Actor Chuck Norris during a near-60-year acting career became ‘a pop culture emblem of alpha-male indestructibility.’ His films – Forced Vengeance, Hellbound, An Eye for an Eye, A Force of One, Silent Rage, were what they said they were. After the movies he moved into television in the 1990s with Walker, Texas Ranger. He has died aged 86.
He was born 10 March 1940 3am Ryan, Oklahoma, with a WW11 veteran father who took to drink. His older brother was killed in Vietnam. Chuck served with the US Air Force in South Korea, and then competed in international martial arts tournaments, running a chain of karate schools in California. Bruce Lee invited him to take part in The Way of the Dragon, the highest-grossing Hong Kong film in history, which established Norris on the film scene.
A Sun Pisces opposition Neptune would suit him for movies but it was his explosive Mars Uranus conjunction in Taurus, sextile his Sun and trine Neptune which gave him his specialism of violent action. And the destructive Fixed star Algol in his performing 5th house.
His intense 7th house Pluto was square Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries conjunct Venus in Taurus – not an easy temperament emotionally – bleak and hard. His Sun/Moon midpoint was opposition his Neptune so he would find commitment an effort. His Chiron was in his 7th house of close relationships and his Aries Moon was trine Pluto. Quite a mix of troubled, possessive and inconstant.
Jenni Murray, the doyenne of BBC’s Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour for 33 years has died. Described as “humorous yet headmistressy, she was capable of switching from razor-sharp interrogation to flirtatious whimsicality and was equally at home presenting features on female genital mutilation as on home furnishings.” She interviewed all the major political figures of her time but there were complaints that she turned the show into ‘Feminist’s Hour.’
Born 12 May 1950 10 pm Barnsley, England, she had a down-to-earth Taurus Sun and Mercury in her hard-working 6th house trine an argumentative and sharp-edged Mars and Saturn in Virgo, with her Sun also square a determined, controlling Pluto also in her 9th, all in her opinionated 9th. She would not hold back when it came to expressing what she thought. Her softer side came out with a charitably inclined Jupiter in Pisces in her communicative 3rd house; healing, helpful Neptune in her career 10th; and a softer Moon Venus in her 4th in Aries conjunct her North Node.
Settling down to a home life would not have been easy for her with her South Node in the 10th making the slide back into a career all too tempting. And her North Node in independent-minded Aries made the push pull between head and heart even more complicated. But she found her way with Eris close to her Moon, Venus, North Node to fight for what she felt was right in the realm of women and home. With a rebellious Uranus in the 8th she must had had an independent-minded grandparent who handed down a defiant as well as lucky streak with her Uranus trine Jupiter.
Another crack in the right-wing conspiracy to dominate American culture comes with the escalating fallout from an expose of the religious sect Opus Dei – now sitting on Pope Leo’s desk for action. Its close association with Heritage Foundation (Project 25) Kevin Roberts and conservative activist Leonard Leo who has led the Republican mission to install the rightwing majority in the supreme court and finances groups signed on to Project 2025, make it a key element in Trump’s Administration.
Allegations in Gareth Gore’s book include using money from the Banco Popular, which subsequently collapsed, to lure unsuspecting recruits ― some of them only children ― into a life of servitude. He also discloses its role in bankrolling right-wing causes, including the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade; and said members of the Catholic organization are engaged in “a political project shrouded in a veil of spirituality”. “For decades now, the organization has thrown its resources at penetrating Washington’s political and legal elite – and finally seems to have succeeded through.” Until now.
The Opus Dei organisation has been described as a “Holy Mafia” and a Belgian government investigation concluded certain aspects of Opus Dei were cult-like. The Financial Times in 2024 accused Opus Dei of practices akin to modern slavery, drawing on testimony from 16 women who had been “coerced into domestic servitude … through a rigid system of psychological control”.
Opus Dei, founded on 2 October 1928, with a revolutionary Libra Sun opposition Uranus, has its Sun square its ruthless Mars/Pluto midpoint; and Neptune conjunct its Sun/Pluto midpoint tying overwhelming ambition to spirituality.
The organisation seemingly is less powerful than it once was and is heading into a major upheaval come 2027 with the Solar Arc Pluto square Uranus. This year it will be panicked, angst-ridden and losing its edge.
Kevin Roberts, 24 June 1974 Lafayette, Louisiana, wrote much of Project 25, which was supposed to be the underpinning for Trump’s Second Term – limiting abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights and dismantling the Department of Education, ending diversity programs and increasing government support for “fertility awareness” programs, like ovulation tracking and practicing periodic abstinence, instead of more reliable contraception. A Sun Saturn in Cancer he will be feeling the full uncertainty of tr Neptune (and this year tr Saturn) square his Sun Saturn running on for the next three years; plus car-crash setback from SA Saturn square his Mars now. And he runs into worse by 2029/30 with SA Pluto conjunct his Mars and SA Sun square his Mars – that will be end-of-the-line time for him on the career front.
Leonard Leo, 1 November 1965, is a Scorpio Sun trine Saturn trine Jupiter, with a ramped-up, passionately excitable and disruptive Venus Mars conjunction in Sagittarius square Uranus Pluto in Virgo. His Solar Arc Sun was in a trapped conjunction his Pluto last year and an upending conjunction to his Uranus this year as the scandal emerged; and his Solar Arc Sun will collide in a square with his Mars in 2028 for a major shock – so he’s running through turbulent waters and then some in the time ahead.
Even the founder’s chart, Josemaria Escriva, 9 January 1902, is showing the strain. He was an austere Sun Moon Saturn in Capricorn; with a revolutionary Uranus opposition Pluto in Gemini with Neptune in final degree Gemini as well. His posthumous chart is showing a devastating Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Neptune now.
Pope Leo’s chart combined with Opus Dei shows dislike and also a risky power struggle with a composite Mars Pluto conjunction which will be challenged through this year and the following two, so it looks likely that he will take action.
What is surreal is supporting Trump, a man of questionable moral probity and no previous inclination towards religious devotion, as a masthead for the Opus Dei mission – or maybe not, given what is emerging.
US civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, who rose to become a secular saint for many for his advocacy of the rights of farm workers has been exposed in a New York Times report as a flawed hero for his abuse of women and underage girls. In his later years he became increasingly paranoid and autocratic. He died in 1993 at age 66.
Born 31 March 1927 3pm Yuma, Arikona into a Mexican family, he had an intense 8th house Aries Sun in a controlling square to Pluto in Cancer, and trine Saturn in Sagittarius in his 4th. A hard personality. He had a hard-working and ambitious, communicative 10th house Mars in Gemini in a publicity-attracting sextile to Neptune; and a high-energy square to Moon, Jupiter, Mercury in Pisces. Moon Mars is always edgy around women since they spark off anger; and Sun Pluto would certainly make him quite dominating. His Moon was conjunct Uranus giving him an emotionally wayward tendency and he evidently had affairs through his marriage. His Venus in indulgent, earthy Taurus was on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine of a confident Pluto trine Jupiter Mercury.
On his midpoints his Venus was conjunct his Mars/Uranus midpoint which Ebertin describes as passionate and giving the desire to enforce love. His Sun/Moon midpoint was conjunct Uranus in his 7th so sticking to a one-to-one commitment in marriage was not his forte.
ADD ON:
Dolores Huerta, born April 10, 1930, a labour leader and feminist activist worked with Chavez. Some credit her with inventing the UFW slogan “sí se puede” (transl. ‘yes you can’). She alleged several instances of sexual and emotional abuse by Cesar Chavez which she did not report at the time because police were hostile to the farmworkers’ movement and she thought that “no one within the union would believe her”. She also worried that reporting the assault would interfere with the movement’s success. Both assaults resulted in her becoming pregnant.
She is a Sun Aries square Pluto in Cancer with her Pluto trine Mars so she would be determined herself but grew up used to overly controlling men. Her Mars fell in Chavez’s 7th close to his Moon so she would spark off his Moon Mars anger against women. It was not all negative since her Mars was also conjunct his Jupiter and her Jupiter conjunct his Mars in the 10th – so on the activism front they would lend each other support. Her Venus was in Taurus like him. Their relationship chart has the same complex blend of control/domination with a composite Sun square Pluto – and a high-energy, superficially friendly composite Jupiter, Mars, Venus conjunction. Plus a hope for a better society Saturn trine Neptune.
A strong woman like her would rub Chavez the wrong way at times with his Pluto machismo and anger at mother (Moon Mars).
Roger Casement, a hero of the Irish resistance to the UK or a traitor or a sexual exploiter of young boys many of them African, is the subject of a new biography. In A Rebel and a Traitor, Rory Carroll explores the tortured soul of Roger Casement — the British diplomat turned Irish revolutionary who was hanged at Pentonville in 1916.
He started as a national hero in Britain, exposing the slave economy and institutionalised savagery in the Belgian Congo while serving as a consular official. And repeated the exercise when consul general in Rio, reporting on Peru where local people laboured in bondage to rubber producers, with shootings, beheadings, and other abuses, all in the cause of foreign shareholders. He briefed US President Taft, inspired a papal encyclical against such wickedness and was knighted. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote of him as “a man of the highest character — truthful, unselfish, one who is deeply respected by all who know him”.
But in 1914 his lifelong commitment to Irish home rule, the place of his birth, became his obsession. In New York he convinced the fanatical nationalists of Clan Na Gael that he was the right man to persuade the Germans to back an armed uprising against the British. Moving to Berlin, he attempted to raise an “Irish brigade” and sailed to Ireland on a German submarine on the eve of the Easter Rising. He was captured and transferred to London, incarcerated in the Tower and tried at the Old Bailey. During his trial his diaries were uncovered which described by his own account, the systemic sexual exploitation of very young boys, many of them African. On August 3, 1916, was hanged at Pentonville Prison. His remains were exhumed in 1965 and returned to Ireland for reburial, as befitted a hero of the Irish struggle for freedom.
He was born 1 September 1864 in Dublin and was a Sun (Moon) in Virgo in a determined trine to Pluto, opposition Eris (conflict and catalyst) square a pro-active and communicative Mars in Gemini. His Pluto was in a super-confident, anti-authoritarian opposition to Jupiter; and his Neptune in Libra opposed Saturn and Mercury in Libra giving him a drive to improve society. With Uranus in final degree Gemini in a can-be-fanatical and rebellious square to his Neptune and Mercury.
It’s a chart that really needs a birth time but there are two wide-ish yods both involving the Noth Node so he would be a central player in the spirit of the times.
When World War 1 broke out in 1914 tr Pluto was conjunct his Uranus sparking up his revolutionary fervour.
The cracks are widening on the US domestic front as the Iran foray sinks deeper in the mire with Israel relentlessly knocking out the top Iranian leadership, unpleasant types admittedly, but ones who might well have made a deal to stop the deadly tit-for-tat.
Joe Kent, the top US counterterrorism official has resigned over the war, urging the president to “reverse course”. He said that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the US and claimed the administration “started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”. Kent is a US special forces and CIA veteran whose wife, navy cryptologic technician Shannon Kent, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019. He deployed 11 times overseas with the US military, including with the US Army’s special forces in Iraq. He is now being accused of anti-semitism.
Trump is also facing resistance from some of the loudest voices on the right – Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Joe Rogan, the podcaster who played a critical role in helping Trump reach voters in the 2024 election.
“This is not a cruise that a lot of folks signed up for,” said Charlie Cook, the veteran political analyst. “These people voted to throw out Biden and Harris. But attacking Iran, Venezuela, attacking vaccines, bulldozing the East Wing? You could put together a long list of things that really weren’t on their priority list.”
Joe Kent, 11 April 1980, Oregon, is a determined, upfront and flamboyant Sun Aries in a Fire Grand Trine to a dynamic Mars North Node in late Leo (conjunct Jupiter in Virgo) trine Neptune, formed into a Kite by a determined Sun opposition Pluto. Fire Grand Trines rarely doubt their judgement and tend to charge ahead regardless of the consequences. His Mars North Node Jupiter is square Uranus opposition Algol. Interesting that his emphasised and uncompromising Mars North Node Jupiter are conjunct Trump’s Mars in Leo. His Neptune is also on the focal point of a T square to Saturn in Virgo opposition Mercury.
Since the start of the Iran debacle he has had tr Uranus just off the square to his Mars, square his North Node and moving to square his Jupiter by April – so it will be a critical juncture in his life. He also has one of those obscure but meaningful moving yods – of Solar Arc Saturn sextile Solar Arc Uranus inconjunct his natal Venus – throwing up strain and despair until a decision is reached.
His relationship chart with Trump has a composite Mars Saturn conjunction square Sun – a bad tempered connection which only works if one side suppresses their individuality. Which was never going to happen with Joe Kent’s chart.
What is slowly emerging are details of the pre-war Iran negotiations with reports that the UK national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, judged the offer made by Tehran on its nuclear programme was significant enough to prevent a rush to conflict. There was evidently widespread concern about the US technical expertise on the talks represented by Trumps’s son-in-law and real estate developer Jared Kushner and billionaire real-estate developer Steve Witkoff. Nuclear experts would later say that Witkoff’s pronouncements on the Iran nuclear programme were riddled with basic errors.
Witkoff’s personal chart, 15 March 1957, has alarm bells ringing full volume at the moment with tr Uranus in hard aspect to his Mars in Taurus square Pluto into early April. His relationship with Trump will see a distinct downturn come late May and across the summer.
Kushner, 10 January 1981, is also teetering with tr Uranus opposition his Uranus now and a jolting tr Uranus opposition his Sun/Saturn in April – with, typically, a smattering of luck interspersed. His relationship with Trump will hit a speed bump in the second half of May and in early 2027 – with 2027 looking downhill all the way between them.
“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” King James Bible
Len Deighton, one of the masters of the spy novel has died aged 97. His Ipcress File later made into a movie with Michael Caine as Harry Palmer became an instant hit coinciding as it did with the troubled zeitgeist – the building of the Berlin Wall, the uncovering of Soviet moles and heightening cold war tensions. It was pitched as “anti-Bond” with a wise-cracking hero, not from the officer class.
Deighton himself was born 18 February 1929 in London, with parents who were a live-in cook and chauffeur in a house with 15 servants. He was multi-talented starting as a graphic designer and ultimately writing 21 novels, five of them in the spy genre with three made into films, two cookbooks and a comic novel, a television play, two film scripts and became established as a military historian.
He had a final degree Aquarius Sun opposition Neptune which was trine/sextile a Mars in Gemini opposition Saturn in Sagittarius. His Mercury in Aquarius square Jupiter Chiron in Taurus may account for his prolific output and wide range. His Taurus North Node was conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol – and that plus his Mars Saturn would be what plugged him into the excitement, violence and fear of spycraft.
Ian Fleming, 28 May 1908 12.10 am London, the James Bond creator, another Air Sun in his case in Gemini, also had a harsh Mars conjunct North Node square Saturn; and Uranus opposition Neptune.
And John Le Carre, 19 October 1931, London, of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy renown was a Libra Sun Mercury with a fearsome Mars in Scorpio opposition Chiron Algol and trine Pluto. He was of the Depression generation with the bleak Saturn opposition Pluto square his Libra Sun Mercury and opposition Uranus in a Cardinal Grand Cross giving him extraordinary resilience and initiative.
All different kinds of writers but with Air Suns, aggressive Mars and emphasised Uranus which last would put them on their own individual path.
Len Deighton Quotes:
“In Mexico an air conditioner is called a politician because it makes a lot of noise but doesn’t work very well.”
“The tragedy of marriage is that while all women marry thinking that their man will change, all men marry believing their wife will never change.”
“Progress is man’s indifference to the lessons of history.”
Cometh the moment, cometh the man. What did we ever do to deserve this? The toddler tyrant flailing in all directions, setting off bushfires without thought of the consequences, used as a patsy by Netanyahu and others, but amped up with his own delusional sense of invincibility.
After the Donaldonian apocalypse, what next? Secretary of State Marco Rubio, stepping up in this Middle Eastern fiasco, is unlikely to find it a launching pad for the 2028 election. 28 May 1971 Miami Florida. Across the 2028 election and Inauguration, transiting Neptune looms large denting his confidence, assertiveness and hopes for glory, hitting three key midpoints. Before then he’ll be rattled badly this April with tr Uranus starting to oppose his Jupiter and then Neptune hinting at losses, deflating confidence and even scandals – and that continues on with tr Uranus across several midpoints and ultimately in a jolting conjunction to his Gemini Sun right through till early 2028. He’ll have a few strokes of luck along the way but many more negatives.
This year he’ll find his relationship with Trump undergoing a major upset with tr Uranus square the composite Pluto from mid June onwards; with August to the year end mired in confusion and discouragement.
J.D. Vance, 2 August 1984 8.11 am Middletown, Ohio, has his Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Uranus now hinting at a radical change which may partly be his ideological separation from Trump over foreign war-mongering. The midpoints in his relationship chart with Trump have been looking fraught in the extreme over the time that Saturn Neptune moved away from Pisces into Aries this recent January onwards. Tr Uranus joins in now till late April to produce more heat and chill between them. His confidence will deflate and his lucky streak will not be in evidence from late this May to February 2028 with tr Neptune square his Jupiter. 2027 looks like a swamp of uncertainty for him and there is nothing noteworthy ticking any boxes across the election. From late March 2029 after the Inauguration he’s in for a punishing two years with tr Pluto opposition his Sun and square his Saturn.
Mark Carney, Canadian PM, having delivered an electrifying speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos pointing to the damage Trump was doing in upending the rules-based world order was treated to the usual Trump childish contempt in response, referring to him as the “future Governor of Canada” after he annexes the country.
In response Carney has circled the world twice, seeking to forge relationships with countries that will make Canada less dependent on the United States, even those with questionable human rights.
Mark Carney, 16 March 1965, 7.56am Fort Smith, NT Canada Ottawa, has his powerhouse, never-say-die Mars Pluto in Virgo square Trump’s 10th house wayward, erratic Uranus for a major clash of temperaments. Carney’s Neptune is also square Trump’s Mars/Pluto midpoint so he will be adept at using evasive tactics to counter Trump’s bully-boy approach.
Carney’s Jupiter and Ascendant fall on Trump’s Midheaven which might suggest a successful business partnership but in this instance points rather to Carney’s Jupiter attempting to inculcate a sense of responsibility and ethic in Trump’s his social and political dealings. And Carney’s image getting a boost from the car-crash trajectory of Trump’s direction/career.
Their antipathy will run on, increasing in aggravation through this year and on. Canada won’t recover from this onslaught in terms of their attitude to all matters USA until into the next decade.
Jupiter came up with the goods at last night’s Oscars with Michael B Jordan taking Best Actor for Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson a raft of awards including best movie for One Battle After Another.
Michael B Jordan, 9 February 1987 8.14pm Orange, California, has a Sun Aquarius in his 5th house and an exact Jupiter in Pisces square Uranus. The transiting Sun was exactly conjunct his Jupiter and square his Uranus and conjunct his Mercury/Node midpoint at the Oscars. Tr Jupiter is moving through his 10th house of career which is always a peak, and is picking up his Sun/Node and Mercury /Jupiter midpoints this week. And his Solar Arc Midheaven is exactly trine his Jupiter at the moment. Some minor aspects, some major – but all pointing to a boost.
He’s had a busy career since childhood appearing in The Wire, Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, with a body of work that which encompasses commercial and critical success. Only five black actors have won the award before – Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington and Sidney Poitier.
April oddly looks stressful for him with two challenging midpoints being triggered. But he has a good deal of substantial work ahead of him.
Paul Thomas Anderson won Best Picture for One Battle After Another, a satire about preening Californian radicals getting the upper hand on a brutal and conspiracy-raddled US government. One reviewer described it as “essentially Dr Strangelove for the Maga-versus-wokery era.”
Paul Thomas Anderson 26 June 1970 3.47 am Los Angeles, has a Sun and Mars in Cancer, with is Sun in a rebellious square to Uranus. Tr Jupiter is conjunct his Mars for a morale boost exactly now and is also conjunct his Mercury/MC midpoint, square his Jupiter/Uranus and opposition his Neptune/Node midpoints; with tr Jupiter soon to square his Mercury/MC midpoint so he’ll glow for a while ahead.
Though it will not all be picnics and roses since he also has a jolting Solar Arc Uranus opposition his Saturn and his SA Sun square his Saturn now; and his Solar Arc Saturn is moving to conjunct his Sun and square his Uranus by 2028 – all of which look challenging for his next venture.
