2,000 Years In The Making- The Life Chart of Cleopatra

It's time to tune up the sistrum and don your ceremonial headdress, because today we are invited to the court of Cleopatra. She has achieved a form of immortality through her extraordinary life. She and Marc Antony were the original power couple long before the term was ever heard. Just about everyone knows her story and that's what makes it so interesting for me. If I can show a credible correlation of her life's major turning points and 'Life Cycles' theory, it becomes some of the most stunning objective evidence you will ever see. Can other systems of knowledge replicate this kind of result? I think not.

She was featured in many books and movies and played by a variety of actresses- Elizabeth Taylor being the most famous. In terms of her 'Life Chart', it is reasonable to go to her first adult 'Year of Broken Pathways' at age 19 (Oct. 50BC to Oct. 49BC), to see what fateful events happened to her, to change her destiny. It is recorded that at 18 she became Queen Cleopatra VII, but shared power with her younger brother. When she was in her age 19 'Year of Broken Pathways', she became the bitter enemy of the Gabiniani. These were the Roman troops, who protected the throne, and had adopted the ways of Egypt and become alienated from Rome. They refused a request of the sons of the Syrian Governor to fight the Parthians, because they liked their comfortable life and had murdered them instead. Cleopatra, who wanted to be pro-Roman, had the assailants arrested and handed over. This break with the Gabiniani was to be the main cause of her loss of power, which soon ensued.

Next we go to her first adult age 24 'Year of Revolution' (Oct. 45BC to Oct. 44BC). There is no doubt that this was the period in which Julius Caesar was murdered in the Senate. She had born him a son called Caesarion and was living with him in Rome. The fact that Caesar planned to marry her outraged the conservative Republicans, as it broke the laws against bigamy and marrying foreigners. She was seen as a dangerous seductress. The 1963 movie shows a scene the day before his death, when Caesar wanted absolute control as Emperor, which would have given Cleopatra everything she desired. However, in one fateful day it was all brought undone and she had to flee Rome instead. This was her personal 'new age' and the very definition of what a 'Year of Revolution' stands for.

Then we visit her next 'significant year', which is her age 31 'Year of Broken Pathways' (Oct. 38BC to Oct. 37BC). There is a famous scene from the movie, which shows Cleopatra being summonsed to Antioch by her lover Marc Antony and arriving in splendour on her Royal Barge. They get married in this year, which involves Antony later having to divorce his wife, who is the sister of Octavian (co-ruler of Rome). This is a very fateful turning point, because it legitimises the children born to Cleopatra and gives her continued political power as Pharaoh. It also earns her the bitter rivalry of Octavian and is not dissimilar in nature, to what she did at 19 with the Gabiniani, It is also to lead on to the 'Donations of Alexandria' (34 BC), in which Antony cedes much of Rome's territory in the east to Cleopatra. It is again the very embodiment of what a 'Year of Broken Pathways' stands for.

Finally to her last 'significant year', which is her age 36 'Year of Revolution' (Oct. 33BC to Oct. 32BC). Cleopatra issued a coin with Antony's portrait on one side and hers on the other. The inscription read 'Queen of Kings and her sons who are Kings'. This combined with Antony's intention to establish a second Senate in Alexandra was the perfect moment to get an inquiry started to strip Antony of his power. Octavian illegally seized Antony's will. The Senate apparently were not moved by making Caesarion as Caesar's legal heir, or leaving his estate to Cleopatra's children; but it was his desire to be buried alongside her in Alexandria that outraged them. The Senate declared war on Cleopatra, which of course meant Antony as well. This was her fateful turning point. It was to directly lead to the Battle of Actium and the demise of both her and Marc Antony. It was of the exact same character as what happened to her at 24. The split with Rome after being tantalisingly close to achieving her lifetime ambition, with the restoration of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and inheritance by her successors of the Roman Empire.

This is how a 'Life chart' is constructed. It says quite simply:- can analysis of what happened in the 'significant years' tell a cohesive story of some of the main events in a person's life? Moreover are the themes of the 'Years of Revolution' and 'Years of Broken Pathways' linked, so that they reveal your life's true purpose? Don't for one minute think, that something as seemingly remote as the 2,000 year old story of Cleopatra, cannot be duplicated by someone making the news right now. Next month we are going to analyse another woman in the news, whose attraction to power brought her undone.......who is she? Till then:- may the cycles always bring you good fortune.