Cry a river of happy tears, today Justin “JT” Timberlake turns 42.
He who brought “SexyBack,” freed the most famous nipple in recorded history and danced the hokey pokey without provocation, rose to fame as a child star and has kept his name in the lights ever since, becoming one of the world’s highest paid musicians according to Forbes.
As Timberlake prepares for his 42nd birthday and latest trip around the sun, we are taking a look at the birth chart behind the world’s most successful boy band defector and one of the planet’s richest singers.
Born January 31, 1981, Timberlake’s big three consist of his zodiac sun sun in visionary Aquarius, a moon in free wheeling, pirate hearted Sagittarius and an ascendant in adoration hungry, all the world’s a stage Leo. With an abundance of fortunate placements and air sign adaptability, Timberlake’s birth chart shows he knows how to play the game, if not when to keep his mouth shut.
Water bearing, filter eschewing
Timberlake’s sun in Aquarius forms a trine with his Jupiter in personable Libra. Jupiter is the planet of good fortune, expansion and excess and this beneficial aspect lends itself to getting rich and being liked. Simply put, it’s lucky AF, charmed as can be, and the astrological equivalent of a Labrador Retriever in the golden light of a Sunday morning. Interestingly, this is an aspect shared by rising star Austin Butler.
Timberlake’s moon, planet of instinct and emotion, falls in mutable, adventure loving, word vomiting Sagittarius. Many of Timberlakes’s communication failures, faux pas, problematic song titles and deeply regrettable tweets, likely come from the lack of filter or editing software between his emo reflexes and verbal responses. Sigh.
Timberlake’s Venus, planet of attraction and attachment forms a square with Pluto, planet of sex, death and transformation, an aspect that indicates deep magnetism and the potential for serious manipulation. There’s a quality to this square that desperately wants to be liked by others and celebrated by the general public, real golden boy vibes. Trouble brews when the Venus square Pluto native goes to damaging lengths to ensure their reputation is preserved, even if it means demeaning or diminishing their cohorts or partners.
This quality is enhanced by Timberlake’s rising sing in the hambone, jazz hands, child star, love me and never leave me sign of Leo. We see these tendencies alive and well in Timberlake whose video for his 2002 song “Cry Me a River,” cast a Britney Spears look alike as the cheating girlfriend that a parkour prone Timberlake stalks and takes sex tape revenge against. Timberlake never directly addressed or denied the rumor that Spears’s infidelity was the cause of their breakup but he 100 encouraged the narrative and with song and video and profited handsomely from the assumption. Deeply uncool, bro.
This trine is astrological equivalent of a Labrador Retriever in the golden light of a Sunday morning.
As an astrological aside and a nostalgic nod, Spears is a Sagittarius sun with an Aquarius moon, a beautiful, yin/yang compliment to Timberlake’s Aquarius sun and Sag moon. Spears’s moon is exactly conjunct Timberlake’s sun and south node, indicating a profound connection and some past life vibes betwixt them. Add to this that both have Venus, planet of love in “watch me work” Capricorn. This star crossed synergy explains so much about the pair, including but not limited to their penchant for matching denim outfits and the longevity of our collective fascination with their relationship.
In terms of accountability and failing the feminine, our dude once again dropped the ball and the blame in 2004. In the backlash that followed Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s infamous “nipple gate” Super Bowl performance, Jackson suffered serious career setbacks while Timberlake took zero responsibility and minimal heat. Jackson was blacklisted from radio for a time, lost a prominent film role and even had her “Rhythm Nation” inspired Mickey Mouse statue removed from Disneyland. Rude.
Meanwhile, Timberlake who coined the term “wardrobe malfunction” and who was, in fact, the direct cause of the reveal, played the PR game with well timed mea culpas and saw his career expand exponentially post tit controversy, including Grammy wins and an invitation to return to the Super Bowl stage. Timberlake has since publicly apologized to both Spears and Jackson for his negligence and media manipulation but his track record with accountability remains shaky, like that time he was caught holding hands with his costar in New Orleans and later blamed booze for his behavior, failing to acknowledge the abuse of power. Nut up Timbers and be better, because we believe you can be.
Astrology 101: Your guide to the stars
Mutable moons and marriage compatibility
Timberlake has been married to power Pisces Jessica Biel for over a decade, and though the couple has weathered their respective woes they seem as of late, rock steady in the romance department. The strength of their match might lie in Biel being an absolute sunny side up, love is amnesia Pisces, the fire modality of their rising signs, the positioning of their respective moons or a combination of all. Timberlake’s moon in Sagittarius sits opposite Biel’s moon in Gemini.
The moon represents our safe space, our instinctual nature and how we receive and offer care. Our zodiac opposites have the potential to teach us more than any other sign and because this opposition lives in the emotional terrain of the moon, that’s a lot of feelings exchanged, lessons learned and heart meat tenderized. Add to this that the couple’s moons are in mutable signs, suggesting they thrive on shared curiosity and humor, recover quickly from pitfalls and are adept at moving on and moving forward. For her part, a Pisces sun like Biel is born to forgive and her Gemini moon asks only and ever to be entertained, making Timberlake an apropos roll dog.
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.