Neptune transitted Aquarius from 1998 until 2012 with just a few forays into other zodiac signs on the edges. Fashions change when Neptune changes zodiac signs because this planet represents our collective ideals. All things Aquarius had become the Neptunian ideal. One of those things is groups. During the transit, a group marriage that is known to Americans as Mormon polygamy started to appear on television.
The ficitional protrayal of Mormon polygamy was the subject of HBO’s Big Love. Just before that show ended with the murder of the patriarch, Kody Brown and his polygamous family began a show following their life on TLC. Sister Wives was the name of the show but in fact, the wives didn’t seem to have much of a relationship with each other. They were just an unusual family fighting with each other for resources.
American Mormon Polygamy
Plural marriage in Mormon families can be directly traced back to Joseph Smith’s dictation of the church doctrine on July 12, 1843. The Brown family was practicing this type of marriage. The astrology of this moment has a lot to say about this particular brand of human made disaster.
The nodes of the Moon are a factory. The north node is where raw materials are consumed and the south node is the loading dock where finished goods are produced. No need to consider one bad, the nodal ends consume and produce karmic fruits.
The Mormon plural marriage horoscope’s north node is in Capricorn. Consuming (north node) discipline (Capricorn). Work before play. Planting and harvest before Christmas. Eating your vegetables before you get dessert. There is no Saturnalia before your work is done. In other words, all the benefits come at the end. What is the end for a Capricorn north node? The production (south node) of emotional comfort (Cancer). The more disciplined a person would be, the better the reward at the end.
How bad can the discipline be? Retrograde Capricorn Saturn square Aries Pluto bad is how. This is a thirteen minute square aspect, less than a degree, as in round down to zero and call it exact. The Sabian symbol for 22° Aries is “the gate to the garden of desire” squared up against 22° Capricorn “a general accepting defeat gracefully”. Saturn, the full grown adult male, blocking Pluto, a young kidnapper. Don’t just gloss over that but really think what it means that plural marriage discipline is the discipline a father would mete out to block a rapist from his daughter. Discipline is training a person to obey a code of conduct using punishment to correct disobedience. The rapist coming for his daughter. Men have been killed for less than that. This is the sort of scenario where the discipline could easily amount to torture. Brutality. The father is also going to be defeated so after the tortuous discipline is meted out the rapist is going to emerge the victor. Womenfolk had better already have run away because what will now ensue is no place anyone would want to be present. Kody Brown’s north node is exactly conjunct the Mormon plural marriage Aries Pluto. When he says he is fighting the darkness inside, I believe him. His wives are seeking liberation for a reason. Consuming the primitive survival instinct isn’t easy. This is the discipline that produces actual Arian toughness.
At its heart, the Mormon plural marriage horoscope is not about happiness, partnership, love or anything romantic. The release point of Saturn-Pluto square is 7° Virgo or Pisces. Work or spiritual escape. The husband in this retrograde Capricorn Saturn is going to have to hold back the intense desire of Aries and he is going to fail because he is the general accepting defeat gracefully. He is also a patriarch. Past (retrograde) Traditional (Capricorn) Father (Saturn). The wives are shown as an Aquarius Moon as the moon moves so fast it is unknown exactly which symbol it sat on. Regardless, Aquarius is about emotional detachment. The Moon is sextile the retrograde Aries Uranus so wives have an extra big helping of being the independent (Aries), liberated one (Uranus).
The Brown Family
Reality television stars with an Aquarian marriage reads strong Leo/Aquarius undertones. Leo, ruled by the Sun, whose natural house is the 5th. The 5th is places of play and the stage. Aquarius, ruled by Uranus, whose natural house is the 11th is the house of hopes, wishes, groups, and friends. Kody and his wives’ obsession with his shrinking mane of hair suggest he is the Leo. Kody himself has no Leo planetary energy but for many years he has been the center of the family’s attention.
Looking back at the reviews of the early series, one noted he was jovial. After many more episodes, jovial is not the word most people would use. Still his wife Robyn noted how, once he had contracted COVID19, he wasn’t his usual optimistic self. Jupiter in the 1st house might account for the first reviews catching this as a descriptor. Optimistic (Jupiter) self (1st). Although his birth time is unknown, I’ll use this to imagine him born as a Leo Ascendant with Jupiter in the 1st house.
A Leo Ascendant chart puts his Scorpio Neptune in the 4th house. Growing up in a cult would be one manifestation of this placement. Scorpio is fixed (stagnant) water (emotions). In this chart, his Pisces Chiron falls in the 8th house. This points to a previous karmic wounding of dissolution in the 8th house of shared resources. Christine, Janelle and Meri have all talked about the poor situation in the family over shared resources of his time and financial resources. Chiron is a wound that never heals. All of his wives but Christine, have a planetary or nodal connection to this strong Neptune Chiron aspect.
The Family Tradition
Kody’s Moon representing his past lies in the midst of the Virgo Uranus Pluto conjunction of the 1960s. His Moon makes it highly personal, breaking up long buried karma from his past. Was Kody a reincarnated polygamist? His back story may hold clues.
He was raised by a married couple who chose to enter polygamy when he was in high school. At a young age, he joined them in their beliefs and married his first wife intending to practice polygamy. This isn’t the complete story though. His family had deep roots in polygamy with several generations of polygamists and he is a direct descendant of a niece of Brigham Young. As Kody and the family mentioned in one episode he is indeed related to Brigham Young, he is his 4x-great nephew through the Young family. His other ancestors and ancestresses come from other polygamous families. Brigham Young’s first polygamous marriage was to an aunt of Kody. The Brown family has a long list of polygamous ancestors and relatives entwined with persons of high standing in the church. Kody comes from an almost unbroken line of polygamists whose marriages go back to the beginning of the practice in the Mormon church. Kody’s maternal grandmother is also an Allred and he is a third cousin once removed to his ex-wife Christine Allred, who he has said is royalty in their religion.
Kody is a Capricorn Sun and so he models his behavior on his father. Capricorn also deals with status and tradition. Unlike mainstream Americans, his father and his family tradition is based on polygamy. Mormon polygamy was normalized for a period of time for a group of people and Kody’s ancestors come from this group.
Kody is a Libra south node and Libra tends to put energy into people pleasing, especially when they are younger. Growing for a Libra south node is accomplished by becoming less agreeable. His Capricorn Sun is trine his Virgo Uranus. The trine is a flowing aspect. It represents a natural impulse and is very unconscious. This is tied into his past, represented by his Moon. Uranus is the impulse for liberation. The Sun represents our behavior. Breaking free or rebelling against traditional behavior is an astrological mechanism he can rely on to activate his Aries north node. Being independent. Standing alone.
In the series, he said everyone was free to leave. That was his recognition that he is free to leave. He has a Moon Venus square. For a man, the square aspect between these planets creates a tension between a man’s ideal wife, Moon, and his ideal romantic partner, Venus. This can easily be played by two women. Just as Saturn is the grown up younger man, Mars. The Moon is the grown up younger woman, Venus. Kody’s ideal wife is represented by his Uranus, Pluto, Moon conjunction.
Ominously, a Leo Ascendant’s 12th house of dissolution points to Cancer, the family, and Leo, the prince. This writes the same astrological tale as an Aquarius Descendant. The break up of marriage results in the dissolution of the family and unraveling of the native’s favored Leonine position.
Meri Brown
It is Kody and Meri Brown who created the family. Kody and Meri share the same sun sign and moon sign. The family always alluded to the difficulty the couple had being together but Kody has said it started as soon as the honeymoon period ended. It wasn’t jealousy that did them in so much as incompatibility. Reinforcement of existing traits in both was the theme of the marriage.
I speculate that Meri is a Taurus or Scorpio Ascendant due to her need to have the exact same resources as the other wives. Meri only had one child which points to Taurus. Ceres only had one daughter. Instead of looking out for the entire family, her priority was her own position in the family. If she is indeed a Taurus or Scorpio Ascendant, than her houses may line up in a square position to Kody Brown.
Their marriage exposes the fallacy that a bunch of conjunctions and similar planetary placements should equal bliss. Capricorn Sun conjunct Capricorn Sun, Virgo Moon conjunct Virgo Moon, Sagittarius Venuses times two, a watery Pisces Mars and Scorpio Mars. But in her all important resource (Ceres) fight (Aries), his 30° Libra (0° Scorpio) Ceres is opposing her Aries Ceres. Meri’s Aries Ceres rules her retrograde Taurus Saturn. Fighting for her status and associated resources was a major theme of the early years of the series. Even her purchase of the Parowan, Utah house of her natal polygamous family held the simmering remainder of this fight. She didn’t want the family to have any part of her purchase. Crucially, her Virgo Moon Pluto conjunction does not have the Uranus lying close. Meri isn’t trying to break free of her past.
Her Mars also aggravates this Neptune Chiron wound in Kody’s chart. Although Kody’s Sun also sits as the apex planet in the mini-Grand Trine, Meri’s Sun is exactly the apex of this Neptune-Chiron wound.
Janelle Brown
Into this marriage, Kody and Meri added Janelle. Divorced woman, former sister-in-law to Meri, stepsister to Kody. Janelle recognized Kody as a soul mate when she first saw him. That is borne out with his Moon, Pluto, Uranus conjunction to her south node. His Chiron is conjunct her north node. Janelle has a Capricorn Moon although it is most likely not tightly conjunct Kody’s Sun it does often represent marriage between two people. Janelle completes a Grand Earth Trine for both Kody and Meri. Both of them would have seen how Janelle helped them create material resources. The all important Venus for Kody and Meri is the Sagittarius Venus. Religious relationship. For Janelle, she has an Aries Venus. Independence in relationship.
Janelle seems very Aquarian in her outlook. Her Ceres is Aquarius and since that rules her Taurus Sun that might account for that impression. If she is an Aquarian Ascendant than Kody’s potential Leo Ascendant suggest these two may have come together to work on their relationship. In many marriages, the Midheaven and Imum Coeli line up and this is about the couple creating a inner and outer life together and building a family. The Ascendant and Descendant connections are about building a relationship. Karmically, this might be important because Janelle likes to run.
Janelle has a history of running from problems represented by her retrograde Sagittarius Mars. Sagittarius is the centaur, part man and part horse. Horses are prey animals. This is a karmic pattern for her. Her Sagittarius Mars represents the flight part of fight or flight. Since it is retrograde it doesn’t work well, she puts the car in gear and hits the gas but instead of taking off she rolls backwards. Another similar effect is driving off with the parking brake on. Blocking Janelle in on anything will unleash the full brunt of her Mars. Cornered, the centaur will start unleashing arrows at a rapid clip.
I have another Sagittarius Mars chart (not retrograde), she has a recurring theme of the karma of sticking things out. Being karmically shackled in such a way that the situation must be faced. Literally, that Sagittarius Mars person dreads only seeing one person in life and when she finally saw this person again she was in a place where she couldn’t run and she had to stand there without being able to move while the person walked up to her.
Although we don’t know Janelle’s birth time, it would not surprise me that she has arranged karmic circumstances to make herself confront her problems. Her recent comments about how she allowed herself to be put in a position of dependence on Kody is a symptom of her Mars. When Kody urged her to buy Christine’s house she was firmly opposed and yet she plantively moans “at least Christine had her house”. Kody didn’t put Janelle in the position of only having a rental, Janelle rejected owning the exact same house that she now sees was Christine’s parachute out of the family. That was at the behest of Janelle’s Mars. When you see anger, look to Mars. Kody suggested they buy the house and Janelle got angry. She bought the RV so she could run but found herself more tied down than when she had all those children at home.
Christine Brown
Christine Brown was the unloved bride married for status in the Brown’s religion. Christine is not unattractive physically but she is quite emotionally unattractive. She is very passive aggressive and needy as well. She and her children make the most public noises of complaint at their neglect in the family. Christine is very different from the other wives’ earth moons. Her Cancer Moon needs to be nurtured and feel that she belongs but she chose a man who didn’t love her or even find her attractive. Her north node path forward is to take in Aquarian detachment.
Christine appears very independent because she is an Aries Sun, independent behavior, but inside she needs emotional nurturing, Cancer Moon. Her Aries Sun is ruled by her Gemini Mars conjunct Venus. This particular conjunction makes ones Venus more aggressive in diplomatic relationship building and makes ones Mars less able to actively go after the native’s desires. Hence, the passive aggression. This is ruling her behavior. Her neediness comes from her Cancer Moon. She is also part of the group in the early 1970s that had almost no water in their charts. Christine’s Cancer Moon is a singleton giving it an extreme focus in her life. The Cancer zodiac sign can be a wonderfully soothing balm to other zodiac signs if the native understands that the energy needs to be directed outward to make others feel like they belong. This in turn makes the Cancer native feel like they belong as well. If the Cancer energy is directed inward by the native seeking soothing from others, their neediness becomes overwhelming.
She initiated the breakup of the group marriage by ending her relationship with Kody. The date of their spiritual marriage was Friday, March 25, 1994. Transiting Venus and Vesta were conjunct Kody’s north node. These two will likely see each other again in a future reincarnation.
Early in life, the north node represents an uncomfortable unknown but as we bring in and consume elements from it we grow and incorporate the new material into our experiences. It is Meri with her Aries (fight for) Ceres (her own resources) and Christine with her Aries (independent) Sun (behavior) that have been the ones to push Kody toward his Aries north node.
When she was playing her role as the mother to whom the children belonged she found her place in the marriage but the children grew up. Her alienation in the marriage (Libra Uranus) to Kody drove her on her path (Aquarius north node conjunct Kody’s Sun). Kody and Christine aren’t done with each other by a long shot. Both partners Suns conjunct each other’s north nodes. Christine has liberated herself demonstrating her move toward her Aquarian north node and in so doing she helped Kody get a full helping of Arian independence and Arian rage.
More than a year and a half after their breakup and her engagement to a new man, Christine is still shooting barbs at her former mate. She is clearly not done. Aquarian detachment is still needed. The nodal connection means they will have plenty of time to work on their karma together in another incarnation.
Robyn Brown
Robyn Brown has a node reversal with Janelle. That also means Kody’s Moon, Pluto and Uranus are conjunct her north node. His Chiron is conjunct her south node. Robyn is very different from the previous three wives. She has her Mercury conjunct his south node. Communication is key to their marriage. “She speaks Kody.” is a statement that describes her ability to describe in words the karmic fruit that Kody is producing with his south node. It doesn’t mean the other wives don’t understand or have insight into Kody Brown’s nature, it is instead a very intimate connection to the sum of his purpose in life. Even he doesn’t articulate that for himself as well as Robyn can. Like Janelle, her Capricorn Moon is supportive of Kody’s Sun. Both Janelle and Robyn are his natural partners.
Robyn takes a lot of heat from Christine who has been jealous of being usurped as the last married wife. Robyn is the only Libra Pluto wife. This energy was notoriously bad for marriages but the Libra Pluto generation have used it to their advantage by improving their own marriages staying power.
Robyn’s Pluto is conjunct her Sun and her hurt feelings and manipulations (Pluto) are often on display (Sun). Unable to just reveal secrets by plain truthtelling, she acts like she doesn’t know about Christine Brown’s personality test. Then she reveals that Christine Brown had taken the test for her and then used it against her. This might have created sympathy for her but instead it demonstrated how she isn’t authentic. With Robyn, one has to realize that her main behavior (Sun) is wrapped up with guarding her secrets (Pluto rules Scorpio). This means she does not reveal everything and so the picture created is often misleading. She can thank her Sun-Pluto conjunction for that.
Her children often get their cue from how she feels. Another example of her display of Pluto, sobbing Robyn is quite prominent. All the wives have Pluto, the other wives aren’t so loudly demonstrating it. From Kody’s comments about the backbiting he had to listen to behind the scenes, all the wives have attempted to manipulate him. The Brown children, deprived of shared resources, overlook the other wives and children and blame Robyn for their own jealousies and grievances.
Her attempts to keep her secrets hidden has been foiled by her Sun putting them out on display. Even though she wants to keep them secret, her secrets are very well known. This is the woman who said she wanted Kody to always be on a honeymoon with her for the entire marriage. It was clearly a plan to leave all the real work of the marriage to the other wives. That didn’t go all that well for her since he now lives with her permanently. Robyn really can’t hide her manipulations, while Janelle can’t get Kody to even talk about paying the land off, Robyn has a nanny for her five children. One wonders what manipulations have been perpetrated by the other wives secretly in the dark. One thing is clear, Kody is very taken by Scorpionic wives. His Uranus Pluto Moon conjunction.
Polygamy and Failure of the Math
Kody Brown and his four wives clearly didn’t ever do the math. The polygamous marriage has dissolved in recriminations with partners and children complaining that Kody just didn’t spend enough time with them. Leaving the children out, a job, sleeping and any basic non-family requirements like chores, doctors appointments and the like. Kody could only spend 7 and one half days with each wife every month. From this time, he has to sleep, do his chores and presumably work.
Now add in the 18 children and redo the math. Let’s count each wife as two children. At that rate, each child gets a bit over one day each and every wife gets two days per month. From that you take sleeping, chores and presumably work. The complaint is he was never around. Ya think? His wives have discovered that Kody, with his thinning mane, was not up to the challenge but it is very unlikely anyone would be. How was the math supposed to work?
If Kody’s time as a resource was to be divided evenly, the addition of Janelle caused a 50% drop in Meri’s time each month. Meri’s 30 days became 15 days. Once Christine was added, Janelle and Meri both had a drop of 33% in the time they each had with Kody. Meri and Janelle dropped from 15 to 10 days. Robyn came in and the drop per wife was 25%. Meri, Janelle and Christine dropped from 10 days to 7.5 days.
Taurus and Scorpio is the axis of resources. Taurus the bull, resources that are mine, in opposition to Scorpio the deathdealer, resources that are ours or yours. Aquarius is the zodiac sign of groups and is square to Taurus and Scorpio. Together, they create a T-square. Aquarius is ruled by Uranus. Uranus is the audience, the mad scientist, the rebel and the divorced person.
The Taurus-Scorpio-Aquarius T-square creates a fusion of elements where Uranus’ actions build the next zodiac sign, Pisces, dissolution of all the resources. The audience watching and cheering on the killing of the bull in the bullfight. Accusations of favoritism are the cries of Aquarius pointing at Leo.
Postscript – Christine Brown has remarried David Pratt Woolley. Christine has claimed that he is her soulmate. David is a Sagittarius Sun, and a possible Aquarius or Pisces Moon. His south node is in Capricorn conjunct Mars and he has a Capricorn Venus and Mercury. His first wife was an Aries Sun, Cancer Moon just like Christine.
If he is an Aquarius Moon, this is a terrible match, if you want to be emotionally soothed by another person. Christine Brown was unable in her last marriage to project Cancer outward and instead sought others to emotionally soothe her. Instead of playing the mother soothing others she played the infant who needed soothing. That is the immature road of Cancer and results in its reputation for emotional neediness. Her north node is Aquarius and that requires her to consume detachment. This is the growth path for her. While he indeed may be her soulmate it is quite possible that, if she didn’t learn enough emotional detachment in her relationship with Kody Brown, she could very well get a second helping in her relationship with David Woolley.
None of the spouses of the Brown family birth times are known. Various sources were consulted to determine the birth days of each person.
- Kody Brown, January 19, 1968 Wyoming. Source: Public Records San Antonio, Texas
- Meri Brown, January 16, 1971 Alameda, California Source: California Birth Index
- Janelle Brown, May 6, 1969 Utah Source: unknown, internet search
- Christine Brown, April 18, 1972 Utah Source: social media report
- Robyn Brown, October 9, 1978 Ravalli, Montana Source: Montana birth index