OPA: Another fabulous review

Thank you so much to OPA and particularly Arlan Wise for the thoughtful review of “Mirror Mirror”. Arlan gave me the best ever compliment: “Alex works with children and she knows how to make learning fun”. Thank you Arlan. You can download the full PDF of The Career Astrologer at: https://www.opaastrology.org/publicMARCH2022edition.pdf You can also order “Mirror Mirror” from Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mirr…/dp/1910531553/ref=sr_1_1…

This book teaches synastry from an unusual perspective using the cinematic lens. Author Alex Trenoweth chose 100 biopics (movies about real people) to demonstrate astrological connec- tions between the main character, the actor who portrayed the character, and the tran- sits on the movie’s release date.

The book is organized into topical chapters. Each chapter illustrates connections between specific planets, starting with Pluto and ending with Chiron. The chapter on the Nodes of the Moon emphasizes the fated quality determining why a certain actor perfectly fits the specific role. Some of the planetary connections overlap, as the charts of a character and the related actor have more than one planetary connection. The examples vary as to where the connections are more obvious.

There is a section dealing with situations when many actors have portrayed one character, or when a single actor plays the same character in different films. Examples of this are the actor Judi Dench playing Queen Victoria and Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth. Alex includes tri-wheel charts, of each biopic with a wealth of information. Readers can examine each chart and see the connections described.

Spoiler alert! Film plots are revealed in the book. Because the films are biographic, you may already know how the story ends. If you are not familiar with the main character’s life story and want to maintain the mystery for future viewing, it is possible to skip right to the astrology and bypass the plotlines.

Alex works with children, and she knows how to make learning fun. This book marries entertainment with information, so you will enjoy the stories while you learn the astrological concepts. It is like taking a great astrology workshop that is so inter- esting the time just flies by.

The astrological connections explored in the book inspire contemplation. The chapter on the Nodes shows where fate has a hand. From the film Gandhi, Alex points out the shared nodal axis between inspirational leader Mahatma Gandhi and actor Ben Kingsley. This pattern repeats between the actor Jamie Foxx and musician Ray Charles. In another example of nodal interaction, Renee Zellweger has a natal Chiron on Judy Garland’s South Node, suggesting that Zellweger may have experienced personal healing as she portrayed Garland’s wounded soul.

To add to the wow factor of this book, Alex suggests comparing your birth chart to the tri-wheel of your favorite movie, one that you watch over and over. My favorite film is Lawrence of Arabia, a 1962 historical drama based on the life of T.E. Lawrence. When I attempted the exercise, I saw that Lawrence’s Saturn and actor Peter O’Toole’s Sun are conjoined to my Pluto. O’Toole’s Moon is at the same degree as my Sun, and the movie was released when the transiting North Node was at that degree. I will never forget feeling the heat of the desert sun when I watched that movie for the first time! The old saying “you can’t make this stuff up” rings true.

This is a book to enjoy. You can sip and savor it one movie at a time or gulp it down to feed your curiosity. You’ll want to have a physical copy so you can make notes in the margins and circle the correlations you see, especially those to your chart. This book would also be a thoughtful gift for an astrologer friend.

—review by Arlan Wise