RIP Dr. Ruth

[Jim Eshelman]

Ruth Westheimer aka Dr. Ruth has died at age 96 after an amazing life of enormous social consequence.

By her own statement, she was born June 4, 1928, 4:00 AM CET, Wiesenfeld, Germany. She died yesterday (7/12/24) at her Manhattan home in Washington Heights.

Could there have been a better horoscope for the leading voice in healthy, positive sex education and popular discussion in American culture? Dr. Ruth had Sun rising in Taurus opposite Moon setting in Scorpio, and Venus (at home in Taurus) barely a degree from Descendant. The chart also speaks loudly of her early losses as a Holocaust survivor with, e.g., a 0°43' Moon-Saturn conjunction foreground.

Here is her foreground picture alone:


Saturn on Dsc -5°53' : 22°18' Sco
Moon on Dsc -5°10' : 26°15' Sco
Sun on Asc -2°13' : 19°30' Tau
---------------------------------------
Venus on Asc +1°04' : 11°59' Tau

Because we are looking at the matter these days, I should mention that Jupiter was 0°30' from Antivertex, not only give her much of her personable public demeanor but also forming some interesting PVP aspects that seem to fit her (but also could be explained by other details of her chart). For one thing, this avatar of sex-positive messages had a half-degree Venus-Jupiter aspect otherwise invisible. Here's the list:

Venus-Jupiter sq 0°36' p
Sun-Jupiter sq 0°59' p [already octile 1°45']
Moon-Jupiter sq 2°28' p
Jupiter-Saturn sq 2°49' p [already octile 1°03']

Here is her Needs Hierarchy:

100 - Venus
99 - Sun, Saturn
--------------------
95 - Moon
90 - Mars
56 - Mercury, Jupiter
--------------------
46 - Pluto
39 - Neptune
15 - Uranus

[Jim Eshelman]

Dr. Ruth's last SSR, calculated for Washington Heights in the northern part of Manhattan (40N50'25" 73W56'25") occurred a little over a month ago and was debilitating, though the angularities were modestly close:

t Neptune on Dsc -3°58'
-----------------------------
r Moon on IC +3°15'
t Saturn on Dsc +6°33'
r Saturn on IC +7°22'

t Moon-Uranus co 2°51' M

t Saturn sq r Saturn 0°50' M
t Saturn sq r Moon 2°26'
r Moon-Saturn co 3°57'


I suspect her final days were in good conditions. There is a lot of happiness in the final lunar returns. Her SLR June 21 had transiting Mars most angular, but transiting Jupiter nearly as strong (and Uranus). Venus was her strongest natal planet. Mundanely, transiting Moon moved to within a degree of her Sun. Transiting Jupiter was 0°30' from her Venus (mundo), close to angles.

Then her July 4 Demi-SLR became more complicated, though still upbeat in many ways. Here is the full breakdown:

t Mars on Asc -9°20'
t Venus on IC -6°45'
t Mercury on N -0°18'
t Jupiter on Asc -0°26'
-----------------------------
r Pluto on IC +1°55'
t Pluto on Z +1°15'
r Mars on Asc + 6°43'

t Pluto sq r Jupiter 0°01'
t Mercury-Pluto op 0°54' M
t Mercury sq r Jupiter 1°32'
r Mars-Pluto sq 2°08'
r Jupiter-Pluto sq 2°21'
t Venus-Mars sq 2°35' M
t Venus-Pluto co 3°41'

[Jim Eshelman]

Progressed Sun was within a degree of square natal Saturn. This was also directed Sun, of course, and the other vitally important solar arc was d Mars conjunct r Pluto 0°03'. Both of these aspects reflect end of life from some failing of the body.

The other secondary progression of note - which had been there for many years, but was made more important by p Sun = r Saturn - was progressed Sturn 0°21' from opposite natal Sun. There were harder progressions a few years earlier, but this is what came together at the natural end of her life.

Her last demi-lunar emphasized Jupiter-Pluto combinations in a couple of ways, especially transiting Pluto square natal Jupiter (1' wide in the DSLR, 13' wide at death). I'm not sure what this means exactly, although (besides the "celebrity death" phenomena) may have been related to the exact cause of her death - what failed at the very end. We don't know cause of death yet: What we expect from Jupiter-Pluto and health is usually very good health, successful treatments, etc., but otherwise impact on the liver and parts of the digestive system and perhaps (due to aberrant cell growth) some kinds of cancer.

Most importantly, though, transiting Jupiter was in the degree of her Ascendant. Again, I think she was in conditions as good as any of us might hope for.

[Veronica]

I loved her, I've read some of her books and was a regular listener to her radio show for years. She help me understand my body, hormones thoughts and feelings at the awkward teenage time when it was so embarrassing to talk to adults about things. RIP Dr. Ruth.

[Jim Eshelman]

In 1948, on her 20th birthday, Westheimer was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during a mortar fire attack on Jerusalem during the 1947–1949 Palestine war; the explosion killed two girls who were right next to her. She had near-fatal injuries; she was temporarily paralyzed, almost lost both of her feet, the top of one of her feet was blown off, and it was several months of recuperating in a ward before she was able to walk again.

Her June 4, 1948 SSR for Jerusalem, more than anything else, is lucky. Transiting Jupiter was 0°10' from Zenith and solar Moon conjoined natal Jupiter (1°58' M). Besides that, she had a solar Moon-Pluto partile conjunction and her natal Mars-Pluto square foreground. (Moon to transiting Pluto on natal Jupiter - ANOTHER example of that aspect. they seem to define most of the big events of her life down to her death. I don't know why.)

And then there is the question (routine of late) of whether we see anything in the PVP aspects. First thing - yes, the only sign of outright negativity is there! Natal Sun-Saturn were in 0°03' azimuth opposition along the Vertex axis! (It doesn't show the explosion but it shows the badness, serious risk to life and skeletal structure, etc.). They make no aspects to anything on the horizon or meridian.


Her SLR occurred May 24. The strongest planets were natal Moon and Saturn so the chart is fine by itself (seemingly waiting for the SSR to join it June 4). Again, there are lots of signs of luck such as a Mercury-Jupiter-Uranus opposition foreground along with natal Moon-Saturn and Sun-Saturn.

Again there is the question of PVP aspects, and AGAIN these aspects add exactly what seemed understated in the SLR otherwise: Transiting Saturn conjoined natal Neptune in azimuth 0°05', exactly on the Antivertex. This is WAY better than anything else in the chart, even though the essential message of the rest of the chart was accurate. Again, neither of these aspects anything on the horizon or meridian. The whole workup for the SLR is:

t Jupiter on IC -7°21'
t Mercury on MC -5°52'
t Uranus on MC -5°29'
r/t Moon on N -0°08'
--------------------------
r Saturn on IC +3°02'
r Sun on IC +5°59'

t Saturn co r Neptune sq 0°05' p
t Mercury-Uranus co 0°23' M
t Mercury-Jupiter op 1°13'
t Jupiter-Uranus op 1°48'
r Sun-Saturn op 2°48'
t Moon-Saturn co 3°37' M [t Sa co r Mo 3°47' M]

[SteveS]

Jim wrote:

And then there is the question (routine of late) of whether we see anything in the PVP aspects.

Again Jim, I think you have discovered important PVP aspects not to be ignored.