The Power of Eclipses (as seen through Kim Kardashian)
The Power of Eclipses (as seen through Kim Kardashian)
This article was originally written in August 2019 for the ISAR Journal
I’ll admit it. I may not be the most qualified person to write about Kim Kardashian. Although she’s been in the public eye for the last twelve years, I never paid her much mind until recently. One evening at an astrology conference, I was in my hotel room flipping through channels when I came across The Alec Baldwin Show’s interview with Kim Kardashian. This interview was hyped in lieu of Kim’s husband Kanye West’s recent visit to the White House. My expectations were low, but it turned out to be juicy.
What caught my attention most? She described herself as grateful for the traumatic robbery she endured in 2016 because it taught her to value a more private life. She described a life-changing shift in her priorities. Kim came to realize that constantly overexposing her wealth and posting her real-time location social media just to be seen could actually endanger her safety. She took long a hiatus from posting on social media thereafter. From a socialite celebrity who built a career off image (and who allegedly released a sex video of herself to seal her position in the spotlight) to someone who “craves privacy more than ever” – I knew there was an astrological version of the story, so I busted out my laptop, drew up some charts and did some digging.
But before we go further, let’s take a peep at her natal chart:
Kim Kardashian is an 11th house Libra conjunct true node Black Moon Lilith who landed on the scene in 2003 as a friend (11H) of Paris Hilton. BML’s sultry, seductive effects are easy to spot, as Kim’s career is largely fueled by her sexuality and Libran beauty. Libras can be quite intelligent, but sometimes they hide it behind their Gucci handbag. Regardless, Kimmy K most obviously embodies the more superficial side of Libra (she’s made a career off of “likes”). Kim has been called an exhibitionist; she has no problem baring her body for the camera, but one-on-one, she is reportedly insecure about herself. Countless articles online estimate the hundreds of thousands of dollars she has spent on plastic surgery to achieve the “perfect body.” And what about that signature booty? Kim is a Sagittarius rising, and Sag rising people almost always have prominent hips to begin with. Hers is simply enhanced!
Kim’s ascendant ruler is none other than benefic Jupiter, who tightly conjoins her midheaven as the highest elevated planet. That is almost as nice as it gets. Jupiter, however, is debilitated in Virgo and only makes hard aspects (which explains her insecurities). Kim’s reputation leans on her wealth (Jupiter), which was a product of her famed-attorney father (Jupiter conjunct out-of-sign, dignified Saturn in Libra). Virgo represents the everyday person, and even though she is by no means a normal-everyday-person, their show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” brings us into their everyday homelife, where she insists that she is just like everyone else (Virgo). But we also see her Moon (conjunct IC) come to life here: The Pisces glamour meets home and family.
Kim has a stationary retrograde Mercury, which may parallel her difficulty answering question during interviews – despite being on TV for the last ten years. More recently, Kim has begun addressing political crowds. In a recent video of Kim speaking at the White House, she visibly powers through the stage freight as she speaks about prison reform (more on this development later).
Kim’s been rightfully accused of cultural appropriation on multiple occasions. Most recently, she received major backlash for her “Kimono” undergarment line, and in perfect Mercury retrograde style, had to figure out how to relabel millions of garments. Kim has never publicly confirmed plastic surgery. She blames her nose’ appearance on makeup alone: "People think I've had my nose done. I haven't… I used to hate this bump on my nose. Hated it. Now I love that it makes me look more ethnic." Various articles are devoted to her appropriation of black culture, so we won’t dissect further here, but I’m once again looking at her Sag rising/debilitated Jupiter, as well as her Virgoan naivete and her Libran shallowness (necessary PSA: no all Virgos are naïve, not all Librans are shallow, and not all Sagittarians are guilty of cultural appropriation, but this is where it shows up in Kim’s chart). And finally, her Neptune rising. Neptune diffuses boundaries (“I’m just like you!”) and with the ascendant, it complicates approaching life from a realistic or down-to-earth perspective; however, Neptune has blessed her with the enigmatic aura of an icon.
The Robbery:
While in Paris for Fashion Week, on October 3rd, 2016, at 2:19 am, a group of armed robbers broke into Kim’s hotel, bound and gagged her, and robbed her at gunpoint for over $10 million in cash and jewelry.
On September 16th, 2016, a lunar eclipse occurred at 24°19’ Pisces. Most obviously, this eclipse tightly trines her natal 12th house Uranus. The midpoint of Kim’s Venus/Jupiter is 24°14’ Virgo. Jupiter rules her ascendant, while Venus rules her Sun; this is a highly important midpoint for Kim. With her Moon, MC and IC so close in degree with Jupiter, we can see how sensitive this area of her chart would be. This places the lunar eclipse within 5’ of her Venus/Jupiter midpoint! Her Moon/Venus (safety and values) midpoint is 23°52’ Virgo/Pisces, which is still within 23’.
Laying the robbery inception chart of 2:19 am over Kim’s chart, we see Mercury activating the lunar eclipse degree via 23°22 Virgo. Mercury also forms a fated yod with both transiting Uranus and Kim’s natal Uranus. Eclipse events often manifest with a Uranian flair of shock; the nature of this event was undeniably sudden (Uranian), and even Martian (transiting Mars in partile square to natal Saturn). The life changing effects of this event are a product of the eclipses.
Earlier in the year, the total solar eclipse of March 9, 2016, at 18°56 Pisces nails Kim’s Venus within 30’. Kim later described to Ellen Degeneres that the robbery “dramatically changed her values and her priorities.” (Venus!) This eclipse also trines her Mercury, which rules her 7th house of partnership (Kanye, who suffered a mental breakdown just one month after the robbery).
Not long before the attack, Mercury had stationed retrograde on her MC and Jupiter, opposite her Moon (safety) on the IC (privacy), inviting her to rethink her publicity. Mercury is in shadow direct phase at time of attack.
In charts with eclipse triggers, I’ve always noticed that the transiting angles play an important role. At 2:19 am, transiting MC activates the total solar eclipse degree via 20°48’ Aries; at the conclusion of the robbery (3 am), transiting ascendant aligns with Kim’s north node of fate in her 8th house. Her 8H north node describes her inheritance and use of resources on loan; the top dollar item stolen was a ring from Kanye. The 8th house echoes the privacy and trust themes, but also speaks to the deep trauma of this event. Her progressed Moon also travels through the 8H at this time. Weirdly, transiting Fortuna aligns with her natal 8h Ceres in the 3 am robbery chart. Following the incident, Kim prioritizes laying low at home with her kids. She related to Baldwin that she had days where she never got dressed or wore makeup. She says she wasn’t depressed, just unmotivated. I’d call it shell-shocked! The event invited Kim to express her Moon in new ways. This time, she got to be in her own private Pisces world, where she could prioritize motherhood, emotions likely ran high and she was indeed a victim.
The transiting nodes square her ascendant, while Uranus opposes natal Pluto (and eventually her Sun); these aspects indicate a crossroads in Kim’s life, and undoubtedly, big change!
At the time of the robbery, Saturn had already crossed the star’s ascendant, asking her to focus, concentrate on the long-term and pare down her life. Just 2.5 months after the robbery, Saturn makes its first exact square to Kim’s natal Venus, which can indicate a period of more solitude in reevaluation of what’s most important. We also know that just before the robbery, Kim was working hard to recover her body post-baby. Perhaps this was her true crisis in value. After the robbery, Kim began allocating her time and energy to her private life, her home and her family. She likely endured a very private internal battle regarding what really matters in life anymore, and who she cares about most
Kanye
Kanye was hospitalized from exhaustion just one month following Kim’s tragedy. Kanye’s mental health had already begun to snowball, peaking with his meeting with Donald Trump in 2018. Kanye recently publicized his bipolar diagnosis. I found this interesting quote wherein he also mentions that he is a Gemini in an interview with David Letterman: "What I want to say about the bipolar thing is because it has the word 'bi' in it, it has the idea of, like, split personality. Well, that works for me because I'm a Gemini, but when you ramp up, it expresses your personality more... You can become almost more adolescent in your expression or border into places. This is my specific experience that I've had over the past two years, because I've only been diagnosed for two years now." He also says he “feels a heightened connection with the universe when he feels [the bipolar] ramping up”
Kanye is a Gemini, and Gemini is on the cusp of Kim’s descendent. She has otherworldly Neptune rising, while Kanye’s Sun opposes Neptune. Like Kim, Kanye also has a Pisces Moon, and has revealed that he has a condition known as synesthesia which allows him to see colors and vibrations attached to words and numbers. I would attribute this to his Sun/Jupiter conjunction in an opposition to Neptune. Yeezy also seems to have a bit of a messiah complex. He really is a true artist. Grandiose, over-the-top and unfiltered, I would not be surprised if his Pisces Moon squares his Sun/Jupiter/Neptune (though we do not have a birth time to confirm). Kanye also has a charismatic Venus/Mars conjunction in Taurus. Chiron joins this conjunction to reveal his mental health struggles through his artistry and lyrics. More recently, he has been raising mental health awareness through his interviews. Though a movement exists to alter the cultural programming, discussion of mental health has historically been considered taboo in the African American community, so Kanye’s voice is an excellent contribution.
Both celebrities possess strong Neptunes. In both cases, Neptune has mostly provided glamour and artistry, but now, their Neptunes’ expression shapeshifts into their activism. For Kanye, it’s mental health, and for Kim, it’s prison reform.
The Unfolding:
On The Alec Baldwin Show, Kim reports: "My life has definitely changed a lot in the last two years from that experience and just wanting more privacy…In the last three months, I feel like I've come out of my shell a little bit more, back to who I was. I felt, like for a good year, I almost lost myself."
Kim seems to have done some regrouping of her priorities while she took time for herself. She has reemerged with a new purpose. Often Pisces Moon natives have such extreme compassion. Might she have contemplated why people commit crimes? Might she have tried to justify the attacks in her mind by empathizing with their lack? Or maybe her husband’s interest in social issues propelled her to take an interest in prison reform; or maybe it’s that her father was a highly successful lawyer? Maybe all these factors came into play. Uranus spent some time opposing her Sun throughout 2017 and 2018 bringing more awareness about her purpose and mission in life. Oppositions often involve others, and Uranus’ main goal is liberation.
Kim met with Donald Trump in the White House on May 30th, 2018; one week later, Alice Marie Johnson was pardoned by Trump (from serving a life sentence for a non-violent crime). When we look at Kim’s solar arcs for this date, we see her progressed Sun applying within 35’ to a conjunction with her natal 12th house Mars. As we know, the 12th house is associated with prisons and other places we go to check out from society. Only 3 months later does her natal 10H Pluto transition into Sagittarius via solar arc, demonstrating a readiness to use her power and influence in a new way. Solar Arc Neptune is only 8’ arc minutes away from making an exact square to her natal Sun, which signifies a change in personal expression, in a way that is maybe more selfless. Her SA Ascendant is 28’ applying to a square with her natal Pluto, which doubles down on her readiness to transform and make a difference in the world (most of her planets live in the 4th quadrant of public life).
The Venus and Mars retrogrades of 2018 also made an impact. Mars spent an extended stay in Kimmy K’s second house of money and values, while Venus retrograde in Libra and Scorpio occurred in her 11th house and made three conjunctions with her natal Sun that Fall. This likely helped Kim spend more energy repositioning her new stance on the world stage. In April, Kim announced that she is becoming a lawyer. By May 2019, Kim’s humanitarian efforts championed the release of 17 inmates in only 90 days!
On August 11th, 2019, Jupiter stations direct within 1 degree of Kim’s ascendant. Jupiter in Sagittarius in her first house represents the yearlong journey to find her new adventure. From selfish and shallow, to worldly and humanitarian? It seems that Kim’s chart is undergoing an overhaul of expression (just don’t expect her to quit the botox). Currently, Kim’s progressed Moon makes its way through Virgo. In January 2020, her progressed Moon will square her ascendant; in July 2020, progressed moon conjoins her natal Venus, and thereafter, her Midheaven, Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn. I believe (and hope) that Kim’s new path of prison reform is due to be an exciting one. And with transiting Neptune in Pisces, this is a movement that astrologers have been waiting to see amplified for some time now. Most recently, Ms. Kardashian has announced her collaboration with Oxygen about a documentary advocating for prison reform.
Kimmy K currently undergoes her Pluto square natal Pluto right now. The transit occurs from her second house of values. Throughout this article, we have explored a multitude of Venusian, 2nd and 8th house themes. Eclipses will often set the ball in motion, but it’s the aftermath that allows for integration – which we have seen repeatedly here. I’m personally very excited for Kim on this new journey and look forward to witnessing the unfolding of her chart in new ways.
Catherine Urban (NCGR-PAA IV, ISAR-CAP) is a consulting astrologer from Cleveland, Ohio, where she writes, teaches and consults. Catherine is the author of Your Astrological Cookbook, writes food horoscopes for BonAppetit.com, and is a regular columnist for NCGR’s Memberletter. Connect with Catherine on IG and Twitter @astrocatherine