Month: July 2020

Princess Anne heads for 70 next month with her popularity higher than ever and her street cred as a steady pair of hands undented. With a few well-laced barbs recently she’s put the younger ‘woke’ Royals who thought they were the face of the brave new world back in their box, since she’d done it all decades before. A relentless workaholic she has a tricky temperament but has evidently never stood on ceremony on her global trips into dangerous and out-of-the-way camps for Save the Children.

Although reputedly her father’s favourite, she takes her cue from her mother who is the driving force in her life.

Born 15 August 1950 11.50 am London, she has a controlling and influential 10^th house Sun Pluto in Leo so is designed for a public, career-oriented life. Her understated and hard-working Virgo Moon is made even more dutiful by a conjunction with Saturn and Mercury.

She has a ‘healing’ and private Water Grand Trine of a super-determined and snippy Mars in Scorpio in her 1^st trine Jupiter in the 5^th trine Uranus in Cancer. The 5^th house rules children and she once said she wasn’t sentimental or too hands on with her own children growing up but she was wholeheartedly behind her charity work ensuring children in general got a fairer deal.

Her relationship with brother Charles was never too close with her Mars opposition his 10^th house Taurus Moon and her Saturn Mercury Moon square his Mars – so it would get noisy in the nursery.

Her relationship chart with her father does have a possessive composite Sun Pluto conjunction. But it’s the relationship chart with her mother the Queen which is the eye-opener. There is a composite Grand Trine of Jupiter trine Saturn trine Sun Mercury, formed into two Kites by Sun Mercury opposition Mars and Jupiter opposition Moon square Venus.  A wonderful synergy bringing together two talents to make a difference.

Anne is in a pressured phase with the Saturn Pluto and Jupiter conjunction moving through her 3^rd house. That should ease marginally from the New Year on. Tr Neptune will continue to oppose her Saturn Mercury till January 2021 for concerns and it does look bumpy for several years ahead with her Solar Arc Sun Pluto due to cross her Mars from 2022 to mid decade. With a directionless Solar Arc MC conjunct her Neptune in four years’ time. Her parents are both in their nineties and sadly can’t live for ever so that may be part of the jolts and jangles.

Her harmonic charts especially 17H and 22H mark her out as special.

Add On: She’s been married twice. First time to equestrian Mark Phillips, 22 September 1948, a late Virgo with a Taurus Moon and a charming Venus Pluto in Leo. There would be a sizzle of romance at the start with his Venus conjunct her Pluto and his Jupiter trine her Sun Pluto, and his Moon in her 7^th. But there was an affection-dampening composite Sun Saturn in their relationship chart (= too much work and duty) and an uncompromising Mars trine Uranus tied into Saturn which would produce too many rough edges.

Her second marriage to naval officer Tim Laurence is reportedly not close though they do go sailing and attend Royal functions together in a friendly enough fashion.  Born 1 March 1955, he’s a Sun Pisces with an adventurous Uranus Jupiter in Cancer opposition a socially ambitious Venus in Capricorn square Neptune. His Sun falls in her sociable and sporty 5^th house and his Uranus Jupiter is conjunct her Venus in late Cancer – so it would seem like fun when they met. Though there’s precious little on the relationship chart (without his birth time) to tie them together.

Like many aristo marriages, keeping up appearances in public will be the key factor.

Both her husbands have done well in their individual careers under their own steam and capabilities.

One of her talents has been to avoid intrusive media coverage of her private life, which from odd murmurs, has been fairly lively.

 

Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, who describes himself as a mini-Trump is losing the fight to control the coronavirus outbreak in his state with deaths and cases rising to the level of one of the world’s biggest hotspots. The Orlando Sentinel editorial board wrote: “If coronavirus were a hurricane, it seemed to reach category 5 status over the weekend. Florida needs decisive, resolute guidance to get through this storm.”

DeSantis has pushed to reopen schools quickly despite safety concerns, was slower than other governors to issue an initial stay-at-home order, and has championed the reopening of the economy at every turn, even supporting the reopening of Disney World in Orlando last week. His approval ratings are still above water, unlike Trump, with the governor’s favourables above 50%. But they are slipping.

Born 14 September 1978 in Florida, he’s a Sun Virgo in a slippery square to Neptune with a superficially charming Jupiter in flashy Leo square Venus in Scorpio; and a hard-working Saturn Mercury in Virgo – you’d think with all that Virgo he’d be on top of a pandemic. At the moment he has his Solar Arc Neptune square his Mars, possibly for the rest of this year which should be inducing panic even if he doesn’t show it, with failure writ large.

Over the election in early November he has an irritated setback from tr Saturn square his Mars – but to remember the result may not declare within days given the aggravation showing at the Inauguration. Whatever happens, he will not be a happy camper as he moves ahead. In March 2021 he picks up the trapped, scary, totally blocked tr Pluto square his Mars for two years and later in March 2021 a debilitating tr Neptune opposition his Sun starts a year long trek which won’t make 2021/22 progressive or successful for him.

The Florida state chart, 3 March 1845, has Solar Arc Neptune opposition the Saturn in Aquarius, which is classic for an epidemic. But it won’t last much beyond this year. Though 2021/22 will see failed plans with tr Pluto conjunct the Fl Mars/Neptune midpoint; and more of similar in 2023/24 with tr Neptune square the Florida Mars.

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Princess Beatrice was married yesterday in the quietest Royal wedding for four centuries to her beau, father-of-one Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi – much to the relief of a public out of love with taxpayer-funded largesse and soured by her disgraced father Prince Andrew.

This is just a fleeting post for the archives. They were married at 11am in Windsor on July 17^th which puts the triple conjunction of Jupiter Saturn Pluto in the 4^th opposition the Cancer Sun (conjunct Procyon, the Fixed star of rises and falls from fame.) There’s an argumentative Mars in Aries square Mercury in Cancer which matches the Mars in Aries on her chart. Despite the presence of Jupiter, a Saturn Pluto opposition Sun wedding does suggest a tough road ahead.

There’s a new birth date for Edoardo of 19 November 1983, which makes him a Sun Scorpio with his Saturn and Pluto widely conjunct in Scorpio as well. Intense, determined, stubborn and secretive but the rest of his chart is livelier and more colourful with a sociable Venus Mars in Libra and Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury in Sagittarius.  It’s a marginally odd match for her Leo Sun; and her Moon Venus in Cancer trine his Saturn Pluto which could be problematic.

Their relationship chart does have a helpful, power-couple Grand Trine of composite Jupiter trine Mars trine Pluto with a publicity-grabbing Mars opposition Neptune. It will be argumentative and competitive with Sun square Mars and Mars opposition Neptune but it will generate headlines.

 

John Lewis, Civil Rights activist and Congressman, who marched alongside Martin Luther King in the 1960s, has died. He was a towering figure in the fight for equality starting in his early 20s leading the student non-violent movement which brought beatings and dozens of arrests. He once said: “What we found, as we pushed our protests deeper into the heart of segregated society, was that our nonviolent actions were met with increasingly more violent responses.” He was the last surviving speaker of the march in which Martin Luther King delivered his “Dream” speech.

Nancy Pelosi described him as ‘one of the greatest heroes of American history: the Conscience of the Congress.“

He was born in Troy, Alabama, February 21, 1940, one of 10 children of sharecropper parents and originally intended to be a preacher.

He had a Pisces Sun inconjunct Pluto and sextile Saturn in late Aries conjunct Mars in Taurus with his Saturn Mars square Pluto, suggestive of a life in which hardship, frustration and brutality featured largely. He had the inspired Uranus in Taurus trine Neptune in Virgo of his generation and a charming Venus Jupiter in Aries.

In the 1960s, the transiting Uranus Pluto in Virgo were stirring up his Pisces Sun; with Saturn in Aquarius square Neptune in place over the “I Had a Dream” speech, rattling his Uranus and with it a hope for liberation.

His ‘obsessive dream’ 11^th Harmonic was well aspected which gives endurance – though it is more than discouraging to see the battle against racism still being fought six decades later.

Also prominent was his leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17H. His super-star 22^nd Harmonic was strong and enlivening.  A man who made a difference.

 

The bizarre and labyrinthine tale of how 38 year old, stratospherically successful pop icon, mother of two Britney Spears came to be regarded as not a legal adult is due for another twist this month.  In 2008 she was put under the conservatorship of her father, normally reserved for the old and infirm, after her erratic behaviour caused her to lose custody of her children at the time and sent her into psychiatric care. At the time she said she felt like a prisoner in her life. “Even when you go to jail,” she said, “you know there’s a time when you’re gonna get out. But in this situation, it’s never ending. It’s just like Groundhog Day every day.”

A judge has now decided an evaluation is needed after her father withdrew from oversight for medical reasons. She appears to have been unwell again last year.

Born 2 December 1981 1.30am Kentwood, Louisiana, she does have an exceptionally heavy and trapped chart with Saturn Pluto in Libra on the focal point of a T Square to Venus in Capricorn opposition North Node. That sits at odds with her free-spirited Sun, Mercury, Uranus in Sagittarius and a maverick Aquarius Moon in her performing and entertaining 5^th.

Her relationship with her father, Jamie Spears, 6 July 1952, was never easy. His Sun, Uranus, Venus in Cancer sit in her 10^th so he’d be invested in her career, especially with his Mars in her 2^nd and his Jupiter in her 8^th.  Their relationship chart has a controlling but also chaotic composite Sun Pluto Uranus conjunction. And on top of that an unkind, one-sided Mars Saturn in a none-to-sensitive opposition to Venus so she would feel trapped and unfairly treated.  At present there’s a restraining order against him denying him access to his two  grandchildren after an altercation.

The same composite Sun Pluto control factor is present in her relationship chart with her former manager Sam Lufti, 16 August 1974, a Sun Leo with an unyielding Saturn square Pluto. His organising Saturn sits in her 10^th with his dominant Pluto on her Ascendant. He’s now under a second restraining order.

She has been stressed evidently recently because of her father’s ill health, which with Saturn Pluto Jupiter conjunction moving through her 4^th makes sense. And the triple conjunction transit may also be acting as a destabilising influence shifting the foundations of her life. She disappeared from view and social media for chunks of last year which triggered a #freebritney campaign by fans. At the moment she has the effects of the June Solar Eclipse conjunct her Midheaven perhaps deciding her path for the next phase.

Also at the moment her Solar Arc Pluto is conjunct her 3^rd house Mercury, exact in a few weeks, which will put her under mental strain. And it’ll be a bumpy road ahead sadly with her Solar Arc Saturn in a tension-erupting conjunction to her Uranus in 2021, with more emotional pressure from tr Pluto conjunct her Venus and square Pluto for a couple of years thereafter.

Beautiful, talented in her field, successful and not happy. What a life.

Shamima Begum, the London-born daughter of Bangladeshi immigrant parents who went to Syria in 2015 as an ISIS bride, produced and lost three babies in ISIS and refugee camps and was stripped of her UK citizenship, has been has now been given leave to return to the UK and appeal. The Justices said: “Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns.” The Home Office has said it is a disappointing decision and will appeal the judgment, and stay its effects pending any onward appeal.

Born 25 August 1999, she is a Sun Virgo inconjunct Neptune in Aquarius, with a very Fixed, obstinate and enduring temperament. Her Saturn in Taurus is in a can-be-autocratic square to Uranus Moon in Aquarius, opposition an obsessive, can-be-vengeful Mars in Scorpio, with Mercury, Venus and North Node in Leo. Her Neptune is in a head-in-the-louds, guru-chasing square to Jupiter.

Not an easy personality – self-willed, uber-determined – and her Fixed planets collide with the UK chart with its array of Saturn in Leo, Mars in Taurus, Venus in Aquarius and Neptune in Scorpio. Her remarks when she was first interviewed after the defeat of ISIS did not help, giving the impression she wasn’t contrite for her actions or associations.

She doesn’t look too confident ahead with Neptunian Solar Arcs and transits for the next two years plus a raft of tr Uranus disruptive hard aspects to her Fixed planets on till mid decade. She’s evidently sanguine about the appeal not working.  If it fails she has the option of going to Bangladesh though she has never lived there or staying in a refugee camp.

 

Another Boris botch-up as the Capricorn Lunar Eclipse opposing his Midheaven from last week makes its mark. All his best laid plans to shoehorn failing (Chris) Grayling in as head of the Intelligence Committee collapsed in a heap on the floor. The committee is due to oversee (or stymie) the long-awaited report on Russian interference in UK politics, in particular on the 2016 EU referendum and 2017 general election. No 10 received it last October and has delayed way beyond its usual 10 days for clearance. The Sunday Times has claimed that Russian business types who gave money to the Tory Party are named which would be embarrassing for the government.

Despite having explicitly said there was no preferred government candidate and indeed the 2013 Justice and Security Act having removed the right of the prime minister to choose the ISC chairperson, No 10 blithely went ahead and texted the relevant few asking for confirmation of their vote for Grayling. Julian Lewis MP, a maverick Tory intelligence expert, thought the procedure improper, put himself on the ballot and was duly elected – then had the whip removed (political payback for disloyalty.) The committee then announced the Russia report will be published within days.

Julian Lewis, 26 September 1951, Swansea, is a serious Sun Saturn in Libra with a bullishly stubborn Mars Pluto in Leo. But what’s key is his Uranus in Cancer which sits on Boris’s Midheaven – giving him the power to alter the blond one’s trajectory and potentially push his career off track. Lewis’s do-or-die determined Mars Pluto squares Boris’s flim-flam Jupiter opposition Neptune so he won’t be taken in by PM flannel.

Their relationship chart has a composite Mars in Cancer which was also exactly in line for the Lunar Eclipse. Tr Neptune is also undermining the composite Saturn in square.  Good to see the astrology is working well.

Boris could still remove him but is being heavily cautioned not to keep digging.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial date has been set for July 12 2021 in New York with her being held in remand till then and is expected to last two or three weeks. She has pled not guilty.

At that point tr Saturn is hovering over the conjunction to her Midheaven, ready to move through her 10^th. This is a time when past preparations OR mistakes come to the forefront. It can lead to success if foundations have been well laid. Or it can bring chickens home to roost as mistakes become obvious. Watergate surfaced and Nixon finally resigned as tr Saturn moved across his midheaven and 10^th. Saturn punishes transgressions from societal norms.

Over the trial, assuming it sticks to schedule she does have tr Jupiter in Pisces conjunct her Solar Arc Mars for a lift and then sextile her Mars.  Her Jupiter does seem to act in odd ways given her dire circumstances, maybe her arrogance not allowing reality to seep through. According to Sakoian & Acker, an afflicted Jupiter, as she arguably has on her MC opposition Moon square Neptune, leads ‘to hypocrisy and vainglory, with disgrace and reversals of fortune.’

Add On: Puzzling over her Jupiter and how her father Robert Maxwell and Epstein are connected in her life since they were very different personalities. What they share in common is a money-magnet Jupiter which hooks into her delusionally arrogant T Square of Jupiter opposition Moon square Neptune. Epstein’s Jupiter was in Taurus and Maxwell’s in Scorpio. And her relationship chart with her father had that writ large with a composite Sun opposition Neptune square Jupiter. Her father’s ruthless and unsentimental Mars Pluto square Saturn hooked into her 8^th house Capricorn Sun Mars Mercury – so he was a dominating and downright dangerous presence in her life with one of the key obsessions being money as well as secrecy.

With her connection to Epstein, perversion is much more obvious – as well as money – with a composite Venus Mars opposition Uranus square Neptune. Epstein fulfilled the other obsession of her afflicted 8^th house – sex.

By August 2021 tr Saturn is conjunct her Jupiter, dampening her confidence; and she picks up the trapped, scary, infuriated tr Pluto square her Mars/Node midpoint, which has been around since early this year; and on this last hit it runs till late November 2021. No doubt there will be appeals galore and it’s 2022/23 which are more stressed for her. Tr Pluto from March 2022 starts a discouraging 2 year slog conjunct her Saturn. There’s a car-crash setback of Solar Arc Saturn square her Mars, exact in fall 2022, followed two years later by another downer as it squares her Sun. With a devastating Solar Arc Pluto conjunct her Neptune in 2023 – and two years after that her Solar Arc Pluto makes a blocked square to her Moon. And her Solar Arc Sun Mars move in opposition to her Pluto later this decade. Her days of wine and roses are long gone – though never say never to an appropriate sentence with the corruption of justice ongoing at present.

New York isn’t favourable for her putting her Pluto which is conjunct BML (Black Moon Lilith) into her 8^th house and Saturn in her 12^th. It does put her expansive Jupiter in the 1^st so she’ll make a show of confidence but will be undermined by over hopefulness about legal matters with Neptune in the 9^th  and in desperate need of a partner for support.

Of the names who have been associated with Epstein – Trump oddly looks most stressed vis a vis Maxwell. There is a composite Neptune Mars opposition Saturn square Uranus which is being heavily pressured by the tr Saturn Pluto conjunct his year and then on with tr Pluto till 2024. Though I had thought from all accounts he and Epstein parted company many years back.

Bill Clinton also has a strained relationship with Maxwell with their composite Mercury, Neptune, Sun square Uranus all being upended by the tr Saturn Pluto this year and tr Pluto on till mid decade.

Alan Dershowitz looks most aggravated by Maxwell in 2023. Prince Andrew looks flummoxed, undermined and fearing the worst over the trial but in general, though seriously rattled , doesn’t look as incensed as the others.

For more on Maxwell’s chart see previous post 2nd July 2020.

This is thinking-in-process ramble rather than leading to any firm conclusions, may be over hopeful and not very astrological. But there feels as if there are the first whiffs of a sea-change in the air – perhaps with Saturn having had its first four-month foray into Aquarius though it’s now in retreat back in Capricorn till late December.

From this New Year into 2021 Jupiter moves through Aquarius hand in hand with Saturn for a year, with Saturn there till 2023 after which it passes the baton to Pluto moving through Aquarius till the mid 2040s.

The ‘woke’ culture is being called out for its narrowness of outlook – the semi-fascist think-like-us, speak-like-us or we’ll-destroy-you mentality. And the populists who lied to the incredulous masses to get themselves into power – Brexit, Trump, Bolsonaro etc – are stumbling in the face of hard reality. Maybe just maybe it is the first inklings of a shift into Aquarius from Saturn having sent out a shark tooth to deflate their balloon.

When the Internet was launched in 1991 it gave a platform to the disenfranchised voiceless majority – with some good and other not so good results. The “online mobs” can build up a critical mass, not there before, to effect positive change. But there is also the risk – in the words of political theorist Gaetano Mosca – that “an organised minority inevitably forces its will upon the disorganised majority.” So the screamers get free rein to set the agenda – for a time.

The World Wide Web was launched in 1991 when Saturn had just put a toe into Aquarius so is now on its First Saturn Return which is grow-up-and-get-real time. Twitter and Facebook were born with idealistic and delusional Neptune in Aquarius and self-righteous Pluto in Sagittarius in the early 2000s – giving a gift and, on occasion, a toxic chalice to the vox populi.

What got me thinking was the review of a new book, Twilight of Democracy, by journalist Anne Applebaum in the Guardian. URL below. Her husband is Polish and she watched as their friends who had fought against the Stalinist dictatorship gradually turn into right-wing nationalists and conspiracy theorists.

She makes some telling remarks, by the by, about Boris Johnson, an Oxford peer of her husband, whom she met years back: ‘She noted his laziness and “all-consuming narcissism”, as well as the undoubted charisma that was to seduce and then ruin his country. In those days – he was alarmed by the global challenge to democracy and wanted to defend “the culture of freedom and openness and tolerance”. “No one serious wants to leave the EU,” he said.’

Her theory is that the nationalist counter-revolution did not just happen. Behind it were opportunistic, mediocre politicians hungry for office, second-rate journalists sniffing a chance of recognition after years of obscurity, and Twitter mob-raisers and fake news fraudsters, all propelling causes that would make their name. In my terms, a case of the ‘hoist their flag up a pole’ and see which way the wind would blow to grab them attention.

‘Populist activists are outsiders only in that they feel insufficiently rewarded. And their opponents should never underestimate what their self-pitying vanity can make them do.’

She writes: “Sometimes the point isn’t to make people believe a lie – it’s to make people fear the liar.” Acknowledge the liar’s power, and your career takes off without the need to pass exams or to display an elementary level of competence. The end result being, as was true of communists and fascists, that they replaced “first-rate talents” with “crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity” was the best guarantee of their loyalty. (Hannah Arendt.)

As true of Boris as of Trump. The Applebaum review is worth reading (URL).

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/12/anne-applebaum-how-my-old-friends-paved-the-way-for-trump-and-brexit

Her argument about recent political shifts is – kind of at a stretch – the same as the internet phenomenon. The lowest common denominator got a voice on the WWW as a side-effect of the laudable attempt to give a platform to the previously silenced majority.  Lying populist politics harnessed social media to foster the careers of second-raters on an expedient and unprincipled trip. [While admitting that politicians have always lied through the ages and most often not been top notch.]

I’m trying not to be elitist and say the deplorables should be shut up and sent back into their box. But there is a bewildering sense of the mob taking over, which has been a fear through most societies since Roman times and before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochlocracy  Looking up a few examples mentioned in wiki for mob violence, transiting Saturn square Neptune seems to be a constant as was the case for Brexit and Trump – though as it comes round relatively frequently it must be as an add-on to larger influences. In its better guise Saturn Neptune helps the cause of the underdogs – workers and women.

Ancient Greek political thinkers labelled ‘bad’ forms of government as tyranny, oligarchy, and ochlocracy as opposed to ‘good’ forms of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Good government acted in the interest of the whole community while bad government acted in the exclusive interests of a group or individual at the expense of justice. So presumably they had experience from history of all such forms which constantly fluctuate.

On the brink of the exit of Pluto from Capricorn into Aquarius in 2023, with the forward scouts of Jupiter Saturn leading the way from late this December there is hope of a shift from the disintegrating days of Capricorn into ??????

On previous occurrences of Pluto in Aquarius (approximately every 250 years):

1778 -1797: The USA declared independence in 1776 with high ideals about a new form of government, followed by the French Revolution of 1793 also visionary (at the start) about the rights of the common man. It was a productive period for philosophical and social thinkers – Emmanuel Kant and Thomas Paine (Rights of Man.)

1532 – 1552: The Roman Catholic versus Protestant schism got under way in earnest, which started to pull power away from an omnipotent and corrupt Vatican.

796 – 816: Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor, united most of Western Europe, lays the foundations for modern France and Germany and institutes political reforms. [For more on Pluto in Aquarius see post August 24 2019.]

In the churning chaos of this years’ triple conjunction of Saturn, Pluto, Jupiter, especially with nailed-down Saturn Pluto in place, there’s a sense of stasis and hopelessness as if the present situation was never going to change or at least the deterioration of values was going to worsen. And a rebalancing may not come immediately as the recent Poland elections with the Nationalists back in power indicate. The previous Saturn Pluto Jupiter conjunction in the 19th Century took two or three years to have an impact on economic rebuilding for example.

But I travel hopefully – from small beginnings come greater things. Democracy may be in a twilight phase but the pendulum will swing.

PS: Anne Applebaum was born the same year as Boris, Dan Brown, Christopher Steele though a few weeks later. 25 July 1964. She has the same Mutable Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition Saturn and Mars Venus in Gemini plus the Jupiter opposition Neptune – so better able to understand the Boris mindset than most, though she’s much less scattergun than him.