Conspiracy theories are rooted in paranoid thinking which is a primitive way of looking at the world. Peasants are typically paranoid and deeply superstitious, which is due in large part to their powerlessness and therefore fragile hold on survival. Central to it is a fear of ‘invasive malevolence’ and ‘imminent annihilation’ from an outer world felt as not just unsafe but destructive. That paralyzing, all-pervasive fear nowadays attaches to authority figures (illuminati for example) who are displacement symbols for malign parents, and are deemed to be ganging together to wreak havoc on the poor defenceless ones.

Paranoid thinking is also inextricably linked with schizoid ‘splitting’ into good and bad, us and them, shining white and the opposite. Nothing can be allowed to contaminate the ‘good’ which in the paranoid’s mind is his/her/their standpoint, so death-rays are turned on anyone who disagrees, points out flaws in cult (political) idols or threatens to let a sliver of factual reality in.

It’s an infantile approach to life. As the baby/toddler matures it becomes possible to tolerate ambivalence and see that people are both good and bad; situations can be right and wrong at the same time. It’s a move into complex thinking, see illustration, larger version on URL below.

As to the astrology? The last time I thought about it, see post March 2 2018, I connected it to the world wide web and specifically to the Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn when it was launched on 6 August 1991. Uranus Neptune can be tinged with genius, produces ‘eureka’ moments of inspiration and is associated with religious art – but it also has this fanatical side which, even faced with incontrovertible fact won’t acknowledge there might be an alternative viewpoint.

The internet has many positive benefits, one of which is it can join together small pockets of people who might otherwise feel isolated and allow them to share their common interests and thus build up a critical mass where their particular hobby horse is concerned, which was not possible before. But, of course, it does the same for the whackjobs and amplifies what is always there in a segment of the population – and gives it a much louder voice.

Most of the conspiracy-nut leaders I’ve looked at are driven by not just anger but black rage, connected to their relationship primarily to their father but not exclusively since mother had to have a hand in their dysfunction somewhere. And that hatred/anger/ferocious fear is then projected out into society at large, hooking onto secret and not-so-secret power figures.

Uranus Neptune isn’t the only culprit since the other ‘paranoia’ signature is Saturn Neptune which were in square in 2016 tied into the North Node for Brexit and Trump’s election, when politicians and the internet disgraced themselves with nonsense, playing on fears for profit and success.

But both of these aspects do come round once in a while so it’s not entirely clear why the effect has been so strong. Neptune in Pisces will be another part of it since it, amongst other attributes, can be delusional and cling onto irrational beliefs.

Yeats’ poem The Second Coming was evidently more quoted in 2016 than ever before.:

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.”

He wrote it in 1919 after the carnage of World War One but it does seem to have touched a chord for the next hundred years. The 20^th Century was the most murderous on record with running wars almost throughout, so there may be a touch of global PTSD in those who are more delicately balanced mentally. That’s a psycho-babble thought since regressing back to infantile levels does suggest a degree of unbearable pressure.

Really I’ve no idea astrologically why conspiracy theories have had such a field day in recent years. It is weird and scary. And it extends beyond ‘they are out to get us’ mentality. The whole transgender thing has been blown up into manic and hysterical proportions for what is a small problem in statistical terms. Those who are genuinely conflicted about gender are certainly due sympathy and help but it’s got ridiculous. And anyone who speaks out against the line laid down by the transgender lobby are subjected to the death-ray treatment. There is a definitely unhinged feeling about.

Plus, of course, some conspiracies turn out to be hard fact which doesn’t help. The big bad corporations and corrupt or thick-as-a-brick political leaders don’t do much to calm anxieties.

Social fads and moods tend to go on a pendulum swing so it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility this will swing back at some point as people get irritated and bored by the hogwash spewed out.

Pic: https://www.facebook.com/Acts.Random.Kindness/photos/a.623678174312244/3077106268969410/?type=3&theater

Sigh. More brinksmanship is promised in 2020 with the new EU chief Ursula von der Leyen saying 11 months isn’t long enough to agree a deal on the UK’s future relationship with the EU. The UK sort-of leaves the EU on 31 January 2020 and will remain in the customs union and single market until the end of the year, with an option to stay within those arrangements for a further two years. If there isn’t a deal in place on trade there would be major disruption to the UK economy, with tariffs and quantity restrictions being immediately applied to goods being sold into the EU market.

Boris, au naturellement, is grandstanding his refusal from the sunny Caribbean and swearing it’ll all be done and dusted satisfactorily within the year. Though I do faintly recollect a do-or-die-in-a-ditch proclamation last year from which came and went with a blink.

What is interesting astrologically is there is a “moment of truth” written into the agreement for 1 July, by which time both sides will need to have agreed on prolonging the transition period or face running out of time. That is within days of the one eclipse in 2020, a Lunar, which affects the UK and Boris’s chart at 13 degrees Capricorn/Cancer. So it will be a critical point.

That 5 July 2020 Lunar Eclipse located to London has an indecisive/confused Neptune exactly on the Midheaven and the Full Moon sitting across the Ascendant/Descendant. Planets on the angles suggest significant events will occur and follow.

That’s also almost exactly (Boris’s birth time being accurate) at the point where his Solar Arc MC is conjunct his Uranus for a jolting change of direction. Before then he’ll have a run of downbeat transits with tr Saturn in Aquarius from late March to early April squaring his Moon, repeating from mid June into early July and again in .late December though at that final hit it will have Jupiter beside it then so will be less discouraging. The Moon in a politician’s chart can indicate his relationship with the public as well as his personal life. Saturn doesn’t suggest popularity. Tr Saturn is also trine his afflicted focal point Mars in Gemini from early April to mid June which will be an uphill and bad-tempered struggle against obstacles and setbacks.   He will have some confident phases – late January to late February, July and August, late November to late December 2020 with tr Pluto trine his Mars/Jupiter midpoint though that’s mild enough.

Ursula von der Leyen is no mean negotiator up against him since she also has a do-or-die-determined Mars in Gemini square Pluto in Virgo, so she won’t budge easy.

Anyways I thought the mid year Eclipse was worth mentioning and remembering when it comes round. Just as we all thought (delusionally hoped) – remainers and brexiteers alike – that at least the deed was done and we could get on with life in some form – mais non. More dragged-out political jousting.

The EU is heading into three years of turbulence, mainly financial, but with existential questions also being posed. Economists certainly think the EU economy will slow down in 2020 for the third consecutive year. There are also major divergences over multifarious policies with in some cases west versus east; in others, north versus south or left versus right. Finding agreement is becoming increasingly difficult especially on budgetary matters, since calls for Germany and the Netherlands, who are in a stronger financial position, to embark on a fiscal stimulus are unlikely to meet with agreement.

There has already been panicky confusion earlier this year with the Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the EU 2^nd house Neptune with tr Uranus in opposition; and at the moment the Solar Arc MC is in a blocked (and seething)  conjunction to the 12^th house Pluto as the reality of Brexit (and eventual withdrawal of UK’s contribution) becomes inescapable. As with the UK, tr Uranus is trine the EU Pluto from this December UK election and through January 2020 for a definite shift; as well as tr Pluto being trine the Solar Arc Midheaven. So the winds of a change of direction with less control in Brussels (12^th house Pluto) ahead.

Tr Saturn will damp economic confidence and enthusiasm as it squares the 2^nd house Jupiter in early March, July and again in November. Tr Neptune will square the 3^rd house Saturn from late March and through April, late August and September, and early 2021 – for uncertainty, indecision, inability to reach agreements, perhaps also transport problems being 3^rd house. There’ll be a tremor of financial anxiety in March as tr Uranus opposes the 2^nd house Neptune; but where the real rock n’ roll starts is from early July through till late September as tr Uranus is conjunct the 8^th house Moon and square Uranus, repeating April 2021 and January 2022 – and that will produce jolting changes in the arena of international finance, with perhaps a natural disaster or two it being 8^th house. The Solar Arc Mars will also square the 8^th house Moon and oppose the Uranus in 2021/22 for a shocking upset or series thereof.

The Solar Arc Neptune is also in a debilitating conjunction to the EU Sun in late 2022/23 – so it’ll be a longish phase of mishaps, missteps and internal disagreements. Though not as lengthy as for the UK since tr Uranus moves out of the EU 8^th by 2024 which should stabilise finances. The UK’s erratic finances will run on till 2027.

The ECB chart and especially Christine Lagarde’s Term chart, 1 November 2019, indicate 2021 through 2022 and into 2023 will be high-stress, disappointing and seriously challenging times.

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The USA will be into the thick of rancorous and aggravated debates in 2020 as Pluto starts to oppose the USA Mercury opposition Pluto from late February onwards, on and off till late 2021.

Pluto opposition Mercury does hint at a dark, fanatical streak in the US temperament. Ebertin associates Mercury Pluto with: demagogues, plagiarists, those who fraudulently misrepresent, slyness and cunning, irritability, and psychological pressure. Kept under control it can be persuasive and insightful.

Previous times of tr Pluto in hard aspect to the USA Pluto Mercury saw bitter anti-slavery fights under a Democratic President, 1845 to 1851; the Great Depression, 1933 to 1938, Roosevelt’s New Deal and J. Edgar Hoover in the FBI; President Reagan’s swingeing tax cuts leading to soaring budget deficit and high unemployment, a recession and his attempted assassination. Reagan was elected on tr Pluto square the USA Mercury in 1981.

All of this being a forerunner to the USA Pluto Return in 2022/23. See previous posts: November 19 2018 and October 29 2018 – on Pluto Return and Civil War.  Tr Saturn will also oppose the USA Mercury and conjunct the Pluto on and off throughout 2020 which will be discouraging, prone to the glooms and stuck at points, especially late November.

Tr Pluto will also be trine the USA Neptune for a second year running in 2020 – exact in January and mid August to late November across the election. Neptune Pluto has a span of meanings from an interest in the supernatural, to great confusion, obsessive or fantastical ideas, scandals and megalomania. The election is likely to be held under stressful (more so than usual) influences and the January 2021 Inauguration looks exceptionally fraught with Sun, Saturn, Jupiter in Aquarius square an explosive, no-compromise Mars Uranus in Taurus.

The Eclipses will impact the country with the effects of the December 2019 early Capricorn Solar Eclipse in opposition to the USA Venus Jupiter running through early months; the January Lunar Eclipse hitting on the USA Mercury; the July Lunar in Capricorn opposing the USA Sun; and the December 2020 Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius bouncing off the USA Mars and Neptune – some emotional upsets early on and a tendency to over confidence; a critical turning point vis a vis relationships mid year and a hot-tempered finish.

A touch like the UK, with whom the USA seems to be in an odd lock-step at the moment, 2021 in some ways looks even more troublesome with a panicky-failure tr Neptune square the USA Mars and opposition Neptune; the Mercury Pluto effect strengthening; and the Pluto Return drawing nearer.

 

Poised on the brink of a momentous change the UK heads into 2020 with a transformative Uranus trine the UK Pluto, bringing a new order into being. That transit picked up at the recent election and rolls through till early February 2020, across the pull-out of-the-EU date. It seemed mild enough, looked at in advance, but even soft aspects appear to have a significant effect on country charts.

The heavy concentration of Saturn Pluto and Jupiter in Capricorn are all focussed on the UK 4^th house which certainly indicates the roots/foundation of the country undergoing a massive shift under great resistance. Emotional tensions will flare from Saturn there and mutinous rumblings will come courtesy of Pluto. Jupiter will help to smooth over a few rough edges. Often Jupiter in the 4^th is a time of waiting and it does look as if 2021 is the year when more ructions are likely, of which more below.

Saturn has just cleared the gloomy opposition to the 10^th house Moon mid this month – though Saturn’s effects can hang around like rotting fish to make an impact months ahead. The 10^th house Moon refers to the monarchy/and or ruling classes, and this transit suggests separation and mourning. Saturn then proceeds to oppose the UK 10^th house Jupiter in Leo from April 7^th to mid June which will damp national confidence and enthusiasm, perhaps prompting the need for financial cutbacks after a phase of over-spending.

Before then through February there’ll be a nervy mood with tr Neptune square the Uranus/Pluto midpoint and then square the Saturn/Node midpoint in March, which latter influence repeats October to mid January 2021 – and will bring uncertainty, gloom, deception, suffering through falsehood.

Uranus squares the Sun/Pluto midpoint in the second half of April 2020 and again late December 2020 to mid February 2021. Ebertin describes that as “sudden adjustment to new circumstances: carrying out fanatical reforms” – and can, he suggests, be a change into restrictive circumstances.

From the look of what’s around in late December 2020 across the New Year into the crash-out Brexit phase will be exceedingly nerve-stretching and uncertain with both the UK Saturn/Node and Sun/Pluto midpoints being activated. At that point the Solar Arc Mars will be conjunct the 3^rd house Mercury provoking noisy arguments – and perhaps transport or communication snafus.

The Progressed Moon will continue in the 10^th house through 2020 keeping ambitions buoyant. From the start of 2021 it heads into the UK 11^th for a change of focus towards the future with an exceptionally bumpy ride ahead for two years as it squares the 8^th house Mars, opposes Venus, squares Neptune and finally is conjunct the UK Saturn. At the same time tr Uranus in 2021 from May picks up the conjunction to the 8^th house Mars which will bring a disruptive series of events, financial and otherwise, running on for several years as Uranus follows the Progressed Moon round the UK Fixed Grand Cross. In 2021 in May as well, the Progressed Mercury will square the UK Mars for explosive arguments; made all the more bitter by tr Pluto conjunct the Mercury/Pluto midpoint throughout 2021/22 – which tends to bring hostile debate, fanatical obstinacy and a degree of mental strain.

But for all that Jupiter in 2021 will have moved, along with Saturn, into the UK 5^th so there will be some attempt at celebration.

 

Happy Festivities and All the Best for 2020. May it float by on a drift of dreams and fantasies.

My most favourite flowering tree is out. Always the earliest – Pearl Mimosa with a heavenly scent. Otherwise Acacia podalyriifolia.

[I would have written a cheerful message across it but Adobe has messed up photoshop which now means all pics with texts now require too much RAM. Urgh. By next NY will have new specc-ed up desktop.]

What a pickle. Love Island presenter Caroline Flack is in court facing assault charges after her boyfriend model and ex-tennis player Lewis Burton summoned the police and ambulance services following a domestic dispute on December 12th. Reports indicate she hit him over the head with a lamp after reading what appeared to be a cheating text on his phone. She’s pleading not guilty and he’s withdrawn his allegations despite the police saying it looked ‘like a horror movie’ when they arrived and having not only the 999 call on record but also bodycam footage. Both are bewailing the judge saying they can’t have contact over Christmas.

She was born 9 November 1979 and he 23 March 1992. She has form for younger lovers having once hitched with Harry Styles when he was 17 and she 31.

She’s an intense and uncompromising Scorpio Sun conjunct Uranus squaring onto a volatile Mars in Leo; with her Mars in a determined sextile to Pluto and trine a publicity-attracting Neptune. Her Neptune is in a (marginally paranoid) square to Saturn in Virgo. She also has an emotional Cancer Moon which is likely to be in a possessive square to Pluto.

He is an upfront Sun Mercury in Aries with possibly a Sagittarius Moon, a highly-strung Uranus Neptune in Capricorn; and more significantly a forceful and compulsive Mars in Aquarius square Pluto, with Pluto also in a stubborn square to Saturn in Aquarius.

His Pluto is conjunct her Sun Uranus and his Mars square so it is a volcanic combination – and then some. Wow.

Their relationship chart has an affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction in a sparky and passionate trine to Mars (conjunct Algol) maybe trine a Virgo Moon – a very earthy connection.

She’s having a downbeat 2020/21 with tr Pluto trine her Saturn. No matter what happens in the March trial she’s lost her presenting TV job. And the relationship understandably is under tremendous pressure from tr Pluto conjunct the composite Sun and Venus.

 

Emanuel Ungaro, the last of the grand Paris couturiers, has died aged 86. He trained under Cristóbal Balenciaga, worked briefly with futurist designer André Courrèges, before launching his own label in the mid-1960s. The Telegraph obituary says: “He became known for his flamboyant use of pattern and elegant draping, and was once described as “arguably unique among his peers as a heterosexual man creating dresses for the bodies that he worshipped”. Evidently he kept a Sigmund Freud poster in his office with his quote despairing that he would ever find the answer to the question ‘What does a woman want?’

He was born 13 February 1933 2.30am in Aix-en-Provence, France, to Italian parents who fled fascism, his father a tailor. He had a sharp-witted 3^rd house Aquarius Sun on one leg of a Yod sextile innovative Uranus inconjunct Jupiter. A Jupiterian yod can have considerable social influence.

He also had an 8^th house Pluto which can also indicate the ability to wield unseen power over the masses and it was in a revolutionary square to Uranus.

He had an interesting collection of Neptune, Mars, Jupiter, Moon in Virgo – interesting because my recollection is that it threw up a fair number of notables that year. Mars Neptune is good for attracting publicity and glamour; Mars Jupiter is confident and pro-active, willing to take risks; Moon Jupiter fond of women.

He had other inconjuncts of Neptune quincunx Saturn, Sun to Pluto and Moon to Mercury – not a fitter-in, a man who walked his own road.

  

The movie season is experiencing extremes of reaction with the eighth film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women getting unanimous plaudits and five-star rave reviews – in contrast to the furry disaster of Cats. The story of four sisters coming of age during and after the US Civil War opens in this movie version with Alcott’s own words “I have had lots of troubles, so I write jolly tales.”  Her jolly tales were to prove a lodestar for many 20^th century women inspired to mark out an independent path for themselves.

She was born 29 November 1832 12.30am Germantown, Pennsylvania, with a maverick, experimental educator for a father who was domineering, overbearing and a failure, so much of her childhood was spent on the move with the family. She was forced to go out to work young as a companion, seamstress, teacher and then volunteered as a nurse to Civil War soldiers. She wrote constantly throughout and gradually started to make sufficient money to support her family and pay off their debts. Little Women was a huge success in her mid 30s onwards. She was a trenchant abolitionist and feminist and was still an ‘irrepressible’ spinster when she died at 55, within days of her father, perhaps from an auto-immune disease but also debilitated by mercury poisoning from a typhoid fever cure years earlier.

She had a quick-witted and communicative 3^rd house Sagittarius Sun; with an emphasised Mercury in Sagittarius in the domestic 4^th square both Saturn and Jupiter, so no surprises she wrote about family life. Her stalwart Mars in Taurus in the 9^th, oddly enough conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol, would also contribute to her ability to publish successfully. But for all that she had a tough chart with an Earth Grand Trine of Mars trine Saturn in Virgo trine Neptune in Capricorn in the performing 5^th house. It would give her a good business head and practical skills, as well as a knack for attracting publicity, but it would also make for a life strewn with setbacks and obstacles. That Grand Trine is formed into an even more talented Kite by Neptune opposition a Cancer Node, which latter would propel her towards becoming the feeding hands for her family.

Her creative 5^th Harmonic was very marked; as was her writers’ 21H.

Greta Gerwig, the director, who is attracting top marks for this effort, was born 4 August 1983 in Sacramento, CA, and also has a peculiarly heavy chart with Saturn Pluto in Libra square Mars in Cancer. She is a Leo Sun trine Uranus and Jupiter in Sagittarius with fits well with Alcott’s; and her Venus Mercury in Virgo also chimes with Alcott’s Venus in Capricorn.

Gerwig looks to have several mountain ranges to climb ahead with tr Pluto opposing her Mars in 2020/21 and then squaring her Pluto Saturn till 2023 Sagittarius Sun so her next project, an improbable Barbie film may prove more of a chore than this one.

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Louisa’s father Amos Bronson Alcott, born 29 November 1799, was a visionary, philosopher, reformer and cultured man of letters who exercised a profound influence over his friends Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was also an abolitionist and an advocate for women’s rights, though his wife evidently thought he didn’t appreciate her contribution to keeping the family ship afloat.

He was born the same day as Louisa so was a Sun Sagittarius in a controlling square to Pluto on the cusp of his 5^th house and trine Saturn in Leo on his Midheaven. He would be attention-demanding, controlling of his children with Pluto in the 5^th; a proud man, driven to be thought of as someone of substance. His Saturn squared onto a less than wholesome Mars Neptune in Scorpio so he’d certainly be stubborn. He also had a T Square of Jupiter in Virgo in the educational and philosophical/spiritual 9^th house opposition a 3^rd house Mercury in Sagittarius squaring a revolutionary Uranus. He wouldn’t be steady but he would always be trying to forge new paths.

He shared Louisa’s Mercury in Sag as well as her Sun; and his Jupiter fell in her 10^th so he would be instrumental in making her successful. His Moon was conjunct her Venus which would give a good emotional connection. Despite his temperamental failings they were relatively similar and would have moments where they felt in tune.