The Ballad of John and Edwina
By Pete Watson
Q: What do Prince Charles, George W Bush and Edwina Currie have in common? Ascendants in early Leo? Charles' at 5LE25, George's at 7LE07 and Edwina's at 6LE16.
They've all been experiencing the transit of Neptune over their descendants differently. For Charles, the issues are obviously symbolized by Camilla (whose Ascendant is 3LE06). Will he, can he, marry her? (if he could, would he?). And, of course, Diana; he protested vehemently when another revealing Diana biography came out, and I wonder what he makes of the planned memorial water feature? He also recently courted controversy when a close friend revealed his sending lots of advisory letters to various members of the Government, perhaps overstepping his role as head of state in waiting by meddling in politics. George, meanwhile seems (Neptune!) to have reached agreement with Mr. Blair (Blair's node/Moon conjunction sits on George's descendant) regarding his desire for war with Iraq but must detect an apparent lack of commitment from other NATO leaders. He's also having trouble with in one-on-ones with Mr. Bin Laden and Mr. Hussein. Bin Laden's location and physical state remain unknown while Saddam does or does not continue to build weapons of mass destruction. Here's Neptune again - the most "successful" of these have been chemical weapons.
The themes for all three obviously involve the vagaries of Neptune mixed with classic factors symbolized by the descendent; relationship, morality, law and ethics. For Edwina the pattern is reminiscent of Charles. She revealed that she had also been involved in a three person “crowded marriage” through an affair with John Major. A further factor that Camilla, Charles and she have in common is Neptune being on the IC at birth. All have been involved in domestic deception and dissolution in pursuit of the elusive, secretive and perfect-but-nebulous love Neptune promises.
Currie (chart
left) revealed her affair with Major in an interview published by The
Times on 28th September. This was soon after Jupiter had passed over
her ascendant, heightening the impact of the Neptune transit. As the presses
rolled, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus were all on her SO/MO midpoint. Natally
SO/MO is conjunct her Pluto, which is in turn 90- her Mars making this
the pattern that was being activated as the paper came out. With this
combination of planets at the centre of her chart it’s unsurprising
the press assumed Currie's motivations were revenge, power and filthy
lucre.
For Currie, the whole episode obviously has economic and social implications, with the initial financial gain (Jupiter was conjunct Pluto and closest to her SO/MO on the day) perhaps giving way to greater complexities. This is reflected by the upcoming numerous transits to her SO/MO, including a station of Neptune opposite it in late 2004. The reactions of her family, ex-colleagues and ex-husband will be part of that process.
As things stand she has devastated the reputation of her ex-lover and
his least loved political campaign. Major's (chart right) Back to 
Basics
aimed to stamp out scandals in the private lives of his government ministers.
He launched it at the Conservative Party Conference in autumn 1993, under
an appropriate mundane SA-90-PL.Transit Pluto had spent the whole year
in hard aspect to Major's central factors of Sun, Moon and Chiron/Node
conjunction. Sexual and financial scandals had been exposed at an alarming
rate, undermining his control. As Saturn stationed on this crucial degree
area for the last time and Pluto made it’s final pass, he weighed
in and set out to put saturnine controls around the excesses of Pluto,
hoping to reign-in his maverick ministers (Node/Chiron). Unfortunately
for him, nature doesn't’t work that way and the irresistible force
of Pluto proved stronger than Saturn, the immovable object.
As it had before; Major made his hypocritical speech long after his affair with Currie, which began in 1984 and ended in 1988. This relationship encompassed his transit Pluto square Pluto years; Pluto came out of the box and Major broke his own taboos prior to imposing them. Taboo breaking followed by denial. In typical Pluto fashion it was the denial, her absence from even the index of his memoirs that riled Currie. And even now Major seems unable to bend to plutonian inevitability; as Currie published he made himself scarce and dismissed the four year relationship as a mistake.
The hypocrisy with which Major is now stained can be seen through how he has misused two aspect patterns in his chart in his public life. The Sun/Moon square in Aries/Capricorn echoes the tune of impulse and control seen in Pluto versus Saturn, reinforced by the mingling of all four planets by aspect and midpoint. The second pattern includes an exact Mars-135-Neptune on the magnifying cardinal axis. Here we see the potential for misdirected energy and sexual scandal. In Saturn’s exact opposition to their midpoint we find the desire to control or repress this – to not let breaking the bounds of decent behaviour undermine a feeling of control and concentration, not to let the façade of decency be undermined by any past indiscretions. But there is a leak; Mercury is also involved, standing opposite Neptune in the sometimes rash sign of Aries.
These powerful dynamics were harnessed by Major to get him to the top of his profession. The lack of comfort in the astrological patterns gives the drive to achieve great things but also the potential for distortion through the sheer dynamic imbalance of the chart; he is a typical politician, as is Edwina Currie. In John Major's case these dynamics and his "mistake" led him to becoming ridiculously controlled and controlling when it came to personal morality. It also helped that he was good at that most necessary of political skills; lying.
He was once caught saying that some colleagues were "bastards" and it was revealed that he had a relationship with an older woman before he married. That these humdrum occurrences jarred, almost shocked the press and public revealed the distance between public and private man and how thoroughly he was operating through his ME-180-NE. These were minor slips of the unbelievably gray public image he presented compared to the "“reality" exposed by Currie's revelation. A big chunk of that self-imposed image, a Mercury-Neptune smokescreen, has been blown away. Behind it is the private man, unknown to the public and perhaps, at some levels, as deeply at odds with himself as his bizarre actions suggest. The British electorate might feel cheated on by John, but was he faithful to himself?
Data
John Major: 29th March 1943, Carshalton, England 51N22, 0W10. Major to Russell Grant between 2:00 and 4:30 AM Zone -1. Charles Harvey rectified this to 2:42 AM. Note that this gives a descendant of 28GE15.
Edwina Currie: 23:30, 13th October 1946, Liverpool, England 53N25 2W55. From Currie's secretary to David Fisher over the telephone. Currie's Mars Local Space line runs straight through Westminster.
Norma Major: 12th February 1942, Much Wenlock, England 52N36 2W34, time unknown. Source: Norma by Tim Wallace, Fourth Estate 1993. Note: Capricorn Moon, just like John.
Pete Watson is a writer and astrologer. He first had his chart read in 1982 in Brighton. Birth data 12:45 Zone 0, 5th January 1963, Merstham, England 51N15 0W09.
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