Re-imagining Mercury RX, and How it May Work out for You in Aquarius

I am not a Mercury retrograde doomsayer. Much of the narrative around this thrice annual retrogradation event is hyperbolic to me. So, much of what I write here will be informed by a cooler sensibility. Which is wonderfully evocative of Mercury’s nature in Aquarius anyway.

What are the facts?

Well, in 2021, Mercury will retrograde three times: once in Aquarius, once in Gemini, and once in Libra. A suite of air signs. The retrograde of note in this write up is the Aquarius one. Mercury has begun to slow down in the sky as it stations retrograde. This lead up to the actual event is called a shadow period, and much of what is happening now specific to Mercury in Aquarius topics in your chart have already reared and will come up again for resolution when Mercury stations direct and treads back over these same degrees. Mercury will officially retrograde on January 30th at 26 degrees of Aquarius and then station direct on February 20th at 11 degrees of Aquarius. Accounting for shadow periods, the bread on the retrograde sandwich at either side, Mercury technically began annoying us on January 15th and won’t stop until March 13th.  

Folks, this is no insignificant amount of time. When you factor in Mercury shadow, plus the retrograde, plus the fact that Mercury will do this two more times in 2021, it accounts for approximately 20 weeks of the year (or 6ish months) where Mercury things are subject to hiccups. Compound that over a lifetime.

All that to say, I think it’s time we find a way to function within Mercury retrograde periods with less histrionics. My reimagining of Mercury retrograde is less about avoidance of decision making, and more about intentional decision making. When Mercury turns within, we are also invited to turn within. I agree that the outward and functional Mercury retrograde advice is important. These are the things we have all heard and try to heed. Review! Cross your T’s and dot your I’s! Don’t call your ex! These are all great ways to either avoid or abate those damned miscommunications and crossed wires. But—life has to go on. People need to sign leases. People need to interview for jobs. People need to travel. People need to pay bills. Conversations will need to be had. Life won’t stop on Mercury’s dime. Plus, you probably shouldn’t be calling your ex at any point in the 365-day year! And believe you me, technological issues, miscommunications, and typos are equal opportunity culprits, abound even when Mercury is direct.

So, what is my more soulful take on productively working with this energy? Think of Mercury retrograde as a quieted planet, energy directed inward, the mind tending more to internal landscapes versus external ones. This sets Mercury retrograde up in a much more positive way than the “Mercury is asleep at the wheel” take, by implying that Mercury doesn’t just cease to function or be there, but that it continues to work as powerfully as ever. All that has changed is the arena. Low key, there is an unmanifested brilliance of Mercury turning within that allows us to imagine up some best laid plans that we can put to use later. It allows us to unfurl some of our more hidden thoughts, to ponder, ruminate, and make decisions with a full-body YES or NO, because we have accounted for our intentions, and the energy we bring into life’s forked roads. The big decisions, the triggering emails, the miscommunications will come. But instead of approaching it from an avoidance mindset, or even a fix-it-all mindset, what if there were more curiosity? What is Mercury perhaps inviting you to discover or unpack? What rigid conclusions or narratives or habits need a bit more thought? Mercury is the perennial student after all, seeking the why behind it all.  Turning a mindset of “why is this happening to me” into “what is this teaching me,” and co-creating in tandem with Mercury instead of in spite of Mercury.

Mercury turned inward can take what would normally be thinking and enhances it to critical thinking.

For example, a job comes along. A job you wanted! A contract needs to be signed.  You look at your apps and realize Mercury is RX. What now? Do you stall? Do you rescind your offer? Do you proceed with unfounded fear because an Allure article told you Mercury RX is a bad time to do anything and that you may actually die if you sign anything, casting shame upon your family for generations to come? Do you pour over the employment agreement like a madman, fixated on the smallest comma, starting what should be a joyous chapter of your life with anxiety? Or…can you take a deep breath, and look at Mercury RX instead as a time to remind yourself of the big why of what you’re doing? To become clear about why this job is the one, why you wanted it, why you are well-suited for it? May it also be a time to flex your patience, instead of avoiding miscommunication, becoming a student of miscommunication, letting it leave behind some tools for the next miscommunication that occurs? Maybe you actually do not want the job, you were going through the motions, or you made up your mind that you should want it. The fear Mercury RX stoked served as proxy for an intuitive nudge—that this path isn’t for you. The full-body NO.

Funnily, Mercury rules the lungs, the nervous system. And when Mercury retrogrades (and hell, even when it doesn’t) certain flare ups of situations that produce physical nervousness and constriction can serve as reminders to calm the hell down, to bring Mercury inward with a deep inhale that reorganizes your anxiety into a supple and confident mind. It slows down your thinking to mirror how Mercury has slowed down in the sky. Try it out.

And before I get off my soap box, I am a technically-minded Astrologer. I care about Mercury’s aspects, its placements, how to elect a time in the sky that is favorable for decision-making. Mercury archetypes do not change. Shit happens. I would also have the knee-jerk reaction of uh oh if I see someone planning a cross-country trek during the 3-week period Mercury is retrograde. My intention in writing this (ha) is that we don’t have to stop at that uh-oh.

Here are some short blurbs about how Mercury RX may manifest for you, and the intentionality that may be behind its lessons. Even if things just suck full stop, no spiritual insight needed, learning to live with the suck and armor your mind for dealing with such things is more appropriate of a lesson than trying to avoid it, and the frenetic energy that contributes to the mismanagement of it.

Lastly, keep in mind that Mercury in Aquarius is the cool operator, functioning with an intensity of logic, a mind primed more towards dealing with things on a conceptual or abstract level first before bringing it down into workable reality. So, engaging with this time period of potential mishaps from a cool, distant, innovative and objective mind will act as medicine.   

Aries Rising, 11H: Gossip, backstabbers, he said-she said, subtweeting. When Mercury retrogrades in this social house, the places where we expand into community of like-minded folks can feel like a subplot of Mean Girls. There is something tenuous and stressful about the places where we could once share of ourselves freely, only to have that sharing be misinterpreted or judged. You may change your mind, become aware of group think, dissolve your place in groups whose political or societal leanings no longer support you. Mercury RX here is all about peering past the drama, and letting it inform where your values have fallen out of step with your friends and networks, and to get started on finding the tribe where those values are respected. It can also reveal where our standing in society is, and whether or not the alliances you have relied on are to be brought further on the journey. Where we feel unpopular, or shunned, or like we have one leg to stand on, become opportunities to carve out your true voice, to scream into what looks like the void, until someone screams back.  

Taurus Rising, 10H: Your reputation on the world stage feels to be fluctuating. One moment you are managing others and the next your performance is under scrutiny. Where you once felt on top of the world, now you see the world receding from view. Boss and authority figures appear on shaky ground. Your ability to take charge and lead, to co-pilot your own destiny, to work well within professional frameworks becomes subject to random diversions. People who once supported your place on the world stage—clients, bosses, collaborators, family—fall back on their word or cease to show up as readily. This is a time to be intentional about the plans you have for yourself, the progress you have made so far, and if the path you are on will lead to a satisfactory result. Mercury RX here may see you thinking more critically about your public image—where it may be time to step down, turn around, or choose a more stratifying path altogether.   

Gemini Rising, 9H: You might not know what you think you know! Mercury RX here is like the professor who, in frustration, throws the papers on her desk out into the room, a confetti of information now spread about, needing to be put back together. This can be a test of professional character, a test of your faith, a test of how to best use your education and specialized skills to advance in life. Like with Cancer below, the sage advice of double and triple checking your itineraries fits literally. But the metaphorical ways we invest in itineraries that we hope will land us at an ideal destination—university, belief systems, professional certifications—also matters. Mercury may frustrate your implied wisdom and belief in self, but like the professor above, intentionally putting back together the reams of information you have earned and want to share makes the message come across with far more agency.

Cancer Rising, 8H: The contract giveth and the contract taketh away. More so than any other Mercury RX transit, the sage old advice to double and triple check what you are getting yourself into matters. Like my example above, let the trepidation it causes also invite you to think a bit more about why you want to align yourself and your assets in an irrevocable way with a person, an entity, a product. Think about the ramifications of that debt obligation, or where you overextend and share yourself with others in equally consequential ways. Get smart about literal payment plans, how they are too rigid and could use some revision. Mercury RX here, like the 4th house, can also introduce us to the deeper recesses of our minds, the things that go bump in the night. It allows a reflective lens that provides profound clarity about your human condition.

Leo Rising, 7H: Hell is other people, huh? The Mercury brand of hell is less hellish, but still equally frustrating in terms of feeling on equal footing with someone else or being able to communicate ourselves into and out of and within relationships with ease. So, when Mercury retrogrades here, we, too, can descend into Hades of our own relationships: spats, disagreements, a clash of beliefs or ideas about the relationship. If you are able to ignore the impulse to tell a certain someone about themselves, as devastating and dashing as your take may be, Mercury RX can teach you wise and steadied conflict resolution, how to come to the table with people of different opinions and break bread, how to reflect before you raise the sword of fighting words. It may also introduce you to a line in the stand, a word that took it too far, opinions that just aren’t simpatico, that allows you to emerge with firmer boundaries.

Virgo Rising, 6H: There can be stall with getting a project done, finding the health advice or products that you need, or being able to commit to or continue a routine. Or those routines could use some dusting off—as could your desk, your refrigerator, your bookshelves.…. Mercury RX here can get to work with you (literally) by identifying the little nits that need ironing out, by organizing your organizational skills. It is a time to take inventory: of your schedules, your health, how you serve the world and yourself. Did you really need that gym membership? Or…would that gym membership help keep you more accountable? It is only through these nagging day-to-day hiccups that we become aware of how much more smoothly our machines could function, and how an intentional purification of the dusty bits serves our happiness in the long run.

Libra Rising, 5H: Those creative yearnings can feel stifled during this time. Projects, pieces, recipes, prose you wish to unveil to the world meet resistance, in the form of an inattentive mind, or an unconfident one. Mercury RX here can be about turning within and having a chat with your inner child, and reconnecting with those thoughts and feelings that make you feel young.  In any creative endeavor, becoming intentional about your intended message, the piece of your soul that will involve itself in that message, makes this period fertile for more authentic works. You bring more of yourself out when you allow Mercury to0 discover more of what is being kept within.

Scorpio Rising, 4H: Roommate agreements gone awry, disagreements with your family, stale décor, a confusing line of legalese in your lease or mortgage contracts that stifle the enjoyment of your nest, the leaky faucet. Your living arrangements, your family structures, the foundations that support you require some actual mental fortitude now. Mercury RX here, while literally manifesting within the universe of the above-mentioned issues, can be an invitation to sort out and sort through the ways your house isn’t actually a home. At the bottom of your chart, Mercury RX sees you going deep within, perhaps uncovering gnarlier familial issues, the roots you thought were there to stabilize you but that actually suffocate you. Becoming quiet to discover the disquiet. In this closer felt chaos, you can clean house, and emerge with a more supportive base.

Sagittarius Rising, 3H: Miscommunications in the house of communication, perception, and habitual thought. This is where Mercury RX can appear to wreak the most apparent havoc, but also where its lessons of pause provide some sublime neuroplasticity. This energy comes in to silence words that don’t need to be said, thoughts that are stale, learning that needs to be reengaged, lies that masquerade as truth. Maybe even a voracious energy to say what needs to be said. Going within here helps us to silence the chatter from the daily players in our lives, and selectively choose with whom to share ideas, when, and why. Movements in your habitat of choice, in your vessel of choice, may feel encumbered, broken, but invite you to savor the scenic routes, to find progress in what is slow, and reinvent new ways of movement that will open the highways of your life.

Capricorn Rising, 2H: Hiccups in your pocketbook, expenses that come out of nowhere, a need to withdraw more than more than normal. Spending on things not in your best interest, or garden-variety review of things that do or do not bring value. An invitation to become more financially literate, and to move currency in ways that intentionally support your well-being. Using momentary lags in funds to become clearer about their use and worth. Mercury RX here can also have you retooling your apparent worth, your confidence, by introducing you to situations that mirror your lack of self-sufficiency.

Aquarius Rising, 1H: Mishaps that serve to undermine how you communicate your identity. Saying things that make you come across poorly, or that don’t mesh with your authentic self. Having other’s thoughts and perceptions of you be wildly incorrect or misleading. Standing by a controversial idea/belief. Mercury RX for you is about pausing to ask yourself: which ideas about myself are worth the conviction, are worth communicating, and how can I steady myself against naysayers? What opinions do I carry of myself or of my path that I can let go versus hold onto?

Pisces Rising, 12H: Quiet your mind, grasshopper. All the answers are within you. Mercury retrograde is digging deeper into this unconscious sector of your chart, perhaps dredging up private drama, psychic issues and entanglements, but also what is called that small, still voice underneath it all. It feels frustrating that, at this time, the world has no answers to give you. And that the part of yourself that does have the answers is obscured. Be intentional about sitting in literal silence, not judging what comes up, in using metaphysical tools like singing bowls, tarot, meditation, whatever… to find a voice until yours returns. Sometimes, Mercury retrograde here can also grant you the fortitude to carve out necessary isolation for a creative or research project, or otherwise make it easier to turn down the volume of life for a moment.

The Astrology of a Doomed Event: NASA's Challenger Disaster

Taking a break from public figures and focusing instead on the natal chart of an event. It's also a subtle shout out for electional Astrology, or the intentional planning of an event under the most favorable cosmic sky you can find, within limit. (Please note: I don't think Challenger could have been saved by favorable Astrology. If you know anything about the lead up to the disaster, it was human error after human error, miscommunications abound, etc.)

The fascinating thing about this event is that NASA launches are kept record of in a rigorous way, meaning that the chart of the Challenger disaster is derived from official record. So, we can look upon the chart with a tremendous amount of credibility. There is also an official record of the "birth time" of the Challenger vessel, so we can compare the natal chart of the ship to the chart of the event. Here are some tidbits of note.

First, the natal chart of the Challenger (whole signs):

• Leo ASC with the Sun in Aries in the 9th house. If you watch the new Netflix documentary on the subject, there was a lot of fanfare around this Challenger ship, its enhanced capacity to do more and carry more into space. But, Challenger came with a lot of firsts: the first woman, the first African-American, the first Asian-American, and the first ordinary citizen were part of its crew. This is the pioneering nature of Aries placed in the high-minded 9th house. The ship and its crew, its mission, attracted a lot of buzz worthy of the Leo rising. Let's not forget that fire and combustion is what literally lifts ships out through the atmosphere and into space. The inception of Challenger came, too, with an Aries stellium: Sun, Mars and Mercury. The arrogance of NASA got it in trouble. (Natal chart of NASA, 1958, has Sun in Leo. Arrogance and pride.)

• Aquarius on the DC also fits this inclusive nature, with the relationship house of the ship in a sign known for its tolerance and inclusion. "Space for Everyone". Aquarius as fixed air ruling atmosphere and what is beyond, and the doing of things to benefit all of humanity.

• That Mars in Aries? At the critical 29th degree at Challenger's inception. That is a degree of crisis, of fate, with a combustible and accident prone planet, in an explosive fire sign. It also opposes the planet of crises, Pluto in Libra conjunct the IC, approaching its own critical degree at 28. Mars opposite Pluto says a hell of a lot about the inherent volatility of the endeavor. Saturn is RX at 2 degrees in Scorpio, applying in a strong conjunction to Pluto and opposition to Mars. Here, all three malefics are in contentious aspect, saying more about the hotness, the rashness, the explosiveness all inherent in the endeavor as well. Mars opposing Saturn is the tug of war between speed and stopping, hot and cold, things that butt heads. From a purely technical standpoint, the battle between hot and cold is what caused the explosion, the O-rings on the ship unable to handle the cold of the morning of launch (Aquarius season, Saturn-ruled, cold had the final say) allowing pressurized gas (heat) to threaten external engines. It's fitting for the name of the ship itself, Challenger, a cosmic coincidence that details the essence of the chart. The launch schedule was called "unrealistically optimistic" owing, perhaps, to the eagerness of Mars ignoring the cautions of Saturn.

• Retrograde Jupiter conj. Uranus in Sag in the 5th also says something about the enthusiasm behind the project, but the propensity to overextend, over-exaggerate, and generally have a hard time settling on what is practical. So much Sagittarian joy derived out of breaching new space horizons also led to Challenger's fate.

• That Pluto in Libra right on the IC also describes the nature of the conflict leading up to the event: group-think, miscommunication, and the treatment of whistle blowers. The devastating energy of Pluto in the diplomatic "go along to get along" sign of Libra, in essence, sealed the disaster as fate. There was also a reticense to communicate some fatal technical flaws about the launch to superios, capturing the energy of Mercury opposite Pluto, and the role of power structures in effective communication.

• The MC of the Challenger chart is Taurus with Venus there. But it is unaspected. Not only does this add some chaos to her ruling of the Libra IC, it also says there is something around the outburst of or deadening of emotion and collaboration surrounding the fate of the Challenger.

• Last, I want to mention Mercury, as the clear presentation and understanding of information between NASA management and engineering was called misleading and unclear. In the natal chart of the ship, Mercury is trine Neptune in Sagittarius, also RX. While clearly providing expansive vision and hope, excitement, it didn't do much to tailor to the details and slower, mundane, and procedural aspects of the highly technical event.

Now, the chart of the Challenger launch/disaster (whole signs):

• The Leo ASC of the natal Challenger moves to the IC, 4th house. This damning, because it represents the ending or suppression of what was once bright and full of promise. The 4th house was traditionally known as the house of death and its a more solemn and silent place. The Leo ASC finding a resting place. 4th house is midnight Sun, where it cannot be seen.

• The Aries stellium of natal Challnger, the fanfare and excitement, moved to the 12th on the date of the launch. Hope lost.

• Taurus ASC conj. NN: In and of itself, the NN on the ascendant of a pivotal event is favorable. It points towards the expression of the event being visible or emphasized. But this ASC and NN is directly opposite Pluto, now in Scorpio in the 7th. So the visibility of the event is threatened by the destruction of Pluto. And we can see how it played out: with the explosion of the ship being consumed by many people on live television. NN, or Rahu in Vedic Astrology, is a ravenous and malefic influence. The simplicity of Taurus, "this will be fine, we've planned" met the complexity of Scorpio, and best laid plans were threatened and destroyed.

• Sun conj. Venus conj. Mercury high in the 10th house in Aquarius. This is symbolic of the literal launching of these diverse astronauts into space, the highest point of the chart. They were loved, admired and damn smart/impressive. But all three of these Aquarius placement are squared by Pluto in the 7th in Scorpio. I googled "Sun square Pluto" once before, and I remember the phrase "Blow Up and Breakdown" coming up. Here, it is literal, but also complicates the legacy of the event. It is interesting to note that after the explosion, NASA was reliably unreliable and opaque with what went wrong, a Scorpionic 7th house subterfuge.

• Both Venus and Mercury were combust, or burned up by the rays of the Sun, weakening in power.

• Ruler of Aquarius launch in the 8th. Saturn was in the WH 8th house in Sagittarius. This speaks volumes. For one, Saturn struggles in Sagittarius, the expansive nature of the sign antithetical to Saturn's more practical and plodding nature. This alone is some astrological poetry about the poor planing of the event, and the downsides to exuberance and excitement, of rushing. But in the 8th, Saturn qualifies death, and in Sagittarius co-present Uranus--a sudden fiery explosion. Mercury was now square Pluto, an evolution in its previous opposition above, sealing the deal on disastrous communication.

• Moon in Virgo in the 5th. I never said, but the natal Moon of the Challenger was in Cap in the 6th house, but squared by the Sun in Aries. We can say that the soul and heart of the event, the need to plan, calculate, and work hard, was there but ultimately squelched out by the abundance of fanfare from Aries/Leo and specifically the Aries Sun. During the launch of any event, having the Moon in a mutable sign isn't great. The moving parts of the event become of issue, and here, the Moon rules the IC (resting place) in Cancer, and squares both Uranus and Saturn in the 8th house. The Moon describes the fate of the event.

• Jupiter in Aquarius in the 10th, square Mars and ruler of 11th. The challenge from Mars strong in its own sign of Scorpio ultimately brought down the unwise actions of Jupiter. While Jupiter supplied hope and promise, we can see that it also provided some unchecked courageousness and pioneering. This is immoderate action, rash action, wheeling and dealing, and wishing versus planning. Jupiter square Mars can also represent the explosion itself, the combustion of heat and gas. Jupiter is ruler of the 8th. But Jupiter also ruler of the Pisces 11th brings in the heavy media element before, during, and after the crash. 17 percent of Americans witnessed the crash, and 85% of Americans heard of the crash within an hour, unprecedented for a NASA event.

Thanks for reading if you did.

FKA Twigs, Shia LaBeouf and the Astrology of Difficult Relationships

I want to start by saying a few things:

1. trigger warning (this was hard for even me to write because--relatable and because--appalling)

2. these placements and aspects DO NOT MAKE YOU AN ABUSIVE PERSON

3. these placements and aspects DO NOT MAKE YOUR FRIEND/PARTNER AN ABUSIVE PERSON

4. what makes an abusive person? a person who makes choices that are abusive--to themselves and others. astrology cannot save that, and cannot predetermine it. there are a multitude of ways planets manifest in a person, and the way it does is largely based on the person's free will.

5. # PROTECTBLACKWOMEN

6. if anything in this piece reads like a defense or justification of his behavior -- IT. IS. NOT. My aim is objective analysis.

7. LeBeouf's (LB) birth time is rated AA.

8. Twigs' birth time is unknown, and a noon chart is used.

Let's dive in:

On December 11, 2020, Twigs filed a civil lawsuit against LB in Los Angeles Superior Court for "relentless" abusiveness in their relationship. In the complaint (read at your own risk), Twigs' lawyer recounts numerous incidents of abuse and harm at the hands of LB, including but not limited to: intentional infection of an STD, being choked, slammed, headbutt (sometimes in public and drunkenly), being blackmailed, being slowly isolated from friends and family, being forced to sleep naked, being deprived of sleep, being forced to kiss LB a certain amount of times during the day, being witness to LB getting into character by shooting stray dogs in Los Angeles and keeping a loaded firearm by their bed, and being gaslit into distrusting her management team. Twigs' former personal assistant also worked in cahoots with LB regarding the blackmail, despite knowing about the abuse. Twigs' house maid witnessed Twigs being locked in a room and yelled at for hours after trying to leave the relationship. LB also drove drunk with Twigs in the passenger seat and threatened to crash the car unless she professed her undying love.

A moment to take all that in....

Of course it didn't start that way. Friends and collaborators of Twigs noted that LB made grand romantic overtures in the beginning, in an attempt to win her trust. It worked. And after wrapping on the film Honey Boy, where the two met, they began a relationship. In retrospect, Twigs' lawyer said it was predatory grooming.

FWIW LB admitted to abusing people in general but said the specific claims in the lawsuit were incorrect. He also centered his apology/PR response on himself. We'll see why later.

Now that you have the sordid context, let's look at LB's chart first, and then their synastry together. For the purposes of this analysis, a noon chart makes Twigs a Taurus Rising (we'll see why that could make sense later).

LB has a tight T-square involving his Sun in Gemini and Uranus in Sagittarius in an exact opposition, with the both of them squaring his Jupiter in Pisces. LB is an Aquarius Rising, placing these planets in his 5th, 11th, and 2nd houses, respectively. For starters, we have a Sun in the 5th house, an identity that is steeped in creative expression. That much is true, he is an actor. But the 5th house is also a place of pleasures--it is where we shop, and gamble, and drink, and have casual sex. LB was called out in the complaint and by fellow singer Sia for being a consummate adulterer, seeming to have ties to many women at once. LB is also a self-admitted alcoholic, a black-out-drunk type of drinker. He has been arrested previously for lewd behavior and public drunkenness.

His pleasure-seeking Sun is in square to Jupiter in Pisces. Jupiter by itself is an exacerbating force, it is the principle of expansion, and when not reigned in, introduces us to complete indulgence, delusions of grandeur. In Pisces, Jupiter is strong. And unchecked, this particular placement has in it the potential for true proselytizing. And not only in a religious context, but just the propensity to believe so highly in one's convictions and one's ways of seeing life that all else blurs and the mission becomes to convert or convince. In this case, to gaslight. The square is an aspect of tension, so Jupiter square Sun creates issues with being able to healthfully incorporate Jupiter into the ego. What we get is poor social moors, grandiosity, hubris, a feeling of being larger than life, untouchable. The test of character here is humility and moderation which is difficult. As a result, we get excessive behavior, and a kind of pathological confidence. Despite an Aquarius Rising answering to Saturn, Jupiter is LB's strongest planet and final dispositor. (His Saturn is in Jupiter's sign of Sagittarius--testing the limits).

And it is a cliche for a reason, because in some ways it rings true: Pisces being the drunk, the artist, the escapist. This is a sign with so much capacity to disappear into states of unreality, positively and negatively. Jupiter in Pisces dousing that potential with fuel and working in challenge with a 5th house Sun is very much a decent into alcoholism for some.

His Sun is opposite Uranus, creating live wire of a person. There is a need for personal freedom, to define ones life on their own terms. Poorly realized, this aspect can create a rebellious and reactionary person, one whose personality is fickle, changeable. Erratic. Playing out on his 5th house opposing the 11th, LB clearly used this energy in his career. Twigs' lawyer stated that the reason LB's abuse has gone unchecked for so long is that it was fused into his public persona of the eccentric artist.

And then we get to the Jupiter square Uranus piece of the t-square. Both planets represent movement and expansion in their own ways. With Jupiter is it more obvious. But with Uranus, there is a need to push the envelope, to do something new, to lean into a future of unknowns and freedom. So both of these planets meeting up in a square for LB is quite an explosive signature of excitement, enthusiasm and energy. The excitement, via a hard square, seems to manifest for LB as danger, destruction, and other dogmatic, rigid, violent behaviors.

To add, this is a mutable t-square. So the sheer changeability of Uranus opposing the Sun is exacerbated by the mutability of Sag and Gemini.

That t-square on its own explains a huge chunk of LB's behavior. But LB also has Moon in Leo square Pluto in Scorpio. An energy of compulsion, control, and violence related to self-gratifying needs (Leo). Remember those kiss counts from above? How Twigs needed to say she loved him or he'd essentially be okay with killing her? There was also mention of her not being allowed to look at other men, even a waiter.

It suggests that in close relationships, where the Moon shows up more readily, LB also brings Pluto into it. This square is textbook for intense and volatile emotions erupting in interpersonal affairs. LB pushed that manifestation towards a darker, violent place. He has stated he as been diagnosed with PTSD.

Lastly, LB has a RX but exalted Mars in Capricorn in the 12th opposing Venus in Cancer in the 6th. My personal opinion is that in the chart of a person who already has destructive tendencies, throwing Venus in there qualifies that some of that destruction will be towards women and in relationships. Violence against women. A RX Mars in the 12th presents as a hidden or subverted and distorted relationship to anger. It is a blind spot. It erupts and we don't know why. In a night chart, Mars is less destructive for LB, and is helped by being in Capricorn. It is perhaps why his rage seems to always be in check, or hidden, or controlled, or tucked behind the scenes. Twigs has her Capricorn Sun in his 12th, lighting up all that nastiness for the world to see (fuck yes, Twigs, fuck yes).

And with Venus in the 6th, meeting and falling in love with people in work environments (a film set) makes sense. He also met and subsequently terrorized Sia via a work engagement. It also tracks for romantic overtures--Venus in Cancer in the 6th is an everyday type of love--showing up, giving flowers, making breakfast. Making your love seen and known. And, sorry Cancers, but there is also some latent smothering involved. Plus LB's Leo Moon would tend to be more theatrical in love (the two planets have a loose, out of sign conjunction).

Let's bring in Twigs. With a Taurus Rising, she'd have Pluto in her 7th house of relationships, professional, platonic, and romantic. These natives bump up against powerful, consequential, enigmatic and influential people in their relationships--for better or worse. There is a strong draw, at times, to be coupled. LB showing up as a Plutonian presence for Twigs can be explained by this Taurus Rising, as can her shitty personal assistant who stole from her, and manipulated her behind the scenes. But, also, she is an artist, a singer, a dancer. The Taurus artistic work using the physical body tracks. But I'm not here to convince you of a Taurus rising, it's one variable element. Moving on...

Twigs' Capricorn Sun is closely conjunct LB's Mars, a source of some serious agitation in relationships, and this is particular one, violence, control, and demands. It adds to the draw for someone to have their Mars on your Sun. They find you attractive as a person, not limited to physical attraction, but who you are as a person. That's the Sun, your self-image. And Mars being on the proverbial chase after it*.* This fits predatory grooming--using Venus in service of Mars' ulterior motives in the 12th.

What's more, LB's Saturn in Sagittarius is also exactly conjunct Twigs' Mars in Sagittarius. Here we now have two synastry configurations of a powerful and domineering person. A person, LB, who limits /controls Twigs' expression of her Sun limits her movement with her Mars. She was utterly trapped, isolated. Twigs had the means, and towards the end, the resolve to leave LB, but over and over again it proved "difficult and dangerous". Such is the entrapment of malefics.

LB's Uranus in Sagittarius is conjunct Twigs' Moon in Sagittarius. On the one hand, this is a signature of excitement in the relationship. ooo, shiny! And I'm sure in the beginning the chemistry was...there. But I've already demonstrated LB's poor use of his Uranus, so this conjunction screams destruction. Twigs became a shadow of herself, to hear her tell it, she was traumatized. His Uranus working on her Moon is destabilizing, it feels dangerous, it feels like eggshells.

"He brought me so low, below myself, that the idea of leaving him and having to work myself back up just seemed impossible."

It aches to read.

LB's Saturn is square Twigs' Venus in Pisces. Brief pause here to mention the Venus in Pisces potential to enter relationships that enact a savior-victim narrative is high. This is a compassionate and exalted Venus, and standing in juxtaposition to LB's exalted Mars, I get a sense that Twigs' loving nature, and the Venus in Pisces loving nature in general, is steeped in compassion and care. Before suing him, Twigs asked LB to enter therapy, to get his alcoholism together, to even donate to domestic violence causes as a gesture of good faith. Twigs even initiated couples counseling, in hopes of saving relationships. I mean, this is a selfless crusade of trying to steer someone into healing, and help others in the process while you are hurting and being abused. Pisces.

The Saturn square to this sensitive Venus illustrates more of the same, a dampening and restrictive effect on her loving nature. "Love served cold," as someone once said. And because Saturn is the ruler of LB's Aquarius ascendant, this restrictiveness is part of his affect and orientation towards life, and it seeps out in everything. In this case study, Twigs' Venus in Pisces would be the ruler of her Taurus ascendant, drawing out the stark polarity of these two individuals. One who wants to control and be respected. Another who wants to love and be in harmony. In the complaint, it is mentioned that LB would criticize, and make fun of Twigs' artistic tastes, drawing out a simple disagreement into an hours-long fight that prevented her from sleeping. And this small piece of information is illustrative of the Saturn ability to nitpick, criticize, and belittle the tastes and values of Venus via square. Irreconcilable differences.

I don't personally work with Chiron much, but as a purported "wounded healer", it comes into play here. Twigs' Chiron is conjunct LB's Sun in Gemini, a symbolic theme of learning painful lessons through a person who embodies a primal wound. In essence, the Chiron in Gemini wound is about communication and intelligence.

“I just thought to myself, no one is ever going to believe me,” she said in an interview. “I’m unconventional. And I’m a person of color who is a female.”

A fear of speaking up is certainly indicated, especially in opposition to Sagittarius, a sign more to do with belief and conviction. Natally, Twigs has Pluto in square to her Mercury, which indicates, at times, a fear of speaking up against figures of authority and power. She expressed, also, a fear of saying anything that would damage his career, emblematic of Chiron conjunct the light of someone's Sun, their image.

As a proposed Taurus Rising, Twigs would have Capricorn as her 9th house, which is where we find lawsuits, the court system, and lawyers. At the time of filing, Saturn and Jupiter were in a separating conjunction to her Sun and MC. A narrative of doing a difficult thing (Saturn) in order to be set free, to move more into healing and self-development (Jupiter). Even without knowledge of the house, Saturn and Jupiter traveling over her Capricorn Sun says a lot about the duress of the moment of filing, and speaks volumes about the restrictiveness of the relationship (which was in 2019) on her identity overall.

LB's 9th house is Libra, ruled by the Venus in the 6th and he is being sued by a former lover and co-worker in an art-related industry. More damning is that the current SN in Sagittarius is working its way through LB's 11th house, where his midheaven and Saturn are. I believe the airing of this dirty laundry (which is such a polite way to encapsulate it), will significantly impact his public image and reputation. I don't feel much uproar is really being made in the media, but the 11th house of networks and peers in related professions may speak to the film industry and the players therein reexamining their relationship to LB versus a fully-fledged public scandal the reaches the corners of the world. The draining nature of the SN may see him retreating from public life for good, or being ostracized by industry friends. Which is deserved. When it reaches the degree of his natal Saturn, a planet whose archetypes seemed to have been ignored so far in his life (within relationships and habits), a karmic undoing may pop off.

Interestingly, the NN was conjunct (and is) his Sun at the time of filing. Not to mix the pot too much, but in Vedic astrology, the NN or Rahu (the dragon's head) is a disembodied vortex of unchecked ambition and desire. Its considered a malefic energy. But even in western, evolutionary terms, the NN traveling along the Sun promises spotlight. And because his Sun is configured quite poorly in his chart, much of that spotlight may be on bad behaviors.

I know this is long but I want to make one last point. The Great Conjunction of Saturn and Pluto will be in LB's 1st house of self concept, identity and will oppose his natal Leo Moon. This an opposition, first, of issues with women (will more women come out and file charges?), but is also a significant energy of isolation, difficulty and challenge. The end result being that the Saturn incubator produces more thoughtful, mature, and wise emotional nature. I also see it as the reaper of karma for bad and manipulative behavior.

The Great Conjunction will not conjunct his ascendant angle for a while, but the formidable force of this conjunction will likely see to it that an overhaul of identity is underway. A cosmic reality check that began in LB's 12th house of Capricorn. Transit Mars will conjunct his NN in Aries soon, and I'll go with Astromatrix in saying it'll be something "fiery and fated"

Without Twigs' birth time it is hard to say where blessings may be in her future, but she is in a new relationship, and has done a brave and heroic thing. Transits to her natal Jupiter and from Jupiter will hopefully surround this woman in good spirits.

The Houses as Famous Films

I was thinking about how Harry Potter/Hogwarts is the perfect encapsulation of 9th house themes: magic, the hero's journey, traveling far from home, learning new things and getting that coveted acceptance letter, adventures, etc. Then I started to think if there were other films that could come to represent the significations of the other houses and why.

This is just a fun exercise to start thinking more about the houses, so feel free to comment your own below, to disagree, agree, or just ponder the resonance.

Here's what I came up with and why:

First House: It feels lazy to start out on this note, but, literally any biographical or autobiographical film. When the life, personality, identity and purpose of a person is front and center, it's a first house "me"--oriented film. Any film with a protagonist, really, has to be a first house film because we are the leads of our own stories. For the purposes of this post, a film like The Perks of Being a Wallflower about the formative years that shape identity, or even Identity Thief, a comedy about literal identity theft, are what came to mind.

Second House: Confessions of a Shopaholic. Well, this is easy. The main character has a shopping problem, and the entire movie is about how she mismanages her money, and places disproportional importance on material things. Of course, this lands her in debt, there a foibles around her misplacing and selling expensive goods, bartering, and otherwise is a cute and campy film about how one uses their belongings. I also thought of Hustlers--a group of women out to get rich and subvert the status quo against the backdrop of The Great Recession (2nd house - 8th house polarity).

Third House: Neighbors. For this house, it would have been easy to find a film about writing or a vlogger or siblings. But if there is any house a raunchy family comedy belongs to it's the third. In this film, a fraternity moves next door to a normal suburban family with a new infant daughter. Hijinks ensue. The people who live next-door to us is a third house signification, as is trickery, and petty sibling-like rivalries (frat brother, sorority sister)

Fourth House: Home Alone. This film, from what I remember, is literally about the home, defending it from invaders. The home itself is a character in the film. But it also touches on themes of family, how we fit in in it, how we dislike or learn to appreciate it. The alone in Home Alone is also a nod to the privacy of the 4th house--our inner-most psychology, our private life, who we are when no one is looking.

Fifth House: Leaving Las Vegas. This is more a cautionary 5th house theme. A man who goes to Vegas to drink himself to death, and meeting up with a woman who enables it, while he enables her and her own vices. Vegas kind of symbolically represents, to me, the exacerbation of human pleasures: where people go famously to shop, eat , drink, gamble, have fun. I also thought of The Hangover. (LLV also reminded me of the self-sabotage of the 12th, but via doing 5th house things).

Sixth House: 9 to 5. The title of the move itself is a 6th house theme--boring day to day work, clocking in and clocking out. Though the film has feminist themes that are far broader than the 6th, the impetus for the characters' disillusion and plot to kill their boss comes from office life--having a slave-driving and misogynistic boss and feeling unfulfilled. I also thought of Office Space and The Devil Wears Prada, where the work environment played heavily in the plot.

Seventh House: Like the first house, a seventh house film feels ubiquitous and hard to pin. Relationships to other people is the underpinning, for example, of every romantic comedy. For this house I searched for films told through second person narrative with an omnipresent narrator, and landed upon the film Life Itself, where we get to know the characters not through their own words, but through the words and perspective of an onlooker. This is a seventh house theme, where our lives can be distilled through the perspective of another, or an objective counter-person. The film itself (pun intended) is about the intricate web of coincidental relationships formed to other people over generations as a result of a tragic accident.

Eight House: Now You See Me. Illusions, magic tricks, and diversions are an 8th house theme to me because it replies upon keeping people in the dark, unable to know how or why things happen. There can be a line drawn from this to the occult, which is a famous 8th house theme. In this film, magicians use their savvy and mystique to redirect money--out of the bank accounts of corrupt rich people, and into the hands of people in their audience. (Also: The Prestige).

Ninth House: Harry Potter, as explained above.

Tenth House: The Founder. Any movie about building a massive empire carries with it the aspirational themes of the 10th house. Of course there are smaller ways we accomplish 10th house things, but they aren't movie material! This movie is about how Ray Kroc built up what we know now as the omnipresent McDonald's chain because of his franchising idea and emphasis on efficiency. He moved from struggling salesman to billionaire.

Eleventh House: The Social Network. This one is fairly obvious! It is about the creation of Facebook, and touches upon the inception of a company that connects people worldwide. Ok, Camille, this is lazy--I hear you thinking it. Milk, the story of openly gay politician Harvey Milk who was a springboard for gay rights and helped San Francisco turn into the LGBTQ+ mecca it became. Stories of social movements, politicians, campaigning, and human rights belong to the 11th house, or where we go to make changes in and simply participate as members of the human community, be it a city or the world at large.

Twelfth House: Inception. This movie famously blurred the lines between what is dream and what is reality, and explored the human subconscious and how it motivates decision making. It also had themes of extradition, or moving to a foreign land to avoid arrest, themes of loss and suicide, and visually portrayed how the human mind collects memories and trauma.

What do you think? Of course many of these films can fit elsewhere, as can other unmentioned films fit here as well.