A fat teenager with alcohol and gambling problems was on the skids and descending into depression when he had a flash of enlightenment in a realization he had to do something with his life and make a difference. He started running, entering his first half marathon when he was 21.
Now at 27 he is a hardened endurance runner, recently going from Istanbul to London, averaging 46km per day for 66 days. Today he is expected to complete his most ambitious run yet from the southern tip of South Africa the entire length of Africa to Tunisia. For more than 10,190 miles (16,400km), 352 days, 16 countries, he endured food poisoning, back and health problems, sweltering heat, being taken hostage and being the victim of armed robbery. In all he has raised more than £550,000 The Running Charity, which supports the mental health of young people with complex needs or who are homeless, and Sandblast which educates people about Sahrawi culture.
Russ Cook, 13 March 1997, Worthing, England, no birth time, is a Sun, Mercury in Pisces opposition Mars in Virgo North Node, sexile/trine Neptune. Although it seems counter-intuitive Pisces is a surprisingly common sign amongst explorers and a strong Neptune occurs frequently in the charts of top athletes and sportspersons. He also probably has an Earth Grand Trine of Neptune trine Mars North Node trine a Taurus Moon. Plus a tough-minded Saturn in self-reliant Aries trine Pluto, sextiling onto a lucky, adventurous Jupiter Uranus conjunction combining endurance with an aptitude for risk-taking.
What brought the revelation that pushed him onto a better track in life? When he was 17 his Solar Arc Pluto was square his Sun, forming a T Square to his Sun opposition Mars – a longish process of six years when he could have felt totally trapped and boxed in – and he sounds as if he sank into a trough at the start. What kicked him out of it was his Solar Arc Jupiter Uranus sextile SA Saturn moving to inconjunct his Mars, forming a travelling yod.
His Jupiter Uranus is lucky – his Mars gives him drive, practicality and aptitude for hard graft. His Mars on one leg of a talented Earth Grand Trine gives him the potential to achieve great things but clearly needed a shunt from the universe to click it into gear.
So his natal Saturn trine Pluto, sextile Jupiter Uranus configuration moving by Solar Arc to collide with his Sun opposition Mars did provide a life changing crisis – by kicking him out of his rut and making him find his niche. And off he went.
He could have so easily gone the way of many lost druggy teenagers and never found his way. It is fascinating and uplifting to see how the astrology shifted to give him the insight and motivation he needed to find his very singular path.
He started this trans-Africa run on 22 April 2023 in Agulhas, South Africa. On a 6.30am sunrise chart that puts Jupiter on the Aries Ascendant conjunct a Taurus Sun with both square Pluto just into Aquarius in the 10th, which seems apt.
Here is Russell Cook’s rectified chart
https://i.postimg.cc/4ykbcpXG/Russell-Cook-Rectified.jpg
Thanks, Marjorie, for covering interesting people and subjects like Russ Cook. That’s one of the many reasons I have keep returning to your site. From both you and your well-informed commenters I discover people I’d never encounter otherwise and learn about subjects, and regions and new aspects to topics I would never have considered.
Thanks, everyone, for sharing your insight and knowledge and especially Marjorie for consistently posting such consistently fascinating material and informative analysis.
You’re welcome. Thank you. I love adventurers and outsiders and especially people who radically transform their lives.
Thank you, Nicole, to you too! You’ve given us great insight time and again on many issues and topics.
Here is Russell Cook’s rectified chart. Notice Jupiter, long distance on his 7th cusp,
similar to James Cook. Notice Africa on his 9th cusp of Long Distance.
Number 22 gives FAME.
https://i.postimg.cc/bwshq9FM/Russell-Cook-Rectified.jpg
Is he any relation to James Cook, English explorer of 3 main voyages?
Cook has Jupiter, long voyages, on the cusp of his Descendant.
https://i.postimg.cc/7hdhBzr5/Jamesexplorer.jpg
That should have been Neptune in the 4th house.
I forgot to add in my prior post, I did consult with Erin Sullivan on my chart several times in the 1998-2000 time frame. She was a big help. I wanted her as she had studied Jungian Psychology as well as astrology. She took one look at my chart and pronounced “Religious Wars”, and I stated how on earth could you have known that? She stated it was all in my chart. This was an ancestral thing, and yes it was religious wars which still haunt us, and which is why I am so skeptical of true believers, when their belief becomes paramount over their humanity and values. I have multiple tenants in the 8th house including South Node in Pisces, Chiron, Pallas Athena and Juno. I also have Neptune square Mars in the 5th house, and Mars is also square Jupiter – and yes – she was correct. There is a lot of Ancestral Items I am cleaning up – and there are these questions of doing the work that your ancestors could not do, or ran out of time to do, that you are asked to look at. Mom and Dad were very important with Dad having five planets in Virgo. I try to remember what he told me. Mom had this Jupiter – Ceres conjunction in Gemini.
May be too much information, but the point was there was this ancestral legacy, that could be heavy and difficult at times (don’t we all have that!!! ) and there was a way out but it is over on the Virgo North Node, and yes cleaning the house does help. So does organizing my papers. 🙂
I have had dreams of ancestors playing the bagpipes (if you knew my name you would understand) and the father’s lineage begins in Scotland, but the papers show Ulster, Ireland and they were 100% protestant and were first on the boat over to the Americas. Derry Girls is one of my favorite shows of all time, and will make me laugh out loud.
I love what this young man has done with his energy and patterns, and turning his life into a good direction, and I now plan to read up on him.
I’m so glad you are successful in your path of cleaning the chaos left behind.
When I read a testimony such as yours, and especially the part where you say you dream of ancestors playing the bagpipes, I often wonder if it really something supernatural or otherworldly, some sort of communication through the corridors of time with people who are not here physically anymore, or is it a person’s suggestibility or something they thought our talked about during the day and then it manifested in dreams, for the subconscious to clean, organize and store it.
I have no idea what to think.
Just goes to show the power of a retrograde natal planet once it’s adjusted to – Mars in his case. Love that he had to literally change direction and reverse his route through Africa from South to North instead!
You reminded me that I seriously need to systematize my knowledge about how do the
nodes
eclipses
and retrograde planets in a natal chart
work.
I’m still in a chaos regarding all that.
Oh don’t worry, 30 years in and I still don’t think I’ve fully got the nodes! And things like this can still surprise and delight. We still have more to discover and that’s a great thing
Russ also has Mars conjunct the fixed star Markeb. From Skyscript:
“Ptolemy listed the influence of all Argo’s stars to be like Saturn and Jupiter. Other stars of note include Foramen, a reddish star of variable magnitude (known to be prone to violent outbursts and thought to be on the verge of collapse as a supernova), situated on the stern of the ship; and Markeb, a 2nd magnitude star in the buckler of the ship. Both, like Canopus, were said by Robson to offer strength of mind and spirit, as well as prosperity in trade and voyages and a danger of death by drowning.”
A few things seem to be pointing toward sports, fitness, and perhaps meditation and other spiritual practices as a route for success for him.
Love this! Thank you. That Pisces South Node is hard to get out from. I have Pisces South Node in the 8th house. I have a collection in North Node Virgo in the 2 house including a Pluto conjunct to North Node, Path of fortune over there, Pluto square Mercury which is in Gemini. I had to extricate myself yesterday from the Pisces swamp. This is a great article. They only way I can describe is sometime is swimming out. Taking a walk outside, or getting organized, or trying to clean up helps more than you know.
A lot of pretty famous Military Commanders are late Suns in Pisces – so there is a Military component. I will try to find the article and post it here. It has something to do with having seen everything and having a store house of accumulated knowledge.
I am not anti Pisces – I am however trying to stick with the Life Lesson. I wonder if you really have to completely leave your South Node behind – like some books say – or if you are supposed to pull it forward and integrate it into your north Node.
I do find taking a walk outside helps me. Inside too long I start to brood and ruminate and then be generally unproductive.
Astro-Seek has the following interesting interpretation (emphasis mine):
“North Node in Virgo brings the conflict between rational and irrational, between dream and reality, between self-adjustment and self-sacrifice.
These people have to learn to be more concrete and to cope with everyday routine and reality. They need to move from vague imagination to activity and fulfilment of routine duties. They need to stop escaping into their dream world and go through transcendental experiences in everyday life instead.
Beware of unreliability, escaping the world and isolating from the world.”
Makes total sense.
Thank you El Aznar and Callie – they are both very helpful and I will write them down.
There is something about cleaning and Pisces. I used to have a Sun Pisces colleague who will start cleaning her office desk when stressed. But many years have past and I no longer remember her dob.
Moon (if in Taurus) and Venus in exaltation, Saturn in fall, Mercury in detriment.
Jupiter conjunct Uranus I kind of think of as a very lucky aspect, and in Aquarius is also quite beautiful. Sudden (Uranus) bouts of luck (Jupiter) in Aquarius, about the future, intelligence, humanitarianism, intellect, idealism and altruism.
How would you interpret his nodes – what does the north node in Virgo imply he should go towards and where shouldn’t he fall back (“Don’t follow your south node”) with the south node in Pisces, especially with Mars and Mercury close to those nodal points?