Greta Garbo
 

In 1930, she was named the “first lady of the screen”. Andre Sennwald wrote in the New York Times that she was “the most miraculous blend of personality the screen has ever seen”. Alistair Cooke named her “every man’s fantasy mistress”. The French called her “La Divine” and Kenneth Tynan concluded: “What when drunk one sees in other women, one sees in Garbo sober”.

She was born under the name of Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, on September 18, 1905 in Stockholm. She was born under the sign of analytical and emotionally distant Virgo. Her ascendant is found in the sign of impatient Gemini and her Moon in the sign of Taurus, resistant to change. The image of the heavenly bodies at the moment of her birth indicates that she would become a magnetically attractive person, one who would continuously waver between public life, marriage, work and health on the one hand, and the need for solitude and fear of sickness on the other hand. Secret Pluto, god of the underworld, is located in the house of image and appearance (1^st) of her chart, indicating that she always wore a mask towards the public and lived an entirely different private life. Jupiter, planet of good fortune, is found near the highest position in the sky (the Ascendant) and reveals that she was born under a good star. This is why Greta Garbo’s trajectory always crossed the trajectories of powerful people who wanted to help her.

However, before any of this happened, she need to first pass through the school of life. In reality, Greta Garbo was born into the humble family of Karl Alfred and Anna Lovisa Gustafsson. Her father was a blue collar worker who often missed work on account of his illness. Thus, little Greta was forced to leave school at the age of 13 to take her father daily to the hospital for the poor. All in vain, for he died one year later from nephritis. At only 14 years old, Greta had to find work in order to feed her family, and worked first at a barbershop and then in a store.

A classic Hollywood story up to this point, when Jupiter, the planet of good fortune, and its positive influence entered the scene. Beautiful Greta was hired to do an advertisement for a store in which she worked. She received a 2-year scholarship to Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theater Academy, where she met the famous Swedish Director Mauritz Stiller. Stiller was the most well-known figure in the golden age of silent film in Sweden. Stiller, then 40 years old, took complete control of the private and professional life of his 17-year old protégée. He changed her name from Gustafsson to Garbo and gave her a major role in his film, The Saga of Gosta Berling. This was in 1922, when Jupiter and Saturn, enforcer of destiny, passed through her house of work (6^th). For its part, the North Node in transit touched her natal Sun, thus activating karmic events in her professional career.

Destiny once again confirms what the stars prophesized since the moment of Greta Garbo’s birth: that rich and powerful people would want to help her. When Mauritz Stiller left for America to work with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925, he insisted that the studio sign a contract with Greta. This hardly comes as a surprise, if one knows that in 1925, Jupiter transited her house of foreign lands (9^th) and her house of career (10^th). What’s more, towards the end of 1924, the North Node in transit touched her natal Venus, planet of love. Six months later, Neptune in transit did the same. This indicates the strange romantic experiences that Greta Garbo then experienced. It is therefore possible that she had a romantic affair with her manager, or another person who would help her career. Whatever the case, Mauritz Stiller was right to push MGM to sign a contract with Greta Garbo. The rest is history.

In her 19-year career, Garbo shot 27 films (two in Sweden, one in Germany and the others in Hollywood). She always played the roles of women who were let down by their tragic loves, women who broke from tradition and therefore had to be punished, die, or be abandoned by their lover. The skill she possessed in interpreting the suffering of the soul, and her secret and distant attitude towards the public made Garbo appealing to both men and women. As a critic once said, “the best element in the films of Garbo is Garbo herself”. Her films and her persona exerted an influential force on fashion, hairstyles, makeup, and feminine demeanor.

Perhaps many people saw in Garbo’s attitude towards the public and reporters, her avoidance of interviews and autographs, her failure to return fan letters or appear at premiers, nothing but a cleverly constructed image cultivated by her studio. However, the stars say something else. More precisely, the Moon, symbol of feelings, is located in the house of isolation (12^th) as cold Saturn is located in the house of friends (11^th), indicating a personality that felt a physical need to isolate itself from the surrounding world. Perhaps this aspiration coincided with the desires of her producers, but she was neither fake nor contrived.

Nevertheless, for as exotic and secret as her personality was, her private life is veiled with mystery. The Ascendant in the sign of impatient Gemini and the Sun in the sign of analytical Virgo indicate that Greta Garbo was torn between the desire to just have fun and the question of knowing if it is useful and in good taste to do so. In a moment of weakness, she told a reporter: “I feel able to express myself only through my roles, not in words, and that is why I try to avoid talking to the press”. Perhaps her private life would have taken a completely different turn if she had been a little more spontaneous. The stars indicate that this woman, who truly knew how to suffer when interpreting her roles and compelled the public to do the same, refrained from showing her feelings in her private life. Thus, despite the many rumors regarding her love affairs, and aside from the fact that she was once two steps away from the altar with actor John Gilbert, she remained faithful to the characteristics of her sign, Virgo, and never married. However, this did not prevent her from being seen in the company of orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski, the nutritionist Gayelord Hauser, and the baron Erich Goldschmidt-Rothschild.

– Did she have homosexual tendencies, as some reporters have affirmed?

Hollywood’s artistic circles knew that during the summer of 1931, Greta Garbo was invited to a friend’s house, where she met Mercedes de Acosta, an American writer, and author of numerous theatrical plays and Hollywood screenplays. “The passion immediately blazed between them” witnesses say. The stars confirm this. In fact, over the course of the summer of 1931, Jupiter and Neptune, creator of illusions, passed through Greta’s house of love (5^th). Their affair was dramatic. Garbo pulled the strings. She left Mercedes when she wanted and came back to her when she wanted. She tortured her with other lovers and gossiped about her with her friends. She also succeeded in destroying any new affair that Mercedes began. Mercedes was nevertheless the mistress of Marlene Dietrich and ballerina Isadora Duncan. At a certain time, she kept parallel contact with Marlene and Greta. Hollywood used to joke that Marlene undressed the same woman and dressed the same man as Greta Garbo. In fact, Dietrich had her masculine suits made by the same tailor used by her rival on the screen and in the alcove. Mercedes met Garbo for the last time at her New York house in 1958. “I’m lost and afraid! Nobody cares about me!” the diva of the screen moaned, forlorn. To which Mercedes responded: “You’re the one who doesn’t want anyone to take care of you”. In 1960, when Garbo learned that Mercedes was going to publish her autobiography, she went crazy with rage and sent her a message: “You forget how I despise people who write about me. Your egoism drives me insane.” That was the end of a thirty-year relationship.

That’s what they say in Hollywood. However, the stars lean more in favor of Greta Garbo being bisexual. More precisely, the disharmonious relationship between the two feminine planets, the Moon and Venus, reveals that she never accepted the woman within herself, nor the traditional role of the latter, and that she perhaps had hormonal problems and little chance of having children. Moreover, eccentric Uranus located in the house of sex (8^th) indicates her need to experiment in the field of sex. Garbo had strange sexual needs and eccentric adventures that she hid from the eyes of the public. Nevertheless, this does not suffice to say that she preferred women to men. One thing is sure: she did not want to submit herself to a man. Pluto in her house of self helped her to lead a double life.

Nevertheless, secret Pluto located on the cusp of the second house of her horoscope also indicates her capacity to perform dangerous tasks. During the second world war, Garbo was criticized: some said that she did not help the Allies during their fight against Germany. However, it would later be revealed that she did help the English to identify Nazi sympathizers in Stockholm, and also transmitted messages for the British secret services.

After the war, Garbo hoped to return to the world of cinema. Yet this is not what Destiny intended. The few projects in which she was going to participate never materialized. Greta traveled often during the next period of her life. Joking about herself, she called herself a vagabond, because she constantly traveled between Switzerland, the French Riviera and Italy. From 1941 on, her principal place of residence was an apartment in Manhattan with a view of the East River.

For over half a century, Greta Garbo jealously guarded her private life and remained an enigma for reporters and her admirers. It is paradoxical that the “Swedish Sphinx”, as she was called then, became the center of interest to everyone despite her efforts to avoid publicity. As she said one day, she simply wanted to be left in peace and be remembered as Anna Karenina, Queen Christine, or Ninotchka. Greta Garbo had no luck in winning an Oscar for her numerous roles. This is why, in 1955, she received an honorary Oscar for “a series of luminous and unforgettable performances”. By chance or providence, the North Node then transited her house of public recognition (7^th) and triggered her natal Mars. At the same time, Jupiter went through her house of love and creativity and triggered her natal North Node. This signifies love proclaimed by the public and critics for the work she did out of love. However, Greta Garbo, faithful to herself and the image that she had constructed, did not attend the award ceremony for her Oscar.

– Did she hide herself for reasons of vanity or out of fear that the public would be disappointed by the wrinkles of her face?

She acted in part out of vanity and in part out of fear, as Venus, planet of beauty, located in the sign of proud Leo, indicates arrogance. However, the sensitive Moon located in the house of secrets (12^th), secretive Pluto in the house of self (1^st), and cold Saturn in the house of social relations (11^th), indicate more a person who feels at ease far from the eyes of the public, a true lone wolf.

On April 16 1990, media outlets across the entire world announced: “Greta Garbo, the secretive and intangible star of some of the most spectacular romantic Hollywood films of the 1930’s, the mythical woman who remained the center of attention for 50 years, died yesterday in a Manhattan hospital. She was 84 years old.”

 

 
 

 
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