The day of the long knives reshuffle has turned out to be distinctly vanilla flavoured with a muted reception even from the right-wing media. The two key appointments of Michael Gove to Housing and Liz Truss to the Foreign Office are deemed to be Boris strategies for seeing off rivals. Truss had the highest approval rating of Cabinet members in a recent poll and was a critic of his recent tax rise. Her allies say he’ll hope sending her overseas will damp her chances of campaigning for party leadership. Though Theresa May thought the same when she landed Boris as travelling emissary and that didn’t stop him. Gove has been handed another poisoned chalice.

  Liz Truss, 26 July 1975, a Sun Leo with a well-organised Saturn in Cancer, certainly looks the unhappiest of the crew over 2022/23. She’ll have the odd blip of success but is mainly heading into calamity country.

  Michael Gove, 26 August 1967, a Sun, Mercury Venus in Virgo with Uranus Pluto also in Virgo and Mars Neptune in Scorpio, also looks to be struggling through swampy territory for two years with even greater setbacks and catastrophes in 2023/24.  His relationship with Boris is more uncertain even than usual in 2021/22 and nerve-stretched and jangled the two years after that.

 Nadhim Zahawi, 2 June 1967, Baghdad, one of the wealthiest MPs with oil and other interests, has become Education Secretary. He’s another Gemini with his Sun square Uranus Pluto and trine Mars; and a hard-edged Mars opposition Saturn. He’ll be rattled towards the end of this year with tr Uranus triggering several midpoints.

   His relationship with Boris looks expansive in essence though subject to ups and downs with some disappointments looming 2021 to 2023.

 Nadine Dorries, 21 May 1967, a close friend of Boris, is causing comment since she comes in as Culture Secretary, therefore overseeing the industry regulation.  Not that raising eyebrows is a new experience since her wiki entry shows a long political career littered with controversies and arguments. She’s – yet another – Sun Gemini conjunct Venus opposition Saturn; with a stubborn and outspoken Mercury in Taurus opposition Neptune square Uranus.

  She’s having a good December this year but that apart is not finding satisfaction or success in her progress through next year.

  Her relationship with Boris is friendly with a composite Sun, Venus, Mars and a fated-to-be-together Yod of Mars sextile Uranus inconjunct Saturn in their relationship chart – but even they are on a gentle decline.

  The jury seems to be out on whether this reshuffle indicates an early election but it certainly comes at a time when his Government chart from December 2019 is moving deeper into unpopularity time with the Solar Arc Saturn moving to conjunct Venus exactly in six months.  All the indications are that 2022 is when the full extent of the economic hit from Covid/Brexit will be exposed.  

  His own chart is emotionally on edge at the moment, partly presumably with his mother’s death which may well have been flagged up some months back when his Solar Arc Uranus was conjunct his Moon. His Progressed Moon at present is just over the opposition to his Mars and moving to square his Saturn, then Uranus before the end of this year and square his Pluto into early 2022 so he’ll be bounced from pillar to post in terms of his feelings and reactions.

 Interesting that Liz Truss is the only one without an overloaded Mutable chart – Boris seems to attract his own windmills-in-a-storm type of personality.  

The next Ingress falls next Wednesday the 22^nd as the Sun moves into Libra. Only Cardinal Ingresses – Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn – are regarded as proper ingresses; and there are mixed views about how useful they are or indeed which should take priority.

  The previous Cancer Ingress this year in late June did have an aggravating and fairly calamitous Mars opposition Saturn square Uranus opposition Moon so did not augur well for the three months to follow.

  This upcoming ingress has a dynamic and argumentative Sun Mars in a disciplined trine to Saturn; with an emotionally unsettled Uranus opposition Venus square Saturn; and an intense and controlling Moon opposition Mercury square Pluto. So not all sweetness and harmony but marginally easier than what went before.

  The upcoming Capricorn Ingress is fairly scattered and apart from a Mars trine Saturn and an emotionally intense Moon opposition Venus Pluto is nowhere near as difficult as the late 2020 Capricorn Ingress with its Mars square Pluto Saturn Jupiter.  

Comedy fans have been outraged by nice-guy and devoted-husband John Mulaney falling off his pedestal, divorcing his wife, finishing his second stint in rehab for alcoholism, cocaine and prescription drug abuse and becoming a baby daddy in a celebrity romance.

   Aah the Hollywood gap – between the image and the reality.

  Mulaney, 26 August 1982 in Chicago, best known for Saturday Night Live has a Virgo Sun square a rebellious, quirky Uranus (Moon) in Sagittarius. His Mercury in communicative Virgo squares a creative Neptune; and he has a super-charged Jupiter Mars in Scorpio as well as a stubbornly determined Saturn Pluto which could tilt him at times towards depression.

  His life is certainly going through a fair upheaval with his Solar Arc Pluto just over the conjunction to his Uranus and heading to square his Sun. He won’t be on top form for a year or two with a couple of unhelpful Solar Arcs denting his enthusiasm and prospects.

He built a lot of his comedy out of his relationship with his now ex-wife Anna Marie Tendler who was often the hero of his stories, presented as smarter and more grounded than he is.  She is a make up artist, born 9 June 1985, and is a Sun Gemini opposition Uranus so quite rebellious in her own way. She has an emotionally intense Venus in Taurus opposition Pluto in Scorpio which impacts his Jupiter – so she probably was a morale booster and motivator for him. And she also has Saturn in Scorpio and Jupiter in Aquarius so will be more fixed and steadier than him.

  Their relationship chart is quite close, possessive, controlling with a composite Sun square Pluto, but there is also an illusory composite Venus opposition a head-in-the-clouds Jupiter Neptune conjunction. It has been under heavy and separating pressure in recent years from first tr Uranus square the Sun and opposition Pluto and then tr Pluto following on to do similar.

  He has hooked up with actress Olivia Munn, 3 July 1980 4.30am Oklahoma City. She had a fractured childhood with parents divorcing when she was two, followed by a verbally abusive Air Force stepfather stationed in Japan, when she spent most of her childhood. She has a Sun Cancer square Pluto; with a truly difficult Venus opposition Neptune in the 7^th square Mars Saturn opposition a Pisces Moon. She’ll be emotionally on edge, defensive and over-reactive at times.

Mulaney’s Virgo Sun is conjunct her Jupiter which is good and supportive and his Mars Jupiter are trine her Sun, with his Venus in Leo sextile her Venus in Gemini, both of which are also OK. But that apart – both are very Mutable, she’s very highly-strung.

  Their relationship chart is not inspiring with a dominating Mars Pluto admittedly in a square to Venus which suggests their connection would be a hot and strong attraction initially but will prove to be a tug of war as it continues. She certainly won’t be as steady as his ex-wife and like him she looks deflated over the next two or three years with tr Neptune opposition his Mars/Saturn midpoint and her Mars.

The fans reaction is being described as parasocial, which wasn’t a word I had come across although the concept is familiar.  Viewers or listeners come to consider media personalities as friends, despite having no or limited interactions with them. Repeated exposure to the media persona causes the media user to develop illusions of intimacy, friendship, and identification.

Charlotte Johnson Wahl, a gifted painter and mother of Boris Johnson, has died aged 79.  She is described as the moral authority in the family, warm and intelligent with a radical outlook and came from a distinguished family of ‘rich socialists.’ Her father was a legal academic who helped to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was president of the European Commission of Human Rights. Her maternal grandfather was an expert in Latin manuscripts and her maternal grandmother was the official translator of the works of Thomas Mann.

  When at Oxford she met Stanley Johnson who whisked her off to New York where Boris was born, followed by three other siblings. As the marriage disintegrated she showed signs of obsessive compulsive disorder and spent nine months in a psychiatric hospital. At 40 she developed Parkinson’s which she managed throughout the rest of her life.

  She was born 29 May 1942 and was a Sun, Saturn, Uranus in Gemini so had an edgy temperament veering between low-self-esteem from Saturn to rebellion from Uranus. She also had Jupiter Mercury in Gemini which would help restore her optimism at times. She shared an intense Scorpio Moon with Boris and also has his signature Jupiter Neptune aspect, in her case a square from Jupiter in Gemini to Neptune in Virgo – with an artistic, imaginative temperament it would be an asset.  

  Why she married Stanley Johnson is a mystery since it was a chalk-and-cheese affair. He has an obstinate and dominating Sun Mars in Leo square Uranus, as well as Mercury Pluto in Leo and Jupiter Saturn in Taurus. He insisted and went his own way and she had to adapt. Their relationship chart had a one-sided, over controlling composite Mars Pluto which is never good news.

  She was also an edgy fit with Boris having her Sun, Saturn, Uranus sitting on his afflicted Mars and keying up his Mutable T Square of Saturn, Uranus, Pluto. Her Mars fell in Boris’s 10^th so she would stoke up his ambitions and competitive nature. Both his parents had their Pluto in his 10^th so they would be experienced as controlling his choices. But his mother’s Jupiter Mercury were conjunct his Sun Venus which would promote good feelings between them.

  Their relationship chart is complicated, indicating some of the strain caused by her disappearance with mental problems, though it is also exceptionally tied together. There’s an anxious composite Saturn opposition Neptune formed into a Half Grand Sextile by Pluto and Mars; and a possessive and affectionate composite Venus square Pluto.  

  Two things are striking about Boris’s background – one is the multi-culturalism. His mother was brought up Roman Catholic as was Boris, despite her maternal grandparents being American Jewish. Boris’s paternal great-grandfather was Turkish. A real pot pourri of cultures and belief systems. The other is the largely left-leaning inclinations of both his parents and maternal grandfather.

China’s micro-managing and communist government still oversees an astonishingly capitalist economy. Regulators have pledged to clean up the corporate sector by letting “debt bombs” like the sprawling Evergrande Group collapse. It grew lush on the epic property boom of the late 1990s, over-diversified into multiple businesses and ran into trouble. It is now a rickety threat to China’s biggest banks and even risks damaging the broader economy if it were to fail. It has the distinction of being the world’s most debt-saddled property developer and has been on life support for months.

  It launched in 1996 (no date) when Pluto was just putting a toe into Sagittarius and there was the financial-bubble-prone Jupiter and Neptune in materialistic Capricorn. By 2018 it was reckoned the most valuable property empire in the world. It’s fitting that two Pluto cycles later it faces collapse.

  It raised three quarters of a billion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 5 November 2009 which gives it a Scorpio Sun square Mars in Leo which is being buffeted by the economically-challenging tr Uranus square tr Saturn this year, into early 2022. That chart also has the over-hopeful, dreams-of-wealth-with-no-effort Jupiter Neptune conjunction.

Add On: It was incorporated on 26 June 2006 in Shenzhen, China with a New Moon in Cancer and a hard-edged see-saw Mars Saturn in Leo square Jupiter in Scorpio which is catching the full might of the tr Saturn square tr Uranus this year into early 2022. And its Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct the North Node for a defining moment in its destiny.

   Taking a brief look at leading prosperous Chinese companies mainly in the internet, technology, e-commerce areas what is striking is the consternation and confusion writ large around the transition 2023 to 2026 years when tr Pluto makes its presence felt in Aquarius.

 Alibaba which specialises in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology was founded on 28 June 1999. It owns and operates a diverse portfolio of companies around the world in numerous business sectors. Like Baidu, another multinational technology company, one of the largest AI and Internet companies in the world, 1 January 2000, it was founded with Neptune in the early degrees of Aquarius which will catch the transiting Pluto conjunction in 2024/25. Baidu will be under pressure even before then with a muddled 2022 and panicky, undermined 2023.

 Pinduoduo, founded September 2015, is one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the world, that connects farmers and distributors with consumers directly. It was launched on Nasdaq on 26 July 2018. The founding chart has, surprise surprise, Jupiter (in Virgo) opposition Neptune and Mars Venus in Leo with Saturn in Scorpio square Mars. It is facing a bumpy ride through the next few years with the foundation planets getting a buffeting from tr Uranus square the Venus Mars and then opposition Saturn by 2025 with along the way tr Saturn in Pisces in 2023/24 giving the Jupiter Neptune a sharp reality check.  The Pinduoduo Nasdaq chart is also facing  a hair-raising 2024/2026 as the Sun, Mars and Uranus catch the full force of tr Pluto in Aquarius.

 There can always be individual reasons why companies hit troubled times but the timeline does fit in with the Bank of China being swamped in 2024 to 2026. See previous post 10 September 2021 below.

Britney Spears appears to be celebrating the prospective conservatorship split from her father by getting engaged to her five-year boyfriend Sam Asghari, an actor and fitness trainer.

  She clearly dislikes her father and while he has filed to ratify the split it won’t be an easy matter for a complete break to be accomplished. Their relationship chart has a composite Sun Pluto Uranus – and Sun Pluto relationships always have long drawn out and usually bitter parting of the ways, viz Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. It’s not only a controlling relationship but also an unkind and very one-sided one with a composite Mars Saturn.

  Her now fiancée appears to have found a new birth date of 4 March 1994 which sits marginally more comfortably with her chart than the previous birth date – though not totally. His Sagittarius Moon will be conjunct her Sun which is good. But his highly-strung Uranus Neptune is still conjunct her Venus and South Node which is hardly ideal at a domestic level. And his Jupiter falling in her 2^nd along with his Pluto could suggest money will be an issue. He is a charming Sun Venus in Pisces with his Venus connecting with her Mars for a spark of passion; but his ultra-determined Saturn Mars square Pluto hits her Mercury and Uranus which will be disruptive.

  Their relationship chart has a power-couple composite Jupiter Pluto conjunction which will be good for a while but can ultimately turn into a tussle for the upper hand.

  She’s not looking at her most confident over the next eighteen months with tr Neptune opposition her 12^th house Mars as her relationship with her father declines as well.

  See previous post though with different birth date for Sam Asghari – June 24 2021

Add On: Her situation has been compared to that of Frances Farmer, an American actress who was committed involuntarily to psychiatric hospitals, mainly at the request of her mother, and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Several sensationalised accounts of her time in mental institutions were later declared fictions, written to pay off her debts.

  She was born 19 September 1913 4.45am Seattle, Washington, and has a chart closer to Natalie Wood’s than Britney Spears. Her mother does look monstrous with her Mars Pluto conjunction and Saturn all in her 10^th house; with Mars Pluto opposition Jupiter. Her Virgo Sun is conjunct her South Node in her 1^st so she would struggle to establish a firm sense of identity and to pull herself away from old patterns.  

Natalie Wood had a Sun Mars Pluto in Cancer in her 10th.

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.

Please add below. Older posts under News on top bar.

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.

  Thank you.

Memorials are being held on the 20^th 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 16^th 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 12^th 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. 

Add On:

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.