Jodie Foster’s Chiron Return
Jodie Foster is one of the few movie stars who has managed to transmute her juvenile brilliance into adult excellence. Now, she’s 50 and still at the top of her profession. It’s a remarkable career.
But just as remarkable has been her determination to keep her private life out of the public eye. This must have been hard to achieve. So why in her 51st year, did Foster decide to go public about her sexual orientation?
Her “coming out” speech at the Golden Globes a couple of days ago has caused a flurry of commentary, even though there’s been no subterfuge about her relationships. She’s just never talked about being gay.
On the night of the Golden Globes, the North Node conjuncted Foster’s Mercury (speech-making) in Scorpio. She may be naturally a very truthful person, but her sense of self-preservation up until now has kept her quiet. This nodal transit happens only once every 18 years. Last time round, Foster was co-funding a short film called Trevor about a gay teenager’s sexual coming of age.
Venus, female sexuality, and Pluto, the truth, are currently conjuncting in Foster’s first house of personal identity. For a few years now, Uranus, the planet of awakening, has been jiggling around Foster’s angle of home. She separated from her long-term partner in 2008, which may have precipitated a lot more upheaval and change.
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But the really interesting transit in Foster’s chart is Neptune to Jupiter. Her natal Jupiter is in Pisces, the most compassionate placement for the planet. It’s in its own sign traditionally. It’s exactly opposite that perfectionist, craftsman’s Moon in Virgo. Foster is great at portraying characters who are hard, but vulnerable underneath. (Silence of the Lambs, The Accused, Nell, Taxi Driver, Little Man Tate) That opposition is her crafted emotion projecting onto a wider screen (Jupiter in Pisces).
Natally, her Moon is closely conjunct Uranus. She feels like an outsider, so it’s not surprising that her most successful roles have been as outsiders. That’s also quite a gay placement. It’s hard to tell someone’s sexual orientation from their chart; indeed some astrologers would argue that you can’t see it. But Uranus, either in relation to the Lights or Venus or in the right house, crops up a lot. It’s about being different, see, having unconventional relationships.
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| 1994 |
That Uranus-Moon is right out at the top of her chart, in the public eye, exposed, if it were not for that distracting Venus-Neptune conjunction in the 11th.
Transiting Lilith, the dark moon that makes us dare, was forming a trine from eloquent Gemini, exactly to Foster’s own Lilith in charming Libra and the 10th house of fame and honours on the night of her speech. It must have taken some courage for her to stand up and tell the truth.
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| 2011 |
Foster’s Chiron is conjunct her Jupiter and opposed to the Uranus-Moon. Being in the public eye was a wound. So she split her life into strict parts. Saturn is at a quincunx to the Uranus-Moon, which suggests awkwardness and in her case, arbitrary rules. It’s strong and fixed in Aquarius too. So her rule was not to speak about her private life at all. Strict, strict boundaries.
This speech is her own poetic way of bringing those two parts of her fame and her authentic, gay self together. Transiting Saturn is squaring her natal Saturn – it’s time to break those old rules – and trining her natal Chiron.
Foster is taking ownership of her own identity. I wonder if that means she won’t be acting any more.
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She has said she will continue to make films … we’ll see what exactly that means.
I keep thinking about it in relation to her being a mom and how it relates to her children as well. She has sons who are the ages of the children who are killing themselves over sexual identity and with the activity on her moon it makes me wonder.
She never hid it, she just refused to talk about her personal life in interviews. It’s an interesting time to be coming out to the public: the chiron return.
She’s already come out twice though, hasn’t she? Once in 1997 in a magazine interview and once in 1999 (I think) at an awards ceremony where she publicly thanked Cyd for being her partner and raising her children with her.
I hold a different point of view from you. I’m looking at Scorpio and the 12th house and seeing the manipulator, not the saviour. And that is a valid point of view too. This is a public forum, we should be able to hold opposing views to each other and still be respectful of each other, not resort to childish name-calling or astrological point-scoring of who is the most compassionate.
But look – the wonders of the internet, we’re two strangers on opposite sides of the world having an argument about what another stranger said at a celebrity venue we’ll both never go to. Bit pointless and time to move on. I’ve obviously hit a raw nerve and I’ll leave your comments stream alone from now on. Yes, I have a 12th house Sun. And I do understand, I had a partner of 6 years who was quintuple Scorp (Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Venus and Merc). An incredible force but inner demons too.
Julie, given her horoscope, I find her behaviour entirely understandable. She has four planets in Scorpio and is extremely private, not to mention that 12th house (Piscean overlay) Sun – what you see is not what you get. Got a 12th house Sun, Julie?… didn’t think so.
Also, she has Sagittarius rising and resorts to comedy when she’s nervous – that whole ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’ thing – it’s merely a charade to protect her privacy. While you may find that discomforting, she’s doing the best she can… being as courageous as she can. She’s no Ellen (an attention-seeking Aquarian on steroids), so I recommend you find some sympathy for a highly intelligent woman who’s lived in a fish-bowl for most of her life.
It is a case of ‘the nature of the beast’, and you taking the time to understand why she is the way she is. Walk a mile in her shoes, wear her ‘mask’, etc. She’s trying very hard and deserves credit for that. If she were an Aquarian Sun with Sagittarius rising and the Moon in Aries (a.k.a. Ellen), I’d be saying, ‘you could have found the courage to be a bit more positive’, too.
Credit where credit’s due. My heart goes out to Jodie, knowing it took an enormous amount of courage to say as much as she did, especially in acknowledging her deep love and respect for Cydney.
As a gay woman myself, who’s lived with a Scorpio with Sagittarius rising for 12 years, I can well guess the magnitude of Jodie’s courage. Congratulations, Jodie… proud of you, well done!
Sorry about that Prospera. No offense was meant.
However, as a counsellor for gay and lesbian youth, and as a lesbian myself, I see first-hand what damage homophobia does to young men and women. The suicide rate is 4 x that of heterosexual counterparts. Not to mention the whole self-harm, drug/alcohol abuse issue etc.
The whole point of the forum is astrological analysis yes, of a gay coming out/not story. With very strong positive role models e.g. Ellen, and the out gay actress from Glee in the audience, surely Jodie could have found the courage to be a bit more positive? Astrologically, it seems she does split herself off. Socially, lesbian and gay people have had to as well. It’s all profoundly unhealthy.
It was a great opportunity to stand up for herself, and I think she missed it because of internalised homophobia.
The london lesbian and gay switchboard has used the speech to try to help older lesbians and gays coming out. 45% of their calls about coming out come from 35-70 year old age range.Dr Siri Harrison of the City Psychology Group told Metro why it was still such a scary prospect for many people. He said: “Even if it’s not overt forms of discrimination, just messages we see on TV, the constant focus on marriage which is always in the media. It is very easy to internalise and just worry that you are going to be rejected, not loved, not cared for, and then owning those feelings yourself.”
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for her, as I see it as a lack of courage. She has had lots of support from her homosexual fans. To downplay other gay and lesbian people who have come out by commenting about press conferences, coming out scents and perfumes, really underplays just how difficult it is to live your life as a gay person, and underplays their courage.
Julie, I found your comments ignorant, repugnant and personalized. Please reread Christina’s commentary and attempt to understand Jodie Foster’s nature via astrological analysis, which is the whole point of this forum.
I thought the same thing Em. Surely, she must have more sympathy with those kids killing themselves because her own sons are just reaching that age. I was connecting that with the Neptune transit, which would give her a greater sense of the collective, e.g. what it’s like for the rest of us. For her personally, how can it have been much of a problem coming out to her nearest and dearest? Her mother was in a relationship with a woman.
So why the discomfort? I do see it in that quincunx from Saturn in the chart. I think Foster would dearly love to conform, but she just can’t.
I agree Julie, it was mealy-mouthed – she is still unable to say that simple phrase I’m gay – but so so interesting. Mel Gibson – WTF!! Fascinating. From both angles. I couldn’t recall exactly what he’s said – Hollywood gossip is not my thing usually – but how can they be friends (and for years)? The other thing I noticed was that she referred to the people in her industry as her “dads”.
She has done that thing of splitting I think, and this speech exemplifies and attempt to heal the split, but not a wholly successful one.
My feeling is better late than never, and better sort of than not at all.
Hmm. I don’t know about this speech, Christina. I could only watch it halfway through, I felt so uncomfortable.
She came across as prickly, defensive and quite angry. Also, nervy. Something was just ‘off’. Most people know she’s gay, she had her sons there in the audience, conceived by sperm donor, brought up by Jody and her female partner. Why be coy and angry? Why not be proud of her family and grateful to the profession that has given her this accolade?
If she wanted to talk about her sexuality, she could have stood up there, taken a deep breath and simply told the truth. It would have had power and grace.
Instead she seemed to say: You want to know this about me? Well, there you are, (slap round face with wet kipper, jokes about Honey boo boo, celebrity ‘coming out’ stories). I sort of am and I sort of am not going to tell you anything.
I felt a bit embarrassed for her. She’s not exactly at peace with herself.
And Mel Gibson as her guest for the evening? Noted wife-beater and homophobe? Smacks of ‘beard’ to me. She’s still not comfortable with her identity, sexual or otherwise.
She never has been comfortable in her own skin. (I knew someone who was down the hall from her in college.) I suspect acting and directing appeal so strongly because they get her out of her own skin.
Whatever she does, she’ll continue being secretive and prickly in propria persona. I don’t care. I see her films not because she’s someone I want to find on the next barstool. She’s not. What she is, that matters to me, is damn good at her job.
I think it’s Nim’s Island actually.
The thing about her in Nimm’s Island is that she’s really funny. Most of her roles are relentlessly serious. Also she’s often played (excellently) women caught in a man’s world who have to put on a shell to cope with it. I think one of the reason’s I don’t warm to her as an actress is my own difficulty in confronting the nasty. But that is one of the important jobs that Scorpio does for us. Who could be more Scorpio than Clarisse?
Yes, it’s on my list… I don’t warm to her parts, I’m impressed by them :). Her handling of tough parts like Clarissa or the gang rape victim in Bedford or the incredibly isolated speech impaired Nell is relentless. I think these parts draw on her sense of innate separation and difference and fundamental disconnection from others. So the quality that makes her unappealling as a person works in her roles — and it’s worth noting that the pressure on women to be pleasing above all is relentless, and it’s something I try to keep in consciousness and in perspective. I don’t think it’s right that we have to be 1. Nice and 2. Pretty before we’re given any slack at all… my two pence 🙂
I know she’s really super duper and intense and everything, but I have never warmed to her as an actress. The thing I have liked her in most is a kid’s flick called Nimm’s Island in which she plays an agoraphobic author who lives through her characters – hmmm maybe that is the one that’s closes to the the truth.
I loved her speech – so honest, as in HER honesty. It is hard to stand up in front of so many people especially when there is so much Scorpio AND a 12th house Sun. I felt her courage and clarity and the way she gently touched her sons and mother was beautiful – again – in her way.
I have always loved her fearlessness and fierceness as an actress.
Her language was precise and poetic and purposeful. I think that’s her Venus-Mercury conjunction in Scorpio. What seemed obscure was deliberately so. I forgive her for not just saying it straight because I think she was dong that Emily Dickinson thing of telling the truth, but telling it slant.
HMM, let me see; she’s been in the unrelenting glare of the spotlight since she was four years old, as a teenager she was inadvertantly entered into history forever because an obsessed fan tried to assassinate the president to get her attention, she has an aging parent who has dementia or Alzheimer’s….I’d be prickly and protective of my privacy, too.
Yes, I would too. But then why use a ‘coming out’ speech – in which she doesn’t, to put down other people who have come out?
There are many people who lie/have to hide their sexuality. A lot of the young homeless kids I used to work with at Centrepoint Soho were kicked out of the family home because they came out/were ‘found out’.
Sexuality is of-course extremely private and intimate. It’s also a profound descriptor of who you are, whom you love, and who your family is.
Jodie is very well protected and loved. Also, being in the public eye is part of being an actor. She has been in that since she was 4, but she could have, if she wanted to, at 30, 40, got out of the glare and gone into a related career or simply used her wealth to do something else. She’s also extremely well-known in the gay and lesbian community, this isn’t new.
She didn’t have to bring up the idea that she was gay or that she was coming out. By bringing that up, then taking the mickey out of the way that others had come out (without doing so herself), gives very mixed messages. One of which could be: I am ashamed.
She had a great opportunity to give a big ‘two fingers up’ to her detractors (whisperers who’ve said she’s gay -she could have said yeah, so what? I’m up here with the award – see how much it matters) and to support her family and others. In my view, she really missed it. And that really matters to the people that I work with and try to help.
@Christina – I’m wondering if there is a 9th house or humanitarian connection in the charts of famous people – in the fact that they may be acting as catalysts or lighting rods for new ideas in the collective. We project our hopes etc onto them, but do they also have a reciprocal role?
That’s a really interesting idea. You know Michel Gauquelin, the French statistician who did a lot of work on astrology, found that the 9th and the 12th houses were strong in the charts of successful people but maybe that should be famous and successful, because all the ones I have seen are of well-known people. After all, you’re not going to be famous for being a successful mother, are you?
I have always thought that the 12th house part of that is to do with them animating the collective, but I think you may well be on to something with the 9th house connection.
To Julie: Positive role models for gay teens are wonderful and necessary, and if celebrities are helping to fill that role, that is a good thing, but only a drop in the bucket if local community and family aren’t educated and supportive. I know that your presence and support to the teens you work with is far more valuable than any number of glamorous film stars delivering eloquent coming out speeches.
A major concern in my life is: how do we empower young people to be the stars of their own lives? Foster’s predominance of planets in the southern half of her chart suggests that she would be an easy screen for projection. As someone with almost all planets down in the first five houses, I am quite chary of the cult of celebrity worship that we have in the United States right now. Reality shows, purposely leaked sex tapes, this week’s unapologetic admission by Lance Armstrong that he did indeed use performance-enhancing substances…. I don’t think we dare ask celebrities to be our heroes.
But my friend Rochelle, who would be a good candidate for hero, has an ailing partner, a daughter with chronic seizure problems, a meaningful job that she loves but which fails to pay her a living wage… She loves her life, but it wouldn’t make a snazzy looking “It gets better” commercial.
Thanks MaryH. Sorry, I went off on one :)Yes, you’re right of-course. I’m a cynical Brit living in Aus; I don’t really trust what any celebrity says. I was just thinking about that Jupiter/Sagg/12 and 9 house connection of actors and looking at Jodie Foster’s chart. If we project onto them (slebs) (12th) does that then ‘somehow’ with all that goodwill, help them develop as a person and do something good for the collective (9th)? So, like Lance Armstrong, maybe a charity or something? I’m not sure if we should make them heroes either, human nature being what it is. Lance seems to seriously believe he did nothing wrong. I hope he has to pay back all of the people he falsely sued. Jodie Foster has her ruling planet Jupiter going direct again on the 30th, so who knows? Some sort of charity/fund for aspiring actors..
Yes, young people being the stars of their own lives – lots of kids rely on having the latest clothes/trainers/body image to give them that boost. It’s really about building self-confidence in your own abilities and to know that you are worthwhile, loved and cared for, with a right to hold your own views. It’s very hard growing up. Your friend sounds a true hero.
Jodie Foster has had a right to a private life. We all do. I can’t imagine living in the limelight, or the responsibility that entails. She is brave. She broke her silence. Yeah, it was uncomfortable. Someone who is straight never has to step up the plate like that in this day and age over what in the straight world is a non issue. I’m not interested in judging her intentions, her credibility, or her speech itself. It was a shame that in our world it had to take place. I look forward to the day it is no longer necessary. And Mel Gibson? He was being a true friend. And that does say something about his character…he was there supporting her and backing her up. That is laudable.
Jodie Foster knows Mel Gibson better than we do, that’s for sure. But it works both ways.
Her support for him is in the face of enormous hostility. She’s showing her profound Scorpio nature there again – going where other’s fear to tread. What other big stars are gong to be allow their names to be associated with Gibson? His name is mud, yet Foster treads right into it and hauls him out. So interesting and fearless.
Heres a simpler explanation for her speech. Notice by transit that chiron is at 6 deg of pisces and jupiter is at 6 deg of gemini and notice that her natal saturn is at 6 deg of aquarius. Interpretation her career (transiting chiron conjunct natal chiron) is being unfortunately affected by being squared by transiting jupiter while at the same time transiting jupiter is trining natal saturn (fallen angel – theres no going back now). If only someone close to her knew about magi astrology and told her not to do it at this point. I think this will badly affect her for a long time.