Contents
1: Still Doing the Time-Warp
2: Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter
3: From the Stage to the Screen
4: Brad and Dammit, Janet!
5: The Haunted House Trope: Oakley Court
6: Rocky Horror’s Lasting Legacy
1: Still Doing the Time-Warp
It’s astounding that fifty years on and we still jump up to do the Time Warp again.
Then people nervously watch the phenomenal entrance of Frank-n-Furter (Tim Curry) tapping his glam heels, throwing off his cloak and singing ‘Sweet Transvestite’ full throttle. Then he does an equally dramatic exit all bite and anticipation. Up he goes in in the clunky old elevator to put the final touches on his personal creation of ‘a man with blonde hair and a tan.’
It is a deliciously wicked performance and rightly perceived as one of the best ever film debuts. Watch it a hundred times and nothing diminishes the enjoyment- and that is rare indeed. Tim Curry, an Aries, set the standard high. He infused so much devilish wit, fearlessness and dynamism into that one performance that it has created a full-blown cult.
His partner in crime Riff Raff (Richard O’Brien) was another Aries, wrote the music and the stage show and wanted Curry for the main role. Then there was also Jim Sharman (Pisces) the director. he added touches to the stage show got O’Brien to write Time-Warp to add a dance number to the film script. The sheer zaniness of the set-up, the fast-paced music and the shock value of the rampant sexuality all adds to the crackpot energy that is the Rocky Horror experience. Rocky Horror fans need no reminders.
But still we can ask why is Rocky Horror incredibly more popular now that it was in 1975 when it first appeared? Why does it repay so many repeated viewings, especially at midnight? Why is it so celebrated at Halloween? Why does this film, made on a budget of less than $1,000,000, still draw crowds and create audience participation on a grand scale? And why is there such intense religiosity in its devotees making it the most cultish of all cult films?
Does astrology have any explanations for this? On October 31st, when the veil is thin and the darkness intensifies, the Rocky Horror Picture Show will be shown in countless film theatres across the US, Canada and the UK and the ‘shadow’ cast will emerge to imitate and do talk back dialogue to the characters on screen and to. Even the staid looking narrator has his own fans.
This is partly also due to the fact that people want to honour the legacy of Tim Curry who passed aged 80 on August 25th. There was a lunar eclipse three days later when Neptune was opposite his natal Neptune, Jupiter was on his Pluto and Chiron on his Sun.
But 2026 is also the 50th anniversary of the first midnight showing of the film at the Waverly in NYC.
The one planet that can cast such an eerie spell over people and hook them in is Neptune, with its ability to glamorise, lure, dazzle and mystify, but there are other players here too such as Pluto for the murder and mayhem and of course asteroid Eros for its pulsing love arrows towards expressing desire. This film is all about desire in a big way with the song ‘Don’t Dream it, Be It’, which is not just sex but the driving vision for life.
Cult films come in different varieties but by definition they must have a dedicated following and be somewhat transgressive. The Rocky Horror Picture Show fits this bill completely but is also unique as it’s a genuine hybrid, stitched together from mis-matched pieces like Frankenstein himself. It’s a cocktail of genres- Comedy, a Horror, Science Fiction (Double Feature), a Romance and a Musical all rolled into one. It’s a series of B-movie pastiche vignettes that should not gel together at all, but it certainly does, and as everyone knows it’s a whole lot of fun too.
2: Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter
Since Tim Curry is the most forceful presence in the show and film it’s hard to ignore him. Mick Jagger did not stand a chance getting the role of Frank-N-Furter though he tried. Curry’s ability to perform full on and mould his personality and transform himself into the role uncannily alive, and is very Pluto in Leo, which is the actor doing what he does best centre stage with all eyes on him. Leo is the leader, and can be the the royalty of acting if you like. His face and voice were malleable and evocative. The high class accent he developed added enormously to the satirical twist and made Frank- N -Furter so memorable. He is in fact a psychopathic deluded narcissist but is also very sweet, funny and endearing. Curry’s ‘voice’ became his main currency of his career doing voiceovers. The only planet in Taurus which rules the voice and throat is Venus at home in its own sign there where that Venus squares Saturn in Cancer giving it control and solid foundation. Curry also had his own singing career as a rock star and released several albums.
The ‘risk’ taking aspect is pure Aries free spirit. His Elements/Modalities balance is all Cardinal and Fire, with only Venus in an Earth sign. Curry was born to play villains with such glee that the good characters around him become boring by comparison. He so ended up as the devil himself in Legend (1985) directed by Ridley Scott and the darkly menacing clown in It the 1990n two-part TV series which was said to have traumatised a generation of youngsters. He said he was not an ‘actor’ but a kind of ‘animator’.
Neptune is all important for film actors and directors and people said Curry is very ‘seductive’. One interviewer mentioned this alluring quality he had and said that if Curry was the devil then she would gladly go to hell with him. He was that seductive.
And that makes me think of Dracula, a role he could have made his own if given the chance. It should not be surprising that Bram Stoker (8/11/1847) who created Dracula has Neptune- all that baleful hypnotic glare which seduced victims- conjunct asteroid Eros- the very force of sex itself- via sucking the blood leading to a contagion. This conjunction is sextile to Pluto in Aries. All the dark and nebulous ingredients are there when Neptune meets Eros.
The publication date of Dracula, the grandfather of all horror archetypes, even has Eros conjunct the Sun in Gemini. Stoker grew up at a time when Cholera was contagious and people were being accidently buried alive in Sligo, Ireland- hence ‘undead’. He also worked the theatre world where he was obliged to suppress his feelings for men and hide his friendship with Oscar Wilde during the time he was vilified in the press.
Tim Curry, born 19th April 1947 in Cheshire, has Neptune in early Libra sextile to Pluto in Leo and opposite Eros in Pisces (ruled by Neptune). He has a Grand Fire trine of Mercury in Aires, Pluto in Leo and the Moon in Sagittarius, so he was set to inspire people at a visceral level. But Mars can even be included in that trine as it is in late Cancer and a few degrees later it would be in the fire sign of Leo too. There is some debate as to whether that Moon might be at the tail end of Scorpio since the time is unknown and if born around 8am in the morning, it would be 29° of Scorpio. I like the idea of this and Scorpio can be devilish but doesn’t always have a sense of humour. Clowns are very Sagittarian too and can have a dark side as in Curry’s terrifying ‘It’ clown. Curry never lost his sense of wit and his performances lift the characters from the darkness into the light, so he seems to have hybrid qualities of both signs with his gift for comedy with a dark-light touch. So around 8.29am puts it right on the cusp. Sharp wit would also come from a Mercury ruled by Mars in Aries.
It’s fascinating that Tim Curry has asteroid Eros at 29° of Pisces conjunct Mercury across signs to Aries. This is the powerful endpoint of the zodiac degree in a decan also ruled by Mars with Mars as the ancient ruler of Scorpio. Mercury/Eros here is square to his Psyche conjunct the North Node. So, the lovers Eros and Psyche are positioned at an awkward distance pointing at a challenge to overcome.
So, he launched a movement towards more open sexuality whether he knew it or not and all the letters from fans he received thanked him for having triggered a sense of liberation and freedom. He was proud to have touched so many lives. Curry’s acting and singing skill is evident in every single role he played, even in the voiceovers. It is a Mercurial style – that leaps ably across that divide, the end and the beginning of the zodiac, where qualities that are both ancient and wise to cheeky and boyish combine together to produce and incredibly versatile and expressive talent. The Sabian symbol of Mercury at this degree seems to back this up – ‘A comedian entertains a group’ and the Sun placement even more so – ‘A Celestial Choir singing’.
His private life was always kept private so speculation tends not to lead anywhere. He was silent about any love affairs which lends weight to the possibility of a Scorpio moon. In his memoir, Vagabond, he says only that he has experienced ‘true love, true heartbreak and everything in between’. It looks like he may have sublimated any sexuality (Eros in Pisces) into making his performances as electrifying as possible and he certainly achieved that goal.
3: From the Stage to the Screen
The Rocky Horror Show was modelled on a 1932 film called the Old Dark House with kookie characters. This was directed by English director James Whale (22/7/1889) who created the impactful gothic style of the first Frankenstein movies. He has that ‘horror’ signature -the Pluto and Neptune conjunct in Gemini.
That was the seminal conjunction of those two planets prevalent in the last decade of the 19th century but influencing the entire first 50 years of the 20th century as natives born at this time grew up to become leading players. These include Adolf Hitler, Charlie Chaplin, Agatha Christie, Rudolph Hess, Marcel Duchamp, Herman Goering, Jean Cocteau, Buster Keaton, Mae West and J.R.R. Tolkein. The three most connected to horror at least in the realm of storytelling are Alfred Hitchcock, Boris Karloff and H.P. Lovecraft.
Pluto and Neptune are now enjoying another sextile part of that synodic cycle that lasts into 2028 and won’t reach the square until 2061-2065 when a whole lot more mayhem may ensue.
Incidentally Noel Coward (16/12/1889) also has this conjunction Pluto/Neptune/Moon and his very first play the Vortex was about drug addiction and an all too close mother-son relationship. He also wrote one of the most popular comedy ‘ghost’ story plays in ‘Blithe Spirit.’ An affinity with the supernatural is almost a given for those with this Pluto/Neptune conjunction in their charts. This association with horror perhaps explains why it is so popular at Halloween.
The stage show premiered in an upper room at the Royal Court Theatre in Chelsea in June of 1973. The Sun and Saturn in Gemini were locked on to Tim Curry’s North Node and asteroid Psyche- the soul. Transiting Mars was on Curry’s natal Eros/Mercury and transiting Eros was on his natal Pluto in Leo. It rapidly sold out and moved to bigger and bigger theatres, the Rialto and then the Comedy Theatre. The Pluto-Neptune sextile was slowly moving into position.
This Pluto- Neptune- Eros pattern tends to recur like a guitar riff with charts and events related to Rocky Horror. At the premiere of Rocky Horror Picture Show film in London14th August 1975, Pluto in Libra was sextile to Neptune in Sagittarius. And as if to emphasise the darker content, Uranus, Eros, the Moon and the North Node were all in Scorpio giving the show a booster of fishnet and garter kinkiness. Pluto was conjunct Tim Curry’s natal Neptune and both these planets move very slowly.
Whether it did well or not it has this eccentric signature built into its DNA. It presented a transvestite, and Scorpio is all about transformation whether cross dressing or from a Transexual planet. Uranus and Eros here add to the fetish aspect. Neptune was opposite to Mars in square to Venus in Virgo so in a T-Square. Mars was at 29°of Taurus can be set to do the ultimate at the anaretic degree which seems to pop up frequently as noted with both Curry and O’Brien’s charts.
At the first screening of the film in LA on 26th September 1975, Eros was conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius opposite the Moon in Gemini. Pluto was still then sextile to Neptune.
By the first midnight screening at the Waverly in NYC, on April 1st 1976 Neptune had only moved 3°. The Sun/Mercury in Aries were opposite Pluto and this same Sun/Mercury was in trine formation to Neptune. Venus was conjunct Eros in Pisces on Tim Curry’s personal Eros. Both were square to Saturn and Mars was trine to Uranus. That’s a dynamic impact to make. Venus represents the theatre and Neptune film so here was a hybrid people acting up in front of the white screen. After many fears of its failure or that it would sink into obscurity, the Rocky Horror Show had finally made its mark and found its most responsive audience. This marked the beginning of its enduring appeal with a growing cult following, copy cat performances across the USA and with a shadow cast showing up to take part in the action who themselves would become mini-celebrities.
Richard O’Brien (25/3/1942) was the driving force in the germination of Rocky Horror and playing one of its most curious characters, the hunch back Riff Raff servant and/or master of Frank-N-Furter. He came up with the concept from love of Sci Fi b movies and he wrote the songs. Once he met the raw talent that was Tim Curry, he knew he had his Frank-N-Furter in the bag.
He also has Eros at that peculiar 29° but in Capricorn. So, the alliance with Tim Curry makes sense as they both met while performing in the stage musical Hair. They are both Aries sun signs and both have a 29° Eros placement. There was a lot to unleash there as the 29° is the culmination of all that goes before it, and it has taken time for him to absorb his sexual identity issues (Pluto conjunct Chiron in Leo). Besides playing Riff Raff, one key role he had was as the mysterious magician Dr. John Dee in Derek Jarman’s film Jubliee (1978). Although married three times to women, he has claimed to be on a spectrum of male to female and took oestrogen for a while.
He has not made any money on the Rocky Horror film as 20th Century Fox owned it and then the biggest irony of all is that the Walt Disney company purchased Fox in 2019. So Rocky Horror is a Disney asset.
He made a sequel Shock Treatment in 1981 also directed by Jim Sharman, but it died a death like many sequels- the magic of the first film simply was not there. Sharman too his credit fought hard to keep most of the original stage show cast so Patricia Quinn (Gemini) as Magenta and Nell Campbell (Gemini) as Colombia came along for the ride and have been praised for these roles. Meat Loaf (Libra) as Eddy was an import from the US like Brad and Janet.
4: Brad and Dammit, Janet!
If any film can make you lose your innocence it is this film. Brad and Janet are key characters as they provide the love romance and act as a sharp contrast to all the weirdos and the strangeness going on. Their all-American-Pie normality and naivety is almost too much to be true and Frank-N-Furter needed a bite. Their innocence is cruelly mocked and yet they become near carbon-copies of Frank-N-Furter by the finale and then zapped by the Medusa Transducer.
This film provided the platform for the debut of Susan Sarandon (4/10/1946) as Janet Weiss. She was personally suggested by Tim Curry since the film production insisted on having American actors play the engaged couple. Sarandon went on to play a variety of acclaimed roles. Here she was an unknown but does a memorable scream on first sighting of Frank-N-Furter and even tries to sing. She faints a lot besides being very naughty as Janet cheating on Brad with both Frank-N-Furter and Rocky.
But what of the actress? Sarandon has Uranus conjunct her North Node which provides the fuel for Janet’s sudden switch to kink when she does give herself over to pleasure. She got pneumonia during the filming standing for hours in the cold with little clothing on and no heating. Sarandon has Sun conjunct Neptune in Libra and Saturn, Pluto and Eros all conjunct in Leo which are both powerful placements for any actor to have and almost guarantees success in film acting and getting leading roles.
The leading man was Barry Bostwick (25/2/1945) played Brad Majors with the charming baggy sized Y- Front underwear. He is the classic all-American boy full of optimism. Bostwick’s synastry with Sarandon is powerful and were actually having an affair during the filming. conjunct her His Uranus is conjunct his Eros in Gemini (on Sarandon’s Uranus/North Node) and his Pluto/Moon lands on her Pluto/Saturn/Eros in Leo. His Chiron/Neptune is on her Sun in Libra. That pairing while it may not have lasted as a love affair has definitely has lasted over time forever connecting them to one of their first and enduring popular roles.
5: The Haunted House Trope: Oakley Court
Any film the begins with a car running out of petrol in a thunderstorm, and there just happens to be a spooky old gothic house nearby which becomes the only safe haven for the unsuspecting protagonists, fits this bill. This trope has been overdone but here it is a hilarious spoof so it works as a set up for the main action. The Rocky Horror Show can be added to all the classic haunted house films and there are many great ones to mention. Everyone has their favourites but The Haunting based on Shirley Jackson’s novel stands out as the house itself is the spirit that is pulsating and alive as if closing in on its protagonists.
But other come to mind like the Overlook hotel in The Shining (1980) with its labyrinthine corridors and garish carpet. One very chilling place is the very ordinary council house of the Hodgson family in The Enfield Conjuring 2 (2016) proving that it doesn’t have to be a Gothic mansion, Dracula’s castle in the Carpathians or Carfax Abbey to be genuinely spooky. An example is or the house in the Lutz family Amityville Horror (1979) which looks like it has two eyes. Or the Dunsmuir house in Burnt Offerings (1976) with something strange in the attic.
Though if the Frankenstein place was actually just posing as a house and was actually a spaceship as well, it might be disqualified from this haunted house category. The very idea that the house is really a space ship leaves all the visiting characters in a fog of bewilderment. The film was made on location at Oakley Court in Windsor. This very same gothic looking house was the location for Hammer Horror’s The Brides of Dracula in 1962 and The Plague of the Zombies (1966). Rocky Horror was filmed at the end of 1974 when the house was barely used. It was without running water or heating. It was renovated and opened as a hotel.
Some people even call it the ‘Time Warp Hotel’ as you can now stay there as a guest. It has all the hallmarks of a haunted house ready for take off.
6: Rocky Horror’s Lasting Legacy
It seems we are not done yet with Rocky Horror and it may be around for another 50 years. That Pluto-Neptune is a long one and can play with people’s minds to bring on full transformation where they may not even know it is happening as the allure works like hypnotism.
On a side note, another famous native with Neptune conjunct Eros placement but at the end of Pisces was psychologist Sigmund Freud (6/5/1856), purveyor of dreams and sexual repression. It may have begun with the publication of Studies on Hysteria in 1895.
Yet another case was fashion designer Gianni Versace (2/12/1946) who had Neptune conjunct Eros in early Libra. He even marketed a perfume (Neptune) actually called ‘Eros’ and yet unfortunately he was shot dead outside his own house in Miami by a young stalker, Andrew Cunanan.
So Halloween or Samhain (Saw-in) is when all the Dracula lookalikes come out of their bat caves, or people dress as zombies or as Frankenstein’s monster. And we can all wish that we too had a Medusa Transducer machine to reduce our enemies to stone. October 31st is in the realm of Mars the traditional and Pluto the modern rulers of the sign of Scorpio in which people transform themselves from Scorpion, to a Snake shedding skin, to an Eagle riding high, to a Phoenix reincarnating and transfiguring. It is the Plutonic domain where Sex and Death are inextricably linked.
Young author Mary Shelley (30/8/1797) who wrote the original story of Frankenstein, one of the most influential ever written, has a strong Pluto-Neptune to Sun/Mars connection. Her Pluto is at 29° of Aquarius trine to Neptune and opposite the Sun/Mars. The two most copied monsters in horror lore are Frankenstein’s creation and Dracula leaving the werewolf somewhere behind so we have Shelley and Stoker to thank for that.
So with all these placements connecting Neptune Eros and Pluto as in Bram Stoker’s chart, it appears to point firmly towards an ability to embrace the inner darkness, have knowledge of supernatural powers and projections of terrors from the unconscious mind. Curry’s Eros is at that funky 29° of Pisces too and he embodied one of the most potent archetypes of unabashed transgression that we have in film. It is both a celebration and a triumph.
It would not surprise me also that many of the fans of Rocky Horror – all those devoted to this kind of horror- and if Eros or Uranus is in that configuration with a bit of kink thrown in -would find this aspect somewhere in their charts. But you don’t need that to get up and dance the Time-Warp once again.
© Kieron Devlin, October 26th, 2026
Also available on Substack
Tim Curry (2025) Vagabond London: Penguin Books
All article sources in the hyperlinks.
Image sources
- Tim Curry and Peter Hinwood as Rocky from Cinemania.com
- Original Rock Horror Show poster from Wikipedia.com
- Rocky Horror Fans from The New York Post August 13 2025
- Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter from Buzzfeed.com
- Tim Curry as Tim Curry from the Evening Standard.
- Promos and Posters montage of Rocky Horror from various sources.
- Richard O’Brien as Riff Raff from Idbm.com
- Brad Majors and Janet Weiss from Screenrant.com
- Oakley Court from Wikivisually.com
- Eros Perfume poster from Sharabella.com
