Feb 16: Sonny Bono & Margaux Hemingway

[Jim Eshelman]

Hoping to stir people's practice and involvement with natal chart analysis, I'm going to try posting birth data each day of one man and one woman for whom we have quality birth data (B rating or better). Everyone please jump in, calculate the charts, and offer your observations about their natal charts, their characters, and the overall patterns of their lives.

For February 16:

Sonny Bono February 16, 1935, 9:21 PM EST, Detroit MI (AA data)
Margaux Hemingway February 16, 1954, 9:15 AM PST, Portland, OR (A data)

BONUS:
Ebertin, Reinhold. February 16, 1901, 4:45 AM CET, Gorlitz, Germany (A).

[sotonye]

Sonny Bono:

Have never heard of this person and so I don’t know who they were in life, but a few things stand out in the natal which give me some clue. The first thing is the stellium in Aquarius. Unorthodox, free spirited, liberal, intuitive, likely inclined to operate off the beaten path in his occupation, perhaps working as an artist, and in the unlikely event that this chart is of someone who takes up traditional roles, I doubt he’d hesitate to add in a nontraditional element. Since Sun conjoins Mercury exactly I’ll assume this person had some interest in music or acting, and with Uranus figuring closely into the picture I’m strongly inclined to say that his endeavors were successful. This is a person I think who is followed by success all his life. I don’t know why exactly but, as far as I’ve seen, a prominent natal Uranus, configured with an angle or luminary, amounts to fortune more often than not. In fact I see Uranus figured prominently so often in the charts of the eminent that I am beginning to suspect that “fortunate turns” being the modus of Jupiter might be somewhat inaccurate, that Uranus is an even greater mover of mountains and miracles than Jupiter is said to be. At any rate, other outstanding factors of the chart include an exact Mars-Pluto square, from which I’d expect indefatigable energy put toward aims, a Uranus-Neptune octile, from which I’d expect a kind of openness to mystery that goes well beyond what’s typical for an Aquarius, a close Mercury-Uranus soft aspect, from which I’d expect blazingly quick and accurate mental processing, interest in the occult and far-fetched, and deeply powerful speaking ability (ability to win others through his words). We have also got a decently close Jupiter-Pluto trine which likely put him in a position of dizzying height and power. Lastly there’s a not so close Sun-Saturn conjunction which probably caused some early life difficulties related to his parents

[sotonye]

Margaux Hemingway:

First thing I notice here is the absolutely huge amount of Neptune, here configured with her angle and her sun. If there’s anything I know for certain it’s that Neptune does not leave individuals in a place, physical or mental, that allows them to be complete participants in their life. This individual most likely suffered chronic afflictions on her health to no end. Anxiety, depression, perhaps suicidal ideation were no strangers to her, and this chart does present the danger of substance abuse as well. An escapist at heart, a romantic mess, a sad story to follow, this is all I see in a chart configured this way. She had a Venus-Mars hard aspect which only adds to the difficulty, and likely suffered early sexual abuse. But on the fortunate end, she had an extremely close Mars-Uranus octile, an engine of autonomy and decision, much different from the other configurations mentioned, more constructive, less helpless. And on the really fortunate side she had Mercury-Jupiter and Moon-Jupiter which can in my view land individuals in circumstances that are better than what we could imagine

[Jim Eshelman]

Regarding Sonny Bono:

Have never heard of this person and so I don’t know who they were in life

Sonny Bono was a significant figure in 1960-70s music. He is best known as half of the musical duo Sonny and Cher (with his wife) which had a few significant hits in the '60s and two 1970s TV shows music-comedy shows that were IIRC the last of the musical-comedy-variety genre that had dominated much of TV for two or three decades. He and Cher worked originally worked for Phil Spector and then emerged as an important act on their own, singing, recording, and touring with a mix of Sonny's original songs and covers. When they divorced and later stopped performing together, Sonny had a hand in Cher's solo career, producing some of her hits.

Known as a driven, compulsive, controlling figure who exercised tight controls on all he touched, it was perhaps natural he moved into politics next. He was a Republican, but a California Republican - socially liberal and fiscally prudent. He served a mayor of Palm Springs for four years and then was elected to the House of Representatives where he served two terms. He is best known in the House for his campaign to restore the Salton Sea (an ironic Aquarian pursuit) and a copyright extension act that was named after him when it eventually passed all hurdles and became law a few months after he died. His death was from a skiing accident (he ran into a tree).

Sotonye identified a number of fitting, accurate themes. I don't need to point-by-point comment on them, but readers can see this for themselves. I wouldn't call him a success "all his life" - his solo music career was pathetic, while Cher's soared, but he never lost the industry's respect, and he lost a bid for Senate before being elected to the House; but he did have a lot of successes.

[Jim Eshelman]

Since I started this list in mid-February, we're going to go through a lot of Aquarius Sun examples and will tend to repeat some trends. Sonny was a strong Aquarius - not just because of its musical bent, but, for one, because the 1960s were a time when Leo-Aquarius thrived from the Uranus-Pluto transit and Aquarius in particular matched the emerging shifted culture. He was technical innovative, willing to be quirky and "a character," not letting pride get in the way of his stage persona (which had a bit of the disrespected husband usually losing an argument to Cher). Sun-Mercury sextiles to Uranus repeated many of these themes.

With Sonny, though, I notice his Cancer Moon most. He was a natural celebrity, someone who took easily to a stage and had an easy charm with his audiences.

The driven hard-worker is all over the chart, especially with the close Sun-Mercury-Saturn conjunction and the exact - very exact - Mars-Pluto square (0°19'). I'm told he had quite an unpleasant side with quite a temper, and was fiercely demanding.

Were I looking at this chart cold, I'd start with the Aquarius-Cancer luminaries which are not a particularly comfortable fit - little in common except, I suppose, that they are both anti-solar in some respects, which made his self-effacing style easier. Mars-Pluto would dominate from his drive for success, his hard-working nature, and his eventual collision with a tree on a down-hill ski slope in his 60s. The need and ability to have control is quite apparent. Venus is stand-out planet (background and no close aspects) but its closest aspect is a moderate trine to Jupiter (and wide trine to Pluto): He seemed happy enough in marriage, first in a successful business partnership with Cher, then (after a brief second marriage) what seemed a happy marriage with his last wife (who succeeded him in the House of Representatives). BTW, Aquarius Sun is the most common (by a large margin) for members of Congress.

[Jim Eshelman]

Margaux Hemingway was the eldest of the Hemingway sisters - Ernest Hemingway's granddaughters, her sister Mariel being the best known. She is known best for her breakout, heralded work as a model (she appeared in numerous leading fashion magazines) and then her not especially distinguished acting career, where her best known work is probably her first film, the dark, brooding, troubled Lipstick. She was a deeply troubled emotionally, suffering from major depression - early sexual abuse was likely at the root of much of that - and responded to internal and external pressures with drug addiction. She died at the tragically young age of 41 of a drug overdose suicide.

As a spokes model, she was the first ever signed to a million dollar contract (this for her work with Faberge), and ran with the most in-crowds in celebrity circles. She was interested in things esoteric, especially through a years-long practice of kundalini yoga.


Sotontye quite rightly picked out the strong Neptune thread. Hemingway had Neptune 2°41' above Descendant and a stationary Saturn 9°18' above. The Neptune is in close trine to her Sun.

Breaking down her chart, the most obvious sign influences are the Aquarius Sun and - like Sonny Bono - Cancer Moon which gave the "smooth in front of a camera and audience" celebrity skills. Various Aquarius and Cancer themes define her basic direction in life, much as they did with Bono.

Those two foreground planets, though - Neptune and Saturn - show the fundamentally depressed, dependent personality (only one possible expression, but a clear one). We expect some sort of dark, morbid hold on the soul with these two planets foremost. With Sun-Neptune added, there is no clear ego center except in the way that it can adapt and mold to the exigencies of the moment's role (her strong Neptune fitting very well with the Cancer Moon). There are plenty of secondary factors for Saturn-Neptune, too, e.g., their conjunction with Descendant being consistent with her basically troubled, failed relationship history.

The amount of egolessness in this chart is noteworthy. Besides the "un-solar" quality of Aquarius and Cancer, Sun itself is background - even worse if one considers houses and thinks of this as a 12th House placement. The primary solar-ego experience is through Aquarius universalism, esotericism, emerging counter-culture impact and, then, through the trine to Neptune and moderate conjunction with Venus - her path is pretty obvious.

Besides the suppressed luminaries, a couple of strong aspects show. Mercury squares Jupiter closely: I would have expected even more business success, though being the first spokes model in history to get a million dollar paycheck is plenty of success. She also had Venus closely square Mars (Aquarius to Scorpio), for a ferocious sexuality that brought the charisma magic to her modelling and also marked her personal life. The background (perhaps especially 12th House) Sun tends to be withdrawn, ego and individuation not in the foreground, and hers had a moderate opposite to Pluto - I think this (among other factors) set her up for isolation.

her closest (and only partile) aspect is Mars sesqui-square Uranus. Besides the sexually expressed physicality, I think this is basically recklessness (but also daring, to describe how the tackled the world for a while).

My eyes keep getting drawn to house themes in this chart. All three malefics in the 7th House matches troubled, hurtful intimate relationships. The withdrawal (and what probably should have been protective institutionalization) themes of the 12th House planets fits her life. A few others come to mind (including the 5th House Moon), but those strong emphases are the loudest.

I wish her early sexual molestation, which had so strong an effect on her psyche, were more obvious. For example, a much closer Moon-Pluto conjunction could have shown this well. There is a powerful sexual theme in the Venus-Mars, but many people with this own control of their own sexuality rather than being the victim of others. The ego-suppression signatures show common consequences, but not the events themselves. Steve, I am sure, would suggest we look at her closest midpoints, and we do find Pluto = Moon/Venus and the further emotionally troubling Moon = Mars/Neptune, perhaps even Sun = Venus/Pluto to some extent.

I think (not sure) her main modelling work was from New York. If so, the relocation is stunning with Sun conjunct MC opposite Pluto on IC, Mars on WP closely, and Venus and Jupiter more widely foreground tied into these.