When I first wrote about Tiger Woods’ little accident outside his house, there was already a hint of impropriety, but who could have imagined the extent to which this drama has unfolded. As of today there are a total of 13 mistresses that have claimed to have been involved with Tiger Woods. As if that weren’t bad enough, his wife has purchased a home in her native Sweden, the local child welfare office paid the Woods’ home a visit, and he has been dropped by several of his lucrative endorsement deals.
And the story, as everyone now knows, goes way beyond infidelity. Lurid tales of three-ways fueled by Ambien cocktails, orgies with prostitutes, and a multitude of Barbie-like mistresses will probably never cease haunting Tiger Woods. And if that weren’t bad enough, Al Sharpton has blasted Woods for his “lack of diversity” in his dalliances and relationships. And yesterday Woods announced that he was taking an indefinite leave from golf to attend to his family.
These affairs are, for the most part, not one-night stands or midnight hookups – they are long-time relationships. Some of them began before Wood’s marriage to Elin Nordgren, and the publicized text messages make it apparent that Woods is a man who is hungry for more than sex – he is hungry for an intensity that his public image does not allow for.
Woods has the Sun in Capricorn, the sign of achievement and success. He was a prodigy and began his career at the age of two. His Sun is squared by Jupiter, bestowing a kingly good fortune upon him but also suggesting that he will be undone by hubris, the sin of pride against the gods. Like Icarus who flew too close to the Sun, Woods was given a tremendous number of gifts and squandered them.
That Sun is also squared by Pluto, planet of death and transformation. Individuals with the Sun in aspect to Pluto (Michael Jackson is another recent example) are born with a karmic need to learn how to balance power and intensity in their own lives. The Sun/Jupiter/Pluto combination is a powerful one that offers great gifts, but exacts great tribute as well. The Sun/Pluto individual is very aware thathis life is not like the lives of others; that there is tremendous significance and the potential for great self-destruction. Any time there is a strong Pluto component in the chart there is also a fascination with the underworld of emotio
n and human existence, including sexuality in its most raw form.
Intensifying this dramatic fire of sexuality is the fact that Venus, the planet that drives the way we relate to others, is in the sign of Scorpio in Woods’s chart. Scorpio’s rulers are Pluto and Mars, and the combination of the explosive intensity of Pluto with the drive and desire of Mars is an intense cocktail for any psyche.
None of this is visible to the casual observer because of the VIrgo ascendant that creates a smokescreen over Woods’s inner Self. The ascendant is the mask that we wear to the world as well as the way we move through life, and Virgo is the modest perfectionist; the quiet and unassuming master of his Craft. Woods’s public persona has been that of the quintessential nice guy who just happens to be the greatest golfer in the history of the game, but under that carefully crafted persona was evidently a roiling mass of Plutonian desire and a craving to meet the destructive urge within him that the Sun/Pluto square evokes.
Woods’s Venus (relationships) sits in the third house of experimentation, so it’s not surprising that he would experience an urge for diversity in his love life. The sign of Scorpio is on the cusp of the third house, suggesting that the hunger for experience of the third house is filtered through the Scorpionic lens of intensity and drama, adding another layer to the thirst for experiences, sexual and otherwise, that will take him to a depth of feeling which he could not otherwise access.
ut there is a lighter side to Woods as well. His Moon, representing his emotional security needs and the way that he processes his emotions, is in the expansive sign of Sagittarius. Woods has worked hard all of his life (Capricorn Sun), perfecting his craft (Virgo ascendant) and channeling the intensity of his nature (Pluto square Sun) primarily into his work (and now, we discover, into his sexual affairs). But he also has a heart (the Moon) that longs to be free to follow his own dreams and to be free from the shackles of superstardom.
But his Moon is at the very bottom of the chart, the point we call the “Nadir,” that has to do with our inner world: our family, our home, the part of ourselves that we are aware of when we’re alone. The Moon is ruler of the Nadir, the cusp of the fourth house of home and ancestors, and is very powerful here. The Moon in a man’s chart also represents his relationship to the women in his life. Woods isn’t lying when he says that family is the most important thing – he really means it. For him, the sexual affairs are likely his means of blowing off the steam from the pressure cooker that is his professional and public life.
Woods’s Moon is opposed by Mars, the planet that governs our drives and desires. Mars in Woods’s chart is in Gemini which is another echo of the need for experimentation and variety, particularly where sexuality (Mars represents the sexual drive along with other drives) is concerned. Mars is in his ninth house of adventure, exacerbating his need for a more expansive life and the freedom to live the way he wants to.
We all have competing aspects of our charts that are difficult to integrate, and this is the challenge that life presents to us. How can be allow expression to all of the different pieces of ourselves and become whole and true to every part of ourselves? Often we achieve it just as Woods has, by splintering our life into pieces and hoping that the pieces don’t collide.
As I wrote in my original post just after the accident, transiting Uranus (the planet of sudden change and revolutionary behavior) was in its final stage of a challenging square to Woods’s Moon, representing his emotional security and relationships with women. At the same time Neptune, the planet that governs our spiritual connection, and Jupiter, planet of expansion and freedom, were in a nearly exact trine to the Midheaven of Woods’s chart: the career point. This is a transit cycle that generally indicates the ability to bring more of one’s true self into the work environment. This suggests that this debacle will ultimately have a lasting positive effect on Woods’s ability to achieve a better balance with his home life (Nadir) and his career (Midheaven).
To complicate matters, his progressed Moon was moving into an exact square with Mars in his chart, an alignment which can foster reckless behavior and an urge to be free from subterfuge. The planets are relatively quiet for Woods over the next couple of months as he lays low, but stressful cycles beginning in March will, I believe, create some very visible conflict has he engages in a bitter divorce and contract disputes of various kinds with transiting Jupiter, Chiron and Venus all forming a square to Venus in his chart.
It is said that when a cheating spouse gets caught it’s because he wants to be caught. Tiger Woods was becoming extremely reckless, texting his girlfriends in the presence of his wife; bringing them into the home he shared with his wife and children. I suspect that the duality of his life became too great and he hungered to be free to be himself.
Celebrity astrological profiles are useful tools to illustrate how astrology works in real life. But we never really know what goes on behind closed doors, and we can only speculate about the outcome.
