William and Kate: A Marriage Royal, A Human Relationship

 William placing the ring on Kate's finger

photo source: CNN

Anyone and everyone who cared about the grand affair which was the wedding of William and Kate got their chance to watch…once, twice...many times. The whole event was broadcast live, then re-broadcast over and over and over again.

Astrologically, the marriage is one chart – a chart timed for the moment when the vows are sealed.

 April 29, 2011 - 'Let No Man Put Asunder'

But the relationship which underlies that wedding? 

That’s a whole other thing. And when we talk about that 'whole other thing,' you'll even hear two versions talked about there.

One version is the astrological 'composite' chart. We take the Sun of one chart, the Sun of another, we translate the zodiacal positions into 360 (numerical) notation and divde that by two.

The composite chart is a great picture of what one person 'thinks' of the other.


What it isn't is the 'living' chart of the relationship...as in, "honey, we have to go away for the sake of the relationship." Instinctively we seem to recognize that when there are two people in the room there are three entities present: person one, person two, and the relationship which lies between them.


That relationship is a dynamic thing. A composite chart isn't. You can't look up its "date" in an ephemeris because it doesn't have one. Not even computer software will let you calculate with a composite chart because it's 'midpoint' construct does not reflect an actual point in time.

The 'actual point in relationship time' chart is called a "Davison chart." It's a chart erected for a midpoint in time, space and birth location between the two people involved.

I'll spare you the rest of this recitation...but trust me, I've done my homework here and Davison charts are for real.

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 William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Davison Relationship/Aries Chart (No Time Known for Kate's Chart)

So we have one chart which is the chart for the sealing of the wedding vows. That's a regular, everyday  real-time chart which, given modern satellite technology and my watching the wedding in real time can only be mere seconds off the actual moment of sealing the marriage vows with the traditional ...let no man put asunder speech.

Against this we have the chart for William and Kate as a couple – the relationship chart. There we have a bit of a problem as there has as yet been no time confirmed for (as she’s now known) the Duchess of Cambridge’s birth. All we know is that Catherine was born on January 9, 1982 in Reading, UK.

For William, there's exact data – of course! But given that we don't have Kate's time, we do well to cast the Davison in Aries Wheel format.

The other thing we have an issue with because we don't have Kate's birth time is how we need to own that while the Moon of this relationship is more than likely in  Cancer, we can't swear to that.

But it is likely - and that's an interesting item to note seeing as we know William’s Moon is in Cancer and it's very highly mostly really likely Kate’s is too.

(And in case you're thinking that would be "automatic," it isn't. It's easy enough to have two people with Moon in Virgo and have the Davison Moon come out in any sign but!)

However! As we say this we do have a whole bunch of 'absolutes' and 'givens.' And that list starts with the lunar nodes of the Davison being positioned at 18 Cancer (North) and Capricorn (South)...which makes an  interesting statement.

How's that? Well, the North Node is what we should do. And this North Node being in Cancer speaks to how important it is for this relationship to be about family, heritage, one’s personal life and - since this is a royal couple - 'the people’: one’s native population and homeland.

Against this we have a South Node - the 'easy thing' - in Capricorn. Especially with Capricorn’s ruling Saturn strongly positioned in Libra, it's 'easy' for this couple of follow the rules. They will find things easier if they 'color inside the lines' - royal and otherwise.

This also suggests that when the day comes that William becomes King, his work will easily come first even though they know as a couple that in order to be figureheads for their nation they need to keep working on their relationship.

It's something of a dichotomy...and no, not at all easy.

Sitting at 19 Libra and the apex of a t-square with the lunar nodes, this Saturn is not quite conjunct Pluto at 25 Libra...and it's a couple of degrees out of strict Ptolemaic (5-degree) conjunction orb with Pallas at 12 Libra.

It's something of a picture of being between the rock and the hard place. And since in this picture the 'hard place' is pictured most immediately by the lunar nodes, the issue is social and societal obligation.

Then we add in Eris - aka Eris Discord. Conjunct Sabine (entrapment, slavery) in emotionally expressive degrees of Aries, Eris is in opposition to Saturn and square to the nodes, making this not a t-square but a grand square (also known as a grand cross).

Since all astrology is a two-way swinging door, this tells us that there will be times when the 'public call' is simply a pain in the low back and very frustrating. But there will also be times when discord strikes in the world and in response this couple of will react as a matter of course.

In other words, they're really very human.

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 Westminster Abbey witnesses yet another royal marriage

photo source: CNN

And this Eris/Saturn 'inconvenient timing’ issue doesn't end there. Though at 19 Libra Saturn isn't strictly conjunct a 12 Libra Pallas (wisdom) which is itself conjunct a 10 Libra Mars and Eros/passion, Eris IS positioned to be in opposition to Saturn and - SEPARATELY - opposition Eris...which is conjunct the couple's strong 10 Aries Sun.

Sun in Aries is very strong. Conjunct Eris and Sabine and in opposition to Pallas-Mars-Eros (and let's be reminded: Mars in Libra is hardly Mars at its most assertive!) this suggests that as a couple, William and Kate will defend their right to have a personal life.

It also suggests that the 'being apart' we saw in their dating life may yet happen again. That may be all about necessity, that may be because they need a bit of a break, that may be simply because William's work - whether in the military or elsewhere - that may take him away.


If this couple learns to handle the 'unevenness' of schedule to their advantage, they'll thrive. Is this likely? Well, Saturn's strength in Libra and the Sun's resilience in Aries says they have better than the average chance.


It also suggests this is a couple which knows how to disagree. And that life isn't all cupcakes and rose petals.

Another aspect of this is how the Mars-Eros-Pallas speaks to their understanding that they represent something to literally millions of people they will never meet. And how this couple is aware of the difference between the way they live and the lives of non-royals - which will like as not become far more evident and/or important William comes to the throne.

Even before that, one suspects.

Leaving that for a moment, let’s consider the Davison Juno at 7 Capricorn. This is Juno positioned as the apex of another t-square which might be a grand cross, though we can't know without having a birth time for Kate.

As it is, Juno sits at the half-way point between Sun in Aries and Mars-Pallas, which is clearly (among other things) the overhanging, omni-present fact that William is a member of "the Firm"...British royalty. Learning how to manage that? That's a huge piece in the relationship puzzle.

But without that Moon....?

The difference between t-squares (which are solvable) and grand squares (which are eternal challenges in one's life) is huge.

A grand square (or grand cross) is a figure of being pulled from all sides. In an individual’s natal chart, grand squares ask that we ‘pull all the corners together’ (symbolically) before we do any “heavy lifting” - or at least have any success with same. About the best image here I could give you is collecting everything off a table by pulling all four corners of the tablecloth together before you hoist; in a chart, the one ‘corner’ you miss will be the place where all sorts of havoc spills out, ruining your effort to get ahead.

Against this, the t-square is a hurdle. You have to understand where you're coming from, where you're headed and what about yourself (the 't' is part of your chart, right?) you have to get past or "over" in order to reach your goal.

In pragmatic terms, the difference between the t-square and grand square is one of degree of complexity…the number of details one must ‘pull together,’ as it were. In real world terms however...t-squares are often found in the charts of great achievers where grand squares are found more often in those who rise and fall at least a few times before figuring life out.

Still....whether or not the Moon is in aspect to Juno or anything else in this chart, by sign the Moon and Sun are in square. This is a classic indication of problems with timing. We saw some of this (or at least thought we did) with Kate’s having appeared to ‘decide’ William was her guy before he decided she was the woman he wanted to marry. Another form will like as not be a clashing of schedules we will never see – and perhaps never even hear about.

That Pluto (symbol of emotionally transformative experiences) had gone on station and retrograde at 7 Capricorn – the degree of Juno – is exactly what we would expect to see in the chart of a royal couple about to get married. Capricorn is traditionally the sign of ‘head of government’ and Juno a symbol of domestic leadership. With the wedding having happened with the Sun moving across first Sedna at 6 Taurus (the maturation process) on April 26 before ‘triggering’ Pluto’s 7 Capricorn station (and the Davison chart Juno) on the 27th…we get a real picture of this couple recognizing the enormity of the event their wedding would be.

Conversely, this also signals the wedding as an enormous public moment.

 Crowds lining the street, enjoying the moment

outside Westminster Abbey, London

photo source: CNN

For those who are dedicated royal watchers, there’s also the contemplation that in having gone into retrograde, Pluto will return to 7 Capricorn 39 on January 9th with the Sun doing a ‘lesser' trigger to this Pluto cycle on December 28/29 – which will be an interesting moment to watch. Will we be hearing more news from the Duke and Duchess as either of these dates roll by?

Yes or no, this is something interesting to watch for and very much how astrological research is done.

Meanwhile, the marriage chart…with it’s regal 15 Leo rising…it’s a lovely picture of a public royal wedding. Leo has always been known as a sign of royalty even though governance is a Capricorn attribute. The difference…rulership versus governance is one of perspective. But here we have the Sun which rules that 15 degrees Leo rising intercepted in the 10th house – a signal which on one hand speaks to the marriage being a matter of duty (interception) to the not just the (10th house/MC) nation.

And with 28 Aries on the MC/Midheaven of this wedding chart, with the Mars which rules that 10th house cusp in a triple conjunction (Jupiter, Mars, Eris all at 21 Aries) …all four of these points in degrees between 20 and 29 degrees (that being the 3rd decanate of the sign) we know…for absolute sure that everything which comes of and from this marriage will be reacted to by the public and ultimately ruled and regulated by that same public – and the world.

So much for a private union between two people, right?

As for 15 degrees of Leo, like 15 degrees of any fixed sign (there being for fixed signs: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) we are speaking of a ‘moving into the next phase’ or ‘taking a step’ in life – which marriage truly is.

 A lovely photograph of Queen Elizabeth II being greeted by

the Dean of Westminster as she arrives at Westminster Abbey

to attend her grandson's wedding.

photo source: CNN

The Ascendant being conjunct Photographica at 11 Leo puts the marriage in the public eye and tells us that it was carried out with an eye to (and on) the public.

But then things get…a bit less candid. That intercepted Sun is positioned in a difficult degree: 8 Taurus is known for sensitivity to teasing – which we know will come from the tabloids, never mind the public and possibly (?) the royal court. This degree is known for ‘fighting shadows’ and a general defensiveness which suggests an internal frailty which develops as demand outstrips ability to comfortably comply.

Added to this is fixed star Hamal plus Byblis, a more than difficult commentary. Hamal equals  independence and is known to take on the coloring of whatever else is present. Considering that the Sun itself is often an image of males and that Sun in Taurus is security and/or privilege of wealth, this can well speak to William’s already-demonstrated ability to eschew the trappings of royalty.

Then we add in Byblis. Byblis is an asteroid which is all about defending the indefensible. And thus we ask: will this couple run afoul of their very caring for common people and/or a ‘regular’ way of life? Will they prove sufficiently ‘independent’ as to offend those still ‘married’ to an older and more traditional role for royalty?

Phaeton/Hera speaks to the 'impulsiveness’ and ‘headstrong’ quality of ‘the mate’ – Hera usually being the wife. Does this mean that William will ultimately decide he chose a bride too early? Or will we end up seeing yet another example of a couple which in becoming entrenched in the duties of royalties rebels against it?

With Bali (paradise) and Deucalion (finding the moral path) in direct opposition to the Sun of this chart (and thus intercepted in the chart’s 4th house) we do understand that the marriage will always be understood to be of import to the public. Positioned at 9 Scorpio the underlying dynamic is emotional commonalty or agreement – that being the Scorpio part. With 9 Scorpio being a 1st decan degree (between 0 and 9) we know what this pair does is ‘the proof of the pudding.’

That this Bali/Deucalion is intercepted in the 4th says a lot about this marriage being founded in a (Scorpio) inheritance of native…and yes royal…tradition. And for those who wonder whether this royal couple will continue in what is seen by some as ‘a life of excess’ which has so typified so many royal households, that answer is ‘maybe not.’

Why not? Because fixed star Arcturus is exactly conjunct Spica as the objects closest to the 4th house cusp with Saturn (retrograde) at 12 Libra farther back in the 3rd house and in opposition to Venus at 10 Aries, Pelion at 11 Aries and Mercury at 14 Aries in the 9th.

Saturn retrograde in the 3rd either makes one pessimistic or says you think before you choose to do or what you do. In Libra, there’s a built in concern about what others think or how they’ll react.

Meanwhile, that Aries Venus-Pelion-Mercury in the 9th is something we already have heard about – the British Royal Family’s concern about how to hold a royal wedding during a period of financial struggle. Pelion is the ‘great mountain’…it can either be something you climb or that thing you’re sitting atop looking down at everyone else from. Add in Venus in Aries (the appearance) and Mercury in Aries (what I say, what people think of me) and you have a royal couple who is “saddled” with being emotionally aware of others.

Yes…its just William and Kate in this marriage. Plus the rest of the royal family. Plus the press. Plus the citizens of the UK and anyone else who cares to watch.

Neptune – pictured at 0 Pisces in this chart - is at this moment about to go station/retrograde. Come next June (2012) it will go retrograde at 3 Pisces, right atop the 8th house cusp of this chart. Since this 3 Pisces is also the position of Damocles (the dangers we don’t recognize until we take the job on) in the Davison relationship spot, it’s very likely this is a moment when a soft spot in the royal relationship is found, resulting in at least a bit of bruising.

 With festivities having begun inside Buckingham Palace,

people linger in the streets, still celebrating

photo source: CNN

Speaking of the Davison chart, June’s 24 Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse bisects the split between Black Moon Lilith/Ascendant at 21 Sagittarius (plus Ras Alhague at 22 Sagittarius) and Neptune at 27 Sagittarius conjunct fixed star Acumen at 28.

Acumen being ‘all we’ve learned’ in conjunction with Neptune is likely to be what some call ‘fuzzy math.’ With Black Moon Lilith (what you don’t want to admit about the world and what the world doesn’t or shouldn’t know about you) conjunct Ras Alhague…?

Ras Alhague is the really iffy coin toss here. Sometimes it’s a healing force and sometimes it’s the ripper (or ripping) which creates the need for healing. Given that this is about the Ascendant, IF William and Kate determine at this point to do something for others (or even issue a delightingly sensitive statement of some kind) …then can could count this for a plus.

But with Black Moon Lilith on the Ascendant/Ras Alhague of this chart virtually guarantees some sort of ‘paparazzi war’ at some point…if not consistently.

And let’s remember: the 11 Gemini solar eclipse happens June 1st. Occurring in that emotionally challenging 12th house, it’s in trine to Pallas/Mars and sextile Sun/Eris/Sabine…so something’s going on which is of an evolving/evolutionary nature. Keep your royal ears tuned in and take whatever happens during June/July seriously – take it as the start of a  process.

 The happy couple...happy (probably among other reasons) for

having gotten through the ceremony without any giant faux pas!

photo source: CNN

This is underscored certainly by the July solar eclipse (at 9 Cancer) being in opposition to the Davison Juno and maybe conjunct the chart’s Moon, though without an exact birth time for Kate we can’t be sure. Certainly in square to the Sun/Eris and Mars/Pallas, this becomes a testing time for the relationship.

What’s it about? Call it this: now that they’re married, now what?

Scylla/Chaldaea: Old vs. New - Is it Them, or Is it You?

Glaucus and Scylla

by Bartholomäus Spranger (c. 1580-1582)

In our last blog episode we began talking about Scylla and how as this asteroid was going on station we would be confronted with situations or feelings which could eat us alive or cause us to disregard others…and maybe both….and maybe for reasons we don’t even understand

The myth behind some of that commentary is probably best told by Ovid, though I’m still a little miffed with Ovid myself as that’s the guy who decided ‘chaos’ was more about ‘wreckage’ than potential. Changing innate meanings in order to incite negative emotions is a really old ploy and it’s not helpful. For whatever reason it seems dismally easy for people to be fearful and reject not merely ideas, but the people who are trying to think them through.

So not helpful…as is (similarly) the rewriting of history (which goes on and on and on) and trying to shade old facts to support your agenda. Naughty humans, naughty!

Anyway, so Scylla started life as a beautiful young lovely who inspires love in the heart of a sea god named Glaucus. Apparently she was not very thrilled with him as Scylla’s reaction was to head inland where Glaucus couldn’t get to her.

So what’s a sea god to do? Glaucus goes to a sorceress - Circe, to be precise. Living on an island and still miffed at the loss of her own mortal, Circe will understand his plight, surely!

Well, yes and no. Evidently still on the rebound, Circe falls in love with Glaucus herself – and sets about wooing and cooing at him in her most seductive manner. But seeing as spells which reduce human males to animals (Circe’s specialty) don’t work on sea gods, Glaucus did something Circe was rather offended at – namely, he told her to cut it out and stop plighting her own troth and get to his love affair problems already.

Circe by Charles Gumery

photo credit: Jastrow (2007)

Offended and enamored (a really bad combination in the world of narcissistic sorceresses) Circe goes off and finds the pool where Scylla takes a bath. Into this pool she pours a very particular poison which begins working on Scylla the moment she dips her lovely nymph toe into the water by transforming her into a monster.

The description here is very specific and peculiar…and I don’t mean the part where the monster has twelve feet and six heads with growling wolf heads protruding from Scylla’s waist. No, not that part. What is highly particular here is the emphasis on the fact that the ‘monster overcomes her’ – in other words, the monster form grows up and around Scylla, swallowing her up as she stands there frozen in horror, petrified by what’s happening to her, trying to shoo away this terrible thing which is coming upon her.

This describes a very certain kind of alienation from self and the concept that ‘that which I cannot cope with in my own life I will inflict on others, wittingly or unwittingly’ is the outcome of Scylla’s tale. Rooted in place, in desperation and horror, in loathing of all which has been thrust upon her she reaches out to and destroys everything which comes within reach.

When we think 'rock and hard place' in reference to Scylla

(which is one way to think of it, though Scylla is not just situational

but probably more importantly about our challenges and struggles

of Self...either way, Scilla Castle (or) the Rock of Scylla gives us a

clue as to why we think of it as a rock (or hard place).

photo credit: Adriano (July 2006)

Scylla is going retrograde today, asking us to reflect on where we are Scylla. So ask yourself: do I allow others to go about their business freely? Do I take out on others that I feel miserable about in my own life? Is there someone in my life who I allow to wreak damage because they can’t face “the monster” they feel was thrust upon them wittingly or unwittingly?

Some of these questions just aren’t easy. Having grown up with a fatally ill sister who was bright and talented and funny yet who knew she was dying every day I’ve watched the Scylla story. I understand how this illness affected my sister and the rest of the family, even though said family was rife with people who were otherwise afflicted by their own Scylla problems, which is why my young years were a maelstrom of abuse.

But here’s the bottom line. Certainly as children we are not responsible for what happens to us. As adults and throughout life, things happen. Accidents, illnesses, collapses of economies, tsunamis which create nuclear disasters – disasters have been happening to people ever since there were people. ‘Poisonous’ (to our hopes) situations are  going to keep on happening. Why? Because they’re just part of life.

What happens we can’t always prevent. But unlike the mythic Scylla, we can decide how to deal with the results. The abused child is not responsible for what happens to them in their youth but is 100% responsible for the adult who grows up out of that abuse. Some decide to deal with it and don’t become Scylla, scourge of all who come near. Some simply give in and become the terror who justifies all through a sense of victimization.

Hmmm…feel like you’ve heard that combination of victim and ruthlessness before? Actually, you have; this polarity of the victim-and-abuser/aggressor is the hallmark of fixed star Facies, which sits at 8 Capricorn.

And where is Scylla going retrograde? At 11 Capricorn, a degree known for a determination, an ability to stay on track/in pace with things going on in their world and a forward-thinking mentality which looks for ways to build structures and how to build people and things into structures – all of which is (or can be) highly positive.

But with this comes a tendency to keep secrets and to ‘edit’ what is said in order to gain favor or advantage which can be useful and then again can be all about a simple seeking of personal advantage which comes with a total disregard for people, things and society. The power of persuasion/conviction which goes with 11 Capricorn is exalted, and as this degree stands between fixed stars Facies (the victim/aggressor) and Vega (charismatic speech or thought) it is usually the nature of the celestial object passing through this area of the zodiac (and where Saturn as ruler of Capricorn is either at the time, or in a specific person’s chart) which determines whether the total effect will be for good or…(let’s just be honest here)…the many ills of evil times, evil acts, evil intentions.

 'Fixed' star Vega as photographed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

photo credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech

That we all have these degrees in our chart is one thing. That the January 2011 Solar Eclipse hit Vega and ‘let the dogs out’ is another. With Pluto rolling through this area of the zodiac right now, especially combined with Neptune’s just having entered Pisces, land of illusion/delusion as the excuse, we’re going to hear a lot of the worst out of others.

Do they own it? Are they aware of what they are doing and are they willing to dial back what they do in response to how they affect others? That’s the real question.

There’s a whole other issue going on today as well – that’s asteroid Chaldaea (aka Chaldae or Chaldea, representing all things established, traditional, venerated and ‘old’)...which is entering it’s station to go retrograde on April 30th.

The rule with stations being that things which happen before the station will play out in time and things which happen after the station will be the playing out of things which have already been decided on or set in motion, this would seem to be a time when things are taking a turn. Old and/or venerated things are facing a tide of disregard or even obliteration through desperation.

These aspects apply to all of our lives, certainly. Our lives, our nations, our global interests are going through a long term process which in biggest terms we would look back at in terms of the January 2011 Solar Eclipse (LINK to Blog), Uranus’ shift into Aries (LINK to Blog), Neptune entering Pisces (LINK to Blog) and more recently, Pluto’s having gone retrograde (LINK to Blog). I put these links in hoping those who have just joined astroPPM (howdee, by the by...!) will know to read ‘around’ those areas, as there’s just no way to put everything about a subject in a single blog.

Life…and the unfolding of same as delineated through astrology…is simply the biggest soap opera around.

And – surprise! – it’s not fiction!

(I know…shocking, isn’t it?)

But as a moment in this soap opera, I also know a lot of people are thinking in terms of the royal wedding which is slated to happen tomorrow: April 29th, 2011.

This truly is one of those moments when you know that whoever chose the date didn’t ask an astrologer. Not only do I know of not an astrologer in two dozen who would glibly say ‘Sure – get married with Venus in Aries!’ because Venus in Aries asks that we get our ‘happiness quotient’ and feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment from ourselves without external (public) support, but any modern (and western) astrologer who works with things like asteroids would look at this Scylla/Chaldaea combination and say ‘uh, are we trying to support the old-style monarchy or not?’

Obviously the moment of ‘I do’s’ (the actual time) is going to make some difference in how this all turns out. It’s also worth remembering that a wedding is about the relationship more than about the partners who are reporting to the altar. When we marry (or otherwise commit to a relationship) it is our regard for the responsibility we have taken on to that relationship which changes. And this is why the ‘partner’ in the marriage is denoted by Libra, the ‘how we get along with each other’ thing. But a marriage? That’s a commitment. And that points to Capricorn, Saturn and all things 10th house, whether you have Capricorn on your 10th house or not.

So like I say, we’ll have to see how the royal wedding times out. But that it’s happening in this sort of moment suggests that if nothing else, it’s will be, become or experience a substantial change for  traditional standards of British monarchy OR as the standards and practices of the British monarchy evolve.

And for those really into this stuff, as the person with the calendar staring at them from the computer screen, it doesn’t really look like there’s an open slot for a more thorough peek at the royal wedding chart until the week which begins with May 8th.

Meanwhile, just to have this wedding now suggests that someone didn’t feel they could get out of something…even if it’s the date. Or the venue. Or the pomp and circumstance. But whether that becomes the Scylla ‘poison’ which engulfs this couple as people, or their relationship – or any one of us, that’s the question to be dealt with for the moment.

We are without question, now in the ‘breakdown period’ which precedes a solar eclipse, which in this case is the Gemini Solar Eclipse which will take place at 11 Gemini, conjunct fixed star Aldebaran. Just as the January eclipse ‘broke down’ the power of charisma, bringing out the very worst in some used to holding sway and inciting reaction against the status quo, June’s eclipse will be all about integrity – that being Aldebaran’s core concept. The six-to-eight week period prior to a solar eclipse being when ‘break downs’ begin challenging such precept, we can expect (no, I’m not going to quote Dickens – I’ll spare all of us that!)…we can expect a few, if not many people to show their colors at either end of the spectrum. Meaning what? Meaning we should expect to see the very best and very worst we would expect or could be greeted with.

 A poignant July 1997 photograph by Bart Benjamin showing

Aldebaran just about to be occulted (hidden) by the waning crescent Moon

Remember: Gemini is all about choice. Thus Aldebaran is the integrity of our choice or the integrity with which we make our choice or the choice to preserve or depart from a standard of integrity.

All about to be eclipsed, mind you.

And we shouldn’t be surprised if those revealing those aspects or issues are totally surprised at what is revealed…or that we have suddenly changed our mind about putting up with old ways which amount to their getting everything they want while others get nothing. We can expect to see the ‘victim’ card played and attempts to incite fear to be rife.

Whether you react to any of this, whether you rebel against it, whether you refuse to buy into this old and possibly unfair or even manipulative, whether you stand for equality or equal responsibility or whether you simply allow yourself to want what you want regardless of whether you hurt or harm others…

…that’s up to you. And that’s probably the most important thing to remember here: it is up to you. We DO have choices, and we are responsible for those choices…in each and every moment, come each and every day…and particularly in these days and weeks going forward.

From An Astrologer's Notebook: Prince William's Engagement

 The arms of Prince William of Wales

Unless people have been living under a rock (or otherwise studiously avoiding public news), everybody seems to have heard that His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales (son of Prince Charles, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II) is now officially engaged.

As the astrologer who is local-to-no-one-and-everyone-at-the-same-time (a heady feat at best) I wasn't shocked to get a few questions about the engagement.

First on everybody else's mind was that said engagement was announced while Jupiter and Venus were still in retrograde.

After I got done sighing heavily (I type and I type...do you people listen?) ....I roust myself to patiently remind you all that the reason why we have little notices about 'station effects' is because there really is a notable occurrence of important events just before and after planetary stations. Never mind a dual planetary station!

Two days before...two days after. The announcement came on the 16th and Venus and Jupiter went direct on the 18th. Voila - station effects!

The wedding is yet to come. Okay - that fits too: things which happen before the station have to do with things yet to come...things which happen within the 'station effective' period but after the actual station are events having to do with a playing out of decisions, situations or whatnot which came up prior to this time.

Also: astrology doesn't dictate the nature of what happens. What it tells you is the nature of the event... and thus what we can learn from it.

Venus was in Libra at the time. Libra is not only about relationships, it is about the 'one' communicating with 'the many' the actor on the stage before an audience, for instance. Or a manufacturer offering a product. Or in this case, the spokesperson for the English Royals letting the world know the engagement was like, ON!

Personally (which is to say as an astrologer) I think it's more interesting that in being about to experience his first Saturn return, Prince William is marking the classic transition from the 'timelessness' of youth into the reality/responsibility world of adulthood by getting married. In his chart, the most exact of aspects is that of Saturn to Eris...

 Prince William of Wales

b. June 21, 1982

....so among other things, this is a natural moment for him to leave his childhood - and yes, the loss of his mother - behind.

Although granted, it's not quite that easy. But there's time enough to discuss all that....his intended's chart, the wedding chart...all such. There's time.

Like many, however, it took me a little aback and sideways when I heard that the engagement ring was none other than that given by William's father to his late mother. And yes, I've already heard the "dire" pronouncements of many on that score...to which I say a polite "twaddle!"

Sapphires as a stone were actually not known as gems per se until Roman times. So to attribute core 'from antiquity' beliefs to sapphire rings seems a bit off the mark. As a material, sapphire is the same stuff as ruby - it's all corundum. If it's red, it's a ruby. If it's any other color (blue, yellow, green, pink etc.) it's a sapphire.

 The Logan sapphire - at 423 carats, currently

one of the largest sapphires known

photo credit: Thomas Reudas (June 2007)

The most right-off-the-top-of-my-head associations I'd make about the ring is that for Prince William to give it to his fiance is a classic 'combining of families' gesture.

Let's face it - many a young man who has been so unfortunate as to lose his mother early on keeps her rings in the family by doing exactly the same thing. So to attach anything but that seems left over from the world's general modern addiction to media coverage and gossipy speculation - and that's about us. Meanwhile, Prince William is being a son proposing to his sweetheart, offering his mother's ring as a token of his love and his desire to marry his and Kate's pasts and futures together.

But with that said, there is an astrological point here - namely that sapphires are associated with Saturn. So again, this engagement and impending marriage seems to be all about Prince William's relationship to Saturn: responsibility, time, dedication, commitment, maturation - and the rest of it.

With Saturn in his natal 9th house, this is part of Prince William's effort to grow into the person he wants to be. It won't be easy - he's one of a very few people who royal-born lives his life in the spotlight whether he wants to or not.

Then again, growing into the people we want to be isn't easy for any of us. So I for one, wish the couple well.

Which isn't to say there aren't many interesting astrological facts and events to be observed here. Part of being royal is the inevitable and unavoidable part one plays in the pantheon of national and world societal history and that is astrological grist for the mill.

So rest assured, there will be more to come on this whole splendidly regal event. But for now, let's just enjoy, while learning just a bit more about how Venus, Jupiter and planetary stations really work!

Marie Antionette: A Head of State, Lost

 The Dauphin of France's Coat of Arms

  

Once upon a time, a little girl was born in Austria. 

And because mommy was Maria Teresa, Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and ruler of all the Hapsburg dominions ...

 Emperess Maria Teresa in 1727 (at age 10) 

by Andreas Moelier

 

...and because daddy was Francis Stephen I,  Holy Roman Emperor of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany...

 

 Francis I of Austria in 1745 (at age 37)

as painted by Martin van Meytens

....that meant that this little baby girl was a princess!

Her name was Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna, Archduchess of Austria, and she was born on November 2, 1755.

Marie Antoinette

And from the moment she was born, she was hardly ever alone! Back then, half the court was allowed into the Royal Bedchamber to watch the Empress give birth. It was something Empress Marie Teresa really didn't like. So in inimitable Empress style, she did away with it - the minute she would go into labor everyone would show up in her royal apartments and she would start having them royally shown the door. 

This wasn't actually the only thing this royal couple changed about Austria. Not particularly fond of pomp and circumstance and the hoidy-toidy of courtiers, when official things needed to be official they stayed official. But when situations didn't demand it, this Francis and wife Marie Teresa liked to dress more casually. They liked to have 'regular' folks around - not just titled members of aristocracy.

But that isn't to say they really 'mixed' with the outside world. Nor did it mean Francis and Marie Teresa weren't seriously into the business of monarchy. Francis was serious about keeping things basically pretty kingly and royal. And Marie Teresa? Of no mind to wait a couple of centuries for woman's lib and female equality, Marie Teresa went about building alliances and occasionally ticking off other countries royally - maybe just so she'd have more alliances to build and cement. It's hard to know with some monarchs.

And all that concreting of alliances - how did she do that? 

She did it in the time-honored manner of her day: by having children and finding "suitable" (politically advantageous) partners to marry. In other words, one big reason for having little princes and princesses was so she could marry them off and use them as living treaties and tokens of alliance with other nations.

How motherly, right?

And so ambitious was dear mamma that by the time Maria Antonia was born, she had lots of brothers and sisters...she was the fifteenth of sixteen children.

And though no one surely knew it then...she would, in the end, be by far the most famous of them all. If yes, for all the wrong reasons.

The story is rather fascinating. And it's actually very sad. It's about a time when rulers of countries didn't care about much about their people. If the people were okay enough to pay their taxes, that was in many (if not most) cases, good enough for 18th century royals.

The story is about a way of life where parents thinking of children as political tools and chattel was common and totally accepted. Did some think of their kids as the sweet, precious treasures we think of them today? Of course! Some people are simply born to be great parents.

But even those parents lived in a day when marriages were arranged. When it was common to think of the simplest forms of education as totally unnecessary. When parents could be commanded to turn over a child to a monarch who might in passing see them and decide they would make a handsome groom or maid.

Into this world Maria Antonia was born. And when she was born she was by all accounts healthy and cute - you know, your normal adorable baby!

From which cradled spot she grew up to be Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. Ill-equipped to understand the world around her, she lost her way and in the end, lost her head - the hard way.

It got cut off.

Marie Antoinette in French court dress
painting by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun

 The story actually starts off in a very nice place - Castle Schoenbrunn, family seat of the Hapsburgs. This was the residence most favored by Francis, Marie Teresa and the sprawling family and court.

Castle Schoenbrunn - the Palace of the Hapsburgs 

where Marie Antoinette grew up

Yet even in such beautiful surroundings, life was far from perfect. For one, Maria Antonia's mother - the Queen - had little personal interest in her little one; her daughter would grow up to describe her relationship with her mother as one of "awe-inspired fear" with the accent on the 'fear' part.

Mother was far more interested in one of Maria Antonia's older sisters - Archduchess Maria Christina, who in sharing mom's birthday evidently got the typical astrological benefit most of us would think of as regal mom and royal daughter 'having some things in common.'

All this - the non-motherly mother part in particular - is etched in Maria Antonia's chart by an interception in her 10th house at the top of the chart...the 10th more and more being come to be seen by astrologers as the house of the mother, since mom is the one who generally sets the 'how we are to act in daily life' (Saturn-Capricorn) rules and standards for most kids.

Dad and 'the family' as a unit are 4th house...and with Maria Antonia, one's pretty much as bad as the other. Why? Because to have an interception in the 10th automatically means the other half of the interception will be in the 4th.

It's pretty much why bad parents come in pairs. Even if one's totally the monster and the other is co-dependent, they're still a pair. And to the child... even if they get married, figure out they can't STAND each other and divorce - to their children they are still (and eternally) mom and dad. In the child's chart, there are two bio-parents and that's that. 

So back to the mom/10th house thing. In this overbearing mother/10th house department we have an intercepted South Node. Given that the South Node is always 'the easy thing to do,' intercepted we have a picture of a child who not only is inclined to cooperate (as opposed to face possible consequences) but a child who pretty much has no other options. Whatever they are handed, they accept - good, bad, poor...or in this case royally rich and entitled, a status which set Maria Antonia apart from her world. That 'different' sort of life is her Uranus in 10, but again, it's intercepted - which makes sense. After all, she got born into a family which was already royal.

Last item in this interception...is Sedna, the symbol of our need for maturation, our struggle with becoming our own person regardless of what we are told by our parents, what our upbringing is/was - and in Maria Antonia's case, despite her having grown up in a family which didn't care about her first and last as a person, since obviously (at least to her mother) she was in part an asset to be used by the Royal State (her parents) as a means by which politics of the day could be advanced  and/or operated. 

With interceptions meaning 'there's no getting out of it' Maria Antonia had no way out of what she was born into and what she was born to be and become. She would never learn what the 'regular' world was about - which left her open to the criticisms of people dealing with life struggles Maria Antonia would never face or really understand.

Bottom line, Sedna in the 10th, here conjunct Uranus (her life "separate" from the real world) in an uncomfortable inconjunct with fanciful Neptune in the 3rd house of mentality gives us a picture of a Royal child...and in time, woman...who was charming yes. But realistic? No. Fully informed? Not hardly. Yet she was a royal female of her day...so what she need with maturity?

Some people still think that way. For them, we have articles - like this ARTICLE ON SEDNA.

In the end, Sedna will prove emblematic of Maria Antonia's downfall - and with the 10th and top house of the horoscope being our most 'public' house, well it should. We see her through a prism of history, through a kaleidoscope of our own feelings about privilege, isolation and a distant past we think of romantically and yet with some disdain.

But meanwhile, there was Empress Mom, a woman who thought so little (or infrequently) of or about her little princess that by the time she was 12 (and getting betrothed to the future King of France) Maria Antonia could barely read or write properly in German, her native language. She was evidently some better with French though - that being because French (not German) as the language of the Austrian court.

What she did learn were manners and things thought useful to women of the time...her carriage was graceful and she was an excellent dancer, her style much admired and praised. She was also quite  talented with the playing of the harpsichord and was often prevailed upon to play for others, who took great delight in the young princesses musical abilities, all of which were such positive manifestations of her Neptune in 3 - the ability of the mind to suspend conscious ego in the freeing of artistry and talent.

 Thought to be either of German or Austrian of mid-17th century

make, the harpsichord shown above is probably much like

that played by Marie Antoinette

(displayed in the Courtauld Gallery)

  
But all this was to change. 1761 and 1762 were both marred by the death of siblings by smallpox timed out in detail with oppositions by Jupiter and Uranus to Maria Antonia's 5th house Libra Jupiter (emblem of her well-heeled childhood and all her fun times as a child). With natal Jupiter conjunct Sabine, she had been both captivated in her captivity and forced into isolation from others - that being the Libra part. 

Smallpox put and end to that, and that the overarching transits here were Pluto (emotional transformations) sextiling her Midheaven (view of life) and opposing Maria Antonia's ill-placed Eris-Medea was the onset of reality.

And once reality began imposing its chilling effects on her life, life would never be the same - which is exactly what Pluto does in astrological terms: the emotional experiences we undergo during Pluto transits change us, forevermore.

Smallpox would plague the family from 1761 through 1767, killing two of Maria Antonia's siblings and afflicting the formerly robust health of her mother.

Even more important than all this however, was the death of her father. Francis, Holy Roman Emperor of Austria, dies in 1765 when his daughter Maria Antonia is only 12 years old.

Astrologically, this is again Jupiter, which would have reached its first return point when Maria Antonia was 11.6 years old. That's the end of the first major period of human grown - self realization, we might call it.

That this loss was her father and that it was an enormous blow to the still young girl is told to us by the Solar eclipse of that summer hitting the bottommost point in her chart - the IC or Nadir. Her inner, foundational world had been blown apart. Neptune sextiling her Ascendant tells us she felt helpless and confused.

And that Eris (discord) was also trining a natal Vesta, signature of service, which is in this little girl's chart positioned right close to that IC/Nadir if on the 'I need to think in these terms' side? 

It all made perfect sense as mom took the reins of state into her imperial, Empress hands.

 Empress Marie Teresa of Austria in 1759 (at age 38)

as pained by Martin van Meylens

In a world of politics forged by marriage and with mom needing to cement alliances with Russia, Naples, Parma and Austria's enemy France in the wake of the Seven Years' War, the timing was perfect. For those times, Maria was all the woman she needed to be to be profitable (Jupiter) to others (Libra) by who she could be made to swear to serve both at a national and familial level (Vesta/IC).  

So it was that as a Lunar Eclipse hit Maria Antonia's Sedna (her maturity point) and Uranus (sudden changes) - both of which are 'captured' (intercepted) in her 10th house of marriage and all worldly, social doings, the mom so emblematic both of Austria as a sovereign state and so much in charge of Maria Antonia's rather 'intercepted' life...mom made all the arrangements: Maria Antonia would be married off to her second-cousin-once-removed, Dauphin Louis Auguste of France. 

As a little token of same, a miniature was painted of the future bride and sent off to the prospective hubby...

 The miniature portrait of the barely-teenaged Maria Antonia

which was sent to Louis to show him his future bride

- painting by Joseph Ducreaux

What young Louis August said when he saw the tiny painting of his future wife isn't recorded (or at least admitted to). There is in fact, every chance that he didn't even pay much attention to it, being far more interested in hunting, lock-smithing  and playing with model trains.

Whatever the case there however, as the North Node (that we have to do) came into position to sextile (interact with) Maria Antonia's learning-what-I-like-to-do Jupiter, obligation (North Node) won out and Maria Antonia obliged by allowing (sextile) herself to be married (by proxy) to Louis - who was physically still in France.

It must have been an interesting affair. Maria had just finished three months of oral surgery. Given there was no such thing as anesthesia as we know it in that day, she must have been happy to turn up and get the nod of approval from French representatives - the French having required this dental repair as part of the marriage deal, proving that France was ever a place where good looks were not only in fashion, but pretty much de rigure.

Thus with a 'beautiful and straight' smile, Maria Antonia went into a the Church of the Augustine Friars and, with brother Ferdinand standing in for the far-away Louis Auguste, she was married.

And thus she became Marie Antonette, Dauphine of France. 

Delivery to the French was made in early May under a shower Uranus transits showing Marie Antonette to be nervous, curious, being made to deal with strangers and probably above all, being made to leave all she had known.

Already married to him, Marie meets Louis on May 14th...

 Louis Auguste, Dauphin of France in 1776 at age 20

- painting by Joseph Siffred Duplessis

 ...and from there they proceed to a grand ceremonial wedding at Versailles...

 

 A modern panoramic picture of the central palace

which is Versailles - photo credit: Samuli Suomi

....after which off they go to the Royal Bedchamber, where the marriage is (of course!) supposed to be consummated.

Signified by 'this is what I was brought up to be' Vesta/IC conjunct a reluctant Cancer Mars, Marie probably wasn't enthralled with the prospect of sex with her new husband. And considering that as many a report would bear out he was less tickled than most with the idea of sex in general, it isn't surprising that the couple failed to...rise to the occasion in setting about their 'royal duty' to begin making heirs.

And that's where much of the troublesome rumors which would in time spout, grow and flourish all  started.

But for a time, the French populace was at least pretty happy with their new Dauphine. When Marie made her first royal appearance at the Tuileries in Paris, even royal watchers nodded in approval. With the occasion marked on her chart by a Lunar Eclipse conjunct Pluto, Eris, Tantalus and Medea, Marie herself probably thought it all a bit much, if something she knew she had to endure with as much grace, charm and enthusiasm as could be mustered.

And yet...that same set of symbols - the intense surge of sudden adoration (Pluto/Eris), enchanted admiration and love (Tantalus/Medea) - all that the  public suddenly felt for their new princess, those were exactly the qualities which would eventually turn on her. In the end, Pluto/Eris would be the violent loathing of the crowd, demanding her execution. Tantalus/Medea would accuse Marie of terrible crimes - everything from siphoning money off to her homeland of Austria to threesomes with ladies of the French court and even incest with her son, the one charge Marie Antoinette respond to by refusing to respond directly saying: "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother."

But all that was still years away. In the meantime, there was the French court to deal with. Though she wasn't herself fond of the current king's powerful mistress Madame du Barry and though the King's own daughters hated daddy's mistress, Marie Antoinette knew that she had best be courteous.

Madame du Barry, mistress of King Louis XV

- portrait by Francois-Hubert Drouais

So as Pallas squared her Sun on New Year's Day 1772 she knew (Pallas) that she needed (square) to say something and be polite if merely to preserve herself (Sun).

And though the polite remark 'there are a lot of people at Versailles today' was certainly begrudged, it broke the ice. Du Barry was placated, the King calmed down and in time, Marie figured out that not all powerful women were as bad as her mother.

Another form of Pallas square Sun, yes: we face the challenge and through the challenge learn better.

Yet there was still the problem of no royal intimacy. To ease her feelings of rejection - and with a Sagittarius Juno in the 6th conjunct the critical 29 Sagittarius 7th house cusp we may assume one of Marie's problems (at least to begin with) was sheer sexual ignorance (Sedna intercepted in 10 as her mother having failed to properly educate her daughter in 'womanly matters') - to ease her feelings, Marie Antoinette took to gaming and gambling...and increasingly to indulging herself in pretty clothes and a 'pretend' land where she could have what she imagined a 'normal' life.

The pretty clothes matter has long been expected of royal women...and when they are loved, all eyes devour such beauty with rapturous pleasure! But when things get bad? Then every royal woman in history has been accused of excess. It's just the way things work and this double edged sword in Marie Antoinette's chart is perfectly pictured by her intense (critical degree) Gemini Ascendant - specifically that it's ruled primarily by a Sagittarian Mercury in the 6th, if also colored by Neptune fantasies from the mental 3rd.

Mercury is highly functional in the 6th, if very hasty and 'over-the-top' in Sagittarius. So when things were good for Marie Antoinette, she was the darling of the court and populace. But once people turned against her...?

This is all made worse by her Mercury being conjunct Ixion. So yes, excess will be required of Marie Antoinette, and yes, that helpers, servants and the court egged her on? Mercury as symbol of communication in the 6th house of helpers, service people and subordinates  would be the court supporting her...and gossiping behind her back, too! Throw in Ixion and we get the image of someone who was taught from birth that was actually part of her job to look better than the rest (thanks, mom).

And having had the French literally have this drilled into her with all that dental work prior to the marriage probably didn't help. The 6th being the house of health and Mercury/Ixion thus also the critique of her natural teeth would have hurt Marie Antoinette's confidence. Even once her teeth were fixed that sense that she could at any moment become the object of criticism...and that she had been sent from where she was accepted into this land of critique to do the job of being married to Louis?

It all had to be a terrible emotional stew from which came desperate (Mercury-in-Sag) efforts to 'fit in' and 'measure up' and of course the inborn sense of entitlement that her 'job' (station in life) gave her the right to dress in finery and so as she pleased.

Which was all well and good...until it wasn't, that is. And once it wasn't, then the gifts of office became the Queen's arrogance, sense of entitlement and  extravagance with the public treasury.

It all would have been made vaguer, grander, more lustrously beautiful and ultimately more obscene for her, for all who beheld her and for those who simply loathed her with Neptune - the ideal against the disappointment - in the mental 3rd. What had begun as her mother's neglect to teach Marie Antoinette to be intelligent instead of immature (Sedna) and fanciful (Neptune) became the combination; an immature inability to cope with life's realities.

For more on Ixion, CLICK HERE. We all have one, after all.

This was also the time when Marie Antoinette developed her own retinue - her "posse," in today's terms. Given that platonic relationships are very much symbolized by ego-denying Neptune, to have Neptune in the 3rd would also suggest a whole cadre of friends which filled her hours, says and thoughts.

Unfortunately however, such friendships in a land of suspicion could also be taken otherwise - which they were. Later, the very friendships with women of the court who helped Marie Antoinette learn French ways and wile away the hours in the absence of anything real to do would turn into wild accusations of lesbianism.

Was she bisexual? That would see a hard thing to think, considering Marie's in-built fear of women (starting with her mother) and the Scorpio Venus ruling her house of fantasies.

Conjunct her Sun, Medusa (the fearful truth) and Kallisto (carnal cravings) in the 5th house of childhood, it's to be imagined that every part of Marie Antoinette wanted to be anything but her mother. Mother had been to her nothing if not a dominant female and mistress of abandonment edged mightily in control over Marie Antoinette's youngest years. Men? Men she probably mistrusted as well but then again, if you had to pick one, with Marie Antoinette men were probably the far, far preferred gender.

A whole other way to look at the layout of Marie's chart would be to use it to see her mother's life. And if looked at in that light, the chart of Marie Antoinette suggests that her mother (the Empress) was herself was emotionally compromised in the sexual arena. Perhaps dominated if not out-and-out brutalized by her husband? Perhaps. But that would mean the great Empress loathed and feared the man to whom she delivered sixteen children!

Could that be? Actually, yes. And if you ask why, one very large reason for acquiescing would be because of a threat coming from the religious realm. Question: as Holy Roman Emperor, did Francis  threaten to excommunicate and damn Marie Teresa's very soul?

We'll probably never know. But Marie Antoinette's chart says it could have been so.

What we do know is that as summer 1775 was coming into flower and the societal/social Lunar Nodes were  returning to where they were when Marie Antoinette was originally born, Louis XV fell ill. He died in May and on June 11, 1775, Marie Antoinette's husband was made King.

This didn't make much difference to the marriage, however. And Louis seemed perfectly okay with things as they were, gifting his wife with the Petit Trianon - a little present from the husband King, as it were...

 The gates of Versailles' Petit Trianon, where Marie Antoinette

would try to recreate the magical surroundings of her youth

Was this love or trying to keep his wife out of the way on Louis' part? Maybe a bit of both. Marie Antoinette certainly humored Louis' 'who me, bed you?' stances. and no matter what the French tabloids said about "l'Autrichienne" (that Austrian woman!) Louis was quite adept at avoiding anyone his wife suggested might be suitably appointed to just about any post you can name.

And about that nickname from the press? When things got bad it (probably predictably) morphed into something a wee bit harsher: l'Autruchiennenne - with the change of one vowel (the middle 'i' to a 'u') 'that Austrian woman' became ostrich (autruche) + bitch (as in female dog: chienne).

Never let it be said the French aren't artful about and with their language!

As for the child(less) situation, that became more problematic when in 1775 a sister-in-law gave birth to a widdle tiny baby duke - who, unless Louis and Marie got busy might well become the next King of France.

With Saturn (life's requirements) square (challenging) Marie Antoinette's Chiron (things I know I need to do that I don't quite know how to get done) and Jupiter (childhood) opposing (facing) natal Eris in 6 (discord in one's responsibilities), Marie plainly knew The Deed needed doing. But how to entice a husband more fond of trains than French lingerie to her bed?

On his side, Louis had his own 'headaches.' Not only was France still reeling under war debt from that Seven Years' War (with Austria) which his wife's mother had decided to tar-paper over in part by marrying France's son to Austria's daughter, but then there was this pesky thing going on with Great Britain's north American colonies. Given a long-standing animosity between Britain and France it was a no-brainer - France was going to side with the colonists, future Americans though they may be. France was good at holding off on critiquing other countries for everything from fashion to bad cooking and they could wait where the colonies were concerned too.

So France was a busy place and already much wracked with national debt by the time the latest Austrian Holy Roman Emperor (Marie's brother Joseph) shows up for a visit in April 1777.

Emperor Joseph II of Austria

painting by Anton von Maron

And who knows what got said, too. But with Jupiter (knowledge) connecting with Marie Antoinette's North Node (what needs to be done) and Ceres (what we must do to bring in the harvest) and necessity-provoking Chiron both in a face-off opposition to her Moon (womanhood and/or money and/or family), something about this visit got the ball(s) rolling, as come May of 1778 the Ceres harvest was on Marie's agenda and her Ascendant - she was confirmed as being pregnant.

The first child was a daughter: Marie Therese Charlotte. And with a solar eclipse on Marie Antoinette's Ascendant at the December 1778 birth (thus on her daughter's Sun-as-life) point, it's not to be shocked that the daughter would go on to get caught up in the French Revolution, nor that during birth Marie Antoinette collapsed in (yes) one of those packed 'standing room only' boudoirs full of people wanting to see the Royal Birth even though the mother was hemorrhaging at the moment.

Solar eclipses having a record for unfolding as lengthy, three year transits, it's unfortunate if not surprising to hear that Marie then miscarried in 1779, lost her own mother in 1780 and in October 1781 finally gave birth to the long-desired son: Louis Joseph Xavier Francois.

Everyone heaved a big sigh - a son...a future king had been born! And yet, you'd think someone would have asked (or listened to) some court astrologer: the birth of this son - like that of Marie Therese - had been marked by an eclipse. This being a Lunar Eclipse cross-collateralized little Louis' chart about as distinctly as the Solar Eclipse had marked his sisters chart. Maybe even more so, since he was the child marked to be King and the Moon is always the sign of populace and homeland - and it would be Louis' homeland and populace which came to hate him so, though still a child he was when all finally went up in flames.

And there is the point that with the Moon representing the body's absorption processes, a Lunar Eclipse around the time of birth often signals problems with a little one's health. This would be seen with Louis Joseph, who was never a very sturdy child.

Mom meanwhile, must have been missing home, since she started doing what her own parents had done: de-formalizing the court. Marie Antoinette wanted out of the heavy make-up and was done with the big hoop-skirted gowns, favoring something more of the countrified look she'd seen growing up.

 Marie Antoinette wearing a "plain muslin dress"  critics considered highly 'improper' for any queen to be wearing - painting by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun

Marie Antoinette in the garden wearing another

'informal' dress, flanked by her children Marie-Therese

Charlotte and the Dauphin, Louis Joseph

- painting by Adolf Ulrich Wertmuller

Apart from the 'plus' of having given the nation an heir and the 'minus' of her departures from approved fashion, Marie Antoinette had other troubles too. Brother Joseph, for instance, had provided some sort of assist in the 'get on with the having kids' thing only to then go off and stir up military trouble against French interests.

And in a world where gossip was caloric intake, that wasn't good for his sister Marie Antoinette - to say nothing of what was actually going on (as evidently demonstrated in correspondence) between Imperial Bro of Austria and Queenly Sis of France. Joseph accused Marie of being politically inactive and therefore highly ineffective - for his purposes, of course. And she replied that she was not privy to the King's political views, nor was it advisable to be seen as being influential: "Would it be wise of me to have scenes with his (Louis') ministers over matters on which it is practically certain the King would not support me?" 

No, Marie Antoinette saw her role as being more about raising her children, seeing to their education and when she could, retreating to her little hameau - a real village hamlet created amidst the gardens of the Petit Trianon complete with a mill and a dozen cottages.

  Belvedere, one of the hamlet 'cottages' set amidst

the gardens of the Petit Trianon

When she wasn't busy watching village bread being baked and overseeing her children's lessons, the Queen was reading historical novels and indulging her 'scientific interest' in hot air balloons. She was fascinated by the philosophy of Rousseau and Inca  culture, sought out tutors in English and even began a pen-pal sort of correspondence with the Duchess of Devonshire - no doubt discussing the making of good cheeses and such.

But her children remained Marie Antoinette's greatest focus. As 1784 rolled through, the health of her son the Dauphin was hardly robust and Pluto squaring Marie's Sun told a tale of her concerns for his health. And, if truth probably be told, her health if he didn't survive, which considering the times was a very real consideration.

So she and King Louis got busy again, and as March 1785 was just about to end, son Louis Charles was born, probably to great joint parental elation. With Sedna square Eris (immaturity challenging discord) Marie cooed over her new little one and the wrong ears heard: questions began to fly as to exactly who the father of this new little royal actually was.

The other side of Sedna - that of feeling separate and separated from the life you really want - is probably all about Marie Antoinette's happiness at her second son, a far healthier boy than the first. She may have also longed for a big family like that she grew up in. Manifesting oftentimes as the wishes and hopes we cling to without really realizing how to achieve them, Marie Antoinette spent most of her fairly short life trying to find or construct somewhere she felt 'at home.'

She probably never did, never could and didn't know how to even get there. Virtually confined by royal privilege from birth, hers was probably the quintessential life in which happiness could not be really felt because she had no toil or basic challenges to use as a baseline. So when Louis Charles was born she celebrated by buying a chateau, intending to give it to her children.

The French public took note - for all the wrong reasons. The country was in debt and the Queen was buying a chateau to give to baby children?

Then of course came the infamous 'Diamond Necklace Affair' - a little debacle which had everyone buzzing that the Queen was trying to defraud the crown jewelers, regular Frenchmen just trying to do an honest job. True or not true, the image of Marie Antoinette was souring; that she was even part of the French royal scene was becoming more and more of an irritation to the people.

 The Jebuton reproduction of the famous 'diamond necklace'

which so contributed to the marring of Marie

Antoinette's reputation with the French people.

After the necklace affair, things got no better. In 1786 a daughter - Sophie Helen Beatrice - was born, and died within the year. 

The French monarchy was dying too. Between internal strife, external politics and an inability to pass fiscal reforms the very ship of French state looked ripe to sink.

All this was happening as yet another Solar Eclipse was hitting Marie Antoinette's chart. This time positioned at her Ascendant, it did was Solar Eclipses do, brought about a 'breakdown.' And on the Ascendant, this would be a breakdown of all she would try to be and do - and a breakdown of everything she got involved in.

Could that be a good thing? Possibly yes. If your chart is well formed and the Ascendant is well ruled and well aspected, we might think you were going to do a great deed. Even cure some rancid disease. But this just wasn't the case in Marie Antoinette's case: with a critical degree 29 Gemini Ascendant ruled by an  overblown Sagittarius Mercury sitting with the entitlement 'limited vision' of Ixion in the 6th house of responsibility? The natal position/rulership combination is a bomb. Then along comes the solar eclipse, which inserts a fuse into said bomb.

Then we add in Eris (discord) opposing Marie Antoinette's Part of Fortune: everything happening to disrupt (Eris) what she has to do in the moment (Part of Fortune). PLUS Neptune was trining her Eris - a signal of Neptunian veils as situations (or mindsets) which made it nigh unto impossible for Marie Antoinette to recognize the full and nasty scope of what was going on - or how she was making things worse for herself. That Eris, goddess of discord was also in this moment in trining league with the Queen's calculated Lilith - the emblem of societal disapproval? AND that Saturn (responsibility, government, one's times and time in life) were peaking, hitting the most public place in Marie Antoinette's chart?

This is the match being struck and applied to the fuse shoved deep into the bomb. It was only a sizzling matter of time before the blast would come.

And come, it did. On July 14, 1789 the French people rebelled. A mob stormed the Bastille.

 The Storming of the Bastille

- painting by Jean Pierre Houel

Did Marie Antoinette know her time had pretty much come? Pluto (emotional transformation) was squaring Marie Antoinette's calculated Lilith - the Black Moon of negative public opinion. Pallas (knowing) was united Eris (discord) - as was Ceres, the symbol of what we have sown, so do we reap.

 Maybe she saw herself as one of the causes of the revolt. More likely she saw herself as exactly what she was - a product of excessive times for some and impoverished privileges for others which had finally run its course.

On October 5th, the mob descended on Versailles. The King and Queen were escorted to Paris and locked up in the Tuileries. And there they stayed while the country raged and virtually tore itself apart fro two long years until in June 1791, the family tried to escape.

It didn't work. Vesta opposition Pluto on Marie Antoinette suggests she either was or felt betrayed by those sworn to serve her - and within 24 hours the Royals were back in custody. Political opponents called for the end of the monarchy in France, insisting that people so cowardly as to run should hold no power.

The Revolution surged on. A new constitution was adopted on September 3, 1791 - with Marie Antoinette hoping it would fail. All she knew was the rights and life of royalty; she thought democracy unworkable. Maybe, she thought...just maybe it was all going to be okay. Her brother Leopold II was now Emperor of Austria. Maybe he would find some way to quash those nasty revolutionaries!

 Leopold II, Emperor of Austria, with his family

- painting by Johann Zoffany

 Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (son of Leopold II),

who succeeded his father in March 1792, just in

time to receive France's declaration of war

- painting by Ludwig Streitenfeld

Alas, no. An aggressive politician in his own right (never mind what so often proves true when it comes down to family affection versus historical power), Leopold was more interested in how to possibly use French unrest to his (national) advantage rather than anything else.

To make things more complicated, Leopold dies just as hostilities are whipping into a froth. So it's his son - Francis II - the latest Holy Roman Emperor of Austria who is sitting in the royal hot seat when in

April 1792 France declares war on Marie Antoinette's native country.

Marie Antoinette, by now, is well vested in being French - the reasons for which were like as not still clustered about her feet reading books and playing with their expensive, royal toys. But her image suffers nonetheless. The French see her at that Austrian woman and with France now at war with Austria, she's one of THEM. 

To make things worse, Louis is still (of course!) fighting for his royal rights (not to mention his Royal Life)...during that summer, as French troops are getting their French fannies handed to them by blisteringly feisty Austrians, Louis vetoes several measures which might have helped the army - but which would have done so at cost to royal power.

Saturn - restrictions, governance, punishments, earning what you get (good or bad) and the reality of Reality - was at that point squaring Marie Antoinette's natal 8th house Saturn. Always a symbol of her difficulties with others, now it manifested in the public blaming her for her husband's choices as Parisians (and others) start calling her 'Madame Veto.'

On June 20th of that same year came the next literal blow - a terrifying mob breaks into the Tuileries. Louis is able to appease them, but just barely and only temporarily. The mob returns less than a fortnight later and forces the family to seek refuge at the Legislative Assembly. That sanctuary lasts barely an hour an a half - the Swiss Guards are massacred and the family is removed from what has been  relatively genteel house arrest in the Tuileries to the unpleasant realities of harsh confinement.

Trining Marie Antoinette's Midheaven - her image of the world - Neptune's famously awful power to symbolize the dissolving and dissolution of things we think so real marks this terrible time.

A week later, with cries of the Queens selfish lack of consideration for everything French being shouted in the streets, the family's attendants are taken away for interrogation, forcing Marie Antoinette to - for perhaps the first time in her whole life - take care of herself and her family. Sedna is at Marie Antoinette's South Node: her having had an 'easy time' hits home with a literal vengeance as she learns her dear friends and faithful household companions have been killed. Their heads are impaled on pikes and paraded outside the prison windows.

On September 21st, the end of the French monarchy has arrived. Pallas (wisdom) conjuncts Marie Antoinette's Sedna (our unwillingness or incapacity to grow up). Was she scared? Yes - very. But like as not, she also didn't yet conceive of what others could think of doing to her.

She soon learned. Separated from his family, Louis was charged with undermining the First French Republic and found guilty. He would be executed in January, 1793 at age 38 - guilty of having been born the son of a King.

Eris - discord - conjuncted Marie Antoinette's reality (Saturn) the day her husband was killed. It was also the day when the North Node would once again conjunct it's natal position...the same signal which had marked Louis' coronation.

Did she love him? Servile Vesta, positioned at Marie Antoinette's foundational IC, on that day merged with Venus - all which is brought to us and made real in our life. He had become her world...and now Louis was gone.

Once King Louis was dead, there was a debate about what to do about his wife and children. Ultimately, eight-year-old Louis Charles was taken from his mother and given into the care of a cobbler. Neptune trining Marie Antoinette's Ascendant was the disappearance of her love, her connection with hope, and probably her faith in life itself.

On August 1st she was taken from the tower and assigned to the Concierge as Prisoner Number 280. Uranus inconjuncted Saturn...change was rejected for resignation. The Queen was done fighting.

The Revolutionary Tribunal of October 14 was greatly a joke. Conducted by misogynistic Jacobians, it was mostly a moment to accuse Marie Antoinette of everything from sending money to Austria to plotting the death of a rival Duke to orchestrating the massacre of the Swiss Guards to incest with her son.

There was some protest - and some unexpected support from commonplace women who in the end recognized that Marie Antoinette was simply a woman...not some royal ghoul.

But the cards had been dealt, the trial's outcome rather surely pre-determined. On October 16th, after only two days of proceedings Marie Antoinette was declared guilty. Her keepers arrived and cut off all her hair, she was put in an open cart and driven across the city and at 12:15pm, Marie Antoinette was publicly executed in the Place de la Revolution - today's Place de la Concord.

An odd statement that...as a word, 'revolution' is a very long way from 'concord.' The former is violent and bloody, the latter intellectual and peaceful.

But then, if there's anything mankind doesn't like to think about, it's just how inhumane humans can be to other humans in the name of goodness and equality.   

 Today's Place de la Concorde...then,

Place de la Revolution (Paris, France)

  

Marie Antonette's first son - the presumed Dauphin of the discarded monarchy - died in prison at age 14. He was guilty of nothing except having been born a royal son.

Marie-Therese Charlotte, Marie Antoinette's daughter, was finally turned over to Austria in a prisoner exchange. She married and died childless in 1851.

Originally tossed into unmarked graves, the bodies of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were exhumed on January 18, 1815 and given a fitting Christian burial at the Basilica of St. Denis.

 Originally a Benedictine monastery, the Cathedral of

Saint-Denis became the final resting place for

Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI during the 

Bourbon Restoration. 

photo credit - Beckstet/2005

 

Two last pieces of business before we close here. One is the famous 'let them eat cake' comment attributed to Marie Antoinette. Often quoted as an 'example' of how foolishly silly and uncaring she was, this seems an odd judgment considering Marie Antoinette probably had little idea (if any) of what it meant to live hand to mouth or count your pennies.

Beyond that, there appears to be no real evidence that she ever said such a thing. The original statement is this - it comes from the writing of Rousseau: 'Enfin je me rappelai le pis-alle d'une grande princess a qui l'on disait que les paysans n'avent pas de pain, et qui repondit: Qu'ils mangent de la brioche.'

Even if you don't speak French, it's easy enough to see that while there is a reference to 'princess,' no 'princess' is actually named. With Rousseau (like many philosophers) being prone to fanciful scenarios we are left to wonder. 

But cake? 'Qu'ils mangent de la brioche' does not mean 'let them eat cake' - brioche is a bread (and yes, I speak French).

  Et voila - brioche!

The very last thing...a perhaps sobering concept: the story of Marie Antoinette revolves in her personal chart greatly around the symbol of Eris Discord. And this is more than apropos when one thinks of the French Revolution - it was bloody discordant indeed!

Don't know enough about Eris? CLICK HERE.

And if we look to the dotted line between Marie Antoinette and the Revolution, what we see is France: a nation which had expended so much on war that it couldn't afford to exist. In the end, the government imploded not because France the nation was conquered from without, but because it became  undermined from within, collapsing under its own overextended weight.

That's in the end how Eris works. Eris is not about what others do to us or who they are and whether we like them, believe them or believe as they do, it's about our ability to be either rational and not discordant - or the very embodiment of rationally discordance: the person willing to risk personal discord in the name of social/societal equanimity and equality.

Eris has an orbital period of 557.438 years. Granting this is a global transit, it seems worth contemplating that a quarter Eris cycle after America won its independence was when the world went into WWI. And that one quarter Eris cycle after the French Revolution brings us to the date of America's Great Depression - an event which like the recent economic downturn  was felt around the world. And how a quarter Eris cycle after Civil War and the United States launched its assault on Iraq.

Granted - the world is a naturally erratic place. But it seems just as obvious that Eris and its cycles matter.  Are we all pawns...? Or are we willing to accept that (to paraphrase the Bard...) the discord lies not in our stars, but in ourselves?

As this blog posts....it's November 2, 2010, the 255th anniversary of Marie Antoinette's birth. She probably wouldn't want us to lose our head over anything - so let's not.

Instead, let's wish her well and thank her for having left us the legacy of a life story which, in teaching us something, perhaps makes us all her children of spirit...which might be a gift to her as in the end it seems obvious that Marie Antoinette did very much want to be the good and caring mother her own mother wasn't to her.

And the lesson? There may be much to think about, but maybe the most important point is how privilege matters not at all if we have no idea what privilege really means.

Or is.