THE ROYAL ECLIPSES

As someone pointed out on my blog last week, not only was Prince William born on an eclipse, but both his father’s marriages took place on eclipses – total eclipses! You start to think that maybe Prince Charles consults an astrologer. I wouldn’t put it past him, because he is quite an open-minded guy who goes his own way. It is very difficult to carve out your own life if you are a British Royal, but he has managed to do so. I’d put it down to his Leo Rising, which stands in contrast (in his case) to his conservative Sun and Moon in Scorpio and Taurus respectively. Leo-Aquarius is the axis of individuality, that enables us to break free of the expectations of everyone around us.

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Because Charles has Leo-Aquarius on his Asc-Desc, this tendency is basic to who he is. And to William’s Mum Diana, who had Moon in Aquarius opposite Uranus. Not so William, where I’d say it is just a part of him. Uranus the rebel (which rules Aquarius) is opposite his Mercury and Venus, so he can be quite individual/original in his thinking and his relationships. We have yet to see it in his thought (though Neptune will be activating that over the next few years), but by marrying a ‘commoner’ he has done something Uranian in his relationships. So that Uranus is active. But it only seems Uranian to William’s young eyes. Kate has a deeply conventional and ambitious chart (without strong contacts to William’s), and I think before long William will be wondering what he has done (though we probably won’t get to hear about it.)

Uranus will be squaring William’s Moon (wife) at 5 Cancer through to the end of 2012. Uranus is the awakener. I think Kate will change now she has got what she has wanted for so many years, and I think William is going to be wondering who he has married. The next 2 years are going to be difficult and unsettled for him in his marriage. You do not want to get married with a hard Uranus-Moon transit coming up (or Uranus-Venus for that matter.)

It is interesting that Diana died in 1997 as Pluto was finishing a hard transit to William’s Venus-Uranus opposition, and now he gets married as Neptune is finishing a hard transit to his Venus-Uranus. It connects the two events. And his Venus is also closely conjunct Chiron, so there is a wound here. His Mum’s death and the trauma of it have affected his choice of partner. He is seeking healing. It is unconscious, and Kate looks like she fits the bill. Put another way, if one of your parents is absent or dysfunctional or just completely unlike you, you may not learn how to relate to members of that sex, who to trust and who not to trust, and you may have to learn the hard way. Also, with Moon in Aquarius in a t-square with Venus and Uranus, Diana was deeply unconventional and unsettled and wanting to break free. It’s like William has instinctively chosen the opposite of Diana, because it was that desire to be free that resulted in her death. And, in the strange way that fate seems to work, William’s marriage may well end up with him feeling trapped like his Mum did. But how else do we learn?

Back to the Royal Eclipses. Eclipses are not as powerful as they used to be, because we now know when they are going to happen, and we don’t get to see most of them, either because they are only visible somewhere else, or if you are British because of the weather.

In earlier times they would have been an unexpected event that upset the basic course of nature, that plunged the world into semi-darkness during the day. How strange, how awesome, what are the gods trying to tell us, what great event does it portend?

Astrology has lost touch with the raw power of observed celestial events as it has retreated into the mathematics that makes those celestial events predictable. At the same time, a richness of symbolism has developed, facilitated by that predictability, which contains its own sense of awe and wonder. But it has kind of left eclipses, the most powerful event of all, as the poor relation. Eclipses are catalysts, often powerful ones, but they do not occur regularly enough or in short enough cycles to get the kind of attention and worked through symbolism that, say, the Uranus-Jupiter conjunction would receive.

That said, Bernadette Brady has done a lot for eclipses in her book Predictive Astrology. Eclipses come in Saros Cycles, which can last up to 1500 years, and the various solar and lunar eclipses that occur in a year will belong to a number of different cycles. So you have to go long-term historical to make sense of these series.

An eclipse cycle begins as a partial eclipse and builds over centuries into a total eclipse and then begins to fade again. So a total eclipse, when it occurs, has been growing for a very long time and has a corresponding depth and power to it. An eclipse, and particularly a total eclipse, that impacts your chart is going to have a very powerful effect on you.

So Charles got married on 2 total eclipses, which is an extraordinary bit of timing. These marriages really were/are about something. One way of interpreting an eclipse, which Brady uses, is to look at the chart for the 1st eclipse of that series, because that is how astrology works: it is about everything being contained in beginnings, which makes astrology a Scorpionic, rather than an Aquarian, art.

So Charles’ 1st marriage, which occurred on 29 July 1981, 2 days before the eclipse. This eclipse cycle began in 1639.

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Brady’s interpretation using midpoints contains the following: “Unexpected events involving friends or groups place a great deal of pressure on personal relationships… the individual would be wise not to make any hasty decisions since information is distorted and possibly false.”

Well, Charles was really in love with Camilla, Diana didn’t know this – and Charles was maybe also kidding himself – and this put an intolerable strain on their relationship.

Charles’ 2nd marriage took place on 9th April 2005, the day after a total eclipse. This eclipse cycle began in 1103.

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This eclipse took place in Libra, opposite Pluto and on the Venus Mars midpoint. Brady says it all:

“A very sensual family of eclipses, ranging from sudden sexual passions and lust to birth and procreative drives. This series is not subtle, and can catch people off guard and confront them with their own very deep passions which may have been hidden for many years.”

Finally, we have the eclipse under which William was born. It was not total, in fact it is part of a series that ends quite soon, in 2036, having begun in 792.

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It is a coincidence that the Sun and Moon are just a few degrees off the eclipse under which William was born, but it does emphasise the importance of the cycle for him.

Using Sun-Moon-Jupiter on the Mars-Uranus midpoint, and Mercury on the Venus-Saturn midpoint, Brady says this:

“This is a difficult eclipse family, as its members bring unfortunate news concerning friendships or relationships. You will be dealing with ideas of separation or the ending of a union. However, although the picture may look glum as the eclipse takes effect, the actual results are quite positive. You will quickly grasp what has to be done and fast action can bring good results. The theme of this eclipse is action concerning personal relationships.”

We’ve dramatically seen the effect of this eclipse once already, with the death of Diana. It could equally well point to an ending with Kate, and that could be early in the marriage (“You will quickly grasp what has to be done” – combine this with William’s Uranus-Moon transit over the next year.)

There is the broader issue of the monarchy itself, because as Brady has pointed out, this series began 10 years before King Egbert, who was the first king to (briefly) unite England, came to the throne. So this eclipse series could end with some sort of ending for the monarchy, in 2036 + or - 10 years. There isn’t a big republican movement in England, and it seems unlikely that we would want rid of our kings and queens. But it’s perfectly possible that Scotland or Australia, for example, could do so. Scotland going republican would be a particularly big event, because it would suggest a break-up of the UK itself.