When I started doing celebrity profiles I was determined never to profile Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. Unfortunately, Britney Spears’ recent meltdown has caused me to renege on this pledge.

click chart to enlargeBritney Spears’ career began when she was eleven years old. With four planets in Sagittarius including a conjunction of Uranus, Mercury and the Sun, she has a strong adventurous streak and a determinedly optimistic (Sag) view of the world (Mercury/Sun). The addition of Uranus (planet of rebellion and radical change) shows that she is an independent thinker (Uranus/Mercury) and determined to follow her own path (Uranus/Sun). Sagittarians are typically optimistic and forward-looking – they can be inspirational and create an overwhelmingly positive impression. There is no doubt of the effect that Britney Spears has had on a generation of young girls. The danger in the often relentless optimism of the Sagittarian personality comes when their refusal to confront their own negative feelings or issues forces them to confront these issues in their outer life.

Britney’s Moon is in Aquarius, an air sign of the intellect, so her emotions (Moon) are filtered through the rationality of the mind (Aquarius). Aquarian Moons are often brilliant individuals with a strong need for freedom and autonomy, and they are typically uncomfortable in the emotional realm which is difficult to reconcile with the rational world of ideas in which they live. Her Moon is in the fifth house of creative self-expression, suggesting a need to be on the stage and a love of children.

Britney has Libra rising, which indicates her need for peace and harmony (Libra) and living in partnership with others. Those with Libra rising are often exceptionally attractive individuals, but especially when young it can be difficult for them to find their own individuality because they are constantly looking to see how they are affecting and being affected by others. Libra is the mirror, and when the mirror disappears the Self may seem to disappear as well.

There is a lot of air and fire in Britney’s chart showing that she is most comfortable in the worlds of ideas (air) and action (fire) rather than emotion (water). The only water in her chart is a singleton, or unaspected, Jupiter in Scorpio. Jupiter shows where our greatest gifts lie and describes where we find meaning in life and an experience of Truth. In Scorpio we go into the emotional depths and find both the beautiful and the ugly – there is no superficiality here. The emotions are strong and powerful and take us into deep places within us. The fact that Jupiter is unaspected, and in the second house of money and personal possession, has bestowed success and wealth on Britney but it also gives her a very deep streak of emotional intensity that the rest of her chart can’t support.

The Sagittarian personality, particularly combined with the rebellious autonomy of the Uranian/ Aquarian traits (Uranus conjunct Sun/Mercury and Moon in Aquarius) has a dislike and in fact almost a fear of those emotional depths in which Scorpio finds its home, and I suspect that she has run from these emotional depths her entire life. With Venus (relating to others) conjunct Pluto (Scorpio’s ruler and lord of death and rebirth), her relationships are the doors that unlock the dark intensity within her. Britney’s chart shows Saturn (self-doubt) in challenging aspect to Venus as well, showing a fundamental lack of self-worth and confidence in her attractiveness and that anyone can really love her.

Mars shows how well we defend our boundaries and how we assert our needs, and for Britney Mars is in the twelfth house of karma and the unconscious, and it is in difficult aspect to Neptune which rules the twelfth house. This is a “double whammy” tying the Mars principle to Neptune’s confusion and potential for illusion and a fantasy world. Her Mars is in the analytical and perfectionistic sign of Virgo, which often needs for everything to be done perfectly. This can put a lot of pressure on an individual, and in the twelfth house where it tends to be invisible and difficult to access it can be very difficult for this individual to even know what she wants much less how to get it. The square from Neptune exacerbates this confusion and can drive her to sacrifice herself (Neptune) to the drives of others (Mars).

Over the past couple of years, transiting Pluto has been squaring Mars in Britney’s chart and setting off these issues for her. Pluto transits always bring an intensity of experience, and Britney’s need to stay relentlessly optimistic has likely caused her to force this intensity to the underground of her psyche, where it has remained until recently. Britney’s progressed Sun is exactly square to her progressed Mars this year, and the anger and rage that typically remains unconscious with Mars in her twelfth house is likely bubbling to the surface, but she has not developed positive outlets for the expression of the darker aspects of her psyche. At the same time, transiting Uranus has been passing through a series of difficult aspects to the Uranus/Mercury/Sun conjunction in her chart which completed last summer but left her rather disassociated from the life that she knew.

This cocktail of rage and disassociation is likely what is causing Britney’s tragic descent into darkness and bizarre behavior that culminated yesterday with her suicide attempt and her screaming “I’m a fake, I’m a fake.” In a desperate attempt to cling to some security, she is evidently attempting a reconciliation with her husband Kevin Federline. Transiting Mars is approaching a conjunction to Britney’s Moon in a week or so, and this is likely to increase the intensity of her confusion and accelerate her internal rage. At the same time transiting Saturn is challenging Chiron in her chart, forcing her to confront (Saturn) her inner wounds (Chiron) so that they can be healed. This cycle will last throughout March and then return for another pass in May.

In an ideal world, Britney would take this time to get back on her own feet and begin to understand who she is as an individual and what she really feels and wants. Unfortunately, it looks like this won’t happen overnight.