She was pushed hard, oh so hard by Sara Errani yesterday in the final of the French open, but Maria Sharapova finally overcame her plucky opponent to complete her set of Grand Slam titles, a feat that only 10 women in history have achieved. In her speech afterwards, I sensed a real maturity in her response to her victory. The victory came after her career was nearly wrecked by a debilitating shoulder injury, and I would guess all the sweeter for overcoming it.
Maria was born on 19th April 1987 in Nyagan, Russia in deepest Siberia (I do not have a birth time) and has an Aries Sun and an ambitious if reserved Capricorn Moon. This chart is all about fire and achievement with 5 planets in fire signs, her enthusiasm for any endeavours she takes on does burns brightly, and with five planets in cardinal signs and 4 in mutable ones, this is a girl who’s ambitions drive her on to be first, to win and be pre-eminent. Maria does have the ability to adapt to the situation, however the lack of fixed planets in her chart may deprive her of the stamina and ultimate determination to dominate for long periods of time. When she shines, she shines brightly but when the flame goes out, it takes a long time for the fire to relight.
The Sun and Moon combination show a similar story. The Capricorn Moon needs to achieve and the cardinal energy of the Aries Sun helps her to go out with a pioneering spirit to fulfill this need. We have hot fire and ambition combined with cool emotions and a level headed attitude. Maria was born to be a winner and she plays with the same aggressive attitude allied with an icy will to succeed. The Sun sits trine to independent Uranus in Sagittarius which is conjunct to Saturn, so it is no surprise to me that she left her native Russia to further her ambitions. This is a girl who can function out of her comfort zone in order to get to the top. Uranus Saturn conjunctions do impose a need to break the routine every so often, to change things so that you can progress up the ladder of life. It is really noticeable about her latest triumph that Maria recently broke a long association with her old coach Michael Joyce to replace him with Thomas Hogstedt and it has immediately paid dividends.
Saturn and Uranus square to Maria’s Venus in Pisces. Venus in Pisces is very soft hearted and sympathetic and Maria will be very selfless in the way she treats the ones she loves. She is drawn to creative souls who need her attention, to creative, imaginative types – this is a girl who is tremendously compassionate but someone who may have to suffer some heartaches before she finally settles down. Saturn in Sagittarius’ square to Venus is never easy and indicates hard lessons need to be learned in love and the Uranus square does tell me that her relationships may be quite unstable and maybe broken often by times of independence or being away from the one she loves more than she would wish for.
The Capricorn Moon sits with her Neptune in Capricorn square to the North Node, Jupiter and Mercury, which is emotionally gentle but also cool. To say that Maria has an old head on young shoulders is true, but that Moon in Capricorn does also hold back the undoubted emotions which lie within, bringing the impression of the Siberian ice queen that we know. The square between Neptune/Moon and Jupiter/Mercury is hugely idealistic and Maria will have strong if rather conservative faith. There is the need to travel and get away from the pressures of life in general and find her own peace and space, indeed with Jupiter in conjunction with her North Node, hers is a fortunate life filled with opportunities to travel far and wide so that she can find this contentment.
Jupiter conjunct to Mercury in Aries is a very busy combination and I can guess that she is always on the go, not stopping from one second to the next. This conjunction is sextile to a busy bee Mars in Gemini so the need to communicate, to find out information and to be occupied with doing “something” is very strong. Jupiter Mercury in Aries in connection with both Mars and Neptune is an international advertisers dream, as it indicates a connection to worldwide media, TV, product endorsements and positive direct messages. It is not surprising that her commercial activities dwarf the prize money she earns on the court.
Now a really interesting feature of this chart are two sets of interlocking yods with Mars and Pluto at the focus of each one. Mars as a focus point indicates that for a while in her early life at least, Maria’s energy was not being properly used and needed an outside controlling factor to channel it. Every time this yod is activated, Bill Tierney says that “one finds oneself centred upon a new life course requiring one to mobilize one’s vital forces in an extremely demanding manner”. In essence, a new challenge appears that one must use strength and determination to conquer. The Yod with Pluto at the focus point, is more transformational however remember that Pluto does form part of the sextile base for the Mars focused Yod. Connections by transiting planets here set one off on a new direction in life and an increase in one’s power and one can never return to the old existence that one had. This is destiny forcing the hand of the individual to improve one’s life, and eventually rise to a position of high influence.
Here are the outer planet and North Node connections to Maria’s Mars and Pluto since she was born :-
1994 – Jupiter to natal Pluto – Goes to America to join the Nick Bollettieri tennis academy
1995 North Node to natal Pluto – Signed by IMG who sponsors her & pays for her finances to stay in America
2000 Jupiter to Mars – Wins first major international Junior Girls title at under 16 level aged just 13
2001 Saturn to Mars – Makes professional tennis debut.
2002 North Node to Mars – Youngest player ever to appear in the Australian Junior final
2005/6 Jupiter to Pluto – Becomes world number one player.
The next hit will be in July 2012 when Jupiter connects again with her natal Mars. Might she win Wimbledon 2012 off the back of her French Open triumph? If she can keep her body injury free, I can see her going on to be head and shoulders the best female tennis player on the planet for a while to come, and following this connection Saturn will conjunct with her Pluto as Jupiter returns in retrograde motion to connect with Mars. This double hit on the two Yods in her chart I think is significant and occurs at the end of 2012/start of 2013 when transiting Pluto also squares her nodal axis and Jupiter/Mercury conjunction.
You can see both Pluto and Saturn lighting up that Mars yod from the base sextile at the bottom just as Jupiter and Uranus does the same with the Pluto yod. It is a dramatic astrological picture and I would expect big things and big news of Maria at this point in her life, especially as you see the history of how she reacts when outer planets hit these vital points in her chart. A career grand slam turning into the ultimate goal of holding all 4 grand slam titles at the same time? Seeing this planetary set up, it is entirely possible that it could just happen…
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