Sarah, Duchess of York, has been opening up in public prints about her mental health struggles stemming in part from her mother abandoning the family to run off with an Argentinian polo player when she was 12, leaving “profound scars” that “led to feelings of unworthiness and her subsequent eating disorders.” What slightly undermines sympathy is her cri de coeur comes in context of a puff for a Zurich clinic for billionaires which causes a breezy $109,000 PER WEEK with a probable two month stay coming in at a snip of $1m or thereabouts. The staff ratio is 20 to 1.
Overplayed diagnoses of PTSD being thrown around don’t help either.
She was born 15 October 1959 9.03am London, giving her a Libra Sun conjunct Mars on the cusp of her 12th house in an excitable sextile to Uranus. Her upfront Aries Moon in her 5th house of children and entertainment is square a 2nd house Saturn in Capricorn. She will look to her own children for nurturing in the face of a chilly maternal upbringing. Her charming, seductive (and manipulative) Pluto Venus conjunction sits on her Midheaven giving her a tendency to hang on for control. It is intriguing how often Pluto turns up when there is an absent parent – Sun Pluto etc – which should intuitively suggest a dominating, controlling parent but as often points to a parent who is outwith the control of the individual i.e. absent.
Her Moon is also on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune Mercury – which hints at a degree of emotional disorganization and a tendency to act in a self-defeating way. Given that her Moon is also tied into a 2nd house Saturn and into her need-to-be-grand Pluto Venus on her Midheaven, her confusion also extends to her financial mismanagement.
The oddity of her live-in arrangement with her divorced husband Prince Andrew has never been satisfactorily explained. His Scorpio Moon falls in her 1st giving her a sense of a safe environment. His ‘generous’ Jupiter falls in her financial 2nd house which would help. And his controlling Pluto, like hers, sits on her Midheaven so there is a possessiveness.
Their relationship chart has a ‘seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time’, impulsive Mars Jupiter conjunction; with an intense, power-struggling, chained-together Pluto square Mars and trine Saturn. Plus a needs-space Venus square Uranus and ditto Sun trine Uranus; and a confused composite Moon square Neptune. A hotch potch but it obviously fills a need (or different needs) in both. Both have their Sun/Moon midpoints at almost the same degree 12/13 Capricorn – not sure exactly what it means but it could indicate an underlying link.
She is recovering from cancer and with tr Uranus opposition her Jupiter from this August onwards looks upbeat and go ahead. Though tr Neptune Saturn conjunct her Moon and square her Saturn may give her cause for concerns with money and her emotional connections.
Her mother Susan Barrantes, 9 June 1937, was a New Moon in Gemini square Neptune. It was a deep and difficult relationship since Susan’s Gemini Sun Moon fell in Sarah’s 8th; and Susan’s pushily confident Pluto opposition Jupiter was square Sarah’s Sun Mars for an underlying current of bad feelings; Susan’s Saturn in Aries was conjunct Sarah’s Moon for a defensive barrier and coolness.
The relationship chart was exceptionally tough with a composite Sun Mercury Pluto opposition Saturn square Moon; with the composite Pluto square Mars. A lot of anguish and hostility wrapped up in there.
Susan Barrantes died in a car crash when she was 61 a year after Princess Diana.
See: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/23/one-billionaire-at-a-time-swiss-clinics-super-rich-rehab-therapy-paracelsus-kusnacht
ADD ON: Her father Ronald Ferguson, 10 October 1931 was a Sun Venus in Libra opposition Uranus square Saturn – so he would chime with Sarah especially with his Venus conjunct her Mars and Sun though his Saturn Uranus would make him an erratic presence in her life.
His Jupiter was also conjunct her Uranus for an adventurous connection though a square from his ultra-determined Mars in Scorpio would make for clashes. His Neptune on her Midheaven would make him a questionable influence on her chosen direction in life.
Ronald Ferguson’s relationship with Susan Barrantes was not a good match with a tough, unkind composite Sun opposition Saturn square Mars and Mars trine Pluto. I’m not surprised she bolted. There are elements of those harsh aspects with Sarah and her father, but watered down and balanced by fun Sun Jupiter Uranus aspects.
Paddy McNally, Sarah’s older boyfriend for some years, a former racing driver and socialite, whose refusal to marry her sent her into the arms of Prince Andrew was born 20 December 1937. He is a Sun Sagittarius square Saturn; with a controlling yod of Sun sextile Mars inconjunct Pluto. It wasn’t exactly a soulmate match of hearts and flowers. Money appeared to be part of the attraction – and Sarah’s relationship with him echoed the difficulties of her parents’ marriage with a composite Saturn opposition Pluto square Sun – plus an adventurous Jupiter Uranus.
Libra women tend to lean towards their fathers and away from their mothers – for example Maggie Thatcher.
Thanks for the Add On Marjorie
An interesting natal 12th house: Sun conjunct Mars, Neptune conjunction Mercury. For me, that’s a person with a lot of secrets, who knows where the bodies are buried, and has a strong intuitive sense, which may be off at times. Also, a person prone to consulting psychics, oracles, etc. Didn’t Sarah go broke from consulting a Psychic who predicted that her daughter(s) would sit on the Throne?
interesting, has me mentally reviewing the 2 Libran women I know, born in the early to mid-60s (ie Pluto in Virgo, maybe Uranus too)… one of whom likely has an Aries moon. Both very ‘active’, needing to ‘fill their time’ by being busy,
not at all strong on self-reflection/self-awareness.
One’s mother died in youth, but the father having remarried, she’s not too close to the father or stepmother. Focuses instead on home and children.
The other’s parents were ‘distant’, the father literally, while the mother spending most of her time praying and now showing signs of cognitive decline.
Both Libran women show a strong need to control their immediate, intimate circle, leading to dissent from mates (one divorce) and adult children. Is it because Librans are Cardinal signs after all (despite doing it all sweetly ‘for others’, they believe they know best), or because of their particular family situations?
Come to think of it, I know a third Libran (born in the 40-50s?), who was definitely estranged from her mother, had strong Pluto and heavy Saturn influences (last of a long family line of famous political figures) and so controlling that I ended our friendship. (I avoid looking up
charts of people I know personally, because it feels as if I am intruding, so can’t give more details).
ps. very different relationships with Libran men, most of whom I am very fond of, as friends.
I’m a Libran woman who was much, much closer to her mother growing up. I found my father hard to access, especially emotionally (Sun square Saturn), despite the fact that he had a huge stellium in Cancer. He was in the legal profession though, which reflects my Sun in Libra square Saturn in Capricorn.
I think I’ve said this before VF, but people with a stellium in their charts often behave like the sign opposite to their stellium. Your Dad may have behaved more Capricorn, emotionally.
Thanks, Caroline. Yes, he was Capricornian, he was wiry and looked more like a Capricorn – he had Jupiter there – but also typically Cancerian in that there was I felt a lot of emotion in there that couldn’t be expressed for whatever reason, possibly generational since men of his era were expected to be stronng and silent. He also had an elderly father, 65 when he was born and a mother in her early 40s – older parents.
I stand corrected.
I didn’t realize that “Finding Sarah” was her bio from years ago thinking it was a recent publication.
Is it Sarah’s Neptune/Mercury conj in the 12 house that blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy?
Going by just the photo on the book’s cover I never would have known it was her.
A bridge too far.
Could be. I find her a little ‘away with the fairies’ personally. The children I knew at boarding school who were from aristocratic backgrounds had parents who were prone to affairs, were never there for them and these children were pretty damaged as a result.
Interesting. Andrew Lownie has a book coming out in August, a joint bio of the Yorks, which is threatening to expose a lot of secrets.
I can understand Sarah’s early childhood trauma however she chooses to label it.
Pretty unthinkable for a Mother to abandon her child for a man.
I see her Mum was a double Gemini.
‘Underworld Astrology’ describes Geminis shadow side:
“emotionally disconnected, selfish, full of nervous energy, an eternal child, shallow, coldly calculating, controlled by the many critical voices that live in their heads and unable to stay focused on the things that truly matter to them.”
It’s unfair to put all the blame on her mother, not that it wasn’t devastating. Her father was a known philanderer on the point of proposing marriage to another woman when her mother left. Sarah was devoted to her father, who seemed to be a bit of a blusterer, a dominating, controlling sort of man, whose downfall came via a massage parlour. The astrology for her relationship with her father would be interesting, especially as she lived for some years in Switzerland with Paddy McNally, 27 years older, who was not interested in marriage, prior and alongside hooking up with Prince Andrew. He was around a lot in the early years of her marriage, and even in 2022, she stayed with him with her daughters.
Her father may have been all manner of things but it still doesn’t detract from the fact that Susan upped and left her pre teen daughter to live in another country. That would leave colossal emotional scars.
Sorry Marjory, no astrology, but wondering who paid for this Zurich clinic, Prince Andrew is reportedly’ broke’.
How much was she paid for the book? The peripheral Royals appear to be into books and over sharing!
Don’t think she paid for her stay. They ‘invited’ her no doubt expecting a puff piece which she wrote for them.