In medieval astrology, the main planets to be considered for profession are three: Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Mercury signifies merchants, scribes, men of calculation, technique, and craft; Venus signifies artists, musicians, and all occupations that proceed from the pleasure of form and harmony; Mars signifies warriors and occupations of harsh action, cutting, and conflict. Jupiter belongs mainly to the clergy, the law, and moral dignities, and Saturn to agricultural, heavy, or purely necessary labour.
In the chart of Phil Collins, there are in fact two clear candidates. Mercury, because it is angular in Capricorn in the 4th house in the Whole Sign system, and angular planets always have priority in manifestation. Venus, because it is in the 5th house, the she absolutely loves. It is her house of joy, the house of pleasure, creation, symbolic children, and the arts. If we use Alcabitius, Venus also becomes angular, which doubly reinforces its status.
This Venus is strong by being in her house of joy, where its nature finds its proper place, the pleasure of creation and artistic work. Venus is also the ruler of Phil Collins’ incarnation, because the Ascendant is in Libra. Libra is cardinal Air, which gives the native as his primary motivation the wish to express himself, to give form, to move in the field of relationship, proportion, and aesthetics. The cardinal quality of the sign gives him initiative, impulse, and the need to act. This action always seeks its natural outlet in its ruler Venus. And Venus is placed in a very powerful way.
Although she is in Aquarius, where she has no major essential dignities, she answers to Saturn. Saturn is in Libra, exalted, placed on the Ascendant, the most vital house of the chart, the 1st. Even though Saturn is retrograde, he is a very strong planet by exaltation and position. There is mutual reception between Venus and Saturn, in Air signs, one cardinal and one fixed. This reinforces the power of Venus to manifest in the 5th house.
The result is Venusian pleasure and creation submitted to Saturnian discipline, rigour, restraint, and labour. Because Venus is in a fixed Air sign, Venusian creativity works through clear and stable Saturnian structures, through method, form, and the capacity to establish and maintain what is created. Fixed signs are the most stable and the ones that allow things to be firmly set in stone. This gives a strong ability to create forms and to stabilise them. Although Aquarius is a masculine sign, Venus, by being strong, adds a clear feminine and moist quality to the dry Saturnian structure of Aquarius, creating fertile artistic methods. This discipline is also part of the native’s very identity, as Saturn is on the Ascendant.
This explains in a simple and direct way the combination of art and work, of sensitivity and structure, that marks the whole career of Phil Collins. It is Venus that creates, but it is Saturn that gives form, duration, and consistency. Venus also makes an almost exact trine to the degree of the Ascendant that she rules. This creates a direct channel between the native’s identity and his creative function. Art is the very axis of his manifestation in the world.
The Sun is also in the 5th house, in Aquarius, in detriment, and likewise answers to Saturn in Libra. He is about 18 degrees from Venus, moving towards her, but placed in such a way that Venus is still outside of his rays. This is important, because it means that Venus operates in a full and healthy way, without being burned by this Sun. Although debilitated by sign, the Sun himself serves here mainly to reinforce the centrality of the identity of the 5th house, also underlined by the presence of the Part of Fortune there.
There is still another important point. Venus also rules the 8th house, in Taurus. The same Venus that signifies art, music, creation and children also signifies losses, anxieties, fears, separations, death, and debts in a sign that feels everything in the material ream (Taurus). These themes belong to the same root of his work and directly feed his creativity. The matter of many of his songs comes from this territory of loss, turned into form, melody, and song.
The conclusion is simple. The profession, work, and name of Phil Collins belong essentially to a powerful Venus, strongly supported by an also powerful Saturn.
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