I am always fascinated by powerful women who go after what and who they want, so watched Carla Bruni and France President Nicolas Sarkozy’s relationship with curiosity as it developed in the headlines while I was over in Europe. Primarily because she’s lovely, secondly it made headline news in every newspaper. Now I see it’s made the front page of the NYTimes Style section which finally prompted me to pull up her chart.

MAN trap, serial heart-wrecker, rocker arm candy, photogenic cipher, arrogant heiress, polling gimmick – the woman who appears likely to become the first lady of France has been called a lot of things lately.

Why are women who get involved with married men, or recently divorced men, called homewreckers? It happened to Angie and now it’s happening to Carla.

Carla (12/23/67, 18:10, Turin, Italy) is a Capricorn, her Sun at 1 degree, and right around the time the news broke, Jupiter began transiting her Sun. Yes the Sun is always symbolic of the personal self, but it’s interesting that for women a significant transit to the Sun can bring a new man into her life (just as the Moon does for men). How can one planet be a character sketch for the self and the partner, you ask? The Sun has that characteristically masculine quality, just as the Moon has feminine. And that’s just the way it works.

How did this relationship come about? Her 7th house cusp of relationship is Capricorn ruled, so Jupiter’s entry into Capricorn no doubt brought a very special one. That this man is famous and public is not shocking, as her Sun is allied natally with Jupiter by a trine. She is linked with powerful, wealthy men. And if this birth time is accurate, she likes sixth house Sun type men – workaholics, craftsmen of their trade – and public servants. By transit, Uranus has edged in on a trine to her very lovely Venus/Neptune conjunction in Scorpio, on the cusp of her true love AND love affairs house (don’t you love paradox of astrology?)

Which leads me back to the question…What explains her homewrecking mojo? Is it something in her chart? Something that can be shared with the likes of Ms. Jolie and others? It’s easy to point out astrologically, that a Uranus connection to Venus famously gifts the native with a hefty desire for freedom, truth and the pursuit of liberal and progressive search for happiness (and sometimes kinky) in her relationships. “Breaking up” isn’t hard to do when it’s the only way out of trapped. That’s Uranus’ MO, to break free of restrictions, especially with those the hard angles. For those of us who have the Uranus/Venus square, unusually progressive partners are mandatory, if we want to avoid to boredom/trapdom of being with someone who doesn’t pace our need for personal growth. Aside from the usual homewrecking mojo and “I’ll take my lovers, hmmm, liberal”, when linked with love Uranus also has that “flash in the pan” reputation for brief relationships that burn bright then fizzle out.

Ms. Bruni, for her part, has said that “love lasts a long time, but burning desire, two or three weeks.” She is monogamous from time to time, as she remarked to the magazine Le Figaro Madame. “But I prefer polygamy and polyandry,” she said.

Carla doesn’t have the Uranus/Venus square, but a Uranus/Sun one, explaining why public accusations of adultery (Sarkozy only recently divorced his wife, why else would this be brought up over and over?) and a new relationship with a prominent and famous link in her chart.
I don’t recall which astrologer named Uranus “the divorce planet” but it’s been burned on my mind ever since. Linked with Venus or the Sun natally, it does however show up the charts of those “homewrecking” gals who go after the men they want, married or not – but this isn’t the planet’s only expression! I say it’s vital for some folks to take an experimental approach to love, no apologies. As Madonna once unapologetically sang, “I’m not sorry. It’s human nature.”

Aside from being reminded of the Scarlet Letter all over again every time the media skews our perception all over the life of a glamorous woman for the wife she just dusted, I think about what drives each and every one of us to love the way we love. We can’t turn our love natures into milk toast Stepford Wives realities any more than we can decide what foods taste good to us, and what turns us on. But over time, our tastes may change radically to the tune of who we’re attracted to and by – and you Uranus men and women know exactly what I’m talking about.

Love, like astrology, will always be a fascinating study of impulses, seemingly contradictory until you give them room to speak what it is they really want. Picket fences and swingers clubs? A polygamist and a presidential wife? Heck, why not? When it comes down to it, honesty of heart is mighty refreshing.