When times are tough it is tempting to look back with nostalgia to a supposed “golden age” when every thing was much better.

As a rule I don”t do this, I tend to carry on delineating the charts of dictators and murderers, but with this lunar eclipse conjunct Saturn, I have been persuaded by my much better half to “find something positive to write about ffs”.

So I thought ok, what about the astrology of happy marriages, ones that last a lifetime.

How to choose who to write about though? Because making a choice could lead to accusations of influencing that result in favour of what I want to see come up astrologically.

So I went to the Astrodatabank and chose the section on Very Happy Marriage and picked the first chart on there.

This is of Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel who “shot a film with Salvador Dali in 1930, his surrealistic masterpiece, “The Golden Age (L’Age d’Or).”

“In a speech Bunuel once said, “In the hands of a free spirit, the cinema is a magnificent and dangerous weapon.” It was a weapon the great Spanish director wielded with mischievous and mysterious humor. Preoccupied with sexual aberrations and far-out fetishes, he assaulted the church, the establishment and middle-class morality with equal fervor, eliciting a public outcry from the beginning of his career. 

Bunuel was given a Catholic education, served in the Mass and became fluent in Latin. In his teen year, he lost his faith in the church. The obsessions that drove him included communism, fetishism, hatred of the Franco regime that had forced him into exile and his equal loathing of the Catholic Church.”

This is an interesting start because you wouldn’t necessarily associate such a character as Luis Bunuel with a long and happy marriage, but he almost made it to his Golden Wedding anniversary, dying just a year short.

This is a timed chart, Luis Bunuel was born at noon.

With a T square involving Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto focusing onto an apex Mercury in Pisces in the 10th house, it’s clear that Bunuel would be an strongly, unconventional person with a fantastic imagination and ability to channel these energies into a powerful career.

And that change and reinvention would be a constant theme in his life.

But the one area where this isn’t true is in his marriage.

Saturn in Capricorn in the 7th house indicates someone who is looking to the long term.

As a rule if there is to be an aspect between a 7th house planet and a 10th house one, it would be a square.

So someone with a 10th house Sun square to a 7th house Saturn would give the impression that their strong focus on their career would cause problems in their marriage.

Not so here, as the Sun and Saturn are in exact sextile. So these two very different placements get along fine.

Luis Bunuel had Mars in Aquarius and Venus in Aries in close trine with his Jupiter/Uranus which might account for his unusual fetishes. But he was clearly able to find a partner who was on the same page.

Jeanne Rucar Lefebvre was a gymnastics teacher who had won a bronze medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics.

We don’t have a birthtime for Jeanne, but we can see some powerful connections between her and Luis.

Her Sun and Mercury were conjunct his Sun and Mercury.

Her Venus is also conjunct his Venus.

Both Jeanne’s Aries Venus and Mars are apex planets in T squares and so would have a powerful expression of their own, which would be what we should expect from an Olympic gymnast.

In her book, Memoirs of a Woman Without a Piano: My Life With Luis Bunuel, Jeanne claimed her husband “was a surrealist in his art but a traditionalist at home”.

Her T square apex Mars is closely trine his 7th house Saturn, so despite having such strong placements of her own, she was willing to sacrifice her own career ambitions to become a wife and mother and fit into Luis’ view of marriage.

But the reason for writing this article is to explain how Secondary Progressions work.

Progressions are different from transits.

Transits (particularly of the slow moving planets) show us how the themes of the moment interact with and affect our chart. It is down to us to try and understand what is required of us at any given moment and adjust to these largely external forces.

Transits of the personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars) are of very limited use in describing the main themes and events of our lives. This is because they are so short lived.

Unless we are talking about a Venus or Mars station, their effects will be over within a few days. So when using transits we focus on Jupiter to Pluto, because their effects will last for much longer.

Also we give most weight to Pluto because it’s transit will last for 2-3 years and we will only get one or possibly two to any of our placements in our lifetime.

This greater consideration for the outer planets also gives the impression that transits are impersonal, they are things out there impacting on us.

Progressions, on the other hand, describe an unfolding of a pattern that is already inside us, something that we bring with us into this life. They are often related to members of our soul group and when they make an appearance this time round to help us to deal with our life themes and our transits.

As such it helps to try and understand them in terms of our whole life.

Secondary progressions are based on the principle that governs the two movements of the Earth, around on itself in one day, and around the Sun in one year. Looking at the planets positions exactly one day after we are born will describe what is unfolding for us at the age of one year old.

Because of this we can only effectively use progressions of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. Everything from Jupiter onwards would move so slowly by progression as to make virtually no new connections in a lifetime.

So secondary progressions by its own nature involves the personal planets alone, hence it is an unfolding of something that is already inside us.

This shows how progressions and transits dovetail beautifully in that we now have a combination of methods that give equal value to all of the planets, provided that we can understand the different methods of operation.

There is perfect symmetry here.

This is also a good aesthetic reason for dismissing the absurd Solar Arc theory.

Solar Arc is a method that uses the timing of the progressed Sun but applies that to all of the planets. As the progressed Sun would move approximately one degree per year (the Sun moves about 1 degree per day by normal speed), Solar Arc would have all of them move at the same speed.

Why would anyone need to invent such a system?

If the principle of progressions (a day per year works) why not allow all the planets to do that?

The answer is very simple. It is precisely because Jupiter to Pluto would make no significant movement in a lifetime.

Astrologers who use Solar Arc are doing so purely and simply to give themselves twice as many options in their desperation to find something that fits with what they wish to say anyway.

Which in effect is what people who use every other astrological method known to mankind are trying to do anyway.

Whether its fixed stars, midpoints, harmonics, asteroids, profections, zodiacal releasing or any other method, these are used in order to give the astrologer using them more chance of coming up with a formula which sounds correct.

What they don’t take into account is that by giving themselves so many options, whatever they wanted to say would occur by chance anyway.

It may seem bizarre but from their choice of methods I can see that many astrologers lack a basic understanding of the laws of chance. Given that, it’s not surprising that their methods fail to be consistently reliable when it comes to making predictions.

My own methodology is to give myself as few options as possible. Consequently I know that I have something that works consistently across the board.

So with progressions, I would mainly focus on those of the Sun and Venus.

On average both of these bodies would move approximately 90 degrees in a person’s lifetime of the same number of years.

One important consequence of this is they can only make one major aspect to each of the planets in someone’s chart in that lifetime.

This means that each one is very important.

Because of this I recommend trying to look at progressions in a chart over a whole lifetime, because we are seeing how something unfolds and how important people in that life make an appearance at a particular time.

So from this viewpoint, let’s have another look at Luis Bunuel’s birthchart.

Bunuel has the Sun at 3.26 Pisces, by progression it will move at approximately one degree per year.

His Pluto at 14.42 Gemini is over three signs away so unless he is planning to live well past his 110th birthday, his progressed Sun would not reach that far.

In fact Luis died on July 29th 1983, with his progressed Sun at 25.33 Taurus (in square to his natal Mars).

So we can see that his progressed Sun will make two conjunctions in his lifetime to Mercury and Venus.

Mercury is the apex planet of a T square which involves Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto.

Luis Bunuel’s progressed Sun would move through this T square between the age of 6 (square to Jupiter) and 11 (square to Pluto).

What can we surmise from this?

As it’s such an important pattern we can assume that the experiences he received and the people he met during this time in his life particularly from age 9 -11 ( aspects to Uranus, Mercury and Pluto) would have a powerful impact on his later life’s work (apex Mercury in the 10th).

It’s always difficult to find real details of famous peoples’ childhoods but what we do know is that “Buñuel received a strict Jesuit education at the private Colegio del Salvador, starting at the age of seven and continuing for the next seven years.”

This would no doubt account for his “loathing of the Catholic Church” and how this became a recurrent theme in many of his films.

I would imagine during that period when his progressed Sun was conjunct Mercury and square to Uranus and Pluto he met several people who helped him acquire this contempt for the institution.

The other conjunction that his progressed Sun would make is to Venus at 10.44 Aries.

It is also important to note that Venus is trine his Jupiter at 9.10 Sagittarius, Uranus us at 12.14 of that sign and also sextile Pluto at 14.42 Gemini.

Bunuel’s Venus is also widely trine his Moon at 1.07 Sagittarius and square his 7th house Saturn at 2.59 Capricorn.

So we can identify that Bunuel’s progressed Sun’s path through the first half of Aries means that it will form major aspects to his Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto.

So this would be a key period in his life and possibly involving meetings with several members of his soul group. Or possibly it was just one member and various developments in their relationship.

Luis met Jeanne in 1926 when his progressed Sun moved into Aries. It was trine his Moon between 1926 and 28.

This is clearly a soulmate connection.

However Luis and Jeanne did not get married until 1934.

From 1934 to 36, Luis’s progressed Sun was trine his Jupiter (his 7th house ruler). During this time, their son Juan Luis (who later also became a film director) was born.

His progressed Sun was conjunct his Venus between 1936 and 38. Note that his Venus is in the 11th house.

This was the period of the Spanish Civil War. Luis Bunuel joined the Communist Party and became a strong supporter of the Republican government in Spain.

“The minister for foreign affairs sent him first to Geneva (September 1936) and then to Paris for two years (1936–38), with official responsibility for cataloging Republican propaganda films. Besides the cataloguing, Buñuel took left-wing tracts to Spain, did some occasional spying, acted as a bodyguard, and supervised the making of a documentary, entitled España 1936 in France that covered the elections, the parades, the riots, and the war”

His Sun went on to trine his Uranus through 1938 and 39, when the Civil War ended and the fascist leader Franco took control of Spain.

At the time Luis, Jeanne and his family had travelled to the USA and “returning to Spain was impossible since the Fascists had seized power, so Buñuel decided to stay in the U.S. indefinitely”.

In 1940 with Luis Bunuel’s progressed Sun sextile his Pluto, his 2nd son, Raphael (another future film director) was born.

So by looking simply at the major progressions of Bunuel’s life we can see the most important themes of his life play out, particularly around the connection with his true soulmate, Jeanne.

How about hers?

We are a bit hampered by not knowing Jeanne’s time of birth, so we don’t know which houses are in operation or the exact position of her Moon, but a noon chart can often work well in these situations.

As the apex planets of two T Squares, her Venus in Aries and Mars in Taurus are very powerful.

One important theme that we do know of Jeanne’s life is that she willingly sacrificed her own career as an athlete to play a traditional family role as Luis Bunuel’s wife and mother to his boys.

So perhaps the most important progressions would also include those of her Venus as well as her Sun.

Jeanne’s Venus is the apex of a T square involving an opposition between her Uranus and Neptune.

She lived until November 1994, fittingly when her progressed Venus made its only other appearance of her life in that T square, dying when it was opposite her Uranus.

When we consider Venus’ path, we can see that the conjunction with Mars at 4.22 Taurus would mark a peak point in her life.

But this also has to be seen alongside several other ones.

The period from 1921 to 26 would see the progressed Venus also square her Jupiter and her Moon and sextile her Mercury and her Sun.

Jean Lefebrve was an Olympian bronze medallist at the age of 16 (1924) when her progressed Venus was trine her Moon.

We know very little about her early life but its safe to surmise that the years 1921 – 25 (as her progressed Venus went through her T square including the conjunction with Mars) would mark her athletic peak.

She met Luis in 1926 when her progressed Venus was sextile her Sun, a clear soulmate connection.

Interestingly Jeanne’s noon chart has the Sun in the 10th house (as we would expect) but also Saturn there which would suggest some kind of obstacle involved in her career.

In 1926, when she met Luis Bunuel, Jeanne’s progressed Sun was conjunct her Saturn, indicating the decision to place her own career second to her role as his partner.

From this point on Jeanne’s Venus would make no more significant progressions for another 30 years or so and none in her life as powerful as the ones made during her teenage years.

Her progressed Sun would do however.

Between 1933 and 36 her progressed Sun would be trine her Jupiter and sextile her Moon. She married Luis and gave birth to Juan Luis in 1934.

Between 1941 and 48, Jeanne’s progressed Sun was in her T square. It’s interesting that this coincided with her life in the US as she was unable to return to Spain while the Sun was square to Neptune and Uranus.

Consequently, when it was conjunct her Venus in 1947 – 48, the Bunuels moved to Mexico (Jeanne was Mexican), where they remained for the rest of their lives. Luis renounced his Spanish citizenship and became a naturalised Mexican.

Maybe this is the best way when your country turns to fascism, although for any modern day left leaning American film directors you would think Spain would be a better bet than Mexico.

We live in trying times and the need to stay informed has to be balanced with the need to stay sane.

Perhaps I should focus less on the Pluto transits of murderers and dictators and work my way through progressions of the 93 other charts in the Happy Marriage section of the Astrodatabank.

I have now been studying astrology for 50 years. So maybe as I enter my own L’Age d’Or, I will spend the rest of my time just writing about the astrology of happy stuff. 

Posted on March 14th 2025

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