Huey Long was a left-wing populist Democrat politician in Louisiana, prominent during the Great Depression until his assassination in 1935. A controversial figure, he is celebrated as a populist champion of the poor or denounced as a fascist demagogue, accused of being unconstitutional and authoritarian. His biographer Thomas O. Harris saw him as “neither saint nor devil, he was a complex and heterogenous mixture of good and bad, genius and craft, hypocrisy and candor, buffoonery and seriousness”.  After his death Roosevelt adopted many of his proposals in the Second New Deal.

 He was born 30 August 1893 4.15 am, worked as a traveling salesman, he ultimately became an attorney, often representing poor plaintiffs and prosecuting large corporations such as Standard Oil. Chief Justice William Howard Taft praised him as “the most brilliant lawyer who ever practiced before the United States Supreme Court”. He went on to become Governor of Louisiana and then Senator. His regime there was described as “the closest thing to a dictatorship that America has ever known”. He was impeached in 1929 for abuses of power, but the proceedings collapsed in the State Senate. His assassin was the son of a political rival.

 His policies included Share Our Wealth plan, advocating massive federal spending, a wealth tax, and wealth redistribution.

  He had a hard-working, go-ahead 1^st house Sun Mars in Virgo below a flashy, attention-attracting Leo Ascendant square a lucky, successful Jupiter in his career 10^th. But what stamped his personality was the generational Neptune Pluto conjunct in Gemini, often a signature of megalomaniacs. It was heavily aspected being square his Sun Mars and trine Venus Saturn in Libra as well as sextile his Aries Moon in the 9^th house of legal matters and widescale communication.  His Moon opposed Saturn and Venus and trine Mercury in flamboyant Leo on his Ascendant.

 With Mercury in Leo leading the way he was never going to be understated and backed up by an uber-determined and ruthless Mars Sun square Pluto Neptune he would crash through niceties to get what he wanted.

After his death Roosevelt’s close economic advisor Rexford Tugwell wrote that, “When he was gone it seemed that a beneficent peace had fallen on the land” and said that Roosevelt regarded Long’s assassination as a “providential occurrence”.

Diane Arbus, the late renowned photographer, is presently featured in a  London exhibition which reveals her ‘grotesquely bleak but brutally truthful vision of humanity’. The cultural critic Susan Sontag condemned Arbus for dwelling on misery and ugliness, calling her work anti-humanist. Her defenders say that Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud and Velázquez, all shared her disenchanted eye. She was deemed to have transformed photography by helping to normalize marginalized groups – cross-dressers, strippers, nudists, sideshow performers, tattooed men.

 She was born 14 March 1923 1.30am New York, with wealthy Jewish immigrant parents from Russia who owned a Fifth Avenue fashion department store though all the family including her siblings were creative. At 18 she married Allan Arbus who later acted as the psychiatrist in the tv series MASH. She committed suicide at 48, which as one critic pointed out is reflected in her photography – ‘someone trying to make sense of a life that can’t be made sense of. Her photography is not so much tragic as utterly alienated from the human species.’ She had experienced “depressive episodes” during her life, similar to those experienced by her mother; the episodes may have been made worse by symptoms of hepatitis.

  A year after her suicide, she became the first photographer to be included in the Venice Biennale  where her photographs were “the overwhelming sensation of the American Pavilion” and “extremely powerful and very strange”.

  She had a Pisces Sun, the favoured sign for photographers since they incline towards the image and not words. Her  Neptune was powerfully aspected in her 8^th opposition her Aquarius Moon and Venus square Mars in Taurus. And on one leg of a yod sextile a 10^th house Saturn and inconjunct Uranus and South Node (and widely Sun). She also had a creative and confident Water Grand Trine of Pluto in her 7^th trine Jupiter in Scorpio trine Uranus which would tend to enclose her in her own bubble of reality.

 Her yod focal point Uranus would give her the capacity to be a creative trailblazer and independent-spirited, tending to cut across conventional norms. She would be both divisive in effect as well as a catalyst for change.

  What an interesting and desolate woman, swamped in Piscean energy – visionary, expressive, yet imbued with Neptune’s cosmic chilliness and detachment.

Please add below. Older posts under News on top bar or in search.

James Watson, Nobel Prize-winning biologist who discovered the structure of DNA with Francis Crick, has died. He chronicled the search for ‘the secret of life’ in his bestseller The Double Helix but damaged his career with his scathing judgments of colleagues and comments about race and genetics.

  Born 6 April 1928 1.23 am Chicago, Illinois, he was unpopular at school because of his fondness for speaking his mind and his precocious intellect.  He entered Chicago University at 15, studied zoology, then took a doctorate on viruses before moving over to work with Francis Crick on genetics.

Watson did not attempt to make himself popular. The French geneticist François Jacob recalled his quirky and arrogant manner: “Tall, gawky, scraggly, he had an inimitable style. Inimitable in his dress: shirt tails flying, knees in the air, socks down to his ankles. Inimitable in his bewildering manner, his mannerisms: his eyes always bulging. His mouth always open. He uttered short choppy sentences punctuated by ‘ah, ah!’ Inimitable also in his way of entering a room, cocking his head like a rooster looking for the finest hen, to locate the most important scientist present and charging over to his side.”

  He had a quick-witted, confident and outspoken 3^rd house Sun Jupiter in Aries in sensible trine to Saturn in can-be-self-righteous Sagittarius and in an over-confident square to a 7^th house Pluto, so he would be arrogant. He also had an inventive Uranus in Aries in his 3^rd. What is most striking is his 8^th house Neptune opposition Mars. Neptune is a frequent marker in the charts of top level mathematicians and theoretical physicists and in the 8^th would allow him to use his intuition to explore beyond the rational known to find new discoveries.  His Neptune was also on one leg of a yod sextile a Libra Moon inconjunct Venus Mercury in Pisces.

  Neptune in the 8^th has a kaleidoscope of meanings one of which is film stars who project a Neptunian aura in movies.

 Watson’s portrayal of the crystallographer Rosalind Franklin (who had done much of the experimental work on which their discovery was based) as dour, dowdy and uncooperative attracted criticism from other writers who deemed him a sexist monster and ambitious credit stealer.

 Though admittedly she was not an easy temperament. Born 25 July 1920, two weeks before P.D.James, the crime writer, with the same tough Grand Trine of Pluto trine Mars trine Uranus formed into a Kite by Uranus opposition Saturn. Her Mars in Scorpio was conjunct Watson’s Midheaven so she would both help and compete with him.

Kim Kardashian’s new legal TV drama has been savaged with reviews which run from “so awful, it feels almost contemptuous” to “may be the worst TV drama ever”.  “The glossy sheen of the show and its stacked cast might make you think it’s verging on ‘so bad it’s good’ territory, but it’s really just a boring dud.” One fan commented: “We have legendary actresses here giving the worst performances of their careers, it takes a special kind of talent to pull that inability of them. Amazeballs.” Another fan said: “Some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen in my life alongside the most predictable storylines and the most ridiculous styling. I’m obsessed. I need 14 seasons.”

The show scores 5% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics in contrast to 66% score from audiences. Her 354 million Instagram followers may be helping since the show is currently the most watched title on Disney+ around the world, ranking first in 28 countries including the US. Sigh.

 Kim Kardashian, 21 October 1980 10.46 am Los Angeles, may be putting on a brave face but with her Solar Arc Saturn conjunct her Mercury – and a whole tranche of pressure on her Midheaven Jupiter opposition Pisces Moon IC from the recent Solar Eclipse as well as tr Neptune Saturn in hard aspect she will be sensing foundations shifting under her feet (eclipse on Moon and career-setback tr Saturn square MC ). Her Progressed Moon moving through her hidden 12^th about to conjunct her Uranus next month will also keep her on edge.

 She’s had a deeply frustrating time running into the launch with her Solar Arc Mars square her Pluto and her Solar Arc Pluto conjunct her Mars as well – so early warning signals will have been flashing as she faced the fact that it was not all she was hoping for.

  But the Kardashians are made of tough stuff. She has Jupiter moving through her 8^th till September 2026 which will keep money rolling in. Saturn crossing her IC moving her out of a lower profile career phase of several years. Plus she has her Solar Arc Sun on her Ascendant at the moment putting her back in the spotlight which is what she lives for.

 She has an intense and controlling Sun Pluto in Libra with a Pisces Moon on her IC, drawing her to family support. Her Moon opposes a successful and confident Jupiter on her Midheaven with fashionable Venus close by; and an executive-ability, well-organised Saturn also in her 10^th. Neptune just below her Sagittarius Ascendant will give her a certain sheen. Though her packed 12^th house with Uranus Mercury in Scorpio and Mars in Sagittarius hints at turbulence behind the scenes.

Actress Pauline Collins best known for the escapist mid-life comedy Shirley Valentine which made her the toast of London’s West End and Broadway followed by the the smash-hit film version, has died. She won an Olivier and a Tony as well as an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a bored middle aged wife who finds a new life and lover on a Greek island holiday. It was a  ‘liberating, naughty-but-nice adventure that paved the way for Calendar Girls and the Mamma Mia! movies: a buoyant, funny, sunshine-y comedy with a wonderful role for a mature female lead, broaching the subject of female sexuality that was not governed by the usual male ideas about demure youth.’  

  Valentine was the pinnacle of her career though she  continued to have a busy career on the stage and on TV.

 Born 3 September 1940 7.40 pm Exmouth, England, with two teachers as parents, she became noticed in the long running tv series Upstairs Downstairs in the 1970s. She was married to John Alderton with whom she had three children, and a fourth born illegitimate was adopted when she was in her twenties and reunited years later.

 Pauline had an upbeat, go-getting Sun, Mercury, Mars in Virgo in her 7^th; with an excitable and outspoken Uranus in her communicative 3^rd in an inventive trine to Neptune, sextile a charming Venus in Cancer conjunct Chiron in her performing 5^th house. Her 7^th house Libra Moon was sextile Pluto in her hard working 6^th and trine Uranus – she would need a supportive partner in life but would not be overly invested in domesticity.

 Her three Virgo planets were trine Saturn Jupiter conjunction in Taurus in her financial 2^nd so security with money would be important to her.

 As befits a Virgo, she said writing was a passion, especially poetry, and she read voraciously  – Goethe and Jung were favourites.

 Her husband actor John Alderton 22 November 1940 is a Sun Sagittarius trine Pluto with four planets including his Moon falling in her 8^th making for a deep if not always easy connection. Their relationship chart probably had a composite New Moon suggesting they felt more whole when together.  

 She died after suffering for several years from Parkinsons.

Other Virgo actresses come in a range of temperaments – from the reclusive Greta Garbo, the sophisticated, elegant Ingrid Bergman, workmanlike Suranne Jones, sadly addicted Amy Winehouse, sharp tongued Blake Lively and Sydney Sweeney.

What a difference a week makes. Former King Juan Carlos of Spain born six days after Anthony Hopkins (and more visibly Capricorn) has put out a  memoir in France Reconciliation in an effort to retrieve his reputation after sexual and financial scandals sent him into exile. His son King Felipe is apparently unamused by the book.

  Keen to promote his reputation as the man who saved Spanish democracy, taking over from the dictator Franco whom he refuses to criticise, he clearly regards his former lifestyle with a variety of mistresses and his acceptance of multi-million pound kickbacks as acceptable.  He portrays himself as the victim of a witch hunt by government ministers and journalists and writes with nostalgia about previous generations of royals and nobles who could take gifts as big as they liked from whoever they liked. There was no need for accountability in those days.

 After one scandal too many he abdicated in favour of his son Felipe in 2014, and had his €200,000 annual royal allowance stopped in 2020. Since then he has lived on a private island in Abu Dhabi.

 One episode that does evoke sympathy is his accidental shooting of his brother Alfonso in 1956.  He writes “We had no idea there was a bullet left in the chamber … He died in my father’s arms. It is still difficult for me to speak of it, and I think of it every day … I miss him; I wish I could have him by my side and talk with him. I lost a friend, a confidant. He left me with an immense emptiness. Without his death, my life would have been less dark, less unhappy.”

 Juan Carlos was born January 5 1938 1.15am Rome, Italy, and has a far-travelled 9^th house Capricorn Sun and Venus, with Mercury also in Capricorn in his 8^th. He lacks Anthony Hopkin’s creative Water Grand Trine though does have the bleak Pluto in Cancer trine Saturn in Pisces. There is an earthier feel to Juan Carlos’s chart with a Capricorn Midheaven, a Taurus Ascendant with his wayward 12th house Uranus in Taurus trine his Sun and two other Capricorn planets. Earth can be indulgent and acquisitive. His Jupiter in Aquarius in his 10^th close to his Midheaven points to high status, luck plus a degree of arrogance and self-righteousness especially in opposition to his Pluto on his IC.

  Neptune in his romantic 5^th might be a pointer to his wandering eye. His 10^th house Aquarius Moon, an indicator of a public career, is square his Ascendant. But that apart is not well integrated in his chart being only inconjunct Neptune and inconjunct Pluto, which added onto a 7^th house North Node and Neptune in his 5^th would point to difficulties with emotional commitment.

  When Juan Carlos shot his brother on 29 March 1956 which must have been a critical moment in his life tr Neptune exactly square tr Uranus were both in exact hard aspect to his Pluto and his IC – causing extreme concern, confusion and great turbulence. His Solar Return for 1956 had Mars Saturn conjunct in his 3^rd house of siblings square Pluto which is descriptive of the unthinkable event.

 Anthony Hopkins has a more complex but also well-knitted-together chart with houses making all the difference in how the energies are focused.

  Capricorn as half fish half goat – can go several ways. Capricorn businessmen take insights (from the unconscious) and turn them into hard cash and acquisitions. Earth likes tangible results.

Creative types take dreams and visions and make magic with them in artistic achievements. Maggie Smith, Dolly Parton, Denzel Washington

 Over indulgences in the pleasures of the flesh can be Capricorn’s downfall – viz Elvis Presley.

 Their saving grace when their Saturnine ruler kicks in is the ability to regard life as a mountain climb – start at the bottom and keep moving upwards.

Anthony Hopkins’ memoir title We Did OK Kid is a hint of his self-effacing view of himself, regarded by himself and others in childhood as “useless, hopeless”. Neither sporty nor academic and friendless, “I couldn’t do anything,” he says, until he tripped into acting, won a scholarship to drama college, followed by a RADA training.

  From unlikely beginnings he has made more than 90 films, won two Oscars, four Baftas, two Emmys and an Olivier award.

 Described in his early career as a “tortured loner” with an anger problem, he says of his social alienation – “It gives me a distance to observe. I may sound like a cold-hearted monster but I’m not. We all wear masks. It’s all part of the game.”

 The dominant personality in his autobiography is his father, whose “erratic” moods, “highs of manic energy” and desolate lows hint at bipolar disorder.

 Anthony Hopkins was born 31 December 1937 9.15 am (biography) Port Talbot, Wales, and has a highly complicated and contradictory chart  His Capricorn Sun, Mercury and Venus sit in his hidden 12^th which is the chart area ruling the unconscious and creativity. Capricorn itself although tarred with a materialistic, capitalist brush is also highly creative – the stander on the threshold between the watery realms of the imagination and the earthy realm where dreams are made real. Both fish and goat.

  What dominates his chart is a creative, though bleak Water Grand Trine of Pluto in his 7^th trine Saturn in final degree Pisces trine his Scorpio Midheaven. It is formed into three Kites by a super-confident Pluto opposition Jupiter, a creative and can-be-neurotic Saturn opposition an 8^th house Neptune and MC opposition IC. His immensely talented, inspirational vision is marked by multiple inventive, artistic strands. His Saturn opposition Neptune also squares a Sagittarius Moon giving him sensitivity where the public are concerned but a tendency early on to emotional disorganization as well.

 His Mars in Pisces sits midway between a Uranus trine Sun, Mercury, Venus which would give him an uncompromising approach to interference and a tendency to let fly with his opinions.

 During the recent LA fires he lost everything he possessed but seems to have shrugged it off as part of life. It occurred on 7 January 2925 when tr Mars was exactly conjunct his Pluto opposition tr Pluto conjunct his Jupiter  – so it may have made a sharper impression than he lets on. He tends to act as if nothing much touches him. There is a telling story from his childhood as he was sent off to boarding school at 11 that he vowed never to care about anyone (or anything) too much again.

  He has been married three times and has a daughter (estranged) from his first marriage. Luckily his third marriage appears to be happy.

Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has comfortably won the election to be New York City mayor against the scandal-prone Andrew Cuomo, who was endorsed by Donald Trump. Mamdani made campaign promises of free buses, no rent, fewer cops and higher taxes for the wealthy and big business which resulted in the highest turnout in more than 50 years. Though some are questioning whether he can deliver.

 There were several Democratic victories across the country in other special elections though commentators warn that the party’s brand is still under water, with its approval rating hitting a 30-year-low. A recent opinion poll found that 68% of Americans think Democrats are out of touch – more than the 63% who see Trump in the same way.

Mandani, born 18 October 1991 1.15 am Kampala Uganda, to an Indian family with a Muslim father and Hindu mother, is the first Muslim mayor-elect of New York. He grew up partly in South Africa, coming to the US when he was 7 and had a ‘privileged’ upbringing.

 He has a communicative 3^rd house Libra Sun conjunct an intense Mars in Scorpio in a hard-edged square to a 7^th house Saturn in Aquarius. His Mars is also conjunct Mercury in Scorpio in his 3^rd house, hence his ability and inclination to speak forcefully. He has the generational inspired and can-be-radical Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn close to the North Node in his hard-working 6^th house trine a surprisingly frivolous and indulgent Jupiter Venus in Virgo in his financial 2^nd house. His 7^th house Aquarius Moon squares a 4^th house Pluto making him emotionally detached and intense at the same time.

  His Progressed Moon moving through his career 10^th for another 18 months will keep him focused and tr Pluto through his 7^th  for many years to come will ramp up his interactions with both allies and enemies. Assuming his birth time is accurate Jupiter through his 1st house from July 2026 onwards will give him a confidence boost. He has a fair way to go on his upward trajectory in his Saturn career cycle not reaching his peak till 2029 and for seven years thereafter.

New York mayor is a tough job so strains and stresses would inevitably crop up no matter who was at the helm. Neptune back into Aries early in 2026 will bring a few failed plans for him in May, June 2026 onwards with more anxiety from August 2026 and more so in 2027. 2028 looks to be a downer with his Solar Arc Saturn opposition his Jupiter. And his Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Moon in 2028/29 hints at upsets and perhaps a shift in his popularity  with an unsettled electorate.

His relationship with Donald Trump who called his election “a nightmare” is hostility-on-steroids with a composite Pluto Mars Jupiter conjunction opposition Uranus and on one leg of a yod sextile Neptune inconjunct Saturn. Plus a disappointing, evasive composite Sun square Neptune. That is unresolvable dislike with an endless struggle for the upper hand and last word.

   Tr Neptune will undermine their composite Pluto and conjunct the Uranus from now through till late January 2026 with the fanatical dislike on both sides lighting up the ether. Tr Saturn in Pisces will also ramp up the dislike mid January to mid February 2026. Tensions will erupt into the open. That last is also a point that shows up as high stress on the New York chart itself.

 Mamdani’s reforming Uranus is conjunct the New York (1 January 1898) Capricorn Sun so he will push on with progressive changes. The relationship chart between him and NY does not point to an easy association – with an argumentative, overly dominant composite Mars Sun square Pluto which is being rattled considerably from late April through May 2026; and again mid January to early April 2027 with tr Uranus in hard aspect.  Late April 2026 as well, an uncertain tr Neptune square the composite Saturn will cause concern on and off into early 2027.

Add ON:  He is due to take up his office on midnight 1 January 2026. This puts a lucky, successful Jupiter in the 10^th though it does oppose the Mars/Pluto midpoint with Sun, Venus, Mars conjunct and Pluto all sitting in the domestic 4^th . It certainly suggests a highly active administration pushing ahead with extraordinary determination. Though running into resistance from a section of malcontented locals.  

Saturn Neptune Scheat in the 6^th will focus on health and employment with a view to improving the situation of those in need with help from a Jupiter trine which may not be enough to totally resolve the problem. Uranus in the 8^th trine a 4^th house Pluto points to financial issues and instability as well as a (maybe subversive?) radical agenda though it may have problems seeing the light of day. The 3^rd house Mercury = communication and local transport) is badly aspected being square Saturn Neptune and inconjunct Uranus – so difficulties getting the right message across and muddles in local travel.

Maria Riva, the mistreated daughter of Marlene Dietrich, whose memoir revealed a childhood spent as her mother’s ‘handmaiden’ and personal assistant, has died aged 100.

“At age three I knew quite definitely that I didn’t have a mother; I belonged to a queen,” she wrote in a searing biography published one year after Dietrich’s death in 1992 that portrayed her mother as “a heartless, manipulative, domineering narcissist who had demanded to be worshipped by her fans, her many lovers (male and female) and her daughter — but treated them abysmally.” Maria was denied formal schooling, was not told her true age by a mother determined to appear younger than she was.  In her teens Riva was repeatedly raped by her lesbian governess, turned to alcohol and contemplated suicide before she turned her life around and had a family of her own.

  Her father, an assistant film director, to whom Dietrich remained legally married, for appearances’ sake, was only an intermittent presence in her life. Dietrich’s lovers came and went: patriarch Joseph Kennedy, Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, Adlai Stevenson, Edward Murrow, Édith Piaf.

Maria Riva, born 13 December 1924, Berlin, had one supportive companion in her childhood. Tami Matul, her father’s Russian mistress, described in public as Riva’s nanny and routinely abused by both Dietrich and her father. Riva wrote that Matul was forced to undergo 15 abortions “to ensure no scandal sullied the purity of my mother’s marriage” and ended up in a mental asylum. “During my entire youth Tami was my friend, the one person I loved the most,” Riva wrote.

  Maria, once she settled with her second husband, acted in TV shows and commercials through the 1950s and had four sons.

 She had a Sagittarius Sun conjunct Jupiter which was probably her saving grace giving her an innately optimistic outlook despite the horrors of her upbringing.  Her Sun Jupiter was trine a filmic Neptune and square an explosive Mars Uranus conjunction in Pisces for a life of constant turbulence and excitement. Her Cancer Moon was probably close to controlling Pluto for an enmeshed association with her mother that threatened to stifle her. Her Moon was also likely in a Water Grand Trine to a chilly Saturn in Scorpio conjunct Venus trine Uranus – giving her a life that existed in its own bubble of her mother’s demands and also possibly gave Maria a rich inner world of imagination into which to escape.

  Marlene, born 27 December 1901 9.15pm Berlin, had a powerful stellium in Capricorn with her Sun conjunct Mercury on the cusp of her performing 5^th house. And Jupiter Saturn Mars all conjunct in Capricorn in her attention-seeking 5^th in varying combinations inconjunct a 10^th house Pluto and Neptune in Gemini. A whole load of super-ambitious, over-indulgent Capricorn with a cruel streak from Saturn Mars, heavily controlling from Pluto in the 10^th though also able to cast a dreamy spell with Neptune. Her Leo Moon on the cusp of her hidden 12^th house is not well integrated into her chart making her disconnected and emotionally unstable.

  Her Scorpio North Node hinted that her spiritual journey and life’s development lay in relinquishing all that she had once coveted. Evidently. ‘By the end of her life Dietrich was living alone in a squalid Paris flat — reclusive, bedbound, hooked on assorted drugs and using kitchen dishes as bedpans.’ Whether this brought any redemptive insight is not known.

 The relationship chart between Maria and her mother had a superficially glossy composite Jupiter Venus opposition Pluto though with undertones of a power struggle which only emerged after Marlene’s death and the tell-all biography emerged. Plus a composite yod of Mars sextile Sun inconjunct Neptune hinting at the emotional disorganization of their bond.