Greenwashing and sportswashing have their downside as Qatar has been learning recently. Egypt is now the target of unwanted publicity about its dire human rights record on the eve of the COP27 climate change conference.    Thousands of political prisoners have been detained since Al-Sisi took over in a military coup in 2013 and although 800 have been released this year because of outside pressure that is a small number relative to the overall population of political prisoners and there is no indication of new arrests slowing down.

  Despite his human rights record, Al-Sisi has enjoyed sound relations with western capitals who regard him as vital to regional stability.

 Abdel Al-Sisi, a Sun, Venus, Saturn (and Mercury) in Scorpio square Mars in Aquarius which is opposition Pluto  has a dominating and ruthless autocrat’s chart. He has been rattled by the Eclipses this year though, with a fixed and extremely controlling temperament, change is not in his lexicon. However tr Saturn square tr Uranus is also hammering away  at his Mars, Venus, Pluto Sun over the next two years so even he will find it a challenge to hang onto the tiller through a stormy passage ahead.

  Egypt, 14 March 1922 10.43pm Cairo, has tr Neptune undermining its Pisces Sun until early 2023 but then has a high-confidence Solar Arc Pluto conjunct its Jupiter exact in late 2023. This is echoed in both Al-Sisi’s personal chart and his Presidency chart so a major push of one sort or another is to be expected. The combination of Pluto and Jupiter leads to a might-makes-right attitude and a sense that even wildly ambitious plans can succeed, so it can boomerang.

  His birth chart, 19 November 1954, has tr Pluto square his Jupiter in 2023/24 and his Presidency chart 8 June 2014, has his Solar Arc Pluto opposition Jupiter exact in late 2023; followed in 2024 by Solar Arc Neptune square the Sun. Whatever forceful steps he takes are likely to end with him in quicksand.

  Astrology doesn’t do climate predictions. But as an interesting thought: ‘about a quarter of all greenhouse gas pollution produced by humans comes from the United States. More than 80 percent of planet-warming emissions comes from the world’s 20 largest economies.’ By contrast, Pakistan is the source of less than 0.4 percent of historic carbon pollution and after the blistering heat wave this summer — an event made 30 times more likely by climate change, according to scientists — there were dozens of deaths, huge crop losses and a massive flood from a melting glacier in Pakistan. The country suffered again after record rainfall during monsoon season caused catastrophic flooding. At least 1,700 people were killed and 2 million homes were demolished by the floodwaters. A scientific analysis of the disaster found the rainfall was made 50 to 75 percent more intense by human-caused climate change.

  There is pressure from the most affected countries for the climate polluters in the north to pay for damage. Which given the present economic and energy crunch is likely to lead to fractious and ultimately unwinnable arguments.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, oligarch, close ally of Putin and founder of the Wagner mercenary group, has stepped away from the Kremlin line to praise Zelensky as a strong leader. He and the Chechen Kadyrov have both been critic s of the Russian military tactics in Ukraine.

  Born 1 June 1961 he is a Sun Gemini square Pluto, maybe on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Neptune sextile a Capricorn Moon – controlling, ego-centric. He also has a volatile, no-compromise Mars conjunct Uranus in Leo and Saturn in final degree Capricorn conjunct Jupiter in Aquarius.

  He looks rattled in January 2023 with tr Uranus square his Mars and before then with tr Saturn opposition his Uranus.  He looks stuck in 2023 and facing a discouraging slog with tr Saturn opposition his Pluto and tr Pluto conjunct his Saturn into 2024.

  He will have some successes but looks nerve-stretched for the next two years.

The Wagner group first saw action in 2014 in Crimea which kicked off with a pushy Jupiter opposition Pluto square Uranus.  

Red lights are flashing as tension rises and rifts widen over the EU’s response to the credit crunch.  Eurozone inflation jumped to 10.7pc in October with Germany at 11.4pc which puts it in much the same boat as the UK. The difference being that a single currency necessitates a focused response, impossible when it services disparate economies. Italy with huge debts objects to credit tightening backed by France which has an even bigger debt burden while Germany with its historic fear of inflation demands it.

  Thomas Mayer, Deutsche Bank’s ex-chief economist and author of Europe’s Unfinished Currency, said the ECB has already gone beyond the point of no return. He predicts that the EMU experiment will end in much the same way as the Latin Monetary Union in the 19th century. Switzerland eventually pulled out because it lost patience with chronic debasement. The eurozone is a sturdier beast but the pressures are the same. “It can’t survive,” he said.

  Germany and France always were about to head into stormier seas in their relationship with an exasperated stalemate continuing on from this year till late 2023; with even more serious rifts and upheavals now and across the New Year, worsening from May 2023 onwards for the following three years.  Macron and Scholz are in a bad place as far as agreement is concerned right through till 2024.

  Though France is not, despite the comments above, getting on well with Italy for two years ahead; with Macron and Meloni increasingly at odds.

  Italy elected far-right, EU-sceptic Giorgia Meloni just as the history-changing tr Uranus Mars North Node was square the composite Sun of the Italy/EU relationship chart. At the very least that will make the next few months disruptive and will continue to generate bad feelings through till 2025.

  Germany will harbour grave uncertainties about EU policy through 2023 and is entering a longish spell of aggravated relations with Brussels, worsening in 2025/26.

France and the EU are not faring much better with an exceptionally bumpy ride through the next few months and massive upheavals from May 2023 onwards and worse in 2024.

 See previous post: Italy & Germany – EU’s early warning signals (16th July 2022) which suggests that the EU pressure cooker will blow around 2025.

Michel Moore, the documentary maker and left-wing activist, is convinced against the general consensus that the Democrats will win big in the midterms. He predicts there will be a record turnout of younger voters whose views pundits and commentators often miss, who have been riled by the SCOTUS anti-abortion vote. He says the biggest political grouping in the US is not Republicans or Democrats, but non-voters and this is the group he wants to reach before November 8. He correctly called Trump’s win in 2016 but that is no guarantee he can repeat his winning bet this time round.

  Born 23 April 1954 12.45pm Flint, Michigan, he has a Taurus Sun conjunct his Midheaven from the 9^th opposition Saturn in Scorpio on his IC – practical, serious, ultra-determined. He also has a charming Venus in his 10^th and a dynamic Moon Mars in Capricorn in his performing 5^th house – so not a shrinking violet.

  He does have a prominent Neptune in the 3^rd opposition Mercury in Aries and square a revolutionary, outspoken Uranus, trine Jupiter and sextile Pluto, so he will be idealistic and creative but not always easy to pin down.

  His chart does show mild uplift from transiting Jupiter trines and sextiles to various midpoints – and one ‘unusual success’ indicator from tr Jupiter square his Pluto/MC midpoint but that is heavily dependent on his birth time being accurate to the minute. Otherwise he has tr Pluto conjunct his Mercury/Saturn midpoint running into early December which will make him gloomy or overly-serious. Not exactly conclusive.

  Barack Obama’s chart is much the same over the election period with a hotch potch of pluses and minuses. On the positive side he has a successful tr Jupiter trine his Midheaven and sextile his Solar Arc Midheaven and a mildly upbeat tr Pluto sextile his Mars/Jupiter midpoint till December. But those are running at the same time as an undermining, panicky tr Neptune opposition his Mars running through till January. Tr Saturn opposition his Sun/Uranus midpoint making him highly impatient about restrictions. And a nerve-stretched, high-risk tr Uranus opposition his Saturn/Pluto midpoint.

Tr Saturn is also sitting on his Ascendant which won’t have him singing and dancing and is then moving him into a less ambitious and less visible few years ahead. 2024 look less than ecstatic for him with his Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Neptune.  

The radiantly handsome Paul Newman with the flawless marriage, an object of envy to most, is an exquisite example of how astrology gives the lie to a well-polished image, revealing the dark secrets that lie behind.

  When celebrities are alive it is often not possible to be blunt about what the chart says; and even astrologers get bamboozled by an ethereal aura and tone down their suspicions.

  Only after his death has it emerged what a tortured life Paul Newman had with a mother he described as a ‘monster’, who alternately cooed over his looks and then for no reason beat him. His parents were in constant conflict and his weak, alcoholic father an emotional dead space. Not surprisingly Newman himself developed a serious drinking problem which ruined his first marriage. His inadequacies as a parent to his first three children haunted him with guilt in later life.

  Newman, 26 January 1925 6.30am Cleveland Heights, Ohio, had a hard-working, conscientious Saturn in Scorpio in his career 10^th in a creative Water Grand Trine to Pluto Descendant trine Uranus, with Pluto opposition Venus, Mercury, Jupiter in Capricorn on his Ascendant. Venus Jupiter on the Ascendant would exude enthusiasm and give him an upbeat and clearly false persona. But Saturn Pluto is bleak. Add in Uranus for instability and it would send his Water Grand Trines into an alternative bubble of reality since the one on offer was too desolate. His Sun was square Saturn for the unsupportive father.

   His unaspected Pisces Moon suggests dysfunctional nurturing, making him vulnerable and traumatized. It was conjunct his enthusiastic Mars/Jupiter midpoint and square his Mars/Pluto and Uranus/Node which encapsulates the confusing, double-messaging mother –  one moment all over him, the next savagely cruel and unstable.  Saturn in Scorpio in the 10^th also represents the cold, ungiving, spine-straightening mother – which can occur with also with Moon Saturn.

  Theresa Garth Feltzer, 25 July 1894, was a Sun Leo with a hard-edged and can-be-cruel, short-tempered Mars in Aries opposition Saturn in Libra square his Pluto and his Venus. So all of her pent-up resentment at the injustices of her own life would be acted out on him.

  It is a miracle he stayed upright and as good looking as he did for so long. When he threw his mother out of his life at one point during his marriage to Joanne Woodward he said he felt a weight had been lifted from him.  After she died in 1982 he started to record his memoir tapes and his daughter Clea said he he evolved immensely in the last quarter of his life, freed by his mother’s death. In 1982 tr Uranus just into Sagittarius was square his Moon which is classic transit for emotional changes concerning mother figures and a freeing up of old emotions trapped in the past.  

In later life after he gave up drinking he took to racing cars which fitted with his 3rd house Mars in Aries but also suggests a need to flirt with death, and for the adrenaline kick that would waken dead emotions.

Another example of the gap between public adulation and the private reality is Jan Morris, the journalist and travel writer, lauded for her writing talent and courage as an early trans woman. She has been described after her death as “selfish, self-serving and unkind”. With a Sun Libra square Pluto; and Mars in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio square Neptune (Moon) opposition Jupiter – there’s every reason to believe the description holds water.  

  Always reassuring to have the mysteries of charts illuminated after death.

See previous posts: Saturn mothers – 3 September 2022

Marriage to Joanne Woodward 27 July 2022.

Jan Morris 21 November 2020

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153 people have died in a crush in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, with another 82 injured as huge crowds gathered in a popular nightlife area for Halloween. Most victims were teenagers and adults in their 20s and the crush began in a narrow alley when people in a crowd fell over.

The upcoming Lunar Eclipse located to Seoul has Mars in Gemini on the Ascendant suggesting an accident. The Mars is emphasised/afflicted being inconjunct Pluto sextile Venus in Scorpio.

 These kinds of disasters occur all over but often they are advance (synchronous) warnings of more major events and upheavals to follow. The South Korea chart, 15 August 1948 12am, is being seriously rattled by tr Uranus square the 4^th house Pluto just after this New Year with tr Saturn opposition the Sun before New Year and then the Mercury, Saturn, which tr Uranus moves to upend from June 2023 onwards into 2024 – so a bumpy eighteen months ahead. At the moment the Solar Arc Mars is opposition the Uranus for high tension and possible accidents plus Solar Arc Saturn is conjunct the SK South Node.

  What is causing great alarm in the region are indications that North Korea may be about to launch a nuclear test, the first in five years. Recent US, South Korea and Japanese large-scale military exercises have antagonised Kim Jong Un.  Over the past month the North has fired a missile over Japan, launched several other ballistic missiles, flown warplanes close to its border and fired hundreds of shells of artillery into the sea, which have landed in a military buffer zone.

An analyst said: “We have never seen this audacity and aggression before, it is different. It is the North acting like a nuclear state.”  On Thursday, the US Department of Defense warned that a nuclear attack by North Korea would result in the destruction of its regime. “There is no scenario in which the Kim regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive,” it said.

 Kim Jong Un’s motivations are, as usual, opaque but it could be a gesture to prove NK’s readiness to stave off invasion; or a ploy to get the US to negotiate on sanctions.

  Kim Jong Un’s Leadership chart, 29 December 2011 11.57am P’yonggang is on red alert over coming months with the explosive Solar Arc Mars opposition the Uranus, exact in 3 months but in effect for several more. It also, worryingly, has an over-confident, power-hungry tr Pluto square the Jupiter from late March 2023 on and off till late 2024 so he could go rampaging across the line of common sense and caution, believing he can’t lose.

A savage attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband leaving him with a fractured skull has raised concern not only about this incident but about the increase in threats of violence against lawmakers, judges and political candidates with tensions rising before the midterm elections on November 8th. Threats against  members of Congress are up by a multiple of three since 2017. Both left and right politicians have faced threats but over the past decade rightwing extremists have committed three quarters of the 450 political murders, compared with 4% attributed to leftwing extremists.

 The attacker in this case who was disarmed and arrested has a blog, website and social media accounts filled with anti-Semitic memes, Holocaust denial, references to far-right websites and conspiracy theories such as QAnon. He also posted debunked allegations of election fraud. He appears to be a nudist activist and Green Party member.

  After breaking into the Pelosi house he shouted “where’s Nancy?” echoing the January 6 Capitol Hill rioters.

  The USA chart is still labouring under the Pluto Return and highlighting the fanatical Mercury opposition until late 2023. It is moving towards a Mars Return on November 25^th, inflaming the vocal USA Mars in Gemini and sparking off the Sun/Uranus midpoint over the election which could lead to injuries and accidents. More significantly tr Uranus is square the US Mars/Saturn and Sun/Neptune midpoints exactly now from October 10^th to November 7^th – which is prone to explosive violence and disasters, as well as being nerve=stretched and leading to emotional crises.

 Paul Pelosi, born less than three weeks after his wife on 15 April 1940, is not having his best year with a drunk driving conviction after a crash in May though he is expected to recover from these recent injuries. The multimillionaire founder of a venture capital firm, he is a confident, lucky, go-getting Sun Jupiter in Aries square Pluto; with his Sun also conjunct Saturn in Taurus square Pluto so tough-minded and unyielding. His Solar Arc Saturn his squaring his Jupiter at the moment denting his confidence; and his Solar Arc Pluto is conjunct his North Node for his brush with the dark side.

   The Mercury Pluto on the US chart which has been under heavy pressure since 2020 (until late 2023) does make the national US temperament a sucker for demagogues, rabble rousers and agitators. Trump’s narcissistic rage of the thwarted man-baby has touched a chord amongst those of similar inclinations and given them tacit permission to run rampant. Pluto in Aquarius has to restore some balance and sanity – please!

Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock’n’roll pioneer whose frenetic, raucous music and chaotic personal life scandalised the older post-war generation, has died aged 87. He was idolised by the pop stars of the day and responded by pouring contempt on their success and insisting he was the king, greater even than Elvis.

  He said: “We only got one life to live. I know what I am. I’m a rompin’, stompin’, piano playing sonofabitch. A mean sonofabitch. But a great sonofabitch.”

 He was born 29 September 1935 at 3pm Ferriday, Louisiana and raised in rural poverty on the borders of the Mississippi river. His family attended the Assembly of God church, and spoke in tongues. His cousin Jimmy Swaggart sang with Lewis during their childhoods and would go on to become one of America’s most famous Television evangelists (felled by sex scandals). All of his life Lewis struggled with a profound conflict between Old Testament notions of faith and temptation – as he went on to live a life marred by drunkenness, drug addiction, womanising and seven marriages.

  His biographer wrote of his life: “havoc inevitably reigns: in-laws go mad or become accident statistics, offspring die horrible, mangled deaths, wives drown or suffer inexplicable fatal overdoses … record people are terrorized, audiences verbally and physically attacked, promoters bankrupted, journalists threatened with broken bottles … while The Killer just keeps on rocking”.

  His career stalled after it emerged he had married a 13 year old second cousin, which was not thought odd in the milieu of his upbringing and he was unrepentant, eventually clawing his way back to the top as king of Country & Western.

  Like many old rock’n’rollers it is a miracle he survived with a crippling drug habit in the 1960s and rampant alcohol consumption causing a near fatal stomach rupture in the 1980s, in and out of rehab and a stroke in 2019.

  He had an intense, deeply buried 8^th house Libra Sun on the focal point of a Yod to Saturn in Pisces sextile Uranus in Taurus. This would give him problems with his ego – too much and too little, so he’d swing between self-doubt and then overdo the overwhelming self-confidence with a tendency to abuse his dominance.

  His Pluto was strongly aspected in square to Moon and Mercury and trine a lucky, successful Jupiter on his Midheaven – emotionally possessive, dogmatic in his opinions and pushily self-assured.

  Plus an ambitious and scattergun Mars in Sagittarius in his career 10th in a hard-edged, not-always-kind square to Saturn opposition Venus – no surprises his emotional life was a constant war zone. His Mars was also sextile his Sun and in a showbizzy square to an 8^th house musical Neptune. Such a Mutable Mars would give him high-levels of dynamic energy and nervous tension but would tend to send him off in a frenzy of impatience.

  He certainly changed the course of musical history in an extraordinary way.

Prince Harry’s pact with the devil – media and money – is creaking towards a crescendo with every indication that he will regret selling his gripes for fame, fortune and vindication. Apart from anything else tedium is setting in and were it not for the damage his personal wrecking mission could cause to the monarchy few would care – in the UK at any rate.

 It is thought that hopes he would tone down the approaching Netflix documentary and his memoir aimed for January have been overblown. Commercial considerations will no doubt have dictated that sensationalism trumps decency. In titling his book ‘Spare’ he’s walking in Princess Margaret’s footsteps – born to immense wealth, privilege and status with an array of choices 99.99% of the population could not dream of, they whine about having to walk behind a sibling.

  His own chart has this week’s Solar Eclipse in Scorpio conjunct his Pluto for a transform or stagnate choice; with his Solar Arc Sun also conjunct his Pluto now for a frozen-to-the-spot few months. The November Lunar Eclipse is also catching his Midheaven and Saturn in Scorpio for a sharp reality check and a crisis of direction.

  Late this October to early January tr Neptune will oppose his Sun for a discontented and discouraging run; with a separated-from-family and feeling under-supported tr Saturn square his Taurus Moon across this Christmas. Nothing that looks like a singing and dancing success.

 His father Charles is downbeat across the New Year with tr Saturn square his Sun and feeling devastated from January 12^th onwards till mid February with tr Pluto square his Mars/Saturn midpoint. His relationship chart with Harry also looks highly stressed in the second half of January.

  His relationship with Camilla is also under a cloud over the January 10^th publication date, worsening through 2023 and more so in 2024.

 The deep freeze with brother William won’t thaw anytime soon. Princess Anne looks unamused by her nephew’s bleatings.

  King Charles looks the most affected and Camilla which will put additional pressure on them running into the coronation.

  Harry really is on a hiding to nothing since his only currency is trash-talking the family to whom he owes his status. Once the public tire of the incessant whining and/or the Royals finally remove his title, it’s difficult to see how he can stay afloat.   

Add On: This storm-in-a-teacup melodrama with tragic overtones sent me back to look at the wedding chart of 19 May 2018. The late Taurus Sun was at 28 degrees which in modern terms is wide of the orb for a conjunction to the destructive Fixed Star Algol, though it would have been acceptable in traditional astrology. More significantly there was an explosive, no-compromise Mars in Aquarius square Uranus.

   Tr Pluto moving into Aquarius from late March 2023 will light a fuse and cause major eruptions for the next three years – as it is square the Uranus and then conjunct the Mars. That could be rancorous either within the marriage or acted out on others or more likely both. It will bring to a head the pressures building up since tr Pluto opposed the Wedding Cancer Moon in 2019.

  Nothing that looks like peace breaking out anytime soon.