Extreme success for Catherine Hardwicke, director of Twilight

Catherine Hardwicke (b. 10/21/55, source: Wikipedia) has set the record for biggest movie opening for a female director, after the cinematic debut of Twilight. It is no easy feat for a woman to succeed behind the camera in Hollywood. Even given the core audience of Twilighters, the film’s opening grosses were larger than expected. How can see this this success in Hardwicke’s astrology?

Eclipses are powerful events that occur in groups twice a year, when a New or Full Moon is conjunct the Moon’s Nodes. This summer, the August lunar eclipse at 24 Aquarius opposed Hardwicke’s Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in Leo. (View her natal chart.) Jupiter-Pluto can be read as “extreme success,” as Pluto intensifies the good fortune associated with Jupiter. Conversely, this aspect can connote “magnified power,” which can describe Hardwicke’s position at the moment. The lunar eclipse (a Full Moon) is a culmination of energy that has built up over time, and its effects typically last six months.

Eclipses are often triggered every quarter of a year, when the degree area is squared or opposed by the Sun. The most recent lunation — before the opening of Twilight — was the November 13 Full Moon at 21 Taurus. This Full Moon squared the eclipse — thus triggering its effects — as well as Hardwicke’s natal Jupiter. In addition, it also tightly opposed her natal Saturn (planet of work) in Scorpio (vampires!). (Saturn in Scorpio can also be interpreted as “unfulfilled sexual desire,” which seems to be a theme of the film.) The Taurus Full Moon was square Neptune, which rules film and fantasy. This outer planet is strong in Hardwicke’s chart, as her Sun is exactly conjunct Neptune in Libra.