Madonna: "Like a Virgin" and Virgo Rising

Birth Chart Reading by KittyTaurus

Looking at Madonna's birth chart (below left), one is struck immediately by its depiction of a person who brings out into the open that which most people seek to keep hidden; who crosses boundaries between public and private, secret and revealed. Madonna's Sun, symbolizing her ego and need to shine, is dignified in the sign it rules: wilful, proud, showy Leo -- a fire sign which best expresses the Sun's will to shine, to express the self. Natives of Leo are set in their ways and will brook no opposition when they make up their minds to do something (or someone). In Madonna's chart, the Leo Sun sheds an uncharacteristically bright light on the actions of the twelfth house, known as the house of that which we keep most hidden, which we fear to reveal. It is a house of fantasies, delusions, religion, imprisonment, sorrow and sometimes self-undoing.

It's not difficult to see the way Madonna brings her Leo urge to express herself creatively and take pleasure to the parts of the individual and collective psyche which conventional society most hates and fears: sexuality, especially female sexual power and (Leonine) drive and occasionally (12th house of suffering, bondage and self-undoing) sadomasochism; religion; and, most threatening of all, the merging of the two. Madonna also has her Uranus, ruling unconventionality and the urge for freedom or rebellion, is also in Leo in the 12th, indicating that these urges to self-expression are bound up with a desire to shock -- again in the flamboyant, creative manner of Leo and caught up in 12th-house matters.

Madonna's tendency to be direct where others are secretive is echoed by her Virgo Ascendant, conjunct to her Moon in Virgo in the 1st. Virgo rising is usually shy, with a biting wit, and a tendency to be critical of oneself and others. But Madonna's Moon, ruling her emotions, in the 1st indicates that it is extremely important for her to express her feelings and that her emotions are a tremendous part of her personality and the way she expresses herself. (The moon also symbolizes the way one sees one's mother; Madonna's Moon conjunction to her Ascendant signifies that her image of her mother -- who was also named Madonna -- is very closely bound up with her desired image of herself. Madonna has often stressed the formative impact of her mother's early death upon her in her early life.) And in the Aries-tinged way of the 1st house, her way of expressing her emotions can be impetuous, impulsive to the point of selfishness.

Still, with this planet in Virgo, it's clear that her desire to shine constantly is combined with a cool and collected exterior, appearing at any given moment to be anything but passionate and impulsive. It's suggestive of this placement that though she made an entire film designed to provide a revealing look at her, the critical complaints about "Truth or Dare" centered around the fact that the image she presented seemed totally packaged, staged in a calculating, characteristically Virgoan way. Despite her outrageousness, Madonna was clearly a control freak, orchestrating her image with something like a leash on media perceptions.

Indeed, Madonna's Mercury in Virgo in the 12th (dignified, like her Sun), ruler of her Virgo Ascendant and Moon, signifies her behind-the-scenes mental machinations, controlling in a meticulous Virgo way her image (Ascendant) and display of emotions (Moon). Her mental control is very tightly bound to her way of projecting herself, since Mercury not only rules the Ascendant but is conjunct to it with just over a one-degree orb. But since a reticent sign like Virgo in the 12th house takes action almost entirely backstage, controlling but not expressing itself like the Leo Sun, Madonna's iron-fisted control of her own public image was took a while for the public to perceive (until she was constantly in the spotlight), and it's often been remarked that image-wise, she always manages to seem miraculously one step ahead of the game, orchestrating subtle or dramatic style and image shifts for herself which defy media stereotyping and criticisn of her. Again, her Uranus in Leo in the 12th adds to her ability to invent dramatic new roles at will, exhuming new regions of her unconscious fantasy life, whenever she feels confined by her present persona.

With her Venus in an earlier degree of Leo in the 11th house of peers, public opinion, friends and acquaintances, and progressive or alternative beliefs and tastes, Madonna's affections and values are largely bound up with public opinion and approval, the need to be a star; she may be better in a group or crowd, or onscreen, than she is in one-to-one relationships where her maginified personality, seen close-up, seems disproportionate. While her Moon in the 1st house may give her an emotional urge for constant partnership (the 1st house opposes the 7th house of partnership; a Pisces 7th house such as Madonna's is often dreamy and in love with love more than the actual partner), her Venus placement may make the actual demands of an intimate relationship difficult for her to fulfill. While loyal, she has a tendency toward detachment and selfishness (especially with her impulsive, self-centered Aries Moon).

Madonna's Mars, planet of drive (including sex drive) and modus operandi, is intercepted in earthy, sensual Taurus in the 9th house of higher learning, philosophy, religion (that sex/religion thing again) and long-distance travel. Taurus in the 9th house is a rather uncomfortable earth/fire combination and suggests how Madonna can be on one level very set in her ways and stubborn, yet on another constantly changing and seeking, flexible enough to deal with the demands of touring around the world. Mars's square to Uranus signifies that Madonna is constantly driven to challenge hersef to do the new and unexpected. Its trine to her Virgo Moon shows that her emotions flow easily into what she does and into her sexual encounters.

Madonna's Jupiter, planet of opportunity and expansion, in Libra, sign of aesthetics and the arts, in the 2nd house of money and values shows the great prosperity her musical and even acting career (though mainly in the form of videos), as well as her looks, have brought her. Her Saturn in Sagittarius shows that her father may have represented religious or ideological principles; its placement in the 4th house, house of domesticity and nurturing (traditionally representing the mother) shows how Madonna's father was both father and mother to her; her mother, though she identified strongly with her (Moon conjunct Ascendant), died early and was not the primary nurturer in Madonna's life. (Her Sagittarius 4th house also shows how she can be comfortable travelling the world without being tied down to any one set home.)

Saturn also shows where one feels limited, repressed or constricted -- the paternal/patriarchal shadow we all struggle to emerge from under. Its placement in ideological, religious Sagittarius in the 4th house of home, family and early life shows all too clearly how Madonna has pushed herself throughout her life to overcompensate for the repression she felt in her strict religious upbringing. Yet Jupiter, ruler of her Sagittarius 4th house, in her 2nd house of values, suggests that Madonna also took her religious upbringing to heart in a positive way, and that it had a formative impact on her value system. Madonna's values incorporate her religious upbringing, but in what she hopes is a fairer, more egalitarian way (Jupiter in Libra in the 2nd, also suggesting that she appreciates the aesthetic sensibilities of her religious upbringing -- as evidenced by her frequent use of Catholic imagery in her work). Sagittarius is also the sign of long-distance travel, and its rulership of Madonna's 4th house suggests that she is perfectly "at home" with travelling the world, even if her schedule is grueling and demanding (Saturn).

The powerful outer planets, Neptune and Pluto, complete (as much as possible in this cursory analysis) the picture of Madonna as a woman with a singular need for power and self-expression in realms most people prefer to leave secret or hidden. Neptune, first, planet of fantasies, delusions, and deception (and natural ruler of the 12th house which, as we've seen, is very important in Madonna's chart), is intercepted in Scorpio -- sign of sexuality and of the mysteries of life, death and rebirth --in her 3rd house of communication (and early education -- one is reminded of stories of Madonna in Catholic school, hanging upside down on the junglegym so the boys could see her underwear). Clearly Madonna feels a great urge to communicate her sexual fantasies (Neptune rules her 8th house, naturally ruled by Scorpio) , but still manages to retain an aura of glamour or mystery about what she's really saying or what her sexuality is. Only Madonna, with her strong Neptune/ Pisces/ 12th house influence, could publish a book of pictures and text of herself naked and living out wild sexual fantasies, and still manage to cultivate an air of mystery or glamour around her sexuality. Neptune can also sometimes serve as a gloss -- its deluding effects providing a smokescreen for the affairs of the house, and may account for Madonna's remarkable ability to keep getting away with controversial lyrics, remarks, etc. that would kill another performer's career.

Ruling Madonna's Scorpio 3rd house of communication is Pluto, ruler of such Scorpionic issues as death, regenerative change, sexuality in the most primal sense (the "id"), and the urge to power. Pluto conjuncts Madonna's Ascendant and Mercury in the 12th house, showing that the urge for power and control (Pluto is in obsessive-compulsive Virgo) lies behind the image she carefully projects. Again we see the canny, calculating need for iron-fisted control that lies behind Madonna's apparently impulsive, spontaneous emotional and stylistic whims (Moon in 1st). Though she may change partners and fashions almost constantly, she never seems to lose control of her image or career plan -- bad publicity only serves her hidden (12th house) purposes. The exes and wanna-bes who badmouth her (12th house rules hidden enemies) only seem to give her power and attention (Mercury, Pluto, Ascendant).

As Madonna prepares for the birth of her child, she may be headed for not only another dramatic public image turnaround (Leo rules both childbearing and the spotlight) but a fundamental restructuring of her emotional life, her way of nurturing and being nurtured. As Pluto moves through her 4th house, perhaps she will be able to bring some of her childhood pain to the surface and transform it into a more positive way of nurturing herself and her child (though with her Capricorn 5th house, Madonna may be rather an emotionally distant mom, too busy gaining worldly power to give her child much attention).

When Madonna announced her pregnancy on April 18, 1996, the Sun and Moon were both in Aries (both Aries and the New Moon, or Sun/Moon conjunction, signifying new beginnings) in her 8th house of change, transformation and support from the public. Her pregnancy certainly initiated a transition in public opinion -- just as attention for her sex-symbol (8th house) persona was starting to wane, she received a fresh surge of support from the press and public. With Jupiter in Capricorn in her 5th this year, do I really have to spell out how she's experienced luck and growth in issues relating to childbearing? Outer planets Uranus and Neptune in her 4th house signify the radical change (and perhaps self-delusion) in Madonna's home life as she transforms her sense of emotional and domestic security. Neptune's placement here may signify that her public mystique has shifted from being a sex symbol to an intriguing mother figure. Of course, as Uranus and Neptune move into her 5th house, she'll have to deal with change and the unexpected in terms of her child -- as well as how she shines in the (5th house) spotlight of being a star, and how she enjoys herself. It'll be interesting to see how Madonna, as she undoubtedly will, manages to negotiate a new public image for herself and to put energy into this new phase of her life. Stay tuned.

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