“A mean, cruel, hard, unlovable, unloving human being … relentlessly ugly. … But her books? Brilliant.” So said Patricia Highsmith’s publisher. And PD James remarked that without the catharsis of fiction she wondered whether Highsmith might have become one of the murderers she wrote so lovingly about.  A new biography relating the chaos and degradation of her life and a collection of her short stories to mark her centenary don’t paint a pretty picture.

  She was born on 19 January 1921 at 3.45 am Forth Worth, Texas, into a marriage which split before she arrived, with a hostile mother, who had tried to abort her and told her. Not surprisingly she suffered depression throughout her life and became alcoholic. Her novel ‘Strangers on a Train’ about two men who ‘exchange’ murders to be rid of inconvenient wives, published when she was 30, became a success, more so with the subsequent Hitchcock film; and she followed it with the best-selling Mr Ripley series about a charming and amoral criminal who murders a rich man and steals his identity.

   She was a frenetic lesbian, having sex ten times a day at times often with women she picked up in bars, or with married women and then deliberately creating havoc in their relationships, leaving a trail of destruction behind. She hated black people, Jews, Latinos, Koreans, Indians, Catholics, evangelicals and Mexicans and women.

  A former lover said she was “an extremely unbalanced person, extremely hostile and misanthropic”, and that “if she hadn’t had her work, she would have been sent to an insane asylum”. Her short stories according to a review “over and over —— we find people driven to murder, suicide or insanity, or all three.“  All commentators on her life remark how hard going it is to stay with the material since it is so bleak and soused in dark cynicism.

  She was a Sun Capricorn in the financial 2^nd in an Earth Grand Trine to a Taurus Moon trine Saturn Jupiter in Virgo. And she also had a Water Grand Trine of an 8^th house Pluto trine Uranus Mars Venus in Pisces trine a Scorpio North Node.

  Earth Grand Trines can be drawn to the physical side of life, at times to the extent of becoming gross, weighed down by carnality or acquisitiveness – especially with a Taurus Moon. The Water Grand Trine can be creative though also detached from reality.  Her passionately enthusiastic Venus Mars conjunction is echoed in Jeffrey Epstein’s chart and many of his associates. In her case it was ramped up even more by a deviant Uranus and a deeply buried controlling Pluto. Pluto trine Venus is compulsively seductive; Pluto trine Mars can be ruthless.  

 And yet despite the horrors of her personality and the wreckage of her life she was clearly talented. Her creative 5^th Harmonic is confident and successful; her creative though not always well-balanced 7^th harmonic is notably aspected with a brutal collection of Pluto, Saturn, Mars. Her breakthrough-genius 13H and self-destructive 16H are marked; as is her ‘serial killer’ 18H.  PD James was right. Without her typewriter she could well have been out there destroying the objects of her dislike.  

Armin Laschet, the centrist continuity conservative candidate, has become Angela Merkel’s successor as leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union. He may or may not lead the party in the German elections on 26 September as candidate for chancellor. A recent poll indicated only 28% of Germans surveyed thought he had the calibre for the job. His approval ratings fell during the pandemic because of lackadaisical leadership and charges of nepotism over PPE procured from a fashion company that also employs his son to model its clothes. He has raised eyebrows in the past over his dislike of “anti-Putin populism” and his sympathetic comments about Syria’s Bashar Assad.   

  Born 18 February 1961, he’s a Sun Aquarius opposition Uranus with a Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Capricorn.   He will have tr Pluto in a successful conjunction to his Jupiter just before the September election and from late November onwards, though tr Pluto will at the same time conjunct his Saturn which tends to be discouraging. Tr Jupiter will oppose his Uranus on Election day which could hand him a dollop of luck, in a small way; and he has upbeat tr Uranus square his Sun/Jupiter midpoint before the election and again in November.

  It’s possible he could do reasonably well. Though he’s no Merkel. Her Jupiter is conjunct the Germany Midheaven and her Sun Uranus sit in the German 10^th house. Her relationship chart with Germany has a power-couple Jupiter Pluto conjunction 

But he could be popular enough with his Moon Venus falling in the Germany 7^th and his Sun in the Germany 5^th.  Though there’s an awkwardness about his Jupiter Saturn sitting in the Germany 4^th opposing the Uranus – differing agendas. His relationship chart with Germany is very up and down. A positive Pluto square Jupiter; a stuck-with-him and resenting-it Saturn Pluto; a disruptive Mars Uranus; and an evasive Sun Neptune.

Pic: Olaf Kosinsky

With relief in sight from widespread vaccination programmes worldwide the anti-vaxxer fanatics are crawling out of their bunkers. They insist “Covid is a hoax”, refuse to wear masks and in the UK have a leader in Piers Corbyn, the elder brother of former Labour leader Jeremy. He has described the Covid vaccine as a ‘satanic death shot’ and regards lockdowns, masks and vaccinations as symbols of an increasingly totalitarian control by a ‘New World Order’.

  In the USA Robert F Kennedy Jnr amongst others are spearheading similar campaigns. Fears appear to range from a fraud perpetrated by capitalist Big Pharma to rip off the taxpayer; to a generalised resistance to state control of individual bodies; to hangovers from the discredited claim that MMR vaccine causes autism due to the mercury compound in the measles vaccine.

   All of which add up to an excessive fear and distrust of authority figures – the state and the medical establishment.

  Piers Corbyn, 10 March 1947, is a Sun Pisces in a rebellious square to Uranus. But what floats his boat is his Mars in Pisces on the focal point of a stressed Yod inconjunct Saturn Pluto in Leo sextile Neptune. Such a Mars tends to be impulsive, overly aggressive, at times self-defeating and often directing hostility towards inappropriate targets. Any windmill will do as long as he can unleash his anger against it.

  Robert F Kennedy Jnr, 17 January 1954, has pushed conspiracy theories about links between Bill Gates, 5G and covid, as well as the debunked autism line. He is a Sun, Mercury, Venus in Capricorn opposition Uranus square Neptune; with Saturn Mars conjunct in Scorpio. Uranus Neptune has a tendency to hang onto delusional ideas even in the face of hard evidence to the contrary. And he’s certainly got anger issues that need an outlet.

   Jenny McCarthy, 1 November 1972 12.42pm Chicago, has been a vociferous critic of the MMR vaccine which she claims resulted in her son becoming autistic, though it later transpired he may suffer from another condition unrelated to the vaccine. She’s a communicative 9^th house Scorpio Sun with an explosive, volatile Mars Uranus conjunction square her Capricorn North Node; and a packed 8^th house with a Virgo Moon, Venus Pluto in Libra there, which will give her deep-rooted fears of being trapped.

  Jim Carrey, a one-time boyfriend of hers, has also voiced fears about vaccines. Born 17 June 1962 2.30 Newmarket, Canada, he is another Sun Venus in Capricorn, like Robert Kennedy Jnr; and has Mars on a Yod focal point like Piers Corbyn – in his case inconjunct Moon sextile North Node in Leo. With Pluto in his 10^th he will have control as well as anger issues.

 Letitia Wright, 31 October 1993 Guyana, the Black Panther actress, hastily withdrew an anti-vaxx tweet last month. She said she was concerned about what people put into their bodies.  She’s a Sun Scorpio with Mars Pluto in Scorpio sextile Uranus Neptune in Capricorn and square Saturn in Aquarius – which is a real pile up of unbudgeable-opinion Uranus Neptune; and a seriously afflicted Mars which will make her both angry against authority figures and fearful.

  It’s not that I don’t think Big Pharma is seriously corrupt – which it is – or that the medical establishment don’t make horrendous mistakes which they won’t own up to for decades. Or indeed that some people don’t react badly to standard medical interventions. But having grown up with the required polio, TB and other vaccinations; plus the usual exotic ones for Africa and India travel and never thought twice about them, it does seem an odd neurosis – and very counter-productive.

PS. I’ve been trying for ages to get hold of the birth date for Andrew Wakefield, the original discredited and disbarred MMR vaccine-causes-fraud medic.  If anyone finds it I’d be most grateful.  He was born in 1957 as Pluto put a toe into Virgo and published his fraudulent study in 1998 as Neptune just edged into Aquarius.

Singer Marianne Faithfull has improbably become one of the Covid success stories – so far, cross fingers. With a history of heroin addiction, bulimia, suicide bids, homelessness, breast cancer, hepatitis C, a 2014 broken hip that became infected after surgery and emphysema, the result of decades of smoking, she was not expected to survive when she went into intensive care last April. She still suffers memory loss, fatigue and lung problems but bounced back to finish her 21^st album due out in April in which she reads from the Romantic poets.

  Born 29 December 1946 12.20pm (rectified) London, UK, she’s a fiery, go-ahead Sun Mars in Capricorn conjunct her Midheaven in a showbizzy square to Neptune in her 6^th. Neptune in the 6^th should make her health more delicate but clearly she has a guardian angel watching over her.

  Her self-protective Pisces Moon is doubly emphasised in the hidden 12^th. It is on the focal point of a T Square to Uranus opposition Mercury and on the focal point of a Yod to Pluto (Saturn) in Leo sextile Neptune. The Moon on a T Square tends to be emotionally changeable, restless, resistant to emotional conflict, has cravings for constant stimuli. The Moon on a Yod tends to be emotionally disorganised, defensive, self-defeating with escapist urges which act as protection. What such a Moon is helpful for is a public career since the attention from a wide spectrum of people who don’t expect commitment is easier than one-on-one ties.

  She has another Yod of Mars (Sun) sextile Moon inconjunct Pluto Saturn, which is truly difficult. Two Yods would make her feel she never fitted in and had to walk her own individual road in life and the emotional overload from that extremely sensitive Pisces Moon would be overwhelming at times.   She does have a solid Jupiter Venus in Scorpio, which while indulgent might have helped keep her on track at times.

  Relationships clearly were never her thing despite her much vaunted fling with Mick Jagger. Althogh she was the poster girl for the permissive society and free love in the 1960s she admitted recently she only started appreciating sex in her 50s. Before then she needed drugs or alcohol to get her through. She says her Austrian mother and grandmother being raped after WW11 by Red Army soldiers handed down to her a legacy of hatred towards men.

   The recent Sagittarius Solar Eclipse was conjunct her Mercury exactly and opposition her Uranus as she tidied up what is likely to be her final album. Over the past two years she has had high-stress transits to her Mars midpoints, some of which will continue so she’ll need to slow down.

  An extraordinary life and capacity for survival.

Pic: By Manfred Werner – Tsui

The Dutch government is another one in turmoil. In this case over an escalating scandal in which thousands of parents were wrongly accused by tax officials of fraud, plunging many families into debt by ordering them to repay childcare allowances. They were pursued through the courts, ordered to repay benefits and denied the right to appeal over several years from 2012. Some were pushed close to bankruptcy or forced to move house by unjust claims for tens of thousands of euros when the alleged fraud amounted to an incorrectly filled-out form or a missing signature. Several couples separated under the strain.

   PM Mark Rutte, has said he opposes dissolving the current coalition government, arguing the Netherlands needs stability amid the coronavirus pandemic, but has not ruled it out.

  This coalition government was sworn in on 24 October 2017 around 10.30 am, which puts Saturn in Sagittarius in the financial 2^nd, in the line of fire of the December Solar Eclipse  – which hints at a need to accept responsibility for past actions, which sounds spot on.  Chickens finally coming home to roost. The chart does have a lucky Sun Jupiter conjunction which will have squeaked it out of trouble at times; but there is a destabilising tr Pluto square Uranus picking up late February and running off and on after that which may be the deciding factor.

  Mark Rutte, 14 February 1967 6.53 pm The Hague, is a hard-working, idealistic though vague and elusive Sun Aquarius square Neptune; with a Water Grand Trine of Neptune trine Saturn in Pisces trine Jupiter in Cancer – not always good at connecting with reality. He has his Solar Arc Mars also catching last month’s Solar Eclipse for a shock and incendiary arguments in the months ahead. Tr Neptune is undermining several of his planets ahead; but he also has a bullishly confident tr Pluto opposition his Jupiter from late February, on and off till late 2022, so he’ll bounce back no matter what happens.

  The Netherlands chart, 26 July 1581 JC, will catch the brunt of the unpredictable and high-tension tr Uranus in Taurus square tr Saturn in Aquarius as both planets hard aspect the Leo Sun Venus opposition Uranus in Aquarius over the next two years.  The country will need a steady hand on the tiller.

  Shades of the UK and the Post Office scandal where poor postmasters were hounded, and some imprisoned for years, over a computer snarl up that no one would own up to. God rot bureaucrats and pen pushers with far too much power. I hope they imprison the tax officials who were guilty.

Add On: There can be several significant moments in a country’s history for which charts can be erected. They can all be valid and productive charts checked against subsequent events. Both the Netherlands 1581 and 1815 charts showed up the German invasion of 1940 clearly – if anything the 1581 chart was more informative. But both worked well.

  Usually older charts work better than mewer ones – for instance the Spain 20^th century chart isn’t as helpful as the 15^th century one. But obviously older charts may not have verifiable start times.

The 1815 chart indicates a Neptunian slide for two to three years ahead as tr Neptune is conjunct the Pluto, Mercury and Sun, all in Pisces. With a short sharp shock at the moment from tr Uranus and Solar Arc Mars both colliding with the Netherlands Saturn in Aquarius.

However much Boris Johnson distances himself from a now-disgraced but once favoured Trump, there has been an eerie syncronicity in both their fortunes since 2016.

  Both are Sun Geminis, with Boris having Venus Mercury close by; both have slippery Neptune in their 2^nd house of finances; and Trump has his acquisitive Jupiter in the 2^nd while Boris’s Jupiter is in his financial 8^th. Both have Saturn in a regretful Water sign – Cancer and Pisces.

   The December Eclipse hit Trump harder as it collided with his Full Moon. For Boris it opposed his Mercury which suggests he’ll spend the next few months running around trying to straighten out what’s gone off track and it will amplify his mental strain. The Eclipse was also widely opposition his Venus making him feel no one loves him anymore, with his approval ratings tanking; and opposition his Sun for a crisis of reality-checking, having to face the unpalatable facts that he’s not always right. The June 2021 Gemini Solar Eclipse will put him at a crossroads, facing significant decisions about his path ahead.

  He’s not only facing teething-troubles over his ‘easy-peasy’ Brexit or worse, a public realisation of the long-term wrangles lying ahead; he’s also weighed down by the pandemic and a guddled government response.

  While the UK prides itself on being much less corrupt than elsewhere, ( a Brit rose-coloured glasses flaw) there has been disquiet about the ‘chumocracy’ over  contracts for health and protective equipment with Tory donor or mates being 10 times more likely to be awarded a public contract than others, even when they had no obvious experience in the sector. The government awarded £18bn in coronavirus-related contracts during the first six months, most with no competitive tendering processes, of which £1.5bn went to companies with connections to the Conservative party. A spending watchdog said details about some of the 10.5 billion pounds worth of contracts awarded without any competition were missing. More recently the Marcus Rashford free meals for poorer children have been exposed as sub-standard and in value way below the £30 which the taxpayer forks out to at least one company owned by a Tory donor.

   The Boris Term chart has a hidden and dirty-dealing Saturn, Venus, Pluto in Capricorn in the 12^th, so secret wrangles were to be expected; with Pisces ruling the 2^nd house of finances; an evasive, elusive and indecisive Sun square Neptune; and an overly extravagant Moon opposition Jupiter.  The December Solar Eclipse stirred up the Sagittarius Sun on this chart and the June 2021 Gemini Eclipse will be in a close opposition; with the Solar Arc Saturn closing the conjunction to Venus Pluto to exact from late 2021 into 2022; and an insecure jolt come 2022 as well from tr Uranus opposition the Mars and tr Saturn square.

  The Solar Eclipse at 20 Gemini in June as well as the May Lunar Eclipse at 5 Sagittarius will rattle up Boris’s Mercury and Mars respectively; and his Term chart Sagittarius Sun and Mercury. So it’ll continue to be high strain and argumentative. Nothing that looks like settling into calm anytime soon.

   Boris is not quite as terminal in career terms as Trump, but he’ll continue to be buffeted for some time yet.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/21/tories-covid-contracts-public-trust-government

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/boris-johnson-cronyism-ppe-contracts-nao-b1759702.html

A passing pat on the back for the Eclipses which were spot on when it came to Trump and the USA. Especially since today is the next New Moon which can sometimes be a trigger for more of the same. Today’s Capricorn New Moon falls exactly on Trump’s Saturn in Cancer, leaning heavily on his emotional wounds – as the Republican Party finally comes to its senses and stops enabling him. Ditto business, banks and the Golfing Open decision-makers.

  But it was the Total Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius on the December 14^th which had an effect far and away more critical than even I expected. Falling on the day of the Electoral College vote, the Eclipsed New Moon was conjunct Trump’s Moon and opposition his Sun.  It was also opposition the USA Mars in Gemini, stoking up an inflammatory mood with arguments flaring – which may take a few months to defuse  

  Where Trump is concerned, an Eclipse conjunct his Moon was always guaranteed to test the foundations on which his life had been built with his public image coming under scrutiny. If he is not standing on solid ground and hanging on to old habit patterns it can all crumble to dust. An Eclipse opposition his Sun indicated a major turning point and crisis, which will force him to face that he is not always right. If he fights the need for change it will leave him kicking and screaming.   

  Trump’s chart: Tr Pluto from November 20^th till December 26^th opposed his Mars/Node for trapped and enraging setbacks, with the discouraging uphill-slog of tr Pluto opposing his Saturn at the same time. Then 26 December to 27 January he has more tantrum-inducing aggravations from tr Pluto opposition his Sun/Mars midpoint; his poisonous-rhetoric and lying Mercury/Pluto; and his wounded Venus/Saturn midpoint. He’ll be like a cornered cobra.  His Solar Arc Saturn will also within weeks be on the degree of the conjunction to his 2^nd house Neptune, a harbinger of the financial meltdown to come later in 2021.

  Into 2021 he’s got swampy Neptune hard aspects to his Moon and Sun from late March onwards till late 2022. Followed in 2022/23 with two disastrous and trapped Solar Arcs his SA Pluto square his Saturn and Solar Arc Mars square his Pluto.

  He’s a busted flush.

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The bitter feud between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, former and present First Ministers of Scotland, finally erupted into a daggers drawn scenario, which could throw the independence struggle off track. He accused her of repeatedly misleading parliament over the investigation into multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him. If proved she might be forced to resign.

  It’s a bewildering political, legal and procedural guddle with the original botched Holyrood inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct against Salmond having been found to have been “tainted by apparent bias.” A subsequent court case found him not guilty on 12 of the sexual assault charges facing him, while another charge was found not proven. His defence barrister said in his summing up “I’m not here to suggest he always behaved well or couldn’t have been a better man on occasions. I’m dealing with whether or not it was established he was guilty of serious, sometimes very serious, criminal charges,” which require a “very, very high standard of proof”. They were majority verdicts.  

   There were suggestions that a political conspiracy from within the Scottish National Party lay behind some of the charges.

This is a rehash of an earlier March 24 2020 post.

  Salmond, 31 December 1954 4.30pm Linlithgow, Scotland, is an articulate and charismatic figure, an astute politician with a considerable ego, who led Scotland to near independence, but also suffers from questionable judgement, notably in fronting a talk show with the Putin-backed Russia Today network.

   He is facing a whole raft of negative influences last year and on for several years ahead, which he’ll approach with his usual bullish confidence. From March 2020 tr Neptune was conjunct his 10^th house Mars which usually accompanies a sense of panicky-failure, and that influence repeated in September and will come round again in February 2021. His Solar Arc Midheaven opposed his Saturn in 2020 and even more discouraging his Solar Arc Mars is approaching the exact square to his Pluto within weeks which is trapped and frustrating. He does suffer from asthma so health worries may be part of it.

  Tr Pluto will oppose his Uranus Jupiter in 2021/22 from late February onwards which will put him into confidence-overdrive, determined to make waves, but his Solar Arc Saturn will oppose his Jupiter Uranus by 2022 for setbacks and a dead-halt. 2022/23 also sees tr Neptune conjunct his 10^th house Moon, which doesn’t suggest career success or voter popularity; and that coincides with an undermining Solar Arc Neptune conjunct his Sun and tr Pluto square his Neptune.  It should be a time to crawl into a bunker and lie low, except he’s unlikely to go quietly.

 Nicola Sturgeon, 19 July 1970 3.16 pm Irvine, Scotland, has bolstered her popularity with her response to Boris’s Brexit and the CV19 crisis.  Her relationship with Salmond who was her mentor, was never as cosy as the red carpet moments. His controlling Pluto is conjunct her Midheaven so he would shape her career but also insist on having total control; and his ambitious Mars opposed her Pluto for what clearly turned into a bitter power struggle. 

  Their relationship chart has a friendly and affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction. But also a one-upmanship Jupiter Pluto conjunction – initially that can provide a surge of joint enthusiasm pushing the pair onto success but when it falls apart – as it usually does – the energy turned inwards and creates a tussle for the last word and the upper hand.  There’s also a one-sided composite Saturn square Mars which suggests a partnership where one partner has to sacrifice their needs to prevents arguments; and Mars is also in a volatile square to Uranus.  It has been under immense pressure since the 2014 Referendum with the tr Pluto square tr Uranus hitting on the composite Sun Venus and tr Neptune undermining the Jupiter Pluto.

  2021/22 has a tr Pluto trine the composite Mars so the hostility is unlikely to wind down any time soon. It will remain high-wire and strung out also because the tr Uranus square tr Saturn will hit on the paranoid/neurotic composite Neptune square Saturn in 2021/22 as well.

  Sturgeon like Salmond is in a bullish mood for the next three years though is also under huge pressure with tr Pluto opposition her Cancer Sun and square her Jupiter. She looks extremely frustrated and road-blocked in 2022 with tr Pluto opposition her Sun/Mars and worse in 2023/24 with tr Pluto opposition her Mars. It doesn’t look like a time of overwhelming success and jubilation.   

A new Martin Luther King film – MLK/FBI – is certain to raise controversy since it does not shy away from his frenetic sex life. The director Sam Pollard, an African-American who has worked many times alongside Spike Lee and produced an epic PBS series about the long battle for racial equality in the US, is no partisan observer. He says, “You have to realise that he was a human being like the rest of us, that he had his flaws, like we all have our flaws. They don’t diminish his importance as an iconic civil rights leader.”

 The FBI spied on MLK for years, suspecting initially communist leanings because of his associates, but having discovered his extramarital liaisons, switched their attention to his private life. Newly released material from the National Archives points to a surveillance tape of MLK spectating a rape, though Pollard isn’t convinced it is genuine and it is sealed under court order until 2027.  Hoover became obsessed with MLK partly out of a reds-under-the-bed paranoia and partly out of undoubted racist leanings. JFK authorised some of the wiretaps after discovering MLK had lied to him about splitting from one communist friend.

  MLK said in one of his final sermons, “There is a schizophrenia, as the psychologists or the psychiatrists would call it, going on within all of us. There are times that all of us know somehow that there is a Mr Hyde and a Dr Jekyll in us.” He knew he was a sinner.

  MLK was born 15 January 1929 12 pm (from memory) Atlanta, Georgia, and according to wiki his father regularly used whippings to discipline his children and also had his children whip each other. Twice during his childhood MLK attempted suicide by jumping out of an upper storey window, over an incident involving his grandmother of whom he was fond and her death.

  He had a Capricorn Sun close to his midheaven in his communicative 9^th in a controlling opposition to Pluto on one side and square Jupiter in the other; more tellingly given his hair-raising childhood he had Saturn in the 8^th in a cruel-treatment opposition to Mars and squaring onto a sensitive Pisces Moon and Venus.  Mars Saturn is one of the indicators of childhood abuse, as well, in older astrology, as being an assassination signature. When he was shot in 1968 his Progressed Mars had moved to exactly oppose his Saturn. Saturn in the 8^th can also oddly be an indicator of a sexualised approach to life and in his case it also squared his Venus which would amplify the ‘sex addict’ streak in his nature.

  His wife, Coretta, 27 April 1927 4pm Marion, Alabama, was a stalwart 8^th house Taurus with a do-or-die-determined Mars Pluto on her Midheaven. Her Moon Jupiter in Pisces would connect with his Moon Venus and his Jupiter in Taurus was conjunct her Sun so it wouldn’t be all bad despite his wanderings. Their relationship chart had a complementary (more whole when together) New Moon.

  Not that either J Edgar Hoover or JFK had much to shout about when it came to sexual waywardness.

Hoover, 1 January 1895 7.30 am Washington, DC (date may be in question) could have been a Sun Venus in Capricorn with a harsh, perverse Mars in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio; and an emotionally-off-the-wall Pisces Moon square Pluto Neptune in Gemini. It looks feasible enough for a man who lived with his mother into mid-life, could have been a closet homosexual or asexual, certainly a pornography addict or even a cross-dresser.

  JFK, 29 May 1917 3pm Brookline, Massachusetts, was a Sun Venus in Gemini with a jam-packed 8^th house (ruling sexuality) with Mars in Taurus, Mercury, Jupiter and Sun there. Like MLK his Moon was in hard aspect to Venus.

  Richard Idemon used to say Moon Venus was the ‘poisoned apple’ aspect indicating a sexualised relationship with the mother – not acted out but implicit, so there in the atmosphere from early on.

  Finding out that idols have feet of clay can be discouraging. Though what is more mind-bending is the thought that it is their flaws that made them great. No one who came from a sedate, contented background ever got to be a world-beater.