Journalist and TV presenter Piers Morgan’s car-crash career has taken another lurch as his increasingly brash and unhinged criticism of Meghan Markle aroused an outraged public response and led to his parting company with ITV’s morning breakfast show. He said he didn’t believe her claims of mental health problems and in his post-exit tweet shared a quote by Winston Churchill – ‘Some people’s idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage’.

  His past career (see wiki) as newspaper editor and then TV presenter has been a roller coaster ride of highs and then crunching lows when he was dismissed only to bounce back. Rupert Murdoch, his former boss at the News of the World, where he was editor described him as having “balls bigger than his brains”. His US TV presenter career evaporated when he refused to back down over his opposition to the lax gun laws and it slumped his ratings. He’s been right on many issues but is addicted to getting into fights with no sense of where to stop.

   The Good Morning Britain breakfast show, which his presence over five years lifted from half a million viewers to three times that figure, may suffer more than he does. He has had lucrative offers from other broadcasters in recent years, found the very early starts gruelling, and doesn’t need the money. He owns the rights to his formats that are broadcast in the US, and is on a seven-figure salary for the Daily Mail group, where he writes several columns. His Twitter profile (7.8 million fans) contains the quote “One day you’re cock of the walk, the next a feather duster” attributed to his grandmother. 

  He did know Meghan briefly in her actress/influencer phase as she, no doubt, curried favour with a useful publicity promoter. But her engagement to Harry cut the connection which clearly rankled with him. When the Royal couple announced they were stepping down as working royals he accused them of being “grasping, selfish, scheming Kardashian-wannabes”.

  He was born 30 March 1965, with his father dying when he was 11 months old and he was brought up by his mother and stepfather.  He is, not surprisingly a Sun, Venus in Aries with Mercury also in Aries. Aries has that resilient, rubber-ball quality that bounces back from defeats to try, try, try again. As a sign it has guts, self-confidence, though isn’t always known for its tact, sensitivity or common sense. Where his troublemaking streak comes from is a volcanic collection of Mars, Uranus, Pluto in Virgo which opposes Saturn and a Pisces Moon. He does like a scrap, has extraordinary endurance and stubbornness, and holds grudges. His Mars is pumped up by rebellious Uranus, do-or-die-determined Pluto and resentful, short-tempered Saturn opposition Mars. He could start a punch up in an empty room.

 His three Aries planets fall in Meghan’s 10^th house so it would be a transactional career connection but they also square her Mars and oppose her Moon Saturn Jupiter so was never going to be a BFF bond. The relationship chart isn’t catastrophic though it is cool with a composite Venus opposition Saturn and a ‘disappointed’ Sun opposition Neptune.  She would be a convenient hook for him in his attention-grabbing career – as he no doubt had been for her initially. It won’t get better in the next two years so he’s unlikely to give up his attacks with tr Neptune square the composite Saturn and Venus.  

  He’ll be OK this year with tr Pluto trine his Jupiter in Taurus though will run into more than a few hitches and glitches thereafter for three years.

  His strongest Harmonic is his 11^th which does give endurance, though it is a difficult number to live up to. The positive aspect of number 11 is idealistic and inspired imagination. The negative aspects are fanaticism and unreasonableness.

The Chinese boa constrictor is coiling round to exert an ever-tighter grip on Hong Kong. Even HK loyalists are now being cut out of decisions about forthcoming changes to the territory’s electoral system with mainland officials brought in to increase control. Opposition politicians are now largely disqualified or being prosecuted.

 The Hong Kong 1 July 1997 midnight chart has a disappointed and financially damaging Solar Arc Neptune conjunct the Jupiter across 2020/2021; with tr Pluto conjunct the Solar Arc Midheaven in 2021/22 which fits with blockages and suppression; and there will be worse in eighteen months when there is a panicky-failure Solar Arc Mars is exactly square the Neptune and tr Pluto conjunct Neptune for confusion and devastation come 2023/24. The relationship chart between HK 1997 and the China 1912 chart (which works better than the 1949 one) has no good news on the horizon with mayhem and deception in 2021/22, acute frustration and anger in 2023/24/25 as tr Pluto squares the composite Neptune and then opposes the composite Mars and squares Saturn.  

   All a mess and tragic for the Hong Kongers who were promised their own separate system.     

 The new USA Biden Administration has already been speaking out about Hong Kong as well as the “genocide” of 1m Uighurs in labour camps as part of a broader “push back” against Beijing’s “economic abuses and coercion that undercut the foundations of the international economic system”. Biden hopes to rope in allies like Australia, India and Japan to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific. And there has been talk that the US would “impose costs” on China over any abuses.

  Of the four Quad countries above, Japan is the one who looks most stressed about China moving ahead, ramping up next year and reaching breaking point from 2023. The US will be pushing boulders uphill in 2023/24 but not making much headway.

  Xi Jinping’s presidency will be backed into a corner around 2023 and not winning but it doesn’t mean he won’t retaliate if pushed. And the China chart is in a state of upheaval, disruption and maybe even facing rebellions in 2022/23. With disinformation being rife as the Mercury opposition Pluto (shades of the USA) is being wreathed in Neptunian smokescreens in 2023/24 as well. Even the 1949 chart looks significantly stressed and insecure as well as aggressive towards neighbours from this July onwards, on and off for three years.  See previous post June 14 2020.  

The knotty question of how astrological predictions work is an imponderable which practitioners tend to push to one side. No one pretends it is an exact science or art since in any given situation there are a myriad of complexities – different planetary cycles constantly shifting, a spectrum of meaning attached to each planet and aspect, a variety of calculation methods and the possibility of an individual’s choice impacting on the outcome.

  Was Brexit fated to happen or the pandemic? If neither had taken place, the same influences would have been in place – so what does that tell us?

Trying to unscramble my thinking on this several thoughts occur:

I think of the planetary influences being like winds (this is an analogy not a literal fact) and as captains of our individual ship we have a choice of how we react. We can use the wind to blow us along; run headlong into it in defiance and give ourselves more sweat; or ignore it altogether and run the risk of capsizing as it catches us sideways.

   This fits in with my (tentative) attempt to pin an explanation on astrology based on the physicist David Bohm’s notion of an explicate universe unfolding from an implicate substrata universe of potentials and probabilities. And given that most physicists believe the underpinning of the universe is mathematical, it could be that astrology is a way of tapping into this implicate universe. Assuming that the planets move in syncronicity with this implicate universe.

  There will always be a range of outcomes and we have (maybe, to some degree) a choice (some of us) about how we use the energy. The hedging is because I don’t think every soul who lands on the earth has the same degree of choice. Some get handed a difficult hand of cards or land in impossible circumstances, others don’t. Life ain’t fair. Countries also react differently, with less flexibility, than individuals since they have more of a critical mass to shift in terms of choice.

  There is always something the astrology won’t tell us from the birth chart – and it’s what I describe for want of a better word – grace. It allows some individuals to make choices and not others. I’m not fond of the notion that some people have no freewill but it is undeniable that some are able to utilise choice and freewill better than others.

   The Arab astrologers believed the greatest use of astrology was in understanding the past, which certainly is a valuable tool. But it is also helpful in looking ahead, as long as its limitations are understood.

  A cliched example is transiting Pluto conjunct Moon – the Moon rules childhood, adult family life, the domestic environment, the body. Pluto is about transformation, tearing down the old and clearing space for the new to emerge. In different individuals the same transit could a) bring up old unresolved issues to heal; b) cause rifts in the family; c) cause cracks and subsidence in the house, especially sewers/drainage requiring a rebuild; d) put additional strain on the body. It will also be affected by the chart house position of the Moon and its aspects to other planets.  So there is a wide-ish range of a spectrum of outcomes. For all it will be emotionally intense, stressful and challenging whether they are dealing with it at an outer event of house/body break down or an inner event of turmoil and cleansing.  To some degree which may be a matter of developed consciousness there will be a choice about whether it operates at an internal level or not.

  The Covid-pandemic – the 2020 Saturn Pluto conjunction in Capricorn indicated hardship, deprivation, tough-conditions, an economic hit – those you could predict with certainty. Why a virus and not war which is another Saturn Pluto manifestation? Some astrologers did point to a coming plague of sorts, presumably because of Neptune.  But there is never an absolute answer. Nor are the influences ever exactly as they were at the same stage on previous cycles since there would be other planetary influences coming in from a different angle.

  Brexit – was it written in the stars? In a way I was marginally surprised nothing much happened a few years prior in 2013 when the tr Pluto square tr Uranus was battering on the UK Capricorn Sun which is a classic split or civil war/revolution influence. Hmm, now that I look that’s when David Cameron made his promise to hold a referendum when tr Pluto was exactly sitting on the UK Sun. The UK chart is extraordinarily Fixed and doesn’t budge easily if at all – so it would take a while for critical mass to build. What was around at the 2016 vote was pressure on the 7^th house North Node in Aries – which indicates a country that isn’t good at co-operation in the first place being put under immense strain on the relationship front.

   In hindsight it looks more obvious than it did at the time (never mind personal bias getting in the way.)  Also it makes it easier seeing it as a historical set of events given the detachment of distance. When you’re in the middle of churning events it is more difficult to maintain the necessary neutrality to see the big picture. But that’s a personal flaw, not an astrology fault.   

    There is another oddity I notice from doing running predictions which is that when there are accident and disaster-prone Mars influences in particular in aspect to Uranus, Saturn, Pluto, there are often one of two notable headline-catching examples, such as Tiger Woods’ crash, while the rest of us muddle through the same influences in a bad-temper but remain unscathed. It’s almost as if the energy is ‘soaked up’ by a few instances.

  That’s the length of breadth of my thoughts to date since I’m pushed for time. I may return to it later. Practising astrology is an odd occupation since it has to be carried out almost in a vacuum with no explanation for it being available. That is a tricky exercise at the start since all of us assume that someone somewhere knows how ?? eg. computers, the internet, electricity – work even if we don’t. But astrology operates out in its own arena without any wider theoretical structure to hold it up.

Another lurch in the incessant tug-of-war between the EU and the UK has Brussels threatening to stop ratification of the trade and future-relationship deal struck on the cliff edge late last year, which would also delay any discussions on vital financial services agreements and might end up in court for breach of contract. Because of tensions rising sharply in Northern Ireland, with paramilitaries talking of withdrawing from the Good Friday Agreement, the UK has announced it would extend temporary rule exemptions intended to help companies adjust to new trading arrangements. Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, in response said that the EU was “negotiating with a partner it simply can’t trust”.

   What is clear scanning a handful of relevant charts is that while this year has its hitches, glitches and problems, the real stumbling blocks will turn up in 2022.

  Boris’s Government chart hits a swampy, undermining tr Neptune square the Sun from the 21st of this month, and that runs on and off till next January. In 2022 the hidden (and none-too-practical) Government Solar Arc Saturn will conjunct the Pluto Venus in the 12^th for a major hindrance with a shockingly insecure tr Uranus opposition Mars at the same time.

  David Frost, roped in recently to replace Gove as chief negotiator, will have his disappointing moments and a few nerve-stretching encounters this year with Ursula von der Leyen. But it is 2022 which is real stalemate time running across 2023 as well; and the same shows in his relationship chart with Boris as extreme frustration settles in between them from early 2022 to late 2023. So whatever masterly strategies they have up their sleeve are clearly not working.

  Boris’s relationship with the EU representative Maroš Šefčovič is aggravated at the best of times and sagging badly this year; ditto Frost, so that’s not working well. Boris and Ursula von der Leyen are adrift at points this year and locked in stalemate in 2022/23.

  All much of a muchness in terms of lack of progress.

  Boris’s relationship with the UK is tumbling from the present vaccine-success glow from late this April and sliding rapidly downhill in 2022/23.

  The EU/UK relationship chart is wilting into discontent from later this month, into disaster territory in April/May and on, with financial woes, misunderstandings and differences from May this year through 2022 as well.

   The UK chart itself will be facing tr Saturn in hard aspect moving round its financial Fixed planets from later this month, on and off till late 2022. That will be discouraging on the money front but the real problems will come as tr Uranus tracks tr Saturn in square hitting those same financial planets from early this May which will undoubtedly have disruptive economic repercussions. Tr Uranus will rattle the key planets this year and especially in 2022, extending into 2023. Once Covid subsides into the background (pray soon) the full effects of Brexit on top of the virus damage will be exposed.  

 See previous post 21 February 2021.

The never-ending tragi-soap opera of Meg-Haz versus the Royals lumbers on with tit for tats growing increasingly hostile. Claims are now being made, if you believe the Daily Mail, that Kate and Camilla are being blamed from the California side for leaking tales of bullied aides.

  The reality is – slashing through the undergrowth of too many charts – is Meghan’s most difficult relationship in the Royal family is with the Queen. HMQ’s rigorously dutiful, obsessively conscientious and strait-laced Saturn in Scorpio on the Midheaven clashes badly with Meghan’s freedom-loving, rebellious and unconventional 5^th house Uranus.  And even more aggravating is Meghan’s volatile Mars in Cancer which is conjunct HMQ’s strong-minded 6th house Pluto which gives the Queen very clear ideas about how work and duty are carried out.

  Princess Diana had the same problem with her disruptive Aquarius Moon opposition Uranus squaring onto HMQ’s Saturn MC and her Cancer Sun conjunct HMQ’s Pluto.  

  Both Diana and Meghan appear to have (had) similar ‘wrecking’ tendencies when coming up against the constraints of a rigid system where personal wishes are discounted in favour of sacrifice and obligation.

  HMQ’s relationship chart with Meghan has a strand of affection and friendliness from a composite Sun Venus opposition Jupiter. But that is on the surface. Underneath there’s a composite Mars opposition Saturn square Uranus which suggests a bond which one side will find unfair since it demands total allegiance and respect for the other and requires personal ego-needs to be suppressed. So it will feel one-sided and with Uranus in the middle, the tendency will be for it to explode at some point.

  Diana’s relationship chart with HMQ was not quite as difficult but there was still a needs-space, different-agenda composite Sun Uranus and a power-struggling-for-the-upper-hand Jupiter opposition Pluto.  

   The relationship between the Queen and Meghan was already under strain by the time of the 2018 marriage with tr Uranus throwing hand-grenades onto that volcanic Mars Saturn Uranus composite T Square and continuing to shake it up thereafter. Tr Pluto is now sitting exactly conjunct the focal point composite Uranus through this year and next and then grinding down on the composite Saturn and Mars till mid decade, so it won’t get easier.

  Although Harry is now down the line of succession the Queen will regard this as a danger point for her life’s work with Meghan’s Uranus on her Midheaven having the potential to derail what she has stood for.

   Two thoughts. One is I wish people would stop saying Americans don’t understand the Royal pecking order. There is no hierarchy more starkly rigid than that of the Hollywood ‘star’ system. Try upstaging the diva at the top of the cast list and see what happens? Meghan was six down the SUITS dramatis personae, not even a co-star. She’s knows very well what deference is all about.

  The second: It always struck me that Diana’s downfall was her inability to let go and not get her own back. She always had to retaliate, so hung onto hurts and resentments and kept the ping pong matches of bitterness running.  Meghan appears to have the same trait. Diana did have a Mars Pluto conjunction on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine to her Sun trine Neptune which would be part of the reason. Meghan has a 4^th house Pluto which on its own will contribute to her need to maintain control and the upper hand where family are concerned. And her Pluto squares her Mars/Node midpoint which interestingly Ebertin describes as forced separation of relationships and will also give her a vengeful streak.

Third thought – I have a theory that at the end of life – sometimes – what has been brushed under the carpet in an individual life surfaces. The old persona is ditched or melts away since there isn’t the energy to keep up the pretence and what was always there comes into the open. Maybe the Di-Meg phenomenon is the Queen’s unconscious desperate to kick over the traces and say to hell with protocol and deference. She’s in no position to act it out but she must yearn to be free.

PS: There are surprising astro-similarities to King Edward’s Abdication in 1936 which rocked the Royal Family to its foundations. The Nodes and Eclipses were almost the same degree of Sagittarius as last December’s – still in effect. Uranus was in early Taurus and Pluto in late Cancer.

Mariah Carey, best-selling singer and actress, has come off the high that her recent successful memoir produced with the New Yorker describing it as “incisive, entertaining, and impressively well-written”, and Rolling Stone calling it an “instant classic of pop diva lit”. Then her sister and now her brother have stepped in to dispute her tales of a dysfunctional childhood. She had claimed her sister, eight years older, gave her Valium, tried to pimp her out, and threw boiling hot tea on her. Her brother she described as drug-dealing, drunk, violent and in receipt of money to murder someone. Both siblings are claiming substantial damages.

  Mariah has attested to her bi-polar disorder and her sister alleges she was “profoundly and permanently damaged as a result of being forced by [their] mother, while a pre-teen, to attend terrifying middle-of-the-night satanic worship meetings that included ritual sacrifices and sexual activity.”  The Adams family writ large.

    Mariah, born 27 March 1970 7.27 am Long Island City, NY, has a 12^th house Aries Sun and Mercury opposition Uranus; with Venus in Aries also in the hidden 12^th. She has an attention-demanding Pluto in her performing 5^th house. The one hint of damaging childhood would be a cruel-treatment Saturn Mars in Taurus straddling her Ascendant opposition Jupiter. Her final degree Scorpio Moon is conjunct Neptune in her 7^th so good for creativity, not so great for discrimination in choosing partners.

  Though now that I look deeper I discover – dratted woman – there’s doubt about her birth year which may be 1969, same day and time. 1969 also puts her Aries Sun in the 12^th along with a Venus Saturn conjunction. The latter is on the focal point of a difficult Yod inconjunct both Neptune and Pluto. Her performing 5^th has Pluto as well as lucky Jupiter Uranus and her Pluto is opposition her Mercury for an intense approach. A Cancer Moon squares that hard-edged Saturn.

  Her brother Morgan Carey, 6 August 1960, a record producer, fitness trainer, is a Sun Uranus Venus in Leo with a seriously determined and can-be-ruthless Mars in Gemini square Pluto. On either of her birth dates his Mars Pluto collides with her Neptune for a panicky interface and for a 1970 birth her Moon as well, so she would be wary and feel threatened by him.

  The relationship chart between them for her 1969 birth has a really stressed and aggravated composite Mars Saturn opposition Uranus Pluto square Sun – and that is seriously bad chemistry .

Whichever of her birth years is accurate she does have tr Pluto crossing her Midheaven from now onwards which can bring a fall from grace or a change of career direction.  And the 1969 chart has a depressing tr Pluto square Saturn over the next two years which will be an uphill struggle.   

Ashley Judd, American actress and activist, has been talking about the harrowing and life-threatening accident she suffered in a Congo jungle on a research trip in February to study Bonobo monkeys. She broke her leg badly in four places in the middle of the jungle, which had to be manipulated back into place in situ. Then she was manoeuvred onto the back of a motorbike for a six hour bumpy journey and eventually brought out after a 55-hour ordeal.

  Born 19 April 1968 1.12 pm Sylmar, California, she has a packed 9^th house which rules communication and travel with her Aries Sun Mercury and North Node and Saturn as well as Mars in Taurus there. No surprises she is an activist who wants to spread the word of her favourite causes and to immerse herself in different cultures and countries. Her Sun Mercury are trine an outgoing Jupiter in Leo on her Ascendant. She’s also got a Yod of Uranus Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mercury – which would have started her off in life as a scattered thinker but once the Yod got on track it makes her an outstanding teacher and communicator.

   At the moment her Solar Arc Uranus is opposing her Mars, which often crops up when operations are involved and can bring shocking jolts. Her Solar Arc Sun is square her Pluto putting a major blockage in her path. And her Progressed Mars is square her Uranus/Pluto midpoint. A perfect storm of negatives. She also has tr Pluto moving across the cusp into her 6^th house of health exactly now; with tr Saturn still moving through her 6^th for another year what is likely to be a long recovery.

  Her astro-cartography has her Uranus Pluto Midheaven lines through Africa, marginally to the west of the Congo, with her Venus Saturn IC lines running through it – clearly a place she feels at home though involves work/effort and is unpredictable/stirs her sense of adventure and wish to bring in reforms.

A fluff distraction from the BuckHouse brouha, Brexit, Biden, MBS and the Bug. Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd of Hornblower and more recently Australian TV Harrow fame is exiting his thirteen year marriage to actress Alice Evans in what appears to be a cavalier fashion, causing her to spit fireworks all over social media.

  Born 6 October 1973 he’s a Sun Libra trine Jupiter in Aquarius sextile Neptune so could have been dreamy, charming and a peacemaker. But his Sun is widely conjunct Pluto on one side and Uranus on the other, sitting on the disruptive, rebellious midpoint. He’s also got Pluto as the controlling focal point of a T Square to an unyielding Saturn opposition Node. Plus an obstinate to the nth degree Fixed T Square of heavyweight Mars in Taurus opposition Mercury in Scorpio squaring onto a can-be-grandiose Jupiter and maybe Moon in Aquarius.  Plus a couple of strained and tricky Yods – onto  Mars which will give him problems modulating his assertiveness; and the other onto Saturn which requires real maturity to handle it well.

  Regrettably the firecracker wife Alice Evans has a birth year discrepancy – on continental websites 1968 and UK 1971. But in both she’s a Sun Leo which squares onto his Mars so it would sizzle with attraction initially but that all too easily turns into a competitive interface and arguments. If she’s 1971 then her Uranus is conjunct his Sun; if 1968 then her volatile Mars in Cancer squares his Uranus – so a combustible chemistry whichever.

  Their Wedding chart of 14 September 2007 contained more than a hint of a turbulent, at times exciting, though rarely predictable liaison. The Virgo Sun that day opposed Uranus squared Mars which opposed Pluto and Jupiter. All in fickle, changeable Mutable signs – a never-ending drama.

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Australia is catching up belatedly to cases of sexual harassment in the workplace with the political arena in the spotlight after several serious allegations, including a historical one against a cabinet minister (denied). PM Scott Morrison said: “I think we’ve got a problem in the parliament and the workplace culture that we have to work on.” The furore has reignited wider questions about Australian political culture, including long-held debates about sexism and misogyny.

  The Australia chart 1 January 1901, does have a Sun Saturn in Capricorn trine Mars which will lean towards the masculine – Capricorn being the sign of the patriarch.

  The AU Parliament opened for business on 9 May 1901 and has a Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Capricorn as well as Moon trine Mercury, Sun, Venus in Taurus – ambition and indulgence will be to the fore.

  It’s unfair to blame Scott Morrison for this bout of allegations since it’s clearly been endemic, but for what it’s worth his initial PM chart, 24 August 2018 6.15pm has much the same traits with a do-or-die-determined Mars Pluto in Capricorn as well as Saturn in Capricorn trine a Virgo Sun trine Uranus.

  Not sure what this proves but it may be that tr Pluto in Capricorn is finally gaining traction in its final lap to chip away remnants of the old macho pioneer culture.