Vartan Gregorian who has just died was once described as “the impossibly distinguished one-man academy of arts, letters, and the humanities” and a “visionary and a living example of the modern man of letters, for whom education and knowledge is the key to opportunity and peace.”  He was a shining example of America’s immigrant policies of yesteryear.

  Born 8 April 1934 he was born in northern Persia to Christian Armenian parents and after his mother died when he was six, he was brought up by an illiterate, though ‘wise’ grandmother and a grandfather who owned camel caravans. He was educated latterly in Beirut and spoke Russian, Persian, Armenian, Turkish, Arabic and French. He came to the USA aged 24, speaking no English, intending to return to Beirut. He studied at Stanford University, completed a BA in two years with honours and earned a dual PhD in history and humanities (art history, philosophy, Romance languages, religion, classics.)

  He stayed in academia and in the 1980s served as president of the New York Public Library which he rescued from near poverty and restored it “to a center of New York cultural life”.

  He was a dynamically pro-active and innovative Sun Mars Uranus in Aries in an expansive and confident opposition to Jupiter square a determined and influential square to Pluto; with his Uranus Mars and widely Sun sextile Saturn in Aquarius.  With only Neptune in Virgo in earth, he could have been impractical but his fund-raising skills were extraordinary so it may depend on his birth time which isn’t known. Half his planets in Cardinal signs would give him a restless sense of initiative. A focal point Pluto, while not easy in adult life since it tends to run into resistance, would give him stamina, focus and a one-tracked obsession with fulfilling his goals. An influencer of a superior variety.

Doug Ford, the Ontario premier, is coping with the pandemic as well as might be expected which is not at all. The situation there is chaotic, with infection rates rising and incomprehensible edicts being tossed around. As the Washington Post remarks he is deflecting blame and losing the plot. ‘Ford was never fit to be premier of Ontario. The pandemic didn’t reveal that; it just bathed it in the garish light of emergency. Both before his time in provincial politics and since, he has shown no distinction other than his extraordinary capacity to alienate, divide and fail. And the failures are many and epic.’

 Born November 20 1964, he has an immoveable and impervious to advice Fixed T square of a Scorpio Sun and Neptune opposition Jupiter in Taurus square Saturn in Aquarius. A focal point Saturn dislikes sharing the driving seat and is wilfully resistant to outside pressure. Jupiter opposition Neptune is a Boris Johnson marker – head-in-the-clouds, unreliable, impractical, fuelled by arrogance, likely to land themselves in scandals caused by their own instability.

  Ford also has a volatile, loathes-interference Mars Uranus in Virgo with Uranus conjunct Pluto squaring onto Mercury in Sagittarius maybe opposition a Gemini Moon – not stable.

  Without a birth time there’s not much affecting his chart at the moment though even he must be feeling the heat so it’ll be there on the chart axis.  

 His Term chart, 29 June 2018, again without a start time, has been exceptionally rattled recently with tr Uranus square the Mars and tr Saturn conjunct Mars for mounting irritation and setbacks. Tr Saturn will remain in place on and off all year hammering away at the Mars for more mistakes. The Term Jupiter is also in line for tr Uranus oppositions from June this year which look like fortunate breaks extending into 2022. He has Boris’s luck-of-the-devil clearly. His comeuppance will come – just not quite yet.

See previous post July 30 2018

There is something quite odd going on at the moment with even more outrageously appalling leaders around than usual – as well as monumental financial frauds being exposed and collapsing – WireCard is hammering away at the German elite; Greensill at the UK and Archegos is giving the global banks a major shaking. Unnerving.

Cryptocurrencies regarded by one sceptic as “ a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster” and by Jay Powell of the Fed Reserve as  “vehicles for speculation” took one step out of the shadows into the mainstream with the arrival this week on the stock market of Coinbase, the world’s largest cryptoasset trading platform.

  Purists see the market listing as a brazen sellout, forsaking crypto’s true principles for the golden goose offered by Wall Street by becoming just another middleman operator. An analyst remarks: “If this signals anything at all it is that the state, not crypto, has won the day in terms of control of the financial system. —— Those who thought crypto would up-end the public’s dependency on central banks or financiers, should be lamenting it.”

  Coinbase founded on 20 June 2012, lists 90 cryptocurrencies out of more than 4,000 available; has 56 million verified users in more than 100 countries and employs 1,700 staff. It has assets worth $223 billion on its platform. One day, Coinbase thinks that it could be at the heart of a new, decentralised online financial system.

  Depending on the start time Coinbase has a Sun on last degree Gemini or zero degrees Cancer with the Sun in an assertive though scattered square to Mars in Virgo. With Venus Jupiter in Gemini opposition a Sagittarius North Node square Neptune in Pisces. And Pluto opposition Moon square Uranus. It’s a crises-prone chart with Uranus square Pluto though that can also be a trailblazer. Too much Mutable and a focal point Neptune would make me nervous about putting my life savings with them. They will be having their ups and downs in what is a super-volatile environment with an undermining tr Neptune opposition the Mars from late this May onwards into 2022 and moving on to square the Sun in 2024.  Though tr Pluto will trine the Jupiter in 2024/25 which will give it a lift.

 The Coinbase Nasdaq opening on 14 April 2021 at 1.30pm has an intense Sun Venus square Pluto, a publicity-seeking though not always decisive Mars square an 8^th house Neptune; an adventurous Mars trine Jupiter; and a provocative, status-quo upsetting but inconsistent Saturn square a 10^th house Uranus. Tr Neptune square the Mars in 2022 will make for an uncomfortable and less than progressive year; with financial pressures in place through 2023.

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Helen McCrory, the extraordinarily talented actress has died tragically young at 52 of cancer. Although best known as Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders, she was a mesmerising presence on stage as Medea and Lady Macbeth. She was married to Damian Lewis, of Band Of Brothers, Homeland and Billions renown, with two children and they managed to juggle two successful careers and family.

  She was born 17 August 1968 in London, the daughter of a Scottish diplomat and a physiotherapist mother, both from humble backgrounds. They instilled in her the idea that life was ‘an adventure’ and she cheerfully admitted she was a ‘feral child’, prone to rages.  Despite her penchant for dark, violent roles she said she was very ‘un-neurotic’ not inclined to look down through the cracks.

   She was a Sun Leo in a creative square to Neptune and trine Saturn; with her Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries on the apex of a tricky Yod to Uranus Pluto sextile Neptune. That Yod is an extremely hard taskmaster and tr Pluto has been squaring her Saturn this year for a punishing experience. They’ve been very private about her illness so it’s not clear when she was diagnosed but she had a ‘shocking’ Solar Arc Mars conjunct her Uranus fifteen months ago.

  Damian Lewis, born 11 February 1971 into a wealthy, well-connected family and Eton educated, is a Sun Aquarius square Saturn in Taurus with his Saturn also on the apex of a Yod quincunx Uranus sextile Mars. So he has the same spine-straightening Saturn.

  Their Suns are on opposite sides of the zodiac but they both had Venus in an Earth sign and probably a Mutable Moon – it wasn’t the most obvious of matches (without birth times) but clearly it worked. The relationship chart had a volatile composite Mars Uranus so it would be sparky at times; with a Sun Neptune maybe trine Moon sextile Pluto which would suit creative careers.

  She is a huge loss not just to her family and fans but also to the profession since she had so much more to give.

Recently they threw themselves into an initiative to feed NHS workers meals from High-Street restaurants and raised nearly £1m. They started Feed NHS scheme in London and rolled out to other UK cities. See previous post April 12 2020.

Tracey Emin, the controversial artist known for her confessional and autobiographical creations has announced that her bladder cancer is “gone” after her three-monthly scans were “all clear”. She was diagnosed with aggressive cancer last year and had her bladder, urethra, lymph nodes, half of her vagina and part of her intestine removed as well as a full hysterectomy, to stop the spread of the cancer. She now has a urostomy bag, which replaces the bladder and urinary system, which needs to be emptied as frequently as every 20 minutes.

  Once known as the enfant terrible of the Young Brit art scene, her most infamous installation was My Bed – consisting of her own unmade dirty bed, in which she had spent several weeks drinking, smoking, eating, sleeping and having sexual intercourse while undergoing a period of severe emotional flux. The artwork featured used condoms and blood-stained underwear.

  She was born 3 July 1963 6.50am London with an unwed mother of Romani traveller descent and a Turkish-Cypriot father who had another family. She left school at 13 and moved to London when she was 15. Her work has been analysed in terms of childhood abuse and assault and she said she was raped at 13. She later had two traumatic abortions and went through a suicidal phase.

  She has a creative 12^th house Cancer Sun trine Neptune in her 4^th house with an emotionally intense Scorpio Moon also in her 4^th which rules home and childhood. Her Moon squares an 8^th house Saturn which in turn is trine Venus Mercury in Gemini – so not much emotional nurturing.

  Her chaotic and turbulent life will be partly linked to a volatile collection of Uranus Pluto and Mars in Virgo, with assertive Mars in her 3rd. This is offset by a talented, lucky Jupiter in her 10^th which suggests growing respect for her abilities the older she gets. And given that her Jupiter is on the apex of a Yod to Mars sextile Neptune she has the potential to be influential out in society – as long as she keeps her ego and grandiosity under control.

  Last year tr Saturn joined tr Pluto moving through her 6^th house of health which will have been heavily restrictive and points to health being a major issue. Tr Saturn has now moved on lifting some of the pressures. But her Progressed Moon will move in within weeks to stay in her 6^th for two years ahead so she’ll need to take continuing care. Last year her Solar Arc Midheaven squared her Uranus sending her career off track. Her Solar Arc Neptune also moving through her 6^th for many years will oppose her Sun in 2023 which again suggests a need for a quieter lifestyle.

  There’s always been an over-dramatic, fated feel about her life. Not I confess one of my favourite ‘artists’ since the modernist heap-on-the-floor creations do nothing for me.  

Charles Saatchi was a major collector of her work. See post March 29 2021.

Pic Piers Allardyce.

David Cameron’s questionable welcome when prime minister and subsequent lobbying for the collapsed financial outfit Greensill is creating ripples of concern around the government, Whitehall and the Tory Party. Boris has announced a no-holds-barred inquiry, leading to speculation that his Oxford Uni rivalry with Cameron is still alive and kicking. Though it appears the inquiry has such a narrow remit it is likely to end up a whitewash like the recent Race Report. But there are several other committees inquiring into the matter which are not under No 10’s control. What Cameron may have done appears more audacious than some, especially given the collusion of civil servants but was hardly out of line in the context of the Tory Party’s dodgy donors and other big business patronage, of which Boris is a generous giver. So there will be a hasty manning of the barricades to ensure it doesn’t widen out to tramp on other corns.

  Cameron may never recover from this, especially given the Arabian Nights photos with MBS after the Khashoggi murder. Born 9 October 1966 5.30am (from memory) London, Cameron has a charming 1^st house Sun Venus in Libra and a jovial Moon Jupiter in Leo. But that hale-fellow-well-met image never squared with his 12^th house Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn, sextile/trine Neptune conjunct his South Node. I always wondered when it would surface – and here it is.

[Uranus in the 12^th can appear conventional but there will be a strongly subversive streak kept well out of sight; as well as a fear of inner nervous volatility, leading to foolish decisions. Pluto in the 12^th suggests a hidden turbulence, a raging storm within, and can point to a compulsive need to acquire great wealth and/or power.  Uranus Pluto can be foolhardy. Uranus Saturn gives a strong need for freedom, ie. no restraints and restrictions. Saturn Pluto is tough and can be egotistical.  None of the above squares with his benign, somewhat vapid and conventional persona. His inner instability was always going to surface at some point.]

Tr Neptune has been opposition his Pluto, continues to opposes his Uranus this year and is then conjunct his Saturn in 2022 till late 2023, all of which will be uncertain and panicky. He also has a career-compromising tr Neptune square his Midheaven either in 2022 or 2023 depending on his birth time being accurate.  Plus he has a raft of Neptune hard aspects to midpoints through this year and the next two. All in all – in a swamp.

  Boris’s Gemini Sun is conjunct Cameron’s Midheaven which can be helpful on the career front though Sakoian & Acker say: ‘If egos are allowed to be an obstructive force there may be rivalry for power and importance.’ Their relationship chart is half friendly though deceptive with a composite Sun Venus square Neptune; and half unstable with Uranus Pluto Saturn hitting on the composite Moon and Jupiter – with definite signs of a downturn from late this May onwards as tr Neptune squares the composite Jupiter, stripping away good feelings.  With worse from mid 2022 onwards.

  While it doesn’t directly impact on Boris’s government, there’s enough sleaze in the present set up to make it seem more of the same. This one could run and run, blossoming as it goes.

For Greensill, previous post March 17 2021.

Bernie Madoff has died in prison who ran the biggest Ponzi scheme in history with victim losses estimated at $20 billion in original investments and $65 billion in recorded paper wealth. He was jailed for 150 years in 2009. Since then trustees have recovered almost 82pc of the total lost by those customers who filed claims.

  He was born April 29^th 1938 1.50pm in New York and according to traders who worked for him he was obsessive about detail around the office to an almost pathological degree – straightening pictures, computer cables etc. He was also ruthless, manipulative, controlling, bullying, paranoid and secretive. As well naturally, as a charmer who made his investors feel they were becoming part of an elite club.

  He had a New Moon as well as Uranus and Venus in indulgent, acquisitive Taurus. His Jupiter was inconjunct Pluto, square Venus and Mars and a North Node in Scorpio – so not short of chutzpah, confidence and grandiosity. Jupiter Pluto tends to assume rules are not meant for them. Venus square Jupiter can be superficially sociable and insincere; and Mars square Jupiter can be adventurous with other people’s money and can be opportunistic. His Sun and Uranus were in an innovative and (clearly) slippery trine to Neptune; and his hard-edged Saturn in the financial/banking 8^th was barely integrated into his chart with only a sextile to Mars, which is noteworthy. His Mercury in Aries was square his Pluto which may have given him a leaning towards obsessive thinking.  

  His Scorpio North Node is also interesting since it indicates a compulsive need to acquire, with redemption and transformation only coming after learning to let go and the loss of earthly possessions. When the pyramid collapsed in December 2008 his Solar Arc Neptune was exactly conjunct his North Node and tr Uranus was opposition his Neptune.

  His wife Ruth Madoff, 18 May 1941 pled ignorance of his crimes despite having kept the firm’s books for decades and was stripped of her assets. She stood by him as one son committed suicide in the aftermath of his incarceration and the other died of lymphoma.

  According to the those who knew them she was as consummately bullied by him as everyone else. She had a Taurus Sun conjunct Jupiter Uranus and widely Saturn – so no slouch when it came to materialistic impulses herself. Her Sun Jupiter were conjunct Bernie’s Venus which would give them a shared love of extravagance. Her Mars maybe Moon in Pisces fell in his 7^th square his Mars Venus which would make for a disharmonious chemistry.   

Madoff’s scheme was similar to that of Charles Ponzi a nineteenth century US financial scammer who gave his name to the same graft. Born March 3 1882, Lugo, Italy, he also had a raft of materialistic Taurus planets – Pluto Jupiter conjunct (= pushy, above the law), Jupiter Neptune conjunct (= financial illusions and deceptions), Neptune Saturn conjunct (= difficulty distinguishing between reality and fiction). He was a Sun Venus in Pisces opposition Uranus – so charming and wayward. His Uranus was also trine Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter –good at dreaming up new schemes, inventive and adventurous.  

What is intriguing is that both have strong 9th Harmonic charts, which is the one that brings pleasure and can be idealistic and humanitarian – though its negative traits are less appealing. Vendla’s numerology thought is that 9 requires a ‘philanthropic or artistic attitude to life. If lacking, the number will “fail” to work constructively and could bring forward aspects such as frivolousness, immorality and irresponsibility.’ Greed does appear to be one of its lower register attributes.

Joe Biden has taken the damned-if-he-does and damned-if-he-doesn’t decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan after two decades. Critics predict civil war may erupt, lead to the collapse of the Kabul government and the struggling army; and al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups could re-establish havens within two years, using them as launch pads to attack the US. It will almost certainly be a disaster for the country’s 39 million people — in particular, its women, wiping out any progress made at the cost of more than 2,000 American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.

  Afghanistan has had a turbulent history as far back as the eye can see becoming independent in 1919 but going through convulsions since 1979, first from the ill-judged and unsuccessful Soviet-Afghan War against the mujahadeen, then a civil war and from 2001 the American invasion after Al Quaeda’s 9/11 attack, with Bin Laden hiding in the mountains. Having toppled the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime there the US found, as in Vietnam, that starting was easier than finishing.

 The Afghanistan Independence chart, 19 August 1919 12 am Kabul, has a rebellious, uncompromising Uranus opposition Saturn as well as a Leo Sun squaring onto a hidden 12^th house Taurus Moon conjunct the South Node; with a stressed and explosive Uranus inconjunct Mars. The Moon in the 12^th square Uranus MC and Saturn Sun relegates the feminine to an inferior place.

  What is significant is how sensitive this chart is to influences which hard aspect the Fixed T square of Sun, Uranus, Saturn, Moon, Node. The Soviet War started with tr Uranus in Scorpio squaring the Sun and then moving round the other planets. The USA 2001 invasion occurred when tr Uranus was conjunct the Solar Arc North Node and Solar Arc Saturn was moving to square the Afghan Sun; and the Solar Arc Midheaven in Taurus was also colliding with the same points. In 2001 as well there was the war-like, tough-conditions tr Saturn in Gemini opposition tr Pluto, which was moving to conjunct the Afghan Ascendant in 2022.

  Tr Uranus will start to shake up the Afghan Fixed T Square from 2023 to 2027; with major high-risk stresses coming from early 2022 through 2023 as tr Pluto opposes the Afghan Mars. So it does not look settled ahead, far from it.

  The Invasion chart, 7 October 2001 4.25 pm Kabul, is predominantly an Air chart with only one Earth sign – Mars in Capricorn – hidden away in the financial 8^th. Strong on hopes and theories but not practical. The gung-ho Mars opposition Jupiter is also significant since it suggests an attempt to put a cosmetic often sanctimonious veneer on an aggressive act.

At the moment the Solar Arc Mars is conjunct the Invasion Neptune for a sense of failure which may increase over the next two or three years as the Solar Arc Sun moves to square the Neptune – the fear is, like Iraq, that having pulled out they may have to go back in if the situation deteriorates too much.

Shirley Williams, one of the most influential and popular political figures in the UK in the 20^th Century –  “Shirl the Pearl” – has died aged 90. Originally a Labour MP and one of the first women cabinet ministers, she was in the “Gang of Four” who split away from Labour in 1981 to found the Social Democratic Party and later supported the SDP’s merger with the Liberal Party (the LibDems). Her career in politics spanned more than 50 years.

  Shaped by her childhood as the daughter of two busy and remote parents – the pacifist/activist Vera Brittain, the principal breadwinner of the family, and her academic father George Catlin, who failed in his political ambitions – she grew up imbued with feminist ideals but lacking in emotional nurturing. She was sent to the States in 1940 with her brother John, labelled but unaccompanied by adults through the Battle of the Atlantic, supposedly to protect them from the war.

  Her mother, Vera Brittain, wrote the heartrending, best-selling classic Testament of Youth, later made into a television series, about her experiences in the first world war as a nurse and losing her brother, fiancée and two close male friends, which sent her into a nervous breakdown in the aftermath. 

  Shirley Williams evolved into a dedicated egalitarian, responsible for the controversial abolition of the socially divisive 11-plus examination, and became an internationalist with a distinguished academic record. Despite the admiration she attracted she was also criticised for being indecisive, incapable and disorganised due to an inability to prioritise; and her other failing was a dislike of making enemies so she lacked a ruthless edge.

  Shirley Williams was born 27 July 1930 4am London and had a first house Leo Sun sextile Mars in Gemini and a 2^nd house Leo Moon Mercury trine Uranus in her 10^th – well designed for a public and reforming career with Leo plus Uranus in her 10^th. She had Pluto in Cancer on her Ascendant which would give her a slightly enigmatic image – pleasant but impenetrable. Her hard-working Saturn in Capricorn in the 6^th was in a see-saw opposition to Jupiter in her 12^th. She also notably had a vague, disorganized Neptune in her 3^rd house as well as a charming Venus.

  Her mother Vera Brittain, 29 December 1893 had a trickier chart with two Yods: Her Capricorn Sun was sextile Uranus inconjunct Neptune Pluto in Gemini; and her Saturn sextile Mercury was inconjunct Jupiter in Taurus. Her super-confident Jupiter also opposed vengeful Mars in Scorpio squaring onto a detached Venus in Aquarius – a curiously hybrid mix.  When World War 1 started one of her Yods had moved to sit on top of the other by Solar Arc, for long years of crisis which defined her life – tr Neptune Pluto in Cancer were also moving to oppose her Capricorn Sun through the whole ordeal and after.

  It wasn’t an easy relationship with her daughter Shirley, who always felt she came a poor third behind her favoured brother and her mother’s various causes. Vera’s tricky Neptune Pluto was conjunct Shirley’s Mars and square her Venus which would set up aggravations.

Pic: University of Essex