In his latest film, Battlefield Earth, John Travolta undertakes the role of a nine-foot tall alien with glowing amber eyes, a grotesquely elongated head and hook like talons for hands, but says, “You’ll recognize me.”

John Travolta has come a long way from the good-looking, but naive and eccentric bad boy, Vinnie Barbario, he portrayed in Welcome Back Kotter. Now, at the pinnacle of power, Travolta is co-producing and starring in the screen adaptation of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s pulp sci-fi novel, Battlefield Earth. Throughout his career, Travolta has flirted with themes of good, bad and baddest. From a scruffy, not entirely angelic, archangel Michael, to Face Off’s challenging play on dichotomy, Travolta has found roles that allow him to remain the innocent (though somewhat jaded) eccentric good guy while legitimately exploring the darker aspects of his nature. He has now come full spectrum, shedding all redeeming human qualities to characterize the evil alien, Terl.

The actor compares what he sees as being the film’s theme with modern day society, saying, “It’s kind of about what’s happening on Planet Earth. You’ve got your criminal element, your good guys, the search for gold...when you see it, you’re going to see some parallels.” Through the lens of astrology we also see some interesting parallels to the man himself, with the film's two main characters representing exaggerated caricatures of opposing parts of Travolta’s own psyche.

Jonnie Goodboy: Aquarius Sun

The film tells of an Earth that has been enslaved by an alien species. The story follows a human survivor, Jonnie Goodboy Tyler—strong, brilliant, handsome, compassionate, well-loved and altruistic—an all around wonderful guy and truly superior being—as he unites mankind and leads a revolution to overcome the alien overlords who have been plundering the planet of its resources.

Born February 18, 1954, at 2:53 pm, in Englewood NJ, Travolta has the Sun in Aquarius in the Eighth House. Uranus, the planet linked to Aquarius, is in the Twelfth House. In the highest sense, Aquarius represents the ideal man—the perfected being that has liberated himself from the limitations of time and space. Often artistically depicted as an angel, the immortal messenger to mankind from the Gods, it is concerned with connecting humanity to the divine while saving it from its animal nature. Uranus, the planet linked to Aquarius, is the planet of non-conformity, radical ideas, freedom and extraordinary phenomena.

Those born when the Sun is in the sign of Aquarius are known to be fair, just and reasonable, but also idealistic, with an air of superiority. Each is gifted with their own particular brand of eccentricity. With Uranus in the Twelfth House, the individual also feels connected to the divine (Twelfth House), and confined by earthly life, finding it difficult to submit and live by earthly rules (Uranus).

Terl, the Alien Beast: Pluto in Leo

In the film, humanity has been reduced to scattered remnants by the invasion of the Psychlos, an evil alien race governed solely by the desire for profit and the love of cruelty. Our hero, Jonnie Goodboy, is pitted against Terl, the nefarious head of security for the extraterrestrial’s mining operations. He is the baddest of the bad with absolute authority and the power to do anything he wants.

In his horoscope, Travolta’s Aquarius Sun is pitted against (in opposition to) his Pluto in Leo. Pluto, named for the mythological god of the underworld, is the planet of metamorphosis. It is the powerful force of our instinctive nature to evolve. At the grossest level, it is our most base animal instincts—a malefic and dark force that encompasses the nasty aspects of mankind: greed, jealousy, revenge, obsession, desecration, death, annihilation, subversion and conflict—all those scary things that could lead to the destruction of life as we know it.

On a personal level, Pluto is the alien aspect of our nature, something about ourselves we find completely unacceptable but are unconsciously drawn to experience and change. When Pluto is in Leo, the individual’s love of personal power and authority (Leo) is under pressure to evolve (Pluto). In its most negative expression, this translates into an individual who is motivated solely by an obsessive desire for the power to be, do and have anything he wants, regardless of the harm he might cause either himself or another.

Travolta’s Will to Power: Sun-Pluto

The Sun-Pluto opposition reveals that these two characters (perhaps less exaggerated) represent warring factions of Travolta’s psyche, making him a confrontational man who assumes his self-will (Sun) will be frustrated (opposition) by a world he sees as peopled by controlling villains (Pluto in Leo). It is alien to Jonnie Goodboy that it could be his own will to power that forces confrontations. This makes it predictable that Travolta’s life would involve encounters that would give him the opportunity to experience the use and abuse of personal power, and that these encounters would spark off an unconscious urge to purify himself, kill off the baddies and save the world.

The Scientology Connection

Travolta’s long affiliation with Scientology is well-known. He is its primary celebrity spokesperson. The church is rumored to have financially backed, at least in part, the production of Battlefield Earth. This has led some to believe the film is a subversive attempt to indoctrinate mankind in Scientology beliefs. Travolta, of course, denies all this.

But, Travolta does say that getting Battlefield Earth made is “the pinnacle of using my power for something.”

“I can get things done that a studio might not normally do,” he told the New York Daily News. “I told my manager, ‘If we can’t do the things now that we want to do, what good is power?’ Let’s test it and try to get the things done we believe in.”

Could it really be that John Travolta is a closet (Twelfth House) revolutionary (Uranus) whose life is centered (Sun) around enlightening mankind (Aquarius) to its underlying motivations and mysteries (Eighth House), but feels his ability to do this would be thwarted (opposition) by those in places of power (Pluto), leading him to use the power of his own celebrity (Leo) to subversively (Pluto) get his message to mankind (Aquarius)?

Makes you wonder.