Bill Gates' Dominant Learning Triangle

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and one of the richest men in the world, was born on 28.10.1955 in Seattle WA, USA, at 21.15. Now known for his philanthropy as well as his connection with IT, Gates' chart provides some interesting insights into what he might draw upon to support his entrepreneurial drives and motivation.

The image his chart offers reminds me of an axe head splitting apart two sections of wood; it comes down firmly with the Scorpio Sun at the sharp cutting point. Gates' Sun is one of the three pinning planets in the Dominant Learning triangle which fills a large area of the chart structure. The rest of the aspects are disconnected and linear, suggesting an underlying restlessness and the ability to think and act decisively and outside the box.

The Dominant Learning triangle is direct - that is, the colour sequence, beginning at the red/blue corner, and moving in an anti-clockwise direction, is red-green-blue. (The shadow triangle you can see behind this one is a retrograde one). Dominant Learning triangles make individuals who have them in their chart lifelong learners. Each journey around the triangle presents new opportunities for deepening understanding and acquiring new perspectives and abilities, depending on what the pinning planets are. In Gates' chart these are his Scorpio Sun in the 4th house, intercepted Moon in Aries at the top of the chart in 10th house and Low Point Uranus in the 1st house. On initial inspection, perhaps not a particularly promising line up by placement for an entrepreneur.

In the Dominant Learning triangle, the activity and the learning process begin with the planet at the red/blue corner - in Gates' chart this is Uranus on the Low Point (LP) in the 1st house. Low Point planets are often not easily expressed in the outside world, mainly because the person has not found a method of successfully expressing them in a way that others can accept or comprehend. A Low Point planet has to be worked on and developed. Although it may not initially be a wow out in the world, it is an invaluable inner resource. Uranus on the 1st house LP could be a source of inspiration, ideas, leaps of insight, sudden "ah-ha!" experiences and a tool to help lateral thinking. It's also the planet associated with innovative technology.

So....Gates' process with this aspect pattern could be (and here I can only speculate and hypothesise, but that's part of the fun!) the sudden bright and innovative idea that comes from Uranus. This demands some action, so the red "doing" aspect between Uranus and Sun is activated, and his mind, will, ability to choose and make decisions in brought into play. Being a Scorpio Sun, these qualities are never shallow or superficial and there may be a touch of shrewed strategy involved at this stage of the process. Action has been initiated, but then searching, questing, mutable qualities become involved as the learning process travels along the green aspect to the Moon to test out the feel of the whole thing.

Gates' Moon is intercepted - it's trapped in Aries, a sign with no house cusps -and has no way out into the world - so it's difficult for him to gauge at this stage how his innovative idea might be received by the environment, which might not want what LP Uranus has to offer anyway! At this point, Moon could be drawing heavily on the Sun - his mind, his creativity and the sense of self he gains through this planet, because it's the only one in this aspect pattern which has the clearest route for expression in the environment. This could be where the entrepreneurship kicks in.

Once this stage has been passed through, it's a matter of completing the third and final side of this pattern via the connection between Moon and Uranus. The blue aspect denotes a sense of achievement and the coming into being of the original idea, but there is a slight hesitancy and possible doubt here shown by the one-way (dotted) aspect between these two planets. The learning and the process involved may end with another question mark; the entrepreneur will start the whole process off again, maybe in a completely new way.

Gates' Sun conjunct Neptune which links to Jupiter/Pluto for me suggests his philanthropy. His unaspected Venus/Saturn present further interesting paths of exploration - but not here and not now. I will look at unaspected planets in a future post.

To learn about aspect patterns (there are over 40 if them!) see "Aspect Pattern Astrology" by Bruno and Louise Huber, "The Cosmic Egg Timer" by myself and Richard Llewellyn and my books "Aspect Patterns in Colour" and "The Living Birth Chart" All are available at the On-Line Book Shop at the Astrological Psychology Association web site.