Actor/Director Justine Bateman had Saturn crossing her natal Venus in Capricorn all 2020. Her new book Face: One Square Foot Of Skin – is possibly the coolest and most proactive reaction to a gnarly transit yet.
It’s a confronting transit for anyone – the stark structural audit of a Saturnine stocktake up against the softly-lit Venusian style and self-forgiveness. But Bateman was “Mallory in Family Ties” – a successful sitcom that ran for most of the Eighties with the loose theme of “hip parents, square kids.”
When you’re a former teen television star, you already have an acute awareness of time. Everyone speculates on your erotic currency and ‘marketability.’
You’re prime fodder for those tacky “you won’t believe what she looks like now” media takes. Or worse, faux-intellectual ‘think pieces’ where a writer your age opines on what your ‘lost light’ implies for their mortality/virility/existential despair levels.
Bateman’s incisive Saturn-Venus moment was the excruciating experience of being ‘trapped’ in a toilet cubicle listening to a bunch of ‘fans’ ripping apart her looks. She finally erupts out of there with the ‘fuq you, I look great line‘ that became the core mantra for her book.
It’s a series of fictional vignettes drawn from her life and milieu set against the sunlit, glossy facades of a prismatic city. She has the Piscean ear for dialogue and conversational nuance – her Sun, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn are in Pisces – and deploys it to brilliant measure.
Her sharp, poignant prose covers everything from the euphemisms people use to sell image optimizations to her previous cruelty toward older actors or desirable women who’d ‘failed to maintain.’
The Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 1982 squared her Venus and saw her 16-year-old self launched into global television fame. Last year’s Saturn-Pluto conjunction was conjunct it, and she’s approaching her second Saturn Return. This has resonance. She puts it more elegantly, but essentially Bateman is saying she’s sick of ‘successful female aging’ being commensurate with the subtlety of your surgery and how ‘serene’ you can be. She’s here for the unsubtle, loud ones.
Her Moon, by the way, is in Aquarius, conjunct Lilith. Apart from retaliating to criticism of her non-tweaked face with “fuq you, I look great’ – she has this to say to people doing the “far out, what the hell happened to your looks’ brigade.
You’re looking at f***ing determination and truth and creativity. You’re looking at loss and sorrow and the effort for a deeper perspective. You’re looking at satisfaction and happiness. You’re looking at a manifestation of a connection so deep and rooted that it’s more real than I am. You’re looking at my face.
Thoughts?
I love this book so much! She’s a few years older than me and I understand her rage. I have always looked 10 years younger than my age until I hit 50. Then 2020 aged me 10 years, this is the perfect time to talk about what women need to focus on and it’s not disappearing into a younger looking face with surgery. Rage on!
Yes!! We earned these faces. God, if I could set fire to 98% of the “beauty” industry. I bloody would.
More and more I love unconventional faces, bodies. It’s one of the best ways to tell mainstream society to get stuffed. Who are you trying to please?
Beauty is not being an asshole to or about other people literally because of the skin and shape they were born in. If it was about race or gender we’d be all over that. It’s possibly the last stand for discrimination.
Hey hey xx
I’ll be there ready with the fuse!
Totally agree, but I’m afraid that there is just too much money to be made in this cruel industry. It is beyond foul how much suffering it has caused the female psyche re advertising that does nothing but undermine women’s confidence, not to mention all those animals who were tortured to death so that women could put on some petrochemical slush that does fuq-all except cost her money.
Also the beauty & cosmetic industry largely goes hand in hand with the pharmaceutical industry – referred to as cosmeceuticals – those cosmetics that have bioactive ingredients said to have medical benefits – but because they are not qualified as drugs, they are not regulated under medical or pharma regulations, so there are no legal requirements to prove that these products live up to their claim. Yet the industry keeps growing & growing through its nefarious advertising campaigns horribly undermining women’s self esteem with bullshit medical claims ….. aaaaarrrrggghhh!
I’m down with this and every day that passes I get more impervious to anything that doesn’t represent authenticity and simultaneously more compassionate to those under the spell that life cycles and natural law can somehow be manipulated absolutely. We all learn and experience life in different ways. I think the tidal pull of all this altering is the strongest it’s ever been but I’ve never been caught in the current.
Downloaded it on audible. Justine narrates her own book so that’ll make it a better listen.
She’s beautiful – looks like PJ Harvey. A big yes to this – we need more books & thinking like it.
ooh this is on the reading list! Thankyou Mystic!
THANK YOU MM re second Saturn Return intel (& that brilliant Kim Gordon link!) …. makes so much sense for what I’d today described as midlife crisis (… just lol at my own personal take on midlife)
Rockstar! ⭐️ Give that midlife crisis hell!
well I did upgrade my BMX & about to put new steel rims on my truck so transport is sorted lol
😏
Hello Rockstar, long time between drinks! Hope all copacetic in your world & thanks for turning me onto Jac & Jack 8? years ago, so love their styles but wait for the sales as quality is not cheap 🙂
Just as I thought I got through this ‘er-rything sq er-rything, mars opp. Uncle pluto’ weekend scot-free – came down with a blinding migraine with none of the typical warning signs after family bike ride last night & went to bed early. My 9 year old daughter comes bounding in about 7pm “Mum, guess what?? I looked up Zodiac signs, and guess what? I’m the best sign there is – Sagittarius.” *bounces around on her bare feet, hip-length hair flounces*
Me: *blinks in dark, trying to think through throbbing pain* “That you are!” I manage. Daughter then says “we love freedom, knowledge – oh ! And are the sign most likely to be crack-heads. What’s a crack-head??”
Me: *visualises Mars opposing pluto with a javelin right inside my head, audibly gasps* “What site have you been visiting sweetheart – please don’t get on the internet without me !!”
She holds up the sweetest pencil hand-drawing of a circular chart with the signs of the Zodiac written around it, and also (from another site she evidently went on) the Native American signs underneath the Western, on the inside of the circle. “I did a drawing of them for you!” She said happily. I make a mental note to a) re-check the eighth house of her chart and b) start telling her about astrology, history, mythology, etc. (Recent lunar eclipse was on her sun, as she came through some intense school bullying. Saturn returning to her Aqua moon, but she is still as chipper as ever. I think she is teaching me!.❤)
I had the privilege of sharing a house with my friend and her young sag daughter. I had totally lost faith in humanity and she brought me back from the brink with her empathy. She was a Scorpio rising and she could read my mind. A little healer she was and so funny.
Your daughter sounds like a gem.
You are lucky.🍀
Hi there Wish 💗 I am tres lucky, esp as I never thought I’d have kids – I’d had enough of humanity, too. I’ve no doubt your little Saggi surrogate-niece was a healer – I so hope you see her again ! She won’t forget you, ever. My little one is a Cappi-Asc (same early 20°s as her brother’s solar sign), but with Venus & Pluto closely conjunct in early Cap, which gives a distinct Scorpionic vibe.. Out of respect for both astrology and for their own magical journeys I had never thought to introduce them to astro, yet – but might be time ! (They’re already bored with my other house-witchy practices – e.g. am banned from bell-ing house while they’re home. Honestly!!)
What is bell-ing house?
Hi Wish, it is an idea for space-clearing I got from Karen Kingston’s blog eons ago! I bought one of her Balinese bells to try and lift the energy around our house periodically; before that I had (& still do) a Tibetan bell. I do believe dank energy can build up around structures (not just dust), and I do think “bell-ing” (my made up word) helps, a little like acupuncture shifts energy, or geomancy around land. But this is my personal experience – opening windows/cleaning just as effective! (or listening – if you haven’t already – to MM’s housewitchery mp3..) X
I love sound healing.
I must have been a gypsy in a previous life. I love bells on clothes.
When you move they jingle.
I have convinced myself that if I wore earrings with a subtle chime I would be a much happier person.
I am sensitive to sound and negative words. Chimes would balance this for me.
Does anyone tried this. Can you recommend some.
Hi Wish 🤩 I love chimes, too ! I think 6-rod hollow metal chimes used outside in compass directions containing annual flying stars 2 and 5 “drain” the negative chi – but best to consult a real consultant (not an armchair practitioner, like me!) I think MM has someone on her recommendations page – and Qld’er Derelle Ball has a great classical feng shui blog on her Centaine Consultants website. Good luck !💫
Thanks for that Earth star.
I just ordered a silver pendant online.
It is a ball with a chime in it. I will wear it on my breast bone so I can hear it.
Apparently there are things called harmony balls. It is a Balinese tradition. Pregnant women wear them as a long necklace on their belly. The baby can hear the chime and it calms them. How cute.
Thanks for the information. I will check it out.
💖
Awesome!
On a side note, I wonder what her rising sign is? She has those beautiful Piscean eyes, something similar to Liz Taylor, and I’ve seen this in other pisceans too. But I feel there is also a feline element or is it just me? Could she be a Leo rising?
She looks like a Taurus Rising to me! Scorpio on the DC might fit well too !
I love this, Mystic.
She’s still gorgeous. Wisdom has added to her beauty – it has evolved her beauty. Fuq ANYONE who puts down anyone based on their looks.
The “fuq you, i look great” attitude is the only way to fly. Like my mother used to say, there is nothing more seductive in a woman or man – no matter what age or looks – than self-confidence. That is real glamour.
Fuq yes !
So true
Saw this and immediately loved her for her awesome stance. But then here, I checked her chart and she is to the degree, born the same time as a dear friend! Fire Horse year, the most destructive and destabilising element in the Zodiac. But by telling the truth and galloping it over the entire country like a bushfire. My friend though was like Keanu as Neo, elegant, considered and coolly sweet. I dreamed of him last week and he was dressed in Neo’s body. I was so happy to see him.
If Justine is anything like him she’s smart, beautifully mannered, sophisticated, sensitive, charismatic and an original thinker. Unsubtle and loud isn’t what I would seize on, rational, firm, communicative and defiant more like. Anyway Uranus killed my friend in the form schizophrenia, his room was lined with foil, a full Faraday Cage. Painkillers and Neptune’s ghoul alcohol helped him on his flight past the noon day sun that melted his wings too soon. Anyway, fuq you, I look great too! Nice work Justine.
Read her first page introduction on Amazon & her list is of woman loved by my movie going self. The movies were my babysitter 3 times a week in 50’s & loved the women she mentions. Left out Irene Papas who had THE LOOK Justine loved but darker than Charlotte & Anna Magnani. Those women were power on legs & total man magnets.
Yes, i read that as well! I used to admire all those actors she mentioned too. Melina Mercouri was another one of those European actors who well into her later years made people swoon with her easy smile and husky laugh. She wore “the wreckage of her former glory” (as i once read) with pride and still oozed sexiness in spades.
My new hat & boots say thank you muchly for the discount, now i’m not embarrassed to comment sans the ‘mm member’ logo.
You Rule as always.
Where is David? He got pissed at sexism didn’t he, the man was a wealth of interesting stories & information. We were lucky to have the ‘witch with a willy’.
Aww, I was wondering where davidl went, I miss him. I would love to hear his original thought processes back here. A diadem of a man, rubies for wealth of personality and brilliant diamonds for his razor sharp mind.
Yes come back David.
We miss you.
Hehehehe… a WwaW.
I don’t reckon they are extinct in these parts yet but sightings are rare.
Oi DL – time to lift the invisibility spell and step up to claim your new title. Probably comes with some perks and a new cloak…
OMG….I LOVE this ❤
✊🏻♀️ absolutely fuq successful aging
Yes one can age but no need to get old.
Just as an (not entirely) unrelated aside, I love how the comments feed under the blog reads like an affirmation every time somebody comments: “Fuq you I look great” “Fuq you I look great” … etc. 😄
Appearance IS personal. It is our boundary, judgement is transgressive.
HOWEVER, attraction/deep desire/desirousness (is that a word??) has EVERYTHING to do with magic/Quintessence, in my little experience. Physics just the gateway, if that – sometimes even distracting.
Yes.
Absolutely! ❤
This needs to be chanted 108 times each morning…”Fuq you, I look great!”. Affirmation indeed! 👊
In a case for staying relevant or because you have a much younger lover HAVE YOU SEEN MADONNA’S FACE LATELY? Smooth as a baby’s bum.She must have the same face doctor as Joan River’s had. Can certainly understand having ‘work’ done if your job demands it or more like the people around you do but for the everyday person the cost is huge compared to the benefits. Scary the amount of needless needles being given to the 20-35 year olds. Tried botox on eye smile lines at 50 & it takes the lines from the horizontal side & relays them lower down above the cheeks due to how muscles work. Bizarre. Had lip lines done at 55 & it replaces craters with mountains. Ok so they weren’t Hollywood practitioners & it was a long time ago but it was money wasted as only YOU can see those lines other’s can’t. Took me a long time to realise that truth.
Skin is truly about what you eat & where you put your mind-your thoughts.
Lucky to have the Sagg youthful spirit & Capricorn cheek bones & going on 74 my hair has at last given me 4 perfectly aligned silver streaks.How i love silvered hair. White hair envy.
Beauty fades-Handsome stays. And yes women who have experienced suffering have an ethereal look that is uniquely beautiful.
The bottom line is that WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL.
I have Saturn conj Venus in Aquarius natally 😳 My Saturn return on top of that. Neptune conjunct my Sun. Sure glad for this book and hopefully….. this movement 🖕
My face too. Shorn hair back to natural salt and pepper and a burst blood vessel in my eye today really rounds things off nicely. I care a little bit but not that much.
I watched an interview with her about the book and I was totally left with a feeling of a woman who owns her power completely in absolutely her own way. It kind of feels like a big middle finger to society that has pushed the idea that women aren’t allowed to age while simultaneously not shaming those women who have undergone surgeries and injections. It’s hard core feminism and I love it!
wow. that last quote brought tears to my eyes. so so true.If you’ve had a tough life I notice it makes your face softer and kinder. As one of my work mates said to me recently about being criticized for looking older “what are you supposed to do? Die?” I rest my case.
Thank you Mystic….this is relevant (for me as a 63 year old skin therapist) but importantly for all the women out there struggling with their years and experience showing real life wear and tear in this filtered, filled, softened, and vacuous world.
I have always maintained that if someone dislikes my face, its their problem, not mine. I look at it for like 5 mins in the morning. Its over to the rest of the world for 23 hours and 55 mins. Ain’t gonna worry about it unnecessarily. I have natal Venus in Capricorn too. Powerful story. Thanks for telling it.
Hi 5thHouseCap, I am a 5th house Cap myself and this made me smile because I am exactly the same way. I have sun, merc, jup, saturn tightly conjunct and I have always thought the smile was the greatest thing you could bring into the room. I am 60 yrs. old.
Yes !
Yayy! Glad to make you smile! 🙂 I have a 5 planet stellium in Cap, not including any other points or asteroids. I am 37 and got my first double chin and wrinkles under the eye this year. I like my face more because of them! Heck, they are the map to my grief, struggles and celebration of survival. I hope I remain as awesome as you when I turn 60. The pressure to look young is intense.
Ditto for smile. 🙂 Smile so bright that it lights up the room. Don’t need anything else…. (except maybe other Cap penchants of sharply tailored slightly masculine clothing, along with a dab of my fav Ayurvedic rose perfume.) 🙂
Oh wow wow wow. I needed this. Spent the early hours of the morning seething over the way that multiple people have recently just assumed that I would agree with their assessment of an “ideal body” when no, I actually don’t think taking up as little space as possible should be the goal. Am obsessed with my strong sturdy thighs recently. Fuck you I look great is THE mantra for me. And Saturn is right on my Aqua Venus at the moment 🙂 perfect morning reading thank you Mystic!
You’re looking at MY face.
It tells my story.