My mother purchased Essence magazine,?Black Women in Hollywood: A Salute To Trailblazers At The Oscars?in late March. ?I have kept this blog all to myself for the last three months.? With the current movement of Venus in Leo, it is time to honor these women.
Looking for inspiration almost always Angela Bassett (Leo/Morning Star Aquarius) on the cover made me pause. ?With a retrograde Mercury in Aries and Scorpio Mood/Moon, I realized that let?s talk Venus. Goddess of Love, Art and Value must also bless her children who most resemble the earth. ?Intersectionality (black and female) abounds. Let?s talk Evening Star (collective/lover/other-directed) in conforming Capricorn until October 25, 2018. Black women have carried us (our entire nation). ?To be an artist is to touch one?s nobility. After all, in the historical aspects of astrology, Leo symbolizes the monarchy which had the resources to be artists (or be benefactors to them). Venus is in Leo until Monday July 9. ?The Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana from July 5-8 happens with these last days of Artistic Venus in Noble/Expressive Leo! There is no better time to honor the dignified artistry of these women!
VENUS STAR & YORUBA TRADITIONS
The Morning Star face of Venus will accentuate the embodiment of the trailblazer side of these women. ?While the Evening Star face of Venus emphasizes the ?go along, to get along? side. Both are valid, and we contain both in our Venus Star Points. ?As oppressed women of color regardless of which star or sign they are born, the responsibility to clear a path is at least implied. Carrying the intersectionality of two oppressions demands the energy of the determined introvert, Ogun, Yoruba Orisha (nature spirit) who made a path with his machete through the jungles of Niger. (It was Oshun, the Venus of this pantheon, who brought Ogun back into civilization. ?Any conscious oppressed person (and they are not weighted) knows that their warrior and lover energies must be in balance. Retreat is not synonymous with weakness.
Each of the following quotes are from the magazine article Black Women in Hollywood: A Salute to Trailblazers in Hollywood. ?Then I will associate it with their Sun sign and their Venus Star Point (Personal Passion Points). My goal is to weave a story of how culture, race, gender and artistry create the foundations that make our lives worth living, collectively and individually. ?I will follow the magazine from its beginning.
MS (Morning Star) begins with a retrograde invisible Venus closest to the Earth
ES (Evening Star) begins with a direct invisible Venus farthest from the Earth
BEST ACTRESS
Dorothy Dandridge (11.9.22/Scorpio/ES 20 Aquarius; age 15 changed to MS 3 Sagittarius) ?This Carmen Jones triple threat actress/dancer/singer said ?I cannot play a slave?. In law school my Aquarius ES would not read property law school cases before 1863 because my people were legal chattel.. ?I passed the course anyway. We can be rebellious for cause or not (sometimes both).
Diana Ross (3.26.44/Aries MS 13 Virgo) Double threat actress/singer speaks for the warrior Morning Star in pragmatic/conscientious Virgo & pioneering/visionary Aries Sun: ??Instead of always looking at the past, I put myself ahead 20 years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there.? Please note Aquarius Stars (her South Node/a past life symbol) incites Virgo stars to evolve, soulfully. ?Hey, maybe you can hurry love, huh, Ms. Ross? Or, I?d prefer to say my love for Aries is endless?
Cicely Tyson (12.18.24/MS 10 Cancer) Known for Sounder under a Venus Star return (which can bring acknowledgement for one?s artistry, 1972) Ms. Tyson said, ?If, in fact, I have, in some way, been the inspiration for any of them I will feel that I have accomplished what I set out to do, and that is to break the mold and the concept that limits people?s vision of what we, as black women, black actresses, could do in this business ??Please note the universality of her quote (Sag Sun conjunct Jupiter & waning/crisis in societal consciousness Moon in Virgo)…that is, it is whom she represents, not only about her?Ms. Tyson?s Moon in Virgo would also accentuate her personal passion for precision as a character actor too.
Diahann Carroll (7.17.35/ES 26 Scorpio) Claudine, promoted in 1974 as a ?heart and soul comedy. Can you dig it?? ?Her quote is ?What is a diva? Someone who?s wearing too much makeup? Who is demanding? Please. [It?s] about doing the best work you can possibly do. ?Naturally that involved an awful lot of planning financially in other areas so that you could say, ?No, I don?t think I?ll be able to play that role??. Sun shares space with psychologically and power driven Pluto in Cancer. ?Notice that she shares a Scorpio Star with ?I cannot play a slave? Dorothy Dandridge (at age 15 when Ms. Carroll was born). Please realize that the shift from Aquarius to Scorpio births our revolutaries (quiet and loud, cause or without cause).
Whoopi Goldberg (11.13.55/ES 9 Virgo) Bringing the two most misunderstood signs together creates a nuanced complexity which is exemplified in her quote, ?It?s not that people [doing the] nominating are too white…The problem is, the people who can be helping to make movies that have Blacks and latinos and Women, that money doesn?t come to you, because the idea is that there is no place for Black movies. ?There has never been a plethora of Black movies made. People believe we don?t want to see movies with Black People in them. Until you start making movies like The Avengers where you see more than 70 White folks saving the Earth…because I would like to be one of those people saving the Earth, but they aren?t coming to me.? Her role as Miss Celie in The Color Purple pays homage to the Virgo submission and Scorpio taboo?s of sexuality (her character experienced her first shared orgasm with a woman) and domestic violence. ?Ms. Goldberg won Best Supporting Actress for Ghost in 1996.
Halle Berry (8.14.66/MS 6 Aquarius) The expression axis is Leo/Aquarius and Ms. Berry said ?don?t take yourself too seriously. ?Know when to laugh at yourself. And find a way to laugh at obstacles that inevitably present themselves?. Heart and head united in expressing wisdom that transcends whatever medium she finds herself. ?Thanks. I suspect Ms. Bassett (Leo/MS Aquarius) will say something similar.
Angela Bassett ?(8.16.58/MS 9 Aquarius) takes us into the beauty of the head/heart connection this very expressive and progressive axis of Sun in Leo and Venus Star in Aquarius. ?She said, ?Yes, I could act anywhere—at church or locally. But what I won?t do is degrade myself just for the sake of working. Institutionalized slavery is over, but images that degrade, they live on forever. ?So, what now we know what love indeed has to do with it. Another Aquarius Star speaking passionately regarding universal truths.
Gabourey Sidibe (5.6.83/ES 12 Scorpio) Taurus/Scorpio axis is about security and worth found within and without. ?Ms. Sidibe underscores this through saying ?I finally figured out that I was worth something despite not looking the part, based on mainstream standards of beauty. ?Ultimately, inner beauty and self-worth is what is what it?s all all about. I truly believe that if you?re open and welcoming, the blessings will come my life is a testament to that.? ?This very personal quote is really indicative of a Scorpio star when it consciously works through a Taurus Sun that states: ?I have my physical body as my first possession?). I adore you, Precious (2009, her major screen debut with evolutionary MS Aries Star lighting her Scorpio star to fame and a long lasting career.)
Viola Davis (8.11.65/ES 23 Aries) ?Ms. Davis knows how to set us on fire and tell us something good in the process. Nominated for The Help in 2011, she embodies an ideal of the regal pioneering spirit, often found in woke Leo individuals. ??As Black women, we?re always given these seemingly devastating experiences—experiences that could absolutely break us. But what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly. ?What we do as Black women is take the worst situations and create from that point.? Her double fire/spirit/inspirational influence shows how to transform our culture, much like her quote about the caterpillar and butterfly. ?She changes us through showing up. Evening Stars are often very much about thinking collectively. Ms. Davis speaks on the behalf of ?Black women?, not just herself. Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Doubt in 2008. Won Best Supporting Actress for Fences in 2016.
Quvenzhane Wallis (8.28.2003/ES 26 Leo) Ms. Wallis is a child triple threat singer/dancer/actor who said ?I?m thankful for my family, my friends and my blessings. ?The oldest (sibling) likes to dance, the second oldest is a comedian, the third oldest is a singer and then there?s me: Singer, Dancer, Actor.? Know that her Sun & Venus Star are connected, expect her to shine for long time.
Ruth Negga (1.7.82/ES 18 Aries changing to MS 2 Aquarius at age 14) Another Venus retrograde like Dorothy Dandridge who would not play a slave and Ms. Negga said ?people have always made assumptions about me. ?I become very territorial about my identity because it?s been hijacked by so many people with their own projections.? Independent, woke and refusing to accept or play to other?s expectations. Keep inspiring us, Ruth!
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Never shrinking violets, these women gratefully make memorable roles come to life yet ensure their lead counterparts get a chance to shine
Hattie McDaniel (6.10.1895/ES 9 Sagittarius) ?As Ms. McDaniels two mutable (twin) signs suggest, she gets two quotes: ??Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn?t, I?d be making $7 a week being one.? Solar Gemini is left hemisphere practical, as linear thought is amoral. ?Each lawyer spends time as a student distinguishing what is legal and moral. Law school is a brainwashing process.
Ethel Waters (10.31.1896/ES 18 Cancer) Ms. Waters was a double threat as a blues singer. ?Her Passion Point in Cancer (abstract and other directed) connects to this quote ?I won all my battles on that picture. ?But like many other performers, I was to discover that winning arguments in Hollywood is costly. Six years were to pass before I could get another job?. ?There is a fiery gut brain focus with a Cancer Evening Star.
Juanita Moore (10.19.14/ES 23 Aquarius moving to MS 5 Sagittarius at age 39). ?This Imitation of LIfe actor (where her daughter passed a white is a classic). She said, ?the oscar prestige was fine, but I worked before I was nominated. ?Casting director think an oscar nominee is suddenly in another category. They couldn?t possibly ask you to one or two days work.? Revolutionary and futuristic Aquarius Star strikes again.
Beah Richards (7.12.1920/ES 12 Cancer) Nominated for Guess Who?s Coming to Dinner, Sidney Poitier’s mother. ?She wrote A Black Woman Speaks which begins this way: It is right that I a woman black/Should speak of of white womanhood/My husbands, my fathers, my brothers/My sons die for it/They said, the white supremacists said/That you were better than me/That your fair brow should never know/The sweat of slavery. ?Note that her Personal Passion Point exactly aligns with the Sun of the United States. We need and desire her passion to aid in our country?s evolution.
Enter Alfre Woodard (11.8.52/ES 4 Cancer) Yet another ES, abstractly passionate for home, family and belonging. ?Scorpio Sun seek to create family through marriage and business partnerships. Ms. Woodward said, ?That?s why we?re here. ?It is our insistence on being present and being heard. It is exciting but it is more exciting for the public. Not just for Brown girls and boys seeing us, but for Yellow and Red and White girls and Black kids seeing us as well, because it?s their world.? ?Realize that Jupiter (universal themes and higher thought/faith) gets its power from Cancer. Thanks, Ms. Woodard for enlightening our spirits and souls. Her Venus Star aligns to the Venus and Jupiter of the United States.
Oprah Winfrey (1.29.54/ES 10 Aquarius) Otherworldly and abstract communicator, Ms. Winfrey has what Ms. Guttman (author of Venus Star Rising and this cosmology) a Triple Crown (Venus, Sun & Venus Star in Aquarius). ?She is a moral compass of our country (yet an rule bending Aquarian could only pull off without having been married or a parent?) She said ?I will tell you that I know that all things are connected. I know that is true and that?s just not not mumbo jumbo spiritual rhetoric. ?I know that that are. I know that the force that is God is also part of every living thing and everything has also lived. I feel within me and have always felt; from the time I was reciting Sojourner [Truth] and Margaret Walker and Fannie Lou Hamer, I always felt the spirit of those women abiding in me?. ?Aquarius? key phrase is ?I know?. It is feed by Cancer Star?s keyphrase ?I feel?. Ya feel me? Mic be dropped…
Margaret Avery (1.20.44/MS 13 Virgo) ?Playing love interest to Mister and Ms. Celie in The Color Purple, I remember her line ?I?s married now?, to her judgmental preacher father (redundant?). ?She is quoted, ?As a Black woman in Hollywood what this has meant to me: in The Color Purple Shug Avery gave Celie a sense of self-worth. The Color Purple has given Margaret Avery a sense of self-worth?.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste (4.26.67/ES 17 Scorpio) was nominated for Secrets and LIes in 1996 said, ?I can?t tell you why I?ve not been invited to a party. ?You need to go to the host and say, ?Why didn?t you invite her to the party??? Practical Taurus merges with psychological Scorpio to form this extremely insightful question. ?This security driven axis of Taurus/Scorpio is sharp and clear about the boundaries and responsibilities within all relationships.
Queen Latifah nee Dana Owens (3.18.70/ES 5 Aquarius) combines the best of transpersonal signs of Pisces and Aquarius. ?Nominated for Chicago in 2002, she said ?There is an audacity in considering yourself a queen. Not a lady, not a duchess. ?A queen. It?s an elevated status that requires you to be more.? A Metal Dog also accentuates her need to be a helpful person to others aka ?to rule is to serve?, your highness. ?I bow.
Sophie Okonedo (8.11.68/ES 30 Gemini) was nominated for Hotel Rwanda in 2004, Gemini Star year (usually prosperous and expansive to your personal growth). ?She said, ? I think you have to start with the stories. If the writers all come from the same backgrounds,you are going to get the same sorts of characters. ?Get a broader variety of writers and you get a bigger range of stories.? Gemini Stars have a passion for making connections with many different types of people and experiences. ?Leo would recognize these patterns from their hearts. She continued, ?one of the things I have noticed in America is that so much more time goes into script development.?
Jennifer Hudson aka J-Hud (9.12.81/ES 18 Aries) won Best Supporting Actress in Dreamgirls is quoted as saying, ?Jesus, I got to say it again, it just feels like God?s favor, I really have no words. ?I just appreciate that people even think I?m worthy of something like this. It?s an honor and I?m just happy to be here, to be a part of it, to have been in the movie, just to get the part was the regard for me, and this—this awards season– is the golden icing on the cake.? ?The Virgo humility coupled with the Aries Passion for topping oneself…I salute you, J-Hud.
Ruby Dee (10.27.22/ES 20 Aquarius changed into MS 3 Sagittarius at age 28) was born as Venus went into retrograde. ?Aquarius Stars already go against societal and family expectations, Scorpio Stars makes these tendencies even more personal and deeper. ?She said, ?I have an incredible feeling of Thanksgiving (Sag holiday). When I feel like complaining, I remember how blessed I am to have been married to Ossie?. ?She was nominated for her role in American Gangster in 2007.
Taraji P. Henson (9.11.70/ES 5 Aquarius) this versatile actor was nominated in 2008 for The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons. ?She said, ?I?m satisfied with this path because I was clear. I didn?t compare myself to people. People said, ?this is gonna change everything for you.? ?I?m glad I didn?t believe that hype, I never got caught up in that stuff. I just stayed the course and worked hard and every role I did. I put my everything into it. ?Everything that I did got me here, and I wouldn?t change it or trade it for the world.? Detailed Virgo Sun aligned with a large communal vision of an Aquarius Venus Star. ?I love her even more (and I didn?t know that was possible).
Mo?Nique (12.11.67/MS 6 Virgo) won for Precious in 2009. ?This comedienne turned actor is quoted pays homage to the trailblazers through saying, ?Do you know I keep a picture Hattie McDaniel in my closet in a 8-by-10 frame? ?As I?m looking at her right now, it looks like her smile is shifting. Yes, I?m talking about you, Miss Hattie McDaniel! (Laughs) What that woman had to endure was criticism from the white community and the black community. ?She didn?t have options to say, ?No, I?m not going to accept that, because she was an actress, I?m just grateful. I?m appreciate that she endured all of that so that this little girl named Mo?Nique wouldn?t have to.? There is no overarching perspective. There can be room for differing interpretations.
Octavia Spencer (5.25.72/ES 4 Virgo changing into MS 27 Gemini at age 23) won for The Help in 2011. ?A child of Mercury brings her versatility and improvisational skills. ?Coming in and saying a line or two in a small role, when the juicier roles are being written for other people, is not my idea of forward thinking. ?For me, when I get projects from directors of color, you have to take those chances. That?s how you keep moving forward. You allow and create opportunities for people would wouldn?t otherwise get them.? Message from the messenger god received. ?Nominated for Hidden Figures in 2016.
Lupita Nyong?o (3.1.83/ES 12 Scorpio) won for 12 Years a Slave, a movie I only want to see that one time. ?She said, ?When I dreamed of being an actor, I didn?t dream of the praise that would come with it. I didn?t dream of the awards. ?I dreamed of inhabiting different characters. That was the dream.? Pisces Sun learns that this life centers around dreams, miracles and virtuous development. ?Actually, our souls can feel enslaved to the physical body.
Naomie Harris (9.6.76/ES 28 Gemini) exemplifies the connecting nature of a Gemini Venus Star. ?Mercury saturated Ms. Harris appears to live ?do not take apart what you cannot put back together? through this quote, ?I?ve always followed my gut. ?I have to continue to do that because it?s always steered me right.?
For more info on how your personal passion shines, please leave a comment.
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