Slow moving, heavyweight Pluto is now firmly on track to make its influence felt until 2043. Nothing happens instantly with Pluto so the Fixed signs most affected – Taurus (career/life’s direction), Leo (relationships), Scorpio (home/family), Aquarius (personal identity) – are still coming to terms with the changes imposed on their lives since 2024. Other signs pick up milder hints.

  Transformation is a word lightly tossed around but in reality is a challenging, on occasion painful process, as old structures are demolished and reduced to ashes before the rebuilding of the new can begin. Pluto demands depth, discarding a superficial approach as trivial and frivolous. He was Lord of the Underworld, ruler of a realm of riches and intense emotional experiences. You have to dig deep to reap his bounty. Those who exist in a half-life of outer appearances find the Plutonic experience the most troubling. Relevant is the myth of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess, who went underground to reconnect with her sister. Her process involved losing all of her finery before she was rescued, not by a knight in shining armour, but by small earth-like creatures. There is nothing glamorous about the Pluto phase.   

  All signs feel the effect when there is a celestial Pluto aspect as there is this weekend with the pressured Taurus Sun square Pluto and towards the end of May with a risky, frustrated Mars in Taurus square Pluto. Life in general feels stuck, powerless and progress requires perseverance or an acceptance of what cannot be changed immediately. These come around about six times a year in hard aspect to the Sun or Mars so are part and parcel of the weft and warp (fabric) of life.

Pluto through the signs every twenty plus years does have a significant effect on the culture. See list below.

 What sparked off this post is that the present Pluto in Aquarius is squaring its 1980s phase in Scorpio in the Thatcher/Reagan era when deregulation of the financial markets took place.

 A new book The Asset Class by Hettie O’Brien describes in detail what happens when the state withdraws from key public services and allows private equity to take control.  “You don’t know their names, but they own the house you rent. They own your hospitals, nurseries and care homes, the media you consume and the companies you work for”. “They are deeply entangled in our everyday life: in water, energy, housing, care homes, health, trains – services we all depend on.”

She shows how some care homes treat elderly people as “the human equivalent of ATM machines” as fees are siphoned from their housing equity to fund the poor conditions and low wages of exhausted care workers.

In the UK, privatisation was accompanied by regulation but it is often underfunded and ineffective. Nothing changes, because poor services maximise profit and shareholder returns are a higher priority than clean water. O’Brien rightly concludes that this has “rewire[d] the state in service of a wealthy elite”.

  It took almost to the end of the last Pluto in Aquarius for the citizens of Paris to revolt against the entitled wealthy and bring them down; and then only because there was a revolutionary Uranus opposition Pluto to spur on the upheaval. There is none such across the next twenty years but it may be (hope!) that the egalitarian drive of Pluto in Aquarius will start to push back against the Gordon Gekkos – fittingly launched into movie stardom a year after the Big Bang.   

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

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

Pluto in Libra 1971 – 1983

Divorce rate jumps. Changing expectations of marriage. Independence women.

USA Equal Rights Legislation. First domestic violence shelters.

Bloody Sunday, Northern Ireland. Watergate.

Munich Olympics massacre.

Pluto in Scorpio 1983 – 1995

Money and sex. Economic shift. Brinks-Mat Gold Robbery.

AIDs and Child Sexual Abuse surfaces. Crack Cocaine.

Indira Gandhi assassinated

Pluto in Sagittarius 1995 – 2008

Globalization, multiculturalism Schengen EU – cross border travel.  New media.

Sebrenica Massacre. Oklahoma bombing. Al Quaeda/terrorism. Rabin assassinated

Pluto in Capricorn 2008 – 2023

Economics and Government. Financial crash. Migrant crisis.

Populism & neo-nationalism. Global warming.

Barack Obama elected

Pluto in Aquarius 1532 – 1552

Henry V111 splits with Rome. Roman Catholic versus Protestant schism.

Pluto in Aquarius 2024 – 2043

The Michael Jackson biopic has attracted acerbic reviews for its portrayal of him as a 20th-century Jesus who, as a child performer is told by his saintly mother, Katherine that he has been gifted with a “special light” from Jehovah. Soon he will become the embodiment of the Bible verse from Matthew, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me.”

  Reviewers describe it as “risible” – “an aimless and mendacious portrait” “untethered from reality” “pure and unadulterated bullshit.” “Whitewash’ and ‘ghoulish’”

 The film stops in 1988, which is handy as it avoids all that unfortunate child sex abuse material. Which accentuates the biopic’s creepy validation of Jackson’s “adorable” obsession with vulnerable lost boys and cute for ever kids. The Telegraph noted that it “refuses to address the elephant in the room”.”

  “This is a frustratingly shallow, inert picture, a kind of cruise-ship entertainment, which can’t quite bring itself to show that Michael was an abuse victim, brutalised by his father and robbed of his childhood.”

  “Michael is a Part One that pretends its Part Two doesn’t exist: a structurally complete film that tells only half a story.”

 The film unsurprisingly is financially backed by the late superstar’s estate and while his nephew Jaafar Jackson is praised for his performance as Michael as is the music, it is seen as a ‘ghoulish, soulless cash grab’

  The fans will probably love it but??

  Michael Jackson, 29 August 1958 7.33pm Gary, Indiana, had an over-controlled Sun Pluto conjunction in Virgo, a hint of a dominating father. Though if this birth time is sound then Saturn on his Midheaven square a Pisces Moon and Ascendant, and inconjunct Mars hardly describes a warm and nurturing mother.  

 Jupiter Neptune in is 8^th would give him charisma as well as luck and optimism though has that odd side effect of attracting scandal.

 Tr Uranus is moving to square the Pluto on his birth chart from this June onwards and Sun in 2027 so it will be an unsettled phase for his reputation.

 His nephew Jaafar, son of Jermaine Jackson, 25 July 1996 Los Angeles, is an entertaining Sun Leo in a highly strung opposition to Uranus and Neptune; with a stressed yod of Pluto (Moon) sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars in Cancer, which will give him driving ambition though problems with moderating his assertion and anger. His Saturn also squares his Mars which is not lucky or patient; and is square his Jupiter so he’ll swing from high to low in mood and the way he progresses through life.

   Tr Pluto will continue to oppose his Leo Sun in the second half of this year which will be challenging; and his Solar Arc Pluto will oppose his Mars within a year which will grind him to a halt for a while.

 He does not have much in common astrologically with his uncle.

What went wrong in Israel?

Professor Omer Bartov was born on a kibbutz, grew up in Tel Aviv and served in the Israel Defence Forces during the Yom Kippur War. He went on to become an expert on the German army and the Holocaust, before turning his attention to his native country.

In Israel: What Went Wrong?, Bartov explores the transformation of Zionism from a movement of Jewish emancipation and liberation into a state ideology of ethno-nationalism, exclusion and violent domination of Palestinians. He traces the process whereby Israel – whose establishment in 1948 received international support in the aftermath of the Holocaust – now faces accusations of war crimes and genocide.

He tracks how a liberatory strand of Zionism transformed from a hopeful nation that in its founding document promised “complete equality of social and political rights to all its citizens irrespective of religion, race or sex” into one intent on what he terms “settler colonialism and ethno-nationalism”.

He deplores the way the memory of the Shoah has been instrumentalized for political purposes, becoming “a vast fig leaf”, as he puts it in the book: “its lamentable effect to combine self-victimization and self-pity with self-righteousness, hubris and the euphoria of power”. His goal is not to minimize the horrors of the Nazi extermination campaign but to demonstrate the ways in which this trauma has been exploited to shape the Israeli psyche and political ideology.

He believes that Jews have a right to self-determination as long as they don’t “trample over other people’s rights”.

 Despite his condemnation of present-day Israeli society, Bartov does see a narrow path toward the nation’s peaceful coexistence with its neighbors with a confederation plan championed by a group of Israeli and Palestinian intellectuals called A Land for All. Under this scheme, sovereign and independent Palestinian and Jewish states would exist side by side, divided roughly along pre-1967 borders. Citizens of both entities would be allowed to live and travel freely throughout the combined territory but would vote only in their own national elections.

  What he sees as the present nation’s preference for military confrontation over diplomacy depends entirely on American support and that patronage is now being tested as never before. A clear majority of Democratic voters now have a negative view of Israel. “Maga is becoming anti-Israel,” Bartov said, due to “Netanyahu completely leading Trump by the nose into a completely idiotic war”.

As a result, America’s indulgence of its longstanding Middle East ally may at last be reaching its limits. Should the United States withhold military support – as is advocated by growing numbers of Democratic policymakers – “Israel will have to go through a process of coming to terms with itself,” Bartov predicted. Under such circumstances, the country would have no choice but to pursue diplomacy. Ironically, that might be the so-called Jewish state’s best hope for a peaceful and prosperous future.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/21/omer-bartov-israel-zionism-genocide

Forty out of 47 Democratic senators last week voted to block US arms sales to Israel.Sixty per cent of Americans now view Israel unfavourably, according to Pew. The younger they are, the higher that number. Three-quarters of 18- to 29-year-olds sympathise more with Palestinians than Israelis, according to a separate NBC poll last weekend. As boomers die off, America’s anti-Israeli tilt is likely to harden.

The next act will be Trump’s efforts to find a way out of Epic Fury. It is hard to see how he will get a US-Iran settlement that is much better than what Obama negotiated in 2015. Netanyahu broke precedent by telling Congress that the Iran-US nuclear deal was “very bad”. He also played a role in 2018 in persuading Trump to pull out of it.

The influential organization now known as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was founded in 1953 (officially incorporated in 1954) and was created partly in response to intense international condemnation of Israel following the Qibya massacre in October 1953, where Israeli troops killed 69 Palestinian villagers, mostly women and children.

 1.In his book on the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe notes that a month after the UN resolution, the Jewish leadership embarked on the “ethnic cleansing of Palestine”.

“Plan D decided on ‘the systematic expulsion of the Palestinians from vast areas of the country’”

Uri Ram, a professor of Ben-Gurion University, reviewed The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine for the Middle East Journal and described the book as “a most important and daring book that challenges head-on Israeli historiography and collective memory and even more importantly Israeli conscience”.

2.Israelism (2023) is a notable documentary following young American Jews questioning their education about Israel and its treatment of Palestinians. Other documentaries focusing on young Israelis or the region include No Other Land (2024), showing a collective’s view on West Bank destruction, and Days of Rage, covering young Palestinians.

3.In 1947 Britain began to promote the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, a policy supported by the Jewish leadership but which immediately undermined the interests of the Palestinians, who at the time made up around two-thirds of the population, compared to one-third of Jews. In November 1947, the UN passed General Assembly Resolution 181, partitioning Palestine and awarding the Jews a state that comprised over half the country, against the will of the indigenous majority population. This began with a series of attacks on Arab villages following the vandalisation by some Palestinians of buses and shopping centres in protest at the resolution.

As warfare among Jews and Palestinians increased, the Jewish leaders’ plans culminated in a meeting in March 1948 which decided on a “Plan D”, the “systematic expulsion of the Palestinians from vast areas of the country”, Pappe notes.

Military leader Moshe Dayan in the 1950s: “What we can say against their terrible hatred of us? For eight years, they have sat in the refugee camps of Gaza, and have watched how, before their very eyes, we have turned their lands and villages, where they and their forefathers dwelled, into our home.”

Moshe Sharett (Israel Prime Minister 1954/55): “In the thirties we restrained the emotions of revenge. . . . Now, on the contrary, we justify the system of reprisal … we have eliminated the mental and moral brake on this instinct and made it possible … to uphold revenge as a moral value…. a sacred principle”

This is more for background context since everything has been said before in previous posts. But another example of the new era splitting away from post WW11 organisations.

Tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth 11 on what would have been her 100^th birthday evoked rose-coloured memories of steadier times when she seemed the bedrock of the country. Having vowed her life in service  at her coronation she ploughed the same furrow for nearly 70 years.

  Born 21 April 1926 2.40 am London. She was not expected to succeed to the throne until her wayward uncle the Duke of Windsor abdicated when she was 10, leaving her insecure father no option but to become king. George V1 was a charming Sun Sagittarius with Venus in Scorpio on his Ascendant and Jupiter in Leo on his Midheaven. But a troubled Neptune Pluto in his 8^th, a legacy from intergenerational tangles, which opposed his Sun and Mercury plus an agitated Scorpio Moon conjunct Mars gave him an unsettled temperament which made his stalwart service during WW11 all the more laudable.

 Elizabeth partly due to her demanding mother’s upbringing had the discipline to face a long road ahead when he died a few weeks before her 26^th birthday. She had an obsessively conscientious Saturn in Scorpio on her midheaven in a Fixed T Square to Jupiter Mars in Aquarius in her 1^st house opposition Neptune (and Moon) in Leo in her 7^th. Enduring, persevering, stubborn, she needed and exemplified order and discipline. Pluto in her 6^th added to her workaholic tendencies and insistence on having things done her way.

  Her Taurus Sun would incline her to rural interests in horses and dogs but falling in her 3^rd house she was more quick witted and intelligent than she came across. Venus and Uranus in her 2^nd gave her a love of money and though her Saturnine inclinations were towards austerity her spending on her racing stable must have been extensive.

 Her South Node fell on her Ascendant so her tendency would be to fall back into taking an independent role so close relationships would require an effort.

  Her Sun/Moon midpoint was square her Uranus emphasising that point. But luckily Prince Phillip’s Gemini Sun (and Mars) were conjunct her Sun/Moon for a liaison, while not always easy, that stood the test of time. Their wedding chart from 20 November 1947  was truly difficult with a Mars Saturn conjunction and Saturn conjunct Pluto in the 8^th opposition Moon square North Node opposition Sun – so not exactly a rousing send off.

 Prince Philip, 10 June 1921 9.46pm, Corfu, had a high-vitality Sun Mars in Gemini which fell in her 5^th house not only of children but also social fun, so he would be a lively antidote to her rigorous duties. His Venus in Taurus was conjunct her Sun for deep affection and he shared her Moon and Neptune in Leo. He also had a Libra North Node so like her did not always find close relationships and the compromises involved easy.

 Plus with her dedication to her role, he would feel cut out which he made plain. Their relationship chart did have a composite Mars opposition Saturn hinting at a relationship where one partner had to suppress their identity and wishes to make it work. But there was also a fated yod of composite Sun sextile Uranus inconjunct Saturn which bound them together. In latter years he was her rock.  

 Her Accession, 6 February 1952 5pm, when she was holidaying in Kenya, came when there was a sombre Sun opposition Pluto; with the tr Pluto conjunct her Neptune for a devastating experience. There was also Jupiter in Aries opposition Saturn square Uranus opposition Venus for a sudden emotionally upsetting change. Her Coronation 2 June 1953 was a happier affair with a 10^th house Sun Jupiter in Gemini trine an Aquarius Moon; with a well-starred Half Grand Sextile from Venus opposition Saturn Neptune sextile Mars Mercury and sextile Pluto. [Saturn being close to Neptune when Elizabeth 1 was crowned in 1559 as well.]

Amanda Knox for ever associated with the murder of Meredith Kercher though twice found innocent has landed in the UK on a promotional tour for her latest documentary Mouth of the Wolf settling scores with the Italian prosecutor who got it wrong.

  What is uncomfortable about her story is not only her tone-deafness to the pain of Meredith’s family who accuse her of attempting to profit from the murder with her public activities but the difficulty of establishing a balanced and empathetic view of her situation. Wrongly accused, four years in prison, her parents insolvent due to legal fees so her early money-making memoir etc was to rectify their situation and 17 years after she was still fighting legal battles in Italy.

What is not to sympathise with? She continues to fight an uphill battle, working for the wrongly accused and against “the gendered nature of public shaming” and trial by media who having dubbed her as Foxy Knoxy, as she later put it herself, as a “psychotic man-eater, the dirty ice queen”.

 One commentator said “The idea of a female Satanic killer, too beautiful to be trusted, was a particularly male salacious fantasy used to distract the world from the horribly mundane reality of male violence.”

  But even at this distance with Merdeith’s male killer having served a long prison sentence and now back facing further later sexual assault charges, it is difficult to connect to Knox’s understandable torment about her situation.

   Her husband, the film-maker Christopher Robinson, said: “Amanda’s out of prison, but she’s not out of the prison of public vilification. One of our goals is to round the corner on that reputational battle before [our daughter] feels she has to defend her mom online.”

  She was born 9 July 1987 2.47am Seattle, VA, and two aspects leap out immediately. The first is her 8^th house Neptune (conjunct Part of Fortune) opposition Venus Mercury and widely opposition Sun in Cancer in her 2^nd house of finances. It brings to mind Martin Moritz’s description of the 8^th house –  “associated with entanglements, power games, boundary crossings, or dealing with taboos.”  “It is almost impossible to differentiate between good and evil, black and white, hero and villain. Things are muddled and mixed up.” And Neptune there muddies the water further. Not that it is her fault remotely but it is the fate she was handed.

  That plus a tricky Mars in Leo square Pluto in Scorpio which is not easy to live out in a constructive way and if suppressed in the unconscious tends to attract hostility and even dangerous situations.

  Her Sun is exactly square Eris, hinting at a tendency to arouse discord but also to act as a catalyst for change.

   Her 1^st house Chiron in Gemini can result in self-defeating and destructive thought patterns originating in childhood hurts which make clear communication about certain subjects difficult. Her Chiron is also opposition Moon and Uranus which can bring erratic emotional reactions which may go some way to explaining her odd behaviour when first arrested. Long term, Chiron Uranus can be a force for good in promoting positive changes.

 Her chart relocated to Perugia in Italy puts her Chiron on the Midheaven.

 Chariklo, the centaur in her 1^st house, has an overtone of having to live with eternal suffering – though again long term will help her help others.

 When she was arrested in 2007 tr Pluto was about to move into her trapped 8^th house; and tr Uranus was square her Saturn for a considerable jolt.

  She will get an uplift tr Uranus conjunct her Jupiter from this July on and off into 2027, bringing luck and relief. But her time ahead does not look without its struggles.  Her Solar Arc Midheaven will conjunct her Saturn this year which will be discouraging; with a jolting/insecure Solar Arc Uranus opposition her Mars after the middle of this year into 2027 (which will rattle up her Mars square Pluto); followed in 2027 by a seriously stuck SA Pluto conjunct her Saturn in 2027. 2027 will be a year of significant change with tr Uranus moving into her 1^st house as she strives for freedom and in 2028 tr Pluto will conjunct her Midheaven for a forced change of life or career direction.

 She was not fated to have an easy life, for sure, but her Aries Node in the 11^th along with other aspects does suggest she could walk an independent road to making a difference out in society.

[Years ago I met a women at a group workshop whose ‘story’ was she had never been believed – about anything from childhood onwards. I have often wondered since then quite what psychological/astrological pattern that came from.]  

ADD ON:  Others disbelieved.

Louise Woodward, 24 February 1978 3am Elton, England, a  former au pair, charged with murder of a baby, subsequently convicted of involuntary manslaughter, served 279 days. She later questioned the validity of the ‘shaken baby syndrome’ accusation.

  A Sun Pisces with Venus in Pisces opposition a Virgo Moon square Neptune in her 1^st house; with a stressed 8^th Mars in Cancer square Pluto and trine Uranus.

“Lindy” Chamberlain, born 4 March 1948 Whakatane, New Zealand, who was wrongly convicted of killing her nine-week-old daughter, Azaria. She maintained that she saw a dingo leave the tent where Azaria was sleeping. The prosecution case was circumstantial and depended upon forensic evidence that was eventually found to be deeply flawed. She was convicted in 1982, with appeals being dismissed. After the discovery of new evidence she and her husband were officially pardoned in 1987 and the government paid Chamberlain $1.3 million in compensation.

 Another Sun Pisces, in her case on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Neptune sextile Pluto Saturn. She also had a formidably afflicted Mars conjunct Saturn which was conjunct Pluto and all square a Taurus North Node.

Joanne Lees, 25 September 1973 England, was attacked and nearly abducted while travelling in Australia. She escaped but her partner Peter Falconio. She was suspected by the media in the aftermath but the attacker was identified and convicted of Falconio’s murder.

  She has an extraordinarily complicated chart with her Libra Sun Pluto square Saturn opposition North Node. With two yods of Neptune sextile Jupiter inconjunct Saturn; and  Saturn sextile Mars inconjunct Neptune.

  The combination of a stressed Mars and a prominent Neptune appears to be a common theme. A troubled Mars especially if suppressed can attract hostility from others. It also hints at frightening situations in early childhood which may lead to an emotional shut down as a coping mechanism.

And a dreamy, evasive Neptune can give off a spaced-out, untethered-from-reality vibe which could be mistaken for deception and be tricky to pin down.

Desmond Morris, zoologist behind bestselling studies of human behaviour from The Naked Ape and popular tv shows like Zootime, has died.  He approached humans as just another species, sharing primate lineage, behaviour, rituals and family groupings with other apes and monkeys, calling man a ‘risen ape’ rather than a ‘fallen angel’, and declaring religion ‘a confidence trick’. He is said to have popularised the observation of body language, spawning battalions of armchair psychologists but many found some of his views far-fetched.

 He wrote innumerable books, made documentaries and latterly became a painter.

  He was born on January 24 1928 at Purton in Wiltshire, no birth time, with his father, badly injured in WW1, dying when he was 14. His childhood was strongly influenced by his grandfather, a naturalist and newspaper proprietor and his mother, who encouraged his growing menagerie of 200 toads, snakes, lizards, mice, birds, foxes and fish.

His Sun, Mercury and possibly Moon are in inquiring Aquarius and he has two yods. His Sun sextile an impulsive and adventurous Jupiter Uranus conjunction in Aries was inconjunct Neptune in late Leo – giving him his creative, painterly talents and tendency to live in his dreams. And his Mercury in a serious sextile to Saturn and South Node was inconjunct Pluto – making him influential with ideas before his time and therefore running into resistance, and at times being overly forceful even coercive.

 His Sun was conjunct Ceres, the minor planet which rules motherly love, family bonds and relationships, as well as the growing of plants and food crops, natural resources and the environment. This aspect is thought to indicate a strong, protective “Earth Mama” energy and to give a magnetic public presence.

 His lively Jupiter Uranus conjunction in Aries was conjunct the dwarf planet Eris, which provokes and shatters illusions and can be a potent force for evolution. It may also point to his delight in stirring up controversy and sometimes going too far.

 His Chiron in Taurus hints at a woundedness in the earth realm which could have many outcomes but may have drawn him to become a naturalist; and is trine a publicity-attracting Mars trine Neptune –  making for a high-vitality Fire/Earth Grand Trine.

 David Attenborough, 8 May 1926, heading for a 100 soon is a more Fixed personality though with some similarities. His Sun Taurus squares Ceres Neptune opposition Jupiter. His Eris is conjunct his Venus in Aries (maybe Moon); and his Chiron is final degree Aries, almost into Taurus.  

Ruby Rose, an Australian actress, television presenter, and model, prominent in Orange Is the New Black and Batwoman has claimed she was sexually assaulted by Katy Perry twenty years ago. Representatives for Perry slammed the allegations as ‘dangerous reckless lies’, adding that Rose ‘has a well-documented history of making serious public allegations on social media against various individuals, claims that have repeatedly been denied by those named’.

Born 20 March 1986 10am Melbourne, Vic, AU, Ruby Rose was brought up by a single mother and moved frequently as a child. She came out as a lesbian at age 12 and has stated that she was sexually abused as a child by a relative. She experienced suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide at age 12. She has struggled with mental health issues throughout her life, having attempted suicide multiple times, and has been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and clinical depression (initially misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder). She has said that she was convinced she was a boy while growing up, and that she was saving up money to transition from female to male. She said, “It was in my mind as something I wanted to do and then I just… didn’t. I guess I grew out of it. She later said she is glad she did not undergo gender-affirming surgery because she wants to have children one day.

 She has a final degree Pisces Sun in her 11^th house in an impulsive, explosive square to Mars Uranus conjunct in Sagittarius in her 8^th house and also square a creative, though can be deceptive/self-deceptive Neptune in her 8^th.

  She has a creative Water Grand Trine of lucky Jupiter in her 10^th trine a Cancer Moon trine Pluto, which can give a tendency to live in its own bubble of reality. Her Venus in Aries in her hidden 12^th is trine Saturn in her 8^th – emotionally defensive and under-nurtured, difficulties get close

 Not an easy chart and clearly a troubled lady.

 Her synastry with Katy Perry is complicated with KP’s Saturn in intense Scorpio square RR’s Midheaven so Ruby would feel blocked by her. KP’s Uranus and Neptune fall in RR’s 8^th stirring up uncomfortable and elusive feelings and reactions. KP’s intense and controlling Sun Pluto conjunction in Scorpio and Moon Saturn in Scorpio falling in RR’s 6^th and 7^th house would make her tricky as a work and social companion.

 Their relationship chart has two standout  aspects. One is a composite Jupiter square Pluto which implies a tussle for the upper hand; and a Mars Neptune conjunction hinting at an ego-clash.

 Astrology won’t pin down concrete actions since there are always different ways of the influences playing out individually and together.

  Ruby Rose’s Solar Arc Midheaven is conjunct her Sun at the moment which will put her in the spotlight. But she will run into a major blockage late 2027 into 2028 when her Solar Arc Mars is square her Pluto.

Katy Perry, 25 October 1984 7.58 am, may have a few concerns about a financial matter with her Solar Arc Saturn conjunct her 2^nd house Neptune but she looks all set for a successful year from September this year with tr Jupiter crossing her Midheaven into mid 2027.

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Trump blithely announced a ceasefire in Lebanon despite neither Netanyahu or Hezbollah indicating they were in a mood to lay down arms. It was a precondition for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and presumably a platform for Trump to proclaim victory. Israel wants Hezbollah permanently disarmed and Hezbollah wants a withdrawal of all Israeli troops.

  More than 2,100 people have been killed and 7,000 wounded in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since 2 March, including at least 260 women and 172 children. Hezbollah attacks have killed two civilians in Israel over the same period, with 13 Israeli soldiers killed in combat in Lebanon.

 Lebanon has been plagued by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the late 1940s. In the aftermath of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Lebanon became home to more than 110,000 Palestinian refugees. Additional Palestinian refugees arrived after the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. Thousands of Palestinian militiamen regrouped in Lebanon, led by Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. Starting in 1968, Palestinian militants began to use southern Lebanon as a launching pad for attacks on Israel.

  There has been an escalating cycle of attack and retaliation, leading to the chaos of the civil war, foreign invasions and international intervention. As of now approximately 222,000 to 300,000 Palestinian refugees reside in Lebanon now with over 90% living in poverty due to severe restrictions on employment and property ownership. Most live in 12 recognized camps, which are largely self-governed by Palestinian factions rather than the Lebanese state.

   Not a background that inspires confidence about finding a peaceful solution any time soon, if ever.

 There are various start charts for Lebanon and it is the 1 January 1944 12 am which seems to work best against previous events.

 It is on a Neptune half return but it is the explosive, jolting tr Uranus conjunct the Mars Uranus in Gemini from August through October this year, again May 2027 and early 2028 which would be the worry. None of that looks settled and by 2028 the Solar Arc Sun opposes Neptune which will be discouraging and directionless.

  Hezbollah came into existence in 1982 when the warmongering, tough-minded Saturn Pluto conjunction in Libra was in place as  a response to the Israeli invasion of the country and siege of Beirut. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak stated, “When we entered Lebanon … there was no Hezbollah. We were accepted with perfumed rice and flowers by the Shia in the south. It was our presence there that created Hezbollah.”

  Inspired by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 Hezbollah established strong ties with Iran and its manifesto outlined its key objectives, including expelling Western influence from the region, destroying Israel, pledging allegiance to Iran’s supreme leader. It also emphasised Lebanese self-determination.

Their manifesto issued 16 February 1985 is the one date available which has a late Aquarius Sun Mercury square Saturn in obsessive Scorpio; with Pluto in a bullishly confident square to Jupiter in activist Aquarius; and a publicity-attracting Neptune square Mars Venus.

  Assuming this date has validity, there looks to be continuing aggravation through 2027, peaking in 2028 which may be a turning point with a revision of their mission direction. 2030 looks lucky and relieved. 

 Israel’s relationship with the Hezbollah manifesto chart looks entangled again towards the end of this decade into 2030.

 Israel’s relationship with Lebanon similarly looks under pressure towards 2030.

 And so it goes on. And probably will keep doing so.

Palestinian refugees elsewhere: Jordan hosts over 2.39 million registered Palestine refugees, the largest such population in the world, with most holding Jordanian citizenship. While they have rights and access to services, many face poverty and rely on UNRWA support. Roughly 18% live in ten recognized camps. Syria 450,000. Egypt 100,000.

Tim Curry renowned for his breakout role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and subsequent Broadway musical stage productions, followed by a prolific, wide-ranging and award winning career on stage, screen and music, is 80 tomorrow.

 He was born 19 April 1946 12 noon (from memory) Grappenhall, England, the son of a Methodist Royal Navy chaplain, and spent his early years in Hong Kong. He was a boy soprano at the age of six and was doing Shakespeare by the time he was ten. After graduating at university he got a role in the London production of “Hair” and never looked back with further stage successes in Amadeus, The Pirates of Penzance and productions of Spamalot.

His 2025 memoir was described by reviewers as ‘riotous fun’; ‘Searingly intimate…highly entertaining’; a witty page-turner, full of life. Come for the career, stay for the celebrity encounters: impromptu dinners with David Bowie after stage performances of The Rocky Horror Show; working through bowls of cocaine at Studio 54 with Truman Capote and Andy Warhol, and a hilariously catty encounter with Donald Trump on the set of Home Alone 2′.

  His later career after a catastrophic stroke in 2012 that nearly took his life has focused on voicework. He lives in Los Angeles with his dog and is a keen horticulturalist.

 He has a career-focussed, go-ahead 10^th house Aries Sun in an enthusiastic, optimistic, lucky opposition to Jupiter square a tricky Saturn Mars in Cancer in his 12^th, which latter hard-driving combo may go a long way to explain his ultra-busy career. His communicative Mercury in Aries in his much-travelled 9^th house is in an inspirational Fire Grand Trine to Pluto on his Ascendant trine a lively Sagittarius Moon, turned into an even more talented Kite with his Sun opposition musical Neptune – making creative Neptune his driving planet.

  His expansive Jupiter is also on the focal point of a yod inconjunct a 10^th house Venus in Taurus sextile Saturn. Venus in the 10^th points to a creative career with Taurus ruling the throat and a charming personality, good at public relations. A Jupiterian yod can have positive effects on the culture and society.

 When he unexpectedly had his stroke in 2012 there was an aggravated and high-risk transiting T square of Mars in an explosive opposition to Uranus in a trapped square to Pluto on the cusp of his 6th house of health, all homing in on his Neptune. He still has mobility issues from that.

 He is single and says his private life is his concern and no one else’s, which is admirably un-celebrity of him and only worth noting since his Pluto falls on his Ascendant. This usually hints at a strong-minded and unknowable personality who puts up defences against intrusion. 

 He will be mellowing at the moment with his charming Solar Arc Venus conjunct his Ascendant this year; and transiting Jupiter heading to start a new upbeat cycle in his life as it also crosses his Ascendant into his 1^st after the middle of this year (birth time being reasonably accurate).