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Black Panther

Ryan Coogler is the writer and director of the megahit movie Black Panther. Opening on February 16, 2018, the film has broken innumerable records, including opening day attendance and the amount of money it has earned worldwide. (1) Here are some first thoughts about his horoscope.

Ryan Coogler was born on May 23, 1986 at 5:43 p.m. in Oakland, California. (2)

Natal chart: Ryan Coogler
May 23, 1986
5:43 p.m.
Oakland CA 37N37 122W16

With such a highly visible (and early) success in one’s life story, it’s revealing to look at the eclipses surrounding a birth: Events are magnified near an eclipse, and charts are quickened when they hold eclipse degrees. (3) The prenatal solar eclipse (PNSE) for Ryan Coogler occurred on April 8 at 19°06′ Aries, just past the degree of the Sun’s exaltation (18°-18°59′ Aries). Next was a lunar eclipse on April 24, a month before his birthday; the lunar eclipse was at 4°03′ Scorpio-Taurus, across his birth chart’s Ascendant-Descendant axis.

Coogler was born at a Sagittarius Full Moon, with Scorpio on the Ascendant. The Sun is at 2°34′ Gemini (with Mercury at 3°46′) and the Moon at 4°56′ Sag. With a birth just after the exact Full Moon, the maximum light of the Moon indicates enormous public exposure and a rapport with the moods of the time (hinted at in the prenatal birth eclipses as well). The Sun and Mercury in Gemini point to gifts with words and language, and the Sagittarius Moon carries the ideas broadly and enthusiastically. Saturn is there as well, conjunct the Moon and opposing the Sun, adding focus and serious intent to the communication tasks.

Ryan “worked since age 21 as a counselor with incarcerated youth at San Francisco’s Juvenile Hall, following in the footsteps of his father, who has long shared the same occupation.” (4) Saturn rules the natal 4th house of father; Saturn’s connection to both the Sun and Moon suggests a constructive or supportive familial relationship. Perhaps some of Saturn’s harsher storylines have been softened here with Jupiter, the dispositor of the Moon and Saturn, in the sign of his traditional rulership, Pisces, and also trine by sign to the water Ascendant. We don’t know how Saturn may be playing out in Ryan’s personal life, but here, it is a picture of “following in the footsteps of his father” in his work with incarcerated youth. (Sag is connected to the legal system.) Ryan Coogler is also a founding member of the Blackout For Human Rights campaign, “which is committed to addressing racial and human rights violations happening throughout the United States.”

In a daytime birth, Jupiter is the benefic in favor and is placed in the 5th house of sports, creativity, arts, theater, and places of enjoyment.

Ryan Coogler had substantial success before the Black Panther phenomenon. Fruitvale Station, his first feature-length film, opened on January 19, 2013. (5) It was made with a budget of $900,000, has garnered at least $17 million at the box office, and won the 2013 Cannes Film Festival award for Best First Film. At the film’s opening, transiting Saturn was at 10° Scorpio, just past Coogler’s Scorpio Ascendant. His progressed Moon was at 22°53′ Scorpio, with the progressed Ascendant at 22°26′ Scorpio, combining the strength and visibility of the 1st house with his intuitive connection to the public. There was a lunar eclipse on April 25, 2013 at 5°52′ Scorpio, conjunct natal Pluto on the Ascendant.

Bi-wheel: Inner: Ryan Coolger, natal; Outer: progressed to Jan. 13, 2013


Black Panther opened on February 16, 2018. A few weeks earlier, on January 31, there was a lunar eclipse at 11°32′ Leo, very near Coogler’s Midheaven (7°24′). His progressed Moon was also on a natal angle: 9°29′ Aquarius, just past the IC. The progressed Sun was 2°56′ Cancer, exactly conjunct natal Venus; progressed Venus was at 10°30′ Leo at the MC.

Bi-wheel: Inner: Ryan Coogler, natal; Outer: progressed to Feb.16, 2018

At the film’s opening, transiting Jupiter (dispositor of the natal Moon) was in the 1st house at 22° Scorpio, trining natal Jupiter in Pisces in the 5th house.

Coogler’s Ascendant ruler, Mars, is exalted in Capricorn and sextile Jupiter in Pisces. He was a football player, and in college, the players were encouraged to take a creative writing class. His teacher “praised his work and said it was very visual, and encouraged him to pursue screenwriting.” One of the many close midpoints in the natal chart is the Mercury/Neptune midpoint conjunct Jupiter (ME/NE=JU). Of this combination Ebertin writes: “A rich imagination and great powers of fantasy, stepped up powers of imagination. Poet, actor. The inclination to harbor great hopes.” (6)

Also, the Neptune/Pluto midpoint is conjunct the Moon (NE/PL=MO); this suggests a deep instinct for collective themes and powerful, dramatic creative sensibilities. When looking at the 90° dial, the Sun, ruler of the Midheaven, is on the Neptune/North Node midpoint – a career in the creative arts and connected to artistic people; bringing dreams or visions into the public eye.

There’s much more to say, of course (for instance, I’m curious about the speed, declinations, and decans of the planets), and I look forward to your always insightful comments and feedback.

Footnotes:
(1) YouTube: Here’s Every Record Black Panther Broke on Opening Weekend

“Less than a month after hitting theaters, Black Panther has officially made over $1 billion at the global box office.”
Vanity Fair

(2) Ryan Coogler, May 23, 1986; 5:43 p.m. PDT; Oakland, CA, USA (37°N37′, 122°W16′); AA rating: Astro-Databank

(3) The prenatal solar eclipse was popularized in our era by Robert Carl Jansky, who wrote about eclipse patterns in the 1960s and ’70s. More recently, the late Robert Blaschke also worked extensively with prenatal eclipses.

(4) Biographical material and direct quotes from:Wikipedia: Ryan Coogler

(5) Wikipedia: Fruitvale Station

(6) Reinhold Ebertin, The Combination of Stellar Influences, Ebertin-Verlag, 1972, p. 127.

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