Beyonce Knowles was born on September 4, 1981 at approximately 10:00 AM (CDT) in Houston, Texas. Though we have to take the exactness of her birth time with a grain of salt, her Libra ascendant reflects the Persona we give off to the world unconsciously, without realizing it, and happens to be the most time-sensitive part of any Birth Chart (Pro Tip: if you’re ever in doubt about the exact birth time, check the ascendant sign and/or planetary aspects to the ascendant).
One look at Bey’s chart shows an unbeatable combination of magnetic charm and beauty—with a famously renowned work ethic to boot. But when it comes to artistic creativity, we all know it takes a certain number of licks to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop. So what makes Queen B (or any B) a true Artist? It’s the ability to look at oneself honestly and to share the deeply personal with the typically-critical, not to mention very superficial public.
Venus-Pluto aspects are sometimes referred to as Millionaire or Billionaire aspects due to the power to attract wealth and material security, indicating not only personal success but financial gains through a marriage or relationship as well. At only 38, Beyonce has accomplished more in her career than most do in a lifetime, having won record numbers of Grammy awards, topping the Billboard Charts, with both her and hubby Jay-Z making both Time and Forbes’ list of the most powerful and influential people in the world several times over. So already, just by looking at the Ascendant and its aspects, the parallels between her Birth Chart and Real Life begin to emerge.
When we look at Bey’s lovely Venus at 20° of Libra right on her Ascendant, what else do we see but Pluto, right next to her Venus at 22° of Libra, in her 1st house of Self-Expression and Identity. This Venus-Pluto conjunction in Libra represents her magnetic image, as well as struggles with secrecy, jealousy and betrayal in romantic relationships.
With such heavy concentration of planets in Libra, Marriage and Committed Partnerships are clearly the area wherein lessons about Self are learned. This is true in general, but especially in Bey’s chart. The painful test of marriage led to her personal transformation, though, culminating in the birth of her own identity apart from that of Destiny’s Child, her Father’s influence and of her very public marriage to Hip-Hop legend Jay-Z. This is a classic Venus-Pluto tale, especially in Libra, the sign symbolizing Marriage and Committed Partnerships—both business and personal.
As if this wasn’t enough, the Sabian Symbol for the exact degree of Beyonce’s Sun @ 11-12° of Virgo is “After The Wedding, The Groom Snatches The Veil Away From His Bride” (Jones, Marc Edmund. The Sabian Symbols in Astrology. Aurora Press, 1993).
I mean…how much more literal can it get?
Ascendant in Libra: Feelin’ Yourself
One of the reasons I love this Chart is that it’s a true demonstration of how your Sun sign is by no means the dominant, let alone definitive energy that makes up your personality. With Libra Rising + the majority of her planets—Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto to be specific—falling in Libra, she’s just as much a Libra as she is a Virgo in many respects. And though she’ll always have that Virgo Sun, she’s what I’d call an “Honorary Libra” of sorts.
Libra is the sign of Beauty, Love, Relationships, and Money. Sounds great, right? Well, being so unbearably charming is actually kind of draining it turns out. Both Virgo and Libra can be shy, bookish types on the surface, and both are the consummate perfectionists of the Zodiac, often obsessing, if not working tirelessly, to embody the “ideal” female image.
With Venus right on the Ascendant angle of her chart, Beyonce is bestowed with an amazing, almost effortless power of attraction—especially when Venus is placed in Libra, the sign it rules. Venus on the Ascendant gives the gift of physical beauty and the power to attract helpful people and relationships into her life. In fact, the ease with which the Venus in Libra and/or Venus-Ascendant person attracts relationships is so smooth it’s barely even noticeable at first.
This can of course be both invigorating and overwhelming depending on the circumstance, as both Virgo and Libra Woman often get stuck in early life emulating a close friend or partner, modeling themselves after those closest to them—those they admire—usually out of a fear of open self-expression. But this is a crucial step in the Virgo/Libra Woman’s journey, as cultivating a unique identity that doesn’t rely on figures to emulate or formulas to follow is ultimately the key to her happiness.
Venus Conjunct Pluto: I Put a Spell On You
In terms of its planetary influence, Pluto is like steroids. Its influence when aspecting another planet is to amplify its energy—in this case, Venus. Prominent Venus-Pluto Aspects in any Chart reflect the bittersweetness that comes with the power of female desirability, beauty and sex appeal, with the Venus-Pluto individual learning difficult lessons about survival (Pluto) in relationships (Venus).
In Bey’s Chart, her Libra Ascendant conjunct Venus and Pluto in Libra align with so much of her work, life events and of her public image overall. Venus-Pluto on her Ascendant indicate a life in which relationship struggles, testing one’s powers of attraction, personal survival within the context of a one-on-one partnership and/or artistic collaboration, and the power of physical beauty and sex appeal as an essential aspect of one’s Brand. Venus-Pluto in Libra asks her to incorporate but not conflate—own but not take on—the intense sexuality and femininity of her persona without drowning in it.
The Venus-Pluto person unconsciously draws people in, magnetizing others with their energy and oozing sex appeal on a level somewhat out of their control. So while Venus-Pluto in Libra conjunct the Ascendant might draw people in, they may attract more attention (or relationships) than they can reasonably handle. This can be challenging for Virgo Woman, who tend to have a strong need to be everything to everyone, as the saying goes.
Any Pluto influence, whether it be by aspect in the case of Bey’s Venus or in the case of sign placement with her Scorpio Moon, brings with it an “obsessive-compulsive” quality about all that is stereotypically feminine. And with her Virgo Sun (already the perfectionist du jour), the pressure (Pluto) to not only be beautiful (Venus) but to bring home the bacon (Venus-Pluto) is incredibly strong.
The Venus-Pluto combination, especially in the sign of Libra, connotes not just physical beauty but an enchanting power of attraction that goes beyond the physical. So while everyone else is doing algebra, the Venus-Pluto person figures out at an early age that if Beauty = Wealth, and Wealth = Power, well then Beauty = Power.
Venus-Pluto usually knows just how to get what they want from others, and is likely to move in subtly, using sex appeal as their dominant mechanism of attracting what (or Who) they want. Reliance on beauty and wealth as forms of power and domination over others can, however, lead to interpersonal problems, particularly that of manipulation, control and (co)-dependency, more often than not playing out an unconscious repetition of karmic, unhealthy patterns of relating.
Sun in Virgo: Never Interrupt The Grind
As you can see in her chart above, Bey’s Sun falls in the second decan of Virgo—or those with birthdays in the first two weeks of September—and is ruled by Saturn, the planet of Order and Discipline. Virgo Suns are typically hard-working and not afraid of getting their hands dirty, not to mention detail-oriented to a fault. And with Saturn as her ruling planet, her level of self-discipline can reach ascetic if not downright masochistic proportions.
But stop the grind you will not, as consistency, practice, and dedication to her goals result in a militaristic work ethic that would put most coal miners to shame. In fact, if you look beneath the surface, the true beauty of Virgo Woman is her instinctual drive to dive right in and get to work—to try something new and to love learning each step of the way, often swinging between Humble Pie and Pie-in-the-Sky in the blink of an eye.
Usually in the first part of life, Virgo becomes expert at hiding their deepest wounds carefully from view, preferring to focus on the wounds—identified as “flaws” by Virgo—of others. It’s a very clever form of misdirection though, as Virgo is secretly most critical of themselves.
Ask any Virgo: attempting to embody Perfection for so long takes an inevitable toll. It’s only when Virgo realizes that perfection is not freedom but imprisonment—imprisonment in their own wounds and by wounding others through what they see as helpful advice (read: criticism)—that they’re able to break free from the propensity to people-please.
The evolved Virgo Woman learns from Experience and is thus able to change, breaking longstanding patterns that may have been self-destructive or even antithetical to unleashing her true creativity. Just as releasing herself from the staid Perfection Obsession ends any period of creative stagnation and erosion of personal relationships, by learning to let her guard down, Virgo allows herself to be human. In doing so, she experiences divine emotional release, finding ways to work it, check up on it, et al.—by doing things her own way (for once).
Scorpio Moon: Femme-Dom Realness
Arguably the most significant planet in Beyonce’s chart is her Moon in Scorpio. The Moon is in its Fall in Scorpio, as the ambition and determination of Mars/Pluto-ruled sign of Scorpio inherently conflicts with the receptive, nurturing qualities of the Moon.
Mars in Leo at the very top of her chart is emphasized by its placement in the 10th house and exact conjunction to the North Node, both in Leo. The Moon in Scorpio rules her Midheaven, or 10th house cusp, which happens to be in the late degrees of Cancer. Why is this important? The Moon and Mars both represent Instinct in the purest sense of the word, with Mars symbolizing what drives us to get up in the morning and the Moon symbolizing the way we instinctively react to life situations.
Mars in Leo is the consummate Performer of the Zodiac, and its connection to the North Node in Leo and the 10th house clearly show that Beyonce was “destined” for Stardom. Moon in Scorpio and Mars in Leo represent a drive for recognition and appreciation (Leo) as well as fame and fortune (Scorpio).
The emotions are highly controlled with the Moon in Scorpio, though there’s almost always a deep frustration seething underneath, with the pressure of having to act feminine in the traditional sense indicated by the submissive, “do what you’re told” impetus of her planets in Libra and Virgo in direct conflict with the inner “DIVA” indicated by her Scorpio Moon and Mars in Leo.
Her struggle with this conflict is a theme that pervades Bey’s prolific body of work—“Bow (Down)” “(Who Run The World) Girls,” “If I Were A Boy,” to name just a few—and her Birth Chart depicts a strongly felt impetus to explore her identity through the performance of conflicting gender roles.
The flip side here is that while Bey naturally projects a powerful if not overwhelming persona, she may feel weak inside, often tiring herself out from performing and fulfilling her need to dominate the scene on such a constant basis.
Literal and figurative periods of burn-out are not an uncommon result, as her chart indicates that she’s both driven and ambitious yet can come to resent these qualities, despite the material success or “bacon” they might bring…
So whether Bey indulges the Moon-Mars Diva or the Virgo-Libra Doormat, what matters is awareness (not control) of the dynamic. Virgo needs to learn that sacrificing or denying herself in futile (silent) protest, playing into power struggles just to feel the fleeting feeling of being needed, unfortunately do not an Identity make.
Because while servility and submission may be tolerable (if not a total turn-on) for Virgo and Libra alike, if you continue to walk all over them, don’t be surprised when one day they go from Doormat to Diva without a second thought. Because no one I know of with a Leo Mars (much less a Scorpio Moon) can bear playing Doormat for long.
Moon Conjunct Uranus: She Works For the Money
Those born with a Scorpio Moon tend to have controlling Mothers, helicopter-like in their vigilant watch over the child to the extent of living vicariously through them. Either way, Moon in Scorpio = Powerful Mother.
Uranus is the planet that represents chaos, sudden upheavals or upsets but also of revelations and truth. Whenever Uranus aspects the Moon, there’s an instability of some kind in the early life, usually related to some form of overt discord in the parental relationship.
And with Uranus as the stronger planet in this conjunction, it means that the expression of her most raw emotions and needs (Moon) typically go unacknowledged and/or bottled for so long that emotional outbursts (Uranus) are often the result.
With Moon and Mars in her 2nd house of earned income, this would’ve had to do with upheavals in the family surrounding issues of money and financial security. Similarly, with the Moon and Uranus opposite asteroid Chiron in her 8th house, there’s a deep wound (Chiron) around sudden events or truths revealed (Uranus) either by or to her Mother or other female family members (Moon).
In Bey’s chart, Mother (Moon) was experienced as deeply frustrated woman disappointed by instability (Uranus) she may have suffered through her own marriage to Bey’s Father—specifically in the financial and sexual departments.
Father was likely experienced as a paradoxical figure—a Fighter and a Fraud—who embodied a source of stability and upheaval. He may have been a Houdini-like figure, pulling rabbits out of his hat, extremely charismatic and present one minute and suddenly gone the next. Regardless of the particulars, early on Beyonce learned that Men use Money to control Women, while on the other hand, Women use Beauty to control Men.
12th House Stellium in Libra: Relationship Secrets
With Saturn exalted in the Sign of Libra, there’s a respect for tradition and especially for relationships and the (perceived) safety and security they can bring. Yet wherever Saturn falls in any Chart, there’s an “attraction-repulsion” principle at work: Saturn in Libra describes, for instance, both a deep need for yet unconscious fear of one-to-one partnerships (business and personal).
The 12th house represents secrets, the unconscious, the past, and all things hidden. Figuratively and literally, the 12th house represents institutionalization at worst and bottled emotions at best—“Jealous or Crazy or Walked All Over Lately” anyone?—and accounts for bouts of depression that result directly from secrets kept and desires repressed.
Beyonce’s planets in Libra falling in her 12th and 1st houses echo this theme, with the 12th house representing secrets, the unconscious past, and all things hidden. Pluto is similar in its symbolism of the deep, dark parts of ourselves; yet both Venus and Libra represent the light. So it’s safe to say that many of Bey’s life lessons were always going to revolve around learning to “see the light” via her experience(s) with relationship secrets in some form or another.
Saturn conjunct Mercury in the 12th house symbolizes “being in the dark” in the most literal sense, with an accompanying tendency to get stuck in self-destructive habit patterns and mental anguish suffered through hidden information.
In the sign of Libra, Saturn-Mercury in the 12th applies to secrets, affairs, and suffering through the marriage partner because the combination of Libra and the 12th house shows a distinct blockage between the gut feeling (Mercury-Saturn in 12th) and the rational mind (Mercury-Saturn in Libra). So? Well, you do the math…
The blessing that comes with any Jupiter-Saturn conjunction is that it represents a “Fresh Start” aspect—it’s a cosmic opportunity to clean the slate and purge any unhealthy relationship dynamics (Saturn in Libra) that may have had their roots deep in the unconscious (12th house). Jupiter-Saturn in Libra is an Opportunity—an opportunity to unearth long-buried secrets and to bring to light the transformation that’s possible when the Libra Lesson of (you guessed it): C-O-M-P-R-O-M-I-S-E.
Virgo & the Mid-Life “Crisis”: Lemons or Lemonade?
It’s true that Virgo is exceptionally prone to the dreaded MLC (Mid-Life Crisis); but without Crisis, there can be no Transformation. What we do when crises arise—the action we choose to take—is where our Free Will takes over. No matter what hand of cards we’re dealt, it’s up to us to turn our lemons into Lemonade someone said. For Virgo this metaphor is especially potent, as it in many ways sums up their Fate in an abstract sense, if you will…
Adaptability, Fearlessness (though Virgo themselves may not agree on this one) and Courage in facing Life’s imperfections and ugly truths is, to me at least, what makes Virgo Woman one of the most graceful yet fierce females of the Zodiac. But for self-actualization to occur, a change must occur, a separation of Self from Other(s). The Cocoon must burst eventually, and Virgo simply can’t live unless every last lemon is squeezed into at least a gallon of Lemonade, if not a couple Pies to boot. But no matter what, all must be done so with beauty, with reverence and with glory.
With the release of films and albums like Lemonade and her widely-acclaimed concert film Homecoming, Beyonce was able to find her voice literally and figuratively by openly addressing her husband’s infidelity, the pressures she felt to be the “Good Wife,” and her struggle to embody both Exalted Goddess (Madonna) and Desired/Desirable Object (Whore)—the age-old paradox that, antiquated as it is, still seems to define Femininity into a rigid, stifling binary that makes gender expression so categorical.
By facing the fear of opening up about her wounds around jealousy, betrayal and perfection, not to mention making them public, she created Art that was truthful, allowing her the opportunity to reconcile her long-wrestled-with Identity. In other words, integrating her “Sex-Pot” Persona (Moon in Scorpio + Mars in Leo) with her more conditioned/traditional/conservative Feminine Self (Virgo Sun + Ascendant and Stellium in Libra).
Whether you see Lemonade as Publicity Stunt or Personal Story, the narrative it weaves—the connections made to lost pasts and forgotten legacies—is told in a way that’s both original and resonant because it rings true. Undoubtedly talented if not legendary in her own right, her most recent surge of success and popularity is clearly the mark of the Evolved Virgo Woman: her work speaks bluntly to the pressure and conditioning that women experience to be Perfect. Once submission to formulaic tendencies or arbitrary rules is overcome by the desire to experiment and push boundaries and the game of “follow the leader” is forsaken can Virgo become their True Self.
So no, Life will never be perfect. Not even for Beyonce. Why? Because there’s no such thing…