Month: December 2022

Liz Taylor and Richard Burton can probably be blamed for kicking off the modern celebrity culture when their torrid romance on the set of Cleopatra in 1962 sparked off a media frenzy. Their turbulent, on-off scorching hot and frequently aggravated liaison is well-trodden turf so I’m not sure why we need yet another rerun. But a new book claims to have had unprecedented access to diaries and letters.

  They lived a decadent, drink-sodden life together with copious amounts of seriously expensive jewellery being handed over as apologies when a alcohol led to arguments. It was a symbiotic love-hate match. She said “We were like magnets alternately pulling toward each other and, inexorably, pushing away.”

  He drank himself to oblivion and she started her days with a  bloody Mary, rolling on to wine and whisky or vodka. Her health was constantly throwing up problems which she wasn’t above using as a lever to catch his attention, and latterly to induce him into a second marriage after a 14 month separation and divorce.

  I’m not altogether convinced about her 2.30am birth time 27 February 1932 London. It explains certain things with a powerfully influential 8^th house Pluto in a disruptive square to Venus Uranus in Aries in her 4^th pointing to a constantly changing domestic life. But it says little about the health problems which plagued her life.  She was a Sun Mars Mercury in Pisces opposition Neptune so well suited to the film business. And her Jupiter in flashy Leo clearly appreciated the high-life.

  Burton, 10 November 1925 3pm  Neath, Wales, had a deeply buried, depressive and obsessive Sun Saturn in Scorpio in his 8^th square a filmic and addiction-prone Neptune in his 6^th and in a creative and unrealistic Water Grand Trine to Uranus trine Pluto in Cancer in his 4^th. His Grand Trine became a Kite with Pluto in a confident opposition to Jupiter – he had luck and talent to spare but was blighted by that downbeat Saturnine streak.

   On the synastry, her Scorpio Moon was conjunct his Sun Saturn in his 8^th – intense but conflicted, both passionate and defensive on his part. Her Neptune was conjunct his Virgo Moon for an evasive connection. Her Venus Uranus in Aries squared his central Jupiter opposition Pluto for fireworks as her adventurous streak was attracted to his grand gestures.

  But it is not as strong a connection as I would have expected. Their relationship chart has a possessive and controlling composite Sun Mercury opposition Pluto which would bind them together for a while and feel meant and Pluto tends to lead to messy breakups. There was a destructive composite Mars Saturn conjunction; a delusional Venus opposition Neptune. And a Yod of Neptune sextile Jupiter inconjunct Uranus – head in the clouds and unstable.

  The one thing which catches my eye is that both their Black Moon Lilith are conjunct their North Node – I have no idea what that means though to suggests a karmic journey towards the darker emotions. A relationship at some level they needed but was ultimately damaging to both. Both went on to marry twice more after their final split.       

The East India Company formed in the final years of Queen Elizabeth 1’s reign grew into a formidable enterprise which seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. At its peak, it was the largest corporation in the world and had its own army of 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the British army at the time. According to wiki it accounted for half of the world’s trade during the mid-1700s and early 1800s, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. It eventually came to rule large areas of India and was involved in the slave trade between 1684 and 1834 until forcibly stopped by the UK government.

The British East India Company was fiercely competitive with the Dutch East Indies company in particular, leading to four Anglo-Dutch Wars.

  The East India Company was formed 31 December 1600 (JC) with the founders birth dates unknown. That gives a financially ambitious Sun Mars in Capricorn in a ruthless square to Pluto and Uranus in early Taurus. Saturn in determined Scorpio opposed Uranus and squared Mercury. There was also a wide Yod of Pluto sextile Venus inconjunct Jupiter – grandiose, super-confident, has a considerable impact on society. That Jupiter in Virgo was conjunct Elizabeth 1’s Sun. She was born, 7 September 1533 JC 3pm London, as Pluto moved onto zero degrees Aquarius with Neptune in final degree Pisces about to enter Aries – so not dissimilar to now.

  Elizabeth 1’s Coronation 41 years earlier on 15 January 1559 JC also indicated an expansive and acquisitive reign ahead with Jupiter in Aquarius on the focal point of a T Square to Mars Uranus in Scorpio opposition Saturn Neptune in Taurus.

  The company lasted into the early years of Victoria’s reign. What is of interest is that it bears similarities to the England, 11 May 973 AD JC chart with its Taurus Sun Mars square Pluto. England’s drive for power at its height.

  The Dutch East Indies Company, 20 March 1602 JC,  was also a force to be reckoned with. Pluto still in pro-active Aries in 1602 was opposition an expansive, ambitious and lucky Jupiter  and inconjunct Saturn in determined Scorpio would give it staying power.

  Pluto in Aries clearly gave both companies ‘boot’ when they started; and Uranus moving into Taurus and Neptune moving into Virgo would signal the start of a new materialistic era.

Prince William looks fit to explode as his much punted Boston Earthshot trip is knocked sideways by the furore over unbelievably crass questions from a close Royal intimate at a London charity function. Lady Susan Hussey, a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, managed to make one black invitee feel as if she didn’t belong after repeated queries about where she ‘really’ came from.

   Having had their recent Caribbean tour criticised by an ill-advised ‘colonial’ parade on the back of a landrover, the Wales were presumably hoping to put the Royal ‘racist’ criticisms ladelled around by Meghan Markle to rest. It’s almost spooky the timing of the fiasco.

  Lady Susan Hussey, 1 May 1939, a daughter of the Earl of Waldegrave, married the former head of the BBC, Marmaduke Hussey, and joined the Royal household in 1960, was made godmother to Prince William and accompanied the Queen to Prince Philip’s funeral. She’s woven into the fabric of the Royal family which makes her behaviour all the more damaging.

  Although reputed to be sensitive and diplomatic she has a very, very tough chart. She is a Sun Taurus with a Libra Moon. But her chart is dominated by an Earth Grand Trine of Uranus in Taurus trine Neptune trine Mars in Capricorn – practical, materialistic, limited in her vision. Her Mars opposes Pluto and squares onto a hard-edged Saturn in Aries; and her Neptune opposes Jupiter in Pisces. So her Pluto and Jupiter (in trine) are her leading planets. Scrape off the tact of the Libra Moon, and she is formidably self-assured, stubborn and not overly compassionate.

  William has a ‘major setback’ tr Saturn opposition his Sun/Mars midpoint exactly now as well as a confidence-dampening tr Saturn opposition his Mercury/Jupiter midpoint plus an over-stressed and explosive tr Uranus square his Mercury/Pluto midpoint.

  Relocating his chart to Boston, it’s clear that it does not bring out the best in him, burying his Jupiter, Pluto, Saturn, Mars in the hidden 12th and Sun in the even more hidden 8^th. Plus it gives a 16 degree Leo midheaven which tr Uranus is presently elbowing in square.

  His relationship with Meghan Markle is also flagging up more than a hint of chill with tr Saturn opposition the composite Moon exactly now.

  Quite what prompted Susan Hussey into such a witless, blunderingly insensitive line of questioning defies explanation. She’s certainly old school but that’s no excuse.  

Christine McVie, singer and songwriter of the stratospherically successful, 100 million record-selling Fleetwood Mac, behind hits including Little Lies, Everywhere, Don’t Stop, Say You Love Me, and Songbird, has died at the age of 79. She stayed for two decades through an era of wild excess, heavy cocaine addiction and romantic tangles as she married and divorced the bass guitarist, John McVie, sharing a stage with him through the breakup and after.

  She was born 12 July 1943 in Lancashire, England, with a concert violinist father and a psychic medium and faith healer mother. Her grandfather had been an organist at Westminster Abbey and she was trained in classical music until she fell into Fats Domino and rock’n’roll/rhythm and blues in her teens.

  Out of the emotional carnage of the various Fleetwood Mac members’ fractured emotional relationships came the 1977 album Rumours, which sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and became one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. She retired in 1998, returning to Britain and shunned  the spotlight. She finally gave in to entreaties and rejoined the band in 2014 for a while.

She was a Sun Cancer with a Scorpio Moon possibly opposition Mars in Taurus square Jupiter Pluto in Leo – emotionally intense, impulsive, a risk-taker, supremely confident and lucky.

  John McVie, 26 November 1945, had his Venus in Scorpio probably close to her Moon, but his Mars Pluto in Leo was conjunct her Jupiter Pluto and square her Mars – too volcanic to last. He was a Sun Sagittarius opposition her wayward Uranus which didn’t help. As was the case with another of her liaisons, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, an unstable, drug-addicted former associate of Charles Manson. He had a Moon Pluto in Leo which collided with her Moon.

  When her fame and success were at their height in 1977, tr Saturn in Leo square tr Uranus in Scorpio was pounding on her Jupiter Pluto in Leo and square her Mars in Taurus; with her Solar Arc Neptune square her Jupiter and opposition her Mars. She must have felt she was going mad.

  It’s a miracle these old rock n’ rollers survive as long as they do. Though Dennis Wilson didn’t, dying at 39, an alcoholic in a drowning accident.

Fleetwood Mac were formed in July 1967 and had the first band outing on 13 August 1967. It was in the midst of the chaotic, turbulent, progressive Uranus Pluto conjunction in Virgo with a flamboyant Sun Jupiter in Leo, given to excess and indulgence –  and an emotionally intense Mars Neptune, maybe Moon in Scorpio, which does suggest a walk on the dark side. Slightly the same as Christine McVie – Water and Fire, a combustible mix.