Ireland and Britain: A Miserable Marriage Turns Into a Beautiful Friendship?

The Queen's trip to Ireland this week shifted
Anglo-Irish relations a lot closer to normal.

The relationship between Britain and Ireland has often been like a bad marriage: with Britain in the role of abusive husband. He loves her and he hits her. He can't understand it when she doesn't love him back, so he hits her again.

The bitter divorce took most of the 20th century and the decree absolut still hasn't happened, but this week, it really looked like Britain and Ireland might have reached a place of mutual respect and amity.

So with marriage in mind, I took a look at the synastry between the charts of Britain and Ireland – and, well sometimes astrology is pretty obvious really.


As with all ancient nations there's some debate around which chart to use for Ireland, but I think it's clear that the modern republic came officially into being in 1949. What is more the Moon for that moment chimes in exactly with the recent economic crisis. I will stick with the usual UK chart of 1801 for a bit of synastry between the two countries. (There is, I feel, a whole argument to be had about chart choice, but that is for another post.)

UK 1801 Chart

 There's a lot to say about these two chart, but I'm just sticking to marital strife today. Britain's Chiron is on Ireland's Ascendant in Sagittarius with Ireland's own Chiron rising only a few degrees away. Some astrologer's define Chiron as the spot where you have a wound that can never heal, a wound that makes you stronger when you understand it or a wound that may fester so much that eventually it proves your undoing.

And what heavenly body do both parties host opposite that wound? Juno, the marriage asteroid, in talkative, changeable Gemini. Could there be better symbolism for a miserable marriage than Juno opposite Chiron? And both countries have this aspect across the same signs and just a few degrees away from each other. Britain's natal aspect is a little wide but when you combine it with Ireland's you got a perfect recipe for marital pain.

For Ireland, this is across the relationship axis in the chart, with Juno exactly on the marriage angle.


Peace Queen
From the moment the Queen stepped off the plane, beaming and sporting an entire outfit from bonnet to boots in vibrant Kelly green, it was clear she was on a mission. From there the visit went from strength to strength, symbolically healing wounds that have festered for decades in a way that on occasion seemed almost miraculous.

Republic of Ireland 1949 chart.
Isn't it gorgeous?

Appropriately, the planet of royalty, Jupiter, was transiting Ireland's natal Sun-Venus conjunction.

This is how the Irish Times, described the Queen's historic visit to the Republic of Ireland: "It took a British queen to remind us that we are still a free, sovereign country, equal to any other. That was, after all the complications of our mutual history, a deeply friendly act."

Fintan O'Toole wrote this about the effect in Ireland of the visit: " …the death of Anglophobia is a useful part of the redefinition of what it means to be Irish. That new identity has to be positive rather than negative. But it also has to find a way to include Britishness. Those on the island who value the British part of their identity have to know that, for everyone else, British is not a dirty word." Any more.

With Venus and Mercury conjunct right now, it was a good time for the Queen to go on a peace (Venus) mission (Mercury).  Those two were transiting quincunx that Chironic cluster. A quincunx is  strange aspect. It implies a need for adjustment in order for progress to be made. That is exactly what we saw, from both sides. Of course, they were semi-sextile the Junos in Gemini, which can be quite a positive little zhuzh.

So healing took place. The exes might even like each other again. Next step…?

PS For an interesting discussion of the Irish national chart and national charts in general look a Bill Sheeran's article.