Will the veil be lifted allowing us to see into an alternative reality? Or will we pulled further into the madness of an increasingly chaotic world? The Lunar Eclipse at 15 degrees Aquarius/Leo next Monday August 7^th sits exactly on the Neptune/Pluto midpoint, which can offer sixth-sense awareness or manic instability. Dion Fortune, a notable White Magician, neatly paraphrased the fine line between the two, writing about ‘those strange byways of the mind that the psychic shares with the psychotic.’

Pluto’s domain in astrological terms is the deep, dark realm of wealth, sex, death and rebirth, power and control. It has a Scorpionic intensity, a need to plumb the depths to find the heights of transcendence.

Neptune’s realm also has a double-faceted quality – revenge and cruelty often sit side by side with extreme compassion, great creativity and strong religious yearnings. Financial and other scandals always have a whiff of Neptune about them, with its quality of deceptiveness and its persuasive sleights of hand. Confidence tricks come under Neptune’s banner, with its inability to set boundaries or to distinguish between thine and mine, and its tendency to lie and distort.

Neptune and Pluto together create a fey, mystical mix of energies, both wonderful and terrifying at the same time. Historically the combination is connected with the rise of great powers with epically brutal leaders; with art, especially erotic literature; with scientific advances in such intangibles as electricity, radio and telephone; with religious events; and with scandals.

Neptune in its visionary aspect, mixing with Pluto’s power drive, creates a delusional though often devastatingly effective megalomania. Neptune puts the dream above reality, writes off human sacrifice as a necessary cost to gain the end. Pluto as the arch controller reduces individual humans to objects, pawns on the chessboard; the puppetmaster reigns supreme.

Ebertin talks of the Neptune/Pluto midpoint as a purified soul-life and clairvoyant visions OR frauds, falsehoods, utter confusion, obsessions, addictions. It’s a delicate balance.

Dion Fortune herself was born with the Neptune Pluto conjunction in Gemini of 1894 opposing her Sun. Hitler who dabbled in black magic to fuel his megalomania had a Neptune Pluto conjunction in his access-to-other-realms, power-hungry 8^th house. The ISIS 2006 chart has its Sun (Venus Mars) square its Neptune/Pluto midpoint. The UK’s Capricorn Sun sits exactly on its Neptune/Pluto midpoint, which in its ‘glory days’ led to colonial over-reach with an empire on which the sun never set.

It’s a powerful energy which can rise to great heights and, when the coin flips, its hubris, arrogance and sense of divine entitlement bring it crashing down.

The individual’s answer as ever to such heady energy is: 1. Grounding, stay rooted in the body (exercise, eat healthily, don’t over drink/drug); 2. Common sense and rationality. Keep in mind that the Solar Eclipse of August 21^st is in a Saros series which warns of distorted and false information. Not all hunches and presentiments will be accurate, worries will magnify out of proportion and most will prove to have been a waste of nervous energy. Be like the Ladakhis – happy despite problems. There’s the additional surge of super-confident energy leading to over-reach of the Jupiter square Pluto on Friday 4^th. It tends to bring out pride, wilfulness and a dogmatic streak which brushes social niceties to one side and fosters a law unto itself attitude. Tr Pluto is exactly square Trump’s natal Jupiter with his Jupiter Return – so unlikely to induce moderation or manners.

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Launching a government on an exact Full Moon in Sagittarius/Gemini squaring onto Neptune in Pisces, as Theresa May’s did, was never going to lead to constructive progress. The list of attributes to such a focal point Neptune is not heartening – disorganised, credulous, gullible, chameleon-like, misleading (intentionally and otherwise), lacking willpower, disliking meeting obstacles head-on, poor observational qualities, a tendency to escape away from reality into an imaginative world which feels more comforting.

Just as Chancellor Philip Hammond, capitalising on Theresa May’s vacation absence, brought some sane business plans to the table about a transitional exit period, saying there was a broad consensus in the Cabinet, he was promptly slapped down by the ever-excitable Liam Fox and Boris Johnson. The Full Moon, of course, is also split and Neptune is not the planet to tie the opposing extremes together into a coherent direction.

Matthew Parris, Times columnist and former Tory MP, has described the Conservative Party as ‘criminally irresponsible’ for turning Brexit into ‘a humiliating shambles.’ ‘Thirteen months since the referendum and the Conservatives still can’t decide even the broadest outline of the terms on which we hope to leave.’ ‘It now appears they and their leader started the countdown to Britain’s expulsion without even the vaguest plan for what we’d be aiming to achieve, let alone realistically likely to achieve.’

Tr Neptune has now reversed to exactly square the Government MC and hovers thereabouts into 2018 by which time it picks up the Sun/MC midpoint and then squares Sun and Moon in 2019 – if it lasts that long, and there’s nothing too obvious pointing to a total collapse, the shambles will continue.

Philip Hammond and Amber Rudd have the most help from lucky Jupiter willing them on through 2017/18. Though Hammond has a downer from early this October to early January 2018 as tr Neptune squares his Sagittarius Sun Mercury. Amber Rudd looks completely undercut during that Oct to Jan period as well, though it may be different problems since as Home Secretary she has ongoing responsibility for law and order amongst a broad portfolio. Hammond will bounce again in 2018, though with some significant upheavals as well; and looks completely crushed by 2019. Gove is limping along, trapped in 2018/19 and in danger of career losses. Fox also looks enraged, frustrated and cornered in 2019. Davis is back against the wall in 2018/19 as well. And Theresa May is on the longest downhill slide of her career from now till 2020.

None of them look remotely happy or successful. The only cut off point I can see on the UK/EU relationship chart is late 2018 when tr Saturn is conjunct the composite Sun, but that’s a mild enough influence and comes round in hard aspect every 7 years and to the conjunction every 29 years. I have truly no idea how this is all going to end.

A final act of remembrance for the deaths at Flanders one hundred years ago in the First World War will be held this weekend. Passchendaele was one of the bloodiest battle of WW1, leading to 320,000 allied deaths and German losses of between 260,000 and 400,000 men. The Allied assault was launched at 3.50am on 31 July 1917 in torrential rain, the mud swallowing up men, horses and tanks. After just over three months of brutal trench warfare, the Allies had made just five miles (8km) of ground. Paul Nash’s evocative paintings of the Menin Road recorded the bleak scene for posterity.

When it started there was a brutal Mars Pluto in Cancer sextile Venus, with an exact Neptune Saturn (and Sun) conjunction in Leo on the midpoint. Uranus opposed Mercury squaring onto Mars as well. The Mars Pluto points to the destructiveness and Saturn Neptune to the chaos, hysteria and sacrifice.

The 12^th Harmonic which relates to victims was stark – a Pluto Neptune Saturn conjunction quincunx Uranus; Uranus in turn opposed the Sun and was tied into Mars. Neptune Pluto carries as one of its meanings an insanely over-the-top energy.

Passchendaele wasn’t the costliest battle of WW1. That dubious record went to the Battle of the Somme fought two years earlier in November 1916, when there were 485,000 British and French casualties and 630,000 German. That started with a Sun Pluto conjunction in Cancer; a Yod of Saturn in Cancer sextile Mars in Virgo inconjunct Uranus in Aquarius; and there was a Neptune opposition North Node square Jupiter in Taurus. Sun Pluto craves power, is associated with physical suffering, martyrdom. A Yod focal point Uranus can be lawless and disruptive. And Jupiter was playing its usual disaster role in magnifying the bad.

The Somme 12^th Harmonic had a Sun trine Saturn Uranus trine Pisces Node, with Sun square Mars and square Neptune. Both 12H charts have marked Saturn Uranus aspects = a difficult battle for life in overcoming danger.

Tr Pluto in Cancer (which overstayed its welcome) picked in 1914 at the outbreak of WW1 and lasted through the 1930s depression years till 1939, and more than anything contributed to the break-up of the family certainly in Europe.

The deaths in the First War and the Second were, of course, what led to the impetus to set up the EEC and then the EU as a way of avoiding future conflict between Germany and Europe, which tends to get forgotten in all the Brexit squabbling.

Superlatives proliferate when swimmer Adam Peaty’s name crops up. At the World Championships in Budapest this week, he won the 100m, again, and the 50m, again. He broke his own championship record in one event, and his own world record in the other, twice. Rebecca Adlington, double Olympic champion said: “He is the poster boy for swimming across the world, not just in Britain. No one is even close to him, so you ask yourself how much more can he improve”. The only man who has matched Peaty’s winning margin in a sprint is Michael Phelps.

A commentator said: “He has the perfect physique. Large hands, large feet, and hyper-mobile, double-jointed knees and ankles. But in swimming, the gifts you’re born with are never enough. It demands lunatic commitment.”

He gets up at 6am to train, completing three two-hour sessions a day, six days a week. In peak training, he will swim seven miles a day, every day but Sunday. That’s 1,680 lengths a week, up and down the same lanes. He eats 8,000 calories a day, but he only has 6% body fat and has an extraordinary cardiovascular system.

Born 28 December 1994 in Uttoxeter, England, he famously disliked water as a baby, but at one point decided that swimming was all he was good at. He’s a Sun Capricorn trine Mars in Virgo; with Mercury, Neptune, Uranus also in Capricorn – very earthy and ambitious. His Moon along with Venus and Pluto are in intense Scorpio and his Saturn is in Pisces – so it’s a Water Earth chart which gives him great inner strength and determination. What really dominates his chart is a T square of a disciplined Mars opposition Saturn squaring onto a supremely confident Jupiter in Sagittarius conjunct Pluto. So he’s turned an afflicted Mars – square Pluto and opposition Saturn – to very constructive ends.

He evidently does have strong self-belief and likes to quote Mike Tyson. “Every step I get closer to that ring, I tell myself I’m a God and no one can beat me.”

He says he would be a Royal Marine if he wasn’t a swimmer, which would also suit his Mars.

Money and the military appear to be Trump’s answer to draining the Washington swamp as he ousts the establishment Reince Priebus in favour of moving up one of his favoured generals as Chief of Staff. John Kelly’s herculean task appears to be instilling discipline in an unruly White House wracked by palace intrigues and headed by an uncontrollable President. The only badges of honour Trump appears to recognise are millions/billions in the bank or a chest full of medals. He should be learning (clearly not) that a New York hard-ass, Gordon Gekko approach to dealing doesn’t work in Washington; and it remains to be seen whether a macho live-by-the-sword approach will work any better.

Kelly, 11 May 1950, has an impeccable record in the military and has been the public face and chief defender of Trump’s immigration policies. He has a heavyweight chart with Sun Mercury in Taurus, conjunct Trump’s midheaven, squaring onto Pluto; and trine Mars and Saturn in Virgo – so his determination, courage, endurance and stubbornness are not in doubt. His Mars does square Trump’s Sun and Moon, so it won’t all be sweetness and light. Late October into November this year will take some of the shine off their relationship, but that moves on quickly. Disappointments and miscommunications will start kicking in more obviously in 2018.

Kelly’s own chart has Neptunian dips and Plutonic aggro for the rest of this year into 2018; and then picks up a cornered and frustrated tr Pluto opposition his Sun/Mars midpoint for two years.

Kelly’s relationship charts with Scaramucci and Bannon, both of whom report directly to Trump, are marked with outright dislike; as are Scaramucci and Bannon’s and they could come to a parting of the ways this year.

The key question at this stage is – whither the Republican Party? They nailed their colours to Trump’s mast and are now counting the cost (to mix metaphors). Both the Republican 22 Feb 1856 and 28 Feb 1854 charts in relation to Trump’s are indicating increasing divergence with both relationship charts showing tr Uranus in hard aspect to the composite Sun this year (1856) and next (1854), which can indicate sudden outright splits. The 1856 relationship chart also has tr Saturn in a blocked opposition to the composite Pluto exactly now and moving on to a bad-tempered square to Mars, a confusing/disappointing conjunction to Neptune in late Oct/Nov this year and then an enthusiasm-dampening conjunction to the composite Jupiter over the New Year. The 1854 relationship chart has similar with tr Saturn conjunct Neptune and opposition Saturn/Pluto and Saturn through this fall and trine the composite Mars in Jan 2018 = increasing paranoia, uncertainty and setbacks.

The chart for Trump’s nomination as Republican candidate is interesting – 22 July 2016 12.13am Cleveland, Ohio.  the basic interface looks rife with difficulty with an aggravated Mars in Scorpio in the 8^th square Moon; a control-freaky Pluto in the 10^th; and a neurotic, worrisome Neptune opposition North Node square an 8^th house Saturn – not much love there. This August’s two eclipses are hitting the chart hard. The Lunar Eclipse is in an emotionally-shocking opposition to the Venus Mercury; and the Solar Eclipse is opposition the Moon and square Mars which will descend the red mists of fury. It is certainly rocking on its axis with tr Uranus returning to its original position from this December and even more so squaring the Sun from late April 2018. They can hardly de-nominate him. But maybe it all fits in with Trump’s hugely tumultuous 2018 as his Solar Arc Uranus approaches the conjunction to his Mars.

“The most loyal dog in Trump’s kennel gets the most savage whipping.” That’s one comment from the Republican camp up in arms at Trump’s bileful public tantrum against Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General. He remains angry over Sessions’ decision in March to recuse himself from the investigation into alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, which opened the way to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Trump’s family dealings and financial affairs. Sessions’ sin was not to understand that his loyalty lay to Trump not the rule of law or niceties of the constitution. Even far-righters like Newt Gingrich think Trump should shut up, pointing out that even the very pro-Trump Rudy Giuliani said he would have recused himself.

Sessions was the first and most constant supporter of Trump through his campaign. Senate leaders made clear they would block Trump from replacing Sessions if he tried to do so during the coming recess. And the Republicans fear the firing of an attorney general in the middle of the Russia investigations would send the country into a political and constitutional tailspin, making it difficult to confirm any replacement.

Evidently Trump’s business history indicates he dislikes firing people; his preferred method being to make life so unpleasant they resign. And that is very Pluto in the 12^th house, which in his chart is catching the Aquarius/Leo Lunar Eclipse in early August, so exacerbating his tendency to hang onto resentments and manipulate. In traditional astrology the 12^th house was known as the chart area of self-undoing where you shoot yourself in the foot and cause your own downfall. Pluto is an all—or-nothing energy, not given to moderation, and in the 12^th can produce a sackful of toxic emotions. There are positive sides to this placing but to access those it requires insight and the ability to shake off old attitudes and transform.

His relationship chart with Sessions always did look surprisingly separated this year with tr Saturn square the composite Sun opposition Venus Mercury, which picked up in February, became worse March to May, and returns early September to early October and late November.

Sessions’ own chart looks most jangled this December with tr Uranus opposition the Mars/Pluto midpoint which tends to be major catastrophe time; with career-loss tr Saturn hitting his Jupiter/Saturn at the same time.

Several of the relationship charts with Trump’s other Cabinet appointees – McMaster, Mattis, Pence, Kelly, Pompeo, Priebus and Tillerson – will be shaken up by the August Lunar and/or Solar Eclipse. So even the recess will bring no respite from rolling tensions. HR McMaster looks the most at odds with Trump in 2017/18 with tr Pluto opposition the composite Mars, exact now, and repeating on for 18 months.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, according to reports, is unhappy enough to want to quit and he’s certainly facing major losses and deep discouragement this September/October.

VP Mike Pence, valiantly trying to hold the President’s line is having the worst two years of his life in 2017/18 and losing heart in 2018/19. His relationship with Trump, more aggravated than it looks, is panicked through this summer and in November; and heading into a swamp of devastating confusion in 2018.

Trump is certainly living out the Solar Eclipse effect on his Mars, making him even more combative than usual, his temper under minimal control. It can have health implications since that amount of high-octane emotion can impact on the body, especially one as over-fed and under-exercised as Trump’s.

What will have an even more explosive effect will be his Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Mars – moving onto the same degree in two months and exact in 10 months, which could knock him for six. His Solar Return birthday 2017 to 2018 does have split-relationship Uranus in the 7^th, an emotionally trapped Pluto in the 4^th house of family, an isolated Saturn in 3^rd, and low-energy Neptune in the 6^th.

Solar Return 2018: has an emphasised/afflicted Uranus in the 4^th – could be moving home or upsets in the family. Solar Return 2019 is the truly devastating one with Saturn Pluto in the 10^th opposition Mercury Mars in the 4^th – that could be the real career-ender.

James Bond 25 should release on November 9 2019, all going to plan, more or less on top of the Saturn Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, which doesn’t sound too upbeat. Maybe an escapist blockbuster will be what’s needed but the date itself isn’t too auspicious if they stick to it.

Barbara Broccoli, daughter of the late Cubby, is behind the Bond movies, owns the company and has been producer on the most recent 8.

Born 18 June 1960 9.55am Santa Monica, CA (astro com), she is an expansive, friendly Sun Venus in Gemini opposition Jupiter in Sagittarius in her ‘performing’ 5^th house. Saturn in Capricorn is also in her 5^th, a typical placing for organisational types in the entertainment business. She has a maverick Uranus on her Leo Ascendant so will go her own way; and an outspoken Moon Mars in Aries in her global 9^th square Mercury in Cancer.

When the next Bond releases she’s on her Second Saturn Return, always quite a pressured time; and also on her Jupiter Return with tr Jupiter moving through her 5^th, so she’ll have a double dose of attention. It’s not the easiest kick-off for her this year with her Solar Arc Pluto opposing her Mars exactly in three months’ time, so a mega-setback or two. Plus discouraging Saturn transits to her Sun Venus and Jupiter till the year end. Making movies on this scale is a gargantuan, nerve-wracking task. But she’ll buck up into 2018.

Daniel Craig, who said two years ago he’d rather slit his wrists than do another Bond after a run of injuries, is now reported to be a done deal, though not yet confirmed. Born 2 March 1968, he did go through a really tough patch in 2013/14 with tr Uranus square tr Pluto hitting on his Mars Saturn in Aries; plus in 2015 he had the uncertain, undermining tr Saturn square tr Neptune hitting his Pisces Sun. So he had a challenging, risky two years followed by a slump. He’s clear of all that now. Though still beleaguered by more confusing, low-energy influences through the next two years. This August’s Leo Solar Eclipse will conjunct his Jupiter in Leo so that should give him a lift.

His relationship chart with Barbara Broccoli is passionately enthusiastic which no doubts spills over into heated moments along the way – and is pressured through 2017 to 2019 with tr Pluto square the composite Mars Venus. Tr Uranus was conjunct the composite Venus Mars when he announced Never Again. But that has moved on.

Anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny is the most prominent face of Russian opposition to Vladimir Putin. He is a lawyer turned campaigner who carries out investigations into the wealth of Putin’s inner circle. He emerged as the main opposition leader in the protests before the last presidential election in 2012. Observers say he has ‘remarkable political instincts and a powerful charismatic streak. His fiery cocktail of liberalism, nationalism and populism resonates with many.’

He has now been barred from standing in next year’s elections because he is currently serving a five-year suspended sentence for embezzlement. Last year the European Court of Human Rights quashed that verdict, saying Navalny and his former business partner did not have a fair trial; and his supporters condemned the trial as politically motivated. Nearly 20 million people have viewed Navalny’s recent YouTube video making allegations about former president and now PM Dmitry Medvedev. Navalny believes that as poverty continues to blight large swaths of Russia’s population, the mood of protest will only grow. For all Navalny sounds like the darling of western liberals, he is pro-Putin’s annexation of Crimea and Ukraine and a fervent nationalist.

Born 4 July 1976 1.30pm Moscow (astro.com), he has a communicative 9^th house Sun Venus in an idealistic, though not always practical opposition to Neptune. He also has Jupiter in Taurus opposition North Node in Scorpio (conj Uranus) square Mars in Leo – so flamboyant, stubborn, with a taste for excitement. He also has his Neptune in a publicity-attracting trine to Mars in Leo, sextiling onto Pluto – so definitely determined and influential.

The early August Lunar eclipse will catch his focal point Mars, so interesting to see what comes out of that – another flare-up. The Lunar Eclipse also catches the composite Sun on his relationship chart with Putin; and the composite Venus collides with the Solar Eclipse on August 21^st – both of which will rattle the mood between them. The next 18 months look fraught with tr Pluto square the composite Mars and trine the composite Jupiter.

It’s a miracle he’s stayed alive as long as he has, given Russia’s track record for despatching whistle blowers and activists. Corruption at the top was always the tragedy of communism in Russia – the poor led lives of unrelenting slog while the wealthy few lived it up in their luxury dashas.

Canadian singer Justin Bieber has cancelled the remaining dates of his Purpose World Tour because of “unforeseen circumstances”. He has performed more than 150 shows across the globe on the tour since March 2016, grossing $93 million for the first half of 2017. He apologised to fans who had booked 14 dates in Asia and North America, coming up over the next three months.

He was born 1 March 1994 12.56am Stratford, Ontario (astrotheme) and is a Sun Venus in Pisces trine Jupiter in Scorpio. Despite the expansive feel of those planets, he doesn’t have an easy chart with his Sun conjunct Saturn; and Pluto Node in Scorpio conjunct his Ascendant square Mars Mercury in Aquarius – while this will give him grit and determination, it’ll also make him prone to a fair amount of mental conflict, anger and feelings of powerlessness. Plus his Libra Moon is in a highly-strung square to Uranus Neptune, so emotionally erratic. Tr Uranus has been opposing his Moon and square his Neptune Uranus this year, through until early 2018, so he’ll be pretty jangled. The August Leo Eclipse is conjunct his Progressed Moon with both opposition his Mars Mercury, which will lead to additional strain.

But most of all, if his birth-time is accurate, he has tr Saturn about to enter his 2^nd house, the lowest portion of his first quadrant, which is not a time when the physical demands of a punishing workload are easily managed. The psyche wants time for personal pursuits and less pressure, often leading to a drop in energy and ambition.