Venus was retrograding by herself, only to reconsider our decision as Mercury begins its retrograde. This is why I feel that celebrity couples who broke up during this Venus retro will potentially shock us with news of a surprise reconciliation or some ‘dirty laundry’ being washed in public during the Mercury retrograde.

The good news is that the period of this Mercury retrograde will actually wrap up the Venus retrograde which will officially end on the 3rd of September. Furthermore, during Mercury’s backward spin we will also have a Full Moon in Pisces conjunct Saturn and Neptune on the 31st of August and a New Moon in Virgo on the 15th of September – the day we will collectively be released from the retrogrades of these personal planets (woo hoo! mark that date and chill the champagne). However, we will remain knee-deep in outer-planetary retrogrades as Pluto, Saturn and Neptune are all retrograde and on the 29th of August, Uranus will join them too. So, as the outer planets all line up in their retrograde positions, all personal planets line up in their direct modes, during this magical Mercury retro. This means that we will gradually begin to feel more personal power, as external events will become slightly more difficult to deal with. The Autumn and Winter of 2023 should be interesting times, especially as Pluto in Capricorn will be reaching peak corruption and the 1% will continue to live out their ‘honeymoon period’ on borrowed time.

A gradual worsening of the economy (Saturn), ongoing environmental surprises (Uranus), and the rise in the use of psychedelics, medication and other forms of escapism (Neptune) are ushering in some sudden and powerful changes in society in the year 2024 (a year which begins strongly Uranian, as Uranus goes direct during Aquarius season on the 27th of January and Pluto re-enters Aquarius on the 20th of January). But I feel I am looking too far ahead and I run the risk of confusing you with too much information all at once. Better boundaries with the kind of information you receive during this Mercury retrograde will be an important skill to acquire.

To sum up, Virgo likes to clean house and this is exactly what this Mercury retro will do for us: help us move away from bad romances, remove toxicity that exists in our body due to relationship stress, help us get grounded and look at things with more common sense than ever. We will post-it our walls, streamline our wardrobes to make them more echo friendly, think of ways to save up and manage our money better, refresh our food intake, and think deeply about how can we be of service to the world, when faced with so much destruction (or the decay of the crumbling Pluto in Capricorn environment). And if you can, please deal with any frustrations by being outdoors and close to nature, or ideally take a step back from work and focus on some emotional, internal clean up, as you get some rest. In the Pluto in Cap era we have been all over-worked and underpaid. Therefore, if you feel some strong procrastination tendencies, don’t worry; you are simply beginning to align with the energies of the Pluto in Aqua imaginative environment, in which work will begin to change its meaning and form, and social causes will abound.

With universal love,

Lexi

_{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