by Mogens Winther

On May 14th 2004 we finally saw the Danish Crown Prince Frederik married with Australian Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, under heavy media coverage, from newspapers, the weekly magazines, radio, TV – and astrologers. Countless articles about how the couple’s horoscopes foretell what will happen in the royal circles have popped up like mushrooms.

But what about the royal predictions the astrologers have pelted us with in the years before this? Here is a royal bouquet.

Queen Margrethe abdicates the throne

Astrologer Birte Kirk had no doubts, when she in 1991 predicted:

“The Crown Prince will get married in 1997-98, and Queen Margrethe abdicates to devote herself to her art, religion and (the queen’s consort) Henrik’s France.”

It is a bit awkward to bring up here, but the same astrologer, along with several others predicted that:

“…he will not be a very faithful husband.”

Already when Frederik was newly born, astrologer Irene Christensen, who founded the biggest school of astrology in Denmark, could foresee huge problems. There was no doubt about it – the sinister planet Neptune causes Frederik severe troubles, so that:

“The royal family will have problems with guiding or leading the crown prince to a sensible attitude towards the opposite sex.”

But one cannot escape the royal duties, even if they are written in the stars:

“Of course Frederik is going to marry. It is the most important task for the Crown Prince to get an heir to the throne.”

Frederik abdicates the throne

1997 was apparently a fateful year for Frederik: No less than three astrologers predicted under the attentive eye of press that the Crown Prince in that year would renounce the throne:

“According to the Crown Prince’s horoscope, Frederik will meet a woman who will make him reconsider his life’s goals anew.”

TV-astrologer Christian Borup had the opposite view. He could see omens that Frederik would take over the throne in 1996-1997:

“Since the Saturn round in 1996 and 1997 coincides with strong progressive axis-aspects for both Pluto and Jupiter, one can almost expect that the Crown Prince in these years had his official duties expanded. The aspects are in fact so strong, that he might already at this time takes over the role as our country’s regent!”

The weekly magazine “Hjemmet” could in 1996 bring the sensational article “The Queen will soon become a grandmother”. With pounding hearts, we could read that:

“As early as the beginning of January, 1997, Crown Prince Frederik will probably meet the love of his life. There is an energy that indicates royal blood. – The Crown Prince probably already know her.
…
The relationship will not be made official before autumn 1997, and I trust there will be a wedding in the spring of 1998.”

The magazine emphasized that this horoscope was not cast by anybody:

“Astrologer Karen Moresco is not a soothsayer. She works strictly scientifically, when she casts a horoscope.”

A few years of silence

After that failure, it seemed as if the astrologers gave up and left the Crown Prince alone. That lasted until 2001, when the private life of Frederik was splashed all over the tabloids, when it was revealed that he had a(nother) girlfriend. The chairman of the Danish Association of Practicing Astrologers, Pierre-Francois Bitsch, saw his chance for increased business, and contacted the Royal Court to ask if the Crown Prince was interested in a public astrological investigation about his wedding plans.

The Crown Prince refused to participate.

Astrologically, Frederik was married before his marriage

During the following years, the royal horoscopes flourished. The whole gang of celestial prophets came out of the woodworks, led by the frequently unlucky Karl Aage Jensen. Karl Aage Jensen is a “job astrologer” and a member of the Danish Association of Practicing Astrologers, and runs an astrological detective bureau. But despite his many curious titles, he nevertheless managed to come up with several wrong predictions about the upcoming royal engagement.

First, Karl Aage Jensen reported that Frederik would be engaged in November 2002, but this failed, according to the astrologer, because of a European Union summit, that got in the way. After that, according to the “astrological theory of relativity”, Frederik with “99.9% accuracy” would be engaged on May 21st 2003. The aspects in the horoscope pointed towards a wedding on August 16th or 23rd, 2003.

May 21st came and went without an engagement. That night, unfazed, Karl Aage Jensen changed the prediction to also to comprise of May 28th. He has never been able to explain why.

Of course, these predictions were wrong.

Mary lacks the royal Mars position

Most pessimistic was astrologer Christian Borup. If we are to believe his article from his own website, the wedding was hanging by a very thin thread. The stars indicated that the Crown Prince would be married later:

“Real strong marriage-aspects of the serious and binding kind all the way into 2005-2006.”

Borup was also doubtful that Frederik’s bride would be Mary Donaldson at all: Mary’s horoscope is missing “the royal Mars-position”, which the other members of the royal family apparently have.

Trouble down under

It isn’t easy to cast a horoscope for Mary – she is, after all, born “down under”, on the Southern Hemisphere, while astrology is constructed from the Northern Hemisphere. The question is thus: Should Mary’s horoscope be cast as if she was an “upright” Dane, or should it be cast “upside down”?

The problem is not new. Years ago, an American astrological convention tried to reach consensus about that type of fundamental questions, but the convention unfortunately ended in physical brawling.

Add to that, another practical problem is that, in the Western (Tropical) astrology, the astrological signs have lost almost all contact with the actual sky. To solve this problem, several Danish astrologers have proclaimed that the signs instead should be perceived in relation to the seasons – weak winter children contra strong lion-roaring summer children. But the seasons on the Australian continent is unfortunately shifted six months in relation to ours: While Europe celebrates Christmas in snow and cold, Australia is ready to drop due to the heat. So who knows, perhaps the whole zodiac calendar should be turned upside down, perhaps Mary is not a pensive winter-Aquarius, but a dominating summer-Leo?

Up to the wedding, all astrologers were tripping over each other from joy over the royal happiness. The magazine “Hjemmet” even printed a special addition, with a beautiful and radiant royal wedding horoscope, cast by Christian Borup.

The rest of us can only conclude that the astrological superstition – from the days when the Earth was flat – is flourishing. Kingdoms may fall, but astrology continues.

(Pssst……Mary said “yes”. And it was Frederik who cried from happiness.)