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Maurice Benard has been portraying Sonny Corinthos since 1993. It was probably the success of "The Sopranos" that brought his storyline into such prominence. He is on the show almost daily. One wonders how he does it. I remember my daughter loving Bo and Hope on "Days" when they were the hot couple, and she wanted them to be on everyday. I told her that wasn't possible; that they had to do one show, rehearse for the next show, and it would be too much to be on daily. Well, somehow, Benard seems to do it, day in and day out. I would prefer that they cut back and put the Corinthos storyline in perspective to the rest of the cast and stories, and let other stories have more equal time - but that's just me.
Maurice was born on March 1, 1963 in Martinez, California; a small town in Contra Costa County, north-east of Oakland, California. He is a Pisces with a Taurus or Gemini moon - I'd say it's likely Gemini....we don't have a time of birth.
It's known that Benard is bi-polar, and that can stem from a number of places. First, he's a Pisces, who are known for their propensity for depression. Of course, every Pisces isn't depressed, but it is a sensitive placement for it. If he has a Gemini Moon, then he goes back and forth between the emotion of Pisces and the mental acuity of Gemini. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Carl Jung has a diagram where Thinking and Feeling are opposite, and Inspiration and Sensate are opposite in a square position to the first two. In astrology, Thinking equates to air, feeling to water, inspiration to fire, and sensate to earth. Those with air and water, are either in logic or feeling, not both. One can change in a nano second, which is why these people can be in their logic state and be fine, and then an emotional button is touched and they're gone into a feeling space for....however it takes to come out of it....usually a good night's sleep does wonders. With bi-polar it obviously isn't that easy.
Maurice has Mercury conjunct Saturn which would indicate that he's probably tacturn and perhaps terse in speech. He would tend to be an authoritarian-figure, who just comes across as being judgemental and critical maybe when he's not, since it's in Aquarius.
His Pisces sun is stressed by the opposition of Uranus and Pluto. Uranus was moving in to conjunct Pluto by 1966. It was the time of hippies and free love. As it neared Pluto, the deep, intense planet gave power to the eclectic, eccentric energy which strives for freedom and democracy....and brought recreational sex into the mainstream, rather than just for procreation. Uranus is the planet for Aquarius and in my concept of the Chinese 12 animal system as it equates to the 12 acupuncture meridians - it relates to the Dog energy, which deals with inhibition vs. 'hibition', I guess, the acceptance of sex as a natural experience, with no hangups. The Aquarius/Dog energy is awkward in intimate one on one relationships and prefers the uncommited relationship.These planets affected a whole generation. While the hippies were experimenting with drugs and free love; those children born around that time had a foundation that was different from any time before. Even if their life was pretty solid and traditional; one could see change happening all around them on tv and movies and the mores of the time. Opposing his sun sign brings up deep, powerful emotions, that can be triggered by the sudden change of Uranus. In fact, in essence, here again we have an air/water combo; Uranus ruling the air sign Aquarius, and Pluto ruling the water sign, Scorpio.
Currently, Benard has Pluto going thru the solar 10th house, which is a powerful position. It can bring him into great prominence, but it tends to make one deal with father issues on a deep, personal level, and it creates experiences that test the mettle of the person. One does not come out of Pluto's move into the 11th, the same person who went in. Pisces and Virgos have been experiencing deep, personal shifts since 1996 when Pluto entered Sag, and it isn't leaving til 2008.
Uranus has moved into the first house of Self, and is around his sun sign, which will bring new opportunities for him to explore. Saturn in Leo conjunct his Mars, and Mars currently square it in Taurus in retrograde at this time (11/05) indicates he may be angry under the surface, and more volatile like many of us are now; Mars tends to trigger our temper that we may ordinarily be able to keep in check.
CHINESE ASTROLOGY: Benard was born in the Year of the Cat and the month of the Boar. The Cat can be a pussy cat, and loving and loyal, and purring; or it can be an independent cat, or a high strung cat; depending on the personality. There can be issues with the Large Intestines. The Boar hates to be ridiculed or humiliated and will go out of his way not to have that happen. Boar energy tends to depression, as mentioned earlier, and they need to be around positive people who keep showing him the positive side of things.
  Interestingly, Uranus is hiding in Scorpio in the 12th, on the 'cusp' of the first.....meaning that it's a very prominent energy in making up Sonny's personality. We tend to think of Uranus/Aquarius energy as being the 'love' child, the hippie, the eccentric one who goes against the grain of society. Well, it isn't always the hippie. It's the 'out'law - someone who thumbs his nose at the establishment and has his own rules. For Sonny to have Uranus near his ascendent is quite telling. Sonny has Saturn conjunct Mars in Leo in the 9th house, on the cusp of the tenth, showing his temper and his need for control. Saturn/Mars can be very militaristic, needing control and people around him 'marching thru Georgia" as the saying goes, doing his bidding. It's a position where the anger of Mars is sat on by the discipline of Saturn, until the Mars energy cannot stand it anymore and erupts. Currently, Sonny has Pluto in the 2nd house, where there is usually a loss of money, before a slow and steady climb back to a position of promience and monetary stability. Uranus is in Sonny's 4th house, shaking up his foundation, and providing sudden events that will cause him to look at things differently. CHINESE ASTROLOGY: Sonny was born in the Year of the Horse, the Month of the Tiger, the Hour of the Rooster, and the Minute of the Cat. It's interesting when a man of Sonny's position wants to be married, and keeps trying til he gets it right....and that is due to the Horse, wanting to be in partnership. The Tiger has pride and needs to be recognized and hates to be ignored. The Rooster makes him deal with subconscious fears, and the Cat can be neurotic at times. Why is Sonny such a control freak? Why is loyalty and....mainly....truth....so important to him???? When we put the Chinese astrology wheel over the western astrology wheel, we find that Pluto, the master controller to begin with, is in the Monkey area of his chart. The Monkey is the icon for the Urinary Bladder meridian, which deals with the emotions of....you guessed it. ..bladder control. So we have domination amped up by control. A control freak to end all control freaks. Something happened to Sonny which caused him to be victimized, and he vowed it would never happen again....NEVER!! The Monkey energy then goes about creating a world that will insulate him from anything like that ever happening again. Truth is important for two reasons....first, you can't control everything when you don't know everything. And what happens if he doesn't know everything? He might be ridiculed and/or humiliated. The Boar's energy is in the 4th house, or foundation of the Monkey pattern. To be humiliated is unthinkable.....so he has to be in charge and in control in order that he isn't embarrassed...or worse. At the other end of the pattern, at the top, the Snake energy prevails. The Snake is a perfectionist and has to be right....has to be right, can't be wrong, and has to have the last word....and when you're a perfectionist and if you find you didn't know everything....you might be humiliated.....and we can't have that.....so control is tightened....that's the pattern of the Monkey; the key animals which make up the personality and cause his neuroses. That is the pattern of the Monkey which delineates the Pluto energy. In Sonny's 'own' chart, the Rat is at his base, in the 4th. The Rat rules the Gall Bladder; and the GB relates to the emotions of abandonment and betrayal...betrayal is a biggie here. And when he feels betrayed he can go into meltdown. The Rat energy encompasses rage...which is the acting out of anger. It's in the area of the 4th, where mother energy prevails, so every time he's betrayed, it brings up something that occurred with his mother. "Everyone" lies.....in some way, in some form. There are probably a few out there who don't, but whether it's white lies or something withheld, we all find reasons to lie....where would soaps be if everyone told the truth??? In "The Celestine Prophecy", the author had four types of personalities: Intimidator, Interrogator, Aloof and Poor me. In astrology, the Intimidator correlates to fire, Interrogator to earth, Aloof to air, and Poor me to water. The Intimidator and Interrogator are the controllers who lie to manipulate and control their prey....and their 'prey' lies to survive. How often on GH do the characters lie to Sonny? Well, it creates good soap....but in the scheme of personality, those around Sonny know that he's going to over react, make a big deal over everything and nothing, make a mountain out of a molehill; get upset over things that he shouldn't, and generally make life miserable for everyone around him, over things that are inconsequential or can be explained at best. Sonny becomes one of those people who are on a 'need to know" basis. Why does Sonny like Jason? Because he's brain damaged and obeys. He can count on him; he's not like the rest of the 'loose cannons' around him that he's always trying to round up and corral. Air sign people, particularly, just can't see why someone like Sonny acts that way. Things can be explained; events happen....shit happens....that's life....get over it they say, and shake their heads. Air signs tend to be logical and linear; they can see the bigger picture and they don't get jealous or possessive. Sonny is a 1 degree sun sign Gemini, so he still has some Cancer energy hanging around, and the other planetary positions are so dominant, that one poor air sign hasn't got much of a chance. Control freaks create their own karma. They want absolute control and truth, and yet they set the scenario whereby everyone wants to do anything but tell the truth and set the monster free to wreck their lives. Control freaks need to take responsibility for their personality and actions and see that if they act reasonably they will get truth in return. They create their own world of lies.....and can't figure out why people find the need to lie to them!! An intriguing sidelight - In any chart, you can read the key members in the person's life by 'turning the wheel" - for instance, the 4th house is where mother's energy is demonstrated. If we make the 4th house Mom's first house, we can read about her thru her child's chart and sometimes learn more than reading her own chart. In Sonny's case, Carly is his second wife, which shows up in his 9th house. Her child would be in the 5th house. So we use Sonny's 9th house as Carly's first, and count over 5 and find that it is Sonny's first house.....where Michael shows up....and we do see that Michael is starting to become a 'chip off the old block' even if Sonny isn't his biological father. As I write this it's 11/2/05, and the new Carly is about to debut. It will be interesting to see how the new actress' energy affects the character and the direction of the storyline.
copyright 2005, Pamela Leigh Powers; all rights reserved.
Photo credit: photos on these soap pages are attributable to ABC TV and Jim Warren.
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