Natalie Denise Suleman: a/k/a Octomom

by Liz Houle

Published in July-August 2010 NCGR Memberletter

NATALIE (OR NADYA) SULEMAN, nicknamed Octomom by the media, gave birth to octuplets on January 26, 2009 after already having birthed six children, all of whom were conceived using in vitro fertilization (IVF).

In this article I analyze her natal chart, progressions, and solar arcs to uncover her motivations and the events that have made her infamous.

Suleman was born July 11, 1975, 9:59 PM, in Fullerton, CA, not surprisingly with her Sun sign in Cancer, the sign of the mother. Cancer is a cardinal, water sign ruled by the Moon. Cancerians are moody, changeable, sometimes crabby, have an uncanny knack for publicity, but are always intensely protective of their home and children. Suleman’s mothering has become a worldwide sensational scandal.

Element Emphasis

The element and modality emphasis shows how one operates in life. Suleman has an equal number of planets in the air and earth element, and a majority in the mutable mode. This gives her an emphasis of air-mutable (Gemini) and earth-mutable (Virgo), which, along with her Mercury placed in Gemini, shows an abundance of intellect. This particular Cancer can rationalize anything, and being rational is not normally a Cancer’s strong point.

Saturn

The all-important first house ruler, Saturn, as ruler of Aquarius ascendant, is terribly afflicted. Saturn is the greatest malefic in traditional astrology and the fact that it is in detriment, combust the Sun, and conjunct fixed star Pollux, which is brutal, tyrannical, violent, and cruel, compounds its unfortunate influence to an unprecedented degree. Saturn rules boundaries; it keeps us in line, literally and figuratively. Saturn keeps it real. However, if Saturn is badly placed and hidden behind the Sun, as in this chart, it results in a lack of discipline, organization, and common sense in dealing with this material world.

This was evident on her appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show A Day in the Life of Nadya Suleman. When someone suggested that she try to keep a schedule for her 14 children, Suleman replied that she doesn’t bother trying to write down any type of schedule because things keep changing.

This obliterated Saturn rules the houses of her body (1st), hopes and wishes (11th), and self-undoing and secret enemies (12th). Her unrealistic decisions concerning her body to fulfill her hopes and wishes of having many children has destroyed her life in many more ways than one would like to imagine. There have been death threats, tabloid stories, stalking paparazzi, government organizations threatening to take her children away, and on and on. Who would trade shoes with this single mother of 14 children? Not many.

Prominent Houses

The most prominent houses of a chart are the angular houses (1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th). Any planets located in these houses will dominate the native’s life for good or ill and the closer the planets are to the angles, the more emphasized their influence will be.

The two angular planets that closely conjoin the angles in her chart are: Moon conjunct the descendant, and Neptune closely conjunct the MC. Her Moon forms a square to Neptune in these two powerful houses of the chart.

Truth and Fiction

There was speculation that Octomom got her inspiration to have a horde of kids from none other than Angelina Jolie. Pictures of Suleman, after what appears to be plastic surgery, show Suleman striking a very close resemblance to Jolie (www.awfulplasticsurgery.com/ category/nadya-sulman). Identifying too closely with a public figure can be a manifestation of Neptune in the 10th closely conjunct the MC. However, despite the obvious and eerie similarities, Octomom denies that she is obsessed with Jolie. With Mercury at the critical, last degree of 29° Gemini, Suleman denies almost all of what is reported about her; she does seem to have an intelligent explanation for everything. On closer inspection, however, her explanations rarely answer anything directly and are contradicted by multiple, credible sources. The following are just some of those contradictions.

• Suleman started having IVF children after suffering a "debilitating "back injury on Sept. 18, 1999, for which she received $167,908 (www.time.com/time/nation/ article/0,8599,1877962,00.html). The fact that she went on to carry and birth 14 children, and then ran around after them, and picking them up while being filmed hasn’t seemed to raise any alarms.

• She also claimed that only one doctor helped her to have all 14 children. Suleman’s mother, Angela Suleman, seemed to contradict her daughter’s account, telling a Web site the fertility specialist who helped her daughter give birth to the octuplets was not the one who aided in the birth of her first six children. In an interview with celebrity news Website RadarOnline.com, Angela Suleman said she and Nadya’s father pleaded with her first fertility doctor not to treat their daughter again. She said her daughter went to another doctor. (www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ 2009/02/10/2009-02-10_octuplet_ moms _fertility_doctor_identifie- 2.html?page=1).

• Suleman claims to have implanted six embryos because they were frozen and were at risk of being destroyed. But her doctor, Michael Kamrava, who was expelled from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in October 2009 stated that she insisted on all ‘fresh’ cycles, and in fact she still has embryos stored with Dr. Kamrava. Since her medical records are confidential, the public does not know how many embryos she had transferred during the IVF...(http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadya_ Suleman).

• On the Oprah Winfrey show, Suleman claimed that she would never do a reality show and that a parent must provide for their kids, not the other way around. Those comments came after Suleman’s lawyer last June said she’d signed a deal to star in a reality TV series, but it may have ended because of the lawsuit filed against Suleman to prevent her from exploiting her children (www.myfoxla. com/dpp/news/local/Suit_Filed_To_ Protect _The_Octuplets_20090504).

Talk Talk

Her garrulousness and selective word choice is shown by Mercury in dignity in Gemini, which is part of a grand trine with Uranus and her ascendant. Grand trines show self-sufficiency, so that she will get what she sets her mind to (Mercury), no matter how extreme or controversial (Uranus) with her own body (Aquarius Ascendant), and she has her own logic to her life that does not incorporate any outside influences. Her Mercury (natural indicator of children) is located powerfully on the cusp of her 5th house of children.

It’s hard to imagine a single mom being able to persuade a fertility doctor (or doctors) to implant enough embryos for her to give birth to octuplets, when she already conceived six children (though not all at the same time) through in vitro fertilization. There was no stopping her, however, with this grand trine along with the 7th house ruler (7th house indicates doctors) placed in her 5th house of children.

The mutual reception by exaltation between her Sun in Cancer in the 5th house and Jupiter in Aries in the 2nd house, shows that Suleman can dramatically overdo and exaggerate in the areas of obtaining resources and creating children. Because of this, she never seems worried about running out of money or of not being a good mother.

This, along with the grand trine combined with the disorganization of her combust Saturn with her Mercurial emphasis, as well as angular Neptune afflicting her Moon, contributes to the personality of a woman who although well-educated, is not in touch with reality and doesn’t know where to set the limits. It is what really exaggerated the issue or the issues to a historical height.

Ego

Her 1st house ruler, Saturn, is in Cancer, and is overcome by the Sun, the 7th house (others) ruler, along with her Moon and Venus placed in her 7th house. This implies that she needs to create (Venus) and mother (Moon, Saturn Cancer) others in order to validate her ego or existence (Sun, 7th house ruler, placed in Cancer).  

Moon conjunct Venus in Virgo in the 7th resulted in her cooperation with the different news outlets. She never seems to lose her temper even though she is vociferously attacked on an almost constant basis. She always explains herself in a subdued, earthy, manner that the Moon-Venus aspect gives her. No matter how far she has been pushed, she has not lashed out at anyone.

This is also due in part by Mars in Taurus trine her Venus in Virgo, causing her to behave in a calm, feminine, earthy way. With Mars in Taurus, it would take a tremendous amount of pressure to make her really lose her cool.

Progressions for First Child

In 1996, when Suleman was 21, she married Marcos Gutierrez, and in 1997 she began IVF treatments. She separated from her husband in 2000 mainly because of her inability to have children. Her first son, Elijah, was born on May 18, 2001. The element emphasis of her progressed chart for May 18, 2001 shows a shift from earth and air mutable to cardinal and fixed fire, or a dominant Aries and Leo theme. This shows that she would take charge of her life more and create what she wanted– children.

Looking at her secondary progressions, we can see the internal influences that led up to her struggle to conceive, which resulted in finally giving birth to her firstborn on May 18, 2001.

Her natal Venus retrograded by secondary progression at 11° Virgo in the same year that her first child was born. Some people experience a retrograde Venus as a time of feeling unlovable or unattractive. In this case Venus going retrograde meant that Suleman’s ability to create turned inward and it enabled her to successfully create a child. Progressed Saturn was inconjunct her ascendant since she was a teenager. This inconjunct resulted in her internal struggles with her inability to conceive children. She did everything that she possibly could to have children and went into a deep depression during her marriage that ultimately failed when she couldn’t conceive. Inconjuncts cause the person to keep adjusting and failing over and over in trying to obtain what the planets represent. However, if the person does not give up and keeps trying, then the inconjunct finally rewards them with amazing results in the end of a long period of struggling.

Suleman went on to have 13 more children. It also helped that progressed Jupiter formed a partile sextile to her ascendant from the 2nd house of personal resources. Her new status as First time mother is shown twice by the secondary progressed MC trine her natal Moon and natal Venus, as well as secondary progressed Moon trine the natal MC.

Octuplets

The octuplets were born on January 26, 2009 . Secondary progressions at the time of the birth of the octuplets show that the element emphasis is now earth, cardinal or Capricorn. She has embarked on a new life as the Octomom, and perhaps even a new career. Expansive secondary progressed Jupiter in the progressed 1st house trine progressed Sun in the progressed 5th house, clearly shows her large pregnancy.

When secondary progressed Mars conjoined the natal Nodes, semi-sextiles natal Mercury, and squares natal Moon, the aggressive and unflattering news stories exploded. Along with this, the secondary progressed MC semisextiled the natal MC, showing her new status the first mother to give birth to eight surviving children at once. Secondary progressed Pluto also moved up to sextile natal MC indicating that her new image would transform her status in the world. Secondary progressed MC trined natal Mars, ruler of 2nd and 9th, making money through publicity and donations from various groups. Additionally, secondary progressed Moon (29° Scorpio) conjoined the natal North Node (29° Scorpio), opposed secondary progressed Mars, and squared natal Moon (0° Virgo): more indications of the adverse publicity that she would receive.

The Moon in the intense sign of Scorpio shows public obsession with her story, and because the Moon is about to enter the sign of publishing, Sagittarius, the international publicity had only just begun.The secondary progressed Moon moving into this jovial sign also meant that she gave birth to a record breaking number of babies, and that the births would also create numerous parodies and jokes around the world.

When Nadia Suleman became known as Octomom, solar arc Mars and solar arc Saturn conjoined the angles of her natal chart. Solar arc Mars opposed the MC, and solar arc Saturn opposed the ascendant, showing the tremendous stress that she was under at this time caring for eight newborns while the world watched her every move. Solar arc Jupiter squared the ascendant-descendant axis forming a fixed t-square with Saturn ascendant at 24-25°. This indicates the explosive pushing of boundaries, with her physical body (ascendant), society’s accepted rules (Saturn), and the trials and tribulations that she dealt with interacting with others (1-7 relationship axis).

The octuplets’ birth was a significant medical phenomena but not without controversy as shown by solar arc Mars opposing her MC. Solar arc Mars also opposes her natal Neptune indicating again the explosion of the media frenzy surrounding the octuplets’ birth.

Transits

With transiting Neptune conjunct her ascendant, she had trouble and confusion dealing with others, as people saw her in a n entire new light. Transiting Saturn in the 8th house inconjunct natal Jupiter in the 2nd means that she struggled with all the different new sources of income, from free diapers to tabloid stories and interviews. Many donations were rescinded because of the negative publicity. Transiting Uranus in the 1st trining natal Sun and natal Saturn in the 5th indicated the unprecedented number of children to whom she successfully (trine) gave birth.

Adding it all up Nadya Suleman has spent her life pursuing her dreams of being a mother (Sun in Cancer) in an unrealistic and extraordinary manner (Moon square Neptune) that has resulted in her personal reputation of being out-of-touch with reality (combust Saturn and Neptune conjunct MC.) Although she may be a wonderful mother in many ways, her lack of boundaries and structure will always cause her to fumble. Fortunately for her, she will always have enough money (Jupiter in 2nd) to survive and raise her large brood, which was no doubt a calculated gamble on her part (Jupiter ruler of MC in 2nd, square Sun and Saturn in Cancer in 5th with mutual reception by exaltation) to make her mark on the world.

She is intelligent (Mercury in Gemini in a grand trine and Virgo-Gemini signature) but this will forever be jeopardized by her enormous lack of common sense (afflicted Saturn, prominent afflicted Neptune). Hopefully she will focus on developing her Saturn skills in this lifetime, as this will lead the way to helping her get her life in order, be a good role model for her children, and maybe even a little respect.