Month: July 2020

The Meghan Harry breaking-free-of-the-Royal-prison book is out, with protestations from the couple that they had no hand in it. The concern of courtiers and the Royal inner circle is it will exacerbate the family rift as it airs what Meghan and Harry see as their rightful grievances.  Though early reports that the Sussexes felt upset because Prince William and Prince Charles were given priority over them is only likely to increase public bewilderment. And the notion that they were done down because everyone feared they would become more popular than the Royal family itself is risible.

Harry has been sliding into a Neptunian dip since the wedding which happened when tr Neptune was square his Mars, usually a sign of panicky-failure; and it is now approaching the opposition to his Virgo Sun and square his Solar Arc Midheaven from April next year, on and off for a year or so – which will be indecisive, confused and lacklustre. He’s also got his Progressed Moon moving through his 8^th house for another year which is conflicted, often anguished, and feels like being stuck in purgatory.

On top of all of that he has tr Saturn heading downwards in his First Quadrant which is a low-profile, less successful time, which can bring up unresolved psychological issues and will bring some financial cutbacks from 2022 for three years thereafter.  He looks especially jangled and nervy now till late this September with tr Uranus opposition his Sun/Neptune midpoint. With the final hit of tr Pluto opposition his Sun/Moon midpoint from mid this August to late November, which points to inner turmoil and will put strain on his marriage – and indeed relationship with parent figures.

His Solar Return for the year from his birthday this September points to a challenging and acutely frustrating year ahead with the pressured and restrictive Saturn Pluto in the 3^rd square an angry-partner Mars in the 7^th with a needs-space Uranus also in the 7th.

Meghan had the recent Lunar Eclipse elbowing her 12^th house Mars in excitable Cancer so she will be on red alert and arguing the toss at every turn especially with that on top of tr Pluto opposition her Mercury/Mars midpoint through this July and August. Like Harry she has the conflicted and stuck Progressed Moon moving through her 8^th for another year. Her irritable streak will roll on in 2021/22 with the trapped tr Pluto opposition her Sun/Mars midpoint. 2021 will also see tr Uranus square her Leo Sun from May onwards ; with a couple of awkward Solar Arcs of Solar Arc Uranus square her Moon in late 2021 and then square Saturn in late 2022 which will cause family upsets.

Like Harry she’ll experience a minor blip upwards of her finances in 2021 and then an extended two/three years of setbacks and cutbacks thereafter from 2022 onwards.

On Royal relationships:

Prince Charles and the Queen appear to be most upset with Harry through this year and next. Prince William and Kate are none too happy but will be more stressed from mid 2021 for a year.

With Meghan it is much the same, with Prince Charles and the Queen feeling undermined, confused and concerned this year and more so next. The Kate/Meghan strain will roll on, worsening if anything in 2023/24 as tr Pluto squares their composite Sun.

The Meghan/Harry relationship chart is labouring under discouraging Saturn transits conjunct the Midheaven and opposition the Moon and square Pluto through till this December – no sense of positive progress and a reality check. With a hint of stress-testing tr Pluto hard aspects this year and on until 2024.

Never was a relationship chart more illuminating with their composite Moon opposition Midheaven square Saturn Pluto pointing to an internal dynamic of emotional tension and pressure which will tend to get projected out onto the family.  If both their families dematerialised they would be left facing each other forced to work out their own issues.

Erik Prince, the private security contractor with aspirations to being the maestro of mercenary warfare has in recent years aided the Trump Administration. According to reports he runs a secretive intelligence-gathering operation that infiltrates groups considered hostile to Trump to undermine them.

Between 1997 and 2010 when Prince was CEO of Blackwater, it was awarded $2 billion in government security contracts, some of it classified work including for the CIA. After Blackwater became embroiled in mounting legal problems, Prince sold out and relocated to the Arab Emirates to work for the ruler; and started a private equity firm whose focus is oil and gas investment in Africa, with a state-owned Chinese group as the principal investor. He is the younger brother of Betsy De Vos, the much criticised Trump Secretary of Education.

Prince, born 6 June 1969 in Holland, Michigan, has a scattergun Mutable chart with a Sun and Mercury in Gemini opposition Mars in Sagittarius square a Pisces Moon. With a super-confident and adventurous Pluto, Jupiter, Uranus in Virgo. His Mercury is in an evasive opposition to Neptune; and his indulgent Venus is conjunct an ungiving Saturn.  His BML is conjunct his Sun.

What’s intriguing is that Prince’s megaton Pluto Jupiter is conjunct the USA Neptune (on 11am start) in the 12^th – classic for behind the scenes secret missions and nefarious schemes.  His Jupiter Pluto also squares the USA Mars –  descriptive of high-risk military/mercenary contracts in dangerous locations.

He’s not the greatest fit with Trump despite their Geminian similarities and their relationship chart is showing definite signs of a downward drift from late August through September and again in early 2021 with tr Neptune square the composite Sun; And a definite hiccup over the election with tr Uranus square the composite Uranus.

But Prince won’t be down and out since tr Pluto is trine his Jupiter Pluto in 2021/22. Since he’s hedged his bets every which way he can hardly lose – merely move to another warlord. With his skills he’ll always have a ready supply of offers.

His sister, Betsy De Vos, 4 January 1958, is not looking remotely upbeat at the moment till late August with tr Neptune square her Saturn and that returns on and off till early 2022;   with a serious jolt approaching from the December Solar Eclipse conjunct her Saturn as well.

China already reeling from the pandemic is experiencing historic levels of rain and flooding which are threatening their showpiece Three Gorges Dam, which they regard as a monumental social and economic success. The state-owned dam operator said some peripheral parts of the dam had buckled under the strain of holding back more water than it was designed to take from the Yangtze River in order to protect the mega-city of Wuhan amongst others downstream.

Construction was started 14 December 1994 and it took twenty years to finally complete. It has a Sagittarius Sun and more significantly a grandiose Jupiter Pluto conjunction on the focal point of a Saturn opposition Mars. There’s also an inspired and inventive but also anxiety-producing Uranus Neptune in Capricorn.

There have been rumours of an impending dam collapse through 2019/2020 which would have devastating effects on the lower Yangtze River.

The Dam chart is in an edgy few years with tr Pluto conjunct the Neptune Uranus from 2019 to late 2021 which can be associated with natural disasters; and an undermining tr Neptune square Sun Mercury in 2021.  Though the most concerning phase might be when the Solar Arc Sun Mercury are conjunct the Neptune Uranus in 2023/24.

Previous catastrophic floods in the area:- In 1931 which badly affected Wuhan and area were when Saturn in Capricorn opposed Pluto in Cancer and squared Uranus. And again in 1954 when Uranus in Cancer was square Neptune in Libra. There is no start chart for Wuhan but outer planets in final decan Capricorn and Cardinal signs do appear to be warning flags.

Please add below.  Older posts under News on top bar.

Trump having found how much he can amuse himself aggravating mayors, governors and Democrats and at the same time give himself a law-and-order platform for his flagging re-election campaign is threatening to send in federal troops to several additional cities.

His Term chart, 20 January 2017 12 noon, does have one final blast of the might-makes-right, rules-don’t-apply-here T Square with tr Pluto square Jupiter from late this August to late November – so if anything there’ll be more to come.

His relationship charts with the USA and both Republican Party charts are all under immense strain and undermined at the moment and on for several months ahead into 2021. And his cheer-leading consigliere Attorney General William Barr is on a fast downward slide from late August (see previous post June 20 2020).  But if past experience is anything to go by, the more cornered Trump gets, the more he lashes out.

The USA chart has tr Pluto trine its Neptune late this August to late November which will induce an obsessive, tormented and confused atmosphere. Since the USA Neptune is tied into Mars in square, it’ll ratchet up arguments – and the December Sagittarius Eclipse in opposition to the USA Mars is likely to ramp up the combative mood even more.

I wish I could say the divisive rancour will subside after the election but the USA Mercury in Cancer opposition Pluto, which spawned McCarthyism and Watergate when triggered, will be under pressure for the next three years.  2021/22 looks just as beset by hostile and bitter debate and on through the Pluto Return in 2022/23.

See post October 29 2018 – USA Civil War comparisons.

The Department of Homeland Security is the over-arching body dragooned in by the president to do his bidding. It was set up on 25 November 2002 on the back of 9/11 when the unyielding Saturn opposition Pluto was still in place.

It has a chilly, unsentimental and harsh Air Grand Trine of Saturn trine Mars trine Uranus. The DHS Mars is exactly conjunct the Trump Term’s Midheaven but really he’s not personally a great fit with the organization. The DHS Uranus opposes his Mars, the DHS Mars squares his Saturn and the DHS Saturn sits on top of his Sun opposition Moon.

The DHS does look cornered and frustrated from March 2021 onwards for two years with tr Pluto square the Mars pushing it (against heavy resistance) onto a different track.

Roll on the June 2021 Solar Eclipse in Gemini which is in a Saros Series bringing sudden flashes of insight, a creative surge, prophetic dreams and should leave everyone feeling enriched – if not financially then in other ways. And the December 2021 Solar Eclipse should be joyful and happy, with good news and long-lasting benefits.  Not before time. They won’t entirely solve the USA’s or anyone else’s problem for that matter but at least there might be more cheer around.

Roy Den Hollander, the gunman who shot himself after killing the son of Judge Esther Salas and wounding her husband, was a full-blown whacko, consumed with hatred of women. A lawyer and self-described “anti-feminist”, he filled his website with misogynistic rants, ripping everyone he felt had wronged him — from his mother – “May she burn in hell” – to his former Russian wife he deemed a “mob prostitute” who used “black magic, narcotics and feminine duplicity to play him” into bringing her to the US. He fought for men’s rights including a swipe at the military for its ‘discriminatory’ men-only draft; brought a 2007 class-action lawsuit against Manhattan nightclubs for offering “ladies’ nights” and a 2008 suit against Columbia University for offering women’s studies courses.

Born 26 September 1947 (wiki), he was a Sun Libra (favourite lawyers’ sign with the Scales of Justice symbol) with his Sun conjunct a charming Venus and idealistic if vague Neptune. All of which might have added up to a pussycat temperament. Except for a can-be-fanatical, ideologue’s Air Grand Trine of Uranus trine Mercury trine an Aquarius Moon, formed into a Kite by Moon opposition a bleak Saturn Pluto in Leo. That Saturn Pluto opposition Moon squared onto a grandiose and intolerant focal point Jupiter in Scorpio. Not a warm and cuddly mom, for sure. His Mercury squared his Mars for a short0fuse.

Last year he had a terminal cancer diagnosis and as he exited with maximum rage-fuelled damage he did have his Solar Arc Pluto and possibly his Progressed Moon square his excitable Mars in Cancer for an explosion of hatred. And his Solar Arc Mars was also conjunct his Neptune.

A walking timebomb.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is embroiled in a rancorous scandal about a government decision to hand control over the $912 million Canada Student Service Grant Program to a WE Charity in which his family is involved. Members of his family were evidently paid nearly $300,000 over the last four years to speak at WE Charity events. The Canadian Finance Minister Morneau’s daughter works at the organization. Neither recused themselves from the decision to award the contract.

There are odd indications of crisis on his Solar Return with a reputation-damaging Saturn Pluto on the Midheaven for 2020; and a change of direction through the 2021 Solar Return; plus the recent Lunar Eclipse was opposition his Solar Arc Midheaven for another serious challenge to his direction. But he may well survive to limp on with tr Uranus square his Mars/Jupiter midpoint and his Solar Arc Jupiter now till September and again in 2021, when he also picks up the lucky tr Uranus opposition his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint. Though he’ll also acquire the tr Neptune square his Jupiter from late March 2021 into early 2022 which suggests bubble-bursting and high hopes dashed.

His 2^nd term chart, 20 November 2019 12.30pm Ottawa, CA, has a lucky Jupiter in the 10^th though also an explosive 8^th house Mars opposition Uranus and a lacklustre and evasive Neptune on the Ascendant. This chart will get rattled as will his own by the December 2020 Sagittarius Eclipse so it won’t be a straightforward run.  Over-confidence could trip him up.

The Russia Report, much delayed by No 10, highlighted a complacent establishment turning a blind eye to any potential Kremlin interference in recent elections. It pointed out the US intelligence agencies produced a report into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election within two months of the vote. Other European countries, including France and Sweden, had also acted swiftly in 2017 to protect their political systems in response to clear evidence of Russian interference.

In many ways worse, it described a situation where oligarchs had been welcomed to buy into the London property and financial scene, legitimising formerly ‘unexplained’ wealth, following the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s. The London laundromat is now too entangled to unpick with an extensive patronage having been built up across the establishment and employing an “industry of enablers” – lawyers, accountants, estate agents and PR professionals. Many members of the House of Lords have business links to Russia; and many of the Conservative Party’s top donors are Russians with Kremlin links. Lovely.

The report will be a three-day wonder with not much follow through.  What is astro-intriguing are the charts of recent UK prime ministers, both right and left wing, relocated to Moscow.

Boris has his sociable Sun Venus in Gemini closely conjunct his Descendant there with Jupiter in his 4^th and his slippery Neptune in the 10^th. He’d be lauded and feted there and find the ambience comfortable.

For David Cameron, Moscow puts a successful Jupiter Moon on his Midheaven – definitely a success zone for him. And the same applied to Labour PM of yesteryear Harold Wilson, always deemed by the security services as a risk, because of his Russia connection – he had Jupiter Venus in his career 10^th in Moscow.

Gordon Brown, Labour PM through the years when the ‘golden visa’ programme came in, effectively selling residency to the wealthy, also has Sun, Jupiter, Mars through the 10^th for the Russia capital.   Tony Blair oddly doesn’t have anything similar, despite being around through the late 1990s and 2000s in No 10.

Alex Salmond, formerly SNP leader, who is presently being criticised for his television show on RT, formerly Russia Today, has his Capricorn Sun in the showboating and performing 5^th located to Moscow. The intelligence and security committee report on Russia found “serious distortions in the coverage provided by Russian state-owned international broadcasters such as RT and Sputnik”.

And last but not least Donald Trump transported to Red Square has his super-successful, money-oriented Jupiter/Pluto midpoint on the Midheaven; with a secretive 8^th house Sun, Uranus and a financial 2^nd house Moon – there’s a surprise.

None of which progresses the cause of justice, transparency and decency but in a bizarre way quite fun to see how the astrology plays out.

Mark Rutte, the Netherlands PM, has replaced the UK as head of the EU awkward squad, digging his heels in over the proposed Covid-19 rescue package. He along with the other ‘frugal four’ (Sweden, Denmark, Austria – and Finland) thinks the suggested €750bn ($857bn; £680bn) is too large, should be repayable loans not grants, evoking howls of blackmail from the Italian PM. And he thinks it should be withheld from nations who do not meet certain democratic principles, which has incensed Viktor Orban of Hungary and Poland.

This month was always when the EU was going to face its stiffest test with tr Uranus picking up the conjunction to its 8^th house financial Moon and squaring the 11^th house Uranus for the first time, and repeating into early 2021. All of which adds up to a series of massive jolts – an effective bomb – under EU finances and future plans.

Mark Rutte, 14 February 1967, The Hague, 6.53pm, is a Sun Aquarius square Neptune; with his Sun on the focal point of a Yod to Jupiter sextile Uranus – so can be domineering but also a catalyst for change. What is significant is his Saturn in Pisces opposition Uranus (Pluto) in Virgo. His Saturn squares the EU Gemini Midheaven and is conjunct the EU’s Descendant – making him a block on warm relations and forward movement, unless Saturn’s dictates of austerity, decency and obedience to rules are adhered to.

Tempers are flaring and the summit is dragging on without great hopes of an agreement – though the EU usually manages to cobble together something even as it hangs off the cliff edge.   See previous post on EU finances – May 21 2020.

I’ve added a chart of when the deal was announced for anyone who cares to comment.

Add On: Two thoughts from commentators.

Firstly: They ducked the issue of creating a link between the rule of law, allowing Hungary’s autocratic Orban (and others) to think he had won.

Secondly: The EU has set itself on a path to fiscal transfers and mutual debt issuance — something that had, until very recently, been a federalist pipe dream.   “If you had told me a year ago that the EU would be agreeing – a budget like this I would have said you’re daydreaming,” said Maria Demertzis, a think-tanker. “Tuesday’s package may officially be a temporary crisis measure, but it could well end up becoming permanent by default — notwithstanding the scepticism of the frugal states.”

Macron said, “- we’re creating a budget in the eurozone. So this is indeed a moment of great change for Europe and for the eurozone.”

It remains to be seen whether the frugal five will allow it to become standard practice moving ahead. And whether the EU as a standard bearer of values and rule of law has allowed itself to become devalued.

Also see: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/21/europes-750bn-recovery-fund-economic-pop-gun-political-howitzer/

Portland has become the flashpoint for the toxic divisiveness that has always simmered below the surface in the USA. Trump has summarily sent in federal troops against the wishes of the Mayor and Oregon State Governor to forcibly break up the fifty-day long protests after the death of George Floyd and detain demonstrators. The mayor said, “They are sharply escalating the situation. Their presence is leading to more violence and more vandalism.” The Governor described the presence of federal troops in the city as “purely political theatre”.

Portland was incorporated on 8 February 1851 which gives an Aquarius Sun in a confident trine to Jupiter. But what marks Portland out as a USA hotspot is its Mercury at 24 degrees Capricorn on the focal point of a T Square to a disruptive, reforming Uranus Pluto in Aries opposition Jupiter. That rebellious T Square clashes with the USA’s can-be-fanatical Pluto in Capricorn opposition Mercury in Cancer, which has always been a trigger point for incendiary arguments. The USA chart’s bitterly argumentative Mercury Pluto is under stress this year and on until late 2023 with first the transiting Saturn Pluto this year in hard aspect and then tr Pluto thereafter through the Pluto Return.

Mercury opposition Pluto exacerbates suspicion, paranoia, is associated with demagogues and those guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation, promotes over-intense debates with a drive for domination and little latitude for compromise, can teeter on the brink of nervous collapse through strain.

In 1934 Portland longshoreman shut down all shipping as part of a west coast strike for higher pay. That was when tr Pluto was conjunct the Mercury and moving to oppose the USA Pluto –exactly a half Pluto cycle before now.

So Portland does have a role in the USA dramatic mise en scene as a catalyst for explosive arguments. The Portland chart has a leadership North Node in Leo which their Solar Arc Sun will conjunct in 2021 – more can be expected into the next presidency with the city leading the way.

Trump hooks into the middle of the USA Mercury opposition Pluto with his Venus Saturn in Cancer. And his relationship chart with the USA has a composite Mars (opposition Moon) at the same degrees. Right down in the heart of the rancid darkness. He lights the fuse.