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Editor\u2019s note: Way back in the day\u2014the day being 2007, when we used Motorola Razrs and wore True Religion jeans\u2014Vanity Fair published this 2,500 word horoscope by our resident astrologer, Michael Lutin in our January issue. It wasn\u2019t his normal star spiel: usually, he wrote a playful zodiac column called \u201cPlanetarium\u201d where he gave unsolicited horoscopes to different celebrities. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a billionaire to enjoy the finer things in life,\u201d he wrote in October 2004 about Liv Tyler, alongside a cut out of her face. \u201cAll you need is Venus in the 2nd house to help you rationalize any purchases and pleasures you\u2019ve denied yourself for too long. You deserve to indulge yourself once in awhile, damn it, no matter what the doctor or taxman says.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n But for our January 2007 issue, he wasn\u2019t in the mood to write about Tyler\u2019s hypothetical shopping habits. Instead, he wrote a chaotic and sometimes dark prediction for America. \u201cFor nations, like people, have horoscopes,\u201d he said. \u201cAre we, in the end, ruthless imperialists doomed to be brought down by our degenerate culture?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Lutin\u2019s essay is worth reading in its entirety. He begins in the 1760s, where he argues that placements of the stars sparked the revolution itself. (\u201cMother England, once the great protector, was beginning to be the great drag. She wanted payback for all the protection she’d provided. That was when the colonists, starting to exhibit the collective traits of a Cancer nation, came to resent their mother’s hold on them. She was getting a little too bossy. And greedy,\u201d he wrote, as he wove all the way up to the Bush era and beyond.<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s that \u201cbeyond\u201d where it begins to feel eerie. It\u2019s one thing to retroactively apply planetary movements to history. It\u2019s another when you use them to predict the future. Like when he writes the following about the 2020s: “The country’s mood will become darker and much more conservative. It’s not going to be a matter of Democrat or Republican anymore, because the new ideologies will bleed across party lines.” Or: \u201cThe words \u2018patriot\u2019 and \u2018treason\u2019 will lose their meaning, and in some cases they will become interchangeable. What is treason to one person will be patriotism to another\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In the last several weeks, social media users have resurfaced Lutin\u2019s prescient pose. Unfortunately, Lutin died on November 10, 2024, well before he could learn of the newfound interest in this piece of his work. Below, read Lutin\u2019s original essay from Vanity Fair’s January 2007 issue in its entirety. -Elise Taylor<\/em><\/p>\n Illustration by John Craig.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n All alone and more paranoid by the day, President George W. Bush is getting it from all sides, and despite his bravado, which some people call a defensive, adolescent swagger, he can’t trust anybody, not even his mother. (Especially not his mother.) His detractors blame him for the state the world is in. Extremists go one further and say the world is coming to an end. Most of us in this country just want gas prices to go down, the dollar to go up, and America to go back to the good old days.<\/p>\n Astrologers can tell you that that’s not going to happen, but that, no matter what, we’ll never go broke either. They can also explain George Bush’s predicament by pointing out that he’s a Cancer, and that in coming years Cancers are going to be challenged to expand their whole worldview. In fact, we can all gain perspective on what is happening politically, culturally, and socially in America by turning to the Zodiac, especially the signs of Cancer and Capricorn. For nations, like people, have horoscopes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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