Ellie Simmonds, the retired Paralympian swimmer, winner of gold medals at three Olympics, who suffers from dwarfism, has opened up a discussion on disabled babies in a documentary Should I Have Children?
Her previous 2023 documentary Finding My Secret Family on tracking down her birth mother who had given her up for adoption when she was two weeks old, overwhelmed by her condition, won a Bafta.
Born 11 November 1994 in Manchester, she was lucky enough to be given to loving and supportive adoptive parents who nurtured her talent as a swimmer. And she clearly had the drive to cope with a punishing training schedule for years on end. She has a determined stellium in Scorpio with her Sun conjunct Jupiter and Pluto and square Mars in Leo, with Mercury, North Node and Venus also at earlier Scorpio degrees.
What intrigued me was her weighted Scorpio Sun square Mars, which is not dissimilar to Oscar Pistorius, the South African paralympic sprinter, who had his lower limbs amputated because of a congenital defect when he was months old. His Scorpio Sun is square Mars in Aquarius and he also has Mercury, Pluto, Venus in Scorpio. His Pluto is trine Jupiter giving him added confidence.
In astrology Scorpio used to be known as the miracle maker for its ability to set goals and make them happen. In both cases overcoming disabilities must have taken extra drive and motivation.
Pistorius, of course, ended up notorious for killing his girlfriend and spending a decade in prison – which is the other side of a Fixed (Scorpio) Sun Mars. But the single-minded determination of both charts is what would bring them success in their respective sports.
A Macron marital spat or a jovial moment of horseplay? An unguarded moment before exiting the French presidential plane in Vietnam invited a good many mischievous comments, when Brigitte appeared to strike Emmanuel in the face. She declined to take his hand on descending the stairs a minute later and his clenched fist and jaw hinted at a tense mood.
Their 24 year age gap has always attracted raised eyebrows, especially since she met him as a teacher and mother of three when he was 15. She is now 72 to his 47. With his second Presidency creaking unhappily to a close with less than two years to run there will be tensions in the air.
She was born 13 April 1953 3pm Amiens, France and has an intense, secretive and determined 8th house New Moon conjunct Venus in Aries opposition Saturn Neptune in Libra; with a 12th house Pluto (= pulling strings behind the scenes) in an ultra-determined, can-be-dominating square to Mars in stubborn Taurus and a pushily confident square to Jupiter. Her Sun/Moon midpoint, the marriage significator, is conjunct her New Moon Venus so she will attract an affectionate partner.
He was born 21 December 1977 10.40 am Amiens, France, and has an 11th house stellium in Sagittarius of Neptune, Venus, Sun, Mercury in a laid-back opposition to Jupiter in Cancer; with a flamboyant Mars in Leo in his 7th on the focal point of a Fixed T square to a Taurus Moon opposition Uranus, and a publicity-attracting trine to Neptune – indulgent, stubborn, attention-seeking. He has Saturn on the cusp of his 8th with Pluto at the far end of his 8th – so much goes on below the surface.
He’s a very different personality type to her – more out there and changeable, though both are obstinate. Both have their respective Moons in hard aspect to Uranus so will be drawn to an unconventional domestic life.
His Taurus Moon is conjunct her Mars and her Aries Moon is opposition his Pluto – so it will always have been a volatile and intense relationship.
Their composite chart has an affectionate Sun Venus conjunction though it is in an over hopeful square to Neptune which can suggest disappointments when reality creeps in. Plus a composite Mars square Saturn hinting at underlying resentment since one partner has to submerge their needs and personality to make togetherness work. Plus a power-couple though changeable Jupiter square Pluto Uranus.
Their bond has hit a bumpy patch recently with an unsettling and separating tr Uranus square the composite Sun through late April to mid May (continuing on from last year); and an impatient/irritable tr Saturn square the composite Mars until a few days back – so tempers will have been simmering. They will continue to flounder and snap with tr Saturn Neptune undermining their composite Mars till early 2026. They also have an unaspected composite Moon at 2 degrees Taurus which will be under pressure from tr Pluto square until the end of this year.
He has tr Saturn moving through his 2nd house at the nadir of his First Quadrant, so not a successful time – and on when unresolved psychological issues can surface.
She has tr Saturn moving through her 7th and now into her 8th which can be a time of feeling separated from close partners.
Life in the goldfish bowl can be unkind. But it comes with the territory.
The Pluto generations differ from each other and can be gauged against the events of those times. There will be additional factors since for example the mid 1960s Pluto in Virgo had the rebellious, reforming, status-quo-upsetting Uranus Pluto conjunction. Way back when, the Pluto in Gemini generation also had Neptune in Gemini to contend with. So not all simple.
Of them all I have always thought Pluto through Cancer was the most difficult (damaging) at an emotional level.
Pluto in Gemini 1882 – 1912
Cities, skyscrapers
Telecommunications.
Electrical age starts.
Yellow Journalism
***
Pluto in Cancer 1912 – 1937
World War 1
Emancipation of women
Old family values destroyed
Wall Street Crash
The Great Depression
***
Pluto in Leo 1937 – 1956
Fascism + World War 11
Nuclear bombs
Baby Boomers
Rock ‘n’ roll
TV, growth of movies and theme parks.
***
Pluto in Virgo 1956 -1971
Medical advances:
Polio & measles vaccines
Heart pacemaker
USA Medicare Act.
European Economic Community
Asian flu pandemic
Suez Crisis
Russia invades Hungary
Advent of hippies
Back to the land movement
Concern about the purity of food and healthy eating.
***
Pluto in Libra 1971 – 1983
Divorce rate jumps
Changing expectations of marriage
Independence women
USA Equal Rights Legislation
Domestic violence shelters first
Bloody Sunday Watergate
Munich Olympics massacre.
Iranian Revolution
Opening Up of China
***
Pluto in Scorpio 1983 – 1995
Money and sex Economic shift
Brinks-Mat Gold Robbery
AIDs and Child sexual abuse surface
Crack Cocaine
Indira Gandhi assassinated
Chernobyl disaster
Fall of USSR/Berlin Wall.
***
Pluto in Sagittarius 1995 – 2008
Globalization
Multiculturalism
Schengen EU – cross border travel
New media + Fox News
Sebrenica Massacre
Oklahoma bombing
Al Quaeda/terrorism
Rabin assassinated
Foot & mouth disease and mad cow disease.
***
Pluto in Capricorn 2008 – 2023
Economics and Government
Financial crash
Migrant crisis
Populism & neo-nationalism
Global warming
Barack Obama elected
***
PLUTO IN AQUARIUS 2023 – 2043
PLUTO IN AQUARIUS 1532 – 1552
Henry V111 splits with Rome
RC versus Protestant schism
PLUTO IN AQUARIUS 1778 – 1797
Rebellious, inventive, enlightened
USA independence
French Revolution
Industrial Revolution
Scientific advances
Uranus discovered.
Explorers
Social thinkers
A Pluto in Aquarius sage: Michel de Montaigne, born February 1533
“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”
“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.”
“I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.”
“He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.”
“Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.”
“Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.”
“The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.”
The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone – the first lady of lingerie and an unlikely choice by David Cameron for elevation to the House of Lords in 2015 – will hit BBC screens this week.
From a poor, under-educated background she built a business empire over two decades mainly through brilliant self-publicity. She was regularly described as one of the UK’s most successful businesswomen, with few questions being asked. Her claim that her push-up bras were used by Julie Roberts in Erin Brokovitch appear to be unsubstantiated and even before her peerage her business appeared to be losing rather than making money.
According to the BBC website an irate businessman wrote to David Cameron and said “Miss Mone is not a successful entrepreneur, she is a small time businesswoman with a PR exposure far in excess of any actual success.”
Her first marriage broke up and she moved onto Doug Barrowman, an accountant and investment financier and businessman, whose wiki entry rattles through various company financial hitches and glitches.
Baroness Mone of Mayfair has now been stripped of the Conservative whip and is on leave from the House of Lords since a business connected to her is under investigation by the National Crime Agency in the post-pandemic PPE-acquisition mess.
Born 8 October 1971 4.55pm Glasgow, Scotland, she has an eye-curling chart with a Libra stellium in her 8th house ranging from Pluto, through a Uranus, Sun, Mercury conjunction to Venus. She has a high-finance, overly optimistic, can-be-scandal-prone Jupiter Neptune conjunction opposition Saturn in Gemini. An Air Grand Trine of an assertive, determined Mars in Aquarius on her Ascendant conjunct her North Node trines a Gemini Moon trine her Sun, Uranus, Mercury in Libra. Her chart is mainly communicative Air with two inspirational Fire planets – no grounded Earth and no creative/empathetic Water.
She left school at 15 and worked as a model and “ring girl” at boxing matches before moving into promotions and sales and thence into setting up her first company with the help of an investor. A successful PR executive, who was a key figure in building her early media profile said: “”She had two driving forces. One was to be very rich and one was to be very famous.”
A story for modern times – interesting to see the chart that produces this kind of result. And not quite what you might expect.
Susan Brownmiller, whose influential 1975 book “Against Our Will,” became a key pillar of the feminist movement and transformed the social and legal understanding of rape as a tool of violence and power, has died. In its wake, rape crisis centers were opened throughout the country, courtroom rules of evidence were changed to reduce the hurdles in prosecuting rapists, and laws were drawn up to allow rape to be charged as a crime in marriage.
The author who said she had never been raped herself, spent four years researching “Against Our Will,” which examined the historical context of rape from ancient Troy to Vietnam and an early 1970s war in which Pakistani soldiers raped hundreds of thousands of women in neighboring Bangladesh.
She argued that rape should not be seen solely as a sexual act but as an exercise of power and intimidation whose ultimate effect was to keep women subservient. ‘Nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear.’
Her book attracted a great deal of criticism — with accusations she colluded with racism; and those against feminism have dismissed it ‘as essentialist (seeing men as having an inbuilt urge to subjugate women), universalist (making sweeping generalisations across cultures and histories) and reductionist (reducing women’s subordination to a single cause).’
She was among the first feminists to raise the issue of the sexual abuse of children. At the time she was writing, there were no national statistics on this crime in the USA.
She was born 15 February 1935, New York, no birth time, and said it was her childhood lessons in Jewish history about the pogroms and Holocaust which drove her later activism.
Her chart is starkly powerful, hinting at a personality driven by rage and fear – rebellious, influential and keen to make a difference, with an innate understanding of the darker side of life. Her Aquarius Sun Mercury (and Saturn in Pisces) were in an assertive and communicative trine to Mars in Libra; with her Mars in an uncompromising opposition to Uranus square Pluto (Moon) in Cancer. Pluto on the focal point of a Cardinal T square does bestow penetrating insight and ideas that are ‘before their time’ and tending to arouse strong resistance. Though as it turns out her work kickstarted vital reforms. Her ‘activist’ North Node in Aquarius would also help motivate her.
A creative though not always realistic Water Grand Trine of Jupiter in Scorpio in a confident trine to Pluto trine a sympathetic Venus in Pisces, formed into a Kite by Venus opposition Neptune would give her high ideals.
Ceres, the star associated with Demeter, is close to her Pluto, which may also be relevant – since in mythology Demeter raised hell when her virginal daughter Persephone was carried off to the underworld by Pluto, who (depending on the version) either raped Persephone or separated her from childhood and brought her to maturity.
When Against Our Will was published her Solar Arc Neptune, the driving planet of her Grand Trine/Kite was exactly conjunct her natal Mars – bringing together the two major configurations in her chart for the ground-breaking moment of her life.
She would start researching her book as Pluto moved into Libra in 1971 (until 1983) which was a time that the divorce rate jumped along with changing expectations of marriage, more independence for women, with USA Equal Rights Legislation and the first domestic violence shelters opening.
Jane Fonda looking magnificent on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival says “I don’t feel like an old person. I’m much younger than I was when I was in my 20s, in all the ways that matter’. She still works out with a trainer every day to keep trim.
She was born 21 December 1937 9.14 am New York the daughter of actor Henry Fonda and a socialite mother who committed suicide when she was 12. Her father gave her a sense she had to be perfect and she contracted bulimia which continued well into her forties. Recently she said she always felt she had to seek the validation of men in order to prove that she had value and as a consequence, she attached herself to “alpha males”, some of whom reinforced her feelings of inadequacy, despite her professional success. She was married to French film director Roger Vadim who turned her into an almost soft-porn star; author/activist Ted Hayden who was dismissive of her talents and billionaire Ted Turner was diagnosed bi polar.
Now she says she’s given up on close relationships, having owned up to being frightened of emotional intimacy, though scared of nothing else, having been shot at and been close to bombs.
She’s had an extraordinary life moving form a seemingly shallow, surgically enhanced mannequin to a reviled anti-Vietnam activist who betrayed her country as Hanoi Jane. Two Oscars came her way (Klute and Coming Home) and her fitness videos remain popular which she started to raise money for her left-wing second husband Tom Hayden’s activist cause.
She has a Sun Sagittarius on the focal point of a Mutable T square to Saturn in regretful Pisces in a creative opposition to a film-star 8th house Neptune. Her Sun is also sextile Mars in determined Aquarius and inconjunct Pluto on her Descendant, which latter would attract her to controlling and intense partners. She’d also be dependent at points in her life with a 7th house Leo Moon. Her Venus in Sagittarius square Neptune would not help to anchor her in committed relationships.
Her 3rd house activist Uranus is unaspected which can indicate too much or too little reforming zeal – or more likely spurts of high-octane activity and fallow periods in between. She also has an enthusiastic Jupiter on her Ascendant in a pushily-confident opposition to Pluto.
Her Mars in determined Aquarius is sextile her Sun. widely opposition her Moon and inconjunct her Pluto – so she’s not short of courage.
Her relationship charts with both her parents have composite Mars Pluto hard aspects suggesting a one-sided relationship, requiring submission from her as a child.
Jupiter moving through her 5th at the moment will put her in the spotlight though tr Neptune square her Sun may reduce her vitality somewhat into early 2026. And tr Uranus square her Mars this June and on and off into 2026 may knock some of her plans off track.
Saturn is on the move today out of a conflicted two years in Pisces where its practical, dutiful, rigid approach threatened to get submerged in oceanic, boundary-less, irrational Pisces. At best it could have given shape to Pisces’s dreams of the ideal of a better society, with help for the underdog and the suffering. At worst it produced obsessive worry and paranoia as thinking functions were undermined.
Saturn in Aries for the next two years will have its own mood music – see previous post May 6 2025 – and it also has an effect on individual charts depending on which chart quadrant it moves through.
The 29 year Saturn career and development cycle which splits the chart into four quadrants of approximately seven years gives lays out a pattern for the stages of life.
UPPER QUADRANT: The peak in terms of career and outer ambition is transiting Saturn moving through the upper quadrant (10th to 12th houses) which is a time of hard work and consolidation of the preparations of the 21 years before. Where the groundwork has been laid, then respect and recognition as well as heavier responsibilities come through this phase.
FIRST QUADRANT: When Saturn moves below the Ascendant into the first quadrant (1st to 3rd houses) old ambitions become less important, motivation and energy sag and there is need for a re-evaluation. This the psyche’s hint to wind down and step back for a rethink and a chance to re-balance your life with time for play and emotional matters as well as work. It is also crucially a time to go on an inward journey to investigate what unused inner potential needs to be explored and activated to give focus and meaning to the next long stage of life.
During this time, usually at the start of Saturn through the 2nd house, old unresolved psychological issues surface to be faced and fixed. Money nay be shorter than before because of sagging ambition or less success at work which will prompt a financial reorganisation and perhaps instil a sense that money is not the be-all and end-all. When Saturn moves into the 3rd, the preparation starts for the step up in terms of career visibility coming when Saturn moves across the IC (base of the chart) into the 4th.
Hyper-ambitious ego-maniacs find Saturn through the first quadrant tricky to handle since they live totally for outer achievement and approbation. So they keep pushing on as before and start making mistakes as their psyche short circuits their actions and they find success doesn’t come as easily as it had done in the previous 7 years, no matter how hard they push.
SECOND QUADRANT: With Saturn moving into the 2nd quadrant (4th to 6th houses) across the nadir/IC at the base of the chart there is a step up in terms of visibility in career and outer activities. There will also be an urge to reorganise at home to create a solid base of operations for the future which may involve moving house or renovating as well as sorting out family tensions. The 2nd Quadrant Saturn isn’t necessarily a spectacular success but it is a vital stage of laying foundations for the future. Saturn through the 6th usually means extra hard work with less appreciation than seems fair but rewards come in later years.
THIRD QUADRANT: Saturn through the 3rd Quadrant (7th to 9th house) is rising upwards in terms of outer career and community activities, which requires sorting out and strengthening close relationships or abandoning those that don’t work. Then a hard lesson through the 8th of developing resilience and resourcefulness where money and emotional support are concerned. Saturn through the 9th – rethinking beliefs and attitudes, testing out ideas, being intellectually challenged.
SATURN RETURNS:
The other Saturn cycle to its natal position – of the First Return at 29 and Second Return at 58 and Third at 87 – are staging posts. The First Return at 29 is grow-up-and-get-real-time, the first maturing transit. The Second is about being realistic and planning for the next third of life to come. Those with strongly Saturnine charts tend to find life goes in reverse – they are serious children, mellow through their middle years and become youthful geriatrics.
SATURN’S DOMINION
Saturn is about structure in earthly terms. It plans, prepares, thinks long term to a feasible goal, gets foundations laid, builds slowly and securely so its achievements stand the test of time. The end result is not aesthetic, since it isn’t concerned with cosmetic fripperies, but it is enduring.
Ruling Capricorn, it has the same steady ambition, which is willing to forego instant gratification for long term goals. Like the symbolic mountain goat, it starts in the foothills and works its way up to the peak, along a winding path if necessary.
Saturn restricts, so oversees limits and boundaries which may not feel like fun but are essential, psychologically as well as practically, in life. Neptune dissolves boundaries, Pluto invades across them to grab all the territory, Uranus blows them up, but Saturn stands firm for order, delineation, marked borders. In action, it is like a gardener who prunes plants back, lopping off overgrown branches, to stimulate fresh growth and produce a more manageable shape.
Saturn is concerned with material security and can be less than generous and open-hearted. In close relationships, it can be cold, putting up a defensive wall against any encroachment and is better at ‘doing’ than ‘being’.
The myth of Saturn eating his children depicted in a horrific Goya painting is apt, since it ties into his obsessions with time and mortality. Saturn was scared of being overthrown by his sons so he ate them at birth. Deep down he knows he is going to die and his children represent a future that he can never possess, since his is limited by his mortal span. He both loves and loathes the boundaries of his life, so he tries to over-ride them and stop time.
The mythological Saturn shows his other face at the autumn festivals of the harvest, when the agricultural bounty of the year is brought in and drunken celebrations ensue after the hard work was done. Earthly delights are also his preserve and his reign was seen as one of peace and plenty. He is associated with the flow of the seasons, especially winter when everything dies back to be reborn in spring.
Saturnine Capricorn as a sign is unfairly dubbed as the cold, materialistic workaholic, but in fact has a creative and indulgent side. The old Capricorn symbol was half goat half fish. He operates in two realms – in the watery realm of ideas and visions and then makes them real on dry land. He is the stander on the threshold between the unconscious and the conscious; just as Capricorn stands on the cusp of the year that has past and the year that is about to come. He both mourns and celebrates.
Saturn is a more complex creature than he is given credit for.
Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” – a sweeping multi-trillion dollar tax breaks package – shortened to Triple B by his advisers, has evoked wry smiles from economists. They point out that “Triple B” is the tag that credit ratings groups use to designate the lower threshold of investment grade assets, before they become “junk”, with rising default risk.
The FT commented that the “BBB” tag could soon look decidedly unfunny. “The only silver lining in this sordid saga is that if anything can curb Trump’s wilder instincts, it is probably those rising bond yields.”
The bill as it stands still has to get through the Senate with a few Republicans becoming increasingly uneasy about rising debt levels especially as Moody’s has just stripped away America’s AAA rating.
Democrats fiercely opposed the bill and warned that the cuts could have dire consequences for millions of lower-income Americans.
The Congress vote at 6.30am 22 May is not too revealing – though it does connect by aspect the celestial shifts with a trapped 9th house Pluto trine a hidden 12th house Gemini Sun conjunct Uranus sextile Neptune in Aries and Saturn in final degree Pisces.
I am beyond sick and tired of Trump’s pinball politics (sorry Americans) but what intrigues me at this moment is the Inauguration chart. Most obviously it has a control-freak, bullying Sun Pluto conjunction opposition Mars. But it is another aspect which I cannot quite quantify. The Mars opposition Mercury (= running arguments) squares onto a 6th house Libra Moon conjunct the Black Moon opposition Chiron. The Progressed Moon will conjunct the BML and square Mars exactly late this July so whatever that 6th house Moon represents will come sharply into focus.
In mundane astrology, the 6th house rules public administration, the health service, the armed forces, civil service workers, the workers, the management of food.
The Moon refers to the masses – i.e. the electorate rather than the ruling classes; with some reference to women’s issues as well.
The only two past presidents, whose Inauguration times I could tie down with a 6th house Moon were Abraham Lincoln in 1861 and Franklin Roosevelt in 1941. The second during World War 11 had a Scorpio Moon on the focal point of a Fixed T square as war time loomed. Not exactly the same but similar. The first for Abe Lincoln had a 6th house Sagittarius Moon.
In general terms a focal point Cardinal Moon, as this year has, suggests a hair-trigger emotionality and a tendency to take offence. Which makes sense of the present climate in the White House. The Moon opposition Chiron hints at emotional wounding which could/should evoke sympathy for the have-nots but does not seem to remotely. Maybe the Black Moon casts a malevolent shadow.
Anyway I am puzzled by that Moon so any Mundane experts do pitch in.
BUT do NOT pitch in with stray partisan thoughts, likes and dislikes. CONSIDER whether your contribution can add insight to the debate before posting.
The phenomenon that is Tom Cruise has launched “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”, the 8th in the successful series that has run since 1996.
As Ethan Hunt he races to save the world from an evil AI Entity, an evil AI that has taken control of every nuclear missile on the planet. So much, so familiar with standard blockbuster content. What is different is that Cruise, a good actor despite his odd beliefs and fractured family life, even at 63 still does all his own stunts.
His stunt coordinator says: ‘He has no fear’ as he jumps out of planes, motorbikes off the edge of cliffs and hangs onto helicopter struts. The training for this movie involved a year’s motocross and skydiving, with more than 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps.
Born 3 July 1962 at 3.06pm (unverified) Syracuse, New York, he has a Cancer Sun and Leo Moon. But what stands out from his chart is his super-confident Jupiter Chiron opposition Pluto which is the driving rod of his chart channeling the creative energy of his Water Grand Trine of Sun, Jupiter, Neptune. Plus a risk-taking Mars in Taurus square Uranus which will draw him towards reckless and dangerous pursuits. He thrives on excitement, thrills and danger and will be drawn towards extreme sports.
Jupiter Chiron also has induces super-optimism and has a protective capacity as well as a tendency towards messianic beliefs.
His emphasized Neptune will also probably help – trine Sun, sextile Pluto, square Saturn and trine Jupiter Chiron – since it will give him self-belief, however self-deluded, though it has clearly worked so far, barring a few minor accidents.
He also has a yod onto a 4th house Saturn inconjunct Pluto sextile Sun which does require maturity and self-control to work well – which could, birth time being accurate, be connected to him not having seen his daughter Suri Cruise reputedly for many years.
This year he does look rattled with tr Uranus square his Uranus and conjunct his Mars and that runs on and off into early 2026. And maybe tr Pluto opposing his Moon this year. 2026 could be accident prone or stressful with his Mars/Saturn midpoint catching the tr Neptune Saturn square.
