Lucinda Riley - How fated was her global literary success?
by Sue Brayne
A student astrologer analyses the chart of the bestselling author of the Seven Sisters Series of novels who died aged just 56 on 11 June 2021
Virtually everyone I know has that elusive book inside them – the one that’s going to make the New York Times bestseller list. However, the only way this can even begin to happen is to apply bum to seat of chair and remain there until the final full stop is put firmly in place.
This is no small feat because the entire craft of writing is a psychological journey strewn with pitfalls often full of doubt (“Who is ever going to want to read this?”), despair (“It’s only fit for the bin”) and a kind of yearning hope that keeps you going (“Once I find an agent/publisher everything will be fine”).
Having written a few non-fiction books myself, although not in the bestselling genres, I am always fascinated in how globally successful writers manage to overcome this psychological mayhem and reach those lofty heights of commercial success.
Lucinda Riley
Irish-born author Lucinda Riley (also writing under the name Lucinda Edmonds) was one such literary star. I only recently discovered her through her The Seven Sisters novel perched on a charity shop shelf. Based on the mythology of the Pleiades constellation, it’s the first in the Seven Sisters Series of equally enormous books, setting up the individual stories of seven sisters, their enigmatic father who adopted them, and their subsequent journeys to find their birth parents.
I was astounded to learn that she managed to complete all seven books in the series, including in-depth research of historical figures and places, within eight years. I am struggling to make sense of the fact that someone exercising such exacting diligence and having made this global literary impact could die of cancer in June this year aged only 56.
One can only be grateful for the legacy she has left us. That twelve of her books became Number One international bestsellers and that her books have been translated into 35 different languages speaks volumes. In June 2021, The Guardian put her global sales at 33 million copies. In 2016, Italian film producer Raffaella de Laurentiis announced she had optioned Riley’s the Seven Sisters Series to be adapted for TV.
I was curious to study Lucinda’s astrological chart to see how the writer’s theme plays out, how she expressed her own internal challenges through writing the Seven Sisters Series and whether ‘success’ is highlighted. Did she, indeed, follow a sense of destiny to become a famous writer or did success come through sheer determination and self-motivation?
I should add that I am a very new astrologer, having just completed the Faculty of Astrological Studies’ foundation course and have yet to take the certificate exam. However, I am fascinated in how a chart can provide such intimate and remarkably accurate information about a person without having to meet them. In fact, my understanding and appreciation of the human condition is escalating through the study of all manner of astrological charts.
I also want to inspire other new astrologers to have a go at writing articles rather than being intimidated by long-in-the-tooth astrological professionals who are seen to be far more eminent and practised.
The part of destiny
It does seem as if destiny played a part in forming Lucinda’s literary career. Her mother was a professional actress and her father encouraged her as a writer. At the age of fourteen she joined the Italia Conti in London to study drama and ballet and became obsessed with history and philosophy at a young age.
Suffering from a knee injury which prevented her from dancing, she started a successful acting career and was cast as Tracy, Bomber’s daughter, in the 1983 BBC series, Auf Wiedersehen Pet. Fate struck again when she suffered a debilitating virus which plagued her with fatigue. However, it was during this time that she began to write and use her remarkable imagination to escape from the distress of her predicament and use the written word as a form of therapy. Lucinda was just 25 when she received a three-book deal from a major publishing company. She was also pregnant with her first child, so this was a very potent time for her.
Following divorce, a move to the UK, remarriage and three more children, Lucinda continued to write, and in 2013 she started the Seven Sisters Series which turned her into one of the most successful female authors in the world.
Lucinda’s chart
Lucinda Riley chart
Source: Birth date from website https://lucindariley.co.uk, no birth time available.
I found Lucinda’s date and place of birth (16 February 1965, Drumbeg, County Down, Northern Ireland: the chart is cast for Lisburn less than a mile away from the village of Drumbeg) through website lucindariley.co.uk, but not her time of birth. Following a discussion with The Astrological Journal’s editor Victor Olliver, we agreed to set the birth time for 12:00 pm UT, set aside the houses and points, and see what emerged through the planets and their relationship with each other.
Victor Olliver had already said that he suspected a writer of Lucinda’s calibre would have a strong Virgo influence. And he was right. She has a stellium of four planets in Virgo: Moon, Uranus, Pluto and Mars. She also has a stellium in Aquarius involving a formidable Mercury (apex to a t-square with Jupiter and Neptune) conjunct her Sun and Venus. Even though her Aquarius Sun is in detriment, this does indicate that Lucinda was an original thinker and communicator irrespective of her writing abilities indicated by her Virgo stellium.
We don’t have time or space to explore her chart in detail, but there are several themes that I consider give backbone to this prolific writer and how her life played out.
Underlying tension
At first glance, and reminding myself to forgo the house placements, I find Lucinda’s chart to be buzzing with oppositions and squares. This, to me, indicates a person who lived with an underlying sense of tension and drive that was always calling her forth. Yet there is also a complete absence of fire (excepting the South Node) which indicates someone who struggled to express or assert herself and may have found it hard to trust life as it presented itself. This tension is also shown by Mars retrograde in Virgo, indicating the ability and desire to dig deep – the research she put into her books was phenomenal – but she may have found it difficult to stand up for herself or express anger in her everyday life.
I feel this dynamic plays out in the Seven Sisters Series. Each sister climbs out of a privileged and protected childhood to face her fear and anger at being abandoned at birth to find her own sense of power and individuality so she can take her place in the world. Could this be an expression of Lucinda’s own desire to find harmony between the drive to succeed and this seeming struggle to assert herself and trust life? In fact, irrespective of her fame, it feels that her books express a deep desire to step out into the world as she truly is.
Lucinda expresses this Virgo Moon/Pisces Saturn disparity in a comment she made about why she wanted to write about these women (bracketed words are mine):
I wanted to celebrate the achievements of women (Moon in Virgo), especially in the past where so often their contribution to making our world the place it is today (South Node in Sagittarius) has been overshadowed (Saturn in Pisces) by the more frequently documented achievements of men (Mars retrograde in Virgo).
Motherhood and mothering
Although Lucinda had four children, there is tension regarding her own experience of being mothered and her expression of motherhood. This is created by her Virgo Moon opposing Saturn. Traditionally this indicates a deep desire for intimate relationships which can be thwarted. People with this opposition can often feel sad and lonely or find it difficult to let go and have fun. There’s a sense of emotional suffering involved. Although I can’t find any family dynamics information, Lucinda’s own mother may have been emotionally cold or unavailable – entirely possible if she toured as a professional actress. Certainly, Lucinda’s father was absent for long periods during her childhood.
Yet she worked collaboratively with her husband who became her agent and manager, with her stepdaughter who became pivotal as her administrator and with her eldest son, also an author, who – with Lucinda’s blessing – is currently writing the final book in the series due out next year. So, Lucinda was obviously capable of strong, productive working relationships with close family (perhaps a different expression of the Virgo Moon/Pisces Saturn opposition).
It’s interesting how Lucinda portrays motherhood and mothering in the series where the seven sisters have Marina, their “foster mother”, who acts as an ideal loving childhood mother-figure. In fact, the sisters agree that Marina provided them with everything they could wish for as they grew up, and some sisters begin their journey to find their own birth mother with a sense of guilt for betraying Marina.
As they uncover who their birth mothers are and face the fear and pain of why they were given up for adoption, each sister is forced to confront the deepest part of who she is. This profound work is liberating for all the sisters in their own way and makes no difference to their relationship with Marina. It makes me wonder if Lucinda found writing these stories liberating in her personal relationship with her own mother and whether she had a much-loved foster-mother figure in her own childhood.
Fame and success
I’ll start with Neptune in Scorpio opposite Jupiter in Taurus. Traditionally, natal Jupiter opposite natal Neptune gives rise to a profoundly curious, questioning intellect. In Lucinda’s case, Jupiter in Taurus provides grounding for her intense, spiritual Neptunian imagination, involving hard work and dedication.
Jupiter in Taurus (ruled by Venus) also brings with it an ability to attract and manage money, and the capacity to build up considerable resources. Her Jupiter/Neptune opposition could be enough to indicate financial success. However, they form a fixed t-square with Mercury in Aquarius at the apex, indicating someone who, although possibly having to deal with more challenges than most, is driven by an intense willpower which keeps them focused until they have achieved their goal (this was keenly expressed by Lucinda’s determination to live long enough to see her seventh book in the series come out in hardback. She died a few weeks later).
Her Aquarian free-thinking Mercury is further enhanced by a wide conjunction with the Sun on one side and a wide conjunction with Venus on the other. I have a vision of Mercury extending out his arms to embrace both these potent, highly creative Aquarian planetary energies.
As an aside, Victor Olliver pointed out that Mercury is combust because it is within 8 degrees and 30 minutes of the Sun, and both are in the same sign. I had heard of this astrological expression but knew little about it until now, and I remain sceptical as it apparently means that Mercury is hidden from sight by the light of the Sun, creating additional challenges around recognition. Unless I have missed the point, to my mind there is no indication of Mercury being obscured in Lucinda’s ability to communicate or write or to be recognised for these talents – although perhaps she might have struggled to acknowledge them herself at a deeper level?
Whatever, I would rather stay with the traditional interpretation of the ego (Sun) being aligned with the mind (Mercury) to produce a lot of Aquarian mental energy. I would imagine that Lucinda lived in her head and expressed her innovative mental energy by putting aside her ego (doubts and fears) and believing in her gift of writing.
Bring Venus into the frame and, apart from attracting money, a further love of communication is added into the mix. This also indicates a need for diplomacy – and this again is demonstrated in the series as each sister learns to manage the complex dynamics that plays out between them, Marina, their adoptive father and all the new relationships they form.
Venus in Aquarius is about valuing freedom, equality and tolerance. It is also about the love of experimentation and originality. This is highlighted by the conjunction to Mercury, bringing a thirst for new horizons and adventures which breakthrough conventions and limitations in the most charming way possible. Lucinda’s books are full of winning, attractive characters who steal your heart. This Mercury/Venus conjunction can also indicate someone who is highly visual and an avid reader and is often the sign of the journalist or someone interested in art, music and even politics. All these themes play a part in the series.
Confirming a sense of purpose, tension and focus
Whether Lucinda was born early morning or late into the evening, she was born under a late-stage Full Moon.
Full Moon confirms that Lucinda naturally possessed a sense of purpose which she clearly expressed as a visionary. She ‘saw’ the Seven Sisters Series as an entirety before she began to write the first book. In fact, people with this Moon phase are said to be prone to revelations and may well possess psychic or clairvoyant abilities. Lucinda explores the world of mediumship, healing and psychic abilities through Tiggy, the heroine of The Moon Sister, whose journey is guided by an ancient gypsy and a Spanish bruja or witch. Lucinda does it in such a sympathetic way that it makes me wonder if she had these abilities too.
The Full Moon phase also emphasises the importance of personal relationships. Lucinda clearly demonstrates this through the way she forces each sister to confront and rise above emotional difficulties as they entered new relationships. However, I am most curious about how the Full Moon phase can create patterns in life where there are continual cycles of rising tension followed by some kind of crisis or fall.
As we have already discovered, the planetary aspects in Lucinda’s chart innately generate underlying tensions which are bound to blow at some point. Her early life appeared to be full of drama, and after her illness her books seemed to become her outlet for this. The very act of writing a book is full of tension and focus, and I imagine she must have felt pretty flat after completing each one. Perhaps a need to experience powerful highs and lows drove her to continue such a seemingly gruelling writing schedule even when faced with terminal cancer.
The need to communicate
There is much more to explore in Lucinda’s chart. For example, the trine between benevolent Jupiter in Taurus and Mars retrograde in Virgo. This describes someone who can dig deep within herself and use her passion for research and travel to manifest something as tangible as a book, well blessed with good fortune. And, I haven’t even started to look at Chiron in Pisces opposite Uranus/Pluto in Virgo. Unfortunately, there isn’t the space in this article to do this. So, I do hope you will study her chart in your own time.
I can’t conclude without drawing attention to the lunar nodes. Her South Node in Sagittarius indicates someone who comes from a place of inherent wisdom and will be automatically drawn to the study of philosophy, metaphysics and higher knowledge. She will also have had an integral sense of the bigger picture and be driven to explore different forms of consciousness. This can indicate a restless nature; someone who is drawn to foreign travel and, perhaps, a desire to live beyond the bounds of conventional life. I would say a fiction writer does just that.
Furthermore, Lucinda’s North Node in Gemini calls on her to communicate her ideas and knowledge to the wider world. Her series certainly takes the reader on incredibly well researched adventures right around the globe, and each sister’s physical journey also involves an inner journey that fundamentally changes their relationship with themselves and the world about them. Lucinda was a master at disseminating what she knows and sharing her wisdom with her readers from every walk of life. She knew about the human condition and how to communicate this. I believe this is the key to her international success
In conclusion, I surmise that Lucinda had little choice but to communicate her love of philosophy and wisdom to the world. With the Virgo stellium, it suggests that writing was the perfect avenue for her to do this. And, yes, irrespective of her own internal challenges and tensions, with the potent fixed t-square created by Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury, supported by her Full Moon lunation phase and her nodal placements, she was blessed with determination and focus, and destined for huge success.
Published by: The Astrological Journal, Apr/May 2019
Author:
Sue Brayne is an author and podcast host of Embracing Your Mortality. She has been studying astrology off and on for the past thirty years, but only recently decided it was time to consolidate her knowledge by signing up for the foundation course with the Faculty of Astrological Studies. This has deepened her understanding and love for astrology to the extent she has just completed Level 4 of the diploma and is soon to be starting Level 5.
© Sue Brayne, 2021
