Assia and Shura Wevill

This is a separate post for Ted Hughes' mistress, Assia Wevill and their daughter Shura. Their charts are exceptional from an astological perspective.

Assia Wevill b. May 15, 1927 Berlin, Germany
Shura Wevill b. Mar. 3, 1965 London, England
both died Mar. 23, 1969 London, England

Hughes left his wife Sylvia Plath for Assia. Sylvia Plath subsequently committed suicide when Assia became pregnant. In 1969 she gave her daughter sleeping pills, tucked her into bed, took pills herself, and then gassed both of them, going the same way as Sylvia Plath, sort of "ghosting" her behavior perhaps due to guilt.

Assia had Sun in Taurus square Neptune in her natal chart. This is someone who has to learn how to deal with deception and unrealistic maybe manipulative behaviors. Ted Hughes's Sun is conjunct her natal Neptune so she probably had no ability to see him or the relationship with anything but super Idealized Rosy Colored Glasses. During the time that they were together her Progressed Ascendant was moving in and out of a square with this natal Neptune as well. It's unfortunate that she had a Pisces daughter who she probably couldn't distinguish from her own problems.

I'm mentioning this because I noticed in her biographies that everything seemed to happen to her in March, which is Pisces' month. Sylvia Plath committed suicide in February and Wevill had an abortion for Hughes' and her 1st child in March. Then their daughter Assia was born in March. And then they died in March. These events seem to bring strong reactions from transits to her natal Jupiter in Pisces-Uranus in Aries conjunction. These are squaring her natal North Node in Gemini-Venus in Cancer conjunction. Perhaps the cross sign conjunctions in combination with the square create double the tension for a person, they combine the Victim role of Pisces with the Self-Assertion role of Aries.

When she committed the suicide-murder, Assia's progressed Sun was conjunct her natal Venus. Her progressed Sun had been aspecting this square during her whole relationshp with Hughes. I've seen this Sun-Venus progression aspect more than once in suicides. It's supposed to be an aspect for marriage and supposedly is, especially in a woman's chart. Perhaps for women who attract unhealthy relationships it brings a do-or-die feeling. Sylvia Plath's chart is interesting also in that her progressed Venus was approaching conjunction by a few degrees with her natal Sun.

Assia's Karmic connection with her daughter, Shura, is almost unreal. Assia's natal chart shows Venus in Cancer and also a conjunction of Mars and Pluto in Cancer. Cancer being the sign of motherhood, one can only wonder. Pluto and Mars of course are a violent combination and very difficult combined with Cancer. Assia would have been very competitive for her child to receive attention. Supposedly, Hughes almost completely ignored their daughter in favor of Plath's children. Both mother and daughter shared a Gemini North Node, Shura was probably conceived on Assia's Nodal Return so the mother maybe didn't see her daughter as a separate human being in quite the way she should have.

Shura's chart definitely shows this with a huge Pisces stellium opposite a huge Virgo stellium. Can't know her moon sign but in the noontime chart She has Venus-Saturn-Sun-Moon-Chiron-Mercury all piled up in Pisces opposite Uranus-Pluto-Mars in Virgo. This opposition is squared by her Node and stretched into a Mystic Rectangle with sextile-trines to a Jupiter-Neptune opposition. This is a beautiful chart but also the chart of a total martyr.