Camilla Bowles and the British Crown
Zip Dobyns
Several members of the British royal family have been discussed in The Mutable Dilemma during the past two years. We looked at the chart of Prince Charles after a book of presumed interpretations of Nostradamus predicted that Charles would be crowned King of England in May 1992. At the time, I wrote that the prediction was highly unlikely—that Charles’ chart just looked like marital problems. A few months later, Charles and Diana did separate, and the press was full of stories about how unhappy Diana was over Charles’ persisting relationship with his long- time friend and mistress, Camilla P Bowles. The English Astrological Association has tracked down the birth date and approximate time for Camilla, so I thought our readers might like to have her chart to compare with Prince Charles and Diana. Camilla was born on July 7, 1947 in London, England just after 7 A.M. England was on double summer time at the time, so the UT is just after 5 A.M. I have set the chart for 7:02 but the angles can only be considered approximate.
[Note: AstroDatabank now has date of July 17, not July 7.]
Charles was reportedly attracted to Camilla’s intelligence. Her verbal fluency and broad interests are shown in the horoscope by Mercury on the Ascendant and by a huge stellium of seven factors in Gemini, partly in the eleventh house and partly in the twelfth. Her chart is a good example of the inadequacy of considering only Sun signs, since both Camilla and Diana have their Suns in Cancer. Diana’s Cancer Sun is in her seventh house and she has manifested it as sensitivity to the feelings and opinions of other people, and as an intense desire for a bonded partnership. Water is the element of emotional fusion, of openness through the subconscious to the oneness of life so there is no sense of separation. Diana also has a loaded eighth house which repeats the tendency to be vulnerable to close, peer relationships.
Camilla’s Sun and Mercury are in Cancer like Diana’s, but they are in the twelfth house where they show less vulnerability to peer relationships and more emphasis on issues involving subconscious faith. Of course, our ethics are based on our faith. When subconscious faith is present (and Camilla’s trines from the Moon to the late degree Gemini factors in her twelfth house suggest that she has it), the person often leads a “charmed,” protected life. Camilla’s very strong air presumably helps her to handle the danger of oversensitivity which is associated with a strongly water chart. The objectivity and detachment of air help to prevent excessive emotional dependency and vulnerability. In addition to the emphasis on Gemini, Camilla has an Aquarian Moon and Neptune in Libra. Over half of her factors in air signs are in water houses, so her chart is heavily air and water. These elements show a person who lives mostly in the head.
Camilla does have enough fire to be clear about what she wants and to be confident enough to go after it, especially since her water trines show the subconscious faith that the world will meet her needs. Her weak element is earth with only Ceres in Taurus in the tenth house. Saturn in the first house and Vesta conjunct the Antivertex do bring in some natural ability to be realistic, but the chart shows little need to be productive in the material world. It fits the traditional role of a woman born in the elite class whose main role was to please the man (or men) in her life.
In addition to her intelligence, Charles was reportedly attracted to Camilla’s sexual passion. Pluto in Leo on the second house cusp is one key to that potential in her chart, plus she has Jupiter and Chiron (which is like Jupiter) in Scorpio with Jupiter in the fifth house along with the south lunar node and Juno in Sagittarius. Juno is similar to Pluto, so we have Jupiter in the sign of Pluto and a proxy Pluto in the sign of Jupiter, with both in the house of Leo. Many of these combinations are mixing an emphasis on the fixed parts of life which deal with pleasure, physical sensuality, and passion, with the Jupiterian search for the Absolute, for ultimate value, for experiences which make our life meaningful, which define our primary goals. One way to manifest such combinations is to make sexuality an ultimate value. Other people with the same combinations may try to be the perfect parent of perfect children, or they may seek stardom in the entertainment world, or they may think that God (fate, their own inherent merit, the high importance of their goals, or whatever), will provide their heart’s desire through gambling or speculation, etc. The details in the life are always up to the individual.
I have recently listened again in some frustration to a highly respected astrologer deny that Jupiter represents the same principle as Sagittarius and the ninth house. He insists that Jupiter is inherently acquisitive, that its main goal is always money. He offers his own Jupiter in Cancer in his first house as proof of his theory. The instinct of water is always to preserve, to save, whether pounds on the body or sentimental mementos, or memories, etc. Water pictures our storehouse of habits from the past. Since Cancer, like the Moon and the fourth house, symbolizes the search for emotional security, people who have it emphasized will tend to collect whatever is connected to that security. If information is a source of security, we tend to collect anything containing information. With my Moon in Gemini, my home (also ruled by the Moon and a major source of security to many people) is over-flowing with books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and even junk mail that should be discarded. The water principle (including three planets, houses and signs in astrology) represents the past and the inner world of the subconscious and often there is a partial lack of awareness associated with water factors. In addition to its acquisitive tendency, the urge to preserve the past often attracts strongly water people to history, archaeology, research, depth psychology, etc.
Letter one in our astrological alphabet, (including Mars, anything in Aries, and anything in or ruling the signs in the first house), indicates what we do instinctively, spontaneously, often without conscious thought unless there are connections to air factors in the chart. Air, (planets, signs or houses), brings in the potential for conscious awareness. When letters nine and/or twelve are involved, our action is connected to our search for ultimate value, to our need for something which we can trust which will give meaning to our lives, which gives us our basis for our hierarchy of goals. Naturally, Jupiter in Cancer which combines ultimate value with emotional security will collect anything which serves these purposes. In the first house, the action will be quite instinctive.
Jupiter’s association with excess, which has been noted from the earliest records of astrology, is quite predictable. Anything that is ultimately important to us is likely to be overdone. Though its primary purpose is a belief system to guide our lives and thus there is always the potential of valuing and seeking knowledge wherever one’s Jupiter is placed, it is quite possible to “worship” (trust and over-value) literally anything in the world. In Cancer, this may include food, a home, personal possessions, one’s family, etc. Jupiter in Virgo, as I have it, tends to over-value one’s work and/or health. In Leo, one may over-value the act of sex, or its result—one’s offspring, or other forms of creativity, or fame, or power or all of the above. Since the world is a mirror, we keep meeting facets of ourselves in other people, especially in the ones who are close to us. The ever-present hazard for astrologers is the danger of assuming that the people we meet who share our values are illustrative of principles which are universally true. Some people with a very strong Jupiter value a life unencumbered by possessions which leaves them free to pursue Truth with a capital “T”.
Like Camilla, Charles has a similar but even more emphasized group of factors in Scorpio and Sagittarius in the fourth and fifth houses. His life has demonstrated that he finds sex with Camilla more valuable than devotion to his children. There are many aspects between the charts of Charles and Camilla, including mutual conjunctions between Juno and other factors. I have found Juno to be one of the strongest keys to attractions to potential mates. Camilla’s Juno is exactly conjunct Charles’ Mars while his Juno is very close to her MC. It will be interesting to see what Charles does when his P Juno reaches his own natal MC in about five years.
Returning to Camilla’s chart, among the interesting asteroids are Charlois (the French version of Charles) rising in 29 Cancer in a trine to the MC; Aten, a Sun god for fame and power, on Camilla’s natal Sun; and Icarus on her Helio, another Sun god, and her Descendant, the house of partnership. Most readers will remember the myth of Icarus who flew too close to the Sun and crashed. I have seen many cases where Icarus was a clue to overreach, especially where two individuals had natal or progressed conjunctions between Icarus positions in each chart. The Icarus on Icarus was sometimes associated with passionate attractions and a total loss of common sense. (Charles has more earth than Camilla but it is his weakest element.) Camilla’s P Icarus was on Charles’ natal Icarus the year that they met. Charles has had his P Icarus conjunct Camilla’s natal Icarus during the past few years! They really had a double dose with both Juno and Icarus conjunctions.
Camilla is married and has children, but apparently her husband has not objected to her role as mistress to Prince Charles. Amun, another Sun god, was conjunct Diana in her natal chart, and both asteroids were octile-trioctile the true lunar nodes, suggesting tensions in relationships. The close aspects to the asteroids named for sun gods certainly fit the recent and current publicity over Camilla’s long affair with Charles. P Mercury, a key to the media among other meanings, reached P Charlois in 1993 as the publicity really took off. The British tabloids have had a field day printing new exposes including a torrid tape recording of Charles telling Camilla quite explicitly what he would like to be doing with her sexually. It is suspected that the British secret service is the source of the tapes of private conversations by both Charles and Diana with their respective confidants.
Other appropriate asteroids in Camilla’s natal chart include Geisha opposite the Sun and Bathseba conjunct the Ascendant. Geisha was named for the women in Japan who were formerly hired to entertain male customers, to persuade them to spend more money. Bathseba was named for the mistress of King David of Israel. David sent Bathseba’s husband to the front lines of the army where he was killed and Bathseba and David became the parents of Solomon who succeeded his father as king of Israel. However, Camilla’s children are presumably sired by her husband and she is not only unlikely to have any with Charles; they could never become rulers under British law. The consensus in Britain at this point is that Charles has no chance of becoming King of England but if the royal family can avoid additional scandals, his oldest son, William, might succeed Queen Elizabeth on the throne.
I also have the birth data for Prince William who was born in London on June 21, 1982 at 9:03 P.M. His UT is 8:03 P.M. English astrologers think that he has a good chance to become king with Jupiter exactly trine his Sun and conjunct his MC from the ninth house, progressing to it in about 21 years. William will be around 32 at the time, a reasonably young age to inherit the throne in view of the longevity of the female members of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth will be 88 by then. Her mother, Queen mother Mary, is surviving in her late 90s, and her grandmother, Queen Victoria, lived and ruled into her 90s.
Prince William will have some additional appropriate aspects at the time including P Sun going into its own sign of Leo, traditionally associated with kings. P Sun will square Jupiter but the natal trine between them suggests a desirable event, and the P Sun’s trine to Uranus (in contrast to a natal quincunx) shows a time of change. P MC will have been crossing Uranus in the preceding two years, quincunx natal Sun and semisextile Jupiter, fitting a change of William’s role in the society and of his relationship to power.
William’s natal chart has a strong water component with Neptune on the Ascendant, Jupiter, MC and Ceres in Scorpio, and Sun, Moon and north lunar node in Cancer. He is deeply attached to Diana, his mother. The seventh house Moon in its own sign can stay emotionally “married” to mother. But William’s rising Juno in Capricorn shows a strong need for a traditional mate and in light of his seventh house, he is likely to be a more loving and more faithful husband than his father has been. Venus conjunct Chiron in Taurus and trine the first house East Point in Capricorn is also capable of loyalty, and though Mercury in Gemini in the fifth house could be more flirtatious, its trines to Mars and Pallas in Libra in the ninth house plus the first house Antivertex in Aquarius finishing a grand air trine would fit the ability to relate harmoniously with peers. Still, Venus/Chiron are quincunx the Ascendant/Neptune and Pluto, forming a yod which can indicate separations. Venus/Chiron are also widely opposite Uranus, so William could manifest the separative tendencies by delaying marriage (perhaps partly due to his attachment to his mother) or he could just feel pulled between his public duties and his family commitments, or he could fail to learn from his father’s example and repeat his pattern. However, I would consider the last potential the least likely. William has seen his mother hurt and been very protective of her.
In the natal chart, among the asteroids given personal names are several belonging to members of the royal family. Diana, William’s mother’s name, is in 19 Libra, lacking aspects to the traditional planets but opposite Karma at 19 Aries. Elizabeth, the name of William’s grandmother, the Queen, is conjunct natal Chiron and Venus, ruler of the fourth house (home and family) and in the fifth house (the natural house of Leo, the king). William may see more of his grandmother in the future if he is increasingly groomed to be a future king. Charlois, being used to represent William’s father, is in 27 Cancer, quincunx the Ascendant and opposite the East Point, appropriate aspects for the physical and emotional separations between William and his father. Repeating the tension between father and son, asteroid William(s) is just under 12 Pisces with a trioctile to Charlois, but William’s harmony with his mother shows with his name asteroid in a grand trine to Ceres and the north lunar node in Cancer. Eduarda is just below the eastern horizon in opposition to the seventh house Sun. Elizabeth’s uncle, Edward, gave up his right to the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, thus opening the way for Elizabeth’s father to become King and for her later accession to the throne. During these years of the early 1990s, P Eduarda has been crossing the Ascendant as a reminder that not all individuals who are destined to be king by right of birth will actually achieve the position. Henry, for William’s brother Harry, is in 8 Aries and Philippina (named for a King Philip) for William’s grandfather, is in 8 Sagittarius. They form a network of aspects to Mercury in 8 Gemini and Mars in 9 Libra which would fit shared communication and possibly sports. The royal family is very devoted to horses and dogs.
If we only counted occupied signs, William’s chart would be considered weak in fire with only the Ascendant and Neptune in Sagittarius. However, the exact Sun trine Jupiter, Mars and Jupiter in the ninth house, and the fact that the majority of the factors in the chart are in the “natural” fire houses (1, 5, and 9), all add emphasis to that element. Since I think that the houses are more important than the signs, I think that William has a strongly fire chart, including the sense of his right to what he wants which he would need in order to feel entitled to the role of king. We will see what the future brings.