Saudi Arabian women slowly getting rid of their shackles

Saudi Arabian women are moving out of purdah in moves decreed by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). They can now drive, open their own business without a male’s permission and can retain immediate custody of their children after divorce without having to file any lawsuits. The first concert featuring a female singer was held late last year and in January 2018 a sports stadium in Jeddah became the first in the Kingdom to admit women. All of this possible by new regulations restricting the powers of the religious police.

His surprise appointment as heir to the throne was decreed just after midnight on 21 June 2017 in Riyadh, fittingly enough with a Moon Venus conjunction in Taurus in place, so female-friendly. It’s an innovative chart with a Saturn trine Uranus trine North Node in Leo; with Saturn opposition Sun Mercury as he laid out his ambitious plan to move Saudi Arabia into the 21^st Century in better shape without the heavy reliance on oil and with an eye to the younger generation’s needs and interests.

It’s also fairly ruthless with a controlling 10^th house Pluto opposition a 4^th house Mars, so likely to run into resistance from the conservatives and hard-line clerics though equally unlikely to give way. There’s also a Yod of Moon Venus sextile Neptune inconjunct Jupiter. Such an apex Jupiterian yod can have an influential effect on the masses with a powerful vision of what an improved society should be like. But it can be undone by over-ambition and over-confidence. The Jupiter is further emphasised being on the focal point of a T Square to the Mars Pluto opposition, which makes it inspirational, highly-energised, tolerant, freedom-oriented though again needing to slow down to consider long term practical consequences.

MbS, 31 August 1985, is a hard-working Virgo Sun possibly opposition a Pisces Moon square Uranus in Sagittarius, which will make him a radical thinker, keen to defy traditional views, high-wire, excitable and scattered. What will balance out his tendency to go in too many directions at once is a plethora of Fixed planets, especially a Fixed Grand cross of Pluto in Scorpio opposition North Node square Jupiter opposition Venus in Leo, with Saturn Mercury in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio. He’s relentlessly determined, stubborn to the nth degree and won’t budge or give up easily, sweeping social niceties to one side to get what he wants.

Tr Uranus will oppose his Pluto from this July onwards starting a three year shake up of his Grand Cross, which will see more changes taking place in his life. With a setback by 2021 and high-hopes being dashed in 2022. But there’s little that will slow his inexorable progress.

Saudi Arabia, 15 January 1902 3.45am is undergoing staggering changes over the next three years with tr Pluto conjunct the Saturn this year and Sun Jupiter in Capricorn in 2020/2021. The never-quite-together triple conjunction of Saturn Pluto and Jupiter will cross all of those planets so the country will be changing out of all recognition with some trepidation, some painful effort but resulting in great successes as well.

He has ruffled feathers with his incarceration of other Saudi Royals and oligarchs late last year; never mind putting the clerics noses out of joint; and letting the population know their time of feather-bedding with state support is coming to an end.  But he fits the Saudi chart well and if he can rein in his military impetuosity (Yemen and Iran) he might just be the one to foster a new Middle Eastern social lifestyle more in keeping with the times.