Impact of Queen Marie Antoinette’s Murder on France

On October 16 1793, Queen Marie-Antoinette-Josèphe-Jeanne d’Autriche-Lorraine (Austria-Lorraine) of France was guillotined in Paris, France. Her husband, King Louis XVI, has fallen nine months earlier.

Looking at the chart, which we picked for 9 am for the act. This gives the chart below marked heavily by a fixed¹ grand cross, culminating at her death with an ascendant of 20 Scorpio 55.It is striking as her natal Sun is 10 Scorpio 35, while the event’s Sun is 23 Libra 27, the Queen natal moon is 20 Libra 40. Her natal ascendant was rectified by French astrologer, the late Andre Barbault to 01 Cancer, which in the final chart is in the eighth house of endings and death; there are no planets there. Her natal Uranus, which had just been discovered by Wilehlm & Caroline Herschel, is at 11 Pisces 30, which fits her ultimate chart’s Moon at 12 Pisces 25 rather remarkably.

The queen has neither stelliums nor preponderances in her natal rectified chart, while her ultimate one has a stellium in Virgo, the house of discrimination in the ninth, and a near preponderance in the eleventh — the house of public opinion alas here opposite Saturn, showing her insensitivity to it. ²

The Grand Square is composed of Pluto 22 Aquarius 45 in the 3rd house to Saturn in the 6th — suggesting this is the end of a way of life. Saturn anchors the next square at 3 Taurus 47 to Uranus at 27 Leo 26 in the ninth house (Uranus, which is in its detriment in Leo is conjunct the Royal Star of Kings, Regulus ).

This square highlights the dissolution of Church and State in France and the rise of the Communards (later re-termed by Marx as Communists). From Uranus we complete the square at the Ascendant of Scorpio, whose lord Mars is right at the Midheaven, and under the Morinus house system lies in the twelfth house of self-undoing and government.

Reading the chart it is obviously a “death” chart — the harsh ending to a frivolous and empty life.

Asteroid Lilith is conjunct her ascendant 20 Scorpio 55 and opposite Saturn. This aspect shows the tension between the Ancient Regime (Saturn) and the new Republic.

The Midheaven at 08 Virgo 42 purifies her assassination, receiving the light of the Piscean Moon below, but Jupiter on the first house cusp shows that she would not be the last of the murders despite the rhetoric; the desire for the loot (Jupiter at 02 Sagittarius 45³) was more of an incentive than ever admitted.

marie antionette guillotined.pdf

1. A fixed grand cross is one where all four signs are from fixed quadrature and thus span the four elements. The signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. ↩︎
2. Marc Edmund Jones wrote that Saturn was the planet of “sensitivity” and its negative meaning being “insensitive” to that which is around it. Unfortunately for the queen, that was her major fault — she did not take popular opinion and their dislike of her, very seriously. ↩︎
3. The Sabian Symbol here is rather enigmatic : Two men, lounging in the comfort of an old drawing room with strong pipes, playing a game of chess. This is a symbol of the capacity of human intelligence to create its own realms of expression . Negatively, it suggests a desire to give full expression to the self. ↩︎