Marilyn Monroe: Lilith Incarnate
To celebrate her 94th birthday, we are analysing Marilyn Monroe’s natal chart in an attempt to understand the impoverished and abused child who would become the embodiment of the collective sexual fantasies and fears of the patriarchy that destroyed her. We will observe how her Leo rising and her first house Lilith and Neptune placements manifested in her physical appearance, screen persona, and relationship with the collective. Her Saturn placement in the fourth house of family and home also offer insight into why her adulthood was plagued by mental illness and her parents’ rejection.
Mirroring the collective fantasy. Marilyn could not exist for herself with Neptune, the planet of hedonism, dreams, and fantasy, posited in her first house of appearance. Photograph was taken by Hal Berg, assistant to Milton Green, in 1955.
The Fantasy and the Nightmare: Neptune and Lilith in the 1st House (Leo)
“People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.”
Marilyn’s image is burned into our collective memory and imagination. One does not need to watch her films to recognise her kittenish charm, her golden mane of curls, and her open, almost yawn-like smile. It’s no surprise she was a Leo rising. When she walked into the room, she became the sun and people in her vicinity were the tiny planets in her orbit. This placement is one that lends to fame, likeability, and confidence. Marilyn also had Neptune, the planet of imagination, illusion, and boundlessness in her first house of appearance. This placement expresses itself in how she consciously or unconsciously took on the energies of the environment and the people in proximity to her. Similarly to how water signs act as reflectors, or mirrors, Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, holds up the desires and fantasies of the people who came into contact with her. Marilyn is a mystery reduced to a two-dimensional image; a symbol of the collective imagination and fantasies of both men and women from past and present. The public, her lovers, nor her colleagues saw her clearly, and how could they when she was just a mirror? Her identity was not her own, but an image of what others believed her to be. Neptune has no boundaries, and so her physical beauty and mystery enabled her to hold court with “odd” and mysterious people; from political figures, artists, writers, and social justice warriors. Neptune is also the planet of secret enemies, and this is reflected in the plots and schemes to bring about her downfall. Her talent for collecting and absorbing energies around her, and knowing the vulnerabilities and sexual fantasies of the most powerful men in the world were problematic to the patriarchy.
With Lilith, the sexually uninhibited ‘demon goddess’, in Marilyn’s first house, she at once bewitched and frightened the studio executives who abused her under a slave contract at 20th Century Fox Studios. Her strike against the studio was the beginning of the end for the Hollywood studio system. Photograph is by Sam Shaw taken in 1953.
Marilyn also had Lilith, the ‘demon goddess’, in her first house of appearance. She enjoyed sex and revelled in the admiration of those who looked upon her beauty. Lilith is a dangerous, vengeful, and tragic figure who derives joy from watching men pay for their hypocrisy and cruelty. This placement is terrifying to men. Marilyn was bewitching, endearing, and able to use the vulnerability of men to hold them accountable for their behaviour. This is evident in Marilyn’s strike from 20th Century Fox studios; her refusal to work unless she received more pay and better working conditions. During her years as a starlet, she was a traded commodity in what was glorified sex trafficking; often on her own accord, but equally as often without her consent. There are stories of executive producers berating her publicly in front of her colleagues for being a “whore”, and talk of her being threatened and blackmailed in exchange for sexual services. Marilyn was also a sexually abused child, and the trauma manifested as promiscuity in her adulthood. Her exploited body became a powerful weapon, and she understood the value of it. Her greatest strength was her pragmatism; in a world that only valued women for their beauty, she was able to take control and sell herself as a means of survival. Her body was a “special friend”, as she called it, a work of art, a weapon, and a tool for power and personal branding.
Little Girl Lost. Born Norma Jean Mortensen, Marilyn grew up never knowing her father as she was an illegitimate child born to a mentally unstable and impoverished mother, Gladys Monroe, who was unable to properly care for her. Photograph taken in late 1926, Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
Abuse, neglect, and abandonment: Saturn in the 4th house (Scorpio)
“Suddenly I was taken to the orphans home. I was only 9 or 10. I said I wasn’t an orphan. They said you better forget about your mother. She’s dead.”
It is clear in Marilyn’s chart that abandonment by the parents, sexual abuse, and poverty were a major part of her homelife and childhood. Scorpio is posited on the 4th house cusp of the family. Meaning that sexual abuse, mental illness, and substance use played a major part in her emotional and mental development. Saturn, the planet of the patriarchy and the father, is also present here. This indicates a strong influence of the father, and men, during Marilyn’s formative years. In her case, it was the separation from the father that negatively impacted her for the rest of her life. She was an illegitimate child, and the family name on her birth certificate, ‘Mortenson’, belonged to one of her mother’s long-divorced husbands. Marilyn never knew her father, and attempted to contact the likeliest candidate during her adulthood, but she was met with silent rejection. During her childhood, Marilyn was sexually abused in several foster homes and an orphanage, and was blamed, punished, and removed from one specific home when she revealed the abuse to a caretaker. Saturn in the 4th house also indicates financial struggles; Marilyn’s mother was destitute for long periods, working as a film cutter in gruelling conditions for RKO studios in Los Angeles. This led to long separations from her mother and eventual estrangement from her. Saturn also limits the fun and gaiety of childhood; Marilyn had to learn rules and responsibilities before she hit puberty. She had to ‘earn her keep’ in the homes and orphanages that sheltered her by working in the laundry and kitchens. She never inherited any property, land, nor money from her family as Saturn restricts the child, teaching them how to survive alone. In her adulthood, Marilyn was very resourceful as Saturn gave her the strength, fortitude, and flexibility to move homes quickly, make money last minute, and live out of suitcases for much of her adult life.
Norma Jean in 1933, aged 7. Marilyn was frequently sexual abused by her carers, and one alleged incident involving and elderly gardener who worked at one of the orphanages. She was shuttled from household to household over a dozen times before she was 11-years-old. Photograph by Getty Images/Silver Screen Collection.
Coming Soon: The Romantic Revolutionary, Part 2 of Marilyn Monroe’s natal chart analysis
