Marilyn Monroe: A Lilith For Modern Times (Part 3)

The final article in this three-part series reveals the shadowy myth of Lilith, a dark figure of whom little is known other than that she was said to a killer of babies in the crib or in the womb, and was also believed by ancient Jews to have seductive qualities.

Marilyn in Korea in 1954.


NO ONE DID LILITH BETTER THAN MARILYN MONROE DID

As much as Monroe’s life makes the myth of Venus manifest in our world, it seems pretty incredible that she also conveys so much of the secretive, hidden myth of Lilith. On the surface, these two don’t appear to have much in common. There are no complete myths remaining for Lilith – she merits a mere scrap at the beginning of Genesis. But a closer look at Monroe’s life reveals that Lilith gets almost as much play as Venus did.

Marilyn had BM Lilith in the 1st House at 29 Leo, conjunct Regulus (not shown in this horoscope), and we have already noted that her first house planet and asteroids exerted strong influence over her life. Still, it is something of a mystery that she expressed Lilith as powerfully as she did. For most women born in 1926 with Lilith conjunct Regulus, there was little effect.

AT THE HEAD OF ARMIES

Anyone with experience of S. Korea is familiar with the frigid cold that descends from Siberia during the winter. Marilyn Monroe performed in front of warmly dressed American troops in February, 1954 wearing this skimpy, shimmery dress. Like the soldiers she performed for, she covered her own suffering with a smile.

As an ancient demon-goddess, Lilith was also said to be at the head of armies. Marilyn was a favorite pin-up girl among US soldiers, and she also devoted time to performing for US troops stationed overseas. Other actresses of her era did the same, so this fact in itself is unremarkable. Still, a beautiful and seductive woman who entertained troops seems like Lilith to me.

WAS LILITH A SHAPE-SHIFTER?

It may be my imagination, but Marilyn's expression is so similar to that of Jackie Kennedy in this photo. I did a double-take the first time I saw it.

I began the research for this series by typing a simple question into Google, “Was Lilith a shape-shifter?” After going through images of Monroe, I noticed the expression on her face in one famous photo which I felt had a striking likeness to Jackie Kennedy. It was almost as if Monroe was unconsciously “channeling” Jackie, or at least it seemed this way to me. So this was my starting point. The question turned out to be a gateway, because other mythic associations of Lilith started matching up with Marilyn’s life or with her natal horoscope.

According to Jewish tradition, Lilith could shape-shift like an angel and become a “beautiful woman” or a fowl of the air. I couldn’t help but note Monroe’s shallow conversion to Judaism upon her marriage to Arthur Miller – it was almost as if she had some fate to fulfill that would link her to the myth of Lilith even more.

The Greeks feared a creature called Lamia, one of the lesser known lovers of Zeus who was victimized by Hera and made to devour her own children. Lamia acted out her agony by doing the same to human children. Significantly, Lamia was thought to have the upper body of a beautiful woman, and the lower body of a snake. Monroe’s Vedic Ascendant is in Ashlesha, the nakshatra of the snake.

One of the most devastating aspects of Marilyn’s adult life was that she had one miscarriage after another, with no live births. It didn’t help that well-known author Norman Mailer tried to trash her reputation by writing that she had undergone 12 abortions. There is no way to know if Monroe had any abortions, since they were illegal and therefore unrecorded, but the effects of 12 abortions would have been evident upon autopsy. Yet the autopsy was unremarkable regarding this physical aspect.

Many shamanic cultures note infertility among those who interact heavily with the unseen world. Jesus had no children. Mohammed had four daughters with his first wife, but no children at all after his interaction with the angel Gabriel, despite the fact that he had taken a total of nine additional wives, several of whom were young and fertile.

Ancient Greek myths demonstrate a belief that the children of a mortal-divine union were blessed with super-human gifts, but the mortal parent of such a child always paid the price and died young. Voodoo priestesses must be celibate during the years of important initiation because of a very strong taboo against conceiving children that could be “tainted” by the gods of the Vodoun pantheon. Among the ancient Norse, certain shamanic roles were restricted to women past childbearing age.

My own feeling is that Marilyn Monroe unknowingly participated in this dynamic, which must have been incredibly painful, since she would not have realized what was happening or why.

The frightening thing about embodying the goddesses so strongly is that one’s life becomes a sacrifice – there seems to be a terrible price paid for the incredible gifts granted. Aside from the shenanigans of J.Edgar Hoover, did Marilyn Monroe end up dead at 36 because Venus and Lilith possessed so much of her life’s energy? This is a very difficult question for me to answer…

"Not very smart," she would say of herself in her most famous film, "Some Like It Hot", touching her temple using the same gesture seen here. But I think she had a lot more "smarts" than she was ever given credit for...

SOURCES
More information on Scheat. The 2010 Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction with Scheat
Facts about her life. http://marilynmonroepages.com/facts.html>

Marilyn Monroe: A Lilith For Modern Times (Part 2)

Young Norma Jean was barely out of her teens when this photo was taken.

It doesn’t matter how long it takes. It matters whose taking you.
– My favorite line of Marilyn’s from her 1959 film “Some Like It Hot”.


This article on Marilyn Monroe is my way of commemorating the upcoming Venus Occultation of the Sun on June 6, 2012. When Venus shows her hidden, or occult side, we see more than a little of the mysterious Lilith uncovered…but we also see Venus in all of her glory.



FIXED STARS ALL OVER THE MAP…

The striking fixed-star features of Marilyn’s natal chart jumped out at me – she had four planets conjunct fixed stars within a one degree orb, and Black Moon Lilith partile conjunct the royal star Regulus. Her Sun was conjunct another royal but unfortunate star, Aldebaran.

With the exception of her Sun, her other four star conjunctions were all generational, and would have affected everyone born in the months or even years on either side of her birth. What comes to mind is Robert Hand’s remark that the fixed stars can raise one to a great height, and then just as suddenly drop one from that height. It occurred to me that a huge number of young men born in 1926 would have died during WWII, and many young women as well, and I can’t help but wonder if those fixed stars positions might not have somehow influenced that outcome.

Marilyn's measurements have always been a subject of intense speculation. She had a true fertility-goddess figure - a bust that was likely a 36D or a 38D in old-fashioned bra sizes and a waist that was likely size 6 or size 8, with voluptuous hips. Many of her film-set dresses were skin tight and molded onto her body.



QUICK RECAP OF THE MEANING OF THOSE FIXED STARS

SIRIUS (14 Cancer 05 – Tightly conjunct Marilyn’s Pluto – 13 Cancer 23) - Aspiration, self-importance, celebrity, leadership, emotional.

ALPHA SERPENTIS (22 Scorpio 04 – Tightly conjunct Marilyn’s Saturn – 21 Scorpio 26) - Achievements marred by difficulty, emotional instability, difficulties with relationships.

SCHEAT (29 Pisces 22 – Tightly conjunct Marilyn’s Uranus – 28 Pisces 59) – I call this the “shit” star. It is prone to melancholy, and gives connections to crime. Endless enthusiasm for the matters connected to the star, but no ultimate fulfillment.

REGULUS (29 Leo 53 – Partile conjunct Marilyn’s Lilith) – Ambitious, dignified, gracious, but possible downfall. Connected to matters of high status and leadership.

ALDEBARAN (9 Gem 47 – Tightly conjunct Marilyn’s Sun – 10 Gemini 26) – Success and popularity, but also suggests danger, violence, and an intemperate spirit.

Supposedly, Marilyn wasn't all that proud of doing naked pictures early in her career, but they remain the favorites of a younger generation of fans.

SATURN WAS THE FOCAL POINT OF HER HOROSCOPE…

So we would expect the qualities of Alpha Serpentis to show up strongly, and they do. The movie, “My Week With Marilyn” did a great job of showing Marilyn’s emotional instability. Despite an adoring public, she did have trouble with so many of her personal relationships – her mother, her absent or unknown father, her three husbands and numerous lovers, and her demanding co-stars. “My Week With Marilyn” made it clear that her co-star Lawrence Olivier wanted more from her than he was ever willing to give in return.

The film also did a good job of showing how learning lines was excruciatingly painful for her. Marilyn had strong intuitive intelligence but a lot of contemporaries remarked that she wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box, although she did know how to “make do” with what she did have. “Achievements marred by difficulty” seems an apt summation, and her natal Mercury was combust, which couldn’t have made things any easier.

SCHEAT, THE “SHIT” STAR

Uranus was tightly conjunct Scheat during the entire summer of 1926. This was particularly hard on little girls born this summer, because Uranus represents masculine energy and the men in a young girl’s life. Monroe suffered one or more sexual assaults in childhood, and she was connected to the Mafia as she grew older. Other little girls would have been born to families with fathers, uncles, and brothers involved in bootlegging during the Prohibition years.

Ebertin mentions the following:

“(Scheat) Tied up with ‘malefics’, this could lead the native to lose his life in catastrophes, such as floods, shipwreck, mining accidents, airplane accidents, or maybe suicide.”

Scheat is said to give endless enthusiasm for a certain subject even though success is never at hand. Marilyn had it conjunct her 8th House Uranus, and a number of her films show her going after a man for his money. In real life, Monroe didn’t need to do this once she got past adolescence, and projected the energy in a humorous way in her films instead.

WHAT A DIVA!

Monroe was known for having a temper and for “losing it” hysterically, on a bad day. Her husband Arthur Miller recalled an argument when she became so angry that she dumped him by the side of the road in an empty desert. People who worked for her frequently decided it wasn’t worth the humiliation…usually after she had already fired them.

That said, Monroe was on the record against red-baiting and for black equality – her ideals were directed toward large groups on an impersonal level – a textbook description of natal Moon and Jupiter in Aquarius.

THE GENIUS AND THE GODDESS

Marilyn and Arthur Miller, her gentle "Hottie" with glasses

This is the title of a book by Jeffery Meyer about Marilyn’s third marriage to Arthur Miller. The reviewer, Mark Gould, talked about their strong ‘chemistry’ and how each wanted to enter the other’s world – he wanted to write film scripts; she wanted to act on stage. He notes that Monroe was drawn by Miller’s gentleness, and because she believed he could teach and protect her (Chiron on her MC). Also, Miller never hit her, and her second husband Joe DiMaggio did. Although in her own words, “Joe never beat me without good reason.” (Talk about Chiron on the MC…!)

Gould also notes that “The Genius and the Goddess” is a familiar archetype for other famous couples - Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham come to mind. A poignant description of Miller and Monroe’s marriage is available online as an extract from Christopher Bigsby’s biography below:

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller's Marriage

Before Miller, there was Joe DiMaggio. It was an iconic marriage in its own right – biographers of DiMaggio like to insist that Marilyn was not in love with DiMaggio when she married him, but that she fell in love with him after divorcing him, and was not only looking back on her marriage to him fondly at the end of her life, but that they would have gotten back together had she lived.

Their "chemistry" is the first thing you notice in this photo.

It is certainly true that DiMaggio and Monroe had more in common than Miller and Monroe did – they were both 10th grade high school drop-outs and enormous idols living inside the “hero machine” – he was a folk hero and living legend, and she was the most publicized, swiftly rising movie star in history.

A sensitive portrait of Monroe and DiMaggio’s marriage which also includes some fascinating material on why J. Edgar Hoover may have hated her as much as he did John Kennedy, and how he may have successfully twisted public opinion to blame Kennedy for Monroe’s death is found below:

Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio's Marriage

Before Joe DiMaggio, there was her four year long teen-age marriage, with its echoes of the marriage between Venus and Hephaestus. Jim Dougherty finally has his say below:

Jim Dougherty remembers Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn's fleshy, natural beauty is such a refreshing contrast from the skinny Hollywood starlets of today, with their gym-buffed arms and giraffe necks.

Marilyn Monroe: A Lilith For Modern Times (Part 1)

Meaning of the Upcoming Venus Occultation

This rare transit – described as Venus passing across the Sun as in a minor eclipse – will occur on June 6, 2012 (my father’s 80th birthday). These rare transits occur in pairs that are 8 years apart, separated by a long interval of 121 years. For the past 2000 years, they have only occurred in Gemini and Sagittarius.

WHAT DOES A VENUS OCCULTATION REALLY MEAN?

The following represents my best guess. Venus strongest associations are love and money. She is normally associated with pastel colors – light pink, pale blue, faint peach. Her colors are said to become vivid during occulation – very hot pink, vivid tangerine-orange , shocking purples, etc…

Sure enough, the fashion industry has followed suit, and my local Target is full of neon tangerine and electric pink clothes. None of this stuff is going to sell very well, I feel, and a lot of it will be deeply discounted before the actual date of the occultation. There is something overdone or extreme about the energy of Venus during an occultation, and the consumer senses this.

Venus will be retrograde between mid-May and June 23, 2012 as well. This means consumers will get a good deal on goods that others don’t recognize the value of – it’s a great time to hit the yard sales. But this isn’t the time to shop for new products. My guess is retailers will be seeing a lot of returns.

The Venus occultation highlights the myth of Venus, so stories related to her may play out in the lives of those around us or in the national news. Women may leave deficient men the way Venus left Hephaestus, or handsome young men may end up dying under sacrificial circumstances, recalling the love of Venus for her beloved Adonis, who she tried to protect but ultimately could not. (The ancient Greeks held an annual sacred ritual called the Adonai to commemorate adolescent and young adult males who died prematurely.)

Not all of these men will necessarily be young. A few days ago, Micah True, the 58-year-old extreme-distance runner who was featured in the book, “Born To Run”, set out for a routine 12 mile run in a remote area of New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness and disappeared.

My favorite photo of Micah True is on the right.

As I write these words, his cause of death is still undetermined. But two things stand out in my mind: True was stunningly gorgeous as a young man, and many people remarked on the purity of his facial expression as an older man. As a long-distance runner, he was a seeker who was constantly motivated by an inner quest or search. Adonai was a young hunter who adored the hunt and was killed by a wild boar that he failed to kill first.

PEOPLE WHO COME BACK INTO OUR CONSCIOUSNESS FROM THE PAST

Since this is the last Venus Occultation for more than 100 years, people who lived out the myth of Venus on a wide scale may return to our attention even though they have passed away. For some reason, Marilyn Monroe has been on my mind a lot lately, ever since I saw the incredible portrait of her by Michelle Williams in the Oscar-nominated “My Week With Marilyn”.

Michelle Williams somehow taps the myth of Venus and Adonis herself – recall her love of the doomed Heath Ledger, and also the beautiful tangerine-orange dress she wore to the Oscars which looked stunning on her but would have looked awful on nearly everyone else.

Michelle Williams amazed us with her ability to "channel" Marilyn Monroe. She was said to be the only actress director Simon Curtis wanted to cast for the role. This author can't help but notice her birthplace in Kalispell, MT (spell of Kali).

As I said, I can’t seem to get away from Marilyn Monroe. I’ve rented her movie, “Some Like It Hot”, even though I’ve never wanted to watch it before, and I haven’t watched her other films either. I did a little research in preparation for an article, but keep putting it off because I don’t have time to read a good biography. I know Marilyn Monroe had a tight Venus-Chiron conjunction, and that her Sun was closely joined to an intimidating fixed star, as was her Saturn – the focal point of her natal horoscope. Yet what keeps coming up over and over in my mind is not Venus but Lilith.

Lilith was said to be a beautiful woman and a shape-shifter who was associated with the death of babies and was also said to be at the head of armies – and Marilyn Monroe fulfilled each of these associations in her own life. Since I hadn’t been paying attention, I went back and re-checked the asteroids in her natal horoscope. Sure enough, she had Black Moon Lilith partile conjunct the royal fixed star Regulus.

It occurs to me that I really ought to try to write about Marilyn in time for UAC 2012, which will start just two weeks before the Venus occultation. Perhaps Lilith should be explored as a darker version of Venus, and maybe her myth comes to the fore during a Venus occultation as well. These are only my speculations, but we will see…

UPDATE ON MICAH TRUE

The New York Times published a eulogy for him on Sunday, May 20, 2012. It is titled, "Caballo Blanco's Last Run: The Micah True Story". It is well worth reading.

The AP reports that he died of heart disease, more specifically an enlarged heart. This symptom is associated with very thin long-distance runners of both sexes.