COVID-19 is a global tragedy. As I explained in a recent article on the Titanic, when you have a large group of people dying, you can’t expect the individual horoscope to always indicate the killing event. After all, the action is taking place on a collective rather than individual level. However, in terms of Boris Johnson, he is special, because he is Britain’s leader, and to a great extent, what happens to Boris happens to Britain. If Boris dies, it will affect Britain’s destiny. Or rather, Boris’ death would be a reflection of this destiny.
In this article I am going to look at some predictive methods. There is a group of methods that attempts to summarize a period of time. For example, the solar return, a chart cast for the moment the Sun returns to the place it was when someone was born. Or the annual profection, where a planet rules each year of life. For these two approaches, you would regard the period between Boris’ 55th birthday, on June 19 2019, and his 56th birthday, on June 19 2020, as being the operational period. This is problematic, because up until COVID-19, things were going well for Boris. He had become leader of the Conservative Party, had won a general election, and was doing a good job wresting Britain from the clutches of the European Union.
Here’s Boris’ natal chart, set for 2.00 pm on June 19 1965 in New York:
Before looking at the solar return, I want to mention a few interesting features of the chart, which may have relevance to Boris’ current situation.
When you are looking at the horoscope of someone with national prominence, it is always a good idea to look at the Aries point, and planets making an eight-series aspect to it. The eight-series aspects are 0 degrees, 180 degrees, 90 degrees, 45 degrees and 135 degrees. Boris has Venus, Jupiter and Neptune making these aspects.
Someone who has Jupiter and Venus on the Aries point is going to be popular, and will present an optimistic image to the world at large. Neptune, by contrast, brings a touch of delusion. Boris was perhaps over-optimistic about the possibilities of Britain making a success of Brexit, and also naive in his government’s first attempts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Britain, for example, locked down much later than other European countries.
Neptune is also the COVID-19 virus itself. Invisible, deceptive, sometimes deadly. And Boris, with Neptune aspecting the Aries point, is personifying to the world what the virus can do. He is very ill in hospital, and according to some reports he is fighting for his life.
Moving to the solar return, it is set for his last birthday, June 19 2019. I use the place of Boris’ birth, and I don’t use precession:
On a trivial level, we notice that in the solar return the Sun is in the Sixth House of illness. After the event, that makes perfect sense, but one in twelve solar returns will have the Sun in the Sixth. We also notice that the Midheaven of the solar return is zero degrees 28 Scorpio – in other words, bang on Boris’ natal Moon at zero degrees 36 Scorpio. I think this tells us about his political success, rather than his illness.
Yet what really grabs me about the solar return is the Mars-Saturn opposition, across the First and Seventh Houses. It is true that many people born in late June would have this aspect in their solar return. However, we do have a repeated theme. Boris, in his natal chart, has Mars in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces. This makes him sensitive to Mars-Saturn aspects, even if these aspects aren’t making any transits to his natal chart. It is worth noting that not long before Boris went to hospital, on March 31 2020, there was a conjunction in the sky between Mars and Saturn.
On the subject of repeated themes, Bobby Kennedy, brother of JFK, had Mars exactly on his Seventh House cusp in his natal chart. Mars was also on the cusp of his Seventh House in his 1967 solar return, which immediately preceeded his 1968 assassination. However, the repeated theme in Boris’ solar return is not on the same level.
If you’re interested, here is Bobby Kennedy’s natal chart (November 20 1925, 3.11 pm, Brookline MA):
The Mars in Scorpio on the Seventh House cusp represent the potential to be assassinated. It doesn’t mean it will happen. The unprecessed solar return for 1967, also set for Brookline, brings this potential to the fore, with Mars again on the Seventh House cusp:
Another technique that desribes a whole year is the annual profection. This is a technique that has become popular in the last decade or so, and I do find it to be accurate. The idea of the technique is that you treat the sign of the Ascendant as the first year of life, and go round the signs, using a primitive Equal House system. Boris has Libra rising, so Libra and the First House represent his first year of life, Scorpio and the Second House his second year.
This means that Boris, in his 56th year, is in a period of time covered by Taurus and the Eighth House. Yes, the Eighth House is the house of death, but everyone is covered by this house between their 55th and 56th birthdays. So we need more detail, and we get this by looking at the ruler of Taurus, which is Venus in Gemini. His Venus is in bad shape, for a number of reasons. It is retrograde, it is applying to a conjunction of the Sun, and it is totally out of sect. I say it is out of sect because Venus is a nocturnal, femine planet, that is above the horizon in a day time chart, and is in Gemini, which is a masculine sign.
Once could say that it is not surprising that Boris is having such a bad time, with Venus as his year ruler. Yet he has had Venus as his year ruler many times before in his life and survived. Furthermore, Venus’ rulership of the year didn’t stop him becoming Prime Minister. Which begs the question, why is this time different?
In terms of primary directions, Boris is experiencing a lot of semi-square aspects. Using the Ptolemy method, which takes a degree for a year, in July 2019 Boris had mundane Venus making a semi-square to his Sun, and in May 2020 he will have mundane Sun making a semi-square to his Venus. With primaries I am fairly flexible on orbs, and the May 2020 aspect could easily be operational in the previous month or two. In other words, the Sun is damaging his Venus, made more important by the fact that he has a Sun-Venus conjunction in his horoscope.
Finally, there is the lunar return. Boris’ next lunar return is on April 8 2020. Here is the return chart, set for New York:
I think we can see a moment of crisis. The Moon is applying to square aspects with Mars and Saturn. Furthermore, the Sun and Venus are making an exact semi-square, repeating the theme from the primary directions. I say crisis. I am not making a prediction. April 8 is also the day of a Full Moon, which has a Jupiter-Pluto conjunction on the Ascendant, when set for London.
Having said all this, a visitor to this site left a comment, asking me a simple and heartfelt question: “What happens to Boris?” I started addressing the question at 9.18 am on Monday April 6, in Lakewood, Washington State:
The querent is asking about the British Prime Minister. I therefore take Boris as the Tenth House, with Aquarius on the cusp, and its ruler, Saturn. If we turn the chart, then Saturn is in the Twefth House from the Tenth House, and the Twelfth House rules institutions and hospitals. The Moon is in the Eighth House from the Tenth House. This represents what the question is really about. The querent might have asked “What happens to Boris?”, but actually they were asking whether he’ll die.
Saturn is in its own sign, of Aquarius. It is also in an Air sign in a day time chart, meaning that it rules the Airy triplicity. Malefic Mars is separating from Saturn. This means that Saturn has fundamental strength. The Moon is void of course – it has made its last aspect before leaving the sign. In my experience, the void Moon is bad for good and good for bad. If you ask whether you’ll get a job, the void Moon will say no, if you ask whether you have a serious illness the answer will also be no. So on the basis of this horary, I would have said that Boris won’t die.
I hope you’re right..
This is a bit tangential Re: Weak Venus in the natal chart of Boris Johnson. This is one example of why long ago I stopped considering planets to be “combust” when nearly conjunct the Sun.
Venus and Sun are both near the MC, the Gauquelin post-culmination “Plus Zone”, which confers strength and prominence. Certainly the midday Sun can be considered a contributor to Johnson’s prominence in the world. As for Venus near the MC and conjoined to a powerful Sun, I find it hardly credible that someone with such notable political charisma and powers to attract the public–and who is also notorious for his ability to attract the fair sex–can be considered to have a weakened Venus.
But surely different systems have different rules? If you are using Gauquelin’s system, then sure, Venus gets prominence – but not the Sun, because Gauquelin didn’t find evidence that the Sun worked. And of course Venus, aside from the North node, is the planet closest to the Midheaven.
If you are considering matters of life and death, then Venus’ combustion is a major issue. Combustion is the worst state a planet can be in. So if Venus is the ruler of the year, its combustion is going to be important. And in terms of what I was writing about, I was trying to find an explanaton of why Boris nearly died.
Also, Sun-Venus conjunctions, in male charts, can incline the native to treat women badly, or at least to be cavalier in their relationships.
Thank you for reply with rationale!