Charli XCX: Brat Transits

When Brat dropped and defined summer of 2024, Jupiter was square Charli's natal MC and also conjunct her natal Mars, which is the planetary ruler of her 5th house of creativity. It makes sense that the album was arguably her largest success to date. The aspect to the MC indicates a time of growth – maybe even growing pains, as the square aspect can feel a bit more overwhelming or gritty than a trine or sextile – while the conjunction to the 5th house ruler indicates an expansive opportunity for her creative projects and energy. That which she has brought into the world through the creative process receives a boon and is more widely disseminated.

What is also interesting to me is that in the year preceding the album’s release, Saturn had transited over Charli’s natal MC. This transit is clearly reflected through the themes in her lyrics. In “Apple,” she considers how much what she has inherited influences who she is becoming: “I guess the apple don’t fall far from the tree/ ‘Cause I’ve been looking at you so long, now I only see me.” But this experience is lonely, difficult, sobering; she writes “I think the apple’s rotten right to the core/ From all the things passed down from all the apples coming before.” Saturn here is saying: you cannot escape the reality of what has been handed to you. You are part of a lineage, you are situated in time, and that bears upon who you become and what you can offer to the world. 

She considers how taking a new direction through motherhood might also be a process of “trimming” the hedges of her life’s trajectory, but how the experience might ultimately be meaningful and not as trite as she may have previously seen it to be. On “I think about it all the time,” she asks “If I don’t run out of time,/ Would it give my life a new purpose?” Then later, “Would it make me miss all my freedom?” This is classic Saturn: purpose and meaning, but through limitations. Considering something weighty, a decision that can’t be easily turned back upon. It forces you to confront the limitations of time. There are biological constraints that women face when it comes to motherhood – you cannot leisurely take your time deciding if it’s for you or not, because you may miss your opportunity altogether in doing so. 

The song "Sympathy is a knife” is another song that speaks loudly to the Saturn conjunct MC transit. It is a humble acknowledgement of all the dark feelings Charli has about her own public image and how she is perceived by the world. Saturn can give us a reality check, but sometimes it overcorrects – we are so focused on the flaws or the lack, that we don’t see the light. Saturn is also a planet of negation, and we see Charli on this track defining herself against the more Sun-influenced image of the standard (might we say Taylor Swift-coded) image of what a female pop star is. 

This is especially interesting because this track received blatant backlash from Taylor Swift herself, whose album was released as Saturn was retrograding back into Pisces and was in an applying opposition to Charli’s natal moon – which is her Ascendant ruler. Charli’s moral character was attacked on Taylor’s track at a time when Saturn, who brings obstacles and isolation, was forming a tense aspect to the planet that rules the self  in Charli’s chart. But despite the hostility in Taylor’s lyrics, there was a great deal of public support for Charli as a result. Jupiter was transiting Charli’s 1st house by this time, forming a sextile to her natal Moon. Both the planetary ruler of the 1st house and the first house itself were being supported by a well-resourced Jupiter. While the controversy with Taylor likely brought up similar feelings to those expressed initially on “Sympathy is a knife,” this time Charli had a lot more support from Jupiter transits; she had also established her ethos through the self-deprecating nature of her own art the first time around, which is is something that Saturn rewards over time.