Aspects for the week beginning 21 July 2013

Mel Smith

Comedian Mel Smith died on Friday morning, it was announced last night.  He was born under the comedy sign of the zodiac, Sagittarius.  Readers of a certain age may not remember mirth filled evenings watching Not the Nine O’Clock News, Alas Smith and Jones, and Colin’s Sandwich.  We do not have his birth time.

Mel had a distinctive face, sometimes likened to that of Les Dawson (whose available birth dates are too varied to research) but he does look Cancerian, and with Moon in Cancer he might well have made it a double with Ascendant on his Moon.  Mars squares Jupiter in his chart, magnifying the humour quotient in his chart.

His Jupiter (planet of mirth) squares his Nodal Axis, and with North Node in Aquarius he certainly would have liked to think of his humour as avant garde (as the satirical Not the Nine O’Clock  News undoubtedly was).  So he certainly achieved a karmic mission of high mirth.

He had a hugely successful comedy partnership with Griff Rhys Jones, whose birth time we do have.  Mel had the Part of Fortune (Joy) in his own 7^th House of Partnerships.  The pair are reported not to have had a cross word in the years they had known each other.  With their Marses (or Mars’) in exact trine they would have been good mates or lads together from the start.  Rhys Jones’ Chiron sparked off an opposition with Mel’s Uranus.  Rhys Jones has said of their 35 year friendship that he had lost “a gentleman and a scholar, a gambler and a wit”.  I don’t know what he means by the gambler allusion, but the Gambler Archetype belongs to Sagittarius.

In such a humour-dominated chart, he could play serious roles too such as his recent appearance in Dancing on the Edge.  Pathos was also part of his repertoire, with Venus squaring his Saturn/Neptune.  The hapless eponymous figure of Colin’s Sandwich used to have me in stitches in the late 1980’s.  It was  a time when we were getting our heads round home computers, and as an aspiring writer  “Colin” once accidentally deleted a novel he had written, which hit a raw nerve in my funnybone.  I have never forgotten it, as it played into a deep fear of mine!

The last astrological word belongs to Chiron, for his Chiron was (by one degree) trine his Jupiter, which is healing through comedy.

Aspects:

Tomorrow is eventful enough to warrant a timetable (U.K. time):

7.35 a.m. Mars conjunct Jupiter at 5 deg Cancer:  Time to spring out of bed and implement all the ideas which came to you during the Grand Ttine last week. You have 5 hours to do this creatively and artistically while Venus is still in Leo. Don’t miss Monday morning’s once in 2 year’s burst of energy + enthusiasm.

12.41 p.m.: Venus enters Virgo and you have to knuckle down to the detail and paperwork, which takes the edge off the creativity and maybe also some of the enthusiasm , unless you ‘re a Virgo in which case your studies and presentations will start to accumulate elegance. So it’s action in the morning, then recording your work at lunchtime (no time for a lunch break today).

15.56 Hrs Sun enters Leo. So Leo just lost Venus but gains its own planet or star, the Sun 3 hours later. That may result in a short cloudy interlude in an otherwise halcyon summer’s day… If you have knuckled down to the chores in that time, you’ll feel no guilt basking in the sunshine again from mid afternoon. Time for a little hedonism. Do what you enjoy. This is for two and a half hours only, and though you may not feel guilt you may feel some upcoming tension from the upcoming full moon in Aquarius. Develop your individuality in preparation.

18.16 Hrs:  The Full Moon in Aquarius will remind you of your group participation and roles. Any leonine preparation you have done will help you stand firm in your individuality.

On now to Friday (26th) and Venus opposes Neptune which confuses relationships, dissipates money and messes with our artistic sensibilities and projects. The offending issue may be illusion.

This is followed by a sextile to Venus from Saturn which may save or salvage the situation wholly or partly and bring a dose of realism to compare with the illusion. If your toddler grandson has defaced your latest masterpiece you may stand back and conclude that the Jackson Pollock effect has some merit…in relationships you may see that loyalty can win out over romanticism.

On Saturday (27th) a palpable physical tension may build up through the day and culminate in a sticky situation in the evening with Mars opposing Pluto. It’s not a good day for instance to take part in a demo, an Occupy or an Arab spring, or the evening may bring attendance at a crowded accident and emergency department run by a stressed and sleep deprived hospital short staff (and I don’t mean under 5 foot). It’s a bit of a cliff hanger at the end of the week, and not alleviated by a sun square Saturn in the early hours of Sunday morning which indicates the consequences of Saturday night/ Sunday morning could be quite serious, so don’t take risks.

Heat is another hazard of Pluto/Mars, and if the U.K. heatwave is still around we may have more of the warnings we had this week.  Among the warnings issued this week were drowning, dehydration, spontaneous forest fires, sunburn, barbecues and even a warning to be careful if you are handling Scotch bonnet chillies, “or you could land up in A & E” from T.V. chef Gino di Campo.

The Week in Bullet Points:

• Monday – complex and hectic
• Friday – deception then stabilization in relationships
• Saturday – apply caution