The Sex and the City gals get an astrology reading
The long lost episode.
I first watched Sex and the City in its entirety in 2018. I was 23, living on my own for the first time, and had no idea what the fuck it meant to be an “adult.”
After finishing the show, I, like most people, found Carrie’s character to be insufferable, and felt that the whole thing unfortunately pedestalized romantic, heteronormative love and relationships. Not to mention the cast has almost no racial diversity, and the way they talk about sexuality and trans folks is problematic AF.
And yet, somehow, Sex and the City also helped me see beyond the expectations I’d put on myself. I felt so much pressure to have my shit together at 23 (L O L) and watching this damn show opened me up to the possibilities beyond what I thought I “should” be doing.
I could be messy and chaotic like Carrie. I could be idealistic and determined like Charlotte. I could be an unapologetic boss bitch like Samantha. I could be blunt and neurotic like Miranda. And I could be promiscuous like… all of them.
I could be anything, if I wanted to.
Idk how but this show was a portal to the lesson that I actually get to decide and define what my life looks like. And this is something I still carry with me today, as a 30-year-old who still has no fucking clue what she’s doing.
I find myself rewatching Sex and the City when I want to reconnect with 23-year-old me, pre-relationship, pre-motherhood. It feels comforting to revisit her. She gives me a little bit of the freedom I miss now, and I remind her that she’s going to be just fine.
But as I watched this show for probably the umpteenth time recently, after a long day of solo parenting, I couldn’t help but wonder: Why didn’t any of the girls ever see an astrologer about their love lives?!
By now I know these characters very well, so I thought it’d be fun to imagine them getting a reading from me. How would each one show up, what questions would they ask, what would I look for, and what would I say to them?
Unfortunately, I won’t be creating or guessing their birth charts because I don’t have time for alllll of that. For the astrology, I’m going to identify their patterns and talk about what aspects of their chart might reflect that. And we’ll do tarot at the end, just like in my readings!*
(However I will say I firmly believe Carrie is a Libra Sun with a Leo rising—and if you have opinions about their placements, PLEASE leave a comment with your thoughts bc I’m dying to know what you think.)
I know this seems different than my usual astrology stuff, but if you read all of it, it actually isn’t. And it’s fun to be creative and different! So enjoy 💋
*Sex and the City jazzy theme song plays*
Carrie Bradshaw (after telling Aidan about her affair with Big)
Carrie is only getting a reading so she can write about it in her column. She’s heard astrology is trendy these days, and wants to see if it offers anything of value when it comes to finding love.
She comes in skeptical, more like a journalist than a client. She doesn’t have any specific questions for me. She just says, “tell me what you see.”
But, having read her column, I ask her to tell me about her relationships. She reluctantly divulges the Aidan-Big situation. She can’t believe she’s saying all of this to a total stranger.
Maybe she has a Moon - Jupiter aspect that makes her emotionally insatiable. Maybe she has a Venus - Saturn aspect that makes her feel like her close relationships have to include an element of hardship or struggle, otherwise she doesn’t believe it’s real or that she deserves the ease. Maybe she has a Mars - Neptune aspect that can give her a little bit of a victim complex. Maybe she has Pluto in the 3rd house and can be verbally manipulative (and even lie) in her relationships without always consciously realizing it.
She shifts in her seat and asks if she can smoke in here. I say no.
I tell her that I think it’s important for her to to develop a practice of emotional presence, where she allows herself to feel her feelings instead of talking, thinking, or writing about them. Her chart likely indicates that she tends to intellectualize her feelings, or is emotionally impatient with herself. So it’d be good for her to create intentional time at least once a week where she just slows things down and lets herself feel what she feels.
She seems a little calmer now.
When it’s time for the tarot, I pull the King of Wands (Big), the Knight of Pentacles (Aidan), the Seven of Swords, the Hanged Man, and the Five of Pentacles.
In my tarot readings, if we talk about certain people, they usually show up in my spread via the court cards, I tell her. It looks like Aidan could provide a life of stability—but that isn’t what she wants. And that’s OK. Not everyone wants that. I tell her she needs to be honest and clear with herself about what she does want, though, (excitement, fireworks, spark) so she can recognize it when comes into her orbit.
This spread also indicates that she needs to sit with her actions and check in with the version of herself that cheated, the part of her that feels scarce, alone, and in need of something. What did this part of her want that she was looking for from Big? Did she find it? What’s happened to this part of herself in the aftermath?
I tell her that I think she needs to take some time to process everything that happened; that if she wants to find a healthy, loving relationship, she should be honest with herself about what led her to cheat—and forgive herself for it.
She goes home to write her column, and somewhere in there is a line like: “I couldn’t help but wonder: How could a total stranger see me better than I was seeing myself?”
Charlotte York (post-Trey, pre-Harry)
Charlotte books with me because she heard about Carrie’s experience. The Episcopalian in her was a little pearl-clutchy at first, but after listening to Carrie describe my vibe and approach over brunch, she changed her mind. She’s optimistic that I can guide her in the right direction after her divorce.
She comes in eager, with a notebook and pen. She has many questions for me, all very specific, like exactly when and where will she meet her future husband?
I tell her that, unfortunately, I can’t predict exactly when she’ll find her person. And even though astrology certainly offers insight into good timing, I tell her that I want to dig a little deeper into her questions.
I ask her to talk about what’s important to her when it comes to a marriage, and why she wants to be married. Why is getting married important to her?
She mostly lists off superficial or material things.
Maybe her South Node is in the 2nd house (and thus her North Node in the 8th) so this world of money and material resources is what’s comfortable to her—but not necessarily what’s going to make her feel a sense of purpose or fulfillment. Maybe she has Jupiter in the 8th house, so the more she embraces what she considers taboo, the more opportunities for deeper emotional fulfillment will come her way (with her North Node in that house, too.)
I tell her that instead of focusing on how she wants her future husband/marriage to look on the outside, she may want to focus on how it all makes her feel on the inside. That it doesn’t really matter how he looks or what other people think. She has to be willing to let go of this image of a perfect family so that when the right man does come into her life, she can actually recognize him as the imperfect, wonderful human he is.
For the tarot spread, I pull the Queen of Cups (Charlotte), The Fool, the Ten of Cups, Justice, and the Seven of Cups.
I tell her that her happy family is imminent (Ten of Cups) but that it likely won’t look like what she envisions in her mind (Seven of Cups). Which is OK! Who cares how it looks when it feels so right. The Fool reflects that she’s starting a new chapter, and serves as a reminder to keep an open mind to all the people she meets along the way. Justice tells me that her internal values and judgment system need some tweaking in order to invite in what she wants—and perhaps her future husband has something to do with law or the legal system. And finally, the Queen of Cups is her potential: embracing the depths of who she is, trusting her intuition, and attracting the right person instead of chasing a fantasy.
Even though the reading wasn’t what she was expecting, she feels a new sense of determination to integrate everything we’ve talked about so she can MANifest her person ASAP.
Miranda Hobbes (right before she gets pregnant**)
Miranda only comes to her reading because Charlotte gifted her one, and she doesn’t want to waste the money.
She walks in very skeptical, telling me she was expecting me to be wearing a turban and rubbing a crystal ball.
I tell her that’s not really my style. She’s closed off and sarcastic, saying that I should already know everything about her, right? But I tell her this is an exchange, and that the only expert on Miranda in here is Miranda. That seems to disarm her a little.
She talks to me about her love life, mostly with frustration and cynicism.
Maybe she has a Venus-Uranus aspect, or Uranus in the 7th house, or Venus in the 11th house, so I ask her if she’s ever considered dating genders outside of men. She balks a little at that. I tell her that a conventional relationship may not actually be what’s best for her, or what will make her emotionally fulfilled in the long run. That she shouldn’t feel pressured to get married and have kids with a man if that’s not what she wants. That it’s worth thinking about what she actually wants for herself versus what she feels pressured to want from society or her friends.
I tell her that there are so many possibilities for her outside of the box she’s built, the box social conditioning has placed around her. She asks me for specific examples, so I propose that if she doesn’t feel fulfilled at her corporate law firm, then maybe she could be a lawyer working for social change instead.
Saturn is likely a strong player/influence in her chart, so I remind her that there isn’t a right or wrong way to be herself, or to live life. She gets to discover and define what emotional fulfillment means—and she deserves to pursue whatever that is without shame.
The last thing I tell her is that there will be a New Moon in her 5th house soon, so if she isn’t trying to get pregnant, she should practice safe sex. She laughs and tells me not to worry about it because she’s not seeing anyone and only has “one lazy ovary” anyway.
When we get to the tarot portion of the reading, she gets a little weirded out, so I suggest we only pull one card: What does Miranda need to know right now?
I pull The Tower.
I tell her that if she’s not happy with the life she currently has, she always has the agency to change. She’s allowed to be messy, to fall apart, to start something over, to begin anew, to stumble as she figures it out. Life is messy, and there are so many things that happen to us that are out of our control that we sometimes forget how much choice we have. And that sometimes, getting cast out of our comfort zone is exactly what we need.
She goes to speak, protest perhaps, but then closes her mouth, nods, and smiles. “This did not go at all like I expected,” she says with a chuckle as she heads for the door.
Samantha Jones (before she decides to leave New York and move to London***)
Samantha only books with me after she heard I’m THE astrologer to all the it-girls of New York (manifesting hehe)
She’s extremely upset. Carrie has decided to drop her as a publicist, which has not only caused a rift in their friendship but in their entire friend group. She tells me this situation has made her realize that, for awhile now, she’s been feeling unfulfilled and unseen in these relationships.
She shares that the PR thing on its own wouldn’t have been enough to upset her this much, but it unearthed years of feeling disappointed and cast aside by Carrie.
Maybe transiting Pluto is squaring her natal Moon or Venus.
I tell her that Pluto transits are hard. And when it’s aspecting her Moon or Venus, there’s typically a manipulative or toxic person involved. Pluto transits push us to shed the things we’ve outgrown. I tell her that all of this is being revealed to her now for a reason, and that she has the agency to do something about it. She asks me what I think, and I tell her, in my perspective, she has two options:
She can be honest with Carrie about how she feels, and if they’re both willing, they can work to repair the relationship.
She can break up with Carrie.
She bites her bottom lip and is quiet for awhile. I tell her she doesn’t have to have an answer now, and decide to change the subject to help her feel a little more comfortable.
So I ask if she’s thought about moving recently. She said she’s contemplating moving to London, actually. I tell her that she’s in a 9th house profection year, so this is actually a good time for her to move abroad, if that’s what she wants.
During the tarot portion of our reading, I pull the Page of Cups (Carrie), The Star, the Two of Wands, The World, and the Two of Swords.
I can see she’s torn, and I can see that Carrie isn’t being an emotionally mature friend. The presence of the Twos (Wands and Swords) tells me there’s an element of reciprocity that seems to be lacking, and that’s what’s making her question what she wants to do next. The World tells me that, regardless of what she chooses to do with Carrie, this is a big ending. Maybe they’ll break up, or maybe they’ll end the cycle and enter a better one. Either way, a chapter is closing.
And finally, The Star tells me that whatever path she decides on, all of them offer a road to her own healing as long as she puts herself and her needs first.
Later that week she has a conversation with Carrie. It’s a friend breakup. She finishes with, “I love you, but I love me more.”
*A lot of what I’ve written for each one takes inspiration from actual things that have happened with my IRL clients.
**I don’t actually remember if this happens before or after Charlotte separates from Trey so just go with it.
***This storyline is technically introduced in And Just Like That, the SATC reboot. I personally think they did Samantha SO dirty by making it seem like she was shallow enough to leave just because of her pride. So this is my re-imagining of how that all went down. Justice for Samantha!