Venus in Pisces: We Love You, Bettie Page

Images available at BettiePage.com.

Dear Friend and Reader,

If you ever saw a picture of a woman with a beautiful body, a girl-next-door smile and a ball-gag in her mouth, then you were probably looking at Bettie Page. Though the princess of the pin-ups, the seductress of sadomasochism, faded from view decades ago I could always smile to myself, knowing she was out there, somewhere. I’m sad to report that she’s left our world for the next one; Bettie died in an LA hospital on Thursday. She was 85.

She had a kind of solidity and grace that Taurus imparts, as well as the approachability and woman-ness of Cancer. One thing that drew everyone’s attention to Bettie was her desire to be free: every photograph of her smile seems to radiate with a liberation unheard-of for those times. I mean, she made spanking wholesome and sex for pleasure playful. She was the spark that touched off the sexual revolution of the 60s and gave us an example of a woman who enjoyed being gorgeous.

She also had a depth to her that one could see even at a glance. A strong placement of Neptune, right below her Ascendant, helped to create a character that dripped in the ropes that bound her in some of her most famous photographs. She was aware of the realm of fantasy which she rollicked in and was unafraid to experiment, explore and create. She made all of her own costumes and as she got older she began to delve into a lifelong passion that many of her fans were unaware of: Bettie was a Baptist, and served as a missionary for some time. No matter what, she continued to be her own person, regardless of what other people might have thought about her, including the church.

I was going to high school during a Bettie Page revival of sorts — the mall stores for goth kids carried a whole range of tin lunch boxes, stickers, post cards, car air fresheners with the dark-haired, wholesomely mischevious vixen adorning them. All of Bettie’s pictures reveal an abundence of sexual energy, yet even when she was sprawled on a couch, or getting spanked or wielding the whip, there was something about her that was so sweet.

Through Bettie, I was introduced to another way to be a woman. She presented me with a sex-positive example of feminity without being a scank. For context, I’ll tell you that while Bettie Page was wearing leopard skin on a lunch box, Courtney Love was introducing her wasted baby-doll style to us. Classy vs. carnage in my opinion. But I digress…

Looking at Bettie Page’s chart, the first thing that came into my mind was how infused it is with Goddess energy. She has her Sun in Taurus, a Venus-ruled sign, her Moon in Cancer, its native sign and her natal Venus in Pisces. There is a strong sense of femininity coming through her chart: soft, receptive, elegant, dignified and very, very beautiful. She was the stuff that dreams are made of.

Her on-camera presence made her an icon, and the fire in those images will carry on as legend: a poor, young woman from Nashville, who delivered a sex-positive message that rang loud enough to be heard for decades. And most of us have never heard her voice.В 

Yours & truly,

Genevieve Salerno and Rachel Asher