Aspects for the week beginning 21 June 2026

A Zodiac of Painters

Following on from last week’s art theme, I am looking at various artists representing their Sun signs.  The next two weeks will be taken up with Wimbledon blog season!  Does the painter depicted under your Sun sign resonate with you, or do they push your buttons, I wonder…?

Aries – Vincent van Gogh 

Vincent van Gogh produced work of such vibrancy and energy that they expressed his Sun sign of Aries.  He had the red hair of Aries, but his favourite colour was yellow.

His sense of confusion and delicate nature speak of the neighbouring sign of Pisces, which in his chart contains Neptune, the Midheaven (career path), Mars (his ruling planet from his Sun sign) and Venus (his art).

I was fortunate enough, in my third year at University, to study under Europe’s foremost Van Gogh expert, Ronald Pickvance.  I studied 19^th Century art, which encompassed Van Gogh, but at the time did not know Van Gogh was his specialism.

Taurus – JMW Turner

Turner is one of Britain’s best loved artists, and his Sun sign is that most usually associated with art (together with Libra, as they are both ruled by Venus).

The style he adopted and is famous and most successful for is more whispy and whimsical in terms of his skies and atmospheres than you would expect from a solid Taurean.  His level of success and karmic fulfilment may be due to a close trine of his Sun to his North Node in Virgo (another earth sign).  His Venus (art) is also in Taurus.  It is to his Air signs that we need to look to for his “special effects”: his Air planets are the Moon in Aquarius (innovative) trine Uranus in Gemini (innovative in Air), and Saturn in Libra (dedicated to his work).

Gemini – Albrecht Durer

Albrecht is a true Gemini, with Saturn, the Sun, Venus and the Moon, in that sign.  You can see the mental approach to his work in the precision and starkness of lines, the absence of emotion from colour.  Though he did sometimes work with colour, his skill lay in detailed drawing, characteristic of the ruling planet Mercury, though more usually associated with the other Mercury-ruled sign of Virgo.  His specialism was woodcuts and engravings. The self-discipline shown in his work is exemplified in his chart by a conjunction of the Sun with Saturn, and Saturn being exactly square the Ascendant, at the top of the chart.  That also gives him Capricornian qualities.

Cancer – David Hockney

Cancerian themes he painted included home interiors and splashing in pools…

From last week’s blog:

Venus in sextile to the Moon and Saturn, in between their trine, gives a feel for beauty, and this makes his paintings easier to relate to than the majority of British art arising in the last century…

His colour, and childlike clarity appeal to the Inner Child within us.  And as a Cancerian, he was easily able to inhabit that joyful space.

“He taught us about the joy of looking, seeing things the rest of us failed to notice – his witty and sharp observations a constant presence within his work and in person”

~ Alex Farquharson

Leo – Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, the father of pop art, is a good example of the Leonine temperament, with Mercury, the Sun conjunct the Ascendant (a “double” Leo), Venus and Neptune all in Leo.  Leo is the sign of Creativity, and his work was certainly eye-catching in the best tradition of seeking the limelight so characteristic of this sign.  With three trines and a conjunction (with the Moon) to his Uranus, there is a strong desire to be innovative and original, and to stand out from the crowd.  These qualities associate him with the sign of Aquarius.  With the Moon exactly trine with the Sun, he certainly knew what he was doing.  He was assured of success with Jupiter on his Midheaven (Careerpoint).  And the simplicity of his images may be down to his Moon in Aries.

Virgo – Beryl Cook

Historically, female painters are like gold dust compared to the male of the species.  However, I have managed to include three women in my survey!  On the surface of things, Beryl Cook’s artwork does not look very Virgoan, and the evaluation is not helped by the fact that we do not have a birth time for her (as we did for all the previous male painters!  “Equal rights!” I hear you cry…) – apparently, Beryl was never accepted by the art establishment.  So we are entirely reliant on her day of birth to understand what made her paint the voluptuous females she did.  Is it, for instance, the association with the Virgin Mary with this sign? Maybe it is her Venus(Art)/Neptune conjunction in Leo (voluptuousness) which is at play?  There is also sense of karmic drama in her Pluto/North Node conjunction in Cancer (the sign of femininity).  She has Mercury and the Sun in Virgo, which is only two planets, but one of them, Mercury, is in its home sign.  Her theme of “everyday life” is a Virgoan theme.

So she is a bit of a mystery (unless we find a birth time for her).  A painter I would have expected to find under Virgo is the pointillist Seurat, but you’ll find him under Sagittarius, with hopefully some lucid explanation…

Libra – Michelangelo Caravaggio

Again, we are without a birth time.  Caravaggio is famously known for his “chiaroscuro”, the dramatic use of light and shade.  This might suggest the sign of Scorpio, which he does have through Mercury conjunct Saturn in that sign.  But Libra does hint at the duality of life, for which an eternal striving for balance and unity is attempted.  He has only the Sun in the sign of Libra.  His “art” planet, Venus, is in Virgo, so he will have been very painstaking.  Personality-wise he was known to be tempestuous, irascible, and this may be shown in a quincunx between his Mars and Pluto.  His strong desire to express the Inner Rebel is shown by a sextile to his Mercury/Saturn from Uranus.  Though we do not know his birth time, at Noon on the day he was born the Moon was exactly conjunct Chiron, showing a deep woundedness, especially around females in his life.

Scorpio – Georgia O’Keeffe

The second of our female painters, Georgia O’Keefe does display the sensuous nature of Scorpio in her beautiful flower images.  Mercifully, we do have a birth time for her, and that establishes her firmly in the territory of Scorpio: with Jupiter, the Ascendant (“double” Scorpio), the Sun, the Moon (“triple” Scorpio, in terms of the most prominent three factors in a chart being in the same sign), and Mercury in that sign.  The best feature in her chart is her exact sextile between Mars and Jupiter (energy allied with enthusiasm).  But her planets clustered around her Ascendant show a tremendous force of personality.  Her photographic portrait shows an angularity of Scorpio in her mein.  She did not only paint flowers, she painted a whole range of other things, but the flowers are more well known: they are exquisitely beautiful, and though they are intensely sensual, there is also a softness about them.  This may be due to her Moon rising, two degrees away from her Sun, immediately after a New Moon.

As mentioned previously, both in art and personality, Caravaggio may be seen as Scorpionic.

Sagittarius – Georges Seurat

As mentioned under Virgo, one would expect the minutely detailed pointillist technique to belong to that sign, rather than the expansionist seeing-the-wood-for-the-trees sign of Sagittarius.  And to answer my own question at the beginning of this blog, yes he is one of my favourite painters.  Was it an attempt at inner balance that Seurat was trying to achieve?  The answer is simpler, courtesy of a birth time, for Virgo was indeed his rising sign, or Ascendant.  He had an amazingly co-ordinated chart in many ways, for his Ascendant was 26 degrees, Venus (art) was at 25 degrees and at his I.C. (his security point), Neptune was at 24 degrees at the Descendant, the Midheaven was at 25 degrees, Jupiter was at 24 degrees (exactly trine inspirational Neptune) and last but not least Saturn was at 26 degrees.  All these planets formed tight aspects to each other.

Capricorn – Berthe Morisot

The third of our women artists, Berthe Morisot was outstanding as a French painter in the Impressionist movement.  Though she was born under the ambitious and career-orientated sign of Capricorn, she often painted domestic and maternal scenes more characteristic of her Ascendant sign Cancer.  Chiron (the wounded healer) was also in Cancer, in her 1^st House, so there is a desire to heal in her work and personality.  The Cancerian theme is carried through in her karmic mission, as the Moon trines her North Node.  Femininity is also highlighted for her career, with Venus closely conjunct her Midheaven in Pisces.  There is also a desire for emancipation, with the Moon conjunct Mars in artistic Libra – it was a very difficult time for a woman to be recognized in the art world.  She was married to the brother of Edouard Manet, who appears under Aquarius.  Her work was known for its elegance and lightness.

“I don’t think there has ever been a man who treated a woman as an equal and that’s all I would have asked for, for I know I’m worth as much as they.”

~ Berthe Morisot

Aquarius – Edouard Manet

Manet was one of the foremost of the Impressionists, was born in Paris, and as mentioned he was the brother-in-law of Berthe Morisot.  His work is characterized by his use of the colour black, the harshness of which for instance does not predominate in the work of Claude Monet.  His work takes on a Capricornian/Saturnian feel, therefore.  At the time he was born, Aquarius was still ruled jointly by Saturn and Uranus, as the latter had only been discovered in 1781. Astrologers had only begun to ascribe Uranus to Aquarius in the 1820s, and it takes a while for a planetary principle to work its way into the collective unconscious.   Manet had three planets in Aquarius: the sun, Uranus and Jupiter.  Some of the harsh outlining can be attributed to his Mercury trine Saturn, and Mercury square Pluto.  Apparently, it was Berthe Morisot, a friend to famous painters of the time, who drew Manet into that artistic circle, and she encouraged him in his work. He painted many plein air pieces, as befitting of an Air sign!

Pisces – Piet Mondrian

20^th Century artist Piet Mondrian, influenced by Cubism, has again a very distinctive style of painting, in slabs and blocks of colour.  He is another example of a painter whose work is not typical of his Sun sign, and needs decoding astrologically.  He does have the Sun conjunct Mercury in Pisces in the 1^st House, but with an Ascendant of Aquarius.  The Moon is gentle, in a conjunction with Venus in his 12^th House.  That conjunction is in Aquarius, and his paintings boldly go more in that direction than in the whispy, blended colours you would expect from Pisces.  His confident tones are described in his trine between Sun/Mercury and Jupiter.  There is some significant wounding in his life, shown by Mars conjunct Chiron (also indicative of the fear of eye injuries he suffered from), and maybe the bold use of colour is an attempt to heal this.   As a pioneer of abstract art, he influenced Bauhaus, modern architecture, and industrial design.  A deep personality, philosophically he was drawn to Theosophy and Anthroposophy.

As mentioned, I see Turner’s skyscapes as being sensitively Piscean in nature.

“Art is higher than reality and has no direct relation to reality. To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual. We find ourselves in the presence of an abstract art. Art should be above reality, otherwise it would have no value for man.”

~ Piet Mondrian

Next Week: Wimbledon

Aspects

This morning ushered in the Summer Solstice, the Sun’s entry into the sign of Cancer.  Smell the roses if you have some, and celebrate the moment of maximum light.  Many people will enjoy the benefits of nature, and the weather in the U.K. is conducive to making the most of it.  A holiday mood is possible, at least theoretically.  You may also be taking stock of your life.  They say that sunrise was spectacular at Stonehenge this morning…!

Today holds another gift: that of a sextile between the Sun and Chiron.  This may have a stabilizing effect, especially if parties desire to work on healing.  This is a useful aspect for balancing, and receiving beneficial input from other worlds and planes.  It’s helpful for problem-solving, too.  What do you yearn to solve?  There will be an attempt to bring everything to a wholeness.

Tuesday (23^rd) brings a trine between the Sun and the North Node.  Karmic developments (North Node) are likely to be about power and creativity.  At this time, the Universe bears a karmic gift.  This can help your actions and creations to fall in line with, and be in sync with, your own karma and the collective karma.  I have a dental check-up that day, and am hoping that my dental karma holds…!

We have two contrasting aspects on Thursday (25^th), the first of which arrives at Noon, in the shape of Venus trine Saturn.  This may bring encouragement, of people coming together with more commitment and loyalty, in this period of social division.  Venus can provide a softening role to a hard line stance.  It is conciliatory, which may be just what is needed.  Relationships may need serious resolving, and this aspect can help, whether on a personal level, or between nations (for any bidders for the Nobel Peace Prize).

Late on the same day, Neptune will square the Sun, which may find you confused by opposing ideas and thoughts, as Neptune squares the Sun.  This is a smoke and mirrors type of aspect. There may be new considerations and issues arising, more sensitivity to consider, in your own life.  How much energy can you give to the consideration of events abroad, while attending to your own healing and those of other around you? You may be feeling a little lost, or even dizzy, your awareness in a state of transition.  It’s a good moment to surrender to the divine, and ask what you are supposed to be learning from the experience, seeking out where the illusion lies.

The week in bullet points:

• Today – summery mood; healing
• Tuesday – karmic rewards
• Thursday – loyalty; confusion