|
In a career
spanning twenty years, Kevin Spacey has gone from Gong Show
reject to two-time Academy Award winner. Yet this publicity-shy actor
has managed to maintain a cloak of mystery around him, preferring to keep
the public guessing about his personal life, and offering few clues to
who he really is behind the roles he plays. Unusual behavior, to say the
least, for someone born under the normally flamboyant sign of Leo.
 Spacey
was born July 26, 1959, in South Orange, New Jersey. Not only was the
Sun in Leo that day but Mercury, the planet of thought and communication,
and Uranus, the planet of rebellion and individuality were in Leo as well.
When you
think of Leo, powerhouses like Madonna,
Mick Jagger or the late Robert Mitchum usually come to mind. People who
make a big impact and naturally draw attention to themselves. The more
you know about them, the better they like it. Not Spacey.
Why doesn't
he fit the textbook descriptions of Leo we've come to expect? He told
the London Evening Standard in 1998: "It's not that
I want to create some b---s--- mystique by maintaining a silence about
my personal life," he said, "it is just that the less you know
about me, the easier it is to convince you that I am that character on
screen." That's one explanation. His horoscope, however, sheds greater
light.
Wrapped
in Mystery: The Sun and Neptune
In a horoscope,
the Sun is the dynamic engine that fuels the person's entire energy system.
But tension aspects to the Sun from other planets, especially the
square and opposition, can represent blockages that alter the normal outpouring
of solar energy. These blockages provide challenges that force us to use
the energy of the aspecting planet in creative ways.
Mysterious
Neptune squares Spacey’s Leo Sun very tightly. The Sun in Leo may want
to shine brightly, but Neptune prefers fog and ambiguity. Cloaked in fathomless
Scorpio, Neptune's link to the Sun makes Kevin very much a mystery wrapped
in an enigma.
Both the
Sun and Neptune are highly creative, but in different ways and for different
reasons. The Sun creates for the sheer joy of creativity and to obtain
appreciation for the self, but Neptunian creativity seeks to merge the
self with something greater. Neptune, as the poet said, seeks "to
be drunken continually with wine, poetry or virtue as you will."
Dark
Intensity: Neptune in Scorpio
Neptune in
Scorpio brings power and intensity to Kevin's characterizations. It’s
no coincidence that most of the roles he's played have been dark, nebulous
Scorpionic creatures—mass murderer John Doe in Seven; the
chameleon-like con man Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects
(for which he won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1995); and the
middle-aged suburbanite in American Beauty, lusting after
a cheerleader in his daughter's high school.
Another indication
of Spacey’s ability to play creepy characters so convincingly is found
in the conjunction of his Mars, the planet associated with sex and violence,
with Pluto, planet of darkness and all things that go bump in the night.
The fact that this planetary pair is located in fastidious Virgo also
explains how he is able to create diabolical characters who, while clearly
evil, always seem so bland, logical and almost clinically detached from
the evil they do—a typically Virgo approach to mayhem and murder!
Jupiter
in Scorpio
There's more
of the Leo/Scorpio mix in Spacey’s chart. Jupiter in Scorpio squares his
retrograde Mercury (communication) and eccentric Uranus in Leo. Jupiter
represents the part of ourselves we use to reach out to the larger world
in hope of reward and success. It's also our philosophy of life. In this
case, it represents the belief that success depends greatly on not revealing
too much. While Mercury in Leo may want to tell all, Jupiter in Scorpio
advises against it.
Mercury's
conjunction with Uranus also makes for a unique and individualistic turn
of mind. Uranus tells Spacey’s already unconventional retro Mercury, "Hey,
pal, whatever anybody expects, just keep ‘em guessing."
One area
where Spacey definitely has them guessing is on the question of his sexual
identity. For years the press has speculated on whether he's straight
or gay. He's never married and claims his closest relationship is with
his dog, Legacy. He's quoted as saying that it's a misconception women
have that he's gay. "For them it's a challenge," he said. "They
want to be the one to turn me around. I let them." More of that Sun/Neptune
ambiguity. With Mars, the planet of male sexuality, conjunct secretive
Pluto and trine controlling Saturn in Capricorn, Spacey rightly believes
his sex life really is his own business.
Plenty
of Work Ahead
Spacey won
the 1999 Oscar for best actor in American Beauty, and since
then has done more work on the stage and screen, including the not very
successful tear jerker Pay It Forward. What does the future
hold for him?
With two
films scheduled for this year—K-Pax, a science fiction story
with Jeff Bridges, in which Spacey plays an alien in a mental hospital,
and Shipping News, set in Newfoundland—Spacey will undoubtedly
be very busy.
From May
2001 to April 2002, transiting Saturn will be squaring his Pluto, Mars
and Venus in Virgo, indicating a period of intense hard work. Saturn also
represents tests to be faced, and since it will be squaring his Virgo
planets from Gemini, the sign ruling journalism, he could experience difficulties
with the tabloids during that period.
At the end
of 2002, however, Jupiter will be conjuncting his Leo planets, promising
more success and greater fame. Who knows? By then, he may decide to tell
us something about himself. But I wouldn't bet on it.
|
