A tempestuous, torrid and sordid tale lies behind Robert Graves’s lost play But It Still Goes On which is being staged for the first time.

Graves was a towering figure in 20^th Century literature with his WW1 war memoirs, poetry, historical novels (I, Claudius) and writing on mythology. But he had an extraordinarily tangled emotional life, at one point taking poet Laura Riding in as his secretary, then lover in a menage a trois with his then wife Nancy.  Riding who appeared to be more than slightly mad, certainly manipulative and thought she had occult powers then pulled an Irish poet, Geoffrey Phibbs, away from his wife  to make up a menage a quatre. Phibbs fled after a few weeks and Graves was sent to bring him back.

After an evening of high hysteria, Riding threw herself off the balcony of the four-storey flat. She was not expected to survive but did after an expensive hospital stay for which Graves had to foot the bill, which serendipitously drove him to write his bestselling memoir of the First World War, Good-bye to All That. The play features a tempestuous female character who falls from a great height.

Graves was born 24 July 1895 4.26am in London. Laura Riding 15 January 1901, New York.

She was a Sun Capricorn with a head-in-the-clouds and ethereal Neptune opposition Jupiter Venus in adventurous Sagittarius. Of most significance however was her Pluto in Gemini opposition Uranus squaring onto Mars in Virgo which was an unstable volcano of anger, ruthlessness and recklessness on a very short fuse.

Graves had his Sun in at zero degrees Leo with a Moon Mars conjunction in late Leo; and a very complicated Venus in Virgo square Neptune Pluto in Gemini. The latter no doubt spurred his creativity but would make him prone to obsessions and wouldn’t make for an easy emotional life. His Venus was conjunct her Mars so he would be drawn like a moth to a flame by her high-wire temperament. Her (almost certainly) Scorpio Moon squared his Moon Mars, so it was a combustible combination.

Tr Neptune was conjunct his Moon as she made her leap, and he paid for his treatment though she shut him out thereafter,

Their relationship chart had a cruelly unkind and explosive composite Mars square Saturn Uranus; and an illusory/disappointing composite Sun trine Neptune. Though out of his torment she spurred him on to write some of the ‘greatest and most lyrical love poetry of the 20^th Century.’

A nightmare muse but she did act as a catalyst for some of his most  memorable work.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/did-robert-gravess-lover-fall-window-pushed/

  

 

Leo di Caprio isn’t short of prestigious projects as he nears his fortieth anniversary in the film and entertainment business, having started at 5 years old in commercials before moving on to television roles. He now produces as well as acts and is scheduled for a Scorsese bio-pic about Roosevelt and a Tarantino horror on the Manson murders scheduled for release in 2019 (doesn’t sound enticing).

Born 11 November 1974 2.47am Los Angeles, he had a fractured childhood with divorced parents and spent part of his childhood with his maternal grandparents in Germany. He has Sun, Mars and Venus in Scorpio in his 2^nd, so intensely driven, charming, though not one to forgive and forget if he’s been hurt, focussed on money. He has a creative, self-protective and highly enthusiastic Water Grand Trine of Jupiter trine Mars trine his midheaven. His hard-working, well-organised Saturn in his 10^th gives him executive ability though squaring onto his Libra Moon will make him emotionally defensive, all the more so given that his Moon is also conjunct Pluto.

His romantic life has always been tabloid fodder as he moved through a succession of mainly models. His latest, Camila Morrone, 16 June 1997, stepdaughter to Al Pacino is a Gemini with maybe a Scorpio Moon. Though it doesn’t look too hopeful as a long term bet with his Saturn conjunct her Venus and possibly her Moon conjunct his Mars. Her Jupiter in his 5^th will make for fun social companionship but it’s likely to be argumentative as well.

He’s going through a sticky year with his Progressed Moon through his 8^th until late 2019, so trying to work out what he actually wants from his life, With some Neptunian morale sinkers till late 2020. Then he’ll hit his stride again with a rip-roaring success in 2021/22

 

    

 

‘Love and Ruin’ is a new novel about Martha Gellhorn, the writer and war correspondent, and her relationship with Ernest Hemingway which sparked up during the Spanish Civil War and led to a brief marriage (his fourth).  She was a major figure in the 20^th Century with an instinct for being at the centre of events, reporting on the devastating and heart-rending effects of the US Depression in the 1930s; and later on virtually every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career. Her relationship with Hemingway was always fraught and she refused to be tied down by him, embarking through her life on multiple liaisons.

Born 8 November 1905 in St Louis Missouri (no time sadly), with a suffragette mother and an unbending medical father, she was a Sun Scorpio with a Taurus Moon – emotionally intense, stubborn but always ambivalent about what she wanted. She had the generational, highly-strung Uranus in Capricorn opposition Neptune squaring onto a feisty, impulsive and pro-active Mars in Libra, drawing her into high-risk situations. Her Neptune Uranus was also trine/sextile her Sun.

Her Mars was further emphasised being widely conjunct Mercury in fair-minded Libra and both being in a courageous, high-adrenaline and probably quite ruthless trine to Pluto North Node in Gemini. The North Node is associated with the zeitgeist or spirit of the times and she’d be drawn to the darker side with Pluto Mars. Oddly enough for someone attracted to danger she had only one Fire sign – Saturn in self-reliant Aries – so wouldn’t be as trusting about her survival as her lifestyle suggested.

Her Venus in Libra opposed Saturn and squared Uranus so she’d be constantly searching and never finding what she wanted emotionally.

She was adamant in later years that she wouldn’t talk about Hemingway since she didn’t want to be ‘a footnote’ in his life. She was very much her own woman.

Born 21 July 1899 8am Oak Park, Illinois, he was a Cancer with a Capricorn Moon so at a simplistic level it wasn’t a bad match. Her Sun was in his 3^rd for intellectual rapport and her Jupiter was conjunct his Virgo Ascendant so she’d brighten his life. But her defensive and independent Saturn was on the cusp of his 8^th and square his Moon, and her Uranus was conjunct his Moon and opposition his Venus for an erratic mix.

Their relationship chart was adventurous with a composite Mars Uranus in a hard-edged trine to Saturn, so would do well in risky situations. But the composite Sun squared an unstable, constantly-changing Uranus opposition Pluto. Passion with the composite Venus sextile Pluto, but not for long with Venus trine Uranus.

Her leaving-a-legacy-for-history was heavily aspected; as was her writer’s 21H.

  

 

Wave a magic wand and the Brexit referendum never took place. But with it or without it, the same planetary influences will occur. Tr Uranus will still move through the UK 8^th house from circa 2019 till 2027 bringing deep-seated financial and emotional upheavals; with a peak-collision around 2021/2022 when the Solar Arc Uranus and tr Uranus conjunct the UK 8^th house Mars; and the Solar Arc Midheaven will still square the UK Neptune around 2024.

Looking at previous occurrences:

URANUS THROUGH the UK 8^th house:

1936 to 1943 – kicking off with the death of King George V, and abdication of King Edward V111 to marry Wallis Simpson, the Jarrow March against poverty and unemployment; Chamberlain’s Munich Agreement with Hitler, then World War 11 where it was not remotely clear in the early years there would be victory. Tr Uranus was conjunct the UK Mars for the Coronation of King George V1.

[During this period in 1942 Solar Arc Neptune was square the UK Midheaven when Singapore surrendered to Japan, arguably the most devastating loss in British military history.]

Uranus in UK 8th: 1852 to 1859 – the Highland Clearances, the Crimean War (a war of “notoriously incompetent international butchery”.) which was declared on the final transit of Uranus to the UK Mars.

[And if once assumes minus mathematics work: Uranus in UK 1801 8th: 1768 to 1775 – American Revolution leading to the loss of the US colonies.]

SOLAR ARC URANUS SQUARE UK Mars in 8^th – 1930, more or less at the same time as SOLAR ARC MC SQUARE UK NEPTUNE: – the Great Depression arrived on the back of the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

One way or another momentous events, with loss of face, dents to national pride and financial hardship. Though there would be additional astrological influences for all of the above occasions which are not recurring this time round.

 

Add on: From Hugh: ’During a previous occurrence (of Uranus in Taurus)  in the early 1600s Elizabeth 1 died and the Stuart dynasty united the thrones of England and Scotland. Roll the clock forward to the late 1680s and Uranus was in Taurus when the Glorious Revolution occurred. It was there again in the early 1770s in the run up to the American War of Independence and the loss of the American colonies.For me though the big similarity looks to be the comparison to the Uranus transit of Taurus between 1515 and 1523 which also occurred when Pluto and Saturn were in Capricorn and formed a Conjunction in January 1518. That occurred at the start of the Reformation and had huge global significance not just for the UK but also for the entire planet.’

October 2017 post on Uranus through Taurus: Uranus, on its 84 year cycle, moves into Taurus May 15^th 2018 staying for 7 years, the first time since 1934 to 1941.   Uranus is inventive and experimental and Taurus is earthy and practical, so no surprises that on previous occurrences there were new discoveries. In the later 1930s there were major advances in technology in aviation, radio, and film. On a previous occasion, in the late 17^th Century, street lighting was introduced in London. There was also widespread exploration across the globe and major advances in astronomy, including the first sighting of Uranus (which was mis-named). Taurus being earthy and quite anal, no surprises either that sewage systems and toilets came to the fore.

Taurus is also acquisitive for money and possessions so from past experience trade became a pressing and not always compassionate drive. During the Uranus in Taurus of 1600 England starts trade with Asia; two Uranus in Taurus later it moves into Bengal with catastrophic results for the population; 2 million die in a famine and the East India Company raises their taxes and ships the revenues out of the country! The Same Brit company then takes over the North American tea trade, which leads, due to their punitive taxation, into the American Revolution.

The Bengal famine narrative repeated in a different location during the mid 19^th Century Uranus in Taurus in Ireland. The potato crop failed, which starved a million to death and a million emigrated, with the British overlords, who were partly the cause of the population’s reliance on one crop, continuing to send foodstuffs to the UK. And that is a wound which has never healed.

It isn’t easy to extrapolate the effect of Uranus in Taurus from other influences ongoing. The mid 19^th Century Uranus in Taurus came on the back of a Saturn Pluto Uranus conjunction in late Aries/Taurus, so was always going to be a time of upheaval and devastation.

The most similar to this one would be the 1767 Uranus in Taurus with Pluto in Capricorn about to oppose Saturn in Cancer, with Neptune in Virgo. Apart from the horrors of the Bengal famine, James Watts’ steam-engine inventions drove the Industrial Revolution into being; and the first mechanical spinning frame for fabric weaving also appeared.

The most recent 1935 to 1941 Uranus in Taurus came on the back of the Great Depression of the decade following 1929, with widespread poverty and unemployment leading to authoritarian regimes emerging in several countries, most notably German with Hitler rising to power from 1933; and Stalin’s Great Purge of 1936-38 with 600,000 being executed in Russia by the state.

In 1935 Uranus was just over the square to Pluto in Cancer, so not dissimilar to now – and it ended with a Saturn Uranus conjunction trine Neptune in Virgo in 1941. Territorial greed is clearly also one of its manifestations; as well as inhumane methods in the pursuit of power.

Overall conclusion would be good and bad. Innovative yes. Power and money hungry also.

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

    

 

Jodie Foster, the double Oscar-winner is back with her first role in five years in Hotel Artemis, playing an alcoholic nurse treating wounded bad guys in private hospital for criminals in a dystopian future Los Angeles. Described as ‘a watchable and stylish piece of work, anchored by a very strong performance from Foster, who has been aged up to look older than her years.’

She’s another who has had a very long career, starting aged 3 in commercials; playing a teenage prostitute in Scorsese’s Taxi Driver at 12; and then transitioning into adult roles in The Accused as a rape survivor; and later most memorably in The Silence of the Lambs. She’s never picked conventional or light-hearted roles, and more recently has taken to directing. She also carries the weight of being the object of John Hinckley’s obsession, who tried to impress her by attempting to assassinate Ronald Reagan, wounding him and three others. This after seeing her in Taxi Driver.

She was born 19 November 1962 8.14 am Los Angeles to a mother who divorced before she was born and she never knew her father. She has a 12^th house Sun Mercury in Scorpio with Venus Neptune also in Scorpio and all square Mars in Leo at the end of the 8^th house – very intense, private with all of Scorpio’s attraction to the darker side of life. Her 9^th house Virgo Moon is conjunct Uranus Pluto and opposition Jupiter – so confident, adventurous but has had an erratic emotional life. Her Saturn in cool Aquarius is opposition a leadership North Node in Leo in her 8^th.

Her actor’s 15^th harmonic is heavily aspected though strained with a T square of Jupiter Moon MC; and a Yod of Mars (Pluto) Jupiter onto an apex Neptune.

She’ll probably slide out of sight again after this movie launch with Jupiter through her 12^th for a few months; and more so with Saturn through the nadir of her first quadrant for another two or three years.  Though she may bounce up in 2021 when her Solar Arc MC squares her Jupiter.

    

 

Actor David McCallum is still strutting the boards on television aged 85, as ‘Ducky’ the medical examiner on the hugely popular Naval crime drama NCIS. He’s had a long and illustrious career making his name as the Russian spy Ilya Kuryakin in The Man from UNCLE in the 1960s.

Born 19 September 1933 at 2am in Glasgow, Scotland, into a family of classical musicians he intended to make that his career but switched to acting. His first marriage to Jill Ireland ended in divorce, but his second has lasted for 51 years and he’s now a naturalised US citizen. He’s also now writing crime fiction.

He has a sharp-witted 3^rd house Virgo Sun with Mercury Jupiter in Libra also in the 3^rd; a dreamy Moon Neptune in Virgo; and an intense Venus Mars in Scorpio in his family 4^th.  Plus a forensic Saturn in Aquarius. Maverick Uranus is in his 10^th square a 12^th house Pluto. It’s a fairly disjointed chart but is strong in quintiles and septiles. The 14^th Harmonic is especially marked – good for communication with high nervous energy.

  

 

Nigel Farage, a key figurehead in the BREXIT campaign and long-time-eurosceptic, appears to be a person of interest in the Mueller Russia investigation for his and Brexit chief donor Aaron Banks’ meetings with Russians. He describes the notion as part of a “vast conspiracy theory” and “hysterical rubbish”. Farage visited Julian Assange in the London Embassy where he’s holed up and was said at a Congressional Inquiry to have handed over a thumb drive to him. He is a buddy with Trump who suggested him for a diplomatic post to much amusement in London. Farage and his aide, office manager and head of fund raising for UKIP George Cottrell appeared on US television during the 2016 US campaign and engaged in discussions with Trump’s aides. This was before Cottrell was arrested by the FBI on 21 federal counts of fraud, money laundering and extortion. Farage said he was shocked and unaware of any wrongdoing.

Born 3 April 1964 4.30pm Farnborough, England, Farage has an intense 8^th house Sun in Aries, widely conjunct a combative Mars in his 7^th; with Jupiter Mercury also in his 8^th trine a 4^th house Sagittarius Moon. It’s a Fire Earth chart so he’s a steamroller personality with endless energy.

He is not looking remotely pleased with life ahead. There’s a Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Mars, exact in six months’ time which will accompany a major setback; with a confidence-eroding Solar Arc Sun opposition his Neptune exact in a years’ time. Before then: September and October this year look jangled, jittered and very bad tempered: and he’ll have nervous spasms from a crisis in the second half of this October and again in March 2019. Into 2019 he looks seriously panicked from April onwards with tr Neptune conjunct his Mars/Saturn midpoint, repeating on and off till late 2020. He’ll have bouts of bullish confidence but on the whole won’t feel he’s winning. 2021/22 also look like a downhill slide. Which may be for a myriad of reasons as well as Brexit since he leads a very complicated life.

    

 

The Brexit merry-go-round is an all-consuming fight to the death in the Westminster bubble with a dazed public outside throwing their hands up in disbelief and despair. What might be a pointer to the likely outcome are the prospects for the heavyweight  Brexiteers.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a quaint nannified old Etonian, appears to have taken over as enforcer-in-chief on behalf of the European Research Group (ERG) on the eurosceptic side of the Tory Party (a touch like the USA Tea Party). He’s a traditionalist, reactionary, right-wing populist – against abortion in all circumstances, rape included, chairman of a fund management group as well as an MP.

ERG, of which Rees-Mogg is now chairman, was started in 1993, as an anti-EU group within the Tory Party and is described by the Times as “the most aggressive and successful political cadre in Britain today”. They are for a hard Brexit.

Rees-Mogg is having his ups and downs this year into early 2019 but in general looks in remarkably good spirits ahead in November this year and February 2019; and more so thereafter with tr Pluto moving to trine his Pluto in 2019/2020, then trine his successful Jupiter/Pluto over 2020/2021 and then his trine his Jupiter in 2021/2022.

Daniel Hannan, a Tory MP and journalist, 1 September 1971, was the first director of ERG straight out of university and has campaigned hard ever since against the EU. He looks in cheerful mood through this September and October; and feeling lucky this December and January 2019. With a tough slog in 2019/2020 but also a major lucky break in 2019.

That pair are looking much more upbeat than William Hague and John Major, two former Tory Party seniors who are pro-EU and on the whole confused and horror-struck ahead.

I can’t make head nor tail of the two Conservative Party charts I have – 12 November 1867 and 18 December 1834 – which show up remarkably little of the present civil war in the party, nor indeed looking back do they show up anything too informative when Maggie Thatcher won and the loss of 1997.

 

  

 

Lewis Hamilton, Formula One racing driver for Mercedes and regarded as the best driver of his generation, is about to sign is the most lucrative contract in Formula 1 history. Hamilton and Mercedes are expected to confirm this Sunday at the German Grand Prix a three-year deal worth $170-million; and if he wishes to stay an extra $150-million to extend until 2023.

Born 7 January 1985 in Hertford, England, he’s a Sun Jupiter in Capricorn, so materially ambitious and lucky. He was born at the time of the Full Moon in Cancer (split parents) and the opposition is sextile/trine an obsessively conscientious Saturn in Scorpio. He’s also got Pluto in an ultra-determined trine to a passionately enthusiastic Mars Venus in Pisces; with Mars also in a high-octane square to Uranus. He started go-karting when young and progressed on from there. It’s a go-get-em chart so he was destined to make his mark one way or another.

He has been through tough and transformational times over the past two or three years with tr Pluto conjunct his Sun and possibly opposition his Moon with tr Uranus in square. He’s clear of that now and with tr Pluto conjunct his Sun/Jupiter midpoint in 2018/2019 and then conjunct his Jupiter in 2019/2020 he’s in for a good run – money and success. Having said that he will have a few dips this year courtesy of tr Saturn and tr Neptune hitting several midpoints; and there’ll be an upheaval of sorts in 2019 with tr Uranus opposition his Pluto.