The Pop Girl Divide - Synastry of Taylor and Sabrina and Olivia (oh my)

Over the past few years, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo have both risen to a level of ubiquity in pop music that is harder to come by as streaming and personalization algorithms pigeonhole content consumers into more and more specific niches. Both of these young women were at one point mentored by Taylor Swift, and it struck me that the very different paths these relationships ended up taking may be explained by their astrological synastry. 

Taylor is older, more famous, can offer a lot – wisdom about life in the spotlight, tricks of the trade, exposure to a wider audience, credibility within the industry. For this reason, I looked at her Saturn placement – 13º of Capricorn – to see if it interacted with Sabrina and Olivia’s charts. Saturn shows us where we might eventually become an authority, a mentor, or someone with wisdom to offer; it can represent a “crone” figure. 

As it turns out Taylor’s Saturn squares Olivia’s Moon, which is at 18º of Libra, tightly conjunct her Midheaven. What this tells me is that there is a tension between Taylor’s sense of authority or the status she’s gained over time and how Olivia expresses herself emotionally. Because of the link to her MC, this also means that Taylor’s presence in Olivia’s life could create some sort of strain or pressure in Olivia’s public-facing roles, or that whatever friction occurs between them would be quite visible.

Meanwhile, Taylor’s Saturn forms a trine to Sabrina’s Sun in Taurus, which is a much more supportive and flowing aspect. For this reason, Taylor’s established position within the music industry, her knowledge and experience, serve as assets for Sabrina; with Taylor’s support, she can incorporate lessons previously learned into her own career without the same kind of tension or conflict that would arise in Olivia’s case. 

But there’s another aspect that I would be remiss not to mention: Olivia’s Mars-Pluto conjunction is 1-2º away from Taylor’s Sun in the 19-21º range of Sagittarius. For Olivia to have Mars and Pluto conjoined in her natal chart is one thing; it makes her relentless in her pursuit of what she desires, it intensifies her sense of competition as well as her rage, and can put her in contact with deeper-than-usual feelings around jealousy, power, and control. 

And it also means that the houses ruled by Mars in her chart – which are the 4th and 11th houses – are areas of her life where she may encounter power struggles, intense feelings and experiences, and over-the-top or very profound relationships. The 11th house is where we encounter our fans, our social networks, and our beneficiaries – so it’s natural that Taylor, who is someone that at first served as a type of ‘beneficiary’ to Olivia in the sense of providing greater access to connections and fans, and was part of a larger social network of other pop musicians, would eventually present in Olivia’s life as someone who would take her out of her depths, particularly with interactions involving jealousy or betrayal. 

But this synastry also shows us why it was Taylor for whom this was so prominently highlighted – because Taylor’s Sun is just degrees away from this placement in Olivia’s chart, she quite literally shines light on this part of Olivia that might not always be activated. Taylor’s very existence brings to light this very complex melding of energies in Olivia’s chart and life, and their relationship was bound to be complex; from Taylor’s perspective, Olivia’s rise to fame may have felt threatening, as if her success took away some of Taylor’s own; she may have felt paranoid about Olivia and betrayed by the industry for being enamored with a new talent who was arguably grittier and more raw than she was. For Olivia this likely felt like she was made vulnerable in a way that was scarring, that her own ambition had been turned against her.

Are there other ways these relationships could have turned out? Of course! Feelings can be acknowledged and handled in myriad ways; but the underlying dynamics – the flowing support for Sabrina and the tension and control issues with Olivia – were always going to be there.