London has been around for at least two and perhaps three thousand years, with no charter dates that I can establish. The Romans named it Londinium around 50 AD when Pluto was in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces, so it is returning full cycle at the moment.
There are two dates which may be significant in more modern times. 1 April 1965; and 9 September 1835.
The 1965 chart does have a difficult and volatile Mars Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn square North Node in Gemini; and a high-finance Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune. Tr Neptune has been undermining that 1965 Mars Uranus and Saturn by opposition and conjunction through 2016, perhaps an indication of the Brexit panic, since 60% of Londoners voted to remain. And those influences recur mid October this year to early Jan 2018. At the moment tr Neptune is opposition the 1965 Pluto, at the same time as the Progressed Mars is conjunct the 1965 Pluto – so a double whammy from a destructive and dangerous Mars Pluto along with high confusion from Neptune. The progressed Mars will take its time in moving off that conjunction since it only moves at a degree every two years. In addition, the February 2017 Pisces Solar Eclipse was conjunct the 1965 Saturn and opposition Uranus Mars. Eclipses on Saturn are usually when chickens come home to roost and a price has to be paid for past mistakes.
The 1835 chart, which was a previous reorganisation of the city, has tr Pluto square the Solar Arc Mars, exact at the moment. And is in a longish run of difficult aspects with tr Pluto square the 1835 Mars last year over Brexit and moving across the square to the Mars/Saturn midpoint now, and thence onto square the 1835 Saturn in 2018/19 as economic woes start to build. So a time of high-risk and hardship.
The Great Fire of London in September 1666, which destroyed 90% of the houses of the 80,000 inhabitants, followed on from the plague of the winter before which had killed a quarter of London’s population. When the 1666 fire occurred, the Sun was opposition Jupiter square Pluto; with Mars in Scorpio trine Jupiter, sextile Neptune Saturn in Capricorn and square Uranus. With Mars just a degree away from an opposition to Algol. So Jupiter again acting as a fuel for disaster, amplified by Pluto; with a malignant Mars causing additional havoc.
London has survived with stalwart resilience through many horrors during its long history. In the 20th Century: the Blitz in WW11 (started with Uranus conjunct Algol); the years of the IRA bombings; into the 21st Century the Islamic fundamentalist attacks. Both the 1965 and 1835 charts have Mars Saturn and Pluto in aspect, which gives grit and perseverance, resourcefulness in the face of danger. Admittedly those aspects will tend to attract situations which draw on exactly those characteristics, but it will always rise to the challenge.
Dear Marjorie,
I remember somewhere (can’t recall now) that London has an ancient chart with Gemini rising that was used by William Lilly to predict the Great Fire of 1666. I appreciate that London in those days corresponds only to the City of London, but if you can find it, can I request you to look at and reflect on that ancient chart for London?
My Googling online for “William Lilly chart London” led to the following results.
https://starsandstones.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/william-lilly-and-the-great-fire-of-london/
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/fire.html
http://www.astrodynamics.net/saturnneptune-william-lilly-and-the-great-fire-of-london/
I remember looking before and no one seemed to have found it. London was supposed to be Gemini or have a Gemini MC, or Sun Leo or Virgo according to other ancient astrologers. Liverpool and Manchester were Scorpio; Oxford Capricorn; Manchester Cancer.
With respect to the poor people in Grenfell Tower, I doubt if many of those who perished on the top floors of the building will have
survived in any recognizable form. Stories of those people burned in the Blitz recount of how nothing was left with even jewelry having been reduced to its constituent elements such was the ferocity and temperatures of the fire. Similarly in the firestorms of Dresden. The building will also have to be demolished at some stage – another nigh impossible job, given the proximity of other structures.
As far as London versus the rest of the country is concerned, I have seen this from both sides, having grown up and worked in London and spent near on 45 years in Sheffield. There is no doubt that Londoners used to be incredibly ignorant of the rest of the country and it is true that during the Imperial years of the 19th century London sucked in as many workers from the rest of the country as it could to sustain its trade and commerce, as my own ancestry shows vividly. The Borough of West Ham was largely created in 30 years by these people, who were not allowed to operate Noxious factories outside City limits, and the Docks were manned in large part by sailors from the South and East Coast. In the North the attitude towards London is still one of contempt – yes it generates wealth, but it keeps it too, as I know from working in stockbroking. So we have always been a divided country, as has France, with the same phenomen existing between Paris and the rest.
In many ways it’s worse in France, since the south doesn’t really consider itself part of the same country as Paris, harking back to pre-unified France which is many centuries back. They regard Parisians as arrogant, ill-mannered and pushy. And the Catalan French, living in their own little tribal zone, (where I used to live,) certainly hold a visceral dislike for the north.
And worse still in Spain, where they are still fighting old wars with Barcelona constantly at loggerheads with Madrid, and desperate to break free. That’s not an argument you ever want to get into – a real blood-feud hatred.
But there again I don’t suppose the US Rust Belt regard NY as exactly sympatico either.
Even in Scotland – Glasgow and Edinburgh, a mere 47 miles apart, regard themselves as polar opposites, with much rivalry and contempt being batted back and forth. And the Highlands don’t like the Lowlands of Scotland.
Countries are like dysfunctional families, constantly at war amongst themselves.
I was raised in the Rust Belt in Pennsylvania. Ohio is considered an orphan, late to the family harking back to pre-Revolutionary days. Extreme comtempt still held toward Massachusetts drivers and those hideous New Jersey “circles”. Native New Yorkers have been considered “courteous” compared to the habitants in other states.
The Mason-Dixon line still considered relevant concerning slavery, taxes, and the coal-cracker country of West Virginia.
FWIW…
Ohio has put its orphan status to good use, with 8 US presidents, the Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn and 24 other astronauts, the Roswell Aliens at the Wright-Pat Air Force base, Steven Spielberg, and Thomas Edison.
Plus Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Roger Ailes of Fox News.
Although not politically correct to point it out these days, many of the present day divisions hark back to the mores of the different “tribes” of the peoples within them. Provence was once largely populated by people of Greek origin, so different from the Caroligian French. Uk has so many tribes in its peoples’ background – British/Celtic, Roman, Saxon, Viking and Norman, all with different attitudes towards the rights of their people, male/female equality etc. No wonder it is difficult sometimes to understand someone else’s point of view, even without the influx of so many other different ethnicities in recent times
Just to add to my comments on the rest of the UKs often ambivalent attitude to London it is worth pointing out that the first major disaster in the city’s history was the Boudiccan revolt of circa 60 AD when the Britons rose in revolt against Roman rule and burned the city to the ground killing most of its inhabitants. The Roman legions suppressed the rebellion with equal savagery. This set up a cycle of provincial revolt being ferociously quashed by the capital which was repeated again and again throughout London’s history. Among such events were the Peasants revolt where Wat Tyler was inveigled into negotiations before being seized and murdered by the Lord Mayor of London through to the Pilgrimage of Grace and Northern Rising in Tudor times. This often bloody history explains why London is often regarded with deep suspicion by some other parts of England and outright hostility by the Welsh, Scottish and Irish.
Thanks, Marjorie. The historical dates are interesting.
London’s origins as a Roman settlement perhaps is significant as there is an imperial mindset which dominates the city and its inhabitants which has a tendency to see not only the rest of the world but also the rest of the UK and even the rest of England as only existing to serve it. The very fact that Londoners regard people elsewhere in their own country as living in the ‘provinces’ gives one an idea of that attitude. The Brexit vote was in many ways as much a reaction by people elsewhere in the UK to the hubris and arrogance of the metropolis as it was to the EU. The outraged reaction of the capital in the wake of that vote that the ‘provincials’ had dared defy it was in many ways revealing . This was reflected in threats by Londoners that they would contemplate ditching the rest of the country in order to go it alone. Such a response just reinforced the opinion of many outside the capital that London was riding for a fall. The city has a tendency to consider itself the source of all the talent and wealth in the UK when the reality is it has a tendency to suck the life out all the areas that surround it and often gives little in return.
Hugh, To be fair London generates nearly 30% of the main taxes going into UK coffers. So it props up a goodly chunk of public finances. I’m not saying it’s a good thing for there to be one major wealth generating city, but it does fork out. Why Londoners voted Remain is, I imagine, partly because it is an international and multi-cultural city so is less inclined to the Little Englander mentality. And the City of London workers had a fair idea that Brexit was going to be seriously bad news for their trade and probably business in general, certainly in the short term and maybe longer term as well. They were not persuaded by the pie-in-the-sky hopes of Johnson and Gove.
I suppose the counter argument is that the reason London dominates is because its rivals in Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle etc have all been systematically undermined particularly during the 1980s. Since most major UK company headquarters are based in London it is hardly surprising most UK taxes are remitted there since that is where the profits flow from the rest of the country and where a lot of the wages are aid . A quick glance at the UK road and rail map shows just how London centric most of England and Wales has become. Only Scotland and Ireland really lie outside of its sphere of dominance.
Sorry Hugh, cross posted. I agree with you about what happened in the 80’s. I worked for many years at one of those headquarters in London, but the company was French. The money flowed in UK-wide business, but also from the continent in the form of deals, the projects and work then went to regional offices in Bristol and the North East. It was the choice of the French company where it put it’s offices, investment in better nationwide infrastructure may have changed their minds.
London does attract snobs, no doubt. In my experience, they tend to come from elsewhere in the country themselves anyway and it doesn’t even begin at the Watford Gap; they have an obsession with zones and postcodes. The faces I had pulled at me at work when I moved to a flat in zone 4, let alone the rest of the country “Oh! I couldn’t live out there!” 😀 However, not everyone is a Banker, most have very modest net incomes. It’s a hard place to live now if you aren’t rich, but many do.
Almost 37% of people in London were born outside of the UK and the continent is a lot closer, geographically and culturally. Many people in London have colleagues from Europe that they work with every day and they see the flow of business and money between us and the continent. The real shame is the destruction of skilled industries in the rest of the UK, so now we have a structure where huge areas rely on deals made in London providing low skilled work in the rest of the country. Work which can easily be undercut by globalisation (and increasingly is). The EU template may have been designed to work better for more industrial countries like Germany than post-thatcherite, service industry Britain and this was a huge failure in the negotiation. But severing the ties isn’t going to work any more than generalising about people from London.
Thanks Marjorie
Algol strikes again! I now have Progressed Jupiter conjunct Algol by 1 degree and quite frankly it is scaring me – although I can’t seem to find much info on what it implies.
If you put Algol astrology in google there are several sites which seems reasonably knowledgeable and it isn’t all bad. Prog Jupiter is very slow so you’ll have had this around for some time – and you’re still here. You never know, it could be good. Look at Beauty and the Beast – it didn’t do badly with a Sun conj Algol.
Oh dear, Jennifer…….I always comfort myself by looking back at bad years and seeing what transits/progs were going on. When you see what you’ve lived through, it may pass entirely unnoticed. If Algol’s degree is not strongly configured in the natal chart, that would be especially so. Not all aspects have the same power or meaning, that is largely determined by an accurate birth time. THE most critical bit of personal tuning-in.
only 58 dead in london fire?
someone is covering up
should be hundreds dead!
why? have you info we mere mortals do not possess?
79 dead or presumed dead/missing and may rise (considerably) – is the latest figure. They wouldn’t know precisely how many were in apartments when they were burnt and piecing together heavily charred remains will be a painstaking process. Which in any event have to be retrieved from an unsafe building. There have been estimates of anywhere between 100 and 600. But the authorities are keen not to make any claims until they know – which seems fair enough.
Fair enough. No cover-up envisioned.
Thank you Marjorie!