Margaret Mead

I spent most of Saturday night digging through the magazine racks at the Barnes & Noble. Even spent a while gawking at the latest issue of Skeptic Magazine and found an interesting story about a guy who spent 40 years trying to discount Margaret Mead's findings about the sex lives of natives in Samoa. Mead was the anthropologist who is said to have opened the gateways for the sexual revolution of the 1960s with her writings about how the free sex lives of the natives of Samoa. Apparently this wasn't true for all Samoans, just the ones who Mead, as a closeted Lesbian, was most attracted to.

The article in the magazine was was actually trying to debunk Mead's debunker. This magazine just loves to disagree with everything. There was also some kind of article about how professional Magicians are more skeptical than the average person. Maybe this was the once a year Introspective Issue where the Skeptics turn on themselves, sort of like watching a dog chew its own tail off. Capricorn Moon here; I was entertained.

At any rate, the debunker was Derek Freeman. Like Mead, he was an anthropologist. Freeman said that he interviewed the two women who Mead had originally interviewed as old ladies they told him that they had sort of made up the stories because they were embarrassed by Mead's questions. Sounds reasonable, but who knows.

At any rate the story in Skeptic magazine says that the fateful interview was on Mar. 13, 1926. I just love it when they give the date. Actually the article even said that the interview happened at night. It's sort of like Skeptic Magazine was tossing a bone to me so they could have a new person to attack. Wonder if they could sell an issue that attacks a blog called "Out the Comet's Ass?" That would be even more perverse than the tail chasing scene. By the way, are there any women who write for Skeptic Magazine or is this sort of White Boy thing like the Astrologers who live in Tempe, AZ?

Either way, I wanted to take a look at Mead's chart to see if it could show that she would be vulnerable to deception on that date, or whatever else it could explain. And I also wanted to look at what happens in a chart when there is a great public reaction to a person's idea and then a gradual wearing away of that idea. Scorpio Midheaven can show this.

Margaret Mead
b. Dec. 16, 1901 9:00 am Philadelphia, PA

Sun 24 Sagittarius; Moon 27 Aquarius; ASC 18 Capricorn; MC 12 Scorpio; NN 12 Scorpio;

Mead has the type of chart you'd expect to find in an independent, educated woman concerned with humanitarian causes, a real adventurer. She was a Sagittarius with an Aquarius Moon. Her Sun is conjunct Uranus which repeats the Uranian theme of her Moon.

Mead's Ascendant is also really interesting. It is Capricorn which shows a serious ambitious personality. She was born during a conjunction of Jupiter to Saturn in Capricorn which is tightly conjunct the Ascendant and Mars. Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions are thought to influence world politics. They were connected for a long time to Tecumseh's curse which led to the attacks of Presidents in the U.S. The last George Bush was the first President to break this curse. Tecumseh has a really witty ghost apparently.

Mead's Mars-Jupiter-Saturn-ASC stellium does not make any aspects with the rest of Mead's chart. This shows that her personality would have been quite strong. It also will show down the line as affecting her relationships in some way as ASC/DESC shows this area of life. Saturn not only rules her chart and is in conjunction with the Ascendant and the natural ruler of the Ascendant, Mars, it is also the final dispositor.

Respect is important to everybody, but for a Saturnian a loss of respect can be deadly. It can show fear of failure. Either way, Mead's work was kept stable until after her death. She has Scorpio on her Midheaven with a conjunction of her North Node on the same degree in Scorpio. How great is that for the woman who is thought to have a great influence on the Sexual Revolution of the 60s? Freeman waited to publish his debunking book until after Mead's death, that's a Scorpio MC I guess. Scorpio also gives one the magnetic and powerful ability to hold on to one's reputation. I looked at Donald Rumsfeld's chart which showed all kinds of different things. (The post is somewhere, I don't know where.)

On Mar. 13, 1926, a number of aspects were setting off Mead's chart. She was going through her first Uranus square transit. By coincidence the Sun was conjunct Uranus in both her Natal Chart and in the Transiting Chart of that day. There may also have been a New Moon on that night in Pisces which means that the Moon was approaching conjunction with Sun-Uranus by transit and squaring the natal.

That much Sun-Uranus action could have indicated that she was perhaps coming on a bit too strong for the natives. Her enthusiasm may have influenced their responses and reactions. Sun is Ego and Uranus is sort of the alter Ego as it rules the opposite end of the Leo polarity. I suppose if we want to start a Revolution, we might as well be going through a major Uranus aspect like this, though. Mead already had that Mars-Saturn conjunction on her Ascendant natally and was no doubt a bit of a pushy personality. She would have needed this in order to do what she did in a man's world, even today.

Further influencing Mead at this time: she was going through both a Venus Return and a Mars Return on that day. Since these are the two planets that rule the love life of an individual it seems that Mead would have been taking the meeting with the two women in Samoa on some sort of personal level.

Further echoing the influence of the New Moon transit at the time of the meeting, Mead's progressed chart shows a New Moon aspect as well in Capricorn. And this New Moon was at 17-18 Capricorn is right on top of her Ascendant and Mars-Jupiter-Saturn Stellium! (Saturn 16 Cap; ASC, Mars and Jupiter 18 Cap)

The planets are definitely lining up for Mead to make a break through in some sort of way through the planets related to sociology, Jupiter-Saturn, by some sort of one on one relationship (interview). One of the women she interviewed, Fa'apua'a Fa'amu may have been born with the same Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in her own chart as well, as both women may have been born in the same year (can't vouch for the birth date I found on the Internet but it is listed below).

So, during a Pisces New Moon there can be deception or confusion at least. Since Fa'amu's Sun is at 10 Taurus and Mead's is at 24 Sagittarius I sort of wonder if the New Moon aspect was at the midpoint between their charts. There is a point between 5-7 degrees Pisces which I'll show is significant in Mead's progressed chart with relation to Retrogrades. Hey! I just noticed that I've been writing this just as we're approaching a New Moon in Pisces conjunct Uranus!!!!! Cool!!!

I was wishing of course to be able to determine from Mead's chart that her ideas would be "debunked." That's probably a stupid thing to look at for such an achiever but a subject that most real people can relate to more in their own lives (how many of us get to be one of the top Anthropologists of all time and the spark of a Sexual Revoluation? Can't relate? I didn't think so). It seems that this debunking is considered acceptable in Scientific communities and is part of the method. It's why everyone believes in Science. Since most Scientific ideas are debunked every 50 or 100 years that's not maybe the most logical point of view, but who am I to get in the way of progress?

I found some interesting connections between Mead's debunking and her progressed planets. Her progressed Venus went Retrograde in 1942 at 4 Pisces. Venus is going to describe a person's love relationships. Mead went through a few of these. The Retrograde can bring some kind of stalling with whatever is ruled by the planet involved. With Venus perhaps more with women than with men because Venus rules Women. Mead had 3 marriages and 3 divorces. By 1942 she was married to her 3d husband. He left her in 1950. She said that he was her true love and that he broke her heart. At this point she seems to have switched sexual preferences and have become Lesbian. She completely changed the identity of her love relationships in order to have one that would work. I think that is often what happens with prog. Venus Rx in whatever way. The extended stay at the same place in the chart makes a person have to look deeper into how they love and are loved. A Sun-Uranus person with Venus in Aquarius is probably going to take experimentation a bit further than most.

In 1957, Mead's progressed Mercury went Rx at 6 Pisces. I wonder how things went for her as Mercury rules communications. I think she taught for a long time in her later years.

I wonder also what the significance of this specific area of Pisces was for Mead's chart. Both Venus and Mercury went Rx near the same spot in Pisces in her progressed Chart. This point is in the 2d house of her natal chart and is trining her natal Neptune 1 Cancer-Sun opposition, so it is significant in some way. It certainly shows that she influenced the idea of "values" in society, a 2d House topic.

Mead's Mercury stationed Direct in 1978. This is the year that she died. (Mercury ruled her 4th House which shows "end of life" so I suppose this could be one interpretation for that aspect although I wouldn't want to use it in any readings.

I'll just quote the paragraph from Wikipedia here which explains Mead's debunker. He spent 40 years re-researching her research. One can line up his story along side the dates that I've just given. The correspondences are pretty interesting for trying to figure out exactly how Retrogrades in Progressions can figure in a person's life.

Freeman described incongruities between Mead's published research and his observations of Samoans:
“ In my early work I had, in my unquestioning acceptance of Mead's writings, tended to dismiss all evidence that ran counter to her findings. By the end of 1942, however, it had become apparent to me that much of what she had written about the inhabitants of Manu'a in eastern Samoa did not apply to the people of western Samoa...Many educated Samoans, especially those who had attended college in New Zealand, had become familiar with Mead's writings about their culture...[and] entreated me, as an anthropologist, to correct her mistaken depiction of the Samoan ethos.[5] ”

Freeman conducted research for more than forty years, describing his research as concluding in 1981 when he was finally granted access to the archives of the High Court of American Samoa for the 1920s;[6] consequently, his refutation was published only after Mead's death in 1978.

Derek Freeman's chart
b. he was a Leo, I forgot where I wrote down his birth date.

The woman he interviewed:
Fa'apua'a Fa'amu

b. Apr. 30, 1901
Sun 10 Taurus; Moon Virgo or Libra; NN 24 Scorpio

Fa'apua'a had a conjunction of Sun to Venus in Taurus. Venus is strong in her own sign here. This aspect certainly shows a woman with a lot of sexual charm. A sort of Helen of Troy. No wonder she sparked the Revolution.