In 2021, the #/FreeBritney movement brought immense public attention and awareness to the idea of conservatorships, situations in which one or more adults are given the power to make decisions for another adult. This power/control can extend into endless very private areas for the individual, such as determining if and when the conservatee needs a medical procedure, what they can consume, whether they must use birth control, and so on. Britney Spears is a Shravana nakshatra Moon native, and her 13-year conservatorship is the most famous of similar high-profile Shravana cases which have taken place or are taking place, such as with former child star Amanda Bynes' (Shravana Moon) 9-year conservatorship, the Shravana Moon DJ Casey Kasem, and the Shravana Moon actor/comedian Mickey Rooney. In these cases, a Shravana native worked over their life and honed their skills towards gaining fame & public adoration, but were later placed controversially into a form of legal submission by those closest to them (such as their parents or children).
Shravana is a nakshatra associated with the desire for good reputation. Vishnu (Shravana's presiding deity) desired, “May I hear people say good words about me. May I not suffer any bad reputation" (Frawley). Shravana is located at the core of Capricorn (10° – 23° 20'), the natural 10th house of reptuation, public life, and career. It sits opposite Moon's private 4th house of Cancer, and yet is a nakshatra controlled by the planet Moon. In this way, those born under Shravana have a natural tendency towards a bright public reputation and for serving a strong public role (like the "Chosen One" trope I've explored in the past with them), yet can feel strong inner discomfort with this, being very sensitive to the thoughts of the masses, which for all public figures tend to be largely negative or critical. In this way, they can often be those known for widely-public mental health breakdowns where the pressure of being in the public eye for their sensitive nature becomes too much, and mental stability is greatly reduced.
Vishnu is the preserver, and the word "conserve" (within "conservatorship") means "with the intention to preserve." At their core, conservatorships or guardianships are meant to protect or preserve an individual's health, reputation, and material stability, who is thought to be in some form of danger (to themselves or others). Of course, Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes have displayed mental instability and difficulty taking care of oneself that have led to such situations, but conservatorships have placed them back into the hands of the same caretakers (the parents) who were there as they were experiencing the situations that led to such instability in the first place. The more positive aspect of conservatorships was the case with Mickey Rooney (Shravana Moon), who accused his stepson of withholding food and medicine and meddling in his personal finances. In his testimony asking the court for a permanent conservator over his estate to protect him from the abusive control of his family members, he stated:
"My money was taken and misused. When I asked for information, I was told that I couldn’t have any of my own information. I was told it was "for my own good” and that “it was none of my business.” I was literally left powerless. You can be in control of your life one minute and in the next minute, you have absolutely no control. Sometimes this happens quickly, but other times it is very gradual. You wonder when it truly began. In my case, I was eventually and completely stripped of the ability to make even the most basic decisions in my own life. Over the course of time, my daily life became unbearable. Worse, it seemed to happen out of nowhere. At first, it was something small, something I could control. But then it became something sinister that was completely out of control. I felt trapped, scared, used, and frustrated. But above all, I felt helpless. For years I suffered silently. I couldn’t muster the courage to seek the help I knew I needed. Even when I tried to speak up, I was told to be quiet. It seemed like no one believed me."
However, granting so much control over someone to any individual (especially one who has built up fame and wealth) is a dangerous, slippery area, which is why this is a subject of the law that things like the FreeBritney movement have caused some government officials to re-assess. This interplay is shown in Shravana's planet associations. Moon (the mind) and Capricorn is ruled by Saturn (control), which I've explored can lead to this nakshatra being present actively in things like creating cults, hypnotizing others, religious programming, and so on. In its inactive or passive state, it can make one prone to being emotionally or mentally controlled, in this case in legal forms that feel impossible to escape. Saturn can create delays or obstacles here to the ability to have personal freedom and gain independence.
Such contemplations were also brought into the public consciousness in the case of Shravana Moon Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a young woman who's mother forced her to fake sickness and the need for a wheelchair for her entire childhood (and beyond). Her mother subjected her to using a feeding tube she did not need, as well as to unnecessary surgical procedures. When Gypsy was approaching the age to have independence, her mother first forged a new birth certificate stating she was younger. Later, when she could no longer keep pretending Gypsy was a child, she forged Gypsy's signature on Guardianship papers that gave her more control over the now-adult Gypsy.
This is perhaps the best known case of Munchausen by Proxy, a syndrome in which the caretaker, most often a mother, either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like her child is sick. The motivation behind this is unknown, but it is normally due to pleasure derived from receiving attention for caring for the child, or for "living through" the attention the child gets for their sickness. They want to exaggerate how much the child "needs" them and indefinitely delay how long the child stays under their control. The statistical likelihood of this being the Mother (rather than another caretaker or father) sheds more light on the combination of Moon (mother) and Saturn (abuse/control) that is shown in this nakshatra. In relation to nakshatra-casting, in Lifetime's Love You to Death film inspired by her story, Shravana Moon Emily Skeggs took the role of the character inspired by Gypsy Rose. The unnecessary confinement to a wheelchair in these films is also interesting in that the Taittiriya Brahmana sutra for Shravana includes a reference to this: "The cripples (श्रोण) of Vishnu are seeking ideas from above and the paths from below".
Bridging now how these real life themes flow into the "fiction" world, the movie Run (about a disabled teenager with a controlling mother, who realizes her mother poisons her to create the disability) was inspired by Gypsy Rose's story and was written and directed by the Shravana Sun native Aneesh Chaganty, who took great personal and creative interest in her story. In the film The Sixth Sense, Shravana ASC Haley Joel Osment is continually visited by the ghost of a sick little girl played by the Shravana Sun native Mischa Barton. He eventually finds her home and family, where it's said that she was a chronically sick child who eventually died. Her ghost leads him to a video tape which exposes the horrific truth; she didn't have a chronic illness. She was being slowly poisoned with disinfectant cleaner by her mother, who forced her healthy child into bed rest. She committed the Munchausen by Proxy poisonings until her demented actions killed Kyra, and then began doing the same to her next child. In both The Sixth Sense and the Gypsy Rose enactments & inspired-films, you can see scenes of the child playing or walking and then running back to bed or their wheelchair upon hearing their Mother approach (who forces them to constantly fake sickness and weakness). In The Sixth Sense, a scene shows the Shravana daughter asking "Can I go outside if I eat this?" and the Mother replying (after having just poisoned Kyra) "I don't know, you know how you get sick in the afternoons." (See scene here)
It is said that many caretakers with Munchausen by Proxy were medically abused in the same way as children, and this can be reflected in that in Run, it is the Shravana Moon native Sarah Paulson who took on the role of the (formerly abused) abusive mother. This also demonstrates that the attraction to this subject-area can cause a flipped situation where there is Shravana-casting on both sides. The film I Care A Lot demonstrates this as well; Shravana Sun Rosamund Pike plays a con-artist who makes a living by convincing the justice system to grant her guardianship over elders who she pretends cannot take care of themselves. She then does things like forcefully move them to retirement homes, sells their possessions for her profit, etc. Her business partner in these acts is played by the Shravana Sun native Eiza González. In such situations or films, the mother often emphasizes that the fake sickness, poisoning, or evil level of medical control is for the child's "protection" from the dangers of the outside world or public (again, relating to this combining of Saturn's control and Moon as the private life).
View the trailer for Run to tap into the energy of this dark side of Shravana:
These cases all tie back to some of the themes I explored in my Shravana video (Most Mystical and Magical Nakshatras P1, shown below), such as special children who are kept in control by scientists and experimented on, like Millie Bobby Brown's character Eleven in Stranger Things or the alien abduction (medically-themed) experiences these natives often explore in art or say they have had experiences with. Furthermore, the concept of the struggle of being "the chosen one" and feeling forced into a public function/role that causes discomfort can relate to how Shravana often explores themes of losing personal choice and freedom. It's worth noting that Saraswati is said to have been born in Shravana, and her Tantric form, Matangi, rules over Vashikarana karma, the magic of controlling someone's behavior or thoughts, "enslavement".
In the above picture, you can see two Shravana natives with forced shave heads (Joey King as Gypsy Rose and Millie Bobbie Brown in Stranger Things) and two who willingly shaved their heads (in periods of alleged mental instability), Amanda Bynes and Britney Spears. I explore more examples of this in the below video, such as the Shravana character Powder. Consider how Magha nakshatra natives greatly emphasize their hair and the nakshatra relates to the power and veneration of one's ancestors (Pitris). Magha's nakshatra lord is Ketu, the liberator, opposite of enslavement. It can be understood then that the shaving of the head here can be considered a symbol of both the loss of individuality (into a handler-- even how one shaves their head before joining the military, as they place their ego/individuality into service to a higher authority), as well as could hint at the opposite of Magha's ability to obtain power & support from the ancestors-- potential abuse from (and need to be protected from) one's elders.
There is even a quite random narrative inserted for the villain Cullen Crisp (played by Shravana Moon Richard Tyson) in Kindergarten Cop and his villain mother. Impending abuse is implied when his mother buys a huge range of children's medicines for his son for no reason. He says, "Children's aspirin, children's decongestant, a rectal thermometer, an antihistamine. The boy's not sick." [implying the invasive, abuse medical applications she's preparing for] She replies, "Doesn't hurt to take precautions." To which he says, "Mother, you are going to make him sick. You stuffed all this crap into me, and nothing was wrong." Remember, there are "dark" and "light" potential expressions to every nakshatra, and to gain a total understanding of the nakshatra energies, it's important to acknowledge all aspects. That does not mean these are literal experiences for all (or even most or many) Shravana natives. These are cases of Shravana energies brought to the extreme, in real life and in art. Art plays with "extremes" more often and that is why it's such a good way to understand more hidden aspects of a nakshatra (as the parallels between art and extreme cases in reality show here), but in mundane daily life for the average person such concepts manifest in typically much more subtle ways.
Updates August 15, 2023:
A conservatorship scandal has arisen with football player Michael Oher, with Shravana Moon (the subject of the film "The Blind Side").
Some Brazilian viewers of mine have also reached out recently with the information that the verified Shravana Moon celebrity Larissa Manoela is called the "Britney Spears of Brazil" (an article on her case here). She also had a troubled relationship with her parents who had been financially abusing her for years, withholding millions of dollars of her own wealth from her. Both Oher and Manoela took action and spoke out through inspiration by Spears' conservatorship case.
Learn much more about Shravana here:
& View the correlating video short for this blog post here.