Star Struck Style

December 30 is Patti Smith’s birthday.

Yesterday, I posed the question “Why are there so many cool, old Capricorn broads?”

I don’t want anyone to get offended because I used the word “broads” to describe these women. I’m from a generation where I would regularly watch old movies on TV because there was nothing else to watch. You would hear tough guys in these films calling tough women “broads.” Sure, they used it in a pejorative sense most of the time, but most of those broads ended up being the characters I admired the most. I mean who doesn’t like Mildred Pierce, or Margo Channing, or Auntie Mame?

Anyway, I believe that Capricorn women are more likely to grow up to be the sort of no-nonsense broads that I idolized in those movies when I was a kid. They’re tough, resilient, and they learn from their mistakes. Many of them achieve success later in life because they eventually redefine their own definition of success to include much more than just success in the material world.

Yesterday, I wrote a profile of Marianne Faithfull. I realized at the time that she was born about eighteen hours earlier than Patti Smith. They both have Pisces moons. I can see how the Capricorn sun/Mercury in Sagittarius combination contributes to someone who wants to make a living as a communicator, like Patti Smith. I’ve got the same sun/Mercury combo in my chart. Smith’s Pisces moon and Venus in Scorpio contribute a much deeper, more-poetic approach to her craft, though. I might believe that I’m a wordsmith (with a third house sun and Mercury), but I don’t believe that I’m an artist/performer (like Smith with her first house sun and Mercury). I believe that Patti Smith is an artist. There is a reason that she is called the “punk poet laureate.”

She has a fascinating chart. If the birth time listed on astrotheme.com is correct, she not only has Mercury in Sagittarius and the sun in Capricorn in her first house, but also Mars in Capricorn in the first house. That might also explain her connection to the punk movement. It’s a far more aggressive placement than my Mars in Aquarius in the fourth house, for instance. Nevertheless, she has the chart of a lover, not a fighter. There is more passivity in most of her planetary placements than aggression.

For that reason, I don’t think she would be angry that I called her a “broad.” She probably admired the same characters that I admired in those classic films. I imagine that we’re probably alike in a lot of ways. And — mark my words — I’m going to be at least as cool as Patti Smith when I’m in my seventies!