Julia Child (Source:Wikipedia)

Julia Child (Source:Wikipedia)

I saw the movie Julie and Julia this weekend.  Although I enjoy cooking and have prepared many elaborate meals and desserts, I never explored Julia Child.  My mother didn’t have her cookbooks, and we didn’t watch PBS when I was growing up.

After seeing the movie, which I really enjoyed by the way, I, of course, wanted to see whether Julia Child’s horoscope was available, and if so, what it revealed about her business life.  I was delighted to find her horoscope is available and a concise biography in Wikipedia.

Remember last week we were discussing the 29-year Saturn cycle, and how it reflects the timing of someone’s business life?  As I read through the biography I was once again awed and inspired by the accuracy of this cycle. 

To quote that post:

There’s a fascinating progression of Saturn through a person’s or business’s natal chart that clearly outlines

  • the beginning point of a business endeavor when the idea is just a kernel taking shape,
  • the building phase when nothing but hard work is apparent,
  • the culmination phase when the endeavor receives public acclaim and financial rewards,
  • the waning phase when it’s still happening but the thrill of success is starting to fade,
  • the ending phase when the person sells or otherwise ends the business and begins looking for something new.

If you saw the movie, you may recall that when the Childs moved to Paris Julia was at a loss as to what to do.  She had been fairly successful as a file clerk and research assistant in the Secret Intelligence Division of the Office of Strategic Services, but apparently had given up her employment when her husband Paul was stationed in Paris in 1948.   At the time Julia imbibed her famous first meal in Rouen and experienced her “culinary revelation”, Saturn was at the very bottom of her chart, the point described above as “the beginning point of a business endeavor when the idea is just a kernel taking shape.”   

Over the next few years she studied French Cooking at Le Cordon Bleu and later privately with several master chefs.  She also began teaching cooking to American women in her own kitchen, and for ten years collaborated with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle on a French cookbook for Americans.  Ten years of painstaking work which reflects “the building phase when nothing but hard work is apparent”.

In 1961, the tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published.  It became a best-seller, won critical acclaim, and is still considered a seminal culinary work.  Following this, Child wrote magazine articles and became a regular columnist for The Boston Globe.  At this point, Saturn was entering her ninth house, which rules publishing, and approaching the culmination phase.   Right on track!

In 1962 she appeared on the National Education Television station which led  to her own television cooking show.  The French Chef debuted in 1963 to immediate success, and for the next 10 years she won awards, attracted large audiences, and continued to receive critical acclaim.  The year the show debuted, 1963, was the beginning of “the culmination phase when the endeavor receives public acclaim and financial rewards”.  Right on target again, Julia – you make it look easy!

In 1971, Julia published the second volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and although the Wikipedia biography doesn’t really go into it, we can assume that she had entered the “waning and ending phases” because in 1981, as she began the Saturn cycle again (29 years had passed since that first taste in the Paris restaurant), she founded the American Institute of Wine and Food in Napa, California to “advance the understanding, appreciation and quality of wine and food.”

The next twenty years can also be tracked through the Saturn cycle, reflecting her publication of her self-named “magnum opus” The Way to Cook in 1989, as Saturn entered the ninth house again.  The culmination phase is shown by her myriad television series and appearances between 1992 and 2000, and includes honorary doctorates from Harvard University, Smith College, Brown University, and several others.  She retired in November 2000, as she was just entering the next ending phase.

Isn’t that cool?  Key take-away:  There is a natural cycle to business success.  If your business is not where you think it should be, check with your astrologer.  The time may not be ripe.  You may be in synch with the Saturn cycle instead.