Gina Lollobrigida, sultry and prolific actress, a post-war international sex symbol acclaimed as one of the world’s most beautiful women has died at 95. Known as “La Lollo”, the “temptress of the Tiber”, she made a film a month in the 1950s and by the 1970s was setting up a second career as a highly-thought-of photographer.

  She did not respond well to criticism and became litigious at the drop of a hat, which didn’t stop her insulting her compatriot Sophia Loren as they conducted a public feud. “We are as different,” she said, “as a fine racehorse and a goat.”

 Latterly she ran unsuccessfully for the European Parliament and for the Italian Senate.

 She was born 4 July 1927 3am Subiaco, Italy and was an intense Sun Pluto in Cancer with an attention-demanding and inspirational Fire Grand Trine of an adventurous Jupiter Uranus in Aries trine Mercury in Leo trine Saturn in Sagittarius (which last can be prickly when criticised). She also had Mars, Neptune, Venus in Leo as well – flamboyant and entertaining.

  Sophia Loren, 20 September 1934 2.10pm Rome, also had Mars in Leo – entertaining, passionate and ego-centric; with her Mars in a hard-edged opposition to Saturn Moon in Aquarius so was just as steely as La Lollo. Their relationship chart has an explosive and competitive composite Sun Mars trine Uranus which would not make for harmony and peace.

From old post on women/stars dying as Neptune exits sign.

1901: Neptune leaving Gemini – Queen Victoria dies.

1915: Neptune leaving Cancer – Mary Baker Eddy and Emily Davidson (suffragette who suicided by horse at the Derby). Florence Nightingale also died with Neptune in late Cancer (1911)

1929: Neptune leaving Leo – Emmeline Pankhurst (the great suffragette), Ellen Terry, Isadora Duncan.

1943 – Neptune leaving Virgo – aviator Amy Johnson, writer Beatrix Potter.

1957 – Neptune leaving Libra – Laura Wilder (Little House on the Prairie), scientist Irene Curie

1968 – Neptune leaving Scorpio – Helen Keller, Enid Blyton, Dorothy Parker, Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Little Mo, Sonja Henie, Gypsy Rose Lee, Sharon Tate.

1983 – Neptune leaving Sagittarius – Nathalie Wood, Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), Anna Freud, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Gloria Swanson, Ethel Merman, Lillian Hellman, Indira Gandhi.

1998 – Neptune leaving Capricorn – Princess Diana, Mother Theresa, Ella Fitzgerald, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Evelyn Laye, Dorothy Lamour, Claudette Colbert, Margueurite Duras, Patricia Highsmith, Mary Leakey.

2011 Neptune into Pisces 2011/12.

Liz Taylor – March 2011

Amy Winehouse – July 2011

Jane Russell – Feb 2011

Whitney Houston – Whitney Houston Feb 2012

Esther Williams 2013

Revenge served piping hot has topped the global Spotify chart and racked up a staggering 111 million-plus views on YouTube as Latin-American songbird Shakira lets fly at her ex-husband –footballer Gerald Pique footballer. They parted after 11 years and two children and he has taken a younger girlfriend much to her fury.

  In the new song, she says she is worth “two 22-year-olds” and likens herself to a Ferrari while her replacement, she sneers, is a Renault Twingo, one of the cheapest cars on the market. For good measure, she describes herself as a Rolex watch to the other’s Casio. Pique seems to have taken it in good humour by turning up to work in a Twingo and persuading watchmakers Casio to sponsor his new venture. Though his chart hints otherwise so it may have been an astute PR strategy not dreamed up by him.

 It will help her pay off a huge tax bill for which she blames him and perhaps allow her to move house. She has also let fly at her mother-in-law who lives next door and has placed  a life-size witch doll on her balcony overlooking her MIL’s home.

  She says: “I never thought what for me was a catharsis and a release would go straight to number one in the world in Spanish at my age of 45.”

  Shakira was born 2 February 1977 9.30 am or 10.08 am Colombia, which gives her a Fixed Grand Cross of a Sun Aquarius opposition Saturn in Leo square Uranus opposition Jupiter – beyond-stubborn, enduring and changeable. Plus she has an emotional Cancer Moon opposition Mars making her inclined to fly off the handle. And an intense and possessive Pluto in the 7^th.

He was born 2 February 1987 4.22 am Barcelona, Spain, and is also a Sun Aquarius in a controlling square to Pluto; with a Moon and Mars both in Aries and his Venus, Uranus and Saturn in Sagittarius – excitable and restless.

  The miracle is they lasted together as long as they did. Her Pluto opposes his 4^th house Mars which would set up a bitter power struggle; her argumentative, short-fused Moon opposition Mars falls across his 8^th/2^nd intensifying the effect with financial implications;  her Uranus is conjunct his Pluto for constant turmoil; and her Neptune is conjunct his Ascendant Saturn which would damp his enthusiasm and make him uncertain.

Her Venus is conjunct his Moon would help slightly and the relationship chart did have an affectionate composite Sun Venus. But that apart it sets the scene for a running oneupmanship battle with composite Jupiter opposition Pluto; an explosive Mars square Uranus; and a strained Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Moon. That last has overtones of a fated connection that was meant to be but impossible to live with.

  He looks more rattled than he is letting on with his Progressed Moon square his 4^th house Mars exactly at the moment and his Progressed Mars squaring his Sun in the months to come. So he is uptight and seething.

  Shakira may be about to meet the love of her life this year with her Progressed Sun about to conjunct her Venus and is certainly in for good luck when tr Uranus is conjunct her Jupiter from mid 2023 into 2024 which may help her tax problem.

An amusing distraction from the woes of the universe.

The discovery of classified files from Joe Biden’s time as vice-president stashed at a former office and two of his homes has taken the glow off his recent run of successes. The scandal threatens to embarrass his administration just as the FBI criminally investigates Donald Trump, for putting the nation’s security at risk by mishandling classified information. There is a difference in that Trump hoarded nearly 100 classified documents at his Florida estate and refused to hand them over until the FBI raided his property. Biden’s supporters insist his files only numbered 10 and his staff turned them over, though waiting until the mid terms were over to announce the fact which has a sniff of dirty politics. But perception is all and any defence is going to sound like splitting hairs to many who only glance at the headlines.

  Biden has had a run of political triumphs so far in terms of progressive acts passed and economic management so his shoe-in for 2024 seemed inevitable although most Democrats would prefer another candidate. But the second half of his term was always when trouble was going to brew so all bets are off until nearer the date.  

 On his Administration chart, 20 January 2021 11.48 am Washington, DC, pressure will start to mount with tr Pluto square the Moon from now till early February, and escalate further with tr Pluto conjunct the Term Sun from late March in and off till late 2024. With a run of discouraging and disruptive Solar Arcs through this year and next – SA Sun conjunct Saturn; SA Saturn square Mars Uranus through 2023/24 as well; SA Saturn conjunct Jupiter in 18 months and SA Pluto square Moon in 2024. It will get progressively more challenging between now and the election.

 His own chart is especially rattled and disaster-prone mid February to mid March and again mid November to late December this year with tr Neptune opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint – though that could be anything other than the above, including a dose of flu.  Mid February to late March also has a devastating and confused Sun/Neptune midpoint triggered, which returns twice again in 2023 and on until late 2024.

  The May 5 Lunar Eclipse will rattle up his Mars for an argument or two; with a few outbursts as tr Uranus opposes two Mars midpoints and his Mercury from late May 2023 onwards. Plus other less than helpful midpoints.  He will rev up in confidence from late February 2024 for two years on and off with tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint but whether that is enough to carry off the election remains to be seen. He also has tr Pluto trine his 10^th house Neptune in 2024/25 which may not be helpful for ambitions and personal glory trips.

  Merrick Garland, the AG, who has been landed with the task of nailing down Trump and now overseeing the investigation of Biden is having a year of massive upheaval with tr Uranus opposition his Scorpio Sun and square his Pluto and tr Neptune square his Venus.  He was sworn in on a Sun Neptune conjunction which never bodes well – indecisive, over timid, a dither-and-delay term. His relationship with Trump is aggravated at the best of times and in a state of disruption through March.  His relationship with Joe Biden is stressed for the next two months, edgy thereafter and up in the air in 2024.

Ominous signs that an undead Boris Johnson may bounce back from his ignominious dismissal last year to joust for high office again are causing ripples of alarm. He’s being punted by the far right ERG, concerned that a ‘leftist’ Rishi Sunak may renege on hard-line Brexit policies.

  Since he withdrew, having been able to only summon support from less than a third of the Parliamentary party, he’s been busy filling the coffers, benefiting from more than £2.5m in earnings from speeches, hospitality, free accommodation, gifts and donations to his new company, The Office of Boris Johnson. He is topping the leaderboard of MPs in terms of donations and cash from work unrelated to his MP job.

Wealthy Tory donor Lord Bamford has given him use of a £20m London townhouse and a cottage in the Cotswolds; his office recently took £1m from Christopher Harborne, an investor in crypto and aviation fuel based in Thailand, who is a Farage/Brexit supporter; and he recently received more than £250,000 for a speech in Singapore about blockchain, the technology behind crypto currency.

 His carelessness about where he takes his funding is likely to tell against him. And his relationship with the Tory Party (1912) is on a downhill slide throughout this year into early 2024 with tr Neptune square the composite Mars plus a few other divisive arguments from May onwards.

  His chart is mixed ahead with his Solar Arc Jupiter and Progressed Mars closing in on his Midheaven over the coming year (dependent on birth time being accurate) which suggests his ambitions will be undiminished in coming years, if anything he’ll go into super-charged mode. The question is where?

  For the immediate future he has tr Saturn moving into Pisces in March, putting a chill on his scattergun Mutable T Square – first squaring his Mars in March and then proceeding to cross his Saturn for his Second Saturn return and oppose his Uranus – which will be around all year.  That will induce high levels of irritability about setbacks.  Plus he has the emotionally intense tr Pluto square his Scorpio Moon from late March, on and off till late 2024. Tr Uranus will be making a final hit on his Jupiter opposition Neptune through next month (February) to mid March which will bring high hopes that then hit the ground with a thud as a hard reality check steps in.

  What will be of key importance and worth watching is the May 5^th Scorpio Lunar Eclipse which sits exactly on top of his Neptune and opposes his Jupiter. Into 2024 from April onwards tr Neptune squares his Sun Venus which is usually not helpful for high ambition and tr Saturn will oppose his Pluto as well. Plus he picks up discouraging Pluto hard aspects to midpoints.

   Carrie Symonds, his wife, 17 March 1988, a charming, possessive and excitable triple conjunction in Capricorn plus Mars with a Pisces New Moon is catching tr Neptune earlier as it is in an undermining conjunction with her Sun from this May onwards into 2024. May 2023 looks an especially fraught month for her with tr Uranus hitting one of her Mars midpoints as well.

  Her relationship with Boris has been sagging under his demotion with tr Neptune conjunct their composite Mars in 2022 and returning for a final time early January to mid February; with pressure and tensions mounting from mid February onwards from midpoints.

  Both are high-wire, over-reactive and ambitious personalities so a life of enforced idleness is not on the cards.

  Never say never but I’d reckon it was more rather than less likely that he is persuaded to go elsewhere. Jupiter moves into his 8^th house from this July for a year which will bring more money his way for a year so he may get distracted by cash registers ringing, especially if Westminster rules are tightened to prevent politicians raking in questionable money.

The Ukraine invasion drags on heading for its first anniversary in late February. A diplomatic solution for a peaceful settlement is all but impossible with Putin preparing for a spring offensive with a surge in recruitment, emboldened by a rare victory in capturing the town of Soledar.

   The consensus now among leading western states is that the only way to persuade Russia that it cannot succeed in its war of conquest is for Ukraine’s armed forces to liberate much more territory. ‘Vladimir Putin’s current strategy is bleak and uncompromising. He appears to believe that even with a military stalemate Russia can outlast Ukraine, along with its western backers, by putting his economy and society on a war footing.’ Russian warships left Novorossiysk this week, prompting renewed fears of a landing from the Black Sea.

  The pressure is on Western allies to send tanks and armoured vehicles. Britain, France, Finland and Poland are preparing to fulfil their promises though Germany and the US are still dragging their heels. Military experts believe that Russia will launch its multipronged attack in the spring to divert Ukrainian resources away from Donetsk and Luhansk.

     German Chancellor Olaf Scholz known for his cautious style, has for months voiced hesitancy about supplying tanks for fear of escalating the conflict and provoking Putin, who has hinted he could resort to nuclear weapons. Scholz may only be act on tanks if he can do so in tandem with the USA. “He needs the cover of a nuclear power,” said an analyst. “A European consortium might not be enough for him.”

  Sorting through relevant charts what stands out on several of them are key Astro-markers at 18 degrees Fixed signs which suggests that late April into early May when tr Uranus is at 18 Taurus will be a point to watch. It may be a coincidence and the North Node has retrograded away from the degree which made 1 August 2022 a potentially momentous time in history (see previous post 17 June 2022) but it does resonate.

Neither the Ukraine country chart, 24 August 1991 2.31pm. Kiev nor Zelensky’s personal or term chart looked as if 2023 would be the year of triumph.

  Ukraine has tr Neptune opposing its Mars from mid March to mid April 2023 and on and off till February 2024 which usually accompanies a panicky sense of sagging morale and failed plans. With a seismic upheaval and change of direction in April when tr Uranus opposes the 10^th house Pluto for the final time. Where tensions lift and luck returns will be around mid 2024 onwards with tr Uranus square the Jupiter; though 2024/25 will be an uphill struggle with tr Pluto conjunct Saturn, which would be the case even if hostilities ceased with a massive rebuilding exercise needed.

  Zaluzhnyi, the Ukrainian miliary chief, will have ups and downs through 2023 with a specific setback around late April/early May and successes later in the year. 

  Zelensky’s personal chart, 25 January 1978 2pm Krivoj Rog, Ukraine, will be rattled considerably by tr Uranus opposition his Uranus in March square his Moon in April and his Midheaven shortly after; plus a trapped, scary and frustrating tr Pluto opposition his Mars from late March on and off till late 2024. Plus a dashed-hopes tr Neptune square his 1^st house Jupiter from May onwards into 2024.

  His Term chart, 20 May 2019 10am, has a reasonably productive tr Pluto trine the Sun, Mercury through this year; though also an enthusiasm-undermining Solar Arc Neptune square the Jupiter within weeks.

  Zelensky’s relationship chart with Olaf Scholz, the overly cautious German Chancellor, is under a damp cloud later at the moment and sagging badly with disappointment through 2023.

 Ukraine’s relationship with the EU will be under major strain from late this March and proving a disappointment from May onward.

  What is pivotal – maybe – is Putin’s survival, though there’s no saying if he goes, the same or worse might not follow in the Kremlin. His 4^th Term chart’s lucky/over confident Sun opposition Jupiter will pick up tr Uranus hard aspects late March to mid May, which might fit with a spring offensive. But before then he has the destabilising tr Pluto square the Term Uranus from mid February on and off till late 2024 – which often coincides with fall-off-perch-moments for leaders. Plus he has the increasingly desperate, high-risk, frustrated and ruthless Solar Arc Pluto getting to the same degree as the Mars in three months and exact within 6 months – so a last and final brutal push.

 The Ukraine Invasion chart of 23 February 2022 has Saturn at 18 degrees Aquarius so it will be rattled in late April/early May 2023 by the tr Uranus square. That chart has the North Node conjunct Algol as well as a savage Pluto, Mars, Venus conjunction and an over-hopeful Jupiter Neptune in Pisces.

  That’s the best I can do – looks to be escalating towards spring and dragging on for another year.  Poor Ukrainians.

Pic: Map on Spring Offensive from The Times.

Shirley Ardell Mason, whose story about an abusive childhood became a hot-topic book about the multiple personalities of Sybil and then a movie in the 1970s with Sally Ann Field and Joanne Woodward, was born one hundred years ago.

  The dramatization of her deeply disturbing early childhood memories set off a viciously fought controversy about whether the condition existed at all which is still running today. Various psychological professionals and others have gone to great, almost desperate, lengths to deny it was anything other than a fiction, invented by a fame-hungry psychiatrist.

  While it is true that it was over-diagnosed at one point, there is no doubt that Dissociative Identity Disorder as it is now known can be adopted as a strategy to defend against massive and terrifying early abuse, usually by the primary caretaker, normally the mother. Although MPD or DID is an extreme disorder most of us have traces of ‘splitting’ in our everyday interactions, some more than others. But for it to extend as far as creating separate defensive personalities, there has to be massive psychological trauma such as being tortured as a baby.

  Quite why this sets off alarm bells in some people’s heads I have never understood but the denial lobby is alive, well and determined to blow out of the water any suggestion that what??  — the psyche is so vulnerable it fragments under severe stress and unbearable fear. It seems to me a skillful adaptation for a psyche under mind-bending pressure. The kinds of stories that DID patients relate are often beyond most people’s capacity to witness.

 Shirley Mason (Sybil) was born 25 January 1923 3am Dodge Center, Minnesota, and her mother was reportedly diagnosed with schizophrenia and deemed “bizarre” by neighbours; and Shirley had several episodes of blackouts and emotional breakdowns as an adult.  She had a quick witted 3^rd house Sun Mercury in Aquarius and later became an art teacher.

  Her Mercury opposed a 9^th house Neptune and squared onto a 12^th house Jupiter; and she had a Water Grand Trine of Jupiter trine an 8^th house Pluto trine Uranus on her IC. So she would live in her own private bubble to blot out reality with a Water Grand Trine plus the Jupiter Neptune which would make her gloss over unpleasantness.

  A strong Jupiter as she had would make it possible to overcome difficulties. Of Fred West’s children – the UK child abuser – the ones who survived had strong Jupiters.

  Shirley did have a 4^th house Mars square her 8^th house Pluto suggesting anger, violence and fear in her childhood. Her Taurus Moon was on the midpoint of her Uranus IC trine the 8^th house Pluto which suggests a mother who was unpredictable, unstable and wrestling with her own demons from that 8^th house Pluto.   

  I have seen worse charts and you can’t diagnose psychological conditions per se from a chart. What can be problematic about early memory as was discovered with second and even third generation children of Holocaust survivors is that the parents’ unspoken trauma can be handed down as quasi-memories to the children. So at times the trauma may not be the individual’s but an unconsciously transmitted memory from the past.

  Her psychiatrist, Cornelia Wilbur, 26 August 1908, was a sharp-eyed Sun, Mars, Mercury in Virgo – with her Pluto as well as Venus Neptune in Cancer falling in Shirley’s 8th house – which would make for a deep connection though perhaps also a confused one.  There’s no proof either way.

  Whatever the truth – and mother being schizophrenic and Shirley suffering blackouts and breakdowns prior to therapy does point to severe early trauma – it did shine a light on the byzantine workings of minds under pressure.

Lisa Marie Presley has died of a cardiac arrest aged 54, after a high-drama lifetime of revolving marriages and relationships, drug and latterly opioid abuse, and most recently the suicide of one of her sons in 2020.

  She inherited Elvis’s multi-millions as a child and lost most of it, married Michael Jackson and briefly Nicholas Cage, and was involved in the Church of Scientology through her mother Priscilla. She made a clean break from the church in 2014, though she had been distancing herself from the organization for years. “They were taking my soul, my money, my everything,” she said of her eventual decision to leave.

  She was born 1 February 1968 5.01pm Memphis, Tennessee and had a 7^th house Aquarius Sun sextile a forced-to-be-self-reliant Saturn in Aries. But what dominated her chart was an 8^th house Moon Mars in Pisces opposition Uranus Pluto in Virgo – driven by turbulent unconscious forces she didn’t understand and couldn’t control, messing up her financial judgement as well as her emotional life. That stormy opposition was trine/sextile Neptune in her 4^th hinting at the sacrifices demanded by her family connections that she could never escape and never manage successfully.

  Elvis – 8 January 1935 4.35 am Tupelo, MS, – had a powerful and influential chart, focused onto a rock n’ roll, unconventional Uranus in his performing 5^th. His Uranus was conjunct her Midheaven – so his talent and showbusiness image arguably skewed her direction in life though she did record various singles and one successful album.

 Her relationship with her mother Priscilla was tense with Priscilla’s 8^th house Pluto opposition Lisa Marie’s Sun. They had a complicated and competitive relationship chart. 

  On Lisa Marie’s chart at the moment, tr Pluto was square her Midheaven and approaching the square to her Progressed Mars – which hinted at a massive change in her life.     

Being the product of fame, gzillions and a dynasty isn’t easy. 

ADD ON: Astrology Frank Clifford has pointed out on Facebook the extraordinary line up on Elvis’s chart with his only child dying.  His Solar Arc Venus is exactly conjunct his Uranus in his 5^th house of children; and his Solar Arc Uranus has moved to be exactly conjunct his Pluto  in his 8^th house, which amongst other things rules death and rebirth. And his Solar Arc Neptune is conjunct his Ascendant also exactly. Posthumous influences are often spot on and raise the question of exactly what the birth chart reflect.

Please add below. Older posts under News on the top bar.

Michael Flatley, famous for his Irish production Riverdance, is sadly suffering from an “aggressive form of cancer” it has been announced. He shot to fame with Riverdance, which first appeared as an intermission piece during the 1994 Eurovision interval in Dublin. He then choreographed and danced in a full length show.

  After 25 years it has been seen by three billion people worldwide on television and his stage shows have played to more than 60 million people in 60 countries. He gave up performing a few years back because of physical strain. Last year he launched a Lord Of The Dance tour to raise money for the humanitarian effort in Ukraine. 

  He was born into an Irish family with a dancer mother in Chicago on 16 July 1958 at 11.55am.He has a 10^th house New Moon in creative and ambitious Cancer which squares onto an exuberantly enthusiastic and high-vitality Mars in Aries opposition Jupiter North Node in Libra – so he was always going to make his mark.

  His Mars is in a disciplined trine to Saturn, in a showbizzy opposition to Neptune and an ultra-determined trine to Pluto. His Venus in sociable Gemini is trine Jupiter, sextile Mercury in Leo giving him a flair for a popular spectacle.

  His Solar Arc Mars is moving to square his Pluto over the next eighteen months which will be challenging for him along with a frustrating tr Pluto square his Mars for the second year running.

  Sad news and one can only hope for the best.

Jeff Beck, known as the guitarist’s guitarist has died at 78. He’s described as a ‘rare musician, an absolute master of his instrument, and just about the most self-effacing rock supremo to ever grace a stage.’

  He evidently shirked fame, did not chase hits and disappeared from the limelight for long periods if he did not feel creative. He turned down the chance to join the Rolling Stones at the height of their 70’s superstardom because he considered what they were playing to be too undemanding.

He was born 24 June 1944 and had a serious though charming Sun, Venus and Saturn in Cancer all square a musical Neptune; with his Neptune in a creative trine to Uranus, sextile an influential Pluto. His enthusiastic Mars Jupiter in Leo was sextile his Mercury with a Leo Moon lurking nearby.

  There’s no birth time but his flamboyant Leo planets must have been muted to some extent in a hidden house.

[Is it just my imagination or are there a fair number of older musicians dying at the moment?]