For Scorpio season, I thought I would take a look at SZA’s (Solana Imani Rowe) birth-chart, especially since in recent media stories she is shamed for having lied to her fans. Both Sloan and Fab Socialism, two YouTube accounts I follow, have created videos in which they take apart & with factual evidence the many lies SZA has been spinning in her interviews. I thought it was odd that a person as successful as she is, an American singer who rose to fame after the release of her brilliantly imaginative album Ctrl, feels the need to lie this much. To be fair, the lies she tells are white lies, they are low-level and kind of sweet (for example she lied to her fans that she doesn’t like birth day cake, rather preferring pie as a birthday treat). After hearing about these strange accounts about her behavior, I wondered if there is something in her astrology which can tell us why is SZA getting this bad reputation as a liar?
Knowing as well that there is a certain degree of confusion related to her birth-chart data, I did some research and compared the information I could find on reputable celebrity astrology websites. The public was confused about SZA’s birthday and whether she was born in 1989, 1990 or 1991, so for the sake of our collective sanity, I decided to go for the natal chart that was prevalent across astrotheme.com, astrodienst.com and astro-charts.com. So I chose the version below which lists her birthdate as the 8th of November 1989.
As we open her natal chart, the first thing that stands out is her Sun in Scorpio on the cusp between the 9th and the 10th houses and perfectly conjunct her Midheaven! Her Sun is closely backed up by Pluto and Mercury. Her Ascendant is in rebellious Aquarius (loosely conjunct her North Node in Aquarius) and her Moon falls in sweet Pisces in the 1st house. Some of us could say “Well it’s her Moon! Ruled by Neptune, the God of illusions and make-belief, that unconsciously influences her to lie to the public about her identity!” (the 1st house). Eureka, problem solved and article is complete…
But I doubt this interpretation very much. And this is mostly because her Moon is in a sign it feels comfortable in and it receives by aspects, so much harmonious support from Saturn (sextile to Capricorn), Pluto (trine to Scorpio) and both Jupiter and Chiron (trine to Cancer). Also, with so much Scorpio energy and in such a visible part of her chart, she is kept in check by her own guilt-tripping natal Scorpio energy. However, ancient astrologers believed that a woman tends to identify more with her Moon placement than with that of her Sun sign, so if this applies in the case of SZA she would see herself more as a Piscean than a Scorpio, and feel more comfortable in Neptunian la-la-land. Judging by her talent and overall feminine and yielding demeanor in public, she does come across as a loveable, fun, attractive mess. But is this the whole story behind her crafting a controversial public image through the use of white lies? In general, if an astrologer is looking for some communication issues or some problems with a person bending the truth, then that astrologer would analyze the placements of Mercury and Neptune in a person’s chart and any aspects made to these two planets (especially aspects in-between the two planets).
And indeed, we notice the planet Neptune is heavily at work in her chart, making aspects to Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter and her Moon. But all of these aspects are supportive and friendly (trines and sextiles). The issue here may be the multiple conjunctions concentrated in the sign of Capricorn and Scorpio. SZA has a double stellium in her chart, which means a cluster of planets and points concentrated in one sign, but in her case these clusters are firstly in the sign of Scorpio (Sun, Mercury and Pluto), and secondly in the sign of Capricorn (Venus, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus). Now both of these astrological signs are rather dark and concerned with some of the most serious aspects of human existence (and usually those things no one wants to deal with). And both of these signs show someone who may not see their true worth in the first part of their life and someone who easily self-sabotages; for example, by telling lies that affect her reputation.
By looking at her chart, I can see that unless she strongly identifies with her Pisces Moon, this is not a chill and unbothered queen of music, but rather a deeply anxious person at the mercy of a lot of limits and darkness in her personal life. And most of these problems come from her social groups, her public and her co-workers and are karmically played out in her relationships by her natal Venus in Capricorn (see my previous post on Britney Spears who shares this placement in common with SZA). A person with a Venus in Capricorn, has money karma with their loved ones, feels criticized by those around them, struggles to relate to others from the heart and is fearful and controlled in how they show affection. A Venus in Capricorn native may have to make a lot of mistakes in how they build relationships, in order to understand how relationships work. And we see how this energy is playing out so strongly in SZA’s chart in relation to the people that support her and in the online environment (the 11th house).
Her Venus in Capricorn is another indicator as to why SZA may be lying and the reason would be due to her poor boundaries in how she relates to other people. She simply allows other people to say certain things about her and goes along with their opinion of her rather than explain and defend herself. The problem is amplified because she tends to make some controversial blanket statements (Mercury conjunct Pluto) which are then picked up by the public (the Midheaven) and used to create her public reputation (her Sun conjunct the Midheaven). Until she learns to take control of this narrative, this bad rep created by the public’s amplification of her minor statements will continue to haunt her. There is a feeling that she is playing into the image of a ‘sweet girl that is helpless’ because she thinks this is what appeals to the public rather than being her powerful Scorpio self and own her energy, her darkness, her power and sexuality. And I think this is where these lies irk the collective. Because we can all see her power, although she may genuinely be clueless to it (Venus in Capricorn and conjunct Saturn!).
Here I need to stop and take into account a really important detail which may be easily disregarded in this discussion, since this is a point and not a planet: SZA has her South Node in Leo, a warm, loyal, strong and relatively self-obsessed energy. A South Node in Leo individual is a natural-born performer, a person endowed with a queenly energy, denoting someone who finds it hard to refuse romantic attention and actively seeks to make themselves as pleasing to others a possible in order to receive adoration and support in return. I had a close friend with this South Node in Leo placement who confessed to me that it was always difficult for her to refuse booty calls and say no to people who desired her, because in her words she ‘needed someone else’s adoration in order to feel worthy’. If we take this South Node in Leo placement in combination with her natal Moon in Pisces, and Capricorn and Scorpio stelliums we can see some hidden tension built into her chart and that entire pressure falls on her identity, as her South Node sits in a square position with all of these elements!
Leo represents the energy of our solar consciousness and our core personality traits and when it is blurred by her emotions (her Moon), her capacity to feel like an individual (Uranus), to create (Neptune) to have discipline (Saturn), to feel confident (the Sun), to change things (Pluto) and to communicate (Mercury), then we see here a need to bend the truth as a way to protect herself and also to resists comparisons with other people who may compete with her for the limelight. Because say what you want about her bad rep as a liar, but at least no one in the industry has this rep. So, she stands out in this way. SZA, doesn’t lie with bad intent but it may be something she either does unconsciously, because she is insecure and lying makes her look different, quirky and more interesting or it is a conscious PR strategy to make her look quirky and unique (Ascendant conjunct North Node in Aquarius!).
SZA doesn’t really know how to fit into groups in a natural way, because her comfort zone in life is pulling all eyes on her when she walks into a room, not only because of her Scorpio energy which creates this magnetic force-field around her, but also because of her Leo South Node which separates her from others by constantly putting her in the spotlight. She is somehow meant to transform this energy from the envy and enmity of others (Sun in Scorpio conjunct Midheaven), to something that brings her closer to others and makes her feel like she belongs, like she is part of a group, rather than outside of it or leading it. The conspicuous absence of fire in her chart points towards an energy that needs to be consciously tamed, spiritualized (Water stellium) and grounded (Earth stellium) at the level of the soul (Scorpio), so that it can extend to others and affects the collective (Aquarius Ascendant) in an artistic way (Moon in Pisces), rather than stay concentrated in the adoration of the project of the Self (Leo South Node).
A Pluto conjunct Mercury aspect may lie but only to attain power and not in such a public way, the energy would be rather stealth and there may be money involved and discreet payments involved to keep the truth under control. If a Pluto conjunct Mercury in Scorpio person lies, it would be in order to survive, and not to appear dainty, silly and weird in the eyes of the public. So, for the first time in someone’s chart I am tempted to take her South Node placements and the aspects it makes to Mercury and Neptune, rather than just her Mercury and Neptune placements to explain why SZA lies. Her Neptunian Moon undoubtedly plays a role, but we have to go a bit deeper since not everyone who has a natal Moon in Pisces lies to enhance their public image and make it weirder and cute, in the same way in which SZA does (ex. see James Blake, another singer who shares this placement in common with SZA).
The most interesting part is that SZA’s chart shows how someone with mostly harmonious aspects in her chart, can get away with certain ‘bad behaviors’, which is something that astrologer Sue Tompkins wrote about in her book Aspects in Astrology (2002). Sue describes how we may be blind-sided in our astrological analyses by constantly seeking to scapegoat individuals with a lot of squares, conjunctions or oppositions in their chart with bad behaviors, when in reality it may be those with plenty of trines and sextiles which are capable of some famous nasty behaviors or even crimes, as they usually tend to get away with this bad behavior, so it becomes a reinforced and negative trait of their personality. Sue describes how a person with Moon conjunct Venus may often engage in criminal behavior to support their luxurious lifestyle while someone with Moon conjunct Saturn or Pluto would need to work harder to attain the same kind of luxury and nourishment in their life and thereby, they may be less invested in risking what they have attained by resorting to crime.
Of course, each case needs to be individually assessed, but I thought I’d mention this aspect as it tends to get people to think differently about the habitual interpretation of astrological aspects. And in case it wasn’t obvious, I really like SZA and her music and I hope that we will continue to see her grow and learn how to value herself more and to defend herself a bit better in the future.
With cosmic love,
Lexi
spiritualsocial.wordpress.com 