charles

B.  July 1 1961, 7:45 PM, Sandringham, England

D.  Aug 31, 1997, 4:00 am, Paris France

On August 31, 1997 I was in Santa Fe, packing to speak at the British Astrology Conference the following weekend, when CNN announced that The Princess of Wales had been in a car accident, along with her lover, Dodi Fayed. Later that day, her death was announced. The world was dumbstruck - all through my travel to London people were glued to the airport televisions, tears streaming from their eyes.

Thus ended the life of a dynamic and charismatic young woman. Her horoscope embodies a “freedom/closeness” dilemma.  Her childhood was traumatic and chaotic because of her parent’s infamous divorce (Moon opposite Uranus squared by Venus), her father’s subsequent remarriage and the public turbulence of the family drama. She and her brother were shunted to and fro between mother and the father/stepmother. Her anxiety, panic attacks and later self-image complexes lie rooted in the family of origins; her needs for love were unmet, establishing a pattern that played out in her life and marriage and work.  

It seemed that with her Sun/Mercury in Cancer trine to Neptune, the “ideal love and family” had apparently come true! She married a Prince however, it was a shock when she “came to” as the Princess who kissed the wrong frog!Though there were early signals of trouble, Charles’ true affinities were known to her early on. She wanted that marriage, she was in a Neptunian enchantment - unwilling to see the reality.

Being just twenty when she married, her maturation process was not only warped, but also advanced by her attempts to individuate through that ancient family matrix. Her international “audience,” with Sagittarius rising, began with the wedding spectacle,at St. Paul’s Cathedral, July 29, 1981. Televised and “attended” by a global audience of over 750 million people.

With her Cancer Sun/Mercury in a trine to Neptune (in her tenth house of “public image”), she became a projection, a fantasy played out in the world at large. Also, her Moon square to Venus shows a split in the feminine archetype - between the independent Goddess and the nurturing Mother. She had to mediate those archetypes within herself, which under her circumstances played out in a public arena.