The Royal Society of Literature is the latest to fall prey to the modern phenomenon of ‘progressives’ versus the old guard. The new president, Booker-winner Bernardine Evaristo has insisted the society cannot take sides in controversies and must remain impartial when she was criticised for not supporting Salman Rushdie when he was nearly killed in 2022 at a literary festival. This prompted Rushdie to ask her on X/Twitter: “Just wondering if the Royal Society of Literature is ‘impartial’ about attempted murder? (Asking for a friend.)”

 The “wokification” of organisations and hyper-sensitivity about causing offence to a few while in reality offending the great silent majority seems to be widespread. Forced diversity and inclusiveness appears to lead to an end result which supercedes the essential purpose of the society. The National Trust in recent years has got tangled up in controversies totally unrelated to historic buildings and land; The English Premier League banned a female football fan from matches over social media posts that were deemed transphobic. The Civil Service, Universities etc etc – all seem to be infected or invaded by activists punting their own particular obsession and grievance.

  The Royal Society of Literature was founded 30 November 1820 in London with a stellium in knowledgeable, communicative Sagittarius which makes sense. The Sun and Mars Mercury are square Jupiter in Pisces; and Uranus Neptune in Sagittarius are square Pluto in Pisces and Saturn in Aries.

   Their highly strung Uranus Neptune has been assaulted in recent times by the Solar Arc Sun in opposition and tr Neptune in square and conjunct the Pluto – all of which runs on for another year or two. 

  Trying to spot a trend I wonder whether it is the Uranus Neptune signature in general which is problematic. Bernardine Evaristo herself, 28 May 1959, a Sun Gemini square Pluto has a Uranus square Neptune. The younger thirty year old generation born in the 1990s has a Uranus Neptune conjunction. It can make for a wilful, nervy, opinionated temperament holding rigid attitudes and in certain cases can be confused, tending to cause turmoil.

   The Royal Soc Lit is a niche organisation but its present problems are symptomatic of a bizarre social phenomenon which is becoming widespread of activists infiltrating organisations in an attempt to impose their world view on others. Almost fascist in certain cases – think as I do, speak as I do or I will silence you.

  I never liked Rushdie but he should be robustly defended  against fatwas and actual assassination attempts especially by writers.    

Add On: The National Trust founded on 12 January 1895 has not surprisingly a traditional, conservative Capricorn Sun with the signature Neptune Pluto in Gemini of that time; and a harsh Saturn in Scorpio opposition Mars in Taurus square Venus in Aquarius opposition a Leo Moon which will put a veneer of charm over a less pleasant underside. Being a Fixed Grand Cross it will be endowed with endurance and the ability to last over time but won’t find change easy. The years from 2024 through till late this decade will be ones of massive and stressful change as tr Pluto wends its way round those Fixed planets.

The EPL, 27 May 1992, is a Gemini Sun Venus Mercury square Jupiter with a highly strung Mars in Aries square Uranus Neptune in Capricorn.  It certainly has the wilful/confused, stubbornly opinionated Uranus Neptune traits of the above. It will be undergoing considerable changes as tr Pluto trines the Gemini planets and then tr Uranus is conjunct in the years after 2025.  Plus the SA Uranus Neptune will be colliding with its unyielding Saturn square Pluto at the same time. Which will be pressures not connected to the above issue – but there will be huge organizational challenges and changes across a few august bodies.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/11/grant-shapps-army-resources-squandered-political-agenda/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/11/ministry-of-defence-93-diversity-networks-gender-lgbtq/

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‘Firebrand, poet and heart-throb’ is the essence of the man captured in the film Bob Marley: One Love, about the Jamaican reggae singer and social reform activist who became a global figure in popular culture. He is played by British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir and the film is co-produced by Ziggy, Marley’s eldest son, along with his sister Cedella.

  Ziggy Marley, his son says: ‘People love my father – but he had violent tendencies, he was a fighter’.

 Bob Marley was born 6 February 1945 2.30am St Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, the son of an English plantation overseer who deserted Marley’s black teenage mother, Cedella. Growing up mixed race was difficult in Jamaica, where he was made to feel an outsider. It was something that would torment Marley when his Rastafarianism and Afrocentrism took him to Africa, he says. He had a number of children: three with his wife Rita, and several others with different women. The Bob Marley official website acknowledges eleven children. He was nearly assassinated in 1976 in Jamaica when gang warfare was at its height though there was also speculation of US involvement because of his political leanings. A year later he was diagnosed with skin cancer which eventually killed him in 1981 in his late 30s.

  He had a quick-witted, intelligent, communicative 3^rd house Aquarius Sun; with an Air Grand Trine of idealistic, musical Neptune in his 10^th trine Mercury in Aquarius trine Uranus with Neptune opposition Venus and Mercury opposition an 8^th house Pluto – talented, charming, influential, could be dogmatic. His Neptune opposition Venus square Saturn in Cancer hinted at the difficulties of his childhood and obstacles to be overcome in his campaign to create a fairer society. His lucky, successful Jupiter in his 10^th conjunct his Midheaven was trine his Mars in Capricorn and sextile a Scorpio Moon give him depth and intensity.

  He did not have a revolutionary’s Uranus Pluto or an especially afflicted Mars for violence but he would be forceful.  

He had strong creative 5^th and 7^th harmonics. A significant 13th harmonic as a pioneer who broke behind. And 17H for leaving a legacy behind for future generations.  

Albert Pierrepoint, the UK’s most notable executioner who hanged several hundred serial killers, Nazi criminals and murderers over a 25 year career started his vocation early on life following in his father’s footstep.  “In my [youthful] imagination,” he wrote in his memoir, “Death was an adventure . . . and Execution was romance.” At the end of his working life he wrote: “All the men and women whom I have faced at that final moment convince me that . . . I have not prevented a single murder. Capital punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge.”

  His execution diary has recently been sold at auction and may result in an updated memoir coming out.

  He was born 30 March 1905, London and was a Sun Aries square a Uranus Neptune opposition.  His Mars in Scorpio opposed Algol and squared Saturn which makes sense of a state assassin.

 His father Henry, 30 November 1877, a Sun Sagittarius had his Pluto conjunct Algol square Uranus, sextile Mars. His uncle Thomas Pierrepoint, 6 October 1870, a Sun Libra had his Mars in Leo in a ruthless square to Pluto and trine Saturn trine Neptune.

Charles Henri-Sanson, 15 February 1739, high executioner of France who beheaded Louis XVI by guillotine, and another three thousand people during the French Revolution including Robespierre, some of them in a gruesome fashion, had an afflicted Mars conjunct Chiron on the focal point of a yod inconjunct a revolutionary Uranus sextile Pluto; with his late Taurus Moon probably conjunct Algol.  

Giovanni Battista Bugatti, the Official executioner for the Papal States. With a tally of 514 kills, 6 March 1779, had a cruel Mars Saturn in Scorpio sextile Jupiter with Mars opposition Algol; and a Pisces Sun square Uranus.

  All too ghoulish but noteworthy the presence of Algol in nearly all the charts as well as an afflicted Mars.

Continuing on from the previous post of the recent US nitrogen gas execution, see post January 26^th 2024.

  One of my objections to the death penalty apart from it not being a deterrent, is that it contaminates not only society but those who are tasked with carrying out the executions.  Though admittedly the forms of execution nowadays are nowhere as sadistically stomach turning as the methods of centuries ago. Civilization has crawled forwards an inch or two.

The interview of the century between right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin turned out to be a very long damp squib as the Russian leader excavated Russian history back to the 8^th Century to legitimize his invasion of Ukraine. Even Carlson wilted as his noble attempt as he saw it to better inform clueless English-speaking audiences who had been misled by their corrupt media outlets, fell in its face.

  ‘It marked a new level of infamy for Carlson, who has frequently criticized US support for Ukraine, has referred to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, as a “Ukrainian pimp” and “rat-like”.

  The interview was aired on Tucker Carlson Tonight, a streaming service which Carlson launched in December 2023 after he was  fired by Fox News for getting “too big for his boots”, a book later claimed. Hillary Clinton said Carlson was a “useful idiot” for Putin.

  Born 16 May 1969 10.07 am San Francisco, Carlson is a New Moon in Taurus opposition a creative, evasive Neptune and trine a super-confident Jupiter Pluto in Virgo in his journalistic 3^rd house which makes him a communicator on steroids. His Pluto is also in an ultra-determined, ruthless square to Mars in outspoken Sagittarius in his performing 5^th house – not a shrinking violet.

 He is having an uncomfortable, jarring year with tr Uranus conjunct his Sun and opposition Neptune from mid June onwards into 2025 at which point tr Uranus picks up the conjunction to his Moon. He also has a confidence-sapping tr Neptune opposition his Jupiter exactly now till early March. Plus a disruptive tr Pluto trine his Uranus now and on and off till late 2024; and a discouraging tr Pluto square his 10^th house Saturn in 2024/25. Not his best of times.

  Moscow may be a possibility for him since relocating his chart there puts his pushily-confident Jupiter Pluto on the Midheaven with his evasive Neptune in his 1^st and his New Moon in his 7^th making him yearn for support and a strong partner.

  If Putin’s October 1952 birth date is accurate then Carlson’s Taurus New Moon will warm to Putin’s Jupiter in Taurus. Carlson shares Mars in Sagittarius with Putin so there may be a resonance of a dominating childhood father drawing him to the Russian strongman.  But the relationship chart also has a uncommitted and slippery composite Sun Mercury square Neptune and a stressed Mars.  

  Carlson’s astrocartography is the only interesting aspect of this non event.

Birth control may have been practised by the ancient Greeks and throughout history with variable success but it was still a scandalous subject in Victorian England in the 19^th Century. Annie Besant, a free-thinking early campaigner for women’s rights, and an early advocate for birth control, ended up on trial on charges of obscenity for publishing a pamphlet that provided instructions of how best to avoid conception, though she was acquitted.  A new book about her by Michael Meyer described her as a “a badass, a battering ram, a woman who inspired the next generation of social reformers”. Unlike Margaret Sanger and Marie Stopes who followed she was not a eugenicist but had a simple desire to see women not worn out by child-bearing.

 Besant, 1 October 1847 5.29pm London, was a Sun, North Node, Venus, Mercury and Chiron in Libra with Uranus and Pluto in Aries, born just before the mid century triple conjunction. She also had an ultra-determined Mars in Taurus.  She was assisted by Charles Bradlaugh, an MP, atheist, political activist and founder of the Secular Society, 26 September 1833, another Sun, in Libra conjunct Saturn and Mars with Chiron conjunct Algol in late Taurus.

 The two names most associated with pioneering birth control were born within a year of each other with Pluto in late Taurus and Chiron in Taurus.

 Margaret Sanger, 14 September 1879 2.30am New York, one of 11 children herself, the founder of the American Birth Control League, the forerunner of Planned Parenthood Federation, was a redoubtable Sun Virgo trine Mars Pluto Algol conjunction in Taurus. She was supported financially and in other ways by Katherine McCormick, 27 August 1875, a Sun Mercury in Virgo with Pluto and Neptune in Taurus.

 Marie Stopes, 15 October 1889 4.10 am Edinburgh, Scotland, the key UK sex reformer and promoter of birth control, had her Sun conjunct Mars in Libra opposition Saturn in Aries; with Pluto and Neptune in Taurus. She was helped by her second husband Humphrey Roe, 18 April 1878 who also had a clutch of Taurus planets and was an Aries Sun.

  Of the reformers Sun Libra and Virgo seem favoured and definitely the mid 19^th Century Pluto in Taurus helped. Annie Besant of them all looks the most determined social reformer.

Pakistan is going to the polls in the least credible election yet with Imran Khan, the most popular politician jailed on multiple  charges and his party suppressed, in what insiders say is a sign that the military are taking control. Mobile calls and the internet have been suspended.  

  Khan as prime minister until 2022 favoured the military until he fell out with them for which sin this is assumed to be the backlash. The 500,000-strong army has historically  been Pakistan’s power broker not only in defence but also in politics, economic policy and even business. But the indications are that the attempt to crush Khan has aroused resentment among swathes of the population especially the young. He may need to be released from jail to calm unrest though presumably after the election has been held.

  Pakistan’s economy is in crisis, with inflation at 30 per cent in December, and the country narrowly averted default in June thanks to a $3bn IMF bailout. They will need to return to the fund for immediate support to avoid another near-repeat of ‘a bankruptcy that could become one of the biggest burdens on the global debt restructuring architecture since the Covid-19 pandemic. At about $100bn, Pakistan has more foreign debt than Zambia, Sri Lanka and Ghana combined, according to IMF data.’ In addition, the country must tackle a resurgence of extremist violence, with an increase in Islamic militancy spilling over from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

   Pakistan, 14 August 1947 9.30am Karachi, does look rudderless and confused over the next three years with tr Neptune square Uranus, then the Midheaven, then Mars through till 2026, joined half way through by tr Saturn square Uranus, MC, Mars in 2025/26 – so the country will be blown around by indecision and chaotic, undermining events.  Tr Uranus will square the Pak Leo Sun for the final time late March/early April which may be connected to the next IMF negotiations.

  The Solar Arc North Node is conjunct the Pak Saturn Pluto now which suggests a history changing moment, maybe not in a spectacular way, but it may come to be seen historically as a significant marker.

 Nawaz Sharif, 25 December 1949, back from a self-imposed exile after the Panama Papers expose, is expected to do well in the election. If he does take over he’s in for a fairly calamitous three years ahead with tr Neptune opposing his Mars and squaring his Capricorn Sun and Uranus.

  Imran Khan, 5 October 1952, has been through a disappointing slump in recent months with tr Neptune square his Mars but that finishes just after the election and with tr Uranus square his Pluto late April to mid May his fortunes may change  – or at the very least his circumstances will change significantly. He did inspire the country though he became increasingly authoritarian and did little to halt the economic slide.

[The outraged Trumpistatists are bracketing the the attempt to ban Trump from the election because of his multiple malfeasances with Khan’s imprisonment. The dark state against the people’s choice. Sigh.]

Yoko Ono acclaimed as an avant-garde artist and controversial as John Lennon’s muse, blamed for the Beatles’ split, is having a retrospective at Tate Modern as she nears her 91st birthday.

  She was well known in the New York art world before she met Lennon in the late 1960s, staying with him till his death in 1980, recording experimental music with him and campaigning for peace.

 She was born 18 February 1933 8.30pm Tokyo into a wealthy family with a childhood spent in New York and in Tokyo during the war which fuelled her later pacifist activism. Her creative tastes always ran to the outre and surreal in music and art. She has her Sun in final degree Aquarius as well as Venus in Aquarius conjunct Saturn all in her performing 5^th house so will be attention grabbing as well as good at organising entertainment events. Her Sagittarius Moon squares Neptune Mars Jupiter in Virgo in her 12^th giving her a colourful, exuberant streak to counter-balance the chill of Saturn in Aquarius. What sets the mark on her revolutionary, rebellious, mould-breaking streak is Pluto square Uranus which is strategically placed in her career 10^th and relationship 7^th. She likes upsetting convention and stirring up a reaction. Her Chiron in Taurus in her 8^th has a hint of ‘the heart of darkness’ about her, whether consciously or unconsciously attracting her to destructive situations. Being forever known as the widow of a murdered John Lennon may be part of it.

  What is delightful is that on her astrocartography Liverpool, John’s birthplace puts Venus within a degree of being conjunct the relocated Midheaven with her Sun in his 10^th. A place that boosted her status.

 With Pluto in her 10^th she will be influential and also controlling, perhaps fulfilling John Lennon’s early pattern of a possessive mother figure with his Moon opposition Pluto. Yoko’s Uranus in her 7^th hints at her need for an unconventional relationship where she could still be a strong individual.

 Their relationship chart describes a complicated chemistry – tightly bound together with undercurrents of resentment. There was a Grand Trine of a power couple Pluto Jupiter trine Venus trine Saturn, with Saturn opposition Mars Neptune squaring onto the composite Sun. Power-struggling, passionate, aggravating, unfair even cruel at times as one stifled the assertiveness of the other. Quite a powder keg.

  John Lennon, 9 October 1940 6.30pm Liverpool, England, had a Libra Sun conjunct his Descendant and a creative, attention-grabbing 5^th house Pluto in an emotionally intense and possessive opposition to an Aquarius Moon. With a Saturn Jupiter conjunction in Taurus in his 1^st and Uranus also in Taurus. He came to fame aged 20 on the next Jupiter Saturn conjunction and died 20 years after that when the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Libra was in place. Jupiter throws a few too high and then Saturn steps in to cut them down.

 New York was not his easiest place since it put a trapped Pluto in his 8^th.

  When he was shot Yoko had a devastating SA Pluto conjunct Neptune and the transiting Jupiter Saturn conjunction crossing her Ascendant. A moment in cultural history.

King Charles no sooner across the threshold of his long awaited reign than he is sidelined with a cancer diagnosis must be dejected at the timing no matter how sanguine a face he puts on publicly.

  The Royals are on the whole famously long lived with his beloved grandmother surviving colon cancer in 1966 and ambling on for another 35 years.

 Tr Pluto square Charles’ 10^th house Moon this year and next was always going to put a strain on him career-wise with the possibility of health issues since the Moon also rules the body. His Solar Arc Midheaven is exactly conjunct his Uranus now which does suggest a jolt and disruption in his life’s direction.  With his SA Saturn conjunct his Sun, exact in 8 months which will slow him down for a while; with some disappointments in 2025 as tr Neptune squares his adventurous Jupiter opposition Uranus and SA MC.  His Solar return for November 2025 onwards has Jupiter in the 6^th which augurs well on the health front.

   Prince William does have tr Pluto square his Jupiter and then Midheaven from this year until late 2026 so will be pushing ahead confidently on the career front as he is forced to shoulder heavier responsibilities. Though he is looking shaken, no doubt because of his wife’s health problems as well, with his SA Saturn opposition his Venus exact in four months and tr Uranus conjunct his Venus from this June on and off into early 2025. His Venus is particularly sensitive since it is the apex planet of a yod – and heavy influences on it are likely to push his life onto a different track. His Progressed Mars will conjunct his Jupiter by 2026 which will boost his status even more.

 Queen Camilla does look anxious, not surprisingly, with her SA Saturn square her Sun now and her SA Sun conjunct her Neptune exact after mid 2024. She’ll soldier on as normal through a testing couple of years with better news in 2025.

 Prince Harry is flying back to visit his father perhaps regretting having burnt his bridges behind him as his role as spare suddenly shows its value.   He does have his Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Uranus, exact within a few months, which will change his long term outlook radically. He also has his SA Saturn square his Sun, exact in fifteen months; plus tr Uranus is conjunct his 4^th house Taurus Moon mid March to mid April which will have resonances for his childhood family and father being 4^th house. This usually brings family upsets and even house moves. Tr Pluto is square his Pluto in 2024/25 which is part of his mid-life crisis (= last chance to grow up!) His Progressed Moon is also conjunct his 9^th house Saturn in 3 months which will be downbeat.

   There is no real indication of a truce with his family. His relations with his father look less strained than with the rest of the senior Royals. Anne, Edward, Camilla are all in separating/critical mode. Will may grit his teeth but it will be an uphill struggle not to let fly.

 Harry’s relationship with Meghan is also under strain as of now with tr Pluto conjunct their composite Midheaven and trines the composite Venus in 2024/25; and tr Uranus is square the composite Sun and opposite Uranus in 2025. Not only is their joint career floundering, the tug of Harry’s family/father can’t sit comfortably with Meghan’s scorched earth policy towards her own father/family.

 Both King Charles’ Accession and Coronation charts have strong Uranus elements built in so were always going to bring a changeable reign.

See post January 20 2024: UK Royals – braving the blast of Pluto in Aquarius

The tawdry world of high society gossip is the centrepiece of the tv docu-drama series “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.” Truman Capote, a feted writer of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the true crime novel In Cold Blood which brought him fame, fortune and friendships with high-society female friends, the wives of New York’s richest and most powerful men whom he nicknamed his “swans”. He lunched with them for two decades; yachted with them, heard their secrets and gossiped constantly.  

  As his career faltered he had the bright idea of turning what he knew into a novel, revealing their ‘dirty laundry’ which proved to be an act of social suicide. Indeed one of his subjects did commit suicide having seen an early version.  The fallout from his betrayal saw him ostracized from New York society and he retreated into an alcoholic and druggy final few years dying less than a decade later.

 Hamartia is the Greek word for the hero’s tragic flaw though Capote was hardly heroic in the first place with later analysis of his In Cold Blood pointing up fabrications and mistakes.

 He was born 30 September 1924 3pm New Orleans and had a fractured childhood, being abandoned to relatives for several years after his parents’ divorce. He wanted to become a writer from early on.  He had a deeply buried 8^th house Libra Sun square Pluto, so would be predisposed to unearth other people’s secrets – the 8^th house giving him an instinct for what lay below the surface. His Moon Saturn in Scorpio in the publishing 9^th house hints at his motherless, unhappy childhood focusing his energy on writing and no doubt giving him an acerbic slant as Scorpio’s sting was unveiled.

   His Neptune Venus in Leo in his 7th opposition a 1^st house Mars would attract him to glamour, superficiality and frivolity though with hints at a lack of solid commitment in relationships, amplified by his North Node also in the 7th. Jupiter in his 10^th guaranteed success for a time.  Chiron in Aries in his 3^rd house suggests a lack of a strong sense of identity and a tendency for childhood hurts to impact on his way of thinking and communicating.

 He grew up near writer Harper Lee who helped him with In Cold Blood though they drifted apart afterwards. Although a Sun Taurus, she had some similarities having a Moon Saturn in Scorpio close to his Midheaven and her Jupiter Mars in Aquarius opposition Neptune.

 Gore Vidal, another Sun Libra with Venus Saturn in Scorpio,  with whom Capote is sometimes linked though they disliked each other and the more intellectual Vidal had gravitas where Capote seemed obsessed with superficial appearances.  

Capote’s 5^th harmonic was strong – good at building a successful life but with a tendency to be irresponsible,  self-indulgent, deceitful. More significantly his 10^th harmonic is heavily aspected – the wheel of fortune, reaching the heights and then tumbling down.