By David R. Roell

Hello e,

You've got a good start. Have you missed the astonishing fact that 17 Gemini is the rising degree for London!? Raphael gives it as 17 54 exactly! (Can this be? Check your math. Check it again!)

Notably, this conjunction [Sun/Mercury] is the only thing I can find in this chart that suggests violence.

There are not two stories. The ruling planet is retrograde in a singleton sign. This means it's the details of the known story (Virgo) that are sour.

Chart ruler Mercury retrograde in Virgo suggests the details of the accident are not true. Mercury is combust, which means the real details have been burnt up, e.g., destroyed. Mercury lacks just a bit from being Cazimi (which would be 17 minutes or less from exactly conjunct). When did Mercury and Sun become precisely conjunct by arc or progression? That would seem to be the moment that Mercury's "truth" wanted to come out. That the Sun is by that time in eclipse means the revelation would have been a "loud noise," or a searing/scorching event, but as Mercury is retrograde, whatever is/was revealed will still not be the actual truth. (I think of the Moon's shadow falling on the earth as burning/blackening it.) Did this eclipse fall on Dodi's homeland, or any place either ever visited? That location may be a clue to the person(s) behind the event, or to the real story.

As I think of it, with charts like these, so do the TransNeps*. They always turn up in surprising places. Wish I could make sense of them. Asteroids are not nearly so reliable.

As for violence, you may not have looked far enough. What disposes Saturn in Aries? Mars. In Scorpio? Mars in Scorpio is firewater. It is also cold revenge and cutting steel. In the 6th, you have your drunk servant, one not in the employment of Diana, but of her English government, in some way or another, as the English are ruled by Aries. Since there is no formal aspect between Saturn and Mars, there appears to be no "formal" relationship between the driver and the English. (People who are good with terms and faces -- I am not -- could delineate this further.)

Saturn in the 11th is the government's resources (2nd from the 10th). That it is retrograde would indicate that IF Diana was murdered, and IF the crown or the English government was behind it in some fashion, then it was by rogue elements acting outside the law with money obtained by illegal or irregular means. Cloak and dagger stuff, in other words.

Of Saturn in the 11th (the house of Parliament, among other things), Raphael says, "...it brings many difficulties in the affairs of the country, illness and death among members [Parliament], dissensions and party splits, and in all probability changes in Ministerial circles." (my reprint, pg. 172) Note that in this chart Saturn rules the 10th (Aquarius), which is government. As Saturn is retrograde, it means the government itself is bad or wrong in some degree.

Moon in this chart is -- are you ready? -- Elizabeth II herself. Moon in Leo, the sign of the ruler! Elizabeth in fact has a Leo Moon; I do not know the exact degree (April 21, 1926, the Moon actually passed through 15 Leo the day Elizabeth was born). OR, as the Moon is disposed by the Sun, and as the Sun is part of the engine that destroys Di, the Sun as disposer of the Moon could be read that the Sun kills the future queen, though as there is no actual aspect, this was done without appearing to do so. If you want to make this part of a plot, then you would say, "It appears that it had been decided long ago that Di was never to be queen, regardless of whatever became of her."

OR you could say that Elizabeth-as-Moon, in eclipsing the Di-as-Sun/Mercury-conjunction, thereby kills Di, the future (Leo) queen. You might also hunt through the tarot to find the astrological correlation to the Queen of Hearts, aka Queen of Cups, and see if this applies to the chart. I am too lazy.

Venus in Libra and Mars in Scorpio are both rulers, which indicates two distinct camps. As Venus rules the 6th house cusp, it would give the impression that servants domiciled therein would be nice and peaceable and friendly. Whereas the servant (Mars) is actually firmly in the other camp. So we ask again if the driver was who we think he is, e.g., Diana's servant or the government's agent, and if the driver himself knew which.

Venus ruling the 6th from the 5th would indicate the driver was escorting Di from one tryst to another. The sign on the 5th is Virgo, which pushes the 5th house squarely back onto Mercury in its disastrous conjunction with a soon-to-be-eclipsed Sun. This was all about punishing a royal for having illicit sex, at least as far as the English government (aka royals, I suppose) were concerned.

Raphael, who I believe takes his information from Lilly, says that a solar eclipse in the first decanate of Virgo denotes the death of a king. Since this is being pushed strongly onto the 4th, note that that house traditionally rules the end of the matter, whatever it may be. As such, it is itself an indicator of death. It is also opposite the house of government (10th), indicating, in the snuffing out of the Sun's light by the Moon, Di's final exclusion from that government.

Chiron changing signs is not as significant as the Moon changing signs (which I can't see is significant here), or Saturn's (aka the government's) eventual escape into the 12th house of obscurity. Technically speaking, I would have it in the 12th already. It is already in Martian territory, and that Mars is itself secretive. Saturn is in fall in Aries, meaning that in its eventual opposition and fight with a 6th house Mars, it is Mars and secrecy that would win. Will win, presumably. Watch when that Mars hits the descendant. Someone's going to want his due.

Is any of this real? I do not know. It is easy to get carried away.

If you've already published yours and want to add this, you can do so. Just put my name on it. This is an example of dyadic analysis. You think of something, then I think of something, then you think of more, and by this process many otherwise unknowable things come to light.

- Dave

[Eric's Footnote: * The Transneptunian Points or Witte Points are a set of eight points used by what are called Uranian Astrologers. They are "planets without bodies," that is to say, calculated points with long periods, from about 200 to 700 years. They move in circular, not elliptical, orbits. If you search the archives of the old Astrology Secrets Revealed you may be able to find my comments on these points. You can look them up, along with many other points, at Tracy Delaney's website, which lists The Planets Now.]