A Dramatic Beginning

Zip Dobyns

Michele Poole was born in Santa Clara, California on July 30, 1986 at 8:53 A.M. PDT. She was a Caesarean delivery, an increasingly common procedure in these days of litigation when doctors try to protect themselves by ordering more lab tests and performing more surgeries. But in Michele’s case, there were no other options. Michele’s mother had been in a coma for seven and a half weeks, pronounced brain-dead three days after surgery for a brain tumor on June 4. In fact, Michele would not be alive today if her father, Derrick Poole, had not gone to court to keep her mother on life support systems until the embryo was sufficiently developed to have a chance at survival outside the womb. Though her parents were not married, her father said that he loved Marie Odette Henderson, and that they had planned to marry. After Odette was declared brain-dead, her parents, Otis and Edna Henderson, ordered the hospital to turn off the support systems but Michele’s father intervened. He has assumed responsibility for Michele, though the baby is currently being cared for by his sister who has three daughters of her own.

What would we expect to find in the chart of an individual with that kind of dramatic beginning? Certainly, the keys to parents should be highlighted, with the potential of a separation between them and changes in the parent-home situation. We would also expect a letter five emphasis in view of the media attention that was focused on Michele. There should be aspects to Mars and/or Pluto for the surgical delivery, and other keys to health might also be prominent to picture her mother’s death and the potential threat to her own existence. But there should also be some strong, harmonious aspects to indicate Michele’s own survival against rather heavy odds. The third house should have a “parental” connection since it symbolizes collateral relatives; siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., and Michele is being cared for by an aunt.

Michele’s horoscope displays all the preceding and more. The Moon opposition to Saturn is a classic key to the potential separation of the parents, whether it is permanent (by death or divorce), temporary (due to travel), or mental and/or emotional even when the parents remain physically together. Other aspects repeat the same potential for changes involving home and/or parents. Uranus in the fourth house (home and one parent) opposes Chiron in the tenth house (the other parent), with both square the first house Venus. Neptune in the fourth house is quincunx the Moon, the MC, and the Antivertex (a yod which is one of the strongest indications of separation) as well as opposite the Placidus Part of Death. The presence of the Moon’s nodes across the second and eighth houses and square Mercury, ruler of the Ascendant, can also point to tensions involving emotional relationships with the possibility of vulnerability to the power of others shown by Aries in the seventh and eighth houses.

But Neptune also trines the East Point (an auxiliary Ascendant), Pallas, and more widely the Ascendant to point to Michele’s own preservation. Harmony aspects involving a water planet and water houses mark faith at the unconscious level, and the unconscious usually wins. The earth signs suggest that the unconscious faith can facilitate success in handling the physical world. Supporting Michele’s successful arrival and survival in a healthy body in spite of being nearly two months premature and though it took the Caesarean surgery to make it possible, Mars trines the Ascendant and Pluto in its own sign is sextile the Ascendant. The doctors were impressed by the baby’s rapid development which is commonly found with a fire emphasis in a chart.

The ninth house Moon and third house Saturn point to the possibility of intelligent parents, or idealistic parents, or parents who travel, but one possibility is one or more parents who leave permanently. Since these are also the houses of collateral relatives (the ninth would be the mates or in-laws of the third house relatives but both houses have to be considered), we also have the parent role assumed by others. Or the patterns could indicate parents like siblings; equalitarian in the third house. Ceres, which I take as another key to a mother figure, placed in the first house, suggests an important “mother” as a role model. I have seen such placements when the parent is gone and it was the loss of the parent that had the impact on the child’s self-image and sense of self-worth. Ceres in the first house and Jupiter (ruler of the fourth house) in the first or seventh house, can also indicate grandparents who play a parent role some of the time. The first and seventh houses are keys to grandparents since they are the fourth and tenth from the fourth and tenth, hence parents of parents.

What about the limelight focused on Michele? What could be more appropriate than a Sun in Leo conjunct the Antivertex, another auxiliary Ascendant? The eleventh house position can mean the information is available to society in general, known to many people. Apollo, one of the sun-gods in our new asteroids, is conjunct Mercury, ruler of the Ascendant, to repeat the theme. And my current favorite asteroid, Atlantis? It is conjunct Mercury and Apollo. Her struggle for life was carried out in full view of the world, and modern technology made it possible for her to survive. Atlantis can mark the positive handling of power.

What might Michele do with this gift of Life? She has a fine chart to be a helping professional like her mother. Interpersonal signs in transpersonal houses can mark close, caring relationships with the public. The rising Pallas fits a potential counselor, and the Virgo fits a healer. Mercury in the eleventh house and trine Jupiter indicates good mental ability, while the water signs suggest empathy. Other indications of warmth are the fire signs in water houses. She will have lessons in personal relationships with Saturn conjunct Juno, Capricorn in the fifth house of love, Venus in Virgo and Vesta in the eighth house. The mixture of letters six and ten with interpersonal planets, signs, and houses is excellent for work with other people but requires handling if we are to avoid the danger of a critical attitude in the wrong place, or of so much focus on work that other areas of life are neglected. With Michele’s identification with work (Virgo including Ceres in the first house, Mars in Capricorn, Vesta in Aries), she will need to be more than a homemaker to feel good about herself, but hopefully she can also include home, family and mate in her life. We wish her well.

Copyright © 1986 Los Angeles Community Church of Religious Science, Inc.

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