Fire Up Your Inner Power
The astrological key to your personal best

By Angela Rios

Jenna looked at her coworker, Carla, with envy. Carla could master any task quickly, and was the most efficient employee in the department. Not only was she one of the most organized people Jenna had ever known, but Carla truly seemed to love her job, and positively sparkled when her in-box was loaded to the brim. Carla's personal inner power, her ability to enjoy the challenge of the everyday, came out when she was at work, and everyone, including the boss, knew it!

Elsewhere in the same office was Jim, a shy type, who hated parties. Though it was hard for Jim to talk to people, it wasn’t exactly a family trait, as his brother Bob was completely the opposite. Bob loved the spotlight, and thrived in social gatherings where he could spend hours telling stories about his life adventures. Bob’s inner power, his easy self-assurance, came into play every time he entered a room that contained a group of people.

Of course, both Jenna and Jim had their own personal inner power! They just didn’t know how to channel it. Some people need a little help connecting with their special qualities, the ones that will allow them to shine before the world. Astrology can aid you in learning where your own inner power lies, but let’s use a well-known example to look at a lady who embodied the idea of inner power in a very distinct way. To this day, over 50 years after her death, countless magazine articles and books are published about her, and her life story is regularly retold on television and in the movies. Who is this paragon of inner power? None other than Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood’s archetypal “blonde bombshell.”

In the 2011 movie My Week with Marilyn, one of the characters, Dame Sybil Thorndike, herself a noted actress, remarks on Marilyn’s love affair with the camera. My Week with Marilyn revolves around the making of the movie The Prince and the Showgirl in London in 1957. Michelle Williams, born on September 9, 1980, in Kalispell Montana, portrayed Marilyn. Michelle doesn’t really resemble Marilyn physically, but she is a consummate actress who was able to demonstrate Marilyn’s ability to dazzle people both on the silver screen and in person. Michelle received an Oscar Nomination for Best Actress for her efforts. Williams is an analytical Virgo who described in an interview how she watched countless hours of footage of Marilyn Monroe on her computer, using it to learn Marilyn’s famous walk and other mannerisms.

There is no doubt that Marilyn Monroe knew just how to use her inner power in her film career, but for all her sizzle on the screen, she had many problems, most of which were well documented during her life—and all of which were recounted after her death on August 5, 1962, from an overdose of tranquilizers. She was born Norma Jeane Baker on June 1, 1926, at 9:30 a.m. PST in Los Angeles, California. She had a very tough start in life, as one could have guessed by the fact that her birth certificate originally recorded her last name as “Mortenson” (from a man who had been separated from her mother before the pregnancy), and the fact that her mother told her that her father was actually someone named Charles Stanley Gifford. Norma Jeane’s mom, Gladys Baker, was mentally ill, so young Norma Jeane was put into foster care when she was just a toddler. She later related that she was abused during her time with her various foster parents, sometimes sexually.

She started modeling when she was a teenager, and she also worked in a munitions plant. It was there that she met her first husband, Jim Dougherty, a coworker. The two were married on June 19, 1942, several weeks after her 16th birthday.

Norma Jeane was always star struck. She once said that she had fantasized that movie star Clark Gable was her real father, in part due to his resemblance to Gifford, the biological dad that she knew only from a photograph. It’s perhaps ironic that when she became Marilyn Monroe the famous movie star, she acted with Clark Gable in the film The Misfits, a troubled and exhausting production that was the last film completed by both of these Hollywood icons. 12 days after filming was completed, Gable had died of a heart attack and she had filed for divorce from playwright husband Arthur Miller, who had conceived and written the screenplay.

Norma Jeane wanted to act as well as model, so she obtained an agent and changed her name to the more glamorous-sounding Marilyn Monroe in 1946. Marilyn was one of the main players in a movie called Ladies of the Chorus in 1948, and a succession of roles followed, but it wasn’t until 1953 that Marilyn’s spark caught fire on the silver screen in such films as Niagara and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Career-wise Ms. Monroe seemed to have it all during the 1950s. She scored a big hit with The Seven Year Itch in 1955, in which she played opposite Tom Ewell as a married middle-aged editor struck by the beauty and the naive, innocent seductiveness of his upstairs neighbor. One of the scenes from the movie became an iconic photo. In it, Marilyn is seen in a white summer dress, standing over a subway grate in the sidewalk. Air from the grate blows Marilyn’s dress up, and the look on her face (and Ewell’s) is one of pure bliss. “Sort of cools the ankles, doesn’t it?” he asks. This shot perfectly embodied the idea of Marilyn Monroe as sex goddess supreme, and was called by some one of the iconic images of the 20th century. Two years ago, the much-auctioned dress she wore in that scene sold to a collector for $5.52 million.

Marilyn’s inner power was again on display in the 1956 drama Bus Stop, and yet again in1959 in Billy Wilder’s crazy comedy Some Like it Hot. Unfortunately, despite her ability to project a persuasive and powerful image on the screen, her personal life was not as successful. By the time of her death in 1962, she had been married and divorced three times: first to Jim Dougherty; next to Joe DiMaggio, the famous Yankee ballplayer; and finally to Arthur Miller, the noted playwright.

Marilyn’s life sizzled, then sank, but despite this, her star burns brightly more than a half century after her untimely death. What is the secret to Marilyn's inner power? The story of her charisma starts with her Sun in Gemini, a Mutable sign that gave her versatility in the way she expressed herself. Gemini natives tend to have very expressive facial features, so the emotions and thoughts behind the famous roles she played flitted across her face quickly. You could easily see if she was happy, sad, curious, bored, pouty or all of the above, and all at once!

Of course, we are more than our Sun signs, so looking more closely at Marilyn’s birth chart we can see that she has Leo, the zodiac sign ruled by the radiant Sun, on her Ascendant. With Leo rising, Marilyn exuded a playful and fun-loving persona. She truly enjoyed being in the limelight. Leo people love to be noticed, whether they are on the silver screen, conducting a presentation in the boardroom for their colleagues, or just giving a talk to a local neighborhood association. It’s all the same to the attention-hungry Lion!

Neptune is known as the planet of illusion, and it governs fog, mist, ether, perfume, alcohol, and drugs. Neptune also rules creativity and artistic inspiration. This planet is conjunct Marilyn's Ascendant, and is in her 1st house (self), so she easily channeled Neptune’s elusive vibrations. It is probably the primary reason she had a history of substance abuse, including use of alcohol as well as the barbiturates she needed to help her deal with her chronic insomnia.

Venus, the love planet, is conjunct Marilyn's Midheaven. This is the part of our charts that indicates how others view us, so with sensuous Taurus (the sign Venus rules) at that important point, she naturally exuded a kind of sensuality, something that as an actress she could almost switch on and off at will. There is a famous story about her walking down a city street with actress Susan Strasberg, who marveled that no one seemed to recognize her. Marilyn replied that this was because she was being herself, Norma Jeane, and not “Marilyn Monroe.” She then got into character as Marilyn, and soon the two were swarmed by fans.

Marilyn's Venus is conjunct Chiron, the asteroid of the wounded healer, which explains why Marilyn was often portrayed as both a sex goddess and a little girl lost. She had a very wispy voice and spoke in interviews of her unhappy childhood. Her Venus is also in vibrant Aries, and sextile Jupiter, the planet that governs idealism and bestows good fortune. It is also trine Neptune, the planet associated with the film industry. She took to making movies like a duck takes to water!

Another facet of Gemini is its dual nature, so while Marilyn Monroe said that she longed for children of her own and a comfy home life, she also had lots of sex partners and enjoyed the night life in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York City. As this indicates, there is much more to Marilyn's astrological tale than her ability to dazzle on the silver screen. She had a lot of mental and emotional problems, and in the end her issues proved to be too hard for her to overcome.

Marilyn’s Mercury, the planet of her mindset, is square Jupiter. Mercury square Jupiter can incline a person to be overly optimistic and idealistic. She might have dreamed of living in a perfect world that simply didn’t exist outside of her imagination. Her Moon, the barometer of how she feels, is in unorthodox and erratic Aquarius, opposite her Neptune at 22 Leo. Between this and a strong Neptunian influence on her emotions, Marilyn tried to escape from her problems rather than trying to solve them. She may have looked at the world through rose-colored glasses. Once reality set in, as it did when her relationships turned sour, she tried to flee into the false euphoria that drugs and alcohol provide.

Sadly, despite the personal strength that allowed her to put herself on the world stage, Marilyn Monroe’s personal demons finally got to her in the end. Still, to this day, her legacy lives on, and each new generation discovers the fascinating story of the girl who knew how to channel her inner power! So the final lesson from her life is that while the inner power each of us has is a gift, we must strive not only to understand it and to use it, but also to use it wisely.

Now let’s take a look at your own inner power, the strength that comes from your Sun sign.

Aries: You are a fireball of enthusiasm! When you open your eyes in the morning, you are energized by the thought of all the opportunities that lie ahead of you. You truly feel that each new day is an adventure, one that you are eager to explore to the hilt. Your inner power comes from the zeal for living that you possess. In fact, your desire to live life to the fullest rubs off on those with whom you interact. Your friends and family try to imitate your ardor, and will often climb aboard your bandwagon. If you are convinced a task needs doing, you will get right to it, determined to work hard until it is done. Those around you will follow along, letting you take the lead.

Taurus: You take delight in all of your five senses. You adore smelling the roses in your garden, and when you put on a silk shirt you are in heaven, thanks to the soft feel of the fabric. When you sit down to a meal, you never rush to put the food in your mouth; instead, you eat slowly and enjoy the taste of each bite. Listening to mellow music propels you into a state of bliss! When you want to regale your eyes with a beautiful vision, you will take time from your busy schedule to look at the colors of the sunset. Your inner power comes from your sensuous nature, and you are able to demonstrate to your family and friends the wisdom of enjoying each and every experience of the senses.

Gemini: Communication is your specialty. You are able to talk to anyone, anyplace, anytime, and your gift of gab is a tremendous social asset. You are never at a loss for words, so when you were the new kid in school, you probably jumped right into the social scene, and most likely couldn’t wait to chatter to the child sitting next to you as soon as the teacher’s back was turned. You are able to break through the defenses of the shyest soul, so if a new coworker is ill at ease you will quickly make small talk with your colleague, helping him or her to feel more comfortable. Your inner power comes from your ability to express yourself to the people with whom you interact. In fact, you are the consummate salesperson of the zodiac, as you can easily persuade others that what you have to offer will make their lives better.

Cancer: You tend to wear your heart on your sleeve, as you possess a deep ocean of emotion, and sensitivity is your middle name. Your ability to walk a mile in another’s shoes makes you the living embodiment of sympathy and understanding. If you discover that a neighbor is ill, you will head over to his or her residence to see what you can do to help out. If a loved one is feeling sad, you will spend time trying to discover the reason for his or her unhappiness. You never hesitate to offer a listening ear to someone in distress. Your inner power comes from your ability to nurture others, as people know that when you are their friend, you can be counted on to provide love and support in any and all circumstances. You truly shine when someone needs your assistance!

Leo: You radiate confidence! You have known that you were meant to be a winner from your earliest childhood. If you were in Little League, getting a base hit first time, every time was your main goal, and if you were a Girl Scout you aimed to sell the most cookies in your troop. Regardless of the difficulties you encounter during your journey in life, you never give up in pursuit of your ambitions, as you are quite certain that success is just around the corner, no matter how long it takes you to get there. Your inner power comes from your belief in yourself and in your abilities, a sense of self-assurance that you often use to inspire others. The example you set is the best pep talk you could ever give to anyone.

Virgo: The problem doesn’t exist that you can’t solve, as logic and a cool, unemotional thought process are your forte. As the most analytical sign in the zodiac, you are able to get to the bottom of the most convoluted quandary, so your inner power comes from your discerning eye. Family and friends clamor for your expertise when they need the answer to a thorny dilemma. You can quickly read between the lines in any life circumstance, and never take anyone you meet at face value! In essence, you are the detective of the world, and your eyes sparkle when you are presented with a perplexing puzzle. You are the ideal juror, since you will look at every issue from all sides, and never rush to judgment.

Libra: You certainly know how to look good! Starting from the time when you were in grade school, color-coordinating your wardrobe may have been one of your favorite activities. You wanted to be the best dressed kid in the classroom. Your inner power comes from your sense of fashion and style, so you never go out of the house looking disheveled or unkempt, and even if you are just jogging around the block, you will make sure that you have on a snazzy exercise outfit. In fact, you are often a beacon of light to the people who don’t have the slightest clue as to what to wear. Just by looking at the way you put yourself together, they are able to come up with fashion tips. You are a true trend-setter, in both your personal and professional arenas.

Scorpio: Without a doubt, you are the most passionate person on the planet. You never respond to anyone, or to anything, in a lackadaisical or indifferent way. You will either dedicate yourself mind, body and soul to a task, or you won’t get involved in the first place, so it’s clear that your inner power comes from the intensity you bring to your life endeavors. If you become interested in a particular subject, you will spend hours researching the topic. If someone special catches your eye, you will pursue that person with the full force of your being. The fact that you don’t believe in taking a lukewarm attitude toward life means that your associates are often inspired by your example to devote themselves wholeheartedly to whatever they choose to do.

Sagittarius: You are likely to be the life of any party that you decide to attend, since having fun is one of your main goals. You truly believe there is more to your existence than just eating, sleeping and working. Even if you are the CEO of a large corporation, you will take all of your allotted vacation, personal, and sick days, so that you can get some relief from the workaday world. You feel in your bones that a life that isn’t filled with good times is a life that isn’t worth living. Your sense of inner power comes from your ability to enjoy yourself, so you will often exhort your friends, family, and coworkers to lighten up, forget their cares and woes, and make time for play as well as for work.

Capricorn: There is no hill you cannot climb, as determination is your middle name. You have such an abundance of inner strength that even as a child you may have capitalized on your ability to persevere in any life scenario. If you needed to earn extra money because your family was in dire financial straights, you didn’t moan or complain. Instead, you got busy working on a paper route or babysitting the kids in your neighbored. Your inner power comes from your fortitude, so it is fair to say that you have true grit! You are a real inspiration to those around you, due to your refusal to bow down to adverse circumstances. Whenever one of your associates needs the resolve to keep on keeping on, he or she tries to emulate you!

Aquarius: Rules were made to be broken, at least as far as you are concerned, so ever and always you want to dance to your own tempo. Being unorthodox is written into your astrological DNA. You may have loved shocking people, particularly those who adhere to narrow-minded belief systems, since you could walk and talk. In fact, you probably even colored outside the lines with your crayons when you were in nursery school. Your inner power comes from the nontraditional and unusual way that you approach life, so you never hesitate to avoid the safe, approved ways of doing what needs to be done. The delight you take in being unique encourages your friends and family to do the same. You will go out of your way to provide moral support to those who want to follow a course that is different from the mainstream.

Pisces: There is a very good reason that your sign is known as the mind-reader of the zodiac, since most Pisceans have a highly developed sixth sense. Once you look deeply into the eyes of another, you know immediately where he or she is coming from, and your ability to understand what makes people tick is amazing. Your inner power clearly comes from your intuition. You can walk into a room and instantly sense if you are in a happy or a hostile environment, picking up on the vibrations around you with your keen intuitive radar. People feel safe telling you their secrets, since they sense that you already know those secrets and will handle confidences with discretion. One of the keys to your insight is your ability to see beneath the surface in any life situation.