History may not exactly repeat, but it certainly rhymes. A transiting planet may return to its original position, but all the other planets have moved in the meantime. So there are echoes, but not repeats. In the bombshell interview Meghan Markle gave to Oprah Winfrey together with Prince Harry on March 7th 2021, Meghan revealed how close to suicide she had been whilst pregnant with her first child. Princess Diana, of course, struggled with bulimia through her early years of marriage with an unsympathetic royal household, so the echoes are clear. Even more surprising perhaps, is the fact that Meghan Markle was born just five days after Diana married Charles, so that this marriage chart and her birth chart are very similar. Both charts straddle the solar eclipse at 8 degrees Leo which took place in the summer of 1981. Both channel the difficult Mars in fall in Cancer square the monumental Jupiter-Saturn conjunction exact at 5 degrees Libra. (Note 1)
Echoes from the Past
The echoes go even further back to the cataclysmic marriage of the King of England, Edward VIII. He married a twice-divorced American woman, Wallace Simpson, whilst Harry married a once-divorced American woman of mixed race. Which brings echoes of Princess Diana’s relationship to Dodi Al Fayed, an Egyptian. Hardly British material.
Wallace and Edward VIII were comprehensively ostracized by the royal family, whose emotional lexicon did not factor love in as a reason to get married. But Simpson has Moon at 21 Libra trine Venus (and Neptune) in Gemini, so love was gospel for her. It’s true that her Moon exactly opposed Mars, so perhaps she was a bit of a huntress, but in the end she stuck with her man. (Note 2)
It is interesting to note that Markle has her Pluto at 21 Libra, so there’s the echo with Wallace Simpson. She awakens the trauma of separation, divorce and exile etched into royal DNA. Markle’s Neptune is at 22 Sagittarius whilst Wallace Simpson’s is at 18 Gemini, and her Uranus at 26 Scorpio mirrors Simpson’s Uranus at 21 Scorpio. The cycles repeat and dissolution and chaos hit the English throne.
Meghan and Oprah
British newspapers did not look on Meghan and Harry’s tell-all interview kindly. With the Queen’s husband, 99-year old Prince Philip, hospitalized with heart problems, the timing seemed bad. A Palace counter-offensive was launched: Markle apparently bullied her household staff, some of whom left in protest. As an advocate of women’s rights, this alleged bullying by Markle was inappropriate.
If it happened.
Meghan Markle: August 4th, 1981. 4.45 am. Canoga Park, CA (AS 24.17 CP)
Meghan Markle has Mars at 11 Cancer in the 12th house exactly square the MC-IC axis. Clearly this shows a stressful relationship to any household – especially a royal one. And perhaps the square to the extraordinary Moon-Saturn-Jupiter stellium could show some bullying. But what Mars in the 12th definitely shows is the real suicidal urges she confessed to having. With her Descendant at 24.17 Capricorn, she is experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime transit of Pluto, which indicated that as far as relationships are concerned, she cannot tolerate any more of the same. She really has been going through hell. Harry had to choose between his old family and his new.
For Meghan Markle family troubles go a long way back. She explains her heritage here:
“My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white. … I have come to embrace this and say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident, mixed-race woman.”
… but the divorce of her parents when she was six years old probably took an emotional toll on her.
Strong and confident she undoubtedly is. She has the Sun in Leo in the first house – she captured a prince – and both the Sun and Mercury make a strong sextile to an exalted Saturn in Libra in the 3rd house, along with the Moon and Jupiter. These aspects shows just how skilled and confident she is in communication, which is probably what propelled her into acting.
Suits and Paralegal
Markle is best known for her role as a paralegal in the legal drama Suits, which ran for seven seasons. She may not have graduated in law in real life, but on film at least her Venus in Virgo in the third reflected the office girl, and the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Libra must have been all those “suits” – the smartly dressed lawyers.
Venus in fall in Virgo and Mars in fall in Cancer is in strong contrast to the powerful and fortunate Leo-Libra planets. The Sun is exactly at their midpoint, which enhances the romantic and sexual aura, but Mars clearly shows some unhappiness – parental divorce, miscarriage, first marriage rapid breakup, royal household – whilst Venus in Virgo, which incidentally is exactly quintile Uranus, probably shows great sensitivity to any attempt to place her in an inferior role. She is a strong advocate of women’s rights.
Importing Meghan Markle from California and the Hollywood scene to London and the royal household was always a bit of a stretch. Mixed-race American divorcee trying to adjust to the stiff upper lip of the royal family would have required superhuman qualities. Prince Harry had already experienced what it meant for his mother, and Markle was his passport out.
Prince Harry
Harry lost his mother a couple of weeks before his 13th birthday. He’s a survivor. With Capricorn Ascendant ruler Saturn in Scorpio in the 9th house exactly sextile his Ascendant, this is a person familiar with death and unafraid of it. He served two tours in the army in Afghanistan, probably reflected by his risk-taking Mars-Uranus conjunction in Sagittarius in the 11th house. He has subsequently wholeheartedly engaged in charity work for injured servicemen and women, notably with the Invictus Games. This capacity for courage in the face of a heavy fate is curiously paralleled in Queen Elizabeth II’s horoscope. She too has Saturn in Scorpio in 9th sextile her Capricorn Ascendant. They don’t come tougher than that.
Prince Harry. September 15th 1984. 16.20. London AS 11.26 CP
Trends in Harry’s Life
Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in a tunnel in Paris on 31st August 1997. This is profoundly reflected by Harry’s progressed MC, which conjoined the South Node in Scorpio in the 10th house at this time. The position of the South Node at 29 degrees likely reflects an exhaustion with the idea of a royal role that sucks the life out of a man. In the Oprah interview he talks about how he felt trapped, and of how he saw both his father and brother, Prince William, as trapped.
Interestingly, Harry married Meghan when his Venus progressed also conjoined the South Node… looks like an ancient connection then. With the move from the UK to the USA, Venus moved out of Scorpio and into Sagittarius. Freedom!
With his moon and North Node in Taurus in the 4th house trine his Sun in Virgo in the 8th Harry probably just wants emotional peace and a quiet marriage. It is unfortunately not going to be quiet over the next two years, because transit Uranus conjoins his IC and Moon in 2021 and 2022, suggesting perhaps he will move again in this period, or that there is an even more radical break with his home country. He and Meghan currently reside in California. As his progressed Ascendant-Descendant is also square Uranus in 2021, it’s going to be a very disharmonious period… also for the relationship. In less than two years’ time his Sun progresses out of Libra and conjoins Pluto at 0 Scorpio… what a transformation he is undergoing! Amazingly, his Mars progressed is now right on his Ascendant, so this is a man who has staked out his future course, and he is prepared to take any flak that anyone throws at him.
The Tremble of the Upper Lip
All this turmoil is not surprisingly reflected in the horoscope for the United Kingdom. Not only do they have to face the corona virus and Brexit, now they have Megxit. The love of the British for their Queen and strange attraction to a privileged aristocracy is reflected by the grand cross in fixed signs in the 1801 horoscope.
United Kingdom. January 1st 1801. 0.00 am London AS 7.09 LI
First transit Uranus conjoins Mars at 11 Taurus, then Saturn conjoins Venus at 16 Aquarius, and then the Saturn-Uranus square goes on to activate Neptune at 18 Scorpio and Saturn at 23 Leo. The British establishment is getting thoroughly spanked. One of their royals is leaving Britain, just like Edward VIII.
Uneasy lies the head that wears the Crown
When you have lived for 95 years, as Queen Elizabeth II has, not a lot is going to surprise you. First her uncle abdicated the throne, then her father, the King George VI died at 56, and at the tender age of 25 she ascended to the throne. Her eldest son divorced, and her daughter-in-law was killed in a car crash. Meanwhile she stays resolutely on the throne, where destiny has placed her.
Elizabeth II. 21st April 1926. 2.40 am London AS 21.22 CN
With Ascendant ruler Saturn conjoining her MC, her reign has been long-lasting and rock solid. Her Sun, hovering between Aries and Taurus, is strangely unaspected, although a closer look shows it at the midpoint and exactly quintile Mars and Pluto, indicating a powerful and incredibly determined person. Elizabeth married Philip, a naval captain, who in the early years of the married strayed somewhat. This could be reflected by Neptune in the 7th in opposition to the intercepted Mars-Jupiter conjunction. Which incidentally Prince Charles also has, intercepted in the 5th house, and also has been indiscrete with.
The marriage of her grandson, Harry, to Meghan, happened when the Queen’s progressed Venus squared Uranus in Pisces – I guess that is the disruptive mixed-race American wife, who needed to be integrated into the royal household.
In April 2021 Saturn will oppose the Queen’s moon at 12 Leo. It will then move retrograde and oppose the Moon twice more during the course of the year. Uranus will square her Moon in May, and this too will repeat twice. Then in 2022 the continuing Saturn-Uranus square will activate her Mars-Jupiter conjunction. This is both a disruptive and depressive energy for someone who will soon be 96 years old.
It is interesting to see that the Queen’s progressed MC conjoined Jupiter in 2018 whilst the IC conjoined Neptune, so generally this has been a period of over-exposure, media attention and family dissolution. Here in 2021 the MC/IC is exactly square her ruling planet Saturn in Scorpio, which along with the Saturn-Uranus transits is shaking the throne to the core.
To add to the chaos, the Queen’s progressed Mercury is about to become stationary – on her Neptune. After a lifetime when progressed Mercury has travelled all the way from Aries to Leo, it grinds to a halt at 21.14 Leo channeling all the force of her Neptune opposition to Mars-Jupiter.
These are an extraordinary number of disruptive influences, which suggests that the uproar of the Oprah Winfrey interview is just one factor in a complete reconstruction of the royal family. For the Queen, this would be an ideal time to hand over the throne, which could be expected to happen at the latest when Uranus conjoins her IC and opposes that dutiful Saturn in 2024.
Adrian Ross Duncan. March 11th 2021
Note 1. Diana – Charles marriage: 29th July 1981. 11.17 am London.
Note 2. Wallace Simpson: 19th June 1896. 22.30 Blue Ridge Summit, PA.