How the Planets Show Up in Your Love Life

Venus is about to enter Libra and love is on my mind. I wanted to share how each planetary archetype can show up in your love life. Venus and the Moon are the primary focus when starting to delineate what a chart has to say about romantic relationships. And that is completely fair, as the Moon and Venus tend to show up quite loudly in interpersonal relationships. But each of the planets can play a key function in describing the quality of your relationships, how you show up in them, what you desire, etc. You have all of the planets in your chart, after all, and you are bringing ALL of who you are into a relationship too. This archetypal briefer is also good for getting a grapple on the sign these planets happen to be in for you. For example, do you have Venus in Gemini? Then the archetypes of Mercury can play a large role in your romantic relationships, as Mercury rules Gemini. Even more, we all have a 7th house in our charts, the house that describes one-on-one relationships. If you have Saturn in the 7th house, looking only to the placements of your Moon or Venus, which may not be in your 7th house, can keep from you crucial information about how Saturn shows up in love. Let’s get into each planet, the traditional 7 first, rounded out with our 3 modern planets.

Sun: The Sun describes how we can feel seen in relationships. The Sun in your love life may ask that your relationships allow independent growth, that your partner even encourage this growth. These relationships provide and require nourishment for both individuals to go off and be their most authentic selves. In relationship, the Sun plays a role in understanding the self through the other and incorporating all that you experience into the refinement of your character. The Sun wants you to find someone who spotlights your spark.

Moon: The Moon describes our inner most and sometimes subconscious needs for comfort and security. The Moon in your love life shows up as automatic impulses to protect and nourish the feeling body and foster emotional wellbeing. In relationship, the Moon seeks to get these foundational needs met through the other, and through the bond of the relationship itself. The Moon also describes the instinct we have about others, and the sometimes-magical leap of logic it takes it fall in love or get swept off your feet. The Moon wants you to find someone who sees the true you, and who nourishes it.

Mercury: Mercury describes our cerebral processing, our communication style, and how we mentally organize our way through life. Mercury in your love life can show communication style, the topics that matter to you, and the most basic perceptual way you see the world. In relationship, Mercury wants to plan, to bounce ideas off of people, to feel understood and uniquely intelligent, and to banter in ways that support conflict-resolution and connection. Mercury wants you to find someone who can meet your mind.

Venus: Venus describes what we find attractive, what we value, the style of relating we have, and the temperament behind your social self. Venus in your love life obviously shows you what you love, not only in another person, but what you love in a relationship, in courting, in flirting, etc. Venus also shows what you love in yourself, what needs to be valued and cherished by the other person. In relationship, Venus describes how we relate to others—if we need space, if we need gifts or if we need physical affection. Venus wants you to find someone who truly loves and values exactly what you bring to the table. 

Mars: Mars describes passion, how we actually put action behind what we value and desire, how we find it. Mars in your love life can show what activates you, what triggers a need to chase or be around a person. Maybe it is their mind, maybe it is how they interact with children, maybe it’s purely sexual. Mars galvanizes us into action. In relationship, it can show us why excitement waxes or wanes, what angers someone, our comfort-level with danger or spontaneity, and/or the physical component of attraction. Mars wants you to find someone who makes you feel alive.

Jupiter: Jupiter describes our high mind, faith systems and beliefs. It also shows us where we like to feel expanded, perhaps where we have a talent, or what we need in order to stoke joy and awe. In relationship, Jupiter wants to grow, to take up space, to share worldviews and culture. Jupiter as a planet associated with philosophy can also show us the worldviews we vibe with in another, and Jupiter as a planet of academia can show up as partners who share a similar educational background. Jupiter seeks wisdom through partnerships and requires a teachability in us. Jupiter wants you to find someone who you can learn from and with.

Saturn: Saturn describes our relationship to discipline, long-term planning, and the ability to withstand challenge and lack. In relationship, Saturn seeks reliability. Saturn is called relationship glue. It is a planet that enjoys firm foundations, of which no relationship worth its salt is ever without. Saturn is also the planet of boundaries and respect, of long-term viability, and monogamy. Saturn wants you to find someone who sticks with you through thick and thin, and respect your needs.

Uranus: Uranus describes excitability and fascination with the other. Uranus is akin to Cupid’s bow—out of nowhere, you have become lovestruck. Conversely, Uranus can also describe our desire for space, autonomy, and cooler more informal bonds. In relationship, Uranus requires a long leash, either in physical spaces, or in mental ones—Uranus loves a radical idea and the forward momentum of thought. Uranus wants you to find someone that lets you color outside the lines.

Neptune: Neptune describes our ideals, our imagination, and our personal fairytale and fantasy. If you relate, Neptune is the planet that dreams of marriage far before it’s ever a viable option. Neptune is a planet that dissolves, requiring a sense of merging and devotion in relationships, whether sexually, emotionally, or spiritually. Neptune heals and can look for healing in others which is sublime when it works out. Other times, Neptune enters in as a sense of distorted reality, or as the victim-savior complex. This is where those Saturn boundaries act as antidote. Neptune wants you to find someone who reminds you of the magic in the world.

Pluto: Pluto is a planet of control, transformative experiences, and crisis-induced regeneration. In relationship, Pluto is first and foremost looking for intensity, the kind that penetrates the soul, the bone marrow. Pluto brings in a type of all-or-nothing attitude that can both acquaint the relationship to its own strength or destroy the relationship all-together. Pluto requires unapologetic honesty and tends to draw out the ugly parts of the individuals in the relationship. Those focused and willing to transform these ugly bits together are rewarded with life-changing intimacy. Pluto wants you to find someone who will hold your hand to hell and back.

The Fall of Chrissy Teigen

If you've been keeping up with celebrity news, you may know that Chrissy Teigen is in hot water for a past of cyber bullying. To date, Courtney Stodden, model, and Michael Costello, fashion designer, have come forward with visual proof of Chrissy’s mean girl past. In both cases, Chrissy urged that her targets ought to kill themselves. That's pretty harsh. As an astrologer, I'm always interested in the inner workings of planetary energies that underpin this kind of acute news. While some don't agree with looking at celebrity charts, I find that it is tremendously helpful in learning planetary archetypes, timing techniques, and the general effect that planetary movements can have on us mere mortals. So, in this take, I investigate the natal chart of Chrissy Teigen, and pinpoint some of the planetary energies that could be at play for her now.

But first some housekeeping. Whenever you are looking into the chart of a politician, or a musician, or any other kind of public figure, you're going to want to make sure that their birth data is accurate. There are a lot of websites out there that purport to have the accurate natal charts of certain celebrities, but some of them are less reputable than others. I suggest using Astro.com. There you can find the rating of a chart. Chrissy’s chart is rated A, meaning there is a strong likelihood of accuracy. (The best rating is AA!).

The first thing in Chrissy Teigen’s chart that is of note is, of course, or Scorpio ascendant. People born with a Scorpio ascendant are in some way seen or known for their intensity. Where that intensity goes depends on a myriad of factors. But one way to start delineating the effect of Scorpio energy is to look to the placement of Mars, which rules the sign of Scorpio. Chrissy Teigen has her Mars in the sign of Libra in her 12th house. To me, this is a set-up of secrecy. For one, it explains why Chrissy was able to get away with this type of behavior without it reaching the public. The 12H tends to rule spaces that are private or unseen. Second, Mars is a malefic force. So it is not surprising that Chrissy’s own maleficence was something that was shielded from our eyes. And because it is in what is called aversion to (or, cannot “see”) the ascendant, sometimes the way this malefic energy comes out can be extremely disproportional. There is also something morbidly resonant about urging someone to kill themselves, when you have the ruler of your ascendant, or your embodiment, in the 12H of self-undoing—especially when that ruler is Mars—a planet that enjoys violence, a planet that severs and harms. Mars in Chrissy’s chart is also sextile Uranus, revving up the excitement and speed with which Chrissy made her own cancellation grave—off the cuff remarks and inappropriate sarcasm. Uranus also adds a certain quirk and irreverence to Chrissy’s demeanor, which certainly inflames the desire to say or do things to get a rise out of others.

Chrissy is 35, meaning she is in a 12H year (everyone at 35 is!), kicking up all those Mars-related issues.

“As you know, a bunch of my old awful (awful, awful) tweets resurfaced. I’m truly ashamed of them. As I look at them and understand the hurt they caused, I have to stop and wonder: How could I have done that?”

That is a potent question to ask. When the ruler of your ascendant is in the 12H, having a sense of whiplash or delayed realization about the ways your actions have affected others is certainly par for the course. Mars is essentially, for Chrissy, operating in a blind spot.

Why now? Transit Mars in Leo is in her 10H, the most visible part of the sky. Her martial mean girl behavior and other cringe celebrity-obsessed behavior is being publicized. Mars is also squaring her natal Pluto, so let’s go there next.

Chrissy Teigen has Pluto in Scorpio in her 1H. One of the ways that Pluto in the 1H can manifest is someone desperate to be seen as important or consequential. This is a placement that comes with a lot of power, but the way one wields that power or approaches that power or homes that power, is completely individual. In the case of Michael Costello, Chrissy essentially delighted in being able to blacklist him within the industry. That means that she was able to pull some levers in the background using her influence to derail this person’s career. And that is all Pluto. In her chart Pluto is conjunct her south node, meaning that she is coming into this lifetime with some unresolved Pluto issues. In my practice of astrology, I assume planets conjunct the south node showed up maladaptively in prior lifetimes. That Christy appears to be working through this, realizing her mistakes, and apologizing, is certainly reminiscent of the growth one makes from their south node to their north node. But it is clear that she wielded that Plutonian power in less than desirable ways in the past. I also want to mention that Mars is the ruler of her Aries 6H. And so, using her energy or her power against individuals in her same industry, or in her same work environments, is extremely appropriate here. The square transit Mars is making to this natal Pluto placement sets Chrissy up for a battle of wills—where on one hand she is trying to regain her public persona in the face of extreme backlash for that public persona.

“In reality, I was insecure, immature and in a world where I thought I needed to impress strangers to be accepted. If there was a pop culture pile-on, I took to Twitter to try to gain attention and show off what I at the time believed was a crude, clever, harmless quip. I thought it made me cool and relatable if I poked fun at celebrities.”

Let’s talk about those quips. Chrissy has a retrograde Mercury in Sagittarius—double homicide! Not only is Mercury in detriment in Sagittarius, it’s retrogradation makes things even more tricky. Mercury here is classic foot-in-mouth syndrome, where the expansiveness, boundarylessness, and affable nature of Jupiter (which rules Sagittarius), can certainly get you in trouble. Chrissy explains in the quote above and the larger apology, that she was essentially joking around. Even more, Mercury is the ruler of her Virgo midheaven. The midheaven (MC)         the highest point in one’s natal chart, usually conflated with the 10H. And while the thematic similarity is there, the MC can float between the 9H, 10H and 11H. Chrissy has her MC in the 11H. The 11H can capture communities at large that share like-minded goals or interests, and for a celebrity, this house represents other celebrities. The 11th also carries connotations of social media—where you can interface with a lot of people at once. Chrissy’s love for Twitter is indicated here, yet so is her ultimate downfall. Those Sagittarius Twitter fingers echoing across the 11H can be problematic—picking on peers, always trying to be seen as “edgy” or funny. You run the risk of being known for what you write (Virgo 11H), and without intention behind your words, Chrissy has become an example of our increasingly cringe public foibles—post something once, it stays on the Internet forever. Her Mercury has a loose opposition to and rules her Chiron in Gemini in the 8H—that she used words to mask a deep personal pain makes sense. Chiron in Gemini folks tend to have pain around communication, both as an internal complication and as an external coping mechanism. Word’s hurt—and Chrissy’s certainly did.

Chrissy’s sensitive Moon in Cancer forms a square by sign to her Mars in Libra. I have no doubt that girl is probably GOING THROUGH IT right now. The issue at play is that Mars in Libra and Moon in Cancer are working at cross-purposes. Cancer wants desperately to belong and is vulnerable to even the most transient emotions. But Mars in Libra is a cool, brute force of social savvy and intellect, desperate to assert in the 12H. The stabbing imagery and mentions of physical sensitivity to the pain one has caused that Chrissy mentions is Mars square Moon incarnate:

“Now, confronted with some of the things that I said, I cringe to my core. I’ll honestly get sharp, stabbing pains in my body, randomly remembering my asshole past, and I deserve it.”

The transiting NN is in Gemini, right on top of Chrissy’s primordial Chiron wound. The NN appears to be amplifying, or making ravenous, the legacy of Chrissy’s hot takes and the pain they have caused. The transiting SN is in Sagittarius conjunct her natal Sun and approaching her Mercury. This is a karmic sea change around the way Chrissy’s words and identity have been misappropriately used. The amplified Gemini energy also represents the medium through which Chrissy has reckoned with her past—sound bites, news articles, gossip rags, and blogging. (She published her self-written apology on the website Medium no less!). Transiting Saturn is also conjunct her natal Jupiter in Aquarius, severely restricting or even providing karmic receipts for Jupiter’s past behavior as ruler of her Mercury.

And lastly, Chrissy’s Moon has newly progressed into Scorpio, conjunct that natal Pluto and SN. This is uncomfortable and corresponds to a chapter of Chrissy’s life where she is dealing with the emotional wreckage (Moon conjunct Pluto) of all her exposed skeletons. Moon in Scorpio periods are great for deep soul-searching, but that searching is likely always prompted by confrontation or crisis.

Will she bounce back? Maybe. The ruler of Chrissy’s Sun and Mercury, Jupiter, has newly entered Pisces where it can say YES to things again. This can shield her a bit or insulate the impact on her finances and sponsorships as a result of this fallout (Chrissy’s Sun and Mercury are in her 2H of personal resources). But Jupiter is slowing and will retrograde back into Saturn-ruled Aquarius. She may fall back into a quieter version of herself for now, focused on home and family. When she turns 36 in November, she will enter a 1H year, a period of life that is more face-forward. It’ll activate all her 1H Scorpio placements, and indicate, as Scorpio always does, some profound transformations regarding her identity. Jupiter will be in Pisces again on December 29th, making 2022 a year where Chrissy is more visible. But until then, the vibe is damage control.

You Are Not Doomed: Reframing the 8th House and 12th House

Upon first learning Astrology years ago, somewhat casually, I noticed that much of the narrative around the 8th and 12th houses was negative—they were dark and scary houses, destinations one mostly wants to rush through or avoid altogether. But my life experiences never seemed to match the depths of despair that these houses purportedly drag you into (at least, not yet). Dear reader, I am not here to subvert the nasties hanging out in these houses. I am not here to convince you that the 8th house can be fun or that the 12th house is a walk in the proverbial park. The 8th forms a square to the fun-loving 5th, and the 12th doesn’t even see it (aversion). As a Capricorn 8th house stellium owner, and a Taurus 12th house Moon dweller, I owe it to you and to myself to be down to Earth or realistic around the energies of these houses. And realistic is a great word—big blogs, accounts and Astrology websites have an incentive to reach the most people possible, which, for something as personal and subjective as Astrology, can cast a wide net that one may find themselves tangled within. And that can be okay—Astrology is the art of archetypes aka symbolism and motifs that are inherently quite general. But when those generalities, like with the 8th and 12th houses, skew towards negativity, a condition that the human mind historically has a complicated relationship with, it can pollute what can actually be productive. Negativity bias is the theory that humans tend to react more strongly to and dwell on negative stimuli even when neutral or positive things are present in equal or greater amount. So, when the first 4 pages of a Google search result for “8th house Venus” or a Twitter thread about the doom of a 12th house Sun lean primarily negative, it can be hard to undo that association. It can be hard to be realistic about the 8th and 12th houses when much of the PR around them is histrionic, sometimes performatively so.

(For some context, check out my article on the differences between the 8th and 12th houses.)

Houses are simply areas of life. Astrology is sophisticated in design, with each of the 12 houses corresponding in totality with what one experiences on this ride called life—relationships, work, pleasure, family, etc. Through aspect, the houses can inform one another as well, i.e., the trine from the 2nd house to the 6th house can connote money made through a job. Like with any other house, the 8th and the 12th houses come in to inform important parts of the human experience. There simply is no richly lived life without entering the domains of the 8th and 12th houses. They offer necessary pauses on our journey, necessary valleys upon which peaks can stand high, necessary breaks where the light comes in, necessary reflection that guides us forward. The 8th and 12th houses are domains of human intimacy—whether with the self, another, a creation, an emotion, or the timeless and shapeless wisdom of life that I call the Universe. Intimacy here means closeness, a familiarity. And while intimacy can stoke visions of cozying up with a loved one by the fireplace, in reality, intimacy is merely our proximity to things. The 8th and 12th houses offer an intimacy that acquaints us with our faults, our longings, our complexities. To be intimate with anyone, including ourselves, there is a necessary walk through and acceptance of all our ugly and tortured bits. That’s why when, for example, you share with a friend that you feel inadequate at your job, and they pull you in for a hug, the catharsis and soul affirmation is exponentially bigger in that moment than it would have been if you kept your feelings to yourself. There is a tenderness and an openness in these 8th house or 12th house encounters. They poke at our soul and remind us that we are alive, delicate, and divine. And the ability to remain pliable in a world that seeks to harden you is the very essence of human resilience.

The maligning of the 8th and 12th houses, or really, the misunderstanding of them, represents a common human folly—that pleasure and joy and contentedness and visibility are superior to depression and complexity and loss and isolation. But we all know the pedestrian maxim by now: sad times make the good times more…good. The joy you find in the 5th house, or the wisdom you accrue in the 9th house would remain hollow if not for the soul that informs it.

It is easier to deal with these houses when there are temporary transits activating them. But what if you’re like me, or I assume, you, and you have a natal vortex of energy in the 8th house or the 12th house or both? Are you doomed to a life of deep soul-searching and profound but exhausting encounters? First, thanks to savvy timing techniques, your natal 8th house and 12th house planets are not active for a lifetime. Like all things in life, there is a waning, waxing and the purgatory of plateaus. Sometimes planets are just there operating in the background while some other active planetary event kicks off. That’s why being realistic is an asset here—life simply is not 100% tragedy 100% of the time forever and ever amen. And even amid a negative experience, a simple cup of tea or call to your mom can insert some levity, for example. Doom is simply not a nuanced take. Life is mostly gray areas. So, peeling back the negative narratives and examining your life from a sobered and practical stance lessens the sting of 8th and 12th house fortunes. I used to try and fit MY life into the narrow and harrowing write-ups for the 8th and 12th houses instead of contemplating how they fit me, how they wear on MY skin and experience. Second, no one’s 8th or 12th houses are identical in manifestation. Archetypes are helpful at getting us in the ballpark, but the way the game is played is purely individual. Give yourself space to see how 8th house and 12th house things land for you. Hot take but the things that pop off in the 8th or 12th house can be benign sometimes, believe it or not. A lot of my 12th house Moon experience is just tweaking how I get the proper amount of rest. And a lot of my 8th house experience is just learning how to share. It’s still work, but not as daunting!

And third, a more spiritual stance: accept and learn and lean into the natal 8th and 12th house energies you possess instead of leaning away from them or hoping for a better outcome. Actively participate in your 8th and 12th house, get messy, play around in there. Do not neglect, as what you resist persists. At the end of the day, the planets in your 8th and 12th houses are parts of YOU, not some stranger. And like a machine, when one bolt or fastener is left to rust, the entire mechanism is threatened. Your fully embodied life is jeopardized when you avoid or detest or bemoan your 8th and 12th house planets. I believe every chart has a divine curriculum chosen by your soul. Avoiding the lessons or messages of the natal 8th and 12th house planets you have is a sure-fire way to flunk out and forever repeat the same courses. Life is gracious in that it graduates and changes as we graduate and change. You can do it, you can get complex, you can get deep and vulnerable, you can cry out to the Universe and hear nothing but your own echo—and still rise. You have incarnated here to do 8th house and 12th house things—and what a waste it would be if you let a blog bully you into fearing your own purpose, for which you came fully equipped.

Your 8th house and 12th house planets make you sensitive, soulful, a vessel through which life in all its unanswered questions, hardships and intricacies can pass through, examined. And the ability to look at a thing, however grotesque and difficult, to rise to the occasion of challenge, to pull life close again and again despite how many times it has hurt you or confused you is not something to fear. It is the muscle from which magic and meaning is made.

I want to end with an ancient parable that can help you think more critically whenever something in Astrology is framed as either good or bad:

There once was a man who lived on a farm with his son and his horse.

One day, the barn door was left open and the horse ran away. When the nearby villagers heard about it, they ran to the farm to tell the farmer how sorry they felt for him.

“How will you work your farm without your horse?” they asked.

The farmer simply shrugged and said “good, bad, who’s to say?”

A few days later, the farmer’s horse  , and following it were two more horses. The villagers were so excited for the farmer’s luck, they ran to his farm and told him so.

The farmer simply shrugged and said “good, bad, who’s to say?”

The new horses were not broken in, so the farmer’s son worked hard to break them in so they could be used on the farm. While doing so, one of the new horses threw him off and his leg was broken.

The villagers again ran to the farm and expressed their deep sadness about the son’s broken leg. “Now your son can’t help you on the farm,” they said with their heads hung low.

The farmer simply shrugged and said “good, bad, who’s to say?”

As the son was healing from his broken leg, a war broke out in the countryside. All the young men were sent to fight. Many died or were seriously injured. However, since the farmer’s son had a broken leg, he was not able to go. The villagers again came to the farm, to say to the farmer how very lucky he was that his son didn’t have to go fight in the war.

Once again, the farmer shrugged his shoulders and stated, “good, bad, who’s to say?”

(This parable teaches us to simply be a witness to life’s events.  The idea being that peace is found by observing the events of life and removing all judgement; by sitting back and witnessing without trying to attach labels, and avoiding life’s dramas.)

Thanks for reading.

Jupiter's Role in Ellen DeGeneres' Life, Legacy and Assholery

In light of Ellen’s announcement that she will be ending her show, I am posting a 2020 write up I did of her chart within the context of the bullying and negativity reported to run rampant on her set.

I want to explore, astrologically, what in the hell has been imploding in Ellen's life to completely reverse this "be kind" public image and replace it with an image of a person who seems to be callous, treat people poorly, and stage traps/jokes/scares for her own shits and giggles.

To be clear, I don't think there is anything inherent about Ellen's placements that suggest an ironclad route down the mistreatment-of-others road. A potent mix of power and platform can really distort planetary energies, making them rear in gnarly ways.

Let's talk about the dark side of Jupiter energy. Ellen is a Pisces Ascendant. And it feels odd, right? The sensitive and compassionate fishy capable of wrongdoing? Its ruler, Jupiter (traditionally), can manifest in problematic ways--grandiosity, hubris, dogmatic thinking, etc.

Jupiter has the real potential to proselytize, to go overboard with belief, to crusade for conversion of thought or practice, to become a zealot, moved by the "idea" of something noble versus the actual practice of it. Jupiter is also the principle of teaching others. And placed in a position of power, teaching becomes preaching. Give Jupiter a massive audience and it can really get high on its own supply. Jupiter is the televangelist.

Yes--I know Ellen was not trying to convert in the traditional religious sense. BUT--she was rather committed to this "be kind" front, performing tolerance, giving away checks and prizes, and virtue signaling--while the actual human beings employed by her were suffering (allegedly). Jupiter and Pisces so moved by the idea of compassion and kindness, creating a platform and celebrity around it (1st house), yet failing to actually practice it intentionally. It reminds me of famous preachers who do questionable and selfish things with their millions, whilst preaching every Sunday about charity to others. Much is said of the Pisces escape into substance, romance and art--but Pisces can also escape into unreality. That is where the dissonance between what you "talk" and what you "walk" creeps in. Pisces can also tether itself to spiritual superiority, which is just a front for Jupiterian arrogance.

For what it is worth, Ellen's producers are shouldering a lot of the blame about the toxic work environment, saying that Ellen was removed from the day-to-day running of the show. And that's Jupiter too--holding up a front and neglecting details. She appeared to be surrounded by Yes-men, and that too is Jupiter--a king/queen on its throne assured that the kingdom is running well.

Ellen's Jupiter (and Neptune) also trines her Pisces ASC. That means Jupiter effortlessly steers her ship. The sneaky trine! You never notice it. Like an inborn trait, a second skeleton. While this obviously made her generous, successful, a benefactor to many, it also provided a seamless route for Jupiter and Neptune delusions to creep in. Acting without accountability. Poor humor disguised as gregariousness. Misplaced enthusiasm. Arrogance. A former employee was allegdely told never to look Ellen in the eye or to say hello first, "but don't worry, Ellen won't ever be saying hello to you." Yikes.

While her producers are taking some blame, many employees have already come forward to say that Ellen's pranks and jokes created a tremendous amount of stress. With her Jupiter in Scorpio, she can use her sense of humor to provoke people, to take it all the way to the edge of what is okay. She famously scares a lot of her celebrity guests, finding out their worst fear (i.e. spiders or clowns) and using that against them for a thrill. It pretty macabre. And while a lot of celebrities have come to her defense, the laymen behind the scenes were subject to Scorpio toxicity, an environment of racism, sexism and inappropriate harassment. While Ellen cannot be blamed for all of these occurrences, some perpetuated by producers and management, it says something about her Scorpio footing--there is a sense of drama, and crisis and complexity always prevailing. Even her coming out as gay and suffering the fallout from that back in the late 90s corroborates this Jupiter in Scorpio narrative of controversy, and transforming through it.

Jupiter also rules her Sagittarius MC, and without beating a dead centaur, this really just rounds out the strength of Jupiter in her chart, and how it is performed and perceived by the public. It has a high stake in her personality and career.

Oh wait, never mind. I have to talk about Jupiter again! It is the apex of a T-square she has. It is the outlet. Her Sun and Venus in Aquarius oppose Uranus in Leo, and both square Jupiter. First, we need to give Uranus its due shout out--having this planet in her 6th house of workplace environments says a lot about the chaos behind the scenes, it further supports her need for thrills and oddball humor and deadpan arrogance. Uranus in Leo is the rogue diva. The unsuspecting diva. It also represents how revolutionary and unconventional Ellen's show is in the culture--a gay woman with one of the longest running and successful talk shows of all time. Whodathunk? It also appears to corroborate why she was "hands off" in the running of the show, as Uranus doesn't do nuts and bolts planning or management. But it's opposition to her Sun invites in a tremendous amount of character, yes, and also irritability, being high strung, impatience, being demanding, an uncompromising attitude and ruthless adherence to one's idiosyncrasies and identity. (Aries Moon doesn't help). Put all this into the body of a celebrity with a huge platform, and we can understand why in March, a tweet calling her "one of the meanest people alive" vent viral, and attracted tales from people and former employees agreeing. It essentially snowballed into the controversy she is in now. The Sun square Jupiter person also has an unhealthy integration of Jupiter archetypes into their ego, creating "immoderate actions and attitudes, arrogance, and a lack of self-control." A wheeler and dealer.

"I made one of my employees cry like a baby on today's show. Honestly, it felt good." This is a tweet Ellen wrote in 2009 that has not aged well. While we do not know for sure whether it was a feel good cry moment or not, happy tears, it provides evidence of her Uranus and Jupiter need to stoke BIG reactions out of people--the immoderate behavior spoken about above. Even though some celebrities have come to her defense, a running list of cringe moments shows Ellen's need to put people on the spot, embarrass, shame, or otherwise invite a sense of chaotic tension under the guise of humor. Her Mars in Jupiter's Sagittarius can also do the most. Limits? I don't know her. In the 10th, this plays out for everyone to see.

FWIW, the Aquarius Sun is a people person, but not a person person. They can be very vocal about humane causes, and ideals that shape humanity for the better, yet lack an emotional involvement with the person right in front of them. So the dissonance between Ellen's humanitarian and philanthropic front and her alleged mean and distant behavior on set is further contextualized by her Sun placement in the 12th.

As far as transits, why is this happening now? Uranus in Taurus in her 3rd currently squaring her natal Uranus in Leo in the 6th. Sudden communications and changes in her work environment. People becoming vocal about mistreatment (6th house as the place of employees, slaves, open enemies), demanding a change in culture on the Ellen Show. Uranus transits are confronting, triggering, and alter your path going forward. If transit Uranus is involved in a square with her natal Uranus, that means it is affecting every planet in that T-square I mentioned. Also squaring her Sun, and loosely opposing that dang Jupiter. Ellen is being forced to consider how her actions and identity have shaped her world, and is being asked to create something new in place of it moving forward. The SN in Sagittarius is also acting as a vacuum, a drain, over her 10th house of reputation. The place she held in the world is really up for review, as tenets of her public image are being stripped away.

Can she recover? Probably. Her Jupiter signatures remain strong indications of comebacks, of future success. But she can no longer spend that Jupiter energy in callous and over the top ways. Her show is coming back to air in about a week, and she plans to address everything. So we will see..

Thanks as always for reading!