When Mary Tyler Moore died in 2017, I was surprised by the number of condolences in my social media feed.

How did I not know so many people were Mary Tyler Moore fans?

Had my friends been binging on the Mary Tyler Moore show while I wasn’t noticing? Why did we not have long, late-night discussions over wine and fondue about her performance in Ordinary People where she played a controlling, emotionally restrained mother, a role opposite to many of her sunny, cheerful roles? The irony is that this role in Ordinary People was more in line with her natal horoscope than the Dick Van Dyke show or Mary Tyler Moore show, although in the latter she does demonstrate the Capricorn drive for career, success and financial independence.

But we have no wine, fondue pot or time this evening.

The social media condolences for every and all passing celebrities demonstrate how much we have become like newscasters, like the journalists we increasingly disdain. Like journalists we get the buzz and present it to our viewing audience. We want our audience to stay tuned, especially on the career-oriented sites or revenue-generating sites where we want to maintain our brand. No audience, no brand.

Brand

Still on my reading list is Naomi Klein’s No Logo which, if I understand the premise, it about how products developed brands and later the brands became the products. Published in 1999, it seems a prescient work as in this nation we elected a brand president. The wrapping paper no longer needs to contain a present.

When did the concept of “brand” originate?

Internet research suggests 2700 BC but the concept of brand seems to involve two important modern elements: consumer culture and easy communication.

Prior to this “brand” was held but just a few individuals of intellectual or spiritual greatness and maybe some fermented grapes. Today we all have an audience – large or small – for our brand. We must sell ourselves regularly in the digital economy.

Pluto in Capricorn

Transformative Pluto is soon to leave Capricorn – where it will not reside for the next 248 years – and go into Aquarius. For Americans, Pluto in the late degrees of Capricorn represents a Pluto “return” as we were born into this placement. Who knows, maybe this is exactly how people felt in 1776 – “WTF? Will people just calm down and stop killing each other and stealing each other’s stuff?” I bet a few folks said that in 1776 too. Maybe nothing has really changed in the evolutionary spiral.

With natal Pluto in Capricorn, the US evolutionary path involves understanding of business, career, success, rules, and authority. We went one round as Capricorn “boss.” The second round of Pluto through the signs may bring us back to our idealistic roots with lots of Capricorn lessons about authority. I plan to check back in 2272.

One legacy of this last 20 years of Pluto in Capricorn is brand for everyone, the “democratization” of brand. Traditionally Capricorn is about “reputation,” an old-fashioned idea made new. The idea behind reputation was that you’d better be good so that the people in the neighborhood and community don’t talk about you and you can get a good spouse and job.

Brand, like reputation, is an everyday affair but takes more than good behavior; it takes constant reinforcement and promotion of one’s good, or desired, behavior. Bad behavior is a brand too, and a popular one today. Brand is public relations of self. Brand is self.

Andy Warhol

Pop artist Andy Warhol said, famously, that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. Today we may only have 15 minutes of privacy.

Warhol had six of the ten horoscope planets in fire (sun/Venus/Neptune in Leo, Uranus/moon in Aries and Saturn in Sagittarius) representing an extroverted nature seeking self-expression and recognition. While born with Pluto in Cancer, he appealed to the Pluto in Leo “Me” generation busting out of the norms of their parents during the 1960s.

With moon and Uranus in Aries, Warhol exhibited much of Aries’ self-aggrandizing aspect. Having a natural understanding of brand, Warhol was made famous by his paintings, prints and movies of popular products (Campbell’s soup) and popular people (repeating images of famous faces).

Uranus has an 84-year cycle so in the early 2010s returned to Aries. In the 1960s, Warhol produced repeating images of famous faces. In the 2010s, we created repeating images of our own faces.

Uranus in Aries occurred during the beginning of the Pluto-in-Capricorn transit and provided the selfies that were needed for the continued focus on brand – social media and cameras. And unabashed promotion of self.

If you do have some wine, fondue and time available, after discussion of Mary Tyler Moore’s thespian agility, we can discuss whether Warhol would be famous today.

Would Warhol have made it through the jungle of brand to stand out? Or would he be just another Instagram page or YouTube channel?