Saudi Arabia has announced they may discuss ‘stabilising’ the oil market at next month’s OPEC meeting. They have been feeling the pinch along with other oil-producing countries because of the low oil price. The Kingdom is struggling with weak GDP growth, higher fees and taxes, and an economy that is unable to pay the dues to its migrant workers, who have been left without a job, many months of overdue salary and benefits, and without basic amenities such as insurance coverage, food, shelter and medical facilities, and are unable to leave.

Until recently the Saudis appeared unwilling to compromise but a stable oil price is crucial for the IPO of state-owned Saudi Aramco aimed for 2017/ 2018, which is key to a move to diversify the economy and turn its Public Investment Fund into a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund. It’s the brainchild of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the ambitiously aggressive son of the ageing King, who wants to be regarded as a leader in the Arab world.

The Saudi Arabia, 15 Jan 1902 3.45am chart indicates a bleak, undermining two years ahead with a tough-slog, deprived tr Pluto conjunct the Saudi Arabia Saturn; and Solar Arc Neptune square the Capricorn Sun and Jupiter in 18 months and two years’ time, which latter is often associated with a financial bubble bursting. Tr Saturn also from this December till late 2017 is in hard aspect to the Saudi Arabia T Square of Uranus opposition Pluto Neptune in Gemini square Pisces Moon – which looks like a depressed population. There’ll be some ups along the way when tr Uranus squares Jupiter in April and December 2017 and Jan 2018. But it’ll be a long haul until tr Pluto is conjunct the Jupiter in 2020 by which time tr Saturn in Capricorn will be causing a see-saw effect cutting back as Jupiter tries to push ahead. But for sure, it’ll be a different country by then, having ploughed through a tr Pluto conjunction to its’ three Capricorn planets.

The 23 Sept 1932 country chart is also showing major strains through 2016 to 2018 with tr Uranus square the Saturn in Capricorn opposition Pluto and conjunct  Uranus (for a Uranus return); with a deflating tr Saturn square tr Neptune in hard aspect to its Jupiter this year till Jan 2017. If anything that chart will take longer to emerge from the present disruptive upheavals which could last till 2023.

Mohammed bin Salman, 31 Aug 1985, who hasn’t been covering himself with glory with his military forays into the Yemen and Syria, looks agitated with plans not progressing successfully in 2017/18 and will face his greatest pressures come 2020.

The West’s interest in Saudi Arabia’s future isn’t just about oil, since the US fracking industry is holding up well, but in the fundamentalist form of Islam which it has exported round the world and a strong suspicion of its funding of terrorism. Back in the day when Saudi Arabia got under way, the local tribal leader bin Saud did a deal with a local religious leader al-Wahhab which tied the protection and prosperity of both into a pact which survives to this day. Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia is responsible for women being stuck in burqas and forbidden from driving, leaving the country without their husband’s permission etc etc etc.

Al-Wahhab was born in 1703 when there was a triple conjunction of Saturn Jupiter Neptune in Aries trine Pluto in Leo – so fiery, formidably ambitious as well as filled with dreams of spiritual power and clearly the ability to fulfil them. The deal was done in 1744 when Pluto was in Scorpio trine Neptune in Cancer and the Node was reversing into Pisces. With no date it’s impossible to say whether the ties will be loosened soon, though there has been significant pressure on the relationship deal, really since the triple conjunction in Capricorn in the late 19809s/early 1990s; with the tr Uranus square tr Pluto more recently adding more pressure. If the oil money runs out there certainly won’t be the state funds available to send proselytyzing imams into the West and the funding of religious schools etc.

Joseph Powell, another Aries stuntman has died, who has every bit as interesting a life story as Chief Bald Eagle (see July 27 post below).

Born 21 March 1922 in London to an ex-soldier, pub-owning father, he joined up aged 17 when war broke out in 1939, became a commando, survived and after a chance meeting with an actor in 1946 decided the bring realism to fighting in movies as a career. In John Huston’s The Man Who Would be King, he doubled for Sean Connery falling 100 feet into a ravine when the rope bridge collapsed ending the character’s life. He worked on The Longest Day and appeared in three early Bond movies. He said being scared made it more realistic and for one film jumped out of a plane with a parachute, not bothering to mention he’d never done it before.

He was a Sun Venus in Aries with Venus trine Neptune in Leo trine Mars in Sagittarius, formed into a Kite by Venus Sun opposition Saturn Node Jupiter in Libra; and the opposition squaring onto Pluto. Overflowing with Fire which as an element has supreme confidence and faith that a guardian angel and a safety net will appear when needed.

Chief Bald Eagle was a Mercury Sun Mars in Aries trine Neptune and Saturn in Leo; with Jupiter Pluto in Cancer – so not that dissimilar.

A 13^th individual Olympic Gold Medal means swimmer Michael Phelps has now broken a 2,000-year-old Olympic record by surpassing Leonidas of Rhodes, the greatest athlete of the ancient world, who won 12 times.

Leonidas was a runner who took the laurel wreaths for the 200 and 400 metre races (nude, no ladies in audience); and a longer one in full armour, on four successive Olympics. For the latter he had to wear heavy battle gear, helmet, breastplate, shin armour and a shield made from bronze and wood at temperatures of 40C. He was unusual in winning sprint as well as endurance contests.

No birthdate, only 188 BC, but there was then a punishingly difficult Saturn Pluto conjunction in Capricorn with Uranus North Node in Capricorn as well, all trine Neptune in Virgo; with Jupiter in sporting Sagittarius. So he’d have plenty of resilience and grit from Saturn Pluto as well as being the one who picked up the energies of the difficult triple conjunction to stand out from the crowd – for 2000 years.  At that point the Romans (not yet an empire) were fighting and winning decisively against Greek City states, getting them firmly under their thumb. So Saturn Pluto’s war-like and suppressive tendencies were in full swing.

The ubiquitous Arianna Huffington is on the move again, leaving her baby Huffpo to launch a health-and-wellness start up.

She’s had an extraordinary life and career, powering ahead with chutzpah, brains, social charm and not altogether- likeable determination. Described variously as the “Sir Edmund Hillary of social climbers”; “a “right-wing Lady Macbeth” (that was before she switched from Republican to liberal); and “the most ruthless, unscrupulous, and ambitious person I’ve met in thirty years in national politics,” she certainly arouses strong reactions.

Born 7 July 1950 3pm Athens, Greece, she moved to the UK aged 16, became the first foreign President of Cambridge University Union, made a name in UK media as consort of the Times columnist Bernard Levin, wrote books, became a media celebrity, moved to the US and married wealthy Republican Michael Huffington, became known during his unsuccessful Senate run, chummed up with Newt Gingrich, had two kids, got divorced as Huffington came out as bisexual, switched political allegiances to the left, wrote books where there were allegations of plagiarism, and helped to pioneer digital-only journalism with Huffpo which now appears in 14 different countries. The concept for it was sold as the new idealistic ‘citizen journalism’ where contributors were not paid – and she then sold out for $315 million and there have been sharp criticisms for that betrayal as well as for the blurring of the lines between journalism and advertising.

Not a lady who does things by half. She’s always had an interest in New Age spirituality so the new project will be interesting to watch.

She has a 9^th house Sun Cancer (conjunct Mercury Uranus) on the focal point of a Cardinal T Square to a showbizzy Mars Neptune in Libra opposition an Aries Moon. Cancer as a sign often has a ‘nose’ for what is the mood of the moment and 9^th house is global communication. Uranus is good for digital IT and for being an outspoken maverick. Loads of cardinal give her initiative by the bucket full. Her focal point Sun will  make her ego-centric with unshakeable self-belief.

More pointedly, or at least in addition, she has Pluto conjunct her MC from the 9^th which will give her a craving for power and influence. Her Pluto is trine her Moon and sextile Mars Neptune on one side as well as an emphasised Venus in Gemini on the other – so a talented Half Grand Sextile. Her Venus in social butterfly Gemini is deeply buried in the 8^th, giving her intensity and it squares onto Saturn in ultra-hard-working Virgo in a scared-of-failure opposition to Jupiter.

She does have tr Saturn now moving through her first quadrant, so less successful, less high-profile at the moment and for a few years ahead. Her Solar Arc Mars is square her Saturn exactly now which looks like a major setback and she has a discouraging Solar Arc Mercury conjunct her Saturn within months; and tr Pluto will make one more stressed and confusing opposition to her Sun and square Neptune this September – so not the best time of her life. For all the spin, this career move may not have been a choice that was made without pressure. The new set-up won’t launch spectacularly well since she’s got tr Neptune opposing her Saturn in 2017/2018 with tr Pluto square her 6^th house Moon – so challenging pressures and some angst.

She has an extraordinarily powerful 5^th Harmonic (quintiles) which is ruthless, creative, enthusiastic and quite slippery. Her pleasure-seeking 9H is also strong; as is her 13 and 17H charts.

Knows what she wants and goes straight for it.

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico and self-made millionaire, is running for President as a Libertarian he did in 2012. The Libertarian Party stands for a radically smaller and less powerful federal government and is pro-abortion rights and same-sex marriage equality. In 2012 he got less than 1% of the vote, but is now polling in double digits in some places, though his aggregate of 8% is way below the 15% needed to appear in a national debate with Clinton and Trump.

He’s an extreme athlete who has scaled Everest and was until recently director and CEO of a marijuana marketing and packaging company. Despite his CV he seems to lack charisma being described as about “as telegenic as an educational film about the metric system.”

Born 1 January 1953 Minot, North Dakota (no birth time) he’s an ambitious Sun Capricorn in a quirky opposition to maverick, so an outsider by temperament. His Sun is in a confident trine to Jupiter in money-minded Taurus. His Pluto is trine Mercury in Sagittarius, opposition Venus in Aquarius (conjunct Mars in Pisces), and sextile Saturn Neptune in Libra. Although he’ll be persuasive, too much Pluto can also muffle a personality, making him overly controlled.

There’s nothing much of help from his chart without birth time. He’s got tr Saturn square his Solar Arc Sun exactly at the election which isn’t positive.

He’s not an intuitive fit for the USA since his Uranus is conjunct the US Cancer Sun squaring the US Saturn in Libra – so unless the country is in the mood for a total upheaval, he won’t be in with a chance.

He announced his bid on 6 Jan 2016 on Fox Business at 8.11am New York (I think). This gives a hidden 12^th house Sun Pluto trine an 8^th house Jupiter, sextile a Scorpio MC and square a 3^rd house Uranus; with Uranus trine Saturn – certainly top marks for perseverance and marking out a new path, but it looks too behind-the-scenes to be a winner.

Third party candidates tend to do better across the summer and then fall away. But with everything up in the air at the moment, anything’s possible. He won’t appeal to Republicans because of some of his views or to disgruntled Democrats because of others. After Ralph Nader’s votes unwittingly helped GWB win in 2000, there’ll be a reluctance to vote away from the main parties.

Please post below …………..

Whatever did America do to deserve Donald Trump? Nuke them, waterboard them, build a wall on the Mexican border, mass deport immigrants, ban Muslims from the US, persuade Putin to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails and is now inciting the gun lobby to exercise their 2^nd Amendment rights (carry guns) into doing what precisely? He backed off the straightforward interpretation of his off-the-cuff encouragement to them, saying he only meant their votes. Yeah. And did the over-heated, unstable elements amongst them hear him that way? I would doubt it.

The USA 1776 chart has only one opposition of Mercury in Cancer opposition Pluto in Capricorn – and tr Uranus started to pick up the square to Mercury mid 2016 and continues on till early 2018. Mercury Pluto is overly intense and tr Uranus throws an excitable firecracker into the mix.

Looking back on previous tr Uranus hard aspects to that opposition, it is really interesting. Oct 1973 to Oct 1974 – VP Spiro Agnew resigns faced with tax evasion charges. Watergate is raging, escalating and ends with Nixon’s resignation to avoid impeachment charges, as tr Uranus squares the US Mercury for the final time in August 1974, tugging on the US Pluto.

During tr Uranus in Cancer conjunct the US Mercury and opposition the US Pluto in 1953/54, the McCarthy sniff-out-a-commie hearings were in full swing, along with increasingly vociferous criticism of his bullying and witch-hunting tactics which led Ed Murrow to ask “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”

On a previous occasion – April 1933 to April 1933 – President Franklin D Roosevelt declares a national emergency to come off the Gold Standard; and the Business Plot was uncovered which was an attempted coup d’etat against the government and Roosevelt’s progressive policies, by a group of fascist veterans and wealthy businessmen, wanting to ally themselves to Hitler’s Germany and Italy. At the time it was written off as a hoax but there did seem to be some wild scheme in place.

So this influence definitely attacks both the government and US democracy, either by dragging scandals into the open or letting loose hard right-wing fanatics.

Another thought entirely. On the USA 4 July 1776 chart (I use 11am), the Progressed Mercury went retrograde in December 1994 – the rough interpretation of this is going mentally off track, not thinking straight, not speaking out. In Dec 1994 the Senate started an investigation into the Whitewater scandal – questions arising about real estate investments by Bill (then President) and Hillary Clinton and associates. One conviction resulted but the Clintons were deemed to have no criminal evidence against them.

That Progressed Mercury goes direct in late November this year. Whether this means more of the same will come out into the open to be spoken about more clearly. Or it ties the matter up securely I’ve no idea. But good to keep an eye on. What’s for sure, if the past repeats itself, is that 2017 won’t be one in which the US ruling elite (or pretenders thereto) will cover themselves in glory.

The USA Solar Return for July 2016 (ignoring natal chart start time) has a hugely emphasised Uranus – on the point of a T square to Pluto opposition Moon Venus; and on the focal point of a Yod to Jupiter sextile Mars in Scorpio. Such a Uranus covers a spectrum of – erratic, rebellious, innovative, fated changes, disruptive, trail-blazing, socially explosive, reformist, lawless, fringe activism, progressive. Plus the focal point Saturn in self-righteous, rigid-thinking Sagittarius in square to Neptune opposition North Node Jupiter in Virgo – so neurotic, fearful of failure, up and down.

The Inauguration chart for 20 Jan 2017, assuming 12 noon or thereabouts, which gives the tone of the first term of whichever nominee makes it, has a focal point Pluto in the 9^th square Uranus opposition Jupiter. 9^th house is foreign relations and Jupiter Uranus is fairly gung ho. Given that there is also a military Saturn square Mars, it might point to armed involvement overseas being a strong priority. 9^th house also focusses on the country’s religious beliefs and general philosophy, as well as education and legal matters, all of which will stoke up intense reactions. The Saturn Neptune square has mercifully gone, pulling paranoia down a notch or two. Neptune is 11^th –  unclear about future direction and friends. Saturn in 8^th – money or shortage thereof being an issue, perhaps because of defence spending.

And before anyone starts yowling about me being anti-right, can I quote the non-partisan Black Hat hackers who were so alarmed at Trump’s invitation to Putin to hack Hillary’s email, that they stepped into to help. The leader said it was the principle that bothered them;  they weren’t pro-Hillary and thought the election was a choice between ‘bad and evil’. So back to the evil of two lessers, just a worse one than GWB v Gore.

The Duke of Westminster, Britain’s richest aristocrat, who once said he’d prefer not to have been wealthy, has died suddenly aged 64. He owned the freehold of much of London’s most expensive property in Belgravia and Mayfair, including the American Embassy. His business empire, Grosvenor Holdings, owned shopping centres around the UK, including Liverpool which transformed the centre, as well as commercial interests abroad. When he inherited the estate in 1979 it was debt laden and he turned it into a several billion pound concern. He had strong charitable interests in the NSPCC (child cruelty), gave foot-and-mouth farmers a sizeable donation and was a driving force behind the new Rehabilitation Centre for wounded soldiers due to open in 2017. In recent years he’s been plagued by depression and had breakdowns.

Born 22 December 1951 he was a Sun Sagittarius (unless a very late night birth in which case he’d be Capricorn) with his Sun trine Pluto; and an uncomfortable collection of (Moon) Saturn Mars Neptune in Libra, suggesting a less than lyrical childhood. His Saturn Mars (Moon) opposed Jupiter in Aries squaring onto Uranus in Cancer – so definitely innovative. His Mercury in Sagittarius was trine Pluto, sextiling onto Mars Saturn – so he’d take his duties seriously, but feel constantly frustrated when plans hit snags which they frequently would. It would also put a good deal of stress on his Mercury causing mental pressures. Over the past eighteen months he’d had the tr Uranus square tr Pluto in hard aspect to his Mars Saturn, which would be very challenging and strained.

His heir, Hugh, 29 January 1991, is a different temperament with an Aquarius Sun opposition Jupiter, sextile/trine Mars in Gemini – confident, impulsive, talkative. He also has the highly-strung and innovative Uranus Neptune and Mercury in Capricorn.

Turkey is now turning eastwards towards Moscow after Western criticism of the brutal suppression of the coup. Recep Erdogan, the president, has been meeting Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg with placatory apologies healing the recent rift over a Russian plane being shot down by Turkish forces.

It’ll make the already over complicated situation in Syria – with a myriad of conflicting groups fighting for different ends – even more of a mire. Rebel forces have just fought back against Assad and Russian planes to open a munitions route to Turkey. Which presumably would be one thought in Putin’s mind. Erdogan’s main aim is to quash the Kurdish separatists, while Putin wants not to get swamped down in Syria for ever and needs a victory of sorts before he exits.

Putin’s relationship with Assad is sagging under disappointment through till late Jan 2017 as tr Saturn opposes exactly this month, and tr Neptune squares the emphasised composite Jupiter. And his relationship with Erdogan will not be easy to hold together with tr Uranus opposing the composite Neptune, trine Pluto; and tr Pluto opposition Uranus from early next year on.

Turkish/US relations, already shaky,  look in a parlous state from early 2017 onwards with tr Pluto square the composite Saturn. Even before then the tr Neptune square tr Saturn is in hard aspect to the composite Sun Mercury Venus and following for a couple of years Jupiter as well. This September’s Solar Eclipse will conjunct that composite stellium, so this is a critical, game-changing point on that diplomatic front.

Assad’s presidency chart, 17 July 2000, having weathered a fair few storms since the civil war began, looks insecure and at risk in January 2017 with tr Uranus square Mars; and thrown off course by tr Uranus square the Sun from late April. I’ve given up predicting his exit but, on the astrology, if 2017 doesn’t topple him, it’ll be 2021 when he hits his nadir – with tr Pluto opposition the Presidency Sun; and Solar Arc Uranus square the Pres Pluto. But it’ll be a tough, frustrating, dangerous few years between now and then with tr Pluto opposing the Mars in 2018/19.

The great risk, putting aside the poor Syrian people (the ones who are still left standing), is that what is already a proxy war on the ground between Russia and the West, escalates into something much worse. The US are supporting some of the ‘rebel’ groups who have an uncomfortable provenance; while Putin supports the insupportable Assad.

It was beautifully skewered in a Peter Brookes cartoon a couple of years back with Obama standing on a bluff looking down on a valley full of Arabs tearing each other to bits. The caption read; ‘Can the good guys please put their hands up?’  Who’d know?  Following the old Arab saying that the  enemy of my enemy is my friend – can lead down the road to perdition.