Today has seen the ingress of the sun into Leo, its domicile and the place where it, the biggest and brightest of the astrological planets, shines brightest.
To mark the occasion, we have two movies that could not be more different, released simultaneously in a mashup called “Barbenheimer,” which was only as probable as the extremes they visually represent. Barbie, a bubble-gum shiny commentary on social gender roles, pops in bright colors and is set in Venice Beach–very appropriate for a movie released in Leo season! Margot Robbie plays the title role, and Ryan Gosling plays her sidekick Ken.
Opposite Barbie is Oppenheimer, a biopic about the leader of the Manhattan Project, J. Roger Oppenheimer. Such a dour topic, and much of the movie itself is shot in black-and-white! The star of the movie is Cillian Murphy. Barbie came out the clear winner at the box office this weekend, roughly doubling the take of movie about the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But why? Here’s a quick dive into the astrology:
The directors of Barbie and Oppenheimer, Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan, respectively, are both Leos. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling each have their nodes along the Leo/Aquarius axis, while Cillian Murphy has the malefic of Mars in Leo. With the ingress of the sun into Leo and Venus beginning its retrograde station later in the sign one should expect that such an opening day should be good for filmmakers and subjects which have luminaries and benefics in Leo, and other planets making soft aspects like trines and sextiles to the same. Both Nolan and Murphy having Mars in Leo represent challenges, while Murphy’s Saturn in late Cancer brings the cold to the sun which is trying to bring its warmth.
Meanwhile, what of Gerwig’s, Robbie’s, and Gosling’s charts? The co-stars have Mars in late Aries and Sagittarius, to which transiting Venus makes a soft trine, and Gerwig’s sun is not only copresent with the transiting sun and Venus, but the former also makes soft trine to her domiciled Jupiter in Sagittarius, which is conjunct electric Uranus in her chart.
What of the subjects of the movies themselves? Oppenheimer’s chart has some harmony and some conflict with the current astrological conditions: the sun’s ingress into Leo is never as sunny for Aquarian Saturn natives, yet his chart has Venus applying to Jupiter in Aries receiving sign-based trines from Venus. Oppenheimer’s Venus and Jupiter, it should be noted, are both in septile to Saturn–unsurprising for someone who brings into the world a fireball weapon of near-infinite power.
Barbie, for her part, was “born” on March 9, 1959. We don’t have a time but she likely first appeared in the morning, making hers a day chart. She was born around a new moon in late-ish Pisces, with her Jupiter conjunct Gerwig’s in Sagittarius, making the sun’s Leo ingress helpful to Barbie as well. Meanwhile, Barbie’s Uranus is in Leo, very close to where Venus will station direct in September. Though transiting Saturn is in the sign of her sun and moon–a problematic time for the native–right now it’s exactly sextile her natal Saturn in Capricorn. She has problems just like everyone else, but she’s going to keep doing her thing! Meanwhile, her sun and moon make an energizing grand trine to Robbie’s and Gosling’s Marses in late Scorpio and late Cancer.
All told, this Leo ingress was much more favorable for the director, lead actors, and subject of the movie Barbie, and less so for the director, lead actor, and subject of the movie Oppenheimer. The box office reflects this, and–with both equally-well-reviewed movies by critics and audiences being released on the same day–suggests a zeitgeist favorable to one movie over the other, and “zeitgeist” is not much of a different idea than astrological conditions.
Looking for an astrological perspective on your own situation, whether a movie release or otherwise? Feel free to reach out for a consultation!
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