Leo x 2 - Rhett Butler and Darius Danesh

It's always a pleasant surprise to receive late comments on old blog posts. I got one last week relating to a December post about "Gone With the Wind", and astrological links to the novel's characters.

A commentor let me know that a musical version of "Gone With the Wind" is due to open in London's West End soon, and the person chosen for the part of Rhett Butler is none other than Darius Danesh - a name probably not familiar in the USA - yet. Darius was a contestant in the very first series of UK's "Pop Idol" in 2001(from whence came "American Idol" shortly after). Darius didn't win, he came either third or fourth, I forget which. He did have a very enthusiastic following, including myself. He came in for some ribbing by commentators and journalists because of a remark he made during auditions when trying to motivate fellow-contestants. "There's a lot of love in this room", he said on one occasion, and it stuck! There was always a slightly new agey feel about Darius - a throw-back to the '60s.

Since "Pop Idol", it appears that Darius has made good, with five top ten singles in the UK, and he has played leading roles in stage musicals in London's famous West End - a surprising departure, I'd have thought, but a very successful one it seems.

As mentioned in my December post, the Rhett Butler character is thought to reflect the astrological Leo stereotype. Bingo! - Darius Danesh has natal Sun in Leo!



Darius was born on 19 August 1980 in Glasgow, Scotland. (No birth time known, so I've used a 12 noon chart.)



The first thing I noticed about his natal chart, even before looking at the sign placements, was a beautifully regular integration of the planets in semi-sextile, sextile and trine patterns - following around the chart from Venus to Neptune.

Sun semisextile Saturn, sextile Mars, trine Neptune.
Mercury semisextile Jupiter, sextile Pluto, trine Neptune.
Venus widely semisextile Mercury, sextile Jupiter, widely trine Uranus.

This says, to me, that he is very comfortable within himself, his various talents, music, acting, composing are well integrated and feed off each other. There is a square aspect between his natal Sun and Uranus which will ensure everything doesn't come too easily, and provides him with some dynamic challenge to keep current.

The Moon's degree is uncertain without time of birth, but if Darius were born pre-9am Moon would lie in Scorpio, a later birth time would bring Moon into Sagittarius. It would be interesting to see how the Moon fits into the overall pattern, also, of course the all important ascendant. If anyone reads this and knows Darius's time of birth, I hope they'll comment. I'd guess at Leo or Libra, or maybe even Cancer rising.

His Leo Sun and Mercury shone through his TV performances as I remember them. That very nice Neptune/Mercury trine is going to be helpful for both his songwriting and acting abilities. I can't see anything too negative in this chart, to be honest. His Saturn Return will come up in October 2009, which might send his career in a different direction. Perhaps he'll move on to straight acting, movies, or towards something completely different.

Darius's natal chart, using sidereal zodiac, leaves his Sun in Leo, but Mercury moves to Cancer and Venus to Gemini. The semi-sextile/sextile/trine pattern remains but is not quite so easy to see at first glance. Both versions of the chart could be seen as valid. I noticed a gentleness in him which matches Mercury in Cancer, and his Mercury/Neptune trine moves from Fire to Water with sidereal Neptune in Scorpio -that would fit songwriting and music even better than the Fire trine.So the two zodiacs seem equally valid.....once again.

It'll be very interesting to watch how Darius's career develops. Will he cross the pond to be a hit in the USA, or will he remain a jewel in Britain's crown ?

Here he is singing one of his self-penned hits "Color Blind"