Month: August 2022

The killing of the al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Afghanistan has been met with jubilation in the USA. He was Bin Laden’s second in command and is believed to have plotted the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 US service members, was an architect of the 9/11 and was indicted for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

   How relevant an event it is in the greater schemes of things isn’t clear, given that Al Quaeda is no longer the force it was and Zawahiri has been ill for some time, his duties undertaken by other younger members of the terrorist group.

Zawahiri, 19 June 1951, was a Sun, Mars, Mercury in Gemini square Saturn in Virgo so being undermined by tr Neptune hard aspects last year and this; with tr Uranus square his Pluto when he was killed.

  What is of marginal interest is that the Al Quaeda chart has an 18 degree Leo Sun, exactly in line for the explosive Mars Uranus North Node conjunction of the moment – whether that signals its death knell or a shift in a different direction isn’t clear. Though it will have dented morale, there’s no doubt.

  I’m searching around for a history-changing moment to accompany the rare Mars Uranus North Node coming together this week and the above may not be it. See post June 17 June 2022 – construction of the Berlin Wall, death of Mao, 1947 bombing of King David Hotel, Jerusalem, 1871 Germany unification.  

  The USA/Al Quaeda relationship chart is being triggered this year by the Eclipses and under immense pressure in 2023/2024. It’s difficult to see Al Quaeda rising from the grave but there may be other ripple effects yet to be seen.

The England Lionesses victory over Germany in the EURO 2022 final has sent fans into a delirium of joy with hopes that women’s football is finally becoming established as a force to be reckoned with. Encouraging more schools to offer equal access to football and pressure for more Premier League clubs to allow their women’s teams to play in their main stadia will be key aims.

  The first women’s football league was established in 1969 so the foundations have been laid over the past fifty years.

   Looking across a few key players and coaches what is significant is a constant smattering of determined Scorpio planets and in three of them Sun Neptune conjunctions. Neptune often occurs in top athletics though it seems counter-intuitive.

   Chloe Kelly, 15 January 1998, the forward who scored the winning goal, is a Sun, Venus, Neptune in Capricorn, with an energetic and upbeat Mars Jupiter in stubborn Aquarius. She is the youngest of seven siblings and honed her game playing against five older brothers in the local caged pitch.

Hope Powell, the former coach who progressed the game for women, 8 November 1966, is a Sun, Venus, Neptune in Scorpio.

 Baroness Sue Campbell, 10 October 1948, former chairman of UK sport is also credited  with the advancement of the women’s league. She is a Sun conjunct Neptune in Libra with a super-determined Mars in Scorpio and mercury also in Scorpio.

  The present coach, Sarina Wiegman, 26 October 1969, is a Sun Scorpio opposition Saturn in Taurus with a do-or-die determined Pluto trine Mars, sextile Neptune.

 Ella Toone, 2 September 1999, a forward, a confident and controlled Sun Virgo trine Jupiter, square Pluto with Mars in Scorpio. She comes from a sporting family and at school excelled at every team sport – table tennis, tennis, netball, hockey, cross country athletics.

Leah Williamson, 29 March 1997, the team captain, is a self-reliant Sun, Saturn, Venus in Aries trine Pluto, sextile Uranus Jupiter in Aquarius. She started football very young, and is now studying accountancy part-time.

A ray of sunshine to uplift gloomy spirits. Nothing like a sports victory to blow away cares.

Two trailblazers for equality and civil rights in the USA have died. Bill Russell, the NBA great who marched with Martin Luther King Jr, and in 1966 became the first Black man to hold the role of head coach in a major US sport. And actress Nichelle Nichols, one of the first black women to be featured on American television in a non-subservient role when she played Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series.

 Both were motivated by the rebellious, status-quo-upsetting and progressive Uranus square Pluto of the early 1930s in their charts.

  Bill Russell, 12 February 1934 11.15am Monroe, Louisiana,  was born in the racist, segregated south but moved to California when he was 8. His parents were supportive and taught him not to respond to racist taunts which were the norm throughout his life. He had an ambitious chart with a 10^th house well-organised Sun, Saturn and North Node in Aquarius trine an enthusiastic Jupiter; with a charming Venus conjunct his Midheaven and Moon, as well as an ambitious Mars in ‘dancing’ Pisces. His Mars Mercury in Pisces opposed Neptune in his sporting 5^th house. Just as significant was a super-confident and extra-lucky Jupiter opposition Uranus square Pluto in his 3^rd. A focal point Pluto is often ahead of its time and can attract resistance and hostility.

  In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honour, for his athletic accomplishments and his advocacy for human rights.

Nichelle Nichols, 28 December 1932, no time, Robbins, Illinois, was a creative Sun Capricorn trine Neptune with her Neptune in a showbizzy conjunction to Mars and square her Venus and Mercury. She initially wanted to be a singer and dancer but was given the  Star Trek role. She considered leaving at the end of the first run but a chance meeting with Martin Luther King changed her mind. He said ‘You simply cannot abdicate. This is an important role. This is why we are marching. We never thought we’d see this on TV.’ She later saw it as a role model for black people, but also for women with ambitions to become astronauts or scientists.

  She had the Pluto square Uranus perhaps tied into her Capricorn Moon so was destined to be a catalyst for change.

  Her Pluto was sextile an exuberantly confident, energetic and lucky Mars Jupiter in Virgo.

It still staggers me reading about what they had to live through and the unimaginable and ingrained prejudice they faced, which has not exactly disappeared.