A quick run-down on the planetary aspects and positions in 2017.

Two out of the outer planets shift sign. Jupiter is in Libra until October, and then in Scorpio for a year thereafter. Saturn finishes its three-year stint in Sagittarius this year, moving into Capricorn on the 21^st December to hang around until 2020.

The Solar Eclipses (see previous post) are in early Pisces in February and late Leo in August; the Lunar Eclipses are in Leo in February and Aquarius in August.

Venus is around in Aries longer than usual – Feb, March and May.

There will still be faint ripples from Uranus square Pluto. It is pulling apart but will it hard aspect the Sun, Mars and other planets in fairly quick succession during certain months so will be felt. What will help (some of the time) is Jupiter in Libra also in aspect, which can bring a ray of sunshine, though can also lead to over-confidence, brash behaviour, conflicts etc. In January, April, July and October the Sun picks up Uranus Pluto. Mars does the same in February, July and late November/December.

July looks an especially stressed month with Mars in hard aspect to Pluto and Uranus, as well as the Sun to Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto. Late November and December also look fraught as Mars in Libra picks up Pluto, then Uranus and the Sun around this time meets Saturn for the first time in Capricorn, which will put a damper on festivities.

Saturn does trine Uranus in May which could bring beneficial and constructive changes. And Jupiter will be much in evidence which at a personal level should bring good news, but out in the world maybe the other sort, since it tends to be disaster-prone or induce over-pushy actions.

Actress and writer Carrie Fisher, best known as the original Star Wars Princess Leia and daughter of Debbie Reynolds and the late Eddie Fisher, is in intensive care after a heart attack.

Her bitingly funny screenplay Postcards from the Edge was about her relationship with her actress mother growing up in a Hollywood family; and she has spoken openly about her bi-polar disorder and drug addictions.

Born 21 October 1956 12.49pm Burbank, California, she has a Libra Sun conjunct filmic Neptune in Scorpio in the communication 9^th, with Mercury in Libra also in the 9^th. She also has Jupiter Venus in Virgo in the 8^th opposition Mars in Pisces, so intense, lucky, scattered, highly-strung. With Pluto also in the 8^th in a bleak square to Saturn in Sagittarius which is in turn trine a 7^th house Uranus. So she would have far-reaching influence with 8^th the house emphasis, but with a tendency towards depression and difficulties maintaining committed relationships.

Her Taurus Moon in the 4^th is trine Jupiter Venus, so stability for her comes from a settled home life and perhaps early on relationships to grandparents.

Princess Alexandra, first cousin of the Queen is 80 tomorrow, and still working hard at her charity duties. Despite scandals over the years, she has always maintained a dignified front and the Queen’s friendship. Her father, Prince George, Duke of Kent, was a flagrant libertine, unfussed whether his conquests were male or male. When he was killed in a plane crash in 1942 it left the family in relative poverty. Her mother Princess Marina was half Russian, half-Greek. So she comes from stalwart Royal stock.

Born 25 December 1936 11.20am Princess Alexandra has a suitably regal Sun Jupiter in Capricorn in her 10^th, so designed for duty and social status. Though her Sun Jupiter are trine Uranus, so she will be less conventional than her cool, defensive Saturn on her Pisces Ascendant lets on. Her Saturn opposes a 7^th house Neptune squaring onto her Sagittarius Midheaven and North Node, so she channelled her compassion (Sat Nep) into duty, and perhaps was less committed to her emotional relationships as a result. Neptune in the 7^th is often inaccessible or vague about commitments.

One of the stories the Daily Mail dredged up today is of her daughter Marina, who in a fit of rebellion sold her story to a newspaper telling of her ‘snarling’ mother and drunken father. Alexandra will certainly have a temper with her Mercury opposition a 5^th house Pluto square Mars in Libra – so when she blows a fuse it will get nasty. Pluto in the 5^th suggests over-control where children are concerned with subsequent resentment.

She married Angus Ogilvy, a City financier who ran into trouble with a financial corruption scandal and had to resign. He was born 25 Dec 1936, and his Virgo New Moon, Venus, Mercury in Libra all fell in Alexandra’s 7^th house, which is a good partnership match. Though rumours have always floated around about a long affair between Alexandra and Prince Philip (hotly denied, but amongst the aristo set anything is possible). Philip, 10 June 1921, has his Venus conjunct her Uranus and trine her Sun Jupiter so there certainly would be warm feelings. And the relationship chart has an affectionate composite Sun Venus trine Pluto which emphasises the point.

Her relationship to HM Queen has stayed strong from childhood onwards and there is also a friendly composite Sun Venus on their relationship chart. Though there is also a trickier composite Pluto opposition Saturn Jupiter square Uranus, so it would have its ups and downs and periods of strain.

The Berlin market killer has been identified as being shot by Italian police when he was picked up on a routine stop and pulled a gun.

Anis Amri, 22 Dec 1992 near Kairouan, Tunisia, was a Sun Capricorn with a Sagittarius Moon; with a highly-strung, can-be-fanatical Uranus Neptune in Capricorn in an aggressive and volatile opposition to Mars in excitable Cancer; and a tough Saturn in Aquarius square Pluto.

Tr Uranus was exactly opposition his Mars/Uranus and Mars/Neptune midpoints when he drove the truck into the Christmas market, heightening his confused state and irrationality.

ISIS, 15 Oct 2006, claimed responsibility and his relationship chart with ISIS has an exact brutal Mars square Pluto (Venus) which tr Neptune is hard-aspecting now. That could be undermining. But Mars Neptune Pluto can also stoke up violent megalomania and a love of publicity. There’s also an ‘idealistic’, can-be-delusional Jupiter square Neptune.

Like so many other jihadists he had a criminal past, and ISIS offered an opportunity to channel his aggression into a cause.

ISIS may be losing territory fast in the Middle East but they aren’t beaten by a long chalk as they turn their attention to sowing discord on the European mainland. They will be rattled through 2017 with tr Uranus opposition their Sun Mars; but look suspiciously buoyant come 2019/2020 with tr Pluto sextile their Jupiter. What should be their undoing is tr Pluto opposition their Mars in 2021/22.

PS. Birth dates are always questionable in these cases even from passports or police wanted posters since often terrorists use different aliases and presumably different or forged birth certificates.

Lithuania and Latvia are two ex-Soviet satellite countries on high alert given Putin’s recent belligerent comments and actions in the Ukraine.

There’s a handful of charts for both countries, which doesn’t help, from 1917/18 and the 1989 to 1991 USSR meltdown.

Lithuania 11 Dec 1917 with a putative time of 9.44am Vilnius is taken by local astrologers as independence. That chart has a trapped, frustrated, high-risk tr Pluto trine Mars picking up from mid March 2017 till late 2018. With an undermining tr Neptune square the Sagittarius Sun in 2019. The relationship charts with Russia 1917 & 1991 are edgy and unsettled through 2017/18.

Latvia became independent on 21 Aug 1991 11.25am Riga. That chart looks highly stressed in late 2017 with a risky Solar Arc Sun conjunct Mars; and discouraged in 2018 with Solar Arc Saturn opposition Sun in early 2018. Relationship charts with Russia again look under severe pressure in 2017 and explosively insecure in 2018.

So the problem won’t recede with Putin on a confident push all round, now backed (most probably and extraordinarily) by the new US President.

Happy Festivities all round and the very best wishes for 2017 .

A ‘Handel’ rose for peace and prosperity.

Marjorie

Joseph McCarthy, the Senator, who led the witch-hunts against communists in the USA between 1950 and 1954 at the start of the Cold War was born 14 November 1908 3pm Grand Chute, Wisconsin.

He had an intense, obsessive 8^th house Scorpio Sun. And more significantly had the Uranus opposition Neptune of the time on his MC/IC axis. There is an irrationally fanatical side to Uranus Neptune which he clearly lived out. This opposition squared onto Mars Venus in Libra, making him verbally combative and emotionally erratic. Plus his Mars was in an enraged, can-be-brutal trine to Pluto.

When he started his high-profile campaign to root out reds under the bed, Saturn had just moved into Libra and the Uranus square Neptune was at its height through his four-year terror regime. When it started to wane he was removed from his position.

The only similar thing at the moment is tr Uranus moving to hard aspect the USA 1776 Mercury in Cancer opposition Pluto in Capricorn in 2017/18 but it lacks to highly-strung Neptune connection.

The Tunisian terrorist being sought in connection with the Berlin Market killings, was born 23 December 1993 (Tunivision). If accurate, this gives him a close Uranus Neptune conjunction.

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Leslie Kenton was the guru of health and beauty in the 1970/80s when she was a lynchpin of Harpers & Queens magazine, extolling the virtues of raw food and juice diets long before they became commonplace. She lived an alternative lifestyle, often dressed in white flowing robes, had four children by four different fathers, lived for spells in a Buddhist monastery, embraced shamanism and other spiritual practices.

She was a larger than life personality with considerable presence and in later years wrote a memoir about being abused by her father Stan Kenton, the jazz musician. Of her death in November in New Zealand where she lived in recent years, her children wrote on her blog: ‘On the evening following her death the earth literally shook. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake 150km north of Leslie’s home rocked the country. A day later there was a Super Full Moon.’ She would have appreciated the syncronicity.

She was born in Los Angeles on 24 June 1941 and my memory is she had a 9^th house New Moon in Cancer, so I’ve put the birth time circa 1pm.

Her New Moon was square a showbizzy, publicity-attracting Mars in Pisces opposition a 12^th house Neptune. Neptune in the 12^th would certainly crave solitude at times but she always revelled in attention from a public audience. A focal point Sun is quite ego-centred and a focal point Moon needs the attention of a wide circle rather than just one person.

She wrote 40 books which fits a communication 9^th house emphasis. As well as the Cancer slant since she had Venus and Mercury also in Cancer around her MC. Cancer has a knack of intuiting what the public wants at any given time. Her 10^th house Pluto would help to give her legendary status and influence though was also controlling. Her Saturn Uranus in Taurus in her 8^th would contribute to her constantly changing emotional life, as would the self-sufficient New Moon.

She had a strongly aspected get-it-together 5^th Harmonic; as well as 7^th Harmonic which is a spiritual number, a seeking soul, perfectionist and craving of peace. Plus her victim/healer 12H was marked and intense.

Stan Kenton, born 15 Dec 1911, was a controlling personality with a Sagittarius Sun opposition Pluto with his Pluto conjunct her New Moon, so she would feel dominated by him. His Mars in Taurus was conjunct her Saturn Uranus in her 8^th which is a damaging and unkind cross over, though she said she never hated him.

12 holiday shoppers and sight seers are dead with 48 injured from last night’s atrocity in Germany as a truck drove into a Christmas market in Berlin at 7.14pm. It is being viewed as a “probable terrorist attack” with the driver, reportedly a Pakistani asylum seeker, being questioned. The Polish driver was apparently stabbed and his lorry, carrying steel girders, hi-jacked.

Uranus was opposition Jupiter square Pluto – and that is a signature carried through next year’s US Inauguration Trump First Term and the February Eclipses. Jupiter despite its merry reputation often appears critically placed in disasters. The negative aspect of a Jupiter Uranus opposition can lead to wild optimism and grandiose get-rich-quick-schemes far removed from common sense; and can stir up religious conflict. Which latter this will certainly do. Angela Merkel has already had to back away from her open-hearted welcome-to-all approach; and called for a ban-the-burqua policy.

Germany was always due for an emotional shock with the Solar Arc Moon conjunct its 12^th house Mars now, though not exact until four months’ time, so there may be more to come.