Archduke Rudolph & Maria Vetsera

[Jim Eshelman]

I'd forgotten about this event. When I was very young, I read an article in a second-rate astrology magazine analyzing the charts for no birth time. I wrote to Bradley some theories, and he told me it was inexcusable for any astrology magazine to publish an article on this event without birth times, because they were well documented. He gave them to me (letter now lost, I think), and I preserved the data until I gave it to Lois Rodden years later.

Anyway, here's the scoop.

Austria's Crown Prince, Archduke Rudolph (son of Franz Josef I), born August 21, 1858, 10:15 PM, Vienna (AA)
Baroness Marie Vetsera, March 19, 1871, 8:45 PM, Vienna (AA)
Deaths January 30, 1889, between 7:00 and 8:00 AM, Mayerling, Austria.
Rudolph was married. His father (the Kaiser) ordered them to end the affair. The official story is that they made a suicide pactk, whereby he shot her and then himself.

Their romance ended with both of their deaths in a hunting lodge near Mayerling, Austria-Hungary, January 30, 1889. It has never been settled whether it was murder or suicide. However, the crime was never seriously investigated, and was known to be obfuscated by the monarchy. 21st Century evidence does support the suicide story more than a murder scenario, though.

Year: Capsolar
(The fairly new Capsolar in close to perfect!)
Neptune on Dsc (2°36')
Jupiter on EP (1°16')
Mars sq. Asc (1°34')
Moon on Dsc (3°01')
Pluto on Dsc (6°02')
-- Neptune-Pluto conj. (3°26' in mundo)
-- Mo/Ne on Dsc (0°12')
-- Mars-Pluto sq. 1°27')
Moon-Venus sq. (1°15')
Moon-Pluto conj. (3°45')
-- Venus-Pluto sq. 2°30')

Bridge
t. Neptune op. s. Asc 4/30-11/23

Month: Caplunar
Jupiter sq. MC (0°38')
Moon-Uranus sq. (1°12')
Venus on IC (4°18')
-- Venus-Jupiter sq. (2°39')
Neptune on Dsc (6°54')
-- Venus-Neptune sq. (2°36' in mundo)

Day: Capsolar Quotidian & Transits
p. Asc sq. t. Mars sq. (1°47')
---------------------------------------
t. Neptune op. s. Asc (1°39')

Day: Cansolar Quotidian & Transits (Dormant.)


SUMMARY

[Jim Eshelman]

I'm going to vary from my usual approach in this section, and run through some basics on the individual charts.

Rudolph was a Leo-Capricorn with Sun square Ascendant, and Mars half a degree from Descendant in tight opposition to a rising Uranus. Moon and Pluto were more distantly foreground, and he had a close Mercury-Neptune opposition background.

This is almost a textbook perfect chart for his bold living outside the rules, extreme masculine pride, and an explosive, violent end (due to a relationship!).

Maria was a Pisces-Aquarius, with a setting Venus-Neptune conjunction. Of interest (just making notes, not endorsing this yet) she had a mundane Sun-Mars-Saturn T-square in the background and a mundane Moon-Jupiter square. Ecliptically, she had a partile Sun-Mars opposition in any case.


Basic synastry: Her Aquarius Moon is quite responsive to his Leo Sun. Her Saturn squares his Venus (usually more indicative that she would disappoint him, but surely consistent with some variety of love-tragedy). His Saturn is 0°09' from her MC (one might broadly say that he was not good for her!), squared by his Pluto. But there is also powerful attraction in his Moon's square (0°02', for the given birth times!) to her Ascendant.

This is reflective of an idealistic, romantic, impressionable young woman with ferocious sexual needs and powerful love-emotions, willing to live out an extreme romantic fantasy, and not always likely to make prudent or wise choices.


Checking transits. First, Archduke Rudolph:
t. Pluto -0- r. Uranus +19'
t. Pluto -180- r. Mars -51'
t. Neptune -0- r. Asc -61'
t. Neptune -90- r. Sun +40'
t. Sun -45- r. Neptune +61'
t. Venus -180- r. Mercury +15'
t. Mercury -180- r. Sun +05'
Moon 2° from natal Moon, a pending SLR

Next, Maria:
t. Uranus -180- r. Neptune +66'
t. Uranus -180- r. Venus -71'
t. Saturn -90- r. Pluto -12'
t. Jupiter -90- r. Mars -48'
t. Jupiter -90- r. Sun -19'


Rudolph's incoming SLR is the most telling, with Neptune close rising and more widely foreground Moon and Pluto. Neptune had also been angular in his Demi-SLR two weeks earlier, and in mundane T-square to equally angular Sun and Moon (which were opposed across the horizon). The new SLR also put his Saturn on Descendant and his Mars-Uranus along the meridian.

I'll leave the rest for others to check as they see fit. (I ran out of time.)