Tiger Woods

Media speculation is currently rife over what is going on in Tiger Woods' private life, fuelled again today by the admission to hospital of a "blonde middle aged woman" from Wood's house. This follows hot on the heels of his low speed, early hours car crash outside his house and his wife's smashing of the rear windscreen of his car with a golf club. Whatever is going on?!

Tiger Woods was born on 30.12.1975 at 22.50 in Long Beach CA, USA. The aspect structure has a mainly vertical direction reminiscent of an exploding red and blue star or firework. Maybe that's how life feels for him right now. The lack of green aspects in his chart - he has a count of 4 red: 1 green: 7 blue - indicates an either/or approach to life, with very few shades of grey in a very either/or, clear cut attitude to life. This is supported by his strong by Sign Capricorn Sun which aspects both Uranus and Pluto but in linear (Cardinal type) aspect to both of them. Uranus for erratic behaviour and Pluto for power?

I confess to knowing little about golf, but from what I've read and heard about Woods, he has a cool, incisive and very determined style on the golf course. With only one green aspect there is no room for dithering and being indecisive; competitive play (and the success that goes with it) is a matter of either/or with no distractions or deviations.

Yet deviate from his nice clean image is what he appears to have done. Women who claim they have slept with him are emerging from the shadows and are taking centre stage in media interviews and speculation. Woods has 3 Ambivalence figures in his chart. The triangular Ambivalence figure is made up of 1 red and 2 blue aspects; no green aspects are involved so it uses the red part of the figure to be active and "do" and the blue as a route to "be" and enjoy. The blue aspects in this pattern meet at the apex of the triangle, and in Astrological Psychology we see the planet at this blue corner as being the "escape" planet, the one the person will gravitate towards when they need some R&R, to switch off, relax and enjoy. When they are there, identifying with and expressing the energies of this "escape" planet, the urge of the red opposition aspect which demands action, work and "doing" are on hold (hence the ambivalence). Could Woods, with 3 of these figures in his chart, have been heeding the call of those 3 "escape" planets?

In case you can't spot them easily on the chart, they are Venus (signifying relating on all levels, but perhaps in a more specific and intense way in Scorpio?); Neptune, which can confuse things horribly if we're not careful, as well as offering glimpses of something alluringly just out of reach. From some perspectives, Neptune is about pure escapism. Finally Jupiter, placed in 7th house of encounters with others. Jupiter here, in Aries, is quite strong by Sign and is the planet/psychological drive which encourages us to take risks and open up to new experiences. As an "escape" planet in an Ambivalence figure it could well be instrumental in Woods' apparently uncharacteristic behaviour.

For more specific examples of the Ambivalence figure at work, see my book The Living Birth Chart, and for aspect patterns in general see Aspect Pattern Astrology by Bruno & Louise Huber. Click on the tabs at the top of the page to find out more about these books.