Month: October 2017

   

 

Ewan McGregor appears to have been struck by the Hollywood curse on marriages after splitting from his long-time wife, production designer Eve Mavrakis.

Born 31 March 1971 8.10pm Perth, Scotland, he has an Aries Sun opposition Uranus square Mars in Capricorn, so will always need excitement and risk; plus a constantly-changing Gemini Moon. He’s also got an 8^th house Saturn in Taurus trine a 12^th house Pluto, so will be self-contained and not always open to intimacy.

His wife Eve, 22 June 1966, France, is a family oriented Sun Jupiter in Cancer with a Leo Moon. They aren’t the easiest of mixes with her Venus in Taurus opposition Neptune sitting on top of his Saturn; her outspoken Mars in Gemini conjunct his Moon; and her Saturn opposition his Pluto.

Their relationship chart is quite volatile with the composite Sun and composite Mars in aspect to Pluto Jupiter Uranus – it won’t ever have been dull, but it will have veered between possessiveness and the urge for space, so quite contradictory. Great highs and some lows. Plus a composite Sun opposition Neptune which suits the movie business but can run into trouble when the gloss wears off. It’s been under stress for some time and more so at the moment with tr Saturn in hard aspect to major points.

His career is no longer at the peak it was through Trainspotting, Star Wars, Moulin Rouge and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and his recent directorial debut American Pastoral didn’t get great reviews. But tr Saturn is slowly wending its way out of his low-profile first quadrant, to cross his IC in 2019 which should lift him up career-wise at that point. Plus he’s been through a punishing run of the tr Uranus square tr Pluto hitting on his central Sun Uranus Mars T Square, which cleared last year. Tr Uranus is moving through his 7^th (since 2015) which is often when marriages break up or at least there’s a need for more space.

His Sun/Moon midpoint at 14 Taurus isn’t picking up much but Eve’s is last decan Cancer so may be getting tr Uranus square and then tr Pluto opposition which is more testing on close relationships

It’s a shame. But few marriages survive in the febrile movie business with long separations and intense working relationships crowding out domestic ties.

 

 

Bowe Bergdahl, the American soldier held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan will be sentenced tomorrow on charges of desertion for which he could face life in prison. Despite stories put about by the Taliban that he had defected to them, he says he was setting out to another base 18 miles away to make a complaint about leadership issues in his unit. And he was held in solitary confinement, caged and tortured during his five years of captivity, during which time he continually tried to escape and was punished severely when they re-captured him.

The senior military investigator in the US said he believed Bergdahl’s account and found him to be both genuine and honourable in his intent, but also concluded Bergdahl was “delusional” and had “outsized impressions of his own capabilities”, believing his was  a Special Forces type and like Jason Bourne. He recommended that Bergdahl should not be sent to prison.

Born 28 March 1986 in Sun Valley, Idaho, he is a Sun Aries inconjunct Pluto, trine Saturn in Sagittarius, square Mars Neptune in Capricorn, sesqui-square Uranus (135 deg) and semi-sextile Jupiter – a mix of confident with his Jupiter trine Pluto; fearful of being trapped but used to tough conditions with Sun Pluto Saturn; impulsive with Sun Mars Uranus and a dreamer with Sun Neptune.

He had an odd upbringing being home schooled by an Idaho woodsman father who taught him to shoot and hunt, whom he described as overbearing and domineering. He then extraordinarily studied ballet, sailed the Atlantic to Pacific and tried to join the French Foreign Legion. According to Rolling Stone he’d become disillusioned with the war in Afghanistan, disliking his fellow soldiers’ contempt for the locals. Others say he should never have been accepted into the military. The US coast guard had thrown him out of basic training after only 23 days, deeming him “psychologically unfit” after diagnosing him with “adjustment disorder with depression”. But in 2008, the US army issued Bergdahl a medical waiver and in May the following year he was sent off to Afghanistan. He lasted just six weeks before walking off his base and was possibly suffering a nervous breakdown at the time.

When he was captured on 1 July 2009 tr Pluto was conjunct his Mars and in the following year conjunct his Neptune and then square his Sun. And his Solar Arc Saturn which was conjunct his Mars when he joined up, then moved across his Mars/Neptune midpoint and Neptune. And was just clearing the square to his Sun was he was released. And that is a poleaxing set of influences – tr Pluto and Solar Arc Saturn all landing on his natal Sun square Mars Neptune for five years putting him through a hellish situation.

He’s disheartened by his reception back in the US and doesn’t look too cheerful ahead with tr Saturn heading to conjunct his Mars Neptune and square his Sun across this New Year into 2018; and his Solar Arc Neptune is square his Pluto round about now, which is devastating confusion. Then his Solar Arc Pluto is in a depressed/blocked conjunction to his Saturn by 2019 along with a trapped tr Pluto conjunct his Sun/Pluto and tr Neptune square his Mars/Saturn – and none of that looks good. Though even if he isn’t sent to prison the PTSD from his years of ill-treatment will catch up with him.

He sounds a touch like Bradley Manning, who also should never have been employed in the job he was.

   

 

John Kelly just dug himself deeper into Trump’s hole over how not to talk to a soldier’s grieving mother. Kelly in trying to retrieve the situation spoke poignantly about his own son’s death in Iraq, and then proceeded to fabricate a smear against Frederica Wilson, the Democrat Representative for South Florida, who was in the car when the blundering phone call was made. Luckily for her, in the era of ‘fake news’, there was film footage of the event at which Kelly falsely claimed Wilson had taken credit which wasn’t due.

Frederica Wilson, 5 November 1942, certainly isn’t the woman to put up with nonsense from anyone with a passionately intense Sun Venus Mars in Scorpio square Pluto. She’s a tower of strength and a good fighter for causes. Her influential Pluto is further emphasised being on the midpoint of Uranus Saturn in Gemini trine Neptune (Moon) in Libra – so no one’s pushover.

She certainly dislikes Trump with a hostile composite Mars Neptune square Saturn in their relationship chart; and a needs-space, differing-agendas composite Sun square Uranus. But if anything she dislikes John Kelly even more with a composite Sun Pluto square Jupiter, which is a struggle for the upper hand; and an ego-battling composite Mars Neptune; plus a cold Venus opposition Saturn.

There’ll be more clashes to come with both men. She looks to be forging confidently ahead this December and on and off through 2018 with tr Pluto trine her Sun/Jupiter midpoint; though she will have some downers with dashed hopes from tr Neptune opposition her Mars/Jupiter and a confused tr Pluto square her Sun/Neptune from March onwards. Tr Uranus moves to oppose her Mars from mid year, on and off into 2019; and then in 2019 to square her Pluto – so she will be aggravated and going through some seismic changes.

   

 

Ayatollah Al-Sistani is the spiritual leader of the Shia Muslims in Iraq. He has avoided getting embroiled in politics and hopes for a civil not a religious Iraq which puts him at odds with Iran, who are the financiers and weapons suppliers to Iraq’s main Shia parties and their militia.

Born 4 August 1930, he’s now 87 with no obvious successor. His Leo Sun is conjunct the Iraq 1921 Mars Neptune and his Neptune is conjunct the Iraq Sun – so the religious connections are clear. And his Venus in Virgo is conjunct the Iraq Jupiter Saturn, bringing a helpful cross over. He is coming up to his 3^rd Saturn Return in 2018 and with tr Neptune square his Mars in Gemini may not have the strength to stand up to whatever forces, physical or otherwise that are ranged against him.

   

 

Terry Fox was a Canadian athlete and cancer research activist whose astonishing feat of running 3500 miles across Canada with a prosthetic leg to raise money and awareness has resulted in a lasting worldwide legacy. He lost his leg to bone cancer when he was 18 and vowed he wouldn’t give up his distance running and basketball. Sadly the spread of the cancer to his lungs stopped his Canadian east-west marathon after 143 days and he died nine months later, just before his 23rd birthday. But the Terry Fox annual run now involves millions of participants in 60 countries and is the world’s largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research.

Born 28 July 1958 7.30am Winnipeg, Canada, he had a rebellious Sun Uranus in Leo on the focal point of a Fixed T Square to an unyielding Mars in Taurus conjunct his midheaven opposition Neptune, so utterly determined, ambitious, a crusader with a 9^th house Mars, willing to take risks with Uranus Mars. There’s no way he could have sat in a wheelchair and moped. He also had an achievement-oriented Capricorn Moon in his performing/sporty 5^th house in an Earth Grand Trine to Pluto Mercury in Virgo and Mars MC so physical, grounded, and able to push himself through crisis situations.

He also had an ever-optimistic Jupiter in his 3^rd which was sparsely aspected making him marginally less sociable than he might otherwise have been and also making him idealistic and naïve. He did have a strong chart with Mars in Taurus on one leg not only of a Grand Trine but also a stubbornly enduring Fixed T square.

His get-it-together 5^th Harmonic and his ‘seeking soul’ 7^th were strongly aspected; as were the to-be-expected ‘inner strength’ 8H and ‘obsessive dream’ 11H. His leaving-a-mark-on-history 17H tied together an exuberantly successful Mars Jupiter to a never-give-in Moon Pluto and Sun. His 12H – victim/healer – was starkly difficult.

   

 

Lest Americans feel they are the only ones drowning in chaos here’s a Brexit update. Who’d know where we are heading? Theresa May makes opaque and cryptic utterances that make little sense to English-speaking Brits, so no surprises the EU-ers are perplexed. The international tower of babel, inhabited by politicians and commentators of varying hues, spews contradictory noise from all quarters – from Davis’s cheery ‘lightning speed’ negotiations to dead-halt-and-off-a- cliff-edge from others. December appears to be the next deadline which may or may not see progress.

Theresa May looks setback on her heels in November and irritable with it as tr Saturn is conjunct her Sun/Mars; depressed end dented in December  with tr Saturn square her Sun/Jupiter and Mercury; and in a complete and devastated muddle from tr Pluto square her Sun/Neptune from December 8th into early January 2018, returning on and off through 2018. Though she does have a great sigh of relief from tr Uranus opposition her Jupiter/North Node in December/January 2018 which is either good news, or she gets let off the hook and sent out to pasture. Somewhere along the way since her birth time isn’t known, she gets a massive jolt from Solar Arc Uranus conjunct her Sun.

If she sticks around, then it gets considerably worse in 2018 with tr Neptune returning to conjunct her Mars for a panicky feeling of failure from early February (returning late October into early 2019). From mid March onwards tr Pluto is conjunct her Mars/Saturn midpoint which is calamitous – though that could be a disaster of another variety such as a major atrocity. That returns on and off through 2019 as well, joined in 2019/2020 by a frustratingly-trapped tr Pluto conjunct her Mars/Node. By 2019 tr Neptune is in a bubble-bursting, false-hopes-dashed opposition to her Jupiter; and is exactly square the Sun and Moon in her government chart. If I was facing those influences I’d retire to a meditation centre and hide.

The UK chart surprisingly has moments of considerable cheer as well as angst from tr Pluto opposition the Cancer Moon and opposition the Solar Arc Mercury throughout 2018. This December and January 2018 look on edge and insecure; but from mid February there’s a run of tr Pluto opposition the Jupiter/MC, then Mars/Jupiter midpoints and square Sun/Jupiter running till late 2019. So there may be a devil-may-care mindset – or perhaps even a Royal wedding as as upbeat distraction.

   

 

The Trump lash-back reflex appears to be misfiring spectacularly as he digs himself a crater-sized hole over presidential condolences to the families of soldiers killed in action. Following Roy Cohn, his mentor’s advice – ‘always be on the attack, counterpunch whenever punched and never apologize. Never, ever, ever apologize’ – he blames everyone else in sight, proclaims as lies what has been corroborated by several witnesses as the truth. And on he stumbles, thrashing wildly around.

His astro-timeline again:  He’s just got rid of tr Saturn conjunct his Sagittarius Moon, making him feel unloved and under-nurtured; and square his Sun/Moon midpoint which indicates a marital freeze; and in a politician unpopularity; and tr Saturn to opposition his Gemini Sun (finished October 13^th) which tends to bring reality checks, setbacks and discouragement, as well as opposition his Mars/Jupiter midpoint which is no cheerier – difficulties in making decisions, termination of relationships, letting good opportunities slide. Though Saturn does tend to have a delay factor inbuilt so doesn’t necessarily disappear instantly. During September up to October 23^rd he has also the depressing, confusing tr Pluto hitting on his Mercury/Saturn, Sun/Pluto and Mars/Neptune midpoints.

Regrettably from October 24^th to early December tr Pluto returns to square his Jupiter for the final time which will bring a surge of over-confidence, a ‘might makes right’ forcefulness, and rules-don’t-apply-to-me mindset which could see him stepping even further over the line. 2^nd November to December 1^st tr Uranus is square his Venus in Cancer, which will make him more emotionally impulsive than usual, intolerant of and kicking against restrictions.

In December/January 2018 tr Uranus will be whipping up a storm as it crashes into his Sun/Mars, Mercury/Pluto and Venus/Saturn midpoints – 1) impulsive, over-excited, overtaxing strength (military call-up?); 2) fanatical, great mental strain; 3) emotional stress, acute loneliness.

There seems little likelihood of him acquiring any self-control at this late stage and with his Solar Arc Mercury approaching the square to his Uranus over coming months he’s likely to become even more incontinent with his scattergun tantrums. And his Solar Arc Uranus is now on the same degree as his Mars, approaching the exact conjunction in eight months’ time, which is intemperate, hot-headed and determined to prove its machismo by wild actions.

His Admin chart pinpoints late Oct/early Nov as one crisis/setback phase with tr Saturn square Mars; even before then from early October to early January 2018 there’s likely to be a run of disappointed hopes with tr Neptune square the Sun/Jupiter midpoint. With Dec/Jan 2018 looking especially fraught as tr Uranus squares the Sun/Pluto. Where it starts to look more cheerful is from late March 2018 onwards with a sudden lucky break and positive change in circumstance.

Melania is plodding stalwartly on; with Sun, Saturn, Mercury Venus in Taurus, she’s not one for reckless actions. Though she looks even more trapped than usual, certainly in November with tr Saturn square her Pluto; and a Solar Arc Pluto opposition her Saturn sometime soon, extending over several months. She does look more upbeat this December/January with tr Pluto square her Jupiter/Uranus midpoint. But into 2018 from February onwards it looks all tough going for her for about three years thereafter; with jolting changes in 2019 and onwards.

[Roy Cohn, see post March 7 2017]

   

 

A historic moment for China yesterday as President Xi Jinping strengthened his control over his 1.4 billion population and had his Thoughts written into the constitution, an honour previously reserved only for Mao Tse Tung and Deng Xiaoping. He stands for a socialism that is in contrast to western liberalism, democracy and capitalism; and the likelihood is he will try to remain on the throne for as long as his health holds out.

Xi Jinping, 1 June 1953, has a much more Mutable/flexible and Cardinal/got-initiative chart than his predecessors with Sun, confident and lucky Jupiter, Mercury and Mars in Gemini and a Cardinal Grand Cross of Saturn Neptune in Libra opposition Venus square Uranus opposition a Capricorn Moon. Mao, a Sun Capricorn had a ferociously determined Mars in Scorpio opposition Jupiter in Taurus; Deng Xiaoping was a Sun Mars in Leo with Saturn in Aquarius and Jupiter in Taurus so much more Fixed and enduring.

Xi Jinping’s Presidency chart, 14 March 2013 11.51am Beijing, is also highly Mutable with the Sun and three other planets in Pisces and Jupiter in Gemini, plus a determinedly revolutionary Uranus Mars in Aries square Pluto. But what marks it out as special is a Yod of grittily-persevering Saturn sextile Pluto inconjunct Jupiter. Such a focal point Jupiter can have a significant impact on society, rarely doubts the rightness of their beliefs and actions, but can be undone by the need for personal power and glory.

Despite all the adulation, his presidency chart isn’t looking too cheerful with tr Neptune conjunct the midheaven till late 2018 and square the Solar Arc Jupiter through this year which can produce a bubble of ‘false happiness’.

His own personal chart looks confused and beleaguered through 2018/19 with tr Pluto square the Saturn Neptune; and on a panicky slide in 2020/21 with Solar Uranus and tr Neptune square his Mars.

The China 1 October 1949 3.15pm chart does have the Solar Arc MC conjunct the Ascendant exactly now which is a significant marker for the country’s image and direction. But there’s also Solar Arc Uranus opposition the 8^th house Saturn now, with tr Saturn aiming to square the 8^th house Sun, Mercury, Neptune and oppose Uranus from this New Year onwards until early 2019, which suggests attempts to get the China internal debt problem under control has a way to go. There will be a surge of confidence and success come 2019/2020 with tr Pluto conjunct the China Jupiter in Capricorn; but also emotional distress in 2020 as Solar Arc Moon opposes Neptune.

Xi Jinping has an argumentative interface with Trump with his Mars Mercury in Gemini conjunct Trump’s Sun Uranus opposition Moon; and Xi’s Pluto conjunct Trump’s Mars and square his MC. That relationship could flare from early this December through January 2018 with tr Uranus square the composite Mars; and is certainly on the slide through mid 2018 onwards.

More to the point the USA/China relationship chart does look aggravated this December and on and off through 2018 with tr Pluto opposition the composite Mars; and the present uneasy status quo will be overturned in 2019 with tr Uranus opposition the composite Pluto – though that can go either way, positive as well as negative.

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Irish stand-up star and BBC TV quiz show panellist Sean Hughes has died aged 51, from a heart attack after going into cardiac arrest following a flare up of cirrhosis of the liver. He had previously spoken about his declining health after years of “extreme hedonism” with heavy drinking and amphetamine use; and said he’d would not want to grow old. He never married or had children. All that humour and all that angst, how sad.

He was born in London on 10 November 1965 but moved to live with his grandmother from the age of six in Ireland. He had an emotionally intense and dreamy (and addictive prone) Sun Neptune in Scorpio sextile an exact Uranus Pluto in Virgo. That latter opposed Saturn in Pisces square Mercury perhaps opposition a Gemini Moon. His Mars in colourful Sagittarius was square Uranus Pluto. A high proportion of Mutable planets would make him highly-strung and his Mercury squaring both Saturn and Uranus Pluto, would give him a good deal of mental turmoil and a depressive streak.

It is almost a cliché that comedians, especially stand-ups are tortured souls but a fair number of them seem to be – Robin Williams, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Ruby Wax, Jack Dee, Caroline Aherne, David Walliams have all spoken of the emotional struggles against darkness inside them.