Has anyone else watched the docu-series, “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace”? I binge-watched it Thursday night – what a crazy and disturbing story! Here is Natalia’s Astrology Chart based on her Ukranian birth certificate.
The first thing to capture my attention was her Sun/Saturn/Neptune Yod, with Neptune as the apex. This makes Neptune (confusion, deception, illusions, scandal, intrigue) a prominent “player” in her chart.
Note that Saturn is debilitated in the sign of Cancer.
Cancer is a sign associated with mothers/motherhood. It is linked to the 4th house of home and family by virtue of being the 4th Zodiacal sign.
Saturn Exiled in Cancer can be symbolic of “motherly restriction”. Of course, it can manifest differently for different people. Not everyone with Saturn in Cancer is going to have “mommy issues”; there could just be a sense of reserve when it comes to expressing one’s feelings. It can also be indicative of being responsible for and dedicated to one’s family. But in Natalia’s case, it is unquestionably a mother wound.
Natalia was given up for adoption by her biological mother due to the insistence of doctors. According to bio-mom, Anna Gava, she was told that the cost and burden of caring for a child with special needs would be too much for her to bear. (The biological mother is restricted)
She was placed in an orphanage in Ukraine for the first 5 years of her life.
Natalia was then adopted by an American couple in 2008 – who ended up surrendering her to another adoption agency for undisclosed reasons. To the best of my knowledge, they have declined comment as to why and have refused to talk about their time with Natalia at all.
Natalia, in an interview with Dr Phil, speculates that there was a “wrestling” incident with the couple’s other child, in which they thought that she was trying to break their son’s arm.
Michael and Kristine Barnett
She was adopted again by the Barnett family in 2010. Her new adoptive mother was unable to bond with Natalia after she became increasingly paranoid about Natalia’s true age. (Motherly restriction strikes again)
Saturn is sometimes associated with the Father. With Saturn in the sign of Cancer, we could also see this as symbolic of having an emotional father, or perhaps a weak or absent father. (Saturn is weak or dysfunctional in the sign of Cancer)
It is apparent from the docu-series that Michael Barnett is an emotional guy. Dramatically emotional. As the series progressed, I got to thinking that this guy might have Histrionic Personality Disorder (not that I’m qualified to make a diagnosis…but wow! You just have to witness it to see that something isn’t quite right). He also characterized himself as a pushover in his marriage – essentially placing all of the blame for any and all detestable incidents on his ex-wife. He claimed to witness some pretty severe abuse but did absolutely nothing to stop it.
And then he had the audacity to consider himself “sexually abused” because his wife didn’t wanna put out….but anyway, maybe more on that later.
Saturn is the ruler of Natalia’s 5th house. The 5th house has an association with children and recreation. This is an interesting thing to consider because we don’t normally associate 5th house matters with our own childhood – for this, we generally look at the 1st quadrant houses. But the 5th house does rule over creativity and fun – and it appears that Natalia did not have these things as a child. She went from 8 years old to 22 overnight when the Barnetts successfully petitioned the courts to change her birth info in 2012.
The Sun/Saturn midpoint = Neptune.
Sun/Saturn is associated with illness, depression, and old age. With her Natal Neptune activating this midpoint, we can see confusion relating to her age, in addition to unusual or hard-to-diagnose health problems. Neptune with Saturn in any combination is going to show some sort of health-related challenge. According to Ebertin, the Sun/Saturn midpoint shows “hereditary affliction” and troubles with bones.
Remember Neptune is associated with confusion or uncertainty. It is adversely aspecting both the Sun and Saturn. The Barnetts had testing done on Natalia on 3 different occasions to determine her age based on her skeletal structure. Each time, the results were different. Perhaps it is difficult for a doctor who doesn’t specialize in Dwarfism to age the bones properly. I really don’t know. Either way, her age based on medical tests is unclear.
Further, based on information obtained here, the Barnetts’ doctor misdiagnosed Natalia’s form of Dwarfism. If this doctor made a faulty diagnosis, it is stunning to me that the courts wouldn’t see the discrepancy between his diagnosis and her previous doctor’s diagnosis – taking that into account when relying on his assessment of her “true” age. It kind of troubles me that they didn’t discuss more in-depth how a determination to “age her up” was made, or how it managed to gain court approval.
Strange and “suspicious” Behavior
Now, before we go further into astrological analysis, I would like to say that I’m around 99% convinced that Natalia was born on 9/04/03. But there are still a lot of strange things about this case. One of the major “red flags” for me, in watching the documentary was this:
Most children who have spent a lot of time in orphanages are developmentally disadvantaged on a mental and emotional level. Based upon testimony by various unrelated people, Natalia could present herself as a child on some occasions, and as an adult on others. Her speech was superior to that of other children her age. Some of the “witnesses” have implied that they sensed manipulation on Natalia’s part. Not something that a developmentally inhibited 6-8-year-old child should be particularly skilled at. That’s not to say that children can’t be sneaky and calculating…but the way things were framed certainly made it seem as though she was highly skilled. Too skilled for a child her age.
Then again, being passed from one home to another, perhaps this “manipulation” and ability to shapeshift developed more keenly in her as a survival mechanism. Manipulation and metamorphosis of the persona are both most definitely reflected in the given birth chart.
We have a prominent Neptune (illusion) and we have a Moon-Pluto conjunction. Often Moon-Pluto people are very adept when it comes to psychology…including manipulation tactics. That said, the original birth certificate and Natalia’s lived experience match up, implying that it is indeed a correct birth date.
But still the 1% doubt persists enough to have me doing all kinds of mental gymnastics!
If she was a child during her time with the Barnetts, the sheer amount of people who failed her is absolutely astounding. Sickening really. I think this is why I am left to question, “Is it true? Was she really an adult masquerading as a child?”
Is it possible that a person can take on the characteristics of a “false” birth chart?
Could a falsified date of birth somehow influence and/or reflect the conditions of a person’s life?
Maybe the subconscious mind of the person choosing the false birth date picked up on the Universal energies present in the true birth date, and unconsciously chose a date that corresponds strongly. It’s a major stretch, but damn…this case is so insane that I almost feel like anything is possible!
Moving on, the Sun-Neptune Quincunx (or inconjunct) can help explain the fluidity of Natalia’s personality…and it can also show suggestibility. Her adoptive mother, Kristine, has been characterized as extremely manipulative. Without opening the can of worms on who is characterizing her as such, let’s just assume that she is, in fact, a master manipulator. Someone with a Sun-Neptune hard aspect is going to be easy prey for mental abusers to brainwash. And again, Moon-Pluto comes into play. Moon=mother, Pluto=control, manipulation, trauma. So we get from that “controlling mother”
Maybe Natalia’s neighbors were so convinced that she was an adult because Natalia had been gas-lit into believing that about herself. What you believe you are, you can more readily become.
And also, as a generalization, many “little people” tend to look older than they are, so that could have certainly influenced her neighbors as well.
Nymphomaniac?
Now, one of the other “red flags” that had me questioning whether she might be older than her original birth certificate suggests is the sexual stuff.
She was allegedly kicked out of the mental health facility where she was being treated due to inappropriate behavior with male patients. Several neighbors were alarmed by her behavior around male children as well as elderly male neighbors. And when she’s on Dr. Phil discussing the “wrestling incident” she says, “Me and one of the boys, like, wrestled almost”. The intonation of her voice and the look on her face – for me – indicate that she’s not being entirely truthful here.
It surely makes it appear plausible that she could be a sexual predator posing as a child.
On the other hand, who knows what kind of abuse she suffered prior to being adopted by the Barnetts’? There is a lot we don’t know about her life prior to age 5. Children who are sexually abused are more likely to act out sexually at a young age. And again, this is reflected in the birth chart with Pluto in the 4th square to Venus in the 1st.
Hard Venus-Pluto aspects can often show trauma or power struggles related to sexuality. Sometimes it can show an obsessive love nature, or controlling/manipulative behavior in the context of relationships. Venus is in her Fall in the sign of Virgo. This is a debilitation. Venus is not operating in an optimal manner.
Pluto is in the 4th house of home/foundations. It is on one of the critical degrees (17 mutable). Pluto doesn’t always show trauma, but trauma is much more likely when Pluto is receiving a hard aspect from personal planets, and when it is otherwise emphasized.
She also has the ruler of her 8th house (Mars) opposing natal Jupiter, ruler of the 4th house.
8th House is associated with sexuality
4th house is home and family
Mars is a sexual planet and it’s opposing the 4th house ruler (Jupiter) which resides in the 12th house of secrets and hidden enemies.
Jupiter is also debilitated.
There are certainly a lot of secrets being kept, stemming from her family/home environment.
Now, the final thing I’d like to address is her command of the English language. Many “witnesses” felt that she was an adult due to how well-spoken she was. And I’ll admit that in the beginning, I fell for it when Michael Barnett and his son were emphasizing her lack of an accent or understanding of Ukrainian. He mentioned that she went mute for days following an incident in which he and his family brought in someone to speak “her native tongue”. Looking back, I think it may have been a trauma response. Perhaps she was abused at the orphanage (sexually, and otherwise), and hearing someone speak her native language brought back the memories of that.
Young children are extremely malleable when it comes to language. It is not an improbability that English was spoken quite a bit at the orphanage. She had been with other American families for 2 whole years prior to being adopted by the Barnetts’. That’s a lot of time for a young child to lose an accent.
As for her command of language and “not speaking like an 8-year-old”, there is a clip or 2 in which she most certainly speaks like a child. A well-educated child, but a child nonetheless. Being in an environment in which the “genius level” IQ of their eldest boy was emphasized probably also fostered the development of her language skills.
In her birth chart, she has Mercury strongly placed in Virgo – in the 1st house. According to the Ancients, Mercury in the first house is in its “Rejoicing” position. Mercury “likes” to be in the first house. Mercury is exalted in Virgo. Everything with her Mercury points to her being highly intelligent.
So now, that little bit of doubt has been erased. I’m 100% convinced that Natalia was in fact a 6-7-year-old child when the Barnetts adopted her.
TV “magic”
Remember my mention of scandal and intrigue? The documentary, in my opinion, was intentionally misleading enough to leave the viewer with the impression that the Barnetts could have a valid claim. After all, what could their motive possibly be? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just dump her back at the adoption agency or surrender her to the State than to go through all the trouble they claim to have gone through? They must have had reason to believe that she was an adult, right?
Or…they had something to hide. Something marriage-destroying.
I hate to go there, but it is not outside the realm of possibility that Natalia was sexually abused by the Barnetts’ and that they crafted this whole hideous story about her being a sociopathic, murderous, sex fiend adult to cover up their heinous crimes.
Michael Barnett, in his insistence that they were “all abused!” makes mention of his wife withholding sex, and his subsequent pornography addiction.
There’s the insistence that if it were not for Natalia, he would still be married.
There’s bloody undergarments found hidden away in Natalia’s bedroom
There’s the disturbing account on Dr. Phil where Kristine makes Natalia insert a tampon. Why a tampon? And why do it unless there’s already evidence of menstruation? I got the impression there was no blood prior to the tampon insertion. Natalia then states to Dr Phil that there was blood or “spotting” after…and the muffled reaction of everybody, Dr Phil, and her guardians indicate an unstated acknowledgment that “of course there would be blood…from being forcibly penetrated”
There’s all the stuff about Natalia acting out sexually – which is common for children who have been sexually abused.
And then there’s the very end of the documentary in which Freddie Gill (one of Kristine’s “associates”) is telling the producers that Kristine tried to set him up on a date with Natalia. As he’s in the middle of telling producers the salacious thing that Kristine told him about Natalia and her ex-husband, he is bleeped and the scene cuts out.
Michael’s reaction to this is extremely telling.
I really wish I had the charts of both of these so-called “parents”.
Whether Natalia was sexually abused by Michael or even both Michael and Kristine is only speculation at this point. But they most definitely abused this girl physically and emotionally. She was neglected and abandoned by them, and it is absolutely disgusting not only that they’ve gotten away with it, but how viciously they slandered this poor girl.
Apparently, Natalia will have a chance to tell her story later this summer in another HBO/ID production. I’m not sure of the date it will air, but it should coincide with Transit Uranus passing over her North Node/Lilith Conjunction. I’m guessing her revelations will be shocking – particularly to those who still doubt her.
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