Elon Musk - Piecing Together the World's Richest Man

By Alison Boulton

© Alison Boulton - published by Stellar / The Astrological Journal, 2025 / The Astrological Association of Great Britain / 07.04.2025

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A father of 13 with four different partners, owner of X, SpaceX, Tesla etc., and now in a powerful bromance with President Trump, this Cancer with Moon in analytical Virgo is a puzzle...

‘Moody’ and ‘unpredictable’ are adjectives that come up frequently in online descriptions of Elon Musk. ‘Business genius, ‘micro manager’ and ‘disruptor’ are also common. Employees are routinely warned to tread very carefully in his presence, and it has been reported (Sunday Times 12/1/25) that wearing patterned clothing, suede shoes or a fragrance can send Musk into a rage.

He is the richest man in the world. Who is this puzzle of a man? How do we piece him together? He is a Cancer Sun and Ascendant. Cancer, ruled by the Moon, is changeable and cautious. It is a sensitive, imaginative, self-protective and often moody sign which tends to move crabwise towards its goals. It has a basic need for security.

Mercury rising in the 1st house is separated from the Ascendant by just 32′ of arc, lending a vivid imagination and a certain lunar unpredictability to Musk’s thinking process. He approaches things by feeling his way into them.

Musk’s Sun and Ascendant are ruled by his Moon in Virgo, which is intensely practical and micro-managing – a reported Musk trait. This Moon is critical, self-critical and again, sensitive. The methodical sextile between the luminaries gives Musk an inner stability, however.

Mercury is the planet of merchants so with this ‘trickster’ tied to the Ascendant, Musk will be inclined to step into the world with his business hat on. Planets in Cancer are wired to preserve and so tend to be good with money, especially when backed by an earthy Moon.

Cancer Sun lurks in the 12th house of retreat and the collective unconscious.

Planets in the 12th are hidden from the world and yet are attuned to every vibration in the universe. This watery Sun picks up every nuance everywhere and will need to retire to its shell regularly just to survive. Note that Cancer is not a passive sign but cardinal. Musk was born to initiate.

Virgo Moon – key to understanding Musk – nestles in the 2nd house of values and resources, along with - though not close to - the South Node in attention-loving Leo. Musk was born into a wealthy South African family. His mother’s parents were famous adventurers who flew around the world in a prop plane and explored the Kalahari Desert. This fits well with the glamour and self-importance of the Leo South Node.

The Moon sits at the apex of a t-square with Saturn and Neptune. As a description of the mother-archetype in Musk’s life, this is not a cuddly combination. Virgo alone can be a tough taskmaster while the addition of a square to Saturn in Gemini is chilly and discouraging. Neptune on the other arm of the triangle, retrograde in Sagittarius, is elusive and difficult to pin down.

The 10th house and its ruler, where clues about the mother may also reside, is ruled by Mars in Aquarius, a detached, cerebral and idealistic signature. Aquarius Mars lacks warmth, but it does suggest independence, originality and a sense of adventure. These characteristics are probably found in both Musk and Maye, his coolish mother, perhaps inherited from her explorer parents.

Also in the 10th house, exactly square Mercury and the Ascendant, we find Chiron, the wounded centaur who, in myth, exchanged his immortality for the freedom of Prometheus. Chiron was a healer, teacher and mentor who was unable to heal his own terrible wound.

We all have Chiron in our birth charts. It symbolises a place where we may feel wounded and where our energies do not operate freely. It is acutely sensitive, as all wounds are, and can also be linked to jealousy and/or a lack of confidence.

Chiron in Aries in Musk’s chart

This suggests a wound to the image of the warrior within, to go directly and bravely towards his goals. In the 10th house it may be linked to the image of the mother who, perhaps due to the chemistry between them, may have somehow debilitated his warrior confidence.

Chiron is the most elevated planet in Elon Musk’s birth chart and the one that he inadvertently displays to the world. Chiron shows us our humanity. So, we begin to build a picture of a man who is desperately sensitive, who needs to get things right and who may be eternally trying to compensate for being human.

Mars in Musk’s birth chart is placed in the 8th house beside the North Node of destiny ruled jointly by Gemini Saturn and Uranus in the 3rd house of communication and travel. Saturn opposes Neptune and Jupiter, and is square Moon, giving a sense of limitlessness and expansion (Jupiter/Neptune) and the challenging need to control it (Saturn/Moon).

Mars is about energy and Aquarius/Uranus are about innovation. Saturn wants to give these shape and form. These signatures tie into Musk’s innovative and ambitious space and transport programs. And, as always, they are linked to business  Mercury rules the 3rd house and squares Uranus and Chiron. So, it makes sense that despite his challenges socially, Musk is lauded as a business genius, and a person with extreme views and astonishing ambition. The theme of conquering space is echoed by Mars dispositing Chiron, the planet that crosses frontiers.

The lack of Fire

Another key factor in Musk’s chart is the lack of (inner) planets in Fire. Fire grants us confidence, intuition, optimism and faith. The Fire in our charts is where we feel the divine most powerfully. In her book Mapping the Psyche II, Master Astrologer Clare Martin tells us that “It is no accident that many famous people are lacking in fire because there can be a tremendous drive for recognition by the outside world...”. She goes on to explain that the absence of fire in a chart can lead to risk-taking and an obsessive search for adventure. It can push people to super-human achievements as they search for faith, meaning, inner confidence and self-belief in the outside world. In Musk’s birth chart, all this is compounded by Chiron in Aries – the wound in the realm of Fire.

Interestingly, Musk’s Sun in the boundary-less 12th makes an exact sesquiquadrate to Mars which may describe not only his obsession with Mars the planet, but also his determination to show his elusive father (Sun) what he is truly made of (Mars).

And what of his own large family?

Musk is known to be an advocate of ‘pronatalism’ which promotes the reproduction of human life. In line with this belief, he has fathered 12 children. We can see this in boundless Neptune in Sagittarius beside Jupiter, planet of growth, both in the 5th house of self-expression and children.

How does Musk navigate his close relationships? Capricorn on the Descendant makes Saturn in Gemini ruler of this area of life and brings the lunar t-square into play. Capricorn suggests that Musk takes his responsibilities seriously, though Saturn in Gemini indicates he may be hard to get close to on an emotional level. Jupiter in Scorpio in 5th house of love affairs indicates deep, unswerving commitment but ruler Mars in Aquarius suggests this may be commitment to an ideal rather than a person. Venus in friendly but somewhat capricious Gemini indicates that staying power in relationships may not be his strong point, after all. Perhaps, following difficult childhood experiences, Musk doesn’t care to let anyone into that Cancer shell.

Musk’s beliefs in deregulation and free speech are well known. Saturn in Gemini in 11th house of society suggests antipathy around any kind of restriction on communication and this is balanced by the corresponding ideal of freedom from limitation and the dream of self-expression (Neptune in Sagittarius). The opposition is squared by the Moon in Virgo’s instinct to manage and control. No surprise then that he bought Twitter (now X) so he could literally own the narrative.

With his Cancer Sun and Ascendant, Musk is intrinsically lunar and as changeable as the Moon. We cannot expect to ever know him fully. Moon people can be effervescent and friendly, or you can knock on the door and find they have retreated into their shell. Musk seems to have retreated into that shell many decades ago and seems unlikely ever to re-emerge.

So, what about Musk and Trump?

The airy Sun/Moon trine in Musk’s composite (relationship) chart with Donald Trump suggests a meeting of minds, and Saturn close to the Sun suggests it might actually last. However, Uranus in the 1st house gives the relationship a certain unpredictability  which is hardly surprising given the characters involved. Pluto in the 1st house making sextiles to the Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Neptune adds depth and describes the power Musk and Trump wield as a duo.

Currently, and for some years to come, Musk has Pluto slowly and steadily working its way through his 7th house of relationships, suggesting this is an area of ongoing transformation and growth. Seventh-house ruler Saturn in Gemini receives Uranus twice this year with the third and final transit occurring in May 2026. This also implies radical change in his personal relationships and, in the 11th house, in his relationship with society. Saturn’s and Uranus’ co-rulership of the 8th house suggest perhaps some kind of deregulation enabling his space program to move forward. It’s worth noting that the 7th is also the house of open enemies so things could dramatically change.

Saturn and Neptune moving into Aries in Musk’s 9th house indicate finding meaning through the concretisation of dreams and long-distance travel again. Again, we could infer this to mean that the space project may continue to be successful and, with a focus on Uranus, ground-breaking.

Musk’s 2025 Solar Return

This has the Sun working tightly with Mars, planet of goals and driving energy. Planets in the 8th and 12th houses suggest Musk may be operating from behind the scenes and inspired by the zeitgeist, with his fingers as usual in many pies.

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Images

• Elon Musk, 2022 - Source: Justin Pacheco, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
• Horoscope Charts - Source: Astrodatabank

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Author: Alison Boulton

Alison Boulton MA, D.F.Astrol.S. is a professional astrologer and writer. Her own astrology journey began in the 1980s after an intense consultation with Liz Greene. Inspired, she began reading Dr Greene’s work which led her to Jung and to psychological astrology which she has explored extensively. She holds the Advanced Diploma from the Faculty of Astrological Studies, contributes regular articles to The Astrological Journal and has been published on Astrodienst. Alison is based in the southern French countryside beneath a canopy of stars where she has a busy consultancy practice. Find her on YouTube, instagram and through her website.
Website: alisonsastrology.net
Instragram: Instagram.com/alisonastrologer