In Charge of Her Career

Kate Winslet made movie history with her breakout role as the heroine Rose in the Oscar-winning blockbuster epic Titanic. This season she's making a splash in another period piece, with its roots in reality—Quills, which takes a look at the life of the Marquis de Sade (played by Geoffrey Rush). At twenty-five, the British actress has already made a mark on Hollywood as a smart, hard-working risk taker. Astrologically, Kate is full of loads of cardinal energy. This means that her powers lie mainly in her ability to make strong choices and take initiative in life. Kate's whole chart is full of strong, surprising statements, just like her films.

She first caught the attention of critics and moviegoers in the shocking, yet lyrically moving Heavenly Creatures, based on the true story of two young female student lovers in Christchurch, New Zealand. After Titanic she took roles in the unusual and arty Hideous Kinky, and then starred opposite Harvey Keitel in Holy Smoke, directed by New Zealander Jane Campion (The Piano).

The Beauty Myth: Libra Style

Many of Winslet’s roles deal with the rebellion of a young female figure. Her first Oscar nomination was for Sense and Sensibility, in which she played Marianne, the daughter who chose expressing her feelings over stodgy social conventions. In her current film, Quills, she plays the idealistic and somewhat pure nurse who secretly delivers the locked up Sade's writings to the eager public.

This type of backdoor assertiveness is reflective of Kate's Sun-Pluto conjunction in Libra. The Sun represents public image, while Pluto rules deep, dark personal transformation. On the one hand, her Libra side is drawn to classic texts—Jane Austin and the myth-like story of Titanic—but the Pluto part of her finds a way to subvert the traditionally pretty/feminine and overly easy influence of Libra.

Kate had to go through her own Libran "beauty crisis" in a very public way, when media folk drew attention to her healthy (but heavy by 1990s American standards), beautiful body. She initially attempted to kowtow to the media's mercurial whims, then decided to say the equivalent of "to hell with everybody" and do what was right for her personally. She's allowed her body to remain natural and real since the birth of her baby (with husband, film director Jim Threapleton). And now she's back on top, in her career, thanks to her gripping performance in Quills.

The Leo Connections

Kate's Saturn (planet of structure, hard work and discipline) is in the sign Leo, which represents a gift for drama. Leo is also associated with leadership and a certain adolescent romanticism and self-centeredness (no offense Leos, but your sign does rule the adolescent time of life).

In Kate's chart, her Saturn in Leo makes an exact square (difficult, stubborn angle) to her Uranus in Scorpio. Uranus is an extremely progressive and unconventional planet that points to the ways each of us can progress our own generation. Scorpio is the sign of sex and personal transformation (it's ruled by volatile Pluto). This square suggests that Kate feels torn between a conventional (Saturn) career as a Hollywood actress (theatrical Leo) and a more risky, progressive (Uranus) path as an explorer of dark and sexual matters (Scorpio).

This indicates that there is a method to Kate's "madness" in choosing (by Hollywood standards) such an odd progression of roles. Although Heavenly Creatures and Holy Smoke were hardly commercial pictures, they allowed Kate to stretch her explorations of the boundaries (Saturn) of sexuality (Uranus in Scorpio). This thoughtful but unconventional approach to her career is what makes her fans so passionate about her. Still, Hollywood only rewards her for her most traditional work (Sense and Sensibility and Titanic).

Less Certain Waters

During Oscar time 1998, when Kate was nominated for an Academy Award for Titanic, Pluto was hovering close to her Neptune. Neptune is the dreamy planet of imagination and illusion. At that time, she was able to capture the public imagination in a huge and transformational way, as (hate to say it but) millions of young girls projected their fantasies of being Rose onto her.

Right now, the talented actress is experiencing a more subtle astrological cycle. However, she's still very much on the verge of some extreme choices, in keeping with her (real life) character! In January 2001, the lunar eclipse in Cancer will make a very close square to her Mercury (planet of communication). Since eclipses tend to set the emotional tone for the six-month cycle to come, this suggests that she seek out (or even write) a script that is not just unusual, but that's a lot of trouble to turn into a film. (Squares demand a lot of patience and compromise). However, if she really believes in this script with her whole heart, and puts in the energy and commitment, it could turn into a huge success for her, similar to Winona Ryder who dedicated herself to the development of Girl, Interrupted.

In June 2001, lucky, unpredictable and excessive Jupiter will hit her Mars—planet of passion. She could conceive of a new and exciting project at that time, or conceive her second child!