Some people are born lucky. Perhaps the British aristocracy has a special arrangement with the Cosmos, so that they are born into privilege according to the tradition of Divine Right, where the kings of England were chosen by God. At any rate, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has managed very well. With a lineage that can be traced back to King William IV who became King in 1830 Cameron was born into a rich and aristocratic family, went to the best schools, ending up in Eton, and finally graduated from Oxford with a first class honors degree in politics and economy.
At the age of 43 David Cameron became the youngest Prime Minister since 1812 forming a coalition government with the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, and consigning Gordon Brown and the Labour Party to the Opposition. Cameron won the 2010 election because he is a gifted, charming and nice guy, as evidenced by his horoscope.
David Cameron Oct 9, 1966 6.00 Wantage, UK. (AS 0.50 LI) Source: AstroDatabank
A Libra with Libra rising, and Ascendant ruler Venus in Libra in a powerful sextile to Moon in Leo, David Cameron must have an innate sense of entitlement, and he enjoys the powerful support of very influential friends, as evidenced by the Moon on the 11th house cusp conjoining Jupiter. It really is one of the most favorable horoscopes imaginable. Cameron has attractive youthful looks and all the grace which Venus in Libra can endow. Even his sworn political enemies can find little to criticize him for, except for those eternal Libran faults of not taking a particularly strong position on many issues. When Cameron won the election his progressed Venus was in trine to Jupiter, and his progressed Mars, which had ploughed its way through Pluto at the time of his power battles as leader of the Opposition, conjoined Uranus. He refers to himself as a compassionate conservative and an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, which is not surprising as both have Sun in Libra and Moon in Leo.
The position of Cameron’s Venus at 7.33 Libra exactly conjoins the 1801 UK horoscope’s Ascendant, so he is likely to be very beneficial for the country, especially as regards creating harmony and in managing the economy. Of course transit Pluto in Capricorn has been in square to this Venus (and UK Ascendant) from April 2011 to October 2012, and he has had to steer the UK through recession and economic crisis, just as Obama (with Venus at 1.47 Cancer) had to in the US. His chosen method has been austerity, which accords with the basic EU cure for the economic crash, but in the UK more money has been pumped into the economy through “quantitative easing” (printing money), creating slightly better growth than in most of Europe. The austerity has had to be shouldered by the middle and lower classes, but then Cameron is a Conservative.
The influence of the Conservative Party is probably shown by the planets in Leo in his chart, with Jupiter in the 10th, the Moon hovering on the 11th cusp, and Mars at 27 Leo in a weak square to Neptune in the 2nd house. With a horoscope like this, powerful friends are going to play a strong role in Cameron’s life. When he was leader of the opposition, three members of his shadow cabinet and 15 members of the front bench were Old Etonians. Hurrah for that.
David Cameron has had his share of tragedy. He is born in the year of the Fire Horse – 1966 – which in the Chinese zodiac is a notorious year for bad luck. Japanese births dropped from an average 18 births a thousand couple to 13 births per thousand in 1966 as a result of avid birth control and abortion. Nobody wanted a Fire Horse child. In the West, this was the time of the Uranus/Pluto conjunction opposing Saturn. At first glance Cameron seems to avoid any dangerous aspects to this constellation, and the opposition is nicely tucked away in the 12th and 6th houses. However Saturn and Uranus rule his 5th house, and his first child was born in April 2002 with an incurable disease called Ohtahara syndrome, and he died at the age of 6. Of course this puts the progression of Mars to Pluto in another and more tragic light.
On closer inspection it can be seen that Cameron’s Mercury in Scorpio is in close semisquare to Pluto, and if you are interested in the 8th harmonic chart, you will also find that Mars configures with that, which is a particularly virulent combination, which can show factors that seriously undermine his judgment about financial and communication issues. This brings to mind his disastrous appointment of Andy Coulson as his director of communications, who later had to resign because of his association with the News of the World wire-tapping scandal. Cameron, being the nice guy he is, stuck by Coulson to the end. Coulson was charged with perjury in 2012.
Looking at the 1801 chart for Britain, the News of the World scandal, its closure, and the troubles of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, can actually be seen by tracing the movement of progressed Mercury.
United Kingdom. Jan 1st, 1801 0.00 LMT London (AS 7.09 LI)
In the UK chart we can see that the position of Neptune in Scorpio in the 2nd house resonates completely with Cameron’s Neptune in the same sign and house. He is simply born one Neptune return after the formation of the United Kingdom. In the UK horoscope, progressed Mercury moved stationary retrograde in 2006 at 20 degrees Leo, and by 2011 when the News of the World was closed down and Rupert Murdoch was interrogated by parliamentary committee, it had returned to exactly square Neptune. This was acutely embarrassing for Cameron, because he was neighbor and friends with the subsequent editor of the News of the World, Rebekah Brooks, who was also later arrested and charged. Clearly Mercury and Neptune in Scorpio and the 2nd house in Cameron’s chart is an Achilles Heel for him. Of course the 2012 scandal concerning the sexual depredations of entertainer Jimmy Savile (who had a Sun/Venus in Scorpio opposite retrograde Mars in Taurus) is also connected with the revelations evoked by retrograde Mercury in Leo square Neptune in Scorpio.
Cameron married Samantha Sheffield (daughter of Sir Reginald Sheffield, 8th Baronet) who he had met when she was 16, on June 1st, 1996, when Cameron’s progressed Venus exactly conjoined his progressed Sun. After the death of his first child he now has two daughters and one son. Cameron’s roots go back to Scotland. He is eighth cousin of Donald Cameron, the present Chief of Clan Cameron. The irony is that during the course of his tenure as Prime Minister, there is likely to be a referendum on Scottish independence and he risks ending up as the Prime Minister who saw the secession of Scotland from the United Kingdom. With the Scottish National Party now having a majority in the Scottish Parliament, they are determined to hold a referendum by 2015, where the people can vote whether to remain in the United Kingdom or not. If they chose not to, this would represent a huge change for Britain, similar to the independence of Ireland, which took place in 1922, when the 1801 UK sun and IC both conjoined Mars in Taurus in the 8th by progression… those troublesome Irish. Mars progressed had in fact just conjoined the UK Midheaven, and there had of course been years of violence preceding this.
Looking at the years 2013-2015 it would be appropriate to ask if there are any similarly powerful progressions or transits, which might reflect the two major dilemmas Cameron is now going to face: the Scottish referendum and a possible EU referendum, where the people of the UK would vote whether to remain in the EU or not.
In regard to the EU, it is clear that the UK chart with its Sun at 10.10 Capricorn is going to experience the conjunction of transiting Pluto and the Uranus square already in 2013, as will the 1066 chart which has the sun at 9.54 Capricorn. This in itself suggests a powerful constitutional shake-up or other transformative and unpredictable events. However a proposed referendum will not happen before the 2015 election. As Cameron himself has the Sun at 15.27 Libra the great upsets for him will come with the Uranus opposition in 2014 and the transiting Pluto square in 2015. Clearly 2013 is a period of upheaval for Britain, but it will also be for Europe in 2013, and for the USA in 2014-15 because of Uranus/Pluto transits to USA’s Sun/Saturn square. Cameron will lose the support of his coalition partners the Liberal Democrats if he comes out as anti-Europe, and this indeed is the likely scenario for 2015. Furthermore, the British people, though lukewarm about Europe, are unlikely to throw in their lot with right-wing Conservatives and the UK Independence Party to vote to leave Europe. European reconstruction may take on a completely different form, with certain key countries forming a closer monetary bond, and others become more loosely federated and this may make a referendum redundant.
As far as Scottish independence is concerned, looking at progressions in the UK 1801 chart, Sun progressed will square Mars in Taurus in 2016 resonating with the 1922 conjunction, which will definitely bring troubles, but it hardly seems cataclysmic enough for the separation of England and Scotland. It is probably safe to conclude, that although there will be a lot of soul-searching and upheaval in connection with a referendum on Scottish Independence, the United Kingdom will survive in its current form.
However, for David Cameron his Ascendant progressed will conjoin Mercury at the end of 2015 (and thereby semisquare Pluto), which is his 12 house ruler, and this suggests an economic scandal which could be his undoing. Not least because of the Uranus/Pluto transits to his sun at the time. His MC progressed exactly squares his nodal axis, which conjoins Neptune in the 2nd house, further indicating an economic unraveling or scandal. Even more fascinating is the fact that his Mercury progressed, which went retrograde at 3 degrees Sagittarius back in 1994, goes stationary direct in 2015 at 17.10 Scorpio also on the South Node. Curiously it almost exactly mirrors the UK retrograde Mercury and its activation of Neptune in Scorpio in the 2nd house.
The next UK election is scheduled to be held on May 7th 2015 at the latest. This does not look good for Cameron as on that date Pluto is within one minute of arc from a square his sun. Given that 2015 is the year of the Saturn/Neptune square from Sagittarius to Pisces, this bodes well for the Labour Party, which traditionally resonates with this planetary cycle. The problem for Cameron is the EU, because a sizeable number of Conservatives would prefer not to be members. These people gravitate to the nationalistic UK Independence Party, which weakens the Conservative Party as a whole. With the interplay between Uranus and Pluto from 2012 – 2015, extremist forces are on the rise. Cameron has to be seen to fight for greater autonomy from Europe, whilst not really wanting it. The delicate balance, which as a Libra he obviously masters under most circumstances, will be undermined, making a continued coalition with the Liberal Democrats who are very pro-Europe impossible. Talented as he is, David Cameron will be on the benches of the Opposition after the next election.
Adrian Ross Duncan 18th January 2013.