Fidel Castro, the communist revolutionary who ruled Cuba for half a century and inspired insurrections across the globe, has died aged 90. Admired by some, loathed by others, he guided Cuba through the Cold War, survived the collapse of communism, and hundreds of assassination attempts, outliving ten hostile US presidents.
For older Cubans he was a hero, who rescued them in 1959 from the US-backed dictator Batista and provided healthcare, education and food, though younger ones have become more mutinous about the erosion of personal freedom in a country that was a one-party police state.
There has been a partial thaw since his brother Raul took over the government but when he goes he’ll leave a party machine determined to cling to power.
Born 13 Aug 1926, maybe 2am, Colon, Cuba, Fidel Castro had a flamboyant and visionary Sun Neptune in Leo in the 3rd in an expansive opposition to Jupiter in Aquarius square Saturn in Scorpio. Certainly enduring with a surfeit of fixed signs; and a Fixed focal point Saturn is stubborn to the nth degree, dislikes sharing the driving seat with others. He also had a self-protective wide Water Grand Trine of a rebellious, innovative Uranus in the 10th trine Saturn trine Venus (conj Pluto in Cancer). His Libra Moon was in the 4th showing his love for his homeland in a possessive square to Pluto. An argumentative Mars in Taurus squared his Mercury in Leo.
His Jupiter was square his revolutionary Uranus/Pluto midpoint and his Uranus was conjunct his Mars/Jupiter, so well-designed to fight against established orders (unless they were communist).
His get-it-together 5th Harmonic (quintiles) was strong and bleak and this is a harmonic that is often associated with a need for power, to dominate and create a world that accords with the individual’s own ideas. His 7th Harmonic is even more heavily aspected (septiles) which is most often thought of as creative, but underlying that is the drive and ability, especially when backed by quintiles, to actualize a fantasy, for good or for ill. Neptune is a recurring pattern in his natal chart, conjunct his Sun and opposition Jupiter, as well as Mars being square his Neptune/Pluto midpoint, and recurs in his 5H and 7H.
His Master Number ’super-star’ 22nd Harmonic has a Mystic Rectangle, combining dogged discipline and risk-taking enthusiasm.
There are various charts for Cuba but the 10 December 1898 12 noon appears to work well. Castro’s Jupiter fell in the Cuba 10th, with his Sun Neptune in the Cuba 4th which makes sense. With his Saturn in the 7th emphasising the degree to which he shut Cuba off from the rest of the world (barring the USSR and Venezuela).
The Cuba 1898 chart has a hidden, secretive Sun Saturn in Sagittarius in the 8th opposition Pluto Neptune in Gemini, so a country used to economic hardship and steeped in superstition and attuned to cultish ideas. The Revolution in 1959 also had Saturn in late Sagittarius; and in 2016 as Castro dies, Saturn has returned to Sagittarius, approaching the conjunction to the Cuba Sun within days.
When the revolution occurred in 1959 tr Pluto was square the Cuba Uranus Venus; and tr Uranus was conjunct the Solar Arc Pluto exactly.
Castro’s relationship chart with Cuba had both love and hate writ large with a brutally suppressive composite Mars Pluto opposition Jupiter square Venus; and a dreamy composite Sun Moon square Neptune.
Cuba ahead is facing tr Saturn moving through its’ 8th house until late 2018 in a time of national mourning and economic hardship; with tr Saturn also conjunct the Sun and opposition Neptune in 2017; with tr Neptune moving to square Pluto in 2017 as well, then square Saturn, Sun in the years following. So the shutters won’t come up in a hurry despite President Obama’s entente cordiale. Which the next incumbent may pull back from anyway.