By Natori Moore

Popular comic actor Steve Martin has delighted audiences for years with his laugh-inducing movie lines and agile antics.  In films ranging from the zany Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid to the critically acclaimed The Jerk, to his Saturday Night Live renditions of the “Wild and Crazy Guy” and “King Tut,” Steve has often played a congenial goofball at which we can’t help but grin.  As a gregarious Leo (actor, playful child) with his action planet Mars in Gemini (versatility, genius), we watch Steve’s relentless cleverness with delight.  And Steve’s crowd-pleasing humor continues during his first-ever March 25, 2001 hosting of that gala Hollywood spectacle – the Academy Awards.

What Lies Beneath

View Steve's Chart - But there’s more to Steve Martin than meets the eye.  Behind his creative craziness lies a private and thoughtful side we’re privileged to see every once in a while, and which consistently fuels his best work.  Steve’s sexy yet secretive Scorpio Moon gives him perceptiveness about people’s deeper motivations –an uncanny ability to look past the surface and find inner truth.  He may use this ability to get to the core motivations of the characters he plays as well.  The Scorpio moon placement can be subject to misuse through jealousy, manipulation and even revenge.  But soaring above these natural human inclinations to help create art that transforms and elevates others is also the prerogative of the Scorpio Moon.  Steve Martin has wisely chosen this latter path. 

Beauty and the Beast

Steve’s genius for intuitive psychological understanding also arises from the unique positions of the planet Venus (love) and Saturn (loss) in his birth chart.  When placed near each other, or in conjunction, Venus and Saturn are difficult planetary bedfellows that may bring delays, discouragement and disappointment in love.  Sometimes they are even affectionately termed “Beauty and the Beast” due to the combination of attraction and repulsion they can bring.  Yet this planetary conjunction also suggests an ability to create meaning from painful lessons learned (Saturn) through artistic creations (Venus). 

Additionally, Venus and Saturn in Steve’s chart are positioned in the emotionally attuned sign of Cancer.  They are hidden in his Twelfth House of secrets and the subconscious mind.  This gives Steve an ear for writing realistic dialogue, and once again emphasizes his ability to hear the subtleties of meaning in what people say.  These Cancer placements incline him to be historically sensitive and conservation-minded, with an eye to preserving art for future generations.  Steve demonstrates this through involvement with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and art community.

Shopgirl

Saturn and Venus placed in conjunction give Steve affinity for the underdog, as well as for the sometimes awkward, bittersweet elements of love.  These types of love relationships are touched on in his films Roxanne and Father of the Bride, and brought to bloom in Steve’s recently published novella, Shopgirl.  From a man known principally for his light popular humor, the deep insights Steve Martin gives us in Shopgirl about the ultimate value of intimate relationships are quite stunning.  Steve’s psychologically inclined Scorpio Moon here enters the picture again, as the narrative of this humorous yet insightful book asks us to look closely at the intimate balance of give and take in our own primary relationships.

As revealed on a Charlie Rose interview in October 2000, Martin began to add serious literary writing like Shopgirl to his list of pursuits at age 45 in 1990.  This timing corresponds with an opposition to Saturn in Steve’s chart from the transiting planet Saturn, which signifies the awakening of his capacity to produce art for a more deep-thinking and perhaps older audience.  An attentive reading of Shopgirl encourages the reader’s self-love and restructuring of relationship priorities -- one of the best teachings a person who has Venus conjunct Saturn natally, as Steve Martin does, could provide.

A Remarkable Balance

Through bringing his deeper emotional insights into expression along side his well-loved comic characters, Steve Martin displays a rare and remarkable psychological balance in a popular actor.  His Scorpio and Cancer depth of feeling joins with his Leo and Gemini playfulness to make his diverse and still growing career increasingly interesting to watch.

CHART INFO

Steve Martin
August 14, 1945
5:54 am
Waco, Texas
source:  Kepler database, Birth Certificate, Rodden Rating AA