Gemini Sun, Scorpio Moon: Wrestles with Demons, the Witch’s Brew ("Nightmares are the best part of my day . . .")
People with their Suns (identity) in Gemini will often come to be identified with their capacity for communication. Symbolized as a pair of twins talking to each other, Gemini Suns almost always have at least two personalities within them. If their Moon (emotional needs) is in Scorpio — the sign of the Criminal Deviant and the Depth Psychologist, the Sorcerer and the Spell-Caster — then at least one of their personalities will be characterized by some serious extremes. Astrologer Raven Kaldera calls Gemini/Scorpio the Sun/Moon pairing of “The Cloaked One” who “understands brutality and horror . . . who must go down to the darkness and wrestle his demons to the ground”. (Source) To illustrate: professional wrestler James Brian Hellwig is a Gemini Sun, Scorpio Moon. (Chart) He’s best known for portraying “The Ultimate Warrior”, a popular if controversial 1980s wrestling persona cloaked by face paint and characterized by seemingly demonic extremes. In true Gemini/Scorpio fashion Hellwig’s alter ego once explained, “Nightmares are the best part of my day”. (Source)
Linda Goodman warns her readers that when Gemini and Scorpio pair up they will often form “pretzels of intrigue” that are equal parts Merlin the Magician and Houdini the Illusionist. Together these two signs can “mix up a White Witch’s brew of happiness . . . one that can detect illusion from reality or discover that the two are interchangeable”. (Source) The combination will also “long to solve the mysteries that lie out there among the stars and the comets” she tells us. In 1990 Hellwig appeared on the Arsenio Hall show as his alter ego the Ultimate Warrior. The appearance was (of course) staged but, as the deeply concerned look on Arsenio’s face at 2:35 of this video indicates, he’s more than a bit nervous as to whether Hellwig is entirely clear on where reality begins and illusion ends. At the time, wrestlers routinely appeared “in character” on Arsenio’s show but none of them took their performances to the intense extremes that Hellwig did. Arsenio is a comedian, a good one, so he played the situation for laughs but it’s clear he’s not sure how to handle the whirlwind of interchangeable intrigue and pharmacological witchcraft that’s made its way onto his show. Similar to most of his in-character promos, Warrior explained to Arsenio that he was guided by the mysteries of the stars, the comets, and other mysterious cosmological forces from above.
Of course the mystery and intrigue that surrounded the Ultimate Warrior character was also a large part of his appeal. By the 1980s everybody knew wrestling was a choreographed show but Hellwig’s alter-ego was so convincingly strange that it was impossible not to wonder what about the man was an illusion and what was a reality, what was witchcraft and what was writing, what was a character and what was a cloak. Many Gemini/Scorpios end up grappling with similarly themed paradoxes about who and what they actually are, although few will sport the hellaciously well teased hair that Hell-Wig did.
The only wrestler of the last 30 years to rival Hulk Hogan in terms of popularity, Hellwig and his alter-ego were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 4th of this year. Three days later he was found dead by way of a “catastrophic medial incident”, believed to be related to his heart.
Gemini/Scorpios often love to talk (Gemini) about death, darkness, and the occult (Scorpio). During his career Hellwig made graphic descriptions of death a consistent theme in his promos and participated in numerous story lines involving witchcraft, voodoo, darkness, and the occult. When he retired from wrestling there were constant rumors that he had died, so much so that when the WWE announced his actual death many people assumed it was yet another rumor. Strangely enough, he did seem to foreshadow his own death during a monologue he delivered on WWE television the night before his passing:
Every man’s heart one day beats its final beat, his lungs breathe their final breath and if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others and makes them believe deeper in something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit will be immortalised.
Astrologer Jefferson Andeson refers to the Gemini Sun, Scorpio Moon pairing as the “Storyteller” whose “forceful and magnetic personality . . . projects an explosive image. You know where you’re going, even if nobody else does”. (Source) In Hellwig’s case, a good deal of his alter ego’s popularity stemmed from projecting as so explosive, forceful, and magnetic that nobody knew what he was going to do or where he was going to go once he hit the ring. The result for fans was, as Linda Goodman describes the Gemini/Scorpio pairing, a “White Witch’s brew” of utter excitement and total inspiration.
Gemini and Scorpio form what’s known as a “quincunx”, an inherently discordant aspect that results in extreme ingenuity, extreme instability, or a combination of both. The textbook Gemini/Scorpio will thus have to make constant adjustments between the radically different nature of their luminaries in order to maintain an even keel in life. According to Suzi and Charles Harvey, Gemini/Scorpio individuals will often wrestle with the disconnect between the highly communicative (Gemini) and deeply covert (Scorpio) sides of their psyche:
Your life seems to be a breeze until you start noticing the monsters from the deep coming up for air. Then life begins to seem more like an expedition across hostile territory than a jaunt to visit friends.
Wrestling with, and communicating your insights and the paradoxes of your deep inner experience is essential to your larger health and contentment. (Source)
In Hellwig’s case, he routinely described life in the WWE as more of an “expedition across hostile territory” than a jaunt with colleagues. His promos and, later, his YouTube videos make it clear he was very invested in “communicating his insights and deep inner experiences”, no matter how radically paradoxical they may have seemed to outside observers. As far as “monsters from the deep coming up for air” are concerned, it’s difficult to find a better example of that than the now infamous “Crash the Plane” promo he cut in the lead up to the 1990 installment of Wrestlemania:
Gemini is the sign of the Communicator while Scorpio Moons require contact with the dark and the taboo in order to feel themselves. The combination of communication (Gemini) about the taboo (Scorpio) means that many Gemini/Scorpios will experience censorship and/or seek to hide their whereabouts at some point in their lives. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is a Gemini/Scorpio whose battles with censorship and need to hide his whereabouts have been extensively documented. Hellwig was a professional wrestler billed from “Parts Unknown”, not a whistleblower hiding in unknown parts, but the above promo has apparently been censored from the WWE’s officially available library. A reason has never been given but it probably has something to do with the fact the story Hellwig tells about hijacking an airplane, disposing of its pilots, and sending it into a nosedive towards “parts unknown” bears more than a passing resemblance to the events of 9/11. The maniacal tone he summoned for the recording only adds to its multiple levels (Gemini) of creepiness (Scorpio).
South Node in Aries, North Node in Libra: Symbol of Past Lives in the Sign of Warfare, Symbol of Destiny in the Sign of Diplomacy, Partnership, and Dance
While a person’s Sun/Moon pairing describes their basic psychological disposition, it’s their Nodal axis that describes what they’re here to leave behind and what they’re here to learn. The South Node describes the “what they’re here to leave behind” side of the equation while the North Node describes the “what they’re here to learn” side. With his South Node in Aries, the sign of courage, confrontation, and self-preservation, Hellwig has spent many lives as, quite literally, a warrior. He came into this life naturally good at all things Aries: kicking ass, breaking free, fighting back, and looking out for number one. These are also ways he was most likely to self-destruct in this life. With his South Node in Aries, his North Node (destiny) is in Libra — the sign of of relationships, reconciliation, and relating to “the other”. The way of cooperation, not combat, was what Hellwig was really here to figure out.
Ironically, success in the world of professional wrestling is inherently a Libran style endeavor. That may come as a surprise to anybody distracted by the industry’s over the top camp and brutish theatrics. The reality, however, is that the best matches will be those where the two performers each attempt to make the other person look good. What the performers do has been compared to fantasy (Pisces), stunt-work (Sagittarius) or even acting (Leo) but, truth be told, it’s really akin more to partner dancing (Libra) than anything else. Randy “Macho Man” Savage, for instance, is a Scorpio with a stellium in Libra in his chart. (Article) When he passed away a few years ago a number of old wrestlers came out of the woodwork to say how fabulous it was to work with him, how he would always make “the other” guy look like a million bucks. Hellwig, with his North Node (destiny) in Libra (cooperation), would have been wise to emulate Randy Savage in this regard as much as possible.
People are at their worst when stuck back in their South Node, at their highest, best, and most fulfilled when their doing things associated with their North Node. In Hellwig’s case, he was at his absolute best the night of Wrestlemania VI when he and Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) put on a performance that many consider the “match of the century”, one that is to the world of wrestling what Gone with the Wind or Avatar are to the world of film. Not coincidentally, the performance began with Hellwig and Bollea’s alter-egos standing face to face in a manner that actually bears a resemblance to the scales of justice, the symbol for Libra.
The storyline that Hellwig and Bollea acted out in the months leading up their Wrestlemania match was so enormously successful for the WWE in large part because the two men’s in-ring personas were 100% *equally* matched for each other. The fans at the time were split right down the middle in terms of their support, with many unable to make a decision about who they wanted to root for. Even WWE management gave up trying to decide which man was going to play the hero and which was going to play the villain. At the conclusion of the event the two men even hugged and held hands. So behind the big muscles, teased hair, wild outfits, and choreographed press-slams the whole thing was actually as textbook Libra as it gets.
Strangely enough, Hellwig signed his initial contract with the WWE on September 23rd, 1987 just as an eclipse in early Libra was hitting his North Node almost to the degree. Transiting eclipses to a person’s natal North Node are incredibly powerful events. In Hellwig’s case the contract he signed that day ended up not only shaking up the wrestling world but also gave him everything he would ever be known for in this life.
If a person’s life can be analogized to a journey, the South Node is where they start off and the North Node is where they (hopefully) end up. Hellwig passed just as he was beginning his third North Node return, a major astrological turning point that occurs every 18.5 years in a person’s life. Reports are that in the days prior to his death Hellwig had managed to make peace with the WWE and reconciled with a number of wrestlers he had been at odds with for going on 20 years. He even managed to bury the hatchet with Hulk Hogan, a man he’d been feuding with in both the imaginal world of ring and screen and the very real world of court cases and depositions since the 1990s. That’s good to hear because when a person’s North Node is in Libra, peace and reconciliation, not combat and warfare, are exactly what they’re here to seek out. This is true even when the person is the Ultimate Warrior himself.
About the Author: Matt Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or consults at his contact page.
Introduction to the National Reconnaissance Office: "Meet the Night Stalkers"
Editor’s Note: this is excerpt #1 from a magazine length article entitled “Deep Cover, Deep Space: The Astrology of America’s Black Budget Space Program”. -Matt
By now you’ve no doubt heard of the National Security Agency (NSA), the massive intelligence agency whose astrological chart was the subject of the October/November 2013 issue of The Mountain Astrologer. Unless you make it a point to follow the world of covert operations you probably haven’t heard of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the NSA’s partner-in-surveillance that’s “in charge of designing, building, launching, and maintaining America’s intelligence satellites” according to its website. As far as the capabilities of these satellites, Gene Hackman’s character in the 1998 film Enemy of the State might have been on to something when he explains to the Will Smith character that they can the “read the time off your f—king wristwatch”. Forty years ago the NRO built a class of satellites capable of producing imagery with a maximum resolution of six inches or better, accurate enough to tell if somebody was carrying a lunchbox or not. (Source) The capabilities of today’s satellites are classified.
While it’s the NSA whose supercomputers are capable of knowing whether a person checks a magazine’s website or discusses its articles on the telephone, it’s the NRO whose unblinking “eyes-in-the-sky” are powerful enough to spot them coming back from their mailbox with the latest issue in their hands. The NSA is responsible for listening, the NRO is responsible for watching. Financially, the two agencies are essentially peers. Documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden indicate the NRO’s budget request for fiscal 2013 was $10.3 billion, just behind the NSA’s request for $10.8 billion. (Source) While it’s the NSA that’s been getting all the press lately, it’s the NRO that may be the more secretive of the two outfits. According to Professor William E. Burrows, author of Deep Black: The Startling Truth behind America’s Spy Satellites, the NRO operates “under a cloak of secrecy so tight that it is the blackest of all the nation’s covert intelligence related operations”. (Source) In short, it’s the biggest spy agency the 99% are still completely in the dark about.
The NRO has been referred to as America’s “other” space program, a black budget version of NASA whose Corona, Hexagon, Jumpseat and Vortex missions are to the Gemini and Apollo missions what Mr. Hyde is to Dr. Jekyll. The mission/morale patches featured throughout this article, originally brought to public attention by geographer Trevor Paglen in his 2008 book I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World, make it clear that, unlike NASA’s space missions, the NRO’s operations are not intended for public consumption.
While the three vipers in this patch are believed to represent the NRO’s Trumpet class of satellites that have orbited the planet since the 1990s, they also offer a good approximation of the reaction you’ll likely elicit should you mess with a Virgo’s filing systems:
Of the 16 intelligence agencies that comprise the American surveillance state it’s the NRO whose work is likely to be of greatest interest to practicing astrologers. Our jobs are not all together different. Astrologers utilize the position of the stars to discern the meaning of events down here on Earth while the NRO utilizes crafts lofted to the stars to accomplish the same goal. The satellites managed by the NRO go through phases just like the heavenly bodies that we astrologers study. (Source) The information we discern by studying the stars on behalf of our clients is often of a highly confidential nature, the same is true for the information the NRO discerns on behalf of its clients. Finally, both astrological reconnaissance and satellite reconnaissance require advanced knowledge of highly technical information that often mystifies the non-initiated.
Excerpt #2:
Cancer Sun, Aries Moon, Part II: Storming the Bastille and Repelling the Stormtroopers, the Spirit of Resistance and the Special Operations Executive, the Survivor and the Stay at Home Force
With the masculine side of the psyche (the Sun) in the most feminine of signs (Cancer) and the feminine side of the psyche (the Moon) in the most masculine of signs (Aries), the Cancer Sun, Aries Moon individual often possesses an instinctive understanding that men and women, while different, can fight just as effectively as one another. To illustrate: British Major-General Colin Gubbins is a Cancer Sun, Aries Moon. (Chart) During World War II he was head of Britain’s “Special Operations Executive” (SOE), also known as “Churchill’s Secret Army”, a clandestine organization which waged unconventional warfare inside Nazi occupied territories. According to historian Sarah Helms, “Gubbins was the first to secure permission, albeit unofficial, for female operatives to be sent behind enemy lines. He saw no reason why women could not do the job of secret agent as well as men.” (Source) Gubbins’ secretary would later recount, “he would not countenance any form of discrimination against women”. (Source)
Cancer is ruled by the Moon while Aries is ruled by Mars so Cancer/Aries people will often express in a manner similar to a Mars/Moon aspect. Astrologer Sue Tompkins says people with these aspects in their charts “are very quick to smell danger and thus cultivate speedy reactions and responses – the kind of reactions that can save lives . . . they may continually behave or believe as if World War III is about to break out.” (Source) This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In Gubbins’ case, he was one of a handful of British officers in Poland during September 1939 when the Nazis rolled in and set off what became World War II. Fortunately he was “quick to smell danger” and, utilizing the “speedy reactions” that are a Cancer/Aries hallmark, managed to procure a false passport which enabled him to escape back to Britain. Doing so probably saved his life.
This pairing often alternates between being intensely reclusive (Cancer Sun) and intensely combative (Aries Moon). Gubbins appears to have been no exception this tendency. Ladislas Farago writes in his book Burn After Reading: The Espionage History of World War II that “Gubbins was the forgotten man of the secret war, the least known chief of the secret service and this by his own choice.” (Source) Ironically, if you’ve ever seen a James Bond film you’re more familiar with Gubbins and his secret organization than you may realize. According to Brian Lett, author of The Top Secret History of 007, the “M” character in the James Bond films — most recently portrayed by actress Judi Dench — is based on Gubbins while the agency Bond works for is based on the SOE. (Source)
Astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey tells us that a metaphoric image for Cancer/Aries people is “a suffragette takes to the barricades in aid of her cause”. (Source) According to the BBC, agents working under Gubbins were “responsible for storming the heavy water plant at Vemork, ending the Nazi atomic bomb program.” (Source) Gubbins wasn’t literally a “suffragette” but he was way ahead of his time when in regards to women’s roles in the workplace while storming Hitler’s atom bomb plant surely counts as an example of somebody “taking to the barricades in aid of a cause”.
In light of these operations, it’s worth noting that the storming of the Bastille in France occurred when the Sun was in Cancer and the Moon in Aries. (Chart) Cancer/Aries can be a very pugnacious, combustible combination but in times of great oppression some pugnaciousness and combustibility may be just what’s needed.
Astrologer Jefferson Anderson warns that Cancer Sun, Aries Moon has a tendency to “burn bridges”. (Source) That’s usually a bad thing but not always. The folks who stormed the Bastille certainly burned some bridges, both figuratively and literally, while Gubbins’ men who stormed the Nazi heavy water plant no doubt burned a few also.
In addition to running the SOE, Gubbins was also tapped by Winston Churchill to organize and train Britain’s “Auxiliary Units”. These units were comprised of civilians who would form the final line of resistance should the Nazis succeed in destroying the British military and occupying mainland Britain. (Source) The secrecy surrounding the Auxiliaries went beyond that of even “classified” operations, with their existence remaining unknown to the public until the late 1990s. In 2002 the History Channel produced a documentary about Auxiliaries so harrowing that simply watching it will fire up both the emotions (Cancer) and the adrenalin (Aries):
The Auxiliary Units were also referred to as “The Stay at Home Force”, a fitting name for a network organized by a Cancer/Aries like Gubbins as Cancer is the Hermit who prefers to stay at home fortified against threats while Aries is the Hero who prefers to use force to repel them. The Auxiliary units were provided with hidden, underground cubby holes (Cancer) which were stocked with food and weapons (Aries). About 500 of these underground bases were constructed, some of which are still in existence 70 years after the war ended.
Like all Cancer pairings, this one has strong maternal instincts. According to astrologer Jason Fleming, Cancer/Aries is the Sun/Moon pairing of “the general who leads the troops into battle, but also is acutely aware of and sensitive to their emotional state”. (Source) Along these lines, Gubbins is reported to have put enormous energy into preparing the men and women serving under him for their missions, above and beyond what duty required. (Source) In some ways this made his job even more difficult since SOE agents, because they did not wear uniforms, would be treated by the Nazis as spies. Those who were captured were thus shipped to concentration camps, including the infamous Buchenwald camp. (Source) Running such enormously complicated, emotionally exhausting, yet totally secret aspects of the war took an enormous toll on Gubbins — something that his eyes more than hint at in this photo:
When the Sun is in Cancer and the Moon in Aries, the result is what’s called a “Waning Quarter Moon”, a phase of the Moon that is associated with a “crisis in consciousness” according to astrologer Dane Rudhyar. (Source) Raven Kaldera calls this the “Survivor’s Moon”, one that is associated with emotional shell shock and psychological burnout if not what today we call “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” (PTSD):
The Waning Quarter Moon in Aries finds the Soldier burned out after many years of battle, and coming home to put back together the pieces of his shattered body and mind. The continual years of war have stressed his courage and nerves to the breaking point, and he can no longer fight. The rest of his life will be spent with the pain of these wounds. He returns home, a shell-shocked creature who has given his entire self to battle, and no one cares. Even if he lives in a place where fallen soldiers are treated well, people do not understand the horror he has seen. They expect him to get over it in due time and not to spend hours cowering in the bushes, reliving his trauma. When he can’t, they see him as weak, which is a deep insult.
The Survivor’s Moon is a time of anguish and healing of deep wounds. Up until now, the Aries mystique has been about finding bravery in the face of great odds, an untouchable confidence that allows the Aries Moon to succeed at all kinds of frightening things.
On the Survivor’s Moons, we confront . . . . anguish over betrayal inflicted on us by Fate, or God, or the Universe, or Society. We confront our helplessness in the face of that pain — perhaps we fantasize that we might have been able to stop [it from occurring], however irrational that might be, but even our fantasy fails at the onslaught of reality’s pain.
This is the most difficult Aries Moon of all to bear. People born on the Survivor’s Moon often endure some kind of serious trauma in childhood . . . . (Source)
We don’t know much about Gubbins’ childhood but we do know that he experienced some serious trauma in regards to his own children — the sort of trauma that a parent may fantasize about having been able to stop, however irrational that might be. His oldest son, Michael, was killed in 1944 while serving as an officer in the SOE’s Italian division. Historian Gary Kamiya recalls how Gubbins found out about his son’s death:
The duty officer at Baker Street that weekend, who did not know Gubbins very well, saw the telegram announcing Michael Gubbins’ death. He marked it “Deepest Sympathy” and placed it at the top of Gubbins’ intray. Gubbins came in early that Monday morning to prepare for an important meeting with the Chiefs of Staff, so neither his assistant or secretary was there to soften the blow. Gubbins picked up the telegram himself. (Source)
The death of his son made it nearly impossible for Gubbins to carry on, no doubt in part because the men and women serving under him were the same age as his own children. Grief-stricken, he would later visit grave sites in Italy, “fruitlessly hoping to find a trace of his son”. (Source) When the war ended in 1945 he collected a series of medals for his exemplary service and retired in seclusion to the Island of Harris. Surrounded by nature, he sought to recover from what he called “the long years of dreadful night”. (Source)
Kaldera tells us that of all the Aries Moons, the Waning Quarter Moon associated with the Cancer/Aries pairing is the one most likely to exhibit a sense of empathy, the type of empathy that can be learned only from scars — ones that are emotional (Cancer) as much as martial (Aries).
If you enjoyed this article you might also enjoy:
Virgo Sun, Scorpio Moon: The Praying Mantis and the Mission Impossible (The CIA)
Scorpio Sun, Gemini Moon: The Coffin Makers and the Code Breakers (The NSA)
Contact Matt Savinar for a Consultation
Copyright Matthew David Savinar 2013
Taurus Sun, Taurus Moon: The C.I.A. and the O.G.D. (“The Cash Investment Agency and the Original Girl Detective”)
(Image: Film Boyz-N-the-Hood, available for purchase via Amazon)
Taurus is the sign of resource accumulation. It’s symbolized by the bovine, a symbol of wealth dating back tens of thousands of years. In the old days Taureans were often found in hands-on professions that made use of the Earth itself. The “baker, the butcher, and the candlestick maker” were likely all Taureans. In the modern day, Taurus is the sign of the asset appraiser, the real estate tycoon, the luxury car dealer, the investment broker, the mutual fund administrator, the wine collector, and the cigar aficionado. To illustrate: rapper Busta’ Rhymes is a Taurus who famously penned “Pass the Courvoisier”, an impassioned ode to the top shelf cognac that is this sign’s drink of choice according to Rob Marriott and Sonya Magett. (Source)
Not all Taureans are necessarily wealthy like Mr. Rhymes but most will have a tangible appreciation for the finer things in life. Even “baller on a budget” Taureans are likely to experience dinner at the Four Seasons or a trip to the Bentley dealership as something akin to a religious pilgrimage.
Taureans of the vegan or yogini persuasions may eschew overtly opulent creature comforts for ones that are sustainably correct but still quite luxurious. The more bohemian versions of this sign will pass on the Courvoisier in favor of designer Kombucha while trading in reservations at the Four Seasons for organic meals from the Whole Foods corporation. Actress turned New Age icon Shirley Maclaine is a good example of this type of Taurus. I don’t know if she owns any luxury cars but she does claim to have encountered UFOs–high end, intergalatic forms of transport that are to the Age of Aquarius what Bentley Continentals are to the age of the automobile.
When a person, organization, or agency has both their Sun (conscious identity) and Moon (emotional needs) in this sign they will be doubly oriented to all things Taurus: high priced art and high end clothing, fine wine and gourmet food, luxury cars and lavish jewelry, bank vaults and gold bullion, dead presidents and dolla’ dolla’ bills. Astrologer Jefferson Anderson says this pairing “has an instinctive feel for money and management and does well in business, banking, and economics”. (Source) According to astrologer Jason Fleming’s article “Zodiac Mixtapes”, theme songs for this pairing include “Drop a Gem on Them” by Mobb Deep and “Paid in Full” by Eric B and Rakim. (Source) Singer Kelly Clarkson is a Taurus/Taurus whose dropped so many musical gems that she is now one of the most fully paid entertainers of her generation.
However, should this pairing turn to its dark side it goes from being good with money and a natural at management to being possessed by greed and obsessed with gettin’ paid. The rap song “Bitch Betta’ Have My Money” by rapper AMG offers a good approximation of what happens when the Taurean orientation to resource management goes from noble to nefarious. According to astrologer Austin Coppock, the plot of the film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo Dicaprio is another example of what happens when the Bull’s fear of poverty metastasizes into pursuit of a “Cursed Coin”. (Source) Michael Douglas’s “Greed is Good” speech delivered in the film Wall Street stands out as yet another example.
In addition to being oriented to resource accumulation, the Taurus/Taurus pairing will often find his or her way into covert operations and clandestine arrangements, which are generally considered the domain of Scorpio — the sign opposite to Taurus. This is because, according to Berkeley based astrologer Linda Rose, when a chart has both the Sun and Moon in the same sign the entity will often express as the opposite sign. I suspect this “kick-over” phenomenon observed by Ms. Rose is some type of psychological compensation mechanism similar to what happens in traditional Chinese medicine when one meridian is so overloaded with energy that the person hyper-expresses the characteristics of the opposite meridian. Regardless of the exact mechanism behind the phenomenon it does seem to track reality with a high degree of consistency. To illustrate: Wall Street financier Bernie Madoff is a Taurus Sun, Taurus Moon whose obsession with money (Taurus) led him deep into a series of shadowy underworlds (Scorpio). (Chart)
Just how shadowy (Scorpionic) were the circles Madoff was running in? According to investigative reporter Wayne Madsen, Madoff’s operation may have had some type of link to the Central Intelligence Agency, one of the most Scorpionic (secretive) outfits on the planet. (Source) A number of informed commentators in the business world have suspected Madoff was investing cash (Taurus) money (Taurus) on behalf of drug cartels — organizations which traffic in the Scorpionic trades of addictions and assassinations. (Source) Madoff wasn’t “the baker, the butcher, or the candlestick maker” but he was a banker, a broker, and may have been laundering money for international cocaine makers.
Obviously not all double Taureans will express their capacity for deep cover operations (Scorpio) in such a predatorial fashion. For instance, using its premier date at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival as its date of birth, the movie Boyz N the Hood is also a Taurus Sun, Taurus Moon albeit one whose central character is to Bernie Madoff what Hans Solo was to Darth Vader. (Chart) It’s one of the few films that hints at a connection between finance (Taurus) and covert operations (Scorpio), which it does when Laurence Fishburne’s character Furious Styles (a financial broker) explains who is and is not involved in the high level bankrolling of the cocaine trade:
Astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey say this pairing excels at offering “straight from the shoulder” observations and “calling a spade a spade”. (Source) This is exactly what Fishburne’s character does in the above scene when he observes of the crack epidemic, “How you think the crack rock gets into the country? We don’t own any planes. We don’t own no ships. We are not the people who are flying and floating that shit in here . . .” Bernie Madoff was a Wall Street financial adviser (Taurus) likely in league with the drug cartels and/or intelligence agencies (Scorpio). The Furious Styles character was a financial adviser who understood the drug cartels were making money for Wall Street banks (Taurus) and/or intelligence agencies (Scorpio). They’re both double Taureans expressing as Scorpios although obviously only one of them would you want moving into your neighborhood.
Taurus Sun, Taurus Moon: “Better have my suspicious activity reports”
Bernie Madoff and the Furious Styles character portrayed by Fishburne in Boyz are far from the only double Taureans whose lives have occupied the nexus between cash-money (Taurus) and careers in which suspicion (Scorpio) is the currency of the realm. To illustrate: using its establishment date as its date of birth, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a Taurus Sun, Taurus Moon. (Chart) If you haven’t heard of FinCEN before, it’s a bureau inside the United States Department of the Treasury that “collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat money laundering, terrorist financiers, and other financial crimes” according to Wikipedia. Much of what FinCEN does revolves around the collection and analysis of “suspicious activity reports”, which banks are required to file anytime a customer makes a financial (Taurus) transaction that appears suspicious (Scorpio). According to a paranoia (Scorpio) inducing 1993 Wired Magazine article entitled “Big Brother Wants to Look at Your Bank Account”, FinCEN’s capacity to track the flow of money (Taurus) is of tremendous interest to spy agencies like the CIA (Scorpio):
“The risk of the CIA getting its hands on this is serious – we know the kind of unscrupulous people who populate the spook world,” said a Washington-area private investigator who conducts many legitimate financial investigations for a CIA-linked firm. “This kind of financial data, when coupled with other information like a person’s credit history, could be used for blackmail, bribery, and extortion,” said the investigator, who has a military intelligence background.
DTS could present an inviting mechanism for quieting unwanted dissent or for defanging an unruly congressional leader bent on exposing some questionable CIA operation. Although still in its embryonic stage and in spite of the looming privacy obstacle it will inevitably confront, FinCEN is seen by many in the government as the catalyst for a powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing, global, financial-tracking organization. (Source)
Speaking of “quieting unwanted dissent” and “defanging unruly political leaders”, it was transactions recorded by FinCEN were what revealed New York State governor Elliot Spitzer had been availing himself to the services of the $4,000/night “Emperor’s Club” VIP call-girl operation. (Source) It’s probably just a coincidence that shortly before Spitzer’s call-girl payments were made public he had announced plans to go on the warpath against Wall Street’s biggest banks and their partners in crime inside the Bush administration. (Source)
Unfortunately, outside of Wired’s 1993 article, there’s been very little written about FinCEN since it was established over twenty years ago. The agency does, however, get a brief mention in the 1998 spy (Scorpio) film Enemy of the State where a federal agent orders a “FinCEN workup” on the Will Smith character:
Taurus is great at keeping things short and simple so here’s a short if over-simplified way to understand FinCEN: it is to your bank accounts and business filings what the National Security Agency is to your email accounts and telephone calls.
Taurus Sun, Taurus Moon: “The Original Girl Detective”
Update 3/23/17:Using the character’s debut date as her date of birth, Nancy Drew of the famous mystery novels is also a double Taurus. (Chart) The Nancy Drew character was entirely fictional while the Furious Styles character may as well have been 100% real given the events depicted in the film. Yet as double Taureans expressing as Scorpios the two characters do have something in common: both are naturals at getting to the bottom of who or what is bankrolling (Taurus) the criminal conspiracies (Scorpio) being carried out in their local neighborhoods.
Taurus/Taurus people generally do well financially and both the Boyz N the Hood film and the Nancy Drew series have been enormously successful at the box office and bookstores respectively. Like FINCEN, Drew’s worth a lot of money (Taurus) but has made her stock-in-trade the compilation of “suspicious activity reports” (Scorpio).
About the Author: Matt Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or consults at his contact page.
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Gemini Sun, Capricorn Moon: The Mathematician, The Mind Bender, and the Genetically Modified Super Freak
Gemini is the fast moving, highly flexible, fiber optic wired communicator of the zodiac. Capricorn is the hard-assed, hard-working, hoof-busting strategist of the zodiac. Pair the mental agility of a Gemini Sun with the strategic instincts of a Capricorn Moon and you get a Sun/Moon pairing that is methodical, calculating, determined, and freakishly intelligent. Other Geminis play checkers, this one plays chess. If you can imagine a butterfly (Gemini) genetically engineered to have both the backbone and the ruthlessness of a Mountain Goat (Capricorn) you’ll have a sense for this pairing’s basic modus operandi. To illustrate: using the date of its first flight as its date of birth, the F-117 Nighthawk is a Gemini Sun, Capricorn Moon. (Chart) The F-117 is the highly agile, freakishly advanced stealth fighter that Americans first became familiar with via CNN’s coverage of Operation Desert Storm.. During its heyday the plane was considered the Air Force’s premier fly-by-wire (Gemini) workhorse (Capricorn), a flying question mark (Gemini) that always got the job done (Capricorn Moon).
You’ll find a disproportionate number of Gemini/Capricorns working in experimental physics, mathematics, engineering, or other technologically advanced fields which require equal parts mental dexterity (Gemini) and back breaking hours of hard work (Capricorn). Astrologer Linda Goodman says that when Gemini and Capricorn meet up it’s usually for “. . . a reason relating to mystery, death, hypnosis, psychiatry or some bending of the mind.” (Source) The F-117 doesn’t bend minds, hypnotize people, or mysteriously alter the laws of physics but its stealth technology does bend radar signatures thereby (metaphorically) hypnotizing its opponents’ computer tracking systems. It performs these feats using methods so mysteriously advanced they would seem like magic to previous generations.
Gemini and Capricorn form what’s known as a “quincunx”, an inherently discordant aspect that results in extreme ingenuity, extreme instability, or a combination of both. The textbook Gemini/Capricorn will thus have to make constant adjustments between the radically different nature of their luminaries in order to maintain an even keel in life. In the case of the F-117, its extreme design necessitates an advanced on-board computer system make constant adjustments to correct for its inherent instability. (Source) Prior to being given an official name it was referred to as the “Wobblin’ Gobblin” by people inside Lockheed due to its unstable avionics and bizarre looking airframe. (Source)
Using its release date as its date of birth the 1987 film Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is also Gemini Sun, Capricorn Moon. (Chart) In the film a special forces unit led by the future governator is oblivious to the fact they’re being tracked by a technologically advanced extraterrestrial who can follow them while remaining invisible. In other words, the creature uses highly sophisticated stealth technology to stalk and kill its prey just like the F-117. By today’s standards, the film’s special effects are fairly pedestrian. Back in 1987, however, its mind-bending audio-visuals seemed like magic:
Computer scientist Tim Berners Lee is a Gemini Sun, Capricorn Moon. (Chart) He is the man most directly responsible for developing the world wide web, the highly advanced communications (Gemini) structure (Capricorn) whose collective power now rivals technologies previously seen only in science fiction films like Predator.
Using date of its initial release as its date of birth, the Oculus Rift virtual reality machine is also a Gemini Sun, Capricorn Moon. (Chart) People in the tech world seem to think the Oculus is poised to revolutionize how we experience the internet as much as the internet revolutionized how we generate, transmit, and synthesize information. Like other Gemini/Capricorns, it’s a mind-bending piece of technology that previous generations would assume is powered by black magic:
San Francisco Giants baseball pitcher Tim Lincecum is a Gemini Sun, Capricorn Moon whose mind bending physical capabilities are to the world of sports what the F-117 is to aviation or the Oculus Rift is to the world of video games. (Chart) A two time Cy-Young award winner, Lincecum’s radically unorthodox pitching delivery has been described as “an engineering marvel” akin to a Blue Angels jet fighter by Sports Illustrated magazine. (Source) A writer for the New Yorker observed, “His pitching motion invites similes and multiple-angle replays . . . Nobody has ever pitched like this before”. (Source) Similarly, an article in Vice described his delivery as a “freaky whirling dervish”. Lincecum may not be a literal “genetically engineered super freak” but the physics of his delivery are so extreme that a normal player probably would have to undergo some type of genetic modification in order to duplicate them. Even video games companies using the most advanced motion capture technologies on the planet have found his mechanics nearly impossible to model on their computers. (Source)
never been called a “Wobblin’ Goblin” like the F-117 but he is nicknamed “The Freak” which means essentially the same thing. Lincecum doesn’t have the ability to literally “go stealth” but his most devastating pitch is an advanced “split-change”, a highly deceptive pitch which works by disrupting the way a hitter’s visual cortex tracks the baseball as it approaches the plate. In effect this gives him the ability to mystify hitters’ timing mechanisms as thoroughly as the F-117’s stealth coating mystifies opponents’ radar tracking mechanisms. Within the world of professional baseball, the pitch is practically considered a form of black magic — one that dodgers hitters’ bats as effectively as the F-117 dodges surface-to-air missiles.
Strangely enough, the F-117 was designed from the ground up by scientists at Lockheed while Lincecum’s delivery was designed from the ground up by his father Chris, a lifelong employee of the Boeing company.
In her book Dark Side Astrology, Stella Hyde says Geminis make great “futures” brokers while Capricorn Moons can handle grim jobs such as “grave digger”. The F-117 wobbled between brokering the future of military aviation and digging graves for its targets on the ground. Lincecum also wobbled between the traits of his two luminaries except his wobbling was between his playful persona off the field (Gemini) and being a methodical ice cold closer on the mound (Capricorn). This is where the similarities between the F-117 and Lincecum diverge. While the F-117 wobbled on behalf of the military industrial complex, Lincecum only wobbled on behalf of professional baseball fans.
Obviously few Gemini/Capricorns will end up involved in professional sports or military aviation. However, like both the F-117 and Mr. Lincecum, there will often be something radically innovative or even alien about their work, often pertaining to communications (Gemini) hardware (Capricorn) or hi-tech (Gemini) project management (Capricorn). Tim Berners Lee, the man most responsible for layering the World Wide Web on top of the internet, is a Gemini with his Moon in Capricorn. Originally rolled out on a desktop computer at CERN in 1992, Berners’ mercurial (Gemini) hardware (Capricorn) seemed utterly alien at the time. It rapidly morphed into the communications (Gemini) infrastructure (Capricorn) upon which the entire modern world now depends and upon which you are now reading this article.
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Mars in Libra: The Planet of Courage and Confrontation Moves into the Sign of the Romance and Relationships, Smooth Charm and Subtle Coercion
Your Mars placement indicates how you execute a plan. By sign and by house it tells us where, how, and with whom you will act with courage and conviction, energy and enthusiasm, impulsiveness and impetuousness, fearlessness and ferociousness.
On December 7th, 2013 Mars moved from Virgo into Libra for an eight month stay. Libra is sign of the Lover, the Peacemaker, the Statesmen, the Counselor, the CEO of Civil Discourse, the Debate Team Captain of Diplomatic Overtures, and the Department Chairman of Smooth Charm. This is the sign most associated with fairness, elegance, romance, and marriage. With the planet of courage in the sign of relationships, people with Mars in Libra are often quite enthusiastic about figuring out how two people can get on the same page, intellectually as much as emotionally. Their relational enthusiasm stems from coming into this life with “a soul desire to learn the art of healthy intimate conflict” astrologers Steven and Jodi Forest tell us. (Source) The challenge with this placement is that “intimate conflicts” are often the Achilles heal of Mars in Libra. According to astrologer Stella Hyde, “Mars in Libra is the Mars placement most likely to be caught with its pants down and in no position to fight.” (Source) Bill Clinton is a Leo with Mars in Libra and a near textbook one at that. (Chart) He trained as a lawyer before moving into politics. He’s known primarily for his life long marriage to Hilary as well as his smooth charm and suave maneuvering. He’s also spent much of his adult life either caught up in intimate conflict or answering for having been caught with his pants down.
It’s probably no coincidence that Clinton’s impeachment trial before Congress for lying about his intimate relationship with Mrs. Lewinsky began on December 19th, 1998 when Mars was transiting through Libra. (Chart) Symbolized by the scales of justice, Libra is associated with the court system. It’s famously the sign of marriage but this means it’s also the sign of divorce. Check the natal chart of any attorney practicing divorce law for longer than 10 years as there is a good chance he or she has Mars in Libra. To illustrate: using its premier date as its date of birth the documentary Divorce Corp, an expose of the marriage-divorce industrial complex, has Mars in Libra. (Chart)
Astrologer Raven Kaldera associates Mars in Libra with the myth of King Arthur. (Source) Reading through Kaldera’s description it is difficult not to notice a number of similarities between Arthur and Bill Clinton, notes added in italics:
Like Arthur, romance is often the Libra warrior’s downfall. Arthur inherited a kingdom torn by religious (political?) differences; the older pagan faith (the Democratic party?) was clashing with the newer, more aggressively spreading Christian religion (the Republican party?) and it was his job to keep the peace. He called himself a good Christian knight but kept a pagan wizard (Al Gore?) by his side as an adviser; he married a Christian woman (Hilary?) but had an affair with a pagan (Monica?). By the end of his reign not only was there no peace, but neither side trusted him . . . (Source)
The Oslo Accords that Clinton brokered between the Israelis and the Palestinians were signed on September 13th, 1993. Not surprisingly, the chart for the Accords has a Mars/Jupiter conjunction at 17/21 degrees Libra. (Chart) On the upside, the famous image of Clinton standing behind Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat as they shook hands embodies much of what is wonderful about Mars in Libra: former warriors who have put down their weapons in order to make peace. The image even has a structural resemblance to the scales of justice that are the symbol for Libra:
While Libra is considered the sign of balanced civility, it is also the sign that can project the image of balanced civility even as hostilities continue to mount behind the scenes. The image of Clinton standing behind Rabin and Arafat as they shook hands was great looking (Libra) at the time but we all know that the peace was, at best, short lived. As a number of informed commentators have pointed out, historians of the future will likely see the event as more photo-op than actual peace deal.
Speaking of photo ops, people Mars in Libra often love photography. Mars indicates what turns a person on so if you’ve got your eye on somebody with this placement make sure they get a glimpse of that recent photo of yourself out at the ballet or opera. If there’s a beautiful person (or two) in the photo with you and a Lexus Rx in the background you’re guaranteed to get a response from Mars in Libra. People with Mars in Libra also tend to be quite photogenic themselves. Both Kate Middleton and Prince William, for instance, have Mars in Libra and you’ve seen how great they look together.
Libra is known as the peacekeeper of the Zodiac but don’t let this fool you into thinking this sign can’t or won’t fight. Astrologer Hazel Dixon Cooper tells us, “Like Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde, the Libra Mars personality can change without warning from harmony-seeking to confrontational. Verbal confrontation excites as much as physical contact.” (Source) Like many people with Mars in Libra, Bill has been known expend so much energy trying to maintain that sense of balance that he eventually just snaps, as he did during this appearance with Fox News reporter Chris Wallace:
Mars in Libra also comes up a lot in the charts of people or events that involve fighting (Mars) between equals (Libra). Mixed Martial Arts superstar Gina Carano, for instance, has Mars in Libra. (Source) Some of the physical fights she’s been in are just as knock down and drag out as the political and legal fights Bill Clinton has found himself in.
Dr. Richard Gatling – inventor of the Gatling gun, the precursor to all modern machine guns – has a Mars/Mercury conjunction in Libra. (Chart) Gatling’s original goal was to design a weapon so horrific that people would come to understand the futility of warfare. This would usher in a new era of peace he thought. Obviously things did not work out as he had hoped.
When you think Mars in Libra think of “a duel” (Mars) between equally matched opposites (Libra) It can be a duel between a politician and a journalist broadcast on television, a duel between two martial artists in a boxing ring, a duel between gun fighters under the blazing sun of the Western frontier or a duel between nation-state super powers out in the icy coldness of outer space. Sputnik, the Russian satellite that set off the decades long “Cold War” between the US and the USSR has a tight conjunction between Sun, Mars, and Jupiter all in the early degrees of Libra. (Chart)
Using its release date as its date of birth, the film Star Trek: Wrath of Khan has Mars at zero degrees Libra. (Natal Chart) The duel between Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Khan (Ricardo Montalban) portrayed in the film is a great metaphor for how Mars at 0 degrees Libra will often express itself: an absolutely explosive (Zero Point) confrontation (Mars) between equally matched opposites (Libra), both of whom are seeking to reset the balance of power in their own favor. The trailer for the film will give you a great feel for just how confrontational Mars in Libra can be. Take particular note of how the characters played by Shatner and Montalban are engaged in battles so pitched it almost seems like they’re a married couple fighting it out in divorce court:
As far as actual couples fighting their differences out in divorce court, it should be noted that the hit television show Wife Swap has a Mars/Jupiter conjunction at O degrees Libra with the Sun not far behind at 4 degrees Libra. (Chart) If you’ve ever seen the show, or even just clips online, it has Mars in Libra all over it: people from seemingly opposite (Libra) backgrounds fighting (Mars) over balance of power (Libra) issues. Here, for instance, is an episode where a “pirate” family swaps wives with a “hyper-organized” family:
You’ll also find Mars in Libra in the charts of people involved in restoring the balance of power between the genders, races, and classes. Sue Tompkins tells us, “The capacity to fight other people’s battles makes this an excellent placement for the law and for any vocation which involves a drive for reconciliation.” (Source) Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela both have Mars in Libra. The chart for the Amistad slave revolt, later portrayed in the 1997 Stephen Speilberg film Amistad, also has Mars in Libra. (Chart)
For most people reading this article, the current transit of Mars in Libra is going to express itself in Libra’s favorite arena: one-to-one partnerships. Mars indicates the methods we use to solve problems. When in Libra – an air sign – Mars solves problems by clearing the air. Whatever his faults, Clinton’s marriage is not a bad example of how Mars in Libra works. One can only imagine the number of “air-clearing” discussions that he and Hilary have had to last as long as they have through all that they have.
About the Author: Matt Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or consults at his contact page.
Capricorn Sun, Leo Moon: The Jet-Setter and the A-Lister, the Glitterati and the Gold-Digger, the Showcase and the Superstar, the Dolla’ Dolla’ Bills and the Doll on Wheels (aka "the Limo Ride")
(Image: Capricorn/Leo Marlene Dietrich in The Shanghai Express available via Amazon.com)
Capricorn is the sign of the Prime Minister, the Authority Figure, the Strategist, the Business Man, the CEO, and the Tycoon. People with their Sun (conscious identity) in this sign will come to be identified with their capacity for organization, long term planning, and hard won material success. Like their animal totem the Mountain Goat, Capricorns ensure their success through taking a strategic, sure-footed, and step-by-step approach to climbing life’s mountains. This is where Capricorns get their famous executive abilities from but also their diabolical tendencies. Actress Jane Badler is a Capricorn best known for portraying the oh-so-strategic yet oh-so-diabolical Diana on the 1980s television series “V”. (Chart) These days she brings a Capricornian sense of authenticity to her role as a well-dressed, highly ambitious, and oh-so-devious businesswoman on the hit Australian soap opera Neighbors:
Sitting 150 degrees from Capricorn is Leo, the sign of the Entertainer and the Performer, the Actor and Actress, the King and the Queen, the Movie Star and the Showman, the Mistress of Ceremonies and the Professor of Super Stardom. Even the most mundane of activities will be infused with all the drama of a big budget movie premier or Broadway play when a person’s Moon (emotional needs) is in Leo (attention). Astrologer Raven Kaldera associates the Leo Moon with “Bast”, the Egyptian Cat Goddess who was the patron saint of parades and performances. (Source) Australian sprinter turned YouTube dance routine super-sensation Michelle Jenneke is a Leo Moon whose instincts (Moon) for parades and performances (Leo) have made her a viral video mega-celebrity who is to the denizens of social media what Bast was to the citizens of ancient Egypt. (Chart)
Combine the organizational capacity of a Capricorn Sun with the theatrical instincts of a Leo Moon and the result is a Sun/Moon pairing that gets down to brass tack reality (Capricorn) but with a whole lot of pizzaz (Leo), combines business mindedness (Capricorn) with creative flair (Leo), is very ambitious (Capricorn) yet also quite charismatic (Leo). This is the Sun/Moon pairing most likely to find success (Capricorn) in the entertainment (Leo) business, whether it’s amid the gratuity and glamour of Hollywood or the dropkicks and flying face-busters of the World Wresting Federation. To illustrate: Joan Weston is a Capricorn Sun, Leo Moon best known for her ability to deliver dropkicks and face-busters amid the camp glamour and gratuitous showmanship that was 1970s Roller Derby. (Chart) This pairing has a passion for both the big bucks (Capricorn Sun) and the bright lights (Leo Moon) and Weston is thought to have been the highest paid female athlete of her era. (Source) Astrologer Jefferson Anderson observes that this pairing is “much more extroverted than their fellow Capricorns”, something that Mrs. Weston’s disposition in this circa 1975 photo makes quite clear:
Derby was more fringe spectacle than legitimate sport during Weston’s heyday but lately it’s experienced something of a revival, both culturally and financially. Capricorn/Leo is a very ambitious, determined pairing that wants respect with a capital “R” more than anything else. Were she still alive, a Capricorn/Leo like Mrs. Weston would thus be thrilled that a recent Sports Illustrated article explained, “not only is the Derby thriving again, it’s downright respectable to be a doll on wheels”. (Source)
Suzi and Charles Harvey write of this pairing’s capacity to combine work (Capricorn) with high profile fun (Leo), “Women born with this combination are particularly likely to find their way to the top of their chosen mountain, but they will also find the J. Arthur Ranks, David Bowies, and Robert Blys there to party with”. (Source) The good news is that the textbook Capricorn/Leo will not only find a way to bump elbows with the glitterati, they’re also likely to arrive in a first class ride. To illustrate: using its incorporation date as its date of birth, the Bentley automobile corporation is a Capricorn Sun, Leo Moon. (Chart)
The even better news is that astrologer Carolyn Reynolds notes that the Capricorn/Leo woman can “handle her liquor”, which is always good if one is partying with the David Bowies of the world. (Source)
Capricorn and Leo form what’s known as a “quincunx”, an astrological relationship that’s as difficult to reconcile as it is to pronounce. Where Capricorn leans heavily towards the cautious and the conservative, Leo expects the regal and the extravagant. The two signs don’t have too much in common except one thing: they both want to be on the “A-List”, with Capricorn wanting to be on the A-List in the business world and Leo wanting to be on the A-List in the creative world. Linda Goodman observes of the Capricorn/Leo’s capacity for social climbing:
. . . the typical Capricorn prefers marrying up the social ladder to down. [They’re] secretly and shyly impressed by — even in awe of — fame and success, whether on a local community, national, or worldwide basis.
. . . the typical Leo realizes relatively early in life, some measure of prestige and status, some degree of public notice or social distinction.
. . . Capricorn’s “purple mountain majesties” beckon the curious Leo with the promise of a magnificent view from the top. (Source)
Using its initial flight as its date of birth, the Lockheed Martin SR-71 “Blackbird” reconnaissance plane is a Capricorn Sun, Leo Moon. (Chart) Originally introduced in 1966, the SR-71 flew higher, faster, and further than any plane before and any plane since — an amazing set of achievements given the advancements in technology of the last 60 plus years. In true Capricorn/Leo style, it existed at the top of the social ladder (Capricorn) and has enjoyed such enormous public notice (Leo) that even people outside the aviation world will often recognize its distinctive frame. The handful of pilots who’ve flown the SR-71 generally acknowledge that few planes offer a better chance to observe the world’s “purple mountain majesties” or to enjoy “magnificent views from the top” of the world. One pilot even compared it to driving a luxury automobile. (Source) The SR-71 isn’t a Bentley but it does sort of resemble a limo-ride, at least the reconnaissance world’s version of a limo-ride:
The really amazing thing about the SR-71 is that despite being nearly 60 years old, Lockheed Martin is still using it in the recruiting materials for young aeronautical engineers that they place in the pages of aviation related magazines. You could say the SR-71 is to the world of military aviation what a Bentley is to the world of luxury automobiles: a classic that never goes out of style, which is exactly how most Capricorn/Leos would like to be thought of.
Even Capricorn/Leos who find themselves in distinctly alternative professions such as astrology will find a way to do so with class, style, prestige. For instance, astrologer Noel Tyl is a Capricorn Sun, Leo Moon. (Chart) Prior to getting into astrology, Tyl was an opera singer who “specialized in the larger than life roles of Richard Wagner” his Astro.com entry tells us. In true Capricorn/Leo fashion he also worked in the business management side of opera and is now “known and respected as a lecturer in almost every major city in the U.S. and Europe”. You could go so far as to say Tyl is to the world of professional astrologers what the SR-71 is to the world of reconnaissance aircraft: a jet setting high flyer known the world round.
In his book Synthesis and Counseling in Astrology, Tyl says that in the Capricorn/Leo pairing, “the energy to organize and deploy resources is showcased for the fulfillment: self-dramatization is the mode for persuasion and the call for appreciation”. (Source)
Capricorn/Leos are naturals when it comes to management, leadership, showcasing, and self-dramatization but they can also be serious social snobs and more than a bit dictatorial. This is because both Capricorn and Leo have a streak of elitism in their DNA, with Capricorn leaning towards elitism in the financial world and Leo leaning towards elitism in the social world. The Bentley corporation, for instance, is a symbol of class and style but also financial despotism (Capricorn) and unabashed social privilege (Leo). Even the SR-71 was something of a social snob in its day. According to a recent documentary, its unique aerodynamics caused the plane to fly with its nose pointed up in the air even when it was flying straight and level, almost as though it thought it was superior to all the other aircraft beneath its vapor trails. In other words, the SR-71 often sported exactly the sort of posture we’d expect from a CEO (Capricorn) or member of royalty (Leo) who walks around with their nose in the air thinking they’re “above” everybody else — which technically the SR-71 was.
Even Capricorn/Leos squarely in the “99%” will often consider themselves a member of the “1%”, albeit one in waiting. Not coincidentally, the SR-71 flew so high that it was routinely in the upper 1% of the Earth’s atmosphere. (Source) Capricorn/Leos feel being in the 1% is safe because when you’re that high up nobody can hurt you. The SR-71 flew in the upper 1% of the atmosphere not only for purposes of spying but also because being that high up meant it was out of the range of Cold War era Russian jet fighters and surface to air missiles. From that altitude it was thus nearly impossible to shoot down. The pilots who flew the SR-71 were also considered in the upper 1% of their respective profession, generally older and much more established than their hot-shot, “Top-Gun” inspired brethren.
“In the one percent? Older and more established? Well then, what’s his phone number?” more than a few Capricorn/Leos will ask.
The SR-71 was a supersonic reconnaissance plane, not a bomber or attack aircraft. So while it was never used to kill people the U.S. did utilize its capacity to generate incredibly loud sonic booms in a distinctly Capricorn/Leo fashion: when other countries were having national events the U.S. would sometimes have a SR-71 do a supersonic flyby from tens of thousands of feet up in the air. The subsequent sonic boom would totally disrupt the event, thus letting everybody down on the ground known who the real boss is.(Source)
Capricorn/Leos are often very shrewd when it comes to money but the Harveys warn that this pairing can also be something of a gold-digger. Jill Kelley, the media savvy Tampa Bay socialite who was at the center of the Paula Broadwell/David Petreaus scandal, is a Capricorn/Leo. (Chart) More than a few commentators have characterized her as a straight up gold-digger. (Source)
Of course, there are different types of “gold diggers” — not all of them necessarily bad. A high proportion of Capricorn/Leos are the sort of gold-diggers willing to show up to the gold mine at the crack of dawn with shovel and pick in hand, more than ready to put in a hard day’s work for their gold. If they just so happen to partner with somebody who’s also really good at digging for gold then what’s so wrong with that? After all, even Mrs. Kelley had to put in a whole lot of work organizing the lavish, A-List parties she and her surgeon husband were known for throwing.
As the saying goes, “don’t hate the playa’ . . .”
Anyhow, Capricorn is the sign of the structures built to last and Leo has been associated with gold bullion so if you do find some gold and need a safe place to stash it, the house of a Capricorn/Leo might be a good spot. To illustrate: using its completion date as its date of birth, Fort Knox is a Capricorn Sun, Leo Moon. (Chart) For those who may not know, Fort Knox is the repository for the federal government’s gold supply. It was established during the Great Depression as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s plan to stabilize the nation’s collapsing economy. Capricorn/Leos do well in Hollywood and, as coincidence would have it, Fort Knox has been the subject of many Hollywood films. Most notably, it was the subject of Gold Finger, widely considered the most iconic of the James Bond films:
So long as they keep the social climbing and gold-digging to a reasonably low roar, Capricorn/Leos often posses first rate organizational acumen and a knack for raising funds on behalf of philanthropic endeavors. Better yet, this pairing knows how to keep its poise, polish, composure, and class amid even the toughest of circumstances. At a time when the economy is still mired in the most dogged recession since the 1930s and pretty much everybody seems to be going through a giant collective mental breakdown, this pairing’s combination of backbone (Capricorn Sun) and self-assurance (Leo Moon) might be worth more than all the gold in the world.
About the Author: Matt Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or consults at his contact page.
Sagittarius Sun, Scorpio Moon: The Commando Carpe Noctem
Combine the conscious awareness (Sun) in the sign of crusades (Sagittarius) with the unconscious instincts (Moon) in the sign of the underworld (Scorpio) and you get a Sun/Moon pairing that’s fervent, intense, and who will live life infused with a spirit of terrifyingly high stakes adventure. A free-wheeling scholar (Sagittarius) of the shadows (Scorpio Moon) at its best or a fanatical archer (Sagittarius) of darkness (Scorpio Moon) at its worst, this pairing is more than willing to go to great lengths for great causes, with a minority of less evolved Sadge/Scorpios even willing to risk the well being of others as well. According to astrologer Wendell C Perry, for Sagittarius/Scorpio “it’s a matter of you against the world, and the world had better watch out”. (Source) To illustrate: Using its incorporation date as its date of birth, the insurance company American International Group (AIG) is a Sagittarius Sun, Scorpio Moon whose financial super-soldiering (Sagittarius) nearly doomed the world economy to the underworld (Scorpio Moon). (Chart)
Most people think of AIG as simply the large insurance company whose failed derivative schemes put the livelihood of the entire world economy at risk during the collapse of 2008. The reality is that the company’s back story is far more complicated than anything that can be represented on actuarial tables or argued on the floor of Congress. For starters, AIG has been heavily involved in covert military operations since its inception. A year 2000 Los Angeles Times article entitled “The Secret Agent (Insurance) Man” traced the company’s involvement with “shadow wars” all the way back to at least World War II:
Newly declassified U.S. intelligence files tell the remarkable story of the ultra-secret Insurance Intelligence Unit, a component of the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA, and its elite counterintelligence branch X-2.
. . . the unit mined standard insurance records for blueprints of bomb plants, timetables of tide changes and thousands of other details about targets . . . “They used insurance information as a weapon of war,” said Greg Bradsher, a historian and National Archives expert on the declassified records.
The men behind the insurance unit were OSS head William “Wild Bill” Donovan and California-born insurance magnate Cornelius V. Starr. Starr had started out selling insurance to Chinese in Shanghai in 1919 and, over the next 50 years, would build what is now American International Group . . . (Source)
As globalization has spread since World War II the connections between the insurance industry and overseas military expeditions have only deepened. AIG, for instance, has been the go-to insurer for the private mercenary companies that have flourished in Iraq since the U.S. led invasion in 2003. (Source)
That a seemingly boring insurance company like AIG would be so involved in covert operations and mercenary work is not as counter-intuitive as it seems when you remember that the symbols for both Sagittarius and Scorpio involve armaments. Sagittarius is symbolized by a Centaur Archer armed with a bow and quiver of flaming arrows ready to be fired at far-off targets. Scorpio is symbolized by three animals, each a deadly predator capable of surviving in extreme environments: the Scorpion armed with its stinger; the Snake armed with its venomous fangs; and the Eagle armed with its talons. With the glyphs for both signs so heavily armed, the Sagittarius/Scorpio combination is poised for a life ferocious confrontations, whether upon actual battlefields or (more likely) legal, political, and financial ones.
Astrologer Linda Goodman says the ruthlessness with which Robin Hood redistributed wealth from the rich to the poor leads her to believe he was a noble-minded Sagittarius/Scorpio. (Source) If there’s one thing the bailout of 2008 proved it’s that AIG is something of a modern day Robin Hood minus the noble intentions, one who steals from the poor and gives to the rich with every bit as much ruthlessness as the legendary archer did the reverse. AIG agents may not run around in tights or on horses like Robin Hood and his merry men but they are responsible for insuring the kevlar-clad military contractors who fly around the oil fields of the Middle East, the modern day equivalent of the forests of Nottingham:
According to a study by ProPublica, from 2003-2008 AIG made an underwriting gain of $500 million from insuring these “merry men”, all of which was picked up by the American taxpayers.
Using its initial publication date as its date of birth, the reality based comic book The Activity is also a Sagittarius Sun, Scorpio Moon. (Chart) According to a recent ABC News piece, The Activity is based on the Pentagon’s most secretive unit: the Intelligence Support Activity (“ISA”) aka “The Activity”, a U.S. Army unit vastly more secretive than the Navy Seals, Delta Force and other compartmentalized outfits that have garnered so much media attention in recent years. Informed observers seem to think ISA members are tasked with “snatch and grab” missions, sanitizing botched operations, and engaging in the most intensely ferocious forms of extrajudicial direct action. (Source) The comic book, while technically fictional, is meticulously researched by its creators and reported to ring true among the few individuals familiar with the ISA’s “activities”. (Source) They may run around corners of world as dark as the forests of Nottingham but merry men (and women) they are not:
Marital artist turned film star Bruce Lee is also a Sagittarius Sun, Scorpio Moon. (Chart) Lee was neither an insurance agent working to defeat Hitler or a covert operative assigned to potentially lethal missions but his life was infused with the type intensity normally reserved for such endeavors. Lee left a widow at the young age of 32 following a death as shrouded in mystery as any AIG or ISA operation.
Sagittarius/Scorpios are also known to venture forth on intellectual and philosophical expeditions as all-consuming as military crusades. For instance, using its original publication date as its date of birth, the Encyclopedia Brittanica is a Sagittarius/Scorpio. (Chart) Lee too had an encyclopedic knowledge of martial arts and was as consumed with philosophy as he was with actually fighting. He may not have been a “merry man” but, unlike American International Group, he did pair a sense of ethics (Sagittarius) with passion (Scorpio).
About the Author: Matt Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults at his contact page.
South Node in Aries, North Node in Libra: From Recklessness, Rage, and Refusing to Back Down to Romance, Relationships, and Relating to the Other (Astrology of Star Trek: First Contact)
In a person’s chart, the South Node is the primary indicator of past life karma. It indicates what skills a person is bringing into this life but also how they screwed things up in their past lives, be those actual past lives or simply useful metaphoric narratives for the early parts of this life. When the South Node is in Aries, the person has spent many lifetimes as a Warrior. They’re naturally good at all things Aries: kicking ass, breaking free, and fighting back. They’re also prone to falling prey to Aries’ dark side: recklessness, rage, being ruled by inflamed passions and refusing to ever back down. These are also ways they’re most likely to self-destruct in this life should they stay stuck in their South Node. Their karmic mission is to embrace their North Node in Libra, the sign of romance, relationships, and relating to “the other”.
Films are an excellent tool to understand one’s Nodal Axis. Just run a chart for the film the way you would for yourself or another person. The villain and/or crisis will line up with the film’s South Node while the resolution and/or hero will line up with the North Node.
If you want to understand the Aries South Node/Libra North Node axis there is probably no better film to watch than Star Trek: First Contact. Released (born) on 11/22/1996, the film’s South Node is at 6 degrees Aries. (Chart) The film picks up six years after an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Captain Picard was kidnapped, assimilated, and severely traumatized by the Borg, a species of space faring techno-fascists. In First Contact, he chases the Borg back in time 300 years to get his revenge, the exact thing somebody with their South Node in Aries is supposed to be getting away from:
With the film’s South Node in Aries (war) and South Node ruler Mars in Virgo (slavery/shame), the first objective of Captain Picard’s karmic mission is to release his need to go to war against those who enslaved, shamed, and traumatized him. He can’t do that, however, without assistance from “the other” (Libra). In this case “the other” is Lilly, a woman from earth’s past who confronts Picard on how selfishly destructive (Aries) his actions are. Libra loves to get dressed up and go out partner dancing so maybe it’s fitting that the rage-fueled incident Lilly refers to in the above scene takes place inside a high class night club earlier in the film:
The film has Saturn (repression) conjunct the South Node, indicative of particularly heavy burdens being brought over from past incarnations. According to astrologer Celeste Teal, “This is potentially the hardest past life influence from which to escape. It is easy for these individuals to become stuck in the past . . .” (Source) The first 20 seconds of the film’s trailer will give you a sense for just how difficult Saturn/South Node experiences can be to escape from.
Saturn is associated with leadership capabilities and getting down to brass tack reality so there is some upside to this placement. In First Contact, for instance, Captain Picard displays plenty of realism (Saturn) in regards to fighting (Aries) the Borg, his foes from a symbolic past life (South Node).
People with their South Node (past lives) in Aries (courage, confrontation) are often fixated on defeating their adversaries, who are usually more powerful than themselves. No matter how noble and just their cause(s) may be, Aries South Node people will fail to win their battles until they learn to cooperate with others. In First Contact Captain Picard’s fixation on defeating the Borg is certainly a noble one, comparable to taking on an entity that is one part Monsanto, one part Microsoft, and one part the National Security Agency. Yet he is unable to prevail until he takes Lilly’s advice to release his fixation on winning. Once he does the humans of the past are able to launch the first warp capable vessel which gets the attention of the Vulcans, their nearest neighbors. The Vulcans then come to visit the humans in a fabulous cinematic example of Libra’s desire to make contact with “the other”:
In Star Trek lore the meeting of the humans and Vulcans depicted above ushers in 200 plus years of peace and partnership, the ultimate objective of Libra.
A film’s chart not only describes the plot of the film but also the production process and casting decisions. Part of what made Star Trek: First Contact great was the performance of actress Alfred Woodard, a black woman, who was cast as an equally powerful counterbalance to Patrick Stewart, a white man.
This is no coincidence. At its highest expression Libra is the sign that understands not only the need for balance between aggression and reconciliation but also balance between the genders and races.
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Copyright Matthew David Savinar, 2013
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