“The introduction of the Jewish State into the Arab heartland exalted many hearts and broke many more. More than anything in this century it was a triumph and a desolation. Full of high hopes it produced the most intractable conflict of our times.”   So wrote journalist and world affairs commentator James Cameron, in 1976. What follows comes from his excellent, dispassionate, lucid and brief book ‘The Making of Israel.’ The quotes are his.

Where it began.  Theodor Herzl a cultivated Viennese journalist outraged by the Dreyfus scandal when  a Jewish officer in the French army was framed on a treason charge lit a flame under the idea of a Promised Land where Jewish people could live free of persecution and hostility, funded by rich Jewish interests. Zionism was born with the First Zionist Congress held in Basel 29 August 1897.

   Chaim Weizmann, who later became the first President of Israel, joined. He was an eminent biochemist who gave great service to the British government during World War One. ‘It was he who extracted from the then British  Foreign Minister  through gratitude,  expediency, absent-mindedness, not one will ever know – the famous Balfour Declaration.’

 ‘It was ambiguous, elusive, provocative, but it was the springboard.’  To the Arabs it was an act of outright imperialism to wilfully dispose of the future of a territory to which Britain had had no rightful claim, without any consultation with the 92% non-Jewish part of the population. ‘To the British it was an afterthought, to Jewish people a green light.’

  During the British Palestine Mandate (1920 to 1948) the indigenous Arabs were constantly dispossessed from their land as the Jewish communities burgeoned. Conflicts grew and ‘Palestine becomes an arena of endless guerilla warfare.’ ‘The aspirations of the Jews and Arabs are irreconcilable.’

  Along comes World War 11 and the Holocaust. Jewish immigration is still strictly limited by the British to 1500 a month. In desperation illegal ships bring in more, including the Exodus carrying 4500 survivors of the death-camps, which the British Navy inexplicably rammed and returned to Germany on the orders of Ernest Bevin, the Labour Foreign Minister, whose dislike to the Jews was well known backed by the traditionally Arabist UK Foreign Office.

‘Almost every independent newspaper in the world  reported the Exodus with incredulous horror. Much of what happened in the Mandate must be considered against this dismal betrayal.’

  In Palestine sections of the Jewish community have decided violence is the only way to make a difference to their cause. The British Mandatory Authority are now exasperated. ‘No conceivable proposal that  suits the Arabs can possibly mollify the Jews.’ In 1947 the British government decides to toss Palestine back to the United Nations. The UN tries for partition which is turned down flat by the Arabs. ‘By now it is abundantly clear that no compromise any mortal man can devise is going to reconcile the Arabs to the legal existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East.’

  There are attacks and counter-attacks inside Israel, roads are blockaded and the massacre at Deir Yassin follows. Mass panic sends Palestinian refugees fleeing from their villages – 6000 from Tiberias, 40,000 from Haifa.

‘The stage is now ready for the culmination of the story, of a sick and sorrowful conflict, not between right and wrong, but between two forms of right and, maybe two forms of wrong.’

  In spring of 1948 there is no government and no mandate authority, the country was ‘a shifting mosaic of overlordships.’ ‘It is possible that there was no specific British intention to leave chaos behind them but is is sure that no particular effort was made to prevent it.’

  In the US the partition principle was accepted but with diminishing enthusiasm. The State and Defence department were against it because it could open the Middle East to Russian interference and jeopardise Arab oil. While President Harry Truman wanted to conciliate the domestic Jewish vote.

  As time wore on Harry Truman, like the British before him, became exasperated at being pounded by constant pressure from the Zionists. ‘The Jews are so emotional ,’ he wrote, ‘and the Arabs so difficult to talk with that it is impossible to get anything done.’

  Truman dithered, his underlings put out conflicting messages, until eventually a school friend introduced him to Weizmann and he decided that he would look foolish to abandon his earlier acceptance of partition.

  A week before the British mandate ended there was still no certainty of a dominantly Jewish state although many Arabs had fled by this time. Various Arab armies stood at the ready including a Jordanian one backed by the British aiming to capture the areas laid down in the Partition for the Arabs.  There was a massacre at Etzion killed 70 Jewish settlers in retaliation for Deir Yassin. Two days before the mandate ended another Arab attack on a medical convoy killed 77 Jewish doctors, nurses and helpers. The British refused to intervene pointing to Deir Yassin.

 At this point Jerusalem was under siege so the administration of the new country was moved to Tel Aviv.

  On the day itself the British moved out and the Jewish government, under David Ben Gurion, declared itself in charge.

‘And no one lived happily ever after.’

 What an unholy mess.  It all sounded so simple and celebratory Ben Gurion cutting the ribbon and announcing Israel open until you look at what was actually going on.

James Cameron’s epilogue from 1976

“Three times in the last quarter century I have personally seen the endless tensions of the Middle East build up their content of hate and fear until it burst across the Israel-Arab borders, in one direction or another, leaving its predictable residue of triumph and defeat and sorrow and recrimination and solving nothing. Each time the world knew uneasily that the next time would be worse, and it was.  Each times the wounds were deeper and the scars more brutal. Each time the world protested this could not go on, while perpetuating the factors that made it inevitable.

 By and by a new generation will grow up in the Middle East, both Arab and Israeli, which will reject the role of pawns in the Power Game, refuse the importunities and persuasions of the strong and cynical, and recognize, as many voiceless patriots already recognize, that what is done is done, and that both sides must make a future together, if there is to be one at all. Amen.”

ADD ON:

The Sabra Chatila Camp massacre of 16 September 1982 happened after Israeli troops had invaded Lebanon in an effort to wipe out the Palestine Liberation Organisation. With the tacit support of the US, Sharon paid siege to Beirut for two months which was then embroiled in a civil war. Israeli troops sealed off the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila while right-wing Lebanese militiamen went on a killing spree, targeting unarmed civilians and killing anywhere between 500 and 3500 refugees and those living in the locality.

Kim Ghattas writes in the FT: “We are still living with the consequences of Sharon’s hubris and (USA) Haig’s wink, including the birth of an axis of resistance from Damascus to Tehran.”

  The chart for the Sabra Shatila Camp Massacres does echo with the present Solar Eclipse with Saturn on the exact 21 Libra degree conjunct Mercury and Pluto. The SA Mercury is exactly conjunct the Mars at the moment as is the SA Saturn conjunct the Uranus – stirring up old anger and grievances.

Historical charts:

 Theodor Herzl, 2 May 1860 1.30 am Budapest, was a very determined Sun Pluto in Taurus square a crusading Aquarius North Node and square Saturn in Leo.

Chaim Weizmann, 17 November 1874 Motol, Belarus (birthdate may be iffy) on this is a Sun Mercury in Scorpio opposition Pluto  with Saturn in Aquarius opposition Uranus.

The First Zionist Congress, 29 August 1897, Basel, has a Virgo Sun square Pluto and an idealistic Jupiter square Neptune with a crusading Aquarius Node and Saturn Uranus in Scorpio.

Nahum Sokolow, 10 January 1859, also instrumental in getting international support for a Jewish homeland, was a Sun Capricorn with Pluto in Taurus square Saturn in Leo and Uranus in Taurus square a crusading Aquarius North Node.

  What is notable is the proliferation of Fixed signs – obstinate to the nth degree and enduring.

 Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, was a Sun, Jupiter, Venus in Leo  with an innovative, disruptive Uranus Pluto in Aries. His Mars in Leo falls close to the Israel Mars; and his Leo planets to the Israel Moon. When it came into existence in 1948 (he being long dead) tr Uranus was conjunct his Midheaven with Jupiter in his 4^th. His declaration may have been incidental in his mind but proved to be the catalyst for what followed. On his astrocartography, birth time being sound, his Sun, Jupiter, Venus midheaven line runs through Israel.

The Middle East, known as the cradle of civilization, is the birthplace and spiritual centre of religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Manichaeism, Yezidi, Druze, Yarsan, and Mandeanism, Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, Manicheanism, and the Baháʼí Faith. Throughout its long history it has been a major center of world affairs, a melting pot economically, politically, culturally and militarily.

 In the 20^th Century there was a significant shift with the collapse of the 600 year long Ottoman Empire.

Potted history to follow. I apologise for the length but it helps to lay it out in some detail.

At the end of World War One, the superpowers of the day – the British and French with the agreement of Russia – on the basis of a secret 1916 agreement (Sykes-Picot) – carved up the remnants of the defeated Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. Cartographers drew country borders “initially defined by imperial tastes and trade rather than logic”. Promises made to the Arabs who had helped T.E.Lawrence in defeating the Turks were broken.  

  In 1917 the then British Foreign Secretary issued what was known as the Balfour Declaration (2 November 1917). It stated that the British government “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” with the understanding that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” The declaration had no force in international law being only an indication of support for the possibility, probably written in order to rally support during the war.

 After World War One the British took Palestine which was set up under a League of Nations mandate in 1920/23, along with Iraq and Jordan. With the rise of fascism in Europe there was an influx of Jewish immigrants into Palestine which led to violent resistance from the indigenous Arabs. The Arab Revolt for independence and against open-ended Jewish immigration (1936 – 1939) ended with the Arabs defeated and de-weaponised.

  Irgun, a Jewish terrorist organization, was active in the years after 1930 and ultimately was responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel, Jerusalem in 1946, the administrative HQ for the British Mandate authority, killing 91. The Jewish insurgency continued with a series of widespread guerrilla raids including one in which the Irgun took two British sergeants hostage as attempted leverage against the planned execution of three Irgun operatives. After the executions were carried out, the Irgun killed the two British soldiers, hanged their bodies from trees, and left a booby trap at the scene which injured a British soldier. The incident caused widespread outrage in the UK.  The British then withdrew from Palestine in haste leaving a shambles behind.

On April 9, 1948, just weeks before the creation of the State of Israel, members of the Israeli Irgun and Stern Gang militias attacked the village of Deir Yassin, killing at least 107 Palestinians. According to testimonies from the perpetrators and surviving victims, many of the people slaughtered – from those who were tied to trees and burned to death to those lined up against a wall and shot by submachine guns – were women, children and the elderly. As news of the atrocities spread, thousands fled their villages in fear. Eventually, some 700,000 Palestinians would flee or be forcibly displaced at the outset of Israel’s creation, making  the massacre a decisive moment in Palestinian history.

  “Depopulating Palestine was not a consequential war event, but a carefully planned strategy, authorised by [Israeli leader David] Ben-Gurion in March 1948,” historian Ilan Pappé wrote.

 The massacre unleashed a cycle of violence and counterviolence that has been the pattern since. One politician of the time Meir Ya’ari noted “how easily” Israel’s leaders spoke of how it was “possible and permissible to take women, children and old men and to fill the road with them because such is the imperative of strategy. And this we say . . . who remember who used this means against our people during the [Second World] War . . . I am appalled.” The order to expel Palestinians  “without attention to age” was signed by Yitzhak Rabin, a future prime minister promoted as a peacemaker.

  Israel was declared a state in 1948 with no agreement as to borders or the partition with the Palestinians. Europe reeling from the effects of World War 11 and with the USA heavily involved in setting up international organisations and the Marshall Plan paid little attention. In general there was sympathy for Israel and guilt over the Holocaust with little knowledge of the state of play on the ground.

  The 1948 Arab–Israeli War followed with soldiers from Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq entering Palestine. The later Six Day 1967 War and the Yom Kippur 1973 War kept the familiar Arab versus Israel violent narrative rolling.

 In 1982 in retaliation for attacks being launched by the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Israeli army in association with Lebanese right-wing militia killed between 2,000 and 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians in two days in the Sabra Shatila Camp massacre. Shatila was a Palestinian refugee camp, housing victims of the 1948 Nakba, or violent ethnic cleansing of Palestine. 

  The PLO formed for armed struggle had been responsible for the massacre of Jewish athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and other atrocities.

 Ariel Sharon, the Israeli former army commander and then Minister of Defense  was held personally responsible for the Sabra Shatila Camp massacres and resigned. He had previous form for a similar massacre at  Qibya in 1953 when Israeli forces under his command massacred more than sixty-nine Palestinian villagers of whom two-thirds, were women and children. He later championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; triggered the Second Intifada by visiting the Al-Aqsa complex on the Temple Mount; and was Israel’s prime minister from 2001 to 2006.

  The Middle East Mandate which handed Palestine to the British was signed on 25 April 1920 at 11.22am San Remo, Italy. Astrologer Michael Baigent argued it could be regarded as a chart for the 20^th Century Middle East. Though it left various regions out.

  There is a high-risk, brutal Grand Trine of Pluto trine Uranus trine Mars in late Libra, formed into a Kite by an unstable and can-be-autocratic Uranus opposition Saturn. Not a chart that suggests peace and harmony. There is a 4 degree Taurus Sun which will be triggered by the Lunar Eclipse this month.

  When Israel was declared a state in 1948, the Solar Arc Uranus opposition Saturn had moved to have SA Uranus exactly conjunct the Midheaven and SA Saturn conjunct the IC; with SA Pluto conjunct the Moon.

  When the 1973 Yom Kippur War broke out on 6 October 1973 tr Saturn was conjunct the Pluto; with tr Pluto inconjunct the Uranus and inconjunct the Sun.

  It does seem to be a good chart for Palestine and what followed through I am not sure about the Middle East.

  To add a personal note – I read a good many books about the Holocaust in my late teens and was immensely moved and sympathetic. Like many, I was supportive of the idea of Israel as a Jewish homeland after so many centuries of persecution. Only after the Sabra Shatila Camp Massacre report came out did I start to stand back and research what had been going on. The December 2008 Israeli attack on Gaza appalled and outraged me.

  Pulling it together in a potted history poses huge ethical questions and makes it clear there are no good guys. Violence breeds violence. International policing should have been put in from square one but the west was otherwise distracted.

  There probably at this late stage is no solution. Not everything can be fixed.

All fingers point to Iran as being behind the Hamas attack on Israel though motivations are likely to be complex. They includes decades of occupation worsening with a right-wing Tel Aviv government in place, Hamas attempting to display its power in the face of a lacklustre Palestinian Authority and grab internal control and a Hamas wish to insert themselves into the wider political shift in the region with the ongoing US-brokered normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia.  Iran has been recruiting allies in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamic Jihad aiming to create an “effective deterrence belt” around Israel and thus to deter the USA. See post 29 May 2023

  In the midst of this live the poor Gazans, two million of them, stuck in a virtual open-air prison, 25 miles long and a few miles wide, with constant electricity and water cuts, a coastline reeking of untreated sewage. It is incredibly difficult to get permission to leave, either via Egypt or Israel, even for those seeking medical care such as cancer treatment. Many of the people there hate both Israel and Hamas, whom they credit with destroying the education system and imposing a brand of extremely conservative Islam.

  For the first time Hamas has kidnapped many civilians hoping to use them as human shields, betting that Israel will hold their fire to spare their people’s lives.

  Both Iran charts do have some contacts with this Libra Solar Eclipse. The 7 October 1906 chart has Mercury at 22 Libra with Solar Arc Pluto at 21 degrees about to reach the conjunction within months which will step u the rhetoric of nothing else. The Iran 1 February 1979 chart has Pluto at 19 Libra which will also be triggered, bringing an urgency to changes they want to put in place.

  There are stresses and strains on the relationship charts with the USA, Saudi Arabia and Israel at the moment and in 2024. But when the aggravation peaks will be between 2025 and 2027.

  Hezbollah, a Lebanon terrorist group formed as a result of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, has a hazy history of its beginnings but the chart I have is 16 February 1985.  That points up 2024/25 as years of extreme disruption leading into violence and more turbulence by 2027.  Though this month’s Lunar Eclipse will also impact its Pluto at 4 Scorpio ramping up the pressure.

 Two points in general seem pertinent. One is the poor downtrodden inhabitants of Gaza and Iran, both at the mercy of fanatical bullies.  Secondly there is a strange irony about the Gazans and West Bank Palestinians being enclosed by a hostile Israel when the prison warder Israel itself is enclosed by hostile neighbours.    

Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympian and member of the Kardashian clan who transitioned to being a woman in 2017, has been criticizing those she describes as “trans Nazis”. Ahead of a launch of a new documentary about the Kardashians she said trans issues had become “way too big”. “Everybody’s talking about it, and it’s such a small part of society. It is such a small group of people that are actually, truly, gender dysphoric.”

  She believes that trans girls should not compete in girls’ sports at school. “It just isn’t fair,” and believes gender ideology should not be taught in schools. Such involvement from schools is “wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong”, she said. “Schools cannot be involved in this. Stay out of their lives. Kids will figure this stuff out. It’s so few of them, but they’ll figure it out.” “A lot of kids will get forced into it,” she added. “You see a lot of de-transitioning, a lot of people are just confused.”

  The documentary The House of Kardashian has been getting good reviews – “It’s the opposite of the jarringly hectic, shamelessly shallow reality show that made its subjects famous: an engrossing, fascinating portrait of a family – whose cultural impact and economic might are undeniable (their combined fortune is estimated at more than $2 billion, $25 million of which — some £20-plus million — is Jenner’s).” Caitlyn is the only family member contributing to the film.

  Caitlyn, born 28 October 1949 6.16 am Mount Kisco, NY, has her Scorpio Sun conjunct the Ascendant catching the late October Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio tied into Mars opposition Jupiter giving her confidence a boost as she steps out on a round of publicity gigs. Jupiter is moving through her 7^th house of social contacts and partnerships. She has an influential (and controlling ) 10^th house Pluto in a charming trine to Venus. Her determined and exuberant 1^st house Scorpio Sun trines a maverick Uranus in the 9^th and sextiles onto a hard-working Mars in Virgo.  

Her Aquarius Moon is on the focal point of a yod to Mars sextile Uranus hinting at an emotional life which starts disorganized and needs gradual adjustment until he/she is able to nurture others.

  Her needs-to-stand-on-her-own and take-the-lead Aries North Node opposes her Mercury Neptune and those are being keyed up by this October and next April’s Solar Eclipses. So she’ll be at a significant crossroads in her life. 2025 looks stuck with SA Pluto conjunct her Sun as does 2026 with SA Mars square her Pluto. But she’ll keep making money along the way and heading upwards career-wise.

Israeli intelligence was caught by surprise this morning as Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza and gunmen infiltrated the south of Israel. Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Islamist militant group, said it was the launch of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm”. “We’ve decided to say enough is enough. The occupation has committed hundreds of massacres against civilians. Hundreds of martyrs and wounded died this year due to the crimes of the occupation.”

  Benjamin Netanyahu retaliated by saying “we are at war.” It is the first major outbreak in the more than 15 years since Hamas took control of Gaza and comes after months of violence and rising tension between Israelis and Palestinians. See previous post 3 July 2023 – Violence breeds violence with no end in sight.

  It erupted as the Mars Pluto square draws to exact echoing the December 2008 Gaza War which lasted three weeks, kicking off on a Mars Pluto conjunction in Capricorn and resulting in an Israeli win.

  The rage and anger of this October 14 Solar Eclipse (see Eclipse below post) is clearly in evidence though the Libra Eclipse degree itself does not impact on the Israel, Hamas or Gaza charts. Though it does on the Hamas/Israeli relationship chart which has a composite North Node at 21 Aries exactly opposition the Solar Eclipse with a 19 degree Saturn in Libra conjunct.

  Israel, 14 May 1948 4pm, has been brewing up for trouble throughout this year politically as well as militarily, see previous post 30 December 2022 Israel – on a dark road backwards.

  Israel’s deeply entrenched and impossibly obstinate 8^th house Taurus Sun picked up the first tr Uranus conjunction in the middle of August and this jolting, forced-change influence runs on and off till early 2025. Tr Neptune square the Israel Jupiter is also in effect undercutting confidence and enthusiasm and also runs until early 2025. In 2025 and 2026 tr Uranus will make a violent, insecure, over-reactive square to the Israel Mars which will be reverberating at the moment since it squares the Israel Sun – making for a longish phase 2023 to 2027 when there will be high risk, shocks and upsets. 2026 also has the Solar Arc Midheaven conjunct the Neptune which will bring disappointment and indecision.

   There is also a tricky run of Israel having a dead-halt SA Mars square Pluto in 2025 and then square the war-mongering Saturn/Pluto midpoint in 2027 alongside SA Mars conjunct the South Node the same year; and SA Mars square Saturn by 2029. Plus tr Pluto opposition the Moon in 2026/27. A relentless pounding for years and years ahead and the 2030s don’t look much better with tr Pluto opposition Israel’s Saturn and Pluto and all the Mars midpoints thereafter until it opposes the Mars in 2041.

  Not that Hamas, 14 December 1987, are looking upbeat with tr Neptune in square to the Uranus this year and next; with a deadlocked or ruthlessly suppressed SA Mars Pluto crossing their Sun in 2025/27.

  Gaza, unsurprisingly, looks rattled mid December 2023 to mid March 2024 with tr Uranus square its Uranus and opposition Mercury. The Gaza chart, 9 November 1917 9am has an exact SA Sun opposition its Mars at the moment for a collision-type event.

I suppose it is too much to hope that Mohammed bin Salman gets involved who evidently said an Israeli deal was dependent on the Palestinian problem being settled. The USA won’t step up to the mark and no one else makes an impact.  The Israel/USA relationship chart has the composite Mars square this Solar Eclipse and the Lunar Eclipse is exactly conjunct the composite Pluto – which looks irritable and stuck.    European leaders have condemned the attack.

The Scottish by-election produced a 20% swing to Labour with the SNP losing the seat and the Tories losing their deposit. This recent upsurge of nationalist support beginning with Alex Salmond’s elevation to First Minister in 2007 coincided with Pluto poised to move into Capricorn. One cycle later with Pluto moving out of Capricorn, the SNP is back to the drawing board for a rethink.

  The SNP chart, 7 April 1934, with its warrior Sun Mars in Aries in an over-confident opposition to Jupiter was always going to run into trouble now ( and indeed from 2021) as the Solar Arc Pluto first opposed the Sun and is now opposition the Mars. 18 months ago also the SA Uranus was conjunct the Pluto and tr Pluto square the Uranus for a complete collapse in leadership and morale.

  [An astro point to note. SA Pluto is presently conjunct the SNP Jupiter which on its own should be successful but opposition Mars definitely not. The same happened with those who had the Jupiter opposition Neptune in their chart – influences to the Jupiter were negated as Neptune came in to play bringing scandal or failure.]

  The present Libra Solar Eclipse and Aries Eclipse next spring will be triggering the SNP Sun Mars and Jupiter – so the crises and pressure for change will continue at peak strength.

Humza Yousaf’s First Minister chart always indicated a term full of setbacks and aggravations with the Saturn trine Mars Moon, sextile a Taurus North Node.

 Humza Yousaf’s personal chart, 7 April 1985, Glasgow, suits the SNP with a Sun Mars Venus Mercury in Aries trine Uranus and sextile Jupiter. His Jupiter is catching the Solar Arc Neptune conjunction as hopes get dented and the bubble bursts.

The Age of Aquarius may be upon us or still to come. The roughly 2000 year long epochal ages are reckoned from the earth’s tilt on its axis, putting a line drawn through the centre of the earth against a different constellation in the heavens. Since the constellations are of varying sizes with no start and finish boundary it is never precisely clear when one Age starts and ends. 2034 has been suggested for the Age of Aquarius but who knows?   

The age of Leo: 10,000–8000bc This is the age of the hunter-gatherer, and the dawn of agriculture, with the cultivation of wild cereals and the end of the last Ice Age. Rock paintings record early man’s need to create a lasting record of his presence.

The age of Cancer: 8000–6000bc Cancer is home, family and tribe-oriented, worshipping the Great Mother and the Moon as the fertility providers. Communities gather into protected settlements.

The age of Gemini: 6000–4000bc Gemini, ruled by Mercury the communication planet. This is the age of the development of writing, starting with cuneiform, pictographs and hieroglyphs. Initially devised for trade and barter, it was increasingly used for administration.

The age of Taurus: 4000–2000bc Taurus, sign of the farmer, coincided with the start of settled agricultural communities. Taurus is associated with culture, comfort and security. Its Venusian aspects are seen most clearly in the Egyptian civilization, which by 3500bc was flourishing along the fertile Nile Delta. The great bull sarcophaguses of ancient Egypt pointto the reverence in which this animal was held.

The age of Aries: 2000bc–ad 0 Aries, the warrior sign, is associated with iron and coincides with the development of metal, which replaced stone and wooden implements. Aries’ entrepreneurial talents were put to good use: trading increased dramatically. Sporting prowess became the greatest achievement in Greek culture. Bronze technology gave way to iron, with an increase in military activity.

The age of Pisces: ad 0–20?? An age of artistic and religious inspiration, with the great messiahs — Christ, Mohammed and Buddha — carrying the vision of mankind. Pisces concerned with individual sacrifice for the greater good is lived out in the Christ myth. The early Jesus cults had the fish as their secret symbol. Buddhism is the passive facet of Pisces, caring, opposed to killing, aspiring to nirvana, a blissful state removed from earthly suffering. Pisces is connected to realms beyond, so revelations from God come directly to the prophets like Mohammed, who bring those revelations to the people. Pisces’ darker side is orgiastic, devouring, savage, impersonal, inhumane.

The age of Aquarius: 20??–4000 Aquarius is the sign of knowledge, scientific breakthroughs and discoveries. Man takes on god-like powers, manipulating the environment and our species. What he does runs against biology, so the old gender-specific categories and cultures will no longer hold. A world that George Orwell and Aldous Huxley uncannily foresaw. Some have spoken of a golden age coming. But Aquarius can be uncompromising in its demand for complete freedom without interference. The old social glue no longer works. What the Prometheus myth, often associated with Aquarius, tells us, however, is that playing with the power of the universe carries with it dangers. There will be a physical price to pay for an over emphasis on the intellect and scientific supremacy. The emotions, the body and the earth, split off from natural roots, may rebel.

The upcoming 14^th October Solar Eclipse at 21 degrees Libra is in a powerful Saros series described by Bernadette Brady as channelling immense force and anger. Either obstacles will suddenly clear or potential crises will blow up and move quickly through.

  It was around before in:

October 2005: Just weeks after Hurricane Katrina and five days before the Kashmir Earthquake which killed 86,000. With terrorist bombings also weeks before. Pluto was on the IC for the devastating New Orleans hurricane.  Kashmir had Pluto in the 10^th and Uranus conjunct the Ascendant.

September 1987: The Great Storm in England with hurricane force winds. With the Hungerford Massacre weeks before as well as mass deaths in Mecca amongst pilgrims.

September 1969: The Stonewall Riots, Chappaquiddick death involving Senator Edward Kennedy and the Manson murder of Sharon Tate came weeks before. In the September Gaddafi comes to power. Lt Wm Calley is charge with My Lai massacre.

 Before that this Saros Series in 1951, 1933, 1915.  In 1933 the Ukrainian genocide by starvation was at its peak.

This month’s Solar Eclipse is peculiarly tricky with the high-risk, overly forceful Mars Pluto square (exact on October 9^th) in place with the Libra New Moon square Pluto and on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Uranus sextile Neptune. A Sun focal point can lead to abuse of power and ego-centricity; a Moon to self-defeating, overly emotional reactions. Its path runs across south western USA from Oregon to Texas and then south.

  It looks highly pressured located to Brussels with Pluto conjunct the Midheaven and Uranus conjunct the Ascendant- and also a great deal of activity through the USA.

  The Lunar Eclipse of 28 October has a 5 degree Taurus Moon conjunct Jupiter opposition Sun conjunct Mars which could result in over-the-top actions and comments. Jupiter Mars can be impulsive, opinionated, bombastic, not always ethical, has a tendency to extravagance especially with other people’s money. It lacks the stress of the Solar Eclipse but a yod with a South Node focal point does not suggest progressive reforms.

Located to Adelaide, Australia, it puts Pluto on the IC and the Mars opposition Jupiter closely conjunct the Asc/Desc.  So a significant zone. Wild fires and floods are already causing great concern in that region of Australia with fears of what comes next as summer approaches.

  For Kiev this month’s Lunar Eclipse puts Chiron on the Midheaven which one can only hope  means a chance to heal. It will affect Zelensky’s chart with his Sun Venus in Aquarius opposition Mars in square to the Eclipse.

ADD ON:  The Lunar Eclipse located to Afghanistan has a disruptive Uranus exactly on the Midheaven occurring just before a strong earthquake hit Afghanistan leaving at least 2000 dead.

  For Israel,  the Lunar Eclipse has Chiron Midheaven line running directly through Tel Aviv – the unhealable wound.

The Solar Eclipse has Neptune Midheaven running through Afghanistan and  Saturn Midheaven running through Israel. Usually Lunar Eclipses are more descriptive in location terms.

Princess Martha Louise of Norway, whose alternative therapy school taught clairvoyance and communication with angels seems determined to marry her shaman fiance Durek Verrett. This despite the hair-raising stories of his life – imprisoned, bisexual, conspiracy theorist, multiple factual claims about his life that don’t check out, as well as comments from previous relationships which describe him as controlling and manipulative. See his wiki page.

  She was born 22 September 1971 5.07 pm Oslo, Norway and has a difficult and challenging chart with a packed 8^th house containing a Virgo Sun, Pluto conjunction conjunct Venus in Libra which in turn is conjunct Uranus with her Scorpio Moon also in her 8^th.

  Her clairvoyant and occult interests will stem from her 8^th house and she will be driven by unconscious forces she does not understand and will not have control over.

Martin Sebastian Moritz in his book Pandora’s Box, The Mysterious 8^th House, points to entanglement as being an 8^th house phenomenon – as well as it being a gateway to another world.

  Her previous husband Ari Behn, 30 September 1972, father of her three children, who committed suicide in 2019, had his Mars in Virgo conjunct Pluto falling in her 8^th as well as his Libra Sun, Mercury, Uranus.

  Durek Verrett, 17 November 1974 11.25 am Sacramento, California, a 10^th house Sun, Venus in Scorpio with his ambitious Mars in Scorpio conjunct his Midheaven from the 9^th, has his Pluto, Uranus, Mercury, Mars all falling in her 8^th.  Such subterranean connections will feel fated and meant but can also be trapped, conflict-ridden and obsessive.

  Her relationship chart with Durek echoes the 8^th house theme with the composite Pluto, Mercury, Uranus and Sun as well as Venus all deeply buried there. There is a 10^th house Moon Neptune which will be soaked up by their spiritual therapy interests. But what is damaging and destructive is a composite Mars opposition Saturn square Pluto. Mars Saturn is unkind, can be cruel and suggests a relationship where one partner has to grit their teeth and suppress their identity and needs to make it work. And that is before it locks onto the 8^th house compulsively controlling Pluto. Tr Neptune will be chiselling away at the Mars opposition Saturn in 2023/24 and opposing the Pluto in 2025/26.

  I never thought this relationship was workable though 8^th house individuals can be exceedingly stubborn and impervious to either advice, argument or evidence.

 I’d be interested in any 8^th houser’s comments since I don’t have any planets there and it has always been a mystery to me.

Kevin McCarthy has been removed as House Speaker on a little-used technicality by fellow Republican Matt Gaetz on a personal-spite and attention-grabbing mission. Gaetz is so disliked within the GOP that even Newt Gingrich thinks he should be expelled. The short-sighted Democrats, gleeful about McCarthy’s downfall, hastened his exit by voting with Gaetz, ignoring the possibility they may end up with worse.

  Gaetz, 7 May 1982 Hollywood, Florida, is a Sun Taurus with a self-aggrandising, arrogant yod of Venus sextile Mercury in Gemini inconjunct Jupiter in Scorpio; with Venus in an insensitive opposition to Mars in Libra. His Mars is catching the transiting Pluto trine in 2023/24 which will be blocked and frustrating. Alongside that, he does have a bullish tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Pluto so he won’t disappear down a foxhole without a fight. He’ll zip up in confidence and luck in 2025/26 with tr Pluto square his yod focal point Jupiter but that could bring poor judgement and self-defeating actions through his overwheening confidence. Self-doubt is not in his repertoire.

  He certain dislikes McCarthy with a vengeance with their relationship chart having a composite Sun Mercury opposition Mars square Saturn which will bring extreme aggravation and hostility.

 McCarthy, 26 January 1965 12.40 pm Bakersfield, CA, only emerged as Speaker after multiple rounds, so was never regarded by either side as inspiring. He is a Sun Aquarius with a Boris-Johnson-type scandal-prone Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune which is the driving rod of an Earth Grand Trine. Gaetz Taurus Sun is exactly conjunct his Jupiter and opposition his Neptune – bringing about his downfall.

 What next?  ‘It is not clear who in the House G.O.P. can earn the majority of votes needed to win a speaker’s race. Until someone can win 218 votes or more, the House will continue to hold elections in an ongoing speaker’s race. In the meantime, essentially all other action in the House will be halted.

One deadline is looming. The government will shut down in mid-November after the expiration of a temporary funding measure that Congress approved over the weekend. That’s unless Congress can pass all 12 of its yearlong spending bills or another stopgap funding bill — a tall task made even more challenging by the chaos of a speaker’s race.’