Sir Richard Branson flies into space

[Jim Eshelman]

Sir Richard Branson was born July 18, 1950, 7:00 AM BST, in Blackheath, England. This morning, he made his flight into space - what he called "the experience of a lifetime" - through the commercial space tourism business he has built over the last 17 years. The Virgin Galactic spaceship, V.S.S. Unity, launched July 11, 2021, about 10:40 AM EDT, from Spaceport America (32N59'25", 106W58'11") in New Mexico. At about 11:25 AM EDT, the passenger ship separated from its carrier craft and fired its own rockets for about 60 seconds to complete the transition to space, giving Branson and his companion travelers a few minutes of weightlessness. A few minutes later, they returned to Earth.

[Jim Eshelman]

Before we get to specific period analysis events, note that simply relocating Branson's natal chart to Spaceport America from which they launched produces loud indications of extraordinary experiences at that location:

Eris on EP 0°04'
Mars on Dsc 1°53'
Neptune on Dsc 2°23'
Uranus on IC 2°29'

He even picks up a mundane Moon-Venus-Jupiter T-square at the location. This does not exist in his natal chart.

7°15' H3 Venus
7°37' H6 Moon
9°58' H12 Jupiter

TRANSITS: For the "event of a lifetime," Pluto was 0°20' from opposite Branson's Sun. Jupiter wasn't still within partile orb of opposite his Moon - at had withdrawn to 1°07' - but we may see this yet on the angles of return charts (and, in the scope of his life, the transit is active during this whole period as it makes multiple passes across his Moon). - Venus (-0°32') and Mars (+0°34') conjoin his natally rising Pluto, their midpoint 0°01' from exact contact.

We see that Sun and Moon are both near the end of their annual and monthly cycles (respectively), so we'll be looking back across charts that were about to expire.

SOLAR RETURN: The SSR is probably better for wherever he had his birthday (probably somewhere out at sea, from the reports I normally see of him), but for Spaceport America it has transiting Neptune on EP and natal Jupiter-Saturn across the horizon.

LUNAR RETURN (June 16): Pretty boring except for natal Uranus near IC. Transiting Neptune is widely angular.

DEMI-LUNAR RETURN (June 28): Natal Pluto 0°17' from Zenith. Most impressively, though, the Moon-Jupiter conjunction is only 0°32' wide and (along with transiting Uranus) is within bounds of foreground (though widely). This is a strong example of what I've been seeing for sometime: Closer angularity is much stronger than wider angularity, but as long as planets are foreground at all (even very widely foreground), their very close mutual aspects carry the day.

SOLAR ARC: Several contacts that, generally, are accurate or somewhere in the neighborhood of accurate. Notice that, since transiting Pluto moves about twice the annual speed of progressed Sun, transiting Pluto opposes his Sun just as directed Pluto squares his Sun:

d Pluto sq. r Sun 0°33' sep
d Uranus conj. r Saturn 0°55' ap
d Mars op. r Venus 0°32' sep
-- d Moon sqq. r Venus 0°28' sep

Directed Jupiter had just left 1° orb of square natal Ascendant (for the even-hour birth). This either means that - for the peak victory of his life thus far - Jupiter was not really directed to his angle, or that his birth time is a few minutes later. OTOH, directed MC is not quite within partile orb of natal Uranus, which either isn't an active aspect or suggests that his birthtime is slightly earlier. (The quotidians suggest that his birth time is pretty close to accurate.) - On balance, these don't add anything decisive that isn't already in the transits.

[Jim Eshelman]

LUNAR QUOTIDIAN: This month, I'm experimenting with Q2 progression of the SLR. This one (if we presume the even-hour birth time is quite close) is somewhat impressive (from an unimpressive SLR). - Either the Asc contact is exact or the MC contact, not both.

17°58' Ari - LQ Asc
18°02' Cap - SLR Saturn
18°09' Ari - SLR Uranus

1°00' Can - r Sun
1°14' Cap - SLR Pluto
2°53' Cap - LQ MC


Turning now to the more conventional quotidians:

SNQ: Nothing angular. Progressed Moon is not quite in partile orb of opposition to his natal Mars and transiting Neptune (which are 0°05' apart) - which would have been quite appropriate for the experience (again, see Glen's charts) - but it is still 0°54' from opposite his Neptune for both the jitters, the exotic, and the "floating" weightlessness. Progressed Mars squares his Moon (0°38') - The only other progressed aspects are very long-term, e.g., progressed Saturn square his Venus, progressed Neptune conjunct his Mars.

SQ: Progressed Venus 0°12' from SQ IC. I'm sure this described his happiness over this leisure cruise (which wasn't much longer than a hot-air balloon ride I once took), though it's a minor indication. (It does support the idea that his birth time is correct.) The real zinger, though - quite impressive - is SQ Moon conjunct natal Uranus 0°06'.

PSSR: Using my estimate technique (which is accurate to within about 1°), it looks like transiting Mercury was on PSSR Asc. Not a loud, strong statement for a life-changing event and success, but certainly showing a focus on travel.

[Jim Eshelman]

Duh! I missed something obvious!

Branson shares a Jul7 18 birthday with John Glenn.

[Jim Eshelman]

New York provides for the beautiful t Moon-Saturn-Uranus trio to come to the fore anchored on t Saturn, from what I can see (using only Astro Gold) - ideal for renewal of stability (on healthier grounds than before) of own work and success so far, through circumstances that provide for a wider in scope and deeper in quality personal understanding-of and relationship-with Reality.

Or just things going all to hell

To make it even better, it looks like this location brings the natal Mars-Neptune conjunction to the fore - undoubtedly the main astrological mark of Richard’s business qualities and undertakings!

Sounds like you want to poison him. - Otherwise, I'm not quite sure why you'd line up so many malefics together. (BTW, NYC doesn't have his Mars-Neptune all that close to the angle, it's about 8-10° off - I have done the careful calculation. But it does have Pluto sq. MC 0°27' and Saturn just over 3° from Descendant, which would seem disadvantageous for his ventures.)

If I were to pick anywhere in the U.S. for him, I'd pick mid-Kentucky or mid-Tennessee where Sun, Jupiter, and Pluto come together. Bu I think he spends a significant amount of time out in the middle of the ocean. There are nice spots off the NE corner of Brazil in the ocean, or through (and north or south of) Indonesia where he can get Venus and Jupiter together.

[Jim Eshelman]

I don’t see how such a personage experiencing a year focalized on tr Saturn (and with the whole configuration Mo-Sa-Ur as is) can be other than most healthy and useful, for both the given individual and the environment!

It could be struggling with these real problems, of course. But, in general, it's primary effect is to impede and halt whatever he is trying to do - at the best least, to make what he is doing much harder.

Transiting Saturn is coming from the outside. It halts, slows, restricts, narrows. I agree with you entirely that this is a person doing great things: We want him to succeed and to keep as many barriers from his path as possible.

I see I made a mistake about Sun-Jupiter-Pluto lines: There is no reason for him to go to Louisville. That was a Chiron line that I must have accidentally clicked. Actually, that might be interesting (and at least not outright harmful) in its own right. Using Louisville as an example:

27°48' 6H - Pluto
29°12' 12H - Sun
29°22' 9H - Chiron

The Moon-Uranus opposition becomes closer, only 2°00' mundo (square Venus-Mars), though he still has the ecliptical Moon-Saturn. It does bring his Mars-Neptune to moderate angularity too (possibly with a natal Sun-Neptune paran formed - I haven't checked). But overall it's powerful and breakthrough without being too negative.

Anybody have his cell number handy?