Churchill as a young man
"There, amid eighty sheltering acres of beech, oak, lime and chestnut, stands the singular country home of England's most singular statesman, a brilliant, domineering, intuitive, inconsiderate, self-centered, emotional, generous, ruthless, visionary, megalomaniacal, and heroic genius who inspires fear, devotion, rage and admiration among his peers."
From the opening paragraph of The Last Lion: Alone, by William Manchester, describing Sir Winston Spencer Churchill and his country home, Chartwell.
The horoscope is but a blueprint for our lives. How it all plays out is up to us. For a fully lived life, I can think of no better man than Winston Churchill. A study of his chart is thus an excellent way to explain how planets and luminaries, as well as the angles of the chart manifest in the signs.
Churchill was born with 29 degrees of Virgo rising.* Ending degrees (28 and 29 degrees of a sign) are interesting in a chart. The idea is that one incarnates with a full measure of the sign, and thus a very pronounced expression of it.
Churchill was an extremely sensitive person, very particular about his likes, dislikes and needs. He was known to wear only pale pink silk underwear as it was all his sensitive skin could tolerate. He was also extremely exacting in his use of the English language. Born with a lisp, he worked diligently on the crafting of each speech and practiced their delivery, becoming perhaps the most famous orator of the 20th Century, and the person who by the force of his words played a huge role in defeating Hitler.
Churchill's toy soldiers
With Virgo rising, Mercury is his chart ruler, and it is placed in Scorpio in the second house. Mercury in Scorpio is opposed by Pluto in Taurus. Mercury in Scorpio is very forceful and Pluto in opposition only adds to that. He will be heard. With Mercury in the second house of income, Winston earned most of his money by his prolific writings. He thus managed to stay just ahead of his creditors and used his wit in fighting off the Inland Revenue Service. (See No more Champagne by David Lough for more on this.) Churchill won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953 for his six volume history of WWII. He is known to have quipped that history would be kind to him, as he should write it. Sun and Venus in the 3rd house also contribute to his writing abilities, as does his 29 degree Gemini Midheaven.
Virgos are known for their wit, and Churchill had a very keen and quick wit. C.E.O. Carter, in his book An Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology states the following:
"Wit depends upon a strong Mercury, the quality of wit being determined by the chief aspecting planet. It often is found that he is aspected by Mars, Jupiter or Uranus. "
Mercury rules both his Ascendant and Midheaven. Winston had Mercury at 17 Scorpio, square Uranus, semi-sextile Mars and Jupiter. So he met all three criteria for wit. With Mercury square Uranus he was an interesting conversationalist. To put one of his more famous quotes in context, here is a paragraph from Churchill Style: The Art of Being Winston Churchill by Barry Singer, at page 57:
"I first met Winston Churchill in the early summer of 1906 at a dinner party,"Violet Asquith, the daughter of the future Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, later wrote, as Lady Violet Bonham Carter..."I found myself sitting next to this young man who seemed to me quite different from any other young man I had ever met. For a long time he remained sunk in abstraction. Then he appeared to become suddenly aware of my existence. He turned on me a lowering gaze and asked how old I was. I replied that I was nineteen. 'And I,',he said almost despairingly, 'am thirty-two already. Younger than anyone else who counts, though' he added, as if to comfort himself. Then savagely, 'Curse ruthless time! Curse our mortality. How cruelly short is the allotted span for all must cram into it!....We are all worms,' he concluded. 'But I do believe that I am a glow worm.'"
Note Churchill's Moon in Leo shines through in that last line.
The planet Mars is rising in Libra in Winston's chart. While Libra is not thought of as a martial sign, Mars is. And Churchill was constantly fighting throughout his life, whether it be against Hitler or against his own party or the opposing party in Parliament. His sole respite was at Chartwell, where his dinner guests were all friends. As Manchester notes: "In London, even in his pied-a-terre at No. 11 Morpeth Mansions, where he stays while attending Parliament, he is embattled. He needs no snipers here." (The Last Lion: Alone, page 13).
Mars in Libra (an air sign) can take an intellectual interest in planning battles and Winston was known for his love of his toy soldiers.
Mars in Libra people almost always marry. He was turned down three times by various women, but to his great delight (and likely relief) Clementine Hozier accepted his proposal during a rain storm at Blenheim Palace and they married on Sept. 12, 1908 and stayed married for 56 years. On the day of his marriage, his chart ruler Mercury was conjunct his Venus by Solar Arc, and transit Jupiter was conjunct his natal Moon.
Winston had Jupiter in Libra (the sign of marriage ) on the cusp of his second house, sextile Venus in Sagittarius in the third. He was a romantic and married not for money but for love. Clementine had Sun, Venus, Mars and Mercury in Aries. The first three planets fell in his 7th house, and the last in Winston's 8th house conjunct his Neptune and Trine his Moon in Leo. They wrote many letters to each other over the course of their marriage.
Churchill's Sun and Venus are in Sagittarius in the third house. Sagittarius is known for the love of animals, and this was wildly true in Churchill's case. The family had all kinds of animals at Chartwell. There was always a pet cat to help him write while in bed. The children all had pets. He loved to feed his pet fish at Chartwell. From The Last Lion: Alone: "In his reverence for all living creatures Churchill approaches ascetic Jainism. Butterflies are sacred. So are predators." (page 20)
Sagittarius is also known for being able to see the future at times, and this was true in Churchill's case. He predicted he would die on the same day of the year as his father did, and he did. When Churchill was 16 years old (July 1891) and speaking to a friend after evensong in chapel, he stated as follows: "I can see vast changes coming over a now peaceful world, great upheavals, terrible struggle; wars such as one cannot imagine; and I tell you London will be attacked and I shall be very prominent in the defence of London. I see further ahead than you do, I see into the future. This country will be subjected somehow, to a tremendous invasion, by what means I do not know, but I tell you I shall be in command of the defences of London and I shall save London and England from disaster..dreams of the future are blurred but the main objective is clear. I repeat-London will be in danger and in my high position I shall occupy it, it will fall to me to save the capital and save the Empire." (from page 23 of Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts.) Churchill had a grand trine in fire, Moon in Leo trine Neptune in Aries trine Venus in Sagittarius, and the fire signs are those associated with foreknowledge. Sagittarius is also known for being optimistic, and it was in part Churchill's belief that England could win the war that helped England succeed, even when they were fighting alone. Sun and Venus in Sagittarius (the house of the mind) gave Churchill a brilliant mind along with his communication skills. A true Sagittarius, he was extravagant in his tastes. When he died, the maker of his favorite champagne (Pol-Roger) placed a black band of mourning around the label of the champagne in honor of one of the company's best customers. (See No More Champagne, above) The grand trine in fire also gave him his amazing energy. Churchill had Saturn in the 5th house. The 5th house rules children, gambling, and romance before marriage. He was unlucky in all three. He invested most of his money in the U.S. stock market right before it crashed in 1929. He had five children, one of whom died at age two. Only his youngest child, Mary Churchill Soames, seemed to have survived unscathed being the child of a famous man whose country demanded so much of his time. While Winston clearly loved his children, he and his wife were often traveling and leaving the care of the children to the nanny, as was common in upper class
Apple trees at Chartwell
With 29 Pisces on the 7th house cusp, he married someone who was entirely devoted to him, although she needed to spend time away to regroup and recover from her spouse.
Churchill had several planets in the 8th house of sex, death and taxes. Neptune in Aries in the grand trine and Pluto in Taurus, square his Moon in and oppose Mercury. He was fearless, standing on rooftops during the bombing of London to see the show. And while he had close calls with death, he lived until the age of 91. North node in Aries is in the 8th house. This attracts generous partners, and he did have people in his life who rescued him financially. Winston thought he was ruined when the stock market crashed in 1929. Bernard Baruch, an American financier who was Jewish and appreciated Winston's recognition of the threat posed by Germany, was such a generous friend. Baruch had left instructions to buy every time Churchill sold on the market and to sell whenever he bought. Baruch paid the commissions as well. ( The Last Lion: Alone, page 14) Celeste Teal notes in her book Lunar Nodes that with this placement there is usually little luck in speculation. Jupiter conjunct north node, which Winston had, is common amongst writers.
The 29 Gemini midheaven probably accounts for the many books and articles Churchill wrote in his life, including his speeches to Parliament, as well as his extraordinary command of the English language. As a dual sign, he had more than one vocation, parliamentarian, soldier, Prime Minister, and author. He was also an accomplished painter, and we have to give credit to his Libra planets for that avocation. His written output was so vast there is even a Wikipedia page on Churchill as a writer.
One of the most interesting points to me in Winston's chart is his Moon at 29 of Leo in the 11th house. His mother was a famous beauty, but very self absorbed. He was sent away to school when young, and hated it. His parents did not visit. But he did have a nanny, Mrs. Everest, who he adored. She began to take care of him a month after his birth. She died when he was 20 and he paid a florist annually thereafter for upkeep of her grave.
Winston did not like to be alone, and he was lucky in that as he had many friends, and very interesting ones. His dinner table conversations went on late into the evening, with a wide variety of interesting people. He counted Lawrence of Arabia and Charlie Chaplin amongst his friends. Those he had in his life were very loyal. With Uranus in the 11th, it was an eclectic group of people. Winston's entertaining Leo moon was exactly sextile his Midheaven, so his ability to entertain clearly helped him in his career.
I have read many books on Churchill. By far and away my favorites are the two volumes written by Willaim Manchester, The Last Lion: Visions of Glory, and the Last Lion: Alone. Sadly the second volume only takes us to 1940. A third volume was written, but not by Manchester, and it is not in the same league.
*Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874 at 1:30 am. That he was born in a palace is fitting for someone who has 29 degrees of Sagittarius on the nadir, which represents the place of birth.
