Alex's Asteroid Astrology

In the aftermath of the slap seen ‘round the world, will anyone remember who actually won Oscars at the 94^th annual Academy Awards?  Will anyone care?  Moments after presenter Chris Rock uttered a rather tasteless joke about Jada Pinkett Smith appearing in “G.I. Jane 2” (based on her shaved scalp due to alopecia hair loss), hubby Will Smith, nominated as Best Actor, strode to the stage and smacked the comedian full on the face, then returned to his seat, and yelled at Rock to “Keep my wife’s name out your fuckin’ mouth!”  Minutes later Smith accepted his Oscar, tearfully apologizing to everyone except Chris Rock for his violent outburst.

Born Willard Smith at 9:47 PM EDT on 25 September 1968 in Philadelphia, PA (Rodden Rating A), Will Smith’s road to Oscar gold and Oscar infamy has been a long one.  Smith began his career as a singer at age 17 in 1985, with his rap name “The Fresh Prince”; asteroid Singer at 24 Aquarius broadly conjoins the 14 Aquarius MC, ruling career and status in the world.  By 1990 he had become popular enough for NBC to build a sitcom for him, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”  Dramatic roles followed, beginning with “Six Degrees of Separation” in 1993, and Smith went on to garner three Oscar nominations before disgracing himself on the night he finally won.  Asteroid Actor at 3 Scorpio conjoins asteroid Smith at 10 Scorpio, establishing a strong personal connection to the profession. 

The Sun at 3 Libra conjoins asteroid Academia at 11 Libra, for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which sponsors the awards, giving Smith a personal linkage to the organization which is now investigating his onstage antics, and may take disciplinary action, up to rescinding his Oscar.  Asteroid Oskar, alternate spelling of the nickname for the award, appears at 21 Aries, closely conjunct Saturn at 23 Aries, ruling career.  Saturn with Oskar helps to explain the delay in formal recognition, as Saturn postpones and denies until it feels the lessons have been learned and the hard work has been put in to merit reward.  Once this is accomplished, success is ensured.  Saturn here could also indicate the loss of the award, if the Academy chooses to penalize Smith for his actions.

Asteroid Willaert (closest to Willard, Smith’s given first name) at 8 Gemini is stationary, turning retrograde on October 7, trine the Sun and conjoined the 7 Gemini Ascendant, both connections being typical of one’s own PNA (Personal-Named Asteroid).  Willaert is semisquare Oskar/Saturn and also squares asteroid Nike at 13 Pisces, named for the Greek goddess of victory, which in addition is trine to asteroid Smith at 10 Scorpio, giving Will Smith a double personal connection to Nike’s winning vibe.  Asteroid Victoria, named for Nike’s Roman counterpart, appears at 29 Taurus, broadly conjoined the Ascendant and Willaert. 

Smith’s turn as Richard Williams, the driven father/coach of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, in “King Richard”, made it “third time lucky” for Oscar nominations for Smith, finally bringing him the win.  Amazingly, natal asteroid Richard exactly conjoins Smith at 10 Scorpio, giving Smith an intimate connection to the character, allowing an authentic portrayal, and feeding into the Nike trine that promotes victory.   Asteroid Williams at 20 Libra opposes the Saturn/Oskar conjunction, for the role that finally brought him the win.

Will Smith’s fracas with Chris Rock can be seen in asteroid Christophe (closest to Christopher, Rock’s full first name) at 0 Scorpio, which conjoins Mercury at 28 Libra and asteroid Toro at 26 Libra, also sextile Mars at 2 Virgo.  Toro rules bullying, aggressive behaviors, Mars rules acts of violence, and Mercury rules both the comment that elicited the slap, and the hand that administered it, focused on Chris Rock (Christophe).

Based only on PNA placements for the night of the awards, I picked Will Smith as winning Best Actor in my Oscar preview piece in February.  Asteroid Wil at 14 Aries conjoined Oskar at 13 Aries and the Sun at 7 Aries, with asteroid Willaert opposed from 14 Libra, and asteroid Smith completing a loose T-Square from 4 Capricorn.  It seemed like his night.  What I hadn’t considered was Chris Rock’s role in overshadowing the win, as seen by asteroid Christophe at 19 Aries, conjoined not only transit Oskar/Wil, but also Smith’s natal Oskar/Saturn.

Unfortunately, that choice of Will Smith for Oscar gold is the sum total of my accurate prognostications for the event.  To be fair, the remaining three acting award winners didn’t have a great deal of asteroid matches with which to judge their chances of success; one, Best Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur, had none at all.

But now that we have our 20/20 hindsight, let’s take a quick look at the birth charts of the winners, to see what brought them over the finish line ahead of their peers.

Jessica Chastain won the Oscar for Best Actress, for her performance as notorious televangelist Tammy Faye Baker in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”.  Born 10:44 PM PST on 24 March 1977 in Carmichael, CA (Rodden Rating AA), Chastain sports a conjunction of asteroids Actor and Victoria at 26 Cancer and 2 Leo, both of which are stationary, with Actor turning direct two days before her birth, and Victoria the day after.  The combination suggests success in acting, and, like Will Smith, Chastain is a repeat offender in Oscar nominations, with this third time also the charm for her.  Pluto’s recent opposition to Actor may have worked this transformation in her fortunes, but the natal potential is also present in asteroid Oskar at 13 Gemini conjunct the 5 Gemini Moon, exactly sextile Mercury at 13 Aries (the vote itself) and exactly trine Pluto at 13 Libra.  Asteroid Jessie (closest to Jessica, and a cosmic placeholder for two other nominees this year) at 4 Gemini also conjoins the Moon (and broadly conjoins Oskar) and is exactly sextile the Sun, for yet another example of how PNAs typically interact in the native’s chart.

As with Smith, the role Chastain was nominated for may have brought that latent potential to the fore.  Asteroid Tammy at 10 Capricorn conjoins natal Nike at 4 Cap; asteroid Fay at 15 Virgo conjoins the status-and-reputation-oriented MC at 10 Virgo (also squaring Oskar); and asteroid Baker at 23 Taurus conjoins both the 27 Taurus Descendant, granting angular force and impact, but also the 28 Taurus Jupiter, ruling celebrity, fame and good luck or positive outcomes generally.  Asteroid Academia at 11 Scorpio is exactly conjunct Uranus, and with Tammy forms the base of a Yod, or Finger of Destiny, with Oskar at its apex, suggesting a fated rendezvous with screen history.  There is no suitable asteroid referent for Chastain.

When the awards were presented, asteroid Jessie at 25 Taurus was trine Nike with Pluto at 24 and 28 Capricorn, and loosely semisquare Oskar at 13 Aries, but with Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons also nominated (albeit in different categories), it seemed to me too much to ask of one bit of space debris, to herald three wins, and deciding which of the three might be favored was a hopeless task.

Troy Kotsur won Best Supporting Actor for his role as Frank Rossi in “CODA”, and made history as the first deaf male actor to gain an Oscar (Marlee Matlin won Best Actress in 1986 for “Children of a Lesser God”).  Born 24 July 1968 (no time available), Kotsur has no suitable asteroid referents for either name, but like Will Smith (born the same year), has an Oskar/Saturn conjunction, at 22 and 25 Aries.  These oppose asteroid Actor at 24 Libra, in an Out-of-Sign T-Square with the 1 Leo Sun.  Incredibly, the character of Frank Rossi appears as asteroids Franke and Rossi, which at 25 Aries and 24 Aries respectively, fit snugly into the Oskar/Saturn conjunction, and the T-Square.

Ariana DeBose also made Oscar history, as the first openly LGBTQ actor to take home the gold statuette.  Nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Anita in the 2021 remake of “West Side Story”, DeBose was born 25 January 1991 (no time available), with Nike at 6 Scorpio squared the 5 Aquarius Sun projecting that winning vibe, also squared by asteroid Debussy (closest to DeBose) at 12 Scorpio, in a T-Square with Jupiter at 9 Leo.  Asteroid Ariane (for Ariana) at 14 Capricorn cojoins Mercury at 13 Cap, another common PNA placement, as is the Debussy square to the Sun.  Debussy also participates in a Grand Cross of Academia with Oskar at 16 and 23 Aquarius, asteroid Sappho (named for an ancient Greek lesbian poet) at 15 Taurus, and asteroid Ganymed (named for Zeus’ underage cupbearer and boy-toy lover) at 16 Leo, linking her sexuality with the awards.  These are also T-Squared natal Venus at 25 Aquarius, evoking her same-sex attraction.

Asteroid Anitaheward, a CNA (Compound-Name Asteroid) comprised of both first and last names strung together as one word, approximates her winning role as Anita.  It appears at 7 Libra in her birth chart, trine the Sun and at station, turning retrograde three days after her birth, marking the importance of the name for her biography. Anitaheward is also sesquiquadrate Oskar at 23 Aquarius, tying the role directly to her win.

The 94^th annual Academy Awards will join the annals of those anomalous ceremonies most remembered, not necessarily for the quality of the performances honored, as for the drama that occurred offscreen, and the records that were set by the winners.