RBG movie poster

Women Usher in a New Era in US Congress

Over one hundred women have been newly elected to Congress, marking a new generation of women in politics, and among them two Native Americans, and two muslims; a former refugee. For the first time, close to one hundred of the house Representatives will be women.

These days a powerful woman is all too often called a witch. This is how the documentary RGB opens. And although we have no birth time for Piscean Ruth Bader Ginsburg (born in Brooklyn, March 15, 1933) we do know the Moon is in Scorpio, the sign of its fall, on the day of her birth. When a planet is in the sign of its fall, it acts counter to the “ideal expectation.” The powerful, uncomfortable feminine described by Moon in Scorpio is constellated in this diminutive 84-year-old. No matter how frail she looks, she is not to be messed with.

The Moon in Mars’ sign gives ferocity and determination. It takes no prisoners.

There was so much I hadn’t known about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, including her work to slowly, patiently, establish a body of law for women’s rights. She has Mars retrograde in Virgo, along with Neptune and Jupiter, as well as the ruler Mercury also retrograde.

Her attempts to unravel a profound inequality had the nature of piecework; each argument beautifully made, small enough to slip into law and undermine the endemic distortions. She was quiet and stunningly beautiful as a young woman. Despite being at the top of her law school class, she couldn’t find a job. Firms said “You don’t get it. We don’t hire women.” She found work teaching law at Rutgers, and in 1969, students asked her to teach on gender and law. During that year both Progressed Sun and Venus moved into Taurus, and everything she had begun to notice came into focus. From then on she worked to remove gender bias from the law.

That Scorpio Moon probably has something to do with the nickname she’s been given: “The Notorious RGB.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg played an important role in helping women assume positions of power in the United States. She’s become a cultural icon, spoofed on Saturday Night Live, exclaimed over rapturously by young law students. Just in time for Neptune’s transit to her natal Sun.

Were she to disappear, RBG would leave an opening for the conservative forces on the court to dominate. And she is determined to keep going, her will honed in the workouts she does (push ups!) with her personal trainer. Ginsburg may have the Moon in its fall, which points to struggle rather than ease, but it also means she’s built for a battle. She doesn’t seem to be particularly gifted for ordinary life.

Her children complained about her cooking, her constant working. She was, however, blessed in her marriage and this is expressed by an exalted Venus in Pisces. Her husband of 56 years, a successful attorney in his own right, clearly adored her. She once said “I have had the great good fortune to share life with a partner truly extraordinary for his generation, a man who believed at age 18 when we met, and who believes today, that a woman’s work, whether at home or on the job, is as important as a man’s.” One feminine planet exalted, the other cast down. If we add the asteroids we see fruitful Ceres with Venus.

RGB chart has a mutual reception between Mercury and Mars, both retrograde and inconjunct. She bases her powerful arguments on deep reflection and scholarship, and her hard work has helped create today’s results. Thank you Ruth!

Notice how both the New Moon and Neptune are aspecting her natal Sun, and how her own dreams are being carried out now by many women rising in the world.