The Royal Wedding: Love meets Duty

It was celeb-watchers dream this week as the pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding attracted the world’s rich and famous to London’s Westminster Abbey to witness the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The exchange of vows between the second in line to the British crown and the commoner from Berkshire took place at 11.20 a.m. on Friday, April 29. The moment of the marriage encapsulates potential future directions as seen through the position of the planets. Just as the direction of every individual’s life is projected into the future by the planets at the time of their birth, so is the possible course of married life by the planetary alignments when the bride and groom say "I will".

The marriage chart of William and Kate is remarkably powerful. Cancer rises with lagnesh Moon very well placed in the 9th house in Pisces. The Moon is joined by no less than five other planets in the 9th house. This confers a certain huge amount of popularity and good fortune and suggests that the couple will prosper through involvement with authority figures. This isn’t too surprising since William will become the King of England at some point either through his father, Prince Charles or his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. This extra strong 9th house also indicates that the married couple will themselves exude a tremendous amount of authority and power.

The Moon is conjunct five planets in Pisces including Uranus, Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter. If nothing else, this serves to greatly energize this union and increases its public profile and status. Even more telling for power and status is the close conjunction of Jupiter and Mars occurs in the 9th house. The fact that the marriage occurs near a Mars-Jupiter conjunction is already very positive for an active and successful partnership. Mars (action, energy) with Jupiter (wealth, optimism) is an excellent combination for making correct decisions that have positive consequences. The fact that this conjunction sits in the fortunate 9th house dramatically boosts the worldly influence and public profile of the couple. But then again this exactly would one would expect since this couple will likely ascend to the very highest levels of power. In addition, we can see that the Sun is exalted in Aries in the 10th house, which further supports the notion of the marriage as influential and high profile. This is a marriage of future world leaders.

Marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton – April 29, 2011 11.20 a.m London

The downside to this marriage chart involves the central position of the planet Saturn. As the planet of responsibilities and burdens, Saturn introduces the notion of seriousness and tradition into a relationship. In this chart, Saturn closely opposes Venus, the planet of love and affection. Venus-Saturn contacts in a marriage chart can make affection (Venus) take a back seat to responsibilities and tradition (Saturn). To be sure, the marriage fulfills an obligation to William’s family to continue the Windsor lineage and improve the monarchy’s image in the 21st century. So some prominence for Saturn would be likely in any event just given who William is and what his probable future will be. But the other side to the Venus-Saturn contact is that love can be crowded out by tradition and the demands of his role as future King. While the couple appear to be very much in love now, the burden of William’s duties may become a strain on the marriage over time. This is perhaps to be expected to some degree, but it is an open question to what extent it may stifle the couple’s happiness. A more positive interpretation of this Venus-Saturn aspect would be that the love in the marriage is naturally superseded by the necessity to show the best face of stability and produce further heirs to the throne. In a sense, one would expect nothing less from a marriage that involved a future head of state.

However, the Saturn influence here may actually spill over onto other planets since Saturn also closely aspects Mercury by just two degrees, and casts its aspect with a lesser influence on all the other planets in Pisces. That suggests that the rigidity of his role is more likely to affect other areas of life. Over time, this union may involve a good amount of compromise between the need to develop the relationship and the demands of his family and the state. There may be important situations down the road where William is forced to choose between his obligation to his family and the wishes of his wife. The key placement of Saturn in this chart suggests that tradition and family obligations may tend to carry the day more often that not. Admittedly, this seems unlikely right now as the couple are the picture of young love, but it will bear watching in the future as the Saturn influence gradually asserts itself.

Prince William June 21, 1982 9.03 a.m. London

If the wedding chart looks powerful if somewhat heavy, Prince William’s chart raises more questions about how successful the marriage will be. There are several potentially difficult placements pertaining to marriage in his horoscope. The 7th house contains Sun, Moon and Rahu in the sign of Gemini. While the Sun and Moon aren’t bad at all in this house and suggest a powerful wife and prominent marriage, the Moon rules the 8th house (Cancer) and this can create problems in married life, especially involving secrets or perhaps affairs. In addition, Rahu in the 7th is perhaps a more troublesome influence. Rahu in the 7th can indicate a spouse that is unpredictable and offbeat, which may cause stresses on the marriage. At this point, we don’t much about Kate Middleton, but it will be interesting to see how this Rahu influence emerges over time. The other potential trouble spot is that 7th lord Mercury is placed in the 6th house. Like the 8th, the 6th house is considered a malefic influence. The 7th ruler in the 6th house can create conflict in the marriage and a desire to correct the spouse’s perceived flaws. In some charts, this 6th house influence can also manifest as the wife working in fields that focus on conflict and health, such as the legal, police or medical professions. I don’t think this is the case with Kate, but we’ll have to wait and see as she is still quite young. We can also see that some of the more difficult 6th house energy may be nullified by Mercury’s conjunction with Venus in Taurus. Since Venus is a benefic planet and represents beauty and art, William’s spouse may exhibit some of these Venusian qualities. Clearly, she is a beautiful, young woman. She also has her university degree in art history which is another embodiment of this Venus energy.

So that is very much a mixed bag as far as married life goes. While the chart may not have a huge affliction, we cannot rule out divorceat some point. Just how likely it may be is hard to say, although some of the difficult planetary karma may manifest as above average levels of strife or some scandals or public embarrassment that may mark the marriage. Given the extent to which this marriage will be scrutinized by the press, it is perhaps not unsurprising that William may be subject to some secret intrigues or embarrassments, no matter if they are exaggerated by the media or not. My point would simply be that his chart tends to increase the likelihood of such events and they are likely to take their toll on his marriage with Kate.

Finally, a note about marriage timing. William’s chart carries an important lesson about Rahu in predicting marriage. While Rahu is usually seen as a negative influence, his marriage occurred when transiting Rahu (0 Sagittarius) crossed his ascendant (3 Sagittarius). One might usually think of marriage as occurring under a nice Jupiter transit to Venus or the Moon, since malefics like Rahu are often depicted as troublemakers that couldn’t possibly correspond to a positive event like marriage. Not so! The key in this case was that Rahu was imbued with positive marriage energy at the time of his birth since it was placed in his 7th house of marriage. A strong 7th house planet can therefore bring about marriage even if it is a natural malefic. Marriage will therefore become more likely when such 7th house influences are either transiting the 7th house or the 1st house, as Rahu is in William’s chart.

At the time of the wedding, transiting Neptune (6 Aquarius) also formed a grand trine to his natal Sun (6 Gemini) and Jupiter (6 Libra). This activated his 7th house Sun (marriage) as well as his powerful 11th house Jupiter (gains, achievement) which conjoins the Midheaven. In this way, William’s marriage combined the symbolism of a relationship and matrimonial love with a major life achievement that enhanced his status and power. Neptune is rising in his natal chart, so we can see another instance of this 1st house/7th house energy in marriage. Neptune (1st house) was in aspect with the Sun (7th house).