The bizarre and labyrinthine tale of how 38 year old, stratospherically successful pop icon, mother of two Britney Spears came to be regarded as not a legal adult is due for another twist this month.  In 2008 she was put under the conservatorship of her father, normally reserved for the old and infirm, after her erratic behaviour caused her to lose custody of her children at the time and sent her into psychiatric care. At the time she said she felt like a prisoner in her life. “Even when you go to jail,” she said, “you know there’s a time when you’re gonna get out. But in this situation, it’s never ending. It’s just like Groundhog Day every day.”

A judge has now decided an evaluation is needed after her father withdrew from oversight for medical reasons. She appears to have been unwell again last year.

Born 2 December 1981 1.30am Kentwood, Louisiana, she does have an exceptionally heavy and trapped chart with Saturn Pluto in Libra on the focal point of a T Square to Venus in Capricorn opposition North Node. That sits at odds with her free-spirited Sun, Mercury, Uranus in Sagittarius and a maverick Aquarius Moon in her performing and entertaining 5^th.

Her relationship with her father, Jamie Spears, 6 July 1952, was never easy. His Sun, Uranus, Venus in Cancer sit in her 10^th so he’d be invested in her career, especially with his Mars in her 2^nd and his Jupiter in her 8^th.  Their relationship chart has a controlling but also chaotic composite Sun Pluto Uranus conjunction. And on top of that an unkind, one-sided Mars Saturn in a none-to-sensitive opposition to Venus so she would feel trapped and unfairly treated.  At present there’s a restraining order against him denying him access to his two  grandchildren after an altercation.

The same composite Sun Pluto control factor is present in her relationship chart with her former manager Sam Lufti, 16 August 1974, a Sun Leo with an unyielding Saturn square Pluto. His organising Saturn sits in her 10^th with his dominant Pluto on her Ascendant. He’s now under a second restraining order.

She has been stressed evidently recently because of her father’s ill health, which with Saturn Pluto Jupiter conjunction moving through her 4^th makes sense. And the triple conjunction transit may also be acting as a destabilising influence shifting the foundations of her life. She disappeared from view and social media for chunks of last year which triggered a #freebritney campaign by fans. At the moment she has the effects of the June Solar Eclipse conjunct her Midheaven perhaps deciding her path for the next phase.

Also at the moment her Solar Arc Pluto is conjunct her 3^rd house Mercury, exact in a few weeks, which will put her under mental strain. And it’ll be a bumpy road ahead sadly with her Solar Arc Saturn in a tension-erupting conjunction to her Uranus in 2021, with more emotional pressure from tr Pluto conjunct her Venus and square Pluto for a couple of years thereafter.

Beautiful, talented in her field, successful and not happy. What a life.

Shamima Begum, the London-born daughter of Bangladeshi immigrant parents who went to Syria in 2015 as an ISIS bride, produced and lost three babies in ISIS and refugee camps and was stripped of her UK citizenship, has been has now been given leave to return to the UK and appeal. The Justices said: “Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns.” The Home Office has said it is a disappointing decision and will appeal the judgment, and stay its effects pending any onward appeal.

Born 25 August 1999, she is a Sun Virgo inconjunct Neptune in Aquarius, with a very Fixed, obstinate and enduring temperament. Her Saturn in Taurus is in a can-be-autocratic square to Uranus Moon in Aquarius, opposition an obsessive, can-be-vengeful Mars in Scorpio, with Mercury, Venus and North Node in Leo. Her Neptune is in a head-in-the-louds, guru-chasing square to Jupiter.

Not an easy personality – self-willed, uber-determined – and her Fixed planets collide with the UK chart with its array of Saturn in Leo, Mars in Taurus, Venus in Aquarius and Neptune in Scorpio. Her remarks when she was first interviewed after the defeat of ISIS did not help, giving the impression she wasn’t contrite for her actions or associations.

She doesn’t look too confident ahead with Neptunian Solar Arcs and transits for the next two years plus a raft of tr Uranus disruptive hard aspects to her Fixed planets on till mid decade. She’s evidently sanguine about the appeal not working.  If it fails she has the option of going to Bangladesh though she has never lived there or staying in a refugee camp.

 

Another Boris botch-up as the Capricorn Lunar Eclipse opposing his Midheaven from last week makes its mark. All his best laid plans to shoehorn failing (Chris) Grayling in as head of the Intelligence Committee collapsed in a heap on the floor. The committee is due to oversee (or stymie) the long-awaited report on Russian interference in UK politics, in particular on the 2016 EU referendum and 2017 general election. No 10 received it last October and has delayed way beyond its usual 10 days for clearance. The Sunday Times has claimed that Russian business types who gave money to the Tory Party are named which would be embarrassing for the government.

Despite having explicitly said there was no preferred government candidate and indeed the 2013 Justice and Security Act having removed the right of the prime minister to choose the ISC chairperson, No 10 blithely went ahead and texted the relevant few asking for confirmation of their vote for Grayling. Julian Lewis MP, a maverick Tory intelligence expert, thought the procedure improper, put himself on the ballot and was duly elected – then had the whip removed (political payback for disloyalty.) The committee then announced the Russia report will be published within days.

Julian Lewis, 26 September 1951, Swansea, is a serious Sun Saturn in Libra with a bullishly stubborn Mars Pluto in Leo. But what’s key is his Uranus in Cancer which sits on Boris’s Midheaven – giving him the power to alter the blond one’s trajectory and potentially push his career off track. Lewis’s do-or-die determined Mars Pluto squares Boris’s flim-flam Jupiter opposition Neptune so he won’t be taken in by PM flannel.

Their relationship chart has a composite Mars in Cancer which was also exactly in line for the Lunar Eclipse. Tr Neptune is also undermining the composite Saturn in square.  Good to see the astrology is working well.

Boris could still remove him but is being heavily cautioned not to keep digging.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial date has been set for July 12 2021 in New York with her being held in remand till then and is expected to last two or three weeks. She has pled not guilty.

At that point tr Saturn is hovering over the conjunction to her Midheaven, ready to move through her 10^th. This is a time when past preparations OR mistakes come to the forefront. It can lead to success if foundations have been well laid. Or it can bring chickens home to roost as mistakes become obvious. Watergate surfaced and Nixon finally resigned as tr Saturn moved across his midheaven and 10^th. Saturn punishes transgressions from societal norms.

Over the trial, assuming it sticks to schedule she does have tr Jupiter in Pisces conjunct her Solar Arc Mars for a lift and then sextile her Mars.  Her Jupiter does seem to act in odd ways given her dire circumstances, maybe her arrogance not allowing reality to seep through. According to Sakoian & Acker, an afflicted Jupiter, as she arguably has on her MC opposition Moon square Neptune, leads ‘to hypocrisy and vainglory, with disgrace and reversals of fortune.’

Add On: Puzzling over her Jupiter and how her father Robert Maxwell and Epstein are connected in her life since they were very different personalities. What they share in common is a money-magnet Jupiter which hooks into her delusionally arrogant T Square of Jupiter opposition Moon square Neptune. Epstein’s Jupiter was in Taurus and Maxwell’s in Scorpio. And her relationship chart with her father had that writ large with a composite Sun opposition Neptune square Jupiter. Her father’s ruthless and unsentimental Mars Pluto square Saturn hooked into her 8^th house Capricorn Sun Mars Mercury – so he was a dominating and downright dangerous presence in her life with one of the key obsessions being money as well as secrecy.

With her connection to Epstein, perversion is much more obvious – as well as money – with a composite Venus Mars opposition Uranus square Neptune. Epstein fulfilled the other obsession of her afflicted 8^th house – sex.

By August 2021 tr Saturn is conjunct her Jupiter, dampening her confidence; and she picks up the trapped, scary, infuriated tr Pluto square her Mars/Node midpoint, which has been around since early this year; and on this last hit it runs till late November 2021. No doubt there will be appeals galore and it’s 2022/23 which are more stressed for her. Tr Pluto from March 2022 starts a discouraging 2 year slog conjunct her Saturn. There’s a car-crash setback of Solar Arc Saturn square her Mars, exact in fall 2022, followed two years later by another downer as it squares her Sun. With a devastating Solar Arc Pluto conjunct her Neptune in 2023 – and two years after that her Solar Arc Pluto makes a blocked square to her Moon. And her Solar Arc Sun Mars move in opposition to her Pluto later this decade. Her days of wine and roses are long gone – though never say never to an appropriate sentence with the corruption of justice ongoing at present.

New York isn’t favourable for her putting her Pluto which is conjunct BML (Black Moon Lilith) into her 8^th house and Saturn in her 12^th. It does put her expansive Jupiter in the 1^st so she’ll make a show of confidence but will be undermined by over hopefulness about legal matters with Neptune in the 9^th  and in desperate need of a partner for support.

Of the names who have been associated with Epstein – Trump oddly looks most stressed vis a vis Maxwell. There is a composite Neptune Mars opposition Saturn square Uranus which is being heavily pressured by the tr Saturn Pluto conjunct his year and then on with tr Pluto till 2024. Though I had thought from all accounts he and Epstein parted company many years back.

Bill Clinton also has a strained relationship with Maxwell with their composite Mercury, Neptune, Sun square Uranus all being upended by the tr Saturn Pluto this year and tr Pluto on till mid decade.

Alan Dershowitz looks most aggravated by Maxwell in 2023. Prince Andrew looks flummoxed, undermined and fearing the worst over the trial but in general, though seriously rattled , doesn’t look as incensed as the others.

For more on Maxwell’s chart see previous post 2nd July 2020.

This is thinking-in-process ramble rather than leading to any firm conclusions, may be over hopeful and not very astrological. But there feels as if there are the first whiffs of a sea-change in the air – perhaps with Saturn having had its first four-month foray into Aquarius though it’s now in retreat back in Capricorn till late December.

From this New Year into 2021 Jupiter moves through Aquarius hand in hand with Saturn for a year, with Saturn there till 2023 after which it passes the baton to Pluto moving through Aquarius till the mid 2040s.

The ‘woke’ culture is being called out for its narrowness of outlook – the semi-fascist think-like-us, speak-like-us or we’ll-destroy-you mentality. And the populists who lied to the incredulous masses to get themselves into power – Brexit, Trump, Bolsonaro etc – are stumbling in the face of hard reality. Maybe just maybe it is the first inklings of a shift into Aquarius from Saturn having sent out a shark tooth to deflate their balloon.

When the Internet was launched in 1991 it gave a platform to the disenfranchised voiceless majority – with some good and other not so good results. The “online mobs” can build up a critical mass, not there before, to effect positive change. But there is also the risk – in the words of political theorist Gaetano Mosca – that “an organised minority inevitably forces its will upon the disorganised majority.” So the screamers get free rein to set the agenda – for a time.

The World Wide Web was launched in 1991 when Saturn had just put a toe into Aquarius so is now on its First Saturn Return which is grow-up-and-get-real time. Twitter and Facebook were born with idealistic and delusional Neptune in Aquarius and self-righteous Pluto in Sagittarius in the early 2000s – giving a gift and, on occasion, a toxic chalice to the vox populi.

What got me thinking was the review of a new book, Twilight of Democracy, by journalist Anne Applebaum in the Guardian. URL below. Her husband is Polish and she watched as their friends who had fought against the Stalinist dictatorship gradually turn into right-wing nationalists and conspiracy theorists.

She makes some telling remarks, by the by, about Boris Johnson, an Oxford peer of her husband, whom she met years back: ‘She noted his laziness and “all-consuming narcissism”, as well as the undoubted charisma that was to seduce and then ruin his country. In those days – he was alarmed by the global challenge to democracy and wanted to defend “the culture of freedom and openness and tolerance”. “No one serious wants to leave the EU,” he said.’

Her theory is that the nationalist counter-revolution did not just happen. Behind it were opportunistic, mediocre politicians hungry for office, second-rate journalists sniffing a chance of recognition after years of obscurity, and Twitter mob-raisers and fake news fraudsters, all propelling causes that would make their name. In my terms, a case of the ‘hoist their flag up a pole’ and see which way the wind would blow to grab them attention.

‘Populist activists are outsiders only in that they feel insufficiently rewarded. And their opponents should never underestimate what their self-pitying vanity can make them do.’

She writes: “Sometimes the point isn’t to make people believe a lie – it’s to make people fear the liar.” Acknowledge the liar’s power, and your career takes off without the need to pass exams or to display an elementary level of competence. The end result being, as was true of communists and fascists, that they replaced “first-rate talents” with “crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity” was the best guarantee of their loyalty. (Hannah Arendt.)

As true of Boris as of Trump. The Applebaum review is worth reading (URL).

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/12/anne-applebaum-how-my-old-friends-paved-the-way-for-trump-and-brexit

Her argument about recent political shifts is – kind of at a stretch – the same as the internet phenomenon. The lowest common denominator got a voice on the WWW as a side-effect of the laudable attempt to give a platform to the previously silenced majority.  Lying populist politics harnessed social media to foster the careers of second-raters on an expedient and unprincipled trip. [While admitting that politicians have always lied through the ages and most often not been top notch.]

I’m trying not to be elitist and say the deplorables should be shut up and sent back into their box. But there is a bewildering sense of the mob taking over, which has been a fear through most societies since Roman times and before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochlocracy  Looking up a few examples mentioned in wiki for mob violence, transiting Saturn square Neptune seems to be a constant as was the case for Brexit and Trump – though as it comes round relatively frequently it must be as an add-on to larger influences. In its better guise Saturn Neptune helps the cause of the underdogs – workers and women.

Ancient Greek political thinkers labelled ‘bad’ forms of government as tyranny, oligarchy, and ochlocracy as opposed to ‘good’ forms of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Good government acted in the interest of the whole community while bad government acted in the exclusive interests of a group or individual at the expense of justice. So presumably they had experience from history of all such forms which constantly fluctuate.

On the brink of the exit of Pluto from Capricorn into Aquarius in 2023, with the forward scouts of Jupiter Saturn leading the way from late this December there is hope of a shift from the disintegrating days of Capricorn into ??????

On previous occurrences of Pluto in Aquarius (approximately every 250 years):

1778 -1797: The USA declared independence in 1776 with high ideals about a new form of government, followed by the French Revolution of 1793 also visionary (at the start) about the rights of the common man. It was a productive period for philosophical and social thinkers – Emmanuel Kant and Thomas Paine (Rights of Man.)

1532 – 1552: The Roman Catholic versus Protestant schism got under way in earnest, which started to pull power away from an omnipotent and corrupt Vatican.

796 – 816: Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor, united most of Western Europe, lays the foundations for modern France and Germany and institutes political reforms. [For more on Pluto in Aquarius see post August 24 2019.]

In the churning chaos of this years’ triple conjunction of Saturn, Pluto, Jupiter, especially with nailed-down Saturn Pluto in place, there’s a sense of stasis and hopelessness as if the present situation was never going to change or at least the deterioration of values was going to worsen. And a rebalancing may not come immediately as the recent Poland elections with the Nationalists back in power indicate. The previous Saturn Pluto Jupiter conjunction in the 19th Century took two or three years to have an impact on economic rebuilding for example.

But I travel hopefully – from small beginnings come greater things. Democracy may be in a twilight phase but the pendulum will swing.

PS: Anne Applebaum was born the same year as Boris, Dan Brown, Christopher Steele though a few weeks later. 25 July 1964. She has the same Mutable Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition Saturn and Mars Venus in Gemini plus the Jupiter opposition Neptune – so better able to understand the Boris mindset than most, though she’s much less scattergun than him.

Benjamin Keough, grandson of Elvis and son of Lisa Marie Presley has died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, aged 27. He grew up in the overheated atmosphere of the most famous celebrity family of all time with a chaotic mother, who married his musician father for five years, then skipped on unbelievably to Michael Jackson, then a two month marriage to Nicholas Cage and finally a 10 year marriage to a music producer, with whom she is now fighting a custody battle for their twin daughters citing child pornography as a reason for denying spousal support.

Benjamin, born 21 October 1992 7.46am Tampa, Florida, was a Sun Libra with a volatile, highly-strung Mars in Cancer opposition the obsessive Uranus Neptune in Capricorn; with his Mars in a frustrated, angry trine to Mercury Pluto in Scorpio which in turn was in an unyielding and can-be-depressive square to a 4^th house Saturn. His wannabe-grand Leo Moon was in an emotionally intense and overly controlled square to Pluto Mercury. He would take everything to heart and tend to be pessimistic or even apocalyptic in his outlook.

None of the family have easy charts. Elvis, 8 January 1935 4.35 am Tupelo, MS, died 1977,  was a Sun Capricorn square Mars in Libra, opposition an 8^th house Pluto square Uranus.  His Sun sat on top of Benjamin’s Uranus Neptune opposition Mars – so would be a heavy weight on his grandson’s shoulders. Even more so Elvis’s 8^th house Pluto was square Benjamin’s Sun, pulling him deeper into the shadow of the King.

His mother Lisa Marie, has an 8^th house Mars Moon in Pisces opposition Pluto Uranus; with a 7^th house Sun Aquarius – so emotionally all over the place.  His father, with whom she has kept up friendly relations, Danny Keough, 6 November 1964, Chicago, is a Sun Neptune in Scorpio opposition Jupiter in Taurus; plus a tricky Mars opposition Saturn square Mercury in Scorpio – an odd mix of head-in-the-clouds and rigidly dogmatic.

Benjamin at present did look more neurotic, anxious and discouraged than usual with tr Neptune square his Sun/Saturn midpoint and opposition his Mars/Pluto; as well as the disruptive tr Uranus opposition his Sun/Pluto and tr Saturn conjunct his Saturn/Neptune – not on their own enough to tip the balance but added into his high-wire temperament did obviously become too much.

 

Glee TV, which brought the sadly departed Naya Rivera to fame, has picked up chatter about the bad vibes surrounding the mega-successful show, with two previous deaths of cast members. Cory Monteith died of an accidental heroin and alcohol overdose in 2013 and Mark Selling suicided after being arrested in 2018 for child porn offences having already been accused on sexual battery charges. Recently Lea Michele was called out for bad behaviour on set and apologised; and had a strained relationship with Naya.  All sounds like tinsel town on steroids – or just more of the same old same old.

Glee was an American musical comedy-drama television series aired by Fox network from 2009 to 2015 with a young ensemble cast, which won multiple awards and sold many million singles and albums on the back of its success.

The pilot was aired 19 May 2009 (no time) which puts a Mercury Sun in Taurus conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol square Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter in Aquarius. The better side of Jupiter Neptune is a love of music and art, an abundance of good feelings, though it can suggest being easily seduced, overly impressionable – it’s not damaging, just not grounded. Neptune in hard aspect to Mercury Sun is good for music and Jupiter for luck and an over-the-top-quality.

Apart from Algol, the chart itself isn’t too scary. Though the 5^th Harmonic is brutal linking Mars Saturn to Mercury Pluto to Neptune Jupiter. 5H can be sensationalist, indulgent, irresponsible. The 10^th Harmonic, which suggests a rise and then fall in fortune, is even more so with a deadly Mars Pluto Saturn linked to Neptune – and that is perverse as well as ruinous. The final season was announced after Cory Monteith’s death.

Mark Salling post January 31 2018

Actor/singer Mark Salling, best known for Glee, committed suicide while facing sentencing for gross child pornography charges which would likely have sent him to jail for seven years.

Born 17 August 1982 Dallas Texas, he was a Sun Leo trine Neptune, sextile Pluto Saturn in Libra – creative, flamboyant and hard. He also had an exuberantly determined Mars Jupiter in Scorpio square his Venus in Leo and maybe a Leo Moon; with his Venus (Moon) trine Uranus. Venus square Mars can be insensitive to the needs of partners and he had faced two sexual assault charges previously. Mars in Scorpio can be sexually obsessed and vengeful.  It’s not an especially brutal chart but much will depend on houses which we don’t know without a birth time.

He was brought up in a strictly religious home, home-schooled in the early stages. These kinds of inclinations almost always stem from early damage and dysfunction in relation to the primary caregiver.

His midpoints show illusions and delusions with his Sun square his Neptune/Pluto midpoint and his Pluto conjunct his Sun/Neptune – so a huge amount of inner confusion. And tr Uranus had been on the opposition to his Sun/Neptune from early December through this month.

Child pornography, while it appears less heinous than actual abuse, is not a victimless crime. Either he was stuck in a repetition compulsion from his own inner fantasies; or he lacked empathy which can be a Neptunian failing.

Cory Monteith post 14 July 2013:

Cory Monteith, the Canadian actor best known for Glee, who had a drug and substance abuse problem since his teens has been found dead. Born 11 May 1982 in Calgary, Canada, he was a Sun Taurus inconjunct Saturn Pluto so bleak, strained. His Venus in Aries opposed Mars and Saturn and squared onto a Cancer North Node – so again emotionally out of kilter, rather tortured; and a sharp-witted though highly strung Mercury in Gemini opposition Uranus. Plus Mars square Neptune Moon (Sagittarius or Capricorn) so more emotional confusion and aggravation. His parents divorced when he was 7.

His chart has an oddity in that Saturn and Pluto are 8 degrees apart with the Sun exactly inconjunct the midpoint. His Mars Saturn are 16 degrees apart with Venus exactly opposition their midpoint. And Mercury is 8 degrees in opposition to Uranus.

This year tr Pluto and tr Uranus have been hitting on his Mars/Saturn midpoint so it was an accident waiting to happen. Plus tr Uranus is exactly opposition his Mars/Pluto as well at the moment which is very risky.

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Christopher Steele, the former Brit intelligence officer, author of the controversial ‘dirty’ dossier on Trump’s alleged Russia connections, is back in the firing line. Trump is calling for his extradition since he blames him for instigating the Russia probe – though the Republican Congress report found there were other reasons. A recent court case found Steele’s firm guilty of data breaches with respect to two Russian oligarchs mentioned though they received miniscule amounts and the judge said it had not been Steele’s doing to make the report public. Steele has said he only became embroiled overall because he was alarmed at what he was hearing about Trump and Russia (all hotly denied). As ever it was a standard secret intelligence report based on sources, not hard evidence.

Robert Mueller has broken his silence after the commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence saying: “Russia’s actions were a threat to America’s democracy,” Mueller wrote. “It was critical that they be investigated and understood.” Steele said he was disappointed by the Mueller report. He criticized it for being ‘too narrow’ and failing to follow up on crucial evidence.

What’s a touch disconcerting – or maybe not – is to find that Steele was born, 24 June 1964, two days after Dan Brown (master conspiracy theorist of Da Vinci Code fame) and five days after Boris Johnson – see Ramblers & Mythmakers post 2 July 2020.

Like Brown, Steele has an early Cancer Sun and North Node which was rattled by the June Solar Eclipse setting up a crisis or two in coming months. And he has the scattered, excitable Mutable T Square of Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition Saturn square Mars in Gemini, plus Venus Mercury also in Gemini. He almost certainly has a Sagittarius Moon. To top it all off he has Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune – which can be idealistic, wildly optimistic or overly-impressionable, with a tendency to speculate and be misunderstood by others.

He’s been under high stress since 2016 and on with more stretching ahead till late January 2021 with various Neptune and Pluto hard aspects to midpoints. And the December Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius will oppose his Venus Mercury for an upset or two. But he looks much more upbeat and into a luckier phase from late January 2021 onwards with only a few ripples thereafter – which may be other factors in his life since he clearly has opted for an adrenaline-rush existence.  Exactly now the July Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn is opposition his Progressed Mars and maybe conjunct his Progressed Moon stoking up a scare or angry words.

His relationship chart with Trump with a composite Venus Mars in the firing line of last week’s Lunar Eclipse and a composite Mercury picking up the June Solar Eclipse was always due for an outburst now; with tensions from late this month till the election with tr Saturn opposition the composite Uranus and square Neptune. The December Solar Eclipse will also rattle the composite Sun and confusion will reign through 2021/22.

It may all just be a vindictive flash-in-the-pan from Trump’s gnat-attention-span Twitter brain; and Mueller’s intervention will help Steele. But no doubt Steele will be able to breathe more easily when Trump flits off into the ether. Though he won’t just have Trump to worry about, the threat from the Russian side has been and no doubt will continue to be real.