Wicked
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Galinda in Wicked.
Cycling through the air, straight-backed and determined, Miss Gulch transforms into a witch on a broomstick at the start of The Wizard of Oz. It’s terrifying and fabulous.
Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 classic, owned the part fully, becoming a camp fixture in the nightmares of children for generations.
Cynthia Erivo has just reprised that part, green skin and all, in the film version of the hit musical Wicked, which is based one of the ultimate pieces of fan-fiction. Wicked tells the backstory of the wicked witch. Why did she get to be so nasty? And why so green?
So, as I sat through some of the longueurs of Wicked, I wondered what these two actresses have in common astrologically speaking. Might they, for example, share a Lilith placement — for surely the Black Moon is where we go to seek witches.
It turns out better than that.
Neptune is the planet we associate with films, Hollywood, mirrors, glamour and camp.
There is no birth time for either so time is set for mid day
Both women have Neptune opposite to Lilith (mean). Neptune, the camera, looks right at that outsider part of themselves. But here’s the really lovely thing. These oppositions are in conjunction across the charts. Hamilton, the original Wicked Witch, who created the crazy laugh, has Liilith at 4° Capricorn and Neptune at 3° Cancer. Erivo has Lilith at 5° Cancer and Neptune at 6° Capricorn. This is the parent child axis.
To continue that theme. Hamilton’s Sagittarius Sun exactly conjoins Erivo’s Saturn, both at 16°. And the reverse is true again, although more widely, Erivo’s Capricorn Sun conjoins Hamilton’s Saturn. Perhaps this is a mark of the witch’s crone status, but also of this as a legacy part, an old part that’s given energy by the Sun.
There is much more synastry to find in these two charts, but I wanted to quickly compare Erivo’s chart to that of Ariana Grande, who plays Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked. They have remarkable on-screen chemistry which gives the movie its energy. I have flipped the charts because we have an AA rated birth time for Grande.
Take a look at where her Grande’s Sun falls. Right on Erivo’s Lilith and opposite her Neptune. In fact, in the film (at least the first one), they are like two sides of coin. Grande is the sunny pink side, and Erivo the sombre green side, Lilith and the Sun in Cancer.
I’m kinda stuck on the first biwheel – it’s almost like the positions were set, and then the planets filled them in like “values for x/y/z” in algebra! There is so little that’s *not* conjunct between them, except, for instance, where Erivo’s NN and Moon cradle Hamilton’s SN! Fascinating synastry
I know: it’s crazy!