Naomi Osaka, the women’s NO 1 tennis champion, four times Grand Slam winner and reigning US and AU Open champion has withdrawn from the French Open after a botched handling of her refusal to attend press conferences. Her reason was that her mental health issues made facing negative media questions damaging. Initially it did sound an overly precious excuse and sent Piers Morgan off on a rant, but it then emerged she has suffered from major depressive bouts.
She was born 16 October 1997 in Chuo, Japan but moved to New York when she was three, with her Haitian father taking on the role of tennis coach having been inspired by the Williams’ sisters father.
She is a Sun Libra opposition a self-doubting Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries close to her Aries Moon. Her Sun is also square Neptune and it’s possible her Moon is also conjunct Saturn and square Neptune. A prominent Neptune is surprisingly common amongst athletes but it can be ultra-sensitive, in particular when tied into Saturn.
She also has a super-intense Pluto, Venus, Mars in Sagittarius which will ramp up her emotional temperature and give her acute frustrations. She also has a lucky Uranus Jupiter in Aquarius which sextiles her Pluto, Venus, Mars. A Saturn trine Mars will give her self-discipline but tends to go along with fairly harsh treatment.
It is a punishing lifestyle at the top in global sport though it does pay. Her last year’s fees were reputed to be $55 million. It requires an obsessive and fairly masochistic drive to keep up with the training schedule and constant travel. And parental pressure, though she does talk fondly of them, won’t help.
The transiting Mars Pluto opposition is in a t-square with Osaka’s natal Mercury in Libra – she spoke about depression which is still considered a taboo (Pluto) subject especially among sport players. Mars Pluto Mercury can indicate the power struggle that took place with French tennis authorites over her blocking the post match interview which resulted in the untimely termination of her participation in the tournament – quite a strong feel of Pluto throughout. Venus Pluto in the natal chart can indicate issues with self-value being stifled to some extent.
@ Nel you sound like you know your stuff but I’m curious as to how ‘repressed sexuality’ comes into it? I get the lack of clarity in identity especially if she is pleasing her family and mainly parents, i.e living their dream which you effectively said. But the comment linking repressed sexuality to a possible breakdown? I’m baffled because that’s a very deep assumption without even speaking to the person.
I was thinking more of the 12th house Mars and wide Venus/Pluto conjunction in the 11th. The midpoint between Mars/Pluto is on Venus, love. Although the stellium is in Sagittarius , it spans the 11th house, ruler Aquarius and 12th Pisces. Mars in the 12th is combination of water/fire – steam. Pluto in the 11th Air/Fire – ungrounded and all over the place, which will be be turned into steam, as Pluto rules Scorpio sex and its element is water. Venus is the ruler of Libra in Air. This is a powerful combination of unresolved conflict with friends and relationships, with Mars in 12th meaning hidden masculinity. I may be completely wrong, yet I came to the conclusion that sexuality is a problem. Whether it is because of her continuous sport and not being able to form relationships or her unresolved conflict. He Solar arc charts has Pluto/Venus in the 12th, with Mars on the Ascendent in Capricorn. She is either breaking away from her past or going to coming to come out in my view. I don’t wish to label her in any way, I just the charts above as this.
It is her Moon/Saturn in the third that she has problems with. She is projecting her inability to communicate onto others. Saturn castrates, The moon/Saturn opposition to her Sun/Mercury in Libra is also a Father issue. This is her rebelling against a perception of her father being too harsh. Saturn/Moon is Mother, could also state the same. Living her parents dream rather than her own. Yet they will not listen, or she cannot express it. Perhaps her calling is not really in sport and it is what her father who wanted? A Sun in the 9th conjunction Mercury would lend more towards a scholar, even though. Osaka needs to go to University and study in my view. Simplistic, yet with the Moon and Sun in the 3/9 access, her life is about learning. Osaka is not being her true self. She needs to be true to her own identity, perhaps even sexuality, although I am not stating she has a identity problem. Yet the 11th Mar/Pluto midpoint sitting on Venus could lend itself to a identity problem. Repressed sexuality maybe leading to a nervous breakdown. What is going on in the French Open has nothing to do with what is really going on in Osaka’s head. She needs to regroup and perhaps breakout.
Apologies for the mistakes. Didn’t edit properly.
For sure, there’s the Pluto transit breaking her down.
I came back to post because I glanced at the the t-square of her chart and saw an inability to express who she is (and I note you’ve said something similar mid-paragraph), probably because she doesn’t know who she is. Sun/Mercury in Libra – thinks about others first., can struggle to know itself. Saturn in Aries – struggles to assert itself. Neptune in Capricorn – another placement that is absorbing what society expects it to be.
I think you’ve probably nailed it more clearly than I have.
Wow another Linda, an alternate one of me that knows something about astrology. Which as everyone knows I don’t. Or is it the future me going back in time? Just kidding. Welcome Linda!
While theoretically I believe in the freedom of the press. Committing what seems to me to be hate crimes and extreme forms of harassment, shouldn’t make them exempt from the law.
I remember a time a very very long time ago when they actually had to be polite. Nowadays they seem to have more in common with trolls than anything else, with professionalism and a code of ethics being given a wide berth.
Saturn hitting natal Sun or Moon often indicates people who often feel alone or isolated in a hostile world. Her chart also has planets that will have been activated by the recent Lunar Eclipse. I seem to remember Osaka’s victory over Serena Williams in 2018 US Open was a bad tempered affair with her not getting the recognition or plaudits she deserved from winning the event. The Saturn Pluto Conjunction falling square her Sun and Moon in 2020 must have been a tough transit as well so she has not had an easy time. The Solar Eclipse on 4th December 2021 will fall exactly on her natal Mars.
Mental health issues are often exacerbated by having to defend oneself every day from bullying. Certain kinds of journalistic prying constitute bullying, even heckling and harassment. Some bullying can be handled like water off a duck’s back but when it becomes racist, misogynist and public, it’s particularly difficult. I wish her peace of mind and much love. Many of us know precisely how deep this stuff goes.
As a Neptunian person, I can entirely understand how she feels – that’s why it’s connected with the 12th house, the porous nature of Neptune means they easily absorb energy and become overwhelmed so the need for withdrawal and retreat is essential for their wellbeing. Good luck to her. Piers Morgan has a skin like a rhinoceros, likes nothing more than to denigrate and attack women and it’s totally beyond someone with his kind of personality to empathise.
This resonates with me. I can’t imagine how I would deal with being famous and having to face head-on with a press conference of god knows how many people. I can’t even handle an interview with two people. I’m so private I think I would have a breakdown at some point. So her walking away for her own mental health is an absolute breath of fresh air! I’m hearing a lot of journalists and some ex-tennis players bleating on about how its part and parcel of the game. Why can’t they work around some people who have these issues? Have a one-to-one with a handful of journalists and a cameraman? Is her talent supposed to die on the vine just because she finds press conferences terrifying?
Resonates with me too.
It’s only part and parcel of the game because of the money and grandeur desired by the governing bodies. If she’d been competing 30-40 years ago, nothing like the same pressure would have existed.
What has happened, beyond the money, is that athletes have got more media savvy. They never say anything controversial because they don’t want bad publicity, and they don’t want to give their opponents motivation. The consequence is the press ask more and more invasive questions.
Think the “contract” says they have to spend 15-minutes with the media. I’d answer the first questions with a 15-min shot-by-shot monologue of the first set then says “Thanks, time’s up” and leave. Contractual obligation fulfilled.
‘It’s only part and parcel of the game because of the money and grandeur desired by the governing bodies. If she’d been competing 30-40 years ago, nothing like the same pressure would have existed.’
Yeah, I was thinking about that today. It’s all for the capitalist money man’s point of view to benefit from their ‘property’ as they are paraded around like a show pony. I think they should entertain different environments to ask questions. To go up on stage and face 100 journalists and cameras that go out live on air is enough to make you feel like you would die of fright. Just because out of 100 tennis players you might have 97 who feel quite at ease on stage doesn’t mean the other 3 should follow suit if it affects their mental state or even their game. Wasn’t there a female tennis player out there who used to deliberately fail her games just so she didn’t have to face the barrage of questions at the press conference? I think it might have been Gabriela Sabatini.
I’ve just checked, it was her. She said she was so introverted it caused problems even at school and she would often throw her matches off because she thought she had to talk to all those reporters afterwards. Introversion is terrible when you have to navigate an extrovert’s world!
30-40 years ago, the prize money didn’t exist either, they played as amateurs.
As soon as the sport turned professional, that came with obligations to the media. Because the prize money, the sponsorships etc are down to it being an entertainment business, which has a prominent media aspect.
I think she’s wealthy enough now to just walk away from it all and play for fun in private clubs away from the media.
But if you take the money, then you have to play the media game, because the money comes from the media/entertainment biz.
Of course some players are tougher than others. Andy Murray was a nine-year-old hiding from a killer in a classroom during the Dunblane massacre and the media always wanted to ask him questions about whether that experience affected his tennis and he flatly refused to answer. As in, he turned up to the press conferences and simply said that that it would be disrespectful to the victims to talk about the massacre, and concentrated on answering questions about tennis instead. But Andy Murray is exceptional in that he survived an experience that would have felled someone less tough.
Candy – the move to the professional era occurred in the late 60s. That’s precisely the reason, I said 30-40 years ago; but even 20-25 years ago there was less pressure. Maybe even as recently as 10-15 years ago. There was less money in the game; but that was because it was funded as much by spectators as TV.
The media circus has sprung up in these years because the 24-hour news cycle needs something to report on. The internet gives people real time updates on the games which leaves the traditional media of television and newpapers scrabbling round for a story to report on.
The sports governing bodies are happily selling their sports to the highest bidders and part of that deal is to sacrifice the players who aren’t willing/able to do the peripheral stuff.
The rest of the stuff you said, I’m pretty much in agreement with.
I would say, good for her. Bravo !! When you see or hear how some journalists are denigrating excellent athleets who ” did not win”. Sometime for a 10th second
Last summer, HBO ran a show on the mental health struggles of Olympic athletes, “The Weight of Gold.” It featured Michael Phelps, Apolo Ohno, Lolo Jones, among others. A lot of that show was about the letdown after winning Olympic gold, but I imagine that overwhelming focus on winning to the exclusion of all else, projecting yourself as strong and the best in your sport, the intense competition and pressure, then being the in the glare of the media spotlight can’t be easy especially for a sensitive and self-critical person.
She’s very firey and Uranian.
Transiting Pluto conjunct her Neptune and square her Mercury/Sun.
I hope she has a therapist who can support her through this long and transformative transit.
Health is wealth, not money. She knows which side her bread is buttered and is courageous enough to make a decision regardless. I commend her!!!
Thanks Marjorie for providing an astrological back drop that puts things into perspective. Piers Morgan is not helpful but I guess he has to defend his stance in terms of the symbolism of the media, who no longer symbolically represent the people. ‘Fair journalism’ and all that!.
Can we even begin to imagine the number of high profile athletes who went through/ are going through her personal dilemma and no one cared because they were not allowed to voice it, and it is about the money/advertising/sponsors etc?
Whilst he does have his point from time to time, and I agree with calling out some reports that look shady, Piers has misjudged this one in trying to stay relevant whilst becoming redundant because he has lost the ability to choose his battles.