Jilly Cooper, P.D.James & Rutger Hauer – Grand Trines

A riotous bonkbuster and a splash of retro-escapism to the 1980s before political correctness set in is the entertainment in the long awaited TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals.

 ‘Everyone commits adultery and smokes like a chimney. They hunt and shoot. People tell off-colour jokes and nobody pulls them up on it with a po-faced lecture about human rights.’ All a reflection of what one reviewer called ‘naughty Jilly’s obsession with bonking, boozing, groping and relentless political incorrectness’.

  In her day with hugely popular pieces in the Sunday Times on marriage, sex and housework, she became an icon for the 1970s and 1980s before moving on to write international best sellers in a series called The Rutshire Chronicles set in a glamorous and wealthy milieu, such as show jumping and polo, heavily featuring sexual infidelity and general betrayal, melodramatic misunderstandings and emotions, money worries and domestic upheavals.

 Jilly Cooper, 21 February 1937 12 noon (memory) Brentwood, England, is a Sun Pisces sextile Uranus, but what dominates her chart is a creative Water Grand Trine of Saturn in Pisces trine Pluto trine Mars in Scorpio, formed into two Kites by Pluto in a confident and lucky opposition to Jupiter and Saturn opposition Neptune. The Grand Trine is heavy duty, darker and more troubled than her devil-may-care novels might suggest. Though she does have a yod onto a focal point Venus in Aries which might be a clue to her ‘adventurous romances.’

 What is puzzling is how similar her chart is to that of P.D. James, the crime writer, who had a tough life with a mentally ill mother and after the war an institutionalised husband. She was born 3 August 1920 7.59 am Oxford, England. She was a Sun Neptune in Leo square Mars in Scorpio. Her Mars was on one leg of a Water Grand Trine to Uranus trine Pluto, formed into a Kite by Uranus opposition Saturn. Her life and the murderous content of her novels make more sense of that Grand Trine than do Jilly Cooper’s with her exuberantly indulgent schtick.  

 Water Grand Trines tend to give the individual a fertile imagination and prolific inner fantasy life, hence the creativity, but for that reason can sometimes make it difficult to interface with reality outside their own self-constructed bubble.

Grand Trines bring a confident flow of energy, are usually associated with talent, luck and ease, though they have a tendency to stick individuals in a comfortable rut and don’t encourage resilience or resourcefulness – life comes too easily so problem-solving is not a learnt skill. What helps is to have an opposition to at least one leg of the Grand Trine forming a Kite. That opposition gives drive, determination and a constructive outlet for the Grand Trine energy.

 Recent examples of an Earth Grand Trine is Lee Miller (see below) which always brings a sense of physicality – the tangible universe being all too prominent a feature of the individual life.

  Fire Grand Trines are inspirational, attention-demanding with high self-belief and feature heavily in the ranks of entrepreneurs, some politicians and actors – Marlon Brando, Trump’s grandfather Fred, and Henry Ford.

Air Grand Trines are thinkers and communicators, live in their heads, can be ideologues and obsessed with their worldview, and can come across as emotionally chilly. Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour leader is one example.

 Another is the late Rutger Hauer, (best Dutch actor of the 20^th century), 23 January 1944 6.18pm Breukelen, Netherlands, who for some reason is back in the news. He played chillingly bad guys, none more so than in the gruesome horror thriller The Hitcher, playing the hitch-hiker who terrorises and butchers those rash enough to pick him up. In the aftermath it was said Hauer single-handedly ended hitch-hiking as a commonplace travel option for young people in the United States. He became a hall-of-famer with his ‘tears in rain’ monologue in Blade Runner.

 He had an Aquarius Sun trine Mars Uranus in Gemini trine Neptune in Libra, formed into a Kite by Sun opposition Pluto North Node in Leo in his 12^th. Which is a perfect recipe for an unemotional sociopath with a subversively power-hungry outlet.    He also had a Capricorn Moon in his performing 5^th house on the focal point of a yod inconjunct his Mars Uranus and inconjunct Pluto North Node.

  Fascinating chart.