Baby Jessica in the News

Zip Dobyns

Jessica’s birth data reached me in Lois Rodden’s Data News and Lois got it from an article in the New Yorker magazine. She was reportedly born on February 8, 1991 at 7:02 A.M. CST in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her mother gave her up for adoption and then sued to get her back. On July 2, 1993, the judge took her from her adopted parents and gave her to her birth parents.

The case aroused strong emotions in many people who felt that she should not have been taken from the adopting parents who had loved and cared for her since birth. Her chart is an excellent example of secondary progressions, to supplement Maritha’s article in this issue of The Mutable Dilemma. Obviously, her chart should show a disruption of her home and parental situation. Note that her P MC moved to oppose natal Mars when Jessica was less than a year old. It held the aspect during the emotional trial, and was still opposite P Mars when Jessica was removed from her adoptive home and parents.

Jessica also has had her P Sun (the ability to love and to be loved) square Pluto in the ninth house of lawyers, law courts and judgment for most of her short life. The prominent rising Sun also fits her personal prominence at a very young age with the P Sun’s square to Vesta in the third house of the media reinforcing the message. Vesta is associated with a tendency to be very focused on what one is seeking to accomplish. When the goal is laudable, the results are often very positive. But there is always the danger that the “tunnel-vision” may ignore the needs and rights of other people. Other keys to courts and judgments include P Mercury (media) opposite Jupiter, P Mars and P MC sextile-trine Jupiter and moving into octile-trioctile aspects to Chiron which is similar to Jupiter.

Where letter nine represents the judgment, supposedly based on truth and moral principles, letter ten represents the law and authority figures who enforce it. P Moon was in the sign of Jupiter and the house of Saturn when Jessica was born. When the judgment was made and authorities took over to enforce it, P Moon had moved to conjunct Juno in Capricorn and both were approaching Uranus in its own house. Juno is like Pluto, a key to the ability to share possessions, pleasure and power with close peer relationships. The change of home and parents (Moon) will of course alter Jessica’s future peer associates. No astrologer needs to be reminded that Uranus is associated with times when we get “out of the rut,” whether or not we were consciously willing to do so. P Moon was also on the midpoint of the two major angles, Ascendant/MC, when the decision was made by the judge. The other midpoint which many astrologers consider to be among the most important ones in a horoscope, the Sun/Moon midpoint, is on Jessica’s Neptune. This position fits uncertainty and ambivalence about her home and parents. Neptune symbolizes our subconscious faith and values. Where people lack conscious awareness of their faith and values, they may be confused or unclear about the reasons for what they do or for what happens to them. What happens to us stems from our past actions or from present habits which we developed in the past.

Venus was octile-trioctile the lunar nodes when Jessica was born suggesting tensions in relationships which might affect her pleasure. At the time of the judgment, P Venus had reached the octile to Saturn, the Law, authorities and consequences which implied unhappiness at the consequences. Remember, consequences can result from what we do and/or what we are. The latter, our character, is the collection of habits which we have brought in from the past. We can summarize a key psychological conflict in Jessica’s chart which fits the events in her short life. Her chart has a combination of desire for stability, security, closeness (earth and water factors) versus desire for change, independence, and a willingness to take risks rather than be bored. Examples of this issue include Sun in Aquarius, Mars in the fourth house, Moon in Sagittarius and square the first house, Chiron in Cancer, Juno conjunct Uranus and in the eleventh house, Mercury as ruler of the fourth house in Aquarius, factors in Aquarius square factors in Scorpio and Taurus, and opposite factors in Leo, etc.

Most people, especially when young before there is conscious understanding of our conflicts and the ability to find compromises, will be conscious of one side of an issue and the opposing desires will remain below the level of consciousness. Mostly, subconscious emotions are the power that controls our lives. At best, the conscious intellect is like a rudder which can steer the boat which is powered by desire (metaphorically, the wind in the sails or the motor). So we tend to experience the results of the subconscious desires and to feel disturbed that we do not receive our conscious desires which are in conflict with the subconscious. In Jessica’s case, this would theoretically manifest as a conscious desire to remain with her adoptive parents who have cared for her since her birth, while her desire for change and adventure would bring her case to a judge who would uproot her.

I did check Jessica’s asteroids, and as we would expect, I found the ones associated with the Sun (for love/fame/power issues) and the Moon (for home/parent issues) were prominent. Natal asteroids included Semele (a daughter and mother in Greek mythology) conjunct the Sun, Selene (a Greek Moon goddess) conjunct the East Point, and Artemis (another Greek Moon goddess) on the Descendant. Amun (an Egyptian Sun god) was on the MC, and Icarus (who has Sun connotations) was on the north lunar node. At the judgment, most of these aspects were still in effect with Apollo (a Greek Sun god) moved to conjunct Pluto and Icarus in orb of Saturn.

Another interesting asteroid was one of the “newest” ones in my collection—Laverna—the Roman goddess of thieves. Natal and P Laverna were on the natal and P Antivertex, an auxiliary Ascendant which symbolizes the identity of the individual at the beginning of life. Both of the sets of parents who were fighting over possession of Jessica may have felt that the other parents were trying to steal her from them, and she may well have shared a similar feeling—that she was being stolen from her familiar family. Gaea on Uranus fits the large number of earth inhabitants who watched the soap opera on TV as well as the mythical Gaea’s role as mother. The intense emotions generated in many people also fit Bacchus on the north lunar node plus P Bacchus on Saturn as well as Sun and Dionysus traveling together. Dionysus was the Greek version and Bacchus the Roman one of the god of intense, emotional religious rites which invited people to abandon common sense and let their feelings run wild.

Since Jessica’s P Ascendant will reach her natal Sun before long, I suspect that she is not finished with the limelight. Stay tuned.

Copyright © 1993 Los Angeles Community Church of Religious Science, Inc.

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