The Insecure series finale is here, and I couldn’t let the show go without a tribute. This has been the show we loved watching, loved debating, loved reading think pieces about. Super relatable, especially for Black women of a certain age group. So let’s send it off right: by reading the birth chart of our good sis Issa from Cali.
Quick note: Issa’s had her chart read on YouTube before (there’s a Glamour video where she sits with an astrologer, a psychic, and a tarot reader), and honestly, I don’t think the astrologer did a great job. She gave her birth time in that video, so we know the chart is accurate. My readings normally run an hour; this is the highlights reel. Issa, if you want the full hour, book me.
Two disclaimers. Astrology is event-based: just because something shows up in a chart doesn’t mean it has to keep happening. You learn from the experience and keep going. And when I talk about partners here, it may describe a previous partner, not her current one. Don’t come for me. Also, out of respect for Issa, there are things in this chart I’m not putting in a public forum. Talented astrologers will see them anyway; I’m just not the one saying it.
Taurus rising: the mountain
Issa has Taurus rising. The rising sign, the ascendant degree, and the planets interacting with them are the bread and butter for understanding a person’s personality, or as the old-school astrologers put it, the soul and psyche.
Earth risings focus on stability and practicality. These are people in touch with their physical senses and the here-and-now reality of the material world. They endure. They persist. They think before they act, and they don’t trust people who move or talk too fast, because they can see through the shenanigans.
And fixed earth specifically? Stubborn. A mountain does not move without time, effort, energy, or dynamite. It’s nearly impossible to force a fixed earth person to do something they don’t want to do; sometimes they don’t even do the things they DO want to do, because getting going is that hard. That same fixity that gives them the determination to stick with a difficult goal can also keep them stuck in a job, relationship, or city past its expiration date. Thankfully, Issa’s Capricorn stack mitigates that, because Capricorn wants to break ground and keep building, and you can’t keep building from a stuck place.
Venus is Issa, and Issa is Venus
Venus rules Issa’s chart. Venus is the author of pleasure, mirth, and jolly (mirth = having a good time; funny, amusing things), which tracks, because we already know Issa is a trip. Venus is sweetness, beauty, harmony, love, art, womanhood.
And look at the resume. Venus authors mirth; Issa writes comedy. Venus rules women; her shows center women. Awkward Black Girl has “girl” in the title. Insecure is really the story of Issa and Molly’s friendship. A Black Lady Sketch Show says it in the name. The body-swap comedy Little: two women trading places. The chart ruler has been running the whole catalog.
Her Venus sits exalted in Pisces, and exaltation is like being worshiped by people outside your circle. That’s celebrity in one placement. It’s also why she reads a little Piscean in person: the youthful face, the large eyes. And this Venus lives in the 11th house of friends, hopes, and dreams, conjunct Mars. Venus-Mars conjunctions are strongly sensual, excitable, and can mark intimate friendship, so dating a friend would surprise exactly nobody who reads this chart.
A few more Venus notes. Venus sextile the ascendant: harmonious, sociable, artistically inclined, someone who uplifts herself, though as ruler of her own 6th house she can also stress herself into actual illness, because dis-ease is disease. Venus square Chiron: a wound around womanhood, femininity, or the body, and often a lesson about standing on your own values instead of always accommodating people. But Venus-Chiron also sees beauty in what others call ugly or wounded, and Issa does this masterfully, spotlighting marginalized LA neighborhoods: the businesses, the food, the culture. Venus trine Pluto: an extraordinary power of attraction and the potential for great wealth (we know she’s rich rich). Venus square Uranus: she’s a weird one who wants to live life on her own terms, craving independence inside love, which can create real tension with her Libra moon that wants to be booed up and her 7th house Saturn that wants to be dutiful. Hopefully her partner understands that push-pull.
And Mercury-Neptune sextile her Venus: powerful imagination, visionary thinking, imaginative writing ability. Fun fact, that combination is also excellent for actors, since acting is professionally sanctioned deception. Hers sits on the cardinal axis at 1 degree Capricorn, meaning these gifts get broadcast publicly. Venus-Neptune adds erotic imagination, so girl, when are the nasty novels coming? What’s the pen name? We want to read them.
The Capricorn of it all
I know some of y’all are yelling “she’s a CAPRICORN and you haven’t even mentioned it.” Yes, she’s a Capricorn sun with a whole Capricorn stellium (3 or more planets in a sign), and you see it in the career: build from the ground up, slow and steady climb, goat ascending the mountain. No overnight success. She was on YouTube with Awkward Black Girl for a minute before anything popped, toiling in the midnight hours while other people seemingly came up overnight. That’s the Capricorn experience.
But the soul and psyche live at the ascendant, and hers says something more specific. With the North Node in her 1st house, Issa is karmically here to focus on herself, her body, and being exactly who she is, and her work proves it: so much of it centers her own life experience of Black womanhood. Chiron there too can bring insecurity around the self-image and the body, which she’s turned into an entire brand. The show is literally called Insecure.
It’s cool to have friends and a boo, but ultimately Issa is meant to be uniquely herself and keep embracing the awkward. We’ll see what happens to Issa Dee on Sunday. The real one is going to be just fine.
Want your own highlights reel (except a full hour, and about you)? Book a reading.
