First things first, I do not know Sarah Breedlove aka Madam C.J. Walker’s birth time. But, in astrology when you do not know a birth time you can set the moon as the ascendent because it has equal prominence.
Scorpio, Scorpio, Scorpio! Scorpio is emotional autonomy. It is having the ability to set hard boundaries when it comes to your emotions and your survival. Scorpio is also a fixed water sign, imagine water that sits and does not move, it stays as it is. Fixed signs have to be who they are in order to survive. With Scorpio, it is someone being too different to fit in. The difference maybe a scar, hair, or skin color, but it is being so remotely different no matter what you do, you cannot fit in.
Everyone always talks about Scorpio’s being freaks. But Scorpio’s are truly people who will cut you off and not think twice, regardless of who you were to them. Scorpio understands for their survival they have to do what needs to be done to survive. Scorpio is ruled by Mars, Mars is autonomy, severance, moving, fighting, men, boldness, and courage. Mars is conflict, disruption, severance, and emotional + physical boundaries. Having Mars as a dominant planet means your life has been filled with severance, abandonment, and moving. So, for you to survive, you had to be bold, courageous, and have autonomy over your body and in Scorpio’s case over your emotions. Because if you did not establish your autonomy you would have been killed or seriously hurt.
Autonomy is the right or condition of self-government. So sidereal Scorpio says I do not wish to be treated like that, so I remove what is making me feel that way. Or I do not wish to be handled that way so I remove the person handling me that way. Because in order for me to survive I have to speak up for myself, I have to have the boldness to cut ties with people, places, and things who do not have the best intentions for me.
Let's dive into Walker’s moon first. The moon in the birth chart is your body, it is your home, it is how you moved when you were a child, and what your mother did with her body. Scorpio moon here shows Walker’s early life and how she had to survive. Something about her was so different than her family she stood out. The difference here is that Walker was the only one of her siblings born free. Her body was not anyone else’s, her time wasn’t anyone else’s, she literally was not owned by anyone like the rest of her family.
Walker also has Mercury in Scorpio conjunct her Moon. Mercury amplifies everything. It takes what is there and makes it louder, shows it off, and adds to it. Therefore, Walker’s freedom was at the forefront of everything. Her difference was extremely loud. I would speculate that Walker looked a bit different than the people around her/her siblings. Because of the Scorpio moon and other planets surrounding it.
The moon is conjunct Saturn in Scorpio. Saturn is mastery, adulting, restrictions, death, limitations, control, elders, and grandparents. This conjunct shows limitations and restrictions placed on Walker’s body as a child. She was the child of enslaved parents. They experienced extreme poverty and in Walker’s early life her parents were sharecroppers. At only seven years old Walker became an orphan which can be seen through Saturn.
With Mars and severance you do not always get to choose who is being cut from your life. Sometimes, people are cut out because of death, jail and other things neither of you had control over. Walker experienced death with people close to her because of Saturn being in such a prominent place conjunct her Moon and Mercury, Mercury amplifies everything. The moon is the body, and family so when you have Saturn there as well that shows up as family and dying, or restrictions being placed on one or the other to prevent movement.
As we talked about above, Scorpio is autonomy in order to survive. Once Walker became an orphan she lived with her sister. But, her brother-in-law was abusive. Therefore she married at fourteen to escape the situation. After her marriage to Moses McWilliams, she soon had her only daughter, A’Lelia. Walker had to be bold and be autonomous in order to survive. Surviving meant not being in abusive relationships even when it was family, and for her, she had to learn how to do this. That is Scorpio, setting boundaries and having the autonomy to save your life. Venus in Capricorn can also be seen here as she entered a marriage based on what was around her and available to her so she could receive better resources. So her livelihood could be better.
Walker ended up moving to St. Louis to find a better life. Her brothers were barbers there and she became a laundrywoman. She did laundry just to eat and provide for her daughter. She ended up marrying again because her first husband passed away. This goes back to Saturn and having to deal with death. Her second husband was abusive and she ended up divorcing him soon after the marriage. We see Mars here with severance, abuse from man/fighting, and having to remove people from your life.
Mars is a dominant planet in Walker’s chart. Mars as a dominant planet means themes of Mars are always taking precedent over her life. Mars themes are always able to be seen and at the forefront. Mars has all the power and influence and say so. Because of this placement, we see men, movement, severance, ambition, handwork, labor, boys, men, brothers, and cousins. Walker moved a ton of times in her life. She lived and started things all over the U.S. She has had three husbands. So, we see Mars domination through and through.
Walker married again, to C.J. Walker. Walker moved to Denver, CO when she married C.J. Walker and this is where she created the beauty products. In this marriage, she renamed herself Madam C.J. Walker. Her ability to rename herself goes to Jupiter in Aquarius which sits in her fourth house, the house speaks to the timing she changed her name. Jupiter is the story we know about ourselves and the world around us. Jupiter is the preacher, teacher, and the convictions we feel in our body, i.e. what we know to be true. Aquarius is self-erasure, invisibility, and having the ability to name yourself even when you do not see anyone like you. Aquarius can determine who they are and how. They can imagine and dream up a reality that is not in front of them. This is exactly what Madam C.J. Walker did. She changed her name and she changed the hair industry. She saw no one around her having factories of hair care products. She saw no one having salons only for black women all over the world. Walker saw no beauty schools for black women about black women’s hair. Her ability to dream up a reality with just that is Jupiter in Aquarius. Jupiter in Aquarius is being erased by the stories you tell yourself, it is not having the name you wanted or picked, not having a name that truly tells who you are. Jupiter in Aquarius is also the ability to dream of new stories. Jupiter in Aquarius feels convictions to truths that they have not been seen in their community.
Just because Jupiter in Aquarius has not seen it does not mean they cannot imagine and create based on their imagination. Aquarius and Jupiter together dream of new stories, new worlds, and imagines so they can be seen. The tools in her chart that helped her make it a reality are the grit, determination, and hard work of Mars. She used that courage of Mars to put her foot to the gas and create what she wanted.
Now we have to look at what sign Walker’s Mars was in. Sagittarius is where her Mars was. Sagittarius is about conviction. It is feeling a feeling deep within you and having to answer it. Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign. So not only does Sagittarius feel the calling inside, they answer it. They take what they felt deep inside of them and change the world to match it. They know what they know because of what they feel inside of them. Therefore, simultaneously Madam C.J. Walker was renaming herself and changing the world around her.
Walker’s Mars answered to Jupiter so the two planets were able to work together to answer a conviction, a calling. They were able to work together so the dream could come to light. Mercury in Scorpio was able to defend itself and cut the people out who were not supportive of the dream. Mercury in Scorpio was also able to be radically different. Her Scorpio placements were LOUD with everything she did. Because she was different and everything she did was so different, unprecedented, and unheard of.
Walker ended up divorcing C.J. Walker because of his cheating and alcoholism. Again we see Mars at play and severance with men. She moved to Indianapolis, IN. When Mars is a dominant planet it never lets up with the severance and men. But, it also never lets up with the courageousness and boldness that comes from the other two. In Indianapolis, she built Walker Manufacturing Company. Then she employed over 40,000 employees in the U.S., Caribbean, and Central America.
Walker had the ability to dream.
Now, why hair? Why beauty products? Let’s look at Venus in Capricorn. Venus is ease, pleasure, indulgence, beauty, women, and girls. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn and exemplifies Saturn themes. Capricorn imposes order with what it has. Capricorn can see what they have access to and make something of it. Venus in Capricorn is in detriment, meaning Venus does not have access to Venus’s things. Venus is indulgence and pleasure. But, how can you indulge and find pleasure when you have limited access? When you are experiencing poverty? Well, Capricorn comes in and says what do we have? What can we do with what we have? How can we create beauty, ease, and pleasure with the tools we have. This is why Walker marries her first husband early in life. She looks at what she has and what she can do to experience more ease. Marriage was the only option at the time. So, back to why beauty, Walker experienced serious hair loss due to a scalp condition. Because of this, she had to find something for her hair. She was losing it.
Now if we want to look at why the scalp condition came in the first place we can look at what was transits were impacting her first house which is the head. While also looking at her tenth house which is skin.
Nevertheless, Walker met and became a saleswomen for Annie Turbo Malone who had created a hair grower. This hair grower is what helped Walker’s hair grow back. Venus in Capricorn is working with you have to impose order as it relates to beauty, ease, and pleasure. All Walker had was the hair products from Malone. But, as she saw Malone doing something new this sparked something within her (Sagittarius and convictions). So, she used what she had and created something new. Venus is creativity and the thing that needed order was her head, so she had to use the tools at hand and created something that would make her hair grow even more and keep it healthy and growing. The earth cardinal of Capricorn moved Walker to use what she had to create something. But cardinal moves, so she had the energy to move on the creativity. The Venus was the creative, beauty, and woman piece.
All of this takes us back to Saturn because Venus in Capricorn is answering to Saturn in Scorpio which is being different. Walker was too different to fit in and this showed within her work. So, she used her grit and determination paired with the limitations she had of focusing on hair to create something new. Many times we want to focus on a million and one things but when Saturn is at play all we can focus on is our limitations (the things at hand).
I also see Walker’s nodes are in Leo and Aquarius. These two signs are opposing each other which means they work towards the same goal but in different ways. The goal here is to be seen. To be seen as how you define yourself and to have authority over yourself and how people see you. Nodes are themes that were going on when you were born and that continue to be present in your life. We see Walker was born free establishing she was going to have autonomy over how she was seen and authority over herself. These nodes continued to make themselves present throughout her life because she dared to establish herself for who she saw herself as. She claimed authority over her and her life. Her convictions claimed authority as well which is where her Sun in Sagittarius comes to play.
The Sun in Sagittarius can also answer to why hair. The sun is men, fathers, self-awareness, focus, and what you are focused on or are aware of. Walker’s brother cut hair and that put hair on the radar for her. Her sun is conjunct Mars which is brothers and men and what they were doing, plus the two signs sat in the second house. The second house is money, resources, and how you acquire money and resources. She acquired money and resources from awareness, grit determination, and following the convictions she felt in her body.
That is the story and chart of Madam C.J. Walker.
References
Autonomy Definition & Meaning. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autonomy
Michals, PhD, D. (2015). Madam CJ Walker. National Women's History Museum. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/madam-cj-walker
Oracle, P. (2020). Reading Your Sidereal Birth Chart. Workbook, 15.
Oracle, P. (2022). 2022 Sidereal Astrology Guide. The People's Oracle, 83.
Oracle, P. (n.d.). [@peoplesoracle]. Tweets [Twitter profile]. Retrieved March 20th, 2022, from https://twitter.com/peoplesoracle?s=11&t=xBwjb4gGdgBzqYRms3L0yg
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