Biographer Carl Sferrazza Anthony’s recent book Camera Girl: the Coming of Age of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy focuses on the future First Lady’s young adulthood and her written works as she faced some crossroads in her life.
Jackie was attracted to her Bouvier ancestry and studied at the Sorbonne as part of her French major in college. She was also a great reader who enjoyed art, literature and history and was a talented writer and illustrator herself. Many of these themes are represented by her Sun and Mercury in Leo in her 9th house sextile Jupiter in the 7th and trine Uranus in the 5th. She had great creativity, a unique perspective, and was able to enlist the help of others to move her projects forward.
Back in the U.S., the college senior entered a Vogue magazine contest that offered the winner an editorial position. With Mars in Virgo in the 10th house, she worked diligently on lengthy essays through several rounds of finalists until finally winning in May of 1951. But her divorced parents’ disputes kept her from immediately taking up the offer. When she began work as an editorial assistant at Vogue in September, her mother foiled her plans by calling her repeatedly at work and insisting that she focus on meeting eligible men.
Jacqueline had been brought up in wealthy households yet had no fortune of her own as her father had phased into alcoholism. While her Moon-Saturn-Neptune grand trine suggests much good from her family, Neptune closely conjunct the Midheaven raised confusing issues. Her Moon in Aries also shows her aggressive and at times abusive mother, especially as the Moon also squares Pluto.
Her powerful Sun in the 9th suggested she stay in the publishing world. Instead, she left the position within a week to return to her mother’s home.
With her prominent Neptune and the help of her step-father, Jackie landed an entry level job at the Washington Times-Herald in October of 1951, and worked her way up to becoming the paper’s daily “Inquiring Photographer” columnist, asking provocative questions and taking pictures of people from all walks of life. She soon had a byline and a raise, with the column renamed “Inquiring Camera Girl” before she turned 23. The vibrant Leo Sun paid off again.
Though she broke off an engagement with a New York stockbroker, Jackie’s 7th house Jupiter in Gemini sextile her Sun and Mercury gave her promising prospects for marriage. She had gradually developed a relationship with Congressman John F. Kennedy, who shared her interests in history, international affairs and travel. Despite being told of JFK’s philandering ways by a close friend of his, she believed the family’s Catholic background would keep him in a permanent marriage. 7th house Jupiter is in detriment in Gemini, but ruled by Mercury in Leo, a fixed sign, so her conclusion was correct for the marriage.
But according to her letters to family and friends, Jackie was conflicted about losing her identity in a marriage, doing something notable with her life, and facing an uncertain future as a writer or editor. She needed security and couldn’t really hope to earn the money to finance her accustomed lifestyle herself. Her Scorpio Ascendant trine Pluto was pragmatic and sought financial stability and even power. Saturn in the 2nd house opposite her Venus in Gemini in the 8th also shows insecurity about finances. She had already been drawn to older, wealthy and powerful men, and Jack Kennedy was also 12 years older.
While a grand trine can indicate an ease of success, with both Neptune and the Midheaven involved in Jackie’s chart, it also showed the appeal of the path of least resistance. And Neptune not only relates to photography, but glamor, dreams and a broad scope. A good marriage was a more typical choice than an independent career for most women in the 1950s, and the easiest way to satisfy many of her needs.
Jackie’s second marriage to Ari Onassis showed her following similar priorities, but after his death in 1975, she became a book editor in New York, returning to a path that she had begun many years before.
Astrodatabank quotes Frances McEvoy’s collection of the birth data (from mutual friends).
Read another post about Jackie’s Neptunian mystique here.
Camera Girl is on Amazon.