Makybe Diva / Mercury and Mars Rx

Makybe Diva is the Racehorse who has won the prestigious Melbourne Cup three times in her adopted country of Australia. She has won this prize more than other horse and her last win came when she was 7 years old. This would never have happened in the United States where horses are put out to pasture before they are 3 years old because of greed. After the latest Kentucky Derby tragedy I wanted to look back at her chart and found some interesting Retrograde planets. That's what I'm concentrating on here. The Aussies are such nice people they even give her time of birth on Wikipedia.

Makybe Diva
b. Mar. 21, 1999 12:05am Somerset, England

Sun 30 Pisces; Moon 15 Taurus; ASC 2 Sagittarius; MC 27 Virgo; NN 22 Leo

The Diva was born with both Mercury and Mars Retrograde and since she's doing very very well with her life I just want to use her chart as an example for my own knowledge of how Retrogrades play out in life. I am completely surprised that a really fast runner, whether human, horse, donkey or squirrel would have both a natal Mercury and Mars in Retrograde. Both planets rule physical and mental coordination.

I wondered if the Mars Synodic Year would be in effect here but the Sun didn't oppose Mars Rx until Apr. 24. The Sun was just past exact conjunction with Mercury by two degrees so she may be strongly affected by the Sun-Mercury Rx cycle and Mercury Retrogrades. I still wonder if these types of cycles don't have something to do with speeding up a person's life events early on so that they accomplish more at an earlier age. The person's Sun will be heavily affected by the cycling of these two quick orbiting planets. In this case we'll never know unless Monty Roberts will maybe go over to Australia and translate for us what's on the Diva's mind. I personally don't speak or understand Horse language.

I will note that natally she has a conjunction of Chiron and Pluto in the first house which have been slowly progressing over her Ascendant since birth. This can one reason for both the Diva's Power and her Fame. Sort of a fun thing to look at is her name which I believe is ruled by the 1st house and maybe also the 3d house. Makybe Diva is an "assemblage" of the first two letters of her owner's employees' names. It's a hybrid name. Chiron rules hybrids and Chiron is conjunct Makybe's Ascendant.

Makybe Diva was born and bred in England and was shipped to Australia at Age 1 when nobody showed an interest in purchasing her. This move is perhaps shown in her chart through the Mercury Retrograde. Natally she has Mercury conjunct her natal Sun in her natal 4th House of Home & Environment. Mercury is one degree away from the IC. Because it's progressing Rx it backed up onto that degree during her first year. Interesting that she moved to the other side of the Globe during this time. Meanwhile, her progressed Sun would have moved forward a degree right on to the Aries Point. Natally she has Jupiter at 9 Aries so her progressed Sun has been moving toward lucky Jupiter her whole life so far.

The Diva's Mars is in retrograde in Scorpio and placed in opposition to her natal Moon in Taurus. This is further intensified by a square to the Nodes and Uranus (NN 22 Leo, SN 22 Aquarius c. Uranus 16 Aquarius). Not only is she going to run like the wind (Uranus), but she's going to run like a fury (Moon, Mars) but Grand Squares can bestow a lot of energy. She is probably too emotional and unpredictable for the logical English and I can see how she would perform so much among the Australian temperament.

It's interesting that the Melbourne Cup, Australia's biggest horse race happens in the 1st Tuesday in November. This means that the Sun is close to conjunction with the Diva's Mars and so hooks into her Grand Square.

Mars-Jupiter-Pluto all disposit to each other. Jupiter rules the ASC and Pluto conjuncts it. This affects her physical strength, power and speed no doubt.

The Moon is a feminine indicator and it is also included in the Grand Square. The progressed Moon had moved out of the opposition to Mars by the time the Diva began to win her races in 2003 but was replaced by progressed Venus. P.Venus opposed her natal Mars, becoming exact in 2005-6. Interesting that she has always had a female planet opposing her natal/prog. Mars Retrograde. Maybe in a female chart this means that she doesn't think of the males as anything much to compete with, or she just enjoys the game all the more.

According to Wikipedia, Makybe Diva gave birth to her first foal on Aug. 17, 2007 at 3:16 am at Coolmore Stud Farm, Hunter Valley, NSW (New South Wales). A little Double Leo, Sun c. Mercury-Venus right on the Diva's North Node. I hope she's been allowed to keep her baby at her side...