Month: July 2016

English Comedian and award-winning actress and screenwriter, Caroline Aherne, has died, on her own at home. Born 24 December 1963, she was born with a rare eye cancer and latterly succumbed to other cancers. She was much loved by the public and those who worked with her, for her wickedly funny gags and approach. Off screen she had a complicated, at times car-crash of a love life, with one suicide attempt and spells in clinics for her drinking and other problems.

She had her Sun in Capricorn with Jupiter and Moon in inspirational Aries. Her Mars Mercury in Capricorn were trine Uranus Pluto in Virgo, sextiling onto Neptune – so she channelled her anger and turmoil into creative goals. Her Saturn in Aquarius was square Neptune which can be neurotic and also artistic; and her Venus in Aquarius sat conjunct her Mars/Saturn midpoint which latter may be a pointer to her destructive/self-destruct relationships.

She undoubtedly had courage and initiative but sadly it wasn’t enough.

Her 5^th and 7^th creative Harmonic were strong.  Her victim 12H was stressed and obsessive.  Her 13H was also difficult and very marked. Peter Sellers, the comedian also had a strong 13H, which is to do with breaking with the orthodox.

How informative Solar Returns are for countries I’m not sure. Certainly the USA 2001 SR had Mars Pluto opposition Saturn which was stark enough; and the UK for 1939 with the start of WW11 had Moon Mars opposition Uranus and a 10^th house Sun which is reasonably descriptive but I’m not sure you’d have put your finger on war breaking out.

Anyways for what it’s worth:

UK Solar Return Jan 2016: Jupiter in the 10^th which should mean success though can also mean hogging the limelight. A meltdown Sun Pluto in the financial 2^nd square Uranus in the speculative 5^{th –} so major surprises and upheavals. A bad-tempered, argumentative Mercury square Mars. A confused-thinking Neptune in the 3^rd which squares Venus Saturn in the 1^st, so emotionally muddled, nervy, a sense of being unloved.  But Saturn does trine Uranus which means positive change, keeping best of old and merging with best of new. Moon Jupiter trine Mercury, sextile a Scorpio Ascendant – stimulating discussions about domestic matters. The destructive fixed star Algol on the Descendant = close relationships. Remains to be seen how all that turns out.

USA 1776 11AM. That time is speculative but since the USA First President 30 April 1789 12.45pm New York, also gives relatively similar house placings on the Solar Return, I’m inclined to think it’s about right.

1776 SR for July 2016: 10^th house New Moon in Cancer conjunct Mercury and Venus opposition a 4^th house Pluto square an 8^th house Uranus and sextile/trine Jupiter opposition Neptune. So success despite domestic pressures and a resentful population with financial upheavals and some high hopes proving disappointing. Quite a strained time since there’s a Yod of Uranus sextile MC inconjunct Mars in the 3^rd – so argumentative and vengeful in discussions.

First President SR for April 2016: Also a 10^th house Sun Venus Mercury with Uranus conjunct the MC from the 9^th – so high profile and a time of radical change. There’s a good-for-business Earth Grand Trine of Sun Mercury trine a 6^th house Pluto trine Jupiter in 2^nd and that looks solidly reassuring.  But Neptune is in the 8^th opposition Jupiter square Saturn in the 5^th conjunct Mars – so again a financial bubble is bursting, and the speculative 5^th house is afflicted so not good for risks or investments. Plus a curiously vulnerable (in need of partners) Moon in the 7^th.

Canada SR for 2016: This also has a solidly good-for-business (or overly materialistic) Earth Grand Trine but it also indicates major disruptions, possible loss of reputation and a good deal of stress. Uranus sits on the SR Ascendant square Pluto in the 10^th and square the 4^th house Venus; and is also on the focal point of a wide Yod to Mars sextile Jupiter – which does suggest Canada will adopt, or circumstances will give, a completely new reputation and image, more rebellious, unpredictable. Sun on the cusp of the 4^th so very focussed on internal domestic matters. Money not great with Saturn in 8^th despite the Earth Grand Trine.

Solar Returns really have to be taken side by side with the natal chart and there’s certainly a huge amount going on as far as Canada’s Neptune Ascendant in Aries is concerned this year and next. Plus financial pressures.

There’s a thought-provoking piece in the Guardian today by Emily Bell, a digital shining light, which begins with the Mark Twain thought that ‘A lie can travel halfway round the world before the truth is putting on its shoes.’ In the age of viral amplification on the net, that old trope has taken on a life of its own.

Arron Banks, a multi-millionaire businessman and pumped-up pro-Brexiteer, said, ‘“The remain campaign featured fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. It just doesn’t work. You have got to connect with people emotionally. It’s the Trump success.”

https://goo.gl/bYWNQX

Banks, 22 March 1966, is a Sun Moon Mars in Aries; with Saturn in Pisces opposition Uranus Pluto square Jupiter in Gemini with an emphasised Venus in Aquarius  – so a chart that is substantially Air Fire. Not that dissimilar to Trump who has a Sun Uranus in Gemini, Neptune Jupiter in Libra and a Fire Sagittarius Moon and Mars Pluto in Leo.  Also Air Fire.

Both have Saturn in a Water sign which should disconnect them from their feelings. But what Air Fire does, is give inspirations and dreams a rocket-propelled boost, so it loses touch with feet-on-the-ground common sense – and facts. They aren’t awash with sentimentality but inspire their audience by feeding them what they want to hear.

Banks looks gung-ho this month, but will deflate late July and through August.

Bread and circuses used to be the old Roman way of keeping the population happy. Now they just peddle impossible dreams.

Film director Terence Malick made the critically acclaimed and multi-award-winning The Thin Red Line (best war movie ever made). His Tree of Life in 2011, an experimental drama, won Cannes and elsewhere, but was met by boos as well as applause.

His next release is Voyage of Time, narrated by Brad Pitt, a 40 minute documentary, which will take viewers on a journey through time and outer space, encompassing the entire lifetime of the cosmos, and features ‘stunning cosmic landscapes, amazing geologic formations and majestic living creatures’.

Malick, born 23 Nov 1943 in Waco, Texas has a talented Half Grand Sextile, formed from a maverick Sagittarius Sun opposition Uranus, which then sextiles onto Pluto North Node in Leo and Neptune in Libra – so definitely creative and influential.

He doesn’t look altogether upbeat this year with Solar Arc Neptune opposing his Mars. His midpoints are a mix of fortunate and undermining. But he’ll pick up towards the year’s end into 2017.

If it sticks to schedule the Oct 7 release has Mars Pluto in Capricorn square Jupiter Sun in Libra; with Neptune opposition Node square Saturn – so it may provoke strong responses but not all of them favourable.

An upcoming referendum in Italy on constitutional reform could prove an even greater shock to EU stability than Brexit, according to commentators. Italy is the eurozone’s most vulnerable region with bank stocks plunging by a third after the UK’s vote last week.

PM Matteo Renzi has wagered his job on the outcome of the referendum and in the meantime is prepared to defy the EU and pump billions of euros into its troubled banks. This would be a last-resort move that would smash through the EU’s new regime for handling ailing banks, which rules that creditors rather than taxpayers fund bank rescues.

The central Bank of Italy, 10 Aug 1893, is looking very panicked  now and through 2017 with tr Saturn square tr Neptune in hard aspect to the Neptune Pluto in Gemini square the financial Venus in Virgo. So no quick n simple solutions.  With a major upheaval come 2018 as Solar Arc Uranus squares Pluto, which begins several years of increasing instability thereafter

Matteo Renzi’s Term chart, 22 Feb 2014 11.30am Rome, does have the topple-off-the-edge Solar Arc Uranus square Pluto, exact in two months time, so he may succumb to the national whim. If he survives, he’s facing a punishing time ahead with tr Pluto opposition his Saturn till late year; with tr Uranus square his Capricorn Sun.

Kingston on Hull, a port in the north east of England sat at the top of the league table recently for ‘low wage, high welfare’. But there is now a 10 year master plan to bring in new business investment and Hull is to be City of Culture in 2017 which it is also hoped will give a lift.

The original charter for Hull, 1 April 1299 (OS), seems to work reasonably well, looking at what went on during World War 11 when the town took a massive blitz from German planes – 95% of houses were damaged or destroyed.

The chart has an Aries Sun opposition Neptune (maritime) squaring onto a tough-times Mars Saturn in Cancer, so not an easy energy. The Sun Neptune opposition is sextile/trine Pluto so again great ambitions and times of devastation. There is also an adventurous Jupiter in go-ahead Aries (Moon) opposition Uranus.

There’s nothing too cheerful in the next few years with the tr Uranus square tr Pluto wending its way in hard aspect round the Sun Neptune Mars Saturn T Square.  Tr Pluto lagging behind will square the Sun and oppose Mars in 2017/18 which is stuck and depressed and angry, before moving on to square Neptune and oppose Saturn up till late 2021.

Even if the master plan moves ahead despite Brexit, there will be more deprived years before the positive benefits of any transformation appear.

Please post below, fluffy and frothy as well as the other sort ………….

Bangladesh siege, at least 22 dead; today Baghdad bombs kill at least 125, injuring many more.

ISIL, which set out to establish a Caliphate, may be losing the war on the ground with their headquarters in Fallujah in Iraq falling last month, following on from Ramadi, and Palmyra in Syria in March. But they are now shifting over to the original al-Qaeda approach, of self-starter terrorist actions abroad, aimed at destabilising hostile countries in the Middle and Far East, Africa and Europe. A NATO official said that terrorists are trying to obtain biological and nuclear materials.

The so-called “Islamic State” may be on the way out, but global jihadism is only getting started, with Al Quaeda also beginning to become more effective again.

The ISIL 2006 chart has been getting violently shaken by tr Uranus opposition Venus Sun Mars over the past year, causing insecurity, and a kick-back gestures to prop up their bravado. But tr Uranus is also trine their Pluto and Saturn – hence the re-visioning of their aims and goals.

The September Eclipse will oppose their Uranus along with tr Neptune conjunct and tr Saturn square now and extending on into 2017. That suggests high-wire anxiety, tensions and set-backs. But it’s really 2018 where the heavy pressure starts with tr Pluto square their Libra Sun for two years. Unfortunately it is also sextile their Jupiter in Scorpio at the same time, so they are likely to be making a confident and probably successful push. 2020/21 is when they will probably meet their downfall when tr Pluto squares their Mars.

Al Quaeda, 11 Aug 1988, went quiet after Bin Laden’s death in 2011, when tr Pluto square tr Saturn was hitting on their Mars and Neptune. Their new leader does not have Bin Laden’s credentials but he has been building support across the region in Yemen and Syria. They look marginally deflated in 2017. But it is 2019 which sees another dead-halt for them when Solar Arc Mars opposes their stressed Pluto.

Jihadist terrorists are like the hundred-headed Hydra. Cut off one head, and another appears. The Sunni-Shia schism is one major factor; as are the disenfranchised and angry youth of many Middle Eastern and indeed European countries. A problem with no obvious solution.

Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust and Auschwitz survivor and Nobel peace laureate has died in the US, where he had been a citizen since the 1960s. His mother and one sister were killed in the Nazi death chambers. His father died of starvation and dysentery in Buchenwald. Two other sisters survived. After the war, he lived in a French orphanage and went on to become a journalist, writing more than 60 books, starting with Night, a memoir based on his experiences in the death camps. He dedicated his life to ensuring the atrocities committed under the Nazis were never forgotten.

Born 30 September 1928 12.21pm? Sighetul Marmatiei, Romania (astrotheme), he had a fair-minded Libra Sun opposition an independent Uranus. With Mars in talkative Gemini trine an intensely charming Venus Mercury in Scorpio which in turn opposed Jupiter in Taurus – so communication skills, backed with determination and confidence. His Aries Moon was trine Saturn and square Pluto in Cancer – so bleak experiences through his childhood and family relationships. His Saturn in Sagittarius, another communication and justice sign, was in an innovative trine to his Uranus, so he made a difference.

His Harmonics are in many ways more instructive than his natal chart. His constructing-a-life 5^th Harmonic has an idealistic-cause Sun Neptune Node. His determined 8^th Harmonic is focussed on the repressive Saturn Pluto duo and Mars Saturn; plus a trail-blazing Uranus. His victim/healer 12^th harmonic again links war, brutality, killings with Mars Saturn and Pluto. His breakthrough-genius 13H is strong; as is his writers’ 21H. His strong-leadership 22H is also marked.

Hillary Clinton has been interviewed by the FBI over the question of her use of a private email server for classified material during her time as Secretary of State. Significantly previous Secretary of States – Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice – appeared to have done the same thing.

Hillary’s chart does have tr Uranus opposition the Solar Arc Pluto exactly now which picked up late June, so a possible upheaval/disruption. This influence runs till early September, and she had the on-tenterhooks/insecure tr Uranus opposition Solar Arc Mars in the run up through June. These don’t recur until early 2017.

Assuming her 8.01 am birth time is accurate (?), she has Jupiter in her successful 10^th at the moment, moving into her optimistic and team-building 11^th from September. Tr Pluto moves into her 3^rd from early 2017 starting a protracted period of a heavily pressured everyday schedule; with disruptive (and independent-minded) Uranus moving into her 6^th house of health and work from mid 2017. Tr Pluto is sextile her Solar Arc MC in October, which is positive,  though could also be seen as across this year since it is very dependent on the birth time to the exact minute.

January 2017 sees tr Saturn square her Pisces Moon which can be gloomy or a house move. The September Solar Eclipse falls in her 10^th for a now-or-never bid for career success, but it can go either way, rise or fall.

She has sagging influences through this October with tr Saturn square her Mars/Neptune and then square her Neptune/Pluto and Jupiter/Uranus, but they disappear by late October. Over the election itself she has tr Uranus trine Saturn which is normally constructive change.

In December she regains her successful tr Pluto sextile Sun/Jupiter and Venus.

By late 2017 she has her Solar Arc Saturn (heavily aspected in a T Square) conjunct her Sun. So if she does make it, she’ll be swamped by problems.