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200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo








The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo is being marked with an exhibition of records rarely seen by the public at Cambridge University Library. The battle in present-day Belgium on 18 June 1815 saw the final defeat of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, by Allies including the British, led by the Duke of Wellington, and the Prussians. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-32167860







The Battle of Waterloo took place just three days before a total lunar eclipse on 21 June 1815, a chart for which is shown here drawn for Waterloo. Notice that the eclipse is part of a Grand Cross with Jupiter-Mars-Pluto aligned with the meridian. Mars-Jupiter-Pluto is a combination where people can become obsessive, generally over estimate their abilities and take up endeavours in which they overreach themselves resulting in a great fall.

The eclipse Moon [29sa24] is conjunct Alnasl, gamma Sagittarius of the Archer about which Roman astrologer Manilius writes:

"As for the Archer, when the foremost portion of his cloak rises, he will give birth to hearts renowned in war and will conduct the conqueror, celebrating great triumphs in the sight of all, to his country's citadels.”[Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 4, p.267]

From this quote it is clear that eclipse is referring to a great conqueror  - an obvious reference here to Napolean. Also notice that Mars in the eclipse chart is conjunct the star Scheat, beta Pegasus which is associated with the legend of Bellerophon and his mighty fall. When we combine this with the Mars-Jupiter tendency to overreach, we begin to see a possible defeat for the Emperor. A further confirmation of Napolean’s tendency for overreach can be seen from his natal chart [1]. A prominent Jupiter-Uranus opposition on the horizon axis is another combination which is linked to pride and overconfidence that can lead to an overreach [2]. For 18 June 1815, the date of the Battle of Waterloo, Napolean’s  solar arc Jupiter [29sa] opposite Uranus [26ge] aligns with the eclipse axis suggesting that this is when his hubris could cause a great downfall.






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