I graduated college with a degree in English Lit. I love books and I love movies. I especially love discussing juicy works of fiction: identifying themes, arguing intent, dissecting meaning.
This piece is part of an ongoing series where I unpack the relationship between a film’s birth chart and the themes of the movie itself. My hope is that fellow film-goers and fellow astrologers will engage with me, kindly, about a film and its themes.
I saw Challengers with Matt last Sunday and had a great time. Zendaya is stunning and brilliant. Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor are dynamic and sweaty. All three have great chemistry and the movie is a fun (bordering on ridiculous) romp.
If you haven’t seen it yet, be forewarned. This post contains heavy spoilers for the movie. I recommend you check it out and then come back.
Challengers is incredibly propulsive, both in story and style. Guadagnino volleys the audience back and forth across the timeline of the story like a tennis match. Lots of action, go go go go go go energy. So when I pulled the chart for the premiere, I gasped. Look at all that Aries energy! And in the 7H of Libra aka the house love, balance, money?! It’s moments like this that remind me astrology is real, yall.
First things first, this is the largest stellium I’ve ever personally examined, so I’m really curious how other astrologers interpret all these swirling Aries energies. Let’s start with the conjunctions.
As I alluded to above, it’s wild that the first conjunction takes place in the 7th House. The 7H is all about romantic and professional relationships aka the crux of the entire movie. To have Neptune (dreams), Mercury (communication), Mars (passion), and Saturn (life lessons) all conjunct in Aries, in the house of relationships is a lot. At the start of the film, Tashi is schooling the guys on what it means to be a real tennis player and she literally says, “Tennis is a relationship.” !!! That one line sets the tone for the entire movie, and we can see it clear as day mirrored in the chart.
But I’m curious—what jumps out to you about this first conjunction??
This second conjunction is where things get really juicy. We have the Moon, Chiron, and Sun in Aries, splitting the 7H and 8H. The Sun and Moon, together in Aries, signals intensity: intense inner world (Moon) and outer world (Sun).
Aries Suns love to take the lead, to demonstrate courage, to receive recognition and praise. The characters in Challengers demonstrate these values over and over again: Tashi and her fury over her career-ending injury; Patrick and his pride, his initial unwillingness to be coached by Tashi; Art and his dedication to material success in tennis.
Folks with Sun and Moon conjunct in Aries might also have difficulty empathizing with others because they process their emotions from a very egoist point of view, everything is viewed from the lens of I. This feels especially apt for these characters who constantly stab each other in the back. Part of this emotional vacillation could be due to the Moon in Aries. Aries Moons tend to have intense emotional experiences. Their feelings easily triggered and they are highly motivated by their emotional impulses.
Art, Patrick, and Tash want to win (Aries). They are driven in part by those intense emotional desires (Moon) and in part by a deep (8H) wounding (Chiron) of their identity (Sun). We rarely see these characters doing anything other than playing, training, talking about tennis. It’s their world. Their entire identity is based off of their success, passion, and commitment to tennis. As movie-goers, we have no concept for how Tashi might be with her friends, how Art is on vacation, whether Patrick has any hobbies. We don’t know who they are outside tennis because they don’t know themselves outside tennis. Their entire identity (Sun) is caught up in their wounding of identity (Chiron in Aries). In some ways, this movie the exploration of the leads’ codependent relationships with one another other and, first and foremost, with tennis.
We also don’t get much insight into the character’s actual feelings. Art is the only one in the movie to actually say the words, “I love you,” but even that admission has a sheen of manipulation. He’s feeling sad and he wants Tashi to say she loves him (which she doesn’t, lol). At one point, Patrick tells Tashi he suspects her marriage with Art is skin deep, just “tennis and d—k,” and she slaps him. Does she slap Patrick because his comments are insulting or because they are false? We don’t know for certain. Astrologically, I’m not sure where all these secrecy stems from. What do you think??
Venus in Taurus 8H feels very lusty, secretive, jealous… which is absolutely how the love triangle between Tashi, Art, and Patrick develops. I think back to that first scene of the guys watching Tashi play, remembering their open-mouthed awe. They are both obsessed from the start. But what starts as an open obsession and literal competition (whoever wins the tournament can have her number) devolves into manipulation and secrets: Art spreads distrust when Patrick comes to visit. Patrick and Tashi secretly hook up in Atlanta, while Art keeps quiet about his suspicions.
Themes of obsessive, competitive love deepen as time goes on (Venus in Taurus 8H sextile Jupiter in Cancer 10H). We get that explosive scene between Art and Patrick in the sauna towards the end of the film, where emotions bubble over between them for the first time. This tension increases on the last day of the tournament as the trio faces off for the final time in the film, ending with Patrick’s powerful admission and Tashi’s eventual ~climax. For the duration of the movie, the Venus 8H energy is magnified magnified magnified by Jupiter in Cancer until, finally, it erupts.
Challengers is a rich text, and I had a lot of fun (and some anxious dread ngl) hanging out with these three leads. The film explores themes of partnership, passion, and , but it doesn’t end with a clear-cut resolution. Was Tashi the villain? Who should have ended up together in the end? Are all these characters self-obsessed jerks?
I’ve only seen the movie once, so grain-of-salt, etc, but I don’t believe Tashi is the villain. I don’t loooove that she hooked up with Patrick while she was still married to Art, but ultimately my take is that these are three consenting adults who have known the rules of (Tashi’s) engagement from the jump. Tennis is a relationship and whoever is the best gets to be with Tashi. Those were the rules from Day 1. If Art quits tennis then he forfeits his relationship with Tashi. It’s not how I personally operate, but within the confines of this trio, that’s what they’ve established.
What do you think? Am I totally off base here??
There is so much more astrology x movie content I could get into, but I wanna hear from y’all! What stuck out to you in the film? What jumps out to you astrologically?? Seriously, I do these analyses so I can have interesting conversations with cool people like you. I am not precious about my ideas and I’m not afraid of kindly-offered critique. Don’t be shy.
Honorable Mentions:
AC, IC, DC, MC all at 27°: Zendaya is 27 when the movie premieres. IMO, she’s the star of the movie and I love that all the lines are at 27° in ~~homage to her.
Virgo Rising: Body perfection queeeeens! My Virgo Risings are *so* in touch with the composition and physicality of their bodies, it makes total sense that all the characters in the film are professional, beautiful athletes.
9H Gemini: Tennis is a very air-y sport, so it makes sense that the leads in the movie would spend their entire lives in pursuit of tennis mastery.