Yesterday, the former multi times world Formula 1 racing champion suffered a very serious accident while skiing at the French Alpine resort of Meribel. It appears that he fell and hit his head on a rock, suffering head injuries and was transported by helicopter to Grenoble where he went immediate surgery to relieve pressure and swelling on his brain. He remains in a critical situation at the time of writing in an intensive care ward, the doctors monitoring his situation “hour by hour”.
Michael’s natal chart in not absolutely set in stone,and I take the info from Astrodatabank which says they are not sure of the source of the 13.43 birth time. I get the feeling from this accident though that 13.43 if it isn’t exactly accurate, is very close to being right. Michael is a sun Sign Capricorn with a Cancerian Moon in opposition. The Moon and Sun sit across the 3rd/9th axis on his chart at 10 to 12 degrees, right in the firing line of the current t-square being formed in the heavens above us.
His Moon in Cancer makes him a great family man, very caring but also quite difficult as a person, as if he is being pulled in two different directions, his energies and his emotions are at odds. Sun square to Saturn shows a tough streak and much ambition although even he may doubt his own abilities sometimes. There is a safety first side to his character so whatever risks he would take would be very calculated ones, the fact he was wearing a safely helmet while skiing testifies to this and that decision alone may have saved his life. This aspect tends to drive one on to work hard to prove that one can achieve the heights that one sets for oneself.
Michael has Mars and Jupiter conjunct Uranus all making quindecile aspects to his natal Saturn the planet of ambition and his Midheaven (career) ruler emanating out of his 6th house of everyday work. This was a man who would be very technically minded, very high spirited and super optimistic with Jupiter the planet of conjunct to Uranus, he would always love a challenge, yet he would not be averse to doing the everyday mundane work to get to the top. Mars is square to his Midheaven and Mercury and quindecile to Saturn indicating the need for speed (Mars) in his career (Saturn/Midheaven) and also here is a connection to vehicles and cars (Mercury). With Mercury and the Midheaven forming a grand trine with his Taurean Ascendant and Uranus Pluto, he is very talented with a very quick inventive mind and reactions and deeply searching attitude to life. With Pluto in the 5th house in this grand trine, the desire for power and to be very significant in his career is very, very strong.
Neptune sitting opposing his Ascendant is a very intriguing position as it would normally soften his character and make him lose touch with reality at times, but he has always been a very focused individual. My take on this position is that he associated his personal success with the collective and the team, Neptune’s sign Pisces is intercepted of the 11th house of team affairs. Without the technical genius of the car designers, the engineers, the sponsors who provided the money and the owners around him, Michael’s undisputed talent would have never have come out. This need to be part of a team is further enhanced with Venus in Aquarius squaring this Neptune Ascendant opposition. Michael would forever need the company of others all of the time to be fully content and happy.
Two things also intrigue me about this chart. If his birth time is indeed correct, his Ascendant sits in a very close conjunction to the star Alcyone, the main star in the Pleiades in the constellation of Taurus the Bull. This position says to me a man of mystical abilities, someone who wanted inner knowledge and had a strong sense that his life was a destined one. This position is not an easy one, he would be be very judgemental of other people as well as working in an area of life charged with human drama and emotion. Certainly this sounds pretty accurate.
The other position that interests me is his North Node Chiron conjunction opposing Jupiter and Uranus. Chiron conjunct the North Node is a position fraught with danger as here is the possibility of a wound blighting his overall destiny in life. The fact that Chiron opposes Pluto Uranus and Jupiter suggests an accident (Uranus) happening in a foreign country (Jupiter) or unpredictable freak incident (Uranus) that may cause a great transformation (Pluto) and trauma (Chiron) affecting him. Whether Chiron (the wounded healer) conjunct to his North Node was an indication of his ultimate destiny in having to deal with an incurable scar on him is so far hard to tell.
As you will be able to see from the chart above, the current planetary weather is very fraught and at the time of his accident the Sun and Mercury were in a close conjunction both closing in on Pluto and thus converging on his Sun and opposing his Moon. Mercury is the planet I would associate with skiing, (personal transportation) and Pluto can of course be a very nasty influence, especially when combined with Mars, Uranus and Jupiter in a cardinal cross as on the transit chart at the top. This is difficult energy that was in the main focused directly onto Michael’s Moon, sitting in it’s own sign in his 3rd house, that of the mind, a double influence on this part of the chart.
Also at the time of the accident alongside the opposition from Pluto Mercury and Sun to his Moon as well as the squares from Mars and Uranus, transiting Saturn was making a nasty inconjunct aspect to his natal Saturn. Capricorn it’s ruler affects 9th and the 10th houses connecting difficult events abroad (9th) to and an eventual adjustment in his public status or work. This incident will change his life in my opinion forever. Transiting Neptune had also moved around to make an inconjunct to Uranus, Jupiter and his South Node in his 6th house of health. This is a another problematic set of aspects, especially as Jupiter does rule his 8th house of enforced permanent change. This house works on in internal level and Neptune can be a debilitating influence, especially in regard to Michael as natally it opposes his Ascendant. The inconjunct to Uranus and Jupiter again hints at health problems (Neptune/6th house) due to an accident (Uranus) in a foreign country (Jupiter). The influence of the South Node here is also one of detriment, bringing an unfortunate influence to bare. Neptune also made a trine to Michael’s 6th house Mars, I wonder if he was trying to go a bit too fast when the accident occurred? Transiting Chiron not only made a trine to Michael’s Moon but also a very focused and almost exact quindecile to Michael’s natal Pluto in the 5th house of sports and activities, a transformational sporting wound may have been predicted through this.
Of course I only report what I see on the astrological chart and this incident has shocked many people around the world. I hope that Michael can make some kind of recovery, but reports out of Grenoble seem very cautious and the doctors are not being very optimistic in their prognosis. I wish Michael well in his fight to get better.
