Heat is rising between Turkey and Greece over islands in the Aegean Sea, which Turkish President Erdogan is demanding are demilitarised.  Greece says the islands, located within striking distance of a large Turkish landing fleet, cannot be left undefended and have been garrisoned for decades. The Greek PM is trying to defuse the spat saying restraint is required given the Ukraine situation and that it is not as tense as it was in 2020 when tensions flared over gas exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean. There is a long history of disputes between the two countries who are both NATO allies.

 Erdogan is a populist dictator who is surprisingly popular domestically despite the dire economic mess he has made. Greece hasn’t emerged shining white either from recent allegations of mistreatment of refugees with what appear to be illegal and violent pushbacks, carried out by Greek officials at the borders between Greece and Turkey. All hotly denied.

   Recep Erdogan’s 4^th Term chart, 9 July 2018 4.30pm Ankara, isn’t showing signs of instability until 2024 but that is when tr Pluto squares the Term Uranus running also through 2025 which is often a fall-off-perch time.

  Both Greece charts, 24 July 1974 4am Athens, and 25 March 1821 5pm, are aggravated and stressed at the moment. Though that could be from a myriad of causes. The 1974 chart has for a potential military clash from Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the Mars though that could also be a significant setback from pandemic/economic effects. Tr Pluto opposing the Leo Sun in 2023/24 will exert maximum pressure for change none of which will be easy.  The 1821 chart has an alarming, eruptive Solar Arc Mars square the Neptune Uranus this year which could lead to seriously bad-tempered exchanges.

  There are some wrinkles and ripples on the Greece/Turkey relationship charts this year along with major confusion but it is 2023/24/25 which are the testing years. Turkey and NATO are not on great terms through 2023 to 2025 either.

  Turkey is over excitable from July onwards which could precipitate an unwise move but is running into seriously discouraging and deprived influences from early 2023 and 2024 – their economic swamp is going to sink them at some point.

Add ON; There is another chart for Greece – 3 February 1830, no time – which reflects the same unsettled feel as the other charts with high tensions this year into early 2023. There’s an undermining of trust with Turkey this year and more eruptions in 2024.

Multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks has lost his libel action against Guardian reporter Carole Cadwalladr. She was being sued for defamation over talking about his ‘covert relationship’ with Russia. The case was criticised as an attack on free speech. Banks who funded the pro-Brexit Leave EU campaign group said he would appeal. If he had won she would have been liable for his costs and damages – well over £1m.

  She was born 10 October 1969 in Cardiff, Wales and became known internationally in 2018 for her role in exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal for which she was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

  She has a confident, fair-minded and outspoken Sun Jupiter in Libra with Uranus, Mercury and probably Moon in Libra as well. Her ambitious Mars in Capricorn squares her Libra planets making her impulsive and a risk-taker. Tr Jupiter in Aries is exactly opposition her Uranus bringing her a lucky break as the judge declared in her favour saying her belief had been reasonable in terms of public interest. Though she’s looking edgy ahead which may be the appeal or other concerns troubling her.

  Arron Banks, 22 March 1966, is co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign and was one of the largest donors to the UK Independence Party (UKIP). He was investigated over concerns about the source of his funding but there was “no evidence that any criminal offences have been committed.” According to wiki he is reported to have had multiple meetings with Russian embassy officials as well as being offered business opportunities in Russia in the run-up to the Brexit referendum. He has denied any wrongdoing.

 He is Cadwalladr’s opposite number having a Sun, Mars and probably Moon in Aries, making him go-ahead and argumentative. He’s also got a super-confident Jupiter in Gemini square Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn Mercury in Pisces.  He looks even less content over the next four years with major confusion this August to December and Neptunian sinkholes appearing along with disappointments up to 2025.

  Their relationship chart is not surprisingly highly-charged and chilly with a Sun square Saturn; an outspoken composite Uranus square Mercury and inconjunct Mars; and Mars in a square to Neptune, hinting at differences where only one can win. It looks shaken up through the next three years, 2024 especially – so either there is more to follow or the result will cause continuing resentment.

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The wondrous and enigmatic Kate Bush has soared to prominence again as her 1985 hit Running Up That Hill featured prominently in Netflix’s Stranger Things and is now the most-streamed song in the world each day on Spotify, earning nearly 8m plays a day. It’s the third time round for this track since it also hit the charts in 2012 after being used in the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

  Kate Bush was born 30 July 1958 in London, no birth time sadly, into a musical family and started writing songs at 11. Her haunting Wuthering Heights topped the singles charts in 1978 when she was 19 and since then since has released 25 UK Top 40 singles, including “The Man with the Child in His Eyes“, “Babooshka“, “Don’t Give Up” (a duet with Peter Gabriel) and “King of the Mountain“. All ten of her studio albums reached the UK Top 10. Her ‘eclectic and experimental musical style, unconventional lyrics, performances and literary themes’ have influenced many other artists and earned her a raft of awards.

 She has a volatile and stubborn as well as enduring Fixed Grand Cross in her chart of a quirky Sun Uranus in Leo opposition (probably) an Aquarius Moon square a determined Mars in Taurus in a showbizzy opposition to Neptune in Scorpio. She also has a talented Half Grand Sextile from that Mars opposition Neptune sextile Mercury Pluto in Virgo and sextile Venus in Cancer.

  Despite her constant success she never seems too happy in the spotlight and when Wuthering Heights hit the top spot in 1978 she appeared to find the pressure burdensome. At that point she did have a complete-change but also disruptive Solar Arc Uranus conjunct her Pluto and tr Saturn conjunct both; with her Solar Arc Pluto square her Saturn as well. A heavy time.

  She has had tr Pluto square her Jupiter and North Node in recent years which would lift her morale. At the moment tr Saturn has moved to oppose her Pluto Mercury from early 2023 – a Saturn cycle and a half since Wuthering Heights. Her intense Mercury has moved by Solar Arc to a stressed opposition to  her Mars exactly this year, impacting her Fixed Grand Square. It will be followed by her Solar Arc Pluto which will make for an intense and challenging few years ahead.

  An interesting lady. Though her Leo Sun is the ultimate performer, I’d reckon it might sit in one of her hidden houses.

Canadian popstar Justin Bieber has cancelled a series of shows on his latest tour after a virus caused “full paralysis” on one side of his face. He said he had been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome which is usually treated with steroids, antiviral medication and facial rehabilitation. Information varies but a third to a half of sufferers recover completely, some don’t. A surgeon said: “Some people [recover] very quickly – in three weeks – others can take several months. It’s a very unpredictable exercise.”

  He was born 1 March 1994 12.56am Stratford, Ontario, and has a musical Sun Saturn and Venus in Pisces trine Jupiter in Scorpio. He has two other key elements in his chart which are coming together by Solar Arc which is always an indication of a life-changing period. He has the highly-strung and often talented Uranus Neptune of his generation which aspects his Water planets; and he has an influential but challenging and crisis-prone Pluto North Node square Mars Mercury, a legacy from a messy childhood.

  His Mars square Pluto is catching not only the Eclipses this year but also the tr Saturn hard aspects from late this May on and off until March 2023 so he will be facing rolling setbacks and frustrations. His Solar Arc Uranus is also conjunct his Mercury now followed by Solar Arc Neptune conjunct – starting a few years of anxious concern and obstacles.

  His Pluto on his North Node will give him the potential to influence the masses but the Scorpio North Node on its Nodal Half Return this year hints at the need for a rethink.

   The lessons of a Scorpio North Node can be harsh, demanding a complete break with the past in order to undergo a profound transformation. Sometimes this can be a physical setback. Two examples come to mind though of an extreme variety – John Addey, the noted astrologer, who had keen sporting abilities until struck down young with arthritis which turned his attention to the study of astrology and philosophy. The other is Melanie Reid, a Sunday Times columnist who was left tetraplegic after a horse accident and writes inspiring weekly pieces about her disability.

 I hasten to add that not everyone with a Scorpio Node will be hit with such devastating effects and the transformation process does not always have to be somatised (= lived out through the body). Others will go through the process in other ways.  And not everyone lives out their North Nodes, some cling tenaciously to the old patterns and exit as they came in.

  Bieber does have his Progressed Moon moving through his 12^th at the moment which is reasonably minor but is often a more inward looking time of endings and sorting out his life and that’s around until late 2023. What will be encouraging is Jupiter moving into his outgoing and entertaining 5^th house from February 2023 onwards which should bounce him out into more activity. Though it is also his year of his Saturn Return which can be heavy going, sobering and a time to face hard reality.

 His Solar Return for this year does look stuck, scary and exasperated with Mars Pluto in his 4^th. Next year’s not so much so.

Donald Trump “summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack” asserted Liz Cheney at the opening of the January 6 Capitol Hill attack investigation. The committee hopes to prove Trump incited an attempted coup against the US government although they have not yet proven he colluded with the insurrectionists directly.

   He could still face criminal charges if it can be shown he deliberately incited or helped organise the riot with the intention of stopping Joe Biden being certified as president. On December 19^th on his Twitter feed he messaged. “Big protest in D.C. on January sixth. Be there, will be wild!” There is proof he urged the attackers on from his Twitter feed and from a podium outside the White House, and watched the violence on television, raging at advisers who urged him to call off his supporters.

  The committee has been hampered by the unwillingness of certain Trump associates to be frank. Although William Barr, his former attorney-general, insisted in taped testimony that claims that the election had been rigged were “bullshit”. Even Ivanka Trump said she “accepted” Barr’s conclusions.

     Even if he is not prosecuted, Democrats hope these hearings might destroy his support in public and in Congress.

  Liz Cheney, 28 July 1966, a blonde Sun Leo  in a serious trine to Saturn with a passionately enthusiastic Venus, Mars and Jupiter in Cancer, has made herself unpopular amongst her erstwhile colleagues in the Republicans and no matter the outcome may pay the price in 2024 which looks a dire year for her. Though she’ll bounce up by 2026.  She is labouring under a discouraging Solar Arc Sun opposition her Saturn over coming months but does look upbeat and successful this August to early December so will be pleased in part with what she has achieved. The investigation committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a stalwart Aquarius, is also in a progressive phase.

   Trump was contemptuous about his daughter Ivanka siding with William Barr which brings sharply into focus their relationship which was always a total mystery. The relationship chart has a composite combative Sun Mars conjunct an aggravated and resentful Saturn. With Saturn in a jolting conjunction to Uranus which in turn makes a disruptive connection to Pluto. It was a volcano waiting to blow.

  Both she and husband Jared, himself once an embedded ally, were born close together and have relatively similar synastry with father/in-law. Both have their Uranus square his Mars in Leo which is a firecracker crossover; and Ivanka’s Scorpio Sun and Jared’s Mars in Aquarius both collide with Trump’s 12^th house controlling and vengeful Pluto; and their Neptune Venus in Sagittarius are conjunct his Moon for a superficial and deceptive closeness. Pluto Ivanka’s super-confident Jupiter Pluto and Jared’s Capricorn Sun also collide with Trumps Saturn Venus in Cancer. How they managed to coexist in the same space is a testament to their ability to cherry-pick what was to their advantage and grit their teeth for the rest.

 Jared’s relationship with Trump with that fated composite Yod of Pluto sextile Mars inconjunct Mercury – all planets being at 17 degrees – will be in for a shock and no doubt an eruption of bad temper from the middle of this month to early July as tr Uranus tugs on two legs of the Yod, repeating October and early 2023.

Kushner’s memoir due out in August may not help to assuage Trump’s jealousy, nor will the $2bn investment from a Saudi Arabian wealth fund, controlled by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, signed recently. Kushner formed an investment firm after Trump left office and is harvesting the goodwill created by Kushner’s time as Middle East peace envoy. A House Oversight investigation has been launched to focus on whether Kushner’s personal financial interests improperly influenced U.S. foreign policy while he served in the White House.

Trump’s year on his chart has one blip of good luck mid June to early July but on the whole is swampy and disappointing with more than a few catastrophes to contend with from tr Uranus square his Mars/Pluto midpoint early July to mid October (repeating in early 2023). And this first batch of destructive Mars/Pluto influences runs parallel with his Solar Arc Mars square his 12^th house Pluto exact in six months but in effect now and building up a head of steam. Mars Pluto is acutely frustrating, trapped and scary. And as if that was not enough to sink even his titanium-strength confidence he has the return of the undermining tr Neptune square his Sun from late October this year running into early January.

Britney Spears pledged her troth for the third time yesterday to her long-time, twelve year younger boyfriend Sam Asghari at a glitzy Los Angeles do. Reports indicate evening and the wedding pics have his watch at 7.45 so I’m assuming circa 7pm.  There was a Gemini Sun in a sensible trine to Saturn and trine a Libra Moon so an Airy, emotionally detached affair. The Sun was also in a vague, unrealistic square to Neptune; with a super-enthusiastic Jupiter Mars in Aries; an excitable, needs-space Venus Uranus; and a serious Mercury in Taurus square Saturn, sextile Neptune trine Pluto which last won’t make light-hearted communication easy.

  She has tr Jupiter just over her Descendant moving through her 7^th house of close relationships for a few months which is positive for one-to-one partnerships.

  Though it’s a year where she will have panicky moments of plans not working with tr Neptune opposition her Mars, around earlier this year and returning late September through October and again January/February 2023.

  But she’s on a confident roll no matter what with tr Pluto square her Jupiter/Pluto midpoint on and off till late 2023 and then square her Jupiter in 2024/25.  She may go over the top and overdo the enthusiasm but she’ll be up rather than down.

 His birth date is unverified either 3 March or 23/24 March 1994.  The later date would work better putting his Aries Sun and Venus in her 7^th. But it isn’t certain.  

Add On: 3 March appears to be supported from their Instagrams which makes him a Sun Saturn in Pisces with Venus also in Pisces; plus the highly-strung, excitable Uranus Neptune in Capricorn and a trio of Scorpio planets – Jupiter, Moon, Pluto. His chart has an abundance of Water signs where hers has only one and she’s Air/Fire so they’ll either complement each other; or totally mystify each other since they won’t understand where the other is coming from.

 Both have Jupiter in Scorpio so will be attracted to money and indulgence. His Pisces planets fall in her 6^th so he’ll get her organised on the work front and will be comforted by her wealth with his Scorpio planets in her 2^nd.

  It’ll be an edgy combination but she’s not exactly a settled personality. There is a composite Jupiter Pluto conjunction in the relationship chart which is a sign of a power couple – together they boost each other’s morale and make a splash together. But these relationships sometimes come apart at the seams if one tries to outdo the other. [This depends on his birth date being accurate.]

Hindsight being a wonderful thing, looking at the astrology it was clear from 2013 when David Cameron promised a referendum that there was a strong potential for a partnership split. He was only echoing what previous political leaders had pledged but by 2015 he was able to make it happen.

  In 2013 tr Uranus was poised on the cusp of the UK 7^th house which is often a divorce signature for the several years following. And even more significant and challenging was tr Pluto in Capricorn exactly conjunct the UK Sun – that often presages civil war or changes on a momentous scale. At the time less happened than fitted the astrology but the timebomb was obviously ticking.

   By 2016 the disruptive tr Pluto square tr Uranus had been upsetting the status quo out in the world and fomenting an urge to toss old certainties out of the window. By this time both tr Pluto and tr Uranus had been in hard aspect to the UK 7^th house North Node and Sun/Moon midpoint throughout the campaign in 2015 and right up to the vote and after. Both these influences in an individual chart would be indicative of a divorce especially where cooperation does not come naturally as is the case with a leadership/stand-alone Aries Node. Though there is an argument with an Aries 7^th house North Node that flouncing off to be independent is not the mature decision. Learning to be interdependent is what is required spiritually.

  The 2016 Brexit vote was also undertaken with a messy, over-hopeful, unrealistic  Neptune opposition Jupiter square Saturn in place; and an aggravated, no-compromise Uranus inconjunct Mars in vengeful Scorpio – so it was never going to be a clean break.

  The eventual Brexit leaving chart of 31 December 2020 hints at financial shocks and massive difficulties with an 8^th house Mars square Pluto as well as Saturn and Jupiter. So it was never going to be sweet and amiable. It looks increasingly logjammed in 2024 with the Solar Arc Pluto square Mars exactly; jolting with tension in 2025; and won’t really clear bad blood until almost the end of the decade.

  I’m oddly enough not a great believer in ‘written in the stars’ meaning a literal and concrete event has to happen. There are always choices, different ways of handling the influences which could come up with a different result. The best analogy is sailing a boat. The captain has no choice about the direction or force of the wind, but can decide whether to meet it head on, let it blow from behind or ignore it and get blown over – i.e. there are choices about making  best use of the inevitable.

Out of the frying pan onto the spit-roast, the Prime Minister is back wrestling with the Northern Ireland Protocol with every indication that it will end up a hot mess on the floor. The EU is hardening against an ‘unserious’ Johnson, whom no one in Europe believes according to an Irish minister. He’s being elbowed at home, as per usual, by the Tory true-believer euro-sceptics, into what are described as ‘lawless antics’ in breaking the agreement he signed. It is likely to end up in a trade war and continuing ill will, which at a dire economic time seems outrageous.

  UK exports to the EU in 2021 were down 12 per cent on 2018, double the hit to the level of UK exports to the rest of the world – so it can’t all be blamed on the pandemic. Analysts reckon exports to the EU may fall by another 8 per cent again by 2025. The pound is weak, generally attributed to Brexit — down 9 per cent since June 2016.  UK exporters continue to struggle with the bureaucracy involved in selling goods and services to the EU. The massive deregulation and open trade with the rest of the world to replace lost EU business and deliver a boom promised by the Brexiteers hasn’t happened. And the deregulation never will because of the impact on domestic industries such as agriculture.

 The proof of the pudding and all that. The electorate were bamboozled and bewitched by cheap n’ easy slogans that were never going to be a reality.

   Boris’s relationship with the EU has always had that mystifyingly hostile composite Mars opposition Pluto – mystifying in the sense that he has a mega-multi-cultural background so is hardly your average John Bull. But his sojourn as a child, aged 9 to 11, in Brussels with his family when he father was working for the European Commission must have coloured his outlook. That was when his mother suffered a breakdown and he was sent back to England.

 Anyway that Mars opposition Pluto is getting a bucket of cold water thrown on it throughout next year, from early on as tr Saturn sits in hard aspect – and there’s a discouraging uphill slog of tr Pluto conjunct the composite Saturn in 2022/2023 – so nothing that looks like a speedy détente between him and the EU.

  The two prominent Tory Brexiteers who reckon they have the Prime Minister over a barrel – Bernard Jenkins, 9 April 1959; and Bill Cash, 10 May 1940 –  both look considerably discontented ahead for two years.  Bernard Jenkins looks deeply uncertain this year and totally trapped in 2023; and feels a failure by 2024. Bill Cash is displaying some machismo and bullish confidence interspersed with panicky failure this year and next.  So clearly they are not getting it all their own way.

  As an added aside – of Astro-note – Bill Cash has his Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Libra North Node now and Jenkins has his Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Libra North Node.  I’m not sure how I’d interpret that except that in both cases with a Libra North Node their challenge in life is learning how to co-operate and their primitive defence will be to insist on standing alone/being the leader not a partner.

 Relations between the UK and the EU are jangled this year with emotional outbursts and irritations from tr Uranus square the composite Venus and tr Saturn conjunct the Mars; and into 2023 an aggravating and argumentative tr Uranus square the composite Mars and tr Saturn in Pisces blocking the composite Pluto and jolting the Uranus. So this spat is not going to settle any time soon either.

Sun sign astrology has in recent years been the despised poor relation of ‘proper’ serious astrology and widely assumed to have been a popular media invention from the 1930s. Sceptics sneer that not every twelfth person can be the same but how the zodiac sign interpretations are any different from the psychological test definitions of Myers-Briggs labelling types as extraverted, introverted, intuitive etc I’m not sure.

  Kim Farnell’s latest book The True History of Sun Sign Astrology is an eye-opener which sets the record straight on where sun sign astrology fits in to the wider discipline as she follows its winding path from earliest times in Mesopotamia four thousand years ago. From a Babylonian temple to the Daily Express of 1930 sounds an unlikely trajectory but she makes a plausible case for the Sun having been at the centre of the astrological canon since the start.

  It was certainly a driving force for the best-selling almanacs of the day in medieval times. Though sometimes with questionable interpretations “Those born under Pisces shall be wise and cunning, a marriage breaker and very covetous. Her husband shall forsake her and she shall have great pain with strangers and she shall not have it that it is her fault.”

  As astrology moved from being a tool for the monarch in earliest times to gain popularity amongst the masses it continually ran into critics, none of which made any inroads into the public appetite for teasers about their prospects – emotional, financial and medical. Nor did its illegality, with astrologers continually charged with criminal behaviour for fortune telling.

  William Lilly, the 17^th Century English ‘Merlin’ advised politicians and soldiers in the febrile times of the civil war and was summoned to appear in the courts for having predicted the Great Fire of London in 1666 in the form of a coded drawing.

The next notable Alan Leo, the theosophist, picked astrology out of the doldrums in the late 19^th century during Neptune Pluto in Gemini and stimulated a revival of interest which disseminated his work across Europe and America. He made a fortune from mass produced horoscopes as well as writing 30 books some of which are still in use today.

  In the 20^th Century Linda Goodman is credited with doing more to popularise sun sign astrology than any. Her book Sun Signs was a runaway success and a New York Times best-seller, introducing a wider public to credible descriptions of the signs. She dined with the Kennedys, knew Howard Hughes and moved amongst the celebrity set. Her private life was troubled with three of her five children dead in infancy and one daughter dying of suicide in her twenties. She earned millions from her books but ended up bankrupt with an amputated leg from diabetes complications.

What marked out her chart for success from lowly beginnings in West Virginia was her lucky Jupiter in her career 10^th square her Sun Chiron in Aries on her Ascendant. She was an upfront, outgoing personality who was a healer as well as an attention-grabber and who would attract increasing appreciation the older she got.  Her Sun was also square Pluto on her IC suggesting a troubled childhood and later adult domestic life, especially since her Pluto was trine a 7^th house Saturn in Scorpio. Good fortune shone on her achievements but not her emotional life. A 5^th house Neptune in Leo indicated both her talent as an entertainer in a Neptunian sphere; and confusion and disappointment around children. She also had a ‘leadership’ North Node in Leo in her performing 5^th house.

    What is intriguing is that Linda Goodman’s chart shares some similarities with William Lilly’s. Both had Neptune in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio.

  Lilly was a Sun Venus in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio widely square Neptune in Leo.  His Mercury in Taurus was conjunct Uranus on one side and Pluto on the other, trine Mars in Virgo – so his words would pack a punch.  

  Alan Leo had a more obvious astrologer’s Uranus in his 10^th house with an influential-communicator Pluto in his 9^th in a confident square to Jupiter and his Sun in Leo which would help him gain attention.

  For a readable and well-researched dance through astrology’s multi-millenial existence this book will fascinate Astro-historians and give copious ammunition to defend against the nay-sayers.

The True History of Sun Sign Astrology: Kim Farnell. Publishers: the Wessex Astrologer.