Luck in Career: Azealia Banks (Updated)

Out of the six of you that voted in my Twitter poll back in the middle of May, half chose Azealia Banks as someone I should cover next.

Azealia Banks is such a peculiar case of fucking your own self over professionally. We can just chalk it up to her being a Gemini Sun but Kanye and many other people in the entertainment, including our very own president here in the good ol’ USA, are Geminis too and have found immense success despite their polarizing public image. So, what is Azealia’s problem? Hopefully in this article we can unearth the reason.

Update: All the charts I have read on before Azealia’s have been day ones, so I think I was just on autopilot when I was writing on her that it just did not register that she had a night chart despite her Sun being in the 2^nd house. So, here is the updated version of her reading. Surprisingly, not much has fundamentally changed.

---

We have yet another Taurus rising! With Taurus on the Ascendant, Gemini is on the 2^nd house of money and possessions. As I detailed in my Megan Thee Stallion career reading, people with Gemini here tend to be concerned about what they have more than most. Money is always on the brain. Mercury rules money and banking, so in many ways these natives are smart about their paycheck. They tend to be acutely aware of what they can and cannot afford. This then motivates them to be budgeters and penny pinchers, especially with Taurus on the rising, which indicates that the native came into this life with a need to feel physically secure in what they have. Consequently, these people are unlikely to impulse buy without quickly consulting their balance first.

This may be the more organized manifestation of Gemini on this house though. With Mercury ruling over the 2^nd house and the sign being not only airy but mutable, natives can actually have very frenzied money management skills. Often these natives have numerous ideas that they like to capitalize on and typically do which results in multiple streams of income. Therefore, when it comes to money, some Taurus rising people can be a bit scattered and lost in the sauce. To make matters worse, they can become easily bored with their current material venture(s) and switch gears far too often. Because of this, many astrologers recommend these people work in freelance as the field’s fluctuating nature matches their own. Any job that requires writing and/or speaking is also favorable. But what if your inability to shut your mouth is a problem?

Azealia Banks is a Gemini Sun, and painfully so. As I mentioned way back in my Lizzo reading, there is nothing inherently “bad” about Gemini. Where Gemini tends to rub people the wrong way, though, is through their need to broadcast every single thought they have without a filter and constantly play devil’s advocate. “Gemini expresses the fundamental nature of duality, and pursues its understanding of the world by exploring the two extremes of any situation, and forming a connection between the opposite ends of the spectrum” (Burk, 2001, pp. 58). It is this desire and ability to be of two minds that tends to grate on people’s nerves. One moment a Gemini Sun may say one thing and barely ten seconds later they are arguing with you about the opposite thing seemingly out of nowhere or after you have refuted their original points. These natives are hard to pin down mentally.

With her Sun in this sign, Azealia is learning how to forge an identity through how she communicates, thinks, and her ability to be dualistic. This is done through the backdrop of how she approaches her livelihood. The problem with Gemini on the 2^nd house, however, is that Gemini is not connected to the physical. It is up in the air. As a result, although Azealia is mentally in tuned to her finances, possessions, and survival she is also a bit detached from them. It is easy to view money, etc. in the abstract sense where, yes, money can buy you things and is the backbone of the economy, but that may be as deep as she goes with it. However, Gemini here can also make a person a mini financial strategist when it comes to their coin as well. It may not be as focused or precise as Virgo, but it is still yet another way this placement can manifest.

With the Sun here in the 2^nd house, Azealia is likely learning the hard and fast rules when it comes to her money and possessions. What she says and how she saves will come back to her, especially with Mercury in the 1^st house.

With the 2^nd house ruler in the 1^st, money, etc. comes to Azealia. Notice, though, that I didn’t say easily, however, lol. Azealia’s Mercury doesn’t have a lot going for it. It is peregrine across the board and maltreated by Saturn retrograde. In the 1^st house, where it joys, Mercury produces people who are insatiably curious and rather talkative. They are lively, if not restless, and assertive in communication but tend to struggle to see other people’s perspectives. Depending on what else is going on the chart can determine how harmful this latter tendency is. In Azealia’s chart, she unfortunately has Pluto retrograde directly opposite Mercury in the 7^th house.

This is a very intense and complex aspect, especially in the houses they are in. On the whole, this aspect creates individuals who are private investigators. They rarely take things at face value. Instead they like to probe and pry everything that catches their eye. This can cause these people to dig up things that they were not meant to know, often unearthing people’s darkest secrets and motivations. However, this is what the native was looking for as this aspect makes them somewhat paranoid. With Pluto retrograde in the 7^th house and Mercury in the 1^st, Azealia may think she has shooters in the street, and she will try to gather as much information on them as possible so she can exterminate them. What is unfortunate about Azealia’s chart, though, is that it is highly likely that she does in fact have shooters, as Mars in her chart rules both open (7^th house) and secret enemies (12^th house). But this only happened because of her own actions. How she responds to her suspicions and environment is what causes her to create adversaries. And if we look at her past Twitter beefs, there were some cases where it did in fact seem like she lashed out in paranoia because some of the people she targeted weren’t talking about her, not even cryptically. Yet, Azealia went on the offensive and tried to defend herself.

She behaves in this way because the people she meets are very passionate and penetrating like she is, but this energy is being directed at her. With Taurus on the Ascendant and being a Gemini Sun, Azealia is more easy-going in personality than she may appear. However, her partners and the type of people to approach her more broadly are the opposite and challenge her thoughts and who she is. The purpose, spiritually at least, is to encourage Azealia to dig deep into herself and purify negative thought patterns that may hinder her. But since Pluto retrograde is opposing Mercury, Azealia is resistant to this lesson.

Mercury in the 1^st house creates a person who leads with their mind, which in some cases leads to the native to have an inflated sense of intelligence. People with this placement can be know-it-alls and, as previously mentioned, find it difficult to listen to other people’s opinions and respect them. Mercury in aspect to Pluto wants to explore what is interesting to them in an almost obsessive way, and this does not necessarily mean that they are considerate towards the person they are interrogating. Mercury here, especially when attached to a Gemini Sun, just wants to know things so they are informed and have an edge over others. This negative aspect to Pluto retrograde can create people who are super opinionated and aggressively so.

Pluto in the 7^th house can indicate power struggles in relationships so Azealia may interpret a difference of opinion as a threat because she has been in relationships where that was the case. (Azealia once said on Twitter that she has been the victim of domestic violence before.) Even so, this does not excuse the way she has talked to and about people and continues to do so, of course. But with Pluto retrograde opposing her Mercury, this may be why Azealia acts the ways she does.

So, taken together Azealia’s Mercury is actually somewhat poorly placed in her chart. She likes and wants to be perceived as smart, interesting, and a good communicator, but many may see the exact opposite. They may see someone who is absurd, dry, and needs to sit the fuck down. And this assessment really stings Azealia.

With her Sun in Gemini she identifies with what she says rather deeply, doubly so with Mercury in the 1^st house of self. She came into this life with something to say. When people don’t listen to her, tear her down, or clown her she takes that to heart, especially with the chart ruler of Venus being in the emotional Cancer and in the 3^rd house of communication. But, unfortunately for Azealia, she is her own worst enemy.

I remember before she came for then 14-year-old Disney actress Skai Jackson, Azealia had many fans in her corner. They worked around the clock to defend her against the hateful misogynoir she was receiving for merely existing, and at that time at least, speaking her mind somewhat inoffensively.

But the constant petty and unnecessary beefs (Mercury opposite Pluto retrograde), mostly manufactured by herself (Mars as the 12^th house ruler), quickly fatigued Azealia’s base. It became apparent that investing any time or sympathy towards her fell on deaf ears. As a result, when she released her new singles “Escapades” (581K), “Moving On Up” (1M) , “Treasure Island” (1.3M) , and “Anna Wintour,” (2.7M/10M) back in 2018 for her delayed/cancelled second studio album Fantasea II: The Second Wave, they struggled to reach millions of views for the longest time, with the exception of “Anna Wintour,” probably because of the two interesting music videos attached to it. Even at the time of writing this in May 2020 though, these numbers do not compare to her bigger hits such as “1991” (16M), “Liquorice” (22M), “The Big Big Beat” (19M), and especially “212 ft. Lazy Jay” (189M).

What Azealia says affects her coin. Just as easily as her words could have brought her money, these same words can swiftly whisk them away. What I find a little ironic about Azealia’s Mercury placement is that Taurus slows communication down and makes it more thoughtfully. Often these natives aren’t super talkative or sometimes even all that social (when the Sun is not in Gemini, of course). Therefore, when they do speak it tends to be interpreted as contemplative and tactful. But Azealia seems more concerned about popping off on the most random of people and drawing negative attention to herself than being diplomatic.

What I find so perplexing is that Azealia’s Mercury trines her North Node almost done to the second and her Sun trines her Midheaven. So, on two separate levels, how she communicates supposedly promotes her spiritual growth and career in this life, respectively. But just because these aspects are positive doesn’t mean that Azealia will take advantage of them. We also cannot view these specific placements in isolation. We need to look at the other parts of her chart to see what’s going on. So, let us move on.

---

Like with Megan, Libra on the 6^th house suggests that when it comes to work, it is Azealia’s best interests to be cordial, fair, and peaceful. However, she begs to differ. Mouthing off all day on Instagram (and Twitter before she was banned) about other people in the same industry she is in a surefire way to find people who will refuse to collaborate with you. And with music, you need collaborators and collaborations. Most artists nowadays do not truly do everything that goes into a song by themselves. The vast majority fall into some aspect of singing/rapping, writing lyrics (for themselves and/or others), or producing/scoring (for themselves and/or others) but typically not all three at once.

A person Azealia was calling out by their name could have been a feature on one of her songs and vice versa. A producer who has worked with an artist she was attacking could have given her a demo or introduced her to another person within the industry who could have helped with her mixtapes and albums. Someone who works in TV or film could have put the good word in for Azealia but decided against it when they saw her beefing online for the hundredth time; it didn’t matter with whom. And these scenarios have happened!

In 2012 when Azealia was just coming on up after rebranding herself, she was already beginning what would be a long trend of airing out not only her business but the people’s around her. In May of that year, a collaboration between her and Lil’ Kim didn’t pan out which caused Azealia to take to Twitter. She writes in a series of tweets:

Okay so true tea is that Lil Kim got mad that I wrote a verse for her on a record I wanted her on.
 
Everyone knows Lil Kim doesn't write her own raps and I saw this as a faster more efficient way of getting the track done.
 
She then had her assistant write me some long ass offensive email about how Lil Kim writes her own raps and doesn't need anyone's help.
 
So..... My question was and is still... IS SHE DOING THE TRACK?
 
Who cares about what you use to do.... WILL YOU DO THE TRACK??!
 
All this extra shit is stupid. Keep closing your own doors ma. @lilkim

How ironic is this last tweet? Lil’ Kim never responded but her publicist released a statement:

My client and azealia have NEVER spoke to one another or met AT ALL. Kim was actually very flattered [by] azealia’s public admiration for her, which is why it’s so hard to understand how someone who claims to be a true Lil' Kim fan could flip the script so easily on someone who was supposedly their idol.

In July of that same year, Azealia had the opportunity to tour Europe with Nicki Minaj, but had turned it down in order to finish her debut album, Broke With Expensive Taste. Apparently, Nicki’s tweet “#ManTheseBitchesDelirious” was a subtweet about Azealia…or so she thought. Once again, she took to Twitter to air her frustrations, writing:

Did you mean... "delusional?" ... Delirious was the wrong word. @nickiminaj ....
 
Use good grammar when insulting others.
 
*proper grammar
 
I don't believe "Rap game" hierarchy ......... Sorry.
 
Just wait until I drop this album......

It wasn’t until five years later did Azealia apologize, but Nicki accepted it.

In 2013 during the “Harlem Shake” craze, Azealia made her own remix to the song and released it for free on her SoundCloud. The producer of the song, Baauer, took it down, however, for copyright infringement. Azealia fired back on Twitter claiming that she emailed him about it, and that he gave her the clearance (which is a bit ironic because he himself did not get clearance for all the artists he sampled in the song until it blew up a year later but he claims he didn’t receive any money from the song because of this) to release her rendition of the song. But in a separate email Azealia claims she received from the label’s head Diplo, the real reason the remix was taken down was because he and Baauer would rather have Juicy J on it. If Azealia wasn’t increasing gaining a very negative reputation at the time would Diplo and Baauer have let her feature on the track? Possibly. This is likely the reason Pharrell didn’t promote the song “ATM Jam” that he produced for Azealia and it tanked…at least according to her.

“The reason ATM jam did poorly is because pharell changed his mind about wanting to be associated with me after he had his lite skin comeback,” wrote Azealia in November of 2013. “Lite skin niggas are funny. But fuck it what’s new? Azealia banks having to scrape claw and fight for what she wants. This is normal for me now. Giving a fuck, fucks shit up for me.”

I don’t think I need to explain the far-reaching influence Pharrell has had on black artists’ music and careers as a producer for the past couple of decades. So, the fact that Azealia even had the audacity to talk bad about him even if he did neglect to promote a song he produced for her shows how much of a fuck she didn’t have for the longevity of her career.

Azealia’s Venus is in Cancer in the 3^rd house. By house, we have another indicator that Azealia’s job involves communication, here in the emotional, nurturing, spiritual sense (Cancer) than the sensual, tangible, material kind (Taurus). Azealia is motivated to form familial-like relationships with people, particularly when it comes to her colleagues. But again, her actions seem contradictory to this. However, when we examine her family history, her erratic behavior makes a bit more sense.

Azealia has a background of childhood abuse. She says that after her father died of pancreatic cancer when she was two, her mother took out her frustrations on her and her two older sisters:

After my dad died, my mom became really abusive – physically and verbally. Like she would hit me and my sisters with baseball bats, bang our heads up against walls, and she would always tell me I was ugly. I remember once she threw out all the food in the fridge, just so we wouldn’t have anything to eat. It was like growing up a feral child, being raised by this person who was always yelling and screaming, hitting you and dragging you around and shit. Granted, she never had any drug or drinking problems – her house was clean, her hair was always done, and we had stuff – but she still fucked me up real bad.

This violence (Mars, which is in the 4^th house of family), which included fistfighting, eventually drove Azealia to leave home at just 14 and move in with one of her sisters. Despite the new living situation, the brutality followed Azealia as she was charged with attacking her own sister with a boxcutter, slashing her neck, arm, and hand when she was 17. Because she was a minor, Azealia was given special treatment even though she plead guilty. This case was unearthed by prosecutors during Azealia’s court case for allegedly assaulting a New York bouncer in 2015 in order to present her as a person with a violent past.

Mars is Azealia’s moderate malefic and Venus her most benefic planet. Although the two do not interact—in fact, they cannot see one another—the two are connected to Azealia’s family life in different ways. Cancer and the Moon represents the mother while Leo and the Sun exemplify the father. The 4^th house signifies the family, one’s country, and ancestral past. The 3^rd house shows the extended family—cousins, aunts, uncles, but also siblings. So, if Azealia’s relationship with her immediate family was marked by abuse and she likely has not received intensive therapy for this trauma (she went to anger management in the past) we cannot be surprised that lashing out verbally and sometimes physically is how Azealia navigates the world. Additionally, we already know from the previous section that her Mercury opposing Pluto retrograde may cause her to naturally be on the defensive when it comes to life in general.

But with Venus as the chart ruler and in Cancer (in the 3^rd house), Azealia is actually pretty sensitive and emotional. She seeks out emotional support and security through her relationships with others, but she may not know how to achieve this because of her trauma. Fighting (Mars) is what comes easier even if it is to her detriment. As a Gemini Sun with Mercury in the 1^st and with Venus in the 3^rd, Azealia often uses her words as a sword with which she defends herself with.

In investigating the many spats she has had across almost a decade now, yes, many seemingly come out of nowhere, but in other cases Azealia’s Twitter (and Instagram) posts seem to come from a place of hurt and insecurity. If she believed someone was talking about her, even when they were not, or not in the negative way that she often thinks, she retaliated. When people were not communicating to her face-to-face or ghosted her like she claims a former producer did, she retaliated. Whenever she is in her feelings, she has something to say and says it (Venus in Cancer in the 3^rd house).

Sometimes when we communicate from our emotions, we lost sight of the situation or may say things we were feeling in the moment but do not actually harbor in our hearts. With Azealia…it’s hard to tell. Water and air placements are rather unpredictable. What they feel and think respectively at any given moment can change in an instant. Ironically though, Azealia is earth dominant. So, she is more stubborn and consistent in her chaos than we may think. Regardless, with the ruler of the 6^th house in the 3^rd house, Azealia’s work involves communication, namely daily emotionally charged yet nurturing communication that seeks to solve disputes and bring peace between people. As we all know, Azealia does the opposite. But it is hard to be nurturing when you yourself have never been nurtured.

---

With Aquarius on the Midheaven, Azealia’s life’s work involves large groups of people and revolutionizing society on some level. Azealia over the years has made it known that she stands with black people, especially black women, when it comes to the rap scene. In the early 2010s when she was coming up, so was Nicki Minaj. Nicki though was, at least in my eyes, more mainstream and promoted as the sole woman in rap until Tip (back then still T.I.) tried miserably to make Iggy Azalea happen.

If we have forgotten, Azealia first got into a beef with the two when Iggy was on the fifth annual Freshman cover of XXL. She went to Twitter as usual to explain how she felt:

Iggy of course didn’t really clapback but she didn’t need to because captain save a ho Tip was there for her! While visiting DJ Drama’s ATL Hot 107.9 radio show with Iggy he addressed Azealia:

Strategically if she really cares about a freshmen cover maybe she could hope that, you know, she'll suck enough to get shelved and then next year when the freshmen cover comes back around, maybe she'll still be a freshman. Which brings me to my next philosophy, if you spend half of your day getting money and the other half of your day counting money, you ain't got no time in your day to worry about nobody else.

Although this last statement is true, especially later in Azealia’s career, you really cannot gloss over that line from Iggy’s “D.R.U.G.S.” and act like that was okay for her to say as a white woman. And Azealia told him as much on Twitter:

Lol I NEVER needed the next nigga to sit up on a radio show with me and defend me. Furthermore, niggas r sitting up here trying to mask/defend what homegirl said. Fuck outta here. Everybody got something slick to say, but no one got an explanation. Come on T.I…. Niggas is not scared of u and whatever shit u got to say on some radio show. @tip you corny for that one. LMFAOO how u a grown man commenting on what’s going on between two girls. Come on son. Stop it.
 
This situation is really funny to me. It’s not like I said some foul out of the water shit about iggy azalea… I questioned her artistic integrity because of insensitive lyrics. Its not like I made bullshit some up and came at her head. In fact the issue wasn’t even really her. The issue was xxl. Why were the only three females nominated for that cover kreayshawn, v-nasty and iggy? Where was Rapsody, or nitty Scott, or Angel Haze? But y’all niggas don’t hear me tho. Lol I think what’s even more interesting about this, is how unable iggy is to explain herself. T.i can’t even explain for her. Those r my last comments about it. The Internet is making me look like a villain.

You think this would be the end of the drama but Tip was evidently mad that a black woman was calling him out by his name because barely a month after the above incident he addressed Azealia for the last time during that year on another radio show:

I know they're [Iggy and Azealia] going through their thing, but the fact that she's speaking upon me and mine, I ain't even see it. That is what I consider, and excuse my language, but that's bitch shit. I'm a man… You ain't got no business addressing me. Get your man to address me. You got a man, get him to address me, and he and I can speak on it. But you and me… No. Keep dealing with that woman. Ya'll handle that... I do what men do.

Azealia fired back on Twitter tweeting:

@tip T.i .... Please shut the fuck up about this. Like seriously quit it.
 
@tip funny how you have plenty of time to address me but have nothing to say to the dudes who been calling u at as a snitch forever.
 
@tip it's dead... The streets already know what kind of dude you are. Stop making yourself look softer by dragging this out.
 
@tip ain't you the same dude that got photographed butt naked n a pair of sneakers and a beanie???!?!
 
@tip what a fucking clown.

I think at this point in her career, which was after 1991 had dropped and Broke with Expensive Taste was just on the horizon, a lot of people—namely her targeted demographic, black women—were still sympathetic towards Azealia. She was simply pointing out how rap was slowly becoming whiter as white artists like Iggy Azalea and Macklamore were pushed into the spotlight while black rappers like her were not given the time of day anymore. To her fans, Azealia was a somewhat misunderstood artist who was unapologetically speaking her mind about issues they themselves were seeing as well, and often became the target of vitriolic anti-black misogyny both from black men like Tip and non-black people like Iggy.

But it became increasingly clear throughout the months and years following this Tip-Iggy drama that for every time Azealia is right about something, she was loud, wrong, nasty, and bigoted twice as many times. As was mentioned in the previous section, this tendency to never shut the fuck up has burned many bridges for Azealia within the industry. Today, outside of the industry, you will be hard pressed to find someone who wholeheartedly stans her.

What is interesting about Aquarius is it not always this progressive, forward thinking sign so many astrologers tout it out to be. Aquarius, at times, may only extend its hand to groups it belongs to and/or are reflective of the native. For Azealia this was obvious until she came for Skai Jackson which came after she insinuated that One Direction’s Zayn Malik was stealing her work which then spiraled into a very bizarre Islamophobic, xenophobic, transphobic rant. But up until that point, Azealia’s targets were often not black girls and women (although she did have prior incidents with Nicki, Lil’ Kim, and Angel Haze (who is agender)). They were men of various backgrounds and white women.

This is somewhat ironic to me because with Saturn as the ruler of the 9^th house being conjunct the Midheaven in the 10^th house, this means that Azealia’s career involves foreign people and/or people who have different cultural backgrounds than her. And indeed, since the very beginning of her career, Azealia was overseas.

When Azealia was 13, she was into acting. She had very small roles here and there but kept being overlooked during auditions in favor of older girls. Not wanting to wait until she was legally an adult to become an actress, Azealia slowly got into writing R&B songs when she was 16. With a background in musical theater and some vocal training, Azealia’s plan was to write, sing, and pitch these songs out to other artists so she could financially support herself enough so she didn’t have to go to college.

But she often dated men who were really into rap. Overtime she tried rapping herself. She states that she was “really wack at first but then I just started paying more attention and getting more creative.”

Evidently, she wasn’t wack enough for Diplo (yes, that Diplo) to hit her up on MySpace in 2009. In an interview with Complex, she states that she didn’t know who he was, asking him to be her DJ.  “He knew this guy I was dating at the time so it kind of all just tied in,” Azealia said. “I met him one time in the summer. He came to New York to a Fader party and we were kicking it with him and my boyfriend at the time. Eventually he started sending me beats and I was rapping on his beats.” She signed to his record label, XL Recordings, under the name Miss Bank$ and went to London. However, Azealia soon left the label due to conflicting styles:

I would send them stuff but they wouldn’t say anything because it was more traditional hip-hop and it wasn’t the hipster-y shit that they wanted me to do. This was when they had M.I.A., Santogold was big, and Diplo was hot shit.
 
XL would send me leftover beats. It’d be like, ‘Hey, I made this for Santi, do you like this?’ Automatically you’re like, ‘You made that for her, you didn’t make that for me. What am I really doing with this?’
 
It was expected that I wanted to work with Diplo. I love Diplo and we do work together on stuff, but I didn’t really want my whole sound to be that because I didn’t want to be a part of that wave of people. No offense—there’s nothing wrong with that—I just wanted to stand out and do my own thing. …I didn’t have no legs in that scene. I didn’t have any friends in that scene. That wasn’t the kind of sound that I was trying to make.

This need to be distinguished versus another face in the crowd is a main difference between Capricorn and Aquarius. Capricorn wants to be singled out for praise while Aquarius would rather uplift the entire group it belongs to. Although her Midheaven is in Aquarius, Saturn also ruling Capricorn brings those issues of recognition into her career. It also doesn’t help that Azealia has planets in Leo, furthering this desire to be the center of attention and special.

Once dropped from XL, Azealia returned to New York lost. She gave up acting for a rap career and now that was gone. Where could she go from there? Montreal, Canada.

After three years of drifting and working odd jobs, Montreal was the break Azealia was needing. She was still working on music, now under her current name Azealia Banks, including tracks like “L8R,” and released them online. Then she dropped “212 ft. Lazy Jay” as a free digital download on her website as the lead track for her upcoming EP 1991. The accompanying video that was uploaded to YouTube was rendered in black and white and featured the two friends she made while in Montreal. Once her visa had expired, however, Azealia returned back to New York to continue her daily grind. But suddenly “212” was getting picked up, mostly overseas in Europe where it peaked at #14 in the Netherlands, #12 in the United Kingdom and #7 in Ireland. “BBC was playing it, a lot of stations just started picking it up, and all of a sudden I’m on the radio regularly in Iceland, Australia, and Germany” said Azealia in an interview. “Next thing you know I’m fucking booking Coachella and playing Chanel parties. Life is really good right now. And it turned around because I didn’t give up.”

Although still unsigned at the time, “212” opened many doors for Azealia such as working with British producer Paul Epworth on her debut studio album. Things were looking good even in spite of a few collaboration deals falling through or going through but uncredited. She signed to Universal Music under Polydor and Interscope and went on to release her mixtape Fantasea and her debut album Broke with Expensive Taste by the end of 2012.

With her North Node in Capricorn and Saturn conjunct the Midheaven within the 10^th house Azealia is very enterprising and career-focused in this lifetime. But, as has been mentioned repeatedly, she is her own saboteur. However, with Mars opposing both Saturn retrograde and the Midheaven from the 4^th house, this starts to make a bit more sense.

When a malefic opposes another planet, it maltreats it. In Azealia’s chart we have an interesting case where both malefics are maltreating each other. Benefics cannot bonify via oppositions so Jupiter doesn’t do anything to mitigate this. This sucks because Jupiter is actually dignified by triplicity and also by term according to Ptolemy, which strengthens Jupiter. It is also hayz but maltreated twice, which hinders Jupiter from being that desperately needed benefic force in Azealia’s life. Saturn in this equation, though, is very well-positioned. It is domicile and dignified by triplicity according to Dorotheus. However, in a night chart, it is the most malefic planet. This is exacerbated by the fact that Saturn is also retrograde and maltreated by Mars. So, on one level, Saturn’s malefice is reduced but at the same time its malefice isn’t but is instead increased.

While maltreated, Saturn is blocked from what it is trying to manifest. In the 10^th house conjunct the Midheaven, Saturn is trying to establish a stable, authoritarian public persona and a career that reflects the native’s hard work and persistence. But Saturn itself is slow (especially when retrograde as well) and malefic. This means that Azealia’s career will not take off quickly and will not come into fruition until she is in her 30s. At this point (she is 29), however, this is unlikely. Her actions (Mars) have caused her own setbacks and roadblocks (Saturn). As was mentioned in the 6^th house section, a lot of this self-sabotage may be tied to her past and childhood (and also from the fact Mars is the 12^th house lord of self-undoing). Unresolved childhood trauma, I theorize, is what is driving Azealia to act out in the ways she does, which of course negatively impacts her career, and this is represented symbolically with both of her 4^th house planets opposing Saturn retrograde and the Midheaven.

However, if we invoke karmic astrology, Saturn being retrograde in the natal chart can be indicative of past life misdeeds or unresolved issues that the native is carrying over into this life. Since Saturn represents misery, imprisonment, and authority, the native in a past life could have had a difficult relationship with authority figures. They could have been abused or enslaved by a person or people with power. As a result, people with Saturn retrograde in their charts come into their current lives with an inferiority complex and often intense anxiety. They may feel as though their lives are controlled by “fate” or a malevolent force that takes pleasure in seeing them struggle and fail. They may have never been taught what rules are or how to establish effective boundaries with other people, though, interestingly. Consequently, these natives either tend to be walked all over or cross other people’s boundaries. In the latter case, these people tend to be rebellious and lash out against authority. They may feel as though they always must fight to get anywhere in life which is why they refuse to take accountability for their actions because they feel so persecuted by society already.

Even in the non-rebellious case, there is still something about set rules and people who wield power that unnerves them. But instead of avoiding them and their own responsibility, they tend to take these things too seriously and severely limit themselves. They may constantly doubt their skills and self-worth, wondering what is enough and if they are enough. Delays and obstacles in life are taken as personal failures that they cannot be redeemed from or are the result of some cosmic joke being played on them.

What natal retrograde Saturn people need to recognize that regardless of what happened in their past life, they can write something different for themselves in this one. But this can only be achieved by working with and through Saturn in a healthy way, not against it.

With Saturn retrograde in the 10^th and conjunct the Midheaven, it is possible that Azealia was either publicly persecuted for something she did in a past life or she in some way was the person who held power and harmed others with it. Honestly, looking at the rest of her chart, it could have gone either way for Azealia. Regardless, I personally think she is bringing over whatever past hurt she has experienced in her past lives and is re-playing them out in this one on a very public stage with millions of eyes on her. Something happened to her in childhood and her intimate relationships, both past and present, is hindering her from reaching her highest potential. And that is very sad. But we all have free will. So, she chooses to be her own worst enemy and she chooses to continuously engage in negativity instead of seeking help. And for that, I guess we can only look on in horror.

---

Luck in Career: Moderate or Mixed

	Gemini on the 2nd house	Libra on the 6th house	Aquarius on the 10th house
Planets in this house	Sun	None	Saturn retrograde
Ruler	Mercury	Venus	Itself
Dig. and Deb. of Ruler	Peregrine	D: Trip. P: Term	Domicile D: Trip. P: Peregrine
Rejoicing	N/A	By gender	By gender
Joying	Yes	No	No
Bon. and Mal. of Ruler	Maltreated by Sat. retro. Bonified by Venus (x2)	Neither	Maltreated by Mars
Other Conditions	Acc. dig. (in a strong house) Conjuncts the Asc. Trines the North Node	In a “good” house Conjuncts Chiron almost down to the second Conjuncts the South Node Is the most benefic planet Is the chart ruler	Acc. dig. (in a strong house) Conjuncts the MC Retrograde Is the most malefic planet
Condition of the Ruler’s Ruler	Venus The most benefic planet Dig. by trip./term Rejoicing by gender Neither bon. nor mal. In a “good” house Conjuncts Chiron almost down to the second Conjuncts the South Node	Moon Detriment Dig by trip. Hayz Neither bon. nor mal. In a “good” house Ruler is the most malefic planet	—
Overall Luck	Moderate to somewhat good	Moderate to good	Moderate to poor

Reexamining these tables now, it’s interesting to see that Azealia may actually have better luck than I first determined. But even so, how her career has played out shows lots of lows than highs. This can be because each of the planets involved in her 2nd, 6th, and 10th houses involve both good and bad qualities. Some planets are peregrine, or lack any dignities, but are in a strong or good house, like her Mercury, which is both maltreated and bonified to boot. But then her other planets are domicile–the strongest of the essential dignities–and are additionally dignified on some other level but are maltreated and is the most malefic planet such as her Saturn retrograde.

Mars complicates everything because it is maltreating Saturn and opposing Azealia’s Midheaven. Jupiter doesn’t really do much. As previously mentioned, benefics cannot bonify via oppositions. Moreover, Jupiter in Azealia’s chart is the moderate benefic and maltreated on two separate levels. It is hayz though and dignified by triplicity and possibly by term. So, once again we are back to square one.

I mentioned towards the end of the last section that I think Azealia’s problems stem from both past and present life issues, specifically familial and romantic in nature. There are many indicators pointing towards this. The biggest is Mars being the ruler of the 7th and 12th houses. The 7th house is relationships and open enemies while the 12th house shows how the native tends to screw themselves over and be their own worst enemy and additionally represents secret enemies. It opposes and maltreats Saturn retrograde, which the planet itself is another big indicator of past life karma. Saturn is “The Lord of Karma,” showing the types of life lessons the native needs to overcome in order to be a mature, well-rounded person. When retrograde, this suggests that the energy of Saturn will be intense and concentrated in the native’s current life as its energy is turned inward towards them. As astrologer Kevin Burk notes, “these [retrograde] planets have a tendency to become obsessed with understanding certain situations and concepts with a level of thoroughness and intensity that is quite unusual for them” (2001, pp. 228).

So, we have a Saturn that is carrying with it some past life issues that is being maltreated by the most malefic planet in the chart. Additionally, as the ruler of the North Node, Saturn in Azealia’s chart furthers this past and present life connection, as the North Node points to the overall spiritual lesson the native is trying to learn during this lifetime.

Venus opposes the North Node, which implies that how Azealia has approached her relationships in her past lives will not work in this one and that she needs to find a new way of relating to people. Venus is also the chart ruler, meaning that Venus represents Azealia in her chart and indicates the type of energy she chose to come into this life with. Venus is conjunct the asteroid Chiron rather intensely. There’s only a few seconds difference between the two. I often don’t interpret Chiron, but it is “The Wounded Warrior.” It shows the types of wounds the native has brought into this life. Both in Cancer, we see problems with the family. Mars is also in the 4th house of family. Jupiter is interesting to consider though because it also in the 4th house. But as previously mentioned, it suffers in that house. So, Azealia faces more subjective negativity and hardship there than positivity. Likewise, with Leo on the 4^th house, these family issues are imprinted on to her personality rather deeply.

Finally, we have Pluto retrograde in the 7th house. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are generational planets, so their effects are more generalized to large swaths of people because they move so slowly and are far from Earth. So, either one of them being retrograde is not that big of a deal as the seven classical ones being retrograde, especially Mercury, Venus, and Mars, as their influences are felt more daily and immediately. Nevertheless, it being present in the 7th house points to rather intense and complicated relationships that the native may have in this life. It opposes Mercury and the Ascendant as well, so something about Pluto is in direct contrast to how Azealia navigates the world and sees herself.

Taking all of this into consideration…you see my dilemma her in what Azealia’s luck in career should be because other parts of the natal chart interact with each other in intricate ways.

In either case, if you like my work, think about supporting me on Ko-Fi!

Next month I will do a reading on Rico Nasty and Cupcakke!

---

References

Ahmed, Insanul. (2012, Feb. 13). Who is Azealia Banks? Retrieved from https://www.complex.com/music/2012/02/who-is-azealia-banks/

Azealia Banks. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Banks,_Azealia

Azealia Banks. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azealia_Banks

Baron, Zach. (2012, Aug. 28). The Making of Azealia Banks. Retrieved from https://www.spin.com/2012/08/azealia-banks-spin-issue-story/

Brennan, Chris. (2017). Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune. Denver, CO: Amor Fati Publications.

Burk, Kevin. (2001). Astrology: Understanding the Birth Chart. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.

Chen, Tanya. (2014, Dec. 22). A History Of Iggy Azalea And Azealia Banks’ Rivalry. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/tanyachen/azealia-azalea

Diep, Eric and Edwin Ortiz. (2014, Jun. 18). A History of Azealia Banks’ Twitter Beefs. Retrieved from https://www.complex.com/music/2014/06/a-history-of-azealia-banks-twitter-beefs/

Ramirez, Erika. (2012, Apr. 23). Azealia Banks Responds to T.I.’s Comment on Her Beef With Iggy Azalea… Again. Retrieved from https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/491576/azealia-banks-responds-to-tis-comment-on-her-beef-with-iggy-azalea

Sciortino, Karley. (2012, Sept. 15). Azealia Banks: Fighting Talk. Retrieved from https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/14493/1/azealia-banks-fighting-talk

Related Posts