In Michael Richards’ horoscope (July 24 1949 4.43 am PDT Culver City, CA) Mercury rises opposite Jupiter, an excellent combination for success through communication. His Sun is close to the ascendant suggesting someone who is confident being in the spotlight. Venus in the second can give wealth but its conjunction there with Saturn is our first clue about what went wrong. The second house rules speech and Saturn’s presence there is detrimental, especially since Saturn rules the 8th house of embarrassment and scandal. Richards’ Gemini Moon rounds out the picture of a person who is born to share his ideas, although it’s 12th house placement might mean that there are secrets and emotional vulnerabilities that Richards’ keeps from public view. Mars (anger) and Uranus (sudden) are in close conjunction also in the 12th house, a possible sign that his anger will erupt out of nowhere. The Moon’s connection with this anger signature in the 12th makes this a more deeply ingrained part of his personality. Nonetheless, it’s not in a kendra(angular) house, so it’s kept from view most of the time.

The incident took place on Friday, November 17 and became public knowledge through the airing of cell phone video over that weekend. In order to address the growing furor, Richards went on national television on Monday, November 20. At that time, Richards was running Venus-Venus dasha, which had just started at the end of September according to Krishnamurti ayanamsha. As we’ve already seen, his Venus periods would contain some difficulties for him owing to Venus’ conjunction with the doubly-malefic Saturn. In addition, Venus is almost exactly semisquare (45 degrees) Neptune. This introduces problems of illusion and inaccurate perceptions. (Richards’ is divorced). Neptune’s effect on Venus is made a little worse because it conjoins Ketu, a planet of detachment and distortion.

Natal plus Transits 11/17/06The central transit influence was Saturn (0 Leo 56) which was just three degrees short of maha- and antardasha lord Venus. Even more crucially, Saturn was approaching its station in two weeks and moving very slowly. Since the rule is the slower the planet, the stronger the influence, that Saturn (which is his 8th lord natally after all) was forcing his natal Venus to act out its very worst side. We can also see that Neptune had just stationed a few weeks earlier forming a close sesquiquadrate (135 degrees) aspect with his natal Mars with just one degree of orb. The Neptune influence on Mars can produce inappropriate expressions of Mars’ more aggressive energy as a result of misperceptions.

An interesting influence on the event is the role of the Jupiter trine aspect to natal Mercury and the ascendant. The transiting Sun joined Jupiter in early Scorpio that weekend, so on the face of it, one might have thought is would have signalled a favourable event. In retrospect, we can see it may have only explained the exposure he enjoyed (for the wrong reasons) at that time. Richards’ career had been going poorly in recent years, so any appearance on national television would have to show up somehow in the chart. That it would manifest in htis negative event can be seen by the weight of the two malefic influences on Venus and Mars, and by an extremely difficult minor progressed chart (not shown). In this chart, Venus conjoined Neptune and the progressed ascendant all square progressed Ketu and Uranus. This is indicative of a mistake in judgement that ends badly and suddenly.

In the aftermath of the affair, Richards attempted to reach out to the African-American community to ask for forgivenness. He has also said he is receiving conselling in anger management. For the most part, these overtures have been successful in rehabilitating his public image. Sales of the most recent release of Seinfeld DVD are higher than ever, prompting some more conspiratorially-minded commentators to wonder if it was all staged to boost visibility for the show and enhance sales. Our reading of his chart shows this is not the case, as the effect of Saturn and Neptune’s transits tormented his natal planets.

As long as the Venus period rules his chart, it is unlikely that Michael Richards will escape the scent of scandal. Saturn will be in the neighbourhood of his natal Venus off and on for the next two years. After that time, there will be some substantial improvement. The Venus-Sun period that starts in 2010 looks much more favourable for him. Let’s hope he waits that long before participating in any Seinfeld reunions.