Nawal El Saadawi, the outspoken Egyptian feminist, writer and campaigner has died. Born into a traditional family she underwent female genital mutilation when six and at ten refused to marry, eventually qualifying as a doctor. She rose to professional prominence but lost her position because of her criticism of female circumcision, honesty about peasant health and supporting domestic violence victims. She was told she had disrespected moral values and “incited women to rebel against the divine laws of Islam”. She never gave up fighting for what she believed despite losing her job, a ban on her writings, imprisonment, death threats and exile. Her books asserted that patriarchy and poverty – rather than Islam – oppress Arab women; wrote of a world where for a woman, husband and boss are interchangeable, and for a man, female self-determination is incomprehensible. She spent some time in North Carolina after appearing on a fundamentalist death list.

  On her return to Egypt she continued to fight against religious fanaticism and started a secular society petitioning to have Islam removed as the state religion. She was reported to have said the Muslim custom of making an annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia was “a vestige of pagan practices”. Her 2006 play God Resigns at the Summit Meeting caused more controversy.

  Born 27 October 1931 4 am (from memory) Banha, Egypt, she was custom-built as a rebel, destabiliser, trailblazer and influencer. She had the signature tough-as-nails, unyielding Pluto (in her 10^th ) opposition Saturn of that era squaring onto a Cardinal revolutionary Uranus in Aries in her 7^th.  Her Pluto was also in a do-or-die determined trine to Mars in Scorpio, so she didn’t lack courage. Her Sun, Mercury Venus in Scorpio opposed an 8^th house Taurus Moon, the latter a hint of an influential grandmother in her childhood.

  She was certainly not custom-built for easy relationships with a controlling Pluto in the 10^th, an unconventional, uncompromising Uranus in her 7^th and a Full Moon. But she battled on nonetheless and was married three times.

Female circumcision was banned in Egypt in 2008.

Richard Francis Burton, the famed British explorer of Africa, Asia and the Americas was born two hundred years ago this week. He was amazingly erudite as well as scandalously fascinated by the sexual customs of the peoples he visited. He spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages, visited Mecca when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; made an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights; published the Kama Sutra in English and with John Hanning Speke visited the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. He served in the army in India, the Crimean War and after his African travels was British consul in Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Damascus and in Trieste.

   Born 19 March 1821 9.30pm Torquay, England, he was a controlling Sun Pluto in Pisces with a jam-packed 5^th house of Venus North Node Mars conjunct in Pisces, as well as Sun Pluto, and Jupiter Mercury in Aries. He demanded attention wherever he went, was driven to be thought worthy of respect though he fell out with almost everyone throughout his life, being highly critical of authority as well as egotistical. His 12^th house Libra Moon opposed Saturn and squared onto a highly-strung, individualistic, rebellious Uranus Neptune in Capricorn in his 3^rd, which would give him a tinge of genius – as well as fashioning him to be a trailblazer and destabiliser.

  It’s worth noting his Venus Mars conjunction which was shared by Jeffrey Epstein in Pisces; and it also occurs in other signs in several of Epstein’s buddies’ charts. Ebertin describes it as passionate and sensual – ‘ a strongly emotional and sexual life coupled with disharmonious tendencies, infidelity.’

  His wife, Isobel Burton, 20 March 1831 8.50am London, a good Catholic married the non-Christian and unstable Burton against her family’s wishes. She had been told by an astrologer that her life would be ‘all wandering, change and adventure.’ Her husband expected her to fit in with his peripatetic lifestyle, issuing a curt ‘pack and follow behind’ instruction when he moved onto a new job or project.

  She had a Pisces Sun conjunct his Sun Pluto and that all squared her Gemini Moon; with her Pluto conjunct his Jupiter Mercury – there was undoubtedly a strong, possessive bond between them. She had two strained Yods – one of Neptune sextile her Sun inconjunct a 4^th house Saturn, which is a difficult configuration to handle, bringing harsh lessons in life, and undoubtedly making it difficult in her case to put down domestic roots. She also had her Moon sextile Saturn inconjunct a 9^th house Neptune – giving her an idealistic, none-too-practical outlook, suiting her to live in an emotional ivory tower, no doubt believing the best as she was towed round the globe. Her rose-coloured glasses would help her cope with an impossible husband.

  Their relationship chart had an affectionate, possessive composite Sun, Venus, Pluto, Mercury conjunction. There was also an explosive Mars square Uranus and an unfair, one-sided Mars sextile Saturn. But it held together. When he died she controversially burnt many of his papers, including a further translation of The Scented Garden, with a final chapter on pederasty. He intended this to be published after his death, to provide an income for her but her Catholic upbringing baulked and she destroyed it.

 Turkey is lurching deeper into financial chaos after President Erdogan fired a respected central bank governor after four months. His fault was evidently to raise interest rates as a way of trying to stabilise a weak economy with high inflation rates. His removal has sent the lira plummeting and investors fleeing for the borders.

   As a way of propping up support for his failed economic policies Erdogan rewarded conservative and Islamist groups, by withdrawing from the European Convention on combating violence against women.  The entrenched ones say the treaty harms “traditional” family values ​​by defending gender equality and “favours” the LGBT community by prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. There have been street demos against the decision and EU disapproval voiced strongly.

The number of women killed in Turkey has been on the rise for a decade and statistics are disturbing.

4 of 10 women in Turkey exposed to physical or sexual violence; 3 of 10 women in Turkey are married before they turn 18; 48 per cent of girls in Turkey married before the age of 18 are exposed to physical violence; one third of girls not allowed to go to school by their families; 11 per cent of women are prevented from working by their families; only 1 of 10 women exposed to violence apply to an institution for help; 90 per cent of human trafficking victims in Turkey are women.

   Erdogan has been in power since 2014 and in recent years there have been obvious signs of democratic backsliding and corruption as well as fiscal incompetence.

  His most recent Term chart, 9 July 2018 4.30pm has an 8^th house Sun opposition Pluto, which is moving to exact by Solar Arc within weeks which certainly indicates a control-freak approach bringing about a financial blockage. The tr Uranus square tr Saturn is also catching the 3^rd house Mars in Aquarius this month and tr Saturn is repeating that aspect till the year end for setbacks and aggravation.

  Turkey, 29 October 1923 8.30 pm Ankara, is ploughing through a discouraging patch till late year with tr Pluto square the Saturn Mercury; with some uplift from tr Pluto sextile the Jupiter. Tr Saturn is moving through the financial 8^th for two years ahead which will depress finances. And it is 2023/24 when the chickens really come home to roost with Solar Arc Saturn square the Sun, followed by Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the Saturn – setbacks, discouragement, dead halt.

  Erdogan’s personal chart, 26 February 1954, is both devastatingly confused with tr Pluto square his Neptune all this year and wildly over-confident as his Solar Arc Jupiter is conjunct his Pluto pushing him into ever more bullish actions, with no care for the lines he crosses.

As we all pussyfoot around being delicate in our comments about Islamists for fearing of being accused of phobia – the battle for women’s rights and safety in these countries is not being won. Women are being killed in Afghanistan by Taliban/IS and other assorted misogynist zealots. Mind you it is not much better under different religious or non-religious guises elsewhere in the UK/US and elsewhere. There seems to be a surge in the wrong direction. May Aquarius usher in a more enlightened approach globally.  

Elsa Peretti, the jewellery designer who revolutionized the industry with sculptured pieces based on shapes found in nature, such as beans, scorpions and snakes, has died. She also drew inspiration from human skeletons, an early childhood fascination from trips to Italian chapels crammed with the bones of Capuchin friars.

  Her pieces accounted for 10% of $3.8 billion Tiffany’s sales and it was estimated that one of its stores around the world sold an object designed by her every minute.

   She was born 1 May 1940 in Florence (no time sadly) with an Italian oil company father from whom she was estranged for decades after he objected to her early modelling career. She was notoriously strong-willed and tempestuous, with a fiery temper and through her New York 1970s disco days admitted to subsisting on little more than caviar, cocaine, vodka and cigarettes. She reconciled with her father just before his death but then fell out with her sister over his will, when she fought to gain a 50-50 share and that breach never healed. Though it wasn’t greed since she gave the money away in charitable donations and helped friends discreetly. She never married but had numerous relationships with men, including photographer Helmut Newton. Latterly she lived in Catalonia renovating a broken down residence and the surrounding village.

  Her chart has three distinct elements. Three planets in Taurus – Saturn conjunct her Sun and Uranus – earthy, grounded in nature and stubborn. Her Saturn and widely Sun were also in a controlling square to Pluto. Her Uranus was in the inspired, innovative trine to Neptune which produced so many creative talents of that era. And she had a passionately enthusiastic Venus Mars in Gemini sextile Mercury Jupiter in pro-active, upfront Aries. Her Moon was Aquarius or Pisces.

  A mass of contradictions, she somehow wove it altogether to create timeless and accessible pieces and survive a destructive lifestyle.

 Her creative 7^th harmonic was her strongest along with her global super-star 22H.

The omnishambles of the botched EU vaccine procurement, slow roll-out and mystifying suspension and then lifting of the AstraZeneca vaxx have led to infection rates escalating and new lockdowns in France, Italy and Poland, with Germany likely to follow suit. The UK has vaccinated over 40pc of the population and the US 34pc. The EU has managed just 12pc and daily cases are now three to four times UK levels.

  Trying to gauge the trajectory and duration of the pandemic isn’t easy from celestial markers. But the Solar Eclipses which covered the start of the outbreak in 2020 and continue into this year, with the December 2020 Eclipse casting its shadow six months ahead, all pointed to ‘traumatic transformation’; ‘restriction, inhibition etc’; ‘blocks, checks and frustrations.’ This covered effectively 18 months up to the middle of this year.  The approaching June 2021 Eclipse is in a more cheerful, creative and inspirational Saros Series; and the December 2021 Eclipse is joyful and happy.

  It would have to be said, however, that the June 2021 Solar Eclipse at 19 degrees Gemini is square Neptune, as the December 2020 one was. And this upcoming June one also has a road-blocked, trapped Mars opposition Pluto, so it won’t all be a picnic.

  There is also the tr Saturn square tr Uranus to contend with this year and for the first half of next, which can suggest dictatorial attitudes raising ire which might suggest some restrictions will stay in place. It is also associated with economic downturns and financial disruption.

  The EU was always going to be badly affected economically by the tr Uranus square tr Saturn (as indeed is the UK of which more anon). The EU chart has an 8^th house Moon (= commerce and international finance) at 10 degrees Taurus square Uranus at 10 degrees Leo opposition Venus in the speculative 5^th house at 15 degrees Aquarius. From last week tr Saturn has been opposition the Uranus and square the Moon, creating riding tensions, economic discouragement and a general sense of gloom. Tr Uranus then joins in from mid April to conjunct the Moon which will bring jolts, jangles and unwanted surprises. Both of these repeat off and on until this December and next February respectively.  Tr Saturn is then conjunct the EU Venus in the financial/speculative 5^th in February 2022, followed by tr Uranus in square to Venus between May 2022 to March 2023. As if that wasn’t enough the 2022 Solar Eclipses in Taurus/Scorpio will rattle up the EU Moon and Uranus as well as Neptune – more financial crises and crucial decisions to be taken.  

  There will be an all-out effort to inject confidence back into finances with tr Pluto square the 2nd house EU Jupiter in 2022/23; but that may end in a giant bubble bursting as tr Pluto moves to square the Jupiter/Neptune midpoint in 2023/24 and thence onto square the EU Neptune. The Progressed Moon is also going through the EU 12^th at the moment which will make for slow progress and much introspection about where-to-next until late 2022.

  This whole phase of several years will shake the EU to its foundations.

  Germany is in a state of flux this year with tr Pluto opposing the 10^th house Uranus, unsure of its direction but knowing a radical change is needed. Close neighbourly relations will be under devastating confusion in early 2022 with the Solar Arc Pluto opposing the Germany 7^th house Neptune. In 2022 also, the tr Saturn square tr Uranus will tug sharply at the Germany 8^th house Pluto. 8^th house rules joint and international finances as well as behind-the-scenes string-pulling and darker subterranean forces – and national death and rebirth, according to Campion, Baigent and Harvey. So there will be profound changes ongoing as there were last time Uranus was here in 1938.

  France equally looks more rattled between 2022 to 2024 than this year. The central Fixed Square of Uranus in Leo opposition Pluto in Aquarius square Mars Midheaven in Scorpio – will be depressed by tr Saturn hard aspects in 2022 and heavily disrupted by tr Uranus hard aspects in 2023/24; with an undermining tr Neptune opposition the Virgo Sun in 2024.

  Italy is not much higher up the cheer ladder with Neptunian markers in 2022/23/24.

  Like the EU, the UK has Fixed planets in the financial house (2nd,8th,5th) which are being rattled by tr Saturn square tr Uranus from late this month on and off through 2022. The Taurus Eclipse in 2022 especially will have a critical effect on the UK 8^th house Mars. I don’t buy the present euphoria with the vaccine bounce which is causing a fair amount of gloating as if all problems have been solved. The sheer scale of money which has been plucked from the magic tree to disperse in all directions, not all of it defensible, is mind-boggling. Never mind the Brexit hit with exports considerably down.

Actor Charles Dance is striding cheerfully through his eighth decade, playing William Hearst, the newspaper tycoon in Mank about the making of Citizen Kane, after a run of memorable cameos in The Crown as Mountbatten and Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones.

 He was born 10 October 1946 in Redditch, England, with his father dying when he was three and he learned his craft from two retired thespians who taught him the classics and bullied him into an RP accent. He attended Art College and eventually joined the Royal Shakespeare Company with his first big break on screen coming from the BBC Jewel in the Crown, which was followed by White Mischief, Gosford Park, a memorable Bleak House and thence onto the more recent blockbusting streamers.

  He’s a Sun Neptune in Libra opposition an Aries Moon with his Sun trine Uranus; and a clutch of four planets in Scorpio, including a seductive Venus, as well as a lucky and determined Mars, Mercury, Jupiter square an unyielding Saturn Pluto in Leo. With so much Fixed energy, he’s built to last, and his Mars square Pluto Saturn gives him a do-or-die-determined drive despite his amiable Libra Sun Neptune manner.

  He’s had a chequered personal life, divorcing his first wife with whom he had two children and, having a late third child, now nine years old. A Full Moon will make it tricky for him to know what he wants.

   His 15^th actor’s Harmonic is exceptionally strong and enduring linking a dynamic Sun Mars to Pluto and a creative and ultra-charming Neptune Venus Jupiter.

An epic tale of revenge is coming to a head in Scotland which encapsulates every cliché uttered on the subject.

‘While seeking revenge, dig two graves – one for yourself.’

‘Revenge is its own executioner.’

‘Revenge… is like a rolling stone, which, when a man hath forced up a hill, will return upon him with a greater violence, and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.’

  It’s also a classic textbook example of a Plutonic relationship gone toes up. Not only have Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, former First Minister and former protegee become First Minister, damaged if not destroyed themselves in the process of a botched series of attacks and cover ups. They’ve also possibly/probably put paid to any hopes of a Yes vote if any Scottish independence referendum ever came round and have torn apart their beloved SNP party when they were at it.  Just astonishing.

   Previous posts give the detail: 23 February 2021 and January 13 2021. This is additional thoughts.

  What’s intriguing about both birth charts is – amongst other things – the Nodal axis being keyed up. Salmond has his Solar Arc North Node conjunct his Midheaven exactly and his Solar Arc Neptune conjunct his natal Capricorn North Node. As well as a trapped, enraging Solar Arc Mars (conjunct Algol) square his Pluto; and tr Neptune conjunct his 10^th house Mars, then Moon/Mars midpoint and Pisces Moon over the next three years.

 Sturgeon has her Progressed Mars exactly conjunct her Virgo South Node now to the minute of a degree (one sixtieth). Plus her Solar Arc Moon opposition her Pluto and her Solar Arc Uranus exactly square her Midheaven. Tr Pluto is also in the grinding-breakdown phase of a two year opposition to her Cancer Sun, moving on to oppose her Sun/Mars midpoint and then her Mars in 2023/24 which will be completely logjammed and frustrating for her. She does have tr Pluto square her Jupiter in 2022/23 so she will attempt to push ahead nonetheless but it won’t outweigh the more blocked influences.

  Salmond’s Pluto is conjunct Sturgeon’s Midheaven and he did foster her progress early on when he was in power. But his Pluto is also square her slippery Neptune and stubborn Saturn in Taurus.  And more troublesome her determined Pluto opposes his Mars Moon which was always going to end in bitterness.

  Their relationship chart has a composite Pluto Jupiter conjunct the Ascendant – so together they made a go-ahead power couple; and there is a friendly composite Sun Venus in a workmanlike sextile to Saturn. But as ever when the forward momentum slowed and togetherness became a thing of the past, the Pluto energy turned inwards and it became a struggle for the upper hand; and the resentment bred by the one-sided composite Mars square Pluto surfaced as Sturgeon stepped into the top seat.

  The composite Mars, just to continue the spooky astro-coincidences, is exactly conjunct the destructive Fixed Star Algol. While they were together plotting to destroy the Scotland/England Union that Mars was focused on their main objective. But when the balance shifted, it started to destroy the relationship itself.

   Both SNP charts, 14 December 1933 and 7 April 1934, indicate disappointment and a seismic disruption over the next three years in one case; and an upheaval if not total collapse of the old structure in 2021/22 extending into road blocks in 2023.  

  Nicola Sturgeon may resign or may brass-neck it out, but her Term chart, 12 May 2016 9.35am has the destabilising Solar Arc Pluto square Uranus, exact in coming two months, which is heading into the May elections. And it has the Solar Arc Saturn exactly square the North Node now, which won’t bring cheer.

   Who’s have thought it?  I can’t say I was ever in favour of splitting the UK up into bits, though I understood the antipathy to the London political louts. But if ever there was an example of hubris and bitterness bringing the ceiling down on their own heads this is it.  

Pluto, lord of the underworld, is bringer of passion, possessiveness and jealousy. Overseer of five of the seven deadly sins  –  pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust – it has two primal urges. One is transformation and the other is power, drives which are frequently at war with one another. When Pluto is a strong element in a relationship it can initially arouse intense feelings of certainty, even ‘fatedness’, of a togetherness that is meant to be. Such bonds can have a transformative effect on both partners, but the tendency in the longer term is for one partner to want to be in control as top dog and it then descends into a bitter tussle for supremacy (or one partner remains resentfully tramped underfoot.) Splitting a Plutonic relationship, when one partner has had enough, is a long, messy, bitter battle with resentments and blame sprayed around.

  All of which is a prelude to the Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp/Amber Heard all-too-public mud-slinging contests. While not wishing to take sides on who did or didn’t do what, it’s worth noting that an underlying theme in both is money, another of Pluto’s territories.

  Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie separated and divorced in 2016, acquired legal single status 2019 but there is still an ongoing legal fight for custody and financial arrangements, with allegations from her this month of domestic violence. She has changed lawyers along the way, one retiring when the fight became ‘venomous and nasty.’

  The Jolie/Pitt relationship chart has a classic composite Sun opposition Pluto and a hostile Pluto inconjunct Mars; with Mars square Neptune, which last hints at an ego-clash of the only-one-can-win variety. If one succeeds the other loses. Jolie has her do-or-die determined Pluto in Pitt’s 10^th house so she would want to change him/be in control. Her aggravated and no doubt aggravating Moon Mars in Aries falls in his 4^th house of home and domestic affairs. 

  It was undoubtedly a ‘transformational’ relationship for him since they got together when tr Pluto was conjunct his Sagittarius Sun and they split when freedom-loving Uranus was square his Moon Venus in Capricorn. She made the decision but it offered him a way out.

  One of the adopted children Maddox, a Cambodian orphan with Jolie since her Bob Thornton days, was born (if accurate) 5 August 2001, and intends to give evidence in court on Jolie’s side. He has a truly difficult Mars Pluto in Sagittarius opposition Saturn which falls exactly on Pitt’s Ascendant/Descendant axis so it would be a fractious relationship, largely stemming from Maddox’s early damage. Though it also collides with Jolie’s Gemini Sun – but kids in split relationships often pick sides and don’t budge.

  The Jolie/Pitt saga is likely to drag on for several years yet with tr Neptune opposition the Pluto until late 2023.  

  The Depp/Heard coming together was Plutonic from another angle, with her exceptionally stubborn and controlling Taurus Sun opposition Pluto falling on his Midheaven and IC. Not that he’s anyone’s idea of a dream partner with a volcanic Pluto Mars Uranus in Virgo and his Pluto square a Gemini Sun.

  Their war of accusations and counter allegations continues in court with his appeal against his failed libel case about domestic assaults, claiming she did not hand over all of her $5 million divorce settlement to charity as she had promised. He’s fighting for his career and money-making potential which has taken a substantial hit since it all became public.  

  Their relationship chart does have an affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction; but there’s also a chained-together and resentful Saturn square Pluto; and a wide power-struggling Pluto opposition Jupiter.

  What would we do without celebrities and Royals to keep us entertained with their running soap operas?  

‘Staggeringly blunt rhetoric’ has marked Joe Biden’s first forays into foreign policy which have seen relations with both China and Russia sink to lows not see in decades. Biden dubbed Vladimir Putin ‘a killer’ this week and the first high level meeting with Chinese diplomats indicated the USA would raise concerns over actions by China “in Xinjiang (Uighurs), Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber-attacks on the United States and economic coercion of our allies”.

  Analysts say with no mutually binding arms control agreements now we are back to a situation similar to the one preceding the Cuban missile crisis. Some say it is the advent of a “second nuclear age”; more dangerous and unpredictable than the first with more states capable of building a bomb. Cyberwarfare is also a concern since it allows one power to seize control of another’s nuclear arsenal without firing a shot. As is the development of new technologies making possible the execution of extremely accurate nuclear strikes. ‘These factors have lowered the psychological barrier for using nuclear arms.’ The two nuclear superpowers are Russia, with approximately 4,300 warheads, and the US, with an estimated 3,800 warheads.

   Joe Biden’s astrocartography puts his Mars/Descendant line through Moscow and Iran; and his super-confident, power-struggling Jupiter and Pluto Ascendant lines are triggered over Beijing. They will be his militant hot-spots at least for argument and ramped up rhetoric.

Every American president in recent times who volunteered or was pulled into military activity did so on a world zone through which one of their four Mars lines ran. For Roosevelt it was Pearl Harbor; for Harry Truman, Japan and Korea; for Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Ford, it was Vietnam; for Jimmy Carter, Iran. Margaret Thatcher’s Mars on the midheaven (the key Mars line) runs straight through the Falkland Islands, where Britain declared war after the Argentinian invasion in 1982. George W Bush’s Mars Midheaven line was through Afghanistan.

  The relationship charts between the USA and Russia 1917 and 1991 suggest that the real deterioration and aggravation will come in 2022/23/24; with ripples of unease and some disruption from mid this year onwards. It does coincide with Putin’s 4^th Term chart flagging up danger signs – this year with a frustrated/enraged tr Pluto conjunct the Mars and worse by 2023 with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the Mars and major instability then as well. He’ll be feeling cornered both domestically and globally – and desperate leaders can lash out. 

   There’s no confirmed birth date for Putin, but the 7 October 1952 date does appear to make sense in relation to Trump with a controlling composite Sun Pluto. And in relation to Biden there are major jolts and jangles from the middle of this year.

   China may be more of a war of words and commercial pressure. Biden’s relations with Xi Jinping will continue to be uneasy and undermining until 2023.  The relationship charts between the USA and China 1912 and 1949 likewise show disappointment and dissatisfaction this year with 2023/24 looking more strained.

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