Month: April 2020

 

David Icke, the controversialist conspiracy nut, is back in the headlines after a quiescent period. On a London Live TV show he blamed Israel for the coronavirus, suggesting it was using the pandemic to “test its technology”. The broadcasting station owned by Evgeny Lebedev, owner of the Evening Standard newspaper and The Independent, has been reported to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom. Icke described moves to require people to be vaccinated as “fascism”. He has previously spoken of “the global conspiracy Rothschild-Zionism, a secret society putting its agents in places of power.” He early on described himself as “the Son of the Godhead”; and suggested that an inter-dimensional race of shape-shifting reptilians were an elite (the Illuminati) in place to manipulate global events. The reptilian thesis may (or may not) be a Swiftian allegory.

Born 29 April 1952 5.15pm Leicester, England, he has an intense 8^th house Taurus Sun, which will prompt him to explore realms beyond reality. His Sun is in opposition to a money-making and angry 2^nd house Mars in Scorpio which is in a rage-filled, trapped square to Pluto. That will be where his hatred comes from and his aggro against anything that smells remotely like an authority or power figure. He has a contrary Uranus Moon conjunct his Midheaven in an autocratic square to a paranoid Saturn Neptune on his Ascendant opposition Mercury.

He does have talent as an influencer, gained a vast popular following and gave a voice to child abuse stories when no one else would, though tended to go too far in naming names without evidence. His output has been described as “a mishmash of most of the dominant themes of contemporary neofascism, mixed in with a smattering of topics culled from the U.S. militia movement.” He is against gun control.

It’s not clear what he’s been up to recently but he did have the tr Uranus square tr Pluto battering its way round his central Cardinal T Square of Midheaven, Uranus, Moon, Mercury, Saturn and Neptune through the middle of the last decade; along with tr Saturn ploughing through his low profile First Quadrant.

He’s now embarking on a new cycle with tr Saturn moving into his through his 4^th; though the Eclipses this year will rattle his cage somewhat. Tr Uranus will conjunct his deeply buried Taurus Sun starting in June which will give him a jolt or two and that continues into next year, when it opposes his Mars – so there may be financial upsets.

As if life wasn’t difficult enough without unhinged cuckoos squawking nonsense about the place.

 

Married actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory are expanding their initiative to feed NHS workers meals from High-Street restaurants, after raising nearly £1m. They started Feed NHS scheme in London but now say it will roll out to other UK cities. They have teamed up with restaurant chains including Leon, Dishoom, Wasabi and Tortilla, to “get food to these people who were working such long hours and weren’t able to get food.”

They have been married since 2007 and remarkably successful at holding it together with two busy, successful careers. He’s known for Band of Brothers, Brody in Homeland and more recently Bobby Axelrod in Billions. She’s had a varied career ranging from Harry Potter, through a Scorsese film to a Bond Skyfall and most notably recently Peaky Blinders.

He was born 11 February 1971 and she 17 August 1968. She’s a Sun Leo square Neptune and trine Saturn in Aries with her Saturn on the focal point of a Yod to Neptune sextile Pluto Uranus. He’s a Sun Aquarius square Saturn in Taurus with his Saturn on the focal point of a Yod to Mars in Sagittarius sextile Uranus. So they are remarkably similar. Her Venus Mercury Jupiter in Virgo are trine and fit well with his Virgo Moon and his Venus in Capricorn. Her Moon in Gemini is opposition his Jupiter, maybe Mars. Both have their Mars in a Fire sign.

Their relationship chart isn’t on the face of it exceptional but it clearly works. The composite Venus is in a cool and enduring opposition to Saturn; with a volatile, needs-space composite Mars Uranus; and a vague composite Sun Neptune which being in the movie business possibly soaks up the more negative ends. With perhaps a composite Moon square Jupiter to smooth round rough edges.

She’s in for a lucky and highly pressured 2021 with tr Uranus in a fortunate trine to her Jupiter; but tr Pluto is also squaring her focal point Saturn for two years which will be a considerable slog.

He’s also in for a dash more luck and an adventure or two come 2021/22 when his Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct his Jupiter.

 

The Cancer Sun of the NHS (UK National Health Service) sits exactly on Boris Johnson’s Midheaven with the NHS Neptune on his Ascendant. Who’d have thought that health would become the defining issue of his career and image? The NHS Mercury, Uranus, Venus (Moon) in Gemini are conjunct his Sun, Venus for a close connection though with hints of aggro from the NHS Mars in square. Most significantly the NHS’s Taurus North Node which hints at years-long struggles over money and equipment are exactly aligned with his head-in-the-clouds Jupiter opposition Neptune; with the NHS unyielding Pluto Saturn in square. There’s a savage irony about his fate being so interwoven with that of the NHS.

The relationship chart has some mutual support and luck from a composite Sun trine Jupiter; but otherwise is a complicated mess of an unsupportive Mars Uranus square Neptune; and a discouraging Saturn square Pluto.

Switching tack for a moment I was pondering on what makes Boris tick – chronically competitive, a chancer, an unapologetic liar and an inveterate and unashamed womaniser. Like Trump, the answer seems to lie with father.

Johnson senior – Stanley – was the one to instil the dog-eat-dog, cut-throat desire to win all arguments at any cost in his children. He was also a serial seducer, which according to friends drove his first wife, Boris’s mother, then the mother of four young children, into a mental breakdown and a series of bouts of depression.  He had political ambitions himself but they didn’t get anywhere near as far as Boris; and he evidently bristles when referred to as Boris’s  father – jealousy and an ego-clash.

Stanley has a very different sort of chart to jitterbug Boris, with a heavyweight Sun Mars in Leo in an explosive square to Uranus; with Saturn Jupiter in Taurus and Pluto Mercury in Leo. He’s incredibly fixed and obstinate and not much budges him from his chosen course. He shares an indulgent Jupiter in Taurus with Boris. But he will be a disturbing presence with his three Taurus planets falling in Boris’s 8^th, and a controlling Pluto in Boris’s 10^th square Boris’s Moon – suggesting he’d like to be the one with his hands on the reins of power. Stanley’s Neptune squares Boris’s Gemini Sun Venus, so he’d be evasive and tricky to pin down and most pertinently his Sun Mars is square Boris’s focal point/afflicted Mars. A combustible, rocket-fuelled chemistry with a tendency to flare up into arguments.

Their relationship chart, not surprisingly, has an incendiary composite Mars Uranus in a mutually unsupportive square to Neptune and a serious dislike square to Mars. There’s also a power-struggling composite Jupiter square Pluto. Taken altogether it suggests a fight for the spotlight which only one can win – and winning is all that matters since egos are at stake. Boris has been running on that playbook since he was knee high to a grasshopper.

And it does explain Boris’s ruthlessly unpleasant T square of Saturn opposition Uranus Pluto square Mars. His self-deprecating ‘all a jolly jape’ Sun Venus Mercury in Gemini is a camouflage for a frenzied need to get ahead of rivals using any and all tactics, no matter how questionable. A commentator once described him as a ‘man without a moral compass’. Like Trump he learned it at his father’s knee.

One thing a near death experience does – usually – is bring a reality check which strips away the ego’s defences to open up a deeper layer of meaning. It’ll be interesting to see whether he can lose the relentless gameplaying he created as a childhood defence to step out and become his own person.

 

Shirley Bassey, the powerful Welsh voice of the movie Goldfinger and two other Bond themes is still going strong as she dots between Monte Carlo and London. She was born in the Tiger Bay, Cardiff, on January 8, 1937, maybe 9 am, the youngest of seven children. She grew up in poverty as her Nigerian father was imprisoned for under age sex when she was a baby and deported. She left school at 14 to work in a factory and sang in pubs, then got pregnant, resuming her career after leaving her daughter Sharon with a sister. Sharon only discovered Shirley was her mother when she was nine, by which time another daughter Samantha had arrived, perhaps the product of an affair with actor Peter Finch. Shirley’s two marriages ended in divorce and Samantha drowned in her twenties, either by accident or suicide and some said by murder.

Shirley has an ambitious, earthy Capricorn Sun and Jupiter with probably an intense Scorpio Moon. Her supercharged voice and indeed her volatile diva’s temperament come from Mercury in Aquarius opposition Pluto square Mars in Scorpio opposition Uranus in Taurus. She did nothing by halves and would either flare up or push relentlessly until she got what she wanted. Her Venus is in sensitive, musical Pisces. As is her regretful-about-the-past Saturn in a creative opposition to Neptune square North Node in Sagittarius.

Her creative 5^th and 7^th Harmonics were strong as was her superstar 22H. Not an easy lady or an uncomplicated life but she pulled herself up by her bootstraps and made a success of her career if not her personal life.

Duffy, the Welsh pop singer, has emerged from a decade of seclusion recently to talk of being drugged, taken abroad and raped in a four-week nightmare. After her escape she laid low for years, often contemplating suicide. Prior to her ordeal she had been a soaring star, outselling Adele and Amy Winehouse, collecting three Brit awards and a Grammy in the US. But even before she disappeared she was a ‘cautionary tale in the music business – a near text-book exercise in career self-destruction’ according to Neil McCormick of the Telegraph. She dumped the management and producers who had nurtured her success to handle her own career with an album which flopped.

She was born 23 June 1984 6.55am Bangor, Wales, and had a troubled childhood with her parents splitting when she was 10 and her stepfather being the target of a murder plot which saw her taken into police custody for safekeeping; and caused a rift with her mother and sisters when she ran away back to live with her father. She also binge drank through her teens.

She has an emotionally sensitive and charming Sun, Mercury Venus in Cancer opposition a musical, creative and unrealistic Neptune and Jupiter in ambitious Capricorn.   Her 4^th house is horrific with Pluto and a Mars Saturn conjunction in Scorpio which suggests a scary childhood with undertones (or overtones) of violence. Her Venus trines Mars Saturn, which is especially difficult emotionally being in intense and unforgiving Scorpio. Her Uranus in the performing 5^th house, a typical placing for ‘rock’ stars also suggests an erratic romantic life. It opposes a Gemini North Node, which in itself is an indication of a free spirit with a streak of wilfulness, and a touch of a ‘bull in a china shop’ approach to life.

It’s not clear when she was assaulted but around 2011 which is when she effectively withdrew from public life her Solar Arc Mars Saturn were opposition her North Node; and tr Uranus in Aries was conjunct her Midheaven for a sharp change of direction in an upsetting square to her Sun, Mercury, Venus in Cancer, with tr Pluto in Capricorn being in a disruptive conjunction to her Solar Arc Uranus and having been in a pressured opposition to  her Cancer planets including Sun in the previous two years. Her Solar Arc Node was conjunct her Sun. It was a very fated Nodal event in many ways.

Where she’s at now is tr Saturn aiming above her Descendant pushing her into a more visible phase in her career and life. Relationships won’t be easy through the next two years with Saturn Pluto moving through her 7^th perhaps because she will carry a ‘rape victim’ identity.  And she will find her home life and family relationships especially jolted and jangled with tr Uranus opposing her Saturn and Mars from April 2021 onwards for a year.

Grim beyond thought, but it followed on from a heavy heavy atmosphere in her childhood which would acclimatise her to dark personalities. Not that she remotely asked for it, but her danger antennae would have been blunted early on.

Boris Johnson is now in the early stages of recovery, having been moved out of ICU onto a hospital ward. But his father Stanley, never one to hold back, admitted it had been a close call and said that it would take him time to recover. Despite good wishes coming his way there are also serious questions being asked about the disastrous early handling of the crisis in the UK and his overly centralised government not being designed to cope with the absence of key figures.

A brush with near-death will not only have taken it out of him physically, it will also have taken its toll on his mental attitudes, ambitions etc. So he’s unlikely to bounce back as before.

His Scorpio Moon which had tr Saturn in square late March and early this month, will take another hit mid June to early July. His Secondary Progressed Moon is exactly conjunct his Neptune which will be debilitating and that won’t move off the degree for two to three weeks ahead. He has the muddled-thinking tr Neptune square his Mercury at the moment till late April, again in September and early 2021.

If his birth time is absolutely accurate at 2pm then he has his Solar Arc Midheaven conjunct his Uranus within months which could suggest radical change of direction in his career/life. He’s on his Nodal Return this year with the June Cancer Eclipse conjunct his Cancer North Node; and the December Sagittarius Eclipse will be in opposition to his Sun, Venus for a good going crisis in the months thereafter. So he’s at a crossroads.

His Moon, which is obviously health sensitive as well as emotionally intense, will be under stress for some time to come with his Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Moon late 2020/into 21, followed by Solar Arc Saturn in opposition and then Solar Arc Mars in square up to just beyond mid decade. Around 2024/25 tr Neptune squares his Sun and Venus for a lacklustre dip.

His Term chart, 13 December 2019 11 am London, is also due to catch the December Sagittarius Eclipse so it will be a challenging time then and into early 2021; with the undermining tr Neptune in an indecisive square to the Term Sun from late March 2021 onwards.

Before then the Term chart has tr Neptune in a catastrophic square to the Mars/Pluto midpoint, which was around in March, returning early October to late January 2021. Late 2021/22 could be terminal for this Term or hugely restrictive with the Solar Arc Saturn closing the conjunction to Pluto.

The UK aren’t quite as out-of-love with Boris as the US with Trump, but there’s a gentle drift downwards in approval from last month onwards extending on into 2023. The December 2020 Sagittarius Eclipse and the 2021 ones will impact the Boris/UK relationship chart so it’ll be a bumpy ride.

Dominic Cummings is equally on a slide vis a vis the UK, not that he was ever popular, but he’ll be increasingly less so with 2021 being the nadir.

Cummings personal chart isn’t too illuminating in general ahead: though this June, October and April 2021 look nerve stretched and disrupted; with panics and disasters through 2021.

Heaven alone knows what will happen with Brexit, since the economic hit from CV19 will be sobering enough without adding another layer of pain; never mind the EU being almost strained to the point of rupture by the problems of Italy and Spain.

Pic: Ben Shread

 

Despite a minor blip upwards in his poll approval at the start of the crisis, the coronavirus pandemic has set off a distinct slide in Trump’s  popularity with his electorate. His daily rant and rave, blame and vitriol briefings are increasingly been seen by his allies as hurting him and he is badly trailing the state governors and his own medical experts in terms of trustworthiness. In this sort of crisis a US President would normally have nearly 80% approval while he’s sagging into the lower forties.

In previous national emergencies former Presidents have been wheeled in to lend a hand. But the likelihood of Trump giving up his spotlight to Obama and Bush, never mid the medical experts is slight.

His relationship chart with the USA 1776 chart saw tr Pluto in the trapped, aggravated opposition to the composite Mars from late January, returning this July to mid August, and late November through December; with jolts and jangles from tr Uranus opposition the composite Pluto and trine Saturn in this March.

The June Cancer Eclipse will conjunct the relationship composite Sun which could be a critical turning point in terms of national approval; with the July Capricorn Lunar Eclipse hitting the composite Venus for an emotional shock.

His relationship charts with both Republican charts, 28 February 1854 and 22 February 1856, are stressed this year and on. With the 1854 chart especially from exactly now to mid June as tr Saturn squares the composite Sun and is inconjunct Mars; with a disappointment-writ-large tr Neptune square the composite Pluto as well.

His Term chart has just finished the discouraging tr Saturn square the Sun, a few days back, returning mid June to early July. Over the election, assuming it still holds for November,  the Term chart has a disastrous tr Uranus square the Mars/Saturn midpoint; and the Progressed Moon conjunct the Term Saturn square Mars, which is usually also a setback.

His own chart all this year has the demoralizing tr Pluto opposition Saturn and emotionally wounding opposition to his Venus/Saturn midpoint denting his narcissism. With major frustrations also running all year and through 2021 with tr Pluto square opposition the Sun/Mars midpoint. July to late September this year looks like a disaster zone for him when tr Uranus not only squares his 12^th house Pluto for a major upheaval but also his accident-prone Mars/Saturn midpoint.

The December Sagittarius Eclipse will throw a crisis or two his way as it is conjunct his Moon and opposition his Sun – which could be career, family and/or health.

Tom Joseph of @TomJChicago keeps chipping away with videos of his increasingly erratic behaviour and speaking patterns and lack of coordination as symptoms of increasing dementia.

Nothing is certain but it’s difficult to see how he can survive health-wise never mind politically. Certainly 2021 will see a sharp decline as tr Neptune squares his Sun and Moon.

Bernie Sanders has suspended his campaign for the Democratic nomination for the US Presidential election clearing the way for Joe Biden. Though in these troubled times nothing much is certain. What follows assumes Biden is still standing by November and indeed that the election goes ahead on schedule.

Sanders was never going to get past the massive blockages on his Mars in Aries from Solar Arc Pluto in opposition and transiting Pluto in square. Exactly as of now he also has the confidence/false-happiness denting tr Neptune square his Jupiter; and a disruptive, all-systems-change tr Uranus square his Pluto.

What Biden has in the immediate future: tr Saturn square his Moon April 7^th (now) till mid June, which will be emotionally discouraging as well as perhaps physically pressured – Boris Johnson has tr Saturn square his Scorpio Moon now, amongst other aspects. Tr Saturn also squares his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint at the same time which is stuck, no progress, confidence denting. He also has a collision of sorts from Solar Arc Mars square his Moon exact now and for a few months ahead. Tr Uranus is in the same disruptive square to his Pluto as Sanders, in his case in May and again late November/December and February 2021. In a man of his age both the Moon and Pluto jolts could be problematic.

He has a couple of tricky career aspects if his birth time is accurate. Tr Neptune opposing his Virgo Midheaven from late this month till late August which will be undermining; and his Solar Arc Midheaven opposition his Saturn, exact at the year end, which is usually a setback.

Late August to late November he has tr Pluto square his Mars/Neptune midpoint which usually coincides with plans not working out – with the caveat that Jupiter will be joining in over the election conjunct tr Pluto. But tr Neptune is also opposing his Mars/Jupiter midpoint early October to late January 2021, which also suggests ambitions with little hope of succeeding.

He looks much more upbeat from late January 2021 and will be firing ahead with more energy with greater success through 2021/22. I doubt a delayed election is possible but it would certainly suit him if it was.

Pic: Greg Skidmore.

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William Wordsworth, the Romantic poet, was born 250 years ago today on 7 April 1770. His poetry is some of the most quoted in the world; and along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge he launched the Romantic Age.

His mother died when he was eight and he was separated from his nearest sibling, his sister Dorothy, who was sent off to live with female relatives. When they were reunited in their late teens they formed an obsessively close attachment especially on her side which remained throughout his life. Initially she kept house for him, transcribed his poems and he described her as ‘the sister of my soul’ who ‘made me a poet.’ He fathered one child with a French woman, but later married his childhood sweetheart Mary which sent his sister into a hysterical fugue. She accompanied them on their honeymoon and stayed throughout his married life as he and Mary produced five children. By 40 Dorothy had become insane although she lived to 84, just after William died.

William Wordsworth had a pro-active Sun Venus in Aries in his entertaining and creative 5^th house square a bleak Pluto opposition Saturn in Cancer. He would have had a dark side, suffering from depression; but he balanced it with a lighter, more hopeful facet to his character from his Sun Venus trine Jupiter. His creative Neptune on his midheaven was in an inspired trine to Uranus and also trine Pluto for an Earth Grand Trine, a pointer to his inspiration from nature. ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud – a host of golden daffodils.’

He had a Yod of Jupiter sextile Mars in Aquarius inconjunct Saturn, which would present him with challenges, since it demanded a good deal in terms of maturity and discipline.

His third house of siblings did have an intense Pluto and unconventional Mars in Aquarius there. Dorothy, 21 December 1771, was a Sun Mars in Sagittarius which was conjunct his Jupiter for a mutually supportive connection. With her Gemini Moon in opposition in his 8^th house, so she would feel deeply attached to him. Her Saturn opposed his Mars so there would be aggravations – not the least for his poor wife, who regrettably doesn’t have a birth date.

Dorothy possibly had a Mutable Neptune in Virgo on the point of a T Square to Moon opposition Mars which might explain some of her nervousness and instability.

Their relationship chart had a power-struggling Mars Pluto and a power-couple Jupiter Pluto conjunction; with an unsettled composite Saturn square Uranus; and a wide affectionate Sun Venus. It was not remotely an easy relationship for a 24/7 lifestyle, or menage a trois as it turned out.

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

 

Continuous as the stars that shine

and twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

 

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not be but gay,

in such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

what wealth the show to me had brought:

 

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.