The astrology of scamming
Taking a look at the natal promise of several plagiarists, scammers and con artists
I watched hbomberguy's video about plagiarism a while ago, and it so happens that around the same time I also watched several documentaries focusing on scammers, which all made me curious about astrological signatures for plagiarists, con artists and scammers.
Usually, when I start this kind of pondering, I try to give myself a bit of time before I actually look up the charts involved, to give my astrological muscles a chance to work out. Whether it’s using intuitive hunches or technical considerations, I find it nice to venture out some guesses before looking up data. So I’ll start by reviewing these expectations, and I invite you to ponder it for yourself, too! Then, we're off to example charts.
This is not research led with huge numbers in which I attempt to demonstrate a major pattern recognition. I’ve taken a small sample, noticed some recurring elements, but I’m not particularly drawing sweeping conclusions. And of course I am also absolutely not inferring that whoever has the natal placements that recur in several of the nativities is fated to be a scammer. Honestly, I’m mostly having fun with this one—because where scamming is involved, better laugh than cry? And I guess I’m never not amused at how literal astrology can be.
Astrological expectations
Who, among the celestial spheres, could be considered to rule scamming? Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned astrologer, I encourage you to take a minute to think about this: what comes to mind for you, and why? Let me know in the comments if you’d like!
I’m offering answers, obviously, but I’m not pretending they’re final, and I’d be happy to read your additions. Here’s what came to mind for me.
Silver tongue: Mercury
The first, most obvious one was Mercury—associated to the patron god of thieves! Mercury is speedy, rules speech and overall communication, computing and commerce, and it is a very ambiguous planet.
Vettius Valens does write that “Mercury makes weight lifters and mimes, those making their livelihood with displays of skill, deception, gambling, or sleight of hand”1.
Why ambiguous? Mercury does not have a set sect assignment like the others in the seven “traditional” planets, visible to the naked eye—the day sect being comprised of the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn, while the Moon, Venus and Mars constitute the night sect. Mercury plays for both teams, depending on whether it’s a morning star (rising before the Sun) or an evening star (rising after the Sun); its condition as a day or night planet is contextual.
Mercury also can’t be strictly categorised as “benefic” or “malefic”, which is to say affirming vs negating, life-giving vs life-depleting. It is said that Mercury will take on the qualities of adjacent planets, and so once again, its condition as indicative of support or challenge will be contextual.
Given this emphasis on context, I had aspects, and more generally, afflictions in mind: plagiarism and scamming are decidedly negatives in my book, and thus I thought of Mercury being in hard aspect to Mars, a planet associated to violence and pillage, but also to Saturn, the Nodes or outers (which I typically consider as malefics).
“not good”: Mars
Vettius Valens seems to back up this logic! Here’s what he writes (emphasis mine):
Mercury and Mars are not good. They cause hostility, lawsuits, reversals, malice, betrayals, wrongs from superiors or inferiors. These stars make some men athletic, martial, commanding, beneficent, inquisitive <of the occult>, getting a livelihood in a varied manner. They resort to forgery in order to embezzle, steal, and loot, and having fallen into debt and expenses, they bring on themselves infamy and hot pursuit. If the configuration is afflicted, men meet with accusations and imprisonment, and they suffer loss or confiscation of goods.
Deceit and loneliness: Saturn
Vettius Valens says of Saturn:
Saturn makes those born under him petty, malignant, care-worn, self-depreciating, solitary, deceitful, secretive in their trickery, strict, downcast, with a hypocritical air […]
Deception and trickery are explicitly mentioned. Before I looked it up in Valens, though, I was thinking of Saturn merely because scamming rarely ends well, and Saturn might look like the consequences that one eventually reaps from stealing other people's work. Regardless of how things end, though, I reckon fraud also makes someone very lonely. There is a lot of secrecy involved to keep up the charade, which has to prove heavy in the long run, right? Elaborate lies become a prison of their own, which is another reason to expect a saturnine presence, in my opinion.
Hence, tense combinations of Mercury, Mars and Saturn. What else?