Month: June 2023

Putin’s pet mercenary thug and, believe it or not, catering chef, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has turned to bite the hand that brought him to power and wealth. Putin has accused him of mutiny as he marched onto Russian territory with his hardened band of convict killers and threatened to topple Russian military leaders.

  Rumblings of discontent from YP have been swelling in recent weeks but it still feels like a black swan of improbability that changes all calculations as to the course of the Ukraine invasion.

  Birth dates of individuals are not always reliable but Putin’s 4^th Term, 7 May 2018 11.05pm is sound. It described a brutally ruthless and violent administration but one that was prone to revolution and destabilization with Mars Pluto in Capricorn square Uranus.  Tr Pluto started to square the Uranus this February, repeating now and extending on and off, into and throughout 2024. This is a classic topple-off-perch moment for a leader. Worse still the Solar Arc Pluto is conjunct the Mars exactly now and in effect for a few months which is trapped, high-risk, enraging, paralysed.

  The Russia 8 November 1917 2.12am Leningrad chart has had tr Uranus shaking up the Fixed T Square of Saturn opposition Uranus square the Scorpio Sun Mercury since 2021 – and tr Uranus is now on the final leg of being square the Uranus, repeating for a final time over this coming New Year. Such a Fixed chart will take a fair battering before it shifts trajectory and maybe this is when critical mass is reached which will jolt the country into significant change. This year as well the Solar Arc Sun is in a car-crash collision with the Russia Mars which tr Saturn is also opposing throughout this year.

  The Russia 8 December 1991 7.45pm chart is also showing signs of disruption and upheaval with tr Uranus opposition the Pluto exactly now and repeating into 2024.  Aggravations and setbacks are indicated from tr Saturn square the Mars and more so with SA Saturn square the Mars in 2024/25.

 The 14 October 2023 Solar Eclipse has Saturn sitting on the Midheaven located to Moscow for a moment of hard reality.  The April Solar Eclipse had Pluto conjunct the Midheaven from the 9^th located to Moscow which could point to a meltdown.

  Yevgeny Prigozhin was born 1 June 1961 according to wiki, spent time in prison for teenage stealing and became rich through Russia’s reinvention in the early 1990s, running restaurants which supplied the Kremlin and government officials. His Wagner mercenary military started around the time of the Crimea invasion and now has interests in several African countries and the Middle East. His internet companies are also alleged to have interfered in the US elections.    

  If his birth date is accurate, he is a Gemini Sun square Pluto, inconjunct Neptune and trine Jupiter – super-ambitious, controlling and lucky. He also has an excitable, uncompromising and explosive Mars Uranus in Leo; an over hopeful Jupiter conjunct Saturn and square Neptune.

  Tr Pluto is conjunct his Saturn exactly now for a determined push against great odds, fuelled by a highly-confident tr Uranus opposition his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint. He’ll hit a bumpy patch of upheavals and upsets from early this July, on and off into early 2024, as tr Uranus squares his Uranus.  He’ll meet road blocks through this year as well as tr Saturn opposes his Pluto. But it is 2024 which looks disastrous and high risk for him.

  His relationship charts with both Russia 1917 and 1991 don’t show much love for his homeland with 2024/25 being the years of greatest strain. His relationship chart with Putin 1952 looks devastated and not improving over the next three years. With Putin’s 1950 birth date it looks more clearly a time of reversal with tr Pluto opposition the composite Uranus at zero degrees Leo, followed by tr Pluto in a devastating square to the Neptune across this summer and later in the year; and if it survives that long extreme turbulence in 2024/25.

Add On: Belarus, where the military appear to have increasingly come under Kremlin control recently with Putin threatening to send nuclear warheads there, is on red alert. There are unconfirmed reports the authoritarian president Lukashenko has gone to Turkey but it may just be his family. His 6^th Term chart, 23 September 2020, is deadlocked at the moment with the Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Saturn and square Mercury now – under immense strain – with a complete dead-halt and maybe termination come 2024 if not before as SA Pluto squares the Mars.

  Lukashenko, 30 August 1954, looks to be dissolving into panic with his SA Neptune conjunct his Mars now and worse in 2024. The Belarus country chart, 25 August 1991, looks depressed and panicked with transiting and SA Saturn opposition the Sun this year and tr Neptune opposition the Mars all year as well.

  The shock waves will ripple in several directions.  

Add On: Thoughts from the Telegraph.

Belarus leader may ‘live to regret’ Wagner deal, say experts.

Under the deal brokered by Lukashenko, Prigozhin will in future live in exile in Belarus. It still remains unclear if he will be bringing members of the Wagner militia with him. One analyst said it was likely that Prigozhin was “dumped” on Lukashenko by Putin. “The only plus that there could be for Lukashenko is he may want to use Prigozhin as personal army against any potential revolt.”

 They do not make happy bedmates with Prigo’s control-freak Pluto conjunct Luka’s Virgo Sun; Prigo’s tough-minded Saturn square Luka’s Neptune and opposition his Uranus which will induce high nervous tension; and worse still Prigo’s Uranus conjunct Luka’s controlling Pluto which could upset his applecart in Belarus.

  Their relationship chart is competitive and heading for muddle and mayhem in 2024 with tr Pluto square the composite Neptune. With a fair amount of pushing and pulling and oneupmanship games through this year as well as tr Pluto squares the composite Jupiter.

The Titanic’s hull was laid down on 31 March 1909 – which is a better chart than the launch chart of 31 May 2011. And it sank on 14 April 1912 at 11.40pm off the Canadian coast.

  The initial chart has a tough Sun Saturn conjunction in Aries with an explosive/disruptive Mars Uranus in Capricorn opposition Neptune and inconjunct Pluto and North Node in Gemini. When it sank tr Neptune had moved to close the opposition to Uranus (and Mars) to exact. With the tr North Node in Aries also square the Mars Uranus.

Hamish Harding, the billionaire on board the lost submersible, was born only five days after Boris Johnson, 24 June 1964, and has the same reckless, ramped-up Mars in Gemini on the focal point of a whirlwind T Square to Saturn opposition Pluto Uranus; and the over-hopeful Jupiter opposition Neptune.  His Sun North Node in Cancer is square the Titanic’s Venus and his Venus in Genii is conjunct the Titanic’s Pluto – which explains the attraction.

  I can’t find any dates at the moment for Oceangate whose tin can sub it is – except for 2009 set up – it started on Pluto’s entry into Capricorn and exited at the end.

  Hideous beyond belief. And the warning bells were ringing loud and clear beforehand. The volunteers must have had a delusional sense of invulnerability.

Add On: Thanks to Xhane for Oceangate 31 August 2009.

  Not only does it have the over-optimistic Jupiter Neptune conjunct, the Solar Arc Neptune is now exactly opposition the Virgo Sun and tr Uranus is square the Jupiter/Neptune midpoint = coming down to earth with a bump (having to face cold reality.) Tr Neptune is also conjunct the Uranus this year and the SA Sun is moving to conjunct the Saturn within months –  nothing good coming out of all that.

Add On: Stockton Rush, March 31, 1962, San Francisco, chief executive and founder of OceanGate, the pilot of the Titan submersible, was always an adventurer. He was believed to be the world’s youngest jet-transport-rated pilot and initially wanted to travel to Mars. Instead he went underwater. He was descended on his father’s side from two signers of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife’s great-great-grandparents died on the Titanic.

  He had an Aries adventuring (and impractical) Sun on the focal point of an ego-centric yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune  – Tierney describes such a yod Sun as inclined to ‘abuse of personal will and authority.’ He also had a rules-don’t-apply-to-me Pluto opposition Jupiter and a do-or-die determined Pluto opposition Mars. And a stubborn Saturn in Aquarius (Moon) opposition North Node square Neptune.

   There is a line where audacious courage crosses over into hubris and therein lies delusion and disaster.

  His midpoints are also instructive. His Sun opposition his Neptune/Pluto midpoint hints at megalomaniac ambitions wrapped round deceptive fantasies.

  The Titanic movie director James Cameron said Rush was like the Titanic Captain who sailed ahead despite warnings. Edward Smith, born 27 January 1850 in England, was a Sun Aquarius with most notably Uranus Pluto in Aries inconjunct Jupiter. When the Titanic sank with him on board the transiting North Node was then at 21 degrees Aries about to conjunct his Uranus. That degree is being rattled up at the moment by the Eclipses this year. At the moment also his Solar Arc Sun is posthumously square his Pluto and his SA Neptune opposition his North Node – disturbing his rest.

 There are unconfirmed birth dates for other passengers – Shahzada Dawood, 12 February 1975 and his son Suleman, 18 June 2004, both Karachi, Pakistan. If accurate, Aquarian senior looks hard-driving with Saturn in Cancer opposition Mars square Pluto. His son has a late Gemini Sun conjunct Betelgeuse which tr Neptune is square now. It opposes Pluto natally. His Mars is conjunct Procyon.

Add On: The explosion happened just under two hours after launch on 18 June – chart above.  

Add On: Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 2 March 1946, Chamonix, France, the oceanographer, was also on board. He was known as “Mr Titanic” having visited it more than 30 times, and salvaged artefacts from the ocean floor which did not meet with the approval of relatives of the dead.

  Like Rushton he had his Sun on the focal point of a Yod to Pluto sextile Neptune, in his case a Pisces Sun which squared a maverick Uranus. He also had a hard-edged Mars Saturn in Cancer, which had faint resonances with Dawood senior’s Saturn Mars Pluto T square.  His North Node was at 27 degrees Gemini which seems to keep repeating as a significant point through several charts.

Chiron’s saintly aura as the wounded healer, selflessly dispensing compassion for others, has its shadow side of rage, envy, vindictive spite, self-pity and resentment laid bare in Liz Greene’s latest book Chiron in Love.

   What tends to get forgotten – we know it but it gets blithely skipped over – is that the centaur’s wound is poisoned and can never heal, a point she hammers home again and again. Only by giving up his divine immortality (and ultimately dying) can Chiron ever be released from his unending pain.  

 ‘Repetition and cyclical return to the place of suffering are characteristic of the inner world of Chiron.’

  The mythological background to Chiron is covered extensively. As son of earthy Kronos (Saturn) and grandson of the sky god Ouranus, he bridges worlds, standing between the instinctual and the divine.  Abandoned as a baby he was brought up by Apollo and was already a healer when he was wounded by accident.   

  Crime and punishment, blame and the victim culture belong in Saturn’s realm as the giver of laws. But there is no culpability in Chiron’s domain which is a difficult concept to grapple with. ‘Life is unfair, humans are fallible and imperfect.’  ‘A just verdict in the outer world won’t heal the wound in the inner world.’ The victimizer can often have been victimized themselves.

  It is a harsh, nihilistic view of a random universe (shit happens) and human evil, not likely to sit comfortably with a happy-clappy, everything-happens-for-a-good-reason outlook. We need, Greene thinks, to move beyond the endless self-pity party to discover how difficult it is to be human. This is the beginning of compassion.

  The chapter on synastry suggests that relationships where there are Chiron crossovers offer a chance of change but often end badly. ‘Great expectations and their inevitable disappointment lie at the heart of Chiron’s story.’

 As cases in point –  King Charles’ Chiron squared Princess Diana’s Moon and Meghan’s Chiron is conjunct Harry’s Moon – in both cases hinting at the high hopes of the Chiron individual for the Moon person to provide endless warmth and unconditional support since they have not learned to nourish their own emotional needs.

  Chiron sparring with the other’s Mars can begin with sexual excitement and not surprisingly ends badly – with Johnny Depp (Mars) and Amber Heard (Chiron) as well as Princess Margaret (Chiron) and Anthony Armstrong Jones (Mars) as prime examples. Mars wants to conquer and win; and challenge can be an aphrodisiac. But pushy Mars hitting Chiron’s defensiveness can trigger violence as the wounded Chiron lashes out.

 Chiron on the other’s Mercury makes the Chiron person feel unintelligent. A Venus cross over makes the Chiron individual feel unloveable. She points to both Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson who both had Chiron Neptune aspects natally.

  Chiron close to the Sun natally – King Charles, Greta Thunberg, Carl Jung – brings loneliness, a chronic sense of being an outsider, a painful and enduring sense of isolation and low-self-esteem. ‘Often people with with a strong natal Sun Chiron aspect feel both damaged and chosen.’ ‘Jung wrote at length about the loneliness of increased consciousness and the suffering of the outsider burdened with being able to see too much yet unable to communicate it to those who did not comprehend it.’  

  The book is an amalgam of various seminars from 2005 and more recently in 2020 as the victim-culture got into full swing which perhaps explains her repeated emphasis on a no-one-to-blame Chiron. It is in no way an Astro-cook book with easy-to-find lists of interpretations of Chiron aspects. But it is thought-provoking and adds a darker, deeper dimension to Chiron which is generally overlooked and will prompt me to look more closely in future at the wandering centaur’s hoof prints.

 [One jarring note for me, though not on the astrology, came with a sideswipe at the Cleveland Child Abuse ‘scandal’ which Greene wrote off as a ‘creating-victims-where-none-existed’ scenario. A little research would have shown that independent experts under the guidance of the Department of Health later found that at least 70 per cent of the diagnoses made by the much-criticised paediatricians had been correct. The experts report added that this was “contrary to general public understanding of the accuracy of the diagnoses”. Butler-Sloss who wrote the original report (think Lord Hutton on David Kelly and Robert Mueller on Trump) did nothing later to disabuse the public. In Saturn’s realm it was a botch up.] 

 Chiron in Love: Liz Greene – 20 September 2023.

www.wessexastrologer.com

The solstice welcomes the entry of the Sun into Cancer, one of the four Cardinal ingresses of the zodiac. The symbolic moment of start of the next quarter year is thought to give a hint of what may be to come. Though how useful ingress charts are is questionable.

  This Cancer Ingress has the Sun inconjunct Pluto so power issues will loom large with certain individuals living out the bullying, coercive side of Pluto, while others get suppressed. There is an excitable, uncompromising and disruptive feel with Uranus square Mars and Venus. Though a steadying Saturn sextile Jupiter and a comforting and hopeful Jupiter North Node square Moon will add a note of common sense and cheer.

The Cancer Ingress of 2020 when the lockdown had been in operation for three months had the Moon in an irritable and panicky square to Mars Neptune in Pisces – with a super-charged Jupiter Pluto in Capricorn ramping up the mood, negative and positive – and inducing a rules don’t-apply-to-us mentality in some.   

  The previous Capricorn Ingress of December 21 2019 which is when the first COVID case emerged, set for China had the Sun Jupiter conjunction straddling the Midheaven, to focus all eyes eastwards and in best Jupiterian ‘Miracle Grow’ fashion creating a rapidly expanding, far-flung phenomenon. There was also the restrictive/hardship Saturn Pluto conjunction in Capricorn – and an emotionally rattled Venus square Uranus opposition Moon.

  I’m still not convinced that ingress charts tell us much that we would not know from other predictive influences.  But feel free to comment.

Eclipses, Solar and Lunar, are generally assumed to have an effect for six months until the next one appears. Sometimes there are significant events on the Full or New Moon following the eclipse, a month later. But eclipses may also throw out a longer shadow.

 The immensely powerful August 1999 total solar eclipse is one example. It rose in the Eastern seaboard of the USA, crossed the UK, curving down across Afghanistan, Pakistan to finish in southern India. The New Moon in Leo opposed Uranus square Mars in Scorpio opposition Saturn in Taurus. It caused consternation amongst astrologers who were looking for an end-of-the-world event.

   There was a Turkey earthquake a week later which left massive damage and around 45,000 dead and quarter of a million homeless.  The August 1999 eclipse located to Izmit in Turkey had Venus on the Midheaven and the Mars opposition Saturn sitting on the Ascendant Descendant axis so it was a key location.

  But there was also arguably a linked event two years later when Mars returned for the first time to its 1999 eclipse position in Scorpio to square Uranus and both impacted harshly on the 1999 Solar eclipse at 18 Leo.

  The catastrophic Gujarat earthquake in central India on January 26 2001 – exactly on the 1999 eclipse path – occurred as these aspects all came together again. The devastating national foot & mouth epidemic in the UK, also started around this time. Both UK and India have very fixed charts with major planetary configurations in Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius, which were especially triggered off by the eclipse and these transitting planets in fixed signs.

  Even later still in late March 2002, when Mars again in a fixed sign – Taurus – running into the square to Uranus, coincided with a major earthquake in Afghanistan, also on that 1999 eclipse path.

  It’s impossible to keep track of past eclipse charts in following years since there are too many but worth keeping an eye out – as with this one since it was so obvious.

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, having made history by winning an all-time record of 23 men’s Grand Slam singles titles says he has no intention of retiring yet. He started playing aged four and has not stopped since, moving to Germany as a teenager to continue training and then stepping into 20 years of winning – a record ten Australian Open titles, 94 singles titles, a record 38 Masters titles and is the only man in tennis history to be the reigning champion of the four majors at once across three different surfaces.

  Born 22 May 1987 11.25pm Belgrade, Serbia, his Sun Gemini sits in his sporting 5^th house and is sextile a go-ahead Aries Moon, with both inconjunct Pluto in Scorpio.  A focal point Yod Pluto is emotionally intense, enormously powerful, can be manipulative but has obviously been harnessed to channel his obsessive sporting ambitions. His Pluto is also in an ultra-determined trine to a hard-working 6^th house Mars in excitable Cancer.

  His Mars is also opposition a 12^th house Neptune squaring onto his Moon conjunct North Node. A T Square focal point Moon is both sensitive and defensive emotionally, and well-designed to work in the public eye. His 3^rd house Jupiter in upfront Aries and Venus in Taurus make him an amiable and charming communicator. Though he is not an easy personality. Known as mentally tough, his controlling Pluto will hold together his underlying anxieties.

  He may have no wish to retire but with tr Saturn moving through his First Quadrant he will start to ease back and his Solar Arc Midheaven conjunct his Saturn in 2024 (birth time being exactly accurate) may see him revising his plans.  

Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder, actor, politician is a walking example of what relentless determination can achieve. He says: “If you’re always hungry, you’re never really satisfied. The more someone says that this is impossible, the more excited I get over it.” He’s back having a spotlight moment with a three part biographical Netflix documentary out to coincide with the second series of FUBAR, a high-octane action series about a CIA operative on the verge of retirement asked to do one last job.

He’s a moderate Republican and says if he could stand against Trump he would but an Austrian birth precludes the possibility.

   He was born 30 July 1947 4.10 am Graz, Austria with a police officer, former Nazi father, who was abusive. His Leo Sun conjunct Saturn Pluto describes a harsh, overly-controlled childhood – mirroring that of Bill Clinton, another Sun Leo with Pluto Saturn also in Leo though not conjunct, whose stepfather was abusive.

 Schwarzenegger threw himself into bodybuilding, winning Mr Universe aged 20, which gave him entrée to the USA and he came  to be regarded as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time. He shifted over to blockbuster action movies and at one point became Governor of California.

  His Leo Sun, Saturn, Pluto are in his financial 2^nd so making money would be a main priority. He has Jupiter in Scorpio in his performing 5^th house and a restless, uncompromising, excitement-junkie Mars Uranus in his 12^th.  Relocating his chart to Los Angeles put his Jupiter in the successful 10^th and Mars Uranus in his performing/entertaining 5^th which is perfect for action movies. It also puts his Venus, Sun, Saturn, Pluto in his 7th house of close relationships which has led to a complicated love life with several partners and flings.

 What has always struck me as odd is that he only has one Earth planet – a Capricorn Moon in his 6^th house. Whereas muscle-flexing Dwayne Johnson has a Moon Jupiter in Capricorn, Sun Taurus and Pluto in Virgo.  Jean Claude van Damme has Saturn in Capricorn, Pluto in Virgo as well as his Moon. Maybe Schwarzenegger’s singleton, sparsely aspected Moon fits Carl Jung’s theory that what we lack is our gateway to transformation. He was extraordinarily, born with a heart defect which in later life led to open heart surgery and a heart valve replacement.

   On the Los Angeles relocated chart he is moving into a lower profile, less ambitious phase so after this publicity blitz maybe his non-stop-go approach will start to slow down.

Not I would have to confess, an actor I ever warmed to.

ADD ON: He was married to Maria Shriver, niece of JFK, for 35 years until an illegitimate child of his turned up, whose mother had worked in the family home. She is born 6 November 1955 5.12pm Chicago and is a serious and determined, hard-working Sun Saturn in Scorpio in her 6^th house; with a packed family-lineage 4^th house with a changeable Uranus, comfort-seeking Leo Moon and a super-confident Jupiter Pluto in Leo as well.

  Her Leo Moon would chime with his Leo Sun though her Uranus and his Saturn Pluto in her 4^th would complicate the mix. His Jupiter is conjunct her Sun which is positive but her obsessive and defensive Saturn was also conjunct. Her Capricorn Moon falls in his 8^th for a deep connection.  So a fair number of pluses and as many minuses. His Venus in Cancer squares her Neptune – overall he might find her overly dutiful and slightly evasive emotionally. And he is certainly controlling.

  Their relationship chart does have an affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction though Venus is also conjunct Saturn, which latter can give longevity if not warmth to a match.  But what is most significant is a power-struggling composite Mars Pluto hinting at a relationship where one partner dominated. Their marriage split in 2011 when tr Uranus opposition tr Pluto square tr Saturn was rattling up their relationship chart.

  Maria would be used to full-on men since her father Sargent Shriver, who was the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps, was a Scorpio Sun square a high-octane Mars in Leo opposition Uranus. Her relationship with him was not easy either. Oddly enough he died the year her marriage split.

Amongst the many irritations which Boris Johnson poses, one is his New York birth place. For astrologers it means a dilemma over whether to use his London relocated chart or his original entry point onto the earth, both for general predictions and for Solar Returns.

  His relocated chart to London does have a 27 degree Virgo Midheaven which tr Neptune is opposing exactly now which sounds spot on; with his Solar Arc Midheaven this year also catching the tr Uranus opposition – career disappointment and confusion and sudden change of direction. As well as undermining circumstances where domestic life is concerned moving ahead.

  Whereas the New York birth chart with a 12 Cancer MC and 9 Virgo SA MC has less going on.

  The London Solar Return has Neptune on the Ascendant undermining his image and bringing an identity crisis of sorts. The Sun on the IC suggests relative seclusion at home;  with challenges where future plans and friendships are concerned with Pluto in the 11^th inconjunct the Sun.  Plus a Cancer Moon in the 5^th house of children as he welcomes yet another into the Johnson tribe.

  The New York birth chart Solar Return has a domestically trapped Pluto in the 4^th, an angry and argumentative 7^th house Mars, a restless, secretive and emotionally intense 8^th house Venus Uranus, a travelling 9^th house Sun and a having-to-be-responsible-for-children 5^th house Saturn. Either could make sense. But London looks most descriptive.

 The general rule is the birth chart is the basic template and having to relocate adds another layer of complication and too many charts to juggle with. But it is instructive to see it at work here.

  He certainly is not a happy camper in coming months with his Second Saturn Return in play and tr Saturn dampening down his Mutable T Square. For thoughts on his future see June 11 2023 post and other Johnson posts: 30 May 2023; 15 January 2023; 23 July 2022.

What I had not pointed up is tr Uranus moving into Gemini in 2025 and crossing over his focal point Mars in Gemini – that is explosive and not in a good way, insecure, knocked sideways, provoking rash misjudgements and tr Uranus then continues in the three years thereafter to rattle up the rest of the Mutable T Square of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. On the London relocated chart tr Uranus also moves into his 7^th house of close relationships and that is the point where tr Uranus is also square his Sun/Moon midpoint – so a problematic phase for marital togetherness.  

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Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistle-blower who leaked studies showing successive US governments knew the Vietnam war was un-winnable, had died aged 92. He was put on trial in 1973, charged with espionage, conspiracy and stealing government property, which could have landed him with a possible 115-year sentence and smeared as mentally unbalanced. The case against him was dropped  after a supreme court ruling due to gross governmental misconduct, including a break-in at the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, which in part led to Watergate and Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

  By the end of the Vietnam war in 1975, more than 58,000 Americans were dead and 304,000 were wounded. Nearly 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers were killed, as were about 1 million North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong guerillas and more than 2 million civilians in North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

  He said he never regretted what he did – “I would not have thought of doing what I did which I knew would risk prison for life, without the public example of young Americans going to prison to make a strong statement that the Vietnam war was wrong and they would not participate, even at the cost of their own freedom. Without them, there would have been no Pentagon Papers. Courage is contagious.”

  In recent years he has praised Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

  He was born 7 April 1931 9.47 am Chicago, Illinois, with his parents, originally Ashkenazi Jews, having converted to become Christian scientist. His mother and sister died when he was in his late teens in a car accident when his father fell asleep at the wheel. He joined the marines, served three years in Vietnam, then after an economics PhD on decision theory, became an analyst.

  He had a 10^th house Sun, Uranus, North Node in pro-active Aries on the focal point of a T Square to Saturn in Capricorn opposition Pluto Jupiter in Cancer – hugely resourceful, courageous, impulsive, super-confident and determined, he was custom-designed to make waves and be a trailblazer.  His Sun Uranus was also trine an upbeat Sagittarius Moon.

  Such an emphasised Uranus can be a social catalyst and freedom fighter though can also be lawless, defiant of authority figures, aggressively determined on upsetting the status quo. Without his reckless confidence he would never have tilted his lance at the head of government when the risks were more than considerable.

  When the New York Times printed his information in 1971 his chart was ploughing through heavy seas in what must have been a fearful time with his Solar Arc Midheaven approaching the square to his Saturn; and the discouraging tr Saturn trine Pluto aspecting his SA Sun Uranus.

 Unsurprisingly Nixon disliked him (understatement) – with Ellsberg’s single minded Sun Uranus falling in Nixon’s 8^th setting off an undersea volcanic eruption and dragging secrets into the open. With Ellsberg’s Saturn in Capricorn putting a damper on  Nixon’s Capricorn Sun.

  Their relationship chart had a differing-agenda composite Sun, Venus, Uranus conjunction in an unsettled trine to Pluto; and a hostile, power-struggling composite Mars square Pluto.   That Mars Pluto (= fight to the death) was being elbowed by tr Uranus in Libra when the Pentagon Papers were released which set off the train of events leading to Watergate and Nixon’s near impeachment.

 Earlier this year he announced that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer and had given up his salt-free diet which had improved his life dramatically. He spent his final months eating “hot chocolate, croissants, cake, poppyseed bagels and lox” and enjoying “several viewings of his all-time favourite [movie], Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.