Astro*Carto*Graphy in the rectification of Diana’s chart
by Erin Sullivan
In this extract from Erin Sullivan’s reissued book Where in the World? the rectification tool of Astro*Carto*Graphy is applied to the disputed chart of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. Is Libra or Sagittarius the rising sign? The author reaches a surprising conclusion. This essay is part of a seminar given in 1997 shortly after the princess’ death and includes audience interaction
(Some abbreviations have been altered to conform with maps recast in Solar Fire for this piece. Tenses in places have also been altered.)
Diana in 1997
Source: John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA (Archived link), CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
What I want to show you enlivens the continuing speculation about Diana Spencer’s true birth time. I find Astro*Carto*Graphy (A*C*G) to be a valuable…tool for working with speculative birth data, especially when there are several possible times given. There are several ways that birth times have come about for Diana Spencer. I have the two maps and the two horoscopes that are commonly used for her. The material I will present…via her A*C*G and her natal map(s) leans strongly toward the earlier birth time, giving her Libra rising. When you see her relationship with France, Alexandria, Florida, Italy, Angola, Somalia, and Romania — indeed, all the various places with which she is strongly affiliated — you may think a bit differently about her chart. The Sagittarius rising chart may not be the final answer.
Diana: Sagittarius rising
Here is the most commonly accepted chart with Sagittarius rising. In Geoffrey Cornelius' book, The Moment of Astrology (1), he writes about the difficulty of conflicting times and reading the wrong chart.i Because of Diana Spencer’s unique situation [of having been] married to Prince Charles, coupled with the fact that she sought guidance and advice from astrologers and psychics and various alternative healers, several times have been given for her birth. Both of the times I am going to work with…were given by her to both the media and to astrologers. For some reason everybody seems very fond of the Sagittarius rising chart set for 7:45 pm. This time was quoted by her in the press. Yet another time, given at some other stage to another astrologer in confidence, was issued. Thus, there are two primary contenders for the horoscope of Diana.
We will look at the Libra rising chart set for 2:15 pm after discussing the Sagittarius rising chart.
To me this chart is not particularly strong. We have no angularity nor any weight in the family sections of the horoscope. There are no indicators here of anything particularly outstanding that would [describe] the degree of power that lived within and around this young woman. There really wasn’t anything about her that made me consider her as Sagittarius rising (none of the exuberance, forthrightness, clumsiness, spontaneity, carelessness, and puella-ness that Sagittarius ascending presents. Arguments for Sagittarius rising are many. One is that because Uranus, Mars and Pluto are in the 8th, she would die “a violent death”. This is not a valid delineation: it has no merit and insults us, as sensible people to think along those lines. Other arguments run like this: she is athletic, interested in travel, has an international reputation, is naïve. However, I don’t see the Ascendant in the same light.
We can read into the house positions for her aspects in the Sagittarius rising chart. Sun and Mercury are in the 7th: married to royalty, [she had] a strong husband who carried her own projected solarism. The Moon is in the 2nd opposite to Uranus in the 8th: wide mood swings, thoughts of death and destruction, feelings widely separated from her experiences, a sense of isolation as a child, a cold, unloving background leading to cold, unloving family surroundings. Venus is in the 5th: a great love for her children, a “beautiful” person, a feminine icon. Neptune is in the 10th: everyone's princess, a screen for the fantasies of the public. Astrology in retrospect is brilliant: it can fit anything. But there are the practical realities to attend to here and they are [the] precise measurements of time and space.
The strongest focus in the planetary array for Diana is her t-cross from Venus to the Moon-Uranus opposition. This t-cross exists in both charts, obviously. But I would expect to see it more prominent in her life, not only by looking at the houses in which it is found natally, but also in her A*C*G maps by finding living examples of what that t-cross symbolises. Firstly, it is a fixed cross with the sign of Scorpio in the ‘empty’ part of the cross. Passion and obsession are the ‘shadow’ function of this t-cross. The Moon-Venus split is the confusion of the feminine roles within herself as well as the confusion of the mother/lover unity within each woman. Diana was a Venusian figure with a strong lunar content, but her marriage forced the split. She became ‘wife’ to Charles and ‘mother’ while he retained ‘lover’ in the form of Camilla Parker-Bowles. Diana herself was a lover, too, but a spurned one. It would have been virtually impossible for her to marry the two aspects of the feminine: the lover and the wife in her marriage to Charles.
The Uranian involvement in the t-cross shows her rebellion, her need to individuate through the process of unveiling her multi-faceted feminine faces. And this she did, to the delight of the paparazzi who fed the prurient appetites of the common British (and the world’s, it seems) person. This powerful configuration exists in the Sagittarius rising chart in the 2nd, 5th, and 8th houses. These are all succedent houses locked into the weakest parts of the chart. But in the Libra rising chart, the t-cross spans the family houses (4th and 10th) and Venus is in the 8th in Taurus, all speaking of a family inheritance and family issues. And I think we have to admit that all of Diana’s short life was bound up with family. Every curse and every blessing for her was family-originated.
Audience: Yes, that is right. She had to move through her own family and then to the most powerful family in England in order to come into her own sense of self. How interesting. She never escaped the family issues while alive. And I have the feeling that, had she married into the Fayed family, her situation might not have been that much improved, from a family standpoint, that is!
Erin: That also crossed my mind. From the frying pan into the fire, so to speak. The Fayed family would have been a tremendous burden after a while, wouldn't it? More of the same, really, only of another culture. Anyway, those are the aspects in the chart. Now let’s see where the planet lines lie in the Sagittarius rising map.
Look for at Astro*Carto*Graphy map for the Sagittarius rising time. First of all, I am presenting a case for Sagittarius rising as we will see a number of significant lines running through important places in Diana’s life. I have to give credit where it is due, and there are some pretty lively things in the Sagittarius rising map.
I’ve focused on several places where we know for certain she had invested energy, time and love. One of them is England (where there are no lines at all in the Sagittarius rising map), one of them is France (where she has ME/DS through Paris) and another of them is Angola (where there is a NE/MC zenith point). Then there is Egypt where her VE/IC line passes directly through Cairo; Somalia where MA/DS and CH/AS run through; yet another is India (ME/IC through Bombay, and SU/IC through Madras and Sri Lanka); and yet another one, very recently, is Florida, where her SA/IC line passes through the southernmost tip.
Now, those are all pretty strong lines and interesting to say the least. We can read a lot into those, especially the Venus/IC line where her lover Dodi was born (in Alexandria) and where it was rumoured that she was to marry him in the near future. However, apparently, she and Dodi Fayed were looking for a “dream home” in Florida, and I thought that was kind of weird, because I would not expect someone to look for a dream home under a SA/IC line, especially since transiting Saturn is about to pass over her natal IC according to the Sagittarius rising chart (and therefore transiting the SA/IC line in A*C*G). Although Saturn transiting the IC could mean “the end of the life”, it isn't exact enough and not really alive.
It seems odd to pick a place for a love-nest under a SA/IC line although one could muse that they never did get it and the idea was terminated. Now, transiting Neptune is currently about to turn stationary-retrograde conjunct her natal Saturn which could have ‘dissolved the plan’. The Neptune transit means that every SA/IC and SA/MC line is experiencing the transit of Neptune, both precisely along the MC/IC lines and crossing the AS/DS lines in key places. There is also Sarajevo and her concern over the war-torn starving populace, especially the children.
She went to Angola as well as a peace diplomat, showing concern for the lost and disaffected. Now, the lines running through Somalia (of land-mine fame) are Mars/Descendant and North Node/Descendant, both of which are closely aligned with her Chiron/Ascendant line. Running right through the dot of Paris, in this map, is her Mercury/Descendant line. A lot of people said that it made sense that Mercury was on the Descendant in Paris, because she was killed in a taxi or a chauffeured limousine, ruled by Mercury. That's a bit weak given the whole of her life and experiences — and Mercury rules many things other than taxicabs! In this chart, she has ME/IC and SU/IC lines running through India. India was very important because she had a strong affinity with Mother Teresa, real or otherwise.
But remember, there are likely to be lines running through part of any country for all of us. This does not mean we are ‘there’, but it is important to see the number of accurately described lines that make exact contact with places that have real significance.
Audience: There is also that photo of her outside the Taj Mahal.
Erin: Yes, sitting alone, a very well-framed photo, redolent with the image of her aloneness, isolation and interiority. Then there’s also the recent photo of her out in the September 1997 issue of Vanity Fair where she is at the opening of the Indian Temple in north London. She has the traditional stain on her forehead, wearing the beautiful flower necklaces, looking lovely and natural as usual. Now, as I mentioned, Dodi was born in Egypt, in Alexandria, which is where she has her VE/IC line passing through in this chart. To me this is the strongest point for the Sagittarius rising time, but it is the only really strong indicator. That is a classic contact, isn’t it?
Then there is Cape Town, South Africa, where her brother Charles Spencer now resides. [He has since moved back to the UK — editor.] We are still resonating to his funeral eulogy wherein he promised to foster her spirit, her essence, her soul, her wishes, her dreams — and particularly her children. Hmm. All of those are Neptune-like attributes. Essentially, the Earl’s promise to nurture and nourish her sons as she would have wanted, the cry from his heart about her “blood family” seeing to her wishes — this could be from the Neptune/MC line. It could be the spiritual call, the wish fulfilled, the brother continuing the dream, since Neptune rules her 3rd house of siblings in the Sagittarius rising chart. I really don't know. There is acceptable and workable action around important places with this time of 7:45 pm. It's possible that this is the right time, but something does not quite click. It is not a revelation.
Diana: Libra rising
Let’s look at the Libra rising chart set for 2:15 pm at Sandringham and also at the A*C*G map based on that time. Now, this A*C*G map is considerably different from the previous one. It shows a great deal more evidence of her personal contacts to locations as well as her global affiliations and attraction in significant places in the world. However, let’s look at the natal horoscope first, and then correlate it to the A*C*G map.
This horoscope has a considerable amount of weight which portrays more of Diana’s presence than the Sagittarius ascending chart. It places 4th-house Saturn 1° from the IC, and Jupiter and the Moon are in the 4th house as well. That explains a lot to me about the family and dynastic lineage. She comes from an aristocratic family, one which antedates the royal family itself. Indeed, it is a more aristocratic family than the one from which…the Prince of Wales originates. Those three planets in her 4th house are carrying a large responsibility not only for the family of origin and for the dynastic line but also for the collective family as it is seen in the public.
The Moon is a repository for the maternal legacy, the long line of women in her genetic origins and it is why she stands today as an exemplar of women in the collective. Her own mother [was] a rebel, leaving the home and children to marry her lover. The Moon is opposite Uranus in the 10th house, an absent, cut-off relationship to the mother and feelings of being “alone” in the home. For all the criticism of Charles' inability to get in touch with his feelings, I cannot say that Diana’s Moon is a particularly warm one. She is a Cancer woman and thus has the nurturing and managerial capacities of that sign, but the Moon-Uranus (especially from Aquarius to Leo and compounded by the square from Venus in the 8th) really denotes a woman in a quandary about her own feelings. She may well have thought she could actually put up with the archaic arrangements of her new royal family and her husband-to-be-king, but she couldn’t.
The unorthodoxy contained within the Moon-Uranus-Venus symbolism is externalised dramatically through a social channel, using the base of the ‘family’ as the root (4th house/IC) and the 10th house/MC as her expression of originality and social reform. Divorcing a prince is not an everyday act. Were this just a 100 years ago, she would likely have been shut up in the proverbial Tower; or beheaded if it were a 150 years ago. Such a troublesome woman! Such an iconoclast, but with a good, strong conservative streak: Cancer to the rescue of her mad Moon. In time, Diana became a spokeswoman for undervalued women all over the globe. Her main thrust, once she gained a sense of self, became focused on her role as a mother and as a woman of influence in the caring professions: from volunteer work in hospitals and hospices to global interest in protecting children, women, the disaffected, ill, persons with AIDS and the starving.
She confessed to an eating disorder (the Moon) and this eating disorder stemmed from family dysfunction. Her manner of ‘curing’ bulimia was to go to the centre of her created and adopted family and slay the Minotaur that was repressing feeling. The lack of feeling she experienced in her family of origin was writ large in her marriage family, the House of Windsor. The Moon opposite Uranus in the chart, especially from the 4th to the 10th house, exemplifies the split between home and social position in the families, both the family of origin and the family by marriage. Her deepest needs for love and nurture were famously ignored and her mother left her and her siblings with the father when Diana was very young. This led into her selection of a chosen family which also demonstrated a split-off, dysfunctional emotional tone.
The Prince of Wales has a singleton Uranus retrograde, and in tune with that, a distinct difficulty in both connecting to his feelings and demonstrating them. But it is now apparent, with hindsight, that Charles did not love Diana at all. Indeed, he fulfils the long line of royal patriarchy, marrying politically and loving extramaritally. An echo of the ancient story of Jason and Medea lies here in the House of Windsor.
What better expresses a lonely and sad childhood home life, leading into a loveless but socially powerful, formal and highly influential marriage (as an extension of that family of origin) than her Saturn/IC with the Moon and Jupiter in the 4th? Saturn in the 4th house, near the IC in this chart, speaks about her feelings of guilt, apprehension, invalidity, insecurity and fear — all family-based. Saturn devoured his creations, his children. I have associated this with eating disorders also: the hunger within and the revulsion toward the body and its ordinary functions. With Venus in Taurus in the 8th house [we can say this]: her sexual dissatisfaction and betrayal (that fed the Minotaur and obsessive-compulsive behaviour), food issues and nurturing issues all rose to the foreground of her personality.
Carrying the responsibility of breaking down the system of traditional aloofness and lack of emotional display (and indeed, the complete lack of feeling-tone displayed by the royal family) almost destroyed her. But her lunar power rose to save herself and her children. In a sense, she fulfilled her destiny which now seems to be simple. She was imported into the royal family for the purpose of deconstructing it from the inside. She was both circuit-breaker and scapegoat, and using those hard tools, she worked magic. That Saturn in the 4th house in England will find itself precisely on the IC in Paris! Is that where she completed her task? Let’s progress.
In this chart, her natal Moon in the 4th exactly squares her natal Venus in the 8th. The aspect itself (which in the Sagittarius rising chart is from the 2nd to the 5th house) is a hard one to carry. When the Moon and Venus are square to each other, the feminine function is powerfully split or polarised (it’s the same with the opposition). The split between the exotic, erotic, beautiful and independent Venusian goddess figure and the nurturing, caring, Mummy-lunar side of the feminine is in some way creating a dichotomy. Inherently there is a difficulty with that aspect. From the 4th house of family of origin to the 8th house of the personal ancestors, it speaks of her own contemporary experience being linked to and nourished by her female ancestral legacy.
Her mother did leave the family at an early age (4th house). Thus, she was abandoned by her mother and suffered hugely each time she and her little brother Charles went to visit her and then returned to the father’s home. She became her brother's mater soror, mother-sister, and she took on a tremendous amount of family responsibility. She loathed (as did the other siblings) their stepmother [Raine Spencer, Countess Spencer] whom they nicknamed Acid Raine. Her representative feminine archetypes in childhood and adolescence were pretty dire. And the little princess-ballerina, who was far too tall and gawky to be a real ballerina, continued to incubate within, destined to flower as a real princess with a very large pea under the mattress.
In retrospect (although I was convinced of this before her death) her entire purpose in life, her fate, was to be fed to the royal family to revitalise and circuit-break a family system that was virtually lumbering towards extinction. Like the virgins to the Cretan Minotaur, she sailed to the centre of the labyrinthine head family of Britain. It is interesting that Queen Elizabeth II is a Taurus with Saturn singleton retrograde at the MC, right in the empty arm of Diana’s tcross opposing Diana’s Venus. A devourer of creative issue? A very convenient cast was set for this passion-play to dramatise itself on the world stage.
The sign of Libra rising is more the presentation that she gives to the world than Sagittarius: graceful, pastel, gentle, politically savvy, very strong, concerned about being loved both personally and collectively, anxious to please. Her political savvy is due to Libra’s association as the sign of the ‘generals’ as well as the peacekeeper. She demonstrated very focused cardinal behaviour. When she was at the edge, she marshalled her forces and made calculated, strategic moves to disarm her ‘enemy’ and take them on in the public arena, the [BBC] Panorama interview being the most outstanding of these actions.
There is nothing flaky about this woman. She did not dart off at a moment’s notice without making it safe for her family. She was Cancerian about looking after the children. She did not crack in a ‘loose’ way; she did not blow it; in short, she possessed a control and a presence that a cardinal air sign rising evolves into in maturity. She made sure that she worked through her psychological problems, took responsibility for herself and her family and, in the end, as much as was possible, created a new, more balanced life. This is not Sagittarius rising behaviour. There were no careless, tossed-off, spontaneous flights or activity. Indeed, there was a massive control over self and image as well as a great longing for privacy and dignity. Her sad love-affairs, resulting from her pain of rejection in marriage, are simply that: the sad affairs of a lonely woman, any lonely woman. All the archetypal and mythic action in her life had to do with self-worth, presentation, issues with the maternal, the madonna/whore complex, relationships, beauty, harmony, peace, matters of the heart, love, diplomacy. She actually declared that she would like to be an ambassador of love, of the heart. Libra, Libra, Libra.
Let’s look more closely at the A*C*G map set for the same time. What I am seeing is that Saturn in the 4th house in London becomes SA/IC in Paris, precisely. Royalty are not Uranus, Neptune or Pluto; they are Saturn. They are the highest that exist in the social hierarchy. On the Astro*Carto*Graphy map, the 1° difference between her natal Saturn and the IC of her chart is shifted to become an exact SA/IC line over in Paris, 2° east of London. The SA/IC line is smack through the dot of Paris.
Her MO/IC line runs right through Greece where they spent some time: indeed, their last trip together. She loved Greece and was always boating around there and told a journalist friend that she would love to be able to live in Greece. The PL/MC line runs right through Somalia which was part of her campaign over land mines. The VE/DS line in Angola marks another very important place where she was known as the peacemaker, the peacekeeper, the spokesperson for harmony.
The SU/DS is the heroic aspect of oneself, sensing collective needs and meeting them, being a spokesperson for the underdog and the common people, identifying with one’s surroundings and being received well by the populace: Diana has been portrayed as being involved with India’s concerns via her public persona with Mother Teresa. In the Libra rising map, Diana has NE/AS running through Albania where Mother Teresa was born. The two of them are linked, if mythically, but there has been a lot of projection by the media and the public on Diana’s and Mother Teresa’s similarities. With Neptune located in Diana’s 1st house natally, her persona is a shape-shifting thing, a perfect screen for others’ fantasy images. And Diana may well have perceived Mother Teresa as the feminine goddess, the ideal of her own spiritual goals.
The world has drawn a fantastic parallel between these two very different women. They are a fantasy in the minds of the world, a romanticised projection. The media loved to photograph them together, so very different in appearance, background and status, but sharing a common concern for world issues. There was a considerable amount of media management that focused on the two of them as paradoxical cohorts. Their deaths occurring so remarkably close together really serves the Crone and the Princess — the Kore and Demeter myth. Mother Teresa and Princess Diana did have a strong affinity, a natural one and there is a lovely photograph of them, Diana towering above her, elegant, leggy, and embracing.
Here is where astrology can be very tricky as this example will illustrate. In the Sagittarius rising map, Diana’s ME/IC line runs through Bombay whereas in the Libra rising map, her ME/DC line is smack through Bombay. It strikes me that Descendant lines speak more about a relationship with the public, being a spokesperson for the masses and reaching out to the world, than do IC lines. Indeed, in India, her Sun and Mercury lines are descending in the Libra chart whereas they are both IC lines in the Sagittarius rising chart. She never wanted to live in India, nor was she in any way associated with family or property there, so IC lines don’t seem appropriate. Similarly, through Madras and Sri Lanka, in the Sagittarius rising chart, is the SU/IC; but in the Libra chart it is the SU/DS. What do we make of that?
Her PL/MC line through Somalia is where she strove to bring public attention to the land mine problem. I can certainly see that making sense: fighting, making a cause to remove old, undetonated land mines and prevent the future use of land mines that risk all the inhabitants. This is now becoming an important cause and one which likely will bear her name.
Diana: creating the future
Let’s move to the C*C*G and some of the transits and progressions to see if we can find some more clarity. Her progressed Venus/Descendant line now passes right through the dot of Bombay and up through New Delhi and crosses the ME/IC line. Do you recall that in the Sagittarius rising chart, her SA/IC line ran through the tip of Florida? And there was talk of her and Dodi buying a “dream house” there? Well, in the Libra rising map, her NE/IC line is just seconds to the west of Miami, and her C*C*G shows her conjoined progressed SU/AS and ME/AS lines intersecting with her transiting JU/DS line. Her Sun/Mercury progressions and Jupiter transits over the NE/IC line are more descriptive of a “dream home” than SA/IC with a Neptune transit, which is what the Sagittarius rising chart presents. I see the transiting JU/DS line crossing the progressed SU/ME/AS line right over Miami as alive with a progression of events leading to the possible discussion of purchasing some property of value in a foreign country. Certainly, it would not have been a thatched-roof shack, but a home of substantial means.
Where in the World
The extract was taken from this book.
Reprinted by and available at: The Wessex Astrologer
Now, do you recall that in the Sagittarius rising A*C*G, Diana's VE/IC line ran through Alexandria where Dodi was born?
Audience: Yes, and in this one...Oh! The Descendant makes much more sense than the IC line as she may have had to live part-time there, but this is much stronger by suggestion. Yes, the VE/DS line runs through Egypt.
Erin: Right! The VE/DS line runs through Alexandria. That is much more descriptive of a lover, a beloved, a fiancé — Venus on the Descendant in Dodi Fayed’s birthplace.
Okay, let us look at another key location in the world and compare the maps again. Her brother Charles, [who lived in Cape Town, South Africa, at the time] gave an emotional and electrifying speech cum eulogy at her funeral — and it seems to me he spoke directly from her Moon/IC line. When her brother said, “Your blood family will protect your sons”: does that sound like the Moon? Does that sound like the IC? There we have got it. Cape Town is flanked by Venus/Descendant and Moon/IC lines. And which is stronger?
Audience: East of the line Venus is, I guess, but the MO/IC is near Port Elizabeth, and they have property in that whole southern tip, so they are all there.
Erin: Oh, I didn't realise that. And it happens that her transiting JU/IC and progressed SU/MC lines both run right through Cape Town, very close to the natal map line of the MO/IC. The speech sounded to me like tribalism; it sounds like a call to war, really. Her sibling house is ruled by Jupiter, too. There was a resounding cheer from the people outside the cathedral at the funeral — first a stunned silence, then a rousing response from the people. It sounds like her brother felt compelled, in the middle of the night before the speech, to have written that emotional eulogy, coming all the way from Cape Town, so close to her MO/IC and UR/MC lines (because she has a Moon-Uranus opposition). Many critics of the eulogy said it was a “call to revolution”, a family war.
Audience: Saturn/IC lines feel like responsibility to do with family.
Erin: You are right. In horary it is called “the end of the matter”. In classical astrology Saturn was death. He was the Grim Reaper, remember? Her family obligations begin with Saturn in her 4th house conjunct the IC natally and end in Paris where the SA/IC line is exact.
Audience: Did Mohamed Al-Fayed buy the possessions of Wallis Simpson from their house in Paris? I think he did, and that is very, very curious, isn't it?
Erin: I didn't know that. If so, then it is absolutely hair-raising to see her Saturn in the 4th perfected at the IC in Paris. Though Diana herself may not have been the recipient of these possessions, it shows a strange attraction between the Fayeds and the royals. Also, Mohamed Al-Fayed has still been denied citizenship to the UK, even though he owns Harrods.
Endnote:
This is an extract from Where in the World? Astro*Carto*Graphy & Relocation by Erin Sullivan (republished by The Wessex Astrologer whose website is: wessexastrologer.com). Extract reproduced by kind permission.
(1) The Moment of Astrology, Geoffrey Cornelius, Arkana, Contemporary Astrology Series, London, 1995. Currently out of print.
Published by: The Astrological Journal, Mar/Apr 2024
Author:
Erin Sullivan was Canadian-born and a consultant astrologer and teacher from the late 1960s. She lectured worldwide and led workshops and symposia on many aspects of human development, using mythology, psychology and the rich language of astrology. Among her other books are Saturn in Transit: Boundaries of Mind, Body and Soul and Dynasty: The Astrology of Family Dynamics. In December 2023, Erin passed away after a long illness, aged 76. Her website is currently still accessible: erinsullivan.com.
© Erin Sullivan, Astrological Journal, 2024
