horoscope interpretation | Karen Christino (2024)

Biographer Carl Sferrazza Anthony’s recent book Camera Girl: the Coming of Age of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy focuses on the future First Lady’s young adulthood and her written works as she faced some crossroads in her life.

Jackie was attracted to her Bouvier ancestry and studied at the Sorbonne as part of her French major in college. She was also a great reader who enjoyed art, literature and history and was a talented writer and illustrator herself. Many of these themes are represented by her Sun and Mercury in Leo in her 9^th house sextile Jupiter in the 7^th and trine Uranus in the 5^th. She had great creativity, a unique perspective, and was able to enlist the help of others to move her projects forward.

Back in the U.S., the college senior entered a Vogue magazine contest that offered the winner an editorial position. With Mars in Virgo in the 10^th house, she worked diligently on lengthy essays through several rounds of finalists until finally winning in May of 1951. But her divorced parents’ disputes kept her from immediately taking up the offer. When she began work as an editorial assistant at Vogue in September, her mother foiled her plans by calling her repeatedly at work and insisting that she focus on meeting eligible men.

Jacqueline had been brought up in wealthy households yet had no fortune of her own as her father had phased into alcoholism. While her Moon-Saturn-Neptune grand trine suggests much good from her family, Neptune closely conjunct the Midheaven raised confusing issues. Her Moon in Aries also shows her aggressive and at times abusive mother, especially as the Moon also squares Pluto.

Her powerful Sun in the 9^th suggested she stay in the publishing world. Instead, she left the position within a week to return to her mother’s home.

With her prominent Neptune and the help of her step-father, Jackie landed an entry level job at the Washington Times-Herald in October of 1951, and worked her way up to becoming the paper’s daily “Inquiring Photographer” columnist, asking provocative questions and taking pictures of people from all walks of life. She soon had a byline and a raise, with the column renamed “Inquiring Camera Girl” before she turned 23. The vibrant Leo Sun paid off again.

Though she broke off an engagement with a New York stockbroker, Jackie’s 7^th house Jupiter in Gemini sextile her Sun and Mercury gave her promising prospects for marriage. She had gradually developed a relationship with Congressman John F. Kennedy, who shared her interests in history, international affairs and travel. Despite being told of JFK’s philandering ways by a close friend of his, she believed the family’s Catholic background would keep him in a permanent marriage. 7^th house Jupiter is in detriment in Gemini, but ruled by Mercury in Leo, a fixed sign, so her conclusion was correct for the marriage.

But according to her letters to family and friends, Jackie was conflicted about losing her identity in a marriage, doing something notable with her life, and facing an uncertain future as a writer or editor. She needed security and couldn’t really hope to earn the money to finance her accustomed lifestyle herself. Her Scorpio Ascendant trine Pluto was pragmatic and sought financial stability and even power. Saturn in the 2^nd house opposite her Venus in Gemini in the 8^th also shows insecurity about finances. She had already been drawn to older, wealthy and powerful men, and Jack Kennedy was also 12 years older.

While a grand trine can indicate an ease of success, with both Neptune and the Midheaven involved in Jackie’s chart, it also showed the appeal of the path of least resistance. And Neptune not only relates to photography, but glamor, dreams and a broad scope. A good marriage was a more typical choice than an independent career for most women in the 1950s, and the easiest way to satisfy many of her needs.

Jackie’s second marriage to Ari Onassis showed her following similar priorities, but after his death in 1975, she became a book editor in New York, returning to a path that she had begun many years before.

Astrodatabankquotes Frances McEvoy’s collection of the birth data (from mutual friends).

Read another post about Jackie’s Neptunian mystique here.

Camera Girl is on Amazon.

About my reviews and links.

Gloria Steinem remains a strong advocate for equality and social justice. A 1934 Aries, she chose not to marry because she felt the role too restrictive for her as a young woman in the 1950s. But she did finally marry at the age of 66. How does this show up in her birth chart?

We see Steinem’s personal strength and self-sufficiency in her Scorpio Ascendant and its ruler Mars. Mars is placed in its other ruling sign of Aries and conjoins the Sun, a very dynamic combination. The Sun is exalted in Aries and rules her 10^th house of career. This might be a combination focused on children, since the Sun and Mars are in the 5^th house. But Evangeline Adams’ teacher Catherine Thompson said that the Sun in the 5^th house has the potential to “burn up.” Mars is also inconjunct Neptune in Virgo in the 10^th, showing a less conventional outlet. Gloria pursued a career that she liked and enjoyed.

The 5^th house also relates to creative self-expression and Steinem began as a freelance journalist. Her Moon in Leo in the 9^th house found a wider audience through writing, editing, lecturing and political activism. She became a celebrity in 1963 for her exposé on the treatment of women at the Playboy Club in New York after being hired as a Playboy bunny waitress. This was the time of her Saturn return, when it also opposed her Midheaven, showing a major turning point in her life.

Her experiences with marriage and partnerships are 7^th house issues, and she has Taurus on the cusp, ruled by Venus in Aquarius. Venus conjoins Gloria’s 4^th house cusp, so again we might consider an outlet through the home, or a sense of security as inducements to marriage. Though the sign of Aquarius is not known to necessarily follow conventions.

Saturn also conjoins her 4^th house cusp and Venus, so we can see why her concept of relationships had a sense of restriction. With both planets conjunct in Aquarius, Steinem needed a feeling of independence in partnerships, and her focus remained on special-interest advocacy. The early home is also represented by the 4^th house, and Gloria’s youth was peripatetic, with some freedom but obligations as well.

Her father was a travelling antiques salesman, and the family rarely stayed in one place for long. When her parents divorced when she was 12, she became responsible for the emotional support of her mother, who suffered from chronic depression. This might also be indicated by Mercury in Pisces in the 4^th opposite Neptune, giving her empathy and compassion through an experience of suffering at an early age.

In keeping with the prominence of the dignified Saturn in Aquarius, Steinem’s paternal grandmother had been a noted Ohio suffragist in the early 20^th century, astrologically showing her feminist roots.

Taurus on the 7^th and its ruler in fixed signs typically supports longer lasting connections, and Gloria had several long-term relationships with prominent men over the course of her life. She came close to marriage once, even getting a license, but didn’t follow through. She has said that it was always her own choice not to marry, but both Saturn and Aquarius may shy away from legal permanence.

Steinem’s marriage to businessman and environmentalist David Bale on September 3, 2000 at the age of 66 is in keeping with Saturn’s influence for a delayed or late marriage, or one that demands maturity. The marriage seems to have been a good one, but while Bale was seven years younger than his wife, he died of brain cancer in late 2003 at the age of 62, putting Steinem back in a caretaker role during the last two years of his life.

At 90, Gloria Steinem continues to fight sexism and campaign for equality, working from her Manhattan brownstone home. Google Arts & Culture says that “Since 1966, this apartment has served as birthplace and host to many movements and limitless ideas… countless organizations and individuals… coalesced here to organize, strategize and create.” Real estate is another 4^th house theme, and the activist eventually bought her apartment, which is extremely valuable today. Ultimately, it seems that the home and the relationships that it supports became the real center of stability in Steinem’s life, a connection that’s lasted nearly 60 years.

Gloria Steinem was born on March 25, 1934 at 10:00 p.m. in Toledo, OH, rated AA on Astrodatabank (from “officially certified birth data”).

Ms. Gloria Steinem: A Life by Winifred Conkling is an excellent biography that inspired me to look at Steinem’s horoscope.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy is in the news with his ouster from the House on October 3, 2023 after only 9 months in office. It reminded me of a class with Bob Zoller nearly 30 years ago. He was stressing that nothing will manifest that’s not promised in the birth chart. We all accept that, but he had a more deterministic view. Certainly, I argued, sometimes things work out better than astrologers might expect. He agreed, but went on to say that if that’s the case, the success will be either partial or short-lived.

We often find Saturn in the 10^th house in people with visible positions of authority. But sometimes, depending on the essential dignity and aspects, they’ll face challenges or experience a loss of position for one reason or another. Think about Herbert Hoover, who had an illustrious career but only served one term as President due to the Great Depression. He had Saturn in Aquarius in the 10^th opposite his Moon, Mars and Uranus. Woodrow Wilson had Saturn in Cancer conjunct the MC and opposite his Sun, and had to address World War I and a severe stroke that left him disabled. He never realized his hope for a League of Nations.

Saturn in McCarthy’s chart is different in that it’s closely square the Moon in Sagittarius conjunct the 7^th house cusp. There’s no dignity for Saturn in Pisces or the Moon in Sagittarius, and the mutable signs are not as forceful as the fixed (Hoover) or as tenacious as cardinal (Wilson). But like the others, he is in a sense the victim of circ*mstances. He’d do better if he had a solid majority to back him. But his horoscope doesn’t suggest that.

The Moon may represent his constituents, the public, his general audience or his open enemies. Ruled by Jupiter in Taurus in the 12^th which squares his MC, his partnerships and position (since Saturn is also ruled by Jupiter) are somewhat at the mercy of others, and might be undermined by hidden enemies (the 12^th) who are more determined than he is (Taurus). And with his angular Moon so closely square Saturn, the timing has not been right.

McCarthy’s horoscope has some good aspects but no essential dignity. So despite being a member of Congress for over 16 years, as Zoller said, his greatest success was both contentious and short-lived… so far. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of him.

British journalist Martin Bashir, who controversially interviewed Princess Diana, has some similarities in his chart with Saturn in the 10^th square his Moon, though his Saturn in Aquarius is stronger and the Moon is weaker.

The 12^th house is one of the most difficult to understand. But when we experience 12^th house issues, we can connect with them directly. Patrick Bringley’s book All the Beauty in the World: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me seems to share such a 12^th house journey in a compelling way.

Horary practitioners relate the 12^th house to disappointments, sorrow, affliction, even imprisonment. Planets here may show a focus on the wounded, hospitalized or withdrawn. Al H. Morrison related the 12^th to people who retreat from society to meditate, who turn inward or connect with inner guidance.

Patrick Bringley’s book chronicles his experiences following the death of his brother. He could no longer tolerate a somewhat superficial job that required him to spend his days in front of a computer. He had found meaning in art and instead became a security guard at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. At this 12^th house institution, his co-workers joked they had “nothing to do and all day to do it.” Bringley added that “Guards are nothing but secret selves in dark blue suits.” He worked at the museum for 10 years, recovering from the loss of his brother and becoming a husband and father along the way.

The experience of loss, his low profile position and his escape from the achievement-oriented world are all 12^th house affairs. So is suffering, which many of the artists experienced as well. Their works capture the sublime and ineffable, and transcend time and place. They celebrate “the making of anything worthwhile in a world that so often resists our efforts.” The author shares that, “Artists create records of transitory moments, appearing to stop their clocks.” “Such moments provide solace; they are heartwarming; they are pure.” “They help us believe that some things aren’t transitory at all but rather remain beautiful, true, majestic, sad and joyful over many lifetimes – and here is the proof.”

Bringley shares his impressions of a Michelangelo sketch, done while painting the Sistine Chapel, with a note saying, “I am not in a good place and I am no painter.” The artist begged to be released but the Pope refused him. In his 70s he was similarly assigned as the architect to complete St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, “to his intense dismay and completely against his will.”

Fra Angelico’s Crucifixion “reminds us again of the obvious: that we’re mortal, that we suffer, that bravery in suffering is beautiful, that loss inspires love and lamentation.” The best art puts us “in touch with something we know intimately yet remains beyond our comprehension.” All 12^th house.

Bringley shares his musings on many other works, old and new, from around the globe. We learn of his experiences with his warm co-workers and the patrons of the museum. Like the artists he’s come to know, Patrick Bringley connects us with something transcendental and metaphysical. I am definitely not a fine arts person, but I loved this book. It illuminates the 12^th house, not as a long, dark journey of the soul but a celebration of the cycles of life. I found the print and audiobook are equally well done.

Find All the Beauty in the World at Amazon.

Betty Smith, the well-known author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, had an early play produced in New York City this season. I was surprised to learn that she had actually been a playwright for most of her career, and had no real success until her novel was published when she was 47 years old.

A Sagittarius, Smith was born on December 15, 1896 at 6:00 p.m. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, according to her biographer (though no source is given for the time). She had many trines in her birth chart, but her life often wasn’t easy. With Cancer rising, her Moon in Taurus in the 11^th house is exalted, suggesting popularity and a good income from her career. A grand trine with Jupiter in Virgo in the 3^rd house and Mercury in Capricorn in the 6^th house shows her facility for writing. With Cancer rising and a prominent Moon, her best work drew on her memories.

Betty’s mother was practical and down-to-earth (shown by the Moon in Taurus and 10^th ruler Jupiter in Virgo). But her father, well described by the Sun in Sagittarius opposite Mars and Neptune in the 12^th house, was a dreamer who couldn’t support his family and died of alcoholism when his daughter was just 19. The Moon also squares Venus on the cusp of the 8^th house, showing other family issues and their modest circ*mstances.

Betty was forced to work at around age 15, and she worked diligently for most of her life, often struggling to get by. She returned to school twice but never completed her high school degree. And while she later attended college and then completed a master’s program in playwriting at Yale University, she never received those degrees because she lacked the prerequisites.

There are no angular planets in this chart, and aside from the Moon, there’s a lack of essential dignity. The 7^th, 8^th and 9^th houses are all traditionally ruled by Saturn, but its near-exact conjunction with Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, covers these houses either way. Placed in Scorpio in Smith’s 5^th house, we can see her relentless pursuit of education and creative work, and her focus on her two daughters throughout her life. But there was often an element of both responsibility and unexpected change in each of these areas. Saturn may delay things, but with a close trine to the Midheaven, the author always found opportunities and had great success after middle age.

Smith’s sometimes rocky marriages also come under the rulership of Saturn and Uranus. After splitting with her first husband following his infidelity and some separations, she essentially raised her girls alone. She became bored with her younger second husband when their relationship stabilized, and her third husband, also younger and reflecting the Neptunian pattern in her chart, was a drinker who secretly cashed large checks and pawned household items before he died of a sudden heart attack when his wife was 63.

Smith worked in North Carolina for the depression-era Federal Theater Project and stayed there the rest of her life. She wrote many plays, mostly with others, and earned some money through publication. She drew on her personal experience for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and writing about urban poverty from a female point of view was innovative at the time. The novel also resonated with many during the war years, as it reflected a simpler time and depicted women struggling to hold their families together and survive.

Many astrological events combined at the book’s publication on August 18, 1943 which radically changed Betty’s life as it quickly became a best-seller. Smith neared a progressed Solar Eclipse in her 8^th house (she had been in debt before immediately receiving a large royalty check). Her progressed Midheaven at 13 Taurus in her 11^th house of career earnings trined her 3^rd house Jupiter and sextiled her Ascendant. The progressed Ascendant at 21 Leo trined and sextiled her Sun-Mars-Neptune oppositions from her 2^nd house of money. The progressed Moon and Mercury in Capricorn through her 7^th house kept her focused on her goals and added the help of her publisher and the public as both planets sextiled her MC and natal Saturn-Uranus conjunction. And transiting Pluto also squared her ruler, the Moon, from the 2^nd house.

Smith continued writing; her fourth novel Joy in the Morning (1953) took a nostalgic look at her first marriage and was also a best-seller. In early 2023, when her early play was first produced in New York, transiting Uranus in Taurus was near the progressed MC of her break-out novel, and squared her Nodes from the 11^th house.

Like her mother, Betty Smith tragically suffered from dementia as she aged, and she began having trouble with words. Jupiter in the 3^rd house square Pluto in Gemini in her 12^th contributed to her writing abilities, but ironically also suggests the possibility of mental challenges. In her early 70s, Betty began forgetting names and her daughters eventually institutionalized her. She died less than a year later at 75.

Perhaps due to her strong Moon in Taurus and its grand trine with Midheaven ruler Jupiter and IC ruler Mercury, we still share in Betty Smith’s memories of her family and the old neighborhood from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. No wonder, since the image of a tree growing in a harsh environment is so aptly symbolized by her Moon-Jupiter-Mercury grand trine in earth signs.

More on Betty Smith on Wikipedia.

About the 2023 NYC production of her early play.

Valerie Raleigh Yow’s biography of Smith.

Evangeline Adams practiced astrology in her New York Carnegie Hall studios from 1905 until her death in 1932, reading thousands of charts, with many more processed for mail order work by her assistants. One of these was Lynn Wells, who wrote the introduction to the 1970 edition of Adams’ autobiography The Bowl of Heaven. I could never find much information on Lynn Wells, until I located the publisher’s files and discovered that she actually used a pen-name.

Wells’ father, Clarence C. Smith, worked at Carnegie Hall and became its manager around 1911. The family lived next door until the Hall was sold in 1925. Lynn’s mother was friendly with Evangeline, who draw up her chart when she was a baby. She became interested in astrology, and beginning at age 17, “I was trained by Miss Adams and worked with her for many years.”

Lynn married in 1925 and started her own astrology practice with her husband. In 1946 they were pictured as some of astrology’s “top practitioners” in a Life magazine feature that said: “Most dignified of astrologers are Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Wells, who have an early American apartment in Greenwich Village, deal chiefly with professional men, are considered a little high-hat by competitors. They married soon after Evangeline Adams predicted they would.” Adams’ home was done in an early American style, too, so maybe she inspired Wells. Holden and Hughes in Astrological Pioneers of America say that both Lynn and Charles wrote for astrological publications in the 1950s.

In The Bowl of Heaven, Lynn said that Adams “referred hundreds of people to me.” A newspaper article in 1940 stated that Evangeline “left Miss Wells a collection of some 7,000 to 8,000 charts.” But in her reply to an astrologer in 1982, Wells said that Adams’ “files contained at least 50,000 charts of clients, these no doubt lost or destroyed by now as I destroyed my own thousands of charts when I retired a few years ago.” I have never found any trace of Adams’ charts or office files; all are probably gone.

Lynn Wells was born on February 23, 1901 in Norwalk, Connecticut, according to her marriage record. In The Bowl of Heaven, she said that “my chart indicates that I cannot be a successful speculator.” The couple also appear to have had no children. So I’ve somewhat arbitrarily placed Uranus in her 5^th house.

Leo rising would explain the way Wells inserted her own story into her introduction to Evangeline’s book, as well as the somewhat high-handed manner in which she responded to the astrologer in 1982 who asked for information about Adams’ Windsor Hotel forecast. Unable to answer the question, she offered, for no apparent reason, “I note your chart contains the Part of Fortune and the Moon Nodes, which I consider superfluous now being invented by earlier astrologers searching for the source of Uranus and Neptune influences…” I don’t know who would agree today.

If she was born at about 4:00 p.m., Lynn’s Venus in Aquarius would conjoin her 7^th house cusp, and her husband was an Aquarius with the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars all in this sign. Lynn also seemed to have a compelling need to identify herself through her relationship with Aquarius astrologer Evangeline Adams (Pluto in the 11^th trine Venus). In accepting the assignment to write the introduction to Adams’ autobiography in 1969, she wrote the publisher, “The original Bowl of Heaven is inscribed to me by Miss Adams. Also her Astrology, Your Place Among the Stars is inscribed, “For Mollie, with sincere regard and affection from her teacher and co-worker.” In a P.S., Lynn added that “Mollie was my young nickname.” (Neither book was dedicated to Wells; by “inscribed” she means that Adams signed a copy of the book for her.) Decades after her death, she continued to remind folks of her association with her famous employer.

The name rang a bell for me, and I recalled two pictures of Adams sold on Ebay addressed to “Mollie,” both were dated after Wells had her own practice. One said, “For ‘my girl’ Mollie with much affection and all good wishes – Evangeline Adams, 1929.” (Adams was warm, if not effusive, in all of the signed photos I’ve seen from her.)

In fact, Mollie Smith was Lynn’s birth name, and Mollie Wells was her married name, according to her marriage and Social Security records. “Lynn” appears to have been a pseudonym. With Mercury in Pisces square Neptune, the difference between the two was blurred.

It seems rather strange that I came across two pictures Mollie owned. What are the odds? How many must Adams have signed for Mollie/Lynn in the first place? Lynn’s Sun opposite Mars fell right on Adams’ Nodes, and her Mercury conjoined Evangeline’s Ascendant, showing points of connection and identification. Her Moon conjoined Adams’ Pluto, hinting at the potential for an obsessive focus on the older woman. As Adams was the best-known astrologer of the time, their association served as something of an endorsem*nt.

Mollie/Lynn Wells and her husband had moved to Florida by the 1960s, and later to North Carolina. Lynn died at the age of 90 and left quite a bit of money to her local library to expand its building.

Tyre Nichols and Breonna Taylor are birthday twins – an astounding astrological fact. They were both born on June 5, 1993, Tyre in Sacramento CA and Breonna in Grand Rapids, MI. We don’t have birth times for either of these young people, but we can gain some insights from their noon charts.

Tyre’s mother, RowVaughn Wells said at his funeral that, “my son was sent here on an assignment from God…” With this unique synchronicity, I think we have to agree.

The two were born a day after a total lunar eclipse, sometimes referred to as a “Blood Moon” since the Moon appears reddish in color. Many people were born near this date, so it certainly doesn’t imply violent outcomes for all. But the symbolism in these cases is chilling.

Eclipses can make for eventful lives. Lunar eclipses are full Moon charts that may bring things to light. The lives and deaths of Breonna and Tyre both highlighted irresponsible and abusive law enforcement practices.

The Sun in Gemini conjoined the South Node, and Mercury in Cancer was Out of Bounds in declination. Mercury also very closely conjoins the U.S. Jupiter – symbol of justice and the law. So we can see why their legacy has made them messengers and teachers of important lessons for the U.S.

The most notable thing about the charts to me is how normal they seem. There’s a Moon-Venus-Mars grand trine and many flowing aspects. I don’t believe either had essential problems with authority figures, since Saturn is very well aspected. There’s also an openness of expression in the Sun-Mercury-Jupiter T-square.

Mars in Leo gives courage and a love of life. But its inconjunct aspects to the generational Uranus-Neptune conjunction might show the forces outside of their own control that overtook them. And while Mars square Pluto in Scorpio gives perseverance, focus and self-sufficiency, this aspect might point to the tragic violence that they both encountered. We’d need full horoscopes to say more.

Breonna’s mom reveals that Breonna and Tyre shared the same birthday.

I’m very pleased to announce my update of What Evangeline Adams Knew: A Book of Astrological Charts and Techniques – now available in digital and print. Originally published 19 years ago (a nodal return), the book was ready for a renovation.

I corrected some errors (including a few birth times) and made it a little easier to read. It’s essentially the same book with a few additions. Evangeline’s teacher Catherine Thompson’s chart for her second wedding shows why it was problematic. Edgar Cayce biographer Thomas Sugrue’s account of his reading with Adams gives us another example of how she worked. And a short excerpt on astrological investing from Sepharial’s The Law of Values clues us in on the state of financial astrology in the early 20^th century.

What Evangeline Adams Knew introduces us to Adams through the charts and work of several of her teachers. We get to know her through her relationships with Aleister Crowley, her marketer husband and many of her friends and associates. I include the transcript from her 1916 trial for fortune telling in New York City, and analyze many of her forecasts for individuals, public figures (including politicians running for office) and mundane affairs.

Read the reviews and more about the book here.

If interested, be sure to buy the 2023 corrected and updated edition with the new cover above. What Evangeline Adams Knewis available on Amazon.com, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, Hoopla and other outlets.

About my reviews and links.

Judge John J. Freschi famously tried Evangeline Adams for fortune telling in New York City in 1914, concluding that “The defendant raises astrology to the dignity of an exact science.” He exonerated her of all charges. It always seemed to me he was unusually sympathetic to Adams, and both his experiences with women and his horoscope give us some clues why.

The son of Italian immigrants, Freschi was born in Manhattan on March 9, 1876 according to New York City birth records. He graduated from NYU Law in 1898 and continued in private practice before being appointed a Magistrate by the Mayor in 1910 at the age of 34. He was married with two sons and they lived in an apartment in the West Village.

Freschi had been a member of the press club at school, regularly gave interviews to the press, and wrote for publication himself. Around the time of Evangeline’s trial, the judge advocated women’s suffrage in the Scarsdale Inquirer, saying, “Women have a right to be represented… The spirit of 1776 still lives! Why should any class have to live and be governed and taxed without just representation? Is it any wonder that there lurks in the hearts of some of the women of civilized nations, a spirit akin to rebellion?”

Judge Freschi had also presided over the Court of Domestic Relations where he heard many divorce cases and became known as “the judge who understands.” He had found that mediation and communication were key and was able to resolve many of the cases presented to him, saying, “The secret of a happy marriage can be told in three words: compromise, compromise, compromise.”

Evangeline Adams was born on a lunar eclipse, and John J. Freschi was a Pisces born right before a lunar eclipse. This may explain his ability to address complicated human issues, his compassion and pragmatism (since his Moon was in Virgo). His Mercury in Aquarius opposed Uranus, making him open to new ideas, and he realistically considered astrology in court, without jumping to conclusions. Jupiter in Sagittarius must have attracted him to the law and encouraged him to voice his opinions. But Jupiter squared Saturn in Pisces, once again tempering idealism with practicality and understanding.

Freschi played a short but significant role in Evangeline’s life. We don’t have his time of birth, but his Sun fell right on Adams’ Ascendant and Venus, so he was able to support her. His Mercury also conjoined her Sun, so he must have genuinely understood what she was all about. Since Adams was single and self-supporting at the time, he may have even admired her independence.

The judge’s Jupiter also conjoined Evangeline’s Saturn in her 9th house, clearly showing his legal boost to her reputation. I often feel that this combination can show a karmic influence, giving a sense of paying back something owed. Adams’ Nodes also fell right on Freschi’s own Jupiter-Saturn square, adding another note of destiny to their encounter.

Judge Freschi’s Saturn also conjoined Adams’ Mercury and South Node in her 12th house, so that his authority had an impact. Some have suggested that the judge was bribed with an astrological stock market tip, and the 12th house connection might show that possibility. But we’ll probably never know exactly what happened.

The often random relationship with a judge can have a huge impact on a person’s life. Evangeline gained much from Judge Freschi’s thoughtful decision, and talked about it for the rest of her life. It may actually be the main reason she’s remembered today. These two eclipse charts had an impact when they combined their energies!

Read about Evangeline Adams’ Court battle in my books Foreseeing the Future: Evangeline Adams and Astrology in America and What Evangeline Adams Knew: A Book of Astrological Charts and Techniques.