Cosmic Culture 10/18
In the wake of a powerful Super Full Moon in Aries, we are all reeling, tender, and raw.
Pop (Cult)ure
Where do you go when you’re lonely? The Big House Family Cult. apparently. Bethany Joy Lenz joined Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy this week to promote her upcoming memoir Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!). Bethany candidly opens up about her time spent in the religious cult while on One Tree Hill, which includes escaping her marriage to “family” member (Michael Galleoti) and losing essentially all the money she’d earned through her long-running One Tree Hill role (~$2 million). Despite her initial shame, Lenz is now ready to share her story in hopes of helping other people identify if their respective hobby or faith groups give off a “cult” or “culture” kind of vibe. It does make you wonder about the “dancing little marionette” lyrical cue in her When the Stars Go Blue duet with Tyler Hilton. Bethany’s memoir will be released on October 22, in case you need another spooky read to add to your season.
✨ Cosmic alert: Bethany is a fiery Aries Sun with a sensitive Pisces Moon. While Aries and Pisces might seem like opposites, both placements evoke a naïveté akin to a child with notions of passivity, spirituality, and fear. Bethany’s chart also features a powerful Mars and Venus conjunction (sitting side-by-side) in Aries in a stand-off with her Saturn in Libra, indicative of her actions (Mars) and relationships/money (Venus) being controlled or restricted (Saturn) by social etiquette and rules (Libra)—very cult and long-standing TV-show coded.
Alexa, Play Chasing Cars
From one One Tree Hill star to the next (sorry this column has unofficially turned into a One Tree Hill tribute series), Sophia Bush has officially signed on to play a major recurring character on Grey’s Anatomy. Damn, this show is STILL running? Bush will be stepping into the role of Dr. Cass Beckman, a fun and messy-around-the-edges trauma surgeon, for the show’s 21st season—someone get this show a beer! Bush’s debut episode will air on November 7 - our cue to pay Grey Sloan Hospital an unexpected visit after all these years.
✨ Cosmic alert: November 7 marks the beginning of “Mercury Retroshade,” the shadow period before Mercury Retrograde officially starts on November 25—consider this your holiday travel PSA. Don’t be fooled; Mercury Retroshade periods can often be more intense than the retrograde itself (I’m sure we all remember that Summer Crowdstrike outage). It’s only appropriate that Sophia’s Grey’s debut coincides with Mercury’s reversal, a nod to the past and revisiting old narratives to breathe new life into them.
The Story of His Life
Grief is complicated. It feels especially complicated to talk about it in the context of a tragic celebrity death—particularly one who had such a profound impact on so many formative memories yet whose last days on earth unearthed serious substance struggle, erratic behavior, and mental health concerns. Liam Payne was just a boy when he shot to fame as part of the One Direction phenomenon (he was only 14 when he first auditioned on The X Factor).
After five albums and four world tours, One Direction ultimately disbanded in 2016 and Liam became a father to his only child, Bear, in 2017. Amidst his solo career, however, Liam started being increasingly candid about his substance abuse as a means of coping with the pressures of fame in the years after. Fans were shocked in the days leading up to his death when Liam’s ex-fiancé Maya Henry went public with abuse allegations; she now experiences massive (unfair) online backlash from fans who can’t seem to hold space for both truths regarding Liam to exist at once. While his impact will forever be cherished by our inner tween, as adults, we’re all struggling to harmonize the reality of the present with the sadness welling up around the tragic end to the story of Liam’s life at the hands of the fame monster.
It’s ok that his death had a deeper impact on you than you feel comfortable admitting.
It’s ok that even though you may not have known Liam personally, his music still spoke to you. It’s ok to be sad. And it’s ok to be angry. And it’s ok to feel all the feelings as you try to hold space for everything happening in the world. It’s ok not to be ok right now. And I hope you know that.
Tasha is a former Wall Street cog turned spiritual astrologer and pop culture aficionado.