The former GOP Senator Bob Dole’s death has brought a flood of ovations about his bravery, statesmanship and patriotism. He was badly wounded in WW11 but recovered to collect a law degree and enter politics, become a prominent player in the Republican Party, standing as potential VP and nominee in several presidential elections. He was regarded as bipartisan, one of the last figures from an era when Congress functioned well.
What is less highlighted in the reverential obituaries is his post-Senate career from 1996 lobbying for a range of shady and kleptocratic foreign figures. One commentator wrote: ‘In many ways, Dole helped open the floodgates to an explosion of sleazy lobbying that has drenched Washington in the past few decades.’
He was the only former GOP nominee to endorse Donald Trump (and who continued praising the former president) and his own 1996 nomination was overseen by Paul Manafort (Trump’s erstwhile campaign manager, condemned by the Senate Intelligence Committee for his ties to Russian intelligence.)
Dole was born 22 July 1923 12.10am Russell, Kansas, and had a patriotic 4th house Sun Cancer. His 3rd house persuasively and powerfully charming Pluto Venus in Cancer fitted the USA chart well and he even had the USA’s Saturn in Libra. His Venus Pluto were in a Water Grand Trine to Uranus in Pisces trine Moon Jupiter in Scorpio, which would give him a healing presence for others though would also lock him in his own interior world. He looked a very private, secretive man from the chart. Hard-working, determined, quite seductive in a political sense and good at selling arguments to the other side with Moon Jupiter in the 7th.
His Mars in flamboyant Leo close to his Sun and in an opportunistic square to Jupiter might give a pointer to his less than shining-white tendencies.
Even by the ultra-low standards of Boris Johnson’s typically shambolic and duplicitous approach to governing, this week has hit a new record. Caught out lying over a No 10 staff Xmas party last year when people were dying of covid and families banned from meeting together has evoked a spluttering response. Added to which the excruciating testimony of a young Foreign Office whistleblower about the fiasco of the UK withdrawal from Afghanistan has put senior civil servants and the former Foreign Secretary firmly in the crosshairs – and accused Boris personally of putting the lives of dogs before people as rescue animals in a sanctuary were airlifted out instead of British citizens and vulnerable Afghans.
The whistleblower said that less than 5 per cent of Afghanis asking for aid received help and some of those left behind have since been murdered by the Taliban. Junior staff had struggled to manage a tsunami of desperate pleas from Afghans in the absence of senior leadership and any system to prioritise their appeals. Staff who had never studied Afghanistan or worked there were making decisions on who to evacuate without ever having heard of the organisations for which they worked. The head of the diplomatic service did not return from his summer holiday until 11 days after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary were also on holiday.
To mop up the Foreign Office first – the original 27 March 1782 chart works remarkably well with bleak tr Saturn conjunct the Pluto exactly now, which was around previously in August over the calamitous withdrawal. There’s plenty of Neptune ahead over the next three years to scrape back the veneer of faux superiority which has always seemed to be the FO’s modus operandi.
The more up to date Foreign Office, 17 October 1968, has a ‘karmic’ (mistakes have to be paid for) Saturnine Yod onto a pushily confident Jupiter Pluto sextile Neptune Venus. That Saturn has moved by Solar Arc to square the Mars exactly now for a car-crash experience. With an upsetting Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the FO Venus and in 2022 the FO Neptune – with massive uncertainty come 2024 as the Solar Arc Neptune Venus square the Saturn – which will forcibly shift the Foreign Office into a new track.
Onto Boris:- On his personal chart his Progressed Moon is exactly square his Saturn and moving on to square his Uranus within a few weeks and his Pluto after that. So this whole period from three months back has been shaking up his loose-cannon Mutable T Square onto Mars in Gemini, for a hugely uncomfortable, teeth-gritting ride. His Progressed Moon was opposition his Mars over the Afghan withdrawal and his mother died three weeks later in September. His Solar Arc Saturn will also oppose his Scorpio Moon, exact in six months. Tr Pluto will square his Moon in 2023/24. That is a great deal of pressure on his Moon which rules his body, his home life and for a politician the relationship with the public.
His Term chart has the Midheaven catching this month’s Solar Eclipse for a crisis with tr Neptune continuing to square the Sun and the Solar Arc Saturn closing the conjunction to the Pluto to exact in six months, which is discouraging and logjammed.
His relationship with the Tory Party is sagging from all the murmurs and going seriously downhill from spring 2022 onwards on the astrology.
The Afghanistan shambles which has cost countless lives through the Foreign office’s ineptitude and indifference led to the Foreign Secretary Raab being promoted sideways to Deputy PM as punishment for being on vacation. Sir Philip Barton, the hapless civil service head, who continued his hols despite the murderous chaos has the ‘continued support’ of the present Foreign Secretary. It would make you howl into the abyss.
Olaf Scholz was sworn in this morning as next German Chancellor, replacing Angela Merkel, who will be a hard act to follow. He takes on a coalition government with three parties which have never governed together before. Added to which he is facing a fourth covid wave with street protests about mandatory vaccinations for all; depressing business figures and inflation at 6 per cent, its highest level since the early 1990s. There’s a foreign policy crisis brewing over Russia and Ukraine. And he has promised the “biggest industrial modernisation of Germany in more than 100 years” which may run into arguments over borrowing and the debt brake.
He was given the certificate of office by the German President at 10.55 am today which puts a determined Mars in Scorpio on the Midheaven but also gives a less than inspiring, lacklustre Sun Mercury square a financial Neptune. Though there is a focal point Jupiter in Aquarius square Mars opposition North Node which should provide a safety net of luck and confidence. And a controlling, persuasive Venus Pluto in Capricorn sextile Mars on one side and Neptune on the other. Plus the inevitable ratchety, tense and unsettled Uranus square Saturn Moon, which tends to produce a doesn’t-practice-what-it-preaches entity.
There is strength in the chart despite the Neptune, as well as optimism and a willingness to take risks.
His own chart, 14 June 1958 Osnabruck, Germany, has a serious Sun Gemini opposition Saturn which despite the tr Neptune square in 2021 and 2022 was buoyed up by Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct the Saturn – but that won’t last. His 2022 is a tough slog with tr Pluto square his Saturn/Pluto midpoint with some dashed-hopes in 2022/23; and a particularly sticky patch mid January and again in April 2022.
What is intriguing is what comes next for Germany since its chart is in a state of flux and turbulence ahead. Tr Pluto has been opposing the 10th house Uranus through this year, ending by this New Year suggesting a major change in direction. That is followed by tr Uranus conjunct the 8th house Pluto picking up June 2022 and running off and on into 2023. The previous time this was around in 1938/39/40 was when World War 11 was triggered by Hitler’s land grabs and invasions. Not that anything similar is likely to recur but it will obviously stir a deep chord in the German psyche.
And relations with France which were also ruptured from 1939 onwards for several years after the German invasion, will also be hit with a similar disturbance from 2023 to 2025. Tr Uranus in last decan Taurus will put immense strain on the ties that bind as it opposes the composite Sun, Mercury and Venus. And from early 2022 tr Pluto will also square the composite Mars – so the old German-Franco EU leaders won’t be singing from the same hymn sheet for a few years.
Relations between Germany and the EU look messy and confused in 2022 with uncertainty soaring from May 2022 into 2023. 2023 to 2026 look if anything even more fraught on that front.
On the economic front – which may also be part of tr Uranus conjunct the Germany 8th house Pluto – the Bundesbank chart flags up 2023/24/25 as years of blockages, panics and deflating enthusiasm and confidence.
[See previous post on Germany and the Occult vis a vis the 8th house Pluto. October 7 2020.]
The spirited Michelle Mone – the first lady of lingerie – was an unlikely addition to the House of Lords in 2015 in a controversial David Cameron gift. She is now facing calls to resign having been accused of sending racist and abusive messages to a man of Indian heritage. Standard denials followed.
She was born 8 October 1971 4.55pm Glasgow and was brought up in poverty, left school at 15, became a model and after her marriage launched a lingerie firm. It was her revolutionary uplift bra that Julie Roberts unwittingly promoted in Erin Brockovitch that turned their underwear business into a roaring success.
She divorced, sold her shares, moved into the Lords and is now one of the highest paid business speakers collecting £25,000 a gig.
She does have a contrary, ornery and outspoken Mars in Aquarius on her Ascendant in an emotionally-detached and communicative Air Grand Trine; and a Moon Saturn conjunct in Gemini with Saturn opposition a head-in-the-clouds, high-finance Jupiter Neptune in Sagittarius. But the key factor in her chart (birth time being sound) are five planets in her 8th including an exact Sun Uranus Mercury in Libra which trines her Mars. She won’t be short of courage though will be impulsive, with a short fuse and be driven by unconscious urges she won’t always understand.
Her Sun, Uranus, Mercury was conjunct her Jupiter probably earlier this year for a stroke of luck though that has clearly moved on. This week’s Sagittarius Solar Eclipse is conjunct her Midheaven exactly which will threaten to rock her pedestal. And her Progressed Mars is also square her MC over the coming year which suggests a collision slowing her forward trajectory.
With tr Saturn aiming below her Ascendant into her lower profile First Quadrant from early 2022 for several years, crossing Mars next year as well; plus tr Uranus square her Ascendant and Mars in coming months it’s likely to be a rocky and less successful road ahead.
Whither the United Nations is becoming a pressing question with not only China and Russia acting like the world’s bully boys against the west but Saudi Arabia for several years now pitching in its muscle as well with bribes and browbeating to block criticism of its barbaric war in Yemen.
It may be that the USA’s Pluto Return and the quantum changes up and coming with Pluto moving into Aquarius, Neptune in Aries and Uranus into Gemini between 2023 and 2026 herald a rupture from the past and the need for a radical rethink ahead.
There has been massive pressure on the UN chart in the recent past with tr Pluto opposition the Mars Saturn and the 5th house Pluto getting battered at the moment by the tr Uranus square and tr Saturn in opposition. Tr Neptune is also in an undermining square to the Moon in 2022/23. And the October 2022 Solar Eclipse will be conjunct the UN Sun for months of crisis thereafter.
But the real challenges come from 2024 to 2027 with first tr Pluto in the 10th square the 7th house Scorpio Sun putting unbearable stress on cooperation; as well as a blocked Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the Sun. And then the Solar Arc Sun will oppose the UN Mars and Saturn.
Without the robust support of a superpower USA it’s difficult to see how it can survive in its present form.
Chris Cuomo has been fired by CNN for defending his brother former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo from sexual harassment allegations. It transpires he had taken a much more active role than previously thought in strategizing a response, which then triggered an allegation of “serious sexual misconduct” against him as well.
Andrew Cuomo resigned last August after a slew of allegations came to light which will lead to criminal investigations and Joe Biden demanded he go.
The brothers were born 13 years apart – 6 December 1957 and 9 August 1970 (neither with a birth time) – and are both Fire Suns. Andrew is a serious Sun Saturn in Sagittarius and Chris a flamboyant Sun Mars in Leo. They both have Venus in an Air sign – Andrew in Aquarius square Neptune and widely opposition Uranus. Chris in Libra conjunct Uranus Pluto – so both emotionally scattered. Chris’s Moon is in emotionally intense Scorpio and Andrew’s in wayward Gemini.
It wouldn’t be that easy a relationship since Chris’s Mars Sun are conjunct Andrew’s Uranus for fireworks and Chris’s Saturn in Taurus opposes Andrew’s Mars in Scorpio creating rough edges. But family will out and no doubt an older brother as Governor of New York would be not unhelpful to a CNN career.
Andrew’s Pluto is conjunct Chris’s South Node which could suggest a pull in a backward direction.
At the moment into early 2022, the tr Saturn square tr Uranus is triggering Chris’s Mars Sun and Andrew’s Uranus and next year Mars – so a turbulent time.
The Sagittarius Solar Eclipse this month catches Andrew’s Sun Saturn and the late November Lunar Eclipse caught Chris’s Neptune in Scorpio – challenges and crises.
All much of a muchness really.
Chris Cuomo has been fired by CNN for defending his brother former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo from sexual harassment allegations. It transpires he had taken a much more active role than previously thought in strategizing a response, which then triggered an allegation of “serious sexual misconduct” against him as well.
Andrew Cuomo resigned last August after a slew of allegations came to light which will lead to criminal investigations and Joe Biden demanded he go.
The brothers were born 13 years apart – 6 December 1957 and 9 August 1970 – and are both ire Suns. Andrew a serious Sun Saturn in Sagittarius and Chris a flamboyant Sun Mars in Leo. They both have Venus in an Air sign – Andrew in Aquarius square Neptune and widely opposition Uranus. Chris in Libra conjunct Uranus Pluto – so both emotionally scattered. Chris’s Moon is in emotionally intense Scorpio and Andrew’s in wayward Gemini.
It wouldn’t be that easy a relationship since Chris’s Mars Sun are conjunct Andrew’s Uranus for fireworks and Chris’s Saturn in Taurus opposes Andrew’s Mars in Scorpio – so there would be rough edges. But family will out and no doubt older brother Governor of new York would be not unhelpful to a CNN career.
Andrew’s Pluto is conjunct Chris’s South Node which could suggest a pull in a backward direction.
At the moment into early 2022, the tr Saturn square tr Uranus is triggering Chris’s Mars Sun and Andrew’s Uranus and next year Mars – so a turbulent time.
The Sagittarius Solar Eclipse this month catches Andrew’s Sun Saturn and the late November Lunar Eclipse caught Chris’s Neptune in Scorpio – challenges and crises.
All much of a muchness really.
Their father Mario Cuomo, a former Governor of New York with a sterling reputation for doing progressive good work, was born 15 June 1932. He had a friendly 11th house Sun Mercury, with a charming, home-loving Venus in Cancer conjunct Pluto trine a 4th house Scorpio Moon. He also had an enlightened 9th house Uranus trine an expansive Jupiter in Leo just below his Ascendant.
Rita Moreno, best known as the zesty girlfriend in the 1961 film version of West Side Story, flouncing her lilac skirt while singing I Love America for which she won an Oscar, has been wheeled out aged 90 for the Spielberg remake. She stars in documentary salute – Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It – reflecting on her life, career and traumas, and has a part in the rerun as well. Both are due out this month.
She was born 11 December 1931 in Puerto Rico (no time sadly) and brought to the US by her mother when she was five making her professional debut at a bar in Greenwich Village at the age of six. She was dubbing Spanish films by the age of 11, and made her first appearance on Broadway at 13. At 16 she was the family’s sole breadwinner and talent-spotted by Louis B Mayer.
Frequently the focus of racist slurs, she was also raped by her agent, aged 17 and was so low in self-esteem she reckoned she deserved it and stayed with him. She had a tempestuous seven-year relationship with Marlon Brando that led to a botched, illegal abortion and a suicide attempt once they split up. Finally she ended up in a controlling 45 year marriage to a doctor and she sighed with relief when he finally died.
She was one of only six women ever to win the “grand slam” of performance awards – picking up Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony statuettes for performances. She also fought for leftwing political causes, especially women’s rights and sat a few feet from Martin Luther King as he delivered his “I have a dream” speech.
She is a Sun Sagittarius in a Fire Grand Trine to Uranus in Aries trine Jupiter in Leo, making her inspirational, spontaneous, impulsive, having unshakeable faith that her guardian angel would bring her luck when she needed it. She also had the tough Saturn in Capricorn (Moon) opposition Pluto of the time in an innovative square to Uranus. Her Uranus would make her a mould-breaker and rebellious, despite being severely restricted by the mores of the time. Ultimately it helped her become a light bearer and agent for progress.
Her chemistry with Brando was mixed to put it mildly – his Jupiter in Sagittarius trine Neptune trine New Moon in Aries sat well with her Sagittarius Sun and other Fire planets. But with his beyond-difficult Mars in Capricorn opposition an 8th house Pluto square his Aries New Moon he would be a bully and massively self-centred. His Mars, Pluto, New Moon T Square collided full force with her Moon Saturn, Pluto, Uranus T square so calamities, fights and aggravations were bound to follow.
Her emotionally deprived background also played a part in her choice of husband, with Leonard Gordon, 26 March 1920, who was another dominating Sun Aries square Pluto with his Pluto in a less-than-kind Water Grand Trine to Mars in Scorpio trine Uranus with his Uranus opposition Saturn. Difficult man. Lovely woman.
Antony Sher, hailed as one of the greatest stage performers of his time, after an early rejection by RADA who told him to try a different a career, has died. He is best known for his ‘venomous, spider-like Richard III, scuttling about the stage on crutches’ which won him an Olivier, his Fool in Lear and on film as Disraeli in Mrs Brown.
He was born 14 June 1949 in Cape Town (no birth time sadly) and even in later years always felt like an outsider as Jewish, gay and South African. His talents stretched beyond the stage and screen. He wrote several well-received novels, memoirs and a few plays, was an accomplished and caricaturist. In his autobiography he write: “I felt I’d been born on the moon, not just in the wrong country, but on the wrong planet. I just didn’t seem to fit in to that very macho, rugby-playing, extrovert, outdoor-living South African society.”
He and his long-term partner Gregory Doran, the RSC Director, became one of the first gay couples to enter into a civil partnership in the UK in 2005 and were married in 2015.
He was a Sun Gemini with probably an Aquarius Moon. His Sun is just conjunct Uranus giving him a life out of the ordinary and the lack of integration of his Sun with the rest of the planets suggests an aloof, island-unto-himself type of personality.
His Mercury in Gemini, a key instrument for an actor, was conjunct Mars and square Saturn as well as trine Neptune and sextile Pluto, so was well stitched into his chart and making him well able to turn his anger, aggravation and sharp tongue to good use.
He also had a Yod of Saturn in hard-working Virgo sextile Uranus inconjunct Jupiter in Aquarius (and maybe Moon). Such a focal point Jupiter would give him the ability to have a strong effect on wide swathes of people and for all his outsider paranoia he would have a strong streak of self-confidence allowing him to take on monumental Shakespearean roles.
His creative 5th harmonic was powerfully aspected and even more so his actor’s 15H – and both indicate a leaning towards the darker side of life. His 13H, harmonic of exploration and genius, was also marked with an edgy Mars sextile Saturn inconjunct a super-confident Jupiter Pluto conjunction.
A curious mix of neurotic uncertainty and supreme self-assurance.
Actress Arlene Dahl, a 1950s screen icon whose fiery red hair, blue eyes and porcelain white skin made her a natural for the early years of Technicolor, has died. She was hardly ever seen with a hair out of place though she had a turbulent love life, including six marriages and an affair with John F Kennedy. She regarded her film career, based on her decorative looks, as an embarrassment with a short shelf life but profited from her immaculate image when she retired to establish a highly successful business selling cosmetics and lingerie.
Her first husband was Lex Barker, renowned as Tarzan, and followed by an Argentinian actor, an oil tycoon, a wine importer and a financier before settling down for nearly four decades with number six, a perfume executive 18 years her junior. She later wrote a syndicated astrology column, was an accomplished numerologist and said she had timed the caesarean deliveries of her three children, all from different marriages, to produce siblings with favourable astrological chemistry.
They don’t make ‘em like they used to.
She was born 11 August 1925 4.10am (birth certificate) Minneapolis, Minnesota, and had an exuberant, upfront 1st house Leo Sun conjunct Neptune, with Neptune conjunct Mars, so custom-built for a showbiz and a glamourous and publicity attracting career. Made more so with her Taurus Moon in the 10th. Neptune in Leo square her Moon and conjunct her Sun would give her an ethereal glow but would produce problems with commitment in relationships – either she baled or picked husbands who were Neptunian types. Her South Node was conjunct her descendant which probably didn’t help either. And her Venus opposed Uranus so her feelings would flip suddenly and make settled bonds tricky. Though obviously she mellowed with age.
But she had confidence aplenty with Jupiter in Capricorn opposition Pluto – and with her Jupiter in an Earth Grand Trine to her Moon and Venus which is ideal for a beauty business. Though she did go bankrupt in the 1980s after a series of robberies and a business partner walked out.
Her Uranus in the 9th would attract her to alternative and unconventional beliefs.
Her son described her as a force of nature. Though with her North Node on her Ascendant she may have spent a good deal of her life unsure who she was, since it tends to undercut a strong sense of identity. Perhaps why she always had to have such an immaculate image in her early career.
She had an exceptionally strong 13th Harmonic which the comedian Peter Sellers also had which has been put down to his lack of a sense of who he really was. Though it is also associated with exploration.
Her 19H was also heavily aspected, which can be lucky and prosperous but forces the person to develop individuality.
