An unlikely and inspiring hero has arisen out of the coronavirus panic. Captain Tom Moore, an army veteran, decided to raise £1000 ($1250) for health charities by completing 100 laps of his garden on his walking frame before his 100th birthday on April 30. So far his crowd funding has raised £21 million ($26.25m). He’s finished walking and is now doing global media interviews.
Born 30 April 1920 in Keighley, England into a family of builders, he served in WW11 in India and Burma. After the war he became managing director of a concrete firm and raced motorcycles.
He’s a stalwart Sun Taurus in a confident and super-optimistic square to Neptune Jupiter in Leo, and his Sun is also on the focal point of an innovative mini-Grand Trine to Uranus trine Pluto, with his Uranus opposition Saturn in Virgo. Plus a passionately enthusiastic Venus in Aries opposition Mars in Libra.
Tr Uranus has been sparking off his natal Uranus, Pluto and Saturn very recently; and tr Uranus will, within weeks, square his Neptune Jupiter and conjunct his Sun – all of which would prompt him to take the initiative. His Jupiter Neptune conjunction which can be head-in-the-clouds but has an aura about it, has moved by Solar Arc to within less than a degree of a conjunction with his intense Scorpio North Node with his Solar Arc Sun exactly square. A Scorpio North Node isn’t the easiest of placings but it does give a drive for success at all costs. Which in an odd way his contribution has become, even if it wasn’t quite on the scale he intended.
Add on: I’m constantly struck by the number of war veterans who lived through horrendous hardship and survived to a ripe old age.
Thomas Hermiston has just died at 103, who grew up mainly in care after his mother died, went into the army and served in WW11 in the Chindits behind enemy lines in Japanese territory.
His obituary says: ‘Living in some of the world’s most challenging terrain, the unconventional band operated in jungle and hill country, in extreme humidity and temperatures of more than 100F. Relying solely on air-dropped rations, they often went days without food. In monsoon season the incessant rain rotted their clothes and many perished from malaria and scrub typhus. To make matters even more arduous they each carried upwards of 80lbs of possessions and weapons on their back – half their own bodyweight – and slept in the open where they could. They shed stones within weeks and by the time they left the battlefield were walking shadows of their former selves. Almost all were hospitalised and most suffered Chindit Syndrome – a combination of two or three conditions such as malaria, dysentry and septic jungle sores which stood no chance of healing in the humidity. Few could stomach solid food.’ After the war he became a PT teacher.
He was born 23 September 1916 in Edinburgh and apart from his Libra/Virgo Sun square Pluto, had chart similarities to Tom Moore – Jupiter in Taurus opposition Mars in Scorpio square Neptune in Leo; with Mars trine Pluto. Optimism and determination and surprisingly strong Neptunes.
His wife died 30 years ago and by choice he lived alone at home until he died.
I have worked as an RN (Registered Nurse) for 40 years, and as a Junior RN, did not pay much attention to the temperament of the Var Vets. As the years went on and the Vietnam vets started to trickle into the DVA (Department of Veterans’ Affairs) wards, I became curious as to the former (WW11) seeming serenity and longevity, despite the horrors of war, in comparison to the mental health problems the Vietnam vets were suffering.
I found the older generation open to my discrete and respectful questions, and noted they felt that they went to war as service and did what they had to do. Their mental health protection, perhaps that they did not take it too personally, therefore affording a future without too much looking back. Of course this would not apply to all, however did note many of this generation experience life with gratitude and goodwill.
Thank you for this, I agree it’s a lovely story.
As for the resilience of this particular generation, don’t laugh but I was actually discussing this on the phone with my neighbour who turned 96 yesterday 😀 (mutual reception Mercury in Taurus/Venus in Gemini; still as sharp as a tack). I think in the end we agreed that there is too much choice these days and that is in itself quite stressful in a strange way, and it’s a lonelier sort of stress than say, something like the Blitz that everyone went through together. Too much choice, from the mundane choosing between 30 different types of imported out-of-season vegetables in the supermarket, all the way up to questioning “am i reaching my full potential in this career?”, “Am I happy in this relationship/marriage or would I be better of somewhere else?” “Am I parenting my children in the right way? Am I doing everything I can”. All things you perhaps wouldn’t have worried about as much in the past because you’d have had very little choice over them. All these constant little blasts of cortisol over time are worse than a few big ones, perhaps? I wonder what you guys think…
Yes, Tara, I agree about too much choice. And probably its companion, too much competitiveness via social media to show off apparent “perfection”. Several people have remarked to me lately that, secretly, they are quite enjoying the choice-free aspects of lockdown. At the moment there’s plenty of food, but you may not be able to get everything, and you can’t really linger in shops either. You have your sanctioned walk or run, you can join an online exercise class, but that’s it too. And you can avoid those online “dinner parties” or drinks as well! It’s really quite Saturnian on the one hand, and as the inventiveness of Uranus in practical Taurus kicks in, people are doing all sorts of things at home and learning to cook or grow things. It all resembles a slower way of life that had almost vanished in most towns and cities. A young neighbour of mine said that it’s nice to go on virtual dates because you can get to know someone, and there’s no pressure to have sex straight away…..None of these things would have seemed strange to older generations.
And I don’t know about your neighbourhood, but this one is full of lovely individuals who are really getting to know each other now. From little nods in the street to fully fledged conversations (at a distance) – quite a change. In idealistic moments I wonder if we’re preparing for a more Aquarian atmosphere!
It’s strange how a renewed admiration of this elder generation comes at a time when Pluto and Jupiter are together at the end of Capricorn, the sign of old age.
My mother was born in the 1930s so grew up during the war years. My sister and I used to have a bit of a laugh at how relentlessly resourceful she is – never throwing away food containers that can be reused, using both sides of note paper, keeping bits of string, knowing how to darn, sew and make clothes, making preserves and using bits of veg which would otherwise be thrown away to make a stock for a stew. Both she and my father were like this because being children at a time of shortages, it was drilled into them to make do and mend. I think it’s because my sister and I were 60s babies and grew up during a time of relative abundance that we found our parents’ habits rather quaint. But it seems we are now revisiting these times and we now look at our mother with renewed appreciation.
When Uranus was last in Taurus there were food shortages, ‘digging for victory’ and a culture of resourcefulness that is now beginning to be revived. And it’s true, we have been spoilt by so much over abundance. Relearning these habits of our parents and grandparents, learning to appreciate what we have and taking more care of what we consume and throw away.
Cheerful comments, Virgoflake but I think those days have long gone. We can’t even pick our own fruit and veg. so we rely on workers from E. Europe to do it for us. It feels a bit pathetic. The sudden admiration and interest in the WWII generation is ,in the words of my Bletchley Park aunt, ‘too late as most of the old boys are dead’. However, that generation weren’t posting pictures of their heroics on social media, they weren’t even talking about them amongst themselves. Not a good thing in my opinion because when my mother died, I read her diaries written in a field hospital in France where she nursed the D-Day soldiers. Hell on earth and although it helped me understand my own astrology, I felt mortified that I didn’t know what she had endured.Nothing that is going on today is remotely like those war days or the ensuing shortages.
My family just lost the last WWII vet in February. Husband to my grandmother’s big sister, he was actually closer to my grandmother’s age – a couple of month’s younger than her. Of all her surviving siblings, who she definitely loved very much, it was obvious my granny got along the best with this sister, and this “chemistry” extended to their spouses. My granny and her brother in law were the last ones to survive, and had this game on whether he’d reach her age. Eventually, he did, because my grandmother died few months short of her 98th birthday, and he made it.
I can also see why this “uncle”, as well as a local teacher who was the same age, made it this far, while I saw others, including my maternal grandfather, born in early 1920’s simply crushed by their experience. I could see these people definitely had faith in humanity. I wonder whether it was because they were generous people themselves. It didn’t have to be money, but help in small things. My greataunt’s husband, for instance, had one of those lower middle class professions, wasn’t earning a big income, but a steady one. So, he was the first in the extended family to have a car and a camera. And he would drive people around, and took most of the pictures we have of my father and his siblings as children (incidently, it’s also always summer in these pictures, since that’s when these young families reunited).
I think this is very similar to Tom Moore’s spirit.
Marjorie, thanks hugely for looking at his chart, I was going to suggest it and thought it sounded too pop star… but what a man!!!! I had already looked at his chart and came up with a birth time around 2.20 pm (who knows? nobody….) but in it the progressed moon conjuncts the MC, his progressed Mercury is conjunct Neptune (he did it solely for the NHS people and made his voice clear) ….having the Sun in Taurus and the Moon in Libra slants him totally towards the art of the heart – a feeling for people. As well, Venus is his vocational indicator so I’d imagine he had a reputation as a peace maker. His Moon sextiles Netpune and trines Mercury, thus a gentleman, subtle though correct. This has done more to raise spirits round the whole planet than anyone could imagine – his progressed MC is conjunct his natal Saturn/Asc in this chart, so Mission Accomplished. The Queen will undoubntledly meet him privately, perhaps both with their slippers on, sipping the best booze and talking about their real lives in the war. An emotional boost for humanity and God knows we need it.
I think this is an astonishing generation. Their stamina may partly be an innate strength, the strength that got them through childhood and younger adult life without modern medicine and healthcare. Many others died at young ages because of that.
The wonderful Captain Tom has inspired this 90 year old woman, Margaret Payne, to a fundraising effort for the NHS and a Highland hospice, by climbing the equivalent of Mount Suilven up and down her stairs at home:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52319318
No date of birth so far, unfortunately.
From across the Atlantic, just want to say if I may…I’m in love. What a dear soul.
Hope he receives a knighthood. Long may he live to enjoy his belated fame! Such Englishmen….do they still exist, one wonders?
A truly remarkable man.
Good luck to him.
There have been many interesting comments but one that resonated is the comment from Jane regarding virtual dating. It’s almost the equivalent of Jane Austen’s heroines and the gentlemen’s calling card. I have often said I would not enjoy that aspect of youth today. The sexual pressure. To not be given time to get to know someone. I can understand why women maybe secretly enjoying this period of restraint. The fact that if someone really wants to get to know you, then you’ll know. They will make an effort. Because the only thing on offer at the moment, is actually you..as a person.