Happy Birthday, Luigi Mangione

As his Saturn return nudges him into manhood, Mangione's courtroom wins keep reinforcing his status as a class warfare folk hero.

May 05, 2026

To celebrate Luigi’s birthday this week, I’m making my previously published post for paid supporters available to everyone on WOODRUFF.

Part One of this feature, Luigi Mangione: Person of the Year, was published here.

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IN MID-DECEMBER of 2024, the media was presented with a cinematic perp walk that featured murder suspect Luigi Mangione shuffling along in shackles and wearing a screeching orange jumpsuit (that could have been viewed from the moon). Mangione—whose expression was eerily beatific—was flanked by a pack of comically over-armed cops and menacing FBI agents. Eric Adams scooted along with the throng—unable to sport a firearm—the New York mayor is a convicted felon. (That irony was sweet).

Two key takeaways bloomed in my brain while studying the spectacle. The first was straightforward: perp walks are prejudicial and undermine due process. This made Mangione’s public display doubly outrageous. Later I realized how my judgment was a prescient nod to what would be the Trump administration’s contempt for legal processes throughout the new year. But also, I could feel, in my bones, how—step-by-step—Mangione’s destiny was permanently melding to the United States’. America loves and mythologizes outlaws—especially beautiful ones.

Let’s look at the synastry chart for Mangione and the United States. I want to highlight the most salient cross-connections to suss out what the upcoming era-defining Saturn-Neptune in Aries conjunction might portend for the country. Too, I’m keen to explore the ways Manigione is a bookend of sorts to New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Both individuals bear the hallmarks of the upcoming conjunction in Aries that perfects in late February of 2026.

Presently, the United States is stuck in a tedious interregnum, where the fallout of the MAGA movement is slowly beginning to offgas, making way for a brighter visionary template for the country. A course correction that will hopefully return individuals to their authority—and Americans to their sanity. The trappings of ‘hive mind’ cults, typified by the long Neptune in Pisces transit (that commenced 15 years ago), are making way for iconic figures like Mamdani and, yes, Mangione.

Note: There is no birth time on record for Mangione.

It’s interesting when putting a human being’s chart up against a mundane horoscope (a chart for a country, nation, etc.) because the rules that govern reading the mundane chart often conflate with the psychological markers of the individual. The symbols can morph, toggling back and forth, and become single signifiers.

Mangione’s Virgo Moon lands very near (and possibly exactly conjunct, depending on his actual time of birth) the US’s Neptune in Virgo. As Neptune is conjunct the US’s midheaven, we have an individual whose instinctive lunar nature reflects and highlights (midheaven) the sketchy-grifty (Neptune) corporatized health industry (Virgo) in the US. Via transference, people sympathize with the dilemma.

Viewed another way, Mangione stimulates the US’s dreamfield and its enchantment with Neptunian glamour, celebrities, and the Hollywoodization of crime. I recall the edge-of-your-seat excitement that surrounded the week-long period that preceded his arrest. Something menacing but hopeful charged the air, an antidote to the soul-wilting realization that Trump would return to the Oval Office in January.

When you compare the US’s healthcare system to the rest of the world’s, it is mind-bending that nothing is ever forthcoming from our political leaders to correct the fraud and corporate greed. And why would they? Every member of Congress has Grade A healthcare for life. The only evolving factors for the plebs are rising premiums, outrageous salaries of HMO CEOs, and the use of computers to find loopholes to deny claims.

Moon in Virgo individuals have an innate gift for ferreting out (and exposing) the details involved with any sort of complex undertaking. Especially if it relates to the human body. To comprehend their feelings, they must first circuit their emotional response through the filter of their intellect. In doing so, they become obsessively granular with their notations and research. This eventually provides them with a rational plan to navigate life’s more irrational pitfalls.

Consider the words from the title of the nonfiction exposé Mangione allegedly referenced to engrave on the spent bullet casings found on the sidewalk at the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder scene—the book Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. Right there: a very Virgonian succinctness, goaded by the phrase “…and what you can do about it.” Mangione’s natal Sun-Mars conjunction made certain the words would provoke ire (and be reported again and again within the media.) After the shooting, the book climbed to the top of Amazon’s nonfiction best-seller list.

In mundane astrology, the Moon represents the citizenry, the people—and here, Mangione’s natal Moon becomes a stand-in or totem for the American public and their grievances. Add to this the Pluto-Aquarius-like revelation that erupted right after the death of CEO Brian Thompson, where it was reported that UnitedHealthcare used a robot to systemically deny coverage to various policyholders. Not long after this news broke, UHC’s stocks began to tank. Not because shareholders developed a conscience, but because its nuked algorithm immediately affected UHC’s bottom lines.

Virgo and 6th house themes ping-pong around the above synastry chart. Consider that Mangione’s Mars in an applying (gaining in strength) conjunction to the Sun in Taurus lands in the sixth house of the United States horoscope. In mundane astrology this zone signifies public health, civil service, labor unions, and social welfare. Naturally, where the Sun and Mars land in a chart, there is heightened illumination (Sun) and agitation (Mars) that activates and draws attention to the particulars of the house.

Taurus, a fixed Earth sign, channels a quality of concentrated libido that I compare to the powers of primordial nature. If Aries represents the thrashing movements of the spermatozoa, Taurus is the quiet and humming egg that awaits activation. The Taurus survival drive is a ‘be-all, end-all’ unto itself. Energy that’s best described as condensed passion. But once released—to achieve tangible results—it is unstoppable. It is not hindered by Air sign equivocations or Water sign reflectivity. Once Taurus transforms a curiosity into an idée fixe, the sign’s velocity is astounding. Consider Hitler, Lenin, Marx, and Harry (atom bomb) Truman, each with a potent Taurus Sun.

Natal planets that link up with the Sun provide insights into the rhythm of one’s self-unfoldment. Because Mars conjuncts Mangione’s Sun, the martian drive (which is given ballast in Taurus) attaches itself to the Sun and the variety of ways his individuality is displayed. Being naturally peace-loving, a Taurus Sun feels conflicted when saddled with the potential for violence—and veiled aggression can rumble through the unconscious, unchecked. Until...

This is the classic volcanic temperament that best expresses itself when bravery is called for. Not violence per se, but an outpouring that feels worthy and gallant (we are talking about a Venus-affiliated sign after all). Will and instinct combine, and, well, jump out of the person’s path when a pointed purpose propels their momentum.

The shadow expression of the Mars-Sun conjunction is a mythic quandary—a ‘struggle for existence’ puzzle. This theme is repeated with Mangione’s Mercury-Saturn conjunction in Aries, where constant considerations (Mercury) about asserting authority (Saturn) and courage (Aries) are part and parcel of the superego or inner critic.

It’s the Saturn in Aries people who will assume counter-phobic or oppositional defiant gestures to compensate for their compromised survival drive, even if there is nothing in their environment that threatens them. The aforementioned planetary positions point to someone trained to confront the world and play out the drama of ‘what they are made of.’ As pressures build, this stance can, over time, mutate into a statement like, “Look what you made me do!”

As if she intuited the magnetic allure of Mangione’s natal Pluto—in opposition to the US’s Mars in Gemini—Mangione became a prop for fame whore Pam Bondi’s feckless Justice Department. Come spring, Bondi’s performative bravado hit a fever pitch when she directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Mangione. This was done under the false pretext of terrorism charges. (In September, a New York judge dismissed—like so many judges do when it comes to Bondi bungles—the terrorism allegation).

Each planet, within the astrological pantheon, is overpowered, schooled, and remade whenever there is a cross-connect, by transit or synastry, with the transpersonal planets: Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Consider Trump, whose natal Sun-Uranus conjunction is entangled with the US’s Mars in Gemini. His presence stimulates divisiveness, where brothers and sisters (Gemini) turn against each other (Mars) in belligerent and irrational ways. Uranus can goad the epidemic of gonzo conspiracy theories. Or subversive propaganda that appears to be futuristic and prescient—with civil disobedience as its calling card.

The above synastry chart represents a masterclass makeover for the US’s natal Uranus. Not only does Mangione’s Pluto oppose the planet, but his natal Uranus forms a trine to the US’s Uranus. All sociopolitical revolutions that ‘stick’ revolve around Uranus-Pluto interchanges. History proves this repeatedly. The Pluto contact with Uranus incinerates antiquated notions of activism. But the trine amplifies the best of Gemini-Aquarius ingenuity.

Mangione reminds us of how history is made despite our best efforts to control the narrative. Radical change is usually discursive and discontinuous. The Uranus-Uranus trine communicates rebellion and remaking driven by necessity. It’s similar to those moments in our lives where a ‘click’ happens in the brain and one recognizes that they’ve passed—in a heartbeat—the point of no return. It’s inspirational, yes. But it can also be destructive.

Mangione’s Pluto contact with the US’s Uranus is made relatable by Pluto’s conjunction with the US’s Sagittarius ascendant. This calls to mind the planet’s more creative association with healers, therapists, and reformers. Shortly after his arrest, social media began referring to Mangione as ‘The Adjuster.’ The serpent in the below Tarot iteration is doubly fitting.

Within synastry, when Pluto aspects the ascendant, all the hidden forces associated with the planet become ‘dawn-lit.’ The US’s ascendant imparts a free-roaming, ‘don’t fence me in’ image of the country. It also evokes renegade cowboys who made up the laws as they went. Put those qualities together, and you’ve got a compelling representation of Mangione’s impact on the cultural dialogue.

Pluto-charged individuals often work through the subterranean. And coming at the ascendant from the US’s twelfth house, this places Mangione’s Pluto in the liminal—a place that provokes and harbors our dreams. And as Michel Gauquelin’s research confirmed, this pre-ascendant segment is emphatic; a planet here is often more powerful than if it resided in the first house.

As there’s no middle ground with Pluto (reactions to the planet are always hard and sharp), it’s fascinating to note that within our roiling partisan enmity, Mangione is revered—within both groups. To me, he’s the first person, during the past decade, to emerge as an actual folk hero in the US. I’ve never seen Pluto unite anything (or anyone) in such a spectacular fashion. Again, this speaks to the US’s Sagittarius ascendant and its Wild West outlaw vibes. And also my earlier sentiment about Pluto moving through Aquarius: “Black is the new black.”

I mentioned Mamdani at the start, not because his approach to reform mirrors Mangione’s. But both men have planted a seed of sorts amidst what is a fraught moment in US history. Mamdani (*), a Libra, represents the metered, diplomatic execution of aims. His revolution is driven by keen movement-building skills. This placed him in the center of one of the most influential cities on the globe. Whereas Mangione channels the bull’s aforementioned ‘purposeful’ (Sun) explosiveness (Mars). His alleged crime became a symbol of how violence becomes unavoidable when hopelessness becomes a default condition. All of his organizational skills took place within himself, a very Saturn/Aries expression. He’s a frontrunner for the upcoming Saturn in Aries ingress. Consider it: radical self-authority gains traction when our impulses are disciplined.

For the first time in eight years, the globe is readying for a profound elemental shift. The planets that symbolize sociopolitical movements will soon reside in new elements. Uranus moves into an Air sign. Neptune into a Fire sign. And Pluto will remain in Aquarius, also an Air sign. Saturn, the accountability force, will move into a Fire sign as well. That’s a lot of Air and Fire. A lot of heat. A lot of impatience—a literal firestorm.

Air and Fire are untethered and indeterminate. Air reminds us of our universality. And Fire—well, Fire as spirit keeps everything vital and in motion. Air fuels Fire. An urgency to ‘shove off’ will dominate the country’s mindset in the new year. Everyone is ready to exit the muzzy Neptune-Pisces birth canal.

We may not consciously consider Luigi Mangione a hero deserving of veneration. But there will be no avoiding his appearance within 2026 and 2027’s legal dramaturgy. His evolving story will remind each of us that someone ‘was as mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore.’ Reframed, you can translate that into the mainstays of the era-defining Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries. Which transmits a message like, “A new type of courage (Aries) is about to be envisioned (Neptune)—and I want to be the one to embody it (Saturn).”

Love,

(*) Astrologer Jessica Murray and I study Mamdani’s horoscope in a WOODRUFF cast from last year.

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