Ryan O’Neal was arrested for assaulting his son Griffin this week, although Ryan claimed he was defending himself from an attack with a fireplace poker. Growing up with Ryan O’Neal can’t have been easy; all of his children have suffered from drug addiction and other problems. Even young Redmond, child of a relatively stable relationship between Ryan and Farrah Fawcett, was a heroin addict in his early teens. Ryan is known for his explosive temper; he once hit Griffin so hard he knocked his teeth out, and his daughter Tatum wrote a tell-all book telling of his abusive cruelty to her. This episode has brought the whole O’Neal family saga into the public view, and it’s a sad one.

I took a look at the birthchart of both Ryan and Griffin O’Neal, but it’s Griffin’s chart that is really the most interesting. Click chart to enlarge. Griffin was born in 1964, a time of tremendous social upheaval and cultural change. Uranus (the planet of radical change) was conjunct Pluto (the planet of transformation), and the world was experiencing cultural revolutions on a variety of fronts: the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, the antiwar movement, student rebellions. Those individuals born during this period (between 1962 and 1968 or so) carry this archetype within them; they are the first generation born after the baby boomers and they grew up in the chaos of that period of tremendous change.

Griffin has a Scorpio Sun, showing an emotionally intense nature. Mars (illustrating how he expresses his aggression and asserts himself) in his chart is in Leo, suggesting that he expresses his anger (Mars) in a dramatic (Leo) way. Mars in Leo is not content to have a private argument, it needs to be made public since Leo generally thrives on an audience. This expressive and showy Mars is in a challenging aspect with Jupiter in his chart, indicating an expanded (Jupiter) sense of defensiveness (Mars) and a tendency to go to extremes. To complicate matters more, Saturn in Griffin’s chart (imposing restriction and limitations) is also challenging his Mars. This is a placement that often shows a strict father (Saturn) who places oppressive limitations (Mars) on the individual. The combination of these three planets often shows an individual whose temper (Mars) is alternatively repressed and stimulated, leading to a situation that is often out of control.

This whole system in Griffin’s chart makes a difficult aspect to a conjunction of Jupiter (self-righteousness) and Uranus (eccentricity and instability) in Ryan O’Neal’s chart, showing an extremely volatile relationship between them and also indicating that Ryan has a tendency to inflame Griffin’s already irritable nature. These planets in both men’s charts have been affected by a difficult transit of Saturn to all of these sensitive points over the past six months and I’m sure trouble has been brewing for some time.

In addition, like every one in his age group, Griffin is going through the planetary cycle called the Uranus Opposition, where Uranus in the sky is opposite Uranus in the birthchart. This is one of the “midlife crisis” events, when we look at our lives and feel that we must break free. In Griffin’s chart the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto is opposed by Chiron, the wounded healer. Chiron in aspect to Uranus often shows an individual who may experience an overabundance of electromagnetic energy which is often extremely uncomfortable psychically although this placement is very commonly found in the charts of healers. Chiron in aspect to Pluto indicates a serious nature and someone who is intimately in contact with the darker side (Pluto) of life. This is generally a person who goes through periods of endings and transformation throughout his life. So the Uranus opposition is affecting Griffin and others with the same configuration in a much more intense way than it would for most of us.

Often in a family it is the most sensitive of the children that reflect the dysfunction of the family and therefore become the focal point. In the O’Neal drama, that person is most likely Griffin O’Neal.