Audrey Hepburn's Mars in Cancer

My Mom, the last of the Southern Belles, always used to say, "Beauty is as beauty does." To me, Taurus Audrey Hepburn was the embodiment of beauty being and doing. Her Mars, the planet of drive and motivation, was in Cancer. That led her to become a protective mother figure to children in the developing world, as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. It was a path shaped by her own traumas of childhood under Nazi occupation. Her sensitive Mars was conjunct Pluto, amplifying the intensity of growing up during wartime. She knew hunger, and saw family members shot by the Gestapo, searing events that left a deep impression. She was also a contemporary of Anne Frank in Holland, and reading the famous diary later left Audrey, "devastated."

Mars in Cancer moves into new territory with its emotional tentacles out, reading the emotional atmosphere around them. This Mars takes action indirectly, shielding itself from becoming overwhelmed from too much stimulation. As Audrey Hepburn said, "Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering -- because you can't take it all in at once." The positive traits of Mars in Cancer are acting from the heart, with emotional intelligence and a desire to nurture all life.

Mars will be in Cancer through May 10th, and along with things like irritability and stealthy manipulation, it brings unexpected acts of compassion. The warrior takes on the guise of a fierce Goddess, ready to do what it takes to protect and nurture life. Mars shows what drives us to act, and in Cancer, Audrey Hepburn's motivation was to comfort others by providing the basic necessities of life (Sun-Jupiter in Taurus). And that's made her legacy as much about being a humanitarian, as being an iconic beauty.