Astrology in the News: Charlie Sheen and Uranus at the End of the Zodiac

Charlie Sheen’s prominence in the news this week is more than the usual sensationalism. It’s put a face on the insane, irrational impulses that are cresting and crashing with Uranus in its final days in the last degree of Pisces. Charlie’s unwittingly appointed himself poster child for Uranus at 29 degrees Pisces — and for all the masculine influences that are being pulled into a riptide this week.

The skies have a dominance of masculine bodies immersed in the waters of Pisces: the Sun, Mercury, Mars, Uranus and Chiron, representing the ego, the mind, the will, drive and ambition, the innovator and rebel, the abiding wound and the challenge to overcome and master it. All of those bodies are forward-pushing, assertive influences. They are in the sign that represents the sea of life, the interconnectedness of all existence, where transcendence and artistic genius coexist with addiction and insanity. As the most erratic force in the zodiac is moving from the point of utter connectedness (29 Pisces) and universality to absolute individuation (0 Aries), the pressure is pushing a lot of things to the breaking point — psyches, relationships, ways of life.

On Friday, the most feminine, emotional body in the sky joins the pool party. As we build toward her entrance, Friday’s new moon in Pisces, what happens but a figure dominates the news that acts out all the masculine energies currently in Pisces: a man (Mars), an actor (Neptune in Aquarius, bridged into Pisces by conjunction to Chiron), a hyper-grandiose (Sun) alcoholic (Neptune) who has been in and out of rehab (Chiron) escalating his erratic, shocking (Uranus) actions (Mars) and communications (Mercury).

Our volunteer is quite the fitting macho wild card, with Uranus and Pluto conjunct his Virgo Sun and the three of them opposing Saturn and Chiron in — well, whaddaya know — Pisces. (View his chart here.) A core wound involving responsibility, rules, illusion, escapism, drinking and drugs.

This week, transiting Mars in Pisces is building toward an easy flow of energy (think floodgates) to Charlie’s natal Mars in Scorpio. Before that hits, Mars in Pisces is going to square Sheen’s Gemini north node, on Saturday. Which means more’s on the way in this one-man carnival show. By the weekend, push will come to shove and it will affect his destiny — his life mission — and it will get our collective attention. Career suicide? Perhaps.

At 29 Pisces, everything that happens is connected to everything else. Microcosm reflects macrocosm; actions of one person ripple out and affect countless others. One man’s ravings leads to 1,000 people (the reported figure for the cast and crew of “Two and a Half Men”) being put out of work. That development may seem tame by this weekend.

The final degree of the zodiac doesn’t have to bring madness. It holds other potential. How fitting that the far end of the spectrum is being modeled by another key player in this drama, Chuck Lorre, the creator of the show that was until this week Sheen’s showcase. Lorre has released a public statement on one of the vanity cards that end his shows. It is a statement of illumination, gentleness and compassion, a textbook expression of the best of 29 Pisces. It’s short, and I urge you to read it, here.