Do
the dead remain active after they've left us? They live on in
our memories, of course, but what if one of those major forks in the
road – like the return of one of the slow-moving
planets – presents itself some time after death? For a public figure, could this
mean the person once more steps onto the public stage? I haven't
done a lot of work on this, but the idea does interest me. And I had
an example of it recently, again related to the Titanic.
Edward
Smith, the Captain of the Titanic, was born on 27th January 1850.
When I saw his chart about a year ago I was immediately drawn to his
Neptune on 3 Pisces 29. I knew Neptune was in that general area
because it was squaring my own Sun-Jupiter-Mercury conjunction in
Gemini. So that meant Captain Smith was more or less having his
Neptune return when the centenary of the Titanic sinking was being
commemorated.
(Click to enlarge) |
The
first of three exact returns occurred on 10th March 2013. It's by
far the most interesting of the trio because of the number of planets
concentrated in – of all signs – Pisces: six plus Chiron!
There's also a Yod with Saturn and Pluto at its base and Jupiter –
the traditional ruler of Pisces – at its apex. Is this a reminder
of his violent death, leading to a watery grave? Incidentally, this
Jupiter in the Neptune return chart is almost exactly conjunct the
Sun at the moment of the Titanic's birth – its launch on 31st May
1911 (Sun was at 8 Gemini 56). I imagined the ghost of Captain Smith
pointing to the Titanic as it slid down the slipway at Harland and
Wolff shipyard and into Belfast Lough, as if to say 'this is the
architect of my undoing.'
I
also noticed that Captain Smith will be having a Uranus return fairly
soon – again, the first of three will be exact on 20th May 2016.
Funnily enough, this was around the time that Titanic II (a replica
ship proposed by Australian billionaire Clive Palmer) was due to come
into service but it seems this might not be happening now … or with
Uranus involved, maybe it will after all ...
(Note
that I have no time of birth for Captain Smith, but when I saw that
his nodal axis was almost exactly conjunct the Ascendant in the
Queenstown departure chart, I constructed a chart for him with the
nodes on his MC/IC).
Returning
to Margaret Rice, I decided to check her progressions for 6th October
2014, the date I started this piece of work. Her Sun had by now
progressed to 7 Pisces 14. This was a jaw-dropping moment, because
that's almost exactly where Neptune is in my Solar Return this year.
And indeed, her nearby Mercury is conjunct my Solar Return Ascendant.
Neptune to me is – amongst other things – about dissolving the
veil between worlds and it seemed to be saying that the time is right
for me to work with the Rice family.
(Click to enlarge) |
As
if to confirm that, when I checked Eugene Rice's progressions for the
same date, his progressed Sun and Mercury were both conjunct my natal North
Node (all on 5 Aquarius) and his North Node was on my natal Mercury (5
Gemini).
Because
their birthdays are so close, Margaret and Eugene have similar Solar
Returns. Of the two, Eugene's is the stronger. With his Sun in close
conjunction to the North Node and the IC (so right at the bottom of
the chart) I'm reminded of a soul trapped in the Underworld – or in
Eugene's case in the depths of the ocean. In The Amber Spyglass
by Philip Pullman, an opening to the upper world is cut for souls
trapped in the land of the dead. They quiver with excitement, and
when they step out into the night air they see the stars for the
first time in years – centuries even. And as soon are they're free
they merge with the sky, leaving a vivid burst of happiness,
reminiscent of the bubbles in a glass of champagne.
(Click to enlarge) |
While
I've been writing this, Venus has been moving further away from
Earth and into the Sun's beams, on her way to conjunction with the Sun. This is one of the deepest
parts of the Venus cycle, when we're taken away from our familiar
selves to be immersed in our inner lives more than
usual. It's a time when we could find ourselves surrounded by the
dead, and/or feel moved to journey to the Underworld. We might
discover abilities we didn't know we had and the courage to use
them.
So
it sounds like this is the ideal time for me to work with these long-dead
relatives, to listen to their story, to soothe their troubled souls
and release them from their unquiet graves. And perhaps one cold,
dark night I might even catch sight of one or more of those bubbles
bursting with happiness as their spirit is freed at last.
No comments:
Post a Comment