"Venus' Favorite" - Marilyn Monroe
Posted: Sat May 13, 2017 11:47 am
Scales asked what this piece was about, from the September 1956 issue d American Astrology.
It was about Marilyn Monroe... when we didn't yet have a birth time for her.
BTW, let me put these articles in time-perspective. This article is early enough that we didn't yet have the correct boundaries of the Sidereal zodiac. The one in use at the time was accurate within about a tenth of a degree, but the actual refinement didn't occur until the following year.
The article began:
We now have long known, from her birth certificate, that she was born at 9:30 AM, with Moon at 25°23' Capricorn (what, at the time, would have been called 25°17'). There were numerous rectifications and "spectifications" (as I call them) floating around at the time.
He said that the rectification had been accomplished by "speculative solunar returns for the outstanding events of her life," with a conclusion that her Moon best fit a position of 24°59' Capricorn (what, today, we would call 25°05' Capricorn). He was, of course, pleased to find that this led to a birth chart with Venus on MC (the exact degree of MC for the 9:00 AM speculative time). "For a while," he wrote, "such a circumstance seemed a little too pat, a little too good to be true."
Unlike most astrological writers of the time, he acknowledged that this might not be Marilyn's real chart. He concluded:
It was about Marilyn Monroe... when we didn't yet have a birth time for her.
BTW, let me put these articles in time-perspective. This article is early enough that we didn't yet have the correct boundaries of the Sidereal zodiac. The one in use at the time was accurate within about a tenth of a degree, but the actual refinement didn't occur until the following year.
The article began:
He took a crack at rectifying her chart, and didn't do horribly.Garth Allen wrote:On the first day of June, when the Sun was shining from the constellation Taurus, a girl who was to be named Norma J. Baker was born in Los Angeles General Hospital. She was destined, under the name of Marilyn Monroe, to become the most celebrated beauty of our generation. Some say that she has become the most widely adored woman of all time and we can't argue this point in view of the fact that a single photograph of Marilyn, "with nothing on but the radio," has sold six million copies.
We now have long known, from her birth certificate, that she was born at 9:30 AM, with Moon at 25°23' Capricorn (what, at the time, would have been called 25°17'). There were numerous rectifications and "spectifications" (as I call them) floating around at the time.
His one objection to the Cancer-rising chart is that Ptolemy had said that the greatest physical beauty came from the "human" signs rising. (My opinion: So much for that rule from Ptolemy!)Garth Allen wrote:Spread before me at the moment are four speculative horoscopes for Marilyn Monroe, but while I am failry certain that the one cast for around 9:00 AM PST is conspicuously apt, anything in the way of a correction or reprimand of my judgment is welcome from any quarter. Just for the record, I thought you readers might be interested in the somewhat sublime reasons underlying my preference of this particular chart over the other possibilities.
He said that the rectification had been accomplished by "speculative solunar returns for the outstanding events of her life," with a conclusion that her Moon best fit a position of 24°59' Capricorn (what, today, we would call 25°05' Capricorn). He was, of course, pleased to find that this led to a birth chart with Venus on MC (the exact degree of MC for the 9:00 AM speculative time). "For a while," he wrote, "such a circumstance seemed a little too pat, a little too good to be true."
Unlike most astrological writers of the time, he acknowledged that this might not be Marilyn's real chart. He concluded:
GA wrote:The chart is suitable in every respect for strictly surface circumstances, but from the perspective of "depth symbolism" it takes on a splendor matched only by Marilyn's own. Venus is conjunct "the cusp of motherness" [i.e., 10th cusp]. Those of you familiar with the details of Marilyn's childhood will know why we make this allusion to the maternal facet of the Midheaven. Similarly, those of you who are savvy in the subject of anatomic rulerships in horoscopy(as per Fagan's reconstruction of the doctrine) will appreciate the significance of this position of Venus, as well as the ascendancy of Cancer in the chart! We can't help but be reminded, also, of the ancient myth concerning the birth of Venus out of the foam of the sea. There is nobody in the public eye quite so frothy, so moistly magnetic, as "The Monroe."
