by guest author Eileen Grimes
This is Part II in a series that begins with Part I.
An Astrological Analysis of OJ Simpson: OJ’s birthdata is as follows: July 9, 1947, 8:08am, San Francisco. (Click here for the chart.) The basic primal three are Sun in Cancer, Leo rising and Pisces moon. The rest of the chart takes on an interesting slant, once viewed from the primal three perspective. Adding to that the Venus in Cancer, Mars in Gemini/north node conjunction.
The real OJ, according to astrology however, shows a much more complex and problematic character. There are layers of persona to analyse; which add up to how OJ became OJ.
The Cancerian Male and Mother: The basics as we start out - include the Sun in Cancer. Just the sun-sign alone denotes a strong connection with the mother in the life; in other words, the sense of identity and self is handed down directly from the mother. The development of his persona, and his self-worth is completely connected to his mother’s connection with him - and probably any female he would come into contact for the rest of his life.
OJ didn’t have a father figure growing up (his father evidently was gay, interestingly enough); Eunice Simpson was the sole parent and guardian of OJ’s development. His mother was considered a major contributor to his success - with her support and pushing OJ out of the ghetto and into enormous fame. She believed in him, and pushed him to be the best he could be. Because his father was essentially missing -- we’ll examine that in the Sun/Neptune -- the entire responsiblity for OJ’s development was squarely on the shoulders of Eunice Simpson.
The Initial Confusion: Moon in Pisces in the 8th houseWhen the Sun is in Cancer, the sign/placement of the Moon becomes more important, because how the Cancerian was mothered will be indicated, which in turn will show us how well the identity is integrated into the whole of his being. This particular Cancer’s Moon in Pisces in the 8th house, which is complicated and sticky. This isn’t just a wonderful nurturing mother - its complicated with unseen emotional pitfalls.
An 8th house Moon placement isn’t ever easy anyway, since Pluto is sitting in the wings putting a shadowy pawl over the full reign of emotions felt, and then add Piscean expression - which indicates that the emotional foundation of OJ’s environment is not quite what it seems - and feelings cannot be trusted. In our Moon we seek safety and comfort, and familiarity; in OJ’s case, there was likely no emotional safety - no place he could go within himself to find himself, nor find someone to confide in, to give his emotions validity and substance. Those issues would have been subtle, with OJ feeling a sense of confusion as to what his relationship with his mother was really about.
The Pluto underlay, if you will, could add a very scary quality to the maternal relationship as well. The greatest fear with this placement is abandonment - likely due to some sort of emotional wound or trauma that could have happened at birth, or shortly afterwards. That wound could be something that happens at birth that threatens to separate mother and child, perhaps there might have been a trauma at birth that threatened the survival of one, or both parties..The resulting intense feelings of fear, can lead to an insatiable need for mother love leaves a deep emotional wound that never really heals.
We don’t know the circumstances around OJ’s birth - but I would hazard a guess there was something that happened in the first few minutes of life (the addition, Uranus is also squaring the Moon, which could validate this theory. (Uranus can create sudden disturbances, and with the Moon, the natural flow of birth might have well been interrupted). In any case, the 8th house Moon person will almost always be left feeling hungry for connection with the mother, which somehow eludes them throughout life.
Imagine the child that eats and eats and receives and receives and is never full. OJ would have not known when his needs were met, because I suspect his mother superimposed her own needs over his. OJ basically would never know what were his true dreams, or what his mother’s were.
OJ’s underlying hunger for existence is contingent upon not just attaining mother’s love, it was also to have her tell HIM what his needs were, which would keep those two in a co-dependent link forever.
There, in a nutshell, is why we have the boundary issues that likely plagued OJ all his life.
If the child and mother unconsciously know what the agreement (or underlying psychological script, if you will) is in their relationship then it gets acted out in the way that it does. With OJ and his mother, we ultimately see that .motherly love and support from Eunice will cost OJ power points (Mom: “I HAVE the power, but give you little bits of it from time to time, to keep you around” OJ: “I’ll receive whatever you give me and give you the power over my life”).
And each time OJ capitulates, it costs him. Every single time. And yet he still loves his mother, but likely hates her too, for the power she wielded over him.
There was a cost to OJ’s developing masculinity. His feeling of personal potency would have been threatened. The All Powerful Mother, and yes, the gay father were certainly major contributors to the less-than-successful relationships with the women in his life. The loss of potency, as a male, in this culture can be catastrophic. We see how he dealt with that, by entering a fully male profession - to somehow support his feelings of male inadequacy. The symbolic castration of a man like OJ Simpson would have been deadly.
And it was, in the end.
Read the next article in this series at OJ Simpson, Part III - The Invisible Man.
(c) Eileen Grimes