Like people, cities have their own horoscopes. The birth of a city occurs when its citizens remain in a particular place, establish a working agreement and call it home. By investigating a city's chart we gain some insight into what makes it unique. Here's a revealing look at Los Angeles, the 'City of Angels'.

Los Angeles

Born on September 4, 1781 - the day the first permanent settlers pitched their tents - Los Angeles is a Virgo. Ruled by Mercury, Virgo L.A. is an "eternal child," obsessed with achieving physical perfection. Hence the local preoccupation with health and staying young, not to mention the popularity of plastic surgery.

The rising sign of Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter, gives L.A. a friendly personality and a strong desire to please - which may be why Angelenos so often tend to promise things they can't always deliver. The Sagittarian influence also accounts for the city's love of sports, outdoors and travel, as well as its focus on the future and willingness to embrace anything new - and reject most things old.

The most prominent factor in L.A.'s chart is the Venus-Neptune conjunction in Libra in the tenth house. The tenth house rules career and public image. Neptune rules the realm of imagination (which includes both the film industry and the psychic world), as well as the worlds of drugs and alcohol. Venus, of course, rules love, romance, and beauty. The union of Neptune and Venus in Libra is what makes L.A. magical and inspirational, a place to which people come not simply to live and work but to become Somebody.

Saturn and Uranus rule L.A.'s third house, a condition associated with breathing difficulties (i.e. smog). As the third house also rules mass transportation, it's probably worth noting that L.A.'s is empty - while New York's, by contrast, happens to be full.

The extraordinary violence the city has seen in recent years may be the result of transiting Uranus (which rules change and revolution) conjuncting Mars (power, energy, and war) in Capricorn in the second house (which rules value systems). Call it coincidence, but the exact conjunction occurred in April 1992, the month of the eruption at Florence and Normandie.