Month: February 2022

Whoopi Goldberg, the American actor (her choice), comedian and TV presenter, has put her foot in it again, with an ill-chosen comment about the Holocaust, which has had her suspended from her chat show The View for two weeks. She has had an award-strewn career for films and on stage. But also a track record of defending the indefensible – Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski, Mel Gibson – before having to backtrack.

 Born 13 November 1955 12.48pm New York, she has a heavily populated, opinionated 9^th house with her Scorpio Sun, Saturn, Moon and Mercury there. She has a super-confident if a touch over-pushy Jupiter Pluto in Leo in her 7^th square her Sun Saturn so she does come on strong; and her Mercury is also in an outspoken (blurt it out) square to Uranus. Her Uranus is also trine a charming Venus in colourful Sagittarius in her 10^th.  Plus she has a driven-by-unconscious-forces Mars Neptune in her 8^th.

  She looks rattled at the moment with tr Saturn just over the square to her Moon and tr Uranus heading for a final unsettling opposition to her Moon in March. Then she has the downbeat tr Saturn square her Sun, on and off all year, as it criss-crosses her Ascendant into her lower profile First Quadrant for some years to come. Plus there is an enthusiasm-dampening tr Saturn opposition her Jupiter Pluto conjunction early next year. Not to mention the Scorpio and Taurus Eclipses will rattle her Mercury, Moon, Sun and Saturn in 2022/23 which will brew up a few more challenges.

  Her Neptune is also spreading confusion around as tr Pluto squares it from this March, on and off till late 2023; and in 2023 her Solar Arc Sun squares her Neptune as well. So muddles and indecision, partly perhaps over financial matters but also affecting other areas.  She is moving into a less successful few years ahead though it may take a while to kick in.

  Not her favourite year or two, for sure.  

Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy empire, four years after his death is embroiled in lurid stories of drugs and worse around his luxury mansions where heavily publicised wild partying was the norm. Teenage girls as young as 16 were trafficked, drugged, beaten, groomed for prostitution, and raped at ‘mini mansions’ owned by his friends and frequented by celebrities. Jennifer Saginor, daughter of his live-in physician who was also his lover, tried to blow the whistle in a 2005 memoir but Harper Collins, the publisher, pulled most of it for fear of retaliation from Hefner.

  She said that wannabe ‘playmates’ who didn’t pass auditions at the Playboy Mansion would be housed at a network of Beverly Hills homes where they were fed false promises of modelling contracts and movie roles while ‘traded like cattle’ between rich and powerful men. The women were instead drugged and ‘pimped out’.

 Hefner, born 9 April 1926, 4.20pm Chicago, was a political activist in the Democratic Party and for the causes of First Amendment rights, animal rescue, and the restoration of the Hollywood Sign.

 He launched the original magazine in 1953 with financial help from his mother and the first copy, featuring a nude Marilyn Monroe calendar pic, sold over 50,000 copies.

  What is eye-catching about his chart is how strong his control-freak Pluto is – in the 10^th, square his Aries Sun, trine his Moon and Venus in Pisces and inconjunct his Mars in his ‘performing’ 5^th. He was not a man do do anything by halves and looked to be a dominator. His Moon Venus was in a wide conjunction – a combination described once by astrology Richard Idemon as the ‘poisoned apple’ – the mother who offers sexuality wrapped up in nurturing, which might explain a lot.

   He also had a Fixed T Square of Neptune in Leo opposition Jupiter in Aquarius square Saturn in Scorpio – unbudgeable and acquisitive. With an unpredictable, constantly changing Uranus in his 7^th house of relationships.

  The first Playboy, then named Stag Party, 1 December 1953, had Venus in sexy (can be sleazy) Scorpio conjunct Mercury square Pluto trine Uranus and inconjunct Jupiter.

  What always chokes me off about these stories is how long it takes for them to see the light of day. Everyone knew and no one could get it published. I’ll bet there are a fair few who were on the guest lists who must be a touch edgy.

The ‘genocide’ Olympics as Beijing’s winter feste was dubbed by Joe Biden is kicking off this Friday. There will be fewer governments represented, following a series of diplomatic boycotts because of alleged human rights abuses, especially towards the ethnic Uyhgur population in Xinjiang. But there has been no full boycotts of athletes. Because of covid it will be a televised event, with no tickets sold, seats only given to Communist Party members. Infection numbers are rising even within the covid-bubble. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), is as per usual, distancing sport from politics.

 The opening ceremony on February 4^th at 8pm has a damp squib 7^th house Moon Neptune, fittingly for a virus-ridden event; with a downbeat exact Sun Saturn in Aquarius. There is a showy, attention-demanding 5^th house Pluto Mercury, perhaps a hint that Zhang Yimou, the renowned film maker’s show for the opening will be a hit.  It will also get a degree of luck from Venus Mars trine Uranus sextile Jupiter.

 It is not as fraught a chart as for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics which had an explosive Mars opposition Uranus square Pluto. It followed a catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan in May that killed an estimated 70,000 people, which generated massive international sympathy for China, drowning out support for Tibetans.

  The IOC, 23 June 1894, does look stressed through this event with tr Uranus opposition the natal Uranus; and bitter differences and arguments from tr Pluto opposition the Mercury. They were founded during the super-ambitious but scandal-prone Neptune Pluto conjunction with Jupiter added in, giving them an ability to turn a blind eye to unpleasant realities.  Their Venus in Taurus is conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol. Their moment of truth may be coming around 2025 when the tr Saturn Neptune in Aries conjunct their Mars and square their Sun.

  The Guardian quotes Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” And added, “If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”