Sextile

Warren Beatty (30 March 1937 – ) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. Strikingly handsome with a style that is self-consciously cool and opaque, he was the classic screen idol of his day. He has been nominated for 14 Oscars, including his performance in 1967 for Bonnie and Clyde. He won the Oscar as Best Director in 1981 for Reds. Although known more for his acting than his writing, Beatty was nominated four times for Best Screenplay, which he received three times. He is the only person to have been nominated for best producer, director, writer and actor in the same film, both for Heaven Can Wait and Reds.

Aside from his movie career, Beatty has achieved the dubious reputation of having been a notorious womanizer and lover to many Hollywood and society women. A partial list includes Isabelle Adjani, Brigitte Bardot, Candice Bergen, Leslie Caron, Cher, Julie Christie, Connie Chung, Joan Collins, Britt Ekland, Goldie Hawn, Kate Jackson, Diane Keaton, Vivien Leigh, Elle MacPherson, Madonna, Joni Mitchell, Mary Tyler Moore, Jackie Onassis, Michelle Phillips, Vanessa Redgrave, Diana Ross, Jessica Savitch, Diane Sawyer, Carly Simon, Susan Strasberg, Barbra Streisand, and Liv Ullmann. One writer has quipped that the Hollywood phone book might provide a more complete list of his conquests.

Notwithstanding his exploits as a bachelor, Beatty eventually put all of that behind him when he got married at age 55 to actress Annette Bening, with whom he has since gone on to father four children. Although accused by at least one former lover of being the ultimate narcissist, to his credit Beatty steadfastly refuses to discuss his love-life with any one of his ladies to any of the media. In this, at least, he is faithful to a certain code of ethics: A gentleman never tells.

For decades, Beatty was considered Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor, and yet, for astrological reasons, he was reluctant to marry. Mutable ascendants are generally ambivalent if not outright disinclined to make lasting commitments, since “immature” and fickle Mercury will rule either the 1st house (the Self) or the 7th house (the Other). That basic premise is further reinforced in Beatty’s horoscope where ascendant lord Mercury is debilitated in the 7th house and associated with two malefics. Significantly, the aloof and reluctant Saturn, symbolically deemed too cold and remote for a marital partner, influences both the ascendant and its lord.

Meanwhile, however, we discover in Beatty’s horoscope a classic passion combination in his 3rd house, where the Moon and Mars combine in Scorpio. Although Mars is strong in its own sign, it’s the Moon’s debilitation that gives it an “exaggerated” condition, and therein lies the accelerant to ignite that particular fire. This single pairing between a romantic and a lusty planet is given even greater amplification by their association with north node Rahu, whose exaltation in Scorpio also qualifies it for exaggerated condition.

[Note: for the uninitiated, “exaggeration” is a term to characterize any planet that by virtue of one or more dignities is likely to operate above or below the baseline of normal experience. For example, exaggeration by sign occurs during exaltation and debilitation, but not when a planet is in its own sign, since the latter offers strength from within its own domicile, as opposed to an out-of-the-ordinary experience during exaltation or debilitation.

[By a similar logic, exaggeration can also occur via astronomical condition, typically based upon brightness and/or visibility. For example, exaggeration arises with a full moon, or a planet in its retrograde period, when it’s closer to the Earth and therefore more visible than usual. Conversely, exaggeration also happens with a new moon, when it is literally invisible, or a combust planet, when its visibility is obscured by the Sun’s aura. Exaggeration also develops during planetary war when two planets compete for visibility within a single degree of zodiacal longitude. Finally, exaggeration is most evident under eclipse conditions, when the view of either the Sun or Moon is temporarily blocked during the period of the eclipse.]

Returning to Beatty’s horoscope, take note of the kama (pleasure-loving) houses of the chart – the 3rd ruled by Mars, the 7th by Jupiter, and the 11th by the Moon. Two out of those three lords (Moon and Mars, not Jupiter) occupy kama houses, hence the pleasure-loving theme is aroused. This becomes even more evident once we note that six out of nine celestial bodies in the horoscope occupy kama houses.

Some horoscopic patterns have a distinctly sexual connotation. For instance, see the mutual reception (sign exchange) between his 5th lord Saturn and 7th lord Jupiter. Generally, when the 5th lord occupies the 7th house, the mind dwells upon sex. Conversely, when the 7th lord occupies the 5th house, the individual tends to romanticize the sexual experience. When both conditions occur simultaneously, as they do in a 5th/7th mutual reception, the individual may be someone with “sex on the brain.” That alone is enough to provoke an inordinately active sex life.

Furthermore, if we allow the sign exchange between Jupiter and Saturn to occur in our mind’s eye, we can (virtually) see Jupiter take its own sign Pisces in the 7th house. At that moment, we can also visualize the completion of the kama houses triad discussed earlier, with its implications of desire and pleasure, if not outright hedonism.

Meanwhile, the presence of a debilitated ascendant lord in the 7th house, along with two malefics who are in turn lords of “evil” houses – the Sun ruling the 12th, and Saturn ruling the 6th – simply reinforces the likelihood of relationship irregularities for a sizable chunk of one’s life. Lest there be any doubt about that, relationship significator Venus is retrograde (exaggerated) in the 8th house.

And yet in due course, the mutual reception between Jupiter and Saturn resolves such matters, allowing us to see – and the subject to experience – a return to balance in matters romantic, sexual, and marital.

Overarching all of this is a Draconic Bowl pattern wherein the zodiac is divided by the nodal axis, and all the visible planets are confined to half of the horoscope. Such a pattern tends to act as a magnifying glass, amplifying whatever else is signified within the chart. Consequently, Draconic Bowl natives can assume the status of a larger-than-life archetype, much as Beatty became our modern era’s equivalent of a Casanova.

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Alan Annand is a graduate of both the British Faculty of Astrological Studies and the American College of Vedic Astrology. His New Age Noir crime novels feature an astrologer protagonist whom one reviewer has dubbed “Sherlock Holmes with a horoscope.” His astrology books – Mutual Reception, The Draconic Bowl, The Passionate Planets – as well as others on Vedic astrology, have all been praised for the quality of their research and writing.

Tags: exaggerated condition, mutual reception, passion combos, passionate planets, sign exchnage, warren beatty