Roger Federer's Detective Aspect Pattern

Editorial comment, January 2018: I wrote this post back in 2007, and the amazing thing is that Federer is still going strong in 2018. He's just won the Australian Open at the age of 36, quite an age for a tennis player to be on top if his game and still be winning on the international circuit.
 
Tennis player Roger Federer strolled out on to Centre Court earlier this month for the Wimbledon Men’s Final wearing white blazer and flannels. Looking cool, and for all the world as if he’d time-travelled from the 1930’s, he went on to win his 5th Wimbledon title in the presence of the legendary Bjorn Borg, himself 5 times Wimbledon Champion. What makes Federer tick, what is his inner motivation, and how might he be using the Detective aspect figure in his chart?

Federer was born on 8.8.1981, at 08.40 local time in Basle, Switzerland. His chart looks like a hammock, a swingboat, or an upright push chair with hood up. His is an “I” sided chart with Neptune the only planet venturing on to the “You” side. Such an “I” sided emphasis suggests someone who is focussed on their own growth and self-understanding. The direction of the aspect structure is vertical, indicating the urge to stand out, make a mark on the world and be recognised as an individual. The colour ratio of aspects is 2 red, 4 green, 5 blue. Federer’s chart lacks red aspects, but this is compensated to some extent by the 3 pairs of conjunct planets, each having potential talent according to the planets involved. With 4 green aspects, Federer is likely to be sensitively attuned to the surrounding environment.

His chart contains a Detective aspect pattern (a quadrilateral figure with red, green and blue aspects, and in Federer's chart pinned by Venus, Moon, Mars and Sun/Mercury). The Hubers say people with this figure “can discover the smallest clue, insignificant information and slight alterations. . .” Someone with this pattern “sticks to a trail, has a wide-awake character that nearly nothing escapes…with this figure in the horoscope, the person can adapt themselves meticulously to things and eliminate disruptive influences”. With his Mercury conjunct Sun very strongly placed on the 12th cusp and at the apex of the Ear/Eye part of the Detective figure, along with his Virgo Ascendant, and the blue Small talent triangle that is also part of this figure, it begins to sound as if these could be some of the things Federer draws upon in competitive tennis: the ability to focus on the game, absorb all relevant and sometimes minute details on an ongoing basis whilst playing, focus in 100% on the game and the goal of winning, and not be distracted by external factors such as the watching crowds.

I mentioned the position of Mars and the Gauquelin Effect in the charts of sportsmen and women in my posting on Venus Williams earlier this month. Federer’s Mars is not only placed in the fourth quadrant of the chart where this effect is said to be at its greatest, but it is also a part of his Detective figure, and in its strongest possible position, on the cusp of a House.

For more on aspect patterns, see the Huber’s book Aspect Pattern Astrology and my book Aspect Patterns in Colour both available from the APA Book Shop.