Is Nicole Richie Really Pregnant?

Recently Nicole Richie and her boyfriend Joel Madden kicked up the pregnancy rumors a notch by purchasing a schwanky diaper bag. {Full story} So, as promised, here's an astrological analysis of the question of the hour: Does the food-phobic celebutante actually have a bun in the oven ... and if so, how is she dealing with it health-wise?

First let me start with the caveat that it is extremely difficult to look at pregnancy indicators in a natal horoscope, such as Nicole's, with an unknown birth time. The Moon and the 5th house are two important pregnancy indicators that cannot be pinpointed without a birth time. But I took a look at Nicole's chart just to see what is happening. There is certainly a lot of change, transformation and pressure in her life right now, but I'm not convinced that having a baby on the way has anything to do with it.

In her natal chart, Nicole has a surprising potential for nurturing and mothering, with her Virgo Sun conjunct the asteroid Ceres. This placement suggests that Nicole identifies with a mothering archetype and is a real caretaker.

But that does not necessarily mean the time to indulge her maternal tendencies is now. In Nicole's progressed chart, representing where a person's personality has evolved up to the present date, the Sun has moved out of orb of a conjunction with Ceres. Nowadays, progressed Ceres is closest to natal and progressed Saturn, and trine natal and progressed Chiron, which suggest barrenness and difficulty conceiving more than fertility. (A more auspicious time for pregnancy might have been two years ago, when the progressed Sun was conjunct progressed Jupiter, a planetary pregnancy indicator.)

Currently, Nicole is undergoing a profound transformation with Pluto squaring her Sun, as I first wrote about back in February 2006; her identity has morphed before our eyes. But the snakelike shedding-of-skin suggested by a hard Pluto-Sun aspect does not seem to me representative of the kind of psychic transformation that comes with parenthood. This, to me, says more about Nicole's grasping for fame and status over the past couple of years, and her utter and complete transfiguration, as her body wastes away (Pluto, signifying control issues, could suggest the rigorous self-discipline that many young women with eating issues are determined to maintain) and her personal style continues to change.

Transiting Jupiter currently trines Nicole's natal Mars and sextiles her Saturn. Again, without knowing the house placements it is difficult to pinpoint the significance of these transits, but the fact that Jupiter is aspecting archetypally "masculine" planets suggests that the luck and growth suggests that the good fortune and growth prospects it is bringing Nicole are not of a fertility-oriented nature.

Furthermore, transiting Saturn is aspecting the yod in Nicole's natal chart, suggesting the issues she presently has dealing with authority. Saturn is trine natal Neptune (substance abuse, unrealistic expectations), square Chiron (wounding), and sextile Pluto. With this aspect just getting tighter, and Nicole's sentencing date for her DUI case approaching, Nicole could face some serious punishment just like her BFF, SWSNBN,FPFHHP. And Saturn squaring Chiron could trigger Nicole's tendency to act self-destructive in order to feel in control. Whether or not she is pregnant, I'm concerned that she may not be taking the best care of her body.

It has been buzzed about that Nicole supposedly thinks being pregnant will keep her out of prison. Now, it seems to me that she could just as easily be creating the illusion (Neptune) of a pregnancy to gain sympathy from the authorities (Saturn) who have dominion over her fate (Pluto). Buying a diaper bag seems like a pretty blatant way to send the signal that she's knocked up, considering La Richie could have just sent out an assistant for it -- or waited until she actually has some diapers to put in the bag.

So, I'm not convinced that whatever's going on with Nicole's belly is a "baby bump." But that said, I hesitate to rule out the possibility of a pregnancy altogether without a birth time to do a really comprehensive reading. Sorry to be rather inconclusive, but ultimately we'll have to wait and see!

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