astrocartography
diana, lady di, diana spencer, princess diana, death of lady di, biography,
jupiter, mundane, astrology, horoscope of diana, chart
From: The Role of the Least Aspected Planet in Astrocartography
The Death of Princess Diana
Neptune = 000
Mercury = 200
Uranus = 210
Saturn = 221
Pluto = 231
Venus = 312
Jupiter = 312
Sun = 320
Moon = 402
Mars = 502
Node = Transcendental Node (042)
Death of Princess Diana
Primary Transcendental Neptune, Secondary Mercury, Tertiary Transcendental Uranus.
Aug 31, 1997
00.25.00 AM CED (-02)
Paris
2E20'00"; 48N52'00"
Asc: 17Ge40; Mc: 15Aq16
Source: Times, September 1, 1997. This study is based on the moment of the fatal car crash and not on the official announcement of her death (it was announced at 4:00 a.m., Paris time; 2:00 a.m. GMT.
Commentary: The international outpouring — particularly among women — of “sympathy and empathy,”1 for Lady Di at the moment of her death was most extraordinary and was widely commented upon. The planet ruling such far-reaching empathy and concern — Neptune — was indeed the least aspected or Transcendental Planet at that tragic moment. Of particular note: Neptune was a “triple-zero“ Transcendental: with no traditional major, minor or Ascendant / Midheaven aspects (‘000’). Neither does Neptune make aspects to certain other notable points, such as the Node, the Vertex, or the Equatorial Ascendant.
Along with the other two least aspected planets, Mercury and Uranus, we have the rather startling portrait: “A global outpouring of empathy / due to an accident or to an unforeseen set of circumstances / which occurred during a brief commute or in a vehicle of travel” (Neptune / Uranus / Mercury). Neptune is also the ruler of “drugs and alcohol,” and the use of such substances by the chauffeur who drove that night seems to have played a central role in this sad event.
The portrait becomes more fascinating when we study the houses in which the Transcendental Planets reside: Primary Neptune and Tertiary Uranus in the Ninth House of travel to foreign lands; and Secondary Mercury in the Fourth, which rules the personal soul, the homeland, and burial. We should also keep in mind that Mercury rules journalism, the press, and the overall communication of ideas. (Some astrologers have also assigned the rulership of the “common people” to this planet.)
With Primary Neptune in the Ninth House, we can speak of “an international outpouring of empathy”; it would also be correct to imagine that something of the “world-soul” or anima mundi (ruled by Neptune) is touched upon here in a very direct manner; one affecting the hearts and souls of people, regardless of national affinity. Besides the notion of ”an accident or unexpected hazard in a foreign land” (Tertiary Transcendental Uranus in the 9th), Uranus points to something else: the telic or future-oriented nature of this event. With her unexpected demise, the collective, mass-perception of the core or “future personality” (Uranus) of Diana came immediately to the fore. She was, or strived to be, a humanitarian figure. In her birth chart, Jupiter, which rules “humanitarian work,” was the least aspected or Primary Transcendental Planet. With her death, her future role (Uranus) — the one we now imagine when we think of her, but one which was at previous times obscured by the scandals and personal problems of her life — came immediately into focus: for the first time, certain people even thought of her as a saint (Primary Transcendental Neptune). The Church of England felt obliged to advise the public that while Diana did perform good works, she was not in fact a modern goddess. Yet regardless of this paternalistic advice, a certain ‘worship’ of Diana continues to this day.2
Uranus also rules the sudden and unexpected reversal of positions; I have previously identified it with the “enantiodromian” function (Jung) in the psyche. In other words, when an extreme position is reached, there may suddenly be a reversal into the opposite position or form of expression (e.g., the coup d’êtat; the political “swing” of voters from party to party; the sudden shifts in fashion, taste, mental attitude, etc., of the social collective). With the death of Lady Di, there was indeed this sudden alternating shift, not only a shift in consciousness regarding her new or future personality, but as regards the view of Diana as not only transcending scandal but of now being “godly” or “divine” (Neptune) in some way. Who knows what a future enantiodromia may bring: we may not always remember her as such. Yet with her sudden death, Tertiary Uranus did enforce this dynamic reversal of consciousness. Enantiodromia is not merely a reversal or ‘seesaw like’ up-and-down motion: it also works with the forward moving tendency of the psyche and its yearning for growth through reformation — that is the reason for achieving such reversals in the first place: a reformation is gained, another step toward the future position is taken. With the Uranian quality of Lady Di’s moment of death, the collective realization of Diana as embodying an authentic spiritual force suddenly struck home, on a global scale, for the very first time: “Yes, indeed, in her acts, there was something saintly, something beyond the ‘merely human, all too human,’ something that transcended the ordinary personal tale.
Secondary Mercury in the Fourth House (or horoscope sector) eerily symbolized not only the theme of travel; it also symbolized the role of the pursuing journalists— and the ever pursuing journalists “at home” — which led to the pursuits and fiascos abroad. The role of journalism as a factor in her death was debated in the months that followed, as was the “future role / of journalism / in Britain” (Tertiary Uranus / Secondary Mercury / Mercury in the Secondary Transcendental House). As Linda Reid has written, “the fourth house is the ultimate place of safety, an allegorical womb to which one can withdraw for periodic sustenance,”3 yet the British journalists and their non-stop feeding frenzy for any piece of “Lady Di” left her largely unable to secure such sustenance in any easy manner; indeed, with the Fourth as ruler of “conditions at the end of life” and “the grave,” we might add that they, “the media, / entombed her” (Secondary Transcendental Mercury / Fourth House).
Notes:
1. “She was mourned by more than a million people in central London who lined the route of her funeral procession; by the 2,000 mourners inside Westminster Abbey who had been invited to attend her funeral service. Tens of thousands more gathered along roadsides to say farewell as she was driven roughly 70 miles northwest of London to Althorp, her family’s ancestral home. And across the earth’s 24 time zones, hundreds of millions interrupted their waking or sleeping schedules to gather around television sets.” “Farewell, Diana,” Time magazine, September 15, 1997, pp. 29-30.
2. Astrologer Nicholas Campion, in his essay on Princess Diana, evokes the proper archetypal perspective when he asks: “Was Diana a saint? I would say yes, and I called her such from the moment when she began her visits to AIDS patients and lepers. But the affirmative answer is based as much upon projection of public hopes and expectations on to her as to her nature. It was not that her nature was saintly that enables her to be perceived as such, but that she became such a powerful vehicle for those public projections. It seemed to me that from that moment she took on the archetype of one of those Anglo-Saxon princesses who died young and whose shrines became healing sanctuaries.” “Diana, Princess of Wales,” The Astrological Journal, Nov./Dec.1997, Vol. 39, No. 5.
3. Linda Reid, Crossing the Threshold: The Astrology of Dreaming. (London: Penguin / Arkana, 1997), p. 109.
This
entire site & its contents are Copyright © 1999-2002 by Robert Couteau.
All rights reserved. All text Copyright © 1999-2002 by Robert Couteau and
cannot be used
without the written and expressed consent of the author.
The Role of the Least Aspected Planet in Astrocartography
Awarded the Astro-Pro Website of the Week, 1 June 1998
horoscope of diana, lady di, diana spencer, biography, jupiter, mundane, astrology, horoscope of princess of diana, chart, death of lady diana astrocartography
