Bill and Melinda Gates Break Up

When an astrologer hears about a marriage coming to an end, we have to wonder, “What kind of breakup is it?” Was it a Saturn breakup where one party recognized that the other has become a drag on their ambition? Or was it a Uranus breakup, fraught with drama and rebellion?. Or could it be a Neptune split, gradual, indefinite and likely to be regretted in the long term? However, as difficult as these breakups can be, they are not nearly and traumatic or complete as a Pluto breakup.

In a Pluto breakup one party, or perhaps both, comes to the conclusion that their marriage has transformed into something that they can no longer live with. That transformation might have been sudden, but it’s more likely to have been slow and incremental, so slow that neither party saw it coming until it had already grown into an insurmountable obstacle. The problem with a Pluto breakup is that there’s really no one or no particular incident to blame. It just happens, and in many cases both parties feel guilty about it.

The breakup of Bill and Melinda Gates’ 27 year marriage was announced yesterday. We don’t have a birth time for Melinda Gates but we do for Bill, and his chart (click on Bill Gates to see the horoscope) reveals that transiting Pluto (at 26Capricorn48) is conjunct his Descendant. Since the Descendant is also the cusp of the Seventh House of partnership, this seems to mark the end of his marriage as a Pluto breakup.

The couple’s announcement of their pending divorce seems to indicate their separation was amicable. Of course, since Bill Gates is a Scorpio by Sun sign and Melinda probably has the Moon in Scorpio, a sign noted for guarding its privacy, we are not likely to learn real reasons for their split for a long time, if ever.

Privacy is also a typical feature of a Pluto breakup. Even when the people involved are willing to talk about it, they seldom tell the same story twice. That’s because it’s hard to explain how a marriage the seemed to be working quite well at one time could be transformed into something else. It’s often better to just make up excuses and tell people what they want to hear. The truth of a Pluto breakup is just too complex and too loaded with small but fateful decisions to be completely understood, even by the people who are going through it.