If you’re a soap addict, have you ever wondered about the
birth date of one of the characters? Does it reflect their personality? How
could it? Surely that date was plucked out of the air by a writer who probably
had no interest in astrology or how it works. Yet, the character’s natal chart
really does describe them. And not only that, but what’s happening in the chart
at a given moment also describes what’s happening to them in soap land at that
time. What’s more, the birth chart of the actor or actress who plays the
character often slots in very neatly with that chart.
Take the case of Helen Titchener, née Archer (brilliantly
played by Louiza Patikas), whose story has been dominating The Archers for the past couple of years and whose current marital plight
has recently grabbed the national headlines. At the time of writing, she’s being
held in custody for stabbing her husband Rob with a kitchen knife. He nearly
died from a subsequent infection but appears to have rallied and will no doubt soon
leap from his hospital bed to make Helen’s life a misery once again. Because, as
those of us who tune in to The Archers
know, Rob is a controlling bully who has been systematically undermining his
wife in an insidious, subtle and extremely effective way ever since they first
met. Helen meekly toed the Titchener line for months by wearing the sort of
dreary clothes that Rob liked to see her in and damping down her personality
until it became a washed out beige. But she finally flipped when Rob threatened
her son Henry, grabbed the kitchen knife that he was brandishing at her (while
telling her to kill herself) and stabbed him with it.
As a listener, I was gripped and shaken. As an astrologer, I
was intrigued. What does Helen’s chart say? Does it reflect what’s happening in
her life? Oh yes, it certainly does.
But before we get on to what’s happening in Helen’s chart at
the moment, we need to look at her birth chart to find out more about her
personality.
According to The
Archers’ website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3XtJ9HZNYzrBYThlKd0RyRb/helen-titchener),
Helen was born on 16 April 1979. She was probably born in Ambridge, but
apparently that isn’t a real place. (I know, it came as a shock to me, too.) So
I set her chart for Worcester, which must be fairly nearby. We don’t know her
time of birth so I set her chart for noon. This means her chart lacks the fine-tuning
of such things as an Ascendant (which tells us how she approaches the world,
among many other things) and the precise position of the Moon (which moves
roughly 12 degrees per day), not to mention the distribution of the planets
among the twelve houses of the zodiac, but we still have plenty to work with.
Helen was born with the Sun in Aries and the Moon in
Sagittarius (the sign of the archer!), which is a nice fiery combination. She
has enthusiasm (think of her passion for the Borsetshire Blue cheese she
developed, the earliest prototypes of which sounded vile), initiative and
warmth. But this combination also makes her idealistic, so she tends to see the
best in others, whether or not the rest of us can spot it. (Her track record in
choosing men has been lamentable, to put it politely. A previous boyfriend shot
himself. Her current husband is a psychopath. She’ll probably fall for a
brutish prison officer next, and then where will we be.)
Let’s look closer at that idealism. Helen has Venus in
Pisces (idealistic, romantic, kind, sensitive, easily hurt) in a tight square
aspect to Neptune, which is the ruler of Pisces. More idealism, more
romanticism, more emotional vulnerability. Possibly even a Cinderella complex
and an underlying sense that love involves pain and sacrifice. The Moon may be
close enough to Neptune to form a conjunction (sensitive, lacking emotional
boundaries, empathy, an emotional sponge). No wonder the BBC website calls her
‘the tragic heroine of Ambridge’.
She also has the Sun in a wide opposition to Pluto. This
means there is a tug-of-war over control. It may be internal or she may disown
it and project it on to other people. Such as the dreaded Rob, who acts it out
for her. (Both the Sun and Pluto can represent men.)
A lot more could be said about Helen’s natal chart, but as
I’m trying to avoid writing a three-volume novel about it I’m going to switch
to what’s happening to her chart right now. (If this makes no sense to you, let
me explain. Although a birth chart is a snapshot of the positions of the
planets at the time of birth, the planets keep moving and therefore they can
form significant relationships with the birth chart as the progress through the
solar system.)
It’s usually the outer planets – Uranus, Neptune and Pluto –
that are active when something really dramatic or significant happens. Each of
them carries a lesson for us. Pluto teaches us about transformation and it often
does this by dredging up major problems and triggering confrontations.* Pluto
is currently in Capricorn and is edging ever closer to making a square aspect to
Helen’s Sun – an echo of her natal Sun-Pluto opposition. It means that things
she’s tried to bury will come to the surface so she can work through them. And
the anger, hurt and frustration she’s felt over her marriage to Rob are
obviously part of that. It also means potentially serious problems with
authority figures.
Uranus is the planet of surprises and shocks. Events that
happen during a Uranus transit can make it feel as though the rug’s been pulled
out from under our feet – an astrological maxim for Uranus is to expect the
unexpected. Uranus is currently in Aries and is making a conjunction with Helen’s
Sun. Uranus shouts ‘Wake up!’ When Uranus conjuncts the Sun we want to break
free from limitations, to revolutionise our life in some way. It can be
wonderfully liberating. But, of course, that depends on how we act on Uranus’s
message. Do we make rational choices or do we go off the rails? (Think midlife
crisis.) And it also depends on whether Uranus is doing other things in our
chart. For Helen, who has a Sun-Pluto opposition, when Uranus touches her Sun
it also connects with her Pluto. Boom! Uranus opposition Pluto brings fresh
awareness of what needs to change. This can be a shocking realisation,
especially if we are trying to cling on to those things that need to change or
we’re even denying that they exist. It might lead to an internal battle that has
an explosive outcome, as in the case of Helen using that kitchen knife on Rob.
Lots of other things are happening to Helen’s chart as well.
One of the most worrying is that Saturn, the planet of limitations, is hovering
around her Moon. The Moon represents motherhood, among other things. What is
Saturn saying about Helen’s relationship with her son Henry and her unborn
child? As things stand, Helen will be giving birth in hospital but while still
in custody – very descriptive of Saturn conjunct the Moon, even if it is a
rather exaggerated picture of what most of us might expect. But what happens
next? Will Helen’s contact with her children be severely restricted? Or will
Saturn give her the backbone for which it is so renowned, so she finally talks
about what happened so she can protect her children? Her story in The Archers clearly has a long way to go
before we can relax whenever we hear her voice.
* Astrologers often sound as though they’re saying that the
planets make things happen. This isn’t really the case – what we are saying is
that there is a correlation between the actions of the planets in the sky and
the actions of the people affected on the ground. But if we were to say that
each time it would get very wordy indeed, so we use astro shorthand.
