As the world knows by now, David Letterman recently responded to a multimillion dollar extortion plot against him by announcing the scandalous details of his in-office sex life on his television show on Thursday night.
A former staffer had apparently collected information about Letterman’s affairs and revealed them to her boyfriend, a producer at CBS named Joe Halderman, who was arrested Thursday for the extortion plot.
David Letterman has made his reputation on being a quirky and eccentric talk show host, and his personal life has reflected his eccentricity. Although he has been in a relationship with partner Regina Lasko for 23 years, they never married until March and he has worked diligently to keep his private life hidden from the public view.
Astrologically, David Letterman (4/12/47, 6:00 am, Indianapolis) has the Sun in Aries, the sign of courage and individuality and reflecting his independent spirit. The 6 am birthtime is suspect to me because of its inexactness, but if it is correct he has Taurus rising. The rising sign describes the way we approach our life and the way that we are perceived by others, and someone with Taurus rising requires a certain amount of predictability in his life. He would want to have the same job for many years (check), consistency in his personal life (check – longtime relationship), he would have a desire to accumulate wealth and possessions (check) and he would be quite stubborn (check).
Like many of us, Letterman has a challenging planetary system in his chart which reflects a certain amount of psychological distress: a conjunction of Saturn (challenge and restriction) to Pluto (death and transformation) which forms a square to Chiron in Scorpio (wounding and healing in the area of intimacy and deep emotion). Letterman is someone who feels his wounds deeply, but that Aries Sun demands that he continually push through those wounds through the sheer force of his will.
That Chiron sits right on the cusp of the seventh house of partnership and open enemies, revealing the tendency for Dave’s relationships to be painful yet promote healing. This event is very descriptive of the way Chiron works: A challenging event forces Letterman’s old wounds into the public view, causing great personal turmoil and disturbance, but eventually, hopefully, leading to the resolution of what must have been a long conflict for him regarding his personal relationships.
This is not the first time someone close to Letterman has turned on him (the seventh house is the house not only of partnerships and marriage, but also of “open enemies”) – in 2005 a painter who worked for Letterman was charged with conspiracy to kidnap his son.
Venus in Letterman’s chart also tells a tale about his personal relationships. Venus is in Pisces – warm and romantic, and needing a certain amount of fantasy to remain interested. Venus forms a square to Uranus, an aspect that requires autonomy and a sense of space, as well as a need for a variety of people in our life to provide stimulation and excitement. You can see how a Pisces Venus, with its need for closeness and romance, is not a good partner for the detached and revolutationary Uranus and this reveals the underlying conflict in Dave regarding his personal relationships.
When I have married clients with this configuration, or one like it, I advise them to find balance in their lives between their need for closeness and this need for stimulation from other people. Usually one side of that conflict is buried in the subconscious, so the client may only be aware of their need for space and not of their need for closeness, or they may want 24-hour intimacy and not be aware that they also need that space. In those cases they end up in relationships with partners who are unavailable or rejecting. In the ideal world, these planetary conflicts find balance and mutual expression.
In Dave’s world, he was able to successfully compartmentalize his life so that he had the stability that he craved (Taurus rising), could pursue his successful career (Sun in Aries, Moon in Capricorn) and still find excitement in romance (Venus/Uranus).
The Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune conjunction that peaked in late May of this year formed an exact square to Jupiter in Dave’s chart. You may remember that this triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune has had the effect of bringing up old wounds (Chiron) so that the soul can be healed (Neptune/Chiron), and that Jupiter created big events to facilitate the process. These planets have been affecting Dave’s Jupiter, which sits in his seventh house of relationships. Jupiter, as king of the gods, often shows where we want to be king, and in the seventh house he tends to want control over that domain. This control is being challenged right now by the triple conjunction, and I suspect this event will result in a big personal change for him.
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