Manuel Almunia’s birth chart

A Taurus Sun finds purpose in building something that lasts, and Manuel Almunia's vitality probably runs slow and steady rather than in bursts. The drawback is a reluctance to change course even when the plan is clearly not working. People with this Sun can stay in one job or one home long after part of them knows it is time to move.

The Moon in Gemini runs its daily habits on conversation and mental stimulation, and Manuel is likely to settle by talking a worry through rather than sitting with it quietly. A day with no one to talk to can leave them restless. The habit is to message a friend the moment something comes to mind, before deciding what to think about it.

With Mercury in Taurus, Manuel is likely to think slowly and thoroughly, and a conclusion once reached is rarely revisited without good reason. The communication style is plain and practical rather than showy. A new idea that clashes with what they already believe may have to wait a while for a hearing.

Venus in Aries loves with immediacy and pursues what it wants without much hesitation, and it values a partner who can keep up. For Manuel that suggests an interest that can fade once the chase is over. The pattern is to fall fast and to need a relationship to keep feeling like a choice, not a routine.

For Manuel, Mars in Aries points to acting immediately and decisively, with anger that tends to flare fast, hot and honest before it clears. The downside is acting before a situation has been thought all the way through. The argument or the project tends to start the second the impulse arrives, with little patience for waiting.

Jupiter in Gemini grows through learning and exposure to as many ideas as can be gathered, and its optimism is contagious in conversation. Manuel may overreach by knowing a little about everything and claiming more certainty than the depth supports. This is someone who can be the best-read person in the room on subjects they have never studied closely.

Saturn in Leo builds discipline around self-expression, and in Manuel's chart this placement often starts with a fear of being laughed at or overlooked. The doubt tends to show as playing down achievements before anyone else can. The confidence this placement builds is hard-won and unshowy, and it tends to arrive once the waiting for permission stops.

Much of Manuel's age group has Uranus in Scorpio. It changes attitudes to power, secrecy and what is held in common, often while living through upheavals in institutions once considered permanent. In an individual it tends to be a low tolerance for hidden agendas.

Neptune in Sagittarius is the dream of a generation: grand systems of belief and utopian journeys. What belongs to Manuel in it may be a hopeful conviction that the right philosophy will resolve a practical problem.

Pluto in Libra is the signature of the generation Manuel belongs to, because Pluto moves so slowly. That generation transforms ideas of partnership, fairness and what people owe one another. Personally it can be an intense need for relationships to be fundamentally fair.