{"id":7379,"date":"2023-04-16T09:40:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T09:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lanawooster.co.uk\/?p=7379"},"modified":"2023-04-27T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T13:23:10","slug":"aspects-for-the-week-beginning-16-april-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lanawooster.co.uk\/?p=7379","title":{"rendered":"Aspects for the week beginning 16 April 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary Quant (1934 – 2023)
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“A leader of fashion but also in female entrepreneurship – a visionary who was much more than a great haircut”<\/em><\/p>\n

~ Alexandra Shulman<\/p>\n

The swinging sixties fashion icon, Mary Quant, died this week aged 93.\u00a0 She was responsible for the slick haircut, the mini-skirt (you had to have the legs), and the daisy motif.\u00a0 Those were heady days – Twiggy was the clothes peg for that look, and she was born the same year as me.\u00a0 I remember, aged 16, wearing long dangly black and white clip-on Mary Quant style earrings whenever I took a trip to London!<\/p>\n

Birth chart<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mary Quant had Venus, Saturn\/North Node and Sun in Aquarius – if that doesn’t speak of fashion innovator, and mover and shaker, I don’t know what does.\u00a0 She had a quick and incisive mind, from a conjunction of Mercury and Mars.\u00a0 Jupiter trine Saturn gave her a shrewdly balanced judgement, but a T-square between Uranus, Jupiter and Pluto brought a love of power and a willingness to take risks.<\/p>\n

Life and Career<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mary was born in Blackheath, London, and both her parents had obtained firsts at Cardiff University before going on to teach.\u00a0 She attended Blackheath High School, and went on to study illustration and art at Goldsmith’s College, London.\u00a0\u00a0 It was there that she met Alexander Plunkett-Greene whom she saw as “a great wit and a dish”.\u00a0 She described him at that phase of his life, saying he “swanned around long-haired in his mother’s silk pyjama top, trumpet in one hand and film script in the other”, and subsequently married him.\u00a0 Initial work in millinery found her ambition understretched, and her desire to design fashion saw her start with simple designs in the 1950s.\u00a0 She learned dress-pattern cutting at night school to improve her skills. They struggled financially until he inherited \u00a35000 on his 21st birthday, when she set up her shop in the King’s Road, title “Bazaar”.\u00a0 This was in the year 1955, a year after Coco Chanel re-opened her salon in Paris after the Second World War.\u00a0 But Mary departed radically from French couture, taking her inspiration instead from the Mod movement.<\/p>\n

She popularized the mini-skirt (the inventor is disputed), fashioning it after the Mini car.\u00a0 It symbolized freedom for her and the young women who were the clientele of her age, another Aquarian theme.\u00a0 She added pockets to skirts and dresses to her designs, so that young women would not have to carry handbags. Her short shorts became the celebrated hotpants; and she also invented the duvet (Aquarius also being the sign of the Inventor).<\/p>\n

Her hairdresser was Vidal Sassoon who says he “cut hair like she cut material.\u00a0 No fuss, no ornamentation.\u00a0 Just a neat swinging line.”, and she was great friends with the designer Terence Conran and the photographer David Bailey, who says he will miss her greatly.\u00a0 In her autobiography Wonderful Tonight, Pattie Boyd wrote about her wedding to George Harrison on 21st January 1966: “I bought a Mary Quant pinky-red shot-silk dress, which came to just above the knee, and wore it with creamy stockings and pointy red shoes.\u00a0 On top, because it was January and cold, I wore a red fox-fur coat, also by Mary Quant, that George gave me.\u00a0 She made George a beautiful black Mongolian lamb coat.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Marriage and Family<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mary Quant declared in her 1996 Autobiography Quant on Quant that “Life…began for me when I first saw Plunket”, although they did have a turbulent relationship and he was rumoured to have been unfaithful.\u00a0 He died in 1990, but they had one child together, Orlando, born on 4th November 1970.\u00a0 She wrote in an interview with the Guardian that she was happiest when her son was born.\u00a0 He had Uranus trine her natal Venus (an exciting relationship), and in his own chart he had an upbeat conjunction of Sun and Jupiter.\u00a0 He has helped to supervise her collection at the V & A Museum, and supported her in other ways.\u00a0 She has three grandchildren.\u00a0 In later life, she developed a relationship with Anthony Rouse.<\/p>\n

She died peacefully, with Jupiter sextile her natal Sun.\u00a0 A high impact, full life, well lived.<\/p>\n

“I mostly felt, my God, what a marvellous life you had, you are very fortunate…I think to myself, ‘you lucky woman \u2014 how did you have all this fun?'” <\/em><\/p>\n

~ <\/em>Mary Quant, 2012 interview<\/p>\n

Aspects<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It is a week of two halves.\u00a0 The second half has some intense aspecting going on, while the first half is clear of aspects, but full of connections with the Fixed Stars.\u00a0 So I will choose a star for each day early in the week to work with.<\/p>\n

We can start, today, with Alrisha, the Alpha Star in the constellation of Pisces.\u00a0 According to “Starlight Elixirs” by Michael Smulkis and Fred Rubenfeld (the text I shall use for all four Fixed stars):<\/p>\n

“A balancing of this time transition into Aquarius can take place for many people with use of this star.\u00a0 People who may be afraid of technology or who do not understand how to work with it will find that some benefits result in utilizing this star as many of these technological things are metallic.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There can be an awareness of how change takes place for people in a way that becomes much more comfortable and much more assimilable, particularly for older individuals.\u00a0 Individuals who fear the future will find a soothing response from this star.”<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, Monday (17th) focus can be trained on Petra, aka Alpherg, another star in the constellation of Pisces, which represents Beingness:<\/p>\n

“This star can increase the ability to remember past lives and release sadness associated with them.\u00a0 This can also be of great benefit with individuals who are suffering from a tendency towards addictive principles.\u00a0 The unconscious aspects from past lives can be made much clearer, and a willingness to accept these truths and to move forward\u00a0 with them can be enhanced.”<\/p>\n

The next two stars come from Andromeda.\u00a0 On Tuesday (18th) our Sun is aligned with the deep space spiral galaxy numbered M31 and aka Vertex, which represents Cosmic Consciousness:<\/p>\n

“This galaxy\u2019s influence enhances the ability to understand the long term purpose of humanity\u2019s evolution.\u00a0 This includes the ability to recall one\u2019s past lives as different life forms, such as dinosaurs.\u00a0 In some cases these remembered lives are extraterrestrial… but primarily incarnations in the mountainous regions of Earth, particularly the Himalayas is increased.\u00a0 The ability to see the overall picture.”\u00a0 This may be something you are working towards at the time.<\/p>\n

Wednesday (19th) is favourable for tuning in to Mirach, the Beta star in Andromeda, which represents sound healing.\u00a0 We are told by Smulkis and Rubenfeld:<\/p>\n

“The ability to hear, to utilize the voice, and to release difficulties associated with the sounds one hears or speaks is strengthened.\u00a0 A deeper connection to physicalness and an opening of the root chakra results.\u00a0 The ability to hear the sounds of nature and the Earth will likely be enhanced as well.”\u00a0 Bernadette Brady, in her book of the Fixed Stars, affirms the beneficence of this star traditionally: some of the ancient sources equate it with happiness.<\/p>\n

So there is some deep food for thought, prior to the main aspects of the week, starting on Thursday (20th) with a Solar Eclipse and New Moon at 29 degrees Aries in the early hours of the day.\u00a0 This may bring cheer and vigour, and a renewed sense of purpose.\u00a0 It is a time to look to the future, as much as is possible.\u00a0 It can certainly be a new beginning for you, even if it is just about re-organizing your lifestyle.\u00a0 If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well…The New Moon in Aries is one of the brightest of the year in terms of its potential.\u00a0 However, being an eclipse increases the sense of it being a portent, together with the\u00a0 square of the Sun-Moon conjunction to Pluto.\u00a0 It increases the sense of having to let go of something, in order to create the space for what is new to come forth.<\/p>\n

Around breakfast time, the Sun will enter Taurus, so more newness to be added, with a slightly different focus.\u00a0 It betokens a time of the blossoming of the earth.\u00a0 Gardeners will garden, artists will paint or sculpt, and dancers will dance.\u00a0 So it is very much a cuspal and switchover day, embedding into a productive Taurean period.<\/p>\n

But in the afternoon, the festive atmosphere (if that was experienced) may become more thoughtful and serious, with a square between the Sun and Pluto.\u00a0 This is a deep soul-searching aspect.\u00a0 It is the sort of aspect which can be looked upon as a gamechanger, or watershed.\u00a0 So if you are in integrity, you may be able to influence what side the coin lands on.\u00a0 Interestingly, at the same square last October, there was turmoil in Westminster when Suella Braverman was sacked, in the shortest Home Office stint since the 1940s.\u00a0 She was later reinstated by Rishi Sunak, and is now under fire again, so could she be sacked again, I wonder?<\/p>\n

Friday (21st) brings us the next round of Mercury stationing prior to turning Retrograde, in Taurus.\u00a0 Be clear in your communications between these two dates, in order to avoid misunderstandings and loopholes.\u00a0 Although technology can go awry, it can be a good period to upgrade such devices.\u00a0 You may have developed your own strategies, according to past experiences.<\/p>\n

A cheery note from Yasmin Bolland and Kim Farnell, from their book on Mercury Retrograde, regarding Mercury Retrograde in the Earth signs: “Anything that comes from the earth forms the basis of a great ritual while Mercury is retrograde in an Earth sign.\u00a0 For example, you could use sacred stones, crystals and flowers to create a beautiful mandala while you ask the heavens to show you what you need to learn.”<\/p>\n

The week in bullet points:<\/p>\n