Actress Rene Zellweger, three decades into a super-successful career, festooned with awards – Oscars, Golden Globes, Baftas and Screen Actors Guild – still has to find a settled relationship. She’s flitted from short-lived liaisons to Jim Carrey, a brief marriage, and thence on to various ports of call but never stopping for long. She is now much puffed as being in a hopeful hook up with Ant Anstead, a twice divorced Brit TV presenter.

  What is noteworthy about her chart is it features one of the most difficult Yods onto a focal point Saturn from a Neptune sextile Jupiter Uranus (Pluto). Initially it produces all the Saturnine downsides of uncertainty, low confidence, self-defeating attitudes.  A considerable degree of inner strength is needed to make it work, which involves the Saturnine virtues of self-discipline, endurance over time and steadiness of purpose. Along with it goes a sense of frustration and personal failure. The first Saturn Return at 29 or just after is usually when a significant turning point comes and that’s when she landed the Bridget Jones role that shot her to stardom.

  Others born around that time who share the same Saturnine Yod in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries are: Jennifer Aniston, Beau Biden, Chaz Bono, Beau Biden, Alexander McQueen (fashion designer), Cory Booker, Dan Aronovsky (surreal, melodramatic, psychological horror film director), Pauley Perrette (former NCIS oddball), Andrew Breitbart (right wing media founder), Bobby Brown (Whitney Houston ex-husband). Quite a few of those have had more obvious struggles than most despite being successful.

  What makes it trickier for Renee Zellweger is that her Saturn conjunct a Taurus Sun falls in her 8^th house so she will be ambivalent about close relationships – wanting them intensely and yet putting up barriers.

  Ant Anstead, 28 March 1979, Plymouth, England, has several astro-plus points where she is concerned with his New Moon in Aries conjunct her Venus in Aries and his Jupiter in Cancer square her Saturn so he’ll lift some of her tendency to gloom. But his Mars in Pisces in her 7^th opposition her Pluto isn’t so great – argumentative and a fight for control.

  The relationship chart has a needs-space composite Sun opposition Uranus and a supportive, enthusiastic Sun trine Jupiter – in certain circumstances, which won’t include 24/7 closeness, it could work for a while.  Though it’ll rock on its axis later this year with tr Pluto square the composite Uranus.

  She will have a tricky few years towards and across mid decade with tr Pluto square her Saturn in 2023/23 which will be heavy going. And she has tr Neptune square her Sun/Moon midpoint at the same time. Followed by tr Pluto square her Sun in 2025/2026. But for all that she’s in a reasonable place on the career front with Saturn moving upwards in her chart and Pluto strengthening her reputation until later this decade.

Floods in northern Europe have caused at least 120 deaths with 1300 missing in Germany which has caught the worst of it, with rainfall heavier than seen for a century.

  The recent Lunar Eclipse of late May, still in effect, had the Sagittarius/Gemini Full Moon sitting across the Midheaven/IC axis located to the affected region; with the June Solar Eclipse having the North Node conjunct the MC. So it was a key location for the recent Eclipses which both also had the destructive Mars opposition Pluto in place. This week the transiting Cancer Sun was triggering both the Eclipse Mars and Pluto; with the transiting Yod focal point Venus Mars also tugging at the Eclipse Pluto (see post below).

  I don’t know whether it is a coincidence but modern Canada which recently suffered the worst heatwave in over 80 years came into being only four years before Germany. Both have Pluto in Taurus, in the case of Germany in the 8^th, and for Canada opposition Saturn in Scorpio – and those Plutos will be heavily unsettled by tr Uranus conjunct Pluto from mid 2022 onwards for a year.

  Major natural disasters sometimes precede seismic or significant changes in a country’s destiny not caused by the catastrophe but happening on a parallel track.

  Germany is certainly in the midst of a phase of tremendous upheaval and disruption with tr Pluto opposition the 10^th house Uranus exactly now, returning this December; and then tr Uranus hitting the Pluto which will erupt deep-seated energies – as indeed happened through the 1930s. It won’t be the same this time round but won’t pass without leaving a profound mark on the country.

Canada Heatwave see post June 30 2021  

Add On: July 21 2021

China has also been overwhelmed with a year’s worth of rain falling in three days, bursting rivers, overwhelming dams and sparking landslides. Water flooded underground railway tunnels leaving passengers trapped in rising waters and 200,000 people have been evacuated with more dams threatening to give way.

  The recent Gemini Solar Eclipse had Neptune conjunct the IC located to Zhengzhou where deaths are mounting, with the North Node on the Descendant. The Mars opposition is 8/2^nd house – usually houses are not supposed to be relevant for eclipses but disasters do tend to have 8^th house planets which make sense.  The recent Lunar Eclipse has the Full Moon sitting almost exactly on the Ascendant/Descendant axis.

  Locations with planets on the Eclipse chart axis are traditionally regarded as crisis zones.

Yods don’t appear in every birth chart – two planets in sextile which are in quincunx/inconjunct/150 degree aspect to a focal point planet. So it’s worth paying attention when they appear in transit either celestially or in a chart.  The recent Venus Mars conjunction being a case in point – with Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Venus Mars.

  The rule of thumb interpretation for a quincunx/yod is – needing adjustment, unsatisfying, energy draining, strained – the planets don’t function well together as a team. So there’s always a left-out feeling as if one planet can’t express itself or only erratically which leads to too much and then too little of the focal point’s nature.

  Yods are not much researched and one theory is that having fast moving planets on the focal point doesn’t count as a Yod but is more a double quincunx. But not everyone agrees.

  In general there is a sense of energies that need to be reassembled or adjusted before there can be progress. Without that there’s a haphazard and disorganised, sometimes passive-aggressive or self-defeating mood.

  Tierney remarks: “The quincunx can be viewed — as a “nagging problem” operating over an extended period of time.”  As opposed to squares and oppositions which bring clear conflict and crises that demand decisive action.

  Obviously this week’s Yod had the faster-moving inner planets Venus and Mars on the focal point – and transiting Yods won’t operate exactly as they do with a more concretised birth chart Yod. But there will almost certainly be the same – not-quite-clicked-into-place and disorganised feel about the mood.

 In an individual chart a Yod usually has to wait for a ‘fated’ event i.e. a chance happening from outside which clicks it into place and what follows is a singular, focused sense of direction. One of the classic examples is Michael Phelps the swimmer who was a disorganised kid with ADHD etc and his parents eventually sent him off aged 7 to swim to soak up his energy.  And the rest is history. His Yod has Mars has a focal point.

There are interesting examples of relationship Yods formed either on synastry – comparing the two charts – or in the composite chart itself. Where they occur one individual will change the destiny of the other in a significant way, sometimes leading to a radical alteration of life’s direction. Their coming together tends to be unexpected and fast-moving rather than a steady development. The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson are one example, Jaqueline Kennedy and Ari Onassis another. In the latter case Onassis’ Uranus was quincunx Jackie’s Sun sextile Jupiter.  Myra Hyndley and Ian Brady, the Moors murderers (child killers) are another example. And Liz Taylor and Richard Burton with Liz providing the focal point planet, so being the main instigator of change.

  The most recent example is Donald Trump and Jared Kushner with two Yods formed in their synastry and a central composite Yod in their relationship chart. They changed each other’s destiny for good or ill.

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Paula Rego, the Portuguese born painter now in her late eighties is getting rave reviews for her exhibition at the Tate in London.

  One says: “Her narratives have the darkest undercurrents of violence, eroticism, oppression, even incest, and at the same time the look of children’s fables and proverbs.”  Her “deeply ambiguous work goes straight for the subconscious in this mesmerising seven-decade retrospective.” “A stunning achievement.”

  She was born on 26 January 1935 in Lisbon with an anti-fascist father who went to London to work when she was one years old so she was handed over to her grandmother until her parents returned four years later. She was educated latterly in England, attended the Slade Art School and married British painter Victor Willing, who was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

  Her chart is challenging to put it mildly. An unaspected Aquarius Sun will give her an aloof, almost unresponsive quality where others are concerned, totally absorbed in her own world. She has a volatile, controlling and high-risk Cardinal T Square of Mars (Moon) in Libra opposition Uranus square Pluto – so will have been aware of anger, danger and domination from early on. Her Pluto is in a confident trine to Jupiter in Scorpio. A cool, emotionally detached, analytical Saturn in Aquarius is conjunct her Mercury Venus, square Jupiter and trine Mars.

  Not an easy personality, for sure, driven by demons. Her relationship with her husband, 15 January 1928, would have been complicated and stressed with his Capricorn Sun opposition her Pluto square her Uranus and Mars; and his Neptune opposing her Saturn.  But the relationship chart does have a mutually supportive composite Sun Jupiter sextile Mars so there would be positive sides to it. Though the composite Venus is conjunct Saturn opposition Pluto and square Uranus – so there would be considerable chafing against the chains that bound them together.  

Billionaire Sir Richard Branson successfully reached the edge of space on board his Virgin Galactic rocket plane, the vehicle his company has been developing since 2004. He returned safely to Earth just over an hour after leaving the ground and said “I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid, but honestly nothing can prepare you for the view of Earth from space. The whole thing was just magical.”

The trip makes him the first of the new space tourism pioneers to try out their own vehicles, beating Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and SpaceX’s Elon Musk. Some 600 individuals have already paid deposits for tickets that will cost them up to $250,000 (£180,000). The Russians are also reprising their commercial flights to the ISS and there are even those who want to launch private space stations for people to visit.

For an extra frisson Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s Dragon capsule will have a glass-domed observation deck available for the passengers it’s shuttling to the International Space Station for an eight-day stay at $55 million a piece. Passes belief.

  Branson, 18 July 1950 7am Blackheath, England, is an entrepreneur and innovator, owner of a wide range of companies from records to railways, airlines to telecoms with some resounding failures as well as successes.

  He has a 12^th house Cancer Sun conjunct the Fixed star Procyon – he shares his birthday serendipitously with astronaut John Glenn.  Procyon usually suggests wealth and good fortune, though it can also bring great lows as well as highs.  Branson has a determined Pluto on his Ascendant, a publicity attracting Mars Neptune in his 3^rd; and adventurous and financially lucky Jupiter in his 8^th trine Uranus; and a serious Saturn in his financial 2^nd. It’s not entirely clear from his chart why he should have been able to carve such a unique and globally successful career. Though he does have several notable Harmonics – especially global fame 22H; and the innovative 13H.

  He famously has a sticky relationship with Jeff Bezos whose nose will now be out of joint since he was beaten to the post with the first tourist flight.  See previous post Jeff Bezos June 12 2021.

  Bezos is a Sun Mars in Capricorn which opposes and clashes with Branson’s Sun; and both their Saturns are in hard aspect to the other’s Pluto which makes this a battle between heavyweights.

  Their relationship chart has a seriously aggravated composite Saturn Mars square Pluto, trine Uranus which will evoke hostility and frustration if the other wins.

  Branson is in a challenging year with tr Pluto opposing his Sun until this December and earlier this year his Solar Arc Pluto was square his Sun – so he would feel the pressures keenly. He’s aiming for an upbeat Jupiter Return early in 2022 and more success on the business money front through 2022. Tr Pluto is trine his Jupiter/Pluto this year and next plus plus so he’s on a roll. Though it won’t all be plain sailing ahead and there’s a real risk of him allowing his confidence to overstep the bounds of common sense in one area of his plans come 2023.  

Cuba is seeing the biggest protests for decades against the Communist government. Cubans have been angered by the collapse of the economy, restrictions on civil liberties and the handling of the pandemic, with record infections in recent days.

  One demonstrator said: “This is the day: we can’t take it anymore. There is no food, there is no medicine, there is no freedom. They do not let us live.”

 The president urged them to defend the 1959 revolution which brought in communism and the police used pepper spray and violence against the marchers.

  Both the Independence 20 May 1902 and the 1 January 1959 charts point to 2022 as the year of major disruption with the Mars in Taurus on both being triggered by tr Uranus conjunct and tr Saturn square. That will unleash a wave of anger. The 1902 chart will be heavily discouraged and suffering deprivation in 2022/23 with tr Pluto conjunct the Saturn; and the Revolutionary 1959 chart shows up 2024 as its nadir.

 Miguel Diaz-Canel, a technocrat, who replaced Raul Castro, was sworn in on 19 April 2018 at 9.30am in Havana. His Term chart has a ruthless, secretive and crises-prone 8^th house Mars Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn with an unstable Pluto square Uranus Sun. So it was always going to be an economically troubled and high-risk administration. The Mars Pluto conjunction has moved to exact by Solar Arc now so no surprises that anger has boiled over. 2022/23/24 will be worse with a disruptive tr Pluto square the Uranus which is often when governments topple.

 His personal chart, 20 April 1960, does have a lucky and powerful Earth Grand Trine of Taurus Sun trine Pluto trine Jupiter, formed into a Kite by Sun opposition Neptune. But he also has a strained Yod of Mars sextile Saturn quincunx Uranus in Leo – with his Uranus getting pulled every which way next year by tr Uranus square tr Saturn. That last will shift him onto a different trajectory. 2023/2024 sees tr Pluto square his Sun pulling down old structures in his life and putting him under considerable pressure as well.

Laurens van der Post was a South African writer, philosopher, conservationist, close friend of the Swiss therapist Carl Jung and mentor to Prince Charles, godfather of Prince William, adviser to Margaret Thatcher. He was much praised for his initiative when a prisoner of war of the Japanese during World War 11, maintaining the morale of prisoners of different nationalities, organising a “camp university” and a camp farm to supplement nutritional needs. His later books about his experiences were turned into the film ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence’.

  Wiki quotes him: “It is one of the hardest things in this prison life: the strain caused by being continually in the power of people who are only half-sane and live in a twilight of reason and humanity.”

  His reputation in later years was dented when it was revealed he had fathered a child on a 14 year old girl, who had been put into his care on a sea voyage. He paid her family a small amount of money but never publicly acknowledged the daughter. After his death the accuracy of his claims about his life were questioned with examples published of where he had embellished the truth in his memoirs and travel books. One biographer claimed he was “a fraud, a fantasist, a liar, a serial adulterer and a paternalist. He falsified his Army record and inflated his own importance at every possible opportunity.”

  He was born 13 December 1906 at 2am (unverified) Philippolis, South Africa, and was a Sun Sagittarius in a controlling opposition to Pluto in the far-travelled and opinionated 9^th. His Pluto was also in a determined and courageous trine to Mars in Libra. But what dominates his chart is a healing Water Grand Trine of Jupiter Neptune in Cancer in the 9^th conjunct his Midheaven trine Saturn trine a Scorpio Moon, with Neptune Jupiter opposition an innovative, reforming Uranus.

   Water Grand Trine individuals can operate within their own little bubble and be detached from reality – which in appalling circumstance can be a blessing. Jupiter Neptune can also indicate a Pollyanna-like tendency of head in the clouds and hoping for the best; and it has a reputation as a guru-chaser which might well apply to his relationship to Carl Jung whom he idolised.

 He was a complicated man, half saint and in typical Jungian fashion half not. He was anti-apartheid and although his credentials as a guru and sage were challenged he did spread the word about Jung and African conservation to a wider public.  

  His relationship with Prince Charles was an influential one with a three quarter Grand Sextile in their relationship chart tying together the composite Sun, Saturn, Moon, Uranus and Jupiter. Van Der Post’s Sun fell in Charles’s 5^th house conjunct his Mars Jupiter so his enthusiasm would be an inspiration for Charles; and LVP’s leadership North Node in Leo was conjunct Charles’ Ascendant for another motivating lift.

  Van der Post’s relationship with Jung was very Neptune Pluto with the composite Sun trine Neptune Pluto which also sat on the focal point of a Saturn opposition Jupiter. Neptune Pluto has an interest in the paranormal and what lies beyond reality.

  When he had to surrender to the Japanese in 1942 the tr Saturn Uranus in Taurus were just moving into his 8^th house, bringing a phase where he needed to develop inner resilience and would be thrown back on his inner resources. Tr Pluto was exactly conjunct his 10^th house Node at that point, arguably sparking off his latent talents for showing the way to others.

Talented, influential and flawed.

The Euro Final football frenzy will kick off at 8pm tomorrow in London with England versus Italy. The last time England won was in 1966 also played in London.

The only faint clue of anything much on the manager Gareth Southgate’s chart is tr Jupiter square his Mars/Node midpoint which Ebertin describes as ‘successful team work’ and tr Jupiter trine his Mars but that isn’t exact until July 19th. And those are minor enough. I’ll let the afficianados pitch in since I’m blank.

Post-apartheid South Africa took a small step towards fulfilling Nelson Mandela’s hope for a corruption-free country when former president Jacob Zuma handed himself into the police. He had been charged with contempt of court after repeatedly refusing to appear before a commission looking at allegations of corruption against him, involving dealings with a criminal syndicate run by the Gupta family; as well as a separate arms deal. He denies any wrongdoing, ‘despite the mounds of evidence’.

  His successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, wants to be the face of a clean ANC, but has already had to sideline his health minister for diverting Covid-19 communications funds to cronies. At present South Africa is far behind its vaccination targets; has a corrupt and mismanaged state electricity provider; a passenger rail system barely functions; and a criminal justice system that was seriously damaged by Zuma and his cronies. Ways to go.

  Both the South Africa 1910 and 1994 charts have Uranus in Capricorn at almost the same degree picking up the tr Pluto conjunction this year – so the pressure for change has met its moment. And the 1994 chart in particular will feel the effects of the Taurus Lunar Eclipse late this November and the Taurus/Scorpio eclipses in 2022 all triggering the Moon Pluto North Node in last decan Scorpio as well as the Taurus Sun Mercury. Crisis and the challenge of change will dance hand in hand through till 2023.

  Even the 1910 chart with its late Taurus North Node will be at a critical turning point as it runs into a Nodal Return from early 2022.

  Jacob Zuma, 12 April 1942, is an Aries with an adventurous/opportunistic Mars Jupiter in Gemini and a heavyweight Saturn Uranus in Taurus trine Neptune. Both his Term charts had marked Mars square Pluto aspects which always indicates ruthless control-freakery if not downright criminal behaviour; strong Jupiters for confidence and emphasised Neptune for slippery evasiveness. He won’t enjoy the next three years especially 2023 when he runs into the buffers.

  His Saturn Uranus in Taurus is conjunct the South Africa 1994 South Node and opposition the SAfrica Pluto Moon so his acquisitive Taurus proclivities would run him counter to the needs of the people; though his Sun conjunct the South Africa Midheaven would pitch him high for a while.

  Cyril Ramaphosa, 17 November 1952, is a New Moon in Scorpio square Pluto; with Mars in Capricorn opposition Uranus and square Neptune Saturn in Libra. If he fights on the side of justice he has considerable heft and perseverance. Though he will be volatile and given to impulsive, reckless decisions, disregarding advice.  He’s trapped and frustrated this year and next with tr Pluto conjunct his Mars, with the Eclipses from this November onwards for two years rattling his Scorpio Sun Moon. Tr Uranus conjunct his Jupiter exactly now and repeating into early 2022 will give him good news.

  His Term chart, 25 May 2019 11.30am has been labouring against tr Neptune dashing optimism in square to Jupiter; the Eclipses rattling the Gemini Sun Mercury until early 2022; and a dead-halt Saturn Pluto conjunction, closed to exact by Solar Arc later this year. It’ll be an uphill struggle to make progress.