Fosse/Verdon & Cosmic Timing
FX’s latest biopic focuses on the complicated marriage and intertwined careers of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, powerhouse talents who commanded stage and screen decades ago. It’s no coincidence that their stars are rising again. The astrology of the show’s premiere says: It’s time.
The chart tells the story of their story so well that it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate premiere time. (Does FX have an astrologer on call, or are greater forces behind this?) The biopic connects astrologically directly to defining aspects of each individual, as well as the complex dynamics of their relationship
Let’s explore the interweaving first, then examine the startling cosmic timing.
The Big Picture
The premiere’s chart shows the series’ identity as dealing in power, sex, secrets and tenacity (Scorpio rising). The couple’s composite chart locks right into this. Their composite Saturn — authority, staying power, deep loyalty that allowed them to work together (and alongside his later romantic partner) — falls right on the ascendant, coming at it from the 12th house of the past. It’s as if the pair is claiming and taking control of their biopic.
(You’ve Got) Personality
The series’ personality is fiery, daring, risk-taking artistry of an athletic, masculine or rough nature (Sun in Aries in the 5th house of creative expression). This matches Fosse’s distinctive, testosterone-driven choreography, as well as the impulsive, jumping-here-and-there quality of the show’s storytelling. This element connects directly to both Fosse and Verdon. The series’ Sun is not only close to his impetuous, impulsive, “Where’s the fire?” emotional core (Moon in Aries) — and to Verdon’s own risk-taking go-getter, hunter-on-the-prowl drive (Mars in Aries) — it is also smack between them. The location innately and inherently expresses the role-reversal fusing of Fosse’s feminine side with Verdon’s masculine side.
Heart & Soul
The series has the same emotional core that the couple had. The show’s heart is a marriage with lots of communication, coming and going, and changeability, shown by the Moon in Gemini in the 7th house of marriage and partnerships. The couple’s composite Moon (the emotional core of the relationship) is also in Gemini, though in the 4th house of home and family (befitting his comings and goings, and ultimately leaving the home). This indicates terrific collaboration and ease in (or abundance of) communication, but hardly a stable household.
The show’s and the couple’s composite Moons aren’t conjunct, but the two charts do have a close Gemini connection. Fosse & Verdon’s composite Mars — their motivators and drive, including sex drive — links closely to the show’s Moon. The show has Mars in Gemini as well, which accounts for the abruptly episodic storytelling jumping back and forth in time. And the couple’s composite Moon is smack between the show’s Mars and Moon, as the show’s Sun is between his Moon and her Mars.
Venus in Dance Shoes / Who’s Got the Pain?
Another indicator of the biopic’s heart is the exact conjunction of the two planets of love and artistry, Venus and Neptune, in Pisces and in the 4th house of home and family. This combination embodies the illusion of a TV series (Neptune) about the performing arts, about theater and film, about celebrity, about a love story (all Venus) — with Pisces adding elements of sacrifice, sorrow and abiding love that transcends worldly realities.
This aspect is also a breakthrough for Verdon, and one of two thrusting her back into the spotlight. The conjunction falls on her ascendant and Uranus, unlocking her image and freeing it, and her, for a revised, compassionate and loving light. It’s as if she’s kicking her way back to center stage.
Cosmic Timing
And all three charts agree: it’s time. The series premiered with the reality shape-shifting conjunction in Capricorn (institutions) involving Saturn (lord of structure, the establishment), the South Node (the past) and Pluto (lord of the underworld, and ruler of secrets, compulsions, betrayal and hidden treasure). This trio is actively changing our relationships to power, to the status quo and the way things have been, and transforming the relationship between the masculine and the feminine.
Ready For Their Close-Up
This trio is right on the couple’s composite South Node, dredging up dirt and secrets and transforming their story into new public form. It’s pushing against their composite Venus in Libra, forcing a look at their shared artistry and the agreements by which they ran their relationship,
Saturn, Pluto and the South Node are also on Verdon’s Capricorn Sun, pulling her out of the shadows, especially that of her husband, whose fame as a director overshadowed her Broadway star. The aspect is renewing her existence like a phoenix rising from the ashes, revealing secrets, rewriting history and her story and restoring her to equal authority and power.
As for Fosse, the Capricorn stellium is activating his heart and putting him on the spot to explain himself. Saturn, the South Node and Pluto are challenging (squaring) his Moon in Aries and stressing (opposing) his Mercury in Cancer — just as Verdon’s Sun did while the couple was alive, but more profoundly and more inescapably The pressure is reviving the inherent conflict between his impulsive heart and tender, sensitive mind and pushing for updating Verdon’s legacy. Almost as if Fosse is collaborating in that from the beyond. Almost as if they both are.