News
The World in Pink
Estimated Reading Time: 2-3 minutes
Post by Jane Lewis
As the Sun slips into the fixed fire sign Leo and summer holidays begin, another box office hit is expected as Barbie the Movie comes to a cinema near you.
Released first in America on the 9th and then in the UK on 21st July, the movie represents a major milestone for the 64 year old doll who still looks just amazing despite being almost eligible for a bus pass. In the film Barbie enters the real world and discovers what life on earth is actually like!
Barbie’s life began on 9th March 1959 as the brain-child of Ruth Handler when she presented her to the world at the American International Toy Fair in New York, having got the idea from a German doll she had seen when on holiday in Switzerland. Barbie was modelled on a Bild Lilli toy made for the adult market, a ‘sultry, gold-digging broad’, a German comic-strip character who got by in life by seducing wealthy male suitors. Handler liked the idea of a child’s doll with interchangeable clothes and thought the idea might catch on with children, which it certainly did.
A noon chart cast for that day shows that Barbie, appropriately, made her debut at the time of a new moon in Pisces, ruler Jupiter dignified in jet-setting Sagittarius. Pisces is a kinda pink, baby-doll sign with style and glamour. The noon timing obviously puts the Sun up on the midheaven and gives her a Cancer ascendant, fitting for the mother-child relationship implicit in dolls.
Dolls have been around for millennia and have undergone big changes that reflect evolving cultures, religious practices and beliefs. While often used as childrens’ toys, they were also used in magic and religious rituals going back at least to Ancient Greek and Roman times. Barbie continues the line of fashion dolls that started in the mid 19th century and picks up on the 1950s style icons like Marilyn Monroe, thereby enforcing stereotypical beliefs about women: that gentlemen prefer blondes, that they should become slaves to their vital statistics and buy into the belief that a pair of sensible shoes is an outright passion-killer.
There are weird and striking parallels between Barbie, Marilyn Monroe and Madonna who, born just one year before Barbie, imaged her stage self as a Material Girl. There are repeating Sun-Mars synastry contacts between Marilyn and Barbie’s charts: Marilyn’s Mars (20 Pisces) conjoins Barbie’s Sun-Moon-midheaven; and Barbie’s Mars conjoins Marilyn’s Sun.
Madonna’s rising Virgo Moon opposes Barbie’s Sun, thus projecting the doll’s Pisces planets into her 7th house of Other who mirrors Self. There are interesting synastry interlinks between Monroe and Madonna too: Madonna’s Leo Sun conjoins Monroe’s 1sthouse Neptune (self-identity of idealised glamour); and Madonna’s Neptune is opposite Monroe’s midheaven.
Barbie’s new moon Sun link her with two asteroids: Moon conjunct Diana and Sun Arachne. Material Girl Barbie would therefore appear to give physical form to the virgin moon goddess Diana. Embodiment of untamed nature, Diana represents the principle of survival and self-protection. (1) Fittingly, she represents the inviolate maiden stage of the feminine as she protected the virginity of young girls and safely guided them into puberty. She symbolises the vitality, strength and aspirations of young womanhood and also signifies the wisdom that comes from an instinctual understanding of nature and natural laws. It would seem that Barbie functions as a conduit for the divine energy of Diana, a container for her essential life force, or qi.
The Arachne contact introduces the theme of hubris. According to myth, Arachne excels at weaving and embroidery – both fashion-related skills – which she learned from Athena, but she claimed all the glory for herself. In her arrogance Arachne had the audacity to challenge Athene to a weaving contest and even though Arachne did produce the most amazing tapestries, she was finally put in her place when Athena turned her into a spider, thus condemning her to spin and weave for the rest of her days as punishment for her refusal to acknowledge the true divine source of her skill. So, let’s hope Barbie doesn’t ever get too big for her boots but gives recognition where it’s due.
Photo by Eva Rinaldi from Sydney Australia
In the movie, Barbie is played by Australian actress Margo Robbie who matches to a tee the dolls’ flowing blonde hair, perfect figure and long legs that gracefully teeter in those stiletto peep-toe mules no matter how difficult the underfoot terrain. The chemistry between them is shown by repeating Mars-Venus conjunctions, excellent for creative projects of an artistic nature. Like Barbie, Margo has a Cancer ascendant upon which rises an exalted Jupiter. And Barbie’s noon-chart Cancer ascendant ( 8 Cancer) exactly conjoins Margo’s Sun-Mercury, which massively helps her to become a physical embodiment of the doll. Transits on the 9th July when the film was released in America show the Sun in 16 Cancer transiting Margo’s Jupiter-ascendant and trining Barbie’s Sun, so promising a summer of pink happiness.
- (1) Asteroid Goddesses by Demetra George & Douglas Bloch