In the popular series of novels Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, written by Laurell Hamilton, Anita is a gun-toting animator (she raises zombies for a living), necromancer, vampire hunter & executioner, who frequently works with the local police to help solve supernatural crimes. Oh, and she's a master vampire's human servant and sleeps with a werewolf or two on the side. She's a complicated lady and I started to wonder what this complicated lady's astrology chart would look like.
I compiled a list of Anita Blake's traits, such as: loyal, competent, 'shoots first and asks questions later', mistrustful, doesn't like to compromise, requires truth above any comforting lies, keeps her word, protective of her people, talks a lot of smack with bad guys (hiding behind sarcasm), surprisingly sensitive (hates to see others cry, protects the weak, has a stuffed penguin collection), surprisingly naive and idealistic, and of course, a powerful necromancer and eventually, succubus.
Arguments can always still be made to forever tweak the chart in different directions (many of which I made repeatedly with myself), but here is the proposed astrological chart of Anita Blake (click to enlarge).
Aries Rising represents her overall outlook and approach to life: come in guns blazing, don't hesitate, and don't let fear stop you from anything. She's direct and she doesn't let anyone push her around, almost to a fault. Her south node is in the first house in Aries with Mars conjunct, which demonstrates that while she feels most comfortable presenting the Aries face to the world (her Rising sign), she needs to leave behind some of the overactive, 'negative' traits of Aries as she matures over her lifetime, such as the 'my way or the highway' tendency that comes with an overactive first house (first house of Self), or the 'shoot first and ask questions later'–often resorting to violence and extreme self-defense (Mars/Aries) before diplomacy.
The south node often represents the past life orientation of a soul, as well as early life experiences that can leave their mark. Her Pluto in the 8th house as well as Mars on the south node leave a sort of wounded mark on her early life (her mother died when she was 8 in a car accident-Mars-, and death marks her very identity, for better and worse–Pluto on the Sun in the 8th house).
A Scorpio Sun conjunct Pluto in the 8th house represents many things: her intensity, her frequent black & white thinking, her loyalty, her ability to handle dark truths and taboo issues, as well as her ability as a necromancer and animator. Pluto (death and rebirth) fused to her Sun (the core of who you ARE, your identity) in the 8th house of all things hidden. This is an intense mark of transformation (to name only one, her ability to "transform" the dead). She's also got an out-of-sign trine to Neptune in the 12th house, which connects her ability with the dead to the spirit world, magic, and psychic qualities.
Mercury is conjunct her Midheaven in Capricorn. She's got a level head and has the ability to think strategically and recognize what must be done without getting overly emotional about it, in many circumstances. Yet it's opposed her Cancer Moon (which we'll get to in a moment), so her emotions can still cloud her judgment, especially since her moon is squaring her Aries Ascendant and sextiling her Mars/South Node in Aries, which encourages her emotional loyalties and protectiveness to jump straight to action, in 'opposition' to what's sensible just as often as she's able to think about the overall goal and leave sentiment behind. Mercury, not just our thought processes but also our voice, rests on the Midheaven, and she is often the spokesperson, the 'voice' for the monsters both officially in the press and unofficially, such as in her duties as Jean-Claude's human servant. Mercury squares her Ascendant (and Descendant) and opposite her moon, both influences represent her tendency to not know when to quit when she's trading insults with bad guys or making threats.
Throughout the first 8 books, give or take, Anita really struggles with her changing philosophy on her stance on monsters. Are they good guys or bad guys? While Mercury is conjunct her Midheaven, the beginning of the 10th house, it's technically in the 9th, and opposed the Moon in the 3rd house. This sets up a tug of war internally with hard rules of her moral philosophy (Capricorn/9th house) and her subjective, emotional everyday experiences that tell her a different story (Cancer, 3rd house). The 3rd house, being the opposite of the 9th house of philosophy/religion, represents the process of being open to whatever the facts are in front of us and letting ourselves be flexible enough to respond to whatever we are experiencing moment to moment, rather than the fixed, established nature of 9th house truths.
Onto her love life: her Moon is in Cancer which is yet another indicator of her loyalty and also protectiveness. It also explains why she tends to have this secret, mushy side: romantic notions of Sundays watching musicals on the couch with Richard and getting married while her brain (Mercury/mind opposed Moon/heart) argues with her heart about the unlikelihood of that succeeding in reality. Her Cancer Moon also speaks a little to the traditional girl in her (prudeishness, a trait which also comes from her desire for privacy & self-protection of Cancer–the crab shell).
Her Moon is technically in the 3rd house, but conjunct the Nadir, the 4th house cusp, which emphasizes a desire for clan and a protected, sheltered home, but with Saturn also in Cancer and the 4th house, this represents one of the most desired (Moon), but most difficult (Saturn) things for her to do: allow herself some softness, her desire to nurture others to come through, and share enough of herself to build a 'family' that can support and nurture her and vice versa.
Venus is in Leo in the 5th house, representing her tendency to be especially attracted to men like Richard who has that larger-than-life, warm and generous dynamic about them (she notices consistently how his golden hair falls in waves on his shoulders, the strength in his body, and his light-up-the-room smile). It's opposed Neptune, which brings on a tug of war between opening to others and following her own agenda (coupled with the rest of her chart which is geared toward an orientation on the self), which represents the tension in the developing storyline of Anita having many lovers due to the ardeur, represented by the 5th house. Venus and Neptune are also both square Mars, so there's a friction there that both heats up the issue for her and has her fighting herself.
The Mars, Neptune, Venus trio is involved in tension with her north node is in Libra in the 7th house, which represents the ultimate lesson she needs to learn: how to compromise with others and allow herself to have true partnership. Over time she's recognizing more and more that she's not free to do just whatever she wants, whenever she wants, without serious consequences in the lives of those who love her, such as in book 9, Obsidian Butterfly, when she leaves Richard and Jean-Claude to get a grip on herself and move toward a more comfortable dynamic: only herself to worry about and answer to.
There are also countless other dynamics and connections in the chart, but you don't have all day to read this, so get back to work!