Frances McDormand is about to delight in another of her trenchant performances in the upcoming Three Billboards, described by the Times as ‘angry, funny, foul-mouthed, prone to startling acts of violence’. She is that rarity, a character actress who can be a starring lead. Her long career is littered with awards, but most memorable recently was her role as Marge Gunderson in Fargo and Olive Kitteridge in the HBO mini-series.
Born 23 June 1957 in Chicago, Illinois, she was adopted aged one, from a mother she once described as ‘white trash’, by a travelling pastor so had an unsettled though rigid childhood against which she rebelled by becoming pagan. Since 1984 she’s been married to Joel Coen of the talented film-making duo the Coen Brothers and they have an adopted son initially from Paraguay.
She’s a Sun Cancer with a Taurus Moon, so is family-oriented as well as creative. Her Sun is sextile Pluto and trine filmic Neptune and as well as being square Jupiter, so she’s got confidence and persuasive power. A volatile Mars Uranus in flamboyant Leo, which may square her Moon, gives her a fiery streak.
Her ‘acting’ 15th Harmonic is well-aspected and favours tough and at times unstable roles, linking together Mars Saturn Neptune and Uranus. Her victim/healer 12th harmonic is also well marked and she’s done well to survive her difficult beginnings to thrive both personally and professionally.
“Death to the Dictator” isn’t a demo slogan that’s lightly spoken in Iran, as police and internet clampdowns are proving. An upsurge of popular dissent not seen since 2009 against economic hardships, corruption and, most significantly, the clerics’ iron grip has brought people out onto the streets in several cities.
The Ayatollah Khamenei has been at the helm since 1989 and his leadership chart does show signs of flagging with tr Neptune square the Gemini Sun in 2017/2018. Since the Sun sits on the focal point of a Yod to a tough Pluto sextile Saturn, any undermining of the Sun’s power will have a ripple effect. Tr Neptune will also square the Sun/Jupiter midpoint in 2018 and then Jupiter in 2019 – so it will see a less successful and less rigid three years ahead. There have been signs of the reins loosening with women no longer being charged for not wearing headscarves in Teheran. More will no doubt follow. If this Supreme Leadership continues and accounts vary about Khamenei’s health, 2019/2020 will be high-risk, exceptionally challenging and trapped with tr Pluto opposition the Mars.
Both the Iran 1906 and 1 Feb 1979 charts hints at tensions, low morale, significant problems especially in early 2018, with hints of radical changes. There’s unlikely to be a full-blown revolution. But the winds of change won’t stop blowing Iran onto a different track.
Hassan Rouhani’s term chart, 3 August 2017 11am, will hit crisis from the Lunar Eclipses in late January and late July 28; and the Ayatollah Khamenei’s Supreme Leadership chart will meet with a considerable collision come the July 2018 Cancer Solar Eclipse conjunct the Mars.
A star belonging to the constellation of Pisces is ‘eating’ planets close by, crushing one or more of them into a vast cloud of gas and dust. Like the Greek god Cronus who devoured his children. Except he was Saturnine. But it is wonderfully symbolic of Pisces’ dark side. Big fish, little fish. The minnow Pisces are vague, sensitive, wispy creatures. The big fish Pisces are voracious whales, consuming everything in their path, including their offspring.
What a delight to have astronomers back up the mythology.
Carl Jung was fascinated by the symbolism of Pisces, for the Age of Pisces, coinciding with Christ’s birth (fairly western-centric, I grant you, in Aion). He makes the point that Pisces is associated mythologically with two hostile brothers – Christ and the anti-Christ, the spirit versus the flesh – which makes sense of the glyph of two fishes swimming in opposite directions. The early Gnostic Christians believed that Lucifer (the anti-Christ) created the body and the material world; and God/Christ created the soul. Life’s journey was about rescuing the soul from its leaden overcoat of the body.
Pisces represents the ideal as well as the shadow, eternally at war. You don’t get one without the other. The central motif for Christianity is one of torture in the crucifixion. That is also part of Pisces’ story – dismemberment, pain inflicted or suffered, mortification of the flesh. Risking all for the sake of heavenly redemption – which fits into the Muslim ideology as well. Earthly life sacrificed for celestial glory. Indeed most religions disavow the physical for the sake of the spiritual.
When it goes wrong and the Pisces/Neptune energy leans too heavily towards the shadow, then you get the most appalling cruelty. The sea god Neptune in an all consuming rage.
Individuation, Jung believed, was only accomplished when you can own both contradictory sides. The conundrum of the paradox of life.
Action star Vin Diesel is this year’s top-grossing actor thanks largely to the mammoth success of Fate of the Furious which topped $1.2 billion at the global box office, now on its eighth instalment. He said the whole point of The Fast and the Furious franchise was to diversify Hollywood, referring to the car saga’s multicultural ensemble cast.
Born 18 July 1967 3.35pm Alameda, California, with an astrologer mother and absent, unknown father though he had a supportive acting instructor/theatre manager step-father, he started acting when very young; and is best known for F and F and the xXx series which he also produces. He owns his own film company and directs as well as writes screenplays.
His last decan Cancer Sun, like James Norton (below), is conjunct Procyon in the 9th. His Sun is in a square to outspoken Mars in Libra. His 10th career-house has a charming and hard-working Venus in Virgo conjunct the MC along with the rebellious, ground-breaking Uranus Pluto in Virgo. His Saturn in self-reliant Aries sits in his ‘entertainment’ 5th house, suiting him for an organisational role in the movie business. He has planets in all three inspirational Fire signs – Jupiter in flamboyant Leo, a Sagittarius Moon and Saturn. His Moon squares Uranus Pluto which would fit with an astrologer for a mother. Its a Fire Earth chart, known for its steamroller energy. A private Scorpio Ascendant has filmic Neptune conjunct.
He should be taking it easy with tr Saturn moving through his lower-profile first quadrant, but clearly not. Though he’ll have some tough moments in 2018/19.
Apart from some blips, the UK is maintaining a remarkably upbeat mood despite all the Project Fear prophecies of doom. A couple of zippy, confident Pluto transits to two separate Jupiter midpoints from February to mid-July, returning over the New Year and throughout 2019, should make for good news. Plus a ‘lucky break’ upsurge of euphoria in June, Sept/October as tr Uranus squares the 10th house Jupiter, returning April 2019 will blow away a few worries and tensions.
On the downside, there’ll be a tough moment or two over this New Year into January; a continuing sense of emotional angst and unhappiness amongst the masses with tr Pluto opposition the 10th house Cancer Moon from January till late 2018, some of that affecting the Royals and maybe even rulers. A definite feeling of tectonic plates shifting from July to mid-September with tr Uranus sextile the UK Pluto, again in 2019. And hints of violence or anger erupting from tr Pluto opposition the Mars/Uranus midpoint late March to end of May, and again in 2019. Tr Saturn will move into the UK 4th and conjunct the Sun in December 2018, for a sense of finality and cold realism. 2019 also sees the Solar Arc Moon opposition the 11th house (legislature) Saturn.
There will be ripples of the economic fallout from Brexit from 2019 with Solar Arc Uranus into the financial 8th though it’s unlikely to hit hard before 2020/2021 when tr Uranus moves into the 8th as well and is conjunct the financial Mars in Taurus there.
The Progressed Moon is within a few months of crossing the midheaven and thence through the 10th for two years plus which is usually ambitious and forward looking.
It won’t all be a cakewalk but it is looking less catastrophic than might be expected.
What is marginally strange is that PM Theresa May has fairly devastating influences through 2018/19 with tr Neptune conjunct her Mars in February and late in the year; with a disaster-prone tr Pluto square Mars/Saturn late March to end of May, and again in 2019, when the UK also looks in the line of fire – so that may be indicative less of Brexit and more of another crisis erupting.
The chief UK Brexit negotiator, Oliver Robbins, (20 April 1975 no birth time), will be confidence-dented late Feb/early March and late November; and rattled around with tr Uranus conjunct his late Aries Sun and then opposition his Uranus from May onwards, but he’s also got some bullish Jupiter giving him a lift throughout 2018 into 2019. David Davis who is vehemently denying that he’s been sidelined looks very – sidelined and trapped – from February onwards with tr Pluto conjunct his Mars till late 2019, and tr Saturn conjunct his Capricorn Sun over this new year and then conjunct his Mercury and Jupiter in Capricorn in late Feb/March and twice again in May/June and Nov/Dec.
James Norton, about to star in McMafia, a new American-Brit mini-series about the shady underbelly of international crime, launching on New Year’s Day in the UK, is being touted as the next James Bond. He’s swearing allegiance to Daniel Craig but his role as the British-raised son of a Russian mafia boss trying to escape the ties of organised crime, will give him a useful audition for the superspy role if and when it becomes vacant. He’s best known to British viewers from Happy Valley, Grantchester, and the most recent War & Peace – a madman, a vicar and a Russian prince, so versatile.
Born 18 July 1985 in London he has a volatile Sun Mars in Cancer square Pluto and trine an obsessively conscientious Saturn in Scorpio. His chart gives him an edge of danger and toughness; softened by a light-hearted Venus in Gemini trine Jupiter in outgoing Aquarius.
His Sun Mars are conjunct the Fixed Star Procyon which has a reputation for raising to great heights and then bringing crashing down, though others say it is a star of great fortune. One of the astronauts has his Sun conjunct Procyon and he managed to land safely and continued successfully thereafter.
His life is due for an upheaval, maybe transformation, from mid this year with tr Uranus opposition his Pluto, with tr Uranus square his Sun Mars before that in February which could be uncomfortable. But there’s no sign of the mega-bucks that would come with a Bond role just yet.
Saturn is now buffeting the EU’s eternal optimism, just into the EU 4th house, hinting at domestic tensions erupting over the next three years – Spain, Poland, UK at the moment – with no doubt more to come. Saturn will conjunct the Sun late in December 2018. Uranus is also poised to move into the 8th house of business and international finances from spring 2018 and staying for 7 years – an unstable period economically, with highs and lows.
There’ll be a disaster or two this January but all handled with high confidence. Where the major shifts get under way is from July onwards as tr Uranus trines the 12th house Pluto, which may shine a light on a few murky secrets. That continues into 2019 which is when the real upheavals get under way. There’ll be financial worries of a high order as Solar Arc Pluto conjuncts the 2nd house Neptune, shafting a spear through a few delusionary dreams. At the same time tr Uranus starts a three year shake-up of the central Fixed Grand Cross in the chart, beginning with an opposition to the EU Neptune in 2019, before moving on to conjunct the 8th house EU Moon and square Uranus in 2020. By 2020 as well tr Neptune is square Saturn, causing a flurry of worries and major miscommunications (perhaps transport problems).
Those tremors are reflected on both the European Central Bank (ECB) chart 1 June 1998; and the Euro chart, 1 January 1999. There’ll be some upsets through next spring; but it is after mid year when nerves start to fray, worsening in 2019; and facing critical questions by 2020, with population unrest.
There is much astro-chatter about the upcoming stellium in Capricorn on January 17th. Stelliums are three or more planets close together all throwing their energy together. This one has Sun and Moon conjunct Venus and Pluto with Saturn Mercury also in early Capricorn. I’d be more concerned if there were more outer planets involved. Inner planets can act as triggers but don’t have the weighty effect of the outer ones.
It will still focus a good deal of planetary zap onto a specific area of individual charts – Trump’s 5th house (ruling children and speculation); the UK/EU/Germany’s 4th houses respectively, ruling domestic matters. Whether or not the stellium will have much long term effect, just of itself, I’d doubt. Though it will affect babies born then – stelliums can make for geniuses, very single-focused on a narrow area of life.
The other question is whether the Sun ingressing Capricorn at the same time as Saturn is significant. Saturn returns to Capricorn every 29 years, but not often on the same day as the Sun’s annual cycle as it did this year. A previous occasion in 1664 was followed by the plague which wiped out a third of London’s population and in 1666 the Great Fire. But I would have ascribed these more to the Saturn Neptune conjunction in Capricorn – Saturn Neptune often accompanying epidemics and times of civilian panic.
It occurred again when Napoleon of France made his failed invasion into Russia in 1812; and again in 1871 when Germany came together as a unified country. On the first of these there was a devastating Neptune square Pluto in orb; on the second a can-be-fanatical Uranus square Neptune was around.
You can drown yourself in data and connections which are always there with so many cycles to play with. I find I have to stand back and be selective about what I pay attention to otherwise it gets too muddling.
The USA is due for a dose of reality as tr Saturn in Capricorn starts to opposes the USA Venus and Jupiter in Cancer in Jan/Feb, July/Aug and Oct/Nov 2018. They’ll feel unloved or at a loss, with their enthusiasm and confidence dented. Both Venus and Jupiter have financial implications though the economy and employment rates are holding up, partly because of strategies put in place pre-Trump. Economic plans usually having a two year lag.
The fanatical, hostilely-argumentative tr Uranus square the USA Mercury opposition Pluto will have cleared by mid April, though it won’t totally disappear. Previous occurrences oversaw Watergate and McCarthyism.
The Jan/Feb and July/Aug Solar and Lunar Eclipses will jolt the USA Aquarius Moon (no matter which chart start time is used) which usually brings emotional and domestic shocks, as did last August’s. More pointedly the mid July Solar Eclipse in Cancer will conjunct the USA Mercury pulling on the Pluto opposition, so sparking up that bitterly dogmatic energy again for several months, with mis-communications rife. The Eclipse opposition Pluto will offer an opportunity for a clean-out of stagnating situations, though it’s likely to be ignored, leading to further decay.
Neptune is also at its favourite ploy of dissolving, undermining and spreading smokescreens around – conjunct the Solar Arc Sun in January; and more worrisome, squaring the Mars/Uranus midpoint from April onwards, which also has the Solar Arc Saturn conjunct around mid year. When Mars/Uranus is triggered it brings a test of nerve, is associated with violence or operations. Neptune in the mix will add a layer of cunning and deceit, as well as mental instability.
On a more cheerful note the Jupiter/Node midpoint will be activated by tr Pluto in opposition from late March, on and off till late 2019. And tr Jupiter in Scorpio will be trine the USA Sun and then Mercury and sextile Pluto till the fall which will both bring morale boosts.
The USA leadership-ability North Node in Leo will meet a nodal return mid 2018, which is (should be) a time of striving to develop the country’s soul destiny.
The Trump term chart indicates a marked change of direction when tr Uranus squares the MC in March; more so as Uranus moves into Taurus to square the Sun from mid-May onwards, which will be a considerable jolt – that latter returns in Oct/Nov and early 2019. There will be moments of triumph and luck from late March and also several sinking phases through the year. The real problems may hold off until 2019, especially late in the year as the Solar Arc Pluto closes the square to Uranus to exact, which is highly unstable. The Jupiter on his Term chart does give him more luck than he deserves, but it could also tempt him to push past across one line too far as tr Pluto starts to square the Jupiter in 2019/2020. That can often result in clashes with authorities.
For Trump personal timeline see posts November 30th and October 19.
