There’s a tricky six-week run of influences coming up from this weekend with Mars moving into Capricorn on Saturday and the Sun into Aries on the 20^th. Thereafter the Sun hits hard aspects to Mars and Saturn before this month’s end; Mars is conjunct Saturn early in April and conjunct Pluto late in the month, with the Sun hitting Pluto and Uranus through the middle.

It will be more accident, disaster and atrocity-prone and argumentative than usual. For most individuals (us, cross fingers) it will just bring higher levels of tension, frustrations, bad-temper and irksome things going wrong. Usually several major events globally soak up the clashing energies, so it won’t bring catastrophes everywhere.

Looking back to recent occurrences of Mars in a Cardinal sign hitting on Uranus and Pluto, which stokes up the unstable energy, what’s below is just a selection of headline events to give a flavour of what’s likely.

November/December 2017 with Mars on Libra: Egypt’s worst bombing with 300 dead at a mosque. Iran-Iraq earthquake, many dead and injured. Zimbabwe swaps one gangster for another. Texas church shooting, 26 dead. Saudi Arabia imprisons princes/businessmen in Ritz Carlton.

June 2017 with Mars in Cancer: Qatar blockade. Portugal fires, many dead. London Bridge terrorist attack. London Grenfell Towers high-rise fire, many dead. MbS named Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Disastrous UK election.

October 2016, the last time Mars was in Capricorn: Hurricane Matthew hits Haiti. Obama standoff with Putin over Syria, freeze in relations. Kim Kardashian assaulted and robbed. USA election fever.

March 2015 with Mars in Libra: French sports stars dead in helicopter crash in Argentina. 11 US military dead in helicopter crash in Florida. Armed attackers in French jewel heist on motorway. Poisoning at Crufts Dog Show. Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson fracas and suspension. Hillary Clinton knee deep in email scandal.

2014 Mars in Libra: Bombs in Russia and the Lebanon, South Sudan civil war, more killings (even than usual) in Egypt, Syria, Iraq. More horror rape stories from India. Catastrophic weather, flooding, power cuts etc in the UK; and major snow in North America. Michael Schumacher’s accident

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Angela Merkel was sworn in for her fourth term as German Chancellor this morning around 12 noon. This puts the Pisces Sun and Neptune straddling the midheaven; with the Sun sextile Pluto and trine a 5^th house Jupiter; and square Mars. It’s a confident chart, with even a hint of over-confidence from Sun squaring the Jupiter/Pluto midpoint. An accentuated Pluto in the 7^th suggests a robust relationship with neighbours, intense and dominating, slightly control-freaky.

Certainly there will be no shortage of arguments and crises with the Sun Mars hard aspect, and Mars trine Uranus – quite explosive at times. Neptune conjunct the MC (if time accurate) may cause drift at times but will be counter-balanced by the strength of the other planets. Not always popular with Saturn square Venus Mercury.

Interesting to see how the 5^th house Jupiter turns out – entertainment, children, speculation.

PS: Anyone who has an accurate time, gratefully received.

Stephen Hawking the theoretical physicist and cosmologist who became one of the best-known scientists in the world has died. He suffered from a rare, early onset variety of Lou Gehrig’s disease but despite loss of physical functions and his voice he continued working till the end. His fame came from his work tying Einstein’s theory of gravity and relativity, with quantum mechanics. He was fascinated by black holes that could boil themselves out of existence, and equations that described the entire history of the Universe.

Born 8 January 1942, he had a very earthy, practical and ambitious chart with a Capricorn Sun and Mercury in an Earth Grand Trine to Saturn Uranus in Taurus trine North Node, Moon and Neptune in Virgo. An over-weighting of earth is supposed to lead to a limited imagination but clearly not in his case with the inspirational Uranus trine Neptune, often associated with ‘eureka’ moments. His Mercury was in a deep-thinking opposition to Pluto, as well as being trine Neptune and Uranus. It forms a wide Kite with influential Pluto being the driving planet.

His 13^th Harmonic – genius, breaking with the orthodox – was exceptionally well-aspected; as was his creative, get-it-together 5H. His 12H associated with sacrifice and healing was also strong.

Tiger Woods is fighting his way back to top level golf since recovering from fusion surgery, his fourth back operation since 2008, which many thought would end his career permanently. BBC Sport writes: ‘his astonishing resurgence has sent a bolt of electricity through the game.” Attendance and viewing figures have shot up.

He’s nothing if not determined with an ambitious Capricorn Sun square a pushily-confident Pluto opposition Jupiter; and his Pluto trine Mars in Gemini.

With tr Saturn now just out of his low-profile first quadrant and his Progressed Moon into his 10^th, he should be due a boost in visibility and achievements. But he’s got a couple of problematic influences coming up – Solar Arc Mars conjunct his Saturn, exact in six months’ time, which is accident or injury-prone. Into 2019 tr Neptune picks up the square to his Mars for 18 months which looks lack lustre and not too helpful for major wins.

Gina Haspel is to be nominated as the first female director of the CIA though there are question marks over whether she’ll get through the Senate hearings. She joined the CIA in 1985, was a foreign chief of station at CIA outposts, spent much of her career undercover and once ran a secret prison in Thailand which used harsh interrogation methods including waterboarding. Video tapes of the interrogations were destroyed in 2005 under an order with her name on it which led to a long investigation by the US Justice Department which ended with no charges being brought.

Born 1 October 1956 (blissfully the same day as Theresa May, UK PM). She’s a Sun Libra sextile Uranus; with Venus Pluto in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio; and Mars in Pisces opposition Jupiter. Cool, detached, strong opinions, obsessively conscientious and incredibly stubborn; and has the can-be-opportunistic Mars Jupiter hard aspect.

Not looking too good ahead with tr Saturn square her Sun now as well as tr Neptune conjunct her Mars; with a catastrophic tr Pluto conjunct her Mars/Saturn from later this month, on and off till late 2019. Plus an enthusiasm and confidence-denting tr Neptune square her Mars/Jupiter in April.

The rolling musical chairs continues. Mike Pompeo of the CIA is expected to be nominated as the new US Secretary of State as Rex Tillerson, long seen as an irritant to the President, is summoned back from Africa.

Pompeo, 30 December 1963, is more hawkish than Tillerson on Iran which appears to please Trump. But it won’t be an easy partnership. Pompeo is a Sun Mercury Mars in Capricorn square Jupiter and trine Uranus Pluto in Virgo – not short of ambition, robust opinions and determination. But his Mars Mercury opposes Trumps Saturn Venus so he’ll not always make the president feel loved or be too tactful. His well-organised though not overly-sensitive Saturn in Aquarius opposes Trump’s Mars and widely Pluto, with Pompeo’s Neptune square which will bring suspicions and doubts along the way. And Trump’s slippery 2^nd house Neptune squares Pompeo’s Sun.

Their relationship chart has a gritty, cold, aggravated composite Venus Saturn opposition Mars; with a needs-space Sun trine Uranus. It will get seriously rattled from this July onwards with tr Uranus conjunct the composite Venus; with a few high-tension moments before then with tr Uranus square the Uranus in April.

Pompeo’s chart shows a teeth-gritting year with tr Pluto conjunct his Mars and Mercury; career losses in April; and jolts through the spring and later in the year.

My impression was that James Mattis and Tillerson were tight. Mattis looks less than enthusiastic now with tr Saturn opposition his Uranus and a disastrous tr Pluto square Mars/Saturn;  tr Neptune is in an undermining opposition to his Virgo Sun in April, along with a dreary-slog tr Pluto trine Saturn plus plus and much of that repeats on and off into 2019. His Swearing In chart, gets a jolt from May onwards.

His relationship chart with Trump is infuriated at the moment, worsening considerably through April, on and off into 2019.

The Kremlin is “highly likely” to be behind the attack on a former Russian spy in the UK, PM Theresa May has confirmed. She revealed that the nerve agent used on Sergei Skripal and his daughter was a “military-grade” gas almost certainly created in Russia, part of a group of nerve agents known as ‘Novichok’. Russia’s ambassador had been asked to explain whether it was “direct action” by the state or due to it “losing control” of its nerve agent stock. And she insisted Moscow must provide “full and complete disclosure” of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons by the end of Tuesday.

And good luck with that, but at least she is trying, given her dismal performance over Litvinenko’s death, which even David Cameron admitted he wished he’d been more robust about.

The worms are beginning to turn. Even John McDonnell, the Marxist/Trotskyist Shadow Chancellor, has said he won’t be making any more appearances on Kremlin-sponsored TV station Russia Today (RT). He said RT’s coverage “goes beyond objective journalism” and it was “right”, after events in Salisbury, that Labour MPs did not appear on it; and he also backed visa sanctions against Russians suspected of corruption.

What is alarming some football fans is how it will affect the World Cup in Russia in June. Official UK representatives won’t go, which won’t be noticed; but fans may be at risk if they go and Boris Johnson is even  suggesting the UK team may pull out.

The first match will be played in Moscow 14 June 2018 at 6pm which gives a very hidden chart with Sun, Moon, Mercury in the 8^th, Jupiter in the 12^th and undermining Neptune in the domestic 4^th; with a pressured and angry 3rd house Pluto and Mars with Mars in a volatile square to Uranus.

Vladimir Putin himself looks less than ecstatic at that point with the panicky-failure Solar Arc Neptune still conjunct his Mars; and tr Saturn opposition his Jupiter/Pluto, curbing his sense of power. Though he will get some relief from tr Uranus square his Sun/Jupiter.

Russia Today, 15 September 2005, an international TV network funded by the Russian government, looks more than aggravated and boxed-in from later this month onwards with tr Pluto trine the Mars in Taurus, running on till late 2019; with the loss-making tr Neptune opposition Jupiter/Saturn this month, and till early 2019.

Much will depend on how much support the UK can rally in the EU to make any impact. Relations between Putin and the EU are certainly stressed, more so than usual in 2018/19; and the Russia/EU relationship chart is angry, undermined and under more pressure than usual, extending and worsening in 2019.

The USA/Russia relationship chart is hitting another low dip of suspicion and uncertainty this month, following on from the slump mid 2017 – with tr Neptune opposition the composite Sun Saturn, repeating September/October and across the New Year till February 2019.

Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister has been robustly rejecting claims of state involvement in the attempted assassination of the Skripals. “This is dishonest, this is pure propaganda, pure fanning of hysterics and hysteria.”

Born 21 March 1950, he was formerly at the UN for 10 years as Russian representative, and since 2004 has been the face of Russian diplomacy in the foreign ministry.

He’s a Sun Aries or last degree Pisces opposition Mars in Libra square Uranus, so resourceful in high-tension crises; with a confidently, charming Pluto opposition Venus and Jupiter in Aquarius.

What is clear from his relationship chart with Vladimir Putin is that both are shaken by recent events and criticism – either because they feel aggrieved at being attacked, or because of a botched-job which should have been carried out in a less public manner. Their relationship chart has a composite, enthusiastic Sun Mercury opposition Uranus square Jupiter – all of which is being dented by tr Saturn conjunct Sun and square Jupiter at the moment, then moving on to conjunct Mercury and oppose Uranus – all of that runs on until early June, repeating in the autumn. So this or other difficulties will continue. It may stretch cordiality between the pair to breaking point.

Lavrov has a fiery relationship with UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson with their composite Mars Uranus being triggered by tr Uranus in square from this July, into a through 2019.

Xi Jinping is now able to stay president of China for life after constitutional changes were passed, elevating his status to the level of the founder, Chairman Mao.

There’s nothing too specific showing on the China country chart. But he’s a very different temperament to Mao. Xi Jinping is a Sun, Jupiter in Gemini with Mars, Mercury, Uranus in Cancer; with Mercury Uranus square Saturn Neptune in Libra – adaptable, restless, bubbling over with initiative.

Mao, a Sun Capricorn had a much more Fixed and enduring chart with Mars Uranus in ultra-determined and vengeful Scorpio opposition Jupiter square Venus opposition a Leo Moon. And he had the signature can-be-megalomaniac Neptune Pluto in Gemini, shared by many of the 20^th Century dictators.

The only thing of note is Xi Jinping’s First Presidency chart – 14 March 2013 11.51am Beijing, which has a Yod of Pluto sextile Saturn inconjunct Jupiter – definitely pointing to grandiose ambitions, with the ability to have a considerable impact on the masses – though with the downside of a tendency to get carried away by grandiosity.

XJ isn’t especially tied into the China chart on synastry, except in a relatively benign way. But his relationship chart has a composite controlling Sun Pluto conjunction; with a wide reforming Saturn opposition Jupiter square Uranus.