I know nothing about football (or soccer as we ignorant Americans call it!) and I knew even less about David Beckham until I watched the Netflix series about him. I AM fascinated by what drives people towards his level of success and the astrological indicators that reveal so much about the personality.
David Beckham was exceptionally skillful on the field, but his good looks and charismatic personality has made him extremely marketable. His marriage to Victoria, a former Spice Girl, certainly didn’t detract from his celebrity status. According to the Netflix series though, that celebrity status may have detracted from his ability to fully support the teams on which he played and kept him from becoming a truly great player.
Beckham was born with the Sun in Taurus, and we have a verifiable time of birth that comes from a biography by Beckham’s father which gives us more details with which to work. Not only does Beckham have the Sun in Taurus, but Taurus is rising as well which makes him a “double Taurus.” AND Mercury is also in Taurus, so there is a strong Taurean influence here which bestows a tremendous force of will (some would say stubborn…) and an ability to persevere through hardship and adversity.
Mercury (mind and intellect) is in Taurus, and conjoins the Taurus ascendant which suggests that learning and diving into new experiences is a fundamental part of his nature. This already sets up a dichotomy in the personality: Where Taurus doesn’t enjoy change and prefers comfort to excitement, Mercury is always changing and bringing in new ideas and different ways of thinking. This sets up a theme in the chart of security (Taurus) vs stimulation (Mercury) where a part of us craves a stable home base and peaceful existence (Taurus) and another part of us is easily bored with a thirst for trying something new.
Beckham’s Moon is in the very last minutes of Capricorn (29°51′) and here’s where it’s helpful to have a birth time. This last degree of a sign, also called the “critical” or “anaretic” degree, can begin to bleed into the next sign (in this case Aquarius) or it can burst open like a flower on its final day of blossoming. Capricorn is the sign of success and achievement, and in this case it conjoins the Capricorn midheaven which is a significator of a strong drive for worldly success. The Moon is in a (wide and out of sign) trine to Pluto which further intensifies this drive for fame and power in his chosen vocation.
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We can see Beckham’s rebellious streak in a very tight challenging square (90° aspect) from Uranus, planet of radical change from the status quo, to his Moon – an extremely powerful aspect. This theme of individual expression (Uranus) vs the steadfastness that leads to success (Capricorn Moon and midheaven) is an echo of the Taurus/Mercury theme described above and is a reflection of the dramatic events in Beckham’s life revealed in the Netflix series.
Chiron, the planet of wounding and healing, also forms a tight square aspect to Beckham’s Moon which reveals a soul that is emotionally sensitive and easily hurt. In Aries, Chiron tends to show a wound to our ability to assert ourselves and define our own identity (we know that Beckham was strongly influenced by his father who appears to be rather ruthless in pushing his son towards football success).
We see another dichotomy where Jupiter (confidence and optimism) is in the assertive sign of Aries which helps to propel an individual past emotional blocks to achieve the desired end, and Mars (action and drive) is in the soulful watery sign of Pisces where it is often unable to find the fire to get there.¹ Accentuating this even more is the fact that Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces and a watery influence of imagination and illusion, is in a challenging square aspect to Mars – a double whammy that pours water (Neptune/Pisces) on the fire of Mars. This can lead to passive aggressive behaviors, especially when combined by the Uranian influence described above which can be reckless and impulsive.
Venus rules the ascendant and Sun which makes it an important factor in the chart, revealing a strong sense of aesthetics and need for attachment and connection. Yet Venus is in Gemini and is in square aspect to Mars. This brings up another theme in the chart: The masculine and feminine are at war here and not well integrated. An article in CNN called him “The First Metrosexual” – a new breed of man that used skin care products and incorporated more feminine clothes into his wardrobe. I found another article which described him as representing “flexible masculinity.”
These psychological conflicts as represented in the chart (comfort vs excitement, masculine vs feminine) tend to be resolved as we age into our personality and begin to integrate the differences we carry within our own psyche. Beckham has admitted to suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and I am not qualified to diagnose him from the chart but often it is these inner conflicts which drive us into behaviors to try to control our environment where it can be controlled.
Beckham is a fascinating personality and a fun person to profile with all of these prisms and facets to his character!
¹Here is an example of where astrological “rules” of delineation don’t always work. Mutual reception occurs where two planets are in the ruling sign of each other. In this case Jupiter is in Aries, ruled by Mars, and Mars is in Pisces, ruled by Jupiter. This is supposed to help the two planets work well together but in this case Pisces weakens the ability of Mars to act on the heightened drive of Jupiter in Mars’s sign of Aries.
Fascinating Lynn, I too watched the Netflix show. What do you attribute his over the top reaction to him by the general public? Transits? I mean, to receive death threats and kidnapping letters over a “football game” seems very over the top to me. He couldn’t go anywhere for awhile. I would not want that life! No amount of fame is worth that.