Is this the end of the road for the euro? That’s the question asked by one of Germany’s leading economists who serves as an adviser to the government. Hans-Werner Sinn writes: ‘It is hard to see a clear path forward. Some argue for still more debt socialisation and risk sharing at the European level. Others warn that this would push Europe into an even deeper quagmire of financial irresponsibility. …. The euro’s third decade will decide its fate.’ He comments that sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf was right to conclude: “The currency union is a grave error, a quixotic, reckless and misguided goal, that will not unite but break up Europe.”

At present Portugal, Spain and Greece are all governed by radical socialists who have abandoned the “austerity policy”; and Italy intends to increase the country’s debt substantially to pay for tax cuts and a guaranteed-income scheme. All of these four countries’ manufacturing sectors are still way below 2007 levels of competitiveness and their youth unemployment is shockingly high.

The euro was launched as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999 and as a cash currency on 1 January 2002, assuming both 12 am. Both charts indicate a Saturnine period in late 2021/2022. Which doesn’t mean an end of times but it does suggest there will be a harsh dose of reality.

The 1999 chart has a T Square of Mars opposition Saturn square a financial Venus which has been under pressure since 2017 and worsening in 2021 to 2023 as tr Pluto is conjunct the Venus and square Saturn. The Solar Arc Mars squares Uranus in early 2021 for a mighty crash of sorts and high insecurity; and the Solar Arc MC is square Saturn in late 2021/early 2022.

The 2002 chart has a fractious Mutable T Square of Pluto opposition Saturn square Mars, which has been muddling through heavy doses of Neptune since 2015, worsening drastically this year and next as tr Neptune is conjunct the Mars and square Pluto. With the Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the midheaven in early 2022.

Germany’s Target 2 surplus with the European Central Bank is about to tip 1 trillion euros – in Sinn’s words it is “unsecured credit against the euro system, which cannot be called in and which debtor countries pay no interest on.” The prospect of the possibility of it going up in smoke is not surprisingly causing deep unrest in Germany .

Paul Manafort’s first trial starts today in which he is accused of filing false tax returns; four counts of failure to report foreign bank accounts; nine counts of bank fraud or bank fraud conspiracy. Court papers allege that he “generated tens of millions of dollars in income” from his work in Ukraine and “engaged in a scheme to hide income from United States authorities”. He faces a second trial in September on charges related to his lobbying work in Ukraine; plus an allegation of witness tampering.

If found guilty he faces decades in prison though it would only take one juror to find him not guilty for the case to fall. And he could be pardoned if it all goes down.

He was Trump’s campaign manager for five months and although the charges were raised at the behest of Mueller, it has nothing to do with Russian collusion. For a decade prior Manafort and Michael Cohen did business together.

Manafort, 1 April 1949 has a competitive and pro-active Sun, Mars, Venus, Mercury in Aries with his Sun Mars in a determined and controlling trine to Pluto and opposition Neptune – so soaring ambition; and a Yod of Uranus sextile Saturn inconjunct Jupiter in Capricorn. Certainly money-minded with Jupiter in Capricorn and that Yod can be undone by over-confidence.

He’s got tr Saturn in discouraging squares to his Aries planets and his Neptune through till after the New Year; with a major-setback Progressed Mars square his Saturn, around now and trailing on for maybe another year.  He will get a lucky break from tr Uranus square his Jupiter in December and January 2019 though with so much self-aggrandisement wrapped up in that apex Jupiter, it could backfire to send him completely off track. Transits to his midpoints are jangled this year; uncertain and neurotic next; and worse in 2020.

Manafort’s Aries planets fall in Trump’s 8^th suggesting hidden financial dealings and a deep connection; though M’s Uranus is conjunct Trump’s Sun and his Saturn is conjunct Trump’s Ascendant – so he’ll have the tendency to throw Trump off track and damp his image.

Their relationship chart has a chained-together-with- superglue composite Sun square Saturn Pluto, not necessarily bosom-buddies but an entanglement that it’ll be very difficult to unpick. Their connection looks to be sagging badly from late March 2019 till early 202o with tr Neptune square the composite Mars; and worsening thereafter.

The ever-young Kate Bush is sixty today, a birthday she shares with novelist Emily Bronte (200 years ago) who inspired her first hit ‘Wuthering Heights’ which shot her to prominence as a 19 year old. A singer-songwriter, musician, dancer and record producer her music is eclectic, experimental, idiosyncratic and theatrical. Over the years she has released 25 top singles – The Man with the Child in his Eyes, Babooshka, Don’t Give up –  and ten studio albums. Reclusive and enigmatic she never sold out to the commercial market and still became a significant influence for many who followed her unique and dramatic musical style.

Born 30 July 1958, she is, surprisingly, a Sun Leo conjunct a maverick Uranus squaring onto a steady Mars in Taurus opposition Neptune perhaps square an Aquarius Moon. Her Sun must be in one of the hidden houses. Her Mars does trine Pluto and Mercury in Virgo which will give her an intensity and may contribute to her reserved approach to public display. Her Venus in home-loving and creative Cancer is trine her Neptune and sextile Pluto Mercury and Mars so she has passion and flair. For sure her Neptune is powerfully aspected.

Doug Ford, brother of the disgraced Rob Ford (erstwhile Mayor of Toronto), is taking a slash-and-burn approach to his first month as Ontario premier with seemingly few checks on his power.

Born 20 November 1964, he’s a wilfully unyielding Sun Scorpio opposition Jupiter square Saturn in Aquarius, who won’t willingly share the driving seat with anyone.  Has extraordinary endurance and a ruthless streak. As if that wasn’t enough he’s got Pluto Uranus on the point of a Mutable T Square to Mercury opposition North Node –  giving him a high-wire temperament, overly excitable and erratic, contemptuous, as well as drawn to tear down anything which doesn’t accord with his ideas – a wrecker. Plus his Mars is also conjunct Uranus Pluto square a Gemini Moon, so he’ll be explosive and inclined to let fly when anyone stands up to him. And he has a cool, ideologically-oriented Air Grand Trine of Saturn, Venus, North Node. What an unattractive mix.

His Term chart, 29 June 2018 around noon Toronto looks volatile with a perverse and uncompromising Mars in Aquarius in the grandstanding 5^th opposition North Node Mercury square Uranus in the 8^th and Jupiter in Scorpio in the 2nd square Venus – looks extravagant, indulgent, reckless. There’s a discouraging Sun opposition a 4^th house Saturn for an unhappy populace, with voters uptight and emotional from a Moon Pluto conjunction, possibly at all the showboating and ego on display.

If noon is accurate then tr Neptune will square the midheaven in 2020/21 which is undermining. At the same time Solar Arc Saturn will oppose the Sun, which might just bring down the curtain. Even before then  public angst will be growing with tr Pluto conjunct the Moon in 2019/2020.

Tr Pluto will trine his Jupiter in 2018 to late 2019 so he’ll power ahead nonetheless initially.

His brother Rob who died from Cancer in 2016, 28 May 1969, was a Sun Gemini opposition Mars, with a megaton Jupiter Uranus Pluto in Virgo – so quite a volcano himself.

Mike Pence is under the forensic microscope and scalpel in a forthcoming book “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence” out late August. Having reviewed an early copy the NY Times calls him ‘self-infatuated, a bigot, a liar and cruel.’ Daily Kos adds their take with ‘zealot, dominionist, theocrat – front man for a long line of evangelical wingnuts who want to take over America.’

Seen as an ineffectual congressman, he cozyed up to the Koch brothers, Betsy DeVos and other rich Republican donors; “ordered up a collection of custom-embroidered clothes —decorated with his name and the words Governor of Indiana”; looked likely to lose a re-election but was saved from ignominy by Trump’s VP offer. Disregards science in his onetime insistence that smoking doesn’t cause cancer and a belief that climate change warnings were “a secret effort to increase government control over people’s lives.”

As governor, he refused to pardon a black man who had spent almost a decade in prison for a crime that he clearly hadn’t committed. He also ignored a crisis in which people in a poor, largely black Indiana city were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead. And called the unhinged former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio a “tireless champion” of the “rule of law, ” after Arpaio’s contempt-of-court conviction for ignoring a federal judge’s order to stop using illegal tactics to torment immigrants. He’s fiercely opposed to abortion (could warrant the death penalty), pro gay conversion therapy, anti same-sex marriage.

The author Michael D’Anionio said “He is absolutely certain that his moral view should govern public policy.”

Pence is taking the line of least resistance in swampy conditions till late 2019 with tr Neptune square his Gemini Sun; with a disaster or two this year mid July to late August; and November to mid December as tr Pluto squares his Mars/Saturn midpoint so the book will do damage.

He does have Solar Arc Sun conjunct his Uranus, exact sometime in 2019 which suggests a major turnaround with unexpected events – and Uranus being tricky it can go either way, either a breakthrough changing his life out of all recognition or a shock that knocks him off track.

What is worrisome (partisan thought) is that tr Pluto will sextile his Jupiter in 2020/2021, exact at the next Inauguration, which is usually an indicator of confidence and success. Though tr Pluto squares his Saturn/Uranus at the same time which is a considerable struggle against enormous odds, often limits freedom and can be high-risk; and he has tr Saturn also square his Mars for a setback on January 20 2021 as well. Plus he has a disappointing Pluto square to a Neptune midpoint over the election.

Pence’s wife, Karen, will be going into overdrive through 2019/2020 with some minor success and a good deal of aggravation with tr Pluto sextile her Sun/Jupiter and trine her Mars in Taurus; with two discouraging Solar Arcs of Saturn square her Sun this year and her Venus in 2020; plus a devastating, disorienting Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Neptune in a few months’ time. She’s the heavyweight in the family with a Yod of Saturn in self-righteous Sagittarius sextile a Libra North Node inconjunct Mars in Taurus with her Sun, Venus, Jupiter and Neptune in Scorpio. Their relationship chart has a controlling composite Sun Pluto – and an emotionally ratchety and a-not-altogether-kind composite Mars opposition Saturn square Venus. It’s a very one-sided partnership.

Pence’s relationship chart with the USA is a good deal more volatile and disruptive than Trump’s with a composite Uranus, Mars, Venus square Pluto – and is under a Saturninian cloud in 2019. Trump’s has a locked-together with gritted-teeth Sun, Pluto, Saturn.

Be careful what you wish for. It could get worse. Or as the NYT has it – from kleptocracy to theocracy.

CBS is heading for its 90^th birthday next year in the face of a slew of allegations of sexual misconduct aimed primarily at CEO Les Moonves – detailed by Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker. Thirty other former and current CBS employees also allege harassment and company-wide protection for those accused of misconduct, some alleging their careers were later derailed as a result of filing harassment complaints. All of this in the middle of a pitched legal battle with majority shareholder Shari Redstone over a proposed merger with Viacom.

Moonves, 6 October 1949, is a Sun Neptune in Libra square Jupiter in ambitious, money-minded Capricorn and opposition an Aries Moon squaring onto an innovative and rebellious Uranus in Cancer.  He has an ultra-determined, never-say-die Mars Pluto conjunction – somewhat similar to Weinstein’s Mars square Pluto – which in businesses requiring a ruthless streak isn’t too surprising. Though in Moonves’ case his Mars Pluto squares onto his seductive, sexualised Venus in Scorpio. He’ll be a man of strong passions.

Tr Neptune is within days of reversing in opposition to his Sun/Mars and Sun/Pluto midpoints, which will bring a sense of panicky failure and undermine his position; and those repeat off and on through 2019, being joined by another couple of Neptune confidence sinkers in 2019/ 2020. He’ll have some lucky breaks in 2019 and fairly resounding success from tr Pluto conjunct his Jupiter in 2019/2020 so he won’t be down and out but it won’t all be going his way.

CBS has a late Capricorn Sun square Jupiter at one degree Taurus – both of these will be shaken up by tr Uranus through the rest of this year into early 2019 – with luck and some relief as well as jolting changes.

Moonves’ relationship chart with CBS is being detonated into sudden change with tr Uranus square the composite Pluto now and into early 2019; with high frustration, anger and more disruption from tr Pluto opposition the composite Mars and trine Uranus. He’s pretty anchored in and isn’t a man to give in without a fight.

Two Eclipses down, one to go, a partial Solar Eclipse on 11^th August at 18 degrees Leo. In a Saros Series Bernadette Brady ascribes to transformation and rebuilding, though it can start with a collapse of old plans.

What’s most notable is that the New Moon is on the apex of a Yod to Pluto sextile Neptune and exactly in opposition to the Neptune/Pluto midpoint. This will give a supernatural tinge to events and feelings, with clairvoyant or mystical visions; and/or bring confusion, fantasies, falsehoods and strange obsessions. Neptune Pluto can be scandal-prone, induces megalomania in some, especially with an apex Sun. Venus square Saturn is also in minor aspect to Neptune/Pluto. Be interesting to see what all of this throws up.

The Eclipsed New Moon is also square Jupiter – expansive, promises more than can deliver, over-confident.

The explosive and disruptive Mars, North Node, Uranus T square is still in place though not in aspect to the Eclipse itself.

Uranus in on the MC located to DC and USA East Coast; and the New Moon is exactly conjunct the MC in Israel.

The unhappy saga of Bishop Peter Ball has dragged Prince Charles into an unwelcome spotlight. Ball was cautioned in 1993 for indecent assault (which means he gave a clear admission of guilt) on much reduced charges after considerable establishment pressure; and finally pled guilty in 2015 to the abuse of 18 young men for which he was imprisoned.  Charles gave him money and organised a house for him between the two cases and provided, wittingly or otherwise, substantial camouflage in royal approval for his rehabilitation. His original accuser, written off by Ball’s influential friends as a ‘mischief-maker’, committed suicide when the second investigation opened.

Ball was born 14 February 1932 and with his twin brother set up a monastic order that practised an austere form of worship involving naked prayer and flagellation, which he falsely claimed were in the tradition of St Francis of Assisi. He professed to live in near poverty. In reality he loved the high life. Household bills on food and alcohol during his time as Bishop of Gloucester were astronomical and the house was expensively decorated and furnished.

He’s a Sun Mars in Aquarius opposition Jupiter in Leo probably squaring onto an indulgent Taurus Moon.  A Fixed T square especially involving the Moon suggests fixed desires, intense and wilful emotional reactions, obsessive attachment to what is valued and a determined resistance to change. Mars in Aquarius doubles up on the wilfulness and headstrong refusal to stick to the rules. Jupiter in Leo would attract him to a flamboyant lifestyle, mixing with the best people. He boasted frequently of his Royal connections. Mars opposition Jupiter can be opportunistic, a chancer.

His Neptune is unaspected which would prevent him from bringing spiritual insight to his actions.

Ball’s Sun Mars in Aquarius is in conflict with Charles’ Scorpio Sun. But Ball’s Pluto is in C’s 12th and trine his Sun and his Jupiter is conjunct C’s Pluto – Ball controlled Charles partly by boosting his morale and playing to his vanity. Ball’s Uranus is also conjunct Charles’ MC so has the capacity to alter the trajectory of C’s career.

Their relationship chart has a friendly, affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction; with an Earth Grand Trine of Uranus, Mars, Neptune – Mars being under severe pressure at the moment from tr Pluto conjunct.

What chokes me off about these cases is the self-serving gullibility of ‘nice’ people, who drench complainants with hostile disbelief just because the accused gives the appearance of being a pillar of the community. “The most gentle, upright and saintly man”; “a man of immense kindness, charity and humour dedicated to serving God in the community” wrote two of his elevated supporters. Give me a good going bastard any day rather than a hypocrite.

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Wilmer Valderrama was at Demi Lovato’s side in hospital after her overdose (see previous post) before she moved home to her family away from LA. They were an item for six years before splitting in 2016 and she evidently regards him as a solid friend. He’s an actor, producer, singer and television personality, recently as a regular on NCIS.

Born 30 January 1980, Miami, Florida, he was brought up partly in Venezuela and started getting stage and TV roles when still at school. He’s a Sun, Mercury in Aquarius with a Cancer Moon, a trio of planets in Virgo and a musical Venus in Pisces opposition Mars in Virgo square Neptune. Definitely designed for showbusiness.

His Venus in Pisces and Jupiter Mars in Virgo connect well with Demi’s Venus Jupiter in Virgo. Though his Sun is conjunct her Saturn and his Mercury is squared by her Pluto, so it wouldn’t all be picnic and roses. She’s a Sun Leo with a Taurus Moon while he’s an Aquarius with a Cancer Moon – so Fire Earth with Air Water – very different personalities.

Their relationship chart has a Venus, Uranus, Jupiter and maybe Moon T square for social fun; though with heavier undertones from Mars square Pluto and a see-saw Jupiter square Saturn, so up and down.  He does look concerned through this year; and exactly now with the Lunar Eclipse opposing his Sun. He’ll get a major step up and success in 2020 and an even bigger and better one in 2021.