It’s Tom Hardy day, folks.
The thief-catching, dog-loving, mumbling method actor/amateur rapper was delivered unto us under Virgo stars and has, in the words of the internet, been delivering unproblematic gorgeous king behavior ever since.
Edward Thomas Hardy was born in the fair city of London on September 15, 1977, making our man a discerning Virgo sun with an art house Libra moon, a compromised Cancer Mars and a show your teeth and bask in the sun Leo Venus.
It must be noted for astrological purposes and human posterity that Hardy is responsible for breathing into being the most Virgo admission ever recorded, “I believe that perfection is unattainable, but that doesn’t stop us trying.”
And try he does.
In the span of his 20-year career, Hardy has garnered critical acclaim playing addicts, resurrected gangsters, incestuous explorers, notorious criminals and ventilated villains. Our maverick Hardy even cured the quarantine blues by reading bedtime stories aloud, dog at his side to the world at large. A man of range, he is willing to go full frontal, full method and fully unhinged in the pursuit of performance.
Sun/moon = analytics and aesthetics
As mutable earth, Virgos live knee-deep in the dirt of digging; ever searching for information and absolute truth, evident in Hardy’s view of a movie script “as case file,” to be “unpacked” via “investigation.” Add to this that his Libra moon is adept at adapting to suit any situation, a combination of cardinal and mutable energy that enables Hardy to assume and invoke myriad roles. As Esquire notes, “Hardy so thoroughly embodies a character, in both body and spirit, that he all but disappears.” We can view this disappearing act as the body (earth sun) and the spirit (air moon) conspiring together to dissolve the self into the subject.
“I believe that perfection is unattainable, but that doesn’t stop us trying.”
Tom Hardy/every Virgo ever
The essential question of this sun/moon combination is “Is it beautiful? And, is it useful?” There is little regard for anything beyond these two pillars. A tattoo on Hardy’s right bicep reads: “II O&R”, an abbreviation for, “To Observe and Reflect,” which is his personal motto and a fitting distillation of the energy of his sun and moon.
Moon as mime
As an air sign represented by an inanimate object, Hardy’s Libra moon requires the activation of another entity in order to truly engage. As Hardy maintains, “The centrifugal force in my life is a natural disposition to not be happy with the way I feel.” In this way, we can view Hardy’s own dissatisfaction as his primary instigator to action.
Libra’s are able to mimic emotion without having to directly experience it, respond instead to the weather in the room and the needs and wants of others, an exhausting and at points dangerous quality. His Virgo will and wit are mercurial and his emotional interiority a ghost ranch, evident in his admission that acting was his sole recourse, “In the end, there was nothing else I could do. I had a busy head and I didn’t really want to do things that I found boring. The only thing that kept my attention was to play and have fun and manipulate. I’ve always been a liar, always been able to manipulate. I pretty much get whatever I want.”
A man of range, Hardy is willing to go full frontal, full method and fully unhinged in the pursuit of performance.
As noted above, Libra moons deal in charm and social lubrication, they can turn it on and get other people to take it off with an almost sinister ease. Libra is an air sign ruled by Venus and natives are aesthetically sensitive and emotionally aloof; they make it look nice but they don’t always act nice, dig? In the shadow realm of the moon, folks like Hardy can be guilty of caring more about how it appears than how it feels which serves to explain Hardy’s no-holds-barred, gnash-yourteeth, spit-on-your-costars approach to method acting. He doesn’t care who is offended in his sacred pursuit of perfection
Mars in Cancer
Mars is our planet of action and aggression and it is said to be in its fall in the cardinal waters of Cancer. Fall sounds bad-ish and biblical but in essence, it means the planet in question is at its weakest point. In this case, you have the planet of war in the sign of the divine feminine, suggesting a stark opposition between assertion and internalization. Aggressive energy doesn’t know how to exert itself in a healthy way here and often times primordial rage goes underground, seethes and exhibits itself in explosive ways.
Mars/anger is not safe to expand in Cancer and natives must go to great and purposeful lengths to find healthy outlets.
Mars in Cancer hates that it is ruled by its emotions and is thusly volatile, a theme we see in Hardy’s performances that often seem to hinge on a knife’s edge. Anger is not safe to expand in Cancer and natives must go to great and purposeful lengths to find healthy outlets or they run the risk of going full Tommy “threaten you with a gun” Lee or Teresa “flip the table” Giudice, both Cancer Mars folk.
It seems Hardy has grappled with this dynamic and found a sweet, sweaty outlet in Jiu-Jitsu. Another quality of Mars in Cancer is pouring a tremendous amount of energy into the family and root systems, both reckoning with and protecting that bedrock. Hardy spoke to this when he explained the inspiration behind his Madonna and child tattoo, “That was about mothering me. I went through a lot of stuff leaving home and becoming a father and growing up to be my own mother. I have a mother; she’s amazing. But this is about being able to mother my parents and my son and myself – which is very painful. Getting my head around that growth spurt.”
Hardy’s Mars in Cancer is further evident in the way he separates his private sphere from his public persona. We can see Mars in Cancer functioning at its highest expression in the work Hardy does as an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust which mentors the youth. Though much was made of Hardy’s dramatic chase/recovery of a would-be moped thief, many news outlets failed to report that the actor later tracked down the young criminal and tried to appeal to him to set course for a different kind of life; Mars in Cancer at its finest; catch you, shame you, and mother you into personal betterment.
Mars in Cancer at its finest; catch you, shame you, and mother you into personal betterment.
There to help the ne’er-do-well rehabilitation program is Hardy’s Mercury, planet of communication and exchange which forms a sextile with his Mars in Cancer, indicating our man has a sharp tongue that can cut to the quick and maim or cure with equal intensity.
Mercury in the mix
Hard has Mercury sextile Uranus, punk rock planet of shock and upset which explains his draw to curious subjects, taboo topics and characters on the fritz and fringe. It also underscores his strange habit of conjuring up unplaceable accents and dicey dialects. As the Post’s own Johnny Oleksinski recalled of Hardy’s “Capone” performance, “An exhumed cadaver who talks too much, he snarls from the throat as though he’s about to hurl and, as is typical of this actor, you can’t understand a single word he says.”
Venus in Leo
Hardy has Venus, planet of passion and affection in the “worship me and I’ll worship you,” sign of Leo. This placement is behind Hardy’s regal bearing, BDE and celebrated sense of style. Leo lives to be seen and Hardy’s Libra moon ensures that what you see is pleasing to the eye and memorable to the mind, pocket watches, desert boots and tailored vests? Don’t mind if I do. Hardy’s Venus in Leo is also absolutely to blame for the utter lack of shame he felt when confronted with his cringe-worthy underwear-heavy early aughts MySpace page, all press is good press to a lion.
Astrology 101: Your guide to the star
- The 12 zodiac signs
- What are the astrology houses
- Here’s what each planet represents
- Sun, moon and rising signs: Get to know your Big 3
Hardy has Venus conjunct mean daddy planet Saturn which indicates a need for long-term stability in primary relationships. True to form, Hardy is a bit of a serial monogamist who is currently committed, and fiercely protective of, his decade-long relationship with his wife Charlotte Riley, with whom he has two children. Given his Cancer Mars, there’s the sense that our man is both emo and theatrical, soothed by the medicinal mix of pleasure and pain, howling at love with his heart on his sleeve and a bit of blood on his chin.
Our man is theatrical emo howling at love with his heart on his sleeve and a bit of blood on his chin.
To that end, may you find octane fuel in both joy and sorrow. Long may you mumble Tommy Boy, stay weird, stay wild, stay wounded. We wait for whatever road finds you and whatever spirit may yet possess you.
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.
