There was a bizarre and slightly pathetic mise-en-scene for the Queen’s Speech with the Imperial State Crown minus its keeper sitting centre spotlight on a cushion, effectively upstaging Prince Charles who had to perform the political ritual. If it was a pointed reminder that the Queen had sworn lifelong devotion to the throne, it didn’t work. Her appearance two days later in beaming good spirits at a horse show added to the tone deafness of the exercise.

  No one begrudges her pleasures after a gruelling lifetime of service or would be anything other than understanding of her handing over the reins to Charles as Prince Regent.  But as her vanity stops her being wheelchaired into state occasions, the question of her misgivings about whether Charles is up to the job looms large. Added to which she is extraordinarily fixed and rigid so dislikes change and may, like her mother, have a strong resistance to stepping back from a front line status.

  Queen Victoria, who left her son and heir Edward deprived of political influence until he was 60, before she died and handed over the reins, famously disapproved of him but his subsequent ten year reign turned out, much to everyone’s surprise, to be successful. He was charming, had a string of mistresses, but was progressive in his views on tolerance and alleviating class divisions.  

   Like Charles, King Edward V11, 9 November 1841 10.48 am London, was a Sun Scorpio. His relationship with his mother Queen Victoria was fraught with his Virgo Moon being opposition Uranus  – and her tough, chilly, disciplinarian Saturn Pluto in Pisces being opposition his Moon and her Uranus Neptune square, sitting on his Ascendant and Saturn. Not a great mix.

  What he also shared with Charles was the Mars Pluto cross over with his mother. Edward’s Pluto in Aries was conjunct Victoria’s Mars with his Mars Square – he would be trapped and enraged by the power imbalance in their relationship.

  Charles’ Pluto opposes his mother’s Mars with his Sun square – so similar. And it’s worse in their relationship chart with a composite Pluto opposition Mars Jupiter. Jupiter Pluto suggests a tussle for the upper hand. Mars Pluto which appears in many of the Queen’s relationships is an indication that there is only one power figure in the family. It may be partly her spiritual pledge to the throne but she makes it abundantly clear that she calls the shots and no one else. What makes the chemistry between herself and Charles trickier still is a composite Sun square Uranus hinting they need a good deal of space from each other and have differing agendas and outlooks with neither willing to compromise.

  Charles and his mother are additionally an uneasy mix despite his 10^th house Taurus Moon being exactly conjunct her Sun, because her critical Saturn is conjunct his Sun which will be fault-finding and dampen his self-esteem.

  Throughout a long reign Queen Elizabeth has been selfless and conscientious to a staggering degree, rarely putting a foot wrong and in recent years has seemed like a beacon of stability to the country. But her judgement about certain members of the close family has always been her Achilles Heel, over-critical about Charles and under-by-a-mile of Andrew. Her relationship with Charles is the most fraught of all her children which must make it impossibly difficult for him.

  I can’t find an exact time for the oath at the Coronation chart, 2 June 1953 (does anyone have it?) but it is sagging this year with tr Neptune square the Mars and may have the Solar Arc Midheaven (on an 11am start time) square the Saturn.

  What is for sure is that 2023 will see huge changes for both the Queen and Charles with tr Pluto in Aquarius square Charles’ Moon and the Queen’s Sun from late March onwards. Even before then the Scorpio/Taurus Eclipses are rattling the Queen’s Midheaven and Saturn and Charles’ Sun and Mercury in Scorpio at the moment and through this year. Tr Uranus is also square Charles’ Pluto from next month hinting at the start of an upheaval running into 2023; with added pressure from tr Uranus opposition his Sun in 2023.

  When Edward V11 succeeded his mother Victoria in 1901 there were also Scorpio/Taurus Eclipses in place.

  A sad passing of an era – and it will be a considerable wrench and jolt for the country. But life must go on.

Add On: As near as I can make it the oath was taken twenty minutes after the 11am start of the ceremony. That would put the Taurus Midheaven in line for a decisive change of direction across the middle of this year, and into early 2023.

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Cryptocurrencies are collapsing with some reduced to zero in value. Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, has seen their shares lose around three-quarters of their value since the market debut last year, and drop 32 per cent this week.

  I stumble around in the dark where these magical, mystical, non-real money tokens are concerned but for what it is worth –

Coinbase, founded 20 June 2012, has a Gemini Sun square Mars in Virgo which is catching the panicky-failure tr Neptune opposition Mars now and into early 2023; with financial disappointments extending on as tr Neptune squares the Sun before moving into Aries in 2025. Their Nasdaq chart, 14 April 2021, shares similar confidence and enthusiasm denting influences this year extending on to 2025.

Bitcoin, the original, founded 3 January 2009, has been under astro-pressure for the past year and finally breached the seawall now as the Solar Arc Saturn square the Mars.

 Ethereum, 2 July 2015, which shares with Bitcoin a do-or-die-determined and utterly ruthless Mars Pluto hard aspect, is into earthquake territory this year with Solar Arc Pluto square the Uranus – and this week’s Lunar Eclipse colliding with its Saturn in Scorpio. The next few years look stormy and high-risk with the Solar Arc Mars approaching the opposition to the Pluto and the Solar Arc Sun square the Uranus.

Another Pluto in Capricorn ‘greed is good’ phenomenon intertwined with Neptune in Pisces up to its sleight-of-hand dream-spinning.

The Good Friday agreement – ‘one of the great achievements of the turn of the century’ – brought to an effective end nearly thirty years of violence in Northern Ireland. The UK attorney- general Suella Braverman is now accusing the EU of putting the peace process at risk by holding the Johnson government to the terms they signed in the Brexit deal – which is a reversal of the truth.

 Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, in between bouts of lambasting Putin while showboating over Ukraine, has also been raining criticism on the head of the Northern Ireland Protocol. As has ‘nightclub bouncer’ David Frost, the former UK/EU negotiator.

  The UK/EU relationship chart is sparking up trouble exactly now with tr Uranus square the composite Venus, on and off into 2023, at which point tr Uranus picks up the aggravated square to the composite Mars into 2024 for a heated emotional spat. The recent Scorpio Solar Eclipse was also conjunct the composite Neptune leading to evasions, delusions and outright deceptions.

  Joe Biden has already issued stern warnings about not upsetting the agreement and his relationship with Boris, hostile at best, is deteriorating badly now until this autumn and again early next year with tr Saturn opposition the composite Mars Pluto; and worsening in 2023 with tr Uranus in square to Mars Pluto.

  The Good Friday Agreement, 10 April 1998 5pm Belfast, has been stressed since Brexit with the Sun, Saturn, Mars in Aries catching the tr Uranus conjunction and now the tr Pluto square to the Mars in 2022/23. So stretching to almost breaking point and ending in a swamp in 2024/25 with tr Pluto conjunct the Neptune.

  None of the Johnson acolytes looks too cheerful this year though whether that is because their shameless posturing has come unstuck or for other reasons isn’t clear. Braverman, a controlling Sun Aries opposition Pluto with a flashy Mars North Node in Leo tied into an ultra-Fixed grand square with Uranus and Venus – is sagging this year, feeling disempowered and into a tumultuous three years thereafter.

  David Frost, a Sun Saturn in Pisces with an explosive Mars Uranus Pluto in Virgo and Boris’s unrealistic Jupiter opposition Neptune – is facing panicky failure this year and a tough slog till late 2023.

  Liz Truss with her eye on the crown has a Leo Sun in a stratospherically ambitious trine to Neptune, sextile Pluto; with a wobbly and inconsistent T Square of Mercury Saturn square Uranus opposition Jupiter and a tough Mars in Taurus. She’s mainly on a losing streak in 2022/23 with one blip of luck this August to December.  

  Words fail me. Well not quite. It’s amoral and punted by those of mind-bendingly low calibre.

Add On: The Times May 14 2022

‘In Downing Street the blame has been laid at the door of Liz Truss, the foreign secretary. She has been accused of unnecessarily antagonising Brussels to curry favour with the Tory right while allowing aides to brief journalists that some less Brexit-blooded ministers, such as Michael Gove and Sunak, were trying to stop the plan.

One source described it as “leadership feather-fluttering”, whereas others in government suggested that Truss fully deserved the nickname given to her by Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former adviser: the human hand grenade who blew up everything she touched.

“The whole thing is just very painful,” a government aide said. “The Foreign Office has gone very gung ho on it. Yes the process with the EU has been very tortuous but this was never meant to be an exercise in EU bashing. It was meant to be all about the Northern Ireland peace process.”

“Another senior figure who has worked on Brexit added: “The PM has ‘religion’ on this and thinks that the ERG [ the pro-Brexit European Research Group] will love it — but I’m not so sure. What I do know is that a lot of the wider parliamentary party are horrified. Even if it’s technically legal — and there are a range of views on that — it is not going down well.”   

Ninety year old Cardinal Zen has been arrested in Hong Kong for breaking China’s draconian 2020 national security law, on the specious excuse of being a trustee of a humanitarian relief fund, now disbanded, that helped pro-democracy protesters in financial need. Other than the Dalai Lama, there is no individual more despised by the Chinese State Security officials than Zen. Human Rights Watch called it a “shocking new low for Hong Kong.”

Cardinal Zen fled Shanghai for Hong Kong after the communists took over China 70 years ago, is a former bishop of Hong Kong and has long been a critic of the Beijing government, speaking out for Catholics in mainland China and for more democracy in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong church has for more than two decades commemorated the crushing by Chinese troops of student-led protests centred on Tiananmen Square on June 4 1989. But recently local Catholic leaders decided to cancel the annual memorial for fear of violating the new laws.

  Cardinal Zen was born 13 January 1932, fled from China after 1949 and after training as a priest spent his career largely in teaching as he rose to high office.

  He has a rock-solid and reforming chart with trail-blazing Uranus in Aries on the focal point of a T Square to a determined Capricorn Sun opposition Pluto. His Sun is also conjunct a disciplined and steely Mars Saturn in Capricorn. And his Uranus is trine Jupiter in Leo which is trine Mercury in Sagittarius.

  His Neptune in Virgo is unaspected which would suggest that he keeps his spiritual search as an inner not an outer experience; and perhaps hints that he has a bleak view of the possibility of his ideals becoming a reality.

  His tough-minded late Capricorn planets sit uncomfortably with the Neptune and Jupiter respectively on the China 1912 and 1949 charts. And both the relationship charts show a high level of aggravation and dislike.

  Hong Kong itself. 1 July 1997 12 am, is not heading anywhere cheerful with a devastating and confused tr Pluto conjunct Neptune in 2023/24 and stress with disappointment after mid decade. Relations with China will worsen between 2023 and 2026.

  Xi Jinping’s 2^nd Term chart is in an unstable and uncertain year with tr Pluto square the Uranus, hitting exact for a final time this August to December; and tr Neptune square Saturn on and off into early 2023. The pandemic and economic woes are looming large.

 His personal chart, assuming 15 June 1953 is an accurate birth date, indicates a jolting and undermining year now; more disruptions in 2023 and failure/panic in 2024/2025/2026.

  Shaky dictators tend to get more repressive when they feel the ground shifting under their feet.

Sigmund Freud’s thinking had a profound effect on the 20^th Century, becoming embedded in literature and movies as well as across the psychological field. Credited as the founder of psychoanalysis, he had a professional partnership then disagreement with Jung with both going their separate ways as egos and theories clashed.  Both were ambitious men keen to make their name as leaders in their field, which in Freud’s case caused him to skew some of his views on the sexual abuse of children to avoid the hostility of the society in which he lived.

  His influence can’t be understated, though he was plain wrong in his attitude to women and sexuality, and his personal habits were not above reproach. He had a cocaine habit and conducted an affair at one point with his wife’s sister. The Oedipal theory on which he based his reputation was a distorted and selective rewriting of the Greek myth to reinforce his view of the idealized mother and the sexualized, vengeful infant. In reality the story of Oedipus tells of a child abandoned by both parents to die in an effort to shore up the narcissistic father’s delusion he could stave off mortality, backed up by a collusive mother.

   Later feminists took exception to his views on penis envy which seen from this distance is bizarre.

  What is intriguing is that both he and Jung had Sun and Uranus in the 7^th making them trailblazers and keen on unconventional relationships. But where Jung had a fiery Leo Sun square an other-worldly Neptune making him reach for the intangible and mystical, Freud was an earthy Taurus and then some with a serious Saturn in Gemini in his 8th, the house of sexual matters.

 His Sun was conjunct Uranus with Mercury at the far end of Taurus and Pluto in the early degrees. His Neptune was square his 8^th house Moon, a hint of his unrealistic view of women and motherhood.

 Both men had hard Mars Jupiter aspects which can signify the ‘holy warrior’, one who promotes their pet cause with zeal and can also indicate at its most negative, an opportunist.

  Both had their North Node in designed-to-lead and be independent Aries. Both had Chiron in their 3^rd house which rules the mental functions.  

  They were never designed to walk the same path with Jung’s Pluto conjunct Freud’s Uranus Sun and Jung’s Uranus conjunct Freud’s Midheaven. Their respective Mars and Saturn also clashed for a bad tempered match.

 Their relationship chart had a hostile, power-struggling composite Mars opposition Pluto and an ego-clashing Jupiter trine Pluto. They could – and arguably did – move mountains in terms of shifting public attitudes to the psyche but from differing standpoints which were never going to agree.  

The polls for the Australia election show a solid lead for Labor and Anthony Albanese over Scott Morrison’s coalition government. But the Australia country chart reeks of confusion and indecision; and neither of the two leaders looks cheered by the result, nor does the main financial backer of the independent candidates.

  The gap at the moment of 54% to 46% would need a staggering reversal to alter it at this late stage. But there still appears to be unease about it not being in the bag.

  The vote comes after a stormy period with the pandemic, a rancorous fight over climate change strategy and deteriorating relations with China. Rising interest rates, inflation and energy prices are a worry for voters; and the Solomon Islands’ decision to sign a security pact with China undermined Morrison’s assertion that he is stronger on national security.

  Albanese, 2 March 1963, no birth time, is a Sun Pisces trine Neptune and opposition Pluto Uranus in Virgo; with a cool Saturn Mercury in Aquarius square Neptune – good as a backroom operator and he has stumbled through the campaign. Over the election he has tr Uranus exactly opposition his Neptune and square his Uranus/Node midpoint and from late May through June tr Uranus squares his Saturn Mercury – which certainly looks like change, though also fractious and high tension. There’s not much of cheer on his chart this year (without a birth time) apart from a very mild tr Jupiter trine his Mars in late May. He’s much more upbeat and confident in 2023/24 though with hiccups as well.

 Scott Morrison, 13 May 1968, a Sun Taurus trine Uranus Pluto in Virgo and opposition Neptune square Jupiter in flashy Leo – not short of ambition or chutzpah but also over confident and not always sensible.

  He’s in a generally disastrous year with tr Neptune opposition his Uranus over the election as well as tr Uranus conjunct his Mercury/Saturn – so he’s in much the same pickle as Albanese.

Jessica Adams sees a hung parliament because of Mercury Retrograde on election day with delayed results and general mayhem.

Carl Jung left a profound mark on the 20^th Century, imprinting his ideas and theories across a wide field of psychology, anthropology, archaeology, literature, alchemy, the paranormal and religious studies. He focused on individuation, the process of integrating the opposites, the conscious and unconscious, and left behind important concepts like archetypes, the collective unconscious, extraversion and intraversion.

  Alongside brilliance went personality flaws, as one biographer remarked ‘the size of the Grand Canyon.’ He married his wife Emma, a banker’s daughter for her money, slept with patients and borrowed money from them, installed his mistress in the family home as his muse, dropping her in later years when her looks went – and missed his wife most of all when she died. He may have helped countless millions with his ideas but close at hand he was damaging.

 Born on 26 July 1875 at 7.26pm Kesswil, Switzerland, he had a showy, attention-demanding 7^th house Leo Sun square a creative, spiritual, vague Neptune in his communication 3^rd. He also had an independent-minded, uncooperative 7^th house Uranus which would incline him towards unconventional relationships. It sat uncomfortably in square to his intensely possessive Taurus Moon Pluto conjunction – so he would veer between closeness and abandonment/rejection.

  His 1^st house serious, coolly detached Saturn in Aquarius was trine a 9^th house Jupiter and sextile Mars in adventurous and outspoken Sagittarius.

   His search for integration would be driven by an intensely personal battle to balance the jumble of contradictory parts of himself. His internal dysfunction may also have driven his interest in alchemy – the symbolic process of burning off the dross to reveal the gold; while at the same time being adamant about not disavowing the shadow. He revelled in paradoxes, fond of quoting the physicist Niels Bohr – ‘the opposite is also a profound truth.”

  I started this post with a thought of drawing parallels between him and Mother Teresa – there’s certainly a Taurus connection with a hint of Leo, and Jupiter in Libra in the 9^th. Though she was much more rooted in the grosser aspects of the earthly world with an Earth Grand Trine. Like her he has Mars in aspect to his Saturn giving him an edge. And he certainly thought that the process of redemption only came through suffering. But in his case it was an emotional or psychological agony that was required not a physical one.  

‘There is no birth of consciousness without pain.’

‘A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.’

‘Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.’

  In terms of psychological process he was right about the journey through to transformation/individuation being arduous and at times agonizing.

  Though the semi-voluntary slog through psychotherapy hardly equates to deliberate physical pain and deprivation being inflicted on those desperate for help and support.

  Jung’s ‘spiritual-seeker’ 7^th harmonic was strong, as was his humanitarian 9H (sometimes money issues); his break-through-genius 13H; leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17H; and global influence 22H.

Fur is flying in an unbelievably nonsensical £3 million libel case – ‘a fiesta of fake tan and fury’ – in London between two mega-rich footballers’ wives over the leakage to the tabloid press of trivial social media gossip from a private group. Coleen Rooney, wife of bad boy Wayne, sourced the offending tales to an account of Rebekah Vardy and outed her, resulting in a retaliatory suit for defamation. Though it has been mooted that Vardy’s agent who had access to her account may well have been to blame.  Mobile phones were lost in the North Sea, laptops refused to divulge their secrets but the runaway feud stumbled on into the hallowed halls of justice. It’s been described by an onlooker as a ‘train heading towards a cliff edge with two passengers on board, neither of whom is willing to disembark’.

 Coleen Rooney, 3 April 1986, has been  married for 14 years to Wayne, mother to his four sons Kai, Klay, Kit and Cass, forgiver of his various infidelities, lives in a £20 million house and is constantly on Dubai and Caribbean holidays. Over the years, she has been on TV shows, written  magazine columns and produced fashion ranges. She is an upfront Sun Aries square Neptune Mars in Capricorn; with an intensely determined and indulgent Venus in Taurus conjunct North Node opposition Pluto with her Pluto in a confident trine to Jupiter.

 Rebekah Vardy, 17 February 1982, married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, formerly in a liaison with pop singer Peter Andre, mother of five kids and lives in mansion with a tennis court, gym, indoor pool, sauna and marble-topped bar. She is a Sun Aquarius trine a volcanic collection of Pluto, Saturn, Mars in Libra which is turn squares her Venus in Capricorn.

  Both of them are determined personalities with stressed Venuses and one key problem may result from Rebekah’s Jupiter being conjunct Coleen’s ramped up Pluto which will lead to oneupmanship games and a tussle for the upper hand. And has been spotlighted by the recent Scorpio Solar Eclipse.

  The end result is hardly likely to bring much financial reward though with hubby Rooney being worth £100 million and hubby Vardy earning £7 million a year it hardly matters.

  Rebekah looks uncertain and deflated in the immediate future though back to confident form in 2023. Coleen is edgy this year, on a downer in 2023 and only retrieving her mojo through 2024/25.

   Ukrainians are being slaughtered, the poor can’t afford to eat and heat, and the brainless ones blunder on regardless. They could have given the £3 million to a foodbank or refugee charity and earned themselves some kudos. Sound and fury and even less substance than the rancid Depp v Heard case.

The Philippines is heading for the unthinkable – the return of the Marcos dynasty, a family infamous for its corruption, extravagance and brutality. Bongbong Marcos, son of the late Ferdinand and Imelda, has won the presidential election by a landslide. It is a blow to those who have campaigned for accountability for the abuses of the old Marcos era, which were neither apologised for nor the treasure stolen from the national purse returned.

 A decade-long campaign of whitewashing the Marcos reputation has paid off with YouTube tales of the old Marcos era – ‘not as a period of martial law, with its terrible human rights abuses, corruption and near-economic collapse – but as a golden age of crime-free prosperity.’

  Marcos junior has also benefitted greatly by aligning himself with the Duterte family. The nationalist, populist Rodrigo Duterte, who has just stood down as president was deemed guilty of running death squads who carried out extrajudicial killings of drug users and street children and has never declared his financial assets.

 Bongbong Marcos, 13 September 1957, is a Sun Virgo like his father Ferdinand, 11 September 1917, with both having Venus in Libra. Both have Jupiter in an Air sign; and tough Saturn Pluto aspects.  If anything Bongbong is a harder, more aggressive personality than his father with a Sun Mars conjunction, a Saturn Pluto square and a can-be-fanatical Uranus square Neptune.

  He takes over on June 30^th when there is a ruthless, risky Mars square Pluto, never a good sign for an administration; with an over expansive Sun square Jupiter. His personal chart indicates he’s not having an auspicious start with tr Neptune opposition his Mars inducing feelings of failure later this year; and a devastating and confused tr Pluto square his Neptune in 2023/2024. The economic problems he faces are considerable and his chart would indicate he will struggle mightily to get a grip.

  The Philippine 4 July 1946 9.15am chart is labouring through heavy seas this year with tr Pluto in a ‘deprived/tough-conditions opposition to the Saturn. With the outer planet shift bringing massive and difficult challenges in the second half of this decade. The 10 December 1898 chart has a confidence surge in 2024/25 and will also be greatly affected by the Pluto and Uranus shift.