Watching US Olympic Team figure skater Ilia Malinin this weekend, I was reminded of the Chinese martial arts form called “drunken monkey.” The drunken monkey style is meant to confuse opponents by rapid, erratic movements. Like a monkey. A drunken one.

Malinin’s skating is fast, like a monkey, with lots of frenetic energy including back flips and quadruple axel rotations amidst the regular movements done by most skaters. It’s intense.

After his performance, Malinin mentioned that he tossed around playing it safe versus taking risks. Astrology indicates that playing it safe isn’t in Malinin’s horoscope.

Risk Taker

Malinin’s sun, Mercury, and Pluto are in the risk-taking fire sign Sagittarius. Ruled by the planet of abundance – Jupiter – Sagittarius all about exploration, expansion, experience, and leaping before it looks. It can be accident prone for this reason.

Moon in Leo is also fire – the fixed sign associated with acting. It loves being the center of attention. And it loves. It’s charismatic but also, combined with fire sun sign, a bit overbearing for the personalities with less fire in the horoscope.

Malinin may have had a passing thought about playing it safe, but I can’t imagine this horoscope ever truly planning to play it safe. Safe is boring. Safe doesn’t discover. Safe doesn’t explore.

Being a risk taker is quite exciting when the risks pay off. With so much fire, some risks don’t pay off but the amazing thing about fire is that it’s the element that guided the phrase, “pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.”

In other words, one risk leads to another.

Intensity

On the intensity of Malinin’s personality and performance, Leo moon provides much of that. That passionate moon is squared by the equally intense placements of Venus/Mars in Scorpio.

Both Leo and Scorpio are associated with passion. What’s the difference?

Leo is ruled by the heart and Scorpio the genitals. Leo enjoys both romantic love and parental love in equal measure. Scorpio love can often come with more need for control, or fear of loss and betrayal. Betrayal for Leo is a drama that includes the stereotypical fun of making up after a fight. Betrayal for Scorpio is a life-long policy that must be maintained.

Scorpio, however, in pure form can be more emotionally honest where Leo is reluctant to give up the more colorful story that can couch emotions in grand theater.

Grounding

Malinin’s horoscope lacks the element of earth (time of birth is unknown so possibly there’s an earth rising or focus on earth-ruled houses). Earth is grounding, the day-to-day stuff of most human lives. Sagittarius sun kind of hates this stuff. So, lack of earth doesn’t bother Malinin although it may bother those around him who wonder if he will ever pay off that credit card bill.

The asteroid Chiron is in earth sign Capricorn opposite Saturn (ruled by Capricorn) in Cancer. Chiron is the “wounded healer” opposite Saturn which is the law of contraction. Capricorn rules the knees and Cancer the stomach. This is the traditional parent axis with Cancer as mother (personal consciousness) and Capricorn as father (social consciousness).

Athletes must always watch those knees. Stomach issues would arise from hidden worries that normally Sagittarius doesn’t care to embrace. With Saturn in Cancer, Malinin carries a deep belief that he doesn’t “belong.” Cancer is family but ultimately feeling that one belongs to a unit – a family, a community, a country.

In response to this feeling of not belonging, Sagittarius will simply travel and explore looking for a more amenable environment, one that allows Sagittarius to expand, learn, and grow. A rolling stone gathers no moss . . . Escape through heightened experience is also a way to avoid the blues.

T-square Focus

Natal Neptune in Aquarius creates what’s called a T-square with moon in Leo and Venus/Mars in Scorpio. These are fixed signs which create a tension that builds drive and focus. It’s an itch that must be scratched. Fixed squares aren’t known for rest.

The missing fixed sign is the earth sign Taurus. Uranus has been transiting this sign for the last seven years which brings the ability to make that focus into something tangible. That’s clearly a place on the Olympic team for this winter’s competition. Uranus will remain in Taurus through the event, moving into Gemini in July of this year.

Uranus in Gemini will create opposition to the sun in Sagittarius. With natal Neptune in Aquarius – which will be visited by Pluto in coming years – suggests air sign issues with breathing or circulation.

Uranus brings the unexpected to jar us into enlightenment. Malinin likes the unexpected; the challenge is to avoid excess and indulgence. And instability from over stimulation.

The Gentle Side

While Malinin’s fiery chart is optimistic, fun, and energetic, fire enthusiasm can lead to self-centeredness and impatience with more methodical or cautious personalities. Sagittarius, to quote late astrologer Linda Goodman, can curl your eyebrows with outspoken truths.

So “gentle” is not part of the personality. But there are two placements that when activated can lead to a more cooperative type of encounter – natal Uranus in loving, water sign Pisces and Jupiter in partner-seeking, pleasure-loving Libra.

There’s a little poetry there, in those rare moments when Malinin is not in motion, busy, occupied and consumed with consuming life.

Uranus in Pisces has its moments of empathy and with Sagittarius can become active for causes. Sagittarius loves the underdog and with Saturn-in-Cancer feelings of not belonging, may side with groups that are marginalized.

The Olympiad

Malinin’s skating is his personality – bold, energetic, confident and exuberant. Avoiding excess and over-confidence is important as the best-of-the-best meets the rest-of-the-best.