Feb 18: Helen Gurley Brown & Dr. Dre

[Jim Eshelman]

Helen Gurley Brown, February 18, 1922, 3:00 AM CST, Green Forest, AR (AA data)
Dr. Dre, February 18, 1965, 10:56 AM PST, Los Angeles, CA (AA data)

[Veronica]

Dr. Dre
Sun (aquarius) square asc/dec
Venus largely conjunct mc
Jupiter opposite Neptune tied in to a venus and mercury square (also being the midpoint of jupiter and neptune)
Uranus opposite saturn

Virgo moon
Shockingly strong likable persona that embodies an ideal of richness and fantasy in artistic communications urged on by strange circumstances that either discipled or restricted.

[Avshalom Binyamin]

Helen Gurly Brown

Saturn on MC. A loose Moon-Mars conjunction square to a Sun-Venus conjunction. I would expect this person to be passionate, driven, energetic, influential, but not in an in-your-face, obvious way. (I just looked her up, and yes, there's the influential position as editor of Cosmo, without being a household name like Dr. Dre.)

Dr. Dre

Venus angular instead of Saturn. Venus-Jupiter-Neptune t-square good for charming celebrity. Virgo moon gives needed linguistic ability, for rapping. Unaspected Mars helps preserve an aggressive/masculine rapper identity, in spite of all that Venus.

[Jim Eshelman]

(Good observations so far on Dre.)

When I think of Dr. Dre, the first two things that come to mind technology and great social impact. (The third thing I think of are themes of violence.)

For technology, it's all over his performance, engineering, and production work - plus, he's a co-founder of Beats Electronics. Technology has been a central theme of everything large in his professional life. I am unsurprised, then, to see that not only does he have an Aquarius Sun, he also has a Virgo Moon. (Even I have an HP Envy Beats laptop, and the sound is outstanding.)

He also was one of the artists at the center of the earliest large waves that put gangsta rap on the map. (Occasionally, you'll find someone who says that he's the one who did it, though obviously several great artists were in the mix at that time.) As a producer, he has launched or significantly furthered the career of a long list of artists considered gigantic in the genre.

His life seems to have been marked by the themes of entertainment, technology, intentional cultural impact, enormous success and wealth, and future-minded philanthropy.


Turning to the horoscope, the primary themes are the Aquarius-Virgo luminaries, a strong Leo presence including Mars, Sun closely square Ascendant, and a foreground Venus-Jupiter-Neptune T-square (which absorbs all of his close, dynamic aspects).

You can go down the full discussion of Aquarius Sun and Virgo Moon traits and you will see much that matches him, including themes of music, precision craft, technology, intentional cultural impact, and future-minded philanthropy. Leo Mars brings much of the flavor of his work.

Yet, while these are core descriptions of his character and life-purpose, the mode that these expressed was in entertainment. First, I think the closely angular Sun marks the many kinds of leadership he has portrayed, including production and direction. He has long seemed a singular solar figure, standing tall and proud. But the loud expression of entertainment as the mode of his life is the T-square V and Av both have mentioned: Venus on MC square rising Jupiter opposite setting Neptune. You can break this apart to get numerous subtleties, but the gross effect of foreground Venus-Jupiter-Neptune is clear. (Don't miss the specific meanings of the Jupiter-Neptune aspect, which are quite on target.)

Moon is unusually quiet in this chart. It's Virgo traits shine through (including, come to think of it, his stand for and dedication to education); but Moon is in the immediate background (within a degree of the 6th cusp) with no significant aspects. (A 26' quincunx to Saturn is close enough to be a viable square in the Novien.) I suppose this shows early life patterns, some uncertainty in the presence of his other (but with a strong presence by his grandmother), etc. My main point is to take this as an example of a chart with a significant absence of lunar traits. I can't think of anything particularly lunar about him, but anything seeming that way is probably really a Jupiter or Neptune trait.

If you want to consider house dynamics, the strong emphases are obvious: Sun and two other planets (Mercury and Venus) in the 10th House show a strong outer-world focus with emphasis on leadership and having maximum effect on the greater world. Also, Sun, Mercury, and Venus reasonably match themes of his professional life. The other emphasis is the 5th house (although Moon should count as 6th: It's within 1° of the 6th cusp mundanely). 5th House emphases are seen as much energy toward outward, dramatic expression of one's fundamental creative energy (in this case in a way consistent with Mars, Uranus, and Pluto). These are all accurate enough. I'm not clear what meaning, if any, a 6th house Moon has (besides LOL taking the sobriquette "Doctor"): From my theoretical house model it would be consistent with self-sufficiency, dutifulness, etc. so, if there is indeed anything to houses, it's likely something along that line. I'm unclear what Saturn in the 11th house might mean for him (I don't know much about his inner dialogue, where he has a block or barrier that he doesn't move past or see a way past, so I don't know if it has 11th house themes).

[Jim Eshelman]

Helen Gurley Brown was one of the most socially impactful women in modern times - something we are seeing a lot with these Aquarius examples. She is best known as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and creating the "Cosmo girl" myth. (I mean "myth" in the sense of a cultural archetype, a wave of collective psychic energy to ride, not in the sense of "fiction.") She made her initial impact with her radical-seeming book, Sex & the Single Girl, in 1962, leading to the Cosmo appointment three years later and her lifelong role as a driving force of the sexual revolution. Although, in this sense, she was de facto one of the most effective, accomplishing leaders of feminism and much ahead of its primary waves, she was controversial even within this - because more visible, open leaders of feminism often regarded her messages as contrary to their goals and method.

She's one of the best examples of Aquarius we can find, both in her future-minded, freedom-minded, creative innovative, outside-the-box intentional social impact, but in such things as ripping away quaint, restrictive barriers around sex - something we find a lot in Aquarius celebrities and especially Aquarius writers. The very word Cosmopolitan is as Aquarian a word as one could find: It most literally means "a citizen of the cosmos."


Brown's horoscope is one of the most vivid examples of primary life themes being seeded and transparent at birth. Her Sun was in Aquarius and her Moon with Mars in Scorpio. Sun conjoins Venus in Aquarius and they both square Mars (with Sun-Mars the chart's closest aspect besides radical, more general Uranus trine Pluto). Saturn dominates from Midheaven, closely square Pluto. The social radical, ferocious sexual, dynamic, vital leader who required and gained autonomy over her life and and set a standard of independence and self-sufficiency screams from the chart.

I normally pay little attention to signs on the angles, thinking them too minor an influence. For example, Ascendant reflects the most superficial outward presentation of a person, and Brown had Scorpio rising, which befit her public persona and image. (However, she also had Mars and Moon in Scorpio, so the case isn't simple.) Virgo on MC is consistent with a life centered around writing and (one might say) on young, ready women - though I would think of Saturn in Virgo as far more austere and even anti-sexual than one could ever accuse her of, so perhaps it is not a good example after all.

At age 15 she moved to Los Angeles from Arkansas. She attended high school here. Though the family moved away for a few years, she eventually came back. The location of Los Angeles had enormous impact on her, I am sure, for it placed her Mars just above Ascendant in tight mundane square to her Uranus on IC.

I don't need to say much more - the full chart unfolds explosively, vividly in the few points I summarized above. Her Sun placement and aspects alone portray a life-mission of sorts. (Sun's background position is consistent with Brown not being the primary focus - it was those she wrote for and the public wave she created and fed, that were the objects of attention.) Mercury doesn't do much, but its one close aspect is a close trine to Jupiter, an aspect related to publishing and, more broadly, to commercial success arising from intelligence, comfort with words, and good-natured optimism. (House-minded astrologers would add that Mercury in 2nd trine Jupiter in 10th shows the career and income focus of the aspect; I think these factors are already implicit in the aspect). I think we can credit her with the main traits of Mercury in Capricorn: A quiet, playfully perverse pride in her disagreeable opinions and autonomous thinking, quietly enjoying the shock value of spouting unusual ideas.

[Jim Eshelman]

There is an element of violence - his Compton experiences - that I do not see in Dr. Dre's natal. There are traits of standing up to it and being strong in the face of it, but not the violence themes themselves.

I do find this, though, in the Novien. First, though (since I mentioned it in passing above), yes, Novien Moon does square Saturn, but not closely - and they are both tied into Venus. Again, I think that family experiences and family attitudes are caught up in this:

21°44' Tau - Saturn
23°17' Sco - Venus
25°40' Leo - Moon

The patterns of violent conflict are in Mars aspects in the Novien:

8°57' Tau - Mars
10°34' Aqu - Pluto
12°19' Aqu - Mercury

While I'm looking at that chart, there is one other aspect just to note because it is so close and powerful (and different from what we see in his nativity). Just to mention it:

21°03' Pis - Sun
21°50' Vir - Neptune