Page 1: Month: August 2020

While it’s difficult to estimate how many of us believe in astrology, research suggests that 90% of adults know what their zodiac sign is. For many of us, astrology brings great comfort to us as we try to understand the uncertainty and chaos in the world with a greater understanding of celestial navigation. Whether you’re trying to suss whether yours and your partner’s star signs are compatible or if they explain the conflict you’ve been experiencing, some believe that they can provide insight into our natures and personalities.

It isn’t just our own zodiac signs that interest us—have you ever wondered the secret to Queen Elizabeth’s and Prince Philip’s enduring love story? Or was there celestial influence over Princess Diana becoming the ‘People’s Princess’?

Here, we’ll look at the star signs of current monarchs to find out if there is a dominant “ruling” zodiac. Then, we’ll look to the future with different countries’ hereditary ‘next-in-lines’ to discover which star sign is most popular and least popular when destined to don the crown. After all, the answers could lie in the stars.

Current stars of the world

We looked at the birthdays of the 29 current ruling monarchs across the world, from Queen Elizabeth II of the UK and Commonwealth realms to King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain, to explore which star sign is currently the most common among our ruling kings and queens. Aries, Taurus, Leo, Pisces, and Aquarius were the most popular, with 70% having these zodiac signs.

Country	Ruler	Birthday	Age	Gender	Zodiac sign
Denmark	Queen Margrethe II	16-Apr-40	80	Female	Aries
Luxembourg	Grand Duke Henri	16-Apr-55	65	Male	Aries
Swaziland	King Mswati III	19-Apr-68	58	Male	Aries
Cambodia	King Norodom Sihamoni	14-May-53	67	Male	Aries
Belgium	King Phillippe	14-Apr-60	60	Male	Aries
England	Queen Elizabeth II	21-Apr-26	94	Female	Taurus
Sweden	King Carl XVI Gustaf	30-Apr-46	74	Male	Taurus
Netherlands	King Willem-Alexander	27-Apr-67	53	Male	Taurus
Cambodia	King Norodom Sihamoni	14-May-53	67	Male	Taurus
Morocco	King Mohammed VI	21-Aug-63	56	Male	Leo
Thailand	King Vajiralongkorn	28-Jul-52	67	Male	Leo
Malaysia	King Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin	30-Jul-59	60	Male	Leo
France	Co-Prince Archbishop Joan Enric Vives I Sicilla	24-Jul-49	70	Male	Leo
Liechtenstein	Prince Regeant Hans-Adam II	14-Feb-45	75	Male	Aquarius
Spain	King Felipe VI	30-Jan-68	52	Male	Aquarius
Jordan	King Abdullah II	30-Jan-62	58	Male	Aquarius
Bahrain	King Hamad bin Isa	28-Jan-50	70	Male	Aquarius
Norway	Harald V of Norway	21-Feb-37	83	Male	Pisces
Monaco	Sovereign Prince Albert II	14-Mar-58	62	Male	Pisces
Bhutan	King Jigme Khesar Namgyel	21-Feb-80	40	Male	Pisces
Japan	Emperor Naruhito	23-Feb-60	60	Male	Pisces

The planets above the crowns

Ruled by the planet Mars, Aries share his traits of courage, determination, confidence, and passion with a strong tendency for taking on leadership roles.

Taurus is ruled by the planet Venus, sharing her traits of beauty, artistry, hedonism, and have a strong love of luxury and comfort. Queen Elizabeth II is known for her bold and fashionable power suits and matching ladies umbrellas—she is certainly a queen of luxury. Taurus’ are also said to be fiercely loyal, which is a characteristic used to describe Her Majesty. A Taurus tends to escape from reality when they’re emotional, which is something that the Queen doesn’t display in public.

Leo is ruled by the Sun and have great energy, courage, and honesty, considered a natural leader. Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, the planet of ultra-progressive thinking, originality and advocate of change and reform. Finally, Neptune rules Pisces, who have traits of compassion, insight, and spiritual development.

Elements of current rulers

All zodiac signs are grouped in four groups of three based on their element; 23% had air signs with Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini; 20% had earth signs with Capricorn, Taurus, and Virgo; 16.6% had water signs with Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces; and 30% had fire signs with Leo, Sagittarius, and Aries. The fire element is the most popular among the ruling monarchs, who are fiery characters with a tendency for excitability and impulsivity. Fire and water were two of the most popular zodiac sign elements—fire signs are passionate and temperamental whereas water signs are intuitive, emotional, and very sensitive.

Modality of current rulers

Each of the four elements have a distinct quality of how they engage with the world, known as modalities, including Cardinal (30%), Fixed (40%), and Mutable (23%). Fixed was the most common modality sign, who are said to dig in and are able to hold steady to achieve their goals. It’s hard for these signs to change, which can give them a reputation for being set in their ways.

Heirs written in the stars

It would seem the stars have aligned new beginnings for the next generation of rulers. Here, we looked at 23 hereditary rulers. This is because some monarchy systems don’t run through hereditary succession and instead appoint the next King or Queen, so we won’t know their star signs until they are named as successors.

Looking at the heirs to the thrones across these nations, it was revealed that Scorpio and Cancer are the next zodiac signs to rule the world, with 34% of heirs born from October 23 to November 22 and June 21 to July 22.

Country	Next in line	Birthday	Age	Gender	Zodiac sign
England	Prince Charles	14-Nov-48	71	Male	Scorpio
Sweden	Crown Princess Victoria	14-Jul-77	42	Female	Cancer
Liechtenstein	Alois, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein	11-Jun-68	52	Male	Gemini
Denmark	Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark	26-May-68	52	Male	Gemini
Spain	Leonor, Princess of Asturias	31-Oct-05	14	Female	Scorpio
Netherlands	Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria	07-Dec-03	16	Female	Sagittarius
Norway	Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway	20-Jul-73	46	Male	Cancer
Brunei	Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah	17-Feb-74	46	Male	Aquarius
Morocco	Moulay Hassan, Crown Prince of Morocco	08-May-03	17	Male	Taurus
Monaco	Jacques, Hereditary Prince of Monaco	10-Dec-14	5	Male	Sagittarius
Jordan	Hussein, Crown Prince of Jordan	28-Jun-94	25	Male	Cancer
Luxembourg	Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg	11-Nov-81	38	Male	Scorpio
Saudi Arabia	Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud	31-Aug-85	35	Male	Virgo
Belgium	Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant	25-Oct-01	18	Female	Scorpio
Thailand	Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti	29-Apr-05	15	Male	Taurus
Bahrain	Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa	21-Oct-69	50	Male	Libra
Bhutan	Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck	05-Feb-16	4	Male	Aquarius
Kuwait	Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah	25-Jun-37	82	Male	Cancer
Malaysia	Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah	17-Sep-95	24	Male	Virgo
Japan	Fumihito, Prince Akishino	30-Nov-65	54	Male	Sagittarius
Lesotho	Prince Lerotholi Seeiso	18-Apr-07	13	Male	Aries
Qatar	Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani	03-Jun-80	40	Male	Gemini
Tonga	Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala	17-Sep-85	34	Male	Virgo

 

Cancers are said to be emotional and deeply intuitive as well as sensitive to their environments and extremely protective of themselves—will this reflect in the way monarchies will be protective of their people in a mothering sense? Cancerians wear their heart on their sleeve and have a dislike of strangers and revealing their personal lives. Monarchies famously keep their private lives as shielded as possible, so we don’t expect to see a change in terms of sharing details about what is going on personally. Tabloids often guess goings on behind closed doors, but will this information be harder to come by with the next generation of royals?

Scorpio is one of the most misunderstood zodiac signs. Their incredible passion and power means that they often mistaken as a fire sign. Scorpio is actually a water sign along with Cancer, which was the most popular element in heirs’ zodiac signs. Water energy is ambitious and enticing—their assertive nature makes them natural born leaders. When Scorpios build trust with others, they are extremely empathetic and committed. However, on a bad day, a Scorpio is driven by a relentless need for control—if they’re controlled by their egos, they risk self-destruction.

 

Source: Shutterstock, by Viacheslav Lopatin

 

Future modality upon the thrones

The most popular Modality across all heir zodiac signs is Mutable sign, who are flexible, adaptable, and restless for movement and change. Mutable signs can see life from many perspectives which makes them great communicators. With the most common Modality for current rulers being Fixed—who tend to be less flexible and more single-minded—will this shift to Mutable signal a time for even more progressive change and a shift in energy?

The Modality sign for Scorpio is Fixed, so it’s hard for Scorpio to change. This can give them a reputation for being inflexible. On the other hand, Cancer’s Modality is Cardinal, one of the oldest in the family who are assertive in their style of leadership, similar to Fixed. This isn’t surprising as heirs are born to rule.

The planets to come

Cancer is ruled by the moon, which is said to give people with this zodiac an innate need to nurture, support, and protect—characteristics important in leaders. It’s possible that we might see more emotion from global monarchs with times and traditions changing more and more in the modern world. Meanwhile, Scorpio is ruled by Mars and Pluto, which are associated with transformation.

Considering this, the number of kings and queens currently stands at 91% men and 9% female, which will increase to 17% women when heirs come into their throne—will more female monarchs be a goal these progressive characters will strive to achieve for in the future, signalling transformation and a step forward for monarchies? Will more countries follow Sweden, who in 1980 became the first monarchy to change succession rites so that the first-born child of the monarch is heir, regardless of gender?

Being a princess might’ve been a dream of some of ours when we were children, but there are strict dress codes and fashion sacrifices that you must abide by. Our parents might’ve told us off for wearing too much makeup when we hit adolescence, but the rules for members of the British royal family have certain expectations to uphold — appearance being one of them.

The British royal family are famously more conservative when it comes to fashion compared to the monarchs of other European countries. Where you might see Queen Letizia of Spain in a tiered flapper-style strappy thigh-length revealing dress, an item of clothing would never be spotted on Kate Middleton or Meghan Markle at a formal or casual event. The Queen sets the tone due to her being the highest-ranking member of the family, as she has the power to set trends for the whole family to follow. Queen Victoria brought in tighter silhouettes and cinched waists so that her figure wasn’t lost in huge dresses, and Queen Elizabeth I made opulent fabrics and high neck ruffs popular. Queen Elizabeth II has a fashion sense that is a lot more modern than her predecessors, which is surprising considering she was born in 1926 and came into her crown in the 1950s.

Here, we’ll take a look at what fashion the Queen is fond of and some of the royal fashion trends she has inspired and why.

Neutral nails

Members of the royal family are encouraged to wear a particular shade of nail varnish that the Queen has worn since 1989 — Essie Ballet Slippers, a subtle nude pink colour that is sophisticated and elegant.

The Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton is often seen sporting bare, neutral, or clear nails, however, has broken this rule many times, as has the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle. Princess Diana only obeyed this rule when she married into the royal family. When her marriage to Prince Charles ended, she was pictured with statement red nails.

Purses have a secret language

Purses and clutch bags are a part of the royal dress code. However, they aren’t just a statement piece to a fantastic outfit. The Queen’s infamous Launer handbags are used to send signals to her staff about tricky social interactions — if only we all had people to watch out for us when we need saving from that awkward encounter!

These signals can help the Queen to get out of any conversation. According to the Telegraph, when the Queen shifts her handbag from her left arm to her right, this means she wants to wrap the conversation up, if she places it on the floor she wants to be rescued immediately, or if it’s on the table at dinner she wants the event to end in five minutes.

Purses can also be held by both hands to keep them occupied if royal family members don’t want to shake hands.

Colourful umbrellas are a royal’s best friend

If you hadn’t noticed that the Queen is fond of power dressing in a clean and bright rainbow of coloured suits, you’ll certainly pick up on it now! The Queen is always spotted out in vibrant eye-catching shades that not only make her look fabulous but make it easy for eager members of the public to spot her after waiting outside behind barriers for hours — Queen Elizabeth was reported saying “no one would know who I am” if she wore beige.

 

Source: Shutterstock, by Shaun Jeffers

As her royal duties come with long days out greeting people, the Queen has adopted the saying “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing”. As well as an impressive rainbow collection of outfits, the monarch has a just as impressive armoury of over a hundred colour coordinated umbrellas. Created by Fulton Umbrellas, who have earned a Royal Warrant from 2008, Queen Elizabeth got her stylish birdcage umbrellas after the request of the Queen Mother. The birdcage style is a clear dome with a sophisticated stripe of colour around the bottom. This allows the Queen to see out of it and people to see in while matching her colour co-ordinated fashion statement.

We best get looking for designer umbrellas if we ever hope to meet the Queen’s commitment to fashion.

We expect to see the royal dress code to shift when Prince William comes into the throne, with Kate Middleton being a style icon many of us look up to. Maybe red nails and exposed shoulders will be in?