Paula Deen was a high profile super-Chef on the Food Network, with a number of successful TV food shows on her trophy shelf. She has two sons with whom she began her catering and restaurant business, who also got on the air with their own show. She wrote several well-received books, as well. She put in a LOT of hard work, as many Capricorns are capable of, and had a lot to smile about.
Then, all hell broke loose, and the salient point, the iceberg that sank the Titanic, was the charge that she had used the “N-word” and had said some rather sordid racial remarks. From what I can tell, Paula Deen readily admitted that she had used the N-word. She was born in Georgia, raised in the South; and it cannot be excused, but maybe that kind of thing is frequent south of the Mason-Dixon line in her family or her class. But the idea of a woman using that kind of invective in front of employees or fellow business people or other chefs, was so offensive that people couldn’t disassociate themselves from her fast enough. She lost her T.V. contract, her book publishing contract, and various other backers.
A look at her natal Astrology chart shows the whole problem!
Paula Deen Solar Chart. Thanks to Astro.com
She was born January 19, 1947 in Albany, Georgia. (This is a Solar Chart rather than using her exact birth-time, which was not available.) The critical factor is that Mercury, the planet of communication, the mind, speech and writing, is in a very close conjunction to Mars in her chart, and in the Sign of Capricorn. The Sun is adjacent. You can see them at the VERY TOP of the attached CHART. These few factors are enough to describe her entire problem.
* Mercury conjunct Mars — vigorous (Mars) heated (Mars) speech (Mercury).
* Mercury and Mars in Capricorn — Capricorn is a very down-to-earth Sign which often doesn’t mince word when either Mercury or Mars are present.
* Sun conjunct Mars — masculine, dynamic, “double-Mars” energy. Fearless and not particularly sensitive to what others might feel.
* Sun conjunct Mars in Capricorn — totally work-driven nature, not apt to be extremely worried about what is “politically correct” or not.
* Sun, Mercury and Mars all in a wide opposition to Saturn. Losses are shown by hard aspects to Saturn,which tends to “teach lessons”, sooner or later, for things the person doesn’t expect or is not even aware of. “The past catches us!”
* Saturn opposes her Sun. At some point in her early life, she was very much taken to task by either her father or a teacher or other person, probably male, and this hurt her ability to empathize with others. Others had screwed with her, been highly critical of her, and she was therefore willing to use bad language about others, either personally, one-on-one, or racially, as a group or class.
*The asteroid Pallas Athena is only a quarter of a degree from an exact oppositon to Saturn, and hard Pallas aspects to Saturn seem to indicate “feeling stupid”, (in this case, being MADE to feel stupid), for mistakes they have made. Bob Marks (in www.bobmarksastrologer.com) indicates people with this obscure aspect often need to “practice.. practice.. practice their self-esteem.” Well, after the world gets finished denouncing them, as in Paula Deen’s case!
To be sure, Sun, Mercury and Mars are all in a good aspect with Jupiter in Scorpio, and Jupiter holds the promise of prosperity, wealth and fame. And this is the reason for her rise to “stardom” and success. But the aspect is a sextile, a 60-degree aspect, which is not as strong as other Jupiter aspects such as trines and conjunctions, and the benefits of the sextile can be lost when other factors intrude.
If you have my “Planetary Combinations in Astrology Charts”, (Amazon/ Kindle), you can see some other examples of people who have a Sun-Mars conjunction in people which include Nazi theorist Joseph Goebbels, controversial Louisiana politician Huey P. Long, (who was assassinated), porn actress Traci Lords, (who got a second chance on MTV), early Federalist Alexander Hamilton (who was shot to death in a duel), Caryl Chessman,(who was executed at San Quentin), Lenny Bruce (prosecuted for saying obscene things, and died young),, outspoken feminist activist and author Gloria Steinem, and popular singer Aliyah (who died in a plane crash). You can see the Mars energy, when combined with the Sun, at birth, creates SO MUCH energy that often unexpected and violent events occur. Please notice how most of these people with Sun conjunction Mars made some powerful enemies, to say the least. (Please see my book to find out more:
“Planetary Combinations in Astrology Charts” $5.99)
Mars transited Deen’s planet Uranus very recently. This aspect often indicates sudden and unexpected (Uranus) attacks (Mars), in this case, the denunciations of those who were involved in a law-suit against her.
Mercury went retrograde last week, within range of an opposition to Deen’s critical natal Mercury-Mars conjunction. Everything about this situation is hard for her to deal with while Mercury, which rules publicity and news, speech and writing, is going retrograde. This is a key to her being unable to pull herself out of the quagmire she’s found herself in. At the end of the retrograde, in three weeks, Mercury will come toward the opposition and go over the exact opposition, a little more than a month from now; I don’t think she can make much progress until that aspect takes place.
She has a GREAT series of Neptune aspects, and these have to do with artistry, with talent, as well as inspiration. On some level, great cooking must be a Great Art... that’s what her chart says, anyway! I’m sure she’s got a BOOK in her that will explain all that we are talking about. With her good Jupiter and Neptune, she’s not going to go broke.
As a tough Capricorn with hard-hitting Mars and crafty Mercury conjoined in the most practical and ‘earthy’ of all the Signs, one must believe that she has a tough-enough skin to not let this kind of debacle totally destroy her. Her Jupiter sextile to these three planets will actually protect her from the worst of the worst, and she may not lose her court battle, as Jupiter in good aspect at birth is extremely good in helping during litigation and the courtroom.
The hard-as-nails part of her chart is what caused her to speak disrespectfully and thoughtlessly. But finding the right response that is as sensitive as a Water Sign — not an Earth Sign — is what seems difficult. The “right touch” in this circumstance is sadly lacking.
