Jessica Hahn: Friend of the Clergy
Zip Dobyns
I have had the birth data for Jessica Hahn for months, but had hoped to get the birth data for James Bakker or his wife Tammie so a comparison would be possible. So far, I have not seen any data except for the birth date of Jimmie Bakker, so I decided to go ahead since Jessica has an interesting chart even if her story is practically ancient history in our fast-moving world. Jessica’s data comes from her (via Lois Rodden), and the time is approximate within five minutes. She said that she was born on July 7, 1959, at 4:50 “something” P.M., in Brooklyn, NY. The time would be EDT, and I arbitrarily ran the chart for 4:55 P.M. but it could be either a few minutes earlier which would put P Vesta on the MC or a few minutes later which would put P Venus on the MC for her public debut.
Readers will probably remember that Jessica hit the headlines in 1987. In March of that year, a group of TV evangelists including Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart, charged that Jim Bakker was involved in a number of scandals. Bakker was a highly popular TV preacher, head of the PTL (Praise the Lord or People that Love) organization with extensive properties including their Heritage U.S.A. theme park in South Carolina. On March 19, 1 987, Bakker admitted that he had had an extramarital affair with Jessica Hahn in 1980. In May, Falwell also charged Bakker with homosexual encounters, which Bakker denied. Bakker resigned from his ministry, and Falwell was briefly the head of the PTL, but they were in financial hot water as donations dropped, and the church filed for bankruptcy on June 12, two days after the U.S. Justice Department, the IRS, and the Postal Service launched criminal investigations. In the fall of 1987, Falwell and the whole replacement Board of PTL resigned. Bakker was still not out of the woods. On December 5, 1988, a federal grand jury indicted Bakker and Richard Dutch, a former top aide, on 24 counts of fraud. On December 13, 1988, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ordered the sale of the PTL’s assets to a Canadian businessman.
But our chart is for Jessica, not Bakker. When the scandal originally broke, Jessica claimed that she was a virgin when Bakker seduced her, and that she was emotionally shattered by the disillusioning experience. Somewhat later, she was quoted in newspapers with questionable reputations for accuracy as having been the mistress of a different clergyman for several years prior to her contact with Bakker. She described herself in the frequently lurid paper as a “love slave” of the earlier man.
Jessica’s horoscope certainly shows the potential for a career (status and fame) connected to sex. Both of the rulers of the signs in the tenth house, Mercury ruling the Virgo MC and Venus ruling the Libra, are in Leo in the ninth house. You can see how she might be looking for love from a “guru” with a Leo stellium in the ninth house and Scorpio in the twelfth house, the houses of faith. Putting the rulers of the tenth house in the ninth also connects idealism to Jessica’s career, but we do not know how that will manifest. She might choose a career involving knowledge, but the emphasis on Leo can also fit a career devoted to love and/or sex or children. Vesta, our Virgo asteroid, in a conjunction with Venus and Pluto, natural rulers of Taurus and Scorpio, would also fit a profession connected to money or possessions or pleasures.
The fixed emphasis in the chart is very strong, including the Leo and Scorpio, Chiron in Aquarius, the Venus-Pluto conjunction, the Sun in the eighth house, and Saturn and the Antivertex in the second house. In addition to money, possessions, and pleasures, the fixed areas of life have to learn how to handle power. Though Leo and Scorpio are especially associated with sex—Leo for procreation and Scorpio for mutual pleasure when properly handled—they are often misused in power games and to gain possessions or pleasure at the expense of others.
Since the tenth house, like Saturn, often indicates a reality lesson, Jessica also might want more than is possible in her career. This could include wanting to be “on top” without personal effort (God or servants of God should provide), or wanting it sooner than is realistic. With two Ascendant rulers (Pluto and Mars) in the ninth house, and Jupiter, ruler of the first house Sagittarius, placed in the twelfth house, the individual can identify with God and want to be spiritually perfect. Or Jessica could unconsciously feel that she “is God” and has the right to anything that is desired. In effect, it is possible to feel that the personal will should be infinite, that God or the universe should provide all desires.
Water factors (planets, signs or houses) are often accused of manipulation, and this can occur when the person doubts his/her own power and feels weak. We only try to accomplish our goals secretly when we lack (or sometimes just think we lack) the strength to accomplish them openly. The “blackmail” Jessica received from Bakker’s PTL church to keep quiet about her “affair” with Bakker is reported to have cost the church $265,000. She does have enough fire to have known what she wanted.
Most of Jessica’s planets are in the interpersonal signs but the transpersonal houses. In the past, or even today, this combination might have been comfortably manifested by marriage to a strong, intense man who would provide a secure status for his wife. A few women (Barbara Bush?) are still living out this traditional role. Marriage to a clergyman might have been a good solution for Jessica. But her fire and earth are too strong for her to play a really dependent role. Her south lunar node in Aries says that she has a lesson either in learning to be more independent or, conversely, that she has a lesson in not overdoing her own will at the expense of others. The Aries lesson can be to tone down self-centeredness or to develop more self-reliance. The fourth house south node has a lesson connected to dependency, whether we are learning to accept help from others or to be sensitive to the needs of others.
Jessica’s chart is clearly intensely sensual with the Leo-Scorpio emphasis, with a strong need for love and attention from other people. She might satisfy that need to be noticed and admired by choosing an artistic profession, including the performing arts. In fact, the latest information that I have on Jessica is that she is acting as the grand marshal for the Do-Dah-Day parade in Birmingham AL as this article is being completed.
The former church secretary now has a publicist and is described in the newspaper as “ever-popular and energetic,” a fitting picture of ninth house Leo.
But her horoscope also suggests that Jessica is (or at least was at one time) looking for a mate to be a “mother” figure. She has Cancer and the Moon in the eighth house and Ceres in Scorpio. The water dependency needs are potentially in conflict with the need for freedom and power, a common manifestation of Leo-Scorpio squares as well as of Cancer square the tenth house.
I was interested to note that the “extra” asteroids were not really remarkable in Jessica’s chart, supporting the impression that she is not really a power player in the world. Asmodeus, the “demon of lust,” is in Taurus, semisextile the south node and quincunx the north lunar node in the natal chart. P Uranus had reached Godiva and P Godiva had reached Venus when the affair was made public. Godiva is famous for a nude horseback ride. Other progressions included P Venus on P Fama, P Amun (sun god) on P north node and P Cupido on Neptune. P Neptune also holds a long trine to Helio. The focus on love and fame is present, and a change in her life is strongly suggested by her progressed New Moon even though we do not have reliable angles which are very important in timing events. Other traditional factors which suggest that Jessica will have additional public attention in the future are the P Mercury retrograding back to conjunct P Sun while sextile Juno and Pallas. P Jupiter holds a long square to natal Mars, an indication of questionable judgment at times. P Sun is now approaching Uranus, so we are likely to see much more of Jessica in the media in the future.