Recovering from a potentially crippling injury to become a record-breaking Mount Everest guide is an inspirational tale of mind over matter. Kenton Cool shattered both heels when he was 22 in a climbing accident and was told he would never walk again without a cane. He had a year of surgery and therapy and went on to work in Rope Access – scaling tall buildings without scaffolding – and then co-founded a global adventure company before becoming a leading Alpine guide.

 He has helped Ben Fogle and Ranulph Fiennes, amongst others, to scale Everest and this weekend his 16^th climb broke the record for most ascents by a non-Sherpa. He charges a six-figure sum to amateurs who want to climb Everest and has the best success rate of any guide, with over 80 per cent of his clients making it to the peak.

  He also became the first person to complete the Everest triple crown, comprising Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse, in one push without returning to base camp, and previously led a client to the summit of K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain.

  When he had his accident his injuries had been so bad that the doctors were amazed he hadn’t broken his back. “But I was determined to prove everybody wrong, that I could climb again.” He defied doctors’ predictions though he still has chronic pain.

  Born 30 July 1973 in Slough, he has a chart reeking of initiative, a love for risk and excitement and confidence.  His Leo Sun (and Moon) oppose Jupiter in Aquarius, with Jupiter in turn in a positive-thinking trine to his Pluto. His adventure-seeking comes from a go-ahead Mars in Aries opposition Uranus square Mercury in Cancer – Mars Uranus relishes high-adrenaline-rush activities. Even more significantly he has Saturn in final degree Gemini opposition North Node square Pluto and that is tough and unyielding, drawn to difficult, deprived situations over which he can maintain control.

When he had his accident one of his T Squares had moved by Solar Arc to collide with the other – with his Solar Arc Pluto opposition his Mars which is usually catastrophic, made all the more so because it brought the full weight of two T Squares together. Tr Neptune was also in an undermining square to his Mars – all round bad news.

  His get-it-together 5^th Harmonic is enthusiastic and super-confident. His 16^th harmonic, usually a necessity for a life of extreme endurance, is also strong and lucky.

  I must admit to having a soft spot for adventurers, especially ones who ignore and disprove medical advice. Good to know there are some out there who aren’t malodorous whackjobs or shambolic politicos.

The double sickness at the heart of the USA – guns and racism – re-emerges with a mass shooting by a deranged teenager with an AR-15 at a supermarket in a predominately Black neighbourhood. 10 were killed with three injured. Despite having a mental health evaluation last year for making threats of shooting he was free to buy heavy weapons, with a rifle and a shotgun also found in his car. The suspect, Payton Gendron, 18, drove more than 320km (200 miles) to carry out the attack.

A 180-page document authored by him has emerged, in which he describes himself as a fascist and a white supremacist, parroting the conspiracy fears favoured by extremist websites of immigrants taking over.

  His mother proudly showed family pics on social media with weaponry boxes on display for Christmas and children clearly inculcated with a love for guns. https://twitter.com/yourgirlavie/status/1525623786330112003. 

I hope like Ethan Crumbley, the parents get arrested as well – see post December 10 2021.

 Payton Gendron, born 20 June 2003, is a late degree Sun Gemini conjunct Saturn in Cancer trine Uranus Mars in Pisces – so a high-wire, hair-trigger and overly excitable as well as depressed temperament. His Mars Uranus is further jacked up being square the South Node/North Node opposition.  His Pluto is in a confident, pushy trine to Jupiter in flamboyant Leo and in an emotionally ramped-up opposition to Venus Mercury. His Jupiter is also opposition an unstable/head-in-the-clouds Neptune. An explosion waiting to happen, aided and abetted by deficient parenting and outrageously lax gun checks.

  There’s not much to be gleaned from his chart and he’s unlike Ethan Crumbley, a Sun Taurus square Saturn and opposition Jupiter. Though I suppose the unstable mix of low self-esteem from Saturn and over-confidence from Jupiter might be deemed a problem. Both have Jupiter in hard aspect to Neptune and Venus in hard aspect to Pluto.

  Searching around for other shooters I came across Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the New Zealand alt-right, white-supremacist, promoter of ‘white genocide’ conspiracy theories, who shot up two mosques in Christchurch in 2019 killing 51. He was older, 27 October 1990, and had a chart custom-built for extremism and out-of-control rage. He has an intense Scorpio Sun, Venus, Mercury square Jupiter in flashy Leo opposition North Node in crusading Aquarius (and Moon). His Mars in Gemini is on the focal point of a Yod to Pluto sextile Saturn Neptune in Capricorn – and that is nasty. Plus a rules-don’t-apply Pluto square Jupiter.

  Police recovered six guns: two AR-15 style rifles, two 12-gauge shotguns (a semiautomatic Mossberg 930 and a pump-action Ranger 870), and two other rifles (a .357 Magnum Uberti lever-action rifle, and a .223-caliber Mossberg Predator bolt-action rifle, along with more than 7,000 rounds of ammunition. And this didn’t raise any red flags?

  No great conclusions except the neanderthal mentality appears alive and kicking.

Emmanuel Macron officially embarks this weekend on his Second Presidency for what looks like a tempestuous term ending in tears and tribulations. France itself is undergoing a seismic shift and series of convulsions between 2022 and 2025 and his own chart indicates banana skins galore, misjudgments and ultimately failure.

  He had a low-key swearing in on 7 May 2022 (circa 11.02am) and the new government officially started at midnight at the end of the 13^th. Both charts have unpredictable Sun Uranus conjunctions square a downbeat Saturn. Both hint at financial woes and the 13^th May points to a grandstanding performance with pzazz, aimed at attracting publicity but not stable. 

  What is interesting about the 13^th May chart is that it has a Moon on the focal point of a Yod as does his own birth chart – they suggest emotional disorganization, an overly defensive attitude and a tendency to react in a self-defeating way. It will be most noticeable in the effects of the Term chart with a singleton Libra Moon conjunct Midheaven inconjunct a flashy, showbiz Mars Neptune sextile a 5^th house Taurus Sun. The 7th May swearing in also has a prominent Moon in moody Cancer on the Ascendant opposition Pluto – hinting at over reactions to criticism.

  France is undergoing quite a roller coaster with its central Fixed T Square of rebellious Uranus opposition Pluto square Mars Midheaven in Scorpio catching this year the discouraging tr Saturn hard aspects and the tr Uranus hard aspects which will be even more unsettling from mid 2023 into 2025, with forced jolting changes. Tr Neptune is also heading to the undermining opposition to the France Virgo Sun by 2024/25

 Macron’s own chart has tr Saturn now moving below his Capricorn Ascendant for a less successful few years ahead; with tr Pluto conjunct his Ascendant in 2022/23 putting immense pressure on his reputation and image and giving him an urge to over-control. He has a run of tricky Solar Arcs – this year a jolting SArc Sun square Uranus and Moon; 2023 has a depressingly stuck Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Pluto; and by 2024 tr Neptune is in a disappointing, indecisive square to his Sun Mercury; with a car-crash Solar Arc Mars square his Sun in 2025 along with a sharp change of direction tr Uranus opposition his Midheaven. He will have odd patches of sunshine on the way through but in general it won’t be a fun time. Most of what happens won’t be his doing but he won’t handle it well.

  His relationship chart with France is disruptive this year; edgy and upsetting in 2023/25 and beyond-aggravated by 2025.

  His relationship with the UK, never good at the best of times, will take a sharp downward spiral from this year throughout his stint at the Elysee Palace.

  Like the UK politicians, he is making the most of the Ukraine invasion to grab personal attention for himself, but from a different direction. He started by initiating peace-making initiatives with Putin and now appears to have gone overboard trying to placate the Russians, saying there’ll be no EU membership for Ukraine for decades or NATO membership either. Neither of which are in his gift or helpful in the circumstances. His chart relocated to Moscow has Jupiter in the 4th making it a comfort zone for him. Sigh.

There was a bizarre and slightly pathetic mise-en-scene for the Queen’s Speech with the Imperial State Crown minus its keeper sitting centre spotlight on a cushion, effectively upstaging Prince Charles who had to perform the political ritual. If it was a pointed reminder that the Queen had sworn lifelong devotion to the throne, it didn’t work. Her appearance two days later in beaming good spirits at a horse show added to the tone deafness of the exercise.

  No one begrudges her pleasures after a gruelling lifetime of service or would be anything other than understanding of her handing over the reins to Charles as Prince Regent.  But as her vanity stops her being wheelchaired into state occasions, the question of her misgivings about whether Charles is up to the job looms large. Added to which she is extraordinarily fixed and rigid so dislikes change and may, like her mother, have a strong resistance to stepping back from a front line status.

  Queen Victoria, who left her son and heir Edward deprived of political influence until he was 60, before she died and handed over the reins, famously disapproved of him but his subsequent ten year reign turned out, much to everyone’s surprise, to be successful. He was charming, had a string of mistresses, but was progressive in his views on tolerance and alleviating class divisions.  

   Like Charles, King Edward V11, 9 November 1841 10.48 am London, was a Sun Scorpio. His relationship with his mother Queen Victoria was fraught with his Virgo Moon being opposition Uranus  – and her tough, chilly, disciplinarian Saturn Pluto in Pisces being opposition his Moon and her Uranus Neptune square, sitting on his Ascendant and Saturn. Not a great mix.

  What he also shared with Charles was the Mars Pluto cross over with his mother. Edward’s Pluto in Aries was conjunct Victoria’s Mars with his Mars Square – he would be trapped and enraged by the power imbalance in their relationship.

  Charles’ Pluto opposes his mother’s Mars with his Sun square – so similar. And it’s worse in their relationship chart with a composite Pluto opposition Mars Jupiter. Jupiter Pluto suggests a tussle for the upper hand. Mars Pluto which appears in many of the Queen’s relationships is an indication that there is only one power figure in the family. It may be partly her spiritual pledge to the throne but she makes it abundantly clear that she calls the shots and no one else. What makes the chemistry between herself and Charles trickier still is a composite Sun square Uranus hinting they need a good deal of space from each other and have differing agendas and outlooks with neither willing to compromise.

  Charles and his mother are additionally an uneasy mix despite his 10^th house Taurus Moon being exactly conjunct her Sun, because her critical Saturn is conjunct his Sun which will be fault-finding and dampen his self-esteem.

  Throughout a long reign Queen Elizabeth has been selfless and conscientious to a staggering degree, rarely putting a foot wrong and in recent years has seemed like a beacon of stability to the country. But her judgement about certain members of the close family has always been her Achilles Heel, over-critical about Charles and under-by-a-mile of Andrew. Her relationship with Charles is the most fraught of all her children which must make it impossibly difficult for him.

  I can’t find an exact time for the oath at the Coronation chart, 2 June 1953 (does anyone have it?) but it is sagging this year with tr Neptune square the Mars and may have the Solar Arc Midheaven (on an 11am start time) square the Saturn.

  What is for sure is that 2023 will see huge changes for both the Queen and Charles with tr Pluto in Aquarius square Charles’ Moon and the Queen’s Sun from late March onwards. Even before then the Scorpio/Taurus Eclipses are rattling the Queen’s Midheaven and Saturn and Charles’ Sun and Mercury in Scorpio at the moment and through this year. Tr Uranus is also square Charles’ Pluto from next month hinting at the start of an upheaval running into 2023; with added pressure from tr Uranus opposition his Sun in 2023.

  When Edward V11 succeeded his mother Victoria in 1901 there were also Scorpio/Taurus Eclipses in place.

  A sad passing of an era – and it will be a considerable wrench and jolt for the country. But life must go on.

Add On: As near as I can make it the oath was taken twenty minutes after the 11am start of the ceremony. That would put the Taurus Midheaven in line for a decisive change of direction across the middle of this year, and into early 2023.

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Cryptocurrencies are collapsing with some reduced to zero in value. Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, has seen their shares lose around three-quarters of their value since the market debut last year, and drop 32 per cent this week.

  I stumble around in the dark where these magical, mystical, non-real money tokens are concerned but for what it is worth –

Coinbase, founded 20 June 2012, has a Gemini Sun square Mars in Virgo which is catching the panicky-failure tr Neptune opposition Mars now and into early 2023; with financial disappointments extending on as tr Neptune squares the Sun before moving into Aries in 2025. Their Nasdaq chart, 14 April 2021, shares similar confidence and enthusiasm denting influences this year extending on to 2025.

Bitcoin, the original, founded 3 January 2009, has been under astro-pressure for the past year and finally breached the seawall now as the Solar Arc Saturn square the Mars.

 Ethereum, 2 July 2015, which shares with Bitcoin a do-or-die-determined and utterly ruthless Mars Pluto hard aspect, is into earthquake territory this year with Solar Arc Pluto square the Uranus – and this week’s Lunar Eclipse colliding with its Saturn in Scorpio. The next few years look stormy and high-risk with the Solar Arc Mars approaching the opposition to the Pluto and the Solar Arc Sun square the Uranus.

Another Pluto in Capricorn ‘greed is good’ phenomenon intertwined with Neptune in Pisces up to its sleight-of-hand dream-spinning.

The Good Friday agreement – ‘one of the great achievements of the turn of the century’ – brought to an effective end nearly thirty years of violence in Northern Ireland. The UK attorney- general Suella Braverman is now accusing the EU of putting the peace process at risk by holding the Johnson government to the terms they signed in the Brexit deal – which is a reversal of the truth.

 Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, in between bouts of lambasting Putin while showboating over Ukraine, has also been raining criticism on the head of the Northern Ireland Protocol. As has ‘nightclub bouncer’ David Frost, the former UK/EU negotiator.

  The UK/EU relationship chart is sparking up trouble exactly now with tr Uranus square the composite Venus, on and off into 2023, at which point tr Uranus picks up the aggravated square to the composite Mars into 2024 for a heated emotional spat. The recent Scorpio Solar Eclipse was also conjunct the composite Neptune leading to evasions, delusions and outright deceptions.

  Joe Biden has already issued stern warnings about not upsetting the agreement and his relationship with Boris, hostile at best, is deteriorating badly now until this autumn and again early next year with tr Saturn opposition the composite Mars Pluto; and worsening in 2023 with tr Uranus in square to Mars Pluto.

  The Good Friday Agreement, 10 April 1998 5pm Belfast, has been stressed since Brexit with the Sun, Saturn, Mars in Aries catching the tr Uranus conjunction and now the tr Pluto square to the Mars in 2022/23. So stretching to almost breaking point and ending in a swamp in 2024/25 with tr Pluto conjunct the Neptune.

  None of the Johnson acolytes looks too cheerful this year though whether that is because their shameless posturing has come unstuck or for other reasons isn’t clear. Braverman, a controlling Sun Aries opposition Pluto with a flashy Mars North Node in Leo tied into an ultra-Fixed grand square with Uranus and Venus – is sagging this year, feeling disempowered and into a tumultuous three years thereafter.

  David Frost, a Sun Saturn in Pisces with an explosive Mars Uranus Pluto in Virgo and Boris’s unrealistic Jupiter opposition Neptune – is facing panicky failure this year and a tough slog till late 2023.

  Liz Truss with her eye on the crown has a Leo Sun in a stratospherically ambitious trine to Neptune, sextile Pluto; with a wobbly and inconsistent T Square of Mercury Saturn square Uranus opposition Jupiter and a tough Mars in Taurus. She’s mainly on a losing streak in 2022/23 with one blip of luck this August to December.  

  Words fail me. Well not quite. It’s amoral and punted by those of mind-bendingly low calibre.

Add On: The Times May 14 2022

‘In Downing Street the blame has been laid at the door of Liz Truss, the foreign secretary. She has been accused of unnecessarily antagonising Brussels to curry favour with the Tory right while allowing aides to brief journalists that some less Brexit-blooded ministers, such as Michael Gove and Sunak, were trying to stop the plan.

One source described it as “leadership feather-fluttering”, whereas others in government suggested that Truss fully deserved the nickname given to her by Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former adviser: the human hand grenade who blew up everything she touched.

“The whole thing is just very painful,” a government aide said. “The Foreign Office has gone very gung ho on it. Yes the process with the EU has been very tortuous but this was never meant to be an exercise in EU bashing. It was meant to be all about the Northern Ireland peace process.”

“Another senior figure who has worked on Brexit added: “The PM has ‘religion’ on this and thinks that the ERG [ the pro-Brexit European Research Group] will love it — but I’m not so sure. What I do know is that a lot of the wider parliamentary party are horrified. Even if it’s technically legal — and there are a range of views on that — it is not going down well.”   

Ninety year old Cardinal Zen has been arrested in Hong Kong for breaking China’s draconian 2020 national security law, on the specious excuse of being a trustee of a humanitarian relief fund, now disbanded, that helped pro-democracy protesters in financial need. Other than the Dalai Lama, there is no individual more despised by the Chinese State Security officials than Zen. Human Rights Watch called it a “shocking new low for Hong Kong.”

Cardinal Zen fled Shanghai for Hong Kong after the communists took over China 70 years ago, is a former bishop of Hong Kong and has long been a critic of the Beijing government, speaking out for Catholics in mainland China and for more democracy in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong church has for more than two decades commemorated the crushing by Chinese troops of student-led protests centred on Tiananmen Square on June 4 1989. But recently local Catholic leaders decided to cancel the annual memorial for fear of violating the new laws.

  Cardinal Zen was born 13 January 1932, fled from China after 1949 and after training as a priest spent his career largely in teaching as he rose to high office.

  He has a rock-solid and reforming chart with trail-blazing Uranus in Aries on the focal point of a T Square to a determined Capricorn Sun opposition Pluto. His Sun is also conjunct a disciplined and steely Mars Saturn in Capricorn. And his Uranus is trine Jupiter in Leo which is trine Mercury in Sagittarius.

  His Neptune in Virgo is unaspected which would suggest that he keeps his spiritual search as an inner not an outer experience; and perhaps hints that he has a bleak view of the possibility of his ideals becoming a reality.

  His tough-minded late Capricorn planets sit uncomfortably with the Neptune and Jupiter respectively on the China 1912 and 1949 charts. And both the relationship charts show a high level of aggravation and dislike.

  Hong Kong itself. 1 July 1997 12 am, is not heading anywhere cheerful with a devastating and confused tr Pluto conjunct Neptune in 2023/24 and stress with disappointment after mid decade. Relations with China will worsen between 2023 and 2026.

  Xi Jinping’s 2^nd Term chart is in an unstable and uncertain year with tr Pluto square the Uranus, hitting exact for a final time this August to December; and tr Neptune square Saturn on and off into early 2023. The pandemic and economic woes are looming large.

 His personal chart, assuming 15 June 1953 is an accurate birth date, indicates a jolting and undermining year now; more disruptions in 2023 and failure/panic in 2024/2025/2026.

  Shaky dictators tend to get more repressive when they feel the ground shifting under their feet.

Sigmund Freud’s thinking had a profound effect on the 20^th Century, becoming embedded in literature and movies as well as across the psychological field. Credited as the founder of psychoanalysis, he had a professional partnership then disagreement with Jung with both going their separate ways as egos and theories clashed.  Both were ambitious men keen to make their name as leaders in their field, which in Freud’s case caused him to skew some of his views on the sexual abuse of children to avoid the hostility of the society in which he lived.

  His influence can’t be understated, though he was plain wrong in his attitude to women and sexuality, and his personal habits were not above reproach. He had a cocaine habit and conducted an affair at one point with his wife’s sister. The Oedipal theory on which he based his reputation was a distorted and selective rewriting of the Greek myth to reinforce his view of the idealized mother and the sexualized, vengeful infant. In reality the story of Oedipus tells of a child abandoned by both parents to die in an effort to shore up the narcissistic father’s delusion he could stave off mortality, backed up by a collusive mother.

   Later feminists took exception to his views on penis envy which seen from this distance is bizarre.

  What is intriguing is that both he and Jung had Sun and Uranus in the 7^th making them trailblazers and keen on unconventional relationships. But where Jung had a fiery Leo Sun square an other-worldly Neptune making him reach for the intangible and mystical, Freud was an earthy Taurus and then some with a serious Saturn in Gemini in his 8th, the house of sexual matters.

 His Sun was conjunct Uranus with Mercury at the far end of Taurus and Pluto in the early degrees. His Neptune was square his 8^th house Moon, a hint of his unrealistic view of women and motherhood.

 Both men had hard Mars Jupiter aspects which can signify the ‘holy warrior’, one who promotes their pet cause with zeal and can also indicate at its most negative, an opportunist.

  Both had their North Node in designed-to-lead and be independent Aries. Both had Chiron in their 3^rd house which rules the mental functions.  

  They were never designed to walk the same path with Jung’s Pluto conjunct Freud’s Uranus Sun and Jung’s Uranus conjunct Freud’s Midheaven. Their respective Mars and Saturn also clashed for a bad tempered match.

 Their relationship chart had a hostile, power-struggling composite Mars opposition Pluto and an ego-clashing Jupiter trine Pluto. They could – and arguably did – move mountains in terms of shifting public attitudes to the psyche but from differing standpoints which were never going to agree.  

The polls for the Australia election show a solid lead for Labor and Anthony Albanese over Scott Morrison’s coalition government. But the Australia country chart reeks of confusion and indecision; and neither of the two leaders looks cheered by the result, nor does the main financial backer of the independent candidates.

  The gap at the moment of 54% to 46% would need a staggering reversal to alter it at this late stage. But there still appears to be unease about it not being in the bag.

  The vote comes after a stormy period with the pandemic, a rancorous fight over climate change strategy and deteriorating relations with China. Rising interest rates, inflation and energy prices are a worry for voters; and the Solomon Islands’ decision to sign a security pact with China undermined Morrison’s assertion that he is stronger on national security.

  Albanese, 2 March 1963, no birth time, is a Sun Pisces trine Neptune and opposition Pluto Uranus in Virgo; with a cool Saturn Mercury in Aquarius square Neptune – good as a backroom operator and he has stumbled through the campaign. Over the election he has tr Uranus exactly opposition his Neptune and square his Uranus/Node midpoint and from late May through June tr Uranus squares his Saturn Mercury – which certainly looks like change, though also fractious and high tension. There’s not much of cheer on his chart this year (without a birth time) apart from a very mild tr Jupiter trine his Mars in late May. He’s much more upbeat and confident in 2023/24 though with hiccups as well.

 Scott Morrison, 13 May 1968, a Sun Taurus trine Uranus Pluto in Virgo and opposition Neptune square Jupiter in flashy Leo – not short of ambition or chutzpah but also over confident and not always sensible.

  He’s in a generally disastrous year with tr Neptune opposition his Uranus over the election as well as tr Uranus conjunct his Mercury/Saturn – so he’s in much the same pickle as Albanese.

Jessica Adams sees a hung parliament because of Mercury Retrograde on election day with delayed results and general mayhem.