The Tories are in a dying-days-of-the-Roman-Empire phase with a pile up of bullying complaints against Deputy PM Dominic Raab; and now Michael Gove dragged into the PPE scandal. Denials are flying in all directions but the VIP fast-track for mega-million pound contracts during covid has come under condemnation with Baroness Michelle Mone (a David Cameron 2015 surprise elevation to the House of Lords), in the spotlight for supporting Medpro secure contracts worth more than £200 million. She is under investigation by the House of Lords Commissioners for Standards for allegedly failing to declare an interest in PPE Medpro. Michael Gove, then a Cabinet Minister, allegedly was involved in facilitating her involvement.

 Labour’s Angela Rayner said in the House that during the pandemic ministers had been “handing out billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash”, even though much of the PPE secured was “unfit for use, unusable, overpriced or undelivered”. And why was the government wasting £700,000 a day on storing unusable PPE? She said it was yet another case of taxpayers’ money being wasted, “with a total failure of due diligence and a conflict of interest at the heart of government procurement”.

PPE Medpro has itself come under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). According to the Times charities linked to Baroness Mone and her husband are distancing themselves from the couple after they were accused of secretly receiving £29 million by lobbying for Medpro.

  Mone, 8 October 1971 4.55pm Glasgow who started in lingerie and married a financier, has a money-oriented 8^th house Sun, Uranus, Mercury and Venus in Libra as well as Pluto – and that is one power-packed chart. She’s another of the head-in-the-clouds and can-be-scandal-attracting Jupiter Neptune opposition Saturn brigade with an ultra-determined, risk-taking Mars in Aquarius on her Ascendant. She was on a high during the pandemic with her Solar Arc Sun Uranus crossing her Jupiter but that stroke of luck has now passed in influence and she has a self-esteem jarring tr Uranus square her Mars at the moment and early next year and is generally moving into a low-profile less successful time ahead with tr Saturn into her First Quadrant and tr Pluto into her restrictive 12th.

  Michael Gove, 26 August 1967, a Sun, Mercury, Venus in Virgo with Uranus Pluto also in Virgo is sagging under the tr Saturn oppositions over the next two years – 2023 in particular – and nerve wracked with tr Neptune opposition his Uranus in 2023. In general he looks undermined, panicky and doing badly in 2023, with jolts and jangles especially from mid year onwards and heading for cataclysmic setbacks in 2024/25.

  His relationship with Sunak is heading downhill through this December, chilled to the marrow in January/February and worse through mid 2023 and on. They are not naturally compatible but chained together by circumstance and resenting each other. It won’t part easily or amicably.

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America’s Royal family, the Kennedys, are catching the headlines with Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F lauding Prince Harry and Meghan; while JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg is squiring the Wales on their Boston trip. Plus ca change.

  There is general bafflement about the RFK’s Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award for ‘moral courage’ being awarded to the Sussexes by – of all people – Alec Baldwin, lately embroiled in an on-set shooting debacle. Zelensky will quite rightly be honoured. But he stands alongside several industry captains and the young erstwhile Royals whose ‘speaking truth to power’ has been substantially queried in terms of veritas.

  A Kennedy biographer described the award as ‘somewhere between sublimely ridiculous and blatantly ludicrous. It’s absurd.’

  Kerry Kennedy, 8 September 1959 12.55pm Boston, Massachusetts, previously married to Andrew Cuomo, is a lawyer and human rights activist, fronting several RFK charitable foundations. She has a Virgo Sun close to her midheaven with a dogmatic and persuasive (manipulative) Pluto Venus Mercury in Virgo also in her much travelled 9^th. An ambitious Mars in Libra in her career 10^th will make her a go-getter. It is in a short-tempered square to Mars and also sextiles a money-oriented Moon Jupiter in Scorpio on her Ascendant. Saturn trine Pluto, Venus, Mercury will give her endurance as well as a hard-edged, chilly temperament when it comes to interpersonal relationships.

   Quite why she made her selection is mystifying even going by the astrology. Admittedly Harry’s Virgo Sun falls in her 10^th as does Meghan’s Moon Jupiter Saturn. But the relationship charts with the Sussexes and indeed with Alec Baldwin are all riven with irritation and distrust.

  Kerry Kennedy’s Sun conjunct the Midheaven and her Mars in the 10^th as well as a Moon Jupiter conjunction, point to a strong connection with her mother Ethel Kennedy, who was left with eleven children when RFK was assassinated in 1968. She had a gothic life – both  her parents were alcoholics and were killed as was a brother in separate plane crashes. Not only was her husband RFK shockingly killed but one son died of a drug overdose, another’s reckless driving left a girl paralyzed for life, and yet another son died in a skiing accident.

   Ethel Kennedy, 11 April 1928 3.30am Chicago, has a 2^nd house Sun Jupiter in Aries trine a 10^th house Saturn trine Neptune – a well-organised do-er with Saturn in her 10^th, fired by inspiration and faith in her own abilities from a Fire Grand Trine and attention-seeking with Pluto in the 5^th.  When RFK was killed the tr Uranus Pluto in late Virgo was square her Saturn and moving to square her Moon in the aftermath.

Though the considerable losses in her life are less obvious than in her daughter’s .  Maybe all that Fire and faith kept the horror at bay.

Kerry on the other hand has Mars square Saturn which can occur in charts where a parent dies early and in her case siblings as well.

  Not sure what this all adds up to – and the Kennedys are such a vast family, they are even worse than the Windsors in scale so not possible to encapsulate. But they keep popping up.

Pic: JMHX

As Nancy Pelosi exits stage left having been the first woman elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives, she has endorsed as her successor Hakeem Jefferies who could become the first person of colour to lead a political party in either chamber of Congress.

   Born 4 August 1970 in New York with a social worker mother and a substance-abuse counsellor father, he attended local state schools and studied law at university. He acted as one of the prosecutors in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. Even if he succeeds Pelosi in leading his party in the lower chamber of Congress, he is unlikely to seize the Speaker’s gavel for at least two years.

  He is said to be a unifier though he will have problems with an increasingly vocal progressive wing of the Democratic party, spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They have sought to paint Jeffries as a member of the establishment.

 He is a flamboyant Sun Mars in Leo though his ostentatious traits will be damped down by Saturn in Taurus opposition Neptune and trine Pluto Venus in Virgo. He also has his Mercury and Moon in Virgo.

  He is in a successful phase with tr Pluto square his Jupiter through 2022/23 though it does not meet the exact aspect again until January 13 2023 but will certainly see him buoyant as the new term gets underway.

  He’s not an easy fit with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with their relationship chart having an argumentative composite Sun Mars opposition Saturn and square Neptune which certainly suggests a good deal of aggravation and distrust.

The insurmountable problem of the Northern Ireland Protocol will be resolved Rishi Sunak blithely assured Joe Biden by the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement next April. No details were forthcoming about how and given the intransigence of the DUP, never mind the EU, there seems little likelihood of flexibility on either side.

  The Good Friday chart does have Mars in late degree Aries catching the trapped, frustrating square from tr Pluto through till late 2023 which looks ominously blocked.

  The Northern Ireland 7 December 1922 3.28pm Belfast chart looks rattled in early 2024 with the Solar Arc Mars square Uranus which could provoke outbursts of violence; with more shocks and over-reactions in 2024 with tr Uranus square the Mars, which could also have financial implications with the NI Venus being tied in.

  There is an argument that Unionism is dying. A 2021 poll showed only 11 per cent of voters would oppose a united Ireland with 30 per cent in favour plus a good many don’t knows. At the recent elections, for the first time Sinn Fein polled more votes than the Unionists.

  It would not be an easy transition given the amount of bad blood and actual blood that has flowed and the red-necked dogmatism of the true-believer unionists. But it may come eventually.

  The DUP are a motley crew with a former leader being a creationist and the present one having voted against the Good Friday Agreement. They are anti same sex marriage and abortion rights as well as being climate change deniers and regularly sabotage the workings of the assembly.

    The Partition of Ireland happened on 3 May 1921 with a Taurus Sun square Neptune; and on a Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Virgo opposition Uranus. Once tr Uranus clears the square to the Mars by 2025 there may be less heat and it moves towards a Uranus Return by 2028 which could be an indicator of a return to status quo.

  Whether the Republic of Ireland would welcome with any relish taking on board ‘hundreds of thousands of embittered, alienated and demonstrably violence-prone Northern Protestants’ is another matter.

  But over the longer term attitudes may change. In 2025/26 tr Pluto will square the Republic of Ireland Taurus Sun – 24 April 1916 12.25pm Dublin, which will certainly bring considerable changes under pressure. And before then tr Pluto will oppose the Ireland Neptune which will soften up the mood, mainly through confusion.

  It seems unlikely and maybe I’m naive but I cannot believe the Cromwellian bigots both amongst the Northern Ireland protestants and the right-wing Tories can cling onto their flat earth beliefs and still be in a position to stop progress and détente.

Ghosts from the past are revived with the Sky documentary eulogy from three sons to their late father, hell-raiser Richard Harris. He was a poet, philosopher and singer, as well as an actor with a relentless thirst for booze, renowned as much for his epic drinking and rambunctious love life as for his considerable talent.  His career unsurprisingly suffered and hit a low point playing Bo Derek’s old man in Tarzan, The Ape Man (1981). Latterly he returned to prominence as Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies.

  Early in his career, he was said to have had affairs with the Empress Soraya of Iran, Merle Oberon, Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow and Ava Gardner and he claimed ‘a brief affair with Princess Margaret’. He married twice but commitment was never his thing. “There is something in me that cannot sustain it. My restlessness was too enormous,” he once said, though he was devoted to his three sons from his marriage to Elizabeth Harris.

  Born 1 October 1930 at 11.20am in Limerick into a well-to-do family, he suffered tuberculosis as a child and was educated by Jesuits – both of which would be restrictive experiences.

He did have an extremely restless chart fuelled by an almost uncontainable dynamism and intensity. His Libra Sun opposed a rebellious Uranus square a downbeat Saturn in Capricorn but what marked out his chart as singular was a high-voltage and dominating Pluto, Mars, Jupiter conjunction in Cancer. He would crash through life like a Tyrannosaurus on steroids.   That formidable conjunction was square Uranus on one side and opposition a Capricorn Moon. What softened him marginally was Mercury in Virgo trine his Moon sextile Venus in Scorpio and his creative Neptune on his Midheaven. Though his Venus did trine Pluto Mars Jupiter so his passions would always overcome his milder instincts.

  Despite his protestations like his carousing buddies Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole that he drank because he enjoyed it, he may have been driven more by an underlying depression than he ever admitted. His Sun square Saturn matches Burton’s Scorpio Sun conjunct Saturn, and Peter o’Toole’s Leo New Moon opposition Saturn. All three were marked by unsettled Uranus Pluto aspects as well.

  He gave up drinking in 1981, having nearly died from a cocaine overdose three years earlier. In 1981 tr Pluto was square his Mars Pluto and about to move into his 12^th. Maybe giving him insight into his unconscious drive for escapism.

 His two wives clearly were attracted like moths to a hot flame. Elizabeth Harris, 1 May 1936,who went on to marry the equally challenging Rex Harrison, had her Venus in Aries square Pluto in Cancer colliding with Harris’s Mars Pluto Jupiter. Even more hair-raising, Ann Turkel, 16 July 1946, had her Sun Saturn in Cancer conjunct his Mars Pluto Jupiter and square her Jupiter. Not surprisingly neither match lasted the course.

There also a biography of him just published.

King Charles’s first state visit as monarch is with Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, who has left a country blacked out by constant power cuts, with soaring unemployment (35%) and corruption allegations threatening to trigger his prosecution.

SA’s parliament is preparing to announce whether he should be impeached over his failure to report a theft of up to $4million in cash that had been stuffed into sofas at his private ranch which he said came from sales of rare cattle and game. Further allegations on other financial wrongdoing are ongoing. The euphoria which greeted his election after the corruption of Jacob Zuma has disappeared in tales of much of the same plus economic stagnation as well as rising crime and lawlessness.

  In recent times Ramaphosa has parroted Kremlin talking points to blame Nato’s eastward expansion for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and refused to back UN votes condemning it.

  He is likely to keep his ANC leadership job in the party election next month though he is weakened.

  What a tragedy for Mandela’s legacy.

  Ramaphosa, 17 November 1952, is a Sun Scorpio like Charles square Pluto – ultra determined, controlling and stubborn. Ramaphosa also has a Scorpio Moon and an indulgent, acquisitive Jupiter in Taurus. Plus an explosive Mars in Capricorn opposition Uranus square Saturn Neptune. He’ll certainly be attracted to money but his Neptune Saturn handled correctly could have directed him towards creating a fairer society rather than going down the slippery and autocratic route. Saturn Neptune can indicate a conflict between the higher and lower nature.

 His luck will hold through January 2023 and he’ll push forward determinedly thereafter though his problems will mount from July 2023 onwards as tr Uranus starts to square his Pluto.

  His Term chart, 25 May 2019 11.30am, will be more down than up through 2023 but he’s not a temperament for giving in easily and will bulldoze ahead as long as he is allowed.

  The South Africa, 27 April 1994 11am chart is heading for its first Saturn Return in 2024, so perhaps (maybe??) a little decency might be brought to bear on governance. 2023 looks downbeat for the population.

  The 31 May 1910 chart hints at a revival of national morale in 2026/2027 which is echoed in the later chart as well. But a ways to go before then.

Reality bites as support for Brexit has fallen to a record low of 32% as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt cautiously puts a toe in the waters of conciliation suggesting in time the trade barriers which have been erected post-2016 could be substantially removed while the UK still remains outside the single market. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent fiscal watchdog, said this week that the latest evidence showed Brexit had had “a significant adverse effect on UK trade”, cutting trade volumes and relationships between British and EU companies. And Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank added: “Very clearly Brexit was an economic own goal. Economically speaking that has been very bad news indeed.” 

  The economic impact of Brexit remains a taboo for the main UK political parties and the hardcore Brexiteers in the Tory Party (the ERG group, Hannan, Frost etc) would be incensed at any such shift. But this latest softening of attitude from No 10 might well be the trigger for a long-overdue split within the Tory Party, hiving off the extreme anti-EU faction.

  Whether or not the EU would be amenable even in the face of their own monumental economic problems to contemplate a pitch-n-patch ad hoc arrangement with the UK is another matter.

 The EU/UK relationship chart does show some signs of mellowing over the next few months but will run into shocks and blocks from April 2023, more so July onwards; with a chilly mood in 2024.  It may be 2025/26/27 before there is a significant shift onto a new footing.

 The Tory Party, 9 May 1912 party chart is facing a white knuckle ride over the next three years with a cage-rattling tr Uranus conjunct the Sun now and repeating early 2023; and a high-tension, crockery-throwing tr Uranus conjunct the Saturn from July 2023 into 2024 – as the old guard clashes with the forces for reform. That division will come to a head by 2025 when the Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct the Tory Party Saturn.

  Through 2023/24 with tr Neptune square the Pluto there is a sense of Tory influence being undermined. The back-to-the-drawing-board for a complete rethink will come in 2025 with tr Pluto conjunct the Uranus.

  The anti-EU European Research Group (ERG) has exerted considerable pressure within the Tory Party since it was formed in July 1993 through the Maastricht negotiations. There is no exact date but Pluto was in Scorpio which was then opposition the Tory Party Sun and Saturn in Taurus setting the scene for a mighty power struggle. And the highly-strung (immune to rational argument) Uranus Neptune in Capricorn was also in place opposition the Tory Party Mars Neptune in Cancer.  When the Brexit referendum was held in 2016 tr Pluto in Capricorn square tr Uranus in Aries had been pounding away at the Tory Party Mars Neptune so it is a sensitive point – though there is nothing up and coming until 2027/28 to affect it.

  Of the die-hard Brexiteers David Frost looks panicky and disappointed through 2023; and Daniel Hannan looks edgy in 2024.  Intriguingly Frost, Hannan and Boris all have strong Jupiter Neptune aspects = over hopeful and according to Ebertin can attract scandal through instability. Farage is both upbeat and downcast – but he’d be pleased at anything that brought him back into the ring to fight.

  Political attitudes may change over the sobering three years of financial hardship ahead – on both sides of the channel – so by 2027 a different set of arrangements on trade may be possible.

Ukraine has been heartened by their army’s success in forcing  Russian military to retreat from territory stolen during the war, notably from the key city of Kherson.  It lies just north of Crimea, and the defeat there represents a major setback to Putin’s dream of creating a land bridge from Russia to Crimea. Ukrainian officials view this as a precursor to taking Crimea back, which was illegally annexed by Putin in 2014. Zelensky has said there will be no peace until Ukraine has taken back Crimea.

  What is not good news is that Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure have left approximately 50 percent of the energy system out of order which coincides with the first snow. The fear is that repairs to the damage will be halted and Poland is preparing for an influx of refugees as Ukraine may become increasingly unlivable.

   The Crimea  Annexation Treaty was signed against international opposition on 18 March 2014 1.15 pm and that chart does have an undermining tr Neptune conjunct the Pisces Sun from May 2023 onwards and a high-tension, disruptive tr Uranus opposition the Saturn from July 2023 onwards – so there could be signs of it starting to collapse.  Though the major period of total upheaval would not come until 2027/29.

  Tamila Tasheva, the Ukrainian minister tasked with handling the Crimea problem looks to be having a tough and not altogether progressive three years ahead.

  Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia puppet governor of Crimea installed 9 October 2014, looks stressed ahead but not at total disaster point until mid 2024 and beyond.

  General Valeriy Zaluzhni, 8 July 1973, the head of the Ukrainian army, credited with running an astute and successful campaign in contrast to the Russians, is a Sun Cancer square Uranus and Mars in upfront Aries. He will have a surge of confidence and triumph early this December to mid January, and again late September and through October 2023. But he’ll also have moments of high uncertainty from May 2023 onwards as tr Neptune squares his Saturn.

  The Ukraine, 24 August 1991 2.31pm country chart will be forced to change tactics or direction with tr Uranus opposition the 10^th house Pluto once more next April. Given the trickster nature of Uranus this can be change for the better as it was last month or being prompted by outside forces to accept that significant alterations in hopes and plans need to be adopted. Tr Neptune also returns to oppose the Ukraine Mars mid March for a few weeks and repeating later into early 2024 – that usually coincides with a panicky sense of failure.  The pressure on Zelensky looks fairly relentless through much of 2023 though like his military commander Zaluzhni he will be upbeat patches this December/January and through autumn 2023. 

  What is an interesting parallel is the Crimea War of 1853 when Russia lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the UK. It marked a turning point for the Russian Empire with a weakened Army, a drained treasury and lessening of Russia’s influence in Europe. The empire would take decades to recover. It started 16 October 1853 with Pluto at 1 degree Taurus. Tr Pluto by 2024 will be similarly at 1 degree of a Fixed Aquarius. Uranus was also as now in Taurus.

  Maybe I am being depressing but I’m not sure this will end in 2023. Hope I’m wrong but —- 

For previous Ukraine posts see in Search,

Tom Ford has decided to hang up his tailor’s scissors for good having become disenchanted with the fashion business and selling out his eponymous beauty, eyewear and clothing brand for nearly $3 billion. He made his name transforming a near bankrupt Gucci into a fashion powerhouse before launching his own company in 2005. In recent years his focus has turned to movies and he directed two critically acclaimed films, A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016).

  He was born 27 August 1961 in Texas which made for an uncomfortable childhood, given his lack of aptitude for sports or guns. Even then he dressed in what became his trademark well-groomed uniform of daily apparel. He engenders fierce loyalty amongst former employees who describe him as “incredibly exacting”, “insanely witty”, “kind”. Anna Wintour says of him, “he is an incredibly hard-working man with a wicked sense of humour who is the most loyal and kind friend.” “He’s driven,” says a former colleague. “You don’t get to be Tom Ford and sell a business for $2.3bn if you aren’t certain of what you want in life.” Recently he lost his husband and partner of 35 years after a long illness in September 2021. Together they had a son, Jack, by surrogate 10 years ago.

  He is a meticulous and controlling Sun Pluto in Virgo so will be focused on detail and that is sextile Neptune, hinting at his driving ambition. He has a ‘leadership’ Leo North Node close to an inventive Uranus which may be on the focal point of a Yod of Jupiter Saturn in Capricorn sextile a Pisces Moon. At best such a Uranian Yod makes him a creative trailblazer, keen to buck convention for make a mark with his own original ideas.  He also has an unaspected Mars in Libra which will make him uncompromising and lead to a life of non-stop activity

  Tr Pluto has been wending its way conjunct his Saturn and Jupiter and opposition his Venus in Cancer throughout his partner’s illness and death which would be emotionally anguished and challenging. This high stress phase is slowly coming to an end with tr Pluto conjunct his Jupiter bringing him financial bounty.

   He won’t find the next two or three years easy as he steps away from what used to consume his every waking moment with tr Saturn opposing his Sun Pluto, his Solar Arc Mars square his Pluto and his Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Neptune. Maybe another movie will emerge.