The lady herself
This study of a profoundly mentally retarded woman contains a poignant story and some interesting astrological lessons. The “native” is named Missy [in this article only].
Missy and I have formed a close relationship during the 20 years we have known each other. She lives in a hostel and my husband and I take her out for pleasure trips quite frequently. Now suffering the after-effects of breast cancer surgery, Missy's journey has become a notable one that draws in everyone around her.
Missy was reportedly a very bright baby, but she suffered seizures before the age of one and lapsed into retardation, such that her mind is stuck at a pre-cognitive level. There is no ability to reason and she cannot count beyond 3 or name the colours.
Lacking intellect, Missy's interaction with the World is one of emotional re sponse and re action. She lives at the primal Cancerian level of instinct and response. The “re”-words are lunar words, and appropriately enough, Missy's Sun is in Moon-ruled Cancer in mutual reception with her Leo Moon. Her family [Cancer] is her world – both her actual and acquired families. To her, there is nothing else worth noticing.
Missy is so detached from her physicality that she can suffer injury because she cannot identify the harmful agents in her environment. Things like hot showers and pinching shoes don't bring a normal reaction – only damage to her body. Hence, she needs 24/7 care, one of several reasons that hostel life is the only option.
Missy is hard to handle – a full-sized toddler with all the accoutrements of the Terrible Two's. But she can laugh – riotously – turning heads in amazement. She can walk. She talks a blue streak. And she can bellow – there is more of that lately, because Missy has undergone some nasty shocks with her illness.
Language is the great surprise – her vocabulary is not only extensive, much of it would embarrass a mud-wrestler.
Her Mercury conjoins Uranus, Moon and Mars, so she is linguistically explosive. She understands language mainly from tone and intent, and her heart-felt curses pack a wallop. One day she unloaded her curses on a local Hells-Angel-type – who only woke up to her disability after his fist was drawn back to uncoil in a strike. He aborted the action and laughed.
Since being diagnosed with breast cancer last year, her behaviour has taken a nose-dive for obvious reasons – people in white-coated authority have done dreadful things to her body, and her touching trust has nearly evaporated.
And yet, Missy stills charms by kissing the hand of a kind-hearted doctor or nurse. The more recalcitrant type of medico gets short shrift from her – Missy has all the psychic intuition of the developed watery native and she knows who is on her side. Her psychic abilities have compensated for lacking intellect and they are highly developed.
Her family and carers have had a rough ride in trying to tempt back her normal good nature and keep her as free from sedation as possible. A strongly sedated Missy is a sad creature indeed. But an angry Missy packs one hell of a punch, and her carers need protection.
Astrology and retarded subjects
Below we will examine the very pure astrological expression of Missy's life. One doesn't need an intellect to live out the chart to perfection! In fact, our intellects may actually stand in the way of our planets – think about it.
Do we astrologers have the idea that a person must be compus mentis in order to express their charts? I did – quite unconsciously. So as my relationship with Missy grew, it came as a bit of a surprise to see just how closely she lives out her chart. There is no calculating override in her mind to negate her astrological heritage. She is a pure example of her planets.
Missy has a Cancer Sun, Leo Moon and Pisces rising, plus a 5 th house Leo stellium.
Cancer Sun
She has one all-consuming interest – her family – either her biological family or her hostel family. People are her total life. Family photographs excite her deleriously, and she is radiantly proud of her collection. [Neptune, her modern ascendant ruler, also rules photography.] It is through photos that Missy says good night to the Family – whom she misses sorely.
Family attachment is the quintessence of Cancer. And to emphasise the fact, her Sun resides in the 4 th house, in mutual reception with her Leo Moon. Mutual reception is considered to be validated when the planets are in aspect, and here the lights make a perfect semi-sextile. [admittedly non-Ptolomaic] The link between the Sun, where family governs individuality, and the Moon, where security equals affection, describes Missy's warm heart.
Her psychic ability seems to inform her uptake of the spoken word. It is most curious that when my husband and I converse in her presence, Missy often repeats our whole sentences verbatim at the same instant that they leave our mouths. A normal person couldn't copy language so immediately. Her Leo Mercury is conjunct Uranus – which not only makes her highly strung, but also plays a part in her lightening-quick repetitions.
The sensitivity and self-protectiveness of Cancer is almost extreme in Missy. She picks up on everything in her environment [vulnerable Pisces rising], and interprets much of it as a threat to her wellbeing. This includes normal daily routines and hygiene, making life difficult for her carers. She is much like a crab locking herself into her shell with a ‘do not disturb' sign, backing into the sand. Resistance generally takes the form of a passionately uttered “don' wannoo-oo-oooooooOO!!!!' [No T's thanks.] Sometimes however she plants a wallop worthy of a prize-fighter.
Much of the reactivity, as mentioned, is around personal hygiene. Missy's fallen Venus in Virgo gives her a love of being clean – but her Cancer reacts and sees washing as a threat. Once the deed is done however, she is pleased with the result.
Leo
Missy's Leo Moon has given her a deep sense of pride, - not always well understood by those around her. Hygiene and presentability really matter to her. She is deeply offended by her own inability to eat neatly [she suffers tremolo], or to keep her clothes straight. If she leaves the hostel with messy hair there is a heavy price to pay in her behaviour.
But the Leo Moon person is generous and loving by instinct, and Missy is a shining example of these traits. She loves to give, and she loves to love. Affection is freely expressed most of the time, and she is content just to sit close by her family, carers or friends. Safety is the concern of the Moon, and safety equals affection and recognition for Leo moons. Of course with that Moon, Missy hates to be ignored, and pulls us into line if we do so.
The 5th house is about children – and being the seat of Luna [which also rules it] this shows that Missy is deeply fond of the little ones. They are almost a tranquiliser for her – she gets so absorbed in watching their activities. Four siblings and two step-siblings, all of whom have produced children, give her plenty of nieces and nephews to love. Characteristically she seems to love their photos almost more than the children themselves.
The Leo Moon is closely conjunct Uranus. Missy can be volatile and her reactions seem to come out of nowhere, as she goes from peace to total mania. Mars is widely conjunct the Moon, and the applying aspect manifests, predictably, as eruptions of temper. In medieval terms this is besiegement of the Moon, an affliction, if we consider Uranus to be an ‘infortune.'
Moon/Uranus people often show a fear of abandonment [Moon = mother & Uranus = split] and since it was necessary at puberty to place Missy in a hostel, this fear lingers on in her mind. One has to be able to reason in order to understand why one is put in a Home. Missy cannot do that. Fortunately she has formed friendships with some carers and fellow ‘clients' [the term for the retarded residents].
Missy doesn't have a concept of time – everything was pretty much ‘yesterday' and her memory [ruled by the Moon] remains very fresh. So her 36 years in care don't soften that isolating event of ‘yesterday' when she sadly had to go into a hostel. Therefore taking her back to the hostel after a family outing can bring up some ‘behaviour.'
Afflictions from the houses of sickness and death
Jupiter and Neptune rule Missy's rising Pisces, both from the 8 th house of death. [Jupiter arguably belongs to the 9th , being on the cusp.] This would suggest that whatever caused her retardation [still unknown] was quite dangerous to her, and might well have been lethal.
Supporting the 8th house message is the presence of these two rulers in Scorpio, the sign of danger to survival. As a coup-de-gras , Venus as Lord 8 is in her fall in Virgo and conjunct Pluto in the 6 th house of illness. Missy is lucky to be alive. An angular Sun must have helped, together with the 9th cusp position of Lord 1, Jupiter.
It is known that Missy was born to a mother who fell pregnant too soon after suffering pre-eclampsia with an earlier pregnancy. The besiegement of the Moon between two malefics could indicate this maternal weakness, and so could the 10 th house Saturn [10th rules mother, as does the Moon].
Pisces rising
Pisces-rising people are transparently impressionable and highly psychic – and this is Missy to a ‘T'. We don't even try to fool her, and it is useless to spell words we don't want her to hear, - she reads our minds. We have learned to alter our moods or block all emotion when we need to discuss any reaction-producing topics in her presence, because Missy responds to feeling-tones, not concrete words.
Her angular Sun receives a trine from Lord 1, Jupiter – a mighty enhancement of her psychic powers. Sun, ascendant and Lord 1 are all in water which contrasts with the fire of Leo. Leo gives the love and sparkle, not to mention the heat in her reactions.
Missy has visions. Some creatures she sees may be actual entities, and others are clear hallucinations. This is not a rare phenomenon for a Pisces-rising person. Neptune is mystical and thins the boundaries between realities, and Jupiter casts its rays from the 9th house of visions to the ascendant. The nasty nature of some apparitions is indicated by Jupiter's partile square to Mars. There is one particular unseen “Lady” who can send Missy into paroxysms of fear, but we have found that if we take her visions seriously we can manage to ‘send the entity away,' which relieves her greatly.
Other players in the chart
Saturn strong in the midheaven suggests that Missy needs a strong hand to control her, in spite of all the watery sensitivity. This is quite true, - she seems to do best with ‘tough love' followed by plenty of affection.
And of course she has a Saturnian reputation [10 th house] – she is handicapped. But be assured that her Sagittarian 10 th cusp contributes its fun-loving nature to her good repute as well.
The elevated, dignified Saturn trines Venus and Pluto closely. We might stretch the astrology to suggest that she is limited [Saturn] to handicapped friendships [fallen Venus; Saturn ruling 11th ]. Nonetheless, Missy has cultivated a devoted following in the wider community.
Venus-Pluto tends to be jealous, and she is possessive towards family members and jealous when she wants the limelight [all that Leo!].
As a final comment on her natal chart – the conjunction of Chiron and Fortuna on the 12th house cusp begs for interpretation. Does it mean that Missy's ‘fortune' is to be the wounded person who is locked away [12th house]? Is this indeed a karmic positive rather than a negative? Her effect on people is generally to enlighten them about life – Missy isn't a bad teacher in that respect.
Missy's future
Her current astrological picture is a bit worrying; Saturn has begun to transit her 6th house and Pluto is on her midheaven. Given that she had surgery last November '06, it isn't good to see Saturn heading into the 6th . Pluto on the midheaven might be explained as the medical authorities who have taken control of her life – or that she is gathering a reputation for having gone through a plutonic experience of disfigurement and survival.
At the time of this writing, she just had her 6-monthly check-up at the hospital, and appears to be totally well. Missy remembered the duty nurse, bellowed out “My friend!!” and rushed over to kiss her hand. Her reputation grows!
copyright 2007
Consulting Professional Astrologer, Dipl.AGE Int'l, BA, Couns.Cert.
Principal, Orion Academy of Astrology
53 Marjorie Avenue, Riverton WA 6148
+618 9457 1790 jlewis@academyofastrology.com
This article has been written with permission from Missy's family..