Scandale at the Elysee Palace for light relief from political angst and torment elsewhere. President Emmanuel Macron took the extraordinary step of denying that his disgraced security chief and bodyguard Alexandre Benalla was his lover or had access to nuclear codes as a jokey riposte to internet rumours. Benalla was sacked after a video of him wearing a police helmet and beating May Day protesters emerged. The incident remained buried for two months giving rise to accusations of a cover up and reinforcing the belief that Macron’s entourage think they are above the law.

Macron came in vowing probity, morality and transparency which doesn’t help. His poll ratings are down to 32%, which doesn’t mean he won’t finish his five-year term but it may well derail his key constitutional reform, including changes giving greater power to the president. And stories about vast hairdressing bills as well as half million euro dinner sets haven’t improved his popularity either.

His term chart, 14 May 2017 11.25 am Paris, does have the panicky-failure tr Neptune square Mars this year till late 2019; with aggravated arguments and outbursts in December and January 2019; plus a road-blocked Solar Arc MC square the 6^th house (employment) Pluto. But he may gain some traction from tr Pluto trine the Term Taurus Sun from April onwards till early 2020.

His personal chart is heading downhill from early 2020 onwards with a cataclysmic 2021 as his volatile Moon, Uranus, Mars T squares moves by Solar Arc to collide with his Sun.

He’d certainly have a close, friendly relationship with Benalla, 8 September 1991, with Benalla’s New Moon in Virgo falling in his 8^th and Benalla’s Venus, Mercury, Jupiter in his 7^th house of relationships. Their relationship chart has a controlling, transformational composite Sun Pluto conjunction square Jupiter – so there always was a likelihood they’d push each other into unwise and overly-confident actions. And Benalla’s Pluto is conjunct Macron’s Uranus which fits with pushy behaviour upsetting the political applecart.

Brigitte Macron does look under stress now till 2020 with tr Pluto square her Moon, Venus, Sun in Aries and her Sun/Moon midpoint this year and next. So she’ll be feeling the strain of life in the goldfish bowl.

Ellie Soutter, one of the UK’s best up and coming snowboarders, a medal winner last year and just selected for the Junior Championships in New Zealand has tragically committed suicide on her 18^th birthday.

Born 25 July 2000, she was a Sun Leo opposition Neptune, with two other oppositions in her chart of a confident Jupiter opposition Pluto and Venus in Leo opposition Uranus perhaps square a Taurus Moon. She would find it difficult to balance the opposing tendencies in her chart and would be emotionally sensitive with a focal point Moon.

She would be go-ahead and quite volatile with her Sun conjunct Mars in last decan Cancer but there’s nothing too obvious showing (without a birth time) about why she was so stressed. The Lunar eclipse this week was in aspect to her Neptune opposition Sun, last month’s Cancer Solar Eclipse to her Mars and the August Solar Eclipse to her Uranus – but nothing in that is strong enough to suggest such a senseless tragedy.

Only 18 – such a waste of a young life. There seems to be an epidemic at the moment.

Imran Khan is claiming victory in the Pakistan elections amidst violence and accusations of vote rigging, as well as questions about his closeness to the military who have form on ballot-stuffing. His PTI party is expected to fall short of an overall majority and seek coalition partners.

When he stopped being an international cricketer and celebrity playboy two decades ago, he went into politics promising to undo corruption.  But he has no administrative experience and appears recently to have bent towards the Islamists and Taliban to gain power as well as the army.

If his birth data is accurate, 5 October 1952, unknown birth time, then he was born two days before Vladimir Putin with the same stellium in Libra of Sun, Saturn, Mercury and Neptune – visionary, slippery, paranoid. With his Pluto in a ruthless and ultra-determined trine to Mars in Sagittarius and a pushily-confident square to Jupiter.

He’s upbeat this year with tr Pluto trine his Jupiter but that runs out mid this December. 2019/2020 look high-risk, acutely frustrating, trapped and confused; with a major setback, perhaps an accident/assassination attempt in 2020 with his Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Mars.

The Pakistan chart, 14 August 1947 9.30am Karachi, is on high alert with both the Lunar Eclipse this week and the August Solar Eclipse opposition their Mercury and conjunct their Sun respectively. Along with a high-emotional-intensity tr Pluto opposition Moon in September/October this year; and blocked, angry, repressive influences in 2019.

Khan’s relationship chart with Pakistan does have an empowering Jupiter Pluto conjunction which is conjunct the Pakistan’s Sun, so he could boost national pride. But it’s not an easy country to rule to put it mildly and the next two years look riddled with disappointment between them.  His Pluto is conjunct the Pakistan Sun so he will try to dominate and his Mars opposes the Pakistan Uranus and MC so it’ll be a divisive and inflammatory combination.

His ‘obsessive dream’ 11^th Harmonic is heavily aspected – can be idealistic with an inspired imagination. Though the negative traits are fanaticism, unreasonableness, dishonesty and greed and it can attract disloyalty and betrayal.

Singer and actress Demi Lovato is in hospital after a suspected drug overdose.  She has openly spoken of her struggles with depression, bulimia, self-harm, drug abuse and alcoholism.

Born 20 August 1992 at 6 am (unverified) Albuquerque, New Mexico, her parents split when she was two and her musician father appeared to have mental problems. She was bullied at school so opted for home schooling and started down the drama/music route when she was ten.

She’s a Sun Leo square Pluto opposition a Taurus Moon, so will always have felt trapped. Her Saturn in Aquarius also squares both her Moon and Pluto and opposes her Mercury, so she’s got a bleak bleak chart emotionally; with her Moon trine the highly-strung Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn trine Jupiter Venus in Virgo. The grounded Earth Grand Trine will help but she’s not had her problems to seek. What will also wind her up is a Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune Uranus inconjunct Mars in Gemini – similar to Lily James, see previous Mamma Mia post. An apex Mars will make her overly impulsive, scattered, with a tendency to rush ahead without thinking of the consequences and will give her anger issues.

Tr Neptune this year picked up the debilitating square to her Mars, pulling at her yod and is also opposition her Venus. And her Solar Arc Pluto is also approaching the opposition to her Mars soon, so not got a good time for her.

As much as she’s been given in talent, she’s also been handed a tough hand of cards to play as far as her chart goes.

Olly Robbins, the civil servant leading the Brexit negotiations and answering directly to No 10 is now more firmly ensconced than ever as Theresa May takes over the reins.  The assumption being she will be pushing for a soft Brexit with Davis and Johnson out of the Cabinet.

Born 20 April 1975 he’s a Sun last degree Aries or zero Taurus opposition Uranus; with a pushily-confident Jupiter in Aries opposition Pluto square an executive Saturn. His Mars in Pisces is heavily aspected being square a Venus opposition Neptune and trine Saturn and Uranus. So he’s not short of assertion.  He’s understandably having a bumpy ride this year with tr Uranus conjunct his Sun and opposition his Uranus but he looks in better shape than Theresa May. He’s got Jupiter midpoints giving him a head wind this year and to a lesser extent in 2019/2020. Where he hits major hiccups if not downright disasters with plans not working is 2020/2021, which is when the extended transition period runs out.

His relationship with Theresa May is friendly with a composite Sun, Venus, Mercury in an energetic trine to Mars trine Neptune – so a private bond and given her tendencies very secretive. Though that could be problematic since they’ll live in their own bubble. And there’s also a changeable composite Uranus, Pluto, Saturn conjunction which is being seriously undermined from next May onwards when her own chart is sagging badly. And there will be panicky moments of uncertainty before then, which have been causing them serious concern already and running on right through 2019. And there could be a parting of the ways, maybe as early as next spring, or later in the year.

It’s possible if she goes he might stay on in some capacity since he’ll be the one who knows what’s what. It might fit the crash-out scenario of the UK chart in 2021.

Siegfried Sassoon was one of the most celebrated of the World War One poets and renowned for his fictionalised autobiography, the Sherston trilogy. Decorated for bravery as a soldier, he turned against the war and became a leading voice against the senseless slaughter.

“You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by,

Sneak home and pray you’ll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.”

“The War Poems”

He spent time in a psychiatric hospital under Dr WR Rivers immortalised in Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy, where he formed a friendship with poet Wilfred Owen and Robert Graves. Sassoon was troubled by his sexuality, having affairs with Ivor Novello amongst others later on, though he did marry and have a child. Throughout his life he was plagued by nightmares and lived as one biographer put it ‘posthumously’ after the war, unable to leave it behind, dying ultimately at 81.

He fell out with Graves, after the publication of Graves’ war novel Goodbye to All That, written in a hurry to pay off Laura Riding’s hospital bills (see previous post), whom Sassoon disliked and disapproved of. Sassoon found the book factually inaccurate and insensitive in the confidences it broke.

Sassoon, born 8 September 1886, was a Sun Virgo on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine sextile an unforgiving Mars in Scorpio and sextile Saturn in Cancer; with Uranus Jupiter in Libra trine Pluto in Gemini. There would have been a passing affection between the two men with Graves’ Venus conjunct Sassoon’s Sun but not destined to last since Graves’ chaotic and manipulative Neptune Pluto squared S’s Sun. G’s Mars was also conjunct S’s Mercury which would spark up irritation; and even more so G’s Uranus was in an explosive conjunction to S’s Mars. G’s expansive Jupiter was conjunct S’s which might have helped to lift Sassoon out of his unhappiness but he clearly felt that Graves was sloppy and careless.

Their relationship chart was fraught with a superficially friendly Venus Jupiter damped down by a conjunction with Saturn and all three squared an obsessive, tormented Neptune Pluto conjunction which was in turn in an aggravated trine to the composite Mars.

Graves wondered whether Sassoon was attracted to him, which is possible. And there may well have been writer’s envy mixed in since Graves’ book outsold Sassoon’s, though the Fox Hunting Man did win awards. Sassoon did sound as if he had Virgo’s nit-picking tendencies and his Mars in Scorpio wouldn’t help. Later biographers remarked that both men’s memoirs though very different each had their own merits. Both had exceptionally strong and fairly similar ‘writers’ 21^st harmonics. With a destructive/military Mars Saturn T square; and a talented Grand Trine/Kite pulling into aspect Mercury Pluto and Mars.

The war scarred both of them deeply but Sassoon never seemed able to leave it behind.

Seymour Hersh, one of the giants of US journalism has published his memoirs ‘Reporter’ to generally rave reviews. John Le Carre talks of his ‘low cunning and tireless legwork, warmth and humanity.’ He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his exposé of the massacre in My Lai, Vietnam when US soldiers massacred 109 Vietnamese civilians. He doggedly tracked down William Calley who had been in charge and then initially he could find no editor willing to publish his piece. Since then he has received numerous awards for books and reportage over decades in DC, Vietnam and the Middle East, including Abu Ghraib and Bin Laden’s death.

One gripe does come from Haaretz: ‘Missing from all these mainstream reviews was any mention of what should have been Hersh’s career-ending disaster – the apologetics for Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin which culminated in a supposed expose of the Khan Sheikhoun sarin attack.’ Multiple agencies and governments later laid the blame at Assad’s feet.

Hersh was born 8 April 1937 8.05am Chicago, Illinois. He has an 11th house Aries Sun which is on the focal point of a T Square to an ultra-confident Jupiter opposition Pluto, so ego-centric and unconcerned about social niceties in going for what he wants. Mercury in Taurus is also on the focal point of that opposition heightening his ability to communicate; as does Pluto in the 3^rd which is the journalistic house and Jupiter in the publishing/global 9^th.

He’ll be drawn to war and dark subjects by Pluto which trines Saturn; and to adventure by his Mars in Sagittarius. His compassionate Pisces Moon is in his career 10^th, so he’ll have a feel for public taste and appreciate his work attention it brings. It opposes Neptune in the 4^th squaring onto a Sagittarius North Node in his 7^th – the emphasised North Node also puts him in the centre of the zeitgeist.

I wouldn’t imagine he’s the easiest man to get along with work-wise or emotionally but he made a difference. He’s been married since 1958 to a psychoanalyst and has three children.

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Mamma Mia2 is cheering cinema audiences globally overtaking expectations for the opening weekend. The old cast re-assembles including Meryl Streep, playing a ghost since she’s now dead. Lily James – of Downton Abbey, Cinderella, War and Peace and Darkest Hour fame – plays Meryl Streep’s younger self.   And Amanda Seyfried – Gringo, First Reformed, Fathers and Daughters – plays her daughter Sophie.

Both Lily James, 5 April 1989 UK, and Amanda Seyfried, 3 December 1985, have heavily Fire charts.

Lily James has her Sun Venus Mercury conjunct in Aries as well as an Aries Moon; with the triple conjunction of Uranus Neptune Saturn in Capricorn square. She’ll have initiative aplenty, be pro-active and extremely restless. She’s also got a Yod of Pluto sextile Saturn Neptune inconjunct Mars in Gemini which will make her impulsive, scattered, at times inclined to trip herself up. Tr Neptune is square her Mars exactly now which doesn’t sound too upbeat for a launch and will hang around till late 2019. Though tr Jupiter will briefly conjunct her Pluto this month which will help lift her confidence.

Amanda Seyfried has Venus, Mercury, Saturn conjunct in Sagittarius with Sun Uranus also in Sag and a Leo Moon; plus a powerhouse Pluto opposition North Node square Jupiter in Aquarius. Despite all the fire and a strong Jupiter she says she suffers from stage fright and panic attacks – perhaps from an overload of Mutable signs.

Like the hundred-headed Hydra, Steve Bannon’s wrecking-ball ambition never dies, just springs up elsewhere with a new initiative. He’s now intent on setting up a foundation in Brussels to support right-wing, anti-establishment groups in the run-up to the European Parliament election next May.  “Right-wing populist nationalism is what will happen. That’s what will govern,” he said. “You’re going to have individual nation states with their own identities, their own borders.”

Over the past year, he has held talks with right-wing groups across the continent from Nigel Farage and members of Marine Le Pen’s Front National in the West, to Hungary’s Viktor Orban and the Polish populists in the East. He envisions a right-wing “supergroup” within the European Parliament with as many as a third of the lawmakers which would have the ability to seriously disrupt parliamentary proceedings, potentially granting Bannon huge power within the populist movement.

Born 27 November 1953 Norfolk, VA, he’s a fiery Sun Sagittarius with possibly a Leo Moon conjunct Pluto. What gives him his inflammatory rhetoric is a Cardinal T Square of Uranus opposition a Capricorn North Node square a showbizzy Mars Neptune in Libra. A focal point Cardinal Mars is reckless, openly confrontational and disruptive, revelling in head-on collisions, though has little staying power. Equally a focal point Cardinal Neptune is overly impatient and won’t stay the course to see visions take root, indulging in corner-cutting, quick n’ easy schemes that don’t involve long-term effort.   His CV is littered with failures and multiple career changes. His rise-and-fall, self-defeating 10th Harmonic is strong.

The stars are not well-aligned for his grandiose venture with tr Neptune undercutting three of his midpoints till late 2019; a dashed-hopes tr Pluto square his Mars/Neptune till late 2019 as well, which tr Saturn will also square over the May election. He’ll get a battery recharge in 2020/21 but by 2021 he runs into a catastrophic triple hit of tr Pluto square his Mars/Saturn as well as make a devastating square to his Neptune running till late 2022. Plus a blocked Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Saturn. Then he’ll no doubt dust himself off and be after another windmill to joust at.