Alan Bond’s horoscope

Larger than life Australian businessman Alan Bond died today, aged 77.

He leaves behind a history of fame, scandal, fraud, bankruptcy, prison time and great wealth. Of deals, debts and scandal. And leading the Australian Americas Cup win in 1983. You can get a sense of Bond from obituaries and stories about him in the media today. The Australian Financial Review has a story about Bond, and the ABC had 10 things you needed to know about the disgraced tycoon. But perhaps the best account I’ve read today is from Paul Barry, writing for The Age. Barry  wrote a biography of Alan Bond.

But what about an astrological perspective? Looking at Bond’s horoscope is somewhat limited, as we don’t know his birth time. What we do know is he was born in Hammersmith, England on 22nd April 1938. So here’s a few initial thoughts about Bond’s horoscope set for noon on that day, shown below.

There are two things that stand out in this horoscope. Firstly, the cluster of planets in Taurus, what astrologers call a ‘stellium.’ Not only does Bond have a Taurus Sun sign, but he also has Mars, Mercury, Venus and Uranus in Taurus as well. This makes him, obviously, very Taurean. Which generally means he’s stubborn, persistent, likes luxury (Venus rules Taurus), and is not easily dissuaded.

And his South Node is in Taurus. The South Node indicates instinctual behaviours that we have to move away from in this life. So Bond’s ‘lesson’ was to not indulge all that Taurean energy, but break free from it. But it would appear that he didn’t do this.

The other thing about Bond’s horoscope is the inconjunct (150°) aspect between Jupiter and Pluto. Jupiter-Pluto aspects are about wealth, risk, and power. But being an inconjunct, there is a roller-coaster experience of wealth (unlike a more focussed Jupiter-Pluto conjunction, which is what Bill Gates has) – highs and lows.

It appears in the above horoscope that Bond’s Moon is opposite his Pluto, but this is a speculative noon chart, and the Moon moves about 13 degrees each day, so it is possible that the Moon may not be opposing Pluto if we knew Bond’s actual birth time.

Looking at Bond’s ‘finest hour’ – the Americas Cup win in September 1983, we see a couple of notable points. Using the 90 degree wheel (below), Solar Arc Jupiter is conjunct his natal Saturn (red circle), and transiting Neptune is square his natal Uranus (green circle).

Jupiter indicates a period of wealth, honour, fortune. This Solar Arc Direction indicates a significant life event for Bond. Jupiter elevates Bond’s Saturn in fiery Aries. But it is also likely to elevant ‘bad behaviour’ as Saturn is in it’s sign of Fall in Aries (more on that another time). Bond is therefore likely to indulge himself from this victory, to take it as an opportunity for himself, for his ego, for his own ends.

The Neptune transit to Uranus is difficult to get a handle on, because Neptune is so … nebulous. It could just indicate the high level of delusion and idealism (Neptune) surrounding Bond’s sudden change of fortune (Uranus). The transit certainly underlines what kind of event is shown by the Jupiter-Saturn connection above.

There’s much more that could probably be said about Alan Bond, astrologically. But this cursory look certainly indicates that we can see some of his life themes in a brief examination of his horoscope.