Marilyn Monroe

[Jim Eshelman]

Aug 06, 2012

With all the press coverage over the 50th anniversary of Marilyn's death, and especially the recurring articles that her death remains a mystery after half a century, I thought I would review the astrological picture. I know that many of us have studied the chart for many years, but I don't recall that a full treatment exists in print anywhere.

Here is the well-known nativity from birth certificate time (June 1, 1926, 9:30 AM, Los Angeles, CA).

[chart expired]

Her death was on the evening of August 4, 1962 (August 5 is often given because that's when the body was found). There is some controversy over time of death, but it seems that 8:00 PM is a good time to use in assessing things, given key elements in the likely timeline.

[Jim Eshelman]

I'll give my conclusions first: The charts are consistent with an accidental self-administered overdose. By "accidental" I don't rule out suicidal thoughts etc. I simply mean that the event itself appears impulsive and reckless, more than thought-through.

TRANSITS:
t. Jupiter square r. Sun (2'). This is the strongest, most decisive factor in Marilyn's death chart. If there are mysteries of her death to be solved, it's in the subtleties of this aspect. Jupiter is common at death, either when it is relief from suffering, or in the extreme positive attention, honoring, religious rites, etc. in the immediate aftermath. The latter certainly fits! As to the former, one has to at least question (on the suicide theory) whether Marilyn took an action that, for her, was a knowing surrender to relief from psychological suffering. - I'm not sold on this, though, because a great deal of suicide is "relief from psychological suffering," and Jupiter transits to the Sun are not characteristic of suicides. (We'd see more of it, I think, if that were the point of it.) One thing is certain, though: It is not an aspect consistent with homicide. I'm inclined to view it as indulgence, an "extreme leisure" taken to much too great an extreme, wanting the floating feeling of the drugs but not directly self-destructive.

t. Mercury opposite r. Moon (22'). We do know that she spent her last lucid hour or so on the phone to a couple of people. This is also an aspect of insomnia.

SIDEREAL SOLAR RETURN:
The final SSR was, itself, unremarkable. (It had to cover too big a swath of time.) Its main feature was natal Venus on the Westpoint. This is consistent with other patterns (detailed below) showing a high-point in Marilyn's popularity, plus a general dominance of the Venus characteristics that were such a big part of her overall.

Transits to the SSR included t. Mars conjunct s. Mercuury (18'), another aspect of insomnia. One might suspect a quarrel, but that doesn't seem consistent with either the Dimaggio or Lorrey reports. It can be involved in drug issues. I think she was on edge, nerves rattling (especially with Mercury opposing her Moon), and she took pills to quiet down and try to get some sleep. T. Venus semisquared s. Neptune, which might refer to emotional-romantic ideas on her mind (a common theory of what was motivating her mood). It is, at least, consistent with wanting a floaty, painless, Edenic type of state of mind.

SECONDARY PROGRESSIONS:
These are complex. There are two main patterns.

The first is p. Venus & p. Midheaven conjunct r. Sun.The Midheaven had moved on past, but was still within orb. And it was this cluster (as connected to natal Sun) that received t. Jupiter's square at her death. I think this pattern is realted to Marilyn's career being surging so strongly (and the adoration that streamed forth consequent to her death).

The other main pattern involves p. Sun (21 Gem 17), p. Pluto (20 Gem 34), and p. Mars (21 Pis 33). This is probably the fatal combination - but fatal how? Life-crises happen under this type of combination. Stress builds, physical disseases break out. The temperament becomes more demanding of extreme, explosive experience. I would be very surprised if this marked the victim of a homicide, though, since progressed planets are very internal.

Finally, p. Moon squared r. Mars (36'). This is high-stress, conflictual, sexual, emotionally fierce. Marilyn's emotional state was quite volatile during this month in particular., and prone to impulsive, bold behavior (far outside of her norm).

SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN:
The 29 AQU 02 Ascendant was straddled closely by natal Mars (27 AQU 01) and Uranus (5 PIS 17). (Mudanely, her Mars rises when the Ascendant is 0 PIS 25, and her Uranus when it is 6 PIS 27.) This is a mark of impulsiveness, daring, recklessness. In seeming-suicides that I've seen with this sort of pattern, the death has been an accident. (There may have been thoughts about suicide, but the eventual death was an accident, e.g., toying with a gun while drunk and shooting oneself with it.) - A Venus-Pluto conjunction is squared by Mars, and the Pluto is only 3 degrees from the Descendant, so we have additional themes of sexuality and confrontation with deep emotional issues (e.g., a harsh separation). Was this part of the scenario, a motivator of her mood?

DEMI-SLR:
The Demi-Lunar on August 1 had natal Uranus conjunct the Midheaven and natal Pluto rising. For this, we would expect a need to break out of whatever has been defining one previously, a need to inaugurate dramatic changes and rescripting of one's life.

QUOTIDIANS:
The Q2 variant of the SNQ had progressed Mercury on the MC. Nothing new that we haven't covered with the other Mercury presence. (A few other planets that would have been interesting weren't quite close enough.)

The Q1 variant of the SNQ had nothing angular.

The SQ had natal Uranus on the IC. Again, surprise coupled with need for freedom. The surprise came from within her, not the environment.

My conclusion, based on the foregoing, is that there was no homicide; that Marilyn was feeling insomnia and a lot of stress, atop deeper issues (as mentioned variously above); that she took the drugs, possibly with a 'cry for help' motivation, but primarily impulsively, heedlessly, recklessly, and an accident occured: she died.

[Jim Eshelman]

Jim wrote:

My conclusion, based on the foregoing, is that there was no homicide; that Marilyn was feeling insomnia and a lot of stress, atop deeper issues (as mentioned variously above); that she took the drugs, possibly with a 'cry for help' motivation, but primarily impulsively, heedlessly, recklessly, and an accident occurred: she died.

I totally agree with your conclusion Jim. Marilyn was a troubled soul with her most glamorous life (immediate foreground of Natal Venus). IMO, a very important natal signature was her T-square of Moon-Neptune-Saturn. Ebertin (COSI) writes about Moon/Neptune=Saturn symbolism:

Pessimism, hopelessness and despair, the tendency to be influenced strongly by the prevailing and temporary circumstances. The suffering of the soul, pathological states of depression, the tendency to feel inhibited, frustrated or paralysed.

I always pay attention to partile dynamic aspects in the SSR no matter where they fall on the mundane wheel, and I note with Marilyn’s last SSR she had a partile T-Square of Saturn-Node=Neptune. Ebertin writes about this configuration:

The feeling of being neglected by others, of being misunderstood or being lonely. Emotional suffering though falsehood, deception, fraud, separation, illness.

IMO, I think these two Ebertin delineations adds to Jim’s ‘atop deeper issues’ for Marilyn and she simply had an accidental overdose of drugs, probably due to a state of depression--could have been a sucide but we will never know for sure.

[Jim Eshelman]

With the interest in paran transits on the forum this week, I'm revisiting a few of the more solid case histories to compare a "parans-only" approach to the standard ecliptical transits approach. This seems useful in validating the relative value of parans in transit.

Marilyn's death is one of the examples where one walks away thinking, "Well, everything here fits well enough, but I'm not sure it was helpful." (So far, that's my general experience in these: Occasionally, something amazing! Occasionally, a complete dumb note. Most of the time, "Yeah, I guess that's on target, yawn." But I'll keep accumulating examples for a balanced view.)

For the event of her death, the already-present ecliptical opposition of Mercury to her Moon appeared three times: Transiting Mercury crossed the MC at 25 Can 35, and her natal Moon at 26 Cap 19 (so that they get MC/IC and IC/MC parans); and t. Mercury rose at 24 Can 28 as her Moon set at 24 Cap 34.

Besides that, I only found one other partile paran transit: t. Pluto set at 5 Vir 49, and Marilyn's Uranus rose at 6 Pis 27. We can see other Uranus-Pluto factors appearing above.

So, from paran transits alone, we could have seen a vague picture, but (despite a 16-fold increase in the number of potential transiting aspects), nothing as rich and embellished as the conventional way of looking at things.

When one counts paran-transits to her SSR planets, we get a much more interesting picture (and, of course they are much easier to calculate!). It isn't perfect - it is a strange mixed bag - but I give them here for everyone to draw their own conclusions. (NB I've left out a number of t. planets still conjunct their SSR positions.)

t. Pluto sq. s. Moon (46'). tPL on Asc @ 61°15', sMO on MC @ 62°01'.

t. Uranus sq. s. Mercury (24'). tUR on IC @ 332°04, sME on Asc @ 332°28'.

t. Jupiter sq. s. Moon (26'). tJU on IC @ 162°54', sMO on Dsc @ 163°20'.

t. Jupiter sq. s. Mercury (47'). tJU on Asc @ 258°49', sME on IC @ 258°02'.

t. Mars conj. s. Mercury (26', 26', 32'). tMA on MC @ 77°36', sME on MC @ 78°02'. (Replicated on IC.) tMA on Dsc @ 184°08', sME on Dsc @ 183°36'.

t. Sun op. s. Saturn (8', 45', 45'). tSU on Dsc @ 236°43', sSA on Asc @ 336°35'. tSU on IC @ 314°41', sSA on MC @ 313°56' (and reverse for MC/IC).

[Jim Eshelman]

Some people get celebrated long after they are gone

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