Another flare up in Sweden’s gang problem as Einar, a 19 year old rapper was shot dead in the street, days before he was due to testify in a case against the so-called Vårby gang. Last April he was kidnapped, beaten up and blackmailed by members of the Vårby gang, whose members have been convicted of murder, attempted murder, robbery, extortion, abduction and drug and firearm offences. It is led by a Tunisian man and populated by first- and second-generation immigrants from Finland, the Balkans and Africa.

 The police say there are two problems, the first of which is lack of integration with a recent study of a street gang indicating a quarter of the members were ethnic Swedes and 40 percent had been born in Sweden.  The other is the supply of surplus weapons from Serbia and Bosnia after the end of the war, and the ease with which they can cross the borders – the Denmark Sweden bridge getting some of the blame. Sweden is the only European country where fatal shootings have risen significantly since 2000, going from one of the lowest rates of gun violence to one of the highest in less than a decade.

  Einar, 5 September 2002, fits the Mars Pluto profile of the moment having Pluto square his Virgo Sun and widely his Mars; and the tr Pluto being exactly square his Mars/Pluto midpoint now.

  As to why Sweden has fallen down a sinkhole of violence and crime in recent times? 

  The Sweden 7 December 1865 3.30pm chart has three separate strands. The first is a vibrant, enthusiastic Sun Mars in Sagittarius. The second is a resourceful, restless, idealistic though not always realistic Cardinal T Square of Mercury Jupiter in Capricorn opposition Uranus square Neptune in Aries. The third is a tough-minded and battened-down Pluto in Taurus opposition Saturn in obsessive Scorpio. A complex mix of adventurous and opinionated, utopian visionary and repressed – with a free-floating unaspected sexy Venus in Scorpio thrown in for good measure.

  When separate chart configurations come together by Solar Arc directions there is usually a life-changing crisis stretching over an extended period of time. The Solar Arc Sun and Mars started to impact the Saturn opposition Pluto 13 years ago, peaked a year ago and will still be in effect.

The Solar Arc Pluto opposition Saturn collided with the Cardinal T Square of Uranus, Jupiter, Mercury and Neptune 16 and 11 years ago throwing the idealistic Sweden Neptune into a tailspin – a tolerant, laissez-faire country having to cope with having taken in intolerant and amoral elements.  That arguably is what set off this decade of mayhem. It would also be exacerbated by the tr Pluto square tr Uranus bouncing off the Neptune etc early last decade. Whether a reversal is possible is moot, though events like this one may jolt the government/police into a higher level of activity – and at some point they will get a grip. New York got cleaned up as did Glasgow over time with steady pressure being brought to bear on crime.

  The late November Lunar Eclipse will shake up the Sweden Venus in Scorpio and next year the Saturn opposition Pluto will also catch the Solar Eclipses – so old patterns will be challenged.

  If the start time is accurate tr Pluto will also move out of the trapped 8^th house, which rules the underworld, after this year which may also help.  

The Sun Mars square Pluto which has been building up a head of steam since mid October claimed its first headline on the 15^th with the slaughter of Tory MP Sir David Amess in his Essex surgery by Ali Harbi Ali, who is the son of a former Somali political aide and was evidently affiliated to Islamic State organisations. He was also possibly motivated by anger at David Amess’s political connections to Qatar seeking investment for the UK. Qatar has been criticised for interfering in Somali politics, supporting the present President and for pushing the country towards civil war.

Sir David, 26 March 1952 had his Sun, Moon, Mercury and Jupiter in Aries. His Jupiter Mercury opposed Saturn Neptune in Libra and was trine Pluto; with his Pluto square Mars in ultra-determined Scorpio. He wasn’t short of initiative and would have been constantly on the go.  He also had a Water Grand Trine of Venus in Pisces trine Mars trine Uranus, which was healing but not always realistic. His views were very right wing which may in part be a result of his less than sentimental Mars square Pluto.

  Ali Harbi Ali, 1 February 1996 (CPS charge sheet), now in prison awaiting trial, is a Sun Aquarius with a Cancer Moon. His two points of contact with David Amess’s chart are his Mars in Aquarius which opposed Amess’ Pluto and squared his Mars in Scorpio – so an inflammatory interface. And Ali’s Libra North Node was conjunction Amess’s Neptune and opposition his Mercury Jupiter. There is often a Nodal connection between victim and perpetrator.

  Their relationship chart has a composite Mars Saturn conjunction, associated in traditional astrology with assassination, and also aggravation – with the composite North Node conjunct as well.  

Veteran actor Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock, several Mission Impossibles and Saturday Night Live – has been involved in a fatal shooting on the film set of RUST in New Mexico. He discharged a prop gun killing the director of photography and injuring the movie director. No charges have been filed to date.

  The shooting happened at 1.50pm yesterday when transiting Mars had moved to the exact square with tr Pluto, which has dominated the mood this week and figured in the Full Moon on Tuesday. Mars Pluto is usually accident-prone and associated with destructive events and sometimes intentional brutality.

 Baldwin, born 3 April 1958 (no birth time) has had a long, glittering, award strewn career with scandals along the way from his tendency to lose his cool.  He’s a Sun Aries possibly opposition a Libra Moon. Where his volcanic temper comes from will be his Mars in stubborn Aquarius in a no-compromise opposition to Uranus. His Uranus is also in an outspoken square to Mercury and his South Node and in a can-be-fanatical square to Neptune.

  He understandably looks rattled by the tragedy – with a disruptive tr Saturn exactly opposition his Uranus; and his Solar Arc Saturn is conjunct his Venus for an emotionally discouraging time. His Solar Arc Pluto is conjunct his North Node this year as well for a destiny-changing moment. Both tr Saturn and tr Uranus are also rattling up his Mars through this year – so it was always going to be a knife-edge and insecure time for him, when shocks were to be expected. He has a batch of enthusiasm-denting Neptune influences around for a couple of years ahead; with 2022/23 being a particular slog as tr Pluto squares his Saturn/Pluto midpoint. Though he’ll respond with typical bullish determination as tr Pluto squares his Jupiter as well.

  The Eclipses in 2022 will impact his Neptune and North Node in Scorpio and his Mercury which will also bring confusion, communication glitches and stress.

  The director Joel Souza, 14 June 1973 California, also has an aggravated Mars in his chart opposition Pluto and square a Sun Saturn in Gemini. His T Square is beset in a Neptunian swamp for two years ahead and the Solar Arc positions of it are catching the tr Saturn square tr Uranus hard aspects at the moment until early next year.

What is odd but a typical occurrence is that heavyweight, disaster influences pick up one headline example when they are in place. Everyone individually will have been feeling the strain of Mars Pluto in different ways this week though not as gothically as this. Almost as if the most negative end of the energy has one focus and then it passes on.

News that Mel Gibson has been resurrected from the sin bin to join the cast of the Starz tv John Wick prequel has not gone down well with fans who are threatening a boycott. He’s had a chequered past of scandals, accused of antisemitism, domestic violence and sexism but now reckons he’s paid his dues – and a section of the entertainment business clearly agree.

  Born 3 January 1956 4.45pm Peekskill, New York, he has a Capricorn Sun in his Descendant. But more pointedly he has Mars conjunct Saturn in last decan Scorpio – opposition Algol – and square Pluto Jupiter as well as trine Uranus. Definitely a heavyweight personality, forceful, uber determined, a rumbling volcano of dark anger – a legacy from his conspiracy theorist, Holocaust-denying and Vatican-hating Roman Catholic fundamentalist father.

  Gibson’s controversial “The Passion of the Christ” which he co-wrote, produced and directed was slated for its extreme and excessive violence. David Edelstein, Slate’s film critic, dubbed the film “a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie — The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre — that thinks it’s an act of faith”. And that’s the bloody face of Algol. The poster even has a brutalised head as publicity.

  The approaching November Lunar Eclipse will rattle up his Mars Saturn so there may be more blow back to his casting – and that repeats in 2022. He looks reasonably upbeat despite that with tr Jupiter moving to cross his Midheaven from April 2022 for a year plus which is usually successful at a career level. Though he’s also got an undermining tr Neptune conjunct his Midheaven, maybe next year though the timing will depend on his birth time being accurate. What is for sure is that he’s in for a calamitous 2023/24 with his Mars and then Pluto and Saturn being rattled by tr Uranus hard aspects which may well cause another eruption. Plus a couple of other downers so it won’t go swimmingly ahead.

  Since we are overdosing on Algol this week – Christine Lagarde, formerly IMF head and now in charge at the European Central Bank was born two days earlier and has much the same chart. She’s risen to the top in a male-dominated and very tough world so her chart has stood her in good stead. But it’ll be interesting to see how she negotiates the Lunar Eclipse and what follows.

The much publicised Gabby Petito disappearance and murder may soon be solved with the probability that her boyfriend’s remains have been found in a Florida park. He was charged as a person of interest having used her credit card after her death. They had been school sweethearts, engaged for a year and were on a four month trip in their van round the States. Police were called to a domestic disturbance early in August when she said she was suffering from mental problems, which neither seemed to be handling well.

  She was born 19 March 1999 in New York and was a Sun Mercury in Pisces with a volatile and uncompromising Mars in Scorpio square Uranus; and a neurotic Neptune square Saturn Venus in Taurus.

  Brian Laundrie, 18 November 1997, had a Scorpio Sun exactly opposition Algol; with a revved up Mars Venus in Capricorn square Saturn in Aries which would give him a less than sensitive temperament. His Saturn was conjunct her Jupiter, squelching her optimism; his Jupiter was conjunct her Uranus and square her Mars which would be adventurous but he’d also stoke up her volatility.

  His Sun spookily is conjunct her destructive Mars/Pluto midpoint. And that is writ large on their relationship chart with a Mars Pluto conjunction square Jupiter Venus opposition North Node – and possibly tied into the composite Moon as well. And that is one damaging relationship, quite perverse in many ways to be together at all. Not good for either of them. Plus the composite Sun is in a delusional conjunction with Neptune and square Saturn – so there would be no clarity about the dynamics of the relationship.

The fraught Aries Full Moon today is the preceding one to the Lunar Eclipse on 19^th November. The Moon opposes Sun Mars and squares Pluto, so no surprises there is a challenging, frustrated, stuck mood this week.  

  Occasionally Lunar Eclipse events trigger on the Full Moon before or after – and given that this upcoming November Taurus Lunar Eclipse is conjunct the destructive Fixed Demon star Algol there is an understandable trepidation about what it might bring.

  Looking back through all Eclipses in the 20^th Century which were close to Algol what is surprising is that none had significant events on the day itself or even close to the date. And during the Eclipse-effect period there were some remarkable achievements as well as noteworthy calamities.

 Queen Victoria died a few months before the 1901 Solar Eclipse conjunct Algol; President William McKinlay was assassinated a few months after; and Theodore Roosevelt died in 1919 a few months before an Algol Eclipse as well.

   Pandemics and plagues appear to hang around, not surprisingly – Asian flu, Manchurian plague etc – but the Spanish flu ended on one such.

  There were some horrors – the 1901 NY Stock Exchange panic; the 1919 formation of the Italian fascist party; the 1957 accidental dropping of a hydrogen bomb at Albuquerque; the Somalia military USA operation gone bad with 1000 Somalis and 18 US servicemen dead; the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster with 7 astronauts dead. And most Algol-ish of them all the Fred and Rosemary West child sexual abuse and murder trial in the UK in 1994 which left the country sick as a dog as the gruesome evidence emerged. The verdict was announced the day before the Algol Lunar Eclipse.

  These Eclipses also saw the birth of powerfully dominating entities which would affect the culture.  1994 Amazon founded. 1976 Apple formed. 1957 Dr Seuss The Cat in the Hat launches to be the best-selling children’s book of all time. 1920 ACLU formed. 1919 League of Nations, United Artists, Save the Children Fund and the Grand Canyon National Park. 1901 JP Morgan accomplishes the first billion dollar deal.  Not all positive but a hint of Algol’s creative side.

  Clearly the Algol Eclipse will have the most powerful effect on charts which have planets in that degree or within a five degree orb. It’ll be worth watching France for one which has a Scorpio Mars Midheaven being rattled; and the same goes for Trump who has his Taurus Midheaven on Algol. The traditional view was that Algol was the planet of destruction, violence and mischief, had a tendency to lie and be less than honest in dealings with others.

  The geographical locations which may be eclipse critical are Moscow/Russia with the Sun on the Midheaven opposition Moon Algol on the IC; as well as due south of there through Saudi Arabia, the UAE and eastern Africa.

  Oddly enough, or maybe not, the Brexit June 2016 referendum chart had Mars in Scorpio opposition Algol; and David Frost the present UK negotiator has his Term chart 7^th house Mars conjunct Algol as he sets about wrecking good feelings and destroying any hopes of diplomacy.

  There is a side of Algol, planet of Medusa, that is hellbent on nihilistic destruction. But it was always said that it had another purpose which was to force us to face suffering and horror and not brush it aside.

  In the ancient myth, Poseidon/Neptune raped Medusa, then exceptionally beautiful, on the floor of Athena’s temple in order to irritate his arch-enemy. Athena, in a fit of rage at the desecration, turned Medusa so ugly that no one could look directly at her without being turned to stone and she was banished away to the ends of the earth —- victim-blaming, maybe prompted by an underlying jealousy of her beauty.

   In one version Medusa, even more horrifyingly, becomes paralysed so all that moves is her repellent snake-entwined head. Perseus manages to kill Medusa, beheading her by looking at her reflection in his shield and not directly at her. Out of her corpse springs Pegasus, the winged horse of creativity. Athena then wears Medusa’s head on her shield as a protection.

   So there is a safeguarding side to Algol as well as a damaging one as well as a surge of imaginative power that emerges when the death-dealing capabilities are quelled. That only occurs when a strategy is found which allows the ugliness/horror to be faced without being destroyed by it.

  Taking a step back from Medusa/Algol, the catalyst for the scenario is Neptune’s battle with Athena – the god of the oceans versus the goddess of the land. Though perhaps more aptly, the god of the watery unconscious (wherein all creativity lies) battling it out with the goddess of the conscious mind, the bringer of laws and social order. I’m not sure what is trying to be born out of the watery depths after an almighty struggle at the moment – but I travel hopefully.

Relevant Eclipses:

May 16 2003, Lunar 25 Scorpio

18 Nov 1994 Lunar 26 Taurus

3 November 1993 Solar 22 Scorpio

13 May 1976 Lunar 23 Scorpio

May 13 1957 Lunar 23 Scorpio

May 18 1920 Solar 27 Taurus

15 May 1919 Lunar 23 Scorpio

17 Nov 1910 Lunar 24 Taurus

18 May 1901 Solar 20 Taurus.

Moves to hold Steve Bannon, former aide to Trump, in contempt for refusing to testify before the 6 January Capitol riot congressional investigation committee, are gathering pace. It is the first of several confrontations that promise to test the boundaries of executive privilege — the presidential prerogative to keep official communications secret — and will determine how far the House committee will be able to go in uncovering the story behind the deadliest attack on the Capitol in two centuries. Trump has urged former aides to reject requests to testify and has issued his own lawsuit to block information being released.

 On the day before January 6 Bannon on a radio show said “Now we’re on, as they say, the point of attack — the point of attack tomorrow. It’s going to kick off. It’s going to be very dramatic.”

  Many Democrats fear that the case against Bannon may drag on for months, potentially long enough for Republicans to gain the House majority in 2022 and bury the inquiry — and with it, any hope of revealing fresh information about what precipitated the riot.

  Bannon born 27 November 1953, is facing a run of major problems ahead – not all of which may be connected to this matter since he’s always embroiled in one rumpus or scandal or another. Plus he never looks healthy and the amount of high level ranting and raving he does must put a strain on his system.

  He does have one pushily-confident Pluto transit to a Jupiter midpoint until late this November but it finishes for good then; and in any event it runs side by side at the moment with a panicky, disastrous tr Neptune opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint from mid this month till mid January 2022. Piling on his woes will be this December’s tr Pluto square his Mars/Saturn midpoint which will accompany another calamitous crises till the New Year. After which he has an insecure, rattled tr Uranus opposition his Sun/Mars midpoint until mid February.  Plus he has a dashed-hopes tr Neptune square his Jupiter running off and on till early 2023.  And a dead-halt Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Saturn somewhere around now.

  The Eclipses in Taurus/Scorpio in 2022/23 will also trigger his Saturn, Mercury, Venus in Scorpio bringing a few chickens home to root and an emotional and intellectual crises or two.

  His relationship chart with Trump is showing signs of a disappointing slump from mid January off and on till the year end.

  And whatever it means, he will be devastated around the time of the 2024 election.

Selma Blair, a bubbly, zany, irrepressible actress with a cult following – Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions etc – is starring in a documentary about her struggles with multiple sclerosis, in the hope it helps other sufferers. She was diagnosed in 2018 but has been plagued by odd ailments all of her life – constant pain, fatigue and unpredictable mood swings which persisted into adulthood. After the birth of her son in 2011 she had problems with her vision and experienced involuntary muscle contractions in her neck. Despite a gruelling schedule of treatments she is insisting on publicising her condition.

  She was born 23 June 1972 at 8.45 am Southfield, Michigan, and has a friendly 11^th house Cancer Sun in an expansive opposition to Jupiter in her entertaining 5^th house square a controlling and influential Pluto. She’s also got a 12^th house Mars in Cancer exactly conjunct her South Node in a Half Grand Sextile to Pluto and a Scorpio Moon conjunct Neptune.

  Mars, Scorpio Moon, Pluto is quite a heavy combination especially with Neptune tied in – and they would seem to be the driving planets of her chart. The North Node in her 6^th would suggest health as an issue that would be an integral part of her path in life.

  Her victim/healer 12^th Harmonic is particularly strong with a Grand Trine and a Grand Square of planets.  She’s making the best of a rough deal from the fates.

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Michael Caine despite headlines to the contrary may not be retiring after all as scripts continue to roll in, albeit slower than in his heyday.  Now 88 he’s written successful books recently and had back problems which have kept him anchored for a while. But he’s clearly still keen to see what is on offer.

  Born 14 March 1933 at 10.10am in London with a Billingsgate-porter father and a cleaner mother, the family lived in a house with no electricity in a slum. He dreamed of becoming an actor to give him another life and played bit parts on stage and TV through his twenties before hitting it big in Zulu and then The Ipcress File when he had turned 30. And never looked back with 130 movies now to his credit.

  He has a 10^th house Sun and Venus in Pisces, making him ideally suited to a filmic career; with his Sun in a confident opposition to Jupiter in Virgo and a determined trine to Pluto; and his Venus is opposition a showbizzy Mars Neptune and Jupiter. His Libra Moon is in the entertaining/performing 5^th house opposition Uranus square a 2^nd house Pluto – so a tumultuous domestic and emotional life and a tendency to over-control financially and in other ways.

  He may drift a little through 2022 with tr Neptune conjunct his Sun but that could suit movie-land as well.

  His actor’s 15^th harmonic is exceptionally well aspected, linking an influential Pluto to an easy-going Jupiter Venus and the Moon, which last rules the public.  His 22^nd Harmonic hinting at global success is also emphasised.

He does come across occasionally as resentful – which will be his focal point Pluto. But I met him once and he was extremely charming and supremely professional. Turned up on time, did everything he was asked courteously, spoke fluently, smiled and left. Most impressive.

  His 1933 generation did produce some notables, see Jean Paul Belmondo see post 7 September 2021.

“The — exuberant and attention-attracting, and hard-working Mars, Neptune and Jupiter in Virgo which was around from late November 1932 till July 1933 produced a considerable number of names – Yoko Ono, Kim Novak, Nina Simone, James Brown, Carol Burnett, Ruth Ginsburg, Quincy Jones, Philip Roth, Michael Caine, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jayne Mansfield, Willie Nelson, Gene Wilder, Joan Rivers, Joan Collins. That plus the determined-to-be-different Uranus Pluto would make them stand out.”