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.

    

 

 

Untying the Gordian knot of the Ireland problem is where the majority of Brexit attention is being focussed. Though heaven knows there are multifarious other worries about customs borders and future trade requiring preparation which appear to be sliding under the radar.

As far as Ireland is concerned, Leo Varadakar, the Irish leader, is in Brussels this week to meet Juncker et co to discuss a possible no-deal Brexit and how to tackle Theresa May’s request for a renegotiation.

The relationship chart between the Republic of Ireland (18 April 1949 midnight Dublin) and the EU is oddly the one showing the most strain over the next three years. It has a composite New Moon so is a significant bond; but is also strained with a composite Yod of Saturn Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Venus. Considerable confusion is showing between the two from March 29^th this year onwards till late 2020 as tr Pluto squares the Neptune; with more discouraging pressure in 2020/2021 as tr Pluto squares Saturn; and it will be sagging with disappointment in 2021/22 with tr Neptune conjunct the apex Venus.

The relationship chart between the UK and Ireland 1949 is very chained together at the best of times which produces a good deal of resentment, with a composite Saturn opposition Mercury square Pluto. It’s in for a considerable jolt from late March to mid April with tr Uranus is an irritable and insecure conjunction to the composite Mars and in a highly-strung opposition to Neptune Jupiter. Thereafter there’s not much major movement until 2021 when there’s more sign of a rupture or change in relations with tr Uranus square the composite Uranus.

Varadakar looks fairly relieved around the late March/early April phase.

The relationship between Northern Ireland, 7^th December 1922 3.28pm, and the EU is due for a major jolt come July 2019; and a larger upheaval in 2021 – with tr Uranus square the composite Pluto first, then tr Pluto trine the composite Uranus respectively.

The UK/Northern Ireland relationship will also alter radically come July of this year, on and off into early 2020; and will sag badly in 2020 with tr Neptune opposition the composite Jupiter Saturn and square Uranus.

I’d hazard a guess there will be some sort of fudge pushing matters back three months, then the real tumble-out will happen in 2021.

Add On:   The possibility of a united Ireland is remote, certainly in the near future. The relationship chart between North and South has an aggravated and suspicious composite Mars opposition Saturn Neptune square a gamer-playing Jupiter. There’ll be a dip in relations between them in 2020 with tr Neptune square the Jupiter, which will worsen considerably in 2022/23 as tr Neptune is conjunct the composite Mars and opposition Saturn.

A heartfelt piece in today’s Telegraph by Liam Halligan:   ‘For someone of my mixed heritage, the pain associated with tension between Britain and Ireland is seared into my soul. And the anguish as the precious rapprochement of recent years is threatened is made far worse by knowing that today’s Irish border issue is eminently solvable.

For the sad truth is this essentially technical problem is being exploited by an increasingly irate anti-Brexit coalition across the UK, Ireland and among Brussels Eurocrats. Their cynical judgment is that if fears about a return to The Troubles are whipped up enough, then the biggest expression of democracy in the history of these islands might yet be thwarted.’

‘Brussels, meanwhile, wants Britain trapped in the customs union so UK consumers and businesses keep paying the common external tariff on imports from outside the EU. Four fifths of those revenues – billions annually – go directly to Brussels.

The customs union stops London cutting bespoke trade deals suiting UK, rather than French or German interests, with the rest of the world. ‘

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/02/02/backstop-politics-economics-important-easily-solved-issue-world/

And there is a searing wrap-round of the whole Brexit farrago in the Washington Post.

‘Britain is one of the richest and most advanced democracies in the world. It is currently locked in a room, babbling away to itself hysterically while threatening to blow its own kneecaps off. This is what nationalist populism does to a country. ‘

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-collective-madness-behind-britains-latest-brexit-plan/2019/01/31/48d4d67e-2578-11e9-81fd-b7b05d5bed90_story.html?utm_term=.64ab41b382f3

 

 

      

 

A strange calm has descended outside the Westminster and London media bubble. The great silent majority are beyond befuddled, walking like the undead through purgatory with a ceaseless cacophony of ‘yay, nay, maybe, what ifs’ battering their ears.

A plague on all their houses – left, right politicos and the EU maestros – game-playing waste of spaces, all of them.

Having got that out of the way I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen. Theresa May is trudging back to Brussels or sending her reserve team of Deputy PM David Lidington, Stephen Barclay and Geoffrey Cox into bat, despite the EU saying they’ll be no renegotiation. Thus kicking the can down the road nearer the 29 March cut off date (unless it is extended) with May gambling that the fear of a no-deal will finally cave Westminster into agreeing to her cobbled together compromise, described by Yanis Varoufakis as a ‘ruinous deal.’ See below.

Both political leaders look to be under threat as the aftermath to March 29^th hoves into view. Corbyn’s leadership term chart gets a considerable rattling, threatening to upset his applecart through April and May 2019.  Theresa May has a career-loss-making tr Pluto square her Jupiter/Saturn midpoint over the same period – and that aspect affecting both repeats in January 2020. Plus she has a dashed-hopes, bubble-of-false- happiness-bursting tr Neptune opposition Jupiter in April. Her Government chart goes into a major Neptunian dip from May onwards, sinking even deeper into a sink hole.

The UK chart has tr Uranus square the 10^th house Jupiter from March 26^th to April 12^th for a moment of great relief and exuberance – though whether that’s delaying the evil moment of having to make a decision; or a to-hell-with-it-we’re-out-of-here moment isn’t clear. At the same time there’s a sense of separation or loss, emotional tensions and crisis from tr Saturn opposition the 10th house Moon and transits to a  midpoint.

On midpoints there’s a degree of discouragement and faffing about through February; and insecurity, fatigue and unfulfilled wishes in April. From mid April to early May tr Uranus is sextile the UK Pluto which may be stronger than it sounds since even soft aspects can act like hard on country charts – so a considerable upheaval.

Plus the Solar Arc Moon opposition the UK 11^th house Saturn which rules the legislature – the voters well out of sorts with politicians.  This July there is a 10 degree Cancer Solar Eclipse which will impact on the UK Capricorn Sun – so a three month extension which is being mooted at the moment may bring about a crisis point then.

David Lidington looks dismayed in April with his relationship to Theresa May turning turtle in May. Stephen Barclay is beyond gloomy in February and tormented through April.  Geoffrey Cox looks caved in at the moment but is in better form come May – possibly worked out a personal escape route from the unsolvable puzzle.

Varoufakis below is clear thinking as ever tho’ Corbyn isn’t his man for this plan; and below that another hint that May’s earnest, doing-her-best negotiating technique isn’t half good enough for this battle.  All  a gigantic horlicks of a mishandled mess. If they were intent on leaving they should just have prepared for a no-deal from square one and forced the issue.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-jeremy-corbyn-yanis-varoufakis-theresa-may-backstop-eu-referendum-a8755481.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/01/30/no-deal-brexit-would-push-europe-back-deep-recession-explosive/