A few weeks back, I gave myself a rare luxury. I’m not sure why, but I often feel guilty watching TV, because I’m always thinking I should be doing something more productive. I also recognise that sometimes, one needs to shut off one’s brain and escape into ‘the box.’

It was a Friday evening, I closed down my laptop for the day, ate dinner and then got myself set up, Cancerian style. Cup of tea, chocolate and blanky. I lit a few candles and savoured the experience of my living room/TV not being at the mercy of a 3-year-old.

I turn on Netflix and remembered there was a show that I saw a while back that I was keen to watch.
That show was The Crown.

I watched one episode then convinced myself I had better get to bed at a reasonable hour. I watched another two episodes the next day and then later that night, I finished the season. Unheard of for me.
One of the reasons I was keen to watch The Crown was because I find the British royal family are an amazing example to use when I’m teaching astrology.

Turns out, that in one of my current classes, we had recently studied Prince Philip’s chart, then low and behold, the following week, he stood down from public engagements. So, the royals had been fresh in my mind, which is probably why the show caught my eye.

What really captivated me while watching was the impressive acting. It was brilliant. I remember thinking the actress who plays Queen Elizabeth, Clare Foy, got her mannerisms and voice down pat.

I also loved the way that Matt Smith portrayed Prince Philip and I admired the chemistry between both actors on screen. What I found really impressive was the non-verbal communication between them.

So, what does an astrologer do?
I look up the charts for the two lead actors.

I was amazed by the synastry between the charts of each actor and respective royal they played.
Synastry is the comparison of (usually) two charts to see the level of connection, or lack thereof, and the dynamics they share.

While this may look a little confusing for some, below is a ‘bi-wheel’ for both Clare Foy and Queen Elizabeth, you can click on it to take a closer look.
As we don’t have a birth time for Clare, I’ve cast the bi-wheel with the Queen’s chart in the centre, which establishes the houses. One of the reasons I love to work with royalty as a study project is due to their birth times being accurately recorded and on the public record.When I don’t have a birth time, I cast a 6am chart, which places the Sun on the ascendant and becomes a solar horoscope.

Clare has both the Sun and Venus in Aries, and the ruler, Mars, is in its own sigh of Scorpio. Clare also has the Moon in Scorpio- unless her birth time was between 12am and 2:41am, along with Saturn and Pluto. Thus, bringing the essence of Mars to the fore in her life.

As astrology often does, it totally amazed me to see that Clare’s Mars, at 27 Scorpio is making a close conjunction to the Queen’s midheaven and Saturn.

It is as though Clare’s most dominate planet is plugged right into the Queens public persona, thus Clare being able to embody the image that the Queen represents in such a captivating way.

Another feature of Clare’s performance was the way she sounded. If you closed your eyes and heard her speak, she sounded like the Queen herself.

Clare’s Mercury, the planet of communication is retrograde in Taurus and heading toward a conjunction with the Queen’s Sun. It’s no wonder that Clare can imitate the Queen’s very distinctive voice, which is a big part of her persona.

Looking at the synastry between Matt Smith and Prince Philip, we can see that Matt’s Sun at 4 Scorpio is conjoined to Prince Phillip’s midheaven, with Venus following closely behind. Another example of how a personal planet being ‘plugged’ in to the angle of another chart, brings in this case, career success for both of these actors. Click on the chart to enlarge it.

Prince Philip has a Mercury Pluto conjunction and is known for not being backward in coming forward in saying what he thinks. Matt also has the same conjunction, albeit Saturn is in play in his own chart. In the series, Matt perfectly mimics Prince Phillips broody and at times, tempestuous nature.

One interesting and not often seen aspects between the charts is that there are oppositions between both Matt’s and Prince Philips Venus and Mars. If this was an analysis between lovers or even friends, I could write a lot on this aspect. Keeping in mind that these two have not met, it does demonstrate a kind of mirroring or reflective quality of Matt’s portrayal of Prince Philip, and in some type of cosmic destiny, he was made for the role.

In both of these examples, we see each actor has personal planets in direct connection to both the career and public life points of the Queen and Prince Philip, known as the Midheaven. No doubt, this will be beneficial for their careers as actors and heighten their own popularity and status.

Have you watched this series? Did you enjoy it? I’m so looking forward to season 2 starting in a couple of months!