Salmond v Sturgeon – a thorny Scottish scrap

The bitter feud between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, former and present First Ministers of Scotland, finally erupted into a daggers drawn scenario, which could throw the independence struggle off track. He accused her of repeatedly misleading parliament over the investigation into multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him. If proved she might be forced to resign.

  It’s a bewildering political, legal and procedural guddle with the original botched Holyrood inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct against Salmond having been found to have been “tainted by apparent bias.” A subsequent court case found him not guilty on 12 of the sexual assault charges facing him, while another charge was found not proven. His defence barrister said in his summing up “I’m not here to suggest he always behaved well or couldn’t have been a better man on occasions. I’m dealing with whether or not it was established he was guilty of serious, sometimes very serious, criminal charges,” which require a “very, very high standard of proof”. They were majority verdicts.  

   There were suggestions that a political conspiracy from within the Scottish National Party lay behind some of the charges.

This is a rehash of an earlier March 24 2020 post.

  Salmond, 31 December 1954 4.30pm Linlithgow, Scotland, is an articulate and charismatic figure, an astute politician with a considerable ego, who led Scotland to near independence, but also suffers from questionable judgement, notably in fronting a talk show with the Putin-backed Russia Today network.

   He is facing a whole raft of negative influences last year and on for several years ahead, which he’ll approach with his usual bullish confidence. From March 2020 tr Neptune was conjunct his 10th house Mars which usually accompanies a sense of panicky-failure, and that influence repeated in September and will come round again in February 2021. His Solar Arc Midheaven opposed his Saturn in 2020 and even more discouraging his Solar Arc Mars is approaching the exact square to his Pluto within weeks which is trapped and frustrating. He does suffer from asthma so health worries may be part of it.

  Tr Pluto will oppose his Uranus Jupiter in 2021/22 from late February onwards which will put him into confidence-overdrive, determined to make waves, but his Solar Arc Saturn will oppose his Jupiter Uranus by 2022 for setbacks and a dead-halt. 2022/23 also sees tr Neptune conjunct his 10th house Moon, which doesn’t suggest career success or voter popularity; and that coincides with an undermining Solar Arc Neptune conjunct his Sun and tr Pluto square his Neptune.  It should be a time to crawl into a bunker and lie low, except he’s unlikely to go quietly.

 Nicola Sturgeon, 19 July 1970 3.16 pm Irvine, Scotland, has bolstered her popularity with her response to Boris’s Brexit and the CV19 crisis.  Her relationship with Salmond who was her mentor, was never as cosy as the red carpet moments. His controlling Pluto is conjunct her Midheaven so he would shape her career but also insist on having total control; and his ambitious Mars opposed her Pluto for what clearly turned into a bitter power struggle. 

  Their relationship chart has a friendly and affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction. But also a one-upmanship Jupiter Pluto conjunction – initially that can provide a surge of joint enthusiasm pushing the pair onto success but when it falls apart – as it usually does – the energy turned inwards and creates a tussle for the last word and the upper hand.  There’s also a one-sided composite Saturn square Mars which suggests a partnership where one partner has to sacrifice their needs to prevents arguments; and Mars is also in a volatile square to Uranus.  It has been under immense pressure since the 2014 Referendum with the tr Pluto square tr Uranus hitting on the composite Sun Venus and tr Neptune undermining the Jupiter Pluto.

  2021/22 has a tr Pluto trine the composite Mars so the hostility is unlikely to wind down any time soon. It will remain high-wire and strung out also because the tr Uranus square tr Saturn will hit on the paranoid/neurotic composite Neptune square Saturn in 2021/22 as well.

  Sturgeon like Salmond is in a bullish mood for the next three years though is also under huge pressure with tr Pluto opposition her Cancer Sun and square her Jupiter. She looks extremely frustrated and road-blocked in 2022 with tr Pluto opposition her Sun/Mars and worse in 2023/24 with tr Pluto opposition her Mars. It doesn’t look like a time of overwhelming success and jubilation.   

Martin Luther King – warts and all bio-pic

A new Martin Luther King film – MLK/FBI – is certain to raise controversy since it does not shy away from his frenetic sex life. The director Sam Pollard, an African-American who has worked many times alongside Spike Lee and produced an epic PBS series about the long battle for racial equality in the US, is no partisan observer. He says, “You have to realise that he was a human being like the rest of us, that he had his flaws, like we all have our flaws. They don’t diminish his importance as an iconic civil rights leader.”

 The FBI spied on MLK for years, suspecting initially communist leanings because of his associates, but having discovered his extramarital liaisons, switched their attention to his private life. Newly released material from the National Archives points to a surveillance tape of MLK spectating a rape, though Pollard isn’t convinced it is genuine and it is sealed under court order until 2027.  Hoover became obsessed with MLK partly out of a reds-under-the-bed paranoia and partly out of undoubted racist leanings. JFK authorised some of the wiretaps after discovering MLK had lied to him about splitting from one communist friend.

  MLK said in one of his final sermons, “There is a schizophrenia, as the psychologists or the psychiatrists would call it, going on within all of us. There are times that all of us know somehow that there is a Mr Hyde and a Dr Jekyll in us.” He knew he was a sinner.

  MLK was born 15 January 1929 12 pm (from memory) Atlanta, Georgia, and according to wiki his father regularly used whippings to discipline his children and also had his children whip each other. Twice during his childhood MLK attempted suicide by jumping out of an upper storey window, over an incident involving his grandmother of whom he was fond and her death.

  He had a Capricorn Sun close to his midheaven in his communicative 9th in a controlling opposition to Pluto on one side and square Jupiter in the other; more tellingly given his hair-raising childhood he had Saturn in the 8th in a cruel-treatment opposition to Mars and squaring onto a sensitive Pisces Moon and Venus.  Mars Saturn is one of the indicators of childhood abuse, as well, in older astrology, as being an assassination signature. When he was shot in 1968 his Progressed Mars had moved to exactly oppose his Saturn. Saturn in the 8th can also oddly be an indicator of a sexualised approach to life and in his case it also squared his Venus which would amplify the ‘sex addict’ streak in his nature.

  His wife, Coretta, 27 April 1927 4pm Marion, Alabama, was a stalwart 8th house Taurus with a do-or-die-determined Mars Pluto on her Midheaven. Her Moon Jupiter in Pisces would connect with his Moon Venus and his Jupiter in Taurus was conjunct her Sun so it wouldn’t be all bad despite his wanderings. Their relationship chart had a complementary (more whole when together) New Moon.

  Not that either J Edgar Hoover or JFK had much to shout about when it came to sexual waywardness.

Hoover, 1 January 1895 7.30 am Washington, DC (date may be in question) could have been a Sun Venus in Capricorn with a harsh, perverse Mars in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio; and an emotionally-off-the-wall Pisces Moon square Pluto Neptune in Gemini. It looks feasible enough for a man who lived with his mother into mid-life, could have been a closet homosexual or asexual, certainly a pornography addict or even a cross-dresser.

  JFK, 29 May 1917 3pm Brookline, Massachusetts, was a Sun Venus in Gemini with a jam-packed 8th house (ruling sexuality) with Mars in Taurus, Mercury, Jupiter and Sun there. Like MLK his Moon was in hard aspect to Venus.

  Richard Idemon used to say Moon Venus was the ‘poisoned apple’ aspect indicating a sexualised relationship with the mother – not acted out but implicit, so there in the atmosphere from early on.

  Finding out that idols have feet of clay can be discouraging. Though what is more mind-bending is the thought that it is their flaws that made them great. No one who came from a sedate, contented background ever got to be a world-beater.  

Transgender orthodoxies being challenged

The toxic transgender debate has been rattled by two new events. A recent High Court ruling that under-age children are not capable of giving consent to puberty blockers has been amplified by media pressure for expert witness testimony to be published.

  Professor Christopher Gillberg, an expert in child and adolescent psychiatry, said such treatment is a scandal and tantamount to conducting ‘a live experiment’ on vulnerable children. ‘In my years as a physician, I cannot remember an issue of greater significance for the practice of medicine. We have left established evidence-based clinical practice and are using powerful life-altering medication for a vulnerable group of adolescents and children based upon a belief.’

  He said that in 45 years of treating autistic children, he saw few cases of gender confusion until 2013. Since then there had been a worldwide explosion in the number of children saying they wanted to change sex – most were girls who wanted to be boys. Autistic teenagers were particularly vulnerable to seizing on a single answer “to the lifelong identity problems they have suffered”. Research showed that, left alone, the condition usually resolved itself, and that as girls grew up they accepted that they wanted to live as women.

 The case was brought against the Tavistock Clinic in London, which has been the proponent of this treatment and is appealing. Founded 27 September 1920, it initially treated shell-shocked soldiers as well as children and used to have a sterling reputation. It started on a Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Virgo with Saturn in a ‘military’ square to Mars. It has an adventurous Jupiter opposition Uranus which is the driving rod of a healing Water Grand Trine of Pluto trine Scorpio North Node trine Uranus. A Water Grand Trine can become detached from reality, living as it does within its own bubble. And an unyielding Mercury square Pluto probably wouldn’t help.

  The other dust-up is the New Years Honour of an OBE given to Kathleen Stock, a Philosophy Professor for her services to higher education. This has brought a storm of protest from other academics because she has spoken out on issues such as single sex spaces, the healthcare scandal around trans-identified children, male sex offenders being placed in women’s prisons. She has criticised Stonewall, initially an LGBT lobbying group, but now exclusively pro-transgender, who are campaigning to support males who self-identify as women playing rugby thereby exposing fellow female players to potential neck-breaking and death.

  Rugby referees are quitting the women’s amateur game because they fear rules allowing transgender women to play will lead to serious injuries. One said they had been warned not to challenge bearded or heavily muscled players appearing for women’s teams. “Being forced to prioritise hurt feelings over broken bones exposes me to personal litigation from female players who have been damaged by players who are biologically male. This is driving female players and referees out of the game.”

  A letter signed by 600 academics globally say they are “dismayed” that Kathleen Stock has been honoured, given her “harmful rhetoric” about transgender and gender non-conforming people that “reinforces the patriarchal status quo”.

  Kathleen Stock, born 18 November 1972 in Aberdeen, is a stalwart Scorpio with a serious and outspoken Mercury in Sagittarius opposition Saturn in Gemini; a pushily confident Jupiter square Pluto and Jupiter in a risk-taking sextile to an uber-determined Mars in Scorpio. She’s certainly well designed to stand up to pressure.

  Stonewall, 24 May 1989, was started with the Sun and three other planets in Gemini and the triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune, Saturn in Capricorn. With Neptune Saturn opposition Mars in Cancer and Mars trine Pluto; and an Aquarius North Node. Good at communication with so much Gemini, geared up for tricky fights in the public arena with Mars, Saturn, Neptune, devoted to a cause with the North Node. But also quite chaotic, inconsistent. It is under pressure this year and next with the Solar Arc Saturn Neptune square the Pluto which could be devastating, certainly confused; and in a disruptive phase of upheaval with tr Uranus opposition its Pluto from mid this year into 2022. The Eclipses this year will also rattle up its Gemini planets. It will be at a crossroads and whether voluntarily or force majeure will be making radical changes in its direction.

  There’s a madness about this debate and associated actions. None of which fit with transgenders like Jan Morris, who quietly got on with what made her feel comfortable with herself and was accepted as a celebrated travel writer and author for decades after transitioning. See post November 21 2020.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/autistic-girls-seeking-answers-are-seizing-on-sex-change-3r82850gw

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9130157/The-physicians-testimony-led-High-Court-judge-ban-child-puberty-blocker-drugs.html

Pierre Cardin & Albert Roux – two shining stars

Two creative geniuses from different fields have died within days of each other recently. Pierre Cardin, one of the great and avant-garde fashion designers; and Albert Roux, the chef who along with his brother, brought classic French cuisine and Michelin stars to Britain.  Both were from poor families who apprenticed early on in their respective trade, rose up the ladder and, both with a head for business, made themselves standout successes.

  Cardin was born 2 July 1922 2pm San Biagio di Callalta, Italy, worked with Jean Cocteau on theatre costumes, migrated to Dior and then independence. “My clothes aren’t fun,” he said, “they are worrying; it’s like listening to contemporary music.” His flair for branding established a new tradition in haute couture.

Albert Roux, 8 October 1935 5.30pm Semur-en-Brionnais, France, was the son of a pork butcher who left school at 14, trained with a pâtissier, served in the French Army in Algeria and came to England as the private chef for the Cazalets, friends of the Queen Mother. He was a notorious perfectionist with a strong head for business, and it was usually he rather than his brother Michel who negotiated deals for the Roux empire. He was a natural on TV shows, ran several restaurants and was retained as a consultant by airlines and hotels all over the world.

  Cardin had a much-travelled and controlling 9th house Sun Pluto in Cancer square a Libra Moon. Cancer is often a fashion designer’s sign and has a nose for public taste. A Libra Moon would attract him to elegance though his avant-garde creations were not always to everyone’s taste. He had a 10th house Venus Neptune in Leo giving him artistic and design talent and it held a significant place in his chart being on one leg of a Yod in sextile to his Moon Jupiter and inconjunct a 5th house maverick Uranus, which last would give him his liking for wayout designs. His Mars in colourful Sagittarius was in his financial 2nd trine his Venus Neptune.

  Roux had a hard-working 6th house Libra Sun, a controlling 4th house Pluto, Mars in Sagittarius in his financial 8th; and a maverick Aquarius Moon square Jupiter in money-magnet Scorpio. His Uranus was in his 1st.

   There are strong similarities between them – both with Mars in a financial house; both with an Air Moon aspecting Jupiter; both with a standout Uranus, the torchbearer leading the way. And probably most importantly of all they both had Jupiter in aspect to Pluto giving them confidence and drive.  

A world away from politics and a dash of glamour.

USA supremacists planning to ignore the vote

Behind the shocking scenes at Capitol Hill this week were several supremacist militia groups, all given the green light by Trump and treated with kid gloves by the security staff. The largest of them, the Oath Keepers, an armed right-wing organisation with 30,000 law enforcement officers, soldiers and military veterans as members, say they will refuse to recognise Biden as president.

  There are various enraged ‘patriot’ flag wavers and founders of various branches, many sitting on each other’s boards, but all with the same aim – creating mayhem. Dates aren’t available for all but below is what I can find.

  The two key ones of the moment (though they do come and go) are the Oath Keepers, started in 2009 and incorporated on 22 October, as Pluto moved into Capricorn – it looks highly-strung in 2021 and in risk-taking and over-confident mood in 2022/23. The other is the Proud Boys, a male-only outfit, founded by Gavin McInnes which kicked off in 2016 with the paranoid Saturn square Neptune in place.

  McInnes, 17 July 1970, a Neo-fascist who promotes violence against opponents, is a pumped-up Sun Mars in Cancer trine Neptune, sextile, Pluto, and square Jupiter – so a not inconsequential personality. His chart looks worked up to def con levels over the next three to four years with Solar Arc Mercury conjunct his Pluto this in 2021; and tr Pluto opposition his Sun and Mars, trine his Pluto and square his Jupiter. All of which looks volcanic.

Richard Mack, a former sheriff, another leading light on Oath Keepers, 27 December 1952, followed his father’s footsteps into the FBI, and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His ideology was formed at the feet of fellow Mormon, W. Cleon Skousen, a leading light of right-wing radicalism, a theocrat who believed the decline of America began with the 14th Amendment and its guarantee of equality for the former slaves. A former police chief and FBI agent, he whipped up anti-communist fervour under the banner of the John Birch Society. He warned of global elites scheming to create a worldwide, collectivist government; demonized federal regulatory agencies and campaigned to abolish civil rights laws, labour unions, the minimum wage, the income and estate taxes, the direct election of U.S. senators, the wall between church and state.

  He’s a Sun Capricorn with the typical agitated-hatred for authority figures Mars opposition Pluto. He’s not in good health so unlikely to be in the forefront but will no doubt be cheering from the sidelines. His chart looks aggravated in 2023/24, and assuming that isn’t personal issues, there does seem to be a hint of trouble around that period.

  Two others marching to the same drumbeat are rancher and anti-government activist Clive Bundy, 29 April 1946, and his son Ammon, 1 September 1975. Both have strongly aspected and aggressive Mars – Bundy Senior with a Taurus Sun in a formidable square to Mars Pluto in Leo; and Bundy Junior with a Virgo Sun square Marts and Neptune, and Mars trine Pluto. Bundy Snr is another member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and regards his successful stand off against ineffectual law enforcement in 2014 as divine intervention.

  Bundy Senior is up in arms through the next three months with tr Uranus rattling his Sun and Pluto. Bundy Junior is in full autocratic overdrive for the next three to four years with tr Pluto square his Jupiter and hitting on his Uranus and Saturn.

  Most of these white supremacist groups hate women as well as non-whites, so heaven help Kamala Harris if she had to step into the breach.

   Joe Biden is a fair match for the hate-filled ones since he has Mars in Scorpio square Pluto himself, which he has obviously learned to control. Its more positive attributes include courage, tenacity and do-or-die-determination. Tr Uranus will square his Pluto for the final time next month and then make a disruptive and insecure opposition to his Mars from late May this year, on and off into early 2022. Luckily he’s also got a confident and successful tr Pluto opposition his Jupiter and trine his Sun/Jupiter midpoint from later this month, on and off till late 2022, which should ease his passage into an abnormally challenging presidency – with Covid and its associated economic damage, foreign policy crises, never mind the internal powder keg of the Trump hangover, the racial and poverty divide and dysfunctional law enforcement. He looks exceptionally rattled through 2023/24 with tr Uranus opposition his Mercury, then Sun and Venus, with a hint of health concerns from his Solar Return into 2024.  

   Kamala Harris is feeling the pressure from 2022 onwards with tr Pluto square her Libra Sun and Moon; but again it will be 2023/2024 which are her testing times with Solar Arc Saturn conjunct her Moon and opposition her Sun; as well as tr Uranus square her Mars and shaking up her Fixed T Square into 2024. She does have a strong Jupiter which will bring her some luck and she may need it.

No matter what rocks up for Biden and it’s likely to be a litany of troubles coming at him from all directions, he should find his Jupiter fishes him out of tight spots in the first two years. After that all bets are off.

USA & Trump – rabble-rousing boils over ++

“The mob is the most ruthless of tyrants.” Friedrich Nietzsche.

‘You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!’    Shakespeare’s reflections on the mob in ‘Julius Caesar‘ are a reminder they have existed throughout history. The Romans were acutely aware that the crowd of common men had to be treated with caution, kept amiable with bread and (blood-drenched, gladiatorial) circuses.

  Two astro-events collided this month for the USA. One is tr Pluto opposition the US Mercury till late this month, which promotes bitter, hostile debate, riled up by demagogues and agitators with deceitful rhetoric. And it leads to excessive mental strain. That has been running on and off through 2020 and repeats mid August to late November this year.

  The other trigger was the December 2020 Sagittarius Solar Eclipse which opposed the USA 1776 Mars in Gemini. It runs in effect for several months and leads to an overspill of argumentative and aggressive energy. Jansky in his book on Eclipses describes it thus: ‘A period of warfare. Compromise? Never!’  It can turn destructive which it obviously did in Washington yesterday. 

  Trump channels into the USA Mars with his Gemini Sun conjunct and his Sagittarius Moon exactly in opposition, so he was always going to be a divisive and inflammatory catalyst for the country. And his Full Moon was exactly what the December Solar Eclipse provoked  – to his detriment, which in turn generated full-blown narcissistic rage. To do the decent thing and face up to loss and failure for him would mean psychic death, against which he defends himself with volcanic anger and frenzied desperation.

   His relationship charts with both Republican Party charts have composite planets also being rattled by the Eclipse – one has a composite Saturn Pluto at 24/20 Gemini and the other Pluto at 21 Gemini square Mars. Even his die-hard political supporters are, mainly, turning their backs on him – too late.  The Republican Party, 22 February 1856 chart, has a sober-moment of reckoning from the December Eclipse opposition the Saturn, which brings responsibility for those under their care. They voted for him, stood behind him and now they are seeing the chickens come home to roost. This chart is sagging badly through 2021/22 with tr Neptune square the Saturn.

  Tr Uranus is also square the USA North Node in Leo, exactly now, which is arguably denting the USA’s leadership image as a shining beacon of decency and democracy.

  What next?  The tr Pluto opposition the USA Mercury runs on into the Pluto Return in 2022/23 so there will be lingering aggravation and resentment. This is a pivotal moment for the USA, with a contradictory outcome.  Trump as wrecking ball may have been a necessary force to tumble the house of cards of American politics and bring greater self-awareness of what is needed in the rebuilding process. But there is also a sense of deep wounds exposed which won’t heal easily. He leaves a poisoned legacy behind – “the evil that men do lives after them.” (Shakespeare)

  Of Trump himself, he appears to have overshot his bolt to such an extent that there will be no coming back and no compassion for his manifest financial sins. It may be that John F Kennedy was right when he said in his own inaugural address: “Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”

Earlier posts to refresh memories:

December 13 2020 – Trump as of the moment.

September 28 2020 – Trump finances ahead

August 25 2020 – the Trump tribe, kiddies’ fortunes ahead.

Kim and Kanye – long drawn out end of an era

Sound the trumpets for the end of the celebrity influencer cult (cross fingers) with the news that Kim Kardashian, one of the principal and early offenders in this zone is heading for a divorce from Kanye West.

  He’s had well-publicised problems with his bi-polar disorder and she pulled back from the spotlight after a scary robbery in Paris in 2016.  The marriage has clearly been in trouble for a while and with so much money at stake – $4 billion jointly it is thought – it will be a major disengagement exercise.

  In many ways it’s a shame since his Sun Jupiter in Gemini falls on her Descendant which is ideal and fits her Libra Sun; with his passionately enthusiastic Mars Venus in her 5th. His Pluto in her 10th would make him inclined to control her direction but she’s got a Sun Pluto conjunction so would have been OK with that up to a point. Both have Pisces Moons.

  There’s nothing much showing on the relationship chart apart – perhaps – from tr Neptune conjunct the composite Moon. But without his birth time that isn’t certain.  2022 looks more ominous since tr Saturn in Aquarius will then conjunct the tricky composite T square of Mars opposition Sun Mercury square Uranus; with a jolting tr Uranus joining in and extending in the years beyond that. So it may take some time.

  He’s on his mid-life crisis Uranus opposition at the moment with tr Uranus also disrupting his Saturn in Leo as well through this year so he’ll be up and down.

  Her Sun/Moon midpoint which usually shows up with separations, took its worst pounding several years back so she may psychologically have made the split already.

   She’s in a less successful low-profile phase with tr Saturn moving through her First Quadrant – from the robbery in 2016 through till mid decade. Which doesn’t mean she won’t be making a confident and probably successful push for a new project come 2022/23 with tr Pluto trine her 10th house Jupiter.

  Their wedding chart, 24 May 2014 Florence, Italy, had all the hints of a tumultuous union with an Aries Moon Uranus opposition Mars square Pluto opposition Jupiter. It predicted a pattern of rolling crises in the years following – of which this is one, with the explosive Solar Arc Mars in exact opposition to the Uranus.

Trump’s death dealing tantrum as he exits

Trump’s brawling exit from the White House, slashing-and-burning as he goes, leaves (he hopes) a scorched earth legacy for his replacement. It is even for him, nauseatingly destructive. He is, for one, auctioning off portions of the Arctic national wildlife refuge to oil drillers to add to his previous sins against the environment and mother earth. Executions are also on his wish list as he ‘rushes to kill three prisoners over four days as a macabre climax of his time in the White House.’ One of them, if it goes ahead on January 12th will be the first woman executed in 70 years.

Lisa Montgomery, 27 February 1968 in Kansas, did commit a shockingly brutal murder of an eight months pregnant woman to steal her baby sixteen years ago. But the story of Montgomery’s childhood is so beyond horrific that it is a miracle she survived at all, let alone was left with any spark of humanity. Raped, gang-raped while still a child, suffering severe concussive injuries when she objected which are visible on MRI scans, sold for sex by her mother – not a story for the faint of heart or stomach. No civilized country executes those suffering from severe mental disorders – apart from the USA.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/05/lisa-montgomery-death-row-execution-history

  Montgomery is a Sun and probably Moon in Pisces opposition Jupiter in Leo, with her Jupiter square Neptune. It was possibly her emphasised Jupiter which allowed her to keep going in the face of years of brutalising treatment. What stands out starkly is a Mars Saturn conjunction in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries. Mars Saturn can be an indication of unkind if not downright cruel treatment. But there is always a spectrum of meaning with any planetary aspects and how they work out will depend partly on house positions and on the ‘indefinable’ something that a chart won’t show. In old style astrology Mars Saturn had associations with assassinations or violent death; as well as military ability.

  Two born near Montgomery with the same Mars Saturn in Aries are Daniel Craig, born 2 March, who became the face of acceptable violence as James Bond. And Kate McGann, born 5 March, tragic mother of the disappeared Madeleine.

  Montgomery has her Black Moon Lilith conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol opposition Neptune. When she committed the murder in 2004, her Solar Arc North Node was approaching the conjunction to her BML and opposition her Neptune.  A touch nebulous but it may be significant.

  Oddly enough her Jupiter falls exactly on Trump’s Ascendant; her Uranus Pluto squares his Full Moon, her New Moon sits in his 7th; and her Mars Saturn sits in his 8th.  There’s more than a hint of a karmic link between them.   And their relationship chart has a composite Sun Venus opposition Neptune, trine Pluto, square Uranus – which is quite interconnected.

  If there is any decency in the universe, his karma will surely come up and bite him for his misdeeds.

Trump in tartan – leaving him exposed

Rumours are rife in Scotland that Trump may fly to his Turnberry golf course hotel in Ayr (despite it being closed) on January 19th to avoid the Biden Inauguration next day. It may turn out to be a non-story or he’ll change his mind or Nicola Sturgeon will quite rightly throw a hissy fit over him breaching coronavirus restrictions and deny him entry.  Nor is it clear how, as a private citizen, he would be allowed to fly back to the US after January 20 from a plague-zone.

   In any event he might be better advised to avoid turning a publicity spotlight onto his two Scottish golf courses, which are haemorrhaging money, and in debt to the tune of £158 million. Their long-term viability is underwritten by the Trump Organization, which will come under renewed scrutiny after Trump leaves the White House. And there is a larger and scarier threat with Scottish lawmakers pushing to investigate Trump’s finances using an anti-money-laundering statute typically employed against kleptocrats, oligarchs, and crime kingpins. Their question: Where did the hundreds of millions Trump poured into his Scottish courses actually come from?

  During his well-documented low period between 2006 and 2014 he splurged $400 million in a cash spending spree, in addition to Scotland, purchasing a golf club in Ireland, five courses in the USA, and several expensive homes.  Then spent mega-millions more in refurbishments.

Questions, questions and with Deutsche Bank backing off, who knows what might crawl out from under rocks?

  Scotland is where his mother Mary was born, but is a risky area for him. Relocating his chart to Ayr put his secretive, dirty-dealing Pluto in the 10th which is generally considered unfavourable, since it brings out a ruthless energy which can be destructive or damaging. His Pluto is being particularly battered this coming year by tr Uranus in square and tr Saturn in opposition.

  Trump’s relationship with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has never been good and she said recently that he will face “due accountability” in Scotland if evidence emerges that his Scottish golf courses have been used for money laundering and fraud. Trump’s Pluto is conjunct her Mercury, her Saturn is conjunct his Midheaven and square his Mars – so there will be a war of words and she’ll put blocks in his way.

   Their relationship chart is volatile with an uncompromising composite Uranus Mars which is being ramped up to explosion point through this year by the tr Saturn square tr Uranus. The recent December Solar Eclipse was opposition their composite Saturn; and tr Pluto is opposition the composite Mercury this month and again later in 2021. Relations will deteriorate badly in the months to come.