When Sean Connery first appeared in the role of James Bond, Agent 007 of Her Majesty’s Secret Service, women around the world found themselves in a martini state of mind, at least stirred if not shaken. From his first appearance in the movie Dr. No, female fans sighed breathlessly, yes, please, we’d like to see more of him. And what was not to like?

In his late teens, Connery had sculpted his 6’2” physique to compete for the Mr. Universe title representing Scotland. And from age 20, he’d applied himself in learning how to act, getting bit parts in London stage productions and low-budget movies until fortune came knocking in the form of the James Bond role. Ironically, it turned into a mixed blessing. Although it catapulted him into public awareness as a sex icon, with his athletic physique, slightly-exotic Scottish accent, and rugged good looks, the James Bond role also doomed him to an era of typecasting that he struggled to escape from.

Indeed, at one point, Connery even declared that he hated James Bond and cursed the day he’d taken on the role. The irony will not be lost on any astrologer who recognizes that a Neechabhanga planet is inevitably a 2-for-1 contrarian proposition, embodying both some sort of misfortune arising from its cloud of debilitation, yet offering as well a silver lining via which the debilitation is ameliorated, defused and/or remediated, although only in part but never in whole.

Neechabhanga does not mean cancellation, but rather implies in Sanskrit some sort of breakthrough or escape from a lowly condition. For a physical analogy, think of a debilitated planet as akin to an atrophied leg that is a product of a congenital birth defect, a wasting disease or a crippling accident. No matter how much physiotherapy the individual undergoes, nor what state-of-the-art prosthetics he deploys, the limb remains essentially compromised, regardless of remedial measures.

Sean Connery’s chart reveals an exemplary case of Neechabhanga. The debilitated planet is Venus in Virgo in his 10th house. The factors in favor of its (partial) remediation are many:

  • • First, Venus occupies a kendra from both the lagna and the Moon.
  • • Second, the dispositor of Venus is Mercury, also in a kendra from the lagna and the Moon. In fact, Mercury performs unique double duty here, being both Venus’s dispositor but also the planet that is exalted in Venus’s sign of debilitation.
  • • Third, the lord of Venus’s exaltation sign Pisces is Jupiter, and it too is kendra to both the lagna and the Moon.
  • • Finally, Mercury and Jupiter, Venus’s dispositor and lord of its exaltation sign, respectively, are in mutual kendras.

This creates so much support for Neechabhanga that one is literally very hard-pressed to find another example quite as stellar as this one. (Go ahead and search; I’ll wait.) The net result is to raise Venus, and thereby Connery, to a height that is scarcely obvious at first glance.

Although three benefics occupy his 10th house, the Moon is dark, Venus is debilitated and only Mercury is strong to form Bhadra yoga, one of the lauded Pancha Maha-Purusha yogas. Otherwise, none of them own the fortuitous houses that could create Dharma-Karma Adhipati or Dhana yogas.

However, since Jupiter is lagnesh for Connery’s Sagittarius lagna, it associates with 5th lord Mars to form one DKA yoga, and as 4th lord as well, Jupiter combines again with Mars to form another DKA yoga, this time one of the esteemed Raja yogas. Furthermore, since Jupiter and Mars are both trinal lords, of the 1st and 5th, respectively, they both mutually aspect 2nd lord Saturn to form two Dhana yogas as well.

As it turns out, the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, was released in October 1962, instantly making Connery an action hero of sorts. He was then running Rahu-Ketu. As is generally well known, the nodes act as proxies on behalf of (a) planets with which they associate, (b) planets which aspect them, and (c) the planets which disposit them.

In the case of Rahu, it is neither associated with nor aspected by any planet, but is disposited by Mars, which forms a DKA yoga with Jupiter. At the other end of the nodal axis, Ketu is aspected by Jupiter, which forms both a DKA with Mars and a Dhana yoga with Saturn. Furthermore, Ketu is disposited by Venus which enjoys that remarkably robust Neechabhanga status in the 10th house. Thus, in the conjoined period of the two nodes, we see activation of his 1st, 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th and 11th houses – all positive houses!

His horoscope also contains a Kesari yoga with the Moon and Jupiter in kendras, although neither planet enjoys any strength. Nonetheless, Connery was a philanthropist, donating millions to Scottish educational institutions, and readily lent his native accent to voice-over advertisements for the Scottish Nationalist Party.

His first marriage came in Rahu-Ketu, wherein one node invoked Mars and the other Jupiter, both planets associated in his 7th house. His only son was born during the same period, wherein Rahu invoked 5th lord Mars, and Ketu invoked Jupiter the karaka of children. He divorced after 11 years, and remarried a few years later during Jupiter-Mercury, period lords ruling his 1st and 7th houses, respectively. He and his second wife subsequently owned homes in Marbella, Monte Carlo, Los Angeles, and the Bahamas, all seaside residences, and quite apropos for someone with Pisces in the 4th house.

Throughout much of his Jupiter period, profoundly dissatisfied with the Bond franchise, Connery tried to break out of the role into which he’d been typecast, but enjoyed little success until the early 80s and the onset of his Saturn dasha. In 1986 he won a British Best Actor Academy Award for The Name of the Rose, and in 1987 an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for The Untouchables. Both honors occurred during Saturn-Saturn.

Perhaps in consolation for his lengthy but unhappy role as Agent 007 in Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Connery was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in July 2000 during Saturn-Rahu. Again, Saturn and Rahu invoke the two yogas wherein Saturn and nodal dispositor Mars participate with Jupiter which, as lagnesh, represents “name and fame.”

Although he was afflicted with dementia in his later years, Connery died peacefully in his sleep on October 30, 2020, at his home in the Bahamas, during his Mercury-Saturn period. Both planets are powerful maraka lords – exalted Mercury ruling the 7th, retrograde Saturn ruling the 2nd.

As Connery once said, “I have always hated that damn James Bond. I’d like to kill him.” Finally, he got his wish.

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For a similar analysis, wherein I point out the key elements of yoga formation in Connery’s chart, see my YouTube video.

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Alan Annand studied with Hart de Fouw, and is a graduate of the American College of Vedic Astrology and a former tutor for the British Faculty of Astrological Studies.

He is the author of several non-fiction books. Kala Sarpa is a first-of-its-kind reference book on a unique pattern in jyotisha that is not discussed in shastra yet is part of India’s rich oral tradition. Stellar Astrology, Volumes 1 & 2, offer a wealth of time-tested techniques in the form of biographical profiles, analyses of world events, and technical essays. Parivartana Yoga is a reference text for one of the most common yet powerful planetary combinations in jyotisha.

His New Age Noir crime novels (Scorpio Rising, Felonious Monk, Soma County) feature astrologer and palmist Axel Crowe, whom one reviewer has dubbed “Sherlock Holmes with a horoscope.”

Websites: www.navamsa.com, www.sextile.com

You can find his books on Amazon, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.