
Seeing as the highly feminine and exalted transit of Jupiter in Cancer of this year, is providing the perfect background for such a topic, I would like to analyse in the following article some famous and difficult mother-daughter relationships from an astrological point of view. I have experienced such a relationship throughout my life and chances are that if you were drawn to the title, you may also be immersed in such a maternal bond (and consequently the maternal complex that comes with it).
I think this article is also about feminine rebellion and about the astrological signs that point in someone’s birth-chart that their destiny is about becoming a rebel, even if only a gentle one at best. It is to some extent about those character traits that push someone to stand up against external forces that try to dim their natural light, their energy and their capacity to be who they feel they are meant to be, even when these forces come from inside your family unit and your bond to the mother.
In astrology, all aspects connected to the Self and its capacity to express what it is, are contained within the Sun sign, the astrologically dominant planet under which we are born and which shows the seasonal proclivities of the part of year in which a person is born and metaphorically speaking, the kind of “weather” that a person continues to have throughout their life.
As an example, for a Gemini (a person born at the end of May and beginning of June) their world revolves around communication and socializing since that period of the year shows Nature in full bloom, is abundant in fresh produce and as a result people organise celebrations, parties and weddings. While for a Sagittarius (describing someone born at the end of November and beginning of December) their solar light points them in the direction of growth during trying times, as Nature dies around the month of November to prepare for a renewal, and for developing a sense of adventure when faced with life’s darker side and the vicissitudes of surviving Winter.
In addition, astrologers tend to associate the Sun’s solar light to masculine traits while the Moon’s energy in our chart shows our feminine potential; as such the Sun is considered to be the placeholder for the Father archetype while the Moon is the placeholder for the Mother archetype. Bearing that in mind, in this article I want to write about how a feminine Sun signs and their destiny (their North Node) could live under the shadow of someone else’s control and of the karmic masters who wield it in our lives, those first initial spiritual teachers who mould our capacity to intuitively understand our Sun sign and who demarcate how well we can express our inner light during our formative years. I am of course, talking about our mothers.
What happens when someone’s solar energy (i.e. their vitality, capacity to grow, their personality, skills and energy levels) is frustrated by their bond with a mother figure? In the following, I will be looking into the charts of two famous women who suffered at the hands of their mothers but they somehow managed to transform that suffering into haunting literature and cautionary tales of the price of fame and entertainment.
Rebellion and control are usually not words associated with ‘normal’ or ‘thriving’ mother-daughter relationships. This is why these word ends up labelling other types of mother-daughter arrangements, those barely ‘good enough’ forms of mothering which usually look ‘good’ on the outside and are experienced as ‘living hells’ on the inside. What would be the purposes of such relationships in our lives?
In the summer of 2024, I became strangely obsessed with the biography of Shirley Jackson, an American author I discovered after watching the Netflix series ‘The Haunting of Hill House’, a series which even though it is a departure from Shirley’s original text, it was nonethelss brilliant in my opinion in its fantasy depiction of domestic & familial horror.
I then started learning about Shirley’s life and work with the help of the channel Books and Cats on Youtube, which has plenty of videos on Shirley’s work and her legacy. I came to fnd out that domestic horror is the literary genre which Shirley spear-headed, and as a person who has had lifelong issues with emotional neglect and maternal control, her story and writing spoke so deeply to me, as if it woke up parts of my soul that lay dormant and needed some stirring healing. So I thought of composing this article after I finished reading “The Lottery and Other Stories“.

At the same time as discovering Shirley’s work, I got drunk one night and called my mother. Somehow everything I had repressed in my relationship with her came spewing out of my mouth. Needless to say, I had an argument with her; this is something usual in our dynamic and it is hurtful each and every time, like putting salt on an open wound. My mother was hurt by her own mother so she ends up hurting me and thus we perpetuate mutual hatred on the maternal line.
I resist having children for fear that I may unconsciously continue this dreaded cycle of pain. After our fight, I fell asleep crying. The next day I opened my eyes and they immediately fell upon one of the books in my bookshelf as the light from the Sun outside was making it stand out. I bought a book last Spring and realized I forgot to read it. This book was Jeanette McCurdie’s “I’m glad my mom died”. I picked it up and could not put it down, since it spoke volumes to my current state of despair in my ‘bond’ with my mother.

Although, I have no prior experience of being a child star, I could emotionally identify with Jeannette’s experiences. And I felt weirdly understood at the same time. These are some of the contextual elements which brought me in contact with both women’s reflections on their experiences and I’m going to use an astrological perspective to interpret these experiences to see if there is anything in their natal charts that shows that their mothers had to teach them some tough karmic lessons in order to make them into the individuals that they reluctantly became.
I will be drawing in my analysis from Jan Spiller seminal book “Astrology for the soul”. I hope this post will appeal to those of you who love the two celebrities but also may have the same astrological markers discussed. We know that Shirley had a co-dependant relationship to emotionally abusive mother from the letters she wrote to her but never sent. You can find out more about Shirley’s life from this video or by dividing deep into her Wiki entry. For Jeannette we obviously know a lot about her relationship to her mom from her best-selling memoir and some revealing interviews she offered the public after her mother’s death. One of the main things that attracted me to writing an article about these two women were the fact that they had problematic mothers and that they also shared a South Node in Cancer / North Node in Capricorn destiny.
When analyzing the destiny of a NN in Cap it is important to check the sign, house & aspects made by the person’s natal Saturn (as Saturn is the planet presiding over their NN since it is the traditional ruler of Capricorn). So we see that Shirley (a Sagittarius Sun and Ascendant with a Moon in Leo) has a Saturn in Cancer in the 8th house, while Jeanette (a Cancer Sun with a Moon conjunct Mars in Taurus) has a Saturn in Aquarius in the 7th house; these are too highly relational houses, denoting problems and blocks on the path of loving and being loved, trusting and being able to create intimacy. Saturn, astrology’s great malefic, parked in these houses for life also denotes low-quality relatives and issues of money and painful duty being deeply intermingled with parental care.
Although the gals have the same destiny as their nodes are similar, they are ‘living’ out this destiny in specific ways as shown by their dissimilar Saturnian placements: for Shirley it is emotional & maternal karma (Saturn in Cancer) while for Jeamette it is group-based & self-awareness karma (Saturn in Aquarius).
Their Saturnian placements are furthermore, amped up by their lunar nodes, those parts of the natal chart that describe the growth potential and destiny of someone’s life. Here is what Jan Spiller has to say about NN in Capricorn/SN in Cancer individuals:
“Capricorn North Node people need to find a focus beyond their scattered emotional needs and those of people around them. When they bring themselves into alignment with a higher principle or spiriual belief , they feel protected and nurtured. These people excel at being “the boss” (…) To achieve success in any area, these folks need to be “in charge” of their own piece of the puzzle. When things don’t go as they want, they overreact emotionally, subconsciously hoping that others will see how upset they are and change their behavior. But other people perceive this as a means of controlling and are unwilling to modify their behavior just to appease these natives (…) These folks are extremely sensitive to their own emotions and those of others.” – p. 400-403
If we take a brief look at their astrological placements we can see that Shirley is a Sun in Sagittarius with a Moon in Leo and a Sagittarius Ascendant; not only that but she has a whooping 8 planets and points in her chart in Fire signs! That is a considerable amount of passion and lust for life that had to be kept under wraps due to the presence of a watery and maternal Pluto in Cancer, the marker which shows that her destiny (South node in Cancer) was bound to her relationship with a dominant mother figure who worked on her emotionally (Pluto in Cancer).
On the other hand Jennette is a Sun in Cancer with a Moon conjunct Mars in Taurus and an undetermined Ascendant. She is a member of the so-called Millenial generation, being born with a Pluto in Scorpio. What I found interesting, and what binds the destinies of these two women together is not only the fact that their power lies within their emotional healing as both of their Pluto placements are in Water signs but also the fact that they both have a South Node in Cancer & North Node in Capricorn – the quintessential marker of a person who is meant to gradually and irrevocably separate from their mother figure and find their own financial success by overcoming hardships, limits and the many temptations of their own basic instincts.
I know it’s considered childish or a sign of having a weak character for blaming your parents, and especially your life-giving mother for all the problems in your life, and I agree. Life as an adult will show you many times that in order to move forward with it, you’ll necessarily have to get ‘childish’ and explore your past, your roots and pluck what is rotten in order to prepare the ground for fresh growth. It’s an unnerving and often frightening psychological process of coming to terms with parts of yourself that are exactly like what you are criticising in your mother (you know that old saying that every daughter inevitably ends up turning into her mother, and this clichee begins to feel eerily familiar once you reach your late 30s).
Again, I want to let Jan Spiller speak on behalf on this nodal placement’s complicated family dynamics:
“Capricorn North Node people have a hard time letting go. They are very sentimental and they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. When they start to leave a situation, even if its clearly not working, they get depressed – so they tend to “hang in there” until their realize deep down that there’s no hope. They do all they can to make the relationship, the job, the situation work. When their survival is threatened they will leave; but they will be much better off letting go before the situation escalates to that point (…) Their whole world revolves around their family and they expect the dynamics to be reciprocal. But more nurturing from family members, usually isn’t forthcoming – it’s just not set up that way in this lifetime (…) Capricorn North Node people need to let others know what the rules and limits are, and then stick to them unflinchingly (…) These folks must learn to stand behind their word. Their commitment must be stronger than their fear of upsetting the other person.” – p. 406-409
Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that we all know about Jeannette & Shirley because they managed to face their fears & succeeded to a large extent in growing into their NN in Capricorn. They are more or less willingly fulfilling the “take charge” requirements of their destiny and this is how a Romanian astrologer like myself got to hear of them and their lives: through their work & their stoic and scary reflections on family life. Think about having this kind of reach & influence in your own life, if you happen to have this nodal placement and are struggling to embody it. Decide today to set goals & take charge & see where the soulful journey takes you.
And don’t worry for you shall be blessed. As the SN in Cancer/NN in Capricorn individual has to integrate their mother’s wounded energy to become the father they wish they had themselves. One exercise I like to do to integrate this maternal/paternal healing energy is to pray not only “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”, but also “In the name of the Mother, the Daughter and the Holy Body”. Amen.
With universal love,
Lexi













