John Bolton’s book disclosure that the president tied military aid to Ukraine to investigations of Democrats, undercutting Trump’s denial defence, has been described as a “bombshell with political shrapnel going in all directions.” Before it was leaked, the Senate impeachment trial was speeding to an acquittal. Now Trump lawyers and Senate Republicans are preparing for the possibility that witnesses will be summoned — dragging out the trial for days or weeks.

Bolton, born 20 November 1948 in Baltimore, a foreign policy hawk, replaced HR McMaster (who replaced Michael Flynn) as National Security Adviser in 2018. He lasted sixteen months before exiting – Trump said fired, Bolton said resigned.

He’s a late Sun Scorpio inconjunct Uranus with Mercury also in Scorpio in an argumentative and unyielding square to Pluto.

His Mars in Sagittarius in a volatile, uncompromising opposition to Uranus clashes with Trump’s Sun and Moon so it was always going to be a competitive, combative relationship with volcanic flare-ups.

Bolton looks geared up and in confident forward-gear through February and again later in the year with tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint. Though he will have setbacks late March/early April and late June.

What is more significant is his relationship chart with Trump which indicates distinct aggravation February 11 to 19, repeating late August and again late October to November 12^th over the election, with tr Saturn square the composite Mars. There’s also a disastrous and panicky mood in their relations from late March until late August and repeating late January to March 2021 with tr Neptune opposing the composite Mars/Pluto and Mars/Saturn midpoints. So Bolton could do real damage.

Bolton’s interface with Mitch McConnell is chilly, suspicious and unstable to start with having a composite Sun opposition Saturn square Neptune; and Uranus (Moon) opposition Venus square Mars. And there are a raft of separating tr Saturn hard aspects to four composite midpoints throughout the year with a flare up in late May; recurring late October to mid November across the election.

Interesting turn of events and could throw a real spanner in the works.

If responding and you’re more than welcome I’d be grateful if you’d restrict comments to either astrological ones; and/or brief informative AND dispassionate political ones. If you’re feeling enraged, aggravated or overly excited, please take several deep breaths and go for a nature walk.

Kobe Bryant, considered one of the greatest basketball players ever, who over twenty seasons with the Lakers racked up multiple wins and championships, has been killed in a helicopter crash in fog. His 13 year old daughter Gianna and seven others were also killed.

He was born 23 August 1978 5pm Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (time unverified) with a professional basketball father and uncle, and grew up partly in Italy, where his father played latterly. He started playing basketball at 3 and studied videos of games his grandfather sent him.

He was a serious Sun Saturn in Virgo – in the 8^th if this birth time is correct which would fit with a goal-oriented grandfather. He had a do-or-die determined and intensely charming Mars Pluto Venus in Libra in the 9^th house of foreign countries and communication. With a maverick Uranus in the 10^th, marking out a career away from the ordinary for him, in an emotionally unpredictably opposition to an indulgent and possessive 4^th house Taurus Moon. He certainly had the drive and discipline to mark out his own path.

While there is never any reliable way of predicting death he did have his Solar Arc Sun Saturn crossing his Mars Pluto over several years around now – so whatever happened he would have been at a critical turning point. These are the two main aspects in his chart and when they come together it usually points to a phase of rolling crises.

Teenage pop star Billie Eilish swept the board at the 2020 Grammys, winning five awards, including best new artist and song of the year. Her elder brother, Finneas O’Connell picked up producer of the year for his work on her album. She appeared overwhelmed by her wins and said earlier that she felt like an impostor. “I feel like I’m not supposed to be here,” she joked. “I feel like they accidentally let in a fan.”

“We didn’t make this album to win a Grammy,” said her brother, “We wrote an album about depression and suicidal thoughts and climate change and being a bad guy, whatever that means.”

She has tr Jupiter conjunct her Solar Arc Midheaven around now and conjunct her Solar Arc Sun in February, so she’ll be on a high but also almost certainly confused since she has an extraordinarily heavy and conflicted chart with her Pluto opposition Saturn square Mars in Pisces.

From a previous post: JULY 3 2019

Billie Eilish was another standout at Glastonbury. Despite being only 17 she’s been around on the scene for three years and has seven gold and two platinum singles to her name.

Suzanne Moore in the Guardian described her as ‘ a dark star. In control, but slightly out of it. Scarily good at tapping into the angsty teenage girl in all of us.’ She wears baggy clothes she says to attract attention and not be body-shamed.

Born 18 December 2001 at 11.30 am Los Angeles, with two entertainment business parents, she was home schooled and began singing and writing songs early, following in her older brother’s footsteps. She has said she suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome and depression.

She has a 10^th house ambitious Sagittarius Sun and Venus sextile a quirky Uranus and Mercury in Capricorn also in the 10^th – so is designed to communicate and be in the public eye. Her difficulties will stem in part from a 3^rd house Saturn opposition Pluto square a 12^th house Mars in musical Pisces – that carries a considerable amount of rage and inner conflict. Saturn Pluto can be prone to discouragement and Mars Pluto can get both scared and deeply frustrated. Not an easy burden to carry.

She will be charming with Venus on her midheaven and rather ethereal with her Aquarius Moon conjunct Neptune; as well as confident with her Jupiter opposition Mercury and trine Mars. But that Mutable Pluto Saturn Mars T Square is quite a cross to carry.

With Jupiter moving through her 10^th now for another year, she should be on a high, and will probably stay prominent for another few years. But may take a break a la Kate Bush to recuperate at some point.

Add On: Her brother Finneas O’Connell, 30 July 1997, also has a highly stressed Mars which is opposition Saturn square Neptune, which points like his sister to deep-seated anger issues and a sense of an under-nurturing childhood. The parents Patrick O’Connell and Maggie Baird are both minor actor/musicians who decided to home school them having seen a successful musical act of kids who had also been brought up away from mainstream education. In what sounds like a hot house environment one report has them sharing a four person bed until Finneas was 10 and Billie would be six. If true that is definitely not recommended in the psych books and would certainly skew their Mars which rules the libido and fuels anger.

Dates are from the net but if sound, Patrick is 7 July 1977, a controlling Sun Cancer square Pluto, with a hard-edged Mars in Taurus square Saturn. His relationship with Maggie, 30 March 1977, is hugely fraught with a composite Mars trine Saturn trine Neptune with Mars opposition Pluto; ditto with Billie and Finneas.

Maggie is also controlling with her Aries Sun opposition Pluto and trine Saturn and Neptune; with has an even more stressed Mars which is on the focal point of a Yod to Saturn sextile Pluto. Her relationship charts with both children, especially Billie, reflect all that churning conflict.

These kids will need a lot of healing as they move into adulthood and it’s not easy to move away from these ‘tight’, enmeshed families since the only way of coping early on is to sugar-coat the pill and see the parents as supportive and kind. Facing the reality is acutely painful and scar.

Billie and her brother have a much more enthusiastic and less stressed relationship.

The weird, wonderful, much parodied as well as hugely successful whacko pseudo-health trip that is Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop has made it via Netflix onto television. It started as a newsletter more than a decade ago and morphed into a substantial ecommerce business. A health researcher described it as the “the wellness version of fake news”. One TV review said: ‘This programme is mesmerising in its fakeness and emptiness’; another called it ‘a demented paean to self-indulgence.’ Camilla Long in the Times remarks: ‘My undying hatred of her shallow world of new-age falafel and vacant crystal capitalism is far outweighed by my sheer admiration for anyone who can persuade other unhappy, scared women in their forties that they will feel much better if they buy a $244 toothpaste squeezer.’ The medical profession are up in arms at some of Goop’s suggested life and fitness-enhancing remedies. Perhaps why each episode includes a disclaimer: The show is meant to “entertain and inform, not provide medical advice.”

She was born, 27 September 1972 5.25pm Los Angeles, California, into a showbusiness family and has had a spectacularly successful, award-strewn acting career – Shakespeare in Love, The Talented My Ripley – and more recently in Marvel movies. She dated Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, married musician Chris Martin from whom she ‘consciously uncoupled’ and then hitched to producer Brad Falchuk. She is an intense and controlling Sun Pluto in Libra in her 7^th conjunct Mars in late Virgo, so not easy when it comes to close relationships.

Her restless Gemini Moon is widely conjunct Saturn in the 4^th and trine an 8^th house Uranus Mercury in Libra – highly-strung, fairly unpredictable mood-wise. Saturn in the 4^th suggests a childhood where work took precedence and that will have extended into her adult life. She has a lucky, successful 10^th house Jupiter in a pushily confident square to her Sun, Pluto, Mars – so she’s not short of chutzpah though I imagine difficult to warm to at close quarters. When she launched Goop tr Pluto would be conjunct her 10^th house Jupiter which would provide an auspicious start.

An oddity but she seems to sail blithely on ignoring all the nay-sayers and raking in the profits.

Gene Hackman is 90 this week and was a Hollywood stalwart for decades, despite being voted ‘least likely to succeed’ by his acting school peers along with Dustin Hoffman. He had a tough start in life with an abusive, angry father who walked out on the family when he was 13 and was a troubled youth. He volunteered at 16 for the marines for adventure and ran into problems with authority figures there. His early twenties were rootless but he stuck at acting until he broke through in Bonnie and Clyde in a supporting role, going on to the successful French Connection and Mississippi Burning amongst others.

Friends describe him variously as “a tormented guy, always into his own space, his own thing”; full of “great joie de vivre”; an inveterate “loner”. His volatile bust-ups with directors prompted the nickname “Vesuvius” – although he was forgiven for his temper tantrums. One said: “There’s something very charismatic in him, even when he’s being his worst.” Kevin Costner said: “Gene was simply the best actor I worked with.” He retired some years ago.

Born 30 January 1930 7.45 am San Bernadino, California, he has a charmingly stubborn 12^th house Sun Venus and Moon in Aquarius, making him creative and reclusive at times; with his Sun Venus in an amiable and lucky trine to Jupiter. His argumentative Mars Mercury in Capricorn opposes a 5^th house Pluto which will give him a volcanic temper, a legacy of his dominating father. Pluto in the performing 5^th would prompt him towards an audience-attracting career. His Saturn square Uranus will make him fairly autocratic. He’s quite a mass of contradictions.

His actor’s 15^th Harmonic is notable, as his leaving-a-legacy 17H and his superstar 22H.

The coronavirus lockdown in China has extended to more cities affecting 56 million inhabitants. Confirmed cases in China are officially given as 1250 with 41 deaths, though that is assumed to be an under estimate; with further cases in other countries. The Daily Mail is, naturally, on an alarmist kick with headlines about a possible 65 million deaths.

The previous SARS epidemic in 2003 was contracted by 8000 people with 775 dying, mainly old and very young.

There is remarkably little showing on the China 1 October 1949 chart apart from tr Saturn Pluto moving through the 12^th conjunct Jupiter as the outbreak started; and Progressed Moon conjunct the 7^th house Pluto (Mars) which will pass by reasonably quickly.

The China 1 January 1912 chart for the creation of the Republic (Nick Campion) is more illuminating. The tr Saturn Pluto conjunction was opposition the Neptune earlier this month which suggests devastation and confusion; with a disruptive Solar Arc Sun square Uranus approaching within a few months to exact; preceded by a jolting tr Saturn conjunct the Uranus in late February and on and off all year. Plus a high-risk tr Pluto trine Mars picking up late February running till late 2021.

When the similar SARS epidemic occurred in 2003 there was a Saturn opposition Pluto and a very wide Saturn trine Neptune. Traditionally major epidemics were connected to Saturn Neptune conjunctions of which there is one up and coming in 2026 in Aries. But it isn’t around at the moment. This year certainly looks high stress with Saturn Pluto and Mars crashing around in Aries but not Saturn Neptune. So cross fingers it may be like SARS and peter out eventually.

Below excerpt from The Astrological History of the World:

The dual face of Saturn–Neptune in providing practical care for the suffering and in the insidious undermining of the body’s health both find a place in world history. An epidemic of St Vitus Dance (chorea) broke out in Europe in 1021 when Saturn and Neptune were together in Aquarius; the disease causes involuntary jerky movements and leads to brain deterioration, and was so called because victims prayed to St Vitus, the patron saint of dance.

The plague that devastated Europe and Asia during the 1340s was marked by the Saturn–Neptune conjunction in Aquarius of 1344, and the Uranus–Pluto conjunction at the same time. The outbreak of bubonic plague in London in 1665 and the Great Fire of London a year later both took place when Saturn and Neptune were together in Capricorn.

In 1846 in Aquarius, widespread famine in Ireland followed the failure of the potato crop. During the 1917 and 1918 conjunction in Leo, there were massive casualties in the First World War, especially at Passchendaele, and the Spanish ‘flu epidemic of 1918 killed 20 million in Europe, the United States and India. By the conjunction of the late 1980s in Capricorn, the AIDS virus was running amok, causing countless deaths in Africa, Europe and the United States.

Medical advances are also highlighted under Saturn–Neptune, with the physicians’ meeting place in Rome, the Schola Medicorum, being set up in ad 17 in Sagittarius; in 1739 in Cancer, the London Foundling Hospital was established; and by 1881 in Taurus, Louis Pasteur had discovered the anthrax vaccine.

I cut my teeth in internet debate in the 1990s, off the deep end, in a peculiarly toxic child abuse discussion group. It pitted the deniers, who used every trick in the Trump playbook to distract and destroy when evidence was produced, against therapy professionals and survivor group leaders. It was scarily similar to what is ongoing in the political and social media arena today – a full-on assault on reality and the truth, like falling down the rabbit hole into a malign Alice in Wonderland where everything was stood on its head.

What I learnt through bruising experience was that confrontation doesn’t work with a certain temperament. The more you argue, the happier they are. They’re generally narcissistic so like the attention and are fuelled by rage, so combat stokes their fires. The absolute ‘tell’ when they communicate is contempt. The need to put down, smear, contaminate and ultimately destroy those who speak out against them – which has to be Pluto, wanting to be superior, a compulsion to have the last word, to be the only one left standing.

Another professional on that first discussion group said she resisted starting up her laptop in the mornings because she knew a stream of poison would download into her email box – another Plutonic attribute. This forum I do because I enjoy it and I hope that regulars do too. What I will not have is disrespectful, bad-mannered, contemptuous posts because it plain isn’t enjoyable.

A limited amount of political comment is fine since astrology works within a context. But it gets really tedious when flash point figures or subjects come up – Hillary for one who attracts lovers and haters; Scotland for two which evokes a deluge of fevered no-other-viewpoint is tolerated responses.

I have just blocked a couple of recent posters and another blockee from the past emailed to say isn’t it hypocritical to criticize closed cult groups for silencing dissent when I do the same. Well it falls into the same category as not tolerating the intolerant.

The I Ching says somewhere that sharing knowledge should be refreshing and revitalizing which would be my hope here.    All of us stumble along a path of unknowing  and astrology can offer a framework of understanding – if you keep an open mind and kick Pluto’s worst tendencies into the long grass.

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This is a thinking-on-paper ramble without a clear astrological context at the debut but hopefully one might emerge.

The general tenor of debate in society (western) is bileful, contemptuous, over-heated, polarised and permeated with outraged disbelief that any other viewpoint could have even partial validity. No middle ground, no capacity for complex thinking. Each group acts as a closed system where no doubt is allowed and nay-sayers are attacked with denigration, character assassination, caricaturing – in order either to silence them or damage their credibility to ensure no one listens. It’s how cults and fascist states operate.

It is also how science arguments work when new knowledge appears. Forget the notion that scientists are on an open-minded voyage of discovery. They live in a closed box circumscribed by what the revered elders believe and woe betide anyone who steps across the line. Arthur Schopenhauer memorably said: “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

Kuhn talking of paradigm shifts, when old theories have to be replaced, talks of a period of turmoil during the ridicule-and-violent opposition phase when the new ideas are put through a gruelling stress-test. Those who hang grimly onto the old theories can be driven almost to nervous breakdown point – as indeed can those arguing for the new knowledge when they meet overwhelming resistance.

In the howling cauldron of twitter and social media what is it the scornful screamers are trying to block out? Something is trying to emerge which they perceive as threatening the security and stability of their mindset.

Assuming Trump and Boris Johnson are there for a reason – given Kissinger’s point about them being the kinds of personalities who turn up at the end of an era – what greater purpose does it serve that both are, amongst other things, egregious liars (granted, all politicians are liars but they do seem to be extreme examples.) While both trumpet their role as torchbearers into a brave new future, the opposite can be argued that both are clinging onto a long-gone past – a white supremacy, misogynistic, climate-change-denying, tax-light USA, and the British (English) colossus again striding the globe.

To stick with the paradigm shift analogy – are they defenders of the old mindset, heaping scorn on anyone who threatens the supremacy of their position? Which can have a surprising and positive benefit since retrograders on occasion act as a necessary catalyst to those who stand against them. To give an example – in the 1990s there was an outpouring of vitriolic denial of child sexual abuse. It was devastating for those fighting to support victims, but what it initiated was an intense and fruitful few years of research, proving a bedrock for future treatment, which would never have happened had it not been for the campaign of flagrant lies. Change most often comes out of crisis.

Change and transformation are words bandied about blithely in the astrological and spiritual communities. In reality, changing a mindset is a high-risk, scary business which is why so many resist it with rage-fuelled desperation when it threatens to destabilise their sanity. Mindsets are more like houses of cards than expandable balloons. To change involves dismantling the old outlook which means staring into a void before a new outlook is built up.

This might point to the Trump/Johnson duo being a precursor of the shift into Pluto in Aquarius in 2023/24, keyed up next year by Saturn Jupiter moving into Aquarius. And propelled further along by Uranus moving into Gemini and Neptune into Aries in 2025. The second half of this decade will be radically different with a completely new set of ideas in common currency.

It’ll be more obvious in the USA with their Pluto Return and therefore fought with greater hostility with destructive lasers turned on those who stand up against the old guard and genuinely try to lead the way into a better world.

Not sure if this helps but it kinda makes some sense to me. If only because there has to be a reason why the fates dropped two such whopping fibbers in our midst. Maybe truth will out with Pluto in Aquarius. Maybe.

Going quietly into the night clearly isn’t in Hillary Clinton’s DNA except that now, stripped of all office, she seems happy to show how bitterly resentful she is. The old anodyne comments of her time in office have been replaced by resentful barbs. ‘Old and angry’ is how one commentator described her as she faces a lawsuit for defamation from Tulsi Gabbard whom she wrote off as a Russian asset; and then dismissed Bernie Sanders, who arguably skewered her 2016 chances, saying ‘nobody likes him.’

Hillary’s Scorpio Sun is just finishing the tr Uranus opposition which ran through last year and it will have opened her up and knocked her off the old track. Her Solar Arc Jupiter is also moving to oppose her bitter, do-or-die-determined Mars Pluto conjunction now and through 2020, which will remove some of her inhibitions and tempt her into overly forceful words and deeds.

Both Gabbard and Sanders have Aries planets which trine her Saturn Mars Pluto – Sanders Moon Mars in Aries, and Gabbard Mars, Sun, Venus and Midheaven in Aries – which will rattle her up. Sanders’ Pluto is also in a power-struggling square to her Sun which won’t suit her very Scorpionic temperament at all.

Her relationship chart with Gabbard is horrifyingly bad with a composite Mars square Saturn Uranus Pluto conjunction – and that is being undermined by tr Neptune in hard aspect all year. Her chart with Sanders isn’t much better with a volatile, explosive Mars Uranus conjunction which is being chipped away at also by tr Neptune square the Mars. There’s also a deeply suspicious, slightly paranoid composite Sun Neptune square Saturn.

You’d think she’d save her ire for the Republicans.  A touch of dog-in-the-manger attacking your own side.