Abimael Guzmán, ‘a Marxist megalomaniac’ and former philosophy professor whose Shining Path movement inflicted a reign of terror on Peru, has died in prison. He rose from academic obscurity to mesmerise his followers into provoking a civil war in which 70,000 died, until the atrocities he set in motion lost the sympathy of the people he claimed to represent. He created a cult of personality, despite evidently being a monumental bore, seeing himself as a leader of the world revolution which would be sparked by his triumph in Peru. He regarded himself as a god and for a while succeeded in creating a highly disciplined, fanatical, brutal and hierarchical guerrilla movement that controlled large stretches of the national territory.
Born 3 December 1934 he was a Sun Venus in Sagittarius square Neptune, which fits the philosophy teacher; with a revolutionary Uranus square Pluto. And two Yods of Mercury in Scorpio sextile Mars inconjunct Uranus, further accentuating his disruptive Uranus; and a brutal Pluto sextile Mars inconjunct Saturn in Aquarius. He also had an obsession-for-a-cause North Node in Aquarius.
In 1980 when he started his movement his Uranus square Pluto had moved by Solar Arc to connect with his Sun Venus which makes sense of infusing his identity with his warped revolutionary ideology.
He is spoken off in the same terms as Pol Pot, the genocidal Marxist-Leninist leader of Cambodia, whose reign of terror saw quarter of the population wiped out from assassinations or starvation.
Pol Pot, 19 May 1925, was a Sun Taurus square Neptune, sextile Uranus and trine Jupiter; with his Neptune on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Jupiter and Uranus – so both his Neptune and Uranus were emphasised – as in Guzman’s chart. Pol Pot also had an even more brutal combination of Mars Pluto conjunct trine Saturn. Pol Pot’s North Node is in the ‘leadership’ sign of Leo. His birth date may be questionable but it looks feasible enough.
Can I suggest – request, insist – that posts be respectful? It is possible to disagree with A.N.other without treating them and their views with hostility and contempt. Just because they don’t agree it doesn’t mean that a) they are necessarily wrong or b) an idiot.
Restricting comments to the subject matter rather than attacking the individual poster for their perceived shortcomings will also contribute to a constructive discussion. Ad hominem rebukes – trying to pull down the person rather than focusing on what was said – are not only bad manners, they are also lazy.
This is an astrology forum but I do allow non-astrological comments which can bring context to subjects under discussion and sometimes spark off further astrological points. But that needs to be kept within limits. Spraying out random thoughts is not acceptable.
I am sure there are friendship or even enemy forums out there for those who wish to vent and/or share. But this isn’t one of them.
Memorials are being held on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with political leaders in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania where passengers brought down a hijacked plane. The atrocity set in motion the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq with repercussions still ongoing.
The below is from an old post on the astrology:
The astrology of 9/11 isn’t quite as starkly obvious as you might expect of such an epoch-changing event.
In direct transits tr Uranus was trine the USA Mars exactly which can be explosive, disruptive and insecure-making. Tr Neptune was exactly opposition and undermining the USA’s leadership North Node in Leo. And tr Saturn just over the direct opposition to Pluto was exactly trine the USA Saturn and within minutes of being conjunct the USA Mars/Uranus midpoint. In retrospect that looks entirely descriptive but I’m not sure you’d have predicted an atrocity of that proportion from the above.
If the USA had an 8am birth time which no one I think has ever suggested then tr Uranus would have been exactly conjunct the Aquarius Moon – and that would make sense of such an emotionally shocking event.
The previous Lunar Eclipse chart is more indicative than the Solar Eclipse charts. The 5 July 2001 Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn at the exact degree of the USA Cancer Sun (and GW Bush’s Sun as well) is peculiarly dangerous looking located to New York. A ruthless and brutal Mars Pluto conjunction straddles the IC made worse by being in opposition to Saturn conjunct the Midheaven – Saturn Pluto is war, hardship and Mars Saturn is assassination, cruelty. Tr Saturn had moved to exactly oppose the Eclipse Mars/Pluto midpoint on 9/11.
The event chart itself for 11 Sept 2001 8.46 am New York does have the war-mongering tr Saturn just across the first exact hit of the opposition to Pluto and square the Virgo Sun – but nothing exact and nothing on the angles apart from expansive Jupiter approaching a conjunction to the Midheaven.
Down into the more minor aspects however it is clearer – on the 22.5 degree aspects (quarter of a square) in the 16th Harmonic there’s a fierce Mars in Aries in an explosively angry, tension-erupting square to Uranus Saturn and a ruthless sextile to Pluto. On the 11am USA birth time there’s also a Pluto opposition MC square Sun (Jupiter) which is suggestive of a craving for power, physical suffering, danger to life.
The astrocartography of the 9/11 event chart has the bleak, war-associated Pluto MC Saturn IC line through Afghanistan. And on GW Bush’s chart his Mars MC line also runs through Afghanistan which follows in the long line of world leaders whose Mars line through the region in which they waged war.
Bush at 9/11 had tr Uranus opposing his Venus describing an emotional shock and tr Saturn trine his Solar Arc Venus bringing sadness; and his Solar Arc Saturn was exactly square his Uranus bringing a major jolt. The tr Virgo Sun on the point of the T Square to the Saturn opposition Pluto was within less than a degree of being conjunct his Solar Arc Saturn as well. The tr Sun is very minor but when amplified by tr Saturn Pluto it pushed executive responsibilities onto his shoulders which his 12th house natal Saturn were ill-designed to cope with.
You can piece it together with hindsight but not easy to predict in advance apart from the high-risk and brutal Lunar Eclipse chart.
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The New York City Incorporated chart shows 9/11 starkly with the tr Saturn opposition Pluto hitting the NY Pluto.
Even more so the New York State chart which has the destructive, brutal Solar Arc Pluto conjunct its Mars and an emotionally upsetting tr Uranus opposition the Venus. Plus Jupiter showing his less favourable qualities with Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct Pluto and a Jupiter Return. Expanding the bad as well as the good.
Will the Royals survive to provide a symbolic anchor for the national psyche after the Queen passes? The present shenanigans of both her elder sons, Charles and Andrew, are raising huge questions and undermining the support of even the staunchest monarchists. Charles is described as a ‘spoilt brat’ with terrible judgement and Andrew is so beyond the pale he should have been banished into Kazakhstan exile long since. If the UK is moving into an-end-of-an-era phase will there be a knock-on effect on the throne?
When Edward V111 abdicated in 1936 which shook the UK’s confidence in the Royals, tr Uranus was in early Taurus moving through the UK’s 8th house, which rules deep-seated transformations, and more pointedly the Solar Arc Pluto was conjunct the 10th house Cancer Moon, which has been traditionally associated with the ruler.
Astrological influences rarely repeat exactly as in the past. However there is a collection of transits and Solar Arcs congregating into the 2030s which will bring many of the same pressures. The Solar Arc Pluto will square the UK Moon in 2032 with tr Neptune in Aries and tr Uranus in Cancer in hard aspect to the UK Moon in 2033 and 2036. All of which will put the monarchy under considerable pressure.
Which does rather coincide with an astro-opinion voiced years ago that the Solar Eclipse which occurred on the day Prince William was born in 1982 was in a Saros Series (2 Old North) which finishes in 2036 – and for some reason this indicated he would be the last UK monarch. How much validity there is in that argument I don’t know, but it does look an edgy period.
There are various suggestions about which chart to use for this monarchical family but the start of the Hanoverian Monarchy 1 August 1714 JC worked well over Edward’s 1936 abdication with the Solar Arc Saturn exactly square the Mars, tr Pluto square the Solar Arc Uranus, tr Neptune opposing the Virgo planets and tr Uranus approaching a highly-strung conjunction to the Neptune.
Looking ahead on the Hanoverian chart, the Solar Arc Saturn is conjunct Mars on this chart in 2029 which looks like a considerable setback; with a grind-to-a-halt Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the Mars by 2035.
So it would fit the timeline.
By 2036 Prince William has his Solar Arc Midheaven aiming to conjunct his Neptune and tr Neptune aiming to cross his IC into his 4th; with tr Pluto just over the conjunction to his Solar Arc Neptune and tr Saturn conjunct his Solar Arc New Moon with tr Pluto in opposition. He will be uncertain about his direction and undermined in terms of home and family as well as career.
In the immediate future the Queen’s Coronation chart has a panicky-failure tr Neptune square the Mars Mercury in 2021/22 so not a happy end to her illustrious reign. Though she made a better Queen than a parent, given the way the sons turned out and chickens will come home to roost eventually.
The Royal women always were the stronger. The Queen’s mentor growing up was her grandmother Queen Mary of Teck of the kleptomaniac tendencies, a Gemini with an immoveable Saturn in Scorpio opposition Pluto in Taurus – and she did not have resounding success bringing up well-behaved sons either. Prince George, Duke of Kent had a wild and wayout love life and drug habits and Edward V111 was no example.
A global financial crunch looks likely around Pluto’s entry into Aquarius from late March 2023 onwards. It may not be the same as the 2008 Pluto-into-Capricorn crash but there is consternation writ large on several central bank charts.
The US Federal Reserve has tr Pluto opposition the Neptune at zero degrees Leo in 2023/24 which usually indicates devastation of sorts and paralysis running for two years after; followed by tr Neptune square the Saturn Pluto conjunction in 2025/26 which won’t be much better. The Bank of Russia has an equally blocked and scary tr Pluto square Mars at zero degrees Taurus in 2023/24. The European Central Bank has Neptune at 1 Aquarius catching the tr Pluto hard aspect in 2024/25.
The Bank of Australia also highlights 2024/25 as years of panic and uncertainty. The Bank of China is nerve-stretched in 2022 and worse in 2024 to 2026 with tr Neptune and Solar Arc Neptune both in hard aspect to its overly confident Uranus opposition Mars Jupiter which will deflate confidence considerably.
We are so used to thinking of Pluto in Capricorn as the transformer of all financial ills, deconstructing and reconstructing, that it’s a shock to consider Pluto into Aquarius may bring more even if of a different variety.
Looking back to the last Pluto in Aquarius (1778 to 1799) from an economic standpoint there were several significant shifts. The American colonies revolted against Britain which was the world’s pre-eminent military and economic superpower of the time over taxation. In France the agricultural and climatic problems of the 1770s and 1780s led to great problems with a third of the population living in poverty. Wealth inequality led directly to the French Revolution (1792) during Pluto in Aquarius (opposition Uranus in Leo). In China the height of Qing glory and power had been reached and was slowly sinking into decline with corruption, court wastefulness and a stagnating civil society.
None of the above shifted the global balance of power immediately. Britain was increasingly prosperous with the Industrial revolution ongoing. China went into slow stagnation with next ruler post 1796 as Pluto moved into Pisces which coincided with a major downhill slide into chaos. In France it took a decade plus for the Pluto effect to produce results.
From previous posts in 2018/19 and Hugh’s comments (below) it’s clear this combination of Pluto into Aquarius and Neptune into Aries has a profound effect on England – the split from Rome in 1533 and the submission to the Romans in 60 BC.
End of an era may be more prescient than expected.
Previous Pluto in Aquarius phases:
1778 -1797: The USA had declared independence in 1776 so the Brits were in retreat, though elsewhere were fighting the French, Spanish, Dutch and Indians in different spats. The French Revolution of 1793 had a dramatic effect and not just in France, though this was partially due to Pluto being opposition Uranus. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing having got under way during Pluto in Capricorn. James Watts’ improved steam engine revolutionised production.
Aquarius is scientific, so no surprises there were major advances in chemistry. And, with blissful syncronicity, William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus, which rules Aquarius. Explorers, another Aquarian strength, were also out and about with Captains James Cook and William Bligh leading the way to ‘new’ lands.
It was a productive period for philosophical and social thinkers – Emmanuel Kant and Thomas Paine (Rights of Man); with cultural highpoints from Mozart and Scottish poet Robert Burns, who later established a global footprint.
1532 – 1552: Henry V111 declared himself head of the Church in 1531 and was excommunicated in 1533 by the Pope. The RC versus Protestant schism got under way in earnest, which led to centuries of conflict.
1287 – 1307: Welsh Rebellion against the English. Edward 1 of England put John Balliol on Scottish throne with William Wallace rebellion following.
1041 – 1061: Macbeth succeeds to throne of Scotland. Great schism between the Western RC church and Eastern Orthodox churches.
796 – 816: Charlemagne becomes Holy Roman Emperor in 800. He unites most of Western Europe, laying the foundations for modern France and Germany. He dies just as Pluto is about to exit Aquarius.
551 – 572: Mohammed is born.
This next time round tr Pluto in Aquarius will march in time to Neptune in Aries (2025 to 2038) and initially to Uranus in Gemini (2025 to 2033) – so early on there’ll be a Uranus trine Pluto sextile Neptune after the mid 2020s – innovative and creative. Of the earlier historical happenings which might repeat, we can expect more advances in science and exploration (outer space/bottom of the sea/under Arctic ice?). For the rest – the US and France will have come full circle back to their first Pluto Return or the immediate aftermath, so significant shifts/adjustments, epochal events in both countries. Sometimes empires that rise on one Pluto cycle, fall on the next.
Hugh Fowler comments;
At the risk of becoming an ephemeris bore I have checked the 11th century to see what was happening in the run up to the Norman Conquest. The record shows Pluto ingresses into Aquarius in 1041 which was the year Edward the Confessor returned from exile in Normandy to become the heir to his half brother Harthacnut. The latter died in April 1042 and Edward became king almost precisely at the point of the Neptune ingresses into Aries in May 1042. Edward’s accession to the throne, his Norman upbringing and his failure to produce an heir set in train the series of events that would lead to the fall of the Anglo Saxon royal house of Wessex and its replacement by the Dukes of Normandy. Again the transition seems to fall at a deeply significant moment where a seemingly mundane event in the historical process kicks off changes that run very deep and last centuries. One final point it should be noted that however big the change Britain seems to always reset to old patterns. So while all the Norman and Angevin dynasties ruled for centuries by the end of the 13th century the kings of England were being titled Edward again.
As a quick addendum I have checked the ephemeris to see what was happening at the time the Roman province of Britain was created. It essentially began in 43 CE when Claudius army invaded. At that time Pluto was in Capricorn and Neptune was in Pisces. Rather spookily the conquest was essentially completed and made permanent for the next four centuries when the Boudiccan revolt was crushed between 60 and 61 CE. That was precisely the time that Pluto ingressed into Aquarius and Neptune into Aries. This transition does seem to echo down the centuries for the inhabitants of Britain.
Scots are looking through the wrong end of the telescope at the astrology here. If the past is anything to go by Pluto moving into Aquarius and Neptune into Aries in the 2020 signals some sort of transformation of English identity and its relation to the world if the 1530s is anything to go by since that is the last time it happened. Moreover it all be generated internally (ie the English nation will do it to themselves for good or ill). I can’t even guess what is going to happen but as in the 1530s what triggers the change (Henry VIII lack of a male heir from his Spanish wife) won’t necessarily be as significant as the changes it brings.
Peter Brookes is just the best cartoonist – adore this.
A young Canadian-born British tennis player is catching the public imagination with an unexpected showing in the US Open, as she sailed exuberantly through to the semi-finals, to become the UK’s No 1 and the first UK woman in the semis since 1983.
Only 18, she excelled in her A-level exams recently and was so sure she wouldn’t get through the qualifying rounds she booked an early flight home and her parents did not come across to see her.
She was born 13 November 2002 in Toronto to a Romanian father and Chinese mother, came to London when she was two, started playing tennis at five and turned professional when she was 16.
She has an adventurous and flamboyant Jupiter in Leo opposition Uranus squaring onto a Scorpio Sun Mercury – so overflowing with confidence and determination. Her Jupiter is trine Pluto which is in a wide opposition to her Saturn – so enthusiastic and dogged. She also has three planets in Air signs Mars in Libra, Neptune and Uranus in Aquarius and Saturn in Gemini, so will be quick-witted and a good learner. Her Moon is in Pisces.
Her Solar Return for this year had a super-successful Jupiter Pluto sextile Neptune and sextile Sun. Though she’s also had a run of confusing Neptune transits to midpoints.
Her get-it-together 5th harmonic also has a Jupiter Pluto connection onto disciplined Saturn and a feisty, publicity-attracting Mars Uranus Neptune.
The UK money fountain is also feeding the prodigiously expensive HS2 (high speed 2) train line envisaged as ‘one of the most demanding and exciting transport projects in Europe’ linking up London, the Midlands, the North and Scotland. It is due to be completed by 2040, but is already behind schedule and over-budget heading northwards of £100 billion.
Cheer leaders say it will improve transport times, create jobs and by moving freight by train rather than on the roads will help cut carbon emissions. Critics worry about whether it is affordable and about the impact on the countryside. High Speed 1, the channel tunnel link was opened in 2003 and the long decision and consultation process for HS2 started in 2009 under a Labour Government. It was given the green light by the Tory-Liberal coalition and got the construction go-ahead from Boris Johnson last year.
HS2 Ltd, the over-seeing government company, was incorporated on 14 January 2009; and the HS2 Act for Phase One London-to-Midlands was given the assent on 23 February 2017.
The HS2 company chart does have a workmanlike, practical Capricorn Sun trine Saturn in Virgo. And a dogged Saturn trine Mars as well. Though the erratic, see-saw Saturn opposition Uranus will bring tensions. There’s nothing much of note after this year passes and tr Pluto and tr Neptune move on to later degrees. 2024/25 will be go-ahead with tr Pluto square the Jupiter with a definitely upbeat Solar Arc Mars conjunct Jupiter in 2027. Though that is followed by setbacks in 2030 and considerable problems in 2031.
The Act 2017 chart is less upbeat with a vague, dithery Sun Neptune in Pisces; though admittedly that is offset by a super-confident – and crisis-prone – Jupiter opposition Uranus Mars in Aries square Pluto. 2023 looks undermined, uncertain and swampy with tr Neptune square the Saturn and Solar Arc Sun conjunct Neptune. But there’s no much beyond that of note.
Jean Paul Belmondo, an icon of the French cinema who shot to international fame in Jean-Luc Godard’s revolutionary new wave classic Breathless, has died. He was frequently compared to Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando and James Dean, playing tough, unsentimental, antisocial characters. After he became known he starred in Peter Brook’s adaptation of Moderato Cantabile and played in Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women opposite Sophia Loren, but much preferred French cinema and theatre.
He was born 9 April 1933 9am Neuilly Sur Seine, France with an Algerian-born sculptor father of Italian origin and has a fairly haphazard chart which only comes together in his 15th harmonic, most associated with actors. He did badly at school, dallied with a boxing career but really only found his feet when he turned to acting.
He did have a rebellious Aries Sun, Venus, Uranus square Pluto so was never destined for a conventional life. The main astro-interest in his chart is his exuberant and attention-attracting, and hard-working Mars, Neptune and Jupiter in Virgo which was around from late November 1932 till July 1933 which produced a considerable number of names – Yoko Ono, Kim Novak, Nina Simone, James Brown, Carol Burnett, Ruth Ginsburg, Quincy Jones, Philip Roth, Michael Caine, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jayne Mansfield, Willie Nelson, Gene Wilder, Joan Rivers, Joan Collins. That plus the determined-to-be-different Uranus Pluto would make them stand out.
Belmondo’s 15H is heavily aspected with a Grand Trine tying together Mars, Uranus and Pluto with Mars opposition Sun squaring onto the North Node. His connection with the zeitgeist is flagged up by the Node and the Mars, Uranus, Pluto is wayward, tough and sometimes violent in the roles he played. There is also another T square of Saturn Moon Jupiter.
Without acting he’d have had a directionless life.
Astrologers search for patterns in seemingly random events to offer partial reassurance that life is not all a swirling meaningless chaos. It can be a delicate task distinguishing between coincidental clusters of events and a genuine connectedness. And distinguishing between what is an individual reaction and what is going on out in the collective.
There do seem to be more cancer deaths from celebrities in the news at the moment – and no doubt more who never catch a mention. And many people I know appear to be weighed down in their personal lives by multiple problems, which vary according to their particular life’s pattern – ie. some have health issues, others have domestic woes etc etc.
The tr Saturn square tr Uranus while hinting at tensions and irritability and producing situations which require endurance, doesn’t feel like the main culprit.
The only astro-thought I have is that Mars opposition Pluto dominated the recent June Solar and late May Lunar Eclipses. There was also a formidable Mars square Pluto Saturn Jupiter in the Capricorn Ingress which ushered in 2021. Depending which of the Cardinal Ingresses is used and opinions vary – the Aries and recent Cancer Ingress also have afflicted Mars, especially the late June one with Mars opposition Saturn square Uranus opposition Moon.
Eclipses and Ingresses are both thought to stay in effect for months afterwards. And the principal Ingress for the year ahead.
Mars is assertive, says ‘I want’, ‘I will do’ and likes to make fast progress, sweeping obstacles aside. When Mars is blocked by Saturn there are accidents, setbacks, irritating blockages and delays. Blocked by Pluto it tends to bring up intense frustrations and what I think of as spider web situation. No matter which way you turn you are trapped and end up feeling you have no choices. Mars Pluto is also destructive, ruthless, brutal so can accompany major natural or man-made disasters and the kind of fear-inducing savagery seen in Afghanistan.
The upcoming Ingresses in October in Libra and December in Capricorn are easier in terms of Mars afflictions and the December Solar Eclipse, supposedly a joyful one, has only a Mars sextile Pluto which will be easier.
