If 2024 excites me about anything, it is about the opportunity to begin to travel internationally again. Since the outbreak of the 2020 pandemic I stayed low and quiet on the ground, refusing to get on a plane. I worked on growing The Spiritual Social, I gathered resources to purchase a home, I spent time with my folks and raised two strays into plump and happy cat-ulhood. But this year, my biggest wish is to travel internationally again. And not just for the fun of it (although that is a serious enough reason to explore the world), but to ‘hunt down’ some occult gems!
If you grew up watching Indiana Jones movies and playing noir, detective object finding games, than you may also have a surreal obsession with tracking down ancient artifacts. In my line of work, these artifacts happen to be imbued with occult knowledge. As I am learning and growing as an occult practitioner, as an astrologer and tarot reader, I am finding out all sorts of beautiful things just waiting to be explored in our weird and magnificent world. The list below is just a draft and I am hoping that by presenting it here I could spark your interest in visiting such places or maybe contributing to the list and adding some hidden gems you may have found. The book Atlas Obscura also helps in tracking down some of these occult gems, although not all places and artefacts contained in the book are astrology or tarot related.
Some of the places listed below are places I haven’t travelled to yet, and others I have already seen but they left a mark in my heart. Others have been places in which I actually holidayed a couple of times or got to live there (!) but my interests were vastly different at the time, and I just glossed over seeing some of the occult treasures contained.
1. Old Jaffa’s Zodiac Streets, Fountain & Wishing Bridge, near Jerusalem, Israel
This is a place I randomly discovered during my honey-moon, way back in 2010. As I was exploring Jerusalem with my ex-husband, we somehow wandered into Old Jaffa and got lost on its ancient looking stone stairs carefully guarded by sleeping, stray cats. The streets had many hidden artist’s shops and the walls had markings with astrological symbols which made me feel right at home. Highly recommend visiting the zodiac bridge as well, which has a beautiful view to the sea.
2. The Ceiling of Astrological Constellations at the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland (but just as a sidenote, the entire city of Edinburgh is a precious occult artefact! God bless the souls of the witches who continue to protect it. I lived there for 7 years and it was my favorite place in the world to work. Too bad it is so cold and dark for most of the year, because otherwise I don’t think I would have left this gorgeous city.
3. The Zodiac Pillars of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, IL, USA
In 2019 I was so close to visiting Chicago for work. I was supposed to live there for 6 months and interview lawyers, prosecutors and judges for a social study on emotions in the courtroom. Unfortunately, I had a disagreement with my boss and the trip was cancelled. Looking back, I feel like I would have really enjoyed seeing Chicago even for a couple of hours and if I had some hours to spend I would definitely take a trip to Adler Planetarium, a public museum considered to be America’s first planetarium.
4. The Dendera Zodiac (the first in the world) at the Musee de Louvre in Paris, France
I was gobsmacked when I found out that the world’s first zodiac can be seen by the public in the Louvre Museum in Paris! It felt foolish since I had travelled to France several times in my life, as one of my best friend’s lived in Paris for a couple of years and on one occassion I spent a romantic New Year’s eve celebration together with an ex-boyfriend. But all the time I was weary to enter the Louvre since there were such long lines and I couldn’t muster up the enthusiam to see Mona Lisa. And now I am kicking myself and looking up flights to travel and witness the glorious magnificence of the Dendera zodiac.
In the Autumn of 2019, I was priviledged to be able to spend 3 months in Nashville, working on the campus of Vanderbilt University. One evening, I saw a sign about the Story of the Tarot, which was a presentation followed by a short reading session. Naturally, I went and I got introduced not only to the history of the tarot described in really funny anecdotes but I also found out that the Vanderbilt Library has access to the largest collection of playing cards that exists. If you visit the Vanderbilt Library Special Collections section, an elderly lady with a gentle smile and gloved hands can show you the collection.
Beautiful hand-painted 17th-century Minchiate Tarot cards. Minchiate is a special form of Tarot—as well as a card game—that developed in Florence in the 15th century. This deck is part of the Clulow/United State Playing Card Co. Gaming Collection at Vanderbilt University.
This is a completely new discovery and I am amazed it exits. It looks small but it also had some pretty terrifying artifacts. I would love to see it one day, although I do not drive and apparently you can only reach Holmavik by car. For weeks I have been dreaming of Iceland, almost as it something is summoning me to be there. So I plan to visit Reykjavik in the near future so perhaps I would get a chance to drop by the sorcery and witchcraft museum, if the stars align.
7. The British Museum is a whole treasure trove of occult artifacts with a spiritual essence taken from many different cultures from all over the globe. I can proudly say I spent some memorable hours within it, constantly feeling I missed something I had to observe, it’s just so rich in resources. Notable astrological works are those such as The Atlas Celestis from 1660 (see below) but there are many sculptures and statues of tribal and ancestral gods and goddesses that are worth seeing.
I’ll leave this list open ended and may add to it, as I find out about new interesting occult places. Feel free to leave your recommendations in the comments section below. It would be great if we could make an occult map together!
Saturn, the greater malefic, in his chariot. Maarten de Vos (1532-1603)
The Ancient Malefics of Astrology
You may wonder what malefic means in the context of astrology, as this word tends to be often used by older, more experienced astrologers especially those who tend to predict world events or who interpret the charts of infamous murderers and criminal culprits. The Oxford English dictionary lets me know that in mid 17th century Europe the Latin term maleficus was used and its root was created from a combination of the word male ‘ill’ + -ficus ‘doing’. So malefic can literally be translated as the doing of ill. Traditionally, the malefic planets in astrology are Mars and Saturn, much like the dictionary definition clarifies:
malefic
/məˈlɛfɪk/
adjective: malefic
LITERARY causing harm or destruction, especially by supernatural means. “She was hypnotized by the spider’s malefic eyes”
ASTROLOGY relating to the planets Saturn and Mars, traditionally considered to have an unfavourable influence.
Another attempt to understand how the word ‘malefic’ came about and how it is used in astrology, can be found on The Astrology Dictionary website:
This is derived from a convention in ancient Greek texts where these two planets were referred to as “bad-doers” or “evildoers” (kakopoios), because they were viewed as providing negative or destructive significations in an astrological chart.
This is contrasted with the two “benefic” planets, Venus and Jupiter, which were referred to as “good-doers” (agathapoios), because they were viewed as providing positive or constructive significations in a chart.
For some reason, Saturn is given more negative weight than Mars in astrological interpretations, almost as if it is symbolically mirroring the mass of each planet a Saturn tends to the bigger planet (5.683 × 10^26 kg) compared to Mars (6.42 x 1023 kilograms). In his foreword to Liz Green’s book ‘Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil’ (2021), Robert Hand writes:
(…) all three traditional forms of astrology [Hellenistic, Jyotish, Medieval] held that there were “good” and “bad” planets, which later came to be called benefics and malefics, one of which was Saturn. Benefics “caused” good destinies, malefics evil ones (…) Saturn was called the “greater malefic” (Mars being the “lesser”). Being the worse of the two traditional “malefics”, Saturn makes it clear that this could be done with all the symbols of the chart.
p. xvi & xxii
The unfavorable nature of Mars and Saturn in someone’s natal chart is also given by the mythological dimensions of these planets. Mars, the red planet and one of Earth’s neighbors, is symbolically associated with the Greco-Roman God Mars/Ares, the God of War, Pillage and Destruction. Armed with a short temper, irrational amounts of lust and a deeply selfish nature, Ares appeared in the mythology of Mount Olympus as a ruthless, unforgiving and angry God. But he was also attractive and filled with passion and vitality, having been endowed with a lot of strength and energy. So the presence of Mars in someone’s natal chart indicates exactly that: how you use your energy to create life and movement around you, how you act out in anger, how you destroy, how you initiate, how you have sex and how selfish can you get.
On the other hand, Saturn the planet that used to be considered the ancient border of our solar system, is associated with the Greco-Roman God Saturn or Chronos, the God of Time, Karma and Limitations, the one who famously ate some of his children. Saturn is depicted as a controlling force, a stern disciplinarian, but also an inwardly anxious God, ambitious and deeply concerned about his image. Because of this extreme self-consciousness & status-sensitivity, Saturn was constantly worried he may be replaced or dethroned. In an effort to avoid his fated demise, he tried to get rid of his offspring. The symbolic meaning of this unnatural act of Saturn therefore shows how someone who is overwhelmed by fear (especially a fear of the future & of death) may lead to the destruction of present opportunities in their life. Because of this myth which depicts an old man losing his mind to fear, falling prey to an ambition that steals his humanity and the fact that the actual planet Saturn borders the solar system due to it’s widespread and concentrated, rocky rings, Saturn is therefore seen as a limiting, restricting and harsh influence in someone’s natal chart.
Because ancient astrologers whose works have survived until our days, were attached to an understanding of the world organized around the Christian values of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, the Gods Mars & Saturn and the subsequent planets they baptized, were considered to be ‘evil’ when described in terms of lust, selfishness, control, ambition and anger, aspects more normally associated with demons rather than angels, so with bad rather than with good. But in time, and especially due to the pioneering works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung, astrologers began to adopt a psychological understanding of the meaning of planets in someone’s natal chart; and from the viewpoint of exploring a person’s unconscious world and deep emotions, the influence of Mars and Saturn appears to be psychologically complex, rather than simplistically divided into ‘good’ & ‘bad’.
The Progressive Malefics of Modern Astrology
Some argue that the development of these psychological tools to understand human beings and their fated destinies were also linked to the discoveries of the newest members of our solar system: the planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Out of the three it seems that Uranus and Pluto joined ‘the bad reputation gang’ of astrology due to the complex nature of the problems that they can bring up in someone’s life. It also didn’t helped that when they were first discovered, the planets Uranus and Pluto unleashed into the collective a string of chaotic events that helped human beings come to terms with their unhinged and destructive nature. For this reason, they are associated with the modern malefic energies present in someone’s natal chart. During the Great Depression, on the 18th of February 1930, the American astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto. So just 14 days after his 24th birthday, an Aquarius Sun astronomer discovered the planet Pluto during Aquarius season! Poor Clyde, he must’ve rolled in his tomb when Pluto got demoted from the status of the 9th planet of our solar system, to that of a dwarf planet in 2006.
Images of Clyde William Tombaugh (left) & William Herschel (right)
During the American Revolutionary War but on the other side of the conflict in Europe, on the 13th of March 1781, a German-British astronomer and composer William Herschel, discovered the planet Uranus through his homemade telescope. It’s significant to note that during the year in which the rebel planet Uranus was discovered the Articles of Confederation, the document which served as the United States’ first constitution went in force as well as the siege of Yorktown. Returning to Europe, William Herschel was credited as being born on the 15th of November 1738 in Hanover, Germany. It’s interesting that the planet Uranus was discovered during Pisces season by a Scorpio Sun astronomer and composer. I want to draw your attention to the divine synchronicity at play in their discoveries, which is kind of spine-chilling, if you take a moment to think about it: a Scorpio Sun discovered Uranus (the planet which rules over the astrological sign of Aquarius), while an Aquarius Sun discovered Pluto (the modern ruler of the sign of Scorpio). This is an indication of mutual reception!
As excited as I am about these facts, I need to mention as well that you won’t find many astrologers who consider Uranus and Pluto as directly ‘malefic’ planets in someone’s chart. This is a personal viewpoint of mine which comes from my own astrological practice as well as what I learned and observed from the proceedings of the Romanian Astrological Association. I’ll write more on the progressive malefics with some interesting examples in another article, after I will finish reading ‘Uranus: The Constant of Change by Eric Meyers and revisit my notes from devouring Donna Cunningham’s book ‘Healing Pluto Problems’. Until then, let’s explore the classic malefics and see if they may actually be unfairly typecast in astrology, as ‘the bad guys’.
Some Examples of How ‘Malefic’ Planets Can Act like Benefics
I was surprised to find out something quite unique about the destinies of the Fanning sisters, two remarkable, young, American actresses who share some strong Sun-Saturn placements in common. Dakota Fanning born on the 24th of February 1994 is a Sun in Pisces in the 11th house (conjunct a stellium), a Moon in Leo in the 4th house and Taurus Ascendant (conjunct her South Node). Her sister, Elle Fanning born on the 9th of April 1998 is a Sun in Aries in the 2nd house (conjunct a stellium), a Moon in Virgo in the 7th house (conjunct the North Node) and an Aquarius Ascendant (conjunct Uranus and loosely Neptune too). Aside from these interesting markers, you can easily spot that for both of them, their Saturn placements are linked to a stellium (a cluster of planets in one zodiac sign) containing important personal planets, and thereby intimately affecting their energy. Dakota, the bigger sister, is a Pisces Sun conjunct her Venus and Saturn in Pisces. The conjunction between her Sun and Saturn is almost perfect as the solar luminary is placed at 4 degrees while the other planet is placed at 3 degrees. In direct relation to this placement, Liz Green explains that: “Blockage on the level of the feeling nature is symbolized by Saturn in a watery sign or house, and true to form the psychic energy which would ordinarily seek release through expression of feeling must take another channel of expression – frequently through the physical body or through certain kinds of events (page 12)”.
I think that for Dakota, this expression is given by her acting; her profession allows her to express emotions she otherwise would’ve have been deprived from experiencing and understanding. It is by putting in the effort to build her characters’ emotional world, that Dakota gets to feel her own feelings, even if in the process she may not feel as if these emotions are hers anymore.
Although in families there are often similar planetary placements between each family member’s natal chart, usually indicating affinities and karmic binds, it is rare that siblings share such perfect conjunctions. Elle, the younger sister, is a Sun in Aries conjunct Mars, Mercury and Saturn. Her Sun-Saturn link is less tight than Dakota’s as her Sun is placed at 19 degrees and her Saturn is at 22 degrees. Moreover, her Saturn is in detriment while her Sun is exalted in the exuberant sign of Aries. About this strange occurrence of Saturn obscuring the exalted placement of a Sun in Aries, Liz Green writes: “The Sun is exalted in the sign of Saturn’s fall, for the conscious personality is strengthened by its contact with the larger self (…) These two opponents, who sometimes take the guise of God and the Devil, perpetually circle each other about the ring whether they are in actual aspect on the birth chart or not. They are two faces of the same basic principle, and in the individual’s psychology they are related to the conscious personality and the shadow and unconscious personality.” (p.88)
In Dakota’s case, it’s her Venus that is exalted in the beautiful and soft sign of Pisces! Dakota’s beauty, femininity and worth (Venus) as it is integrated into her personality (the Sun) is karmically tested by harsh Saturn in this lifetime. She must work hard to purify the nastier and more superficial aspects of Venus in order to be able to love and feel loved, to amass wealth and genuinely find a way to enjoy it. Her relationships to women and to beauty in general are long-lasting but trying and often may seem boring and predictable. She also must wait in order to access her financial resources or to find wise ways to invest her hard-earn money; some may say that because she worked as a child, her capacity to live out her girlhood was stunted, as she stepped into the role of the father, the provider by acting so small, which is again another aspect of Saturn aspecting Venus.
As an important sidenote, at the moment at which I am writing this article in January of 2024, Dakota is going through her Saturn return, a time of great pressure, responsibility and tests in someone life, often called ‘the dark night of the soul’. But for Dakota this transit may not be so intense as for others due to the fact that she worked for the majority of her life and seems to have a solid occupational focus. On her IMDB page you can see for example a generous career retrospective for someone who is just 29 years old. But the personal and relational themes of her Venus-Sun-Saturn conjunction are underlined even more in her life at the moment: she may get married by the end of this transit or separate from a long-term boyfriend; she may receive the role of her lifetime or quit acting altogether to become a mother. As Liz Green described, with Saturn’s energy it’s a toss of a coin and you may end up on any given side of fate. This interesting stronghold that Saturn provides around Elle’s exalted Sun in Aries and Dakota’s exalted Venus in Pisces is chill-inducing and fascinating to write about. But what is Saturn doing that is good for the two progenies, because both sisters are talented, beautiful and successful in the film industry, each in their own unique way?
Liz Green goes on to describe the inherent duality of Saturn and how it stands for someone whose destiny veers between complete confidence and utter anxiety all blending into one : “There are many other references to this deliberate duality which is unlike the natural instinctive duality or flexibility of the mutable signs. One is the Roman God Janus, god of gateways, for whom the predominantly Capricornian month of January is named and who was possessed of the remarkable attribute of two heads – so that he could look backwards and forwards, ostensibly, guarding where one has been as well where one is going, but also because he was, figuratively as well as literality, two faced” (p.13)In this original description, we see how Saturn seems to offer someone the gift of acting. This is because being able to switch between experiences, emotions and behaviors with skill and precision is the job description of any good actor or actress.
And here is my point: Saturn conjunct the Sun of both Dakota and Elle makes them natural actresses! Saturn also strengthens and purifies everything it touches, as much as it can weigh heavily on someone’s psyche and bring about depression and self-doubt. And we can see the almost angelic-like energy that these two actresses represent, given also by their privileged role in American society as White, middle-class and educated women. But as a public, we may not be aware of the personal setbacks and hardships these girls experienced in order to reach the career heights they are currently on. One thing is for sure, they had disciplined childhoods which may have prevented their opportunities to discover who they really are and what they want to live for.
In the author’s book, the placement of Saturn in a Fire sign is explained in the following way: “Saturn in the fiery signs or houses tends to suggest a barrier between the conscious personality and the intuitive perception of the self as it ordinarily is experienced by fire. This often precipitates a loss of the sense of one’s innate purpose and significance in the broader context of life. Saturn in fire may appear to produce problems which are more philosophical than real in nature (…) Saturn’s effects in the fiery signs and houses may aptly be described as ‘spiritual constipation’ which is observable in ordinary life as a lack of spontaneity and self-expression, lack of vitality and inner confidence, and a feeling of purposelessness” (p.87, 89)
With a Saturn in Aries, Elle Fanning’s karmic inheritance is a duty to understand and develop her will and sense of purposeful activity without veering into megalomania and working only with the purpose to crush her competition. While with a Saturn in Pisces, Dakota Fanning’s karmic bearing is to become aware of the unconscious emotional frustrations which lie behind her actions; unlike her sister, she cannot achieve this alone, since Saturn in a Water sign requires another person’s objective viewpoint to help guide the native through the maze of her own feeling nature (this guide may be a parent, a lover, a hired professional or in her job, a director or a script-writer). Another interesting thing is that immediately upon the completion of Dakota’s Saturn return, Elle will begin hers in 2025! I hope that this tough, astrological maturation experience for both of them will strengthen their sisterhood rather than set them apart. In some cases, separations between siblings are psychologically necessary, especially when the siblings grew up feeling close to each other, but it is always emotionally difficult to lose a sibling, even if just on an emotional level.
In this article, I have mostly written about Saturn, the greater malefic, because I found these examples to be so compelling and also because I am currently reading Liz Greene’s book. I will have to create a part 2 of this article in which I focus on the lesser malefic, Mars. The delay is because I have just ordered “The Mars Book” by Donna van Toen, one of the few resources on this topic which I am eagerly awaiting to read. Hopefully, I may stumble upon a couple of compelling examples of how Mars may work in a benefic way in someone’s chart and thereby correcting the stigma against these two resilience-building planets. Therefore, if you enjoy my articles then I recommend you follow my website to be notified when that article comes out. In the meantime, if you feel inspired to order a birth-chart reading in order to figure out what Mars and Saturn are doing in your own natal chart, then I would be happy to help you with a personal analysis here.
In 2022 I signed up for a Mubi film membership in order to watch a movie called ‘Transit‘. A year passed and I still couldn’t view that movie as it never became available. Sadly, that was part of the reason why I had to cancel my membership in November of 2023, but before I did that I watched 3 love stories which were intense, surprising and beautifully acted. The people at Mubi recently reminded me of theses movies in an email retrospective. Clicking through their list I was impressed by the fact that I seemed to have forgotten about these 3 movies, deemed as ’emotional’ watches. It may well be that my brain is shielding me from deep emotional memories to protect me from an emotional breakdown, as 2023 was an outwardly successful yet inwardly harrowing year for me. I lost contact with two high-school friends, I lost a relationship with someone who was romantically promising, and I realized just how doomed a reconciliation with my sister is. I spent most of 2023, alone and having random, spontaneous arguments with neighbors and the rough & violent people in the community I just moved into. As a consequence I developed physical issues and a constant pain running through my body. To calm my nerves, I worked, listened to music and watched movies. So let’s talk about these movies, and what I especially enjoyed about them.
The first movie I watched back in May was The Fire (El Incendio), a 2015 Argentinian movie about the suffocating intimate life of a couple who decide to buy a house together. Their plans to acquire the house in the same day when the movie begins are slightly thwarted and they have to wait to complete the transaction. What follows is a couple of days of intense pressure, in which their class and gender dynamics are intertwined with their intimate breakdown: Marcelo is the wealthier one of the two, works a more relaxed job and is still emotionally supported by his relatives, while Lucia comes from a poorer family, works an intense job in a restaurant and has a difficult connection to her estranged mother. Paradoxically, and as the movie slowly reveals, despite the fact that Lucia is disadvantaged in every way in this relationship, she is the strong core of their relationship, holding it together even as Marcelo begins to fall apart.
Movie still of Pilar Gamboa & Juan Barberini from The Fire (2015)
The problem is what happens to them once the transaction is complete and they finally get the key to their house, which is a stylish new-build, situated at the basement level of a building? I’m not going to tell you what happens, because the movie has a powerful psychological ending, but I need to say that this movie offers some of the most intense and passionate couple of performances I have seen in a while. The screen was literally electrified by their arguments, love-making and inevitable moments of deep powerlessness and vulnerability. This movie certainly deserves more attention as it has two highly underrated performances from Pilar Gamboa & Juan Barberini, but it is clearly not something for those weak of heart who are triggered by raised voices. A movie that gets you to truly think about the meaning of ‘toxic love’.
The second movie I watched in July, was 10,000 km, a 2014 Spanish movie about two lovers who are forced by circumstances to have a long-distance relationship for the span of one year. Natalia Tena plays Alexandra, an artist who receives the chance of her lifetime to create some artwork in Los Angeles. Supportive of her dreams, her boyfriend Sergio initially urges her to go. But as time passes they get increasingly frustrated with not being able to have a physically intimate connection and they begin to emotionally unravel, as the longing to be together becomes too intense & Skype doesn’t help to keep them together. The movie felt strangely personal to me, as I also had a year of a long-distance relationship with my ex-husband when we met back in 2007. That year eventually ended with me travelling to Germany to move in with him, as I had just completed my degree and he was continuing his teacher-training. So for us, the technology really helped to keep us together especially as neither of us came from wealthy families and travelling often would not have been economically possible for us. But this movie seems to portray a different and (I felt) more traditional understanding of love being broken apart by distance, professional goals and technological detachment, which is something I don’t necessarily agree with.
Movie still of Natalia Tena & David Verdaguer in 10,000 Km (2014)
The emotional problem that the movie posed is that only one of the two lovers sees this distance as something painful, while the other one relishes it, enjoying the space. So the movie keeps you watching because all you can think about during it is: ‘What happens when they come back together again, physically in the same space? Is their relationship the same? Is physicality really that important to maintain love, or are love relationships mostly lust-zones for consenting adults?’
And the third movie is probably my favorite. The reason for this being is that it was a fierce, funny and creative watch. So the final love story I saw in September is called ‘Love Steaks’, a 2014 German movie with two lesser-known actors in the leading roles of Clemens and Lara. The story begins like a dirty joke you would tell your friends: a cook and a masseur fall in love in a luxurious hotel; the rawness of love ensues, as you can’t tell if they like each other or if they want to kill one another. The movie is filled with embarrassing dialogues, in which people constantly correct each other. As I kept watching, the German word ‘peinlich’ constantly kept popping up in my mind. At some point there is a scene in which Clemens gets sexually groped by an elderly client and the scene is treated in the most hilariously painful way to watch. But the movie also shows the tender and playful side of the relationship that Lara shares with Clemens. Both of them struggle with something: Clemens is weirdly co-dependent and a little bit of a doormat, while Lara is an alcoholic who occasionally self-harms by starting arguments with people. The most shocking part of the film is definitely its ending, which I can tell you right now you won’t be able to guess. And that’s what makes the movie so charming. As soon as it ended I was tempted to re-watch it, constantly thinking ‘What the eff did I just watch?!’ It also made me laugh a lot.
Movie still of Franz Rogowski & Lana Cooper in Love Steaks (2014)
As I am writing this article, I feel like my Mubi experience is coming full circle, because I just realized that the leading actor in Love Steaks, Franz Rogowski – a man whose face is something fascinating and unique to look at – is also the leading actor in ‘Transit’, the movie I initially wanted to watch on Mubi. I just checked his birthday and I can see that he is an Aquarius Sun, born on the 2nd of February 1986. With Pluto beginning to transit over his Sun from next year and for the next two decades, it will be interesting to see him rise to stardom and what other films he may play in.
Anyway, I hope you can give these three small, intimate and crazily underrated movies a try soon. And let me know what you thought about them. In the last two decades, love movies have been few and far in between and were mainly cast aside in cinema in order to promote blockbuster superhero movies. So I am actually grateful that these small love stories were created for our viewing pleasure.
In the meantime, thank you for reading my articles in 2023! I sincerely appreciate the support of each and every one of you who comes here and decides to spend time reading my thoughts, while bearing through some of my many spelling mistakes 🙂
Let’s begin with a disclaimer because I am aware that Taylor Swift’s fans can get intense. I’m not sure if any of them will wander in my part of the Internet but just in case they do: Please take this post in a light-hearted way. I wouldn’t conceive writing it in any other way. I don’t particularly fan-girl over Taylor, nor do I hate her. Personally, I’m kind of ‘meah’ about her public image and music, even as I am aware that for generations of women, she represents a role-model. For this reason, my analysis will be fun & respectful and will mainly represent my honest, astrological views of her relationship to Travis and a little bit about her ex (Joe Alwyn).
I’m writing this piece due to popular demand, as I received messages from you curiously inquiring about the long-term prospects of this relationship. Many people are currently rooting to see Taylor finally dressed in white & walking down the isle, but is Travis Kelce the man to do it?
Special thanks to my crew on Instagram for messaging me about this couple back in October and for determining me to quickly express some of my views regarding their birth-chart synastry. But I felt like I covered the topic a bit too quickly and superficially, at the time. So here’s my in-depth analysis.
Taylor had an eventful year, romantically speaking, as she began 2023 breaking up with her boyfriend of 6 years (the English actor, Joe Alwyn who is a Pisces Sun) and seems to end this year by celebrating Christmas with her father as they both cheer and watch Travis Kelce – an American football tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs – score some goals for the nation. Now, I need to mention that unfortunately, we have unreliable birth-chart information regarding both Taylor’s & Travis’ charts (so strange how they share the same initial to their names too). On some websites you may find her Ascendant as being in Capricorn, while on others it appears to be Scorpio (although if you take a closer look, the reputable astrotheme.com has rated her birth-time accuracy as poor).
As an astrologer this leaves me in the uncomfortable position to choose a chart. And I will go for the Scorpio one as it seems this is the latest astrological data available online and also because I noticed something interesting in how Taylor carries herself: she has the infamous Scorpionic hunch, a self-protective way of carrying her tall and slender body, which makes her look like she is ready to retreat at the slightest hint of an external threat (just for the record I’m not judging her, just stating my impression; I also have this physical marker seeing as my natal Pluto in Scorpio sits cozily in my first house, deforming my Libra Ascendant).
I enjoy the chart in which her Ascendant is in Scorpio because this places Taylor’s Capricorn stellium in the 2nd house, of money, resources and self-worth. For a billionaire like Taylor, who’s net worth is estimated somewhere around 1.1 billion dollars, this is an optimal placement. In addition, based on this chart version I also share another thing in common with her (and arguably the bane of my mortal existence) a Saturn in the 2nd house placement. This means that no matter how rich and beautiful Taylor is naturally, everybody is able to see this about her, except herself. She can be very harsh on herself if something happens in her career. Saturn in the 2nd house pressures an individual’s body into submitting to a lot of hardships and long periods of having to endure (thirst, famine, extreme heat, a gruelling work schedule, tight dance outfits, repetitive performance drills, dry spells in terms of love and sexual pleasure etc).
With Saturn here the body has to be routinely controlled and disciplined, otherwise it breaks down much quicker than for other people. The benefit of this placement is that it keeps one naturally thin and it emphasizes the bone structure of an individual; the native grows to look more attractive and becomes wealthier and more valued by others, the older they grow (see Meryl Streep and Drew Barrymore who share this placement in common with Taylor).
A Scorpio Ascendant would also explain why some people either really like her and her music, or completely dislike her and think she is corny. This is because a Pluto-ruled Ascendant tends to polarize people. It would also account for the army of obsessive fans that Taylor has amassed through the years who are incredibly protective of her and often use the snake symbol to indicate fake media friends, betrayal and power plays. And finally, the last argument I make in defence of her Scorpionic Ascendant is the theme of Taylor’s songs and focus of her work, which is love and relationships. By comparison, we see a Capricorn Ascendant in the case of Lana Del Rey (whom I personally consider a superior singer in terms of quality of voice and lyrics) but Lana experienced a lot more criticism, backlash and setbacks in her career than Taylor has; so again, I am all for the Scorpio Ascendant theory, since it makes a lot of sense if we examine her life and public image.
Taylor’s big threes are a lucky Sun in Sagittarius, a domicile Moon in Cancer (conjunct Jupiter, which adds to her good luck in life), and a Scorpio Ascendant (conjunct Mars, Pluto and Lilith, the Wild Feminine Archetype – a powerful trifecta that smashes her competitors). I guess that after years of looking at photos of Taylor with a pale Englishman by her side, her fans are thrilled to see that Taylor is now in a relationship with a red-blooded American (who occasionally wears misogynistic clothing in his downtime). Don’t get me wrong, the second type of masculinity does seem more fun and less restrained and I think fans are rooting for Taylor to just be happy, seeing Taylor built a whole career around singing tongue-in-cheek and heartfelt songs about romantic disappointment and feminine becoming.
To be honest, Joe did have some massive flaws such as presumably cheating on her after 6 years of being together and also feeling quite ashamed of being together with her and Film Cooper on Youtube did a really sweet and sad breakdown of all the times that Taylor and Joe had spoken of each other in public and how they did it. Moreover, being together with a more traditionally masculine partner does seem to fit Taylor’s second house placements, but does it match her Venus and Mars placements? In a person’s chart these two planets indicate how a person feels desire and acts on it, basically how they get turned on and erotically culminate (Mars), while Venus shows among other things how someone gives and receives affection, whom they love, what they find attractive and how they style themselves.
Before I explain certain issues with their compatibility, let’s have a look at Travis’ chart and what pulled them in together in the first place. Travis is a Sun in Libra, Moon in Sagittarius and (?) mysterious Ascendant. Ok, we’ll need to guide ourselves by his Venus and Mars placements next since we don’t have access to his astrological house placements. His Venus is in Scorpio conjunct Pluto and his Mars is in Libra conjunct his Sun. So, there are some powerful links between them: first of all, they have the spouse link, indicated by a Moon-Sun conjunction, but sadly it isn’t mutual. Travis’ Moon in Sagittarius supports Taylor’s Sun in Sagittarius, in a gentle and reassuring way. This is both a wonderful aspect which shows that he intuitively understands how to praise her and that he has unconditional support for her work goals and her natural, vibrant energy, but this one can lead in time to some big resentments, if the man holds on too tightly to his traditional role.
I think it’s fair to say that out of the two, Taylor is the more famous and the wealthier one. If Travis is ok with this, they can make it work. The problem will arise when Travis will want to shine as radiant as Taylor in their connection and may withdraw affection as a way to dim her light, vitality and energy. The common issue with a man’s Moon supporting a woman’s Sun is that the man ends up feeling emasculated in the relationship and since Travis is active in a profession which promotes hypermasculinity, this will be an issue down the line. Now another problematic aspect is that her natal Moon in Cancer is not at all supportive of his Libra Sun which means that in time he may find her too sensitive for his taste. She may initially laugh at his macho jokes and entertaining, rough-handling of her body, but in time, Taylor needs someone artistic and gentle to share her private world with. After all this is the woman who created Folklore, an album so far removed from Travis’ competitive and aggressive world of American football, that it would be almost like the Sun was touching Pluto by mistake.
It could be that Taylor’s lunar conjunction to Jupiter protects her in some way from being overly shy and sensitive, since a Moon conjunct Jupiter in Cancer acts a little bit like a Sagittarius Moon. But it looks to me like Taylor just got out of a long relationship with her ex, Joe, in which she felt hurt and unsupported by her partner, and she wanted a solid, protective guy who can take her mind off the sadness she endured in that connection. She really wanted a fun man who could be ok with her exuberant, optimistic & also quite sexual Sagittarius Sun energy and she manifested him! But will it last?
Let’s continue with the analysis. Now I can see that Travis definitely makes her happy as his natal Jupiter is exalted in Cancer and it touches upon her Moon and natal Jupiter, also in Cancer. I guess being around these two feels heady and addictingly optimistic, seeing as they are both powerhouses of manifestation for wealth, popularity and good luck. I would say that even if they decide to break up at some point they will remain close friends, but I am a little bit restrained in making that affirmation since they have an explosive whammy in their Venus and Mars placements: they have a conjunction in Scorpio, equally amped up by Pluto and Lilith.
This is the ride-or-die aspect, the kind of love that Hozier was singing about in his Work Song, of having your partner crawl out of the grave to be with you one more time, it’s that super-cheesy Ghost kind of romance, of feeling your partner from miles away, of being haunted by them, and if shit hits the fan also killing for them. It’s 9 and half weeks meets The Batman 🙂 So, no I don’t think they could end up being just friends with this intense sexual chemistry.
A Venus-Mars-Pluto-Lilith combo is passionate and intense to an extreme. It is also secretive and stealth. This is certainly not the domestic, white-picket-fence kind of energy (see my Marina Abramovic astrological analysis, who shares certain placements in common with Taylor, including this Venus in Scorpio placement). However, I am more relaxed when I see that they share an Airy Venus-Mars combo in their synastry, this being her natal Venus in Aquarius trined by his Sun and Mars in Libra. This much needed oxygen in their attraction, helps them understand each other with a dose of rational detachment. This is a friendly trine, a supportive and harmonious energy which tells me that Taylor enjoys the way he courts her, and how he flirts with her and initiates sexual intercourse. I would say that in spite of how he comes across in the public’s eyes, Travis is behaving in a polite and sweet way with her, since Libra energy is about being well-groomed and respectful, attentive to social norms and sensitive to etiquette.
In contrast, she is the one who pursues him in a more intense way, seeing as the Mars in Scorpio placement appears in her chart. I am worried about this, since I believe that a lot of the attraction that Taylor has for Travis is related to the fact that he pursued her and is supportive of her goals, but Taylor may try to hard to impress him and suddenly the roles between them may change: she may end up doing the hardcore supporting of his work, while he begins to just take her for granted (and thereby activating the squares between his Sagittarius Moon and Libra Sun and her Cancer Moon). Because Taylor has her natal Uranus, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn in Capricorn in the 2nd house, maintaining this long-term connection will be a test of self-worth and endurance for her. And it may end up grating on Travis’ nerves seeing as his natal Libra Mars and Sun sit in tension with Taylor’s stellium.
Within this stellar incompatibility, they also have two aspects which concern me a lot: his Mars at 10 degrees Libra sits in an almost perfect square to her Saturn at 13 degrees and Neptune at 11degrees in Capricorn. This is worrying to me, because Mars square Saturn is an aspect which indicates cruelty and physical control and punishment, while Mars square Neptune indicate consuming substances (alcohol, prescription drugs or hallucinogens) and cheating. In combination, such energies may bring up a lot of issues in their private life. If initially Taylor falls in love with a disciplined man (Saturn-Mars) who seems to be a dream come true (Mars-Neptune), as time goes by he may begin to resent her fame and sensitivity, may see that they have very different emotional goals (her domestic Moon in Cancer sits in tension with his freedom-loving Moon in Sagittarius).
One final thing I would say is that they do share a common destiny and they seem to have a similar past-life energy as well, since they share the same North Node in Aquarius & South Node in Leo. They are meant to have an unorthodox and untraditional relationship, and they are both learning how to prioritize the interests of a group over and above their own desire to steal the limelight and be the only leader. The problem is that Travis’ North Node is conjunct Taylor’s Venus, so they way in which she loves him and shows her affection may seem uncomfortable and far too detached for him.
If they can work together as a team, and adapt to some of the difficult aspects between them, I think that this relationship has chances of thriving. But I do need to say that I have a personal reticence in seeing them as a ‘match made in heaven’, when they are both individuals who love to be the best in the eyes of the public and may end up ruthlessly competing with each other as time goes by. In this process, Travis’ team-mates and Taylor’s fanbase may play the dangerous role of gradually breaking them apart, as soon as Pluto begins transiting over their point of destiny – the obsessive and often-times malefic, North Node in Aquarius. This transit will begin next year from the 20th of January and continue for roughly 22 years, and I believe it will be something epic to watch, especially as Pluto in Aquarius will form squares to their natal Venus-Mars-Pluto-Lilith combo in the emotionally volcanic sign of Scorpio.
Lastly, if you feel inspired by my interpretation of Taylor and Travis’ astrological charts, and would like to have a similar analysis done for yourself and your crush/partner, then feel free to get in touch with me for a birth-chart reading or a synastry report.
For Sagittarius season, I thought I would explore the intricate planets, points and aspects in the chart of a daring, Sagittarius Sun pioneer, the Serbian artist Marina Abramovic. Although sticking true to her freedom-loving and boundary-breaking Jupiterian energy, I assume that she would recoil at such categorizations of her personality. Marina just is and she just creates. And in the process she opens our minds by awakening us to the deeper nuances of human nature. As you get to know her from reading her memoir “Walk through walls” (2016) Marina doesn’t distinguish between life and art. Her work is her life, and her life is her art. This year, Marina turned the noble (and numerologically blessed) age of 77 years old. In her book The Secret Science of Numerology author Shirley Blackwell Lawrence describes the energy of the number 77 as “the number of the Christ-consciousness because CHRIST has 77 as its full number, and Jesus was the 77th in his line of ancestry (…) 77 is the analytical thinker. True 7’s are spiritual. The more spiritual, the more they radiate that spiritual-quality, an intensification of inner wisdom”.
So for Marina, we can see that 2023 is a highly spiritual year. And perhaps because of this, or maybe since I am naturally drawn to Sagittarians as I carry a stellium of planets in this sign in my own natal chart, I felt compelled to read her memoir and write this article about her. For years, Marina has been an artist I only knew off in passing, since I grew up in the Eastern-European part of a territory nearest to the Balkans, and she often appeared in news-pieces in this part of the world. I remember when I was a teenager that I got scared seeing some images of her Rhythm series among the art textbooks I was perusing on a weekly basis at the French Institute’s library in Bucharest. In my teenager’s mind, she was someone who looked statuesque, unapproachable and somehow scarily strange but someone who I felt could teach me a lot about human nature (my natal Saturn and Uranus are in Sagittarius). Recently, I got back into my fascination with her life, work and unusual beauty by randomly being recommended a video from a Youtube Channel I follow, Blind Dweller. In a two-part documentary style analysis, Blind Dweller presents her brutal and yet empowering spiritual and artistic journey through life
However, as I picked up and began reading her book, I was surprised to see that most of the things described in this Youtube docu-series were the first chapters from Marina’s memoir. So if you want to know more after having watched the clips, I highly recommend you read the book. It’s a riveting account of a life lived to extremes, the extremes of work, love and real estate. Yes, Marina has the Midas touch with buying property. For example, there is a phenomenal account of how after her painful separation from her twin-flame Ulay, Marina purchased a 6-stories house in the center of Amsterdam for just 40,000 guldens, a house that she later sold for 4 million euros (!) and a place which initially was inhabited by some 35 junkies; she actually helped one of them put his life back on track as they continued to live together despite having no romantic connection. And as I was reading this part of the book I kept thinking of her chart placements and her blessed conjunction between the planet Venus (value, money) and Jupiter (wealth, growth).
So even though, Marina has a Venus in Scorpio – a position which is considered by many astrologers to be a detrimental factor for love, money and harmonious relationships – her Venus is nonetheless helped by the Great Benefic, Jupiter. Marina describes how she was born into a family of war heroes, who saved each other’s lives during World War II only to enact domestic violence upon each other as they entered a suffocating marriage. While her upbringing was replete with violence and arguments, her Jupiter constantly attracted towards her romantic and sexual opportunities, got her to love art, form relations to wealthy individuals and celebrities, gave her a magic touch in real estate issues and helped her pull in the sums of money she needed to accomplish her goals. She often supported the people she loved (such as her second husband, Paolo Canevari), which is another generous characteristic of this aspect.
Marina was born on the 30th of November 1946 in Belgrade, Serbia. Unfortunately we don’t have the time of Marina’s birth, so her Ascendant will be missing and in consequence, my astrological analysis will be rather limited. Despite this, we can see by opening Marina’s chart that there are a couple of heavy-weights sitting together and squaring each other – squares being aspects of tension and deep inner conflict in a person’s chart, that have the benefit of making a person’s life eventful and dynamic.
The first interesting pair is the one formed by the conjunction between Saturn and Pluto in the strong sign of Leo, the next is the Sun sitting together with Mars (a masculine presence that incites violence), the South Node (an aspect denoting past life karma) and the asteroid Lilith (the Wild Feminine Archetype). Furthermore, there is also a cluster of planets in the most intense sign of the zodiac, Scorpio, as Marina has her natal Venus, Mercury and Jupiter bundled together. The asteroid Chiron – the Wounded Healer Archetype and an indicator of deep and unquenchable pain in someone’s chart – is also nearby this darkened Scorpio stellium. With such powerful Water and Fire energies, I am happy to see that her chart is also made lighter by the air it receives from her natal Neptune in Libra, her Moon in Aquarius and her North Node conjunct Uranus in Gemini. It’s noteworthy to mention that this final aspect between her North Node and Uranus is the marker of Marina’s destiny as a controversial & original performance artist.
One important thing to notice is that Marina’s chart is devoid of Earth energy! Which is incredible for someone who manipulates matter to serve the spiritual development of society (an artist). But this absence of Earth also helps Marina maintain her exploratory courage and gets her to disregard conformism in any of its forms. With a Sun in adventurous & blunt Sagittarius, a Moon in prophetic and innovative Aquarius and a stellium in transformational Scorpio, I wouldn’t have imagined Marina living a mundane 9 to 5 life, tending to domestic matters and raising a traditional man’s children. If she would have had such a life, I’m sure that it would’ve been just a front to cover her real occupation, potentially that of an international spy. I say this because judging by the energies contained within her chart, secrets, transcendence and extremism are meant to flavor her life. And she is also meant to develop a light-hearted and detached approach to such life themes, as her North Node is Mercurian, ruled by the sign of the divine trickster, Gemini.
This shows someone whose comfort zone is conflict, drama and passion (South Node conjunct Mars in Sagittarius), someone who is learning from violent and creative episodes how to let go of her Ego (South Node conjunct Mars and the Sun in Sagittarius), and someone who is gradually replacing independence for inter-dependence, and action with thinking. Her thinking can indeed be surprising and innovative and many have challenged her because they were just not on that extreme level that her natal Uranus conjunct the North Node is constantly pushing Mariana to reach towards. The way to reconcile this exclusionary energy is to use humor (Gemini), and indeed having read her memoir I have to say that I laughed out loud at her dark, Balkan comments and the jokes she sprinkled throughout her text.
Let’s now look deeper into the aspects made by her natal planetary placements, because if the Ascendant data is missing I cannot discuss the influence of the zodiac houses in her life. The first aspect that stands out to me is the opposition between her Mars (conjunct Lilith & the South Node) and Uranus (conjunct the North Node). A Mars-Uranus opposition is described by astrologer Sue Tompkins as “a very decisive combination, and having decided, Mars-Uranus will usually let nothing stand in their way”. She adds that this is the aspect indicative of “great extremism” in someone’s chart and that it can make the native have a “talent for generating great sexual excitement”.
The second aspect is a triple one, as her Moon is squared by Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. Again Sue Tompkins explains that a Moon squared by Venus makes one “over-adaptive” & “someone who seems to get hurt and bruise very easily” and gives one “a strong urge to create a pleasing home” and a propensity towards artistic endeavors, while a Moon squared by Mercury makes one work hard to bring their “instinctual, gut feelings into alignment” and can make one prone to worry and gossip and to “fleeting moods and fleeting opinions”. Finally a Moon squared by Jupiter adds a sense of “affectionate greediness” into the native’s life. The author describes how “The Moon-Jupiter person often comes from a background where the maternal figure was rather dramatic and may themselves behave quite instinctively in a larger than life kind of way”. And indeed Marina recalls how her mother was honored for her military efforts and was also an individual who enjoyed art and owning beautiful things, but she was also in the habit of randomly and suddenly slapping Marina for the basic things, like not cleaning her room or sitting on the couch with spread legs while she was reading. One can imagine how a person learns to hide inside of their body if they grow up in an environment where drama and violence may suddenly spring up on them. For Marina the healing and catharsis came through her transcendent performances.
You may think that these aspects by themselves are not really that bad, however they are all squared in turn by her Saturn and Pluto conjunction. Coming back to Sue’s words, a Saturn squaring Venus gives a person “strong issues here about self-valuation” and this is in part because “those with Venus-Saturn contacts come into the world feeling unloved”. Such an individual may not bother so much with physical appearances, and struggles with money until they understand how to use it for their benefit; often, a Venus-Saturn person may try to “buy affection”, and could feel awkward giving and receiving love, especially without any strings attached. While a Pluto squaring Venus shows someone who “can become involved in tense, highly charged relationships”. She goes on to add that the Venus-Pluto person is “not able to let go”, “seems to need deeply intense but quite short bouts of relating” and can “drive their partner into a frenzy of desire” from which jealousy and possessiveness are not excluded. So, Marina has some heavy energies flanking her capacity to not only love herself but also to love others, however both of these energies helped her transform her relational and romantic pain into art, by increasing her sensitivity to what actually matters in love. And she got better at her art, making money, owning property, having famous friends who supported her and receiving awards, but with time. Her memoir ends with her still struggling to truly love and accept herself, as she was healing her broken heart with the help of shamanic experiences in the Amazonian rainforest.
From her work, I think the performance that stayed with me the most was her Balkan Baroque one from 1997, for which she won a Golden Lion in Venice. In this artistic piece she stayed for a couple of days in the airless basement of a building, dressed in white and for 6 hours each day she cleaned the meat off the bones of dead cows with a toothbrush, while singing Serbian lullabies. In this grueling and rank environment she was breaking people’s hearts reminding them of the physical horrors endured especially by women and children during the terrifying Yugoslavian conflict which changed the geography of the Balkans in the 90s. The visual and felt impact of mass pain is immediately felt in this performance.
Her ritual, the mourning, the repetition of cleaning, the smears and stains that cannot be washed away or forgotten, all fall heavily within the psyche of a Saturn-Pluto individual, a person who has the capacity to bring up collective wounds to the surface and heal them in a public way (Leo). I remember very briefly how my mother and grandmother used to switch the television channel whenever news of the conflict reached Bucharest from time to time, so that me and my sister wouldn’t hear of the atrocities which were committed, and I also remember the influx of refugees we got during the 90s, most of which were displaced Albanians. As a sidenote, Marina had Pluto transiting over her Sagittarius Sun when she created this piece. And when she was deeply in love with Ulay, her twin soul and artistic collaborator, she had the transit of Pluto crossing over her Venus, Mercury and Jupiter. Their love story is fascinating and I may focus on it in another article dedicated to real twin-flame couples.
There is so much more to say, but I’d rather you read her memoir or watch the beautiful Youtube analyses done about her life. If you feel inspired by my interpretation of Marina Abramovic’s astrological chart, and would like to have a similar analysis done for yourself, then feel free to get in touch with me for a birth-chart reading here.
At the beginning of October, during an unnaturally bright and sunny day, I got the chance the enter Iulia Hasdeu’s home in the city of Campina in Romania. A home that resembled a miniature castle and a place in which she sadly didn’t get to spend much time in, because Iulia, a Romania poet and the daughter of the philologist & historian Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, died at just 19 years old. Before her death however, Iulia was already speaking 5 languages by the age of 11, she was musically and artistically gifted, had already published 3 volumes of poetry and plays, and got to become the youngest scholar selected to study at La Sorbonne in Paris at the age of 16. In addition, she had a very close connection to her father who mourned her intensely after she departed and even went as far as using magic and ritual to get in touch with his beloved Iulia once again.
His account of conducting a seance and invoking the spirit of his daughter one evening, which ended with him feeling Iulia’s presence and then seeing Iulia’s handwriting appearing on a piece of paper reassuring him that she is alright and that she will see him again, is a famous one, and makes for a spooky Halloween story. Many attributed this to a grief-stricken mind which was merely playing illusions on him, but I have a tendency to believe him since he shared such a strong emotional bond with her, a fact which appears in their astrological synastry.
Set of occult tables in the shape of tiny pyramids which belonged to the Hasdeu Family
Iulia Hasdeu was born on the 14th of November 1869 in Bucharest and her chart placements show us that she is a Sun in Scorpio with a Pisces Moon (the Ascendant information is not reliable). While her father, Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu was born on the 26 of February 1838 in a city in Ukraine. He was a Pisces Sun with a Moon in Pisces (according to an ephemeris of the year 1838). So the father and daughter couple share a Sun-Moon conjunction and compatible Water sign energy, which led them to have a lot of things in common and a similar sensitivity to immaterial things. They were both drawn to spirituality and contributed to culture with the fruits of their labor. Iulia’s contribution was especially productive, almost as if she knew she has little time left on this Earth and must achieve as much as possible before a certain age. Her story is heart-breaking and shows once more that if we didn’t lose genius women in Romania due to the suppression tactics of the patriarchy or the demands of domesticity and house-wifery, we lost them to premature death.
Birth chart of Iulia Hasdeu taken from
Throughout the summer of 2023, I also felt haunted & guided by Iulia’s spectre, as I got the chance in June to attend a guided tour of the Bellu Cemetery and visit her lush and gothic crypt. And then in October I also visited the home built in her honor by a grieving father, situated in Campina, a small town relatively close to Bucharest (it’s a train ride of one hour and a quarter’s time). Not only that but I studied in the high-school named after her, the Iulia Hasdeu Highschool in Bucharest, considered to be one of the best places to study philology and foreign language (I tend to agree with the description since I walked out of there speaking 4 languages and wanting to become a writer). Personally, looking into Iulia’s story and visiting the places left where we may commemorate her, was also a trip down memory lane, reminding me of the time I spent those 4 years in a high-school named after her (a building which also resembles a castel by the way).
Coming back to Iulia, I need to mention that if you read her poems you’ll notice quite a strong fixation with death and transformation. In the collection of her personal belongings which I was able to observe in the museum, was a letter from a fan who said that her sensitive poetry helped him make peace with the death of his infant. Now looking into her chart again we see a Venus in Capricorn, which would give her an eerie propensity towards the themes of death, decay, poverty and hardship. A Saturnian Venus can also experience the loss of their loved ones or in Iulia’s case the loss of her own life. She also has a powerful conjunction between the planets Jupiter and Pluto in the sign of Taurus, an aspect which the British astrologer Sue Townsend calls ‘the wealth of buried matter’. According to Sue “the combination sometimes yields an interest in magic, for magic is simply concerned with the power of the mind over matter and it can be used for good or ill” (page 236 from Aspects in Astrology). Other astrologers have called this the Mogul aspect, since Pluto’s energy is turbo-charged by Jupiter, the Great Benefic and in Iulia’s chart it shows us that she would’ve achieved great notoriety and prestige by writing and publishing her work, by teaching and transmitting information that is of a spiritual nature, if she had lived a little while longer; on the other hand, this aspect may also be the cause of her premature death, since Jupiter exaggerates the themes of Pluto in someone’s life, and these are death and transformation.
As I’m growing in life experience and refining my astrological knowledge, I am beginning to see Jupiter as a bit of a problem in the charts of people who experience sudden life changing events, those who suffer catastrophes or intense experiences at the hands of groups and savage deaths; particularly having the North Node in Sagittarius may expose one to such issues. However we see that Iulia had a Mars-ruled by Jupiter in the sign of Sagittarius conjunct Saturn, the lord of karma. With her luminous North Node in Leo and her genius South Node in Aquarius, she was indeed destined for great things in the spotlight of the public. But Saturn taught her an unforgettable lesson. Apparently, Iulia caught a flu during her time intensely travelling through Europe. It is said that she didn’t take appropriate measures to treat her sickness, and then the disease turned into a pulmonary issue for which she was hospitalized for a while. However, the disease continued to spread & eventually it claimed her life. So by over-exerting herself very quickly (Mars), and not paying attention to the limits of her energy or demonstrating patience in her travels (Saturn) she ended up incurring a disease acquired from her foreign places (Sagittarius) which ultimately put an end to her life.
I wish I had more accurate data to work with and conduct a complete synastry report of her and her father’s charts and also dive deeper into her own. But for the time being, I’ll stop here as this post was meant to simply commemorate her during Scorpio season and to introduce her to some of you out there who may have never heard of her. It’s certainly worth visiting the Hasdeu Family home in Campina and I also heard that each year on the 2nd of July there is a large festival to celebrate the two Iulia’s (herself and her mother, who shared the name). Maybe next year I’ll attend that and see if any of my perceptions have changed or if I am able to commune with Iulia’s ghost. As always, I’ll keep you posted on whatever I discover and if in the meantime you feel inclined to get in touch with me for a personal birth-chart reading, you may find my services here.
I sometimes create an article which is all about my love of film, and usually of films driven by powerful female performances, often films which are obscure and fall bellow the radar of the blockbusters or usual crowd-pleasers. My natal Venus in Aquarius wouldn’t have it otherwise and I tend to fall in love with what is outside of the norm, anti-mainstream but also something which is intelligently crafted and has the potential to change my mind. This is such a post, which is a retrospective of three movies I’ve recently watched, movies which stayed with me long after the ending credits wrapped up. And the main reason I really enjoyed these movies was because of the performances of the 3 leading actresses who carried these movies and created haunting, intense and unforgettable characters. The movies I want to talk about (and maybe stir your interest in viewing them too) are Elle (2016), Maelstrom (2000) and Preparations to be together for an unknow period of time (2020).
Immediately, I want to point out some interesting astrological patterns between the 3 leading actresses. While doing some digging I found out that the French-Canadian actress Marie-Josée Croze (born 23rd February) is a Pisces Sun & a Moon in Libra conjunct Uranus, the French actress Isabelle Huppert (born 16th March) is also a Pisces Sun & a Moon in Aries conjunct Mars, while the Hungarian actress Natasa Stork (born 22nd January) is an Aquarius Sun with a natal Moon in Virgo. So already there is considerable mutable energy in the charts of these 3 actresses and it may have something to do with the choice of these roles, as the movies portray 3 women undergoing some drastic transformations of their lives. These transformations are both the result of their choices but also providence. Something happens to the characters in these movies which instigates a process of deep, self-destructive transformation that ultimately emerges as a Phoenix rebirth. What begins as sad, shocking and insane, ends in light, healing, recovery and love.
For example, the character of Marta (played by Natasa Stork) in Preparations to be together for an unknown period of time, is a woman with a successful career as a neurosurgeon who has an active life away from her home country. But a chance encounter with a man from back home, ignites a series of events which she passionately initiates. You see Marta falls in love at first sight with her stranger, and apparently this love compels her to give up everything she has built in her life this far and pursue him. And she does it with such courage it is breath-takingly insane to watch. The plot thickens, as once she arrives from the US to Budapesta and manages to track down the man of her dreams, he doesn’t seem to remember her at all. So throughout the movie, as a viewer, you are left wondering: Is she a female psychopath? A stalker who is out of her mind? Or an actual woman in love, willing to pursue her man until the end of the world? I saw her as a woman who felt blocked by the limiting emotional constraints of her life as a single neurosurgeon, and this reality was painfully aware to her. The stranger simply sparked a process of psychological reconstitution which she was already on the brink of starting. We see how Marta interacts with her working environment and how she constantly has to compete with her co-workers, we see her in empty rooms immersed in so much solitude, and at the beginning of the movie at least she seems uptight and like she has developed this armor around her body which helps her in her job but we are left wondering how she copes in her personal life.
As the movie develops, we see Marta unravel and transform from an efficient machine of a glacial beauty to a softer, emotional and deeply passionate individual. But could it be that inside, Marta was harboring a homesickness for her language, culture and city which love simply reignited. Because love is believed to be a unifying energy, it may be that Marta felt an internal split, between the demands of her high-powered job and her needs as a woman, between her cultural upbringing and the reality of her life as an immigrant in a foreign culture, which may bring her material and professional rewards but nothing much else. Could it be that love was a catalyst that found a way to reunite Marta with her emotions, her memories and heritage? And what initially looks like a deeply self-destructive process, may very well be a readjustment of her values, replacing worldly success for something infinitely more valuable, a prioritization of her inner life and her emotions? The movie keeps playing with these images of Marta as a successful expat and neurosurgeon versus Marta as a woman consumed by love and readjusting to living in her natal city, and asks us to consider whether as a modern woman you can have them both?
In the case of the character played by Isabelle Huppert in the movie Elle, the story is slightly different. The movies pulls the viewer straight into a shocking scene in which Isabelle’s character, Michele is raped in her own home by a masked intruder. What happens afterwards is a powerhouse of actions which you have rarely see on screen and lead by a woman. Michele picks herself up, takes a bath, cries in anger and then begins to investigate who her assailant may be and plots to revenge herself. You see Michele is not the usual middle-aged woman who can indulge in her victimhood, she is a woman wrapped up in deadlines, the CEO of gaming company who constantly deals with harassment and abuse in her line of work and has developed a relative thick skin. But that doesn’t mean she has lost the fire in her heart. Michelle has to lead over a group of outspoken and brash employees who are mostly men and much younger than her. The movie shows the many weird and funny quips which describe her relationship to her employees and moreover, there is considerable sexual tension between her and another rather handsome employee who quickly becomes the prime suspect due to the misogynistic nature of the feminine portrayals he openly enjoys in the video games that the company delivers. But the perpetrator is much worse than imagined and in a genial plot twist, we see how Michelle manages to make him obsessed with her before she (spoiler) destroys him.
The movie is surprisingly unsentimental about any of the events that happen to Michelle, as she is not someone to be stopped once you messed with her. And this ruthlessness is formidable and inspiring to watch, even becoming slightly comical at times to watch. Whatever problems appear in her life, Michelle gets up and deals with them even if she ends up making a decision that is highly controversial. She is also trying to parent her son and deal with her vulnerable ex-husband, and makes time for her loyal friend throughout the entire madness of this story. But I don’t want to give too much of the movie so as not to spoil the fun of watching it, but it is that kind of a experience that takes the viewer from shock to shock and it is actually quite funny in parts, due to the brilliant acting throughout. Because Isabelle Huppert is such a talented actress she is able to convey such mixed emotions at a glance, and gets us to think deeply about what power and solitude can do to someone’s mind; and without sounding cold-hearted it also gives the viewer a chance to explore that old cliché “if a good looking, desirable man hits on you it’s called flirting, but if he is ugly & undesirable, it’s called abuse”.
And I saved the best for last, because out of all 3 movies, Maelstrom is probably my favorite one. The movie literally begins with a talking fish (!) and continue as some sort of modern Greek tragedy. I was genuinely surprised to see that it was directed by Denis Villeneuve, who later became famous for shooting Arrival, Dune and Blade Runner 2049 (aka some of my favorite films in the last decade). You can say what you want about his movies, but they are captivating and visually stunning. On a smaller scale, the same can be said about Maelstrom, a movie about the transformation of woman’s life after she terminates a pregnancy and has a near-death event. The movie is lead by the beautiful Marie Josee Croze, who has some of the most otherworldly-blue eyes I have seen on camera, and the cinematography emphasizes this and her inner tumult and sadness, which is mostly conveyed through her eyes.
Her character, the weirdly named Bibiane Champagne, moves from a need to punish and destroy herself to creating an event that riddles her with even more guilt, but paradoxically the darkness she falls into throughout the movie, leads her to love and finding a way to keep her heart opened. In spite of the darker themes, the movie is also surprisingly funny and unapologetic. It’s again one of those cinematic experiences that keeps you guessing because you find it hard to predict what comes next in Bibiane’s life. Just when everything seems bleaker and worse than ever for her, suddenly a chance encounter changes everything for the better and healing begins and her life seems to regain its balance. Just like the calm weather after a storm or a maelstrom to be more precise 🙂
I think that I’ll end this article here and allow you the pleasure of tracking these movies down and seeing them on your own. Feel free to come back here and comment on what you thought of the stories and the female-led performances.
For Scorpio season, I thought I would take a look at SZA’s (Solana Imani Rowe) birth-chart, especially since in recent media stories she is shamed for having lied to her fans. Both Sloan and Fab Socialism, two YouTube accounts I follow, have created videos in which they take apart & with factual evidence the many lies SZA has been spinning in her interviews. I thought it was odd that a person as successful as she is, an American singer who rose to fame after the release of her brilliantly imaginative album Ctrl, feels the need to lie this much. To be fair, the lies she tells are white lies, they are low-level and kind of sweet (for example she lied to her fans that she doesn’t like birth day cake, rather preferring pie as a birthday treat). After hearing about these strange accounts about her behavior, I wondered if there is something in her astrology which can tell us why is SZA getting this bad reputation as a liar?
Knowing as well that there is a certain degree of confusion related to her birth-chart data, I did some research and compared the information I could find on reputable celebrity astrology websites. The public was confused about SZA’s birthday and whether she was born in 1989, 1990 or 1991, so for the sake of our collective sanity, I decided to go for the natal chart that was prevalent across astrotheme.com, astrodienst.com and astro-charts.com. So I chose the version below which lists her birthdate as the 8th of November 1989.
As we open her natal chart, the first thing that stands out is her Sun in Scorpio on the cusp between the 9th and the 10th houses and perfectly conjunct her Midheaven! Her Sun is closely backed up by Pluto and Mercury. Her Ascendant is in rebellious Aquarius (loosely conjunct her North Node in Aquarius) and her Moon falls in sweet Pisces in the 1st house. Some of us could say “Well it’s her Moon! Ruled by Neptune, the God of illusions and make-belief, that unconsciously influences her to lie to the public about her identity!” (the 1st house). Eureka, problem solved and article is complete…
But I doubt this interpretation very much. And this is mostly because her Moon is in a sign it feels comfortable in and it receives by aspects, so much harmonious support from Saturn (sextile to Capricorn), Pluto (trine to Scorpio) and both Jupiter and Chiron (trine to Cancer). Also, with so much Scorpio energy and in such a visible part of her chart, she is kept in check by her own guilt-tripping natal Scorpio energy. However, ancient astrologers believed that a woman tends to identify more with her Moon placement than with that of her Sun sign, so if this applies in the case of SZA she would see herself more as a Piscean than a Scorpio, and feel more comfortable in Neptunian la-la-land. Judging by her talent and overall feminine and yielding demeanor in public, she does come across as a loveable, fun, attractive mess. But is this the whole story behind her crafting a controversial public image through the use of white lies? In general, if an astrologer is looking for some communication issues or some problems with a person bending the truth, then that astrologer would analyze the placements of Mercury and Neptune in a person’s chart and any aspects made to these two planets (especially aspects in-between the two planets).
And indeed, we notice the planet Neptune is heavily at work in her chart, making aspects to Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter and her Moon. But all of these aspects are supportive and friendly (trines and sextiles). The issue here may be the multiple conjunctions concentrated in the sign of Capricorn and Scorpio. SZA has a double stellium in her chart, which means a cluster of planets and points concentrated in one sign, but in her case these clusters are firstly in the sign of Scorpio (Sun, Mercury and Pluto), and secondly in the sign of Capricorn (Venus, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus). Now both of these astrological signs are rather dark and concerned with some of the most serious aspects of human existence (and usually those things no one wants to deal with). And both of these signs show someone who may not see their true worth in the first part of their life and someone who easily self-sabotages; for example, by telling lies that affect her reputation.
By looking at her chart, I can see that unless she strongly identifies with her Pisces Moon, this is not a chill and unbothered queen of music, but rather a deeply anxious person at the mercy of a lot of limits and darkness in her personal life. And most of these problems come from her social groups, her public and her co-workers and are karmically played out in her relationships by her natal Venus in Capricorn (see my previous post on Britney Spears who shares this placement in common with SZA). A person with a Venus in Capricorn, has money karma with their loved ones, feels criticized by those around them, struggles to relate to others from the heart and is fearful and controlled in how they show affection. A Venus in Capricorn native may have to make a lot of mistakes in how they build relationships, in order to understand how relationships work. And we see how this energy is playing out so strongly in SZA’s chart in relation to the people that support her and in the online environment (the 11th house).
Her Venus in Capricorn is another indicator as to why SZA may be lying and the reason would be due to her poor boundaries in how she relates to other people. She simply allows other people to say certain things about her and goes along with their opinion of her rather than explain and defend herself. The problem is amplified because she tends to make some controversial blanket statements (Mercury conjunct Pluto) which are then picked up by the public (the Midheaven) and used to create her public reputation (her Sun conjunct the Midheaven). Until she learns to take control of this narrative, this bad rep created by the public’s amplification of her minor statements will continue to haunt her. There is a feeling that she is playing into the image of a ‘sweet girl that is helpless’ because she thinks this is what appeals to the public rather than being her powerful Scorpio self and own her energy, her darkness, her power and sexuality. And I think this is where these lies irk the collective. Because we can all see her power, although she may genuinely be clueless to it (Venus in Capricorn and conjunct Saturn!).
Here I need to stop and take into account a really important detail which may be easily disregarded in this discussion, since this is a point and not a planet: SZA has her South Node in Leo, a warm, loyal, strong and relatively self-obsessed energy. A South Node in Leo individual is a natural-born performer, a person endowed with a queenly energy, denoting someone who finds it hard to refuse romantic attention and actively seeks to make themselves as pleasing to others a possible in order to receive adoration and support in return. I had a close friend with this South Node in Leo placement who confessed to me that it was always difficult for her to refuse booty calls and say no to people who desired her, because in her words she ‘needed someone else’s adoration in order to feel worthy’. If we take this South Node in Leo placement in combination with her natal Moon in Pisces, and Capricorn and Scorpio stelliums we can see some hidden tension built into her chart and that entire pressure falls on her identity, as her South Node sits in a square position with all of these elements!
Leo represents the energy of our solar consciousness and our core personality traits and when it is blurred by her emotions (her Moon), her capacity to feel like an individual (Uranus), to create (Neptune) to have discipline (Saturn), to feel confident (the Sun), to change things (Pluto) and to communicate (Mercury), then we see here a need to bend the truth as a way to protect herself and also to resists comparisons with other people who may compete with her for the limelight. Because say what you want about her bad rep as a liar, but at least no one in the industry has this rep. So, she stands out in this way. SZA, doesn’t lie with bad intent but it may be something she either does unconsciously, because she is insecure and lying makes her look different, quirky and more interesting or it is a conscious PR strategy to make her look quirky and unique (Ascendant conjunct North Node in Aquarius!).
SZA doesn’t really know how to fit into groups in a natural way, because her comfort zone in life is pulling all eyes on her when she walks into a room, not only because of her Scorpio energy which creates this magnetic force-field around her, but also because of her Leo South Node which separates her from others by constantly putting her in the spotlight. She is somehow meant to transform this energy from the envy and enmity of others (Sun in Scorpio conjunct Midheaven), to something that brings her closer to others and makes her feel like she belongs, like she is part of a group, rather than outside of it or leading it. The conspicuous absence of fire in her chart points towards an energy that needs to be consciously tamed, spiritualized (Water stellium) and grounded (Earth stellium) at the level of the soul (Scorpio), so that it can extend to others and affects the collective (Aquarius Ascendant) in an artistic way (Moon in Pisces), rather than stay concentrated in the adoration of the project of the Self (Leo South Node).
A Pluto conjunct Mercury aspect may lie but only to attain power and not in such a public way, the energy would be rather stealth and there may be money involved and discreet payments involved to keep the truth under control. If a Pluto conjunct Mercury in Scorpio person lies, it would be in order to survive, and not to appear dainty, silly and weird in the eyes of the public. So, for the first time in someone’s chart I am tempted to take her South Node placements and the aspects it makes to Mercury and Neptune, rather than just her Mercury and Neptune placements to explain why SZA lies. Her Neptunian Moon undoubtedly plays a role, but we have to go a bit deeper since not everyone who has a natal Moon in Pisces lies to enhance their public image and make it weirder and cute, in the same way in which SZA does (ex. see James Blake, another singer who shares this placement in common with SZA).
The most interesting part is that SZA’s chart shows how someone with mostly harmonious aspects in her chart, can get away with certain ‘bad behaviors’, which is something that astrologer Sue Tompkins wrote about in her book Aspects in Astrology (2002). Sue describes how we may be blind-sided in our astrological analyses by constantly seeking to scapegoat individuals with a lot of squares, conjunctions or oppositions in their chart with bad behaviors, when in reality it may be those with plenty of trines and sextiles which are capable of some famous nasty behaviors or even crimes, as they usually tend to get away with this bad behavior, so it becomes a reinforced and negative trait of their personality. Sue describes how a person with Moon conjunct Venus may often engage in criminal behavior to support their luxurious lifestyle while someone with Moon conjunct Saturn or Pluto would need to work harder to attain the same kind of luxury and nourishment in their life and thereby, they may be less invested in risking what they have attained by resorting to crime.
Of course, each case needs to be individually assessed, but I thought I’d mention this aspect as it tends to get people to think differently about the habitual interpretation of astrological aspects. And in case it wasn’t obvious, I really like SZA and her music and I hope that we will continue to see her grow and learn how to value herself more and to defend herself a bit better in the future.
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).
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.
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.
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).
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.
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).
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.
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