Evil, insanity and scapegoating are a toe-curling trio selected by Liz Greene for a seminar, collected into a reissued book – The Dark of the Soul: Psychopathology in the Horoscope. It sounds like a niche subject of interest only to true crime aficionados but there are insightful thoughts on many standard chart aspects which will ring a bell as well. Plus the fact that psychopaths are not all serial killers. Many operate as senior managers in business and the less murderous variety are to be found in families and amongst friends.

  Psychopaths are 80% male, most suffered childhood abuse and often have a psychopathic parent. Their characteristics – grandiose self-worth, low boredom threshold, cunning, lack of remorse and empathy, parasitic lifestyle, lack self-control, lack of relatedness, don’t accept responsibility.

 Moon aspects to Pluto, Saturn, Uranus don’t come out well. A Pisces Moon opposition Uranus Pluto is highlighted as an indication of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh’s instability stemming from his relationship with his mother –  a fear of engulfment sits side by side with a fear of abandonment; smothered then abandoned, repeat. He is also marked up by his Jupiter square Neptune giving him messianic tendencies.

Charles Manson is another example of a Moon in hard aspect to Uranus and Pluto. His mother was a prostitute who was imprisoned and he ended up in an orphanage.  Moon Uranus, she remarks, disengages from personal hurt to focus instead on a universal context; while Moon Pluto destroys.  Astro research on violent criminals indicate many have Moon Saturn or Moon Chiron.

   Uranus Chiron Saturn occur with frequency amongst psychopaths.

  The myths behind madness are explored including a comment on Uranian madness reflecting “a cosmic vision of perfection.” Uranus, the god, condemned/rejected his earthily children because of their ugliness. Which I confess I had never considered as an attribute of Uranus before but could be pertinent to the Aquarius shift ahead. Uranus, the castrated god, always being considered as anti-biology.

  The seminars initially took place during the Yugoslavia carnage in the 1990s, a reminder that war and savagery are on a constant loop as is scapegoating the ‘different’ other.

  Scapegoats in mythology were sacred, healing agents for a society to expel sins. In modern examples, the scapegoats whether in a neighbouring people or an individual within a family are made to feel inferior but in reality are seen as a powerful threat to stability.  For countries, fighting battles outside the borders leads to internal cohesion. In families, a child who sees the emperor has no clothes and threatens to disrupt the social glue will be scapegoated.

 Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader, ultimately charged with war crimes was a Sun Leo square Saturn with a Moon Chiron Pluto conjunction. Self-important yet harbouring self-doubts plus unhealable emotional damage from childhood. Both his parents committed suicide in later life so it must have been a depressed atmosphere for him as a child. Barbra Streisand also has a Moon Chiron Pluto so there are positive ways of living it out though it has clearly left its mark on her downbeat approach to life.

 The scapegoat syndrome inclines towards Sun Chiron,  Sun Saturn, Moon Pluto and Moon Neptune. 

  No great conclusions at the end since all these aspects appear in the charts of normal, law-abiding sorts but there is a wealth of astrological insights to be gleaned amongst the mythology and psychology.

“Sun Saturn says I’m not good enough, I’ll do something to make them approve of me.” Sun Chiron says: I’m not good enough and I never will be. They will always hate me whatever I do.”

All political careers end in failure is the accepted wisdom unless the incumbent dies first. But pinpointing the exact moment of exit is not an exact science.

 Catherine the Great of Russia ascended the Russian throne as Pluto moved into Capricorn in 1762 and died two Pluto sign shifts later in 1796 as it was poised to enter Pisces.  

Stalin was less clearcut though he died on a Saturn Neptune conjunction in late Libra and there is a Saturn Neptune conjunction approaching in 2025, though in early degrees of Aries.

  What resonates across all the different Russia charts are fixed signs around 18 to 22 degrees. Russia 20 September 862 AD has Neptune at 21 Aquarius. Russia 28 March 1462 has Pluto at 22 Leo. Russia 8 November 1917 has Uranus at 19 Aquarius. Russia 8 December 1991 has Pluto at 21 Scorpio.

  Putin came to power as prime minister on 31 December 1999 with Uranus at 14 Aquarius which had moved to 20 Aquarius square Jupiter Saturn Sun in Taurus when he was elected President in May 2000. So transiting Uranus rattling up these fixed degrees through 2023/24 is a hint of seismic changes . On the Russia 1917 chart the Uranus will catch the tr Uranus square for a final time from mid this December to mid March 2024 which may well be critical – at the same time tr Uranus will conjunct the Saturn on Putin’s first presidency chart for escalating tensions, eruptions and divisions. And on the Russia 1991 chart tr Uranus will continue to upend the Pluto until April 2024.

  Putin’s 4^th Term chart, 7 May 2018 11.05am is under huge strain with a deadlocked and desperate (can be ruthless) Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the Mars and at risk of being capsized by tr Pluto square the Uranus in 2023/24. But that chart also has a lucky Sun opposition Jupiter which has moved by Solar Arc to catch the transiting Uranus hard aspects which might just might provide unexpected opportunities to escape the worst of Pluto, Mars, Uranus.

  Hamas are done for whether it takes tr Neptune square their Uranus over this winter or SA Mars conjunct their Sun in 2025. Everyone in the region including the Arab leaders as well as those in the west think they need to be removed from existence. Though what comes next should not be left to Netanyahu.  There is a scary and deeply depressing piece in the Daily Beast laying out the Israeli extremists views on removing all Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank and sending them into the desert.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/israeli-extremists-believe-now-is-the-time-to-deploy-their-ethnic-cleansing-plots?ref=home

Princess Anne shows how to be a proper ‘spare’ to the monarch, which she isn’t but should be, as she stepped up to provide a ceremonial bodyguard for her brother King Charles at the Opening of Parliament. She acted out the role for the May coronation, riding on horseback, this time in a carriage behind Charles and Camilla.

  A royal source said: “This further cements the Princess Royal’s role as his most trusted lieutenant.”

  She was also the Queen’s support when she was recovering from the trauma of having her Buckingham Palace bedroom invaded by disturbed intruder; and accompanied her coffin on the route down from Scotland.

  She was born 15 August 1950 11.50 am London and has a controlled and controlling though influential Sun Pluto in Leo in her career 10^th and a workaholic, conscientious Virgo Moon conjunct Mercury and Saturn in her 11^th. She also has a healing Water Grand Trine of an ultra-determined Mars in Scorpio trine Jupiter in Pisces in her 5^th house trine Uranus in her 9^th. She is much travelled round the globe for her work with Save the Children which fits her 5^th house Jupiter. She has said she is not overly fond of children at close quarters but is keen to see they get a decent life.

  Not a natural ally for Scorpio Charles, she will have been drawn to him in later years because of the shared peculiarity of their Royal situation and she is undoubtedly private, as well as being divorced like himself which would help. I’d doubt if she was censorious about his relationship with Camilla given her own not-much-publicised but active romantic life. Charles 10^th house Taurus Moon sits in her 7^th house so she will have a sense of partnership with him.

  Their relationship chart has a composite Sun square Moon Uranus which suggests two differing personalities who need their own space and independence. Though a composite Sun trine Jupiter will help to smooth round a few rough edges.

  She is married to retired Vice Admiral Tim Laurence, a former equerry, whom she met when her first marriage to horseman Mark Phillips was breaking down. He was born 1 March 1955, no birth time (I have 2.30am but no idea where it came from). He has a Pisces Sun which falls in Anne’s sociable and sporting 5^th house conjunct her Jupiter; with his Uranus Jupiter in Cancer falls in her 9^th conjunct her Venus so there may be a sense of shared interests. His Neptune is exactly conjunct her Ascendant which will soften her image to a degree; and his Mars in Taurus falling in her 7^th opposes her Mars in Scorpio which will be argumentative. 

  Murmurs are that they are not overly close – though they go on parade very properly as a couple and go sailing together.  The relationship chart is not overly affectionate.  

She is in a phase of considerable emotional change with both her parents dying over the past two years so her Progressed Moon through her 8^th house is not surprising for two years ahead as she processes the loss. Though she also has tr Jupiter moving through her 8^th for a year from early 2024 which will help. Tr Pluto moving across her IC into her 4^th by 2025 and onwards does suggest more domestic and family upheavals and that coincides with tr Uranus square her Sun/Moon midpoint so she will be looking to put changes in place in her relationships both close and family.

Jordan’s Queen Rania says ‘anti-Semitism has been weaponised to shut down criticism of Israel’ and says ‘being pro-Palestine does not mean being pro-Hamas.’ She said there was a ‘glaring double standard’ around the world when it came to sympathy for the war’s victims.

  Her family are Palestinian and Jordan has taken in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, from the initial 1948 Nakba displacement and following violence and settler encroachment on their land in later years.

‘Even if Israel defeats every last Hamas member, then what?’ she said in a CNN interview. ‘Haven’t they left a trail of terrible memories that will create a new generation of resistance that is fiercer and more violent?’ ‘Most networks are covering the story under the title of Israel at War. But for many Palestinians on the other side of the separation wall, and the other side of the barbed wire, war has never left.’

  She was born on 31 August 1970 in Kuwait, did a degree in  in business administration, worked in marketing for Citibank, then with Apple Inc. in Jordan. After her 1993 marriage to Crown Prince Abdullah she had four children and was crowned Queen when he succeeded his father in 1999.

  She is a Sun in Virgo, with a Virgo/Leo Moon and an intense, communicative Mercury Pluto in Virgo as well. Her Mars in Leo conjunct BML squares onto a Neptune opposition Saturn in Taurus.  She is go-ahead and attention-seeking as she promotes  her favourite causes in seeking to improve children’s education and health and in creating cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue to foster greater understanding and tolerance.

 Mars, Saturn, Neptune is a powerful and uncomfortable T Square indicating a life involving risk, hardship and fear along with courage and determination. Transiting Uranus is rattling up the T square from this year right through till early 2026 so her life will be on edge and unsettled. Though she has tr Pluto square her Jupiter in Scorpio in 2024/25 so will be pushing confidently ahead, no matter what; with 2025 being an especially visible year as her lucky SA Jupiter squares her Pluto  and a year later her Solar Arc Sun is conjunct her Jupiter so she won’t be backing down.

ADDENDUM:

 A wise and informed piece in today’s Times by Max Hastings trying to make sense of an impossible deadlock.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/israel-may-destroy-hamas-but-then-what-d830t9xll

‘In every modern “war among the people”, politics have eventually proved to play a more important role in outcomes than did soldiers. This is not a pacifist argument: force is indispensable to counter-insurgencies, for the elimination of irreconcilable terrorists.’

‘ We should dismiss the nonsensical debate about the characterisation of Hamas. Of course its members are terrorists, just as were the 1950s EOKA killers in Cyprus and the Kenyan Mau Mau, the 1980s German Red Brigades and the IRA. Their chosen method of pursuing political aims is to perpetrate outrageous violence. Margaret Thatcher, as opposition leader, threatened to refuse to meet Menachem Begin because he was a former terrorist, leader of Irgun (militant Israeli group). Advisers persuaded her to relent, since in 1977 Begin had become Israel’s prime minister.’

‘One (Israeli) spymaster avowed that since the 1995 assassination of the prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, successive governments had made no serious attempt to pursue a peace process, instead contracting to the security forces the containment of Palestinian rage.’

  ‘They suspect that Netanyahu identifies his own political survival with a long war.’

‘The question persists: can the IDF defy the precedents of history and destroy Hamas by mere force of arms? It can kill terrorists who have forfeited any claim upon mercy. But can it root out the idea of resistance, among millions of Palestinians in a Gaza reduced to rubble, and the West Bank subject to creeping and indefensible Israeli annexation? The principal motive force among these people is not Islam but despair.’

A sad reflection on success comes from Barbra Streisand as she launches her memoir. “I haven’t had much fun in my life.” Having set out with driven determination to become a star after a loveless childhood she discovered “it was more exciting to dream about being famous than the reality. I don’t enjoy stardom.”

 250 million records, 10 Golden Globe awards, five Emmys and two Oscars, for acting and songwriting are testament to her towering talent and yet all the accolades still don’t drown out the inner negative voices. “Even after all these years, I’m still hurt by the insults and can’t quite believe the praise,” she writes.

She was born 24 April 1942 5.08 am New York, with her teacher father dying when she was 15 months old. Her mother remarried and both she and the stepfather continually put her down.  Leaving home at 16, she took a second job working weekend shifts as a theatre usher, so she could keep up with Broadway’s latest shows. When she won at talent contest in a bar aged 18, it started her singing career rolling. By 26 she was already a seasoned performer when her breakout role in Funny Girl put her at the peak.

 Her working relationships have at times been challenging even hostile which has clearly hurt her though she does not have an easy temperament. After a complicated love life she has settled in a second marriage for the past twenty years with actor James Brolin and armfuls of dogs.

  She has a 1^st house Taurus Sun Mercury – Taurus ruling the throat being often found with singers – square Pluto, Chiron, Moon in Leo in her performing 5^th. With Chiron close to her Moon and square her Sun she will have been aware through her life of the unhealable wounds emerging from a fractured childhood.

  Sun Pluto squares are often written up as applying solely to controlling, dominating fathers but occur frequently where the father died young – literally out of the child’s control, prompting the erection of strong controlling defences in the emerging adult as a protection against life’s destructiveness.  Similarly Moon Pluto mothers are often sloppily referred to as possessive making them sound smothering when often they can be destructive and damaging in other ways.

She has the creative Neptune trine Uranus of her year with Saturn close by in Taurus. Her fixed qualities and stubbornness will have made cooperation tricky at times but will have given her endurance. Her 12^th house Venus in musical Pisces, again points to a lack of love and self-esteem but will have given poignancy to her love songs.

 Her creative 5^th harmonic is exceptionally strong highlighting her ultra-determined streak. Her creative, seeking and searching, 7^th harmonic is also notable – influential, confident, lucky, forceful.

  Her husband James Brolin, 18 July 1940 11.10 am Los Angeles, at first glance is an odd match. He is a Sun Cancer opposition Moon in Capricorn with an equally obstinate collection of Jupiter Saturn and Uranus in Taurus plus Mercury, Pluto, Mars in Leo which is conjunct her Moon Chiron Pluto. That could have pointed to a whole load of aggravation. Though perhaps both having sailed through a variety of relationships were mellower and wiser about what it takes.

  His Sun in the cusp of her 5^th and trine her Venus would soften the mood; with his Venus in Gemini conjunct her Mars to add a touch of crackle and pop to passion. Her Sun falls in his 7^th which is also ideal for a partnership.

Add On: From reviews of her memoir  illuminating her Moon, Chiron, Pluto square Sun. 

Her mother, Diana, didn’t treat her well, claiming she didn’t have time to tell her daughter that she loved her. The cruel stepfather once gave her elder brother’s fiancée money to buy ice cream for everyone except Barbra because she was “ugly”. Childhood tinnitus was dealt with by being ignored.

  When Streisand played a huge Las Vegas concert in 1993, with a starry audience and a fee in the millions, she flew her mother out specially. But Diana skipped it for a night on the Strip, later wondering why anyone would pay her daughter all that money to sing. With Streisand the toast of the town as Funny Girl became the biggest thing on Broadway, her mother flipped out at the number of presents her daughter was getting. She screamed: “I’m the mother! She’s nothing without me!” As her daughter reflects: “She could kill any pleasure I felt in an instant.”

Diana Streisand, 10 December 1908, NY,  was a Sun Sagittarius opposition Pluto and square Jupiter – controlling and pushily confident; with Neptune maybe conjunct a Cancer Moon opposition Uranus = emotionally unstable. Her Mars in vengeful Scorpio (conjunct Venus) was square Barbra’s Moon, Pluto, Chiron and opposition her Sun Mercury. So an envious, spiteful connection.

 Diana’s hard-edged Saturn in Aries sat on Barbra’s Ascendant and square her Midheaven so she would be a downer on any public persona of success or career triumphs. Plus Diana’s Pluto was conjunct Barbra’s Jupiter and Mars for a power-struggling and hostile interface.  

Just as well Barbra has phenomenal endurance from her six fixed planets and tenacious Pluto otherwise she’d have been crushed.

Spain is deadlocked politically with difficulties forming a majority coalition to rule – with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the 10^th house Sun that is not surprising. One unexpected consequence may be the return of the separatists who have just been granted immunity by Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s socialist caretaker prime minister to the fury of the nationalists. The Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium in 2017 to avoid prosecution after organising an unlawful referendum on Catalan independence. If he returns he promises to pick up the battle again. Though there does not seem the same appetite amongst the public for another independence drive.

 Spain is in for a sticky three years ahead (like everywhere else) with a panicky, undermining tr Neptune Saturn in Aries square the Mars in 2025 and an uncertain SA Neptune opposition Saturn in 2026 and square the Uranus two years later; plus tr Pluto opposition the Saturn for a tough slog through 2024/25 and on to square the Uranus. It may not all be political but it won’t help. Their proportional representation voting system appears to encourage grid locks such as this.

  Carles Puigdemont, 29 December 1962 10.30 pm Girona, Spain does look as if he is moving up in the world career-wise with his Solar Arc Sun now rising about his Descendant to be joined next year by transiting Saturn. So he could become a player again for years ahead. He is a Sun Capricorn trine the revolutionary Uranus Pluto in Virgo which sits on his Ascendant.

  On this birth time he starts a successful 12 months from mid 2024 on.  Though he’ll have a few hitches and glitches before then. He will hit a swamp in 2025 and then find tr Uranus moving across his Midheaven sets him off on a new trajectory from 2026.

 Pedro Sanchez, the present caretaker PM, 29 February 1972 10.25 am Madrid, is a Sun Pisces with a forceful Mars in Taurus on his Ascendant; a confident Pluto square Jupiter; and a tough-minded Air Grand Trine of Saturn trine Pluto trine North Node. He has tr Saturn moving through his 11^th at the moment which fits with difficulties in trying to assemble a workable team. He should get some uplift from tr Jupiter moving through his 1^st at the moment. But there is not much else showing for the immediate future.

  His relationship chart with Puigdemont is surprisingly amiable with a composite Sun, Venus, Jupiter though there is also an aggravated Saturn square Mars – smiles and arguments.

  Spain appears to be in as much of a political turmoil as everywhere else in its own way and disaffected by its leadership of all stripes.

  The EU would not take kindly to a revived separatist movement since it raises awkward questions for other countries like Italy and elsewhere.

On Wednesday,  Samantha Markle will be launching her last and final attempt to sue Meghan, her younger half-sister, for comments she made on Netflix and in the Oprah interview. She claims that Meghan’s insistence that she grew up as an only child who longed for siblings is defamatory. If Samantha succeeds, which seems unlikely, Meghan could be forced to testify and release private messages and emails by January 2^nd with a trial date for July 2024.

  Tensions will be running high with the approaching Mars and Sun in Leo opposition Uranus hitting exact across this coming weekend.  Plus the Sun close to vengeful Mars in Scorpio a week later. Not much give or flexibility in those influences.

  Samantha, born 24 November 1964 in Los Angeles, is an outspoken Sun Sagittarius in a downbeat square to Saturn in late Aquarius on one side and in a fiery, competitive square to Mars on the other. Her Mars is also conjunct Uranus and Pluto in Virgo so she’s volatile, excitable, prone to stirring up disruptions. And she has the over-hopeful Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune. Plus a Leo Moon.

  Her Leo Moon would connect her to Meghan in childhood though her Sun conjunct Meg’s Uranus with her Saturn in square would contribute to a parting of the ways; as would Sam’s disruptive Mars, Uranus, Pluto sitting on Meg’s Venus.  Their relationship chart has a close, possessive/controlling composite Sun, Venus, Pluto conjunction sextile Mars – so the opposite of distant, more a love/hate mix.

  Samantha looks deflated late this December with tr Saturn square her Sun. At the same time tr Uranus will conjunct her Jupiter December 10^th to mid March 2024, which on its own should give her a lucky break but since it also tugs on her Neptune that may undercut a positive turn in her fortunes.

  Meghan’s chart is not registering much apart from the waning months of a lacklustre Solar Arc Sun square her Neptune. And a rattled SP Mars conjunct her Sun/Mercury midpoint. Plus her Progressed/SA Midheaven conjunct her Chiron which has been around all this year – which does not suggest a healing, more a reminder of the wound that will not heal getting in the way of her progress. The first half of December will see a setback as tr Saturn opposes her Mars/Pluto midpoint. Next year will be a mix of pluses and minuses with July looking tense.

  I am fascinated by Meghan’s whole family dynamic and Harry’s – a kind of folie a deux, sharing childhood gripes, that most of us have and with maturity grow out of.

  At the risk of bringing the ceiling down on my head I am beginning to wonder about Meghan’s controlling tendencies – in common parlance, coercive control –  pulling the partner away from friends and family and isolating them. Harry has never looked happier than recently when off on his own with the blokes at a Formula One do.

  “I would measure the duration of the marriage in years rather than decades,” says Graydon Carter, former Vanity Fair editor. “I think she has run rings around poor Harry and gotten what she wanted: notoriety, money, and a title. His usefulness to her diminishes daily.”

  My other even darker thought is that in her initial delusional ‘I want to be as famous as the saintly Diana’ campaign she did not stoke the flames of sibling rivalry between Harry and William in the faint hope of toppling Will/Kate and stepping up a notch closer to the throne. It is the only thing that makes sense of her obvious discomfort at being down the pecking order. She knows only too well from showbusiness that top of the bill takes precedence. 

  Did Andrew at some point not campaign with the Queen to replace Charles as heir during the whole divorce/early Camilla shenanigans? And Diana was convinced Charles would never be King. Succession fights did not die out with the Tudors.     As far as Meg and Harry are concerned that is water under the bridge but they really have burnt so many bridges behind them it is difficult to see where the remedy lies.

For light relief or maybe more depressing black comedy about the state of British politics  – Nadine Dorries, erstwhile Culture Secretary and devoted fan of Boris Johnson issues her political memoir. In it she points to a shadowy sinister cabal (Gove, Cummings  and the scheming “Dr No”, a Government insider so brutish, that he once butchered a rabbit dear to a former partner in revenge) that has controlled the Tory Party for ever. It was them she insists who brought her idol down. As opposed to his lies and incompetence.  

 An associate of Michael Gove remarked crisply that Dorries  writes best-selling fiction. Though the quality of her literary outpourings since 2014 in the fantasy sphere appears questionable. The Telegraph described one as a “misery novel” “told in vacuous language”. Reviewer Christopher Howse said The Four Streets was “the worst novel I’ve read in 10 years.”

  Having established herself as ‘an author’ Boris Johnson then made her Culture Secretary. One Tory MP reacted to the news of her appointment by telling the FT: “Nadine bleeding Dorries. Was whoever decided that on LSD at the time?”

  The FT today after a lunch interview remarked: “Dorries blurs fact and fiction so easily, I’m not even sure she notices. Her defensiveness, acquired through fire, seems to stop her questioning herself.” Along the way of mozzarella and grilled vegetables she remarked: “ I’m actually smarter than these guys in No 10. All they had to do was work with me.”

 Born 21 May 1957 Liverpool, she has BJ’s Sun Venus in Gemini though at the start not the finish of the chatty sign. With her Sun in a controlling square to Pluto in late Leo. What marks her chart out as singular is a Yod of Mercury in Taurus sextile Mars in Cancer inconjunct Saturn in Sagittarius – and a Sun inconjunct Neptune, with Neptune in a can-be-fanatical/unrealistic square to Uranus. An uneasy self-righteousness will be an ever present companion as she tilts at windmills. Her afflicted Neptune will create more than a few problems distinguishing reality from fantasy.

 Her relationship chart with Michael Gove is hostile with a composite Mars Pluto conjunction. Her relationship with Boris is a flurry of flowery passionate enthusiasm with a composite Sun, Venus, Mars plus an irrevocably-tied-together-by-fate for good-or-for-ill yod – Venus Mars sextile Uranus inconjunct Saturn. Saturnine yods require maturity to give of their best and if mishandled can be self-defeating.

  They will crumble into history together as of little consequence.

  How could they make her Culture Secretary??

  “All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”  T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

  A timely new biography of T E Lawrence (of Arabia) comes from transglobe explorer Ranulph Fiennes who in his army days fought in Oman and shares Lawrence’s taste for devil-may-care adventure.

Lawrence led the Arab revolt against the Turks in the desert as part of the Allies’ World War One strategy to occupy the Ottoman empire and keep the Germans busy. By 1918 he was one of the most celebrated figures in all the Middle East and the Turks had put a price on his head of £15,000 (about £1.3 million today). Ultimately he was betrayed by the politicians, his dream of independence for the Arabs crushed as the Middle East was carved up into French, British and Russian spheres of influence after the war.

 He was born 16 August 1888, maybe 4.16 am (rectified) in Wales, as one of five illegitimate children to a father who inherited a baronetcy. After Oxford he went travelling, became an archaeologist with an interest in the Middle East and on the outbreak of war was seconded into British intelligence headquartered in Cairo.

  From unlikely beginnings he developed into one the greatest generals in history in history as he created a new form of hybrid warfare, with modern weapons operating alongside irregular forces. His strategies were followed in the Churchill’s guerrilla operations in World War II; the Viet Cong used his tactics during the Vietnam War and they were influential when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001 using a combination of air strikes and Arab tribesmen on the ground.

  Late in the war he was captured, tortured, beaten and almost certainly raped by the Turks. A year later the war ended and with peace his vision for the Middle East was crushed. He returned home seeking anonymity, joined the RAF under an assumed name, and after his famous identity was exposed, moved to another army unit where he died aged 46 in a motorcycle accident.

  His book Seven Pillars of Wisdom written after the way was praised by Churchill – “It ranks with the greatest books ever written in the English language. As a narrative of war and adventure it is unsurpassable.”

  Lawrence had a Sun in Leo square Jupiter in Scorpio, with Mercury Saturn also in Leo square Mars in Scorpio – flamboyant and attention-seeking, confident, keen to be taken as a person of importance, used to hardship, utterly determined. His Venus in Virgo and possibly Sagittarius Moon were in hard aspect to Neptune Pluto in Gemini, which was the signature conjunction of the era. Emotionally overwrought – passionate, idealistic and unrealistic, a visionary.

  When World War 1 ended and his dreams for the Middle East died, tr Uranus in Aquarius was opposition his Leo Sun with tr Saturn conjunct his Sun for a rupture with the past. Tr Saturn moved soon after to square his Neptune Pluto for an uncertain aftermath of anxiety, betrayal and coping with war trauma.

  His global superstar 22^nd harmonic is outstanding as is his leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17H.

Ranulph Fiennes, 7 March 1944 12.30 pm Windsor, England, like Lawrence has his North Node in the leadership sign of Leo. Fiennes’ Moon Jupiter in Leo are also conjunct Lawrence’s Sun. Both have hard Mars Saturn aspects, suiting them for military life and hardship. Though Fiennes has an explorer’s Pisces sun.

The dedication to Seven Pillars of Wisdom:

I loved you, so I drew these tides of
Men into my hands
And wrote my will across the
Sky in stars
To earn you freedom, the seven
Pillared worthy house,
That your eyes might be
Shining for me
When I came

PICS: Cloud Hills in Dorset a woodsman’s cottage where he spent his final anonymous years after WW1. Now under National Trust care.

The Beatles have crowned their generation-spanning influence with one last offering, a reworked demo made by John Lennon which never made it to a finished song before now. It is described as a McCartney production tour de force in which he and Ringo Starr pay homage to the late Lennon and Harrison with one “last Beatles song.”

  What is striking looking at all four charts is how fixed they are, maybe not surprising for a quartet of enduring success.

John Lennon, 9 October 1940 6.30 pm Liverpool,  was a relationship-oriented Sun Libra conjunct his Descendant; with an emotionally possessive Moon opposition Pluto and Chiron in his performing 5^th and the heavyweight Taurus triple conjunction of the era of Saturn, Jupiter close together and Uranus. Uranus was also trine Neptune for creativity. He was born on a Jupiter Saturn conjunction, made his debut in a pop band on the next Jupiter Saturn conjunction and was shot on the following one in 1981.

Ringo Starr, 7 July 1940 12.05 am Liverpool,  is a Cancer Sun on the cusp of his performing 5^th house; with a megaton Mars Pluto Moon in Leo also in his 5^th and  Jupiter Saturn in Taurus with Uranus in Taurus trine Neptune.

 Paul McCartney, 18 June 1942 2pm Liverpool, is a Sun Gemini conjunct Jupiter and square Neptune, with Mercury, Saturn and Uranus also in Gemini, a sign much favoured by pop stars. Like Ringo he has a fiendishly determined Mars Pluto conjunction in Leo with his Leo Moon in an amiable square to Venus in Taurus.  A mix of easy going and incredibly stubborn.

 George Harrison, 24 February 1943 11.42pm Liverpool, had a Sun Pisces in his entertaining 5^th house on the focal point of a yod to Neptune sextile Pluto; with his Sun square Saturn Uranus; and his Mercury opposition Pluto in Leo square a Scorpio Moon. Plus an exuberant Mars opposition Jupiter. An individual not entirely comfortable in his own skin. He died of cancer in 2001.

  As with all groups of musical brothers stuck together for long periods of time there would be disagreements and irritations, especially given the proliferation of obstinate fixed signs.

 Ringo looks to have been closest to John Lennon and he has an intense, not easy bond with McCartney, superficially friendly with undercurrents of a power struggle.