Brad Pitt’s Saturn Return Goes Neptunian
Brad Pitt as Ophelis drowning on the cover of GQ. You could not get a more Neptunian image. I think he looks embalmed… which may also be an homage to the great whale…
The second Saturn Return at around the age of 58 or 59 is a time when a chapter closes and a new door opens into what may be the final third of a person’s life. It’s as important as the one at 28, when real adult life begins and the first flush of youth is over — but less discussed.
It can be a time of great reflection. The reckoning is made and we add up what we have learned and what we have lost, what we have yet to learn and what we have yet to lose. At this Saturn Return, the grim reaper himself often pays a visit — even if only in dreams. The body itself may creak at the joints.
This Saturn Return always coincides with a Jupiter Return, too, so we may feel a flush of optimism to tide us over the doorstep into our future selves.
Golden boy Brad Pitt is having just such an astrological transit, so it was fascinating to see his extraordinary photo session in this month’s GQ. Photographer Elizaveta Porodina has turned Pitt into a psychedelic corpse, a camp cowboy, Brad Stardust. A few photos are weirdly reminiscent of Jon Voight’s Midnight Cowboy. Since Jon Voight is Pitt’s ex Angelina Jolie’s estranged dad, it’s hard not to wonder a little. There may also be a nod to Robert Redford in The Electric Horseman.
Indeed, Porodina is an artist. Her skills at manipulating images are visionary. The message of these images is one of inner visions, and indeed the interview begins with Pitt describing one of his dreams.
Pitt had the first pass of his Saturn Return earlier this year, his due two more passes. Jupiter in Aries will turn retrograde just before the exact Return, which won’t be until next February. But he will have started to feel that Jupiter Return powerfully now already, as Mars pinged his vibrant, daring natal Jupiter at 9° Aries.
Pitt is a very Capricorny Sagittarian, with a big stellium in the ambitious sign of the sea goat. In fact his chart shows an interesting dichotomy between excess — Sun and Ascendant in Sagittarius, Jupiter in Aries — and discipline — Saturn in Aquarius and all that Capricorn. Essentially he is hot fire and cool, cold earth — what you need to make pots, which is apparently a current hobby. His Saturn Return is likely to open the gateway into more producing and directing — following in the footsteps of the other Hollywood golden boy, Robert Redford.
The photographs though — and the accompanying text — are a celebration of Neptune. They are dreamlike, fantastic, surreal, psychedelic — this is Neptune. Neptune is also the planet of glamour and stardust. This is something that Pitt really has. Here’s what Director Quentin Tarantino says about this quality of Pitt’s: “I don’t think you can describe exactly what that is because it’s like describing starshine. I noticed it when we were doing Inglourious Basterds. When Brad was in the shot, I didn’t feel like I was looking through the viewfinder of the camera. I felt like I was watching a movie. Just his presence in the four walls of the frame created that impression.”
In fact, Pitt has a rare aspect in his chart. Neptune exactly conjoins Juno, the Queen. Juno can show where you are exceptional, excellent, honourable. Tarantino bangs on about how you don’t find this quality in film stars any more. I think this is nonsense, so on a hunch I looked at the exceptionally glamorous young Timothee Chalamet’s chart — Juno at 23° Capricorn, Neptune at 24°. Chalamet feels the same to me on screen too — shimmeringly watchable. This Neptune exactly sextiles Pitt’s Mercury, the planet of communications, in Capricorn.
Currently, Neptune is squaring Pitt’s Sagittarian Sun — and I think that is what we are seeing in these photographs. We are seeing his fairy glamour photographed. This shoot would have taken place months ago, of course, but it’s noteworthy that the cover image is an homage to Ophelia drowned by John Everett Millais, that most Neptunian image of love sacrificed. The Jupiter-Neptune conjunction would have taken place at some point during the process. Jupiter is, of course, Pitt’s ruling planet, drowning in the seas of Pisces for the first half of 2022 — the land of dreams and fairies.
No birth time. Sunrise chart.
Elizaveta Porodina is a playful, creative Leo, whose stellium in that sign opposes Pitt’s Saturn and trines his Sagittarian Sun. This is something of a career breakthrough for her, as Jupiter has just gone through her pioneering NN in Aries. Mind you, she is already very successful. Like Pitt, her Jupiter is in Aries — although at the far end of the sign — but her NN is very close to Pitt’s Jupiter, so he is a creator of opportunity for her. Note also that her zany Sagittarian Uranus butts up against Pitt’s Sun. She is a change maker for him. I think they probably had a hoot doing this shoot.
I so enjoy value and appreciate your erudite creative imaginative knowledgeable wise beautiful and intelligent if not visionary descriptive posts Christina! They make me feel that allis well and beautifully balanced in the world or, will be, and that this is possible!
They feel like stardust too. Thank you! ✨💛
… and thank you!
Just noting that K-pop superstar Kim Taehyung has that same Neptune-Juno conjunction.
Finally got around to reading the GQ article – very other-worldly. Not your everyday interview and photographs, to be sure! For me, putting that much of myself out there in both the photographs and the interview, would feel very vulnerable. Maybe not so much for an actor. His Saturn will be squared and his Neptune/Juno will be opposed by that Uranus/Mars/N. Node conjunction.
It does seem very exposing… in a most unorthodox way.