Maria Callas
 

A few years before her death, she asked herself: “I do not have an identity. My parents were Greek, but I never felt entirely Greek. I was born in America, but I am no longer American. I spent the longest part of my career in Italy, I married an Italian, but of course I am not Italian. Now I live in Paris, but this does not mean that I feel French. And after all this, what I am, damn it!” Then she immediately responded: “What am I? I am alone, constantly alone.” Such were the words of Maria Callas, the most sensual soprano of all time, according to music critics. Her cosmopolitan spirit and the fact that the entire world was her home do not come as a surprise if one considers that she was born under the sign of Sagittarius, the greatest globetrotter of the Zodiac.

Maria Callas, whose real name was Anna Maria Kekilia Sofia Kalogeropoulou, was born on December 4, 1923 in New York, to a family of Greek immigrants racked by serious financial problems. Her father Jorgos was forced to leave his trade and take a low-paying job in the pharmaceutical industry. Because of their lower quality of life in the United States and the strife within the marriage, Maria Callas’s mother decided to return to Greece with her two daughters in 1937. In Maria’s horoscope, the Sun, symbol of the father, is in close contact with Jupiter, planet of happiness, but clashes with unpredictable Uranus, located in the house of the home (4^th). For its part, the Moon, symbol of the mother, is oppressed under the influence of aggressive Mars and cold Saturn. For this reason, Maria Callas would have a contentious relationship with her mother, and she would feel closer to her father. She would have a hard time coping with the divorce of her parents, and would try to compensate for the love lost with large amounts of food.

Thus, towards the end of the 1930’s, as a student at the Athens Conservatory, young Maria met the famous Spanish soprano Elvira de Hidalgo. De Hidalgo was the first person to notice that Maria Callas had the makings to be the next diva, because she had an innate sense of the stage and movement. She began to teach Maria Callas singing technique. In 1969, many years later and when she was famous, Callas said during an interview:

“Singing technique must be learned very early. I began at 13 years old and I can now interpret the most difficult roles. I am proud to now be able to surprise myself.”

– Why was Maria Callas so successful? How did she succeed in attracting the attention of millions of people who followed her career and her life with an avid interest, and camped out for days in order to buy tickets for her opera performances?

Astrology has the answer to these questions. The reason why Callas had such an extraordinary career is her unique charisma, her famous glamour and her capacity to combine the text, music, and movements on stage through her feelings, causing the public to feel things with her.

Born under the sign of ardent Sagittarius, with her ascendant in the sign of passionate and secretive Scorpio and her Moon in the sign of artistically gifted Libra, Maria Callas was a person who aroused contradictory feelings within people. Some people adored her, others detested her, but practically no one remained indifferent, as is the destiny for all people whose ascendant is in Scorpio. Perhaps it is because of the influence of the latter that Callas instilled so much passion and tragedy into her roles, mixing interpretation with reality. She was and remains one of the greatest actresses among singers, and her singing performances were punctuated with long periods of silence full of ardent expressions.

With outgoing Jupiter in the Ascendant, charismatic Neptune in the sign of theatrical Leo, Pluto, ruler of the horoscope, in the house of sex (8^th) and the dazzling Sun in the house of self (1^st), Maria Callas was in two words the “Magic Woman”. Her demonic, hushed voice was ideal for playing the passionate, vengeful, and difficult characters of Lady Macbeth, Medea, or La Tosca. She was a diva in the true sense of the term, and indeed a challenge for many. Exceptionally temperamental, she often drove the people with whom she worked to despair. Her difficult personality continuously gave people new reasons to speak ill of her.

In her chart, the tension between the Sun, indicator of self-accomplishment, and unpredictable Uranus pronounces a life full of success but also unexpected setbacks. She confirms this herself by saying:

“I have fought since the beginning of my career. I cannot stand arguments.”

While she was unsupportable as a colleague, she was absolutely correct as an artist, working in a persevering and conscientious manner. Her colleagues relate that in her search for perfection, she repeated each piece until she was exhausted, for as long as she was uncertain of having mastered it entirely. In her horoscope, her perfectionism is indicated by the presence of Virgo at the Zenith. The North Node, linked to karma, is also found at the Zenith. Stern Saturn is in close contact with Mars, planet of action. We should not forget either the proximity of the Moon and Saturn. This makes Maria Callas rather unsure of herself, owing to the manner in which she was unloved and unaccepted by her mother during her childhood. In fact, it is known that her mother was not happy to bring another child into her misery. Her misfortune was only made worse when she brought a daughter into the world. Later, this deep feeling of not deserving to be loved would translate into the reason behind her unhappy love life. In fact, Maria Callas always fell in love with the wrong people. Thus, her first husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, appreciated nothing about her but her voice and loved her for the money that he earned, thanks to her. Luchino Visconti, an Italian director, was homosexual. The man of her life, Aristotle Onassis, did not want to marry her and left her for Jacqueline Kennedy. For his part, the tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano promised her he would get a divorce, but changed his mind at the last moment. However, first things first.

After having finished her studies at the Athens Conservatory in 1945, Maria Callas took a boat to the United States with only 100 dollars in her pocket.

During a performance in Verona in 1947, she met the industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini, 26 years her senior and the man who would become her husband. This took place exactly when Jupiter in transit crossed her Ascendant and went through her first house, provoking positive changes on all levels. In 1949, when Jupiter crossed Venus, planet of love, in the house of money, Meneghini married Callas in spite of the objections from his own family. It was more a business marriage than a marriage of love. Venus in Capricorn and the Moon next to Saturn indicate that her husband would be much older than her. From their first meeting, Meneghini promised to make her a star of Milan’s La Scala. He kept his promise. However, he was not interested in Maria as a wife. Many say that he was a homosexual. Whatever the case, Callas went alone to all of her performances in the opera houses across the entire world. She became ever more alone and unhappy.

Towards the end of 1952, she met the director Luchino Visconti and became enamored of him, without knowing that he was a homosexual. Maria Callas was then a stout and not very attractive woman. However, like all people under the influence of Scorpio, she was very sensitive to critics, tough with her friends and never forgot insults. She also presented a typical example of another characteristic of people whose Ascendant is in Scorpio: radical changes of appearance and transformations on the physical level. When Visconti told her that she was fat and inelegant, she was appalled. She submitted herself to a strict diet and succeeded in losing 75 pounds in eleven months. Thus, the ugly duckling became a gorgeous swan who conquered audiences around the entire world. She then said:

“I was so heavy that my singing itself was heavy. I had to play pretty women and I was too heavy to move around on the stage. I worked my voice my entire life, so why not go on a diet to be more presentable?”

In the moments when her star shined with all of its brightness, Maria Callas wished above all to find the man of her life, who would not just be interested in her voice and her career, but who would love her for herself. When one wishes for something so intensely, the Universe conspires to make it come true. Thus, in 1959, in the company of Winston Churchill and his wife, Maria Callas and her husband were invited aboard the famous Cristina, the yacht of the very rich Aristotle Onassis. During Cristina’s cruise between Monaco and Turkey, Onassis and Callas discovered that they were made for one another. Thus began one of the greatest and most tragic love stories of the last century, precisely during the period when Jupiter, ruler of her Sun, made a new transit in her Ascendant, thus provoking positive changes in her life. “Without Ari I am nothing. I do not see myself as a woman except in his eyes,” she said. However, Onassis never asked her to marry him, despite the luxury apartment that he offered her in Paris. He pushed her to have an abortion in January 1964, telling her: “You’re forty one years old and we are not married.”

That their destiny could have been different, and that the birth of their child would have strengthened the relationship between her and Onassis remains a simple conjecture. The facts indicate that, instead of Callas, Onassis married Jacqueline, the widow of John Kennedy, in 1968. Just a week after their marriage, understanding his mistake, Onassis tried to get back in touch with Maria Callas. She, disappointed and wounded, avoided him for a long time, retired, and became dependant on sleeping pills. Her voice was in crisis. Nevertheless, she yielded after one year and again became Onassis’s mistress. However, it seems that the rich Greek was not destined for her. In January 1973, he retired to his island Skorpios to mourn the death of his son, killed in a plane accident. The diva found herself alone again, and agreed to do a tour of Europe and Asia in the autumn of 1974. She began a relationship with the tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano but he constantly cheated on her. He promised her he would divorce, than changed his mind. Yet, nobody could replace Onassis in her heart. While Jacqueline led the life of a socialite, far from a sick Onassis, he and Callas talked on the phone several times per day. He died in 1975. Maria Callas followed him on December 16, 1977, at the moment when Pluto, planet of the underworld and ruler of her horoscope, and the North Node in transit came near her natal Moon. They were furthermore located in a disharmonious relationship with her natal Pluto, in the house of death. Maria Callas did not surmount this ordeal. The doctors pronounced her death the result of a heart attack. They later corrected their diagnosis, affirming that her death was due to a lung embolism, a consequence of the enormous amounts of sleeping pills, amphetamines, and anti-depressants she took. However, those that knew her affirm that her death was due to a broken heart.

 

 
 

 
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