Until I lived in a Roman Catholic country, I had no idea what a name day was, and why and when you celebrated it. As I soon discovered, the name day is the feast day of the saint after which you are named. This means that you won’t have a name day if you’re not named after a saint. To illustrate how this works, if your name is John, you’re probably named after John the Evangelist, whose feast day is December 27 in France and Italy. I know a lot of people are called John, but perhaps you’ll have a special connection with St. John, and you’ll aspire to some of his qualities. If on the other hand you’re called Dominic, then your name day will be August 8 in France and Italy, August 4 in Poland and Slovakia.
I am sure that people called Dominic have all kinds of personalities. However when you name a child after a saint, you have to consider the possibility that you’re making a link with the saint’s personality and reputation. St. Dominic was born on August 8 1170, and he is associated with the foundation of the Dominican Order. He was also a religous zealot, who spent a lot of time in Southern France trying to return the Cathars to the true faith. While not personally involved with the Inquisition, in the decades following his death the Dominican Order became closely associated with it.
The Dominic I want to talk about is Dominic Cummings. He is probably the second most powerful person in the United Kingdom, after Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister. He has a clear idea about how Britain should be run – or at least how Britain should not be run – and he was one of the brains behind the success of Brexit in the June 2016 referendum. However he is not a Member of Parliament, instead he is Chief Special Adviser to the Prime Minister. His enemies see him as a malevolent, Rasputinesque power, lurking behind Boris’ throne. His supporters seem him as a brilliant if iconoclastic reformer, perhaps in the mould of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chief minister. Dominic Cummings, like St. Dominic, is on a mission. Not to root out the Cathar heretics, but to clear out “the Blob”, which is his name for those in the British government, civil service and establishment who are resisting change.
In terms of appearance Dominic Cummings has a monkish demeanour. His receeding hairline is tonsorlike, and the way he dresses marks him as being very different from the politicians, civil servants and special advisors he orders around. He doesn’t care about the ornaments and baubles of the material world, and not for him are suits, ties and tidiness. Intellectually, he’s above all that.
Which brings me to Dominic Cummings’ horoscope. He was born on November 25, in Durham, in the United Kingdom. As I can’t find his birth time, I am going for the middday chart:
The first thing to notice about the horoscope is that there are four traditional plans in Sagittarius, which is a Fire sign. And there are no planets in Earth signs. From a Jungian perspective, the Fire signs are about intuition. It is about being connected to the divine fire, about knowing something without needing to think about it.
In terms of how Dominic Cummings thinks, it is possible that Dominic Cummings has no Air in his chart – this would be the case if he was born after Noon, when the Moon was in Pisces. Before noon, the Moon was in Aquarius, an Air sign. Air is the thinking element, and when you have a highly intelligent person with little or no Air, you’re dealing with someone who has intellectual focus. They don’t mess around with things that are unimportant, and they know for sure that they have all the answers. Another example of a Sagittarian with no planets in Air is French President Emmanuel Macron. Like Cummings he is very intelligent, like Cummings he knows that he’s right.
When I say that Dominic Cummings and Emmanuel Macron know that they are right, I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. Most people who know they are right are wrong, but in their case we should consider the possibility that they really are right.
Another thing worth noting about Dominic Cummings’ horoscope is that he has no planets in Earth signs. A lack of Earth signs can manifest in many ways. In Donald Trump’s case, it is an unnatural obsession with the material world. In the case of Dominic Cummings, I suspect it is reflected in his appearance. He doesn’t seem to care what he looks like – perhaps because there are more important things to be worried about. It also hints at a monastic asceticism. This is further supported by the fact that his Sun in Sagittarius is opposition his Saturn in Gemini. Sun-Saturn aspects can make people ascetic, and also harsh. Stalin, for example, had his Sun in Sagittarius square Saturn in Pisces.
Nonetheless, Dominic Cummings is a visionary. His Sun is not just opposition Saturn, but also conjunction Neptune. People with Sun-Neptune conjunctions tend to be dreamers, and if they are not careful they can get fantasy and reality mixed up. Reinhold Ebertin described the conjunction as “Frailness, impressionability, a person subject to moods”. Maybe Cummings is impressionable, if an idea comes his way that he finds instantly appealing. And maybe he’s moody – I don’t know. It’s also possible that Cummings is more physically sensitive than he realizes. Chemicals, fumes and pollution could upset his equalibrium, and maybe, with his lack of Earth, he won’t pay enough attention to his health.
Another important aspect in Cummings’ horoscope is a conjunction betweeen Mercury and Venus, in Sagittarius. This makes him an excellent communicator, someone who has real talents when it comes to spinning words. He has a blog, which makes frequent references to scientific papers, and his communication skills must be excellent if he can sell his ideas to the people running his country. It should also be noted that Mercury and Venus are making a 45 degree aspect to the Sun-Uranus midpoint. The Sun-Uranus pairing relates to revolution and change, and Ebertin gives “reformer” as one of its sociological correspondences. We then get the picture of someone communicating creatively about dramatic reforms.
I do understand that what I say about Dominic Cummings is problematic. I don’t have a birth time, and plenty of other people were born on November 25 1971 who have very different destinies. An American actress called Christina Applegate, a Turkish singer called Göksel, and a former NHL Swedish ice hockey player. I suppose there are interaction effects that create the differences between these people – genes, the environment and perhaps the saint you’re named after. If the ice hockey player had been called Dominic rather than Magnus, maybe he’d now be a special adviser to the Swedish Prime Minister.
Really enjoyed reading this delineation. And OMG what an interesting chart.