The Brighton bombing on 12 October 1984 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA),an attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and other members of the British government, at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, has been marked by a well-reviewed BBC documentary. In the event five people were killed and 30 injured. Thatcher was uninjured and decided to continue the Tory Party conference as normal, and was given a standing ovation by delegates as she entered the stage six and a half hours after the explosion. It was an act of revenge for the stance the British government had taken over the 1981 Irish hunger strike and became a key moment in the Northern Ireland Troubles, starting in the late 1960s which were eventually settled in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
The bomb exploded at 2:54 am when most guests were in bed and came five days after Maggie’s 59th birthday. There was a yod of a Taurus Moon inconjunct Uranus sextile Vindemiatrix (the widow maker). Saturn in Scorpio opposing the apex Moon – known as the reaction point of the yod is highly sensitive. Pluto has just moved into Scorpio and tr Neptune was approaching the end of its stay in Sagittarius, having entered Capricorn earlier that year. So a transitional period.
Transiting Saturn at 15 Scorpio is significant since it marked Maggie’s Second Saturn Return a few weeks earlier and was crossing her Ascendant. That hardly sounds explosive but Saturn always marked her career passage closely – rising above her Descendant when she joined the cabinet, then becoming prime minister when it reached her Midheaven. The Brighton bombing could be seen as the start of her trajectory downwards though she did not exit No 10 for another six years.
What was always slightly odd about Maggie Thatcher was how little her chart seemed to reflect danger of which Brighton was the most glaring example but there were others. On this occasion tr Neptune was trine her Moon; and tr Pluto was close to her Solar Arc Midheaven.
There were smatterings of pressures on her midpoints along with good luck. Tr Pluto was conjunct her Sun/Saturn midpoint which is discouraging, stuck, requiring immense effort to move ahead. Plus tr Neptune was just passed the trine to her high-risk Mars/Pluto midpoint but that was all. Tr Jupiter in Capricorn was conjunct her Sun/Uranus midpoint would give her a fortunate escape.
The UK chart similarly did not flag the event up in as obvious a way as you might expect. The transiting Moon in Taurus was exactly conjunct the UK’s 8th house Mars which was a faint breath of wind in the circumstances but interesting. There was a transiting yod of tr Uranus inconjunct Mars sextile the UK midheaven and Solar Arc Sun – obscure but obviously a pivotal moment.
The spring eclipses of 1984 did have a Mars Saturn conjunction in Scorpio – Mars Saturn being the traditional astrology signature for assassination.
Vindemiatrix, the mischief making Fixed Star, being prominent in the bombing chart tied into a yod is also significant. Astrology King remarks that it ‘figures strongly and regularly in deaths that are in some way dramatic, newsworthy or are resented in much more than the usual degree by those left behind (assassinations, common criminal murders, executions, airline disasters etc.’
Given how prominent Vindemiatrix is at the moment – conjunct the recent Libra Solar Eclipse and opposition the March 2025 Aries Solar Eclipse it is worth keeping an eye on. [While not panicking.]
The post Brighton bombing – Vindemiatrix a catalyst first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
