The UK may not be gripped by such mortal terror as the USA given their abysmal political choices. But the agitation is undoubtedly rising as election fever sets in despite none having – as yet – been declared.

  In the immediate future the UK chart  is facing tr Uranus square the 11^th house Saturn which rules the legislature from May 12 to 28 which could indicate the aftermath of an election – though there is no one astro-signature for an election. That influence repeats end of the year into early 2025. The April 8 Solar Eclipse is square the 10^th house UK Moon and conjunct the UK South Node – pointing to challenges and changes involving a) the ruling class as represented by the 10^th house Moon, though that could as easily refer to the Royal Family as key symbolic figures and b) tapping into the UK’s indecision when it comes to alliances and partnerships. The October Libra Eclipse falling on the UK’s Ascendant could be a crisis of confidence in terms of image perhaps triggered by a new beginning, It will be a major turning point.

  The Lunar Eclipse on 25^th of this month set for London has Jupiter exactly conjunct the Ascendant which would suggest a confidence boost and it runs alongside tr Pluto opposition the UK Jupiter, in place till early April. The 8 April Solar Eclipse set for London has the New Moon conjunct the Descendant which usually denotes significant events. So there will be a sense of imminent change of a radical variety.

Previous Solar Eclipses around these degrees were in 2005 – when Tony Blair won a third election with a reduced majority – and became President of the Council of the EU. Wedding of Charles and Camilla. Terrorist bombings in London. The Civil Partnership Act granted same-sex couples similar legal rights to those of married heterosexuals. Same eclipse degrees in 1986 when Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of Windsor dies.  Channel Tunnel announced linking UK to France.

    Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party were always due for yet more jolts and jangles late this April into early May  with his Taurus Sun opposition Uranus and the Tory Party Sun Saturn in Taurus being elbowed by disruptive, liberating and wild card tr Uranus. Before that, the 25th March Lunar Eclipse is conjunct his PMship Midheaven which does point to a crisis.  The April Solar Eclipse is also conjunct Sunak’s Pluto  on his birth chart which is a subtle influence suggesting a major reform is required otherwise stagnation will set in.  On his personal chart he looks boosted by one of his Jupiter midpoints in August and beyond, and in mood for a change come 2025 – but losing for him would not be a total wipeout, given his family’s wealth and California connection though a defeat clearly would not be good for his ego.

  Keir Starmer’s Leadership chart, 4 April 2020 is not a racing certainty for a win with tr Pluto conjunct the catastrophic Mars/Saturn midpoint mid April to late May, and repeating on and off till late 2025.  With tr Uranus square the Jupiter/Neptune midpoint late April to mid May which is over hopeful.

  His personal chart has one cheerful blip May 12 to 29^th, repeating late December to March 2025. Which would be a small window for success, followed by a major change in his life. But all the indications are that a Labour win would be a poisoned chalice followed by setbacks, aggravations and failed policies.  Starmer’s leadership chart is in even worse trouble in 2025/26.

  The Labour Party 12 February 1906 chart which does have tr Uranus square the Sun Venus over late April/early May which could indicate a change, followed by an upbeat tr Uranus conjunct the Jupiter in August, running into 2025. But it then runs into Solar Arc Sun Venus conjunct Pluto by 2026 which will be grinding to a halt, followed by a downhill slide from tr Neptune Saturn in Aries hitting its Mars in Aries square Uranus opposition Neptune for several years thereafter.

  Nothing settled, I fear.

 Lindsay Hoyle, 10 June 1957, who took up the Speakership on 4 November 2019 has been struggling with tr Pluto square his Neptune this year which won’t have improved his judgement and it repeats on and off till late 2025. Plus tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Saturn midpoint which also accompanies career missteps and it also runs on through next year.

  His Term chart, started on a Saturn Pluto conjunction which is drawing to the exact aspect by early in 2025 which might suggest a dead halt. The Term Mars is catching the April Solar Eclipse for major arguments which have already kicked in.

 His personal chart suggests major changes in his life in 2025/26/27 which might indicate he moves on.

 Dinae Abbott, 27 September 1953, has a Sun Libra with a passionately enthusiastic Venus Mars in Virgo and a hope-for-a-better-society Saturn Neptune in Libra trine Jupiter and sextile Pluto for influence and success – as well as being in an opinionated square to Uranus. She’s up and down for the next three to four years and not in a progressive phase.

  The dreaded Tory donor Frank Lester who made the racist remark is a bull-headed Sun Mars in Taurus.

ADD ON: Penny Mordaunt is being talked up as a Sunak replacement, 4 March 1973, Torquay, England. A New Moon, Venus and Mercury in Pisces with her Sun square a Saturn opposition Neptune and sextile Mars in Capricorn, she is determined with her heart in the right place from Saturn Neptune though it often lacks the killer instinct to make it to the top. Her Mars widely square Pluto and square Uranus as well as inconjunct Saturn will make her impulsive with an uncertain grip on her temper at times. She is on a roll in 2024/25 with tr Pluto conjunct her Jupiter in Aquarius with highs late May/early June following on from a few catastrophes in the second half of May, repeating New Year to mid March 2025.

 Lee Anderson, 6 January 1967, A Sun Capricorn square Mars, also has tr Pluto in hard aspect to his Jupiter at 1 degree Leo so will be pushing ahead confidently in 2024/25 but apart from one lucky break, looks less than enchanted especially in 2025.

Diane Abbott, 27 September 1953, does seem to arouse strong reactions, after a positive start in Westminster, especially in recent years since she went hard left and started to suffer from health problems like diabetes which appeared to make her muddled. Without a birth time it is not possible to say but I might suspect her focal point Pluto, depending on the house position might be part of the problem. A strong Pluto can attract hostility. She also may have an Air Grand Trine of a Libra Sun trine North Node in Aquarius trine (maybe) a Gemini Moon – and that plus Uranus square Saturn Neptune will reinforce her dogmatic theorizing. Too much Air (like Corbyn) can produce an ideologue.

“Great work can come out of chaos” is one of the themes of a new warts-and-all film about the work of Merchant Ivory, at one point box-office titans behind sumptuous period masterpieces like Remains of the Day, A Room With a View, Maurice and Howards End. The polished, upper class mien of their films was in complete contrast to the ‘blood-curdling bust-ups’ between the partners in their private lives as they swapped partners; and on set as they ran out of money and refused to pay the actors. But none of that appeared on screen. Their films launched the careers of Hugh Grant, Helena Bonham Carter, Rupert Graves and Julian Sands, made stars of Emma Thompson and Daniel Day-Lewis. ‘The roaring trade in Jane Austen adaptations might never have happened without them. You could even blame Merchant Ivory for Bridgerton.’

 The atmosphere on set was often fraught and one friend said of Ismail Merchant, described as a “conman” with a “bazaar mentality” – “You never went to bed without dreaming of ways to kill him. But you couldn’t not love him.” The documentary also makes a case for Ivory as an underrated advocate for gay representation. It was their gay love story Maurice that was their riskiest undertaking coming as it did in 1987 at the height of the Aids crisis. After The Remains of the Day was  nominated for eight Oscars, the brand faltered and was dismissed by the director Alan Parker as representing “the Laura Ashley school” of cinema.

 Producer Ismail Merchant, 25 December 1936, Bombay and Director James Ivory 7 June 1928 Berkeley, California. Merchant is a confident and ambitious Sun Jupiter in Capricorn trine Uranus; with a creative Saturn opposition Neptune square a Sagittarius North Node; and an intense Mercury opposition Pluto. And a Taurus Moon.

 Ivory was a Sun Venus in Gemini sextile an excitable Mars and Uranus in Aries and opposition Saturn; with his Mars in an ultra-determined square to Pluto.

  On the synastry there was not a strong connection apart from both having Venus in an Air sign and Ivory’s Moon maybe in Aquarius to match Merchant’s Venus. And a lucky Jupiter Uranus cross over.  On the relationship chart, however, there was almost certainly a composite New Moon = more whole when together; as well as an ever-optimistic Jupiter opposition Neptune. Both of which would hold their partnership together. And what would threaten to blow it apart regularly was a composite Pluto opposition Mars square Uranus – OK for a trailblazing partnership but not exactly harmonious. Blood-curdling sounds about right.  

‘There is no one reality’ – is the best I can do to reduce postmodernism to a soundbyte. Described as a movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism and a general suspicion of reason as well as a sensitivity to the role of ideology in maintaining political and economic power. Infiltrated into the mainstream, it leads to as much value being put on ‘my truth’ as on ‘your truth’ (or the actual truth) (if I have understood it correctly) which suggests a nihilistic belief about humanity locked in a Tower of Babel with no possibility of genuine communication. Which ideology appears to have taken root in academia and led to polarization in recent cultural arguments and divisions.  

   Jean Francois Lyotard, 10 August 1924 12.15 am Versailles, France, a philosopher and sociologist, who came to prominence in the 1970s, is deemed the founder of Post Modernism. A nebulous Sun, Neptune and North Node in Leo inconjunct Uranus in Pisces – which is similar to Judith Butler’s Uranus inconjunct = erratic, wilful, contrary,  intolerant, a trailblazer, with a tendency to create irrevocable shifts in their environment.

  His college thesis focused on indifference and detachment in Zen Buddhism and Taoism and he had a strong interest in aesthetics (which is one of the more rarified and amorphous ends of philosophy). His mindset will have been affected by the devastating effects of World War One in which the French dead and wounded amounted to a staggeringly high  percentage of the population. He helped out as a medic in the liberation of occupied Paris at the end of World War 11 and then taught in Algeria.  So he grew up with national loss, the damage of fascism and violence and was university educated in the aftermath of WW11, trying to make sense of a world gone mad.

  At the risk of psycho-analysing him what that makes me think of is the shattered self. Trauma leads to a fragmentation of identity/personality which in turn leads to a desperate search for meaning to try to fit the broken pieces together. He then projected that inner brokenness out into society/the world.  

  Some of his philosophical forebears came out of the fantastical, mystical Neptune Pluto in Gemini like Ludwig Wittgenstein (another Uranus inconjunct) and Heidegger, but Soren Kierkegaard, 5 May 1813 Copenhagen, came well before with Pluto in Pisces.  Nietzsche had Pluto in Aries and Husserl had Pluto in Taurus. So I am none the wiser about the astro-development of thought that led to the cul-de-sac of Lyotard.

  Lyotard did/does have a global influencer 22^nd harmonic but also a rise and fall 10H. With some help from the fates his ideas will collapse in a heap on the floor as Uranus moves into Gemini.  Life is but a subjective dream – is a lovely theory for a Buddhist sitting up in a mountain cave but is of zero help in the real world.

NHS England has confirmed children will no longer routinely be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics. The decision comes after a review found there was “not enough evidence” they are safe or effective. Puberty blockers will now only be available as part of research. This puts England in line with several European countries who have been putting strict eligibility requirements, usually in the context of a tightly controlled research setting.

A 2022 Swedish report concluded that the “scientific basis is not sufficient” to continue to conduct hormone treatments on children without further research. The risks are likely to outweigh benefits. In Denmark youth referrals no longer get a prescription for puberty blockers, hormones or surgery; instead they receive therapeutic counseling and other support services. In France, it is recommended the “greatest reserve” when considering puberty blockers or hormone treatments, with a risk of “over-diagnosis”.

  Finland has adopted the Dutch Protocol for pediatric gender medicine which has a strict set of criteria for treatment eligibility with psychotherapy throughout. A Finnish review of evidence indicated support of hormonal interventions for adolescents are of “very low” certainty. Dutch clinicians who pioneered the use of puberty blockers have subsequently observed that some patients who transitioned under a strictly adhered to version of the Dutch Protocol appear to have substantial reproductive regret, body shame and sexual dysfunction.

Stonewall in contrast has voiced its concern about the new NHS policy. “All trans young people deserve access to high quality, timely healthcare”, a spokesperson said. “For some, an important part of this care comes in the form of puberty blockers, a reversible treatment that delays the onset of puberty, prescribed by expert endocrinologists, giving the young person extra time to evaluate their next steps. We are concerned that NHS England will be putting new prescriptions on hold until a research protocol is up and running at the end of 2024.”

The NHS connection with Stonewall has an intriguing synastry given that the NHS has been cravenly submissive to Stonewall’s coercive control for years. 

  The NHS, 5 July 1948, is a caring Sun Cancer square Neptune; with a Gemini stellium including the Moon and an enduring Saturn Pluto in Leo square the Taurus North Node/Scorpio South Node opposition.

  Stonewall, 24 May 1989 also has a Gemini stellium including the Sun; and the triple conjunction of Uranus, Saturn, Neptune in Capricorn opposition Mars in Cancer; with Mars trine Pluto – custom-built for determined action and reform, but not always sensible or compassionate as crusading zeal (Aquarius North Node) goes too far.

 Stonewall’s Mars is conjunct the NHS Sun for an argumentative interface with Stonewall’s Neptune Saturn in opposition the NHS Sun hinting at uncertainty and a degree of smokescreening? – and Stonewall’s Pluto is conjunct the NHS’s South Node pulling it backwards.

 The relationship chart has a controlling, power-imbalance composite Sun Venus square Pluto which has been undermined recently and will continue to be so by tr Neptune hard aspects into 2025. Tr Pluto is exactly square the composite Saturn at the moment and will continue to sextile the composite Uranus till late this year. With a highly strung (probably argumentative) tr Uranus opposition Neptune from July this year onwards.

  This month’s Lunar Eclipse is also conjunct the composite South Node giving a wake-up call about the joint direction chosen.

Stonewall is facing an uncertain path ahead especially from 2025/6 onwards as tr Neptune starts to square the triple conjunction hitting Uranus first and tr Uranus will square the Sun. It is likely to fade towards the end of the decade altogether.

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Haiti has collapsed into violent mayhem with violent gangs in control of the capital, dead bodies piling up and 4000 criminals roaming the streets, freed after an attack on a prison by the gangs. The acting (unelected) prime minister/president Ariel Henry is out of the country and unable to return, but is anyway suspected of being behind the assassination of the previous President Moise in 2021. The EU has evacuated its diplomats, while the US have sent in military personnel to protect their embassy. Commentators say Haiti is facing its biggest humanitarian crisis since the 2010 earthquake.

  The BBC: ‘The instability in Haiti is a problem for the entire Caribbean community, and for Washington too. The idea of a nation of some 11 million people being run by gangs is of huge concern, particularly the potential impact on outward migration during an election year in the US.’

 Haiti, 1 January 1895 7.17 am Gonaives, Haiti was under acute pressure in 2010 when the  quake struck with an estimated death toll well over 100,000. At that point tr Pluto in Capricorn square tr Saturn in Libra collided exactly with the Haiti Mars in Capricorn square Saturn. Pluto Saturn brings deprivation and hardship and hitting on the prone to disasters and setbacks Mars Saturn it was a catastrophe of epic proportions.

  At the moment tr Pluto is square the Haiti Midheaven blocking progress, pulling down the country’s reputation and in Plutonian fashion reducing all to rubble. Tr Pluto will continue squaring the midheaven and square the Jupiter, hinting at a tussle for the upper hand extending on till late 2025. In 2026/27 tr Neptune and tr Saturn will oppose the Haiti Saturn and square the Mars, moving on in the years thereafter to undermine the Sun etc. It won’t be as devastating as the 2010 quake but will be swampy, directionless and undermined.

 Ariel Henry, 6 November 1948, is a controlling Sun Scorpio square Pluto, who looks unlikely to continue. What is interesting astro-wise about him is his takeover chart as prime minister, 20 July 2021 which has a troubled and aggressive yod of Neptune sextile Pluto conjunct Mars (Venus) in Leo; with a controlling Sun opposition Pluto. His government looks liable to complete capitulation in May/June as tr Uranus squares the Mars focal point, if not before.

 Caricom, 1 August 1973 Trinidad – the Caribbean Community intergovernmental organisation that is a political and economic union of 15 member states – is meeting to try to see a way ahead. It looks substantially disappointed and uncertain with a confused, indecisive SA Neptune opposition the Mercury at the moment and more so in 2025 with tr Neptune square the Saturn. Though that may not all because of this issue of Haiti.   

Prince Edward, the new Duke of Edinburgh, has been heaped with praise as he sails through his sixtieth birthday  – by his wife in a heartfelt tribute as well as admirers who point to his hardworking Royal schedule of engagements and unassuming manner.

 The youngest of Queen Elizabeth’s children and like Andrew blessed with more attention from his mother in early childhood than the older two, his first love was the theatre and television though that ended badly as did his short-lived military career. His marriage to public relations expert Sophie Wessex surprised many and tripped through a few scandals before settling into a lower key charity-focused existence. His closeness to Prince Philip, his father, seemed surprising early on but as he has aged he looks physically more like him and has taken on the mantle of the Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme.

  Born 10 March 1964 8.20pm London, he has a hard-working Pisces Sun in his 6^th house conjunct Mars in Pisces in his entertaining 5^th which was in part no doubt what attracted him to showbusiness. His Saturn in Aquarius is also in his 5^th suggesting an interest in the organisational side of the entertainment business. Like Andrew he has a 4^th house Sun, though in his case in Aquarius as opposed to Andrew’s Scorpio – but the house placing does suggest a strong emotional attachment to family and roots. His Mars Mercury opposition Uranus Pluto in Virgo hints at a rebellious streak was perhaps behind his early missteps. But with an enthusiastic Jupiter in Aries and Venus in Taurus in his 7^th he has overcome criticism to settle into a steadier lifestyle.

  He shares his Venus in Taurus with his father and both have a Mutable Sun Mars conjunction so there would have been an understanding between them.

  His wife Sophie is generally assumed to be the driving force in their marriage. “She wears the trousers,” says one who has visited them. “He makes the tea.” His 7^th house Venus and Jupiter would be a help in attracting a supportive  and affectionate partner. Though his Sun/Moon midpoint conjunct his Saturn would suggest it would require hard work to make it work, with duty taking precedence.

  Sophie was born 20 January 1965 maybe 12.46pm, Oxford, giving her a zero degree Aquarius Sun with a complicated stellium in Virgo of Moon, Uranus, Pluto conjunct and opposition Saturn and trine Jupiter, with a hard working Mars also in Virgo.

  Her Aquarius Sun and Virgo Moon linking across to his Pisces Sun and Aquarius Moon give a sense of a fairly emotionally detached connection. Their relationship chart has the hallmarks of a good working relationship with the composite Saturn conjunct the Sun and Venus; with a dash of attraction from Venus Pluto but also a need for constant changes and space with Venus Uranus – and some irritations about the power imbalance with a Mars square Pluto.

 The charts of their two children – Louise and James – both have hard Sun Moon aspects hinting at parents of entirely different temperaments. Louise has a 10^th house Taurus Sun opposition a Scorpio Moon square Neptune. James has a Pisces Moon square is Sagittarius Sun.  

  Edward’s relationship with his two much older siblings don’t suggest much closeness. Charles, born 16 years before, has a peculiarly tricky relationship chart with him – a composite Mars opposition Uranus square Neptune which at the best of times will be edgy and uncertain. And since the Coronation it has been confused; and hotting up for high tensions in 2025/26 with tr Pluto hard aspects to Mars and Uranus. Which suggests either a few disruptions in private or external events bearing down on their relationship.  Edward’s Solar Return from birthday 2025 for a year after does look highly stressed.

  Andrew he is pulling away from noticeably this year, more so next.

Trying to track an astro-timeline through the heated gender argument which appears to be on the turn starts way back in the late Nineteenth Century as Pluto moved into Gemini with the birth of Harry Benjamin. He was an endocrinologist who had a lasting influence on gender medicine. His foundation was renamed WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) in 1979 with Pluto in mid Libra. It has become the global standard for the care of transgender children, though not for much longer as leaked files this week indicate their ‘experts’ knew the damage that puberty blockers do in causing infertility and cancer and went ahead anyway. And that they knew that in some cases patients were too young or too mentally ill (multiple personality disorder??) to fully appreciate the consequences of their treatment.

  For years, WPATH has been cited as a source of “best practice” for trans healthcare by numerous medical bodies, including the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council – and still is. The Royal College of Psychiatrists refers to WPATH in its own recommendations for care.

[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/09/disturbing-leaks-from-us-gender-group-wpath-ring-alarm-bells-in-nhs Hannah Barnes is associate editor at the New Statesman and author of Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/06/trans-activist-house-of-cards-ought-to-be-collapsing/]

  Harry Benjamin, 12 January 1885 5.30am Berlin, Germany, followed on from sexologist Magnus Hirschfield, 14 May 1868 Kolberg, Poland, born twenty years before with Sun and Pluto in Taurus who was a transvestite and homosexual. Hirschfield perhaps because of his orientation kicked Darwin’s notions of evolution to the kerb and wrote that male and female were abstractions, invented extremes.  To which end he set in train a movement for trans-surgery and transformation of body chemistry. (See Gender post 1 June 2024)

   Benjamin saw a chance to make his professional name on the back of Hirschfield’s theories and with all the passion of a revolutionary ideologue – Pluto at zero degrees Gemini trine Uranus in Libra – he set in train an interventionist approach.  

   A later member of his foundation and even more vociferous advocate for surgical intervention was John Money, at one point a glittering name from John Hopkins University, who routinely advised abnormal male patients to be castrated and raised as girls. His surgical interference with a boy twin who had been badly circumcised, transforming him into a girl, was lauded (by him) as proof of his theories, until the tragic truth came out, wrecking his reputation and, worse, both twins committed suicide in adult life. Money, 8 July 1921, was a Sun, Mercury, Mars, Pluto in Cancer trine Uranus, with Jupiter Saturn conjunct in Virgo – inhumanely determined, destructive. See previous post 26 June 2023 John Money – manipulating gender boosted his career.

  New theories to boost a professional reputation were not only in evidence in the scientific/medical fraternity but academia was also awash with a fervour for postmodernist thinking which began to take hold in the early 1970s in France and thence to the USA universities as Pluto moved into Libra. The new philosophical worldview made rational debate on any subject not just difficult but well-nigh impossible.

  [I must admit to total ignorance on the subject but it explains a good deal about the gridlock in arguments.] In Post modernism, objectivity is impossible; language is taken to shape reality, not describe it; oppression is brought into existence by discourse; and binary sex is an artefact of Western colonialism.

  Judith Butler, an American philosopher and gender studies scholar whose writings have been influential in questioning the male female approach to humanity, is finding less acceptance with her recent book heavily slated. All critics of gender ideology, according to her, desire “the restoration of a patriarchal dream-order where a father is a father; a sexed identity never changes; women, conceived as ‘born female at birth’, resume their natural and ‘moral’ positions within the household; and white people hold uncontested racial supremacy”.

  [I feel as if I have gone down the rabbit hole into topsy turvy land. It is hardly a surprise that some people hold weird views but that they are listened to and become influential in the mainstream is scary.]

  Helen Joyce’s recent book Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s Rights on the other hand is a tour de force of clarity, common sense and useful information as she disentangles the history and various factions furthering the present debate for their own ends. She makes the point that ‘transactivists purport to speak for trans people but they serve their interests poorly’.  ‘Transactivism can be exploited by those who would harm children’. She is not arguing remotely that trans people want to harm children, any more than gay people did, but the homosexual liberation movement was infiltrated by paedophiles.

  She describes a coterie of individuals and groups who benefit from transactivism. Rich powerful males who want to be classed as women funding the cause. Everything else – harm to children’s bodies, loss of women’s privacy, destruction of women’s sports, perversion of language – is collateral damage. ‘Policy capture’ leading to a distortion of policymaking is aimed to benefit a minority at the expense of the general public. Big pharma have an eye to profits from drugs. Some activist parents would rather their child was transsexual than admit they are homosexual.

  There seems to have been/be a split amongst sexologists between those who were against surgical intervention like Alfred Kinsey and Richard Green whose ‘sissy boy syndrome’ studies over 15 years, indicated that the overwhelming majority of effeminate boys were likely to become adult homosexuals.

  My interest is always about why certain ideas grip a culture and become mainstream. What was the astrological driver of the ideology, damaging and otherwise.

  Sexuality has always been on a spectrum with a fluidity, more accepted in some cultures than others, but it was never, and still is not, an issue. The oddity about this toxic debate has always seemed to be about something other than the small numbers of genuinely gender dysphoric people who appear to be quiet living and far removed from the aggressiveness of the argument.  

  I hesitate to add a footnote which may sound extreme – and is in no way intended as any kind of analysis or diagnosis of genuine gender dysphoria; but is a possible hint of one aspect of the social madness on the topic of gender which has been swirling for the past few decades.

  Skipping across psychobabble, French analyst Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel focuses on the writings of the Marquis de Sade. De Sade’s hero becomes a god through a process of destruction and the creator of a new kind of reality. Nature becomes a melting pot where there are no boundaries – between ages (children/adults) or sexes. She refers also to the Dionysian Rites involving intersexual disguises. ‘Their aim is regression to the primordial confusion and their goal is the symbolic restoration of “chaos”, the state of unity without differentiation that preceded the Creation. This return to confusion manifests itself in a supreme act of regeneration and an enormous increase in power.’

  Hubris in denying and manipulating nature. She ties it into perversion but in less loaded language it refers back to early omnipotence.

  De Sade, 2 June 1740 5pm Paris, France had an 8^th house Sun Jupiter Chiron conjunct in Gemini, which would give him a leaning towards entanglements, boundary crossing and taboos. He also had Neptune opposition Uranus South Node in Capricorn. As well as a sadistic/masochistic Mars square Saturn. His Uranus Neptune fits thoughts from the previous post 1st March 2024 on Gender – deny the past, self-create the future ++ more Uranus Neptune + Neptune in Pisces.

  The Dionysius reference also ties in with Jane’s comments about Neptune added onto the above post.

  Apologies for the hotch potch, length and absence of much astrology but Pluto moving a new sign, in particular into Air, is of interest given where we are at. It does give rise to a ferment of ideas, not all of them grounded in reality which drive cultural trends over the subsequent decades. The late 19^th Century in particular spawned Freud and Hirschfield whose thinking took hold as Pluto and Neptune were together in Gemini – which brought great inspiration as well as off-the-wall confusion. And produced some exceptionally murderous dictators as well – Hitler etc.

Add On: Judith Butler, 24 February 1956 Cleveland, Ohio, is a Sun Pisces square a (can-be-know-it-all) Saturn in Sagittarius. She has a supremely confident and pushy Jupiter Pluto conjunction in Leo in an unyielding square to Saturn and an ultra-determined trine to an outspoken Mars in Sagittarius. Not a chart that suggests subtlety or nuance.

  Her Mars is inconjunct Uranus and in a very wide yod involving her Sun. A yod focal point Uranus can be contrary, wilful, erratic, but also has the ability to act as a catalyst and trailblazer. Though that in turn can lead to irrevocable rifts within the individual’s environment. Her Mercury in Aquarius is conjunct Chiron and square Neptune.

 I did attempt to wade through her wiki page with summaries of her writings and thinking – and got depressed. I did philosophy at university, though decades before this stuff, but it has the same feel of playing with language and concepts in a lofty, intellectual word salad that bears little relation to real life.  Terrifying that it actually slanted a culture.

Porn star Stormy Daniels is back in the headlines with a documentary about her life – and the ‘hush money’ case involving Donald Trump in New York scheduled for March 25. The theory is that Trump falsified business records as part of a scheme to buy Daniels’ silence to keep her from going public with claims that they had an affair years before. Since that payment was made on the eve of the 2016 presidential race it was arguably in violation of campaign-finance law.

The case has ‘always been an awkward mix of the serious and the profane, based around a seamy of extramarital sex, business records and presidential politics.’ Trump’s aides say  he particularly hates this case given the nature of the story that prosecutors intend to put in front of the jury.

 Born 17 March 1979 1.10am Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Stormy Daniels had a rough childhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with an absentee dad and neglectful mother; and thence into the porn world. When she first met Trump she said she didn’t take him seriously as he was a reality star and said she reminded him of his daughter.  

She has always described their encounter as both technically consensual and something akin to abusive coercion. When the story broke in 2018 she said “ I was completely sure that I was going to die,” as she was attacked by MAGA supporters after a TV appearance.

 She is disarmingly straightforward about her motives. “I wasn’t trying to be a champion for #MeToo or for any other movement. Originally, I just did this for purely f—– selfish reasons. I wanted to stand up for myself and save my own ass, not everyone else’s.”

 But she has ended up as an accidental crusader who’s been compelled by indignation, online death threats, and by mounting legal fees and financial scams that have left her in dire straits — to keep going. “I won’t give up, because I’m telling the truth.”

She has a quick witted 3^rd house Pisces Sun with a 3^rd house Mars in Pisces which would help with her stripper/dancer talents. Her hard-working Saturn in Virgo opposition her Mars gives testament to her tough life and maltreatment.

  Her Sun is in an innovative trine to Uranus and trine a lucky 8^th house Jupiter – so she has a guardian angel looking over her. And with a Water Grand Trine she will be self-protective. Her controlling, influential and determined Pluto in her 10^th house is trine her Venus in Aquarius in her 2^nd – which would help her earn money from a Venusian business and make a name for herself. Her intense Scorpio Moon is square her Jupiter so I would suspect a supportive mother figure of sorts, a grandmother perhaps.

 She has been logjammed recently with tr Neptune conjunct her Sun and her progressed Mars opposition her Pluto. But tr Pluto is opposing her Jupiter for the 2^nd year running which will keep her optimism high and may even bring in money. Plus she has the tail end of her mid life crisis with tr Uranus opposition her Uranus from now till early April. It may be unsettling but it could also free her up for the next phase of her life.

  Her Saturn falls in DT’s 1^st house so she has the ability to cloud his image. Her Pluto is conjunct his 2^nd house Jupiter so there is a money tussle ongoing. Her Neptune is conjunct his South Node Moon and opposition his Sun so she will giving him a sinking feeling.

 Interestingly his Chiron is opposition her Pluto – and her Chiron is square his Pluto – so their respective wounds/damage brought them together in a karmic entanglement. Too much to hope it will heal anything about DT but good on her, whatever her motives, for standing up for herself.

Few in Israel think that Hamas can be eliminated totally despite Netanyahu’s unwavering insistence it can. He is ploughing ahead with no end in sight to the return of hostages or a cessation of the bombing of Gaza which is rapidly heading into famine. Biden’s few bleated entreaties about taking care are having no effect apart from losing him votes in the US from younger concerned Democrats.  

 Netanyahu’s Government chart, 29 December 2022 4.30pm, is not showing any signs of imminent collapse though it will get jolted late April/early May, perhaps as internal political tensions flare up. There is  pervasive undercurrent of  failed plans through this year and next; with outbreaks of violence/argument in June and more so in July, October and November and early in 2025. There is an obscure yod on this chart of Sun sextile South Node inconjunct Mars which is being activated through the next year as it shifts to exact aspects which suggests a feeling of hopelessness and being stuck. There is one blip of luck after mid 2025 but by that time tr Neptune and Saturn will be conjunct the Government Jupiter which will undermine confidence and forward progress.

 Netanyahu’s personal chart is sagging badly through this month with tr Neptune opposing and undermining his warrior Sun/Mars midpoint. High risk comes late April/early May from tr Uranus square his Mars/Pluto midpoint. June will see his nerves overstretched and in July tr Uranus will make an explosive square to his Mars in Leo which does suggest a flare up (and appears on several Middle Eastern and political  charts) which suggests a hot spot of increased activity and perhaps reckless moves on his part to prop up his self-esteem.

His relationship chart with Israel shows up August and onwards as aggravation/ risk points with tr Uranus square the composite Mars – with more angst through 2025.

 The Israel chart flags up more disruptions as tr Uranus returns to conjunct the 8^th house Sun this May and again late December to mid March 2025; with danger spots mid March through till early May with tr Uranus square the Mars/Pluto, Mars/Saturn midpoints and opposes the Israel Chiron.

 Joe Biden’s relationship chart with Netanyahu shows a tight connection with an exact composite Sun square Pluto so not much daylight between them despite Biden’s words of caution. But at the end of the day the relationship is not mutually supportive with a composite Mars Neptune conjunction – one wins the other loses.  

 Evidently Biden has been a firm supporter of Israel since 1982 after Israel invaded Lebanon in retaliation for cross-border attacks by the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Biden was supportive of the Israeli attack to the point the prime minister Menachem Begin later expressed surprise at the vehemence of Biden’s position particularly the senator’s attempts to justify the killing of women and children. “I disassociated myself from these remarks,” Begin told Israeli reporters. “I said to him: ‘No, sir, attention must be paid. According to our values, it is forbidden to hurt women and children, even in war’.”

  Biden’s relocation chart to Tel Aviv puts his inordinately stubborn Sun, Venus, Mercury in Scorpio in the 8^th with a supportive Jupiter in the 4^th. But for all that Biden’s relationship chart with Israel does show a rupture from mid June onwards with tr Uranus square the composite Sun and that repeats on and off into early 2025. Which may be the temporary port being mooted to send aid into Gaza.