OJ Simpson, the celebrated former American football star, made infamous by the ‘trial of the century’ in which he was found not guilty of the murder of his divorced second wife Nicole Simpson and her friend despite a history of his spousal abuse, has died. He subsequently served a prison sentence for kidnapping and armed robbery and paid little of the $33.5 million in damages that the victims’ families won in a civil suit against him.
He was born 9 July 1947 8.08am San Francisco, CA, into a poverty stricken, broken home and developed rickets from malnutrition forcing him to wear steel braces. His father was reportedly a well-known drag queen who later announced he was gay and died from AIDS.
He had a Water Grand Trine from an 11th house Cancer Sun and Mercury trine Jupiter on his IC in Scorpio trine an 8th house Pisces Moon, formed into a Kite by Jupiter opposition his Midheaven. Water Grand Trines tend to produce impressionable and sensitive temperaments, vulnerable and escapist who have ‘an exaggerated need for dependency and general mothering and a tendency to live in a bubble of their own (un)reality. His Moon was also square Uranus and Venus exacerbating his women/mother issues. Plus a determined, though inclined to depressive mood swings Saturn Pluto in his 12th square Jupiter. His ambitious, competitive Mars was in his 10th in a publicity attracting trine to Neptune.
When the crime occurred on 12 June 1994 which left Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman dead his Solar Arc Saturn Pluto conjunction was hovering around the opposition to his 8th house hyper-sensitive Pisces Moon which seems significant and his Progressed Mars was almost square his Neptune. When he was found not guilty in the murder trial tr Jupiter was opposition his Solar Arc Midheaven.
His fall-from-grace 10th harmonic is marked by an illusory Neptune and a destructive Mars Saturn. He also had a marked, ultra-determined but can-be-self-defeating 16H, a sacrificial 12h, as well as a global star 22H.
Add On: Nicole Simpson, 19 May 1959 2am Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was a Sun Taurus opposition Jupiter square Pluto so one determined lady. Her focal point Pluto squared OJ’s 10th house Mars so there would be a clash of wills. Her excitable Mars in Cancer was conjunct his Mercury Sun for arguments; and her Uranus was conjunct his 12th house Pluto for constant defiance of his control. It wasn’t a great relationship though I would imagine at least some of the time she would give as good as she got. Their relationship chart has a oneupmanship composite Jupiter square Pluto hinting at a struggle for the last word and upper hand. I’ve seen a good deal worse in abusive relationships though tr Uranus Neptune in Capricorn moving into the composite 8th would open Pandora’s Box and let out all manner of underlying resentments.
I am marginally surprised there are not more obvious signs on his chart which one might expect when he finally blew his top. Though the pressure on his 8th house Pisces Moon would bring to the surface his over sensitivities about mother/abandonment issues.
His natal chart has Uranus at 23Gemini, Mercury at 24Cancer, Ascendant at 24Leo and moon at 25 Pisces.
Through 1993 Saturn had transited 23-25Aqua; Pluto at 23-25Scorpio and then at the time of the murders Uranus in Capricorn with Neptune following up.
They got divorced in 1992 and then tried to reconcile in 1993. Transiting Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunct around 17Cap in April-May-June 1992 – all opposing his Sun and would have felt like his life breaking apart. From there on, he just seemed to have undergone a period of sustained difficult transits that eventually blew when transiting Uranus hit 23-24Capricorn and made opposition/inconjuncts to all those points in Gemini/Cancer/Leo.
Interesting paragraph in the Wikipedia article on Simpson:
“In 2016, Dr. Bennett Omalu, who discovered the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephelopathy (CTE), said he would “bet [his] medical license” that Simpson had the disease. CTE is common in football players, and Omalu said Simpson had suffered thousands of cases of blunt force trauma in his brain during his career, which would have caused it. Simpson’s lawyer, as a part of a legal strategy following Simpson’s convictions for robbery in 2008, claimed that he had suffered concussions.[115] This was a part of the lawyer’s attempt to prove that Simpson’s convictions were unjust, saying that brain damage was responsible for Simpson’s actions.”
Marjorie, I have a question. I AM NOT an astrologer, but I remember reading that having Leo at the 25th degree could be prone to violence. Is this true? And doesn’t Mr. Simpson have an ascendant at Leo 25? Just wondering. Thank you.
When the trial started in late January 1995, transiting Pluto had moved into Sag only days earlier and during the trial Uranus dipped into Aquarius for the first time.
The trial was era-defining thing as its televising (Sag publishing concerning legal matter) and high ratings for that led to much of today’s reality television (Aquarius – normal people’s lives). And let’s not forget Robert Kardashian – father of the elder siblings – was OJ’s lawyer.
It was also one of the first times we heard about DNA testing being used in a trial. Where today, it would probably have removed any reasonable doubt; people then didn’t understand what it was or meant; so they were more cautious in believing in it.
Noting that for OJ transiting Pluto into Sag was about to go over his South Node.
To echo Fred Goldman, father of Ron who was killed alongside Nicole Brown. When asked yesterday about OJ’s death he said “It’s no loss to the world”. Notably most of the obits made passing reference to his highly success NFL and decent acting careers – focusing instead on the murder trials etc. All that 10th/11th house energy needing to be in the limelight and successful.
OJ’s claim that he would spend the rest of his life hunting down the killer, and then to write a book for money called “IF I did it” is farcical and shameless. He seems to have the cult of personality that has people wanting to like him irrespective of what he did. He got off the murder charge by playing the Race Card – black people didn’t believe he had done it because they felt he was one of them. Nothing could have been further from the truth, he lived in a rich, white area of Los Angeles – just like similar gaslighting politicians he wouldn’t have stooped to give his supporters the time of day.
What causes this? Is it the Gemini, the Cancer, a combo of them or something else?
Noting transiting Saturn is back in Pisces where it was when the murders happened. His 7th house being hit. Asking him to define himself and look at the truth which was clearly difficult for him. The natal Jupiter in Scorpio on the IC might have allowed him to look deeply at himself but it was clearly too much.
As Fred said “It’s no loss to the world”
To be fair, black people didn’t really care one way or the other whether he did it or not. They wanted to know whether it was possible for a black person with the wealth and resources of rich, white people to be exonerated by a justice system that all too often was happy to ascribe guilt to people of color whether deserved or not. Whether the country had “evolved” to a point where class could actually supersede race.
Black people, especially older ones closer to Simpson’s age and old enough to have enjoyed his football career, didn’t care for him because they felt he abandoned and looked down upon the black community in general. So while some saw this as Simpson getting his comeuppance, they also wanted him to win if there was enough reasonable doubt. Because if there was enough reasonable doubt and he lost, in a sense it would be Emmett Till all over again–telling black people to stay in their lane, in this case not in the visceral violence of a lynch mob and a racist jury, but by saying that all the money in the world doesn’t matter because, ultimately, you’re still black.
One of the things that still bothers me about this case to this day is how viscerally angry some people get about it. One murder is one too many, of course, but the level of disgust, hate, and outright rage that people have and had for Simpson rivals the worst among us, people like rapists and people who sexually abuse children. I don’t even see this kind of anger leveled at serial killers or mass shooters. I feel that this deep-seated anger speaks to underlying unresolved issues in the collective. Here’s hoping that once Pluto stays in Aquarius, we can deal with it even if Pluto has to burn it out of us.
Apologies that there’s little astrology in this response, but I felt it appropriate to address. Anything I add to this thread going forward will stick to analyzing and discussing the astrology.
Thank-you starless – it’s obviously something you understand better than me, so I stand corrected.
You’re welcome and thank you, GD. And thank you, too, Nicole. I’m more of a lurker than a poster here but it is more because I continue to learn. GD, I truly appreciate your astrological insights and thoughts–you’re one of my favorite respondents here. And I also appreciate you and your insights too, Nicole.
And thanks as always to Marjorie for your willingness to share, teach, and provide this space.
Starless, I think your assessment of the situation is accurate. I remember the heated controversies at the time. Everyone had an opinion and watched the chase on TV, even me — and, not following sports, I barely knew who he was then.
There really was little justice for Black people at that time and the disparities in justice persist. The LAPD then, and still now despite some progress after many efforts at reforms, was a notorious den of racism. Mark Fuhrman, the detective on the case, clearly lied and was a well-known racist.
I do think karma caught up with Simpson in the end, whether he killed his wife or not — and we’ll probably never know for sure. Just yesterday a report came out on Twitter/X about his attorney Kardashian’s successful efforts to suppress two reports of his domestic abuse/assaults on two women he dated while at USC. He definitely had issues with women.
You know, Nicole’s comment reminded me, I hold a grudge toward the OJ Simpson trial because, according to many, this is what killed American daytime drama. That was some genre… It may have had its share of whacky stories and bad writing, but there were absolute gems there and something very unique about it. I haven’t followed what is going on in that world for quite some time, but I presume that the Bell soaps are still alive (The Young and the Restless</i, The Bold and the Beautiful).
He definitely had issues with women.
It is interesting that you say that, because yesterday I was pondering a bit about his upbringing, by a father who was a drag queen and later declared to be gay. I was thinking whether in today’s time that kind of childhood would produce a normal adult life for the child, or maybe that it could have done that even back then – maybe OJ was just one particular case and for some reason it didn’t end well. He was damaged, it appears, there was an interesting facade to hide it, and I’m not sure if we have the full story.
And, by the way, I find Pisces Moon to sometimes be really difficult. There is a kind of lost-ness, lack of boundaries, spellboundedness in a bad kind of way, the deep and difficult Neptunian depths about it, and it’s not something easy to deal with in some cases. Not for everyone with such a placement.
Personally I’d say he had issues with people, not just women. After all he was convicted of armed robbery, assault and kidnapping which involved sports memorabilia dealers who were male. He killed Ron Goldman (as well as Nicole). He was acquitted in 2001 for a road rage incident.
With all his water and particularly the Pisces moon, he’s going to lack stability. His chart has very little in the personal or relationship quadrants for developement – it is compounded by having Neptune in Libra in his 2nd house of self-worth. He probably needed other people for structure and grounding – Nicole was a Taurus sun with Capricorn Saturn so that would likely have helped him.
My guess is with his childhood, he probably had abandonment issues that flared up in any disagreement and he only knew how to deal with it through aggression. I noted on a quick synastry check of his chart with Nicole that her Leo Uranus was in the same degree as his Pluto – so the dynamic was probably exacerbated by that – she would want her freedom if he got controlling.
I read Nicole met him when she was 18 when he was 30. After the murder trial, he then had a 13-year relationship with a woman who was 19 when he met her. Picking younger, naive women is standard practice for people who need to be in control which the Leo Saturn-Pluto in 12th probably pays a big part towards.
Thank you, Gnarly! I think you are on a very good path. I still feel as if I don’t fully grasp this person, what was he really like and how this all came to be. One part definitely is what you say about abandonment, another rickets he suffered as a child, and I was reading today about Nicole and him and that Uranus–Pluto aspect is a smack-dab solution for what I read on Wikipedia one commentator say about their relationship. I still miss some piece.
And today I saw a brief interview with Marcia Clark and wondered if Marjorie might have something to add regarding her and Judge Ito and their interaction.
Such a momentous event in American history, but I can’t say I fully understand the magnitude and the why of it.
This is the part about their relationship from Wikipedia:
“According to Sheila Weller, “they were a dramatic, fractious, mutually obsessed couple before they married, after they married, after they divorced in 1992, and after they reconciled.”[80]”
Nicole’s chart is in the Astro Databank
She seems to have a grand trine in Earth – Taurus Mercury, Virgo Pluto, Saturn Capricorn in the early degrees and then it turns into a Kite with Neptune in Scorpio. But that earthiness plus Saturn/Pluto – she will have been stubborn.
But she also has 4 planets in water (incl. mars/venus in Cancer) so there is also a neediness for her to be with someone.
And she has Libra moon on the NN. Libra moon always needs someone – it can be very co-dependent. But more importantly it lands smack on OJs Neptune.
Outside of the Moon in Libra and Uranus in Leo – she lacks air and fire. OJ as an athlete and with his Leo Ascendant/Saturn/Pluto and Gemini Mars/Uranus/NN will have compensated for that.
Ultimately though I’d guess her Grand Earth trine loved that he was rich and famous. And without the fire and air struggled to distance herself from him.
Probably like all abusers. When he had beaten her up, he then showered her with gifts and compliments to win her back. The earth grand trine and Libra moon then probably thought it was enough and never really dug deep enough to see what was going on.
Just noticed her Virgo Pluto is approaching the descendant so she probably needed an intense relationship. And like, most virgo plutos, thought he could be changed / rescued.
I’m sure a composite would show many other problems.
Probably like all abusers. When he had beaten her up, he then showered her with gifts and compliments to win her back. The earth grand trine and Libra moon then probably thought it was enough and never really dug deep enough to see what was going on.
What a horrifying dynamic, but you probably nailed it 100%.
I had been looking at some politicians’ / parties charts last year. There tend to be Uranus Mercury aspect or Pluto Mercury aspect or both. OJ has Uranus semi-sextile Mercury (1 degree orb). Uranus Mercury aspect will have a need to control the rhetoric or it could have the effect of changing speeches. In the past people call this lying. In today context it can come in myriad of descriptive words call update, refresh, rehash, redefine etc.
I’m not sure by briefly looking at his chart wherein lay the problem.
“North Node in Gemini brings the conflict between seeking objectivity and lively communication on the one hand, and clinging to a highly subjective understanding, firmly anchored opinions and commands on the other.
These people need to learn how to express complex contexts and ideas in everyday language, how to convey spiritual thinking into practical life, transfer it in comprehensible form and show clearly the connection between the philosophical and noble knowledge and values of everyday life.
Beware of prejudices and stubborn beliefs.”
–Astro-Seek