To general international alarm Trump has announced he wants to withdraw from a key Cold War nuclear weapons treaty which was signed as a step towards nuclear disarmament or at least containment in 1988. The suspicion several years back was that the Russians were violating it but Obama was ambivalent about rocking the boat.

What lies behind the shock move according to the BBC: “This was a bilateral treaty between Washington and Moscow. China was free to develop and deploy intermediate range nuclear missiles. Some in the Trump administration feel that the INF treaty places them at a growing disadvantage in their developing strategic rivalry with Beijing.”

For ‘some’ read John Bolton, an ultra-hawk, who appears to have sidestepped the State Department and is pushing into very risky territory.

The Nuclear Treaty came into force on 1 June 1988 and does look to be in major trouble now and in 2019/20 with Solar Arc Sun opposition Neptune now; and Solar Arc Pluto opposition the Sun in 2019; and worse Solar Arc Neptune square Pluto in 2020, which is associated with nuclear explosions and devastation.

The USA/Russia 1917 and 1991 relationship charts are taking a nosedive downwards at the moment and again in early 2019 with tr Neptune opposition the composite Sun Saturn on one and the composite Mars on the other. There’ll be heightened aggravation in 2022/23.

Putin and Trump’s relationship chart hints at sharp words being exchanged at the moment and in early 2019; with tensions throughout 2019; and real anger in 2021/22 (heaven help us).

Bolton always known for his rough diplomacy will be at serious odds with Putin in 2019 and since both share a brutal, ruthless Mars trine Pluto it could get ugly.

Pompeo dislikes Bolton and their relationship will worsen considerably from now through 2019. Ditto Mattis, who is, worryingly, supposed to be on the way out, which might well happen given that his Swearing In Chart has tr Uranus square the Sun now until early 2019.

The last grown up to leave had best put out the lights.

  

 

The actress Selma Blair – Hellboy, Mothers and Daughters, Mom and Dad – has announced she’s suffering from multiple sclerosis. She’s had symptoms for 15 years of falling, dropping things and foggy memory but was only diagnosed recently.

Born 23 June 1972 8.30am (unverified) New York, she has a friendly 11^th house Cancer Sun opposition Jupiter in her performing 5^th house square Pluto in last degree Virgo – lots of confidence and drive with a tendency to over-control.  She has Mars in Cancer in the 12th opposition North Node in the 6^th house of health square a Taurus midheaven. Her Mars is also trine a Scorpio Moon, sextile Pluto, so she’s emotionally very intense and given to frustrations and fears. Her Venus in Gemini also squares Pluto, which again will accentuate deeper feelings.

Saturn rules her 6^th and tr Saturn is about to join tr Pluto in her 6^th house next year opposing her Mars; and tr Uranus is also in 2019 going to conjunct her midheaven which looks like a change of direction. So it looks a tricky time ahead. MS is a condition where symptoms can come and go, often disappearing for stretches of time.

Exactly now her Secondary Progressed Mars is exactly square her Scorpio Moon for a considerable shock though she’s making the best of it. In typical Scorpio Moon fashion not letting on how much she’s affected emotionally.

Jupiter will move into her 5^th from early 2019 for a year to give her a confidence lift; and then into her 6^th in 2020 which may help.

Her creative 5^th harmonic is strong; even more so her victim/healer 12^th.

    

 

Radical UK cleric and hate preacher Anjem Choudary has been freed after serving half of his jail sentence for promoting the Islamic State, under the Terrorism Act. Counter-terrorism chiefs spent two decades trying to bring him, to trial, blaming him and the organisations he helped to run, for radicalising young men and women. The killers of soldier Lee Rigby were amongst his supporters. He is a Salafi Wahabi Islamist, who preached that the Muslim faith should “dominate the whole world”. During his activism he lived on state benefits. He is now threatening to sue over the restrictive conditions attached to his release.

Born 18 January 1967 in London, from a family of Pakistani origin, he partied and drugged his way through a year of medical school, before switching to law.

He does have an extraordinary chart with a three-quarter Grand Sextile, a Mystic Rectangle and a Cardinal Grand Cross – so undoubtedly has abilities, though clearly channeled in the wrong directions.  His Sun Mercury in Capricorn opposes Jupiter squaring onto Mars and probably opposing an Aries Moon. He has two oppositions Sun Jupiter as well as Saturn in Pisces opposition Uranus Pluto which are trine/sextile each other; with a sextile/trine to Neptune making up the other leg of the almost Grand Sextile.  His Venus in Aquarius is trine Mars and may be sextile his Moon – for a hugely complicated chart. Overflowing with restless initiative, a chancer with an emphasised Mars Jupiter; controlling, rebellious and determined and very angry with an accentuated Mars.

His Neptune aspects almost every other planet, exacerbating his visionary tendencies, which are fueled by his aggressive and power-hungry tendencies to destructive ends. His Neptune is also conjunct the ISIS focal point Jupiter; and his Venus in Aquarius is conjunct the ISIS Neptune. The ISIS Sun Mars in Libra is conjunct his Mars and in hard aspect to the rest of his Grand Cross, triggering his urge to aggressive action. A cross-over of perverted spirituality and blood lust.

He always did look cheered up this year with tr Uranus square his Jupiter into early 2019; though he also has a trapped, frustrated and enraged tr Pluto square his focal point Mars in 2018 to end of 2019. He’s unlikely to disappear quietly into the woodwork; Though he’ll be in for a fair pounding 2022 to 2024 with a tranche of undermining Solar Arcs and disruptive transits.

His North Node in Taurus is exactly conjunct the UK’s 8^th house Mars so he will stir up deep-rooted anger. More’s the pity he can’t be deported. I’m sure if he lived in France, they’d find a way to toss him back to his ancestral home or rendition him out to whatever the last ISIS stronghold is.  But with a chained-together Saturn opposition Pluto in the UK relationship chart there’s little chance of getting rid of him.

Pic: https://www.flickr.com/photos/snapperjack/

  

 

Bohemian Rhapsody, the Freddie Mercury bio-pic, is in cinemas this week, after a tortuous decade-long obstacle course where A-list screenwriters and leading men were hired and dropped and what has emerged, according to those who knew him, is a rose-tinted spectacle.

25 years dead he still arouses great interest, adulation and astonishment. Described by a biographer as “flawed and frail and flamboyant, a cursed exotic, a damaged diva”, he was outrageously shocking and shy. Early on he organised album launches with canapés served on the torsos of naked dwarves; commissioned hookers to mud-wrestle and perform live lesbian sex acts backstage for his guests; and unnerved a young Michael Jackson by chopping out lines of coke in front of him. And latterly appeared to have a death wish as he defied the AIDs storm, doing “everything with everybody” according to an actress friend. He died of AIDs-related pneumonia.

Born 5 September 1946 6.30am (astrotheme) Zanzibar, Tanzania to Zoroastrian Parsi parents he was despatched off to boarding school at 8, which gave him extreme separation anxiety. At 18 he had to flee from a revolution with his family to London. Aged 24 he formed the band Queen and stormed onto the music scene. He had a four-octave voice range, an electric stage presence and wrote over half of the songs on Queen’s Greatest Hits album. Queen gave over 700 concerts worldwide, always on a grand scale. He said “We’re the Cecil B DeMille of rock n’ roll.”

On this birth time, which is unverified, he had a Virgo Sun on his Ascendant making for a larger-than-life personality; with a maverick 10^th house Uranus opposition a 4^th house Sagittarius Moon. His Uranus was in a volatile and adventurous trine to an exuberant Mars, Jupiter, Venus in Libra; with the bleak, depressive Saturn Pluto in Leo hovering around the cusp of his 12^th.

His creative 5^th and 7th harmonics were strongly aspected; as was his genius/breakthrough 13H; and his super-star 22^nd.

When he was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 tr Saturn was opposition his Uranus and tr Uranus was conjunct his Sun de-railing his plans for his life. His Solar Arc Moon was also opposition his Saturn/Pluto midpoint, moving over his Pluto just before his death four and a half years later.

A definite one-off.

     

The financial crash started with the sub-prime mortgage crisis building through 2007, exacerbated by major banks risky lending practices over-leveraging bad debt, which resulted in the Lehman Brothers collapse on 15 September 2008.

Pluto moved into Capricorn for the first time in January 2008 setting the scene for what followed, zig zagging back into Sagittarius through mid year and settling in Capricorn by December 2008 for its sixteen year stay.

2007 had the uncertain, neurotic Neptune opposition Saturn in wannabe-important Leo. By fall 2008 tr Saturn was in Virgo heading for the economically unstable opposition to Uranus which ran on till late 2009; with the disruptive tr Uranus in later Pisces in orb to a square to Pluto in early Capricorn; and tr Saturn moving into Libra in a hardship-bringing opposition to Pluto in 2010.

Pluto in Capricorn was the major trigger but Saturn Uranus and Saturn Pluto coming hard on its heels made the financial situation worse. Pluto, the planet of transformation, exerting its considerable pressure on Capricorn, which favours the status quo, is traditionally thought of as collapsing government and financial systems with an eye to rebuilding better on the far side.

The revolutionary tr Uranus square tr Pluto running right through till 2016, which triggered the Arab Spring, was in place for all of David Cameron’s premiership in the UK – with little evidence of major change in the country, so there would be an undertow of rebellious feeling seeking radical change, that had not found an outlet. 2013/2014 saw the tr Uranus square tr Pluto hitting on the UK Sun; before moving onto the UK North Node and then Moon. The Brexit referendum came at the end of that five year upswell of wanting change, any kind of change, even if it meant stepping out into the unknown.

When the vote was taken in June 2016 on the UK chart tr Pluto was by then moving through the UK 4^th house bringing a mutinous mood amongst the populace; with the Solar Arc Sun in a jolting square to the deeply-rooted 8^th house Mars in Taurus; with the Solar Arc MC in an even more volcanic square to the UK Mars by 2017.

In a way with hindsight it seems almost inevitable – a giant wake up call to a country that had got too stuck in its ways with politicians and financiers seemingly incapable and certainly unwilling to make the sweeping and profound changes that Pluto always demands and the voters clearly wanted.

The EU became the scapegoat for all the subterranean anger that was bubbling. Although immigration may have been a key issue, the unpalatable truth was that the Blair Government’s open-door policy for non-EU migrants was really more of an issue. The EU workers just landed on top of a country already swamped.

The media weren’t remotely helpful – Murdoch et al. There’s no lack of flaws in the EU to criticise – overweighty, grossly expensive bureaucracy with bloated, unelected technocrats throwing their weight around. But the advantages weren’t sufficiently highlighted. There was a surprising statistic the other day that UK famers get more out of the Common Agricultural Policy funds than do French farmers. And you wouldn’t know that from the Sun or the Express.

Add on: The Arab astrologers of olden times believed the essential function of astrology was to understand the past. Hindsight is much denigrated but it’s often only with distance that the patterns become clear.

Was Brexit inevitable? Yes and no. Uranus Pluto upheavals can go one of three ways – into anarchy and chaos as the old structures are violently torn down and nothing takes their place (Libya); repressive, control-freak Pluto desperate to uphold the status quo wins the war and dictatorial powers are imposed (Egypt, and eventually Syria); or the collapse of the old way leads to a rebirth with hopes of a better future (Tunisia, cross fingers). In more stable western democracies the same forces are at work though in a less obvious way.

It’s the great universal battle between stability and creativity. Uranian creativity needs a degree of chaos to flourish, but too much anarchy leads to demolition, not to lasting achievement; Pluto often causes its own downfall because of its inability to adapt. The transitions of change are impossible to negotiate if total control is demanded at every stage.

The UK has an extraordinarily Fixed chart – as indeed does the EU – which gives endurance and staying power but is ill-designed for change and flexibility. It takes a cataclysmic convulsion to force through necessary adjustments. Ironically, or maybe not, the UK sector at most risk with Brexit is the financial one. If they had been cut down to size after 2008 and forced to own and pay for their mistakes, the UK might have been in a different mood when it came to the referendum.

But it’s also true that in any relationship when individual partners are moving through their own transition periods it becomes obvious their trajectories are taking them down a different route. When the 2016 Brexit vote occurred the UK’s Solar Arc/Progressed Midheaven, which indicates the immediate priorities for the country’s direction and ambition, was exactly opposite the EU’s 11^th house Uranus – indicating a divergence from the EU’s future networking plans for members. The EU’s Solar Arc/Progressed midheaven is now within 18 months of being opposition the UK’s Pluto, suggesting an impasse as the UK feels trapped by the EU’s stance and aims.

Standing back far enough to see that the chaos which is undoubtedly coming post-Brexit is part and parcel of an overdue correction that would have come one way or another might make it easier to digest. Brexit is merely one vehicle for driving change into action. There could, and perhaps should, have been other ways. Twas ever thus.

At the same time the obdurate EU have been turning their faces to the wall and resisting the call to renewal. Their Solar Arc midheaven will conjunct their hidden, dirty-dealings-behind-the-scenes, control-freaky 12th house Pluto within a year; at the same time as their Solar Arc Pluto pounds confusion and devastation on the head of their 2^nd house financial Neptune. And they, like the UK, will be buffeted and battered by tr Uranus hitting on their Fixed planets for several years thereafter.

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” JFK.

 

  

 

If the 2016 Brexit vote had swung to Remain, the same influences ahead would still be affecting the UK chart? It’s one of the brain-teasers of astrology. Either you say the Brexit vote was predestined, set in concrete by the stars, or the outcome was one of several possibilities within a range circumscribed by the influences (mood of the country) at the time. Which latter leaves some room for freewill including making the wrong choices.

What struck me at the time was tr Pluto square the UK North Node in Aries in the 7^th through 2015/16. The Node in the 7^th is not naturally good at co-operation though in order to develop should strive towards a more sharing attitude. An Aries Node has the opposite inbuilt developmental drive – for independence. So there is an ambivalence in the UK about being interdependent in close relationships.

What makes the UK North Node so integral to the nature of the country is that it sits square the UK Capricorn Sun opposition the Cancer Moon and indeed exactly opposes the UK’s Sun/Moon midpoint, which is another relationship significator.

In an individual’s chart tr Pluto opposing the Sun/Moon midpoint would accompany considerable strain in a marriage causing most, though not all, to break down.  Some marriages hack on through the bad patches and stick together. The flaky, shaky ones go to the wall.

When the UK joined the EEC in 1973 Pluto was in early Libra and Uranus in late Libra, with their midpoint exactly opposition the UK North Node at the point of joining, which was an ominously conflicted kick off – Uranus aiming for freedom, Pluto for possessiveness and control. And tr Pluto was conjunct the UK Sun/Moon midpoint and opposition the UK Node in 1977/78, causing considerable strain in the difficult early years after joining.

The UK’s North Node, Sun and Moon have had a fair pummelling over the past three decades just because of the specific planetary cycles. The triple conjunction of Saturn, Uranus, Neptune in Capricorn were all hammering away at all three right through John Major’s premiership in the 1990s, after Maggie departed. And Europe was what broke him. Then the tumultuous and rebellious tr Uranus square Pluto hit the UK Sun, Moon, North Node from 2014 till 2016.

In some ways it’s a miracle the UK/EU bond has stayed together as long as it has. Which is still no excuse for not having worked out a sensible divorce plan in advance.

Please add below.

      

I feel remiss in not digging out more pearls of astro-wisdom about the unsolvable Brexit conundrum. Only a couple of thoughts to add from last month’s post (below).

The referendum chart 24 June 2016 had an over-hopeful, delusional Jupiter opposition Neptune in a suspicious, doubting, paranoid square to Saturn in self-righteous Sagittarius. Tr Saturn is exactly opposition the Sun exactly now as talks run into an impasse; with a mournful tr Saturn opposition the Venus in late November. Plus an undermining, fantasy-bubble-bursting tr Neptune opposition the Jupiter, around this year and returning in March 2019, and twice more up to January 2020. There’s an aggravated tr Pluto sextile Mars from April 2019 to late 2020; and a complete upheaval tr Pluto square Uranus from late February 2020 till late 2021. Nothing easy.

The Article 50 letter signing, 28 March 2017, delivered 29^th, has an Aries Sun exactly opposition Theresa May’s Libra Sun – and both are catching the tr Saturn hard aspect early this December, which looks discouraging. It has a reformist Uranus trine Saturn; but also an over-confident Jupiter opposition Uranus Moon square Pluto, which was always going to lead to power struggles and a fight for the upper hand.

On 31 March 2019 when the two years is up, tr Pluto is exactly square the Article 50 Uranus for a major jolt accompanying radical change; plus tr Saturn is exactly conjunct the Article 50 Pluto and square the Article 50 Jupiter, which suggests the presumption of success is getting a sharp reality check.

The 31 March 2019 Leave chart has a hostile, bitter and intransigent Mars in Taurus in the 7^th trine Pluto (Saturn) trine Midheaven, which doesn’t sound like a happy outcome; with the unbudgeable Saturn Pluto conjunction drawing close.

On 31 March 2019 the UK 1801 chart looks confused and panicky especially where 3^rd house matters (transport, communications etc) are concerned as tr Neptune squares the UK 3^rd house Mercury; with tr Saturn opposition the 10^th house Moon exactly which looks like loss or mourning or a split. With Solar Arc Pluto within less than a degree conjunct the Ascendant, which could suggest taking back control, or damage to reputation and image, requiring a rebuild ahead. Solar Arc Uranus is just into the 8^th house of business and international finances (depending on house system) which would indicate a roller coaster ride ahead economically – some good, some not so great outcomes.  Though the major buffeting around doesn’t come until 2021 and lasts until 2025 with tr Uranus in hard aspect to the UK’s Fixed planets, mainly in financial houses.

September 18 2018 post:

Theresa May looks poleaxed and devastated despite her customary stalwart utterances. She has tr Pluto square her Sun/Neptune midpoint all this September and October over the Party Conference – Ebertin describes that as ‘a tragic deception or illusion.’ With perhaps a jolting shock from Solar Arc Uranus conjunct her Sun.

Her Government chart is also in spasm from a nervous crise with tr Uranus conjunct the Sun/Neptune now till mid October; with a bad-tempered setback in the first half of October over the conference with tr Saturn square the Mars.

Theresa May is pretty much all downhill over coming months till late 2019 – hopes dashed, undermined, frustrated, powerless. If she goes, I’d hazard a guess at April 2019 onwards, just after either a hard Brexit or a mushy fudge to extend the agony for another two years. Dominic Raab, her negotiator, looks even more squelched than she does until late 2019.

Olly Robbins, the senior civil servant, who seems to be the senior hand on the wheel, is being battered every which way through October, November and early 2019 with tr Uranus conjunct his Sun and opposition his Pluto. But seems in better shape than the two above – golden pension pot to fall back on and a glittering City job, no doubt.

Philip May, who as chief PM support might give a clue, is looking totally crushed this November and December as is his lady wife and Raab. So either the whole thing is shot or they trail miserably on, praying for a miracle.

Her relationship with Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, who’s been fairly contemptuous, is mutually upsupportive at best and being kicked around like a football through this autumn and on till mid 2019.

Yanis Varoufakis was right in his advice not to negotiate at all with the EU – waste of time. Though it would undoubtedly have helped if the Brexiteers had understood let alone explained the complexities and costs of backing out of 40 years of agreements.

As to the nation chart, I’m none to wiser than I was the last time.

Tr Saturn is conjunct the UK and EU Sun 21^st to 28 December this year (and the Germany Sun just before), which certainly looks downbeat and could indicate a breakdown of talks.

On 29 March 2019 tr Saturn will oppose the UK 10^th house Moon exactly and conjunct the EU Sec Progressed Mars also exactly. So it could come to a hard split with the UK feeling isolated; and the EU irritable since they won’t get their money and various continental business including German will be tearing their hair at the disruption.

The EU certainly looks in financial meltdown with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct their 2^nd house Neptune, exact in 8 months’ time, though in effect beforehand.

On the UK chart as well on 29 March 2019 tr Uranus is square the Jupiter for a moment of relief – though whether that means freedom or a deal isn’t obvious. Solar Arc Pluto is within less than a degree of being conjunct the UK Ascendant (taking back control). Politicians are certainly massively unpopular with Solar Arc Moon exactly opposition the 11^th house Saturn (legislature and future plans). But there aren’t the catastrophic economic upheavals you might expect to see with the chaos of a hard Brexit until 2021. Though the Bank of England will be on disaster-watch.

It was always going to go down to the wire and over. But with Theresa May being intransigent and anyway stuck with an unsolvable Northern Ireland problem, it’s difficult to see where an agreement could come from.

 

    

 

Mike Pompeo was rocketed off to Saudi Arabia, no doubt in hopes of calming the firestorm over Khashoggi’s disappearance/murder. Although the Turkish authorities are fanning the flames with tales of recently repainted rooms in the Istanbul Saudi Embassy. Murmurs are that it will be blamed on hapless Saudi operatives overstepping the mark despite it being obvious they were sent across under orders.

Trump clearly has personal reasons for sweeping it under the carpet since he and Jared were so enamoured of the young Crown Prince; and will have an eye on the financial and economic costs of a major fall out.

But Pompeo’s relationship chart with both King Salman and Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), despite today’s smiles,  look to be hitting a sticky wicket in early this December. That’s a time he’s looking peculiarly frustrated on his own chart, with tr Pluto conjunct his Mars and tr Saturn conjunct his Sun; and having his enthusiasm dented in the final days before New Year.

If anything 2019 looks worse on Pompeo’s connections with the two Saudi leaders with major eruptions, at a time when his relationship chart with Trump is also ratcheting up problems. Though that has started already out of sight, and will escalate this December and January 2019, worsening as the year proceeds. It’s not as great a relationship as it appeared with a composite Venus Saturn opposition Mars which will be anger-provoking. Trump drops people into jobs and then expects them to toe his line and surprise, surprise, it doesn’t always turn out the way he wants.

    

 

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft has died. His partner from school days and over the early breakthrough Bill Gates said: “I am heartbroken by the passing of one of my oldest and dearest friends… Personal computing would not have existed without him.” They didn’t always see eye to eye and Allen left over a share disagreement, but without the two of them you possibly wouldn’t be reading this now.

Allen, 21 January 1953, became a multi-billionaire from his Microsoft shares and pledged to give away half to philanthropic initiatives. But his fortune kept on growing and despite giving away hundreds of millions he was worth 20 billion USD when he died.

His Aquarius Sun fell in Gates’ 7^th house and sextile Gates’ Midheaven so good business partnership material, though his Sun was also opposition Gates’ Uranus and square Gates’ Scorpio Sun which would cause personality clashes.

Allen had Mercury in Capricorn opposition Uranus square Neptune (Saturn) in Libra so he would be inventive, visionary and keen on building a better society as well as musically inclined.  For all his multiple interests in charity, culture and commerce and active social life, he always sounded a lonely man.

His relationship chart with Gates had a determined and controlling composite Sun and Mars trine Pluto, so together they could move mountains but as ever with Plutonic ties, it fell to bits in some acrimony. There was also a composite Uranus opposition Venus square Neptune perhaps opposition Moon, which brings together the inspirational, ‘eureka-moment’ Uranus Neptune.

His leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17^th harmonic was strong, linking the revolutionary Uranus Pluto to the Sun and perhaps Moon.