1ADB GoldStar The following are my answers to the questions about Frieda Kahlo's chart:
1. The Moon, which rules the body as well as the emotions, is actually in a square to the Ascendant. This suggests Frieda's physical body, as well as her emotions, were placed in conflict with others/environment through her interactions. In terms of emotions, this aspect can make a person overly subjective, unreasonable or dependent. It can also make a person overly protective. In terms of the physical manifestation, it indicates that the person's interactions with others/environment always involve an element of vulnerability, nurturing, dependency or defensiveness. The fact that the Moon is at the top of the chart reinforces Frieda's physical vulnerability--both her emotions and her physical scars were visible.
Further, the Sun is in an opposition to Mars. Sun/Mars aspects always add an element of stress to the health of a person because Mars will not let a person rest. The individual is driven either by inner or external demons/obstacles. Sometimes a person just grows up in a tough neighborhood. When you add Uranus conjunct Mars, this restless, driven person is also accident prone. If opportunities are not created early on in which the person can express his/her individuality in a unique way, Uranus will do it for them. The Sun/Mars/Uranus aspect by itself is so explosive I would have thought Frieda lived through a war in which she had to dodge bullets. But the war she lived through took place on the battle ground of the houses involved--11th/5th--aspirations, dreams,love and art.
Finally, with regard to physical pain, almost anyone with a Venus Saturn square in his/her chart (like Frieda) is going to be confronted with unusually cruel pain of some kind. Frequently this will be on a regular basis. In order to handle the experience, the person channels the energy in some way--it can help someone develop the ability to endure harsh physical circumstances. Mountain climbers often have Venus/Saturn aspects. They seek the pain; it allows them to access a part of themselves they can't get to otherwise. On the down side, many abused housewives have Venus/Saturn aspects--Nicole Simpson being a prime example. Venus rules pleasure and Saturn inhibits whatever it squares, so at very best, a person's ability to feel pleasure is inhibited with this aspect--this implies illness. Now, when you add Pluto square Saturn to the equation (Fate versus the Cosmic Cop)it gets more complicated but the good news is that Pluto will win in the end because it's stronger than Saturn. Saturn square Venus robbed Frieda of feeling physically valued, pleasured and beautiful, but Saturn square Venus/Pluto required her to wage a relentless battle between her deeply sensual nature (Venus) which were synonymous with her power drives and libido (Pluto) with her need for order, propriety and approval (Saturn). The physical torment of her illness was a manifestation of this ongoing power struggle which, at root, is the struggle between her need for detachment (Venus/Pluto in Gemini) and her need to surrender (Saturn in Pisces). Saturn rules the skin, bones and teeth; Pluto the reproductive organs. Her pelvis was pierced in the trolley accident and that was why she could not have children. Later in life she had a series of operations hoping to fuse her spine back together.
Chiron in the 6th unaspected simply means that health was the place in her life where she would be unable to help herself. The fact that it's unaspected doesn't seem surprising--she doesn't come across as someone who felt a huge mission as a teacher. It's interesting, however, to note that the 6th house, in addition to health, is the house of hygiene--in the film of her life the gangrene in her toes seems to come as a surprise.
2. Venus/Pluto provides an intense, mesmerizing experience of love, beauty and art. Saturn squaring it robs the person, one way or the other of this experience. Perhaps robs is the wrong word. If Frieda's Venus/Pluto conjunction were not afflicted, she probably would have married a rich man, bought a lot of art and lived lavishly and painted for fun. Leona Helmsley has a Venus/Pluto conjunction (in Cancer) but it is NOT square Saturn (and she will not go down in history as a painter but shopper and a tax evader). Saturn square Venus/Pluto required Frieda to "justify her love." She had this intense Venus/Pluto experience inside her--a deep connection with endless sensual and artistic resources--but it is in a mutable sign--Gemini. Her intellectual "riches" (Venus/Pluto in Gemini) were constantly challenged by Saturn in Pisces, which demands the native surrender to a universal experience. Having a philandering husband enabled her to face her own fickle nature and to examine the true value of art, beauty and love--are they what it's all about or merely trinkets and toys? Poverty, neglect, penalization, loss, degredation, punishment, stigmatisation--these are the faces of Saturn. Saturn kept popping up to prevent her Venus/Pluto experience but instead she transformed her experience. She could not be the "only one" even though she was his wife--but she was no bimbo. She became a serious painter. The Venus/Pluto square Saturn is a classic indicator of an artist.
Frieda totally had a victory in life--she turned her pain in love--the continual degredation of having the treasures inside her (Venus/Pluto) invalidated by Saturn (Diego) into the motivation to paint. Pluto won in the end because her "riches"--her art--are what survived.
3. Again, I think considering Frieda's chart, she had a total victory in life. With a chart like hers, it's surprising she wasn't killed off early on--the Jupiter/Sun conjunction is what carried her through. A Taurus moon is strong, too, and Leo rising enables you to appear in public even when you're at your worst. I think the real question is what would this woman's life have been like if she had not had Diego Rivera with whom to act out all of the planetary configurations in her chart? If we look at the chart by itself, and leave what we know about the two of them out of it, her chart is the chart of a talented, humorous, unpredictable hellion who could not be counted on but was never dull to have around, providing they didn't destroy your house or get into fights with everyone they met (Sun/Neptune/Mars/Uranus). Sun/Jupiter would enable her to get away with just about anything and would tend to make her careless taboot. It is the Venus/Pluto/Saturn aspect which brings true depth to this chart--otherwise she is too much of a lunatic. And Diego was a Sagittarius with a Sun/Venus conjunction and a Moon/Neptune conjunction in Taurus.
It's clear to me that beyond the lessons of Frieda's life, she had a mission to teach this mutable man who saw women as phantoms of his libido rather than real people how to love a woman, how to value someone else as much as your own life and how the love between two people is sacred and viable and as worthy of one's complete devotion.
