With a government chart having Neptune on the Descendant conjunct shipwrecking Scheat and an 8th house Uranus (Mars) conjunct the destructive star Algol, it is not surprising Keir Starmer’s administration has stumbled into a damaging run of self-defeating missteps.
On the face of it a 10th house with Moon, Sun, Venus in Cancer should have been a public relations dream but the downhill slide in popularity has been astonishingly fast. Tales of donors and freebies, bitter in-fighting in No 10 (shades of Dom Cumming) and the grim economic outlook, probably worsened by misguided financial decisions, has left Keir Starmer with his personal approval ratings down 26 per cent since the election.
Of astrological interest is that Starmer’s Uranus in Virgo opposes the UK Pluto so he will have a status-quo upsetting effect, either disruptive or reforming. More ominous and less ambivalent, his focal point Neptune (= can be idealistic but also unrealistic) exactly opposes the UK’s 8th house Mars. That UK 8th house Mars is due for a high-voltage jolt from Solar Arc Uranus conjunct Mars, exact in six months but in effect across the next year. It could bring a major natural or man-made disaster or a devastating financial hit. And it could be Starmer’s fuzzy Neptunian obsessions that provide part of the shock.
Tory-tinged tales of freeloading are all the more surprising given Labour and Virgo Starmer’s sanctimonious utterances when in opposition. But as past revelations emerged he seems to have a track record of living well off freebies and expenses, substantially higher than others in a similar position. When Director of Prosecutions his expenses were three times higher than his successor on flights and chauffeured cars. He left that job with hefty pension benefits bringing him an average of £67,200 per year on top of his political salary.
Although he has a bland, downbeat persona (Pluto Sun in Virgo on his Ascendant maybe) he does have that super-charged, messianic Jupiter Chiron opposition Sun Pluto which is the driving rod of his Water Grand Trine. Jupiter Pluto can bring an over-confident sense of ‘rules don’t apply to me’. In extremis it can also lead to a fanatical desire for power and has been associated with speculators and squanderers. Not quite what his image has suggested up to now.
His Solar Arc Jupiter opposition Sun Pluto will collide with his Neptune within months and stay in contact for two/three years ahead – a Boris-type scandal perhaps. Plus his Solar Arc Mars conjunct his Sun Pluto in late 2025/26 running him into the buffers.
Sue Gray, his chief of staff, is an irritation not just internally according to reports. but also to astrologers since she is remarkably coy about her birth date. A company check gives September 1957 making her Virgo or Libra with her Pluto at zero or one degrees Virgo catching the disruptive tr Uranus square come mid 2025 onwards. Once the advisers become the message they need to go. But the date may be iffy – there is some suggestion during the Irish Troubles that she was in the security service running a pub in ‘bandit country’ on the border. So it may be smoke and mirrors.
Have we discussed that he has no fire in his chart? That’s another piece in the jigsaw of his lack of personality.
He does have a Leo North Node but it seems to me that he is much more likely to stay in his Aquarius South Node due to its conjunction with Saturn. Off the top of my head, I would think they were being squared by Uranus when he decided to stand for Labour party leader.
I think we have much more to learn about Starmer and his colleagues. And I am still amazed that he got away with travelling 200+ miles (with Rayner) during the pandemic lockdown for a Labour Party meeting; followed by curries and beer. Soon after, he attacked members of the government for breaking lockdown (in a far less blatant way) and with the help of Sue Gray, forced some of them from office. Is there a planetary set-up showing a tendency for hypocrisy?
As you say “A Labour Party meeting” i.e. a work event which were allowed. The police investigated it and no breach was found.
On the other hand, the Met eventually examined the Downing Street parties and issued lots of fines.
My initial judgement of Starmer was that his Sun/Pluto conjunction meant he would be an over the top micro managing busy body wanting to interfering in people’s daily lives. What has rather surprised me is his venality. I had imagined him as a rather deskbound bureaucrat with a Stalinist obsession over detail. I think this was due to underestimating his Venus in domicile in Libra which like its counterpart in Taurus would like the finer things in life though more in an aesthetic than purely monetary level.
Looking at the chart Starmer’s Venus is making no close aspects with regard to the other major planets in his charts. This suggests it could be difficult for him to integrate its influence and that it might go rogue on occasions. Unaspected Venus can lead to “heightened sensual and material desires”.
When Starmer was Attorney General, he racked up an extraordinary expenses bill – an average of close to £50,000 a year – while he was senior public prosecutor, including a chauffeur-driven car alongside first and business class flights around the world. This was apparently three times the amount claimed by any other AG at the time.
I too thought he would turn out to be a desk-bound bureaucrat who makes unpopular decisions, but Hugh is correct, his unaspected Venus makes him terribly venal.
Btw, a question – the yod on Saturn/South Node in Aquarius – how does a Mars inconjunct Saturn work? Is it capable of cruelty like the opposition, conjunction and square?
If, as Marjorie suggests, his time of birth is earlier in the day then the Moon in Libra probably moves into aspect with Saturn. Again that can have a liking for the “nicer things in life” with its stunted emotional growth
Agree, I was taken aback by his acquisitive/entitled approach to expenses and freebies. If you put his Pluto Sun on a Virgo Ascendant which would fit his defensive persona and ‘unknowableness’ it puts Venus in his 2nd. But that’s just a guess.
With the current Al Fayed furore and Jimmy Saville in his past, I have wondered if something from his time as DPP may come roaring out from the past to unseat him. He always denies involvement – but surely as Head, and with “celebrity” names he should have been all over these cases. I was a Civil Servant for 28 years (got out for good behaviour 🙂 ) and if there was a whiff of a well known person, no matter how lowly, coming to the Department’s notice, Senior Management took over and sometimes it went to Board Level and Ministerial level.
Yes, totally unbelievable that he had no involvement in such high-profile cases.
Thank you Marjorie. The 2nd October solar eclipse, which I assume will occur during party conference season lands on the term chart’s South Node, along with Mercury and BML. There’s something a bit chilly and controlling about Starmer’s astrology – withdrawing the winter fuel payment somehow goes along with that.
Regarding BML and the nodes, it’s interesting that currently ŵe are seeing a series of famous individuals whose misdemeanours and crimes against women, girls as well as (in the case of diddy, young boys) are coming to light. Jane wrote about how these eclipses are aligned with fixed stars with goddess/female associations, and of course the sign of Libra is connected to justice.
I’m happy to wait and see, nothing can be worse than the Tories and their destruction of public services. Not to mention the disgrace of a Brexit that has served no one apart from the hedge fund managers.
Regrettably one does not excuse the other. Less worse is hardly a ringing endorsement and there’s very little cheerful ahead for Starmer indeed some calamitous influences.
We deserve better politicians.
Watching the John Major interview,though not a fan of the Tories by any means, I couldn’t agree with you more.
When are sunnier times coming to the UK?
After 2026
Finally. Thank you!