For the Anchorage Press, Natal Chart Analysis: Putin

Twice a month, I plan to write a chart analysis on a person relevant on the citywide, statewide, or national scale, and I will occasionally analyze charts of readers who send in their date of birth with time and place (city, state, country). To send in yours for consideration for a public reading, email at editor@anchoragepress.com and write “Chart Analysis” in the subject heading.

A note on reading astrological charts: a person’s astrological chart is not a definitive guide to how they will behave or what choices they will make in their lifetime. There are truly terrible people who have brilliant charts and wonderful people born with only challenging aspects. A person’s astrological chart simply communicates what raw materials a person has with which to work; the study of astrology can be a lovely contribution to the personal study of self-acceptance. I also find it heartening to observe the charts of the people around us who make up our world. There is benefit, I believe, in simply being thoughtful enough to really spend time analyzing how inclination and desire manifests into a person’s story. May we all revel in our humanity and in the magic of the cosmos that brought us here together in the same sliver of time.

This week, we’re looking at Vladimir Putin, a Plutonic person through and through who is currently—and usually—making headlines with a power-hungry subtext. Before we dig into the details of Putin’s chart, however, it’s important to explore Pluto and the planetary body of transformation’s current transits in the sky to help give some context around what the hell I’m talking about.

Pluto is the planet of transformation. It is the planet of power, as well as death and destruction. While it’s true that the deaths mirrored by Pluto’s movements clear the way for rebirth, or for something new, Pluto is not about rebirth. It’s about power, death, and utter transformation. It is not the phoenix that rises from the ashes; it is the bird that burns—it is the fire itself.

Last week’s Pluto Return was an event that astrologers around the world have been talking about extensively for decades, and especially since 2008 when Pluto re-entered Capricorn for the first time since the Revolutionary War. When outer planets make a Return, which literally just means that a planet has moved into—or returned to—the same sign in the same degree again, there is a revisitation of a theme; something that was important the last time the planet was in this same position is back up for review.

The last time Pluto was in the same position of Capricorn that it moved into last week was at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Think back to 1776, when Capricorn-related power struggles were the name of the day and “no taxation without representation” was the mantra chanted in the streets. Think of how, for good or for ill, the death of one world power changed the course of human history—that’s a Pluto move. Back then, we were not in the humanitarian Age of Aquarius, though; we were in the Age of Pisces, which shaped human history for 2000 years and championed the belief that a higher power, a One, a government, would be our salvation. Now that we are in the Age of Aquarius—an age where there are no gods or where, instead, god is everywhere, is information itself—this Pluto Return has been suspected to be a returning of power to the people. It has been the suspected acute beginning to the end of capitalism.

If I haven’t made this clear yet, Pluto Returns are major events; they signal the death of large systems that ultimately change under the force of a cosmic wrecking ball. All change comes at a cost and is never one note. The Fall of Rome, the Great Famine, the colonists’ revolt against Britain (and the seizing of Indigenous land), are just some of the events that have happened in correlation with Pluto Returns.

Last week’s Pluto Return occurred late on Tuesday, February 22, and the following day, Putin invaded and attacked the Ukraine—actions which will likely lead to many more. Is this the beginning of a new end? I think likely. I think the end of what and all of the details therein are yet to be seen. What I am certain of, however, is that there is a reason that Putin is the initiator. While he has chosen his legacy, he was born to be powerful.

The details: Ascendant in Scorpio, Sun in Libra, Moon in Gemini, Mercury in Libra, Venus in Scorpio, Mars in Sagittarius, Jupiter in Taurus, Saturn in Libra, Uranus in Cancer, Neptune in Libra, Pluto in Leo, North Node in Aquarius, Chiron in Capricorn, Midheaven in Leo

Janis Joplin said, “On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone.” Such is the vibe of the emotional quality to Putin’s chart. A person with this chart is born into the world with a great deal of penetrating intensity and yet a desire to charm, to love, to be relational, which is difficult with the private, powerful Scorpio energy of the chart and his nature to want to protect information, or at least his information, and keep his cards close to his chest. A person with this chart loves a good idea, loves opulence, loves travel. This person is deep and wounded, yet often appears incredibly certain. This person could sweep almost anyone off their feet and yet feel completely alone.

To break down his chart simply is to say that this person wants to be an integral part of the larger world community (Libra Sun in the Eleventh House) by being in a public position of power (Pluto in Leo on the MidHeaven) that uses information (Moon in Gemini in the Eighth House) to further an action-oriented agenda (Mars in Sagittarius in the Second House) and through controlling the narrative (Mercury in Libra conjunct Neptune in the Twelfth House) and causing restrictions through chaos (Uranus square Saturn).

When I look at any person’s chart, I ask the question, what does this person want? What do they need? And how do they go about getting these things? Reading someone’s chart like Putin’s is challenging only because there’s already a great deal of history that has played out on the world stage, so it is easier to simply stick to the chart and look at not who a person is but why they are.

In the case of Putin, his chart has several signatures that stand out to tell a story about want—he has signatures of the lonely genius, of the diplomat, and of the leader. He was born with a karmic bag of self-obsession and in this life was meant to abandon his need for recognition in the name of service to others, but there is an intoxicating draw to the stage, to have all eyes on him. (I shiver when I think of how intoxicating it must feel to someone like this to know that people around the world are watching him as he destroys others—something that is very Pluto conjunct the South Node in Leo.)

Power is the main pull of this person’s existence, so any lack of power likely made just as big of an impact early on. A person with Putin’s chart is born with choices like anyone else, but they come into the world with an intense interest in, desire and want for power. They, to some extent, embody it. With Pluto, the ruler of his Scorpio-rising chart, right on the MidHeaven, power is the word associated with his public role and legacy and Putin’s most personally defining word. The relationship between Pluto and his South Node in Leo intensifies this need and gives the sense that this need for personal power in the public eye is deeply karmic, which is to say that moving in this direction instead of toward service to others is to move in the wrong way and yet also the most natural thing.

Putin’s need for power—and not just to have power but to be powerful— is given fuel by a need to make an impact on the world at large with Pluto and Mars, the planet of power and the planet of war, in a conversation of public roles and values. Look at the symbol of both Mars and Sagittarius, both aiming outward—this is the signature of the athlete, of the fighter, of the philosopher. Putin acts by moving outwardly—the way he gets what he wants has the quality of the archer, firing into the sky.

Someone with this chart acts with a great deal of conviction, and with his Sun and Mercury in Libra, he’s a born negotiator and communicator. Winning an argument against this person is unlikely at best; Mercury in the Twelfth House suggests that this person knows how to communicate behind the scenes or is skillfully at twisting the truth. (Trump had a similar signature, interestingly.) Mercury also makes a conjunction with Neptune, which signifies that this person has a preternatural ability to create and manipulate reality through communication.

Next only to power, a person with Putin’s chart craves information. His moon in Gemini wants to expand through communication, and in the Eighth House, he wants to do this in the realm of other people’s stuff or resources. It’s impossible not to make the connection between these colliding aspects and the cyber attacks and desire to undermine people by using their own information against them.

But for as much conviction that a person with a chart like Putin’s has innately, there is also a great deal of pain and confusion in early life. Diplomacy and pragmatism are skilled parts of his identity with all of that Libran energy, but the weight of the Twelfth House suggests that this person likely suffered a great deal as a young person. Chiron in the Third House suggests that there is a deep wound in early childhood relating to siblings, and in Capricorn, there’s a sense of poverty or sincere lack. A person with these placements as well as both Scorpio and Leo in prominent places can easily turn inward and find their own way in life, forgetting and abusing the needs of others. And Venus in Scorpio never forgets any wrongs and does not forgive; it stands up for the soul. It breaks something apart until there is nothing left to look for while simultaneously attracting to it what it most wants.

Perhaps one of the most curious things about this chart is to try to imagine it with a different history—could Putin have done something other than be a leader? That doesn’t appear likely—whether leading a country or a team, he was meant to make the calls. He was meant for some kind of greatness, for good or for ill.

The curious thing about power is that if you must focus on power, you do not have it fully, and in fact, it has you—a lesson Pluto teaches only by having the last word. While the world is in a great deal of pain right now, I invite us all to look into our charts for where our power lies—what conversations is Pluto having—and in what House—with other planets in your chart? Where can you make impact?