Tale of Two Teds: The Light and Shadow of Venus Retrograde in Scorpio

On the surface, Ted Turner and Ted Bundy seem worlds apart. Yet both share early childhood hardships and the same astrological signature: a natal retrograde Venus in Scorpio. Venus is in its detriment in Scorpio, burying deep desires and complicating self-worth. Natal retrograde Venus further internalizes this energy, sometimes leaving one feeling undervalued and driven by intense urges others may not relate to. For both men, strained parental relationships forged profound feelings of inadequacy that ultimately morphed into a relentless drive for control.

 

Born November 24, 1946, at 10:35pm in Burlington, Vermont just after a solar eclipse, serial killer Ted Bundy was raised believing his unwed mother was his sister. Although Bundy spoke admirably about his upbringing, he spent his earliest years living with a violently abusive grandfather. Psychologists note that severely abused children often adopt their abuser’s persona, inflicting onto others what was done to them. “[His] grandfather… was an extraordinarily violent person, and also a very psychiatrically disturbed man. Bundy had no recollection of this…It is not unusual for a child who has been horribly abused throughout childhood to at times take on the persona of the abuser and do to others what the abuser did to him.”[1] 

Bundy’s 4th house ruling family and hidden foundations holds a heavy stellium, including his retrograde Venus and Mercury in Scorpio. Because Venus rules his Midheaven, his public image remains linked to his dark roots. Furthermore, his Mercury retrograde in Scorpio squares his Leo Ascendant. Beneath his charm lay dark, insidious thoughts, which he spun into captivating charisma. For Bundy, the Venus and Mercury retrograde in Scorpio showed up as a skewed view of self-worth and explained how his response to deep-seated childhood trauma expressed later as an obsession with intense control and possession over another.

Born one Venus retrograde in Scorpio cycle before, and worlds apart, media mogul Ted Turner had the same chart signature but expressed his desire to prove himself in a brighter light.

Ted Turner was born on November 19, 1938, at 8:50 am in Cincinnati, Ohio- one day before that year’s Venus Cazimi, also known as the Venus Star Point. As a young boy, Turner was sent to a military boarding school. Turner’s father was a domineering man with high expectations; he suffered from bipolar disorder, chronic alcoholism, and fits of rage that would be directed towards Ted.

Riddled with debt and despair, Ted Turner’s father took his life when Turner was 24, leaving his billboard company for Turner to handle. “You either break down, or you break out,” the mogul told Good Morning America in 2008. “The losers break down, the winners break out.”[2]

Venus, the ruler of Turner’s Midheaven in Libra, sits beside the Sun in the 12th house in Scorpio, the house of what is hidden, private, and unresolved. Mars, the ruler of his 12th house, sits in the 10th house of career in Libra. Venus and Mars are in mutual reception, so the private wound and the public career keep trading places. Jane Fonda, one of Turner’s ex-wives, has said, “As a result of his upbringing, for Ted there’s a fear of abandonment that is deeper than with anyone I’ve ever known. As a result, he needs constant companionship, and keeping up with him can be exhausting. He can’t sit still because if you sit still, the demons catch up with you. He has to keep moving.” [3]

Bundy and Turner both grew up surrounded by violence. Both were made to feel they were worth little, and both had confusing, painful relationships with the men who served as their fathers. Both men were born with Venus retrograde in Scorpio, and each lived this placement from opposite ends of its spectrum. Bundy used his striking charm and compulsive need for conquest as a lure, becoming a serial killer until he was pursued and finally captured. Turner took the wounds of his upbringing and the losses that followed and turned them into fuel, becoming one of the best-known media moguls and most powerful businessmen of his time. Beneath both lives ran the same Venusian hunger: to be loved, validated, and recognized for who they were and brought into the world.

Their natal retrograde planet answered to the shadows of Scorpio in different ways. Arielle Gutmann writes in Venus Star Rising “Scorpio Venus Star Point individuals are drawn to the shadow side of everything… once drawn to the dark realms, they may realize they’re in over their heads…Yet no individuals are more capable of walking through the valley of the shadow of death than Scorpio Venus Star Point people. They come equipped at birth with special lenses- instincts- that can navigate through dark, uncharted terrain.”[4]

Cited Sources:
1. Miller, Julie. “Is This Why Ted Bundy Became a Murderer?” Vanity Fair, 20 Nov. 2020, www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/11/ted-bundy-dorothy-lewis-documentary.)
2. ABC News. “Turner: Tough Father ‘Made Me a Better Man.’” ABC News, abcnews.com/GMA/story?id=6222003. Accessed 13 Oct. 2026.
3. Golden, Michael. “The ‘Weird Wons’: Ted Turner’s Epic American Journey.” The “Weird Wons”: Ted Turner’s Epic American Journey, THE GOLDEN MEAN, 8 May 2026, thegoldenmean2040.substack.com/p/the-weird-wons-ted-turners-epic-american.
4. Guttman, Arielle. Venus Star Rising: A New Cosmology for the Twenty-First Century. Sophia Venus Productions, 2011. Page. 146