With Gemini rising (an appearance of flexibility and adaptability) and a twelfth house Sun (showing an individual who prefers his real agenda to remain hidden), it’s no wonder that Tony Blair has been under criticism throughout his career for dishonesty, excessive “spin” and a lack of integrity in his lifestyle choices. The appellation “Tony Blur” that has often been given to him expresses the confusion and delusion that often results when the Sun finds itself in the twelfth house of that which is hidden. (See Astrodatabank for birthchart.)

In Blair’s college days he modeled himself after Mick Jagger, and his first career was as a would-be rock promoter. Giving that up for law studies at Oxford, he played guitar in a rock band. However, soon after beginning his law studies he announced to friends his desire to become prime minister.

Blair joined the Labour party soon after graduation from Oxford. He tried unsuccessfully for a couple of seats in local elections but he was able to gain a footing in the Labour party. At this time he described himself as a Socialist, yet he sent his children to a private school that was criticized for its elitist policies. There has been a disconnect between many of Tony Blair’s professed ideals and the programs which he has worked to implement in Britain. Still, he was one of the most popular prime ministers in the history of Britain, winning an unprecedented third term. His government has overseen a period of economic growth and lowered unemployment as well as a higher standard of living. Yet his unholy alliance with George W. Bush in the pursuit of war in Iraq has cost him his political career.

Tony Blair’s birthchart shows that he has a Taurus Sun in the twelfth house: stubborn and unyielding, he holds strongly to his beliefs (Taurus in the twelfth) and prefers to keep his cards hidden (planets in the twelfth house tend to operate in a secretive manner). The square of Pluto to his Sun shows that he has real issues with power (Pluto) as well as a compulsive need to be right (Pluto square to the stubborn Taurus Sun). This makes him a formidable enemy and gives him a strength of personality that is not easily seen behind the affable and chatty Gemini exterior. The Gemini ascendant gives him an ability to shapeshift and slip in and out of roles that suit his particular need of the moment.

Mars, the planet of drive and desire, falls right on his ascendant where it drives him with a fire that would not be possible otherwise with a watery and stubborn twelfth house Taurus Sun. Jupiter conjoins Mars as well, a combination which can bring a passionate righteousness to the mix.

His idealistic Aquarian Moon falls in the Tenth House of power and career, and gives him an intensely emotional need to play a public role. Aquarius is humanitarian and concerned with the greater good of the collective and many of Blair’s reforms have helped to equalize the social standings of Britons. However, an opposition of Pluto to Blair’s Moon intensifies this need for power and gives it a life or death quality. The combination of Blair’s Sun/Moon and Pluto in a T-square formation shows that his very identity (Sun) and emotional security (Moon) are wrapped up in his ability to achieve a sense of power (Pluto), and that this struggle is likely to play out in the Tenth House of career and public life (Moon in the Tenth) where his Moon joins the North Node of the Moon which identifies his evolutionary direction.

This is a powerhouse, and it has been stressed since late last year when Saturn in Leo began cycling through an opposition to the Sun, then a square to the Moon, and finally a conjunction to Pluto currently (also affected by the transits of Neptune to this same system). The combination of Saturn and Neptune have forced him to confront his own failures (Saturn) and illusions (Neptune) and announce his resignation within the year. Blair has Saturn and Neptune conjunct in his own chart and both are retrograde, showing that the combination of discipline and hard work with an idealistic pursuit of a higher reality are strong within him.

One can see how Tony Blair’s alliance with the US began under Clinton’s watch, where Clinton and Blair shared an ideal of moving progressive policies towards a more centrist approach. Some pundits have said that Blair embraced an alliance with Bush in order to show his political foes back home that he could wotk in tandem with conservative leaders abroad. After September 11, however, he appeared to become caught up in the wide-reaching fervor of Bush’s war against terror, the kind of conceptual battle that the combination of Mars (war) and Jupiter (ideals) is all too comfortable with. Perhaps there was a sense that allying oneself with the most powerful nation in the world would bring a reflected power to Blair himself, but that error has led to his downfall.