Tony Greig, the very opinionated former England cricket captain and TV commentator for Channel 9 sports in Australia passed away suddenly from a heart attack ,aged 66. Tony was born in South Africa to Scottish parents and so this qualified him to play cricket for England. He was a huge man standing at 6ft 6 inches tall, an all rounder and he played cricket with his heart on his sleeve. I will never forget a TV interview when as captain before a series against the West Indies and their ferocious famed fast bowling attack in the late 70’s, he claimed that England would make the West Indies players “grovel”. Needless to say, the West Indies never forgot those insulting words and they trounced the English team in the following test matches. His commentating style was direct yet so knowledgeable and in the world of cricket he will be greatly missed.
Tony was a Sun Libran born on 6th October 1946 in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape in South Africa. This is a dogged and stubborn guy with 6 planed in fixed signs and someone who loved to communicate with 5 planets in Air signs. His Moon was in cool and glitzy Aquarius, a position able to turn on ones feelings on and off at will, something a successful cricketer must have as emotion can be one’s worst enemy out in the middle and in the heat of battle if it gets the better of you. That Moon was most probably opposite Pluto and Saturn in Leo, which gave him depths of passion and determination to his character. Anyone who has these two planets together in their chart is always a tough cookie. Any life experiences, changes or disappointments which come around as this conjunction is aspected build character and strength within you.
Tony had vision and compassion with his Sun conjunct Neptune in Libra and his triple conjunction of Mars Jupiter (in Scorpio) and (Mercury in Libra) was brave, expansionist and willing to experience all manner of tests and take huge risks as well as being very fair but also hugely opinionated. Tony was larger than life in the way that he acted and in the way that he spoke. Both these conjunctions made aspects to that powerful Saturn Pluto conjunction in Leo (multi sextiles and squares) so his actions and words would have got him into difficulties sometimes, but also would have put him in the spotlight too. Saturn’s square to Mars and Jupiter also highlighted his international (Jupiter) sporting (Mars) career (Saturn).
You know, Tony would have wanted to be someone of note because of that Sun sextile to Pluto and he had the opportunity to do this, but Saturn in Leo is always a bit uncomfortable about being in the limelight. Being a commentator, away from being on screen but able to express ones opinions, and they were worth hearing with inventive Uranus trine to Mercury and the Moon linking emotion and speech, would have suited him down to the ground. Hidden away in the booth, heard but not seen was the perfect compromise for him. Very interesting that he suffered from epilepsy during his life, obviously a result of this trine from electric but unpredictable Uranus in Gemini, to Gemini’s ruler Mercury, the planet of the mind. Maybe this is some type of signature for the disease?
Venus the last planet I look at was peregrine in Scorpio. As I understand it, Tony was a bachelor and unmarried through his life, and the function of Scorpio here is to act as a blocker on forming relationships. This planet would have been extra strong because of it’s position of not being connected to any other planet. Again, maybe another signature sign to look out for in the charts of other individuals.
Tony’s natal Neptune at 8:31 Libra had been under attack from the Uranus Pluto square in recent times. Neptune is a planet associated with health and he had been diagnosed with lung cancer back in October 2012. His heart attack came as Mars was square to his natal Jupiter and transiting Jupiter was trine to Neptune and inconjunct to his natal Mars. Jupiter is often prominent in my experience as death arrives. This suggests to me that he was born with Aries rising (suiting his pioneering nature) as then Mars would have been ruling his 1st house of the physical body and thus Neptune (through Pisces) would have ruled the 12th house of suffering highlighting the possibility of a hidden illness, Cancer.
