The Light Horrific: The Astrology of Midsommar

**This article contains spoilers for the film 'Midsommar'**

The current conjunction between Saturn and Pluto (January 2018 - December 2021) has coincided with a new wave of art house horror films. During this time, directors including Jordan Peele (Us), Panos Cosmatos (Mandy), and Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) have all made exciting and novel contributions to the horror genre. These films are all, in their unique ways, distinctly expressive of the Saturn-Pluto archetypal complex (as outlined by Richard Tarnas in Cosmos and Psyche). 

Aster's folk-horror film Midsommar was released earlier this month in coincidence with the beginning of the Sun's opposition to the ongoing Saturn-Pluto conjunction. This triple planet alignment signifies a dynamic synthesis of the archetypes associated with the Sun, Saturn, and Pluto. The film, which serves as a powerful illustration of these combined archetypes, is centered around Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor), a young couple who are experiencing a relationship breakdown in the aftermath of a murder-suicide by Dani's sister which also claimed the lives of her parents. On the instigation of Christian's friend Pelle, the couple travel to Hårga in Sweden with a group of friends to stay on Pelle's ancestral commune, which is later revealed as a Pagan cult that practices ritual sacrifice. This setting provides a context in which Dani is compelled to confront her unresolved emotional trauma. Aster's fictional commune draws on the real folk traditions of Northern Europe with a special role given to the maypole dance, a fixture of many European folk festivals that serves as the film's central motif. Within this traditional setting the film works as a dramatic interplay between the archetypal themes of the Sun (wholeness, vitality, and luminosity); Saturn (grief, mortality, and death); and Pluto (danger, barbarism, and the animal nature of humanity).

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The archetypal principle associated with the astrological Sun is one of wholeness, vitality and luminosity; performance and self expression. The ritual of the maypole dance and its floral adornments are both symbolic of the joyful and exuberant energy of the Solar archetype. When Pluto is in hard aspect to the Sun it tends to intensify these qualities to an extreme. In contrast to most horror films, Midsommar is very brightly lit; almost every scene is pervaded by intense sunlight. The sunlight in Midsommar is preternatural and overwhelming, in fact much of the film's horror comes from the vivid illumination of death and visceral gore. The abundant presence of light is paradoxically a source of darkness, of evil made radiant. This is a very literal expression of the Solar archetype being compelled to a titanic extreme by the immense power of Pluto. Another tendency of Pluto is to infuse whatever it touches with a bestial or dangerous quality, this is apparent in the magnanimous attitudes and emotional warmth displayed by the commune elders that is tinged by a predatory undercurrent.

The Saturn archetype is expressed by numerous themes including the inevitability of aging and death; the enduring legacy of personal trauma and grief; the passage of time and its enactment through ceremony and traditional rituals; and the significant role of elders within a community. In Midsommar, all of these classically Saturnian themes are intensified to a Plutonic extreme. This tendency is most apparent in Dani's grief over the loss of her family (which is convincingly performed by Florence Pugh); the devastating and seemingly insurmountable trauma of this event is a continual presence that threatens to overwhelm Dani, and her fragile connection to Christian and the other group members, at various points in the film. When Saturn is in hard aspect to another planet it tends to draw out the problematic side of the other planetary archetype. The negative aspects of Pluto are strongly in evidence throughout Midsommar. Pluto is the archetype of fundamental life processes; of instinct and biology; of birth, sex, and death. The problematic potential of this archetype finds expression in the dark motifs of suicide, human sacrifice, and inbreeding.

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The final act of Midsommar sees Dani and the female members of the commune participate in a dancing ritual that is based on the real Swedish tradition of the Hårgadansen, or Hårga dance. Underlying this custom is a macabre legend that describes how the devil, disguised as a fiddler, came to Hårga and forced the villagers to dance until they were dead. This scene is a dramatic embodiment of the archetypal energies of the Sun, Saturn, and Pluto acting in concert with each other. This is a Solar ritual, as the Sun is the archetype of expression and performance, that is orchestrated by the personification of evil; the devil, being associated with eternal damnation and extreme punishment, is the theological expression of the Saturn-Pluto archetypal complex. Put simply, the joy of expression (the Sun) encounters finality, and death (Saturn), with an underworld twist (Pluto).