Roberto Cavalli, the Italian fashion designer, known as the ‘Leopard King’ for his animal prints on leather and textiles, has died aged 83. A flamboyant showman he designed for Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Kim Kardashian, Madonna, Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez and revamped the Playboy bunny outfit in 2005, updating the abbreviated tuxedo with bondage-style cuffs and other S&M overtones. More streetwalker than catwalker as the NY Times remarked.

  He claimed to be the only straight man in fashion, and said that he adored women because “they are much more intelligent than men. I am not gay… I detest men, dressed or naked, but women…” He insisted, however, that women should never wear all black or swear, because “a woman’s mouth should always be clean.”

He was born 15 November 1940 in Florence, Italy, no birth time, with his father shot dead during a Nazi massacre in 1940, a reprisal for attacks by the partisans. His maternal grandfather was Giuseppe Rossi, an Impressionist painter whose artistic flair Roberto inherited through his seamstress mother. “The sensibilities you get from your mother are like the Ten Commandments. They are set in stone and difficult to break,” he explained.

 He had an overwhelmingly Fixed chart with a Scorpio Sun opposition Uranus Moon in Taurus with another batch of Fixed planets in a wide T square with Jupiter Saturn in Taurus opposition Mercury and square Pluto. 1940 did produce heavyweight personalities as well as creative ones with Uranus trine Neptune. But what intrigues me having skipped through other women’s fashion designer charts are the ‘afflicted’ Moons which are pretty constant.

 Cavalli’s Moon is close to his Uranus, opposition his Sun and inconjunct his Mars and trine Neptune.

  Paco Robanne, 18 Feb 1934 11.45am Bilbao, Spain,  had his Moon close to Uranus as well, opposition Jupiter square Pluto. With another surprisingly frequent fashion designer theme of Aquarius – his Sun, Saturn and North Node as well as Venus were in Aquarius which is not generally thought of as creative or pro-feminine, though can be an influencer and a lover of bright colours.

Vivienne Westwood, 8 April 1941 1am Glossop, Eng, had her Moon square Uranus; with a powerhouse Mars in Aquarius opposition Pluto square Saturn Jupiter in Taurus.

Mary Quant,  11 Feb 1930,  another Sun Venus in Aquarius with a Cancer Moon (or a Leo Moon opposition Mars in Aquarius) – with two yods onto Mars and Jupiter respectively as focal points.

Both Yves St Laurent and Christian Dior had Moon oppositions – to Mars Pluto for the first and opposition the Sun for the second. Dior had his Moon opposition Sun in Aquarius square Mars

 Coco Chanel had her Pisces on the other side of the zodiac from her Uranus in Virgo though too wide to be an opposition. Pierre Cardin had his Libra Moon square his Sun Pluto in Cancer and his Moon was sextile Venus Neptune in Leo inconjunct Uranus.

 Moon Uranus or Moon Mars – and plenty of Aquarius.  Not always what you expect. Fewer inconjuncts than garden designers.

Feargal Sharkey, the Irish former lead singer with the Undertones, has become a notable environmental campaigner in recent years targeting the water companies for their frequent sewage spills which contaminate waterways, while paying out billions in dividends.

 He was born 13 August 1958, no time. Londonderry, and is an attention-grabbing Sun and reforming Uranus in Leo with his Uranus in a volatile and uncompromising square to Mars in determined Taurus. His Sun and Uranus are sextile Saturn in knowledgeable Sagittarius sextile Jupiter conjunct North Node in Libra.  

 His Jupiter North Node square Venus (probably) Moon in Cancer will be what puts his heart in the right place. With his Mars in Taurus plus Uranus giving him the impetus to stir up trouble where needed.

  In 2025 his Solar Arc Sun will conjunct his Jupiter for a triumph and surge of confidence. He’ll be popular.

  Looking up the Great Stink of 1858 in London which was what precipitated a new sewage system it is intriguing to note which I am sure Jane has pointed out that it happened around a Jupiter Uranus conjunction in Taurus – so who knows – there may be a shift in the right direction.

 See previous post 29 June 2023. UK sewerage – the money men doing the dirty ++ Thames Water

Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born writer who has been under threat of assassination since the Iranian fatwa was issued against him in 1989 after his Satanic Verses novel was published and was nearly despatched in 2022 has written a book about his latest near brush with death – Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. He was stabbed 18 times at a literary conference by a Hezbollah-supporting Lebanese American who had only read two pages of his book but had been radicalized.   

  Rushdie whose Midnight’s Children won the Booker writes: “Art challenges orthodoxy. To reject or vilify art because it does that is to fail to understand its nature. Art sets the artist’s passionate personal vision against the received ideas of the time… Without art, our ability to think, to see freshly, and to renew our world would wither and die.”

  He was born 19 June 1947 at 2.30am Mumbai, India into a Kashmiri Muslim family and has a New Moon in Gemini conjunct an outspoken Uranus; with Mars in his 1^st house in ultra-determined Taurus in a risk-taking and can-be-opportunistic opposition Jupiter in Scorpio in his 7^th. He also has an unyielding Saturn Pluto in Leo in his 4^th house with his Pluto in a pushily-confident square to Jupiter. He is not short on self-belief or determination.

  When the fatwa was announced against him around the time of the triple conjunction in Capricorn on 14 January 1989 his Solar Arc New Moon was exactly conjunct his 4^th house Saturn, restricting his life thereafter as heavy security became necessary. His Solar Arc Pluto in the year that followed square his Uranus as his life turned upside down and continued  in the years thereafter to square his New Moon; followed by SA Saturn square his Uranus and New Moon over the next decade. Tr Pluto was also moving to conjunct his SA Neptune and Jupiter as well in a couple of years to oppose his Mars for a trapped, infuriated two years.

  In 2022 his Mars was again under assault from tr Saturn square his Mars with tr Uranus in Taurus adding its layer of tension.

  By all accounts a talented writer though not always well remarked for his personality, he certainly has endurance and courage to survive and keep a high profile through 35 years of threats.

 His creative 5^th harmonic is strong; as is his global-name 22H. His victim/creative 12H and stubborn though can-be-self-defeating 16H is also marked.

  The expected retaliation from Iran for the Damascus strike two weeks back came overnight as slow-moving drones were fired on Saturday evening arriving over Israel at 1.42 am on Sunday morning 99% were deflected. The US and UK helped defend Israel but according to reports, Joe Biden has said he will not participate in any Israeli counter-attacks being threatened by Netanyahu which would lead to a catastrophic regional war. 

  There is not much to add to the previous post of April 2, reprinted below, charts available there. Except to say Netanyahu has never been one to listen to advice. The peak danger period still looks like June/July/August but there are ominous tensions picking up from the 24^th of this month through to May 11. It shows up as extremely high risk for Netanyahu as it catches his Mars/Pluto midpoint at 22 Leo. It also will cause a major bust up with Benny Gantz, one of his war cabinet who has generally more sense as tr Uranus starts to square their relationship chart composite Sun Pluto conjunction. Netanyahu’s government chart, 29 December 2022 is also exploding with disagreements then as tr Uranus squares the Saturn – and again more jeopardy come June onwards.

 Joe Biden’s personal chart will be rattled during this late month early May period as well as more so across July.

 One thought to keep in mind about eclipses is sometimes they trigger events on the following New Moon, in this case on May 8^th – and sometimes also much further ahead.

Previous post April 2:  In Israel demonstrators are out on the streets demonstrating their anger against Netanyahu and the lack of a deal to free the remaining Hamas hostages. He has just undergone surgery for a hernia. And Israel’s strike against Iran’s consulate in Damascus on Monday, killing Tehran’s top generals in the country, threatens to escalate into a regional war. This was always the fear since the war in Gaza erupted, putting Israel in a conflict with Iranian allied militias.

  Iran will now be forced to respond but may hesitate to embark on a direct confrontation.

Several related charts are on high alert with danger-zone, red-flags waving.  Netanyahu has a catastrophic tr Uranus square his Mars/Pluto midpoint from late this month to mid May. A nerve-stretched and highly-strung, prone-to-misjudgments June with Neptune Uranus midpoint aspects will be the fore runner to an explosive tr Uranus square his Mars picking up through July and running on and off into mid 2025. His Libra Moon is catching the upcoming April Aries Solar Eclipse so he will be standing on shaky ground politically and finding his image further dented. He will be undermined and failing mid October to February 2025 with tr Neptune opposition his Sun/Mars and Mercury/Saturn midpoints.

 Israel, of course, has its 8^th house Taurus Sun at 23 degrees catching the disruptive tr Uranus conjunction for the second time this May, repeating New Year to mid March 2025 plus the possibility of more violence in 2025 from tr Uranus square the Mars. This October’s Libra Solar Eclipse will conjunct the 12^th house Neptune which does not give much hope for realistic decisions.

 The Israel/Iran 1906 relationship chart points to July/August as flash points; as does the Israel/Iran Islamic Republic 1979 relationship chart. The Iran 22 December 1501 chart which worked well against the 2017 earthquake, is also showing high stress June onwards with tr Uranus conjunct the Mars and square the Mars/Pluto midpoint into 2025. The Iran 1 April 1979 chart is catching this Aries Solar Eclipse opposition its Pluto and the September Lunar Eclipse conjunct its Mars Mercury.

  All of which will impact on Joe Biden who looks edgy in the extreme on more or less the same timeline. Tr Uranus opposes his Sun/Mars midpoint exactly now. Then hits his Mars/Uranus midpoint late April to mid May; and his disaster-zone Mars/Saturn by July and beyond -all of which have military as well as other associations. Tr Uranus will also oppose his Scorpio Sun picking up in July this year.

ADD ON:  Will USA be dragged into the fight? There is a worrisome Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the US Mars exact this July which does have military associations – or can be a setback of a different order. On the US Sibley 5.10pm chart, the Moon at 27 Aquarius catches a conjunction from the SA Mars in August as well as tr Uranus in square which will bring a shock/collision of sorts.

  The Iran Islamic Republic April 1979 chart in relation both to Biden and the USA shows July/August as flare-up points. The Iran 1906 and 150 charts in relation to Biden and the USA have a marginally different timeline but also show significant unrest this year.

ADD ON: The Iranian prime minister Ebraham Raisi’s Term chart, 5 August 2021 received a boost over the Israel attack but from the final few days of this month and throughout May there looks to be mounting jeopardy and aggravation, repeating late December to mid March 2025. Ayatollah Khameini’s Leadership chart, 6 August 1989, similarly looks rattled from the 5th of this month into May – with an undermining, indecisive SA Neptune opposition the Sun and a discouraging tr Neptune opposition the Sun/Pluto midpoint trhuogh April and again late in the ear into 2025.

Simon Harris was elected as taoiseach (prime minister) to become the youngest person to lead the Republic of Ireland last Tuesday April 9th. He was the only candidate following the surprise resignation of his predecessor Leo Varadkar. He leads the coalition government with a general election due by March 2025.

 Simon Harris, born 17 October 1986, started in politics in his teens and became a member of the parliament at 24. He has a Libra Sun opposition an Aries Moon and Aries North Node as well as an ultra-determined Mars in Aquarius square Pluto and sextile Saturn. With an amplified Jupiter in a lucky square to Uranus, a confident trine to Pluto and to a persuasively charming Venus Mercury in Scorpio.

 He is on his Nodal Return for his elevation to the highest office; with this month’s Solar Eclipse probably conjunct his Moon, conjunct his North Node and opposition his Sun for a destiny-changing moment. His Solar Arc Mars will conjunct his Jupiter for a hopeful push in 2025 with a confident Solar Arc Jupiter opposition his Sun in 2026. Though 2026 will see the start of a foot-dragging, frustrating three years as tr Pluto is conjunct his Mars and square his Pluto.  

 He took the Seal of Office around 2.30 pm on the 9^th (anyone with an accurate time I would be grateful to know). The day after a Total Solar Eclipse with a Mars Saturn conjunction in place hints at trouble ahead with setbacks and challenges. The Mars Saturn conjunction draws to an exact conjunction in 2025 for a crisis and blockage. There is a lucky, risk-taking Jupiter Uranus which will help. But Pluto square Moon hints at a mutinous electorate.

  The Bank of Ireland chart, 1 January 1972 hints at major financial problems in 2025/2026 with tr Neptune and Saturn in Aries conjunct the Mars and opposition Pluto; and tr Uranus conjunct the Saturn.

 The Ireland 17 April 1949 11pm Dublin chart, has an Aries Sun, Venus, North Node and Mars – with the Aries Solar Eclipse this week conjunct the Mars – so a significant turning point though an edgy and combative one as Harris ploughs straight into the Palestine problem. Tr Pluto will continue to conjunct the Ireland Jupiter until the end of this year for a confident high but there will be a slow down and blockage come 2025 as the SA Pluto opposes the Sun and Venus; and tr Uranus squares the Saturn for high tension and eruptions.

  Simon Harris fits the Ireland chart with his Aries Moon North Node keying into the Ireland Aries Mars North Node – there will be rough edges and arguments but he understands the country’s aims and spirit.

Paula Vennells, former CEO of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019 who is being investigated for misleading parliament over the Horizon IT scandal, has come under scrutiny for her decision to spend millions of pounds to contest sub-postmasters’ claims that they were not responsible for alleged accounting shortfalls. She has already handed back her CBE and is due to give evidence in May as the evidence against her stacks up.

 Born 21 February 1959 London, she has her Sun and Mercury in Pisces opposition Pluto square Mars opposition Jupiter – a Mutable Grand Cross, giving her a curious mix of do-or-die determined/obstinate to the nth degree from Sun, Mercury Pluto and Mars alongside a scattergun temperament from too much Mutable. That will make her inconsistent, indecisive, tending to bend in the breeze. She has a Half Grand Sextile which should make her talented but more to the point lucky with Sun opposition Pluto sextile Neptune and Saturn. Backing up her stubborn, irritational tendencies is Neptune square her Uranus.  

  Her Mars in Gemini is on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Saturn sextile Neptune – giving her a difficulty in asserting herself in a consistent way – either far too much or the opposite.

  She has been moving through a confusing, not to say devastating time over the past three years as her Grand Cross moved by Solar Arc to hard aspect her Neptune with her Solar Arc Sun in an undermining opposition to her Neptune this year.

 Where she will catch the worst of the celestial winds is when transiting Uranus moves into Gemini in 2025 and beyond tugging on her Mutable Grand Cross.  In 2026 particularly she will have tr Uranus square her Sun and Pluto and more significantly conjunct her yod focal point Mars knocking her onto a totally different trajectory in her life. A game changing moment and none too soon either.  

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions

which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. 

Most people are incapable even of forming such opinions”. 

Albert Einstein

In the aftermath of the Cass report which effectively undermined much of the damaging nonsense around the transgender argument, pinpointing inadequate medical evidence for intervention, there are understandable calls for consequences for those who added fuel to the toxic debate and shut down dissent. JK Rowling has been targeting the young Harry Potter actors as well as Mermaids.

  Trying to track an astro-timeline and reason for the hysteria which drove the movement, inflating a genuine though demographically small issue of the number of people suffering from genuine gender dysphoria, the mid 1990s was probably the start.  Mermaids, the Susie Green charity for transgender children, started then on the Uranus Neptune conjunction, which is a recurring theme in arguments which allow for no middle ground. See previous post 1 March 2024, Transactivism stalls.

 Uranus Neptune does have its inspired side but in negative mode can lead to extremism, rigid, unreasonable opinions and fanaticism, tending to force people into choosing sides rather than thinking through nuances. The young Potter actors were born with Uranus Neptune conjunct. Susie Green, if a Company Check is sound, was born 1 December 1957 with a pronounced Uranus square Neptune tied into the Scorpio North Node.  Even the Labour Party whom the Tories are now attacking for ‘shutting women up’ and stoking ‘atmosphere of intimidation’ for a decade over trans issues has a Uranus opposition Neptune from 1906. 

  Those who worked with Susie Green and observed her said she she could be ‘tone deaf’. “I thought she was that most dangerous thing, a person utterly certain of their own rightness.’ After her surprise resignation, she is reportedly working for GenderGP, a private referral service based in Singapore.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12276791/Did-raising-trans-child-lead-Mermaids-former-chief-youngsters-health-risk.html

 Mermaids became a registered charity on 20 February 2015 on the exact, defiant, status-quo upsetting Uranus in Aries square Pluto with a Sun Neptune conjunction in Pisces.

  Stonewall which threw its not inconsiderable weight behind the argument in 2014 on the Uranus square Pluto as the fight against same sex relationships was finally won and it was looking for a cause to give it a raison d’etre, was started on the 1989 conjunction of Uranus Neptune in Capricorn.

  Ruth Hunt, now Baroness, took over as CEO of Stonewall in 2014 and steered the organisation  towards transgender issues feeding propaganda into a wide array of government and other bodies, to the dismay of a large section of the membership. Dennis Kavanagh, lawyer and director of the Gay Men’s Network, points to a 2012 survey of Tavistock patients which found that 90 per cent were same-sex attracted. He says: ‘The concern is that Mermaids are medicalising homosexuality, taking vulnerable, different children and putting them on a path to sterility.’

 Ruth Hunt, 12 May 1980, Cardiff, is a Sun Mercury in Taurus opposition Uranus square a leadership North Node in Leo – certainly a heavyweight personality – though lacking in the tell-tale Uranus Neptune. What she does have is her Sun opposition her Neptune/Pluto midpoint which is as un-Taurus as can be. According to Ebertin – impressionable, can be obsessive, and pursue fantastical ideas, prone to outside influences.

 JK Rowling deserves praise for her robust stance. She was in the fortunate position of being too successful to damage.

Graham Linehan, on the other hand, the Irish comedian and writer, effectively wrecked his life in his obsessive anti-transgender activism.  He was born 22 May 1968 8pm in Dublin, with a Sun Mars in Gemini in his 7^th house and an Aries Moon in his performing 5^th. He has a rebellious, mould-breaking Uranus Pluto in Virgo in his 10^th. With two yods onto Saturn in Aries and Neptune in Scorpio in his 1^st house. It is not exactly clear from his chart what drove him to such extremes though his emphasized Mercury in his 8^th would give his arguments an edge of intensity. And Mercury square Pluto Uranus would not help. His Solar Arc Jupiter is now catching the Solar Eclipse and will soon oppose his yod focal point Saturn which may help to lift his fortunes.

Add on:Campaigners are calling for Ruth Hunt to be stripped of her peerage following the Cass report. A petition on change.org  refers to Stonewall’s decision to oppose a research pack sent to schools warning children identifying as trans how there were possible risks to puberty blockers and untested drugs often being used as a “medical pathway” for transition. The petition says: “Stonewall Scotland told its tens of thousands of followers on Twitter: ‘We, in the strongest possible terms, denounce and condemn this [research] publication. If it lands on your desk, do the right thing: shred it.’”

The Cass Review warned how treatment with puberty blockers “may change the trajectory of psychosexual and gender identity development” but critically did not change a patient’s body dissatisfaction or gender dysphoria. The report called for “unhurried” care of those under-25s who think they may be transgender.

Ruth Hunt does have tr Uranus upending her Fixed T Square of Taurus Sun Mercury opposition Uranus square North Node at the moment and through till early 2025. The Cass Report was published as tr Uranus was exactly conjunct her Sun and the Solar Eclipse was opposing her Pluto and possibly conjunct her Moon – for a mammoth upset. She also has an undermining tr Neptune square her Venus from May onwards into 2025. 2025 also has the trapped, infuriating and humiliating SA Pluto square her Mars – so she may well be backed into a corner and forced to relinquish her prize.

OJ Simpson, the celebrated former American football star, made infamous by the ‘trial of the century’ in which he was found not guilty of the murder of his divorced second wife Nicole Simpson and her friend despite a history of his spousal abuse, has died. He subsequently served a prison sentence for kidnapping and armed robbery and paid little of the $33.5 million in damages that the victims’ families won in a civil suit against him.

  He was born 9 July 1947 8.08am San Francisco, CA, into a poverty stricken, broken home and developed rickets from malnutrition forcing him to wear steel braces. His father was reportedly a well-known drag queen who later announced he was gay and died from AIDS.

 He had a Water Grand Trine from an 11^th house Cancer Sun and Mercury trine Jupiter on his IC in Scorpio trine an 8^th house Pisces Moon, formed into a Kite by Jupiter opposition his Midheaven. Water Grand Trines tend to produce impressionable and sensitive temperaments, vulnerable and escapist who have ‘an exaggerated need for dependency and general mothering and a tendency to live in a bubble of their own (un)reality.  His Moon was also square Uranus and Venus exacerbating his women/mother issues. Plus a determined, though inclined to depressive mood swings Saturn Pluto in his 12^th square Jupiter. His ambitious, competitive Mars was in his 10^th in a publicity attracting trine to Neptune.

  When the crime occurred on 12 June 1994 which left Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman dead his Solar Arc Saturn Pluto conjunction was hovering around the opposition to his 8^th house hyper-sensitive Pisces Moon which seems significant and his Progressed Mars was almost square his Neptune.  When he was found not guilty in the murder trial tr Jupiter was opposition his Solar Arc Midheaven.

His fall-from-grace 10^th harmonic is marked by an illusory Neptune and a destructive Mars Saturn. He also had a marked, ultra-determined but can-be-self-defeating 16H, a sacrificial 12h, as well as a global star 22H.

Add On: Nicole Simpson, 19 May 1959 2am Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was a Sun Taurus opposition Jupiter square Pluto so one determined lady. Her focal point Pluto squared OJ’s 10^th house Mars so there would be a clash of wills. Her excitable Mars in Cancer was conjunct his Mercury Sun for arguments; and her Uranus was conjunct his 12^th house Pluto for constant defiance of his control. It wasn’t a great relationship though I would imagine at least some of the time she would give as good as she got. Their relationship chart has a oneupmanship composite Jupiter square Pluto hinting at a struggle for the last word and upper hand. I’ve seen a good deal worse in abusive relationships though tr Uranus Neptune in Capricorn moving into the composite 8th would open Pandora’s Box and let out all manner of underlying resentments.

 I am marginally surprised there are not more obvious signs on his chart which one might expect when he finally blew his top. Though the pressure on his 8^th house Pisces Moon would bring to the surface his over sensitivities about mother/abandonment issues.

  The Ascendant (rising) sign is our first introduction to the world at birth. Modern astrology has tended to view it as a mask or persona we wear on first meetings and dictating appearance – the real person being hidden behind it. Whereas traditional astrology regarded the Ascendant as a fundamental key to the individual – the Ascendant and Ascendant Ruler being deemed the most important factors in determining personality. In a world ruled by the will of the gods, it was hour zero in the individual’s entanglement with fate – a moment in destiny.

  It is crucial since it sets up the entire structure of the chart by establishing the house layout and which planets fall where.

  I would have to confess to paying less attention to the Ascendant (than maybe I should) and focusing more on the subsequent houses which derive from it – plus Sun, Moon signs and aspects.

 What does interest me are planets that fall on the Ascendant indicating the experience around the time of birth. Caesarean or difficult births were always associated with Pluto on the Ascendant, signifying a difficult struggle to enter the world leading to a secretive, defensive personality.

  Neptune on the Ascendant used to be associated with a drug-induced birth and to producing a mesmerizingly attractive appearance.  [It struck me the other day that actor Cillian Murphy who has no birth time possibly has Neptune on his Ascendant. He has those Neptunian eyes.]

 Saturn on the Ascendant – defensive on first meeting.

  Taking an example of Greta Garbo, 18 September 1908 Stockholm, Sweden 7.30pm – Jupiter in Gemini on the Ascendant. Would her enthusiastic Gemini Ascendant define her more accurately than her self-sufficient Virgo Sun or hidden 12^th house Moon square Saturn?

  Queen Elizabeth 11 was defined in terms of her outward appearance by her Capricorn Ascendant – status, conservatism, tradition, not overtly touchy feely. Yet those who knew her said her quick wit and mischievous sense of humour surprised them. Her 3^rd house nature-loving Taurus Sun would seem a better guide to who she was, tempered by an overloaded Saturn on her Midheaven.

   Relocating charts does shift the Ascendant. Capricorn Ascendant Sean Connery became Venus on Libra Ascendant when jetted over to Los Angeles to boost him to superstar status, Though I would tend to look first at his Jupiter Pluto conjunction which landed on the midheaven in LA as being more to the point.  

  Meghan Markle moves from her natal Cancer Ascendant to a Libra Ascendant when in London which looks sociable enough but clearly did not work for her. More significantly it moved her  Moon, Jupiter, Saturn from the 3^rd into the 12^th along with Pluto which made her feel trapped and buried part of her personality. It did put her Leo Sun in the 10^th in the UK which should have worked but obviously was not enough.

  Barack Obama was born an Aquarius Ascendant for his Hawaii birthplace but became a communicative Gemini Ascendant in Washington DC – which kind of makes sense but Washington, DC put his Uranus and Pluto in the 4^th so it was clearly an unsettled domestic area for him.

  I remain to be convinced that the Ascendant has an overwhelming importance more than other planets/aspects/houses in a chart. If anything I would veer towards seeing the Sun sign as becoming more pronounced with age.   But I am sure there will be differing views so do pitch in.

Peter Higgs, the theoretical physicist, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the “God particle” as it became known much to his irritation as an atheist, has died. His work on the mass of subatomic particles had a profound effect on our understanding of matter and how the universe was formed.

From The Times “ In layman’s terms, Higgs’s theory suggested that all space is permeated by a “field” that interacts with the particles within it, giving them mass. One analogy is to imagine a room with people milling round. A celebrity (the particle) enters and people cluster around — suddenly the celebrity particle has mass. Higgs developed the idea that particles had no mass when the universe began, but acquired mass a fraction of a second afterwards when they entered a theoretical field. Higgs proposed that this field, now known as the “Higgs field”, permeates space, giving mass to all elementary particles that interact with it.”

 From an astrological point of view what is intriguing is that he had his “eureka” moment on July 16, 1964. He then spent years touting his theory to scientific journals with little interest initially and was totally vindicated in 2012 when Cern researchers in Switzerland were able to isolate the Higgs boson.

  He was born 29 May 1929 Newcastle on Tyne, had asthma as a child and was home schooled for a while, then went on to study mathematics and molecular physics.  He had his Sun in Gemini on the focal point of an inventive mini Grand Trine of Uranus in Aries trine Mars in Leo. What is notable is his Jupiter in Taurus conjunct Algol and conjunct his North Node which was square Neptune and inconjunct his Saturn. His Saturn trine Neptune trine Venus made up an inspirational, attention-grabbing Fire Grand Trine which usually harbours little self-doubt. And that focused onto a Kite driving planet Mercury in Gemini.  

 A marked experimental Mars trine Uranus, a Fire Grand Trine and an emphasized Mercury and Jupiter would give him the potential and self-belief to succeed.

 When he had his “Oh shit” moment as he put it in 1964, transiting Jupiter then in Taurus, heading for a Jupiter Return was conjunct his North Node with his Solar Arc Pluto square his Node. Trailblazing tr Uranus was square his Sun. Tr Pluto was conjunct his Solar Arc Mars tugging on his SA Uranus. Transiting North Node was hovering around his SA Jupiter and his Progressed Mars was conjunct his Progressed Neptune. A conflagration of luck, transformation under pressure opening up new horizons, having an impact on society and attracting publicity.

  When the proof was finally published on 4 July 2012 tr Jupiter was heading to conjunct his Gemini Sun for a morale boost, his Pluto was on a Half Return; and his Solar Arc North Node was conjunct his Mars, emphasising his experimental mini Grand Trine.  

  His global influencer 22^nd harmonic is notable as was his creative, get-it-together 5H. His breakthrough-genius 13^th harmonic was his strongest.

  The staging posts in his remarkable life were well marked by his astrology.