Kenneth Branagh, once hailed as the next Olivier, has returned full circle to play Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, his first Stratford appearance in 30 years. The RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) started off his career with a flourish when he played to sold-out audiences in Henry V aged 24. Since then he has starred and directed Shakespeare films and branched out into the mainstream with, most recently Dunkirk, Oppenheimer, Harry Potter and Hercule Poirot.
His success is all the more laudable given his early Belfast upbringing which gave him an Irish accent which he erased at school because of bullying, learning received pronunciation which has undoubtedly heled his career.
He was born 10 December 1960 4.50pm Belfast, Northern Ireland, and came to the UK when he was nine as his family escaped the Troubles. He has a Sagittarius Sun in the hard-working 6th house square a Virgo Moon. More significantly he has a hard-edged Mars in Cancer opposition Saturn, perhaps a hint of risks in his early Belfast days, in a talented Half Grand Sextile to Pluto North Node in Virgo and Neptune in Scorpio.
He has another Half Grand Sextile from Pluto opposition South Node in Pisces, sextile/trine Neptune and Jupiter in Capricorn.
His Mercury in early Sagittarius is on the focal point of a T Square to Pluto opposition his South Node.
Shakespeare’s exact date of birth is unclear because of a muddle over baptism records but is around late April 1564 when Pluto was in mid Pisces and Uranus was in early Sagittarius opposition Neptune in Gemini – creative and inventive.
Both these placings in Shakespeare’s chart connects to the great actors who played his roles. Judi Dench and Branagh have their Mercury in Sagittarius conjunct WS’s Uranus and opposition WS Neptune; Alan Howard had his Mercury in Virgo square WS’s Uranus and Neptune.
WS’s Pluto falls in Branagh’s career 10th house and in Olivier’s 10th house as well, is square Judi Dench’s Sagittarius Sun, sextile John Gielgud’s Mercury, square Derek Jacobi’s Venus, and conjunct Peggy Ashcroft’s Mars and square her Mercury, and is square Alan Howard’s Nodal axis.
Tuned into the Bard’s inspirational language.
The Half Grand Sextile is also known as THE STAGE. How appropriate that
Branagh has not one but two STAGE PATTERNS in his chart. One of the
Stage Patterns points to his 6th House of work
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As the Aussies say, “Good on him.” Branagh’s popularity in the States took a hit when he had the affair with HBC in the mid-1990s and busted up his marriage with Emma Thompson, who reappears each Yuletide as the wronged wife in “Love Actually” to remind us that she was one in real life. That marriage couldn’t withstand Uranus/Neptune hitting Branagh’s Saturn in Cap. But Branagh’s body of work has prevailed over personal woes and who’s in and out in Hollywood doesn’t matter so much in a fragmented, TikTok world. On the big screen, audiences loved him as Hercule Poirot in more than one film and recently in “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” Like the Bard, Branagh’s got staying power!