JFK – a Saturnine exit with double Mars Pluto trouble

JFK was shot on 22 November 1963 sixty years ago this week, an event which shook the USA and the world and gave rise to innumerable conspiracy theories. Astrology won’t solve the mystery but the aspects of the moment were extraordinarily apt.

  The previous Solar Eclipse in July 1963 at 27 degrees Cancer was exactly opposition the USA Pluto, which triggered the USA Pluto opposition Mercury which is prone to getting facts twisted to suit obsessive viewpoints.

  There have been a handful of Solar Eclipses around this degree through the 20th century, not all of which coincided with such a devastating event. Though several of them did. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake.  1944/45 end of WW11 and Hiroshima. The 1963 Martin Luther King ‘I have a Dream’ speech. 1990 Gulf War as Iraq invades Kuwait. 2009/10 – recession.

 The 27 degree Cancer Eclipse was also exactly conjunct JFK’s 10th house Saturn in Cancer conjunct Midheaven. Eclipses on a natal Saturn can be a time of paying the price for past actions. Especially with Saturn in the 10th, any infractions from the straight and narrow path tend to bring retribution. [The Mafia?}

 The Lunar Eclipse of July that year in Capricorn was exactly square the USA Saturn and opposition the USA Cancer Sun – so sparking a major crisis for the USA; again a Saturnine comeback about falling short on societal responsibilities and awareness, as well as fair-mindedness in relationships. Which could point to the Civil Rights battle being fought. Although it might also point to the reality of JFK’s marriage.

  Relocating JFK’s chart to Dallas puts Pluto conjunct his Midheaven, which is always deemed as indicating a high risk area.  Though it needs additional back up from transits to the natal chart before activating. The tr Uranus Pluto conjunction in Virgo had been hovering around his Solar Arc Saturn (Pluto conj Sat exactly in the September). His Solar Arc Mars was within a degree conjunct his Pluto, which would considerably elevate the danger; doubled in intensity with his SA Pluto being square his Mars as well. And transiting Saturn was within a degree of squaring his 8th house Mars which again is accident/disaster prone.

  He had a classic 8th house chart, 29 May 1917 3pm Brookline, Massachusetts, with his Gemini Sun there as well as Jupiter, Algol, Mercury and Mars all conjunct in Taurus trine a Virgo Moon. His Sun was conjunct Venus on the cusp of the 9th.  He had Saturn conjunct Neptune in his 10th – hope for a better society and creative though also a worrier. He was an opinionated/influential speaker with a 9th house Pluto and a romantically wayward Uranus in the 5th.

  Mars in the 8th is sometimes written up in old texts as a risky placing though I have known some with it live into their 90s so does not always follow.

 His 8th house would weigh him down with his ancestral history with grandparents on both side being politicians and before that Irish immigrants who fled the Great Famine in the 1840s. It would also give him the ability to project an aura – the dream of Camelot which was more vision than reality, perhaps as a result of Jupiter’s lofty glow. And hiding many a dark family secret with Mars in Taurus.

Geert Wilders – outlier moves centre stage

A political earthquake in the Netherlands may see far-right, anti-Islamic, anti-migrant, pro-Putin Geert Wilders in power. His Freedom Party has doubled its previous record to win 35 seats though he will have a long drawn out struggle to form a coalition to rule in the 150 seat parliament.

 In the run-up to the elections, he focused on growing economic concerns, vowing to solve the housing crisis and tackle inflation while portraying climate action as a new form of tyranny by The Hague.

 There is precious little in his chart, 6 September 1963 (without a birth time) to suggest triumph immediately and there is disappointment, confusion and losses ahead in 2024.

 But it is a massive wake up call for the country. Wilders’ rebellious, status-quo-upsetting Sun, Pluto, Uranus in Virgo is conjunct the Netherlands Mars in Virgo for a stormy interface. His Saturn in Aquarius is conjunct the Netherlands Uranus and opposition its Sun Venus in Leo – with his Neptune in hard aspect to the same as well – so his reactionary and mistrustful views hit an uncomfortable note for the progressive inclinations of the Netherlands.

 The Netherlands chart, 26 July 1581 JC The Hague, is equally showing little as of this moment but looks discouraged and blocked in 2024 with SA Saturn square the Sun; jolted and jangled with tr Uranus square the Saturn after mid 2024 – and panicked in 2025/26.

  His Freedom Party chart, 22 February 2006, looks deflated this coming January and under-powered through 2024.

 I can’t decide whether the right wing populist surge of the moment is Pluto in Capricorn’s vengeful swan song or a harbinger of Pluto in Aquarius’s can-be-fascist tendencies.

Sam Altman – a pioneering, uncompromising Taurus

Ousted OpenAI chief Sam Altman will return to run the company he co-founded under a new board days after he was sacked. Greg Brockman, the co-founder and president who quit the company after he was fired, will return alongside him. OpenAI is the leading generative artificial intelligence start-up whose brainchild ChatGPT kick-started a new era of artificial intelligence a year ago (exactly as Pluto entered Aquarius). It now has 100mn weekly users. The product’s popularity resulted in corporate giants like Microsoft, Google and Salesforce and a host of tech start-ups launching their own chatbots and AI-infused software products, much of it built with OpenAI’s underlying AI technology.

 One insider said of Altman: “His superpower is getting people onside, shaping narratives, pushing situations into the shape that work for him. It makes him impossible to oversee.” He has been described as “deeply, deeply competitive” and a “mastermind”, with one acquaintance saying there is no one better at knowing how to amass power.

See previous Post April 11 2023 ChatGPT.

 Altman, 22 April 1985, Chicago, has a chart not dissimilar to Mark Zuckerburg replete with stubborn and ultra-determined Taurus and Scorpio. Altman has an utterly unbudgeable and hyper-controlling Taurus Sun opposition Pluto and Mars in Taurus conjunct Algol opposition Saturn in Scorpio – that is off the map in terms of endurance, obstinacy and ability to withstand pressure. Zuckerburg has a Taurus Sun Venus opposition Mars in Scorpio with Moon Saturn and Pluto also in Scorpio.

 OpenAI was founded 10 December 2015 in San Francisco as a non-profit research outfit. Under Altman it has been transformed in eight years into a company reportedly generating $1bn of annual revenue. Customers range from Morgan Stanley to Estée Lauder, Carlyle and PwC.  It has a communicative Sagittarius New Moon with a creative though prone to doubt Saturn square Neptune; and most significantly  an explosively inventive (brooks no interference) Mars opposition Uranus squaring onto an influential, deeply creative Pluto, which will be instrumental in harnessing collective power – and will arouse great resistance amongst those not ready for its insights.

  Altman will be elbowed by tr Uranus opposition his Saturn and conjunct his Mars from mid 2024 into 2025 and tr Pluto bearing down on his Taurus Sun opposition Pluto through 2024/25/26. It is anyone’s guess how he will react to the winds of change blowing through.

  The company chart will be facing a moment of truth in 2025/26 when SA Saturn is conjunct the Sun which may lead to restructuring.

Sarah & her Prince – an astonishing spectacle

All families have them – the embarrassing relative who can’t stop blundering around causing chaos or worse. Sarah Ferguson, having proclaimed her miraculous money-earning powers would swoop in to save the day for-not-quite-hubby Andrew in dire need of many millions to upkeep his grandiose Royal chateau appears to be stumbling at the first fence.  Invited onto the morning TV show which has already been mortally wounded by a sex scandal followed by a murderous stalker threatening the lead presenter, she put on a toe-curling display of ineptitude. The Guardian review said the only saving grace were the main presenters who “managed to guide Ferguson through the show in the same way you help a drunk friend safely through their front door —– this stupid attention-seeking act would have fallen apart in seconds without them.”

  Not to be outdone the Telegraph this morning relates yet another tawdry financial tale of Prince Andrew, the Duchess of York and their daughters in receipt of £1.4m from former banker accused of stealing £40m from wife of a Turkish MP. The Duke of York has reached a confidential settlement with a Turkish millionairess. The details are unedifying to say the least but worth reading:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/11/21/duke-of-york-settlement-millionairess-alleged-fraudster/

  The Montecito miseries aren’t the only Royal grifters.

  Neither she nor Andrew look remotely upbeat ahead. She has her Solar Arc Uranus conjunct her Mars in 2024/25 for a sharp, short shock and at the same time a Solar Arc Mars conjunct her 2nd house Saturn hints at yet another financial catastrophe. Part of this may be her recovery from breast cancer.

Andrew likewise has tr Neptune square his Solar Arc Midheaven through 2024/25 as well as an enthusiasm and confidence denting tr Neptune square Jupiter; a likely house-move tr Uranus opposition his rooted 4th house Scorpio Moon (clinging on desperately) from mid 2024 into 2025; a secret (financial) shock from Progressed Mars conjunct his 8th house Mercury in 2024; a devastating and confused SA Pluto conjunct his 4th house Neptune end of 2024; and an uncertain, panicky, worried SA Neptune conjunct his Saturn in 2025/26. None of which will deflate his supreme self-confidence and sense of entitlement with two pushy Jupiter midpoints helping him dig in against the odds but even he will have to give way to gravity eventually.  

 Their relationship chart, not surprisingly, is floundering with an undermining tr Neptune square the composite Sun; a disruptive tr Uranus square Uranus; a cold shower from Saturn now into early 2025; and emotional/domestic challenges in 2024/25.

  One mystery was why the Queen overlooked his multifarious flaws; the second is why Charles has not booted him into oblivion.  If William had his way Uncle Andrew would be gone and that relationship is under massive pressure through this year and next. Charles may well have to upend the uncomfortable status quo from mid 2024 onwards.

  Another mystery is why the Daily Mail will insist on printing deeply unflattering pics of the Duchess and her two daughters, none of whom has fashion sense, while waxing lyrical about how elegant and stylish they are. Comments below each piece clearly indicate readers totally disagree. There must be a reason.

Brad & Angelina – a Mars Pluto family ++ Bumble warrior

In the long drawn out hostilities following the Brad-Angelina doomed marriage, volcanic bubbles of lava surface from time to time stoked up by the media into headline events – either arguments over the Provence vineyard or as now an outburst from one of the adopted children. The price of fame in the celebrity bear pit.

  The latest is a rage-filled vent against Brad by Pax Jolie Pitt, 29 November 2003, born to a heroin addict mother in Vietnam, who spent his first three years in an orphanage, before coming across to the Jolie blended tribe – three biological, three adopted children. He is a Sun Sagittarius with Mars in Pisces opposition Jupiter square Pluto Mercury in Sagittarius. A focal point Mutable Pluto is a malcontent with hair-trigger, deeply defensive responses with an inclination to tear apart and destroy what he feels stands in his way. It can lead to high levels of nervous stress though will ultimately be creative if handled with maturity.

  His Pluto Mercury conjunct square Mars in particular will give rise to eruptions of intense anger. With his background it is hardly surprising, poor kid, and one wonders how much these ever-so-caring mothers know about the effects of early damage, attachment theory and all the rest. Love is not enough. Even trained professions who adopt children from this kind of background struggle to cope.

   What strikes me from the astrology is that he along with the other children carry the Mars Pluto stamp which echoes both parents’ charts even the ones with no biological connection.

  Angelina has the most prominent version with an Aries Moon Mars opposition Pluto.  Brad has Mars in Capricorn trine Pluto (Uranus) in Virgo.  Their relationship chart has a composite Mars inconjunct Pluto.

 Of the biological children Shiloh has a Mars inconjunct Pluto and the twins Mars Saturn trine Pluto. Maddox, adopted from early months in a Cambodia orphanage, has a Mars Pluto conjunction. Zahara also from an orphanage in Ethiopia has Mars and Pluto in Sagittarius, not conjunct.

  Brad and Pax are a particularly tricky combination since Pax’s Pluto Mercury are conjunct Brad’s Sagittarius Sun so he will focus his highly-strung hostility onto him and Brad’s cool Saturn in Aquarius may be conjunct Pax’s Moon blocking warmth.

  On the other hand Pax’s connection with Angelina is highly Neptunian with each Sun tied into the others Neptune. What can happen in dysfunctional families is that children ‘split’ – one parent is seen as all bountiful and the other becomes the hated one. Sometimes that is merited but it is often easier than facing up to the unpalatable truth that both parents are flawed human beings.   

 Mars Pluto in essence is strong willed, competitive, keen to get the upper hand, forceful and manipulative, has an urge to control others (sometimes as a defensive measure) which can lead to power struggles. The plus side is super-determined which can bring results, an ability to cope well in crises; it engenders courage. The downside is a tendency to be attracted to or actively create crises and melodramas and/or be addicted to danger and risk. It is a high-octane energy which needs a constructive outlet otherwise a conflagrations follows.

  The atmosphere in that family must have been a pressure cooker ready to blow at the slightest provocation. Add drink and drugs and it lit the touch paper.

  Mars Pluto hates letting go so splits are always rancorous and long drawn out. Mars Pluto views allowing the other side to win as an abject, life-diminishing prospect. In the dominate-and-submit battle, giving in means the annihilation of identity which brings a shame more painful to experience than physical death.  

  The Brad Angelina relationship chart has another three years at least of wrangle before transiting Neptune manages to undermine the controlling/possessive Pluto and Uranus elbows the composite Mars into agreement.  Poor kids.

Add On: Another Mars Pluto is Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of Bumble, the dating app, the youngest self-made female billionaire in history. Her aim was to give women more autonomy in meeting men, as a first step towards a more egalitarian world. She grew up in Mormon-dominated Salt Lake City, Utah, where men called all the shots, was in an abusive relationship in her teens, co-founded the dating app Tinder, but left suing the company for “atrocious sexual harassment and sex discrimination”. Three bills that Bumble pushed for have been passed, in Texas, California and Virginia, making the unsolicited sending of nude pictures a crime. It’s lobbying for a similar bill in the UK.

 Born 1 July 1989, she is a Sun and Chiron in Cancer opposition Neptune, Saturn Uranus in Capricorn with her Mars in Leo square Pluto. She was bullied and has turned her anger and frustration into a pro-active campaign to stop others being harassed.  

Cliff Richard – keen to keep up appearances

Cliff Richard having shimmied back into the limelight with a concert tour and no doubt a Christmas song up his sleeve, managed to put his foot in it with comments about Elvis Presley’s obesity. Not that he was wrong but saying it in an interview with a not-inconsiderably-sized Alison Hammond was hardly sensible and relating that he didn’t want a photo taken with the puffy rock star did sound a touch precious.

  Richard himself keeps to a strict, at times one meal a day, diet to keep his boyish figure so clearly weight is one of his things.

  Born 14 October 1940 9.10pm (rectified) Lucknow, India, he has a seemingly easy-going Libra Sun in his 5th house of entertainment and performance which is quincunx a 12th house Uranus – edgy and unconventional in private. Libra can come across as superficial, overly concerned with outer appearance. His go-ahead Aries Moon in his 10th house of career is opposition Mars and trine Pluto, so his emotional responses will be at times sharp but usually kept private.

  His Uranus is in a creative, inventive trine to Neptune and his stubborn/enduring Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Taurus opposes Mercury in Scorpio – again secretive but also opinionated.

  I have not looked at his chart in years but my recollection was he had a Fixed Pluto on the point of a T square – in fact it is wide-ish with Saturn Jupiter opposition Mercury square a 2nd house Pluto – but it does suggest a need to stay in control at all times, financially and in other ways. There is an odd tale from his first girlfriend who received a letter from him when he broke off their relationships in 1961 – “Being a pop singer I have to give up one priceless thing – the right to any lasting relationship with any special girl.”  That is weird and has not stopped any other pop star from forming attachments. Taken at face value and not just as a face-saving argument, it does suggest an obsessive focus.

  In 2014 in the aftermath of Jimmy Savile, the Met’s Yewtree investigation turned attention on his UK residence and the police search was filmed by the BBC, which caused a major scandal, cost the BBC a chunk in damages and no charges were ever laid. At that point tr Uranus in Aries was opposition his Sun and his Solar Arc Pluto – with tr Pluto after that moving into his trapped 8th house (birth time being accurate) – a considerable shock to his system. 

   His Libra Sun caught the recent Solar Eclipse which will have given his life a shake up.

  Although Cliff Richard was initially marketed as a rebellious rock n’ roller like Elvis and Little Richard, he rapidly moved mainstream to become the housewife’s favourite, so he no doubt regarded Elvis’s louche lifestyle with raised eyebrows. There is a nodal cross over with Cliff’s Pluto conjunct Elvis’s South Node; and Cliff’s North Node being conjunct Elvis’ Mars  – plus Elvis’s disruptive T square of Uranus in Aries square Pluto opposition Sun does collide with Cliff’s Libra Sun. They existed in the same cultural space initially but very different temperaments and talents.

All a media fuss about very little. And Alison Hammond at 20 stone is no role model for anyone though she appears to be reducing slightly.

Rosalynn Carter – a caring Sun Neptune in Leo

Rosalynn Carter, wife of former president Jimmy Carter, has left behind a solid legacy of good works as she dies aged 96. A biographer described her as  having achieved “one of the great political partnerships in American history”. Despite his lacklustre White House term generally regarded as a failure she was up with Eleanor Roosevelt in her influence as first lady. And their four decades after the White House as global humanitarians advocating peace, democracy and the eradication of disease set a new standard for post-term presidents.

  She was born 18 August 1927 6am In Plains, Georgia, into poverty, becoming a carer for her siblings after her father died in her early teens. She married Jimmy when she was 18, was a devout Baptist and mother of four, but her soft smile and outward shyness masked her determination and passion for politics which had her dubbed the ‘Steel Magnolia’ in Washington.

  Her 12th house Sun Neptune in Leo gave her idealism, flair, inspiration and the ability to work tirelessly behind the scenes on mental health and other issues. Her Venus Mars in Virgo in her 1st house added passionate enthusiasm for practical causes and a far-travelled 9th house Taurus Moon sent her round the world doing good.

  Oddly enough his Uranus fell in her 7th house suggesting a bond that can only work where both gave each other freedom and she did travel and campaign a good deal on her own. His equally idealistic Venus Neptune North Node in Leo were conjunct her Sun Neptune for shared hopes and activism, with his Mars in Aquarius in opposition adding a spark of zest and no doubt a few arguments along the way.

  His Libra Sun was opposition her Jupiter Uranus in Aries for an adventurous streak; and his Uranus square Jupiter sparked off her Mars Venus conjunction for the same in reverse – never a dull moment.

 Her Mercury and Sun Neptune in Leo fell in his 10th for a helpful career mate and her Moon in his 7th for support and nurturing.

 Their relationship chart had an affectionate and friendly composite Sun Venus conjunction and a domestically soothing Moon Jupiter conjunction. A 10th house Pluto which made them influential as a couple was in an enduring trine to Saturn and sextile the composite Sun. Both were keen on a settled family and home life, she with a Taurus Moon and he with a Scorpio Moon – they could both be stubborn but obviously found a way to handle their differences.

  It was a relationship which could have gone wrong if either had been driven by ego but both with 12th house Suns helped in that regard. Pluto in the composite 10th can turn into a power struggle but only when aims for individual glory are pursued. Pulling together they had the capacity to make a considerable difference.

Argentina – desperation brings unlikely winner

Javier Milei, the right-wing libertarian oddball, Trump and Bosonaro admirer, has won a clear victory in the Argentina elections which some political analysts say is a reflection of the electorate’s desperation for change rather than support of his far-right ideology. He has promised to cut back the Argentinian state to its bare minimum and introduce radical economic reforms. Elon Musk said on hearing of the victory “prosperity is ahead for Argentina,” which just goes to show how warped his judgement is.

  Failed economic policies have left Argentina, one of the world’s most perpetually unstable economies, in one of its worst crises yet. Annual inflation is above 140 percent — the third highest rate in the world. More than two in five Argentines live in poverty and the value of the currency has plummeted downwards.

  There is nothing in any of the charts to suggest the redeemer has arrived, quite the opposite – details from earlier post 17 August below.  He will be sworn in as president on December 10 which has a lacklustre, impractical Sun square  Neptune, never a good sign for an administration. With a superficially showy Jupiter opposition Venus and a reforming Uranus trine Pluto.

  His own chart, 22 October 1970 12.59pm Buenos Aires (birth certificate) will flounder with tr Neptune (and then tr Saturn) opposition his Pluto Mars conjunction in 2024/2025 and even before then tr Pluto square his Sun for the next 14 months and tr Uranus opposing his hope-for-a-better-society Saturn opposition Venus Neptune this year right through till 2025.

  The Argentina 25 May 1810 chart and the Bank of Argentina chart 28 May 1935 are both highly Mutable chart with Gemini Suns and a raft of other Sagittarius, Pisces and Virgo planets – all of which will be deflated by tr Saturn in Pisces through into 2025.

 Oddly enough Milei’s relationship chart with Argentina is relatively upbeat in essence with a composite Sun Jupiter trine Pluto so he obviously brings enthusiasm and hope to the table. Though 2026 will bring a more hostile mood when tr Pluto opposes the composite Mars.

Post August 17 2023

In desperate financial straits – again – Argentina threw up an ultra-conservative oddball in the dress rehearsal for the late October general election. Javier Milei, who won over 30 per cent of the vote, is ‘a rightwing libertarian who campaigns like a rock star, lives alone with five mastiffs named after famous liberal economists and claims not to have brushed his hair since he was 13 (he is 52).’

  Whoever wins they will inherit a catastrophic economic situation with central bank almost out of reserves and heavy restrictions on foreign exchange. Inflation is running at around 115% and nearly 40 per cent of the population live below the poverty line. A severe drought has exacerbated problems, which the government has used as an excuse for missing all of IMF’s targets for its lifeline programme. Another default looms.

  Milei, born 22 October 1970 in Buenos Aires, has a late Libra Sun with a ferociously determined Pluto conjunct Mars; and a head-in-the-clouds, moody, insecure and ambivalent Venus Neptune in Scorpio opposition Saturn in Taurus.  His Sun sits on his Neptune/Pluto midpoint which is associated with the supernatural or fantastical beliefs.

  His Jupiter in Scorpio caught the recent Lunar Eclipse which would give him a lift. The general election falls on his birthday with tr Jupiter opposition his Jupiter. A win is not inevitable and he looks to be in a degree of turmoil immediately following and in 2024 – though that would be true even if he did win.

  The Argentina 25 May 1810 country chart with its Gemini Sun Mars opposition Neptune Saturn in Sagittarius square Pisces Moon Pluto – will be dragged down to earth by tr Saturn in Pisces through 2023/24. The recent Lunar Eclipse rattled the Uranus in Scorpio hinting that a change of course was badly needed.

 It is not quite as dire as the 2001 default which happened on the Saturn in Sagittarius opposition Pluto square Mars; and the Solar Arc Pluto squaring the financial Venus in the run up. But it will require considerable sacrifices.

  The Bank of Argentina, 28 May 1935, another Gemini Sun square Saturn opposition Neptune, will face a surfeit of Saturn reality checks as well in 2023/24; and a pressured Solar Arc Pluto square the financial Venus. Again not quite as catastrophic as the 2001 default  when the Solar Arc Mars squared Neptune and rattled up the T Square with Sun and Saturn; and the tr Saturn opposition tr Pluto added its later of woe.

A S Byatt & Margaret Drabble – sisterly strife

Antonia Byatt, Booker prize winner for her novel Possession, once described as the most consciously intellectual woman writer since George Eliot, has died. To her intense  frustration, what interested the press most about her was her difficult relationship with her younger sister Margaret Drabble, who outshone her at Cambridge and became a bestselling novelist some decades before her.

  Antonia was born on August 24 1936 in Sheffield, the eldest of four children, with a circuit judge for a father and a depressed mother who was given to fits of rage because of her restricted life as a housewife. Antonia was ill in bed with asthma for much of her childhood and read voraciously. In later years she was described as ‘unsentimental, uncompromisingly intelligent and with limited capacity for making or enjoying jokes’ and formidable to meet.

  She had a Virgo Sun and Neptune, Venus and Mercury also spread out through Virgo, the writers’ sign. Her Scorpio Moon was trine Saturn and trine Pluto, a hint of an ungiving, under-nurturing mother. Her saving grace would be Jupiter in Sagittarius square Venus Neptune in Virgo giving her optimism and an active imagination.

  Her sister Margaret Drabble, born 5 June 1939 just before the outbreak of war, is a Sun Mercury in Gemini – another writers’ sign. She has a truly difficult Mars (maybe Moon) opposition Pluto square Saturn in Aries T square; and probably an Earth Grand Trine of Capricorn Moon trine Neptune trine Uranus Venus in Taurus.  Like her sister, she was badly affected by their unhappy, melancholy mother. She later remembered: “When I was a child of nine or ten years old, I was so depressed that I used to wish I could die in my sleep.’

  She wrote her first novel Summer Birdcage at the kitchen table when she was a young mother in 1963 which explored the relationship between two sisters. Its success and the books following made her one of the leading literary lights of Swinging London.  The result for her sister Antonia was a feeling “that I wasn’t a real person, that there was somebody coming who was the real person and that everybody would see I hadn’t been there”.

  Antonia’s Booker prize did not come for almost another thirty years but she did pick up a huge readership in the latter half of her career and there were suggestions that Antonia’s late success was driven by a determination not just to escape Margaret’s shadow but to eclipse her in turn.

Their relationship chart had a controlling composite Sun Pluto which would however unconsciously lead to a tussle for the upper hand. There was an emotionally chilly composite Venus square Saturn; a composite Venus sitting on the focal point of a highly strung (and creative) Uranus trine Neptune. And an argumentative Mercury opposition Jupiter square Mars; with Mars also square Pluto.

 Competitive Mars often rears its head in sibling stand offs. Olivia de Havilland her sister Joan Fontaine, famously at odds, in their relationship chart had a composite Sun Mars conjunction. As does King Charles and Prince Andrew. Prince William and Harry have a composite Sun square Mars.

  Sibling rivalry casts a long shadow.