Marilyn Monroe, who emerged from a deprived and abusive childhood to become a global sex symbol, was born 100 years ago in a Los Angeles charity ward.
She was a top billed actress in the 1950s in high-grossing movies like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire The Seven Year Itch, Bus Stop, The Prince and the Showgirl, Some Like It Hot. A scandal over a nude Playboy centerfold helped rather than hindered her image.
She was born 1 June 1925 9.30am Los Angeles, with a mother and her grandmother suffering from mental illness, probably manic depression and maybe schizophrenia. She lived with foster parents until she was seven and after her mother had a breakdown was placed in an orphanage and a series of foster homes, where she was sexually assaulted.
She had her Sun and Mercury in Gemini in her career 10th sextile a flamboyant Leo Ascendant. Her 7th house Moon Jupiter in Aquarius made her outgoing as well as vulnerable, looking for support and security as much as love in a relationship. She had a mesmerising Neptune in Leo her 1st house in an ethereal trine to Venus in Aries, but more significantly in opposition Jupiter Moon and square a 4th house Saturn in Scorpio. She would be subject to the same highs and lows as her mother with such a prominent Saturn square Jupiter with can-be-neurotic Neptune added in. On top of that she had an 8th house Mars and Uranus conjunct Scheat, hinting at intergenerational patterns of unpredictability and buried anger.
She had three marriages, the last two to baseball player Joe DiMaggio and an unlikely one to playwright Arthur Miller, both of them having supportive planets in her 7th but they did not last. Her publicised liaison with J.F.K was more of a 5th house fun affair and equally fizzled out. With Pluto square her Sun/Moon midpoint she would never find close cooperation easy no matter how much she craved it. Her Sun/Moon midpoint was also conjunct Sedna, the dwarf planet of betrayal and survival against the odds.
When she died aged 36 of an overdose, due it is thought to a mistaken prescription from her doctor, she was depressed at being cut off by the Kennedys and her career was floundering because of her habitual drug problems and other serious health issues.
Her death on 5 August 1962 occurred as tr Jupiter was on the cusp of her 8th house, which may have been a poignant hint of a move into a more peaceful existence.
Her story is extraordinary and she once remarked to astrologer Richard Idemon that she had no idea who she was. Which fits with her strongly aspected 13th harmonic, which Peter Sellers also had. Her creative 5th and thespian 15H were notable; as was her leaving-a-legacy 17H and global-superstar 22H harmonic charts. Most stressed of all was her sacrificial victim 12th harmonic.
At the moment her chart has Solar Arc Midheaven conjunct her Leo Ascendant as her memory is promoted.
Oddly enough her midpoints reflect some of the present day ones – her Neptune was square her Uranus/Pluto and her Saturn in opposition; with her Sun conjunct her Uranus/Neptune midpoint – all hinting at an over-sensitive temperament and a tumultuous life. What saved her for a time was her Midheaven conjunct her Jupiter/Pluto midpoint.
A sad tale which brings to mind Nietzsche’s famous line:
“I tell you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
When all she really wanted was a stable mother and a less troubled life.