Merry Christmas - Martha Stewart (natal astrology & more)

11/23/2024

After eating that nice Christmas Eve dinner, unwrapping your presents, and pouring yourself a nice glass of eggnog, I recommend the new Martha Stewart documentary on Netflix (Martha). It’s a fun watch and a reminder of how imperfect our Christmases are without her. While watching, the word “perfectionist” came up repeatedly, and I thought she must have some serious Virgo in her chart. So, I found it and thought I would share it with you all. You can look at it as a guilty pleasure after watching.

Martha is a cool cucumber, so at first, it might seem surprising that she has so much fire in her chart. But she is extremely creative and has a crazy amount of energy - that’s all her fire. She’s a doer. She has Mars in Aries co-ruling her ascendant and trining her Leo Moon/Pluto/Chiron conjunction in the 9th. She has a loose grant fire trine in her earth and fire houses. I would give it to her because it involves the Sun and the Moon (and Ceres), each with a wide orb. In this case, they are both easily trining the Aries Mars in her 5th house of creativity and children. Both the Sun and Moon can have an influence 12 degrees out, so I feel OK saying that her Sun and Moon work together feverishly in that trine to manifest whatever her mind sets itself to.

She is the type of person who can’t sit still and thrives on adventure, conquest, and making things happen. All of which are (less obvious about her at first glance) but true. She has a beefy square to her Moon from her Virgo NN/Neptune in the 11th house. This enables her to channel all that fire to good use for her imagination. The Virgo Neptune/North Node conjunction represents a bleed-through from past lives, which speaks to the repetition of that theme in her childhood. The North Node in Virgo is a past life of intensely hard work, and with Neptune conjunct, it means she worked herself to death, known to the Japanese as karoshi. (Yes, the Japanese have an actual word for it, which goes on people’s death certificates!) In Martha’s case, with it in the 11th/5th houses, it implies someone who was a struggling artist. The South Node in Pisces is a starving artist in a past life. In this life, she found a practical and usable application for her creativity by working her off to envision (Neptune, ruler of the SN) her creativity in a pragmatic, usable way (Virgo). She did her NN and leveled herself up.

Her Moon in Sagittarius in the 2nd with Ceres represents past lives of teaching, traveling, and coming from another culture. Martha nourishes herself and others (Ceres) through teaching and professing (Sagittarius). This theme is reiterated by the Leo stellium in her 9th publishing house. Her empire was built on publishing books first and a magazine later. All the fire Mars in Aries, Sun/Pluto/Chiron in Leo, and Sag Moon gave her the confidence to leap into whatever she desired.

There’s a reason Mars is at its strongest placement in Aries. It isn’t afraid to take action, fight and be aggressive. Qualities that got Martha in trouble as a “bitch” but are the reason she’s able to be so successful. Mars in Aries also gives a hot temper. It goes for what it wants and is the boss. It gives leadership ability and in Martha’s case a drive to create (5th house). It wouldn’t make her a great mom. It isn’t soft and cuddly. It would have been a lot easier for Martha to have a boy. Mars in the 5th also implies few children (because it is a malefic). She has only one. In Martha’s case, her drive to create is about self-expression (Aries), and with a Sagittarius Moon and Leo Sun feeding it, there isn’t a lot of room for nurturing others.

Martha’s childhood, represented by the Aquairus 4th house, has both rulers conjoined in her 7th house of partnerships (Saturn and Uranus in Taurus). Both trine her NN/Neptune in Virgo in the 11th. She saw her father as hard-working, tough, sometimes mean, an alcoholic, and a brilliant man who could have done anything but wasn’t successful in his work. He taught her how to garden and was a perfectionist. Martha said she was his favorite because she was most like him. He built elaborate gardens with his kids to feed all 6 of them. He worked as a salesman while her mother was educated (Moon in Sagittarius) and worked (2nd house Moon) as a teacher. Her mother still found time to make her a beautiful wedding dress. She admired him because he was also a perfectionist and a brilliant man. Although she doesn’t say it, she was his little partner (7th house). She said she listened, eagerly took in everything he taught her, and spent much time doing so.

The Uranus/Saturn rulers in her 7th also imply relationships with men who would eventually change radically and exit her life. The Saturn conjunction with her Moon implies her parents were very different, living two separate lives. This may have been OK for them, but that inconjunction implies she both wanted to change that pattern but likely couldn’t. The conjunction implies her parents operate in two separate spaces within her. Her mother is the teacher aspect, the publisher, the creator, and her partnerships would inevitably take a back seat to her creative drive (inconjunction with Saturn in the 7th), eroding the stability. Eventually, they would suddenly decide to exit (Uranus), and she wouldn’t know why. Martha said she didn’t care how her partners felt. Meaning she took her relationships for granted. Once you committed (like her parents) that was that. Do whatever you want, and remain in the marriage as long as you stay faithful (well, she could mess around, but that didn’t mean anything). She was fine with living separate lives. Her husband began having affairs after she had one. She seemed OK with it as long as he stayed married. Eventually, he fell in love with someone else and left her. People said Martha was always very critical of him. This and her drive and lack of emotional support likely drove him to another woman.

Not everyone has the kind of drive and confidence Martha does. Most of us need love and support from others, which Marth doesn’t seem to get fully. She is her own generator. This is due to the grand fire trine in her chart. Her feelings are sublimated through her actions. If she gets upset, she gets to work. If she’s happy, she gets to work. If she thinks, she starts a project. Everything is channeled into doing and making things, teaching (9th house), and sharing with others (Virgo Neptune/NN in 11th square Moon). She was made this way, and she can’t help it. She is a creative machine.

Her Scorpio rising with Pluto and Chiron conjunct her Sun, bestowing a need to control which comes from a deeply wounded place. Her ego and sense of self are wrapped up in her ability to be seen, to be the center of her universe, to be the queen bee. All that power and need to control comes from her feelings of being wounded in childhood (Leo) by the person she identified with most, her dad. Her father’s love is the driver of her need to be in control. Her Sun/PlutoChiron squares her ascendant from the 9th, adding more ambition, drive, and a need to overcome. Scorpio rising gives sex appeal and a personality that digs deep, often going down a rabbit hole of obsession; this, with the Pluto conjunction, implies a deeply obsessed individual.

She has Mercury in Cancer sextile her Neptune/NN, Saturn/Uranus in Taurus, allowing her to think outside the box, be imaginative, and make the things she envisions. She can also teach them to others (9th house). She is often called a “visionary,” and this configuration is why. She can make whatever she imagines for the home, which is beautiful and brilliant (Uranus/Saturn in Taurus rulers of the 4th).

So why does everyone say she’s such a perfectionist? And why is this the defining thing about her personality that is so obvious about her? Well, Martha is a unique and amazing example of a Peregrine 10th house, Venus in Virgo. What is a peregrine Venus? A peregrine planet happens when it is completely unaspected (major aspects only) by any other planet (not including asteroids, etc.). Notice Venus in Virgo is the most elevated planet in her chart. It is in her 10th house of career. Martha was a model and a caterer who turned those assets into a creative publishing empire (9th house stellium, Sagittarius Moon/Ceres in the 2nd), teaching people (mostly women/Venus) about presentation, beauty and food (Ceres rules food).

A peregrine planet, due to its lack of other aspects, ends up dominating a person’s personality and chart. It becomes the captain of the ship. Peregrine planets are rare, but when they happen, they are wild. In essence, the rest of the chart is integrated as a team or like the crew of a ship. While the crew is working together, the Peregrine planet sneaks over to the helm and starts steering the ship. The peregrine planet is untouchable and inaccessible; therefore, it takes control. There is no way to reign it in, temper, change, or mute it. It becomes the most potent force in a person’s personality and what everyone sees over all other aspects of a person’s personality. It can make the person appear one-dimensional in some ways, especially if it is the most elevated planet in a person’s chart in their 10th house, like Martha. All the public can see about Martha is her perfectionism and desire for perfected beauty (Venus in Virgo). She appears cold (Virgo) and uptight, a workaholic, a foodie, basically a critical uptight perfectionist, but as you can see from her chart, she is so much more than that. If that were all she had going for her, she would never have created a billion-dollar company, making her the first self-made female billionaire.

She is so successful because of her relentless energy, drive, and creativity, all of it roiling under the surface. It is why she is hot-headed, a leader, a boss, a “bitch” and a creative genius. At first glance, you see the cold, hard Venus in Virgo, the perfect outfit, hair, home, and spread, but those who know her well see the entrepreneur, the artist, the boss, and the endless self-lighting fire of passion that drives her. She may look like a cold, cool, upper-crusty East Coast blue blood, but she’s a scrappy, driven, hardworking, ambitious, balls-to-the-wall go-getter artist who transformed the way women were seen in the home. She elevated home-making to an art form.

Merry Christmas, and may all your dinners and homes look like something out of Martha Stewart Living!

Blessings bright on this Christmas Eve!