Moments which changed history – a friend of Princess Diana claimed if she had not been conned into the Martin Bashir November 1995 Panorama interview which the BBC regarded as the coup of the century she would not have been divorced from Charles and arguably not been killed in Paris. The Dyson Inquiry heard evidence that Bashir peddled a “series of preposterous lies” to secure the interview, including mocking up forged bank statements, and feeding Diana’s paranoia about being bugged by the security services and turning her against friends.
For full details see previous post November 3 2020.
Given that this was an epochal moment and a fated/karmic connection what is astro-intriguing is that Bashir Capricorn Sun conjunct his South Node are conjunct Diana’s Saturn. Saturn conjunct the other’s South Node makes for a heavy, serious pairing, which can feel like a fly trapped into sticky resin. One commentary suggests the ‘Saturn person’s lesson here is to work on their fears and need for control.’
Diana’s Saturn had the tr Uranus conjunction exact at that point which is high tension and jolting. With tr Neptune moving along behind to conjunct her Saturn in 1996 and over her death in September 1997 which would heighten her paranoia still further. At her death tr Uranus had moved to conjunct her Jupiter which is one of those oddities which in isolation might suggest relief from tension and a lucky break. But seen as part of a larger pattern it was her natal Jupiter Saturn conjunction being upended by the tr Uranus Neptune conjunction which kicked off in 1995 and extended through till the Paris crash.
Jupiter Saturn does have a connection through JFK and John Lennon to celebrity icons being cut down before their time.
There were other risky influences in her chart in 1997 including tr Pluto and her Solar Arc Pluto and indeed the Virgo Eclipse tugging on her Mars Pluto conjunction in Virgo.
The BBC and former chiefs are likely to be hammered by the findings given the cover-ups at the time and later and the dismissals of those who tried to expose Bashir’s wrongdoing.
The BBC’s stubbornly opinionated Mars in Aquarius is in the line of fire this year of the tr Saturn conjunction and tr Uranus square – as is Bashir’s Saturn in Aquarius which always made him a bad fit with the corporation despite their unwavering support for him over the years. Bashir has had a quadruple heart pass and is at present suffering from the aftereffects of a covid infection.
The BBC’s Water Grand Trine gives it a tendency to ignore unpleasant facts and three planets including the Sun in Scorpio lends an obdurate and arrogant streak in the face of criticism.
Add On:
Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, 20 May 1964, is a final degree Taurus with Mercury, Mars, Jupiter also in Taurus and a Virgo Moon. His Venus is conjunct Dian’s Cancer Sun and her Venus is conjunct his Sun so there would be a good deal of affection between them. Though Diana’s rebellious, changeable Aquarius Moon opposition Uranus would clash at times with his steadier (and more controlling) Taurus Sun; and his Mars, Jupiter, Mercury opposition her Neptune wasn’t ideal. Pluses and minuses but still a strong bond. Both he and Harry share Taurus/Virgo Sun Moon crossovers which is also good.
When Martin Bashir’s Michael Jackson documentary appeared it would be a considerable shock for Jackson with a depressing tr Pluto conjunct his Saturn on his chart plus an upsetting tr Uranus opposition his Mercury and tr Neptune moving to a nerve-stretched opposition to his Uranus in the aftermath. When he died tr Neptune had moved to virtually the same degree in Aquarius as his Uranus had been over the Bashir doc. Not that I shed any tears for Michael Jackson but Bashir probably was a catalyst for his downward spiral – which would have happened one way or another.
In both Jackson and Diana’s case Bashir’s Pluto Uranus was conjunct their Pluto – so he had the capability and urge to upend their lives. A bit of a wrecker.
And in both relationship charts between Diana/Bashir and Jackson/Bashir there is a prominent Mars opposition Jupiter which suggests that both sides spurred the other on to take ‘adventurous’ risks.
Add ON: Tony Hall, former DG of the BBC who infamously described Martin Bashir as ‘honest and honourable’ has resigned as Chairman of the National Gallery with a pious statement about ‘believing that leadership involved responsibility’ as if his deciding to go was an indication of his moral superiority.
Born 3 March 1951, what is interesting about his chart is a Jupiterian Yod which can give a capacity for social influence but if mishandled has all the downsides of Jupiter – self-righteousness and arrogance. Tierney talks of the ‘fateful consequences often brought about by the individual’s own self-aggrandizement.’ His Jupiter in Pisces conjunct the Sun is inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune. His Pluto on one leg of that Yod is exactly conjunct the BBC’s slippery and overblown Neptune in Leo – and indeed Bashir’s attention-seeking Mars in Leo
Hall is an irrelevance in the grander scheme of things but interesting astrologically and his pattern of superiority certainly fits the BBC.
I’d be grateful if comments could be kept respectful and calm. Going off on a rant may be cathartic but it is irritating for others.
Barb, I agree with everything you say!
The question is: how long will the RF and the government let H&M continue to trash them and us. I get it that he is mentally ill, but after five years treatment he should be getting past the everything Mummy does was brilliant and that Daddy is evil.
Because if worse came to worse and the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William should all die, this anti-monarchist and self confessed hater of the UK would be standing in until Prince George came of age. I think if that happened, then it would be the utter end of the monarchy in this country.
Quite frankly the RF needs to up its game and insist that all members must sign an official secrets act that prevents them from trashing the monarchy and this country. Also that foreigners who marry into the top echelon must become British citizens and renounce other citizenships. Preferably prior to any marriage taking place.
While I am sure that the Queen loves H and wants to leave the door open for their return. She needs to recognise that this cannot go on forever. If H&M cannot stop venting their spleen, then they need to be cast adrift.
Yes, interesting comments. How long will this psychodrama go on for? The difference between William and Harry is striking – both lost their mother although you could almost forget that in the brouhaha generated, in large part, by Harry and Meghan. The public mud-slinging over Harry’s grief must be the ultimate nightmare for William who has defended his privacy so strongly in the past. As well as the fault-finding Sun in Virgo in the 8th house, Harry has a fixed, trapped Moon in Taurus opposite controlling Saturn in Scorpio so perhaps experiencing loss, grief and the feeling of utter powerlessness will be more difficult to process with that combination – it could be that he can’t or doesn’t want to move on – his feelings have congealed to some extent. William has Sagittarius Asc which may help him to step back and look at the bigger picture and accept there are things in life you can’t control. In contrast to Harry’s fixed Moon opposition Saturn which really suggests emotional deprivation, William has Sun and Moon in Cancer in 7th – he experienced the emotional security of a steady relationship and a tight-knit family unit with Kate Middleton’s own family.
* interesting comments @ Linda.
Harry and meghan 2 human beings with difficult family backgrounds i cannot understand why so many wish to demonise them . asi see it they are trying to make the best decisions for their own and their children’s lives . live and let live.
Tony Hall, as a person, may be an irrelevance, but he was embedded in the upper echelons of the BBC during Jimmy Savile and Martin Bashir.
He is symptomatic of the BBC’s administration, which appears to be a cross of the Freemasons and Mafia.
Hm I tend to think more Vatican – everything is buried to burnish the image.
These two, Harry and Meghan, live in a $14 million mansion with servants, they have excellent health and a healthy, adorable little boy and they complain and whine. Just disgusting.
This was set up from day one so that they could leave to make money Hollywood style. The campaign to smear everyone began from the very first statement H made about racism when he was dating M (I am a black woman btw) to her “emotional” interview in SA when it was all set in motion. They left in a crass and vulgar way in an attempt to disguise their true motives. They are still trying to justify their behaviour with “emotional” displays, each more crass and vulgar than the previous one.
The key event that led to Diana and Charles divorcing was the publication of Andrew Morton’s book in May 1992 – which was made out of secret recordings Diana had made for him. She was experiencing her Saturn return in 1991 when she was making those recordings. And at the start of 1992 tr Saturn was conjunct her natal Jupiter. So the Saturn Jupiter conj was being triggered for the first time.
Without that book, Charles and Diana would have simply led discreet separate lives and the public wouldn’t have known of their marital strife.
As for the interview – undoubtedly Bashir used underhand tactics to get her to agree to it. But he didn’t put words in her mouth. Everything she said, she intended to say. And if she hadn’t done the interview with him, she’d have eventually done it with someone else. She was publicity hungry and constantly leaking and talking to the press. From about 1985 onwards Pluto had been transiting her Neptune in the tenth house, and transformed her into a publicity hungry media personality.
Yes, I’m with you about Bashir not putting the words in her mouth.
I distinctly recall about a month before the car crash she came out with some tantalising statement about how her next announcement would shock the world. It was like a teaser trailer for a TV show trying to hook you into the next episode.
“publicity hungry media personality” … she really was. At least, neither of her sons made the mistake of marrying someone like her and continuing on a chain of telling tales to the media for public sympathy … oops …
In many ways I see Harry just blindly repeating his mother’s mistakes. I would have thought that having undergone years of therapy as he claims, he would already have had this realisation.
I was wondering about this. It became obvious to me this week when the Panorama interview got put back in the spotlight (as per my comment above).
I suspect it’s one of those things Harry isn’t ready to accept. To realise he’s repeating his mother’s mistakes (as well as marrying a woman who has the same play-the-victim through media) undermines his internal narrative that the Royals are all to blame. If he starts seeing Diana in a less-than-flattering light, he will start to question what he sees in Meghan. It’s more likely he finds a new therapist than do that.
If Harry continues like this, the strategy the RF would be wise to employ would be to retain a dignified silence. It won’t be too long before a jaded public becomes extremely weary of him.
I’m not a MJ fan, but I decided that Martin Bashir was a POS from the day his interview with Michael Jackson was first broadcast in the Noughties.
He was shameless, exploitative and I never forgot it. So none of this is a surprise to me. Interestingly, many have commented that that same interview was also the beginning of MJ’s eventual demise.
Personally, I wouldn’t be able to live myself if I suspected that my actions had, on two occasions, directly contributed to the crashing and burning of someone else, who’d done nothing to me.
But I guess Bashir is built differently.
I watched Newsnight on this, where a journalist pointed out that the duplicity involved in this interview is extremely unlikely to be the only time Martin Bashir used such tactics. Certainly, Michael Jackson alleged he had made false promises to him in 2003. He has a string of interviews with the famous and infamous on his cv. Perhaps more will emerge?
I noticed that at the time Diana’s interview was broadcast, in November 1995, the Moon’s nodes were at 25-6 Libra/Aries, square transiting Uranus and Neptune. This t-square connected with Diana’s Saturn, and MB’s Sun and South Node in Capricorn. His NN completed a Cardinal Grand Cross – tr Pluto is now, it seems, activating all that again to bring a big message from the Fates. Talk about the mills of God grinding very small…..and with infinite slowness. He has only just resigned from his job at the BBC last week. So it would appear that major changes have yet to be made there. The BBC learned little from the Savile scandal apparently. What a mess.
Too true. I had a friend in the business who checked him out years back and said he was dodgy and wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole. Lord knows what the BBC thought they were doing holding him up as honest.
Yes indeed. That side of things is hard to fathom. MB was head of religious affairs (!) at the BBC from 2016. He’d been suspended from ABC News in the US in 2008 for making some hugely inappropriate and very crude comments about women at a public event. The comments would have been awful in 1998, let alone 2008. He’s led a charmed life, until now.
Major change at the BBC is well overdue I feel. We pay a licence fee of £157.50 here in the UK, it’s still a criminal offence to avoid that.
I didn’t know about his sacking from ABC, Jane. His Moon/Neptune in Scorpio is in square to that arrogant Mars in Leo as well as in square to Saturn in Aquarius. That’s a pattern I see with both men and women who dislike women. Mars square Neptune would be horribly manipulative and slimy in those fixed signs.
I remember in the aftermath of Savile, the BBC sacked Tony Blackburn over ‘inconsistency’ in his evidence to the Savile Inquiry, he later claimed he had been ‘hung out to dry’ by the BBC. The whistleblower who first alerted the organisation over the faked documents used by the Diana interview was in fact a graphic designer who was asked by Panorama and Bashir to mock up fake bank statements, not knowing how they would be used until after the interview was broadcast. He said of the BBC: “I just feel that there is this culture within the BBC that the little people – me being the whistleblower – that we don’t really need to be addressed. Only under duress do we get some sort of apology and some sort of acknowledgement.” So they blamed the graphics guy! How cowardly and deceitful is this?Why do we bow our heads to this behemoth which we prop up with our hard earned cash? The Beeb remind me somewhat of FIFA in that it’s a cosy little cabal made up of nasty, entitled old men in blazers.
Hahaha! I like the comparison with the dreaded FIFA. Funnily enough, it’s their “birthday” this very day – 21 May 1904. They have a Leo Moon opposing Saturn, square Mercury/Venus in Taurus. A Saturn return for them in 2022, followed by Uranus transit in 2022-3. I’ve long thought that the dramatic Leo Moon and Mercury/Venus there represented “the beautiful game”, being significantly challenged by those stubborn, self-serving men represented by Saturn. Another stifling organisation well overdue for a shake up.
Perhaps because he was dishonest? I was present at the sell of an item to be used on a BBC’s Natural History programme. The producer told us what he was going to do and how they would make it look realistic on camera. Editing can make anything look different from what has been said.
Hmm it is more difficult to tamper with a sit down studio interview. Film can be chopped and changed around but not a recorded piece.
The Beeb’s Moon in Virgo conjunct North Node in the 4th is interesting too. I think the BBC are starting to lose the monopoly on the National narrative in a similar fashion to the way Rome was challenged in the 16th Century if that’s not too overblown!
@GnarlyDude, he’s an anaretic Taurian Sun which is the focal point of a T-square by Saturn in Pisces opposition Uranus/Pluto in Virgo. Also has a Taurus Mercury/Mars/Jupiter conjunction opposition Neptune in Scorpio. Diana’s former staff told the press that he was of little or no support to her when she was at her lowest point, and refused to allow her to stay at a cottage in the grounds of his Althorp estate.
Very interesting Virgoflake…Moon in Virgo (serving the people) NN in 4th (aiming to be in every home)? Re: Spencer’s chart -just s question,not a challenge – can s planet in Taurus square those in Pisces/Virgo? Aren’t they sextile and trine or is it because of house placement? Thank you.
@Barb Yes, I immediately think of the BBC Home Service with that Moon placement.
In answer to your question- Earl Spencer has a Taurus Sun at 29 degrees of the sign, on the cusp of Gemini, therefore his Sun squares Saturn and Uranus in early Pisces and Virgo respectively.
Thanks VF — I’m still a novice! So, Diana’s chart is experiencing another Saturn return… Gnarly Dude, your comment above hits the nail on the head re: the irony of H’s behaviour. Number 1: the statement about how racist everything in the UK was when he started dating M — October 2016; Number 2: her interview with Vanity Fair saying they would have stories to tell (later)…Number 3: her writing about her miscarriage in the NYT last year. Those are just some of my personal highlights. Paul Burrell reminded me today that MB was driven “covered up” under a blanket in Diana’s car so that no one at the palace would know about it and that she did not discuss with PB directly what was going on until after all was filmed; I feel very sad for H because he said last night in his statement that she was “unquestionably honest”…he’s still got a way to go.
I doubt that Harry and William really know their uncle all that much. The royal family would fave seen to that after his performance at their mother’s funeral. Besides, he wasn’t someone that you would want hanging around your kids.
Pluto is on the Uranus/ Mercury opposition midpoint between the first house and 7th house axis. I verses the people. With the Scorpio Sun in the fifth, the BBC sees itself has the creator and does what it pleases. Interesting that Leo is the Regal sign and that Mark Thompson, was once reported as stating the BBC is bigger than the Royals. It sees itself and the leader of the people. Hence the high salaries and attitude of superiority. Each King wants to dethrone the previous one. There is an element in the BBC that wishes to rule and maybe wanted to take down the Royals through the Diana scandal. The BBC Scorpio Sun is anti establishment. Pluto is the revolutionist, with its subatomic bombs. People perceive the BBC as untrustworthy and secretive, which Pluto in the 1st House lends itself too. Perhaps their water Grand Trine will be its undoing, during its Centenary year, which is next year. As Marjorie says, Saturn in Aquarius is rattling their Uranus, which means that their form of communication Uranus/Mercury, is being asked to have higher standards and a more balance approach to their broadcasting methods. The people Cancer Pluto may have the last word here.
Marjorie – do you have her brother, Earl Spencer’s chart? Every time he speaks, I hear a man trying to pass the blame, to avoid complicity, maybe guilt or a sense of victimhood. Today, for example, he referred to Diana as “a young girl in her mid-thirties” which seems an infantilising perspective given she was a mother to two children, had met world leaders and travelled the world in her royal work.
I’m left to wonder (and we discussed him at length last week so I’m wary of opening that up again) whether Earl Spencer is responsible for planting much of the toxicity that Harry now has towards the Royal side of his family.