The British Character and the Royal Marriage

Mercury started moving forward again today, and almost like clockwork I’ve felt like writing again, after a gap of a week or so. I think the Mercury retrograde periods (which happen for 3 weeks 3 times a year) subtly change my writing. They move it on, though I couldn’t say how. I experience Mercury retrograde as a powerful and positive period, even though practical affairs are likely to go awry if you don’t take care. I think they go awry because it is a time for thought and for gathering yourself after a period of activity: the collective mind is not so focussed ‘out there’ keeping the world going round!

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There are 2 conflicting sides to the British character. On the one hand we are very traditional and respect our elders and betters. On the other hand we believe that no man is better than any other, and will riot to prove our point. You can see this conflict in the UK Chart.

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The Sun is in conservative, hierarchical Capricorn; and the Moon and MC are in patriotic, conservative Cancer. So the conservatism would seem to be what is most fundamental. It is disrupted by Uranus Rising in Libra, which squares both the Sun and MC. Uranus is protest and rebellion, and being in Libra, it takes place when there is perceived unfairness. I’d say the Tory party is the Capricorn/Cancer bit, and the Labour Party the Uranus/Asc bit, though of course they overlap. You’d expect the Tories to be in power more often, which is what seems to happen.

Both sides of the British character are on display at the moment. We have had protests against the government spending cuts, and protests against the huge hike in student fees, which as anyone can see, will only increase social divisions: student fees come in the form of loans, but what if you’re clever but from a background that isn’t used to loans? Debt can be terrifying.

In Bristol, in the ‘alternative’ Stokes Croft area, there have over the last year been civil disturbances at the prospect of a branch of Tesco’s opening; subsequent to its opening last week, there were further disturbances, the storefront was destroyed, and it has closed. I’m sympathetic to what the demonstrators have done, because you wouldn’t have a chance of stopping Tesco by any other means. It sends out a big message.

But the coming week belongs to the traditionalists. It will conclude, of course, with the Royal Wedding, but it has begun with David Cameron coming out in favour of internships for the children of friends and colleagues. He says he feels very relaxed about it, and he would, for he has an aristocratic Moon-Jupiter conjunction in Leo. David Cameron is a Libran, and I think he does believe in fairness in his own way. But it’s like he can’t help himself. His Jupiter in Leo (privilege) exactly conjoins the UK Jupiter. That is why he is so relaxed about it. It’s the same mentality as George Bush handing out contracts in Iraq to corporations with which he was personally connected. He couldn’t see a problem: they’re people we know and trust and can work with.

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David Cameron’s position on internships came out yesterday as the Moon conjoined Pluto in early Capricorn, conjunct the UK Sun. The leader (Sun) maintaining the power (Pluto) of the privileged classes (Capricorn) through their children (Moon).

George Bush has Leo Rising, and Cameron has Leo Moon. And I think this behaviour is as much Leo as Capricorn, for while Capricorn is hierarchical, at best it believes you need to earn your place in it. Leo, on the other hand, is more likely to give you a free ride if it believes you are ‘special’. That can be great for promoting talent, but crap if the specialness amounts to no more than being ‘one of us’. OK, all this is an emotive issue for me, because I grew up around people who believed in privilege and the sense of superiority that comes with it, and I could have taken advantage of that. But I’m an Aquarian, and apart from the unfairness and disrespect to other people involved in privilege, my experience was of a very narrow world in which there was little room to be individual.

If you’re narrow in the first place, then that privileged world seems self-evidently a good thing to be part of, and people who opt out seem at best a bit weird and at worst like they need psychiatric help .

I wish William and Kate well in their marriage, but I only find it interesting sociologically, as a case of the British class structure affirming and celebrating itself. I won’t claim to be immune to the appeals of the occasion, and I wouldn’t believe any British person who said they were immune. I’d say they probably weren’t being honest with themselves. The tradition is too deep and too much part of us not to feel it in some way. I won’t make a point of not watching the wedding, but I could well be doing something I find more interesting.

I didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary when Princess Diana died, but I think that was because it was more about a popstar or a religious icon dying than a member of the Royal Family. Diana had some unusual qualities and was also a bit of a mess, but that’s no different to 99% of us.

So what about the astrology of William and Kate’s marriage? I thought it might be useful to look at the charts for Charles’ 2 marriages first, as they might give us a clue what to look for.

First of all, Charles and Diana.

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I’d say the 2 main indicators are the Sun (the husband) and the Moon (the wife). Charles is Sun in Leo sextile to Jupiter and Saturn. Leo is the king/prince, and Saturn-Jupiter is the collective involvement. Leo and Jupiter also show his ease with taking a mistress, which for him is traditional. A royal marriage, not to put too fine a point on it, is a mating. (The actual matings were witnessed in previous centuries.)

It is a farmyard event that occurs for reasons of bloodlines and politics. Personal compatibility is not part of it, and there was pressure for Charles and Diana to marry each other. Charles was arguably just about old enough to know better, but he didn’t. In this context, mistresses and lovers make sense.

The Moon is in Cancer, showing Diana’s function was to be a mother, which the Moon likes. But it is conjunct Mars, and widely square to Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto. This is a very unhappy Moon. Disempowered (Pluto), moody and angry (Mars in Cancer) and the victim of a collective occasion (Saturn-Jupiter). As she said, she felt on the wedding day like ‘a lamb to the slaughter’. It was her decision, and let us not take that away from her. But it also seems to have been manipulative on the part of the older generation to put an unsure 21 year-old in that position. She was, again not to put too fine a point on it, groomed.

Charles and Camilla got married on a New Moon in Aries. I think the sign of Aries shows the 'bugger-what-the-public-thinks' attitude, which I support.

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The square to Saturn in Cancer in the 12th is this public opposition (conjunct the UK Moon at 19 Cancer.) But Saturn is weak in Cancer, and the trine from Sun-Moon to Pluto empowered Charles and Camilla to go ahead with ease. Saturn also shows the age factor in this marriage. Saturn comes onside as you get older and know how to work him. I think in this case it points to a happy marriage and public approval over time.

It is said that you should get married at a Full Moon, so that the Moon is equal to the Sun. Under a New Moon marriage, the wife can get eclipsed. Or the husband – the Sun and Moon can sometimes swap places. If you are young when you get married, this is probably worth taking into account. But if you are older, as Charles and Camilla were, and each person knows who they are, then I don’t think it need be a problem. It could point to a wonderful harmony, which is how close friends speak of Charles and Camilla together. Sun, Moon, Venus, North Node conjunct in Aries, trine to Pluto. The Sun has conjoined the Node in both Charles’ marriages, so they have both been necessary and important for him.

Uranus is a contrary planet, and his square to the Sun (the king) in the UK Chart describes the perverse response of the great British public to a royal marriage that was, for once, happy and real. We hated it. What we wanted was a fairytale marriage, which this most definitely was not.

I don’t know the exact time that William and Kate will be married on 29 April, but I think 11.30 isn’t far off.

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Like his father before him, William is getting married with Sun trine to Pluto, which is empowering for him. It also rules the Ascendant, strengthening its influence. The Moon is the more interesting one. In these royal marriages, it is the one marrying in who has to do the adjusting, and in this case it is Kate. The Moon is in Pisces, it is Void, and it makes no aspects apart from a wide out-of-sign conjunction to Uranus. For the first time, the heir to the throne is marrying a ‘commoner’ – i.e. an outsider, and this is Uranus. The lack of aspects and voidness suggests to me that Kate will be in a sense on her own within a strange institution, and that her identity will be subsumed (Pisces) into the marriage and the family. This is not necessarily an unhappy destiny (albeit not a very interesting one) for Kate. She has Sun in Capricorn and Moon in Cancer (just like the UK Chart) so feels very comfortable being part of the conservative establishment. The North Node is also on her Sun-Moon axis, so she has something important to learn by being in this position.

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BUT her Sun and Node, and possibly her Moon, are square to a Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Libra. A lot depends on how this square plays out. A straightforward reading is that she is fiercely aspirational and is willing to become disempowered in order to attain a high social position. This could also describe the Moon in Pisces of the marriage chart. It is, of course, all quite unconscious. I think this is what is actually happening because of her background and previous behaviour. She was brought up to be socially aspirational (her Dad created a family coat of arms, and Kate’s sister was at one point seeing the son of a Duke.) And she spent her twenties fiddling about, clearly seeing eventual marriage to William as the purpose of her life.

And the square in her chart could in theory do for her. She could remain a cipher for the rest of her life. Many women have. But we live in an age where it is no longer acceptable for women to be ciphers. Unless they are in the Royal Family. But Kate Middleton was not born into the Royal Family.

So I think the square from the Sun to Saturn-Pluto describes Kate eventually having to break free of the disempowering position in which she has put herself. And the Moon-Uranus of the marriage chart describes both the suffering (Pisces) this will put Kate through and the disruptive effect (Uranus) this will have.

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It may not mean the end of the marriage. With Sun and Moon in 7th House Cancer, William is intensely, perhaps even suffocatingly, relationship and family oriented and would resist his family and marriage being broken up. Pluto will begin to conjoin Kate’s Sun in 4 to 5 years time, and will finish with squaring her Saturn-Pluto in about 11 years time. Also in 4 years time, her Progressed Venus will change direction, adding to the case for a shift in her marriage.

So I’d say that Kate will spend the early years of her marriage adapting to her new life and having children. After that, she will begin to change, to want to become more who she is, and this struggle will go on for 5 to 6 years – at the end of which Neptune will start to square Prince William’s Descendant, his relationship point, and will go on to square his Sun and Moon in the succeeding years. William will also have Prog Venus conjunct Node in about 11 years. So the outcome of Kate’s struggle for her own power will then lead to a period of major change for William. I’ve probably delved too far already into their personal lives, so I don’t think I’ll try and guess an outcome – whoops, I’m an astrologer, I meant predict! But you could say that in terms of changing the Royal Family, Kate will be taking up where Diana left off. And if she does stay, her Sun-Saturn-Pluto will eventually make her the real power within the Royal Family. With Neptune Rising and opposite Sun and Moon, William is able to become, for better or for worse, whatever those around him need him to be.