Looking at Financial Losses through Marriage with Astrology

     Although we expect marriage to be a blissful union at the start, statistics show that there are about 70 000 Canadian divorces annually and 48% of people who were married at least once will divorce. The same source shows that Belgium has the highest divorce to marriage ratio at 71% and Mexico the lowest at 15%. ​Through studying charts, I can see patterns in people's natal charts that either incline them to win, lose or stay in relatively the same financial condition after divorce. I believe it is helpful to understand this information so one can engage in better planning and preparation for a wide range of possibilities in the future should things not work out the way we intended them to.

​        I recently came across the story of Hollywood actress Kelly Rutherford who some of you may recognize from the TV series Gossip Girl. She married German businessman Daniel Giersch in August 2006, less than a year after she met him for the first time. After that she had two children with him; Hermes born in October 2006 and Helena born in June 2009. Before her daughter was born, Daniel filed for divorce. The ensuing battle for custody of the children lasted about 6 years and was a global affair that drained her emotionally and caused her to go bankrupt. The story is very unusual as the courts in North America still have a marked preference for awarding sole custody or at least joint custody to the mother. Media coverage was extensive on the case, with Kelly doing numerous interviews on television and on the internet. Daniel had previously sued google and won, and had the money to prolong the battle in court. At the same time, Kelly made some major legal errors in trying to keep the children away from their father that cost her dearly. In the end he won full custody of the children who live with him in Europe while Kelly still residing in the United States has obtained visitation rights. To understand Kelly's karma more fully, look at her Western and Vedic natal charts:

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 Western Astrology Analysis      

​      Looking at the first chart we see that Kelly's 7th house ruler Mars representing marriage is in the 11th house in Virgo conjunct Pluto, Jupiter, and Uranus. In particular the combination of Mars-Pluto-Uranus has been associated with violent and sudden events and has a strong malefic tone. It explains the immense struggle for power and control that is likely to end with one person coming out much stronger than the other. With Mars tightly opposing chiron this can cause a very deep wound. These planets linked with the 7th house suggests Kelly will attract a marriage partner who has significant resources (Jupiter-Pluto can represent tremendous power and financial wealth, and is often found in millionaires and billionaires) but the person will also will battle with her to the bitter end and potentially win. This stellium of planets in the 11th house aspect the 5th house of children which represents them being taken away from her. The dispositor of the 7th house Mercury is placed in the 12th house of grief, isolation and losses, its also in the sign of Libra which is where Mars is in detriment.

​      The descendant at 29 degrees is anarectic and usually indicates strongly fated issues to be resolved wherever it is found, in this case with marriage.The closest planet to the descendant is Saturn which is very weak in the sign of its fall Aries. Generally, Saturn connected with the 7th house often indicates major challenges, obstacles and burdens in love but having a fallen malefic there is 10x worse. Neptune is in the 1st house casting an aspect onto the 7th house which causes her to see marriage partners unclearly at first and ignore faults that can be very easily seen by others. When they finally discover the truth it is very painful as they had rose colored glasses on for so long. For instance in the Vanity Fair article, her half brother noted that "he seemed very, very cold and calculated," but did not tell her as she seemed optimistic about her relationship. A couple years after they married, Kelly also felt that he was verbally abusive and was trying to isolate her from people who were close to her. Daniel also wanted sole legal and physical custody of the children after the divorce.

​      Turning to her finances, the 12th house ruler Venus is placed in the 2nd house. Normally Venus in the 2nd house is auspicious but as ruler of the 12th it makes it a malefic influence. Some sources believe with the 12th house ruler in the 2nd house or 2nd house ruler in the 12th house that the person will always struggle to earn money. However, in my experience the problem isn't necessarily that the person can't earn a high income (although that sometimes is the case). The problem with the 12th house connected to the 2nd house more often is that the person doesn't earn enough money to cover their expenses, or they seem to lose money easier than others. Through her various acting roles, Kelly has earned millions but the court battle wiped it all out so much that she ended up bankrupt even after borrowing thousands from other people.

​      The other major problem is the Moon at 28 degrees Taurus conjunct the 8th house cusp. It is true that the moon is exalted in Taurus and causes a person to be nurturing, thoughtful and caring towards others. But at 28 degrees Taurus the Moon is tightly conjunct highly malefic stars Algol and Alcyone in the portion of the zodiac known as the Pleiades or weeping sisters. It inclines towards tragedies, suffering and disasters. The 8th house represents our partner's money, money we didn't earn, and money we share with our husband or wife. When someone has a weak 8th house it causes them to lose financially through others, especially through a partner or spouse. It doesn't have to be because the partner took the money, but just being married or in partnerships causes losses somehow. When combining the fact that the moon is at 28 degrees Taurus with the fact that it is conjunct the 8th house, the logical conclusion is financial losses through marriage. Daniel's birthday is May 24th 1974 and from this it is clear that his Sun and Mercury are both placed in her 8th house, not a good omen for her finances or well-being. The 8th house also is indicative of scandal, disgrace and humiliation, and with someone else's planets being in our 8th house that is a possibility in association with them.


​Vedic Astrology Analysis

​      In the Vedic system Jupiter represents the husband and Venus represents the wife. To understand what type of husband a woman will get, one will have to analyze her Jupiter. Kelly's ascendant is Libra, Venus rules Libra, and Venus and Jupiter are mutual enemies. Jupiter is a functional malefic as it rules the 3rd and 6th houses. Does this mean that all women with Libra ascendants won't have a good husband? Of course not because one has to look at all factors together; this is just one unhelpful factor. In Kelly's case, Jupiter has several other sources of being unfavourable:

​1. Jupiter is fully aspected by 4/5 of the natural malefics which include Saturn, Mars, Rahu and Ketu. Saturn and Mars are the two major malefics but having Jupiter on the nodal axis amplifies extreme and fateful situations.

​2. Jupiter conjunct Mars is doubly not helpful in the sense that Mars is a maraka (death giving) planet for Libra ascendants ruling the 2nd and 7th houses.

3. Jupiter lacks the aspect of any benefic planet (Mercury, Moon, Venus, Jupiter)

​4. In the 16 divisions, Jupiter is exalted only twice, and never in its great friends sign, own sign or moolatrikona. This is reflected in being her second lowest scoring planet in Vimshopaka Bala tied with Rahu at 9/20 points. Incidentally, Saturn is the lowest scoring planet at 8/20 despite being vargottama and Daniel initially filed for divorce during the Jupiter-Saturn dasha. Saturn is the ruler of the 5th house in the rasi chart and conjunct rahu in the dusthana 6th house which represents litigation and lawsuits. There is no surprise she had to fight for them. In the saptamsha (children chart), Jupiter rules the 5th house and Saturn is placed in the 5th house making Jupiter-Saturn a perfect time to have a child. Saturn in the saptamsha is hemmed in by malefics Mars and the Sun. Having a weak Saturn in the 5th house does suggest unhappiness and loss in relation to children. It was during this time Kelly decided not to tell Daniel about the baby and leave his name off her birth certificate. This was a mistake that was crucial in the courts later taking the children away for making access to their father difficult. Venus is in the ascendant of the saptamsha, a clear indicator that significant events with children will occur during Venus periods. In Jupiter-Venus, after a 6 year custody battle, the Monaco court awarded full custody to Daniel with Kelly being allowed to visit the children in France and Monaco.

​5. Jupiter is placed in the 12th house which is a dusthana house and causes misery. In fact out of 7 planets, 4 of them are in the evil dusthana houses 6, 8, 12 which is very inauspicious, as well Rahu and Ketu are along the 6th-12th axis. With a very strong will and intensely spiritual disposition one can transform the adversities of this dusthana influence into consciousness raising, but for most people the dominant dusthana influence is extremely hard to deal with.

​6. Kelly started her Jupiter mahadasha in March 2006, shortly before she married Daniel in Jupiter-Jupiter and this karmic situation unfolded. They met in October-November 2005 while she was in Rahu-Mars. Notice that Mars rules the 7th house, and Mars and Rahu are opposite each other in the rasi chart. Rahu is in the ascendant of the Navamsha chart. In the navamsa 7th house ruler Venus is conjunct Mars. This was classical timing for starting a new romance. She will be in Jupiter mahadasha until March 2022.

​      With the multitude of factors making Jupiter unfavourable, it is no surprise to see that Kelly has negative karma to deal with in marriage and when the Jupiter mahadasha came, it was time to experience it.

​      The 7th house in the Vedic chart shows troublesome features with regards to longevity and happiness of her marriages. She was married once before to Carlos Tarajano in June 2001 but it only lasted 6 months and he died a few years after the divorce. The marriage to Daniel lasted about 2.5 years. 7th house ruler Mars is in the 12th house aspected by malefic Saturn, functional malefic Jupiter, and the unstable influences of the nodes. Mars doesn't receive the aspect of any benefic planet.

​      The navamsha chart has all of the planets within the nodal axis resulting in a kala sarpa yoga with rahu in the 1st house and ketu in the 7th. Even the birth chart has all planets except the moon within the nodal axis. I believe that this yoga can incline someone towards either extreme success or extreme failure, and sometimes both in the same lifetime. There is always a high degree of bondage in the beginning, the person cannot avoid getting into a certain situation or involved with certain people. This yoga is one of the most fixed kinds of karma which is impossible to avoid or ignore. The houses containing Rahu and Ketu shed more light on the domain of life this will occur in, and the fated situation usually starts during the main or sub dasha of Rahu or Ketu, in Kelly's case she met Daniel in Rahu-Mars (Mars rules her 7th house in the rasi) and Carlos in Rahu-Venus (Venus rules her 7th house in the navamsha). Although one cannot avoid kala sarpa yoga, with patience, awareness and commitment, the bondage can be lifted and the person can transcend their circumstances.

​       The financial outlook in the Vedic rasi chart is similar to the Western chart with the 2nd house ruler Mars going into the 12th house in the rasi chart causing net losses. On top of that, Mars is also aspected by 6th house ruler Jupiter and 8th house ruler Venus is placed in the 2nd house. In other words, all three of the dusthana houses are connected with the 2nd house and/ or the 2nd house ruler which is very detrimental to being able to make net gains. In the navamsha chart, the 8th house ruler Mercury goes into the 1st which is inauspicious overall. The 2nd house ruler of the navamsha chart is Jupiter which conjuncts 12th house ruler Venus and 6th house ruler Mars.

​       An interesting apparent contradiction occurs with the Moon in this chart as we know that the Moon is conjunct Algol and Alcyone but the extreme degree of exaltation of the Moon occurs at 3 degrees Taurus and with her Moon at 4 degrees Taurus she is very close to it. The Moon is placed in the 8th house which is a dusthana house and is associated with scandal, embarrassment, defeat and losses in addition to representing unearned and shared money/ resources. It is not always desirable to have an exalted planet in the 8th house. You may wonder is the Moon weak or strong, favourable or unfavourable? My answer is both and they can co-exist. Kelly gained success and fame from a relatively young age with her considerable beauty and talent, and became a respected actress in her own right. She has many favourable influences in her chart, for example regarding her career, but one cannot deny the karmic tests shown through relationships and family.
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Conclusion
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       ​All may not seem to be fair in love and war, but the universe is infinitely intelligent in the mysterious unfolding of our karma. Every situation we ever faced or will face was caused by us at some point in time. Not all situations occur due to actions in this lifetime but can span back to many of our prior lifetimes. By understanding our charts more deeply, we may not be able to stop the unfolding of our karma but instead prepare for it by understanding the reasons as to why it is happening. Through this cosmic insight we learn that life really is fair and we know what we can do to move as gracefully through these tests as we can. Every time we pass a test successfully, karma gets cleared and God can promote us to progressively higher levels in life! 

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