Hi everyone. I was very struck yesterday by the interview in the British newspaper "The Daily Telegraph" with Prince Harry. In it he expressed his inability to deal with the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales over the last 20 years and his locking away of his emotions over that part of his life. Eventually Harry sought counselling and it has helped him overcome the hurt and the pain that he has suffered because of the loss and his inability to grieve.
He was born on 15th Sept 1984 in London at 16.20 hrs and just on a general inspection of his chart you can see all of the planets above the horizon line save three and those are the Moon and North Node in a wide conjunction both in Taurus and Chiron In Gemini. I feel that these planets are anchors on his life, they take on a different emphasis to all of those planets and points above the horizon or ascendant line. The Moon in Taurus in the 4th house linked into his North Node is a powerful placement showing a dogged attachment to her, and the wider family around him. Any planet linked to the North Node on what we Astrologers call the maternal axis (North Node/South Node) shows an inherent link to the mother as being vital to their lives, and the Moon indicated a strong emotional association that Harry had with her. The North Node is a point where we find difficulty in assimilating those qualities into our character and we have to learn lessons and work at things to do so. Thus with the strong tie to Diana, Harry would also find dealing with emotional situations in his home life (Moon conjunct to North Node in 4th) particularly difficult, indeed just expressing emotions would never be easy for him. He is emotionally reserved, and this is indicated by an opposition between the Moon and restrictive Saturn. This opposition suppresses the outward emotions and in effect turns them in on himself, thus any hurt or difficulty would tend to drive him into his shell, rather than dealing with things in an outward and open manner.
Now Chiron is a wound in any chart and also indicates a manner of healing too, and here it is in Gemini, the sign of information, communication and discussion. This Chiron is opposite to Uranus, more of a generational aspect, however an important one that tends to see us dealing with our childhood wounds in a rather fixed but unusual manner. Uranus is a planet of rebellion, uniqueness and independence plus it encourages us wherever it is found in the chart to go about things in a way that suits us, and not necessarily anyone else's. Now this implies a notion of stubbornness, and Aquarius, the sign associated with Uranus is a fixed sign. Along with the rapid change that Uranus can bring, there is a shadow side to Uranus that brings an inert quality to any situation, as if sometime no change can happen at all. I've seen this with my brother, a Sun Aquarian who will on occasions get stuck into a pattern of behaviour and it is nigh on impossible to get him to change his mind. There is a logical, unemotional side to Uranus that deals with things in a matter of fact way, and this is how Harry and all of those with this opposition in their charts cope with matters from their upbringing that have hurt them, often shutting themselves off from their emotions. Once a course of action is decided upon, it takes a huge effort or persuasion to change tack.
With Harry and his particular chart, this "turning off of the emotions" was very pronounced, as this opposition squares onto his natal Mercury, sitting in analytical Virgo in his 8th house. The 8th house is where we meet our psychological urges, where we also deal with death and change. It is also a house of sharing and intimacy, and those like Harry with planets in this house often get embroiled in tough intense psychological issues, be it through relationships, financial or sexual matters, control and manipulation too. Others often have to intervene in our lives for us to cope with these situations or sometimes we do the same embroiling ourselves in other people's problems. Mercury here in Virgo in the 8th at the point of a t-square linking Uranus and Chiron links matters of death to childhood wounds and to a very unemotional way of dealing with psychological manners, and the young Prince said that he did cut of his emotional reactions to the death of his mother until a couple of years ago when William his brother told him to seek counselling help. I think it only could have been a very close and trusted family member that could enough of an impact on him to get him to seek help.
Virgo as a sign is very modest and duty bound, and again anyone who is a Sun Virgo with Mercury in the same sign won't really express a lot of emotion, they are more bound up in mental processes analysing how to react rather going on pure instinct and feelings. Indeed Mercury in the 8th house shows a willingness to explore and analyse the inner workings of the thought processes, enhanced by the fact that Virgo which Mercury rules is on the cusp of the 8th house ruling it. There is a school of thought that Chiron rules Virgo instead or as well as Mercury, and this would suggest a wound that is linked to a death situation and subsequent healing would eventually occur in time.
It is no surprise then that Harry has embraced counselling when it was offered to him, and is now using his worldwide influence to promote mental heath issues. In that I hope he has great success, as I know very well that these issues are ones that are very neglected in the UK, and most possibly in other parts of the world too.
I am currently and actively looking for new clients as I need the work as a matter of urgency, as things have been really slow in the past few weeks. If you are interested, please get in touch at paul@solarisastrology.co.uk. Thank you...