This article was first published on 16 May 2010 at the old C*I*A – Zone X blog.

David Cameron. 9 October 1966, 5:55am BST, London, UK. From www.stevejudd.com/articles/chart-of-david-cameron/. Timed Chart – Whole Sign Houses.

On 11 May 2010, David Cameron was invited by Queen Elizabeth II to take the job of prime minister and form a government of the United Kingdom, following the resignation of Gordon Brown.  This followed the results of the general election held on 6 May 2010, which were such that no one political party commanded an overall majority of the seats in the House of Commons.  Following intense negotiations Cameron’s Conservative Party agreed to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg.

This result is interesting for a variety of reasons.  Firstly, it is the first time that the UK has had a coalition government since Winston Churchill’s wartime coalition between 1940 and 1945.  Secondly, David Cameron is the youngest person to hold the office of prime minister since the early nineteenth century, at the age of 43.  Thirdly, it brings to an end a period of 13 years of Labour Party government, and hence indicates a significant change of political climate in the UK.

Looking at the astrology behind this change in government, there are some fascinating insights to be revealed.

David Cameron was born on 9 October 1966 at 5:55am BST* in London.  Owing to the uncertainty of his birth-time, and the proximity of his Ascendant to the 0º cusp of Libra, it is possible that he has a Virgo ascendant or a Libra ascendant.  Nevertheless it is likely to be in very late Virgo or very early Libra.  This is interesting given that at the time of his elevation to the post of PM, the transiting cardinal t-square (which is still tightening) was in the late degrees of Pisces (Jupiter at 25º48’ & Uranus at 29º25’) and Virgo (Saturn at 28º09’), and early degrees of Capricorn (Pluto at 5º08’).  Cameron has the signature 1960’s alignment in his chart, the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo opposite the Saturn-Chiron conjunction in Pisces, shared by millions born in the mid-1960’s and so descriptive of the changes in collective consciousness occurring in the world at that time.  He very much represents a new generation of political leaders in this respect.

We should examine the meaning of this central 1960’s planetary configuration in more depth because it is really starting to come to prominence now, embodied in the lives of those born with it in their charts.  Virgo is the sign that follows Leo, and is of the earth element (materialism, practicality, substance, realism), whereas Leo is of the fire element (creativity, spontaneity, vivacity, intuition).  Where Leo creates, Virgo improves; where Leo orders, Virgo manages; where Leo demonstrates, Virgo criticizes; where Leo plays, Virgo perfects.  And so, where the generation with Pluto in Leo (between roughly 1940 and 1956) experiences its power-relations with the collective masses, its political agency, as declarative, self-obsessed, somewhat child-like, almost imperial and centred on strong personality and charisma, the generation with Pluto in Virgo (between roughly 1956 and 1971) views power and its expression as fundamentally corrective, managerial, precise, detailed, modelled, almost hygienic.  Classically, being both the rulership and exaltation of Mercury, Virgo has a rational, discriminative, analytical quality, but being of the element of earth, it applies such intelligence not to abstractions, but to the real world, particularly to the world of disorder, or what appears to be chaotic.  In this sense, the group born with Pluto in Virgo has a generational imperative to ‘fix the world’, to carefully assess and identify what has become disordered, and to correct it.  For this group of people, what matters more than anything is efficiency, productivity, lack of waste, and clever design.

Uranus conjoined Pluto in the mid-sixties, and started a new Uranus-Pluto cycle, which lasts around 130 years.  The first-quarter phase of this cycle, the opening square from Uranus to Pluto, is starting to occur around now, and will have 7 precise passes between 2012 and 2015.  This suggests that some of the themes which first cropped up in world politics and culture in the mid-sixties will do so again, but this time there will be a sense of wanting to make something lasting out of these impulses.  Uranus, being the symbol of Promethean fire brought from the gods to mortal humans, represents challenges to the status quo, rebellion, revolution, unemotional clarity of reason, sudden and unexpected developments, fractures in time and space.  A good image of Uranian energy is lightning, as a sudden bolt of intense energy discharging a situation of polarized antagonistic forces.  Pluto represents power, decay, inevitable transformative processes, often hidden or unseen but developing irrepressibly in the background.  The Uranus-Pluto cycle is the cycle of revolutionary changes in politics and government, of profound discontinuities in our conception of time and space, of powerful technological developments.  With both planets conjunct in Virgo in the 1960’s, there was an upwelling of anarchistic forces in the collective, from anti-war rallies to the civil rights movements to hippies, LSD and flower-power, the dawn of the contraceptive pill and feminism, massive space exploration programs and the Moon landing, the birth of microcomputers, the ‘Green’ revolution in agriculture and widespread permissiveness in moral attitudes combined with ecological and holistic views of humanity’s place in the world.

When Saturn and Chiron together opposed the Uranus-Pluto conjunction around 1965-1967, at the height of its exactitude, the forces of tradition, of authoritarian limitation and suspicion, of discipline and regulation, cracked down on this new spirit of liberation and resulted in a crisis of social cohesiveness which was most alarming to governments at the time.  Riots, demonstrations, legal prohibitions, assassinations:  the sixties was a dynamic time, an exciting time, but also a violent and frightening time for many.

And so it is this configuration that lies dormant in the horoscopes of all those born in that turbulent decade, including the new prime minister of the UK.  We would expect that, if he were to live out the potentials inherent in this configuration, David Cameron would be in a position where he is faced with an enormous dilemma, symbolized by this hugely powerful opposition of archtypal forces:  when faced with crisis, with a fork in the road, should one ally oneself with the traditional views, the accepted practices, the received wisdom (based on thinking that is often little deeper than fear and hysteria – Saturn in Pisces), or should one implement drastic and profound change of a corrective nature, based on impartial and rational analysis of the problems we face?  This is the question of our time, this is the inescapable conundrum which humanity now contemplates, pitting the truths of objective scientific observation and inference against the limiting, conservative, pusillanimous defences of the past.

With the Sun in Libra, Cameron leads with his sense of fairness, reason and tact, ideally suited to a co-operative arrangement where he sees himself providing a counterbalance to ideas, as presiding over an alternating interplay of thesis and antithesis, forever seeking a rational and pleasing consensus.  He throws about him an aura of urbanity, sophistication and intelligence, but can be given to vanity.  With his Moon conjunct Jupiter in Leo, we see his upper-class origins, establishment to the core, scion of royalty and privilege.  There is a passionate feeling of nationalistic pride, an ease with executive position, an innate instinct for what is most dignified in morals.  The pitfall is a tendency to get carried away with a grandiose ego-mythology.  Mercury in Scorpio gives penetrating insights, capacity to deal with what must be kept secret, and the willingness to confront intellectual dishonesty, despite an underlying cynicism.

Act of Union of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1 January 1801, 12am, London, UK. From Book of World Horoscopes (Campion, 2004). Timed Chart – Whole Sign Houses.

Cameron’s chart shows intriguing synastry with that of arguably the foremost astrological map of his country – the chart for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (the Act of Union, 1801).  As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, since most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, this chart has in a sense been superceded, but it still I think says something about the historic greatness of the British Empire and all that has been fated to happen to it since.

The prime minister’s Ascendant and MC, in the first cardinal degrees, are conjunct/square to the UK’s Uranus, at 1º54’ Libra.  Just as he has acceded to office at his own Uranus opposition, he represents the daring boldness of precocity.  His Venus at 7º33’ Libra exactly conjuncts the UK Ascendant at 7º10’ Libra, lending a very beneficial and charming edge to the image of the country.  His Jupiter at 1º37’ Leo is exactly conjunct Jupiter at 1º51’ Leo in the UK chart, suggesting self-confidence and proud identification with all that is great in his country.  Cameron’s Neptune at 20º36’ Scorpio is conjunct the UK’s Neptune at 18º44’ Scorpio, i.e. he was born at the time of the UK’s Neptune Return.  He carries within him a dream of a once-great empire, a glorious realm lost in the distant past, a vision which nurtures his deepest political instincts.  His Sun, at 15º27’ Libra, is conjunct the South Node of the UK, at 14º04’ Libra:  he identifies as a figure who is somehow fated to change the trajectory of his country in a way which connects strongly with its distant past.

Nick Clegg. 7 January 1967, 5:30am GMT, Chalfont St Giles, UK. From www.astrology21.co.uk/c1nickclegg.html. Timed Chart – Whole Sign Houses.

Nick Clegg was born on 7 January 1967 at 5:30 AM GMT in Chalfont St Giles, near London.**  Although he has a Capricorn Sun and a Sagittarius Moon, he was also born with the Uranus/Pluto conjunction in Virgo, like the similarly-aged Cameron.

Clegg has a dynamic and driven nature, with a very exact Sun-Mars square in cardinal signs, and his Mars, at 16º58’ Libra, conjuncts Cameron’s Sun, at 15º27’ Libra.  This synastric aspect, together with the square between both men’s Sun positions, suggests that they may end up being capable of working hard together, with great dynamism, but it may not feel natural or comfortable for either of them.  Their strong Libran natures should help smooth their differences.  Clegg’s chart also shows strong synastry with that of the UK.  His Moon at 2º52’ Sagittarius squares the UK’s Pluto at 2º42’ Pisces – reflecting a private life that may cross certain long-established taboos.  His Mercury at 9º41’ Capricorn conjoins the UK’s Sun, at 10º11’ Capricorn, and opposes the UK’s MC at 9º20’ Cancer – confirming his role as intermediary or deal-maker in the formation of the nation’s government.  His Jupiter at 1º10’ Leo is also conjunct Cameron’s Jupiter and the UK’s Jupiter (at 1º51’ Leo).  His moral sense and faith in the future are expressed confidently and in synchrony with the national assumptions of superiority and greatness.

*See www.stevejudd.com/articles/chart-of-david-cameron/ for further information about David Cameron’s birth time, as well as a good discussion of his horoscope, written prior to the 2010 election.

**See www.astrology21.co.uk/c1nickclegg.html for further information about Nick Clegg’s birth time.