Gianna Maria Onore Bryant shared a birthday with Me’Arah O’Neal, or Mimi as she is known. Mimi is Shaquille O’Neal’s youngest daughter. And like Mimi, Gianna would adopt a nickname. She would be known as Gigi. One report claimed that Mimi was born “6 minutes” after Gigi.1 It was May 1st, 2006. The time quoted was 2:00 a.m., but this was contradicted by a different time reported by the Associated Press. The AP report confused the issue stating that Mimi was born “just before 5 a.m.” Astrologers rely on Astro Databank which gives Gigi’s birth time and place their highest “AA” rating. 3 However, while working up the analysis on Kobe’s chart, I had put Gigi’s chart off to the side… I hadn’t yet looked at the Astro Databank record and instead used the 2:00 a.m. time. Still, without much of a workup my eyes easily measured Jupiter’s arc to the mid-heaven from the 9th house. Jupiter moved in my mind’s eye a total of 14 degrees, from 14 Scorpio to 28 Scorpio, (each degree equivalent to one year of life or together roughly 14 years). I thought to myself, Wow! how could such a horrific accident occur under such a promising arc? Accidents happen! But maybe the probabilities for harm and danger were higher than chart suggested. Or maybe our intuition for such things fails us even when guided by astrology. After all, discovering that we share the same date of birth with someone carries a much higher probability than we like to think. For example, the odds of two students in an astrology class of 30 students sharing the same birthday is greater than 100%.4 Our “intuition” is challenged when we discover that the odds of sharing a birthday with someone in a group that size approaches certainty. We need to run the math so that statistics can help eliminate the ‘intuitive fog’ overwhelming our understanding of probability.5 Still, “statistics isn’t an exact science, it’s an investigative technique.”6 Perhaps the goal of astrology can be used similarly, as a tool to enhance and not hamper our intuition. The reason the odds of discovering that we share the same birthday with someone increases, with the size of the group, is because we must look at all the possible combinations of how we pair individuals of the group and add them up. So, the odds are not just 1/365, the odds are much greater with each person we add to the group. On her Statistics How To blog, Stephanie Glen provides a combination calculator. Running a simulation for our 30 student astrology class example there are 435 different ways to combine, or pair the students in order to calculate the odds of sharing a birthday (she calculates the odds @ >100%: 1/12+435/365). Our intuition leads us to believe that when we meet someone who shares our date of birth that the odds are 1 in a million. In fact, they are closer to 1 in 12 or 8%. However, the odds of dying in a helicopter crash do approach 1 in a million. And we certainly understand that those odds go up when all other flights in the area have been grounded due to “fog,” or severely limited visibility. 7 No intuition necessary. No math required. Kobe was a 1 in a million talent. And his daughter, his “Mambacita,” was on her way to try and carry on the Bryant name in basketball. Clearly, the odds were not in their favor.
Solar Arc Jupiter would align with the Midheaven on December 09, 2020 in the 2:00 a.m. chart. And Jupiter themes might reasonably be expected to dominate. The Arc would have still have been in effect by June 2020. Gianna would have only been 14. But using the “official” birth time of 2:03 a.m. doesn’t bring Solar Arc Jupiter to the Midheaven until September 10, 2021, the themes hoped for would not emerge in her reality until 6 months prior, or March 2021. Solar Arc theory suggests that the Midheaven and Ascendant (the angles) adjust one degree for every 4 minutes of arc time, which in Gigi’s case moves the M.C. from 28 Scorpio to 29 Scorpio. So, we add one degree/one year of arc time to adjust the chart we initially identified in the 2:00 a.m. example. Perhaps Solar Arc Jupiter suggested that we would have seen big things from Gigi in the times ahead. That she would have stepped into success and good fortune the way her father did. Unfortunately, all the things we identify with Jupiter, hope and future promise, were destroyed that fateful morning on January 26, 2020. Gigi died along with her father and 7 others in a helicopter crash.7
Gianna’s chart suggests a bright and alert individual. Her attentiveness to social queues would enable her to “talk with anyone” and regale her company in entertaining stories. But her comfort with language does not suggest an ease of mind. She probably craved information incessantly. She was likely an intense thinker. And we can assume she was supported with an education that provided organizational and structural advantages, routines that her Sun in Taurus would have benefited from, helping feed her need to learn and anchoring her studies so that she didn’t wander aimlessly after every wrinkle and distraction in her environment. But even with all the support in the world she would still find it difficult to adopt the single mindedness that possessed her father. She was too interested in EVERYTHING. Even so, she might mimic her hero in certain ways and share similar obsessions. The Moon in Gemini reflects a life long learner driven by curiosity. A communicator par excellence. Being well-informed is an understatement where Gemini is concerned. Their inquisitiveness is always piqued; wonderment for life infuses the mind making for a good conversationalists. Gigi probably had a ton of friends and people genuinely loved her. On the outside she was stable and steady. Emerging as the bon vivant of basketball perhaps. Her mother would have seen her as a symbol of her joy. An image that Gigi might try and project to the world but simultaneously she may have been suppressing personal doubt and strife. Carrying on the family legacy in basketball might have become a heavy burden. She may not have been entirely sure if she was in fact stamped with the family’s “DNA” to carry that legacy forward into posterity the way her father expected. Did she really want that responsibility? He would encourage her to focus on “one thing” and this in my estimation might become a source of antagonism between them. A psychic if unspoken knot. You’d barley notice from the public photos and videos since she and her dad seemed to get along at such a deep core level. Gigi would accept his support but in time she might aim to build something significant for herself, something that belonged uniquely to her. But she was still young. And she idolized her all-star father.
I think Kobe would have wanted to avoid repeating the same mistakes he felt his parents made with him. But I also think it inevitable that as parents we repeat some variation of those behavioral patterns with our own children. The patterns echo, people reproduce facsimiles of themselves, not perfect reproductions but we can often “see the resemblance.” We recognize how two or more things are related. And we can see this concept of repeating patterns in family horoscopes. Like an Andy Warhol silkscreen, none of us are as original as we might like to think. And as original and as colorful as we think we are, the colors, shades and textures we inherit can accidentally bleed over into each other creating interesting anomalies. Each reproduction generates an entirely different essence, a unique and personal “aura” that defines who were are. Our individual identity then is a blend not just of our parents, not just of our Sun-Moon blends, but of the milieu in which we are raised. Like Warhol, we all probably want to be famous and yet at the same time we want to be like someone/everyone else: A reproduction. Pop Art reflected a cultural process that defined the personality of a generation much in the way individual personality is shaped by the developmental process within a family. Projection and identification with symbols a process that happens at all levels in society. I think Warhol was trying to get at the complexity of it all by exaggerating its simplicity. So, we model and contrast our parents in unusual ways like a silkscreen. I think Kobe would have seen Gigi’s athletic potential (Pluto, Mars and Jupiter in aspect with one another, and involving the 5th house), the way his father saw his own potential. And he would have been happy to push Gigi if she wanted to pursue sports. And of course, she would want to pursue sports. Like her father she loved soccer, but she had asked her father to teach her basketball. “She started out playing soccer, which I love. But she came to me about a year and a half ago and said, ‘Can you teach me the game?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ We started working a little bit and the next thing you know it became a true passion of hers. So, it’s wonderful.” 8 Gigi for her part would do everything in her power to be that “reproduction” and to not to let her father down. His Sun and Mercury squared her Mid-heaven. He expected great things from her. She knew it. However, at the end of the day she might have eventually wanted something else. Her own path. And perhaps not basketball.
“Danish astrologer Christian Borup’s research of Moon-Pluto aspects in female horoscopes reveals correspondences to extreme mother fixation… additionally, Borup has found that women with strong Moon-Pluto aspects often identify themselves with major events of world history taking place when they were born. Borup reasons that this identification is conceived to improve self-evaluation, having “deserved” to be born, to having been born at an auspicious time… and he detects routine feelings of guilt within these aspects.”9 Gigi’s Moon in the 5th house aspects the rulers of parental axis [Tyl]. The Moon is only “6 minutes” apart from an exact opposition with Pluto, ruler of the mid-heaven (father). And we see that Pluto is also square Venus, ruler of the I.C. (mother). Was Gigi born in an emotional whirl? A variable tide ranging perhaps from bliss to upset and back again. Was there a seed of discontent planted as represented by these tensions? And was there potential for disappointment taken on from that deep emotional imprinting? These tensions appear to suggest intense somatic waves that would create mnemonic memories that could be triggered when pressed, her sensitive nervous system would be reactive. Some things would weigh heavily on her mind. She’d have a certain edginess beneath her bright and pleasant demeanor. A competitor’s grit. Her emotions at times could probably get out of hand. And Gigi would feel the need to counteract these tensions by being as bright as possible, being informed, at times excessively affable and clever, but always intense (Moon in Gemini).
Gigi’s natal Moon reflects an orthogonal relationship with Pluto and Venus which suggests tension in the relationship with her parents. Pluto exactly opposite the Moon, and Venus making a “T-Square” to this opposition stands out. Her reigning need to be scintillating and effervescent appeared to be under pressure. The aspect structure suggests cross tensions within the awareness of the parental dynamic. However, within this dynamic there is also suggested a very, VERY close relationship with the mother; Venus is exalted in Pisces and conjunct the Nodal Axis. On the other hand, Gigi may have felt simultaneously drawn to and yet separated from her father. Her obsessiveness for her father may have transferred to an obsessiveness for the game, so that she could feel closer to him. There was so much hoped for that was dashed. At the same time, Gigi may have been anxious deep inside about whether or not she measured up. Neptune, ruler of the 2nd house is quindecile Saturn. This is pressure on one’s personal self-worth and self-evaluation. The suggestion here is that Gigi would have been struggling to decide “am I worth it,” or “am I worth as much as others expect of me.” And if not “others,” at the very least did she meet her father’s expectations? These are the questions she would need to answer for herself in her heart of hearts, what I call the Astral Core. In time she would need to come to terms with her answers, but sadly time she didn’t have. The set up between her Moon, Venus and Pluto appeared to be both ultra-promising and at the same time fraught with disappointment, giving away parts of her authenticity in order to win approval, gain popularity and be liked.
My own anecdotal studies of Moon- Pluto aspects do not necessarily follow Borup’s research. Especially, his suggestion of mother-daughter tension, conflict and competition. Noel Tly had more than 20,000 consultations under his belt over the course of his career and he wrote that Borup’s research was valid. I’ve noticed that the Moon-Pluto construct proves true in certain consultations too, but only when other mitigating aspects are not present. For example, when Pluto is also representative of the father or father figure, which was the case in Gigi’s chart because Pluto ruled the M.C., the correspondences with the mother become not as clear cut. Of course, with Scorpio on the M.C. this means that Taurus is on the I.C. and ruled by Venus. Therefore, Venus in this case can be representative of the mother and with Venus in Pisces, conjunct the North Node (The Node being another maternal significator) we glean enormous amounts of information regarding a special relationship between Gigi and her mother which we described above. But the relationship is complicated by the square to the Moon-Pluto opposition. In fact, Pluto ruled the M.C. in both Kobe’s and Gigi’s chart. Each would have a similar penchant for research and self-reliance, but there is also an echo of enormous paternal influence. Back to the Moon-Pluto contacts. What I’ve noticed is a deep and abiding emotional connection that is unwavering between mother and daughter. There is upset and emotional excitement for sure that infuses the relationship with an indomitable energy, but one that is not always negative. In fact, this aspect can at times suggest a “higher love” that is unafraid to confront the very bonds that makes us free. Moon-Pluto relationships sometimes say, “I will do whatever it takes.” However, the relationship can reach almost feverish histrionics even when discussing the most mundane topics. Discussions carry on with immense intensity and passion and can go on for what seems like forever. One side or the other should give up in exhaustion, but the conversation just goes on and on, in a never-ending loop. One manifestation of this aspect suggests a competitive ordeal for sure. But from another perspective, that manifestation is merely an extreme type of emotionalism that masks a deep craving, an immense need for love. Gigi’s chart suggests the latter to me. She needed her father’s respect. She needed her mother to appreciate her. Life is complicated. She was young. I’m sure her parent’s loved her but as in all family dynamics it is difficult to assess whether the child knows how much they are/were loved, or whether or not her parents are/were able to deflect the troubles within their own entanglements enough to protect their children’s perceptions. To let them know they are of being wanted.
Gigi’s emotional expression would have tilted toward exhibitionism. She could talk. She could tell stories. She might wear her heart on her sleeve at times. And her mother would listen to her endless chatter. She and her mother shared the same pulse, her mother knew her like no one else. Gigi may have been reserved and proper at times, but it is doubtful that she was at all shy. Her Gemini Moon suggests she would have been quick witted and wry. And despite Venus in Pisces, and despite the placid Sun energy of Taurus, she was probably an eager and outgoing personality. Plus, Pluto in Sagittarius in the 11th, suggests she’d opine and express her views strongly but all in a show to prove how loveable she was, to satiate her enormous need to be respected, to be informed, to be praised and to be loved.
Not only is Pluto square Venus, but Pluto also is quindecile Mars in Cancer in the 5th house. Saturn and Neptune form a quindecile as well. Importantly, both Neptune and Mars ruled Gigi’s 2nd house of self-worth. These constructs suggest that the relationship with her father was convoluted. She was both obsessed and drawn to Kobe and yet as we just mentioned above, she felt distance and separation from him. By all accounts they were close and shared incredible affinity for one another, I mean her Sun was practically sitting on top of his Moon suggesting supportive synastry between their charts. But I think that ultimately, their paths would diverge. Gigi would want to do her own thing and in her own way. We might wonder if Kobe would develop the flexibility to let go and let her take her own path? And if she was able, would she summon the strength and energy to follow her own desires? Gigi was apparently a real talent. But her self-worth profile doesn’t appear to have had the vaunted poise of her superstar dad. This makes me wonder if basketball was simply a contrivance at some level to hold onto her father. To keep him in her life, and to somehow remain in his.
To summarize, Gigi’s chart suggests a young bright girl preparing to emerge in the world, a budding young woman ready to blossom. But the emergence might have become hampered and drawn out, a lifelong process. She would call attention to herself, no doubt related to baggage and trauma she carried from her private and personal past. We all have these types of experiences packed away in our luggage, pains that we take on and carry from our early home environment. Gigi would have been no different from any one of us in this respect. She would want to put the weight of the extra baggage down. She would want to pack up those troubles and put them away. Despite a carefree demeanor and despite an attractive inquisitiveness, she may have felt an acute pressure to perform. A pressure that at the same time suppressed other aspects of herself she needed and wanted to explore. By sampling and diversifying a wide range of attitudes she’d experience an expansiveness that would please her insatiable curiosity for life. To fully express herself in substantial terms and not just imitate celebrity. She would cut her own path. Coming into her own she’d eventually let the light of her personality shine, seen in childhood photos. Well-meaning containment of that light ironically may have doused her true and original spark. A spark that her mother saw and immediately recognized while Gigi was still small. Prone to emotional eruption and unabated passion, but capable of brilliant and thoughtful points of view, Gigi probably had a sort of innate wisdom that might cause even the most learned philosopher to pause and take notice. She would make her way in the world as a teacher or coach, or perhaps even as an actress, but what she ultimately would do she would do on her own terms. She would be, in the immediate time ahead, pulling all the disparate parts of herself together. Trying to “gather herself” and finding the task quite difficult. From my brief encounter with her chart the astrology is clear that Gigi was challenged and under enormous pressure within the issue that accompany identity developmental. Perhaps not unique to a teenager today, or any day, but unique all the same to a young girl finding her place in the world as the daughter of a celebrity, and who was expected to go into the “family business.” Most of us cannot appreciate how difficult that situation might be. Because it is so rare and unfamiliar, we might think it was nothing. Or we might think that she was lucky. We might think “eh, she had all the advantages in the world. She was privileged.” And although that might be true, it is also true that Gigi was under transformational transits. Her response to these transits might not mirror her father’s response to similar transits in his day. On the other hand, she might have meticulously mirrored her father’s experience. A reproduction! But only time would tell…
I suspect Gigi had a special audience with her mother. And that their love was unfathomably deep and genuine. I suspect that when they were together, Gigi had a sense of her roots. When apart from each other, she might have needed to be more playful and to put on an act for the fun, and she would try on different hats, play different parts. They say there is nothing in this world more painful than losing a child. But to lose your life partner and love at the same time as a child must be such an all-encompassing and crushing blow that the word grief doesn’t quite describe. Such profound loss leaves a void where nothing can get in and where nothing can get out. I imagine a glacier moving at light speed covering everything in darkness, an avalanche of ice freezing hell over and beginning a new age. You go numb and can’t feel a thing. And yet Vanessa was able to stand and address a large audience at the memorial for Kobe and Gianna. She showed remarkable strength and courage. A strength of heart that demonstrated the only thing on planet that can melt darkness: Love.
The transits and progressions in Gigi’s chart around the time of the crash appear ominous. We saw how in Kobe’s chart he often acted out heroically in the face of adversity. And we had precedents to support our thesis that we might not see any warning signs or alerts worth mentioning on that day, because the astrological events in the immediate time frame weren’t anything we hadn’t seen already. But with Gigi’s chart I am struck by the January 12, 2020 epic conjunction of Saturn-Pluto at 22’ Capricorn 47’, which was EXACTLY square Gigi’s natal Mercury at 22’ Aries 47”. EXACTLY! I’ve isolated the transits of Saturn and Pluto to illustrate this. Solar Arc Pluto to Mars at the time is notable, and within range, and especially under such severe pressure from transiting Saturn and Pluto. We could go on with the analysis. There are many more measurements, but we certainly don’t need them. The upcoming Saturn opposition to Saturn, and Saturn crossing the Ascendant etc. But honestly it is all too much to consider. When innocence is suddenly taken from the world, like Giana and her friend Alyssa Altobelli, we are reminded of not only our own vulnerability but also of our short time here on earth. We are reminded of our fragility and temporality. And we are reminded of how brutally difficult and unfair life can be sometimes.
For all that seemed to be going well for Gigi, she was enduring some very heavy transits. Pluto square Neptune back in 2014, followed by transiting Saturn to the MC for most of 2015. Then Saturn conjunct Pluto from February to November in 2017. These are very difficult measurements and can affect almost any area of life, but then Saturn opposed the Moon, ruler of the 6th house and followed by an opposition to Mars at the end of 2018. Pluto squared Mercury for a first pass in March 2019. And of course, it is worth repeating that the epic conjunction of Saturn and Pluto on January 12, 2020 together squared Mercury. Whatever struggles Gigi was having, no matter the duress, she did end up having an out sized impact on the world. The outpouring of emotion and the affect her tragic and untimely death unleashed worldwide empathy. An emotion sorely in need in the present time.
Mercury was also a part of two midpoint pictures in Gigi’s chart and worth noting:
Mars/Saturn = Mercury = Neptune/Pluto
The reason these midpoint pictures are significant is because Mercury took a direct hit from transiting Saturn-Pluto on January 12th. And Mercury is the “fulcrum” of the midpoint pictures. We can interpret Mercury as a “trigger point.” The first midpoint picture representing “indecision” [Tyl] and “getting away from personal issues” [Tyl] and the second picture describing “a loss of centering” [Tyl] and or a “preoccupation with other worldly thoughts and experiences.” [Tyl] Sometimes what needs to be decided is taken out of our hands. And sometimes, like in this instance, Mercury and the midpoint of Neptune/Pluto describes a supernatural connection. I affectionately called this post “G’d up.” A double-entendre after the name of a dance where Vanessa and Kobe first met and in honor and praise of her daughter’s spirit. If my discussion above carries any efficacy at all then this last midpoint picture in particular suggests Gigi was able to make contact her mother from beyond and communicate to let her that she is doing OK. Rest in Peace Gianna.
- WENN. Shaq Is A Dad Six Minutes After Kobe, World Entertainment News Network May 2nd, 2006
- http://www.contactmusic.com/shaquille-o-neal/news/shaq-is-a-dad-six-minutes-after-kobe_02_05_2006
- ESPN Daughter is the sixth child for Shaq, Wife, Associated Press May 1st, 2006
- https://www.espn.com/nba/playoffs2006/news/story?id=2429195
- https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Bryant,_Gianna
- Check out Stephanie’s blog on Mathematics and Statistics
- Stanford Statistics Course (see the classical birthday problem)
- Jordan Peterson. Responsibility is the Key to Meaning, The Jordan Peterson Podcast 1:32:05
- https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/the-disorient-express-474780/?page=1 The life expectancy of an unrated pilot flying under conditions requiring the use of instruments (darkness, clouds, or fog) is 178 seconds. 15% of all aircraft accidents are attributable to these causes of which 90% are fatal. The condition pilots succumb to is known as Spatial Distortion or SD, formerly known as Pilot Vertigo. Pilots lose a sense of speed, altitude and attitude to the horizon. They lose their orientation so that they no longer know which way is up and which way is down. Vestibular illusions are to blame including the “false horizon” effect.
- Reynolds,Tim. Gianna Bryant, 13, was going to carry on a basketball legacy, Associated Press January 27, 2020
- Noel Tyl. Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology The Professional Manual, p.128 Llewellyn Publications First Edition 2009
Hudson Valley Astrologer 
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