Emmanuel Macron has taken a hissy fit over recent verbal attacks by the two populist political Italian leaders, Salvini and Di Maio, over immigration and the gilets jaunes (anti-French government demos) as they ramp up the rhetoric for the EU May elections. Macron has taken the unusual step of recalling the ambassador from Rome in the worst crisis between the two neighbouring countries since the second world war. Salvini is now trying to sound placatory but says France must stop pushing migrants back into Italy, end lengthy border checks blocking traffic and hand over Italian leftist militants who have taken refuge in France in recent decades.

There’s little likelihood that the spat will die down soon since both Salvini and Di Maio’s relationship charts with Macron have tr Uranus in opposition to the composite Mars picking up right on cue today and running till early March – that is explosive, impulsive and tends to lead to sharp words and hasty actions. With Salvini it’ll continue to rock n‘ roll through this year as tr Uranus hard aspects the composite Venus and Uranus; and with Di Maio there’ll be a lengthy Saturnine chill. Both Italians have Mars in Capricorn square Macron’s Pluto, so it’ll be a teeth-gritter with no quarter given.

The France/Italy relationship chart is jangled exactly now by tr Saturn opposition the composite Uranus; and that lingers on and off till late 2019 with uncertainty and suspicion added to the mix since tr Saturn will also conjunct the composite Neptune.

Emmanuel Macron has been bruised by the gilets jaune continuing demos and has had to make budget-bursting promises to calm inflamed feelings at a time when the economy is creaking. His Government chart, 14 May 2017 11.25 am Paris, is at a low ebb this month with tr Neptune square the Mars, returning till late 2019; with the over confident Midheaven opposition Jupiter square Pluto running into a series of setbacks on and off all year courtesy of tr Saturn in hard aspect.

Please add below.  Older posts under News on top bar.

Pope Francis keeps saying the right words but he doesn’t appear to be making much headway in cleaning out the Augean stables at the Vatican. There is ample evidence that his religious colleagues and underlings are dragging their heels determinedly over child abuse allegations and now over admissions that nuns have been and are being abused by priests. He said the Church was attempting to address the problem but said it was “still going on”.

Last November, the Catholic Church’s global organisation for nuns denounced the “culture of silence and secrecy” that prevented them from speaking out. Speaking to reporters while on a historic tour of the Middle East on Tuesday, the pontiff admitted that the Church had an issue, the roots of which lie in “seeing women as second class”.

   Pope Francis’s Election chart, 13 March 2013 7 pm Rome is aggravated and divisive to start with having a volatile Mars Uranus conjunct the Descendant; though also with a potential for having a positive effect on mass consciousness with a Yod apex point Jupiter. It’ll be at boiling point in six months time with the Solar Arc Mars closing the conjunction to Uranus to exact; and in for more massive jolts by 2021, if he stays around that long.

He’s probably now all too aware why Pope Benedict chose to resign against tradition and may take the same route out. On his own chart, 17 December 1936 9 pm Buenos Aires, he does have tr Uranus conjunct his Midheaven (time being accurate) which suggests a sharp change of direction in his life/career very soon. 2018 was a year of upset and upheaval; with another disruption or sudden decision almost exactly now as his Solar Arc Moon is conjunct his 10^th house Uranus. He also looks disheartened till late this year with tr Neptune conjunct his Saturn.

His relationship chart with the Vatican mirrors those feelings and experiences with disappointment and evasion; and sudden change on the cards with Pluto Uranus influences picking up this month and running on and off till late 2020.

The Vatican itself, 7 June 1929 11 am Rome, with its confident Jupiter in indulgent Taurus on the midheaven and a slippery Gemini New Moon looks deflated this year and is getting a sharp elbow from tr Uranus conjunct its Venus to alter course, but I wouldn’t hold my breath or wager the family silver on it making a significant difference anytime soon. Maybe as tr Pluto moves across the midheaven around 2023/24 might shift it marginally in a better direction.

Virginia’s Democratic leadership is in disarray with the Attorney General Mark R. Herring admitting that he dressed in blackface during college to add to the furore over Governor Ralph Northam’s college yearbook surfacing with photos of people in blackface and wearing KKK robes. And to amplify the swirling chaos, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax is facing allegations of sexual assault.

Virginia became a state on 25 June 1788 which makes it, like the USA, a Sun Jupiter in Cancer. The Eclipses this year will rattle the Virginia Sun, especially the December one and all this year’s Eclipses including the recent ones have planets on the axis when located to Virginia, marking it out as a region for significant events.

Coincidentally Jupiter is in Sagittarius now around the same degree as for the Virginia Tech killings which shook the state in 2007.

Ralph Northam, 13 September 1959, is a Virgo with a hard-edged Mars in Libra square Saturn and a tough-minded Saturn trine Pluto, sextile Neptune.  He’s looking devastated and agitated with a trapped Solar Arc Mars square his Pluto and Solar Arc Sun square his Uranus around now. To date he’s resisted resigning and from early April he’ll be in a bullish mood; though his mojo will flag more than somewhat in 2020 with tr Neptune opposition his Sun; then recover in 2021/22 as tr Pluto sextiles his Jupiter.

Justin Fairfax, 17 September 1979, another Sun Virgo, in his case conjunct a hard-working Saturn and both square a hope-for-a-better-society Neptune. His Mars in excitable Cancer is in an ultra-determined square to Pluto and a volatile trine to Uranus.  His confidence will sag from May onwards with tr Neptune opposition his Saturn, into 2020; and he looks very boxed in 2021/22.

Mark Herring, 25 September 1961, is a Sun Libra, as befits a lawyer; with Jupiter conjunct Saturn in earthy Capricorn in a disciplined, though not always sensitive square to Mars in Libra. He’s facing an uphill and discouraging battle with tr Pluto conjunct his Saturn from this April for two years, with worse as it crosses his loss-making Jupiter/Saturn midpoint and squares his trapped Mars in 2021/22. But he’ll bounce again thereafter.

Make you want to drop all politicians into a large Amazon box and mail them to another planet.

World class talent comes at a price as the tragic tale of Matti Nykanen, the greatest ski-jumper of all time, lays bare in his obituaries. Born on 17 July 1963 1 am in Finland, he was hyper-active and disruptive as a child until his father in despair sent him for lessons when he was 8.  By 12 he was ski-jumping for nine hours a day. Through two Olympics in 1984/88 and world championships he collected gold medals and broke records.

But he had started drinking at 14 which started to take its toll in increasingly erratic behaviour. After retiring he launched a career in pop music, ended up working as a stripper, tore through six tempestuous marriages and twice went to prison for serious assaults.

He had a sharp-witted 3^rd house Cancer Sun and Mercury in an expansive and confident square to Jupiter in upfront, pro-active Aries. Neptune was in his sporting and romantic 5^th and trine Venus, sextile Pluto (Uranus); with his restless Gemini Moon also square Uranus Pluto which would certainly make him emotionally highly-strung and restless.

What marks his chart out as different is a tricky Yod of Sun sextile Mars inconjunct Saturn in his 10^th in Aquarius. Saturn in Aquarius can be domineering and emotionally cold. The Yod itself would make him feel out of step with his environment until he found his own track. Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer, who was also hyper-active until he was sent off for swimming lessons at an early age, has a Yod as well. Though in his case an easier one onto Mars from an adventurous Jupiter sextile Uranus. Nykanen’s Saturn apex planet is a hard task master that requires real maturity to get the better end of it.

His obsessive 11^th harmonic was strong; as was his superstar 22H though it was heavily stressed. And was his ‘breakthrough’ 13H.

Retiring from any world class sport is painful but when it’s one that involves launching off mountains at 60mph, accelerating to more than 100mph and soaring 250ft above the ground, it’s difficult to see what could ever replace that kind of adrenaline rush for a temperament that was addicted to it.

Irish actor Liam Neeson in an ill-advised fit of honesty has landed himself in dire trouble with accusations of racism being thrown at him. He is doing the PR tour for his latest movie Cold Pursuit in which he plays an ordinary man transformed into a coldblooded vigilante after his son is killed by drug dealers. In an interview he mentioned that 40 years ago a friend had been raped and he described the strong urge for revenge that erupted in him, focussed against black men. He’s now trying to calm the storm by saying he’d have felt the same if the rapist had been Scots, Irish or Lithuanian.

Born 7 June 1952 in Ballymena, (maybe 9.55pm unverified, astrotheme), he has his Sun, Venus and Mercury in chatty Gemini in a filmic trine to Neptune, sextile an influential Pluto. And he’s possibly got a talented Half Grand Sextile of his Sun opposition a Sagittarius Moon, sextile Pluto and Neptune.  His Mars in ultra-determined and vengeful Scorpio is in an adventurous opposition to Jupiter in indulgent Taurus, which would be where he tapped into his need to lash back.

He’s looking deflated and out of sorts ahead with tr Neptune square his Mercury now for his misspeak and then in an undermining square to his Sun come April, along with an edgily insecure tr Uranus opposition his Mars. He’ll bounce again by 2020 when tr Uranus is conjunct his Jupiter, but he won’t have done this movie much good, which won’t make him popular with the studio or crew.

Another month, another flurry of excited panic as yet another deadline approaches. And we appear no nearer to any real closure than we were two years back. Even Tony Blair is sounding lucid: “We need to know the destination of the train before we get on it and depart the station; especially when in time we will come to a fork in the track leading in diametrically opposite directions, with a driver who doesn’t know which we should take, several would-be drivers in the cab trying to wrest the controls and no way back to the station.”

If anything Brussels’ attitude is hardening with ‘The Monster’ Martin Selmayr, a leading unelected technocrat, taking a higher profile role. He’s a close buddy of Juncker who shoehorned him into the Secretary General job with cavalier disregard for standard practices. He’s gambling that the UK won’t go for a no-deal since it would make a considerable dent in the EU budget. But if he pushes too hard he may end up with one.

Where it looks like getting tetchy and on a cliff-edge is after mid this week to early March which is showing up as major aggravation time on several charts. Tr Uranus is square Selmayr’s Mars in Libra which tends to provoke macho over-reactions in an attempt to prop up self-esteem. It also flags up as a high tension few weeks on his relationship chart with the EU and with the hapless Theresa May.

Selmayr and Merkel are not exactly trusting buddies; with his impetuous Mars is conjunct her steady 10^th house Saturn in Scorpio and worse squares her Sun Uranus, so he’ll get under her skin and rub her up the wrong way. Their relationship looks confused through this month and March; on edge in April with disappointment looming large. She’s under pressure from German business types, anxious about the damage a hard Brexit will do to their exports.

The Tony Blair piece is worth reading.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/05/brexit-closure-theresa-may-deal-eu

Elvis and Gladys sounds like a corny sit com but is the stranger-than-fiction tale of Elvis Presley and his mother, turned into a novel – Graceland by Bethan Roberts. They were renowned as being close since his birth when a stillborn twin was lost. The family lived in chaotic poverty with his feckless father, an abusive drunk, in prison at one point for forging a check and Elvis becoming his mother’s protector when young. His parents had married when Vernon was 17 and his mother 21. Both lied about their ages and settled on 19 to get the deed done.

Gladys’ appeared to have been obsessed with her son, wanting absolute closeness yet she was also keen he find a wife to settle down with, and interviewed girlfriends, even very young ones to gauge their suitability. At 19 he became the family breadwinner, which unsettled her since he was more often away so despite her religious leanings she turned to drink for support. The richer he became, the more unhappy she was, effectively locked away in grand mansions. She died at 46 of alcohol related damage.

Born 25 April 1912 in Mississippi, she was an earthy, stubborn Taurus Sun square Uranus; with an upbeat collection of planets in all three inspirational Fire signs – Jupiter in Sagittarius trine Venus Mercury in Aries perhaps trine a Leo Moon.

Her Jupiter was conjunct Elvis’s Ascendant so she’d boost his confidence and with her Venus in his domestic 4^th and her Sun in his entertaining and romantic 5^th, she’d play an important role in his emotional life.  Her Pluto was in his 7^th house of relationships making her controlling about his partners; and her Mars fell in his 8^th which would be uncomfortable psychologically, stirring up feelings of anger he would not know what to do with.

He had Pluto in the 8^th which is not uncommon in the charts of people who cast a spell over public consciousness, though not easy to live with at a personal level. His mother’s Neptune was conjunct his Pluto – and in an odd way, despite her reticence and downtrodden life, her own personality and unlived elements would be one of the key driving forces in producing the phenomenon that became a global superstar.

Their relationship chart had an affectionate composite Sun Venus Mercury though it was also conjunct a wayward, needs-space Uranus and all trined Pluto – so their bond would veer between possessiveness and rebelliousness, wanting closeness and freedom. There was also a chained-together Pluto square Saturn, so ultimately there was no escaping the ties that bound, all too closely at times.

On Elvis’s chart his Pisces Moon isn’t heavily aspected, being only in out out-of-sign conjunction with Saturn and widely sextile Uranus, though his ambitious 10^th house Mars would come from his mother. If anything what marks him out as special is that 8^th house Pluto which opposes his Sun, Mercury, Venus in Capricorn which is an inheritance from a grandparent.

It makes you understand where his addictive tendencies came from.

Priyanka Gandhi, granddaughter of Indira and daughter of Rajiv, is stepping into the political fray in India. She won’t have much impact on the up and coming election which Narendra Modi’s party is expected to win, but she’s put a toe in the door by taking up a senior position with the Congress Party, associated with Indira and Rajiv, both former prime ministers and both murdered. So she’s got guts and is already facing a barrage of criticism and insults.

Born 12 January 1972 in Delhi with questionable birth times, either around 7.20pm or 2 am, she’s an ambitious and independent-minded Capricorn Sun square Uranus; with a sensitive and compassionate Saturn opposition Neptune (Moon); and a courageous, do-or-die determined Mars opposition Pluto square Mercury.

She’s nothing like as enduring a personality as her grandmother Indira, 19 November 1917, who was a Sun Scorpio square Uranus with Uranus opposition Saturn (and Neptune) in Leo. And she is under considerable pressure this year, more so next, with a fair risk of accidents, disasters and setbacks – from tr Uranus conjunct her Mars/Saturn midpoint this June, and again later in the year; and even more so when her Solar Arc Mars is conjunct her Saturn early in 2021 for another really major obstacle.  Assuming she comes through unscathed, she’ll get into a better phase thereafter.

The salacious details of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll’s lengthy, prurient and headline-grabbing divorce in 1963 are due for a rerun with a new biography and a BBC drama coming out. The Dirty Duchess as she became known, mainly on the basis of a polaroid of the headless man in her bed, one of the rumoured 88 men she slept with during her 12 year marriage to the Duke, which included two government ministers and three members of the Royal Family.

Born 1 December 1912 near Glasgow to a self-made millionaire father she had an extraordinary and event-filled life, starting with the standard unhappy rich-kid childhood, which left her with a stammer. She lost her virginity to David Niven at 15, becoming pregnant, presumably aborted it; and set sail as Debutante of the Year into several failed engagements, then marriage to a US financier which led to eight miscarriages and one still birth before she produced two children. In her late 30s she fell 40 feet down a lift shaft when visiting a chiropodist. After her marriage broke down and a replacement betrayed her, she was pursued by the broke Duke of Argyll and married him having paid over a hefty dowry. Which 12 year match was not improved by his unpredictable temper, alcoholism, reliance on prescription drugs and gambling. It was a very one sided divorce and she appears to have been unable to give the other side of the story. Three weeks after the divorce he married an American heiress.

Her divorce kept the tabloids riveted for weeks and the judge wrote 160 pages of condemnation of her behaviour.  She died in poverty aged 80.

She was a Sun Mars in Sagittarius in a hard-edged, unfair-treatment opposition to Saturn. She had a confident Mercury Jupiter in Sagittarius as well in a pushy opposition to Pluto; and the signature Uranus opposition Neptune of her generation, which was not always renowned for good judgement. And she had a fairly gothic Yod of Uranus sextile Mars inconjunct Pluto which would tend to push her to extremes and make her manipulative.  Her Venus in socially ambitious Capricorn is sparsely aspected if at all by a maybe trine to a Virgo Moon.

By all accounts she was a snobbish woman with a staggering sense of entitlement but still. She was slut-shamed while the grasping Duke got off scot free despite having behaved just as badly.