Month: June 2018

Actress Pauley Perrette, the forensic goth Abby Sciuto in top-rated NCIS TV series, has left after 15 seasons, letting fly with a few tweets about physical assaults.  Which turned out to be an on-set fracas with the lead (Jethro Gibbs) Mark Harmon’s dog, who bit a crew member as he was playing with him. She says she had decided to leave for other reasons but in the past two seasons has not acted with Harmon in the same scene.

Never my favourite character, she has nonetheless had an interesting life and range of talents, with a degree in criminal justice, a part-time singing career and the highest Q score of female artists (= brand familiarity and appeal rating). Her first marriage ended after 3 years with a restraining order against her ex and accusations of abuse; and in subsequent relationships she foreswore marriage until same-sex marriage are legalized in the US.

Born 27 March 1969, she has a chart split into three almost contradictory parts. Her pro-active Aries Sun is opposition a lucky Jupiter Uranus and trine Mars in crusading Sagittarius, making her lively and outgoing. She also has a self-protective and creative Water Grand Trine of Mercury in Pisces trine a Cancer Moon trine Neptune in Scorpio, formed into a Kite by Mercury opposition Pluto  as well as opposition Jupiter Uranus – not always realistic, but capable of putting her views across forcefully. She also has a notable and tricky Yod of Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Saturn Venus in Aries. Saturn in Aries is self-reliant, quite hard-edged and as a Yod apex planet demands a good deal of maturity for it to operate well. Venus on a Yod can be influential in the arts and public relations.

Tr Uranus was opposing her Saturn Venus as she decided to leave, setting her on a new track; though it won’t be an easy adjustment with tr Pluto moving to square both in 2021/2022.

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, is in a sad tangle with his family. His adult children claim he is in cognitive decline due to dementia; while he is counter-suing them for elder exploitation and fraud, accusing them of “slander” for suggesting he has Alzheimer’s. His suit accuses them of interfering in his personal emotional relationships and forbidding him to marry; while they have suggested that his legal action against them is the product of an unnamed third party, not their father.

He was born 20 January 1930 2.17pm Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with a career military father. His mother committed suicide the year before his Moon landing, as her father had done before; and Aldrin said he inherited his depressive problems leading to his well-publicised alcoholism from her.

He has an intense, talented and challenging chart, with an influential and secretive 8^th house Sun Mercury in Aquarius in a lucky trine a 12th house Jupiter in Gemini; a practical and determined Earth Grand Trine of Saturn in Capricorn in his 7^th trine Neptune in the 4^th trine North Node in Taurus. His Mars in Capricorn on the cusp of the 8^th is in a do-or-die determined opposition to Pluto square a maverick Uranus in the 10^th and also squaring onto a focal point Moon in Libra in the entertaining 5^th house which also rules children.

None of his emotional planets or placings are easy. Saturn in the 7^th makes for tricky one-to-one relationships and he’s had three marriages. His Moon especially aspecting Mars Pluto will have brought aggravated and angst-ridden family relations. A Taurus North Node often attracts difficult battles over money.

Tr Pluto is now on the cusp of his 8^th house of joint finances where it will stay probably for the remainder of his life. This is often a time of being trapped by circumstances which are out of the individual’s control and ongoing tussles over money. Tr Pluto is also squaring his Moon this year for family and children problems.

He’s not had a remotely easy life despite his iconic status and extraordinary achievement and it’s such a shame he can’t find peace at this late stage, whatever the rights or wrongs of this gruesome court wrangle. He’s going in for a competency assessment this week.

Pic: Gage Sidmore

Melania has had a free pass up till now because of Trump’s appalling behaviour. But her fascist-slogan ‘I don’t care’ jacket worn in the most inappropriate circumstances is starting to swing opinion the other way.

Her own chart is fairly hard and very money-oriented with Sun Saturn in Taurus, and Sun opposition Jupiter in Scorpio, plus Mercury Venus in Taurus trine Pluto; and an ambitious Capricorn Moon. She knew what she was doing when she signed the contract to become arm-candy for a mega-wealthy, much married philanderer.

Her relationship chart with the USA is sagging through this year and next with tr Neptune opposing the composite Mars Venus, taking the shine off her aura.

Close to her childhood family and aggressively protective of their privacy, she brought her parents over to the USA, listed as living at Mar-a-Lago in 2007. They have become legal permanent residents and are on their way to gaining citizenship.

Her father, 24 March 1944, is only two years older than Trump.  He lived better than most in communist Slovenia, first as the mayor’s chauffeur then a salesman, with a question about tax evasion charges at one point and an illegitimate son whom he disavowed until forced by a DNA test to support. When GQ revealed all in 2016 the writer Julia Joffe was flamed in anti-semitic abuse on social media by Trump fans, which Melania did nothing to quell.

Viktor Knavs is a Sun Mercury (Moon) in Aries opposition Neptune and trine Pluto North Node in Leo with Jupiter also in Leo so flamboyant, pro-active, a go-getter. He’ll always have had grandiose dreams with Neptune Pluto in aspect to his Sun. He’s also got a hard-edged Saturn Mars in Gemini.

Melania is close to him with an affectionate composite Sun Venus in their relationship chart; an adventurous Mars square Jupiter; and a chained-together Saturn square Pluto. Though there’s a sinking feeling between them through 2018/2019; with more than a few jolts and anxiety spasms at the same time.

Trump is also friendly with him with a similar composite Sun Venus, which is surprising given Knavs’ Saturn Mars squaring Trump’s Moon opposition Sun.

Her mother Amalija, 9 July 1945, a Sun Moon Saturn in Cancer with a materialistic Mars in Taurus trine Jupiter in Virgo, has a cooler relationship with Melania with a composite Sun Saturn trine Jupiter; and a tense Venus Mars square Pluto.

The Black Shirt fascist slogan ‘I don’t care’ which became the rallying cry of Mussolini’s followers, symbolising their willingness to die for their cause, is still mystifying.  In the past she has echoed Trump’s diktats verbatim including the birther nonsense. Her father as a communist would have been anti-fascist – though truthfully there’s little difference between authoritarian attitudes and their dislike of those-not-like-us.  Zara, the Spanish retailer of the cheapo jacket, not her normal style, has form on questionable designs with swastikas, tee shirts similar to concentration camp outfits, and alt-right symbols.

Add onto that the fact that she appears to have no real interests, intellectual or political, apart from fashion, pilates and her son Barron, so it’s impossible to know quite what was going through her head, if anything.

The uproar over the handling of USA refugee immigrants has turned the spotlight back on Australia’s draconian policies of warehousing incomers, often fleeing repression, on offshore islands. When described to Trump in 2017 by PM Malcolm Turnbull, he remarked “You are worse than I am.”

Brigid Delaney writing in the Guardian describes these internment camps as ‘so grim and dangerous that they are often worse than the conditions people were fleeing from – as hot as hell, with all sorts of tropical diseases and only basic medical care. Places where there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go. Places with random outbreaks of violence, that end in murder (RIP Reza Barati). Places where it’s easy to get away with rape. Places where pregnant women can’t access abortions. Places that are almost guaranteed to send their inhabitants mad.’

It started as a hurried political response to the arrival of one boat in 2001 and has consolidated over a decade and a half into a permanent policy, with the support of both Australia’s major political parties. Dozens of countries, the United Nations, and rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have documented and condemned the illegal detention.

More than three-quarters of those forcibly sent by Australia to one such centre Nauru whose asylum claims have been assessed have been found to have a “well-founded fear of persecution” and are legally owed protection.

Foreign journalists – save for a handful of selected reporters – are forbidden entry to the island. Dr Peter Young, formerly the chief psychiatrist responsible for the care of asylum seekers in detention on Manus and Nauru, described the camps as “inherently toxic” and said the immigration department deliberately harmed vulnerable detainees in a process akin to torture. The traumatologist and psychologist Paul Stevenson said that in 40 years working with the victims of terrorist attacks and natural disasters, the conditions in Nauru and Manus camps were the worst “atrocity” he had ever seen.

All of which is the context for one astrological thought. The policy was established in 2001 on a Saturn opposition Pluto (in Gemini/Sagittarius) which has the same feel as the approaching Saturn Pluto conjunction which will dominate 2019. At the moment Eastern European countries are hardening their attitudes to refugees, with Orban in Hungary enacting a decree that helping migrants will be a criminal offence against EU diktats so it isn’t just Trump.

Saturn is rigidly disciplined, status-driven and authoritarian and has no reason to mellow when combined with Pluto’s need for control. A world view based solely on power sees only the victorious or the oppressed. There can be no quarter given when compromise is seen as a sign of weakness, a lowering of defences as potentially life-threatening. There is no room for compassion or sentimentality.    Freedom of choice is not a Saturn–Pluto concept, so beliefs that do not fall in line with the established order come under pressure whether religious, political or ethnic.

The last Saturn Pluto conjunction in Libra in 1982 oversaw the Falklands War; Israel invaded the Lebanon and were instrumental in the Sabra/Chatila refugee-camp massacres of Palestinians; and Solidarity, the Polish workers’ organization, demonstrated against martial law, only to have the Soviet authorities tighten their repression.

In 1946–48, with Saturn–Pluto in Leo, the messy partition of India and Pakistan led to massacres and killings; the Cold War started, bringing down an Iron Curtain between Russia and Western Europe, symbolic of Saturn–Pluto’s determination to build defensive barriers. Japanese and German war-crime tribunals were ongoing, bringing to public awareness the extent of the atrocities of the Second World War.

The previous conjunction in 1914 kicked off WW1. One conjunction earlier in 1882, Saturn–Pluto in Taurus saw the outrages in rural Ireland when 10,500 families were brutally evicted. Tsar Alexander III was at the same time exerting an iron rule in Russia, forcing Orthodox beliefs on the population, and persecuting dissidents.  Saturn–Pluto was in Pisces in 1819, when freedom of the press was abolished in Germany and universities placed under State supervision in an attempt to check revolutionary and liberal movements. The Peterloo Massacre in England at the same time saw the militia attacking a crowd for listening to speeches on parliamentary reform and the repeal of the Corn Laws.

It’ll be a grim time to be a refugee  fleeing oppression.

Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli PM has been charged with fraud for ordering $96k worth of meals from gourmet chefs on state funds. The local view is it will hardly dent Benjamin Netanyahu’s image, fading into insignificance compared to the bribery and corruption charges which he is facing. His party’s poll rating remains high, despite charges pending, with a surge upwards after Trump withdrew from the Iran deal.

Sara Netanyahu, 5 November 1958, is described by Haaretz as being ‘a synonym for all those traits that parents with values would raise their kids to avoid. These include tight-fistedness, self-indulgence, exploitation, malice, abusing the weak, rudeness and aggression extending at times to violence.’

She is a Sun, Jupiter, Venus, Neptune in Scorpio square Uranus (Moon) in Taurus so incredibly Fixed and stubborn; with Mars in bullish Taurus opposition Mercury, so not much give in her chart. Venus Jupiter is super-indulgent with a liking for money; and her Mars Mercury is also in a do-or-die determined square to Pluto.

She does look rattled this year having passed on a possible deal which was withdrawn when she initially refused and tried to reinstate when charges were laid. Solar Arc Pluto is in a devastating conjunction to her Neptune exact within months; with some luck in July but also wracking tensions mounting; self-destructive influences over the year end and a disruptive 2019.

Benjamin Netanyahu is also looking boxed-in with his Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Sun, exact within ten weeks. And despite his popularity in the polls does have tr Saturn moving through his low-profile First Quadrant which tends to be less successful, with mishaps and misjudgements.

His 14 May 2015 11.05pm term chart will be rocking on its axis with the Solar Arc Pluto square the Uranus, exact in 10 weeks’ time as well. So despite his popularity, events look like getting in the way. He looks stressed and confused through this year, with the same plus a few disasters next and a major setback in 2020 with Solar Arc Saturn square his Mars in Leo, which will take the shine of his chutzpah. His marriage looks under serious strain also in 2019 and 2020.

Melania Trump’s ‘I Really Don’t Care, Do U?’ jacket on a border immigrant visit is mystifying if seen as a reflection of contempt for immigrant children. Her track record suggests she dresses deliberately, on occasion pointedly aimed at Trump. Remember the pink Gucci pussy bow shirt after Trump’s ‘grab them by the ..’ comments surfaced in 2016. And her Hillary Clinton/#metoo white trouser suit for the State of Union address after the Stormy Daniels’ furore erupted, and she refused to travel with her husband to the event. She started an anti-bullying campaign, refused to move to DC for her son’s sake. She may have signed the contract to put up with Trump for the duration but she’s not above getting subtle and not so subtle digs in.

Her Taurus Sun opposition Jupiter in Scorpio is getting rattled by tr Uranus from mid May this year till early 2020 which could be seen as a bid for freedom and independence. Though it kicked off with her kidney hospital procedure when tr Uranus was also square her Mars/Pluto midpoint which suggests it was more serious than was claimed. And that fairly catastrophic influence runs on and off into early 2019.

This year is mixed for her with jolting and discouraging tr Saturn opposition her Uranus and square her Moon, plus confused and sticky transits to midpoints; with some light relief in September/October; but a truly difficult 2019/2020 with major setbacks, frustrations and aggravation.

Her relationship with Trump hit a major collision over his election and in 2017; is having to accommodate a major adjustment from this July as tr Uranus trines the composite Pluto, and that runs into 2019. With a definite hint of power struggles between them in 2019/2020 as well as high anxiety and uncertainty.

Her relationship with Ivanka, never good at the best of times, is at daggers drawn at the moment, with escalating tensions through this year.

She must have known what she was doing when she lashed herself to Trump’s mast in 2005 – with a vulgarly over-ostentatious wedding. The wedding chart unsurprisingly has a bitterly angry, power-struggling, submit/dominate Mars Pluto conjunction and a grandiose Jupiter camouflaging a good deal of unhappiness. The wedding chart is sailing through especially troubled waters in 2019, worse in 2020.

My money would be on her trolling her errant spouse.

India hasn’t been immune from the nationalist xenophobia which has shaken several European countries and the US in recent times. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected in 2014 on a vision for economic growth, good governance, and reforms with his Hindu supremacy beliefs kept low key. But since then there has been growing intolerance of the fifth of the population who are Muslim or other faiths, undermining India’s previous status as a secular, multi-cultural country.

Not all of his economic policies have been a success, with some of its meteoric rise slowing, though it’s still in better shape than most and in 10 years, forecasters predict that India’s economy will be third-largest in the world, behind the USA and China.

Modi’s birthdate is questionable but he was sworn in on 26 May 2014 at 6.13pm in New Delhi, which does give a fearsomely determined, violent and ruthless, as well as crises-ridden chart with a Cardinal Grand Cross of Mars opposition Uranus square Pluto opposition Jupiter.  Despite some economic setbacks he remains popular in the polls.

Next year’s election due April/May sees mixed fortunes on his Term chart with the tr Saturn Pluto opposing the Jupiter, but it’s a generally lucky chart and will get a boost from Solar Arc Pluto opposing Jupiter the year after.

India gained independence on 15 August 1947 on the Saturn Pluto in Leo conjunction so it will be tuned into the Saturn Pluto mood up and coming in 2019 – normally a sign amongst other things of repression of religious minorities.

What is worrisome is that the Progressed Mars is moving to conjunct the India Pluto and Saturn over the coming year – and Mars Pluto Saturn was around for the very bloody partition of India and Pakistan after the August independence with many hundreds of thousands killed and 14 million peoples displaced. So it could get unpleasant with the over-heated rhetoric and violence likely to escalate.

Like flies stuck in what Matthew Parris memorably described as a tar pit, UK politicians are making a total horlicks of the Brexit negotiations. Paralysed by an inability to agree amongst themselves, they and the whole farrago are arousing amused contempt in Brussels, where the overlords just sit back and say NON every so often. Businesses are already baling out in all directions to Ireland, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe.  Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament chief negotiator said there would have to be a definitive plan by this October, to be ratified by the leaving date of March 2019; and it would take the full two year transition period thereafter to work out trading details which could well drag on for decades.

The dates fit a scenario on the UK chart with a major financial shock, high anxiety provoking hasty misplaced decisions in 2021 with tr Uranus conjunct the 8^th house Mars; followed by several very rough years culminating in panics, confusion and more financial shocks in 2023/2024 with Solar Arc Sun square the 2^nd house Neptune, Solar Arc MC square Neptune and Solar Arc Uranus conjunct Mars.

The 29 March 2019 leaving date occurs on the bleak Saturn Pluto conjunction in last decan Capricorn; with an aggravated Pluto trine Mars; and a head-in-the-clouds, over-hopeful Jupiter square Neptune. The end of the transition, presumably late March 2021, has tr Saturn in Aquarius square the UK 8^th house (business finances) Mars; in a teeth-gritted trine to Mars and a jolting square to Uranus, so again not wealth-generating influences.

The UK joining the EEC chart, 1 January 1973 12 am, is muddled and panicky in 2018/2019 with a considerable upheaval from February 2019 till late 2020 with tr Pluto square the Uranus.

The UK/EU relationship chart reflects much the same muddle, disappointment and trudge through thick mud till late 2019.

The problem from an astrological point of view is that it isn’t a total divorce, more a rearrangement of agreements (if they ever happen).  The relationship chart is a fairly controlling one so stepping back to renegotiate was never going to be easy with Pluto in the 8^th square a 12^th Uranus and a 4^th house Sun.

The Theresa May government chart, 9 June 2017 12.35pm London is sagging (further?) in the early months of 2019 pre-the cut off date with tr Saturn square Jupiter and conjunct Pluto; and hitting the skids from May 2019 onwards as tr Neptune squares the Sun and Moon. It may not mean finito but it’s certainly not an uproarious success. At that point the Solar Arc Moon is opposing the UK 11th house Saturn  so the populace are going to be mightily out of sorts with politicians and the legislature.

Jacinda Ardern, PM of New Zealand, had her first baby today at 4.45pm in Auckland.  Her daughter is a last gasp Gemini Sun only a few hours away from being a Cancer. She has a 10^th house Libra Moon so may well consider following her mother’s footsteps into some kind of public career. Though she’ll be rebellious and quite a maverick with Uranus in her performing 5^th house square Venus North Node in Leo opposition Mars in Aquarius. She’ll be stubborn, very much a law-unto-herself romantically as well as in whatever way she chooses to present herself.

Her Moon squares Saturn, indicative of an overly dutiful mother, and also trines Mars, so there will be some tantrums. Her Pluto opposes Mercury in Cancer for an intense and forceful way of expressing herself. Neptune is in her 4^th in a self-protective, healing Water Grand Trine to Jupiter in Scorpio and Mercury, formed into a Kite by Mercury opposition Pluto making Pluto in her financial 2^nd the driving planet. She will be talented, lucky and influential. Though Neptune in her 4^th suggests she’ll feel her identity is very wrapped up in the family.

Her Gemini Sun chimes with her mother’s Venus in Gemini; her Venus in Leo with her mother’s Leo Sun; and her Jupiter falls on her mother’s Ascendant boosting her image. Though the crossover Moon aspects are less great with baby’s Libra Moon conjunct her mother’s Mars Pluto; and baby’s Saturn conjunct her mother’s ambitious Capricorn Moon.

Their relationship chart is affectionate with a composite Sun, Venus, Mercury in a practical trine to Saturn; though there’s an aggravated composite Mars Pluto sextile Uranus Neptune. Fitting a young baby into a high-powered political schedule won’t be easy and will leave its mark.

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