Astrology as Character Study
A study on Freddie Mercury, Mediumship, and Vampires
Emma Thompson as Professor Sybill Trelawney, Hogwarts divination teacher, seer, and psychic medium, in the Harry Potter films.
It is a favorite pastime of mine to watch documentaries of all kinds - television series, films, biopics, true crime dramas, historical fiction, historical analyses, all of it! - and while watching I look up the birth charts of the people involved, which usually exist publicly (or at least their birth date and location is published online) since they are famous enough to have a documentary made about them. Then I look through their charts to see how their character traits show up. I look at their transits too, especially around key events in their lives.
Famous people often have exaggerated personalities that are easy to pick apart for a character sleuth like me, and I use the insight gleaned from studying these public personas to help hone my craft. Plus I just think it’s fun to go, “Oh, that one has some anger issues, let me see where their Mars is or if it is afflicted somehow with Pluto.” And I usually find the culprit.
Freddie Mercury and Rami Malek
A few years ago I was watching Bohemian Rhapsody, the film about Freddie Mercury and the rock band Queen, and I was struck by how precisely the actor playing Freddie, Rami Malek, expressed Freddie’s personality and mannerisms, it was uncanny. He seemed he was channeling Freddie through his portrayal of him. (And honestly, since Freddie died in 1991, I believe it’s entirely possible that he indeed could have been channeling Freddie’s spirit through him.)
So, I looked up both Rami Malek and Freddie Mercury’s charts and was blown away. The synastry was so exact, it really did seem like Rami was channeling Freddie. They were perfectly in tune with one another!
Rami Malek (left) and Freddie Mercury (right), from the biographical film about Freddie Mercury and Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, 2018, 20th Century Studios.
The color coded placements listed in both chart listings below correspond to CONJUNCTIONS between the two charts.
Rami’s Chart Placements
May 12, 1981, 8:41 am, Torrence, CA, USA
Sun: 21 Taurus
Moon: 11 Virgo
Ascendant: 3 Cancer (Descendant: 03 Capricorn)
Mercury: 8 Gemini
Venus: 1 Gemini
Mars: 12 Taurus
Jupiter: 0 Libra (& the same Jupiter sign)
Saturn: 3 Libra
Uranus: 28 Scorpio
Neptune: 24 Sagittarius
Pluto: 22 Libra
Chiron: 18 Taurus
Ceres: 28 Cancer (exact opposite Freddie’s Ceres)
Pallas: 17 Gemini
Vesta: 29 Leo
Juno: 25 Libra
North Node: 4 Leo
South Node: 4 Aquarius
Freddie’s Chart Placements
September 5, 1946 (time unknown), Zanzibar, Tanzania
Sun: 12 Virgo
Moon: 1 Capricorn
Ascendant: (Unknown)
Mercury: 3 Virgo
Venus: 28 Libra
Mars: 17 Libra
Jupiter: 26 Libra
Saturn: 4 Leo
Uranus: 21 Gemini
Neptune: 7 Libra
Pluto: 12 Leo
Chiron: 20 Libra
Ceres: 29 Capricorn
Pallas: 28 Sagittarius
Vesta: 3 Aries (exact conj. RM’s White Moon Selena)
Juno: 0 Scorpio
North Node: 16 Gemini
South Node: 16 Sagittarius
Freddie’s Out of Bounds planets: Moon, Ceres
Rami’s Out of Bounds planets: Mercury, Ceres
I find it uncanny how many conjunctions they have in synastry - this is highly unusual! But makes for excellent channeling, if you are going to portray the personality traits and physical embodiment of a person with aplomb, which Rami certainly did during his performance.
Rami Malek won several awards for his role in Bohemian Rhapsody,
including the Academy Award for Best Actor, a BAFTA Award,
and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama.
The standouts for me are:
Rami’s Moon exactly conjunct Freddie’s Sun (emotional alignment with the persona; the Moon reflects the Sun’s light)
Freddie’s Moon and South Node conjunct Rami’s Neptune and Descendant (emotional energy transmitted intuitively; “familiar partnership” vibes)
Freddie’s Saturn and Pluto conjunct Rami’s North Node and Ceres (intense “caregiving orders” transmitted psychically - “this is how I want you to care for and express my image (Leo)” vibes)
Freddie’s North Node and Uranus conjunct Rami’s Mercury and Pallas (the electrifying purpose in life is transmitted down through Rami’s intellect and intuition - Rami “groks” Freddie)
Rami’s Pluto and Juno conjunct Freddie’s Mars, Chiron, Venus, Jupiter, Juno (an intense commitment to expressing Freddie’s energy, pain, style, beliefs, and personal commitment)
Freddie’s out of bounds Ceres is exactly opposite Rami’s out of bounds Ceres (Capricorn to Cancer is the parent-to-offspring, patriarchal husband to gentle wife axis; both out of bounds is extraordinary!)
It is almost as if Freddie hand picked Rami to faithfully portray him from the afterlife!
Mediumship
I believe actors possess an ability to transmit the energy of the person or persona they are portraying in a psychic way, if they are open to that (and the good actors certainly seem to be — the ones who come across as more rigid or just repeatedly playing themselves being famous are not doing any psychic work in my opinion), especially if that portrayal is of a living or formerly living person. Acting requires letting one’s personal self fall by the wayside and intentionally bringing another energetic persona in for full expression.
And that’s where mediumship comes in.
Those who hold skepticism for psychic abilities and mediumship in particular often express how there is little to no empirical evidence for these abilities. They fail to recognize that this skill deals in an immaterial (and thus immeasurable by material science means), subject. We are talking about energy merging, not apples falling from trees and proving the existence of gravity. A different frame of mind and perspective is required. And, if anything, good acting can be an example of the success of the work, so long as we are talking about a well-known persona being portrayed accurately by a talented actor.
And no, I don’t mean the mimicry that we often see in acting — I think that is immediately felt as a good “act,” but not energy or persona channeling. Rami Malek in his Freddie Mercury role is a perfect example of this kind of channeling. Meryl Streep is an excellent channeler (she is also a multiple Cancer). We can feel the difference when we see it. It is an energetic quality that is hard to describe other than we can feel the energy of the persona they are expressing through their vessel. It is an exquisite experience that — in the acting world, anyway — often results in Academy Awards.
Family Constellation Therapy
I’ve also experienced this during a session of Family Constellation Therapy, a type of psychotherapy that explores traumatic experiences within family systems, where a good friend (and known medium) took the role of my great-grandmother and literally channeled her during our session with profound results. Turns out my friend’s Capricorn Moon is exactly conjunct my great-grandmother’s Sun in Capricorn. Exactly like Rami and Freddie. They are just on the same wavelength and the energy flows through because of those conjunctions. It also helps that she is well versed and explicitly trained in the art of mediumship.
Anne Rice’s Vampires
I am also a fan of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and her Immortal Universe, a series of interwoven novels that explores supernatural beings interwoven with themes of love, death, sex, and magic. And I particularly love the recent television series adaptations of Interview With the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat on AMC+, starring Sam Reid (below) as Lestat de Lioncourt and Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac, co-produced by Anne Rice herself (prior to her death in December, 2021) and her son Christopher Rice.
Sam Reid impeccably portrays the Vampire Lestat de Lioncourt in AMC+’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire, from Season 2.
Many longtime fans know that Anne Rice gave Louis her birthday in book canon, and Lestat has her husband Stan Rice’s birthday, albeit in different years (or centuries). Which gives me, an astrologer, some fascinating data to work with. Did the writer accurately portray herself, her husband, and her fictional characters - based on herself and her husband, and others in her life, including her daughter who had died catastrophically from leukemia at the tender age of 5 years old - in ways that I could trace back to their astrological charts? Do the actors - who are amazing, and who, like the others mentioned above — absolutely seem to embody and channel these supernatural-yet-fictional beings that were based on Anne and her husband’s personality traits, like Rami and Freddie?
Yes! Unbelievably so.
It is also worth mentioning that Anne herself said she created Louis originally to serve as a portal for her devastating grief over her daughter’s death (and Claudia in the novels and shows represents her young daughter), and Louis’ persona could definitely be described as frozen in eternal grief and guilt. She also said Lestat was originally a character built out of her husband’s traits but later became her own projection of her internal masculinity — her own animus — and the way she longed to be in the world.
And with Anne’s penchant for the supernatural, witchcraft, and the occult, I have a feeling her choosing these characters’ birthdays so blatantly was a deliberate, astrologically-driven choice.
Anne Rice autographs copies of her book Memnoch the Devil: The Vampire Chronicles on July 24, 1995 at Barnes & Noble in New York City, for the 1995 interview in Rolling Stone magazine. Anne’s astrology chart can be found here: https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Anne_Rice. She was a Libra with Moon in Aries and Mercury and Venus in Scorpio. Her Mercury - the mind - was conjunct Sam Reid’s Moon and Lestat’s Mercury, and her Venus - the attraction style - was conjunct Sam Reid’s Pallas and Lestat’s Mercury. Her Mars was also in Aries - and conjunct Sam Reid’s Mars in Aries.
In the interest of keeping this contained to an article (though I could write a whole book about it, I swear - and the astrology between Anne Rice, her family, and her created personas is fascinating and wild!), I will only analyze here the charts of Lestat de Lioncourt and Sam Reid.
Lestat, a larger-than-life vampire-turned-rockstar, born (though we could say, conjured, by Anne Rice) November 7, 1760, in the Auvergne region of France (I have used Thiers, France as his birth place), and Sam Reid, the actor who brilliantly portrays him in the television series, born February 19, 1987 in Dubbo, Australia, have amazing synastry, just like I suspected. The only difference is I’m working with charts I have rectified, giving them both 10:00 PM birth times, which are otherwise unknown. This gives Lestat a Leo Ascendant (this tracks) and Sam a Libra Ascendant (also tracks). It also moves Sam’s Sun from an intellectual-but-distant Aquarius to an emotive, shapeshifting Pisces (definitely tracks). I will break them down the same way I did for Freddie and Rami below.
As in the previous comparison, the color coded placements listed in both chart listings below correspond to CONJUNCTIONS between the two charts.
Sam’s Chart Placements
February 19, 1987, 10:00 PM, Dubbo, Australia
Sun: 0 Pisces
Moon: 6 Scorpio
Ascendant: 18 Libra
Mercury: 14 Pisces
Venus: 16 Capricorn
Mars: 29 Aries
Jupiter: 27 Pisces
Saturn: 19 Sagittarius
Uranus: 26 Sagittarius
Neptune: 7 Capricorn
Pluto: 9 Pluto
Chiron: 15 Gemini
Ceres: 23 Sagittarius
Pallas: 27 Scorpio
Vesta: 25 Aries
Juno: 0 Aquarius
North Node: 12 Aries
South Node: 12 Libra
Lestat’s Chart Placements
November 7, 1760, 10:00 PM, Thiers, France
Sun: 15 Scorpio
Moon: 17 Scorpio
Ascendant: 5 Leo
Mercury: 29 Scorpio
Venus: 7 Sagittarius
Mars: 26 Sagittarius
Jupiter: 18 Aquarius
Saturn: 22 Pisces
Uranus: 1 Aries
Neptune: 21 Leo
Pluto: 25 Sagittarius
Chiron: 9 Aquarius
Ceres: 14 Libra
Pallas: 22 Libra
Vesta: 20 Sagittarius
Juno: 7 Aquarius
North Node: 9 Gemini
South Node: 9 Sagittarius
The standouts for me are:
Sam’s Moon + Pluto in Scorpio conjunct Lestat’s Sun (emotional alignment with the persona; the Moon reflects the Sun’s light) and Moon (same emotional affect and expression) - Moon conjunct Moon by 11 degrees but in a conjunction with another luminary (Sun or Moon), the orb is wider, up to 12 degrees. The Pluto in Scorpio factor ramps up the alignment with Scorpionic nature by “a lot.”
Lestat’s Mercury in Scorpio and Venus in early Sagittarius conjunct Sam’s Pallas in Scorpio (intuitive understanding on a deeply psychic level)
Sam’s Ascendant and South Node in Libra conjunct Lestat’s Ceres and Pallas (familiar, built-in expression of the caring style and creative intelligence; also, Libra is Venus as the musician)
Their Chart Rulers are sextile by a 1 degree orb (Lestat’s Sun and Sam’s Venus)
Lestat’s Mars + Pluto + Vesta in Sagittarius conjunct Sam’s Saturn + Uranus + Ceres in Sagittarius (devotion to wild aggression and wanton lustfulness aligned with structured chaos and caring style; all absolutely devoted to freedom and willful exploration of the world)
Lestat’s North Node conjunct Sam’s Chiron
Sam’s North Node conjunct Lestat’s Uranus
Lestat’s Saturn conjunct Sam’s Mercury and Jupiter
Lestat’s out of bounds planets: Mars, Eris
Sam’s out of bounds planets: Uranus, Hygeia, Lilith
Like Freddie and Rami, and like my medium friend and my ghostly great-grandmother, Lestat and Sam have the original persona’s Sun conjunct the actor’s Moon, indicating an ease of energetic flow between the two personas and a willingness of the Moon person to reflect the Sun person’s light. Both Freddie and Rami and Lestat and Sam also have their Junos conjunct (Juno conjunct Juno), which indicates a highly compatible relationship style and domestic expression.
The Scorpio vibe of Lestat — heavy with the Sun, Moon (tightly conjunct) and Mercury in Scorpio as well as Mars conjunct Pluto by less than a degree — is effortlessly picked up and expressed by Sam, whose Scorpio Moon and Pluto conjunction in his first house, as well as his super-perceptive and intuitive Pallas in Scorpio, allow him to bleed Scorpio vibes all over the screen: the raw emotion, the possession, the sex appeal, the magnetism, the blistering anger, the obsession, the transformative (literally) nature, all are exuded naturally for Sam.
Both of their Mars placements are in fire signs; Lestat’s merged with Pluto in a conjunction late Sagittarius, and Sam’s at the anaretic degree of its home sign of Aries and in opposition to his Moon and Pluto in early Scorpio. Both are indicative of a hot temperament and a volcanic temper when provoked.
His shapeshifter Sun at 0 Pisces allows him to let the boundaries of own persona dissolve in lieu of being taken over by Lestat’s in a way that many are now referring to as true, Emmy-worthy channeling, even spirit possession. It truly is a sight to behold.
“What can I say? I’m a lot.” Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt in Interview With The Vampire (quote from Season 1); image from Rolling Stone Magazine, June 2026, back cover, featuring Sam Reid as The Vampire Lestat.
It must be said that in interviews and pressers where Sam Reid is not in character as Lestat, he presents as authentically shy, humble, intensely private, and demure — nothing at all like Lestat’s personality. He is able to shed his own skin, ego, and mannerisms and take on the spirit of Lestat in the vessel of his (not hard to look at!) body and express his wild range of emotionality with professionalism and jaw-dropping skill.
It also must be said that both Sam Reid and my medium friend are both 0° Pisces Suns and also have the same Mercury — Sam’s is 14 Pisces, and my friend’s is 10 Pisces — and both are retrograde.
Psychic mediums, indeed.