‘Sinners’ and the interplay of the fourth, eighth, and twelfth houses in astrology

How an evening of community and collaboration, blood-thirsty vampires, and dimension-shifting blues music tells a story of the complex landscapes hiding in plain sight within the astrological houses.

With the recent digital release of “Sinners,” this seems like as good a time as any to admit that I am still not over this film.

‘Sinners’ came out months ago, and while I’ve seen it more than a few times since then, I still remember the thoughts that swam in and out of my mind in the hours following that initial viewing. Intermingling with ideas of afrofuturism, Black feminism, and the spirituality of self-determination, was a nagging thought (or several) about three specific astrological houses. Because while Stack and Mary don’t seem concerned about the compatibility of their Venus signs, and Remmick isn’t checking birth charts as he picks flesh from his teeth, I walked out of the theater thinking about astrology. Most of the film exists within the confines of the themes and topics of the fourth, eighth, and twelfth houses; three houses that all play an important role in understanding the legacies and lived experiences of Black people in America. Without engaging with astrology at all, ‘Sinners’ presents a beautiful and deeply reverent exploration of the meaning held within these subterranean, obscured, and peripheral houses (and the corners of our lives they reflect).