Psychological Astronumerology Case: Richard Branson

Sir ​Richard Branson (July 18th 1950) is an entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin group comprised of over 200 companies in 30 different countries including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Galactic and Virgin America. He has an estimated net worth of about $3.7 billion as of April 5th 2020 according to the Forbes list. Interestingly, he has the combination 1-8-9 so often seen in powerful and influential people: his birthday and expression number are 9, his personality number is 1 and his soul urge is 8. Number 1 provides leadership and entrepreneurial skill, number 9 provides leadership ability, skill of connecting with diverse people and a global outlook, and number 8 provides business sense, work ethic and ambition. He has a Master number life path of 22/4 showing a capacity for genius and future oriented vision which complements practical ambition. This combination results in innovative, out of the box thinking and action that leaves a long lasting legacy. Richard is also an excellent example of the philanthropic nature of 22/4.

    Let us examine connections between the 2nd and 11th houses so any of its aspects to the 2nd or 11th house promote wealth accrual. d=degrees
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• Mercury is ruler of both 2nd and 11th houses
• Mercury at 3 degrees Leo is semisextile Uranus in the 11th house by 3d
• Mercury is semisquare Saturn 2d in the 2nd house
• Mercury semisextile POF in the 2nd house 3d
• Mercury makes an exact semisextile to the 2nd house cusp
• Mercury is conjunct its dispositor Sun 8 degrees (out of sign)
• Venus in the 11th house is square POF in the 2nd house 3d
• Venus in the 11th house is square Saturn in the 2nd house 3d
• Venus in the 2nd house makes an exact semisextile to Mercury’s dispositor Sun
• Mercury makes a 2d semisextile to the Moon (dispositor of Uranus in Cancer in the 11th)
• Moon as dispositor of Uranus in Cancer in the 11th house is conjunct the 2nd house cusp by 1 degree from the 1st house
• Mercury makes a 4d sextile to the 11th house cusp

 
     Let us take a look at the 2nd house. On the cusp is Virgo showing that Richard is detail oriented, hardworking, concrete and practical in his approach to earning money. The Moon shows us emotional needs for security and comfort. The Moon in Virgo is conjunct the 2nd house cusp by one degree showing that money could be tied to his sense of security, happiness and self- esteem. In any case, he has an emotional attachment to financial abundance. The Moon and 2nd house cusp make a 4-5 degree opposition with Jupiter. This Jupiter influence contributes to expansion, favour and blessings. Placed in the 8th house shows that he gains a lot of money from other people and his investors of his hundreds of companies certainly testify to this. The Part of Fortune in the second house gives a natural burst of luck and fortune to earned income.

    Saturn is in the 2nd house giving him the qualities of persistence, determination, resiliency and willpower to overcome obstacles. He was dyslexic and had trouble in grade school and high school. He dropped out of high school. His trouble may be shown astrologically with the ruler of the third house Mercury in the 12th house representing grief, pain and losses. The dispositor of Mercury, the Sun, is also in the 12th house which accentuates the trouble in lower education (grade school and high school). Yet it was this failure that motivated him to start his first venture selling magazines and he made good profit. Even after he was forced to sell his record company in 1992, he learned from this mistake and went on to found hundreds of more successful companies. However, Saturn is the taskmaster and will not let you get away with anything that isn’t right, especially in the areas governed by the house that it is placed in and rules; it is karmic reward and punishment. Saturn placed in the 2nd house can give problems with finances if you are dishonest or steal from others. In his early twenties he started Virgin Mail, a mail order retail record company. However there was a postal strike and he had to change it into a discount record retailer, at first this caused him to go thousands of dollars in debt. Feeling desperate, he devised a scam whereby he could evade tax payments on his merchandise. However he was caught and given jail time. It cost him $45 000 to get set free. However, he remained persistent and worked hard to get out of the $90 000 in accumulated business debt, government fines and taxes that he owed. This is characteristic of his number 8 soul urge, which vibrates to Saturn. He had a lot of challenges in his earlier years but with time, discipline and persistence he managed to pull himself out of the trouble.

    Richard started his entrepreneurial ventures in the music industry. Characteristic of the number 1 personality number, he started a recording studio and signed on successful artists such as Mike Oldfield, Sex Pistols, Culture Club,  Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Janet Jackson, and Genesis. Virgin Music became one of the top six record companies in the world. Notice that his 10th house cusp is Aries which is ruled by Mars- excellent for entrepreneurship and Mars is conjunct Neptune- the planet associated with music and artistic expression. The 2nd house ruler Mercury is in the 12th house (Neptune’s house) and one manifestation is earning money through musical expression. Neptune is making an exact quintile to Mercury strengthening his tendency to think along musical or artistic lines. As ruler of the 10th house, Mars makes a one degree quintile to Mercury in the 12th house showing that good communication skills and non-linear thinking would be critical in earning success in his career. He regularly makes investments which go against traditional business tactics and mainstream corporate practice. David Sheff commented in Forbes that Branson was "One of the world's most fertile businessmen with highly unorthodox methods". This proclivity towards unusual creative methods could also partially be attributed towards an out of bounds Uranus and a life path of 22/4.

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