Comedian turned super-star film director Jordan Peele is looking at another blockbuster success with US. In the horror genre, it focusses on an affluent black family menaced in their home by another family who look almost exactly like them. It took $110 million worldwide in its first few days and achieved the second best opening weekend in North America for an original live action film, after Avatar in 2009; and only cost $20 million.

His previous movie as writer, producer and director the 2017 Get Out, which won him an Oscar for best original screenplay, was a funny, frightening and thought-provoking thriller about race in America that cost $4.5 million to make and was the first film from a black director to make $100 million at the US and Canadian box office. And he received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Picture for producing Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. Talented and on a roll.

Born 21 February 1979 in New York, he was brought up by a single mother and dropped out of college to form a comedy duo.  He has a Sun and Mercury in filmic Pisces opposition Saturn in extra-hard-working Virgo. His Sun is conjunct an enduring and stubborn Mars in late Aquarius. And his Mars is doubly determined being trine Pluto, with both sextiling onto filmic Neptune (Moon) in Sagittarius; and his Mars is in a no-compromise square to Uranus as well. Aquarius and Sagittarius are two comic signs.

His creative 5^th harmonic is strongly aspected; and even more so his superstar 22H.

The Lord alone knows what comes next for Brexit and He’s not dropping too many hints. Possible exits might come from tr Pluto sextile the UK Pluto mid April to early May, again over the New Year – which indicates an upheaval. Or tr Saturn square the UK Sun/Moon midpoint around this August, September, October for the final time – which can be a relationship split.

At the time of Brexit in 2016 tr Pluto was hovering around the square of the UK Sun/Moon midpoint which puts immense pressure on close relationships. For an individual I wouldn’t have expected a marriage to survive with the Sun/Moon midpoint being pounded pre and post 2016 by tr Uranus, Pluto and now Saturn. Though countries are much more cumbersome entities and difficult to shift.

That apart there’s a confused and evasive tr Neptune square the 3^rd house UK Mercury from now till late April, followed by  an extended neurotic panic with high uncertainty from tr Neptune square the Sun/Saturn midpoint May till mid August, repeating through 2020. From mid this August the indecisive, dithery tr Neptune square Mercury returns, and repeats into early 2020.  There are flickers of sunshine and cheer from Jupiter midpoints – July till December, so it won’t all be sinking into a fog.

And right on cue at the moment is the exact Solar Arc Moon opposition the legislature Saturn – the voters are not amused by their hapless MPs.

Theresa May’s Government chart ( null and void if there’s another election) sinks into an even deeper swamp come May awash with Neptune.

That’s the best I can do pro tem. Just too exhausting for words.

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The EU is belatedly wakening up to the problem of China which is the EU’s second biggest trading partner. China is encroaching on eastern and southern Europe, with investment and commercial tie-ups which favour the monolithic Chinese state system. China already owns Greece’s largest port, Piraeus, and has, to the consternation of Berlin and Paris, just signed a memorandum of understanding with Italy regarding future investment in Italian infrastructure. The anxiety being that China shows no indication of reforming an authoritarian, state-driven economic system and European firms are not on a level playing field when competing with Chinese firms with their heavily protectionist internal market.

China’s fearsomely determined 7^th house Mars Pluto in Leo making it an aggressive partner sits uncomfortably with the EU’s Fixed financial planets – Taurus Moon in the 8^th, Venus in the speculative 5^th, Uranus in the 11^th. The relationship chart has a power-struggling composite Sun Mercury square Pluto; a highly-strung, bad-judgement Uranus opposition Node square Neptune; a tied together Water Grand Trine; and a stressed, fated Yod. So a complicated and intertwined connection with ties that are difficult to break.  It’ll be under maximum pressure with huge challenges in the next three years with tr Pluto opposition Uranus and square Neptune; and in a very disruptive phase till Uranus moves out of Taurus in the mid 2020s.

The Italy China memorandum was signed at 2.11 pm 23 March in Rome, which puts an ultra-ambitious, ruthless Mars in Taurus in the 10^th trine Saturn Pluto; with a radical-new-direction and divisive Uranus on the midheaven; with a pie-in-the-sky over-hopeful Jupiter square Neptune; and a Yod of Mars sextile Node inconjunct Jupiter, which could either bring positive changes to the masses or short-circuit through over-confidence.

The Italy chart resonates surprisingly well with China. China’s Jupiter in Capricorn is conjunct the Italy North Node in the 2^nd, which would fit with China bringing a much need injection of cash; with Italy’s Jupiter conjunct the China Mars Pluto, for confident adventures together.

The relationship chart is well-knitted together with a Water Grand Trine of Jupiter in the 10^th trine Node trine Mars; with Node opposition Saturn and Mars opposition Sun Mercury Neptune. Success is implicit but there are dangers with a ruthless, controlling composite Mars Pluto opposition Sun Mercury – it could turn ugly very easily. Though there’s nothing too problematic till 2021 when tr Neptune starts undermining some good feelings.

An additional thought on EU matters is that France looks likely to overtake Italy as the fourth most indebted country in the world after Macron caved to the gilets jaune. His options are limited with an over-weighted and expensive state sector which he clearly can’t cut given the opposition to it on the street and already extra-high levels of taxation. The Bank of France looks to be sinking into a Neptunian swamp over the next three years.

Adam Schiff has come out fighting against Republican demands that he resign his chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee over the Mueller Report. He argued that he still believes there is ample evidence of collusion and said he’s long insisted such evidence may or may not rise to the level of a criminal charge. Despite Mueller’s decision not to charge any Americans in Russia’s election interference efforts he said he still finds the Trump campaign’s posture toward Russia and efforts to accept its help as troubling.

Born 22 June 1960 he’s a charming Sun Venus in Cancer in a laid-back opposition to Jupiter; with a talented Half Grand Sextile from Mars in Taurus opposition Neptune, sextile Sun sextile Pluto.

He’s got tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Uranus midpoint now through April and May, returning on and off till late 2020, which generally brings luck and confidence. He should also got an extra dollop of luck from tr Uranus opposition his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint till mid April, though that runs alongside an insecure and explosive tr Uranus conjunct his Mars. It’ll be a bumpy and nervy year ahead which is hardly surprising with tr Uranus trine his Pluto and then opposition his Neptune in July this year. And although he has one high-flyer of a Solar Arc in 2020, he also has a dead-halt and acutely frustrated Solar Arc Pluto opposition his Mars in late 2020 probably over the election.

Theresa May has her fans who see her as diligent, earnest, dutiful and straight, landed by fate with a poisoned conundrum that no one could have been expected to solve. There again there are those who reckon she’s part of the problem, indeed in the words of one despairing minister the “sole architect” of the recent and present Brexit chaos. He said “It is her inability to engage in the most basic human interactions that brought us here.”

Journalist Anne Applebaum remarked recently that “she has always seemed to outsiders the sensible person in the room, the adult who knows what she is doing, the sane person in a madhouse. Alas, she is not any of those things. She is not sensible, she does not know what she is doing, and, increasingly, she doesn’t seem to be entirely sane either.”  And columnist Matthew Parris has described her as “the Death Star of modern British politics,” a black void that sucks in people and ideas and never provides a response.

Her inability to interact with living breathing human beings means she’s not designed for negotiations and the inevitable compromises they involve so she was the worst possible person to send to Brussels or to form any cross-party consensus or even intra-the split Tory Party in Westminster.

Pondering on her chart I realise I’ve been overly distracted by her opportunistic, chancer’s Mars opposition Jupiter and her Libra Sun. What dominates her chart and pins down both of her emotional planets is a fearsomely fixed, rigid and utterly unbendable Saturn in Scorpio square Pluto conjunct Venus in Leo and almost certainly conjunct her Leo/Virgo Moon. And it’s further strengthened, if that’s the right word, by Saturn sitting on the North Node opposition South Node, putting a Fixed Pluto on the point of a T Square. Such a Pluto gives tremendous stubbornness and staying power with a compulsion to over control.

It’s ironic that the tr Saturn Pluto conjunction is what over sees her downfall. The last tr Saturn Pluto in the early 1980s coincided with her father dying in a car crash followed a year later by her mother who had multiple sclerosis.

Saturn Pluto in a chart, especially tied into personal planets, does lead to immense obstinacy which can be self-defeating.  Learning to be flexible and adaptable is crucial. Often the individual feels pitted against social forces and restrictions which require great stamina to withstand so the primary response in any situation is to stand rock solid and not budge. There is usually a strong sense of some link between the individual’s fate and the fate of the wider society. Which leads to deep feelings of frustration and an underlying resentment which can turn into a masochistic pattern of behaving.  When tied into the personal planets, especially the emotional ones, it does suggest a bleak, oppressive start in life. Her inability to form relationships at work seems extraordinary given that she lives permanently surrounded by people.

Added onto this rigid personality structure is a wobbly Mars in Pisces; and two Neptune midpoints that are key to her temperament. One is Mercury conjunct her Neptune/Pluto midpoint which Ebertin describes as ‘the inability to think independently, plans incapable of realisation, nervous weakness.’ And her Sun is conjunct her Jupiter/Neptune midpoint which is head-in-the-clouds, overly optimistic and leads to lack of self-control.

A wandered brain inside a Sherman tank – not a good combination.

Jerome Powell, Trump’s pick as chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has been slagged off by the President as having ‘no feel’ for the economy – in his standard when-things-go-wrong-find-someone-to blame mode.

Powell, 4 February 1953, is a fixed Aquarius Sun opposition Pluto and square Jupiter in Taurus. His chart is riddled with quincunxes which will give him a degree of strain – his Sun is inconjunct Uranus, and his Mars in Pisces is on the apex of a Yod to Saturn Neptune in Libra sextile Pluto.

His looks mighty confused and undermined from the final day of this month on and off till late 2020 with tr Pluto square his Neptune – and the effect of that runs on as it then squares his Saturn/Neptune midpoint in 2021/22 and onto square his Saturn which is highly discouraging and challenging. Thus many banana skins ahead along with panicky moments especially in 2020 and on.

His relationship with Trump is under buckets of cold water this year into 2020 with tr Saturn square the composite Sun and Neptune, then hitting on Mercury and Jupiter. It’s a ratchety chemistry at the best of times but will worsen considerably ahead.

The US Federal Reserve chart, 16 November 1914 9am Washington, DC, is into a nerve-wracked two or three years with tr Uranus square the Neptune at the moment, moving in 2020 to oppose the Mercury and Moon and then square the Uranus – it’ll be a bumpy ride.

The rise and dramatic fall of the youngest self-made female billionaire Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley tale that was too good to be true, is the subject of a new HBO documentary.  Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, HBO’s Emmy-winning Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief) dug deep into the entrails of Theranos, her healthcare company which claimed to have revolutionized blood testing.  In 2014, it was valued at $9 billion. Just two years later, Theranos was cited as a “massive fraud” by the SEC, and its value was less than zero.

In mid 2018 a federal grand jury indicted Holmes and her former CEO on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors allege that they engaged in two criminal schemes, one to defraud investors, the other to defraud doctors and patients. Both  could face up to 20 years in prison; though have pleaded not guilty.

Born 3 February 1984, she has an inquiring, scientific and IT Aquarius Sun square an ultra-determined, hard-edge and obsessive Mars Saturn in Scorpio; with a high-finance and head-in-the-clouds Neptune Jupiter in money-minded Capricorn with her Jupiter in a superficially charming conjunction to Venus.

Her self-defeating, rise-and-fall 10H is strongly aspected; as is her loves-money 9H; and her can be self-destructive 16H.

There’s no date set so far for the trial and she looks as if the cataclysm isn’t affecting her confidence with a couple of Jupiter midpoints getting a boost from Pluto transits from now onwards till late 2020. Though she does have a catastrophic tr Uranus opposition her Mars/Pluto midpoint from July onwards which will dent her enthusiasm and that runs into 2020 where Uranus picks up another Pluto midpoint – so pluses and minuses ahead.

The Trump administration now believes that the entire Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) should be struck down as “unconstitutional.”. This policy shift is described as a “total bombshell, which could have dire consequences for millions of people.” It’s risky for Trump and the Republicans since in 2018, the Democrats campaigned — and won — on their health care pledges, which matter a good deal more to voters than the Mueller report.

Obamacare was signed into law on 23 March 2010 at 11.56 am in Washington, DC. Tr Uranus is this week moving to form an explosive and insecure square to the Mars; and tr Neptune has one more undermining square to the Jupiter before this year end. So it’ll be an edgy year; with a few additional hiccups along the way as tr Uranus trines the Pluto and sextiles the Moon from June onwards.

But it’s a pretty unbudgeable chart with a Saturn Pluto square tied into the Sun and Moon.  By late 2021 Solar Arc Jupiter is conjunct the 10^th house Uranus which will bring a sigh of relief and a lucky turn of events.

A bumpy ride for a while, sure; and the December Capricorn Eclipse will have a considerable impact and feel like a crisis. But the astrology aside, it’d be a real vote loser and for that reason may be quietly sidelined or heavily diluted at some point.

The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore. Scott Walker, in the 1960s more popular than the Beatles when part of the (non-related) Walker Brothers, who later branched out into the wilder edges of the avant grade, has died. Shy and solitary in temperament, he was not well designed for life in the spotlight. He suffered horrendous stage fright and took to heavy drinking to cope. His later career after the group split was marked by long periods of inaction and occasional reappearances as one obituary said ‘to follow his muse down a weird, winding path into the unknown. There has been no stranger or bolder artistic journey. He was pop’s ultimate maverick, an easy-listening romantic balladeer who revealed himself to be a deep-thinking imaginative genius.’ His most recent work involved composing strange orchestral and electronic soundtracks for the films The Childhood of a Leader (2016) and Natalie Portman’s Vox Lust.

Born 9 January 1943 5.25pm Hamilton, Ohio, he had a 7^th house Capricorn Sun in an easy-going opposition to Jupiter. What marks his chart out is a cerebral Air Grand Trine in the hidden Water houses of Neptune in the 4^th trine Venus Mercury in Aquarius in the 8^th trine a 12^th house Saturn (Uranus) in Gemini, formed into a Kite by Venus Mercury opposition Pluto – making Pluto the driving planet. Certainly influential, controlled and controlling. His sensitive Pisces Moon was square his Saturn Uranus giving him an additional leaning towards depression. A mix of Air and Water is always produces a fragile mental balance.

His Mars in Sagittarius in the 6^th is unaspected and worth relating what Bil Tierney says about an unaspected Mars: ‘Psychologically Mars is driven to separate itself and act apart from outside influences in favour of independent self-expression. – can be uncompromising.’ It may also have a bearing on his stop-go life, sometimes highly creative and active, at other times stuck.

He had a leadership North Node in Leo, an indication of the breadth of his influence on other artistes including David Bowie and Marc Almond amongst others.