Month: January 2023

Michelle Obama has been coming clean about the extent of her resentment at the sacrifices required of her as a wife and mother which allowed Barack to build his career at the expense of her own. It rang a lot of bells with many women especially her definition of toddlers as ‘terrorists’ and her wry admission she couldn’t stand her husband during those years. Princeton and Harvard educated, she was a trained lawyer but  had to cut back her legal work to part-time as he eyed a run for the presidency. The children were ten and seven when the family moved into the White House after years on the campaign trail.

 Now her books outsell his and she attracts rave audiences for her appearances. Her recent “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times” had an initial print run of nearly three million copies.

  Born 17 January 1964 Chicago, with parents who had not been to college she fought her way up through intelligence and dedication.  She is an ambitious Sun Capricorn but what is eye-catching is her stubborn Mars in Aquarius and coolly insightful Saturn in Aquarius probably conjunct an Aquarius Moon. In some ways she is a harbinger of what is to come – an intelligent, self-assertive, independent-minded individual, not content to be boxed into an apple-pie-baking, stay-at-home mom. Both her daughters who were born during Neptune Uranus in Aquarius have Moon Uranus aspects (probably) so she brought them up to value their independence as well. Both are also argumentative with Mars in Gemini and Sagittarius respectively and would be noisy, boisterous children.

  When Malia was born in 1998 tr Neptune was heading to conjunct Michelle’s Mars, undercutting her forward gear. And by the time Sasha turned up in 2001 tr Uranus was conjunct Michelle’s Saturn. By the time Barack fulfilled his ambition to move into the White House in 2008 tr Neptune in Aquarius was conjunct her Saturn. All of her Aquarius planets were floundering through these years.

  During the early toddler years her relationship chart with Barack was being undermined with the affectionate composite Sun opposition Venus square Saturn being swamped by tr Neptune in hard aspect.  

  There’s no birth time for her but on his chart his relationship needs and patterns are highly complicated – with a needs-space Uranus in his 7^th as well as a possessive Pluto and a having-to-work-at-it North Node. At times flying solo would have been easier for him than cooperating with his South Node in his 1st. Her changeable Uranus Pluto conjunction fall in his 7^th so to a degree she fits his pattern. Her Sun Mars is conjunct his 12^th house Saturn Jupiter which is half great and half exceedingly tricky and scratchy. Her Saturn falls just below his Aquarius Ascendant so she would remind him of his duty and also help to ground him when his Leo Sun square Neptune threatened to take him off into the clouds.

  She has been a reassurance to many with her admissions about coping with self-doubt and being honest about the knots and wrinkles of any long running and imperfect relationship (as all of them are – and some more than others). Tricky keep a relationship running smoothly with two strong individuals.

Brazil has said farewell to “the nightmare” of the past four years under the Bolsonaro administration during which nearly 700,000 died of a mishandled Covid outbreak, millions were plunged into poverty, and Amazon deforestation soared. Lula da Silva the incoming president declared a war on hunger when he was inaugurated just after 3pm yesterday.

 The Brazil 7 September 1822 4.08 pm Piranga chart does have tr Uranus crossing the IC into the 4^th house which suggests a decisive change of direction both domestically and in terms of future direction. But it won’t be easy with the global economic crunch undercutting Brazil’s finances with tr Neptune opposition the 8^th house Mercury. And the Bank of Brazil, 31 December 1964, is coming down to earth with a bump as their over-optimistic Jupiter opposition Neptune is rattled by tr Uranus; with a panicky tr Neptune opposition Mars all year as well. There’s a chance of an ill-advised over-confident push to revive the economy in 2024 but it will be knife edge for some years to come.

 Lula was sworn in at 3.04 pm with practical, sensible, well-organized Saturn on the Midheaven. There will be unrest from subversive movements with Uranus in the 12th and the Bolsonarists will be in there fighting their corner. A 9^th house Pluto suggests international tussles which may arise from Lula’s multipolar approach to foreign policy. He disapproves of sanctions and will clash with Biden’s push back against authoritarian regimes, wishing to have relations with everyone.  There may well be friction between Brazil and the USA over the next two years.

 Lula himself, 27 October 1945 8am (from memory) Ribeira, Brazil, who was president between 2003 and 2010, is a Sun Scorpio with a charming, if over-hopeful Jupiter, Venus, Neptune in Libra and a tough-minded Saturn Mars (Moon) in Cancer. He’ll run into the buffers by 2026 when his Solar Arc Sun opposes his Saturn Mars and his Pluto is conjunct his Sun – which is when the Bank of Brazil is flagging up major problems as well. But before then he’ll certainly be a major improvement on what went before.

The coming (already here) recession appears to be acutely sensitive ahead to the decisions of Jay Powell, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, described by one of the broadsheets as ‘the most important person in the world right now.’ “Money makes the world go round —- and he has his hand on the most important lever.” Central banks are stuck between rock and a hard place forced to choose between increasing interest rates to bring inflation down but in so doing suppressing chances of economic revival.  

 Decades back in the worst recession since WW11, Paul Volcker,  former chairman of the US FedRes raised interest rates from 11.2 per cent in 1979 to 20 per cent in 1981 and drove the US economy off the cliff with global repercussions. There was a recovery after three or more years, as there always is, though long-term effects contributed to the Latin American debt crisis, long-lasting slowdowns in the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan African countries, and the later failure in the US savings and loans businesses.

“ Will Powell change direction too early, too late or, by some miracle, at just the right time? The health of the US economy (and by extension that of the rest of the world) depends on the answer to this question.”

 Powell, 4 February 1953, Washington, DC, is a steady and stalwart Sun Mercury in Aquarius opposition Pluto, trine (Moon) Neptune (Saturn) in Libra. He has a Yod of Saturn Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Mars in Pisces. His Mars is being sucked into a swamp by tr Neptune conjunct from mid May 2023 onwards into early 2024. That is usually accompanied by a sense of panicky failure.

  Tr Pluto will continue to square his Saturn from 2022 till late 2023 which is an uphill slog and usually discouraging. With his Solar Arc Mercury and then Sun opposition his Saturn now till 2025. And 2023 also sees tr Uranus square his Sun, Mercury and Pluto from now into 2024. All in all a white-knuckle ride ahead for him with no signs of great success.

  His relationships with other top economic and political figures also reflect high anxiety. With Joe Biden, panic will set in through February and will peak as tr Pluto moves into Aquarius in late March through April.

 Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, looks very fraught and aggravated with Powell in March and onwards; as well as mighty confused by his decisions.

 Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, is equally floundering vis a vis Powell at the moment and throughout 2023 and stuck in late January.

  Kristalina Georgieva, IMF chief, is at odds with Powell from April onwards into 2023.

 Andrew Bailey, chairman of the Bank of England, is in turmoil with Powell from February onwards, descending into devastating confusion from late March as tr Pluto squares their composite Neptune.  UK PM Rishi Sunak, himself a financier by background, will be hopping up and down from March onwards in his relationship with Powell and that extends through the year. UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is not looking too supportive either throughout 2023.

  Transits to composite charts can show up splits in relationships and pressures; or a challenging situation both are facing jointly.  But one way or another it looks like a rocky road ahead economically.

See previous post: Pluto into Aquarius – shock waves through central banks. 10th September 2021.

Lying to look good is common enough but fabricating an entire fantasy around a never-happened CV and life history takes deception to a whole different level. George Santos, the newly elected Republican congressman for Long Island claimed to be  a wealthy, biracial, Ukrainian descendant of Holocaust survivors whose mother died in 9/11. He claimed to have worked at companies that never employed him and to be a graduate of two universities, only to admit later that he has no college degree at all.  In two previous political campaigns he pitched himself as a gay man of Brazilian descent and pro-Trump. His claims of wealth don’t appear to be backed up by evidence and his mother died in 2016.

  He recently admitted to being guilty of “résumé embellishment” but insisting the larger story about his life is true: “I’m not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up the fictional character and ran for Congress.”

  He was born 22 July 1988 in New York state with Brazilian parents from a family who had lived in Brazil for at least three generations.

  He is possibly/probably a Sun Leo at zero degrees and has two wide-ish yods in his chart. His Sun is sextile Jupiter in Gemini inconjunct Neptune; and his Jupiter sextile Mars is inconjunct Pluto (Moon) in Scorpio. A yod onto Pluto (Moon) does hint at a difficulty with wielding power; and a yod onto Neptune would certainly indicate illusion, delusion and possible deception. Neptune Pluto together as the markers of his chart hint at stratospheric ambition.

  He also has an emotionally changeable/unstable Venus in Gemini opposition Uranus Saturn in Sagittarius.

  There may be repercussions ahead for his wild claims and questionable tactics with tr Pluto opposing his Sun and tr Neptune squaring his Saturn Uranus this year.

  His mendacity is so flagrant it is almost funny and maybe even a wake-up call for a political class that has in recent years cut itself loose from truth, honour and decency.