Madonna Louise Ciccone is a Leo, no surprise there for the Queen of Pop with the whole world as her stage. The Sun sign creates a strong enough picture on its own but it’s by no means the whole thing. Madonna also has the Moon and Ascendant in Virgo.

One important thing to note is that consecutive signs are very different, each sign exists almost as a reaction to the characteristics of the previous one. The classic description of a Leo is someone who expresses themselves dramatically, wanting and needing to be at the centre of everything. Virgo is someone who is rather reserved, shunning the limelight and doing all the work behind the scenes. In some ways you couldn’t get two more opposite signs. Madonna’s Sun is towards the end of Leo and is quite close to the Virgo planets, near enough to be considered part of a stellium or multiple conjunction. This essentially means that its not so difficult to blend the Leo and Virgo energy. What it produces is someone who is an extrovert and has the confidence and openhearted expression of Leo but combined with the perfectionism and hard work in practice of Virgo. The reserve of Virgo would be dropped together with the laziness that’s sometimes associated with Leo.

This stellium produces another effect, Virgo symbolises the virgin. Pluto is the planet of deep and even dark subconscious forces that refuse to be suppressed and burst through in an explosive way. With the Moon, Mercury, Ascendant and Pluto all conjunct in Virgo, if anyone has explored the whole virgin / whore spectrum to full dramatic effect its Madonna, even her name resonates with this.

The Capricorn Research Project has proved that public figures are much more likely to have the Sun in the 1^st or the 12^th houses because they are more able to express their own personal issues strongly than people with a 6^th or 7^th house Sun whose lives are more constrained by other people’s issues and the requirement to cooperate with others to get their own needs met. Planets on the eastern side of the chart have to be expressed. The closer the planets are to the Ascendant the more insistent their need for expression. The Sun, Moon, Mercury and Pluto here creates a very powerful and inspiring persona, Madonna is the best selling female recording artist of all time.

Anyone born with a Sun / Pluto conjunction, would have the planet with them all the time and their life would have many dramatic changes. Regeneration would be a major theme and if anyone has mastered the art of reinvention, particularly in the pop music industry, where careers burn bright but can also quickly burn out, it is Madonna who has survived at the very top for 30 years.

A Sun / Pluto birth conjunction can never be repeated as a transit, so the big watershed in the life would be marked by Pluto’s transit to the Moon. Whilst Pluto / Sun transits are generally focused on the career, Pluto / Moon would be centred around the personal life and if this transit occurred in childhood it would be to do with the relationship with the mother. Madonna’s mother died of breast cancer in 1963 when she was only 5 years old. Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth, was conjunct Madonna’s Moon from Sep 1962 – July 1964.

Madonna achieved global recognition with the album and single Like a Virgin, in November 1984. It topped the charts in several countries and attracted the attention of organizations who sought to ban the single and its accompanying video because it promoted premarital sex and undermined family values. Pluto was in square aspect to Madonna’s Venus in 1984.

In 1989, Madonna filed for divorce from Sean Penn citing irreconcilable differences. In January 1989, she signed an endorsement deal with Pepsi. In one of her Pepsi commercials, she debuted her song “Like a Prayer”. The corresponding music video featured many Catholic symbols such as stigmata and cross burning, and a dream about making love to a saint, leading the Vatican to condemn the video. Religious groups sought to ban the commercial and boycott Pepsi products. Pepsi revoked the commercial and canceled her sponsorship contract. This was probably the most controversial stage in her career and as if to back that up, Pluto was in opposition to Mars throughout 1989 and 90, a very assertive transit that usually produces a fair amount of trouble.

In 1992, Madonna had an arrangement with Time Warner that paid her one of the highest royalty rates in the industry, equalled at that time only by Michael Jackson. The first release from the venture was Madonna’s book, titled Sex which consisted of sexually provocative and explicit images. In some ways this was the peak of Madonna’s career, certainly as a business and it coincided with Pluto’s only aspect to her Sun, a square in 1992 -3.

In 1997 Madonna became involved in Eastern mysticism and Kabbalah. The album Ray of Light, in 1998 reflected this change in her perception and image. A change of image is always appropriate when Pluto aspects the Ascendant, and a change in thinking comes when Pluto reaches Mercury. Pluto was in square aspect to both in 1997-98.

Madonna began a relationship with Guy Ritchie in 1999 and they married in 2000. Pluto made its second aspect to the Moon, a square in 1999 – 2000 again a major turning point in her personal life. Madonna has said herself that family issues from the death of her mother, under Pluto’s first aspect with the Moon, drove some of the energy that has found expression in her career. Although she has continued to have great success since, some of the intensity has worn off since her marriage to Ritchie under Pluto’s second aspect.

In Madonna’s life to date, Pluto has made 6 only aspects to her personal planets, 2 to the Moon and one to the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars. Every one of them have been major turning points in her life and each one has been very appropriate to the particular planetary energy involved. Pluto was the perfect fit for her life and career, just like a prayer.