(Image: Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” music video)

Combine the stage presence of a Leo Sun with the psychological depth of a Scorpio Moon and the result is a Sun/Moon pairing that is magnetic yet defiant, deeply principled yet incredibly determined, and capable of leading others through even the most soul-crushing of environments. Astrologer Jefferson Anderson writes of this pairing, “purposeful and bold, you usually have a master plan for living and you follow it carefully. You enjoy the battlefield of life.” (Source) Astrologer Jeremy Neal makes a similar point, that at its finest the Leo/Scorpio square produces the “Scorpion King” who stands his or her ground as effectively as Leonidas at Thermopylae. (Source) Rapper Chuck D, head of the pioneering rap group Public Enemy, is a Leo Sun, Scorpio Moon and probably about as close to a modern day version of Leonidas at Thermopylae as you’re going to find. (Chart)

Astrologer Sue Tompkins observes that historically, the Leo/Scorpio square has been associated with success in opera:

The classic zodiac combination associated with opera is Leo and Scorpio. Most people with an emphasis in these two signs really love opera if they are exposed to it. Leo suggests drama and color, and Scorpio indicates passion, tragedy, and revenge — favorite storylines of many operatic scores.

Chuck D is a rapper, not an opera singer, but a huge proportion of his work is characterized by drama, color, passion, tragedy, and revenge every bit as much as the most compelling classical operas. In fact, some have been so compelling that they were banned from the airwaves. The same goes for a good deal of his political and social commentary, which is often as creatively forthright (Leo Sun) and psychologically intense (Scorpio Moon) as any Public Enemy album.

Carolyn Reynolds says this is the Sun/Moon pairing of “The Ruthless Animal” whose intense energies must be channeled into something creative and productive. (Source) If not he or she could very well turn into something akin to a werewolf. I don’t know if Chuck D has any werewolf tendencies but there’s no doubt you need at least a little bit of a “ruthless animal” in you to survive in the increasingly corporate dominated world of music. This is doubly the case when you’re unwilling to compromise your truth for the all-mighty dollar.

The line about one-third of the way through the above song, “Now the story I’m kickin’ is gory . . .” could be a motto for this Sun/Moon pairing. Leo Sun loves to tell stories while Scorpio Moon has an instinctual understanding of the most gory aspects of the human experience. Author Alex Haley is also a Leo Sun, Scorpio Moon. (Chart) You could make a case that he did with his book Roots: The Saga of an American Family what Chuck D has done with his music: tell the gory truth, the whole gory truth, and nothing but the gory truth. Alfred Hitchcock, world famous for his capacity to kick stories that are gory, is also a Leo/Scorpio. (Chart)

Due to the fixed (stubborn) nature of both signs, this pairing has a tendency to go to extremes. Actress Mila Kunis, best known for her role as a ballerina who takes a number of things to extremes in the 2010 films Black Swan, is a Leo Sun, Scorpio Moon. (Chart) Kunis is also quite capable of going “Scorpion Queen” on an adversary as this video of her confrontation with a Russian reporter demonstrates.

This combination’s tendency to go to extremes also endows it with the capacity to take an unflinchingly honest look at psychopathic behavior, including those forms of psychopathic behavior that a society comes to accept as normal. Director Stanley Kubrick is a Leo Sun, Scorpio Moon. (Chart) He is best known for films such as Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket, each of which takes a disturbingly lucid look at the psychopathic criminality of the military-industrial complex. Something similar can be said of Public Enemy’s portrayal of the psychopathic criminality that is slavery, both the brand that existed during the days of the plantation-agricultural complex and the brand that exists currently under the prison-industrial complex.

This is probably the most street-smart of all Leo pairings. Being secretive and strategic is a survival skill for Leo/Scorpio as its capacity to produce unflinchingly honest art inevitably gets them in battles with the censors. This includes corp-gov censors and people’s internalized censors, both of which prefer keeping the most horrible truths hidden from conscious awareness. Chuck D’s battles with corp-gov censors are well documented enough that they need not be rehashed here other than to say his career could be an astrology textbook’s case-study in the Leo/Scorpio square.

Lee/Scorpio natives often possess star power but it’s not the type of star power associated with the red carpet of a big movie premier. It’s more akin to the star power of a solar eclipse than the star power of the academy awards. Astrologer Suzanne Miller describes the powerful if potentially disturbing effects of a solar eclipse as follows:

They are almost always positive, although their effects can be jarring and difficult. They shake us up so that we can move from one level of maturity to another, very rapidly. If we have become complacent or took someone or something for granted, chances are that we won’t after an eclipse has delivered its message. (Source)

The same can be said for the effects of and the messages delivered by Leo Sun, Scorpio Moon natives such as Chuck D, Alex Haley, and Stanley Kubrick. At its most effective this pairing will shock or shake people’s consciousness by wielding their capacity for creative self-expression (Leo Sun) regarding subject matter of a dangerous, taboo nature (Scorpio).

About the Author: Matt Savinar is a California licensed attorney, voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached via email at editor (at sign) hexagonastrology.com