Star Struck Style

May 11 is Valentino Garavani’s birthday.

Right before I went looking for Valentino Garavani’s natal chart, I made an assumption that he would have some planets in Aries because the designer has long been associated with the color red. I was surprised to discover that not only does he have Mercury in Aries, but also Mars and Uranus. Mars, also known as the “red planet,” is the ruler of Aries.

As an astrologer, it’s always fun to find exactly what you were looking for when you pull up a chart. In fact, it’s fun to speculate about astrology in general. Just yesterday at work, my coworker mentioned to me that a local astrologer I know was in the store on my day off. She tried to guess my coworker’s sun sign to no avail. We had a laugh about it because I’m always telling my coworker that she is nothing like any Gemini I know.

The reason that I’m bringing that up is to admit that most of us get it wrong before we get it right. There are far too many variables in an individual’s natal chart for any of us to grasp the whole thing at first glance. However, sometimes we are rewarded when we look up a horoscope and we see exactly what we expected to see, or when we guess someone’s sign on the first try. I felt a genuine sense of accomplishment when I saw that Valentino’s Mars is in Aries.

Still, I do have to admit that I was expecting the designer to have a more obvious connection to Leo because of his sun-baked complexion. He does have Jupiter in Leo. He might even have a Leo rising if his birth time on astrotheme.com is off by several minutes — a distinct possibility for someone born in 1932. Rotating his chart to make Leo his rising sign would also put Mars in the tenth house right at the top of his chart. It makes sense to me.

But I am speculating again, just like we astrologers are prone to do. We can’t help ourselves, right?