Mariah Carey

[Jim Eshelman]

March 27, 1969, 7:27 AM, Huntington, NY (I rate it: C)

In reviewing a medical astrology thread, I was reminded that Venus Daily raised Mariah Carey as an example of certain things and I pointed out that there is a lot of uncertainty about her birth. I never followed up on that. Astro.com rates the birth data as B (biography), favoring a birth year different from what is usually given in the press. I thought I should follow up on this and give the full background - drawing on details aggregated by Astro.com.

An anonymous source quotes an article in Rolling Stone magazine, 23 February 2006, for time of birth and date [1]: "When Patricia Carey gave birth to a seven-pound baby girl at 7:27 A.M. on March 27th, 1970, the nurse turned to her and said, "That's gonna be one lucky baby."

These are the birth data most commonly cited by astrologers. However, they can't be correct. A newspaper article nearly one year earlier (The Long-Islander in Huntington, NY, page 3, "Recent Births Are Announced," April 10, 1969), stated:

Recent births at Huntington Hospital have been announced as follows... March 27 Mariah, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Carey, Huntington").

Therefore, the birth must have been 1969, not 1970.

Reporters have tried to fine tune this with biographical details such as her age when she graduated high school, but it seems the newspaper report of her birth in 1969 is definitive by itself. (She and her mother have both been cagey about her age, with Mariah seeming to want to avoid the whole subject - a bigger deal when she was quite young, of course. One reporter found that her driver's license - a legal document with penalties for lying - had the 1969 date on it.)

So it's 1969.

The question remaining, then, is whether there is sufficient reason to think that the Rolling Stone article has a correct time (7:27 AM). I'm not ready to put confidence in that. Therefore, I don't think the time deserves a B rating (from 'biographical' sources) but, rather, a C rating for "no confirmation of source of the data."

[Jim Eshelman]

So, now... what about the chart itself.

Carey has had a life marked by extraordinary, almost mind-blowing talent and success - intertwined with enormous troubles. It has always seemed to me that these dealt primarily with intimate relationships and her complicated relationship with her mother. This shows in the natal chart for March 27,1969, 7:27 AM EST, Huntington, NY.

She is a Pisces-Gemini. The number of divas (in the technical and casual sense) born with Pisces Sun or Moon is remarkable, and Mariah certainly stands among them. At the same time, a double Spoke isn't sturdy. The Gemini Moon close to an angle shows vulnerability, especially through her nervous system. A Neptune-ruled Sun and Mercury-ruled Moon creates a pairing that seems difficult to me. (In my files, there is, however, a significant showing of music and performance talent, from Haydn to Chaka Khan.)

Her strongest configuration is a partile Venus-Saturn conjunction with Saturn exactly square Midheaven. Every detail of this seems to fit: Venus-Saturn, of course, describes not only her "trouble with men" and general relationship drama but also what seems like an innate ability and willingness to "sacrifice everything" for her goal - and, of course, an aspect common for accumulating great wealth. She would have this aspect for any birth time, but the addition of Saturn half a degree from an angle shows both the hard-working, disciplined, sacrificing professional and the enormous hardship (especially for someone otherwise so advantaged).

Other than this, the only angular/foreground contribution is wide. Moon comes next, about 6° off IC and in 2° mundane square to Saturn - a signal of her relationship with her mother. Eris is 3° below Ascendant (but I'm not ready to say we know for sure what that means, especially working with less than certain birth times). Neptune and Pluto barely creep into the foreground (their midpoint is 0°04' from Descendant). [Pluto opposes Saturn mundanely.]

The main features, then, are Pisces-Gemini luminaries, a partile Venus-Saturn conjunction on Eastpoint, and a foreground Moon-Saturn mundane square.

There are plenty of other things worth observing, of course. Mars in Scorpio matches the raw, visceral power she has always wielded. Moon squares not just Saturn but also Venus, a mark of her great charm and popularity. Mercury's ecliptical and mundane aspects are worth exploring. Mars octiles Saturn. She has a charmed, talented Jupiter-Uranus conjunction.

But Pisces-Gemini, angular Venus-Saturn, and the Moon aspects seem to give the big picture.

[Venus_Daily]

Thank you for this information, Jim. Your assessment is correct. She has suffered from Type I bipolar disorder, which probably gave her enormous drive and energy that a lot of unaffected people don't possess. It's very much a double-edged sword that led to her infamous breakdown in the summer of 2001 when her album "Glitter" was released, which was ironically overshadowed by the events of 9/11.

[Jim Eshelman]

All that's "Glitter" is not gold ... but it did eventually go platinum!