Alan Ritchson, the epitome of a hard-man has earned him success in TV’s Reacher, now out for the fourth season. A recent squall with a neighbour which hit the headlines has fizzled out after police said he acted in self-defence. In the past he has admitted to being bi-polar and prone to depression but appears to be a settled husband and father.
What is intriguing is his chart, 28 November 1982 3am Grand Forks, North Dakota, which in one significant way is similar to that of Virginia Guiffre, the Epstein victim, born a few months later. Both have the bleak Saturn Pluto conjunction square Mars suggesting a good deal of risk, unfairness and mistreatment in their lives.
Ritchson has talked about his early modelling days as being akin to ‘legalised sex trafficking’ and left the industry traumatised after being sexually assaulted on a photoshoot with a ‘very famous photographer.’ Even later on when his acting career took off, a business associate threatened to accuse him of sexual assault if he did not sleep with her.
An afflicted Mars can work out in different ways and makes him suited for morally ambiguous, brawler roles, soaking up his anger, though his manic streak evidently leaks out on film sets at times. He will tend to attract strong reactions from others whether he initiates it or not. So finding a constructive outlet will help.
He has an independent-minded Sun Uranus conjunct in Sagittarius with a charming 3rd house Mercury conjunct Venus also in Sagittarius. His Taurus Moon in his 7th will appreciate the stability and security of a close partner. Though his Moon opposition Saturn Pluto which is square a 4th house Mars hints at a chilly, under-supportive and overly disciplined childhood with a military father.
In the immediate future for a few weeks he has Jupiterian bounty of success and rising confidence from two of his midpoints. He is in the midst of his unsettled Uranus Half Return and mid-life crisis this year. And his Sun Uranus is moving by Solar Arc to conjunct his Mars after mid this year and through 2027 which will be a testing time, with his short-fused Mars feeling the strain. Plus his SA Mars is square his Uranus and soon his Sun for much the same effect.
Pondering on how the recent eclipse provided a backdrop for the present conflagration in the Middle East, the previous ones in this 18.5 year Saros cycle are significant if not cheering. Though it would have to be said in addition to problems there were also positive outcomes.
Last time in 2008 oversaw the financial crash.
1990 oversaw the Gulf War 1.
1972 – Watergate, Munich Olympics massacre.
1954 – division of Vietnam which was the forerunner to the debilitating US war. Soviet escalation of the Cold War.
1935 – intensifying aggression leading into WW11. Italy invaded Ethiopia, which created significant international friction. Nuremberg Laws: Nazi Germany passed laws that deprived Jewish people of citizenship and banned marriage between Jews and Germans. Hitler instituted mandatory military service, violating the Treaty of Versailles. Persia/Iran: Persia was formally renamed Iran
Maria Vorontsova, a Russian pediatric endocrinologist is the elder child of Vladimir Putin. She was married to a Dutch businessman and living in the Netherlands, until calls for her expulsion in 2014 after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. She now lives in Moscow and is married to an oil and gas executive.
Born 28 April 1985, 2.30 am Leningrad, Russia she certainly has a chart reflecting an overwhelmingly powerful father. She has a Taurus Sun opposition Pluto in Scorpio; with her Sun in the trigger point of a yod of Mars sextile Venus inconjunct Pluto. Her Sun opposition Pluto also squares an 8th house Leo Moon – fixed, enduring, stubborn, intense. Her Saturn in obsessive and conscientious Scorpio opposes Mars for a tricky childhood which inculcated discipline but left her having to suppress her identity and assertiveness. Though her Jupiter square her North Node opposition South Node would give her a sense of entitlement.
Quite some chart.
For whatever reason her life is undergoing considerable change exactly now and over the next two/three years. At the moment her Solar Arc Sun is opposing her 12th house Uranus, on the same degree now and exact within weeks. Tr Uranus will give her an additional jolt when it is conjunct her Mars in the second half of this May and again in early 2027. And tr Pluto is wending inexorably round her Fixed T square from early this year, square her Pluto, opposition her Moon and in 2027/28 square her Sun. It will bring significant changes to her life under maximum pressure.
The first ever oil strike – 28 August 1859 4pm Titusville, PA, USA.
It has an 8th house Sun Moon Mercury in practical, earthy Virgo and a Saturn Mars Venus in money-oriented Leo also in the 8th. So six planets in the deeply buried 8th house which has connections with business finance.
Neptune (the traditional ruler of oil) is in Pisces (ruled by Neptune) in the 3rd house of everyday travel which fits though Neptune isn’t especially strong in the chart. On the midpoints Neptune = Sun/Jupiter and Jupiter/Uranus both of which are lucky and successful. Pluto is on the IC which does suggest very Plutonic energies (wealth and power) coming from deep down. Pluto is semi sextile Uranus with Neptune aiming to semi-sextile Pluto in the years following.
The 1980 oil high has Neptune sextile Pluto with Uranus on their midpoint. 2008 has Neptune sextile Uranus with Pluto just past the square to Uranus. All three oil high charts have that odd challenging Mars Saturn in the 8th in Virgo so a pressure to make money in tight circumstances? Two of them have Jupiter in the 8th and the other has Jupiter in the 1st.
Above from an old post of 2011. No time for further research but anyone who is interested feel free to look over highs and lows since.
Achieving an outright victory in a war that increasingly seems unwinnable may spur Netanyahu onwards. But Trump, as ever, gets spooked by the markets plunging, with his smash n’ grab raid turning into an expensive stalemate, costing US lives and threatening the economy.
A former head of Iran research for Israel’s defence intelligence agency, argues that the previous Iranian leadership, now largely dead, were “cautious, calculating” actors. They had reportedly signalled that Iran was prepared to significantly dilute the country’s stock of enriched uranium, a critical component in the development of nuclear weapons. In his view, “US negotiators appeared to struggle to fully grasp the technical and strategic implications of this offer.”
Netanyahu’s banner-waving for warfare as the only answer obscures the fact that Hamas is still entrenched in Gaza and the assassination of the Hizbollah leadership in 2024 did not end the Lebanese militant group’s threat. His recipe for perpetual war against a backdrop of rapidly declining international support for Israel, including in the US is a formula for disaster.
A growing belief is that the biggest long-term strategic threat to Israel is not Iran — but the potential loss of the American support on which Israel relies. Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’s October 2023 attacks has led to a change in sentiment.
Scouring around for a chink of hope in the swamp, several astro-thoughts.
The 2025 Inauguration Trump Second Term chart, starting on a do-or-die-determined, ruthless Mars opposition Midheaven Sun Pluto square a 6th house Libra Moon always did look as if it would peak in its bullying approach in February/March this year as the Progressed Moon moved to square the Sun Pluto and Progressed Pluto by mid May this year and will lessen in effect thereafter. Before then the Trump Administration will be facing an extremely anxious April with two Neptune midpoints catching a hard square from tr Uranus bringing crises, sudden upsets, weakness, mourning and even more indications of confusion and off-the-wall meanderings from fantasy land.
Trumps’ natal chart through April also indicates weakness even illness caused by anxiety, alongside excitability. His birth time being exactly accurate tr Uranus will also square his Ascendant in April.
Trump’s relationship chart with Netanyahu has been showing their joint power drive being undermined through March; but it is late May to mid August which will be most noticeably undermining and disappointing for their association with tr Neptune opposition the composite Venus and square the composite Saturn, which repeats into 2027 – so there will be a distancing.
The USA/Israel relationship chart has been undermined since tr Neptune Saturn moved into Aries opposing the composite overly-hopeful Jupiter Neptune and square the Mercury Venus from late this month to late May – and that lessening of friendly feeling extends into early 2028. Where it reaches total rupture point will be around 2029/30 as tr Uranus squares the composite Sun and opposes the composite Uranus Sun.
The Iran attack, 28 February 2026 9.45 am Teheran, which launched on an intense Moon opposition Pluto will clear that aspect which comes exact by progression in early August this year. This would coincide with thoughts about the 12 August Solar Eclipse which – “brings a time of breaking out of a negative, hopeless situation into positive phase with more options. A worry will disappear as solutions appear that need to be grasped.”
None of this is decisive but I would hazard a guess that Trumps’ stomach for this foray does not outlast April if it even gets that far. Late May to August will be critical for a US/Israel fall out and general disarray with tr Neptune at 4 degrees Aries square Netanyahu’s Uranus for high-anxiety and it also squares the Israel Venus for emotional discontent.
Muddle and mayhem. Deranged Don wrapped in his Superman fantasy allied with Netanyahu obsessed with destroying Iran – both in different ways entirely unrealistic. I have long thought that Israel was walking itself up a cul-de-sac. However sympathetic about the Jewish people’s terrible history of persecution, there is no mileage on stoking up yet more blood feuds in a region where memories are long.
A cautionary tale about reality TV, social media influencers and religion in an arena way off my radar.
Taylor Frankie Paul with 6 million TikTok followers, known for her comedy, dance and mothering content, lately featured in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, whose “messy” reputation has become part of her brand has been the cause of the new ABC series of The Bachelorette, due to premiere this weekend, being expensively cancelled. Some reckon the fall out will be in eight figures to the network.
TFP earned national fame in 2022 when she announced that she and her husband Tate Paul were divorcing, and that they had been “soft-swinging” with other couples within their mostly Mormon circle. She was then arrested in 2023 for an incident in which she is pushing and kicking her then partner, with her daughter present. That video has now been published by TMZ.
It would hardly be worth spending time on – apart from the light it throws on the dreg end of popular culture – but her chart is an eye-opener.
Born 23 May 1994 in Pueblo, Colorado, she has a Sun Gemini and a Scorpio Moon which is a fairly conflicted combination – alternatively detached and chatty and intensely emotional. But more significantly she has a highly-string Uranus Neptune conjunction in a short-fused square to Mars in upfront Aries. Her Neptune Uranus sextile Pluto are also inconjunct her Sun on the apex of a yod, giving her problems moderating her ego drives. She has another yod of Venus in Cancer sextile Mars inconjunct Pluto which again will give her problems moderating her need to be in control. It can be manipulative and coercive. She also has a wide Water Grand Trine of Saturn in Pisces trine Jupiter (Moon) in Scorpio trine Venus, which can lead to a personality which is cut off in some respects from reality.
The Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon), 6 April 1830 in Utah, hooks into her Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn with its Neptune Mars in Capricorn. Its chart has been troubled recently with Solar Arc Pluto opposition its Aries Sun and its Solar Arc Sun square Neptune – so the ‘swinging’ publicity would not have gone down well. There’ll be another shock coming soon with SA Sun square Mars – and a major history-changing phase across the end of the decade into the early 2030s with tr Pluto conjunct its Uranus and opposition its Saturn; followed by SA Pluto square the Neptune and by mid 2030s the Mars for a dead halt.
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.
ADD ON: Robert Hanssen was an FBI double agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services until his arrest in 2001 – “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.” From a Lutheran family of Norwegian descent, with a Chicago police officer father, he converted to his wife’s Catholicism. A close family with three sons and three daughters they attended Mass weekly and were very active in Opus Dei. Secretly he was a sexual deviant, filming his marital bed for others to watch without his wife’s knowledge. He died in 2023 after 21 years in jail.
Born 18 April 1944 11.31 am Chicago, Illinois, he had a 10th house Aries Sun on the midpoint of an 8th house Pisces Moon trine Saturn in Gemini. His charming 10th house Venus in Aries was in a can-be-insensitive square to a 12th house Mars in Cancer opposition an evasive Neptune in the 3rd and in a seductive trine to Pluto. His Jupiter in flashy Leo was on the cusp of his financial 2nd house and he indicated his motives for treason were financial not ideological.
His Sun/Moon midpoint, his marriage significator, was opposition slippery, uncommitted Neptune.
There is nothing overtly religious in his chart. I will never understand how these wretches square their church- going with – in this case, selling your country out for cash and betraying your wife in the most egregious fashion. Warped.
His 9th harmonic is strong – which like Madoff can accompany greed though it also has other meanings. His Wheel of Fortune 10H is also marked – high then low.
The Opus Dei’s Jupiter fell in his 10th so he would see it as helpful in boosting his reputation and status. The Opus Uranus was conjunct his Midheaven which suggests the organisation was a catalyst for change in his life – though quite how I am not savvy enough about the inner details to know. The Opus Sun was conjunct his IC so a hugely supportive force in his life, even if it did conflict with his hidden 12th house Mars.
