The Predictive Power of Profections and Planetary Periods (Firdaria) Part III – Betty White’s Career
Continuing from the previous post:
Career
Betty White’s career has spanned more than 70 years, making a thorough treatment of it an impossibility in blog format. However, her recent resurgence in popularity (she may, in fact, be more popular than ever before) made me curious about what’s going on for her astrologically. Again, I’ll limit myself to the two techniques I’ve been using in this series: Profections and Firdaria, and I’ll necessarily limit myself to a few highlights from her long career.
Note: all data which follows is from the Wikipedia page on Betty White.
White began her show biz career right out of high school. Since most people start working at this age, and she lived in Beverly Hills, it’s probably not terribly noteworthy for our purposes. From age 20-32, she was in her Jupiter period. Her natal Jupiter is in Libra in the 3rd house, fairly well dignified, and sextile to her Ascendant. However, it is also square to her natal Venus, the sign ruler of her Midheaven (career); so while a certain amount of success is indicated, one would not quite expect to “hit it big� during this period. Nevertheless, White began her TV hosting in 1952 (having been on the show herself for a couple of years) when the host of Hollywood on Television left the show. Though this was during her Jupiter period, Saturn was the co-ruler this year, and we saw previously that Saturn is dignified and in her house of money. It is also conjunct the Moon, the ruler (almuten) of the 10th house (career) and the North Node, generally considered a good luck point.
Her first real career boost came between 1952-55, when she played the title roll in Life With Elizabeth. This brings her squarely into her Mars firdar. Mars in her chart is very highly dignified, in Scorpio, and very quantitatively powerful, being right on the 4th house cusp. She co-produced the show, and won her first Emmy for it. By the mid-50’s, the show was nationally syndicated, and she was the only woman in Hollywood with complete creative control over her own show (Mars in Scorpio). The 1950s in general were an extremely successful time in White’s career, and her Mars firdar lasted until 1961. The 52-55 span were also 7th – 10th house years, 7th house having a focus on relationships and contracts, and 10th house focusing on the career.
Betty White’s film debut was in 1962, in Advise and Consent, which,though it claimed some critical success, was not a big commercial hit. This was during the North Node firdar. It may be noteworthy that aside from a 1978 short subject film, White did not start appearing in films again until the 1990s. This means that her film career really didn’t begin until she was well into her Mercury firdar, and into her 70s. Her real success has always been in television, where during the 60s and 70s she slowly became one of the most successful actors in her field. Her years on the Mary Tyler Moore show were mostly during her Venus firdar (which rules her 10th house of career). Her natal Venus is in her 6th house of work. During her years on The Golden Girls, she was in her Mercury firdar, Mercury also being in her 6th house, and ruling her 2nd (money) and her 11th (friends). Mercury also squares exactly her Midheaven; while the square isn’t usually a friendly aspect, Mercury is not a particularly malevolent planet, and the contact is probably better than no contact at all.
But what drew my attention is White’s current return to stardom. While she has worked non-stop for a very long time, there are certain shows that were more successful than others, and during those runs she has been more in the public eye than in intervening years. In 2006, White participated in the Comedy Central roast of William Shatner, with whom she starred in Boston Legal. For many young people, seeing this older woman make such openly rude, crude jokes, while still maintaining an air of elegance and even innocence, was an eye-opener. In 2006, White entered her second major Saturn firdar. Remember that her Saturn is well-dignified in her house of money, conjunct the Moon, which is the almuten (overall ruler) of her career house (10th). Saturn rules her house of work and relationships/contractual partnerships. So in general, these years should continue to be quite good for Betty. In early 2010, a Facebook campaign to get White to host Saturday Night Live led to the announcement on March 11 that she would host the show in May of that year. This was exactly one day after Mars took over as co-ruler (with Saturn). We have already seen the power and dignity of her Mars, which was her major ruler when she really started to make it big. In addition, 2010 is a 5th house year for White, which brings fun, play, creativity, sex, etc. to the fore.
When I started this series, I mentioned that we would be able to really only scratch the surface of what Profections and Firdaria have to show in Betty White’s chart. Nevertheless, just “scratching the surface� has spilled into three long blog entries. What fascinates me most about these techniques is (especially when one goes into detail) how much information they can give about a person’s life without even looking at transits, or what’s going on currently in the sky that might affect one’s natal chart. This is all based on one, single chart – the natal chart of the person. This raises all sorts of questions about the roll of fate in astrology. I’m sure that I’ll get to ponder that here at some point in the future.
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