The fight-to-the-death battle between Alex Salmond and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is coming to a head. He has now accused Sturgeon’s husband of attempting to have him ‘imprisoned’ as part of conspiracy at the top of the SNP. Observers now think his long-cherished political aim of Scottish independence is taking second place to destroying Sturgeon.

  A confusion of claims and counterclaims over the recent past is too tedious to linger on, starting with accusations of sexual assault against Salmond by several women.  See previous post January 13 2021 for details. Salmond, now due to give evidence in Holyrood, thinks his testimony will prove that Sturgeon lied to the Scottish Parliament over what she knew. If she did break the ministerial code in this regard then she will have to resign. All of which cheers those who are against Scottish independence, though Sturgeon is still expected to win at the May election since there is no credible opposition, despite the SNP’s abysmal record over their terms in office in education, police and more recently the covid crisis.

   Peter Murrell, Sturgeon’s husband is leader of the SNP, 8 December 1964 and is a volatile Sagittarius Sun square Uranus, Mars, Pluto in Virgo. His Sun squares Salmond’s 10^th house Mars in Pisces and his Pluto Mars Uranus sit in Salmond’s 4^th house opposition his Mars – so no surprises they don’t get on, with Murrell being an aggravating and unsettling influence on Salmond’s career. Murrell’s Neptune is also conjunct Salmond’s Saturn in Scorpio on one leg of his Water Grand Trine which will also sow doubt and lead to fears of conspiracies.  Their relationship is, not surprisingly, sinking into a mire in coming two years with tr Neptune eroding good feelings.

  More significantly Salmond’s relationship with Sturgeon has four distinct strands – one is a friendly, sensible Sun Venus sextile Saturn. Then there is a power-couple composite Jupiter Pluto conjunction, which, while co-operation lasts, can move mountains but at some point usually turns into a struggle for the upper hand. There is also a hope-for-a-better-society Saturn square Neptune which again has an underside of doubt and suspicion. And last and most intriguing from an astro-view is a composite Mars conjunct the destructive Fixed Star Algol on the focal point of a T square to a volatile/no-compromise Uranus opposition Moon. That was always going to blow sky high – and tr Pluto is now on the trine to the composite Mars.

  Salmond isn’t looking remotely cheerful or successful in the next three years with tr Neptune conjunct his 10^th house Mars now and then across his Mars/Moon midpoint and Moon till late 2023 leading to a sense of panicky failure.

 Sturgeon has the challenging tr Pluto opposition her Cancer Sun from late this month across the May election, and on and off till late 2022; and is also facing devastating circumstances with tr Pluto square her Neptune/Pluto midpoint at the same time. She’ll face career losses in March and won’t be delirious before or after the election; but she does have minor uplift from a Jupiter midpoint in early May, so she may just squeak through though she’s panicked and downhill thereafter, running into a total dead halt and major frustration in 2022/23 from tr Pluto square her Mars to which she will respond with her customary undentable confidence.

Add ON: The heat is rising fast with more twists and turns. Andrew Neil in the Mail gives a reasonable precis of the convoluted story line under the headline:

“Censorship, bullying, threats of jail… how Nicola Sturgeon’s storm troops turned Scotland into a banana republic without the bananas.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9297015/ANDREW-NEIL-Nicola-Sturgeons-storm-troops-turned-Scotland-banana-republic.html

The Telegraph pronounces: “The useless and authoritarian SNP is turning Scotland into a failed state.” And the Guardian’s Martin Kettle remarks: “The SNP has certainly always had its cult-like qualities. Public argument is almost as rare in the SNP as it is in Sinn Féin. But the familiar internal discipline has been breaking down. [Sturgeon’s] supporters were reported this week to think Salmond has now “gone the full Donald Trump”.

  The Scotland 25 March 1005 chart has a hard-edged, short-fused Mars in Aries square Saturn in Cancer, which will give both military prowess and a tendency to take grievances to heart.  Tr Pluto is exactly square the Mars now and throughout this year, moving to oppose the Saturn in 2022/23 – which will be a discouraging slog. Both Salmond and Sturgeon slot into this chart astrologically with her Cancer Sun square Jupiter on the same degrees; and Salmond’s Jupiter Uranus in Cancer also in close aspect. But both their relationship charts with Scotland are under sinking stars this year and next.

 The SNP amalgamation chart of 14 December 1933 is also sagging badly this year with tr Neptune square the Sagittarius Sun on and off till January 2023; and there’ll be much pushing and pulling and jolting from tr Saturn conjunct and tr Uranus square the Saturn.

Poland is heading towards another battle over EU values with a proposed tax on media advertising being seen as the latest in a series of steps by the ruling conservative party with strong ties to the influential Catholic Church, to curb independent journalism. Since the Law and Order Party (PiS) took office in 2015, Poland has tumbled from 18th to 62nd place in the World Press Freedom Index — below Niger and Armenia. And there have been other EU conflicts over sweeping changes to the judiciary that critics say have subverted democracy and the rule of law as well as a controversial court ruling that all but outlawed abortions.

 Some Polish journalists fear that the EU’s fifth biggest state could end up following a similar path to Hungary, where Viktor Orban’s government has suffocated much of the country’s independent media.

  And there are Geminis as far as the eye can see. Orban has a Gemini Sun; as does Mateusz Morawiecki , the Polish PM with his Boris-like collection of Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars in Gemini square Uranus Pluto in Virgo; as does Jaroslaw Kaczynski, firebrand founder and leader of PiS and now Deputy PM with his Sun and Mars in Gemini. Who’d have thought free-roaming Geminis would turn out – in some cases – to have such a dictatorial, narrow-minded, retrograde mindset? Mind you the Vatican 1929 chart has a New Moon and Mercury in Gemini which always struck me as odd.

  The modern Poland 24 August 1989 1.05pm Warsaw chart, is in a mega-confusing, not to say devastating year with the Solar Arc Neptune square the Pluto, with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn banging against the Pluto as well – upheavals, disruptions, rebellions, logjammed.

The EU Accession chart of 1 May 2004 looks equally rattled with a separating tr Saturn square the Taurus Sun and tr Uranus conjunct, picking up next month and continuing on throughout the year. A totally blocked Solar Arc Pluto opposition the Saturn late 2021. And there’s an undermining tr Neptune square the Pluto and Venus before moving onto an even more panicky-failure square to the Mars in 2022/23.

  Diplomatic relations won’t be getting any easier anytime soon with the EU already threatening to withhold funds if community values are not upheld. In 2018 Poland was a net recipient of EU funds to the tune of twelve and a half billion euros.

Marina Hyde, the Guardian comment wit, is a bright spot in the political and celebrity arena, pulling icons off pedestals and rubbishing parliamentary poseurs. Along the way she usually gives a helpful precis of complicated stories. Occasionally she goes too far with a few serous complaints against her but they are far outweighed by her awards.

  She was born 13 May 1974, daughter of a double-barrelled Tory baronet, so an unlikely left-wing rebel. She has a stalwart Taurus Sun on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Uranus sextile North Node – which fits.  Plus a penetrating Mercury in Gemini trine Pluto and opposition Neptune – Neptune Pluto aspects usually bring sizeable ambitions. She also has Venus in pro-active Aries opposition Pluto squaring onto both Saturn and Mars in Cancer, which will give her an angry and cutting edge. And she may have, depending on an early birth time, a communicative Air Grand Trine of Mercury trine a mischief-making Aquarius Moon trine Pluto.

  An interesting astro-vignette.   

The revolving door of Boris Johnson’s government is spinning with increasing velocity as political advisers are fired or resign in a huff with leaks, tales of back stabbing, murmurs that Carrie Symonds is running the show – ferrets fighting in a sack. Michael Gove is sidelined and the unelected David Frost steps up, unbelievably, into the Cabinet from March 1 described as “an extraordinary breach of the constitutional principle that a government adviser should not have a seat in legislature.” Having negotiated a bad Brexit deal which is coming apart at the seams with businesses grinding to a halt, Frost is being sent in to hard-ball the EU into compliance – and we all saw how well that worked the last time. As a commentator remarked we don’t need a ‘nightclub bouncer, we need a diplomat.’

  Mediation, moderation and tact are not concepts that sit comfortably with Boris’s whirling dervish mentality. Having just got rid of (or been forced to) the divisive Dominic Cummings, he’s imported Frost, a banter buddy since 2016 who discovered (according to Nick Cohen in the Observer) how to turn an anodyne career into a sizzler by homing in on Brexit (and Boris) as a good wheeze for gaining prominence. He has moved at speed from a dull, middle-ranking civil servant, to special adviser, into the House of Lords and now into the Cabinet.

  What is bizarre and a psychological if not psychiatric mystery is why Boris attracts himself to working bro-romances with types who exacerbate his worst traits and are guaranteed to aggravate – it’s positively masochistic. Cummings has a focal point Mars in Pisces square Saturn opposition Sun Neptune which collides with Boris’s Saturn in Pisces opposition Uranus Pluto square Mars in Gemini. Frost is no better with his Sun Saturn in Pisces squaring Boris’s Mars; and Frost’s Mars in Virgo squaring Boris’s Sun for an argumentative interface. Frost does admittedly share Boris’s head-in the-clouds Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune, which is associated also with scandals caused by poor judgement; and in Frost’s case is magnified squaring onto Venus in Aquarius, which makes him exceptionally inflexible (Fixed T Square), disliking compromise and arousing resentment because of obstinacy.

   And all three were guaranteed to light a touch paper to the EU’s short fuse with the EU Mars in early Sagittarius being triggered.

   Frost’s Cabinet job chart from March 1 has (assuming midnight start) has a 7^th house Mars in Taurus conjunct Algol and trine a 3^rd house ultra-stubborn Pluto – which doesn’t suggest any give in negotiating, quite the opposite. He’d bring a wrecking ball to a banquet. There’s also an inconsistent Saturn square Uranus – not practising what he preaches.

 The Boris Government chart, 13 December 2019 11am, has the lacklustre, indecisive, not-winning tr Neptune square Sun picking up late March into April, and repeating September/October and early in 2022. This year will not be its finest hour. That chart has a 12^th house Saturn, Venus, Pluto conjunction so dirty-dealings behind the arras were always to be expected. If it limps through this year, 2022 will produce several shocking surprises and insecurity from tr Uranus opposition the Mars.

  2022 is also a failure-filled swamp for Frost with tr Neptune opposition his Mars plus plus; and his relationship with Boris runs into a brick-wall then as well.

  Just to keep up the cheerful mood the Opposition who should be streaking ahead in the polls have decided on a vow of omerta over Brexit, lest it upset some Labour voters. One member of Keir Starmer’s frontbench team said that attempts to “brush the problems under the carpet just because we wrongly voted for Johnson’s deal in December is pretty close to negligence”. Another said: “Such radical amnesia may be deemed politically convenient by Starmer, but it represents a shocking abdication of responsibility from the official opposition.”

  Starmer’s Leadership chart, 4 April 2020 10.45am London, has a dithery Neptune Mercury in the 10^th which is not inspiring; and worse there is a prone-to-setbacks Mars Saturn deeply buried in the 8^th which is square Uranus. That accident-prone, anger-provoking and stuck Mars Saturn is moving closer to an exact conjunct by Solar Arc in late 2022 and then the Mars squares Uranus thereafter. It’s not going to be a good run for the Opposition either.

  A plague on all their houses. Pluto in Capricorn needs to get its act together in transforming governmental activities before it exits in 2023/24.  Collapse the old into dust and start again.

See previous post below February 14 2021.  

Add On: Carrie Symonds, 17 March 1988, had an independent political career in the Tory Party before hitching with Boris. What is intriguing is the synastry between them – her Jupiter in his 7^th, her Venus in his 8^th conjunct his Jupiter – all indulgent and emotionally positive; plus her Pisces new Moon in his 6^th house of work. But it’s her overly-excitable, hyper-active triple conjunction in Capricorn conjunct Mars that is intriguing – with her Neptune on his IC, Mars in his 4^th and her Uranus conjunct his South Node – which suggests a disruptive domestic influence apart from anything else. But it also points to a relationship that may have felt ‘meant’ but pulls him away from a path of growth and sticks him in old patterns, arguably exacerbating his tendency to create a centrifuge of whirling chaos around him.

  Their relationship chart has a strong thinking element, bound together by ideological conviction with a composite Air Grand Trine. They’re moving towards a panicky eighteen months starting in late May running till early 2023 as tr Neptune is conjunct the composite Mars – either undermining the relationship or their joint work enterprise.

  Her own chart looks a touch confused and devastated this year with her Solar Arc Neptune square her Venus opposition Pluto, with a lift this month, but buffeted around thereafter by jolts and jangles into 2022. Tr Neptune is heading for the conjunction to her Pisces Sun by 2023 but that is at the same time as her Solar Arc is conjunct her Jupiter – so success and failure will run side by side. See previous Simmonds post June 19 2019.

Texas has been declared a major disaster area after a brutal winter storm that left more than 50 dead and millions without power or clean drinking water across the South. The power companies in Texas’s deregulated electrical grid are under intense scrutiny over whether they neglected infrastructural upgrades and weather safeguards in the midst of a blame game over who is responsible for the billions of dollars in damages from what some expected would become the “largest insurance claim event in [Texas] history,” estimated at exceeding the $19 billion in claims from Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

  The most recent Lunar Eclipse of 30 November 2020 located to Texas had Saturn on the IC conjunct Jupiter Pluto with Pluto square Mars – so was descriptive of freezing homes, deprivation and a mega-event. The first exact tr Saturn square tr Uranus which occurred last Wednesday was on the exact degree of the Uranus on the Lunar Eclipse chart. Often Eclipses trigger events when the planets return to their Eclipse position as in this case it did with Uranus boosted and/or jolted by Saturn.

 The Texas Independence 2 March 1836 and joining the Union 29 December 1845 charts both have highly uncertain Saturn Neptune contacts on Solar Arcs as well as tr Neptune hard-aspecting respective catastrophe-prone midpoints. Both show a bounce-back in enthusiasm and confidence from the end of this month.

  Senator Ted Cruz, 22 December 1970 birth time unverified, who infamously skipped off to the balmy shores of Cancun in Mexico in a family escape vacation and had to hastily return does look rattled in a minor way from late this month with a further disaster or two from mid year onwards. But he’s into a bullishly super-confident push in 2022/23 in his usual tone-deaf fashion. Water off a duck’s back.

Australia stepped first into the ring in an attempt to show that governments have more power than social media giants like Facebook. A proposed AU law would force FB to pay news publishers for displaying their content and it promptly responded in what one minister described as arrogant petulance by imposing a news blackout, including helpful health and charity sites. In the US Sen. Mark Warner called the move “an unacceptable bullying tactic that only underscores concerns with their market dominance.” It could be damaging for Facebook as it faces increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over both antitrust allegations and how it handles user content.

 For those wanting a helpful precis with a chuckle see Marina Hyde: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/19/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-news-australia-power

She writes: ‘The Facebook boss is —- the world’s most powerful oligarch, selling the lives of 2.7 billion monthly active users to advertisers, and modifying the behaviour of those users with a business model that deliberately amplifies incendiary, nasty, and frequently fake and dangerous things. —– Forget post-truth. Mark’s basically post-metaphor.’ She describes the AU spat as a ‘heart warming generational fight between billionaires” suggesting Rupert Murdoch “effectively instructed the Australian government to shake down the tech firms.”  And more.

  A fight between Zuck and Foxy Murdoch – shut the door and let them destroy each other. But they won’t.

  For sure Zuckerburg and Australia don’t sit comfortably together – Z with Mars, Moon, Saturn and Pluto in Scorpio and a Taurus Sun Venus in contrast with Au’s four Sagittarius planets and rigidly traditional Sun Saturn in Capricorn. Mind you PM Scott Morrison doesn’t fit AU either with his Taurus Sun Venus opposition Neptune in Scorpio square Jupiter in Leo.

   Zuckerburg is being rattled this year with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on his 2nd house (verified birth time being accurate) financial Saturn, and worse in 2022 since his Moon Mars and Venus will be shaken up. Even his unbudgeable Fixed planets will have to shift ground.  

  But there’s nothing to suggest FB is sagging, far from it. The IPO chart has Sun Jupiter in Taurus getting a success and money uplift from tr Pluto until 2024.

Add On: Zuckerburg’s hero and model is evidently the Roman Emperor Augustus.

  Augustus, born 23 September 63 BC JC, laid the foundations of a regime that lasted for nearly fifteen hundred years and many consider him to be Rome’s greatest emperor. But the historian Tacitus wrote that Augustus had cunningly subverted Republican Rome into a position of slavery. He was ruthless, cruel, and ambitious for himself. While fighting for dominance, he paid little attention to legality or to the normal civilities of political life. He was devious, untrustworthy, and bloodthirsty. But once he had established his authority, he governed justly, generally allowed freedom of speech, and promoted the rule of law.

 Zuckerburg said in a New Yorker interview headlined “Can Mark Zuckerberg fix Facebook before it breaks democracy?”:

“Basically, through a really harsh approach, he established 200 years of world peace. What are the trade-offs in that? On the one hand, world peace is a long-term goal that people talk about today …” [On the other hand] “that didn’t come for free, and he had to do certain things”.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/12/what-attracts-mark-zuckerberg-roman-hardman-augustus

  Augustus was a Sun Virgo, but had the harsh Fixed Mars Saturn conjunction of Z’s chart but in his case in Taurus rather than Scorpio which is much the same. A’s Mars Saturn is conjunct his natal North Node tying him into the zeitgeist and interestingly Z’s power-hungry Pluto is conjunct A’s South Node, hooking him into A’s baser motives. Z’s North Node is conjunct A’s Pluto in Gemini for another control-freak link up. Both charts have stratospheric dreams of achievement with wide Jupiter Neptune in Cardinal signs.

  Kind of figures why Zuckerburg would be interested in Augustus though also scary given his outreach via FB at the moment.

  Z’s dead eyes are something to do with that Scorpio Moon, Mars, Saturn opposition Venus -his mother was a psychiatrist before the kids arrived and he may have had a tricky birth or legacy from previous generations which won’t be known without an accurate birth time.

PS.  I would have to confess a degree of perplexity since my belated excursion onto FB doesn’t extend to news or indeed to rancid head-twisting conspiracy junk. Why would anyone use FB as a news source?  Any mention I make of news sources I tend to think of as free advertising for them.  

Rush Limbaugh, the political radio ‘shock jock’ who traded on ‘fake news’ and conspiracy theories and emerged from Reagan’s time to become a nemesis for Clinton and Obama, has died of lung cancer. He set the tone for the internet age calling women’s rights activists “feminazis”, referring to HIV/Aids as “Rock Hudson’s disease” and claiming “environmentalist wackos” were “a bunch of scientists organised around a political position”; argued the existence of gorillas disproved evolution, characterised both the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2010) and the mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand (2019) as “false flag” operations organised by leftists.

  He was born 12 January 1951 7.50am Cape Girardeau, MO, into a family of conservative judges, did poorly at school, quit University after a year and was then fired from a succession of radio jobs. In 1987 under Reagan, legislation changed which allowed him an opening and by 1992 he had a syndicated TV programme produced by Roger Ailes.

   His deeply personal anti-Clinton campaigning was so effective that when Gingrich and the Republicans re-took the House, they made him an honorary member of the Republican caucus. The same happened in 2010 when the Republicans rallied in the midterms and he reaped much of the credit with his claims that Obama was foreign-born and had allowed ebola into the US in revenge for African slavery.

  He received the presidential medal of freedom from Trump.

  His personal life was a series of short-lived marriages and divorces, with tales of prescription drug addiction.

  He had a 12^th house Capricorn Sun square Neptune and on one leg of a Yod in sextile to a Pisces Moon inconjunct Pluto in his 7^th house of close relationships and interaction with people in general. His Pluto was further emphasised/afflicted by being in a rage-filled opposition to Mars in contrary, stubborn Aquarius.

  His Mercury in Capricorn opposed Uranus and squared an 8^th house Saturn in Libra.

  Shock jocks and conspiracy theories usually have volcanically angry and hate-fuelled Mars. Mercury in hard aspect to Uranus is also prevalent.

  It’s hardly surprising his personal life was such a train-wreck with his controlling, contemptuous Pluto in his 7^th opposition Mars – with his Mars exactly conjunct his Sun/Moon midpoint.

Bobby Fischer, who brought chess to a worldwide audience, is being introduced to a younger generation in reruns of two highly rated documentaries – Bobby Fischer Against the World and Searching for Bobby Fischer. He was a controversial figure, described as ‘paranoid and obsessive’; his behaviour ‘often boorish and outrageously egotistical, bordering on lunacy’ and the most brilliant chess player in the world.

 He was born 9 March 1943 2.39 pm  Chicago, Illinois, to a medical mother and possibly with a mathematician/physicist biological father and took up chess aged six. At 14, he became the youngest ever U.S. Chess Champion and a year later the youngest grandmaster. At age 20, he won the 1963/64 US Championship with the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. His victory against Boris Spassky of the USSR in the World Chess Championship in 1972 attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since.

He then became reclusive and sometimes erratic, disappearing from competitive chess and the public eye, giving his money to a Fundamentalist Church and eventually ending up as a resident in Iceland where he died aged 65.

  He had a 9^th house Pisces Sun trine a 12^th house Jupiter in Cancer, which sounds good-natured and confident. But what dominates his chart is an Air Grand Trine of Mars in Aquarius trine Uranus Saturn in Gemini trine Neptune in Libra. Cerebral and up-in-his head he had the cold detachment needed for the battle of wits that the chess game demands. Saturn Uranus would give him insight and with Neptune added into the mix, he’d have flashes of genius. His Mercury in Aquarius also brings a sharp mind and squaring onto Uranus, it doubles up on the inspired insight. Pisces despite its dreamy reputation is often the sign of scientists and explorers so in certain charts is no drawback to deep thinking or strategy.

  His talented Air Grand trine became a Kite with the opposition of Mars to Pluto on the Ascendant so his ruthless desire to maintain control was the driving force behind his thinking. In chess, he once said, ‘the object is to crush the other man’s mind’ – which pretty much sums up Mars Pluto. The Mars Pluto opposition squares onto a 10^th house Taurus Moon hinting at a tortured emotional life, fuelled by deep, black rage, which he focussed onto a public career (10^th house Moon). Air Water charts are quite tricky to balance between thinking and feeling functions.

   When he won the World Championship on 1 September 1972 against reigning world champion Boris Spassky breaking a 24 year domination of the game by the Russians, he had Pluto exactly conjunct his 3^rd house Neptune (on one leg of the Air Grand Trine).

  He had a whole raft of notable Harmonics – the superstar 22H and other ‘Master’ number 11H, the breakthrough-genius 13H as well as the creative 5^th and 7^th harmonics.

 His psychological troubles were never formally diagnosed and it is thought likely he suffered from paranoid personality disorder.

Add On: John Nash, the brilliant mathematician and double Nobel winner who made fundamental contributions to game theory and the factors that govern chance amongst other things, and was brought to public attention by the Russell Crowe movie A Beautiful Mind, was born 13 June 1928 7am Bluefield, WV. He was also psychologically troubled and diagnosed schizophrenic for which he was hospitalised and eventually was able to carry on with his life. Though died in a car crash in 2008.

  He had a very different chart to Fischer. Nash was a Sun Venus in Gemini opposition Saturn; with his Sun on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine to Neptune trine Mars Moon in Aries. He also had an intense Mercury Pluto in Cancer square Uranus and square Mars Moon.

  Of the odd similarities between Fischer and Nash – both had 10^th house Suns and both had Pluto on their Ascendant and both had Mercury square Uranus.

  They both had Grand Trines in their superstar 22^nd harmonic, which is exceptionally strong in Nash’s case. And similar planets/aspects in their respective genius-breakthrough 13H.

Princess Latifa al-Maktoum, daughter of the absolute ruler of the playboy tourist kingdom of Dubai, has smuggled out a distressing video saying she is being held prisoner and fears for her life. The UN has said they will start an investigation. Three years ago she made a bid for freedom in an escape that had all the hallmarks of a Hollywood thriller but was illegally captured in the Indian Ocean and returned home. Last year the London High Court ruled that her father had ‘ordered and orchestrated’ her abduction and also that of a second daughter, Princess Shamsa, who was snatched outside a pub in Cambridgeshire in 2000 and hasn’t been seen since; and further found he had waged a campaign of fear against his sixth wife, Princess Haya, 45, who fled to the UK last year. Princess Latifa was last seen in public in December 2018, in a stage-managed photo call with former Irish president Mary Robinson who has since said she was tricked into believing Latifa suffered from a mental illness.

  Sheik Maktoum, 15 July 1949, is one of the richest heads of state in the world, the ruler of Dubai and vice-president of the UAE and has 30 children by six different wives. He has been a close friend of the Queen through his extensive racing interests in the UK though his horses have been dogged by doping concerns. He was also criticised heavily over the enslavement of young boys acting as camel jockeys; and for the conditions of immigrant workers in construction in Dubai.

He is a Sun Cancer in an expansive opposition to Jupiter; with a possessive Venus Pluto in Leo. It’s not a particularly hard chart – though houses will make a difference which we don’t know without a birth time. But the lifestyle and judicial system in Dubai, despite pretensions to being a Western tourist hotspot, is about four hundred years behind the times.

   He was always in for a shock this year with Solar Arc Mars conjunct his Saturn which accompanies a major setback of car-crash proportions – though the pandemic won’t be helping as tourist income sinks. 2022 has his Solar Arc Sun square his Uranus for a serious jolt; and by 2023/24 he has a discouraging, stuck Solar Arc Saturn square his Pluto and then square his Venus – blocked in several ways, financially and emotionally. That latter is a time when the Dubai chart is under major strain as well.

  Latifa, 5 December 1985, is a rebellious and adventurous Sun Uranus in Sagittarius sextile Jupiter; with Saturn Venus also in Uranus; and a Virgo Moon which will square her Sagittarius planets. There is nothing cheerful in her chart over the next three years, quite the contrary. She has a ‘shocking’ Solar Arc Uranus square her Mars this year; and two stuck, trapped, high-risk Solar Arcs in 2022/23 – SA Mars conjunct her Saturn and SA Pluto conjunct Sun.

   In addition to legitimate outrage over her distressing individual plight, there may be other knock on effects for the UK.

1. It – yet again – brings questionable Royal associations into the spotlight.

2. It also turns attention on UK arms’ sales to the UAE which have been used to bolster the indefensible, destructive and inhumane war on Yemen.

3. It could longer-term persuade footballers, celebrity influencers and tourists that there is a taint in being associated with the ‘City of Gold’. Maybe.

See previous posts: 6 March 2020. 4 July 2019. 28 August 2018.

Kim Novak, the veteran Hollywood star, has joined the long list of celebrities, prompted by their own experiences to become mental health activists. Her 1958 Hitchcock movie Vertigo was last year voted the greatest film ever and she worked opposite many of the great male leads of the time – Sinatra, William Holden, James Stewart, Dean Martin. But in the late 1960s she effectively retired, in part because of the recurrent depressions she suffered though she was not diagnosed as bi-polar until 2000. After she withdrew from showbusiness to marry an equine vet, she became a painter, helped her husband, enjoyed nature.

  She was born 13 February 1933 6.13 am Chicago, Illinois, with an Aquarius Sun in her first house sextile Uranus and inconjunct Pluto. Her Uranus was inconjunct an 8^th house Jupiter Mars in Virgo and square Pluto. Her coolly sophisticated Venus Saturn in Aquarius conjunct her Ascendant is trine an 8^th house Libra Moon and inconjunct Neptune. Three quincunxes would lead to strain and she wouldn’t be well supported emotionally in childhood. But she’s clearly a fighter. When Trump ridiculed her appearance at the 2014 Oscars, she went back two weeks later to do a live interview talking about bullies and has since campaigned on the subject.

  Her husband died recently and she’s bringing out an art book in his memory.

Kim Novak: Her Art and Life can be bought at kimnovakartist.com

Nicky Campbell, a UK TV and radio presenter, has also been talking about his bi-polar story, with a new book out One of the Family in which he talks of being adopted and the devastating effect it had on him, despite having supportive adoptive parents. He discovered along the way that his biological mother had also been a bi-polar sufferer.

  He was born 10 April 1961 8am Edinburgh, Scotland, and has an upbeat Sun Venus in Aries square Mars on one side and square Saturn on the other; and trine Uranus so he’ll be inclined to mood swings with such volatile aspects to his Sun – all systems-go then grinding to a halt with self-doubt. His 10^th house Moon opposes Uranus and is inconjunct Neptune. And he has a Yod of Neptune sextile Pluto North Node inconjunct Jupiter giving him more mood swings, at times towards grandiosity. He’s also got the expanding and contracting Saturn conjunct Jupiter of that year.

  No great conclusions come out of this and I’m no believer is using astrology for diagnostic purposes. They both have very different planets and houses. The strained quincunxes are the only common factor which won’t necessarily lead to mental illness though they do tend to produce strain and a sense of being different from others. What both share is a sense that animals are life and sanity savers.