“Kim” Philby (January 1, 1912 – May 11, 1988)

Is it worthwhile even looking at this individual? From an astrological perspective, undoubtedly.

The original collector of Philby’s birth details used a time (2:30 pm) which has an unknown source. That makes this birth chart suspicious, but the resulting Yods are significant: one pointing at Mercury, the other at Pluto. Hmm. Tricky.

Moon Inconjunct Mercury

It may be hard for you to put your feelings into words, because your emotions are so different from your intellect. Of course, there is nothing really strange about your feelings, but that part of your minds is quite different from the reasoning part. In fact it would be very unfortunate if you decided to listen only to your reason, because your intuition and imagination, both of which are more related to the Moon, can be of great assistance to you. They can tell you much about the world that your reasoning mind cannot.

Planets in Youth (page 116) by Robert Hand (1977)

Mercury Inconjunct Mars

You often find it difficult to separate yourself from what you believe. You fight very hard for your ideas, even when you suspect you are wrong. You must learn that you are not your ideas, that you have them but are not them. If you do not learn this, it will be difficult even to have a friendly talk with friends, because you are always trying to make a point, defend your opinion or prove somebody else wrong. This also makes you irritable and touchy, so that others prefer not to be around you. Of course, you should not give in about something you seriously believe in, but it is unlikely that you would make that mistake.

Ibid (page 158)

Mercury Inconjunct Neptune

The challenge of this aspect is to make your thinking and communication with others more clear. Your rational mind is strongly influenced by your sensitivity, imagination and ideals, although you aren’t always sure how this happens. You tend to spend too much time in your own imaginary world that no one else can share, and this confuses your dealings with others. You will have to learn to face reality, so that you can at least communicate with people. Otherwise you will have a very lonely life.

Ibis (page 169)

Mercury Inconjunct Ascendant

You are likely to have some problems, but not serious ones, in communicating with others. The problem is that people’s first impression of you may not fit in with what you say or your manner of thinking and speaking. People tend to hear what they expect to hear, and they may not listen to you as carefully as they should. So you will have to be as clear as possible and insist that others listen to what you are really saying. If others do not understand you, it is up to you to set them straight.

Ibid (page 175)

Venus Inconjunct Pluto

This aspect may mean that you are very possessive and demanding of your loved ones. You may not want to accept the fact that your friends can love other people besides yourself. Let your friends be themselves freely when they are with you, and try not to be too demanding of their time. Love for friends and relatives should be given freely, not used as a way to control them. If you do that, you will lose their love.

Ibid (page 206)

Uranus Inconjunct Pluto (1892-1894 and 1911-1912)

This aspect indicates changes in the world of the people who were born at these times, changes that were difficult to understand because they were very revolutionary but subtle in many ways. The people born during the first period experienced the consequences of these changes through having to fight in the First World War. The second group reached maturity at the time of the Great Depression. Both the First World War and the Depression were expressions of the breakdown of the nineteenth-century world order that was dominated by Western Europe.

Ibid (pages 319-320)

It is worth noting that John le Carré based the character of Bill Haydon from the book “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” on Philby.

Bill Haydon, with his easy charm and strong social connections, bears a close resemblance to real-life double agent Kim Philby whose defection to the USSR in 1963, and the consequent compromising of British agents, was a factor in the 1964 termination of Le Carré’s own career in the SIS. Philby, along with Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross, was part of a group of Soviet moles in Britain which later came to be known as the Cambridge Five. While in an earlier draft of the novel, there were reportedly greater similarities to Anthony Blunt, the final character is closely aligned with Philby.

Wikipedia

Hmm.