The Rooneys, David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson

Wayne Rooney is a big football celebrity in the UK, though I don’t expect my American readers (who are in the majority!) have heard of him. On the other hand his club, Manchester United, is owned by the Glazers, who are American and have sporting interests in the US, so maybe you have heard of him. For myself, I hadn’t heard of OJ Simpson until he was suspected of murder.

I don’t take foreign celebrities as seriously as I take English celebrities. Somehow the English celebrities are more real and more likely to make my head turn. I would find it very hard to be on normal behaviour in the presence of one. I don’t think I’ve ever met a celebrity, so I wouldn’t know how to recognise one. Some couples have an agreement to be faithful to each other unless they have the opportunity to spend the night with a celebrity.

All this is Neptune’s realm, and being an outer planet, we are all subject to his influence on a collective level whether we like it or not. If you have a strong Neptune, then you can influence the collective, you can become a celebrity. Mr Obama has Sun square to Neptune in the 9th House (religious teacher) and Bill Clinton has Neptune Rising with Mars and Venus. So Bill Clinton’s fame had/has a strong romantic/sexual element (which fame often does anyway.) With Neptune Rising, he found it hard to be in control of himself,

whether it was Monica Lewinsky, which made the US a laughing stock the world over, or the loss of the nuclear activation codes, leaving America unable to respond in the event of nuclear attack. As I said, Neptune is a collective planet, and Bill Clinton’s strong personal Neptune acted as a comical counterbalance to American hubris. (You can see why some people think Dionysus, the Fool in the Mythic Tarot, would be a more appropriate mythical figure for the planet we call Neptune.)

Wayne Rooney was born 24 October 1985, birth time unknown. He has earned his celebrity, being a world-class striker.

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His wife Coleen has also become a celebrity (unearned). Her Sun is widely square to Neptune, in this case describing how her fame (Neptune) comes through her husband (Sun in Aries, a good sign for a sporting hero.)

Wayne Rooney is also currently famous for wanting to leave Manchester United and for seeing a prostitute while his wife was pregnant. Coleen’s natal Venus (relationships) at 1 Taurus is loaded, being conjunct the Node, opposite Pluto in Scorpio and trine to Mars and Neptune. The hard aspect to Pluto is the big challenge, describing both her attraction to power and the humiliation it is dragging her through.

Like Hilary Clinton, who has Venus in Scorpio square to Pluto, she may put up with any amount of this if Wayne Rooney (who has Pluto and Uranus coming up to hard aspect his Venus) does not leave her. Pluto/Scorpio is concerned with what is real rather than what is nice, and maybe some people with this aspect can put up with all sorts because there is also something real that keeps them there. Or they are too in love with the power that comes from being with this person. Or both. In the case of Hilary Clinton, it seems like both.

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Astrologically, Wayne Rooney’s connection with fame is through the square from Neptune to his Mars, which is appropriate for a sportsman. He has been with Manchester United since he was 19, and he has been with his wife since he was 17 (they married 2 years ago.) You can see why he is kicking against both his marriage and his club. He is talented and ambitious and needs to find his independence as an adult. This is psychologically necessary for him, and it is often a messy process.

It was the same with his famous predecessor David Beckham (who like Rooney has natal Mars square Neptune.) Prior to leaving, both developed a difficult relationship with their legendary club manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Ferguson once threw a boot at Beckham in the dressing room, leaving a cut on his forehead that required stitches. Now Ferguson is saying about Rooney that he cannot understand why he should want to leave after all they have done for him. That, of course, is precisely the point when you are a young male looking for independence. This is what Ferguson doesn’t seem to get.

Ferguson has an unaspected Sun-Mercury in Capricorn, and probably an unaspected Mars in Aries. Capricorn and Aries are both very male signs, and the Sun and Mars are the 2 masculine personal planets. So you can see the drive and leadership, but you can also see the unalloyed dominance that young men feel the need to get away from. Paradoxically, men like this can force you to grow up in ways that more understanding father-figures might not.

The 2 planets associated with father/authority are the Sun and Saturn. When Beckham left Manchester United in 2003, his Saturn Return was just starting, and Neptune was squaring his Sun. With Rooney, the bust-up is occurring earlier, and the astrology is not quite so obvious. But he does have natal Sun conjunct Pluto in Scorpio, as well as Pluto conjunct the South Node in Scorpio. So his personal power is all important to him. Either he claims it, or he will never become himself. This is true of everybody, but it is a particularly central theme for Rooney. Pluto is finishing a transiting sextile to his Sun-Pluto, and Neptune will soon start to trine it. So the transition isn’t as hard as it might be, despite the war of words in the press. As for his Saturn, Neptune is about to finish squaring it.

Both the Pluto and Neptune transits have been going on for a couple of years, so this move by Rooney (which hasn’t yet been officially announced) has been brewing for a while, it is the end of a process.

With natal Sun-Pluto in Scorpio, and its need for personal power and integrity, one can see why the breakaway process has been occurring at a younger age for Rooney than it did for Beckham. And in both cases we see major transits to both the Sun and Saturn, the planets of father and personal authority.

STOP PRESS: STRAIGHT AFTER I HAD WRITTEN THIS, ROONEY SHOCKED EVERYONE BY DOING A U-TURN AND SIGNING A 5 YEAR CONTRACT WITH MAN UTD. I THINK THIS MAY BE A DESPERATE MOVE ON HIS PART, COMMITTING HIMSELF TO TRY AND FORCE CLARITY ON A SITUATION WHICH IS NO LONGER CLEAR FOR HIM. LIKE STAYING IN HIS MARRIAGE. On the other hand, maybe he has now stood up to Ferguson enough to feel that he is his own man? I reckon, though, that this is not the end of the story.