Lorde’s Birth Chart Reveals So Much About Her New Album, <i>Virgin</i>

What was that? Oh, just Lorde dropping her fourth studio album at the very moment that her Saturn return begins. If, like the Scorpio songstress, you were born between April 7, 1996, and Feb. 28, 1999, there’s a good chance you’re entering this cosmic rite of passage too. (Find out for yourself with this calculator.)

Lorde was born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor on Nov. 7, 1996, reportedly at 10 A.M. in Takapuna, New Zealand. That was the last time that Saturn was at 1º Aries in the sky—just as it will be again on June 27, the day that her full Virgin album drops.

The first Saturn return, which happens around 29 years old, represents your astrological entrance into adulthood. Yes, kind of like a bat mitzvah or a quinceañera. In astrology, Saturn is the planet of wisdom and maturity, the kind that we can only gain through lived experiences—and overcoming challenges.

It’s been four years since Lorde’s last album, Solar Power, was released in 2021. She’s been quietly growing up since then, emerging with a nuanced perspective, as one often does during a Saturn return. The lyrics of her Virgin single “What Was That” unspool like a retrospective as Lorde looks back on her younger days with wonder at her naiveté.

MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up

We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that?

I remember saying then, “This is the best cigarette of my life”

Well, I want you just like that

Indio haze, we’re in a sandstorm, and it knocks me out

I didn’t know then that you’d never be enough

Since l was 17, I gave you everything

Now, we wake from a dream

Well, baby, what was that?

While the Saturn return emphasizes wisdom, it’s not the end of anyone’s youthful era. Anyone lucky enough to be wandering through New York City’s Washington Square Park this past April 22 may have caught Lorde’s public performance of “What Was That,” footage of which was captured for the song’s music video. It was also the kind of gritty, daring, in-the-moment move that’s a hallmark of people born with Saturn in the fiery sign of Aries.

Naming an album Virgin as one crosses the Saturn return threshold might sound like an ironic choice. But Lorde’s birth chart reveals otherwise. Along with her sultry, mysterious Scorpio sun sign, she was born with the moon in Virgo, the sign of purity. While the sun directs your outer personality, your moon sign reveals your emotional nature. Where Scorpio is passionate and investigative, Virgo tends to be measured and innocent. It’s definitely a paradox.

The way Lorde describes Virgin actually resonates with her birth chart. True to the Scorpio sun, she said the album was “100% written in blood.” In accordance with her Virgo moon, she even named the color of the project as “clear,” “like bathwater, windows, ice, spit.” And if that’s not enough of a cosmic parallel, the album art pays homage to the body parts ruled by Scorpio: an inky blue X-ray of a pelvis with a zipper and belt buckle.

Rounding out Lorde’s Big Three is her Capricorn ascendant. Also known as your rising sign, this placement is like your cosmic PR agent. It reveals how you project yourself to the outside world—your body, your style, and your image—and how you come across to other people.

While this ambitious placement no doubt imbues Lorde with a tireless work ethic, it also nods to her recent comments about “broadening” her gender, as Capricorn is the sign associated with masculinity. As the New Zealand artist sings in her latest single, “Hammer,” “Some days, I’m a woman, some days, I’m a man.”

With tracks like “Shapeshifter” and “GRWM” awaiting their June 27 release date, we’re sure this Scorpio has more surprises up her sleeve. What could that mean for Lorde, who was already an international success with the release of “Royals” at the tender age of 16? As she moves into her Saturn return era, a three-year journey that lasts until April 2028, we can’t wait to see what Lorde is actually getting ready for.

Check out Lorde’s full birth chart analysis by The AstroTwins here.