Lioness: Rectifying Ruth Bader Ginsberg's Chart

[First published on my Patreon page on September 18, 2020.]

In my sadness at Ruth Bader Ginsberg's passing, I am processing my grief, in part, by rectifying her astrological chart. That is, I will attempt to find her birth time.

The "Notorious RBG" had a birth date (3/15/1933) and birth place (Brooklyn) that are known, but her time of birth is not known.

Here is her chart with an assumed noon birth time, just so that you can see her general placements in signs. The birth time will show the rotation of these places, i.e. their proper houses.

​STEP ONE:  Look for a picture of her hand

​This tells us what dominant element she was out of air, fire, water, and earth. Here is a photo from the U.S. National Archives that is in the public domain.

​The relatively long palm and short fingers is the very picture of a fire element hand which contrasts with her more vata, diminuative, feminine appearance.

This tells me that she was an Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius ascendant, as these are all the fire signs.

STEP TWO: Test each of these possibilities by computing the arudha lagna of the first house. It should match the "vata, diminuative, feminine appearance".

Aries computes to an arudha lagna of Sagittarius.
Leo computes to an arudha lagna of Libra.
Sagittarius computes to an arudha lagna of Aries.

Of these three, I believe that the Libra (with Moon in it) best matches her appearance. Hence, the actual ascendant of Leo is implicated.

STEP THREE: Consider further the nakshatras within Leo.

These are Ketu-ruled Magha which would give a royal mien, Venus-ruled Purva Phalguni which to my mind gives a languid lioness mien, and Sun-ruled Uttara Phalguni.

From what little video I have seen of her, she did not seem to be taking on the guise of royalty. (Compare her demeanor to Mr. Trump's, for example, he who was born under Magha.)

Similarly, as Uttara Phalguni is associated with amorous dalliances and that was generally not part of her reputation, I think that nakshatra can be ruled out.

Thus her birth time to this point could be considered to align with the nakshatra of Purva Phalguni, the lioness mien, implying a pretty wide birthtime between approximately 16:24 and 17:31.

From here on, I will use biographical details from her Wikipedia page.

If everything hangs together, that would be general reinforcement of the principle that I may be on the right track.

STEP FOUR: Consider the education chart or D-24.
An extraordinarily capable yoga between Venus and exalted Saturn is here, and she was in school in her Saturn dasha with Saturn sva in the sixth house back in the D-1. This makes me want to choose to have Venus in Aquarius rising so that prodigious Saturn in Libra (the scales) can be placed in the ninth house of graduate school, ergo law school.

This further restricts the possible birth timeframe to ~17:11 to ~17:16.

STEP FIVE: Look at the D-10  or career chart for consistency.

​Nicely enough, this time restriction results in a D-10 that describes her professional life fairly well.

​We see a debilitated Mercury rising in the D-10 that I believe is multiply neecha bhanga due to Mercury's lord Jupiter being in strong yoga with Mars in the tenth house as well as other reasons. (See page 295 in de Fouw's Light on LIfe.)

As well, back in the D-1, this Jupiter is in powerful yoga with the lagna lord of Sun which is conjoined this Mercury. It is in Mercury mahadasha that her career took off.

STEP SIX: Look for consistency in the health event of her death within her health chart of the D-27.

So, then is there portent for her passing on September 18, 2020?

​Yes, especially by further refining her birth minute to between 17:11 and 17:14 which would give a Sagittarious lagna there with an antarbhukti expression of Moon/Saturn/Rahu on her death date.

​Tracing that sequence, Moon is in the seventh house there and is lord of the eigth. Saturn is transiting the second house in a strong state and is lord of the third. Finally, Rahu is in the twelfth house and is transiting the seventh house (as atmakaraka in the transits).

Each of the houses here mentioned is a maraka and/or death-dealing house and/or a house of loss.  Therefore, death was indicated six times over.

Fine-tuning the birth minute to ~17:13 places the culminating apex of expression of this sixfold expression to September 18.  

STEP SEVEN: Consider her legacy

​What then will be her legacy? Let's look at the D-11.

​Here is a repetition of the lioness as Purva Phalguni is again rising. The sign lord is in the tenth house of public life. Really, every planet is strong here except the Moon in Ardra and the nodes, one of which lords the Moon by nakshatra. 

Interpretively, one may perhaps speculate that making such a dramatic impact on society, the very need of it, was not emotionally very comfortable for her.

When her life sequence in the future enters Mars mahadasha, that very strong Mars in the ninth house that aspects the fourth house might likely mean that her prior rulings will really affect the legal substratum of the USA, influencing our country's development from afar in time. This Mars period is slated to begin around Feb 5, 2025.

CONCLUSION

Before we finish looking at the divisionals in our quest to understand Ruth Bader Ginsberg, I just want to pause a moment and emphasize how important Venus is at every step of the way: as lagna and atmakaraka nakshatra lord in the natal D-1, at being exalted and in yoga with the dasha lord during her education years in her education chart of the D-24, as lord of the exalted Moon and arudha lagna and supported by mahadasha lord Mercury and atmakaraka  in the career chart of her D-10, and as dispositor of the dasha lords in her most active times of influence in society, the Sun and Mercury cycles, in her D-11.

​Truly, the Divine Feminine was working through her both in her public and interior lives. As Venus is her bhatrukaraka, I believe this means that her mentors (whether male or female) were inspired by their own feminine natures to help and support her work, work that through the roar of a lioness could be said to honor and protect the feminine grace in all of us. 

On a personal note, I want to thank you all for reading this far. Doing this analysis helped me understand her better and thus appreciate her even more, actually considerably more. She really does have a tremendous chart befitting a tremendous life. Thanks for coming along. If you have any questions about her life that you would like an astrological take on, feel free to post them below.