Starcatsastrology’s Blog

Mourning Natasha Richardson

The news is still circling the globe like a dark, lonely bird.

The news of Natasha Richardson’s untimely death is haunting. We can’t avoid thinking about the transitory nature of life and the fragility of the human body. We’re blood cells and water encased in a skin balloon that’s shored up by bone and ligament.

If we fall just the right way, we break our bony infrastructure. But we can also lose our lives. In one instant the sun shining on the hill dims and the soul boards Charon’s ferry that carries us from this shore to next where shapes and shades of discarnate ancestors beckon us home.

Family Background

Lunar Nodes

Natasha – N-22 CAN/S-22 CAP

Vanessa (mother) – N-23 SAG/S-23 GE

Joely (sister) – N-22 GE/S-22 SAG

Liam (husband) – N-23 AQ/S-23 LEO

Natasha was the eldest daughter of world famous actress and political activist Vanessa Redgrave* and the older sister to Joely Richardson. All are members of a multi-generational family dynasty of premier actors.

The dynasty begins with the birth of Roy Redgrave April April 26, 1873 (his Venus-Pluto conjunction overlaps Natasha’s Sun at 20 Taurus) with Jupiter in dramatic Leo, a placement his son Sir Michael Redgrave also shared.

I was struck by the cross-aspecting of natal Mars or Neptune in the sign Scorpio that repeats itself across the generations. With Natasha’s 8th house 8th house Sun (20 Taurus) and Mercury at 29 Taurus conjoined to the fixed star Alcyone (the star that is the bringer of great grief), that Plutonic or what we call irrevocable, fated events group around this family.

The ancestral connection to Natasha’s chart are reiterated via Sir Michael’s chart via his Venus-Mars conjunction in Taurus where mars is close enough to her Sun to be deemed a conjunction (11 and 18 Taurus, respectively). His Sun at 29 Pisces is opposite daughter Vanessa’s Virgo Moon. Both of the lights were aspected by the transiting Sun on March 18th (28-29 Pisces) at 7:20 PM when Natasha lost her life in New York City. Sir Michael’s Saturn (oonjunct his Sun) is at 0 Aries, hence his memory is invoked at this Aries Ingress as grand daughter Natasha joins him on the nether shores.

Another note: Sir Michael’s Pluto at 22 Gemini is in the same degree as Natasha’s Moon and Lunar Nodes (planets in the same degree as the nodes are highly sensitized and when kicked off by transits or by cross-chart aspect, bring events to bear that include everyone in a family whether living or dead).

Sir Michael’s Pluto conjoins Vanessa’s South Node (not in perfect degree but close enough for a conjunction), is spot on conjunct granddaughter Joely’s South Node (22 Gemini) and is trine Liam Neeson’s North Node at 23 Aquarius.

Liam Neeson was married to Natasha from 1994 until her death on March 18, 2009.

In a cursory way, we’ve had a look at the importance of lunar nodal contacts vis a vis planetary contacts as they affect generations and place an imprint on family dynamics. To study the Redgrave family indepth, you can collect their biographical data via the Wikipedia links I provided and view several of the charts at the Astro-Databank Wiki Project and Astrotheme.

Liam, July 13, 2000 and Fate

Another striking fated event is the near fatal motorcycle crash Liam Neeson had on July 13, 2000. Natasha was in Canada (!) filming when Liam was thrown from his bike because a deer suddenly dashed out of the woods right in front of him.

I saw footage of Natasha’s interview with Charlie Rose on PBS last night where she discussed the accident and how close a call it was. What saved Liam? He was wearing a helmet, something Natasha declined to rent at the ski slopes the day of her accident — in Canada — on March 16th. Natasha mentioned that there were two incidents where she nearly lost Liam. There’s something about Canada and Natasha that never did mix.

The transiting Sun was 21 Cancer, just a degree shy of Natasha’s North Node in the 10th — of course, this 10th house nodal contact brought her mother forward as the event became very public. The transiting Moon at 12 noon on the day of the accident was 19 Sagittarius, so we derive from the timing that Natasha was in line to experience a Lunar Return (powerful time for all of us each month), which set off her Lunar nodes and Saturn at 22 Aquarius. To continue delineating Liam’s nodal crisis by degrees, cross-aspects and how they link tightly with Joley’s and Vanessa’s charts is mind-boggling.

One of the critical points that we need to pay close attention to when examining Natasha’s chart is that her Moon in sextile to Saturn form a YOD to her North Node in the 10th. With the South Node lying at the midpoint between her Moon-Saturn sextile, we have a boomerang effect contained within the YOD. When two planets — or in this case the Lunar Nodes — oppose each other within the YOD construct, you have a supercharged energy conduit that operates as potential crisis each time the system is set off.

Since Natasha’s 8th house Sun squares Saturn and quincunxes her Moon, the Plutonic shadow on her Sun (and the Alycone conjunction to her 8th house Mercury) have been stumbling blocks for her across her lifetime. She discussed openly with Charlie Rose via the replayed broadcasts of past interviews with him that regardless of her privileged life, she has been no stranger to hurts, pains, low-self esteem issues, overweight issues in her teens, and the death of her father, lauded film director Tony Richardson, from the Plutonic illness — AIDS. [Richardson was bi-sexual and his marriage to Vanessa Redgrave lasted a short 5 years. His Venus-Sun Gemini conjunction in opposition to Saturn in Sagittarius may point to his need to explore the duality of both sides of the sexual spectrum.

The Accident

According to numerous press reports, the skiing accident took place on March 16, 2009 at about 3:00 pm in Montreal, Canada. The Ascendant for the chart is 11 Leo with the South Node (8 Leo) hovering 3 degrees from the rising cusp on the 12th house side. The Sun ruler of the 12th house South Node is in the 8th house at 26 Pisces. Mars, Mercury and Uranus tenant the 8th house too.

Uranus at 22 Pisces tells us how sudden, and unexpected the results of the accident would be and how horrifyingly upsetting the news of it would impact Natasha’s family.

Uranus at 22 Cancer is in the degree of Natasha’s Nodes; in Square to mother Vanessa and sister Joley’s Nodes; and within a degree of resonating with husband Liam’s nodal axis.

Liam is currently experiencing a Juno (asteroid associated with marriage, and in this case is his wife) Return (23 Aquarius) and a painful pile up of planets on his North Node at 23 Aquarius. On the day of the accident, Chiron and Neptune both sat on his North Node signaling that a painful wound (Chiron) centered around his wife (Juno) would involve her slipping away (Neptune — the coma).

One of the saddest signatures is beautiful mother Vanessa’s 22 Capricorn Ceres (mother goddess) conjoined to Natasha’s South Node in the foundational 4th house of Natasha’s chart. If you remember above, I mentioned that Natasha’s YOD contained her Lunar Nodes that functioned as a crisis wielding boomerang. Uranus at 22 degrees of sacrificial Pisces sextiled Vanessa’s Ceres and squared her own fate-bringing Lunar Nodes.

The accident and crisis of Natasha’s loss was foreshadowed in Vanessa’s Ceres and Lunar Nodal hook-in to transiting Uranus. On March 10th, 6 days before Natasha hit the slopes in Montreal, there was a Full Moon at 21 Virgo. This lunation set up a grand mutable square in mother Vanessa’s chart involving a square aspect to her natal lunar nodes. The lunation, which squared Vanessa’s prenatal Solar Eclipse (22 Sagittarius) is another factor to take into account when gauging the power of transits to the nodes and eclipse points in the lives of those destined to carry our collective hopes, wishes and dreams on the public stage.

Footnotes:

Shout out to Shelley Ackerman and her column on Natasha:

“The Lunar Eclipse of February 9th hit her Mars in Leo; Transiting Mars in Pisces (on March 16) was opposite natal Uranus (an accident indicator), transiting Uranus (something “shocking” and out of the blue) was forming a 90 degree ‘square’ to her Moon.”

Read her entire column here: Karmic Relief

“. . . Redgrave was born in London. She is the daughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. Laurence Olivier announced her birth to the audience for a performance of Hamlet at the Old Vic, when he told them that Laertes played by Sir Michael had a daughter.” Wikipedia. It seems that Vanessa’s very birth was an entrance upon the stage. To be announced by Olivier at the Old Vic isn’t a bad way to begin life.

Starcats – March 21, 2009

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