Month: June 2022

Britney Spears pledged her troth for the third time yesterday to her long-time, twelve year younger boyfriend Sam Asghari at a glitzy Los Angeles do. Reports indicate evening and the wedding pics have his watch at 7.45 so I’m assuming circa 7pm.  There was a Gemini Sun in a sensible trine to Saturn and trine a Libra Moon so an Airy, emotionally detached affair. The Sun was also in a vague, unrealistic square to Neptune; with a super-enthusiastic Jupiter Mars in Aries; an excitable, needs-space Venus Uranus; and a serious Mercury in Taurus square Saturn, sextile Neptune trine Pluto which last won’t make light-hearted communication easy.

  She has tr Jupiter just over her Descendant moving through her 7^th house of close relationships for a few months which is positive for one-to-one partnerships.

  Though it’s a year where she will have panicky moments of plans not working with tr Neptune opposition her Mars, around earlier this year and returning late September through October and again January/February 2023.

  But she’s on a confident roll no matter what with tr Pluto square her Jupiter/Pluto midpoint on and off till late 2023 and then square her Jupiter in 2024/25.  She may go over the top and overdo the enthusiasm but she’ll be up rather than down.

 His birth date is unverified either 3 March or 23/24 March 1994.  The later date would work better putting his Aries Sun and Venus in her 7^th. But it isn’t certain.  

Add On: 3 March appears to be supported from their Instagrams which makes him a Sun Saturn in Pisces with Venus also in Pisces; plus the highly-strung, excitable Uranus Neptune in Capricorn and a trio of Scorpio planets – Jupiter, Moon, Pluto. His chart has an abundance of Water signs where hers has only one and she’s Air/Fire so they’ll either complement each other; or totally mystify each other since they won’t understand where the other is coming from.

 Both have Jupiter in Scorpio so will be attracted to money and indulgence. His Pisces planets fall in her 6^th so he’ll get her organised on the work front and will be comforted by her wealth with his Scorpio planets in her 2^nd.

  It’ll be an edgy combination but she’s not exactly a settled personality. There is a composite Jupiter Pluto conjunction in the relationship chart which is a sign of a power couple – together they boost each other’s morale and make a splash together. But these relationships sometimes come apart at the seams if one tries to outdo the other. [This depends on his birth date being accurate.]

Hindsight being a wonderful thing, looking at the astrology it was clear from 2013 when David Cameron promised a referendum that there was a strong potential for a partnership split. He was only echoing what previous political leaders had pledged but by 2015 he was able to make it happen.

  In 2013 tr Uranus was poised on the cusp of the UK 7^th house which is often a divorce signature for the several years following. And even more significant and challenging was tr Pluto in Capricorn exactly conjunct the UK Sun – that often presages civil war or changes on a momentous scale. At the time less happened than fitted the astrology but the timebomb was obviously ticking.

   By 2016 the disruptive tr Pluto square tr Uranus had been upsetting the status quo out in the world and fomenting an urge to toss old certainties out of the window. By this time both tr Pluto and tr Uranus had been in hard aspect to the UK 7^th house North Node and Sun/Moon midpoint throughout the campaign in 2015 and right up to the vote and after. Both these influences in an individual chart would be indicative of a divorce especially where cooperation does not come naturally as is the case with a leadership/stand-alone Aries Node. Though there is an argument with an Aries 7^th house North Node that flouncing off to be independent is not the mature decision. Learning to be interdependent is what is required spiritually.

  The 2016 Brexit vote was also undertaken with a messy, over-hopeful, unrealistic  Neptune opposition Jupiter square Saturn in place; and an aggravated, no-compromise Uranus inconjunct Mars in vengeful Scorpio – so it was never going to be a clean break.

  The eventual Brexit leaving chart of 31 December 2020 hints at financial shocks and massive difficulties with an 8^th house Mars square Pluto as well as Saturn and Jupiter. So it was never going to be sweet and amiable. It looks increasingly logjammed in 2024 with the Solar Arc Pluto square Mars exactly; jolting with tension in 2025; and won’t really clear bad blood until almost the end of the decade.

  I’m oddly enough not a great believer in ‘written in the stars’ meaning a literal and concrete event has to happen. There are always choices, different ways of handling the influences which could come up with a different result. The best analogy is sailing a boat. The captain has no choice about the direction or force of the wind, but can decide whether to meet it head on, let it blow from behind or ignore it and get blown over – i.e. there are choices about making  best use of the inevitable.

Out of the frying pan onto the spit-roast, the Prime Minister is back wrestling with the Northern Ireland Protocol with every indication that it will end up a hot mess on the floor. The EU is hardening against an ‘unserious’ Johnson, whom no one in Europe believes according to an Irish minister. He’s being elbowed at home, as per usual, by the Tory true-believer euro-sceptics, into what are described as ‘lawless antics’ in breaking the agreement he signed. It is likely to end up in a trade war and continuing ill will, which at a dire economic time seems outrageous.

  UK exports to the EU in 2021 were down 12 per cent on 2018, double the hit to the level of UK exports to the rest of the world – so it can’t all be blamed on the pandemic. Analysts reckon exports to the EU may fall by another 8 per cent again by 2025. The pound is weak, generally attributed to Brexit — down 9 per cent since June 2016.  UK exporters continue to struggle with the bureaucracy involved in selling goods and services to the EU. The massive deregulation and open trade with the rest of the world to replace lost EU business and deliver a boom promised by the Brexiteers hasn’t happened. And the deregulation never will because of the impact on domestic industries such as agriculture.

 The proof of the pudding and all that. The electorate were bamboozled and bewitched by cheap n’ easy slogans that were never going to be a reality.

   Boris’s relationship with the EU has always had that mystifyingly hostile composite Mars opposition Pluto – mystifying in the sense that he has a mega-multi-cultural background so is hardly your average John Bull. But his sojourn as a child, aged 9 to 11, in Brussels with his family when he father was working for the European Commission must have coloured his outlook. That was when his mother suffered a breakdown and he was sent back to England.

 Anyway that Mars opposition Pluto is getting a bucket of cold water thrown on it throughout next year, from early on as tr Saturn sits in hard aspect – and there’s a discouraging uphill slog of tr Pluto conjunct the composite Saturn in 2022/2023 – so nothing that looks like a speedy détente between him and the EU.

  The two prominent Tory Brexiteers who reckon they have the Prime Minister over a barrel – Bernard Jenkins, 9 April 1959; and Bill Cash, 10 May 1940 –  both look considerably discontented ahead for two years.  Bernard Jenkins looks deeply uncertain this year and totally trapped in 2023; and feels a failure by 2024. Bill Cash is displaying some machismo and bullish confidence interspersed with panicky failure this year and next.  So clearly they are not getting it all their own way.

  As an added aside – of Astro-note – Bill Cash has his Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Libra North Node now and Jenkins has his Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Libra North Node.  I’m not sure how I’d interpret that except that in both cases with a Libra North Node their challenge in life is learning how to co-operate and their primitive defence will be to insist on standing alone/being the leader not a partner.

 Relations between the UK and the EU are jangled this year with emotional outbursts and irritations from tr Uranus square the composite Venus and tr Saturn conjunct the Mars; and into 2023 an aggravating and argumentative tr Uranus square the composite Mars and tr Saturn in Pisces blocking the composite Pluto and jolting the Uranus. So this spat is not going to settle any time soon either.

Sun sign astrology has in recent years been the despised poor relation of ‘proper’ serious astrology and widely assumed to have been a popular media invention from the 1930s. Sceptics sneer that not every twelfth person can be the same but how the zodiac sign interpretations are any different from the psychological test definitions of Myers-Briggs labelling types as extraverted, introverted, intuitive etc I’m not sure.

  Kim Farnell’s latest book The True History of Sun Sign Astrology is an eye-opener which sets the record straight on where sun sign astrology fits in to the wider discipline as she follows its winding path from earliest times in Mesopotamia four thousand years ago. From a Babylonian temple to the Daily Express of 1930 sounds an unlikely trajectory but she makes a plausible case for the Sun having been at the centre of the astrological canon since the start.

  It was certainly a driving force for the best-selling almanacs of the day in medieval times. Though sometimes with questionable interpretations “Those born under Pisces shall be wise and cunning, a marriage breaker and very covetous. Her husband shall forsake her and she shall have great pain with strangers and she shall not have it that it is her fault.”

  As astrology moved from being a tool for the monarch in earliest times to gain popularity amongst the masses it continually ran into critics, none of which made any inroads into the public appetite for teasers about their prospects – emotional, financial and medical. Nor did its illegality, with astrologers continually charged with criminal behaviour for fortune telling.

  William Lilly, the 17^th Century English ‘Merlin’ advised politicians and soldiers in the febrile times of the civil war and was summoned to appear in the courts for having predicted the Great Fire of London in 1666 in the form of a coded drawing.

The next notable Alan Leo, the theosophist, picked astrology out of the doldrums in the late 19^th century during Neptune Pluto in Gemini and stimulated a revival of interest which disseminated his work across Europe and America. He made a fortune from mass produced horoscopes as well as writing 30 books some of which are still in use today.

  In the 20^th Century Linda Goodman is credited with doing more to popularise sun sign astrology than any. Her book Sun Signs was a runaway success and a New York Times best-seller, introducing a wider public to credible descriptions of the signs. She dined with the Kennedys, knew Howard Hughes and moved amongst the celebrity set. Her private life was troubled with three of her five children dead in infancy and one daughter dying of suicide in her twenties. She earned millions from her books but ended up bankrupt with an amputated leg from diabetes complications.

What marked out her chart for success from lowly beginnings in West Virginia was her lucky Jupiter in her career 10^th square her Sun Chiron in Aries on her Ascendant. She was an upfront, outgoing personality who was a healer as well as an attention-grabber and who would attract increasing appreciation the older she got.  Her Sun was also square Pluto on her IC suggesting a troubled childhood and later adult domestic life, especially since her Pluto was trine a 7^th house Saturn in Scorpio. Good fortune shone on her achievements but not her emotional life. A 5^th house Neptune in Leo indicated both her talent as an entertainer in a Neptunian sphere; and confusion and disappointment around children. She also had a ‘leadership’ North Node in Leo in her performing 5^th house.

    What is intriguing is that Linda Goodman’s chart shares some similarities with William Lilly’s. Both had Neptune in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio.

  Lilly was a Sun Venus in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio widely square Neptune in Leo.  His Mercury in Taurus was conjunct Uranus on one side and Pluto on the other, trine Mars in Virgo – so his words would pack a punch.  

  Alan Leo had a more obvious astrologer’s Uranus in his 10^th house with an influential-communicator Pluto in his 9^th in a confident square to Jupiter and his Sun in Leo which would help him gain attention.

  For a readable and well-researched dance through astrology’s multi-millenial existence this book will fascinate Astro-historians and give copious ammunition to defend against the nay-sayers.

The True History of Sun Sign Astrology: Kim Farnell. Publishers: the Wessex Astrologer.

In a rare flash of humour a Russian government spokesman  remarked “Our diplomacy has yet to master teleportation,” when Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was blocked from flying to Serbia because of the surrounding countries closing their airspace.  Serbia is totally dependent on Russian oil and gas, has not joined western sanctions against Moscow and been slow to condemn Russian aggression. It is stuck between its close historic, religious and cultural ties with Russia and its application to become a member of the EU.

 Serbia became independent on 5 June 2006 at 2.09pm in Belgrade (caveat – I dislike modern charts for countries with an ancient history, but it’s tricky to see what earlier chart could be used.) This one has a Gemini Sun trine Neptune and square Uranus – idealistic and rebellious, or vague and disruptive.  There’s also a mixed, enduring T Square both indulgent and hard-edged with Jupiter in Scorpio opposition Venus square Saturn Mars in Leo.

  It’ll face its greatest problems from 2024 onwards with a trapped/frustrating tr Pluto opposition the Mars and significant challenges in the years thereafter.

   Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, 5 March 1970, sworn in for a second term on May 31^st, after a landslide election earlier this year, is a Sun Pisces with an intensely charming Venus in Pisces opposition Pluto; and Mars in late Aries conjunct Saturn in early Taurus.  He’s stuck this year, facing major aggravations this August to December and sensing his power diminishing into 2023 and beyond.

  His First Term chart as president from May 31 2017 is showing indications of instability this year and failure next. His 2^nd Term chart has Mercury conjunct Algol square Saturn trine Pluto so his persuasive powers won’t be making much headway.

 Relations between Serbia 2006 and Russia 1917 will be in for a jolt and a shock come the middle of this month onwards on and off into 2023, with over reactions likely. Pressures will build through 2023 though tensions may ease from 2024/25. There are evasions and miscommunications this year flagged up on the other Russia 1991/Serbia chart; with confusions and mounting challenges 2024 to 2026.

 Sergei Lavrov, 21 March 1950, has been Foreign Minister since 2004 though is not thought to be part of Putin’s inner sanctum.  He’s a Sun Aries in an assertive/aggressive opposition to Mars in an uncompromising square to Uranus so will have a short fuse and be impulsive. He also has a persuasive Venus opposition Pluto but with Jupiter also in opposition to Pluto will be pushily over confident at times and bulldoze across accepted behaviour to get what he wants.

This year he’s having sagging moments of uncertainty, especially mid this September to late October; but also lucky, successful phases in late June to early August. His ups and downs continue through 2023. And it will be 2025/26 when he faces his worst moments as the tr Saturn Neptune in Aries squares his Uranus, is conjunct his Sun and then opposition his Mars.  

The No Confidence vote against Boris Johnson will be held at 6pm tonight, over fifty Tory MPs having stuck their oar in with enough-already letters – the requisite 15%. Mercury is exactly conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol trine Pluto and square Saturn so the mood will be heavy. The Virgo Moon was exactly square Boris’s Mars when it was announced; will be opposition his Saturn exactly as it kicks off and conjunct his Uranus and Pluto in the hours thereafter. So impacting all of his overly excitable Mutable T Square. There’s also a separating Uranus in the 7^th over the start of the vote.

  If he loses on a simple majority it goes to a leadership election. If he wins, he is theoretically safe from another such challenge for a year. Though Theresa May resigned within months of the no-confidence vote she survived. Delaying the vote until after the June 23 bye-elections which are expected to be punishing for the Tories would have made a difference.

  There’s nothing much to add to previous postings where signs are unclear about a fast exit. There are solid indications of his increasing unpopularity from Solar Arc Saturn opposition his Moon in full force now and for the next two months or more; plus tr Saturn square his Solar Arc Venus and Sun. But nothing that screams ‘fired’ instantly.

  His 2^nd Term chart, 13 December 2019 11 am, will be braced for the June 23^rd bye-elections with the unholy collection of a 12^th house Saturn, Venus, Pluto in Capricorn having moved to close the Saturn Pluto conjunction to absolutely exact at the moment. This was always when the s*** was going to hit the fan with underlying dirty dealings making an impact. What is worse is that tr Mars in Aries will be exactly square the Term Venus Pluto and Solar Arc Saturn on the day itself as it moves towards the trapped, destructive Mars square Pluto by July 2^nd – so the mood will be aggravated and worsening in the aftermath.

  Given that those around the PM may be better weather-vanes – David Canzini, a right-wing Lynton Crosby strategist, was brought in this February to reset the Johnson operation and clean up the mess. He is focused on winning the next election. Though tr Neptune conjunct his Sun/Mars midpoint this year and conjunct his Pisces Sun in 2023 doesn’t suggest he’s on a triumphant streak. He looks edgy in the extreme from mid this month onwards with tr Uranus opposition his Neptune as well.

 Steve Barclay, Boris’s chief of staff, looks in every bit as bad shape with tr Neptune squaring his Mars Venus in Gemini throughout this year and his Taurus Sun catching the Eclipses.

 Guto Harri, Communications chief, 8 July 1965, is facing a run of catastrophes exactly now and throughout this year. He’s on better form through 2023 but that may be because he’s jumped ship and set up stall elsewhere.

 The Conservative Party chart, 10 May 1912, is facing a point in destiny exactly now with the tr North Node conjunct its Saturn but all indications are that it is 2023 which will see the significant challenge for change perhaps brought about by outside pressure.

See previous post: May 28 2022 below.

Rock-star executive Sheryl Sandberg is to leave Meta after 14 years as CEO during which she turned Facebook from a place to keep up with friends into a commercial juggernaut. When she arrived in 2008, FB was making $500 million in sales ‘from a ragbag of money-making experiments, none of which showed staying power.’ Last year, it brought in $117 billion, virtually all of it from the advertising machine that Sandberg built. The monthly user base has risen from 100 million to 3 billion — more than a third of the planet.

  It seemed an ideal partnership where Mark Zuckerburg would handle the geek-end while she anchored down on financial expansion.  In recent years however she has been besieged by criticism in particular over the 2016 Trump election and Cambridge Analytica data harvesting mess for which she was blamed as well as for various ‘dirty tricks’ campaigns against critics. Recently she said she was feeling burnt out and tired of being the public “punching bag” for Facebook’s shortcomings. And she leaves at a fraught time with Meta losing users to TikTok, ad revenue down because of anti-tracking software and suspicion that metaverse’s immersive version of the internet isn’t appealing to users. Stock is down by nearly 50% per cent. The exit of her ‘safe pair of hands’ at least in the commercial sense is not improving investor confidence. All of which coincides with Mark Zuckerburg’s Scorpio/Taurus heavy chart catching the Eclipses and the tr Uranus square tr Saturn hard aspects this year and next.

  She was born 28 August 1969 with an ophthalmologist father and teacher mother, scored distinctions through college and beyond, had Larry Summers as mentor and became his chief of staff when he was appointed by Clinton to the Treasury. From there she joined the three year old Google and helped turn the search engine into an advertising leviathan. It was always thought she’d ultimately go into politics. An extraordinary and driven life. He first marriage lasted a year; her second husband died suddenly young in 2015 and she is about to marry again.

 She’s a practical Sun Virgo trine a steady, financially-oriented Saturn in Taurus; with a lucky/adventurous Jupiter Uranus Mercury in Libra – and most significantly a hard-driving and can-be-ruthless Mars in Sagittarius square Pluto tied into a Pisces North Node and maybe Moon.

  Her Saturn in Taurus sits conjunct the Facebook IPO midheaven so she was the right person steering the ship. Her lucky Jupiter boosted the IPO’s innovative Uranus Pluto; and her Virgo Sun connected with the IPO Mars in Virgo opposition Neptune square North Node.

  This year’s Eclipses are rattling up Sandberg’s Neptune in Scorpio and Saturn in Taurus and she has a disempowering tr Neptune opposition her Pluto. But she’s unlikely to be coasting for long and will be well primed by 2027/28 to make a political push with tr Pluto trine her Jupiter if that is still on her agenda.

  See previous post October 29 2021 – Meta, Zuckerburg.

TS Eliot, renowned as the greatest 20th Century poet has imbedded lines from his masterpieces, The Waste Land and Four Quartets into common consciousness.

“Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”  

“April is the cruellest month.”

“I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”

  Yet the muddle of his private life left the impression of a callous, enigmatic personality. Siegfried Sassoon, his contemporary, described him as “cold-storaged humanity”. He abandoned his unstable first wife in an asylum and never visited her; dazzled an adoring sweetheart for decades with his lovestruck letters but kept her hanging on a string and eventually betrayed her; and towards the end of his life  married his secretary forty years his junior. A reviewer remarked that he followed Wordsworth’s pattern where being starved of sex arguably led to his greatest work.

 He was born 26 September 1888 7.45 am St Louis, Missouri, and had a 12^th house Sun Libra with a highly-strung 12^th house Uranus as well and a striking collection of Neptune Pluto and Moon in Gemini in his 8^th house which are opposition Mars Jupiter in Sagittarius in his 2^nd. He’d have more than his fair share of mental instability to cope with.

  The 12^th house is the chart area of the unconscious and creativity; and the 8^th house for some has this magical ability to influence the masses – for good or for ill since Hitler had the same. King George VI had Neptune Pluto in the 8^th opposition Sagittarius planets and he was given to uncontrollable rages. So there was a good deal more emotional turmoil going on in TS Eliot’s life than his stunted relationships might suggest.

  Both his first wife Vivienne, 28 May 1888, and his arm’s-length love Emily Hale, 27 October 1891, were born with Neptune Pluto in Gemini prominent. In Vivienne’s case it was conjunct her Gemini Sun so she’d always have been battened down, poor soul, and his treatment of her exacerbated her fragile state of mind. Emily had the Neptune Pluto trine Mars and a stellium with her Sun in intensely emotional Scorpio so she hung on through the years hoping he’d fulfil the promise of his passionate letters.

  Valerie, 17 August 1926, whom he eventually married for the final 8 years of his life, had been starstruck with him as a writer since her teens, married him when she was 30 and after his death tended devotedly to his estate for decades. She avoided the fey Neptune Pluto syndrome being a later generation and was a Sun Neptune in Leo opposition Jupiter in Aquarius.

  I’ve always thought that the Neptune Pluto conjunction of the late 19th Century, first in Taurus and more importantly in Gemini between 1876 and 1902 had a defining effect on the 20^th Century. It’s a curious and can-be terrifying mix of Pluto’s intensity with Neptune’s cosmic yearnings, both intensely sexual and equally rejecting of human desires.  It imbues hubris of a stratospheric scale on some who bear its stamp – ambition without limits. It produced epically brutal leaders; fostered art, especially erotic literature and scientific advances in such intangibles as electricity, radio and telephone. As well as megalomaniac ambition, it also has a propensity for scandals.

“I think we are in rats’ alley

Where the dead men lost their bones.”

― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land.

“I have heard the key

Turn in the door once and turn once only

We think of the key, each in his prison

Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison”

― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

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The Queen’s great-grandchildren are making the most of a family jubilee with Louis’s balcony antics taking the edge off the formality. Even the Sussex minis are across, with Lilibet, celebrating her first birthday, meeting her namesake for the first time.

Of Kate and William’s three, Prince George the eldest with the heaviest burden to bear being in the direct line of succession, is the quietest. Born 22 July 2013 4.24 pm London, he has a final degree Cancer Sun in the well-travelled and well-read 9^th house; with a private Water Grand Trine of an 8^th house Mars Jupiter in Cancer trine Neptune trine Saturn in Scorpio, formed into a Kite by Mars Jupiter opposition Pluto. He’ll be ultra-determined but tend to live within his own bubble of reality and not be overly outgoing. With a 9^th house Venus he’s likely to marry a foreigner.

  Princess Charlotte, 2 May 2015 8.34 am London, has a friendly Sun and Mars in Taurus in her 11th with an intense Sun trine a 7^th house Pluto, sextile a helpful/healing Neptune on her Midheaven. Her Jupiter in flamboyant Leo is highlighted being on the focal point of a Yod to Pluto sextile Neptune – not short of ambition or confidence, she will make a difference.

Prince Louis, 23 April 2018 11.01 am London, is a Taurus like his sister, with a tempestuous chart. His 10^th house career-oriented Sun is trine a sensible and hard-working Saturn, but is also conjunct a wayward Uranus which in turn is square Pluto Mars in Capricorn. His life is likely to be dramatic with a fair few crises. He has an indulgent Venus in Taurus opposition Jupiter in Scorpio; and his flashy Leo Moon in his 1^st is conjunct a ‘leadership’ North Node – he’ll make a splash one way or another.

Harry and Meghan’s two follow slightly similar pattern with the eldest Archie, 6 May 2019 5.26am London being the more serious. He does have an outgoing Taurus Sun on his Ascendant but it is trine a battened-down and determined as well as dutiful Saturn Pluto in Capricorn in his 10^th. His Saturn Pluto are also square a 12^th house Venus and Mercury in Aries – so he won’t be a light-hearted gaddabout for sure. He does have an 8th house (= generous grandparents) Jupiter in a lively opposition to Mars square Neptune – he’ll be attracted to showbiz pzaazz as well as making money. If his birth time is accurate, his mother comes across as overly rigid and disciplinarian.

  Lilibet, 4 June 2021 11.40am Santa Barbara, CA, has a 10^th house Gemini Sun and Mercury trine a hard-working 6^th house Saturn sextile an 8^th house Aries Moon – destined for a public career, communicative, emotionally secretive. An expansive Jupiter in her 7th will make her a persuasive and popular social companion; but a Mars in Cancer opposition Pluto does suggest major aggravations in her life.

  Louis and Archie will clash mightily with their Capricorn planets clashing – though that may not matter much down the road.