Dianne Feinstein, the oldest serving American senator whose ‘historic career began in tragedy and ended in controversy’ has died. She became San Francisco mayor after a 1978 assassination but recently was criticized for hanging on through prolonged bouts of ill health. She was renowned as a tenacious trailblazer, and a stalwart centrist, at times upsetting both extremes. She refused to ally herself with women’s rights groups, supported programs to fight the Aids epidemic, but vetoed domestic partnership legislation, frustrating LGBTQ+ rights activists. She was an ardent gun control advocate; and supported the death penalty.   After 9/11 she investigated CIA torture as head of the  powerful Senate intelligence committee and memorably faced off against the then CIA director, John Brennan.

“She was a political giant,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom.

  Born 22 June 1933 12.44am San Francisco, she had a quick-witted 3^rd house Cancer Sun alongside a Gemini Moon. Her Moon squared Mars in hard working Virgo in her 6^th – in part a legacy of her abusive mother. She had an unconventional and innovative Uranus in her 1^st house square a 4^th house Venus, Pluto, Mercury in Cancer in her domestic 4^th. Her childhood was described as tumultuous and she had three marriages.

  What stands out is a Saturnine yod of Venus sextile Jupiter in Virgo inconjunct Saturn in Aquarius in her 11^th. That demands maturity, self-discipline and responsibility to get the best of it.

  Her chart keys into the USA chart with her Cancer Sun and her Pluto Mercury in Cancer connecting with the USA Mercury in Cancer opposition Pluto. It would not always be an easy relationship but she made a difference.

Going to war, going on vacation, finding love, luck, success or being accident prone – where in the world? Pin pointing why certain locations are comforting while others bring bad vibes is the function of astrocartography otherwise known as locational astrology, developed by San Francisco astrologer Jim Lewis. Plotting the birth chart on a world map or relocating the chart to a specific town can change your fortunes.

  The classic example is Sean Connery, born into poverty in Edinburgh, who had his mega-successful Jupiter Pluto on his Midheaven line through Hollywood and his Sun Neptune midheaven through eastern USA, New York down to the Bahamas where he retired. The Midheaven lines show career prospects. His first wife, Diane Cilento, was Australian where his Saturn Descendant line ran so it would be an uphill struggle to make it work. His second wife Micheline, who is French-Moroccan, gave him a settled home life, indicated by his Chiron on the IC line (4^th house = home and family) through Morocco and Southern Spain where they lived for some years.

 It need not even mean going to the location indicated. One happy marriage came about with the UK partner having her Venus Ascendant line through Detroit where her husband had been born. The association alone may be enough.  One London stock trader who made a pile on the Tokyo Exchange had his Venus Pluto Midheaven through Japan which he never visited.

   Yoko Ono, born in Japan, has her Venus midheaven line through Liverpool, where Beatle John Lennon was born. Queen Elizabeth II had her Venus Ascendant line through Greece, the birthplace of her lifelong husband Prince Philip.

  Celebrities who run activist campaigns in Africa like Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie have strong lines running through that location drawing their attention. As does Princess Anne who has done sterling work for Save the Children for decades.   Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should also look to Africa for their future success.  Harry’s Lesotho charity which supports young people in Africa is headquartered where he has his high-vitality Mars Uranus on the Midheaven with a successful and charitable Jupiter Neptune in the 10^th.

  Where it can get tricky for couples deciding on a major domestic or work relocation is if a specific place suits one and not the other. Hollywood for Megan emphasises her 1^st house attention-seeking Leo Sun.  But it puts Prince Harry in the shadows with a 12^th house Sun and 8^th house Moon.   

  What is marginally odd is that Meghan has her Sun in the 10^th conjunct the Midheaven for London – which indicates great success and prominence though it puts her Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto in the 12^th so she never felt at home. London gave her Prince Harry and a £42 million wedding as a springboard for future success but she would not feel nurtured.    

  Mars lines indicate a heated location likely to bring arguments or accidents. Uncannily every American president in recent times who volunteered or was pulled into military activity did so on a world zone through which one of their four Mars lines ran. For Roosevelt it was Pearl Harbor; for Harry Truman, Japan and Korea; for Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Ford, it was Vietnam; for Jimmy Carter, Iran. Margaret Thatcher’s Mars on the midheaven (the key Mars line) runs straight through the tiny Falkland Islands, where Britain declared war after the Argentinian invasion in 1982. George W Bush had his Mars Midheaven line through Afghanistan.

  Actress Natasha Richardson, born in London, who was married to Liam Neeson, tragically died after a ski-ing accident near Montreal, Canada. Her chart relocated there put Mars conjunct her Ascendant there opposition Saturn. She had that accident-prone aspect natally but the Canadian location highlighted it.

Pluto lines are recommended to be treated with caution. JFK had his Pluto midheaven through Dallas, Texas, where he was assassinated in 1963.  Obviously not everyone dies on their Pluto midheaven lines, since regular world travellers will cross theirs several times a year. Additional factors will have been in play. In JFK’s birth chart he had an unaspected and uncontrolled Pluto which Dallas triggered.

  Years ago I was reluctantly persuaded to lecture on a cruise ship in the eastern Mediterranean, which given that my Pluto MC runs through Athens and down through Egypt, both of them on the itinerary, I was nervous beforehand. Not too much else showed up in my chart in terms of predictive influences – and my Pluto is well integrated in my chart, so I agreed. But it was not a happy voyage, the scary highlight of which was being in Luxor one day before the first Al Quaeda terrorist massacre of 62 tourists.  Plus I had a serious nose-bleed, requiring hospital treatment. A close shave.

  Astrocartography can be uncannily accurate but it may not always be fully lived out and can function in obscure ways. On my own chart – Big Sur in California is my idea of healing heaven with Venus, Mars, Neptune and Chiron lines anchored there. India with which I have strong and friendly career connections flags up. But I have never quite worked out what I am supposed to do with my most successful career lines running through Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the UAE. Maybe in another lifetime.

On mulling over those lines through the Middle East and further north – those regions did have a resonance for me.  I read voraciously of explorers in Arabia when I was a teenager and since have been fascinated by melting-pot Middle Eastern history ancient and modern.

  I even have a tenuous connection extraordinarily enough with Kazakh/Mongolia where my Chiron/MC line runs. It is connected to a friend who sadly suicided just as he was going out there to film. I had introduced him to an intermediary who was able to get permissions and make the impossible happen. But tragically it wasn’t enough.

  So the lines do spark up interest even if never visited.

  Not everyone is mobile or has a choice about uprooting but astrocartography can still indicate places where connections at a distance can be made or explored.

Michael Gambon, one of the greats of British theatre has died. An illustrious six decade career firmly founded on years with Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre, allowed him to branch out in TV and films – Maigret, The Singing Detective, Dad’s Army, The King’s Speech and Gosford Park until he landed the role of Dumbledore in six of the Harry Potter films.

  He was born 19 on October 1940, no birth time, in Dublin into a working class family, which moved to England when he was six. He left school at 15, became an apprentice toolmaker, then a qualified engineering technician. Aged 24, he wrote a letter to the Gate Theatre in Dublin outlining an imaginary theatre career and was taken on.

  He was a Sun Libra in a mischievous, oddball inconjunct to Uranus which was in turn in a creative trine to Neptune. He had the grounded Saturn Jupiter conjunction in Taurus trine his Venus in Virgo. His Mars in Libra conjunct his North Node was in a determined sextile to Pluto conjunct his Chiron.  His Uranus was further emphasized being opposition his Mercury in Scorpio. He would definitely stand out from the crowd.

  He did have a wonderful – and well-trained – stage voice which maybe his Neptune sitting on his Mercury/Pluto midpoint helped.

 His actor’s 15th harmonic was well aspected.

  I once saw him in Checkhov’s The Cherry Orchard and he was superb and memorable.  His Maigret was also a tour de force.

I wondered what had motivated him to make such a bold and dramatic switch out of engineering into the theatre. When he was 24 in 1964 tr Uranus Pluto in Virgo were conjunct his Venus and trine his Saturn Jupiter conjunction – arguably making him aware that his day job might fulfil his Saturn in Taurus but did nothing for his Jupiter – so ideals and dreams won the day as well as luck.

Singer Katy Perry is catching the headlines for having been married to Russell Brand for a nano-second years back, being embroiled in a house purchase gone wrong, and by roaring onto a Peppa Pig special as Ms Leopard. The real estate imbroglio, her second, may not be her fault but she is clearly unlucky when it comes to property purchases.  

  Born 25 October 1984 7.58 am Santa Barbara, California, into a strict religious family, she does have a heavyweight chart with a controlling 12^th house Sun Pluto conjunction in Scorpio with Mercury, Saturn, Moon in Scorpio all conjunct her Ascendant in her 1^st house. Her Taurus North Node is in her 7^th house of close relationships which will be her challenge in life and her Chiron is in her 8^th. Sun Pluto, Moon Saturn and NN in 7^th will make cooperative partnerships a demanding exercise for her.

  Her Venus in adventurous Sagittarius is conjunct her Uranus for a lighter-hearted streak. Her Taurus North Node may also be a pointer to her entanglements over financial property deals. Even if not her doing, it seems to attract tussles.

  The match with Brand never made Astro-sense with his Uranus conjunct her Sun Pluto and his Gemini Sun opposition her Uranus. His Saturn opposed her Mars with his Pluto square her Jupiter and Mars – each of them would send the other running for cover with those cross Uranus aspects, plus the aggravation of Saturn to Mars.

  Their relationship chart had a Sun opposition Mars Jupiter square Uranus – explosive, disruptive and unstable. With an unaspected Venus and sparsely aspected Moon. Not even a prominent Jupiter could save that.   

  The wedding in October 2010 in India was an extravaganza with the groom arriving on horseback and the happy couple accompanied by  elephants, camels and more horses in the wedding procession. There were fire jugglers and fire eaters, snake charmers and dance troupes, folk singers and drummers and several costume changes for the henna-adorned bride and, less traditionally, similarly painted groom.  Way way over the top as might be expected from a relationship with a flamboyant, composite Leo Sun boosted to ludicrous levels by Mars Jupiter and Uranus.

  The wedding chart itself had a final degree Libra Sun trine an uncommitted, dreamy Neptune; a hard-hearted Saturn square Pluto; and a Jupiter Uranus conjunction which I have come to distrust around relationships/weddings since it usually indicates an impulsive decision taken in haste and regretted later.

  The union lasted a year until he texted her saying a divorce was imminent.

  She is now together with Lord of the Rings/Hobbit actor Orlando Bloom, 13 January 1977 9.15 am Canterbury, England, with whom she has a young daughter.

  He’s a Capricorn with an 8^th house Scorpio Moon and Uranus, and an 8th house Pluto so is not uncomplicated himself. His Scorpio Moon is conjunct her Sun which is ideal though it is also conjunct her Pluto which for most would be overly intense. But his 8^th house Pluto perhaps has acclimatized him to possessive relationships.

  His Uranus is on her Ascendant and conjunct her Moon Saturn which will throw up a few tensions – though two busy careers may soak up some of the wrinkles. His Pluto squares her Mars which will lead to tussles for the last word.  The saving grace will be his amiable Jupiter in Taurus falling in her 7^th house offering her support and enthusiasm when she gets too intense.

  Their relationship chart has a passionate composite Venus trine Pluto and an easy-going composite Sun square Jupiter so is a giant improvement on the Brand match, if not altogether straightforward.

Azerbaijan having launched a military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh triggered a humanitarian catastrophe as Armenian refugees pour out of the region and has made its allegiance with Russia a priority. The US and EU are rapidly revising their view of Azerbaijan, a resource-rich country, which had been seen as a reliable security partner and vital transport hub.

  Russia blamed Armenia for flirting with the west and thereby being to blame for the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh.

  Astrology charts are useless for these two countries since they were liberated more or less at the same time in 1918 and again in 1991.

  It has raised fears in Armenia of a rerun of the genocide of 1915 which has left them understandably hyper-sensitive. The mass murder of around one million Armenians during death marches to the Syrian Desert and the forced Islamization of others, primarily women and children, was driven by a wish in the Ottoman Empire to systematically destroy the Armenian people and identity during World War I.

  That started on 24 April 1915 when the war-mongering, destructive Saturn Pluto conjunction was almost exact and squared Venus. There is nothing similar at the moment.   Chiron was conjunct Jupiter exacerbating the wound rather than presenting good news.  The February 1915 Solar Eclipse was in the same Saros Series as this recent one so there will be some similar vibes. But nothing like a destructive as the 1915 Saturn Pluto.

  The two country charts show much the same panicky failure and tough slog ahead so Azerbaijan will not be brandishing the victor’s crown without paying a price.

Nicaragua under its strongman ruler Daniel Ortega is being slated for cracking down on opposition leaders, universities and now the Jesuits, seizing their assets. UN rights panel warns Nicaragua is being ‘stripped’ of critical voices.

 Ortega, 11 November 1945 2.30am La Libertad, Nicaragua, a leader of Nicaragua’s left-wing Sandinista revolution in 1979, was credited with first bringing down a dictator, and then the US-sponsored rebels, who tried to block his move into legitimate power. Four decades later, he is the longest-serving leader in the Americas. But his critics, who include many former allies, say he has become a corrupt and authoritarian ruler, turning his back on his revolutionary ideals and coming to resemble the dictator he deposed. In recent appearances he has looked frail, and his speeches have been increasingly erratic.

  He has a mega-controlling Scorpio Sun square Pluto with a can-be-cruel Saturn Mars conjunction in Cancer opposition a Capricorn Moon square Venus. Plus Venus Jupiter in his 1^st – a charmer on the surface with an exceptionally dark side. Tr Pluto has been conjunct his Moon and opposition his Saturn Mars in the past three years with the pressure not letting up till late 2024. So he may well be under immense physical and psychological pressure.

 His initial presidency chart, 10 January 2007, has a brutal and ruthless Mars Pluto conjunction and a Capricorn Sun inconjunct Saturn – so it was never going to be an enlightened administration. Tr Neptune is undermining the Mars Pluto for a whiff of failure this year and next with jolts and jangles from tr Uranus square the Saturn this year into early 2024 as well. Plus SA Saturn square the Jupiter denting enthusiasm. But there’s also a pushily-confident SA Jupiter conjunct Pluto this year as well. There is nothing too terminal in this chart for another five years.  Though Ortega’s relationship chart with Nicaragua hints at growing unease and tensions, peaking in 2025/26 when frustrations and rage will increasingly spill over.

  Nicaragua, 11 October 1821, has a Libra Sun opposition Saturn Moon Jupiter in Aries – all of which are catching the Solar Eclipses in 2023/24 so there could be a change of direction sparked by a crisis or several. That plus the Solar Arc Neptune Uranus square Pluto colliding with the Nicaragua Saturn (Moon) in 2023/24/25 will make for a high-tension, confusing and stuck three years ahead.

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Compassion for refugees escaping discrimination is being  touted as “unsustainable” by UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, whose hard line on migrants has earned her brickbats from several quarters. She is now challenging whether the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention is “fit for our modern age”.

  The Convention was drawn up in 1951, originally focused on  Europe’s post-war refugees. It says they should not be returned or expelled from a country against their will if they fear for their life or freedom. Almost 150 countries have signed up to the Convention. Braverman argues the the threshold has been lowered so that asylum seekers need only prove that they face “discrimination” instead of a real risk of torture, death or violence. “But we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin is sufficient to qualify for protection.”

  The UN Refugee Convention was signed on 28 July 1951, when there was a hopeful, charitable Neptune opposition Jupiter square an innovative Uranus Mars in Cancer. There are hints of major stress on the agreement in 2025 with the Solar Arc Mars conjunct the Saturn, the SA Sun conjunct Neptune and square Mars and the SA Saturn square the Pisces North Node. Even before then tr Uranus square the Pluto hints at disruptions forcing a change in outlook.

 The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), 14 December 1950, is going through its own agonies at the moment with a trapped/paralysed tr Pluto conjunct the Mars at the moment as well as the unsettling/forced change tr Uranus square Pluto. With tr Pluto moving on to a discouraging, uphill slog in square to the Saturn in 2024/25 – plus tr Neptune having been in an undermining square to the Sun last year moving to square the financial Venus up to 2025.

  Nothing that looks like a solution.

  Suella Braverman is but a blip on the landscape and will soon be history one way or another. But maybe it takes a Sun Aries opposition Pluto to speak the unspeakable. Plus she has Uranus and Mars tied into a Fixed Cardinal Grand Cross so she is not backward about voicing her trenchant opinions and refusing to back down.

   Migrants are a pressing and almost insoluble problem for most countries especially those with generous state subsidies with understandable concern from governments over costs and resentment from the public at being overwhelmed by outsiders when they themselves are struggling.

  All countries need migrants to fill certain jobs and ultimately to support an ageing population through paying taxes. But the pressure in numbers from war, and climate change never mind mediaeval beliefs in their home land, will only increase.

  Countries near frontlines are worst effected. Lebanon with 5.5 million population has 1.5 million refugees from Syria.  Jordan who took in Palestinians in 1947 and 1967 has around 2.18 such refugees with a total population of 11.15 million. Turkey has around 3.6 million Syrian refugees and a population in total of around 85 million.

  Sometimes compassion is not enough.

ADD ON: The 1951 Convention was widened in 1967 (4 October) to include refugees from outside Europe. It has a Libra Sun opposition Saturn in Aries which is being rattled up by the October 2024 Libra Solar Eclipse and its Uranus by the September 2024 Lunar Eclipse.  With trenchant divisions through this year and next. So much the same timeline as above with pressure for change.

Suella Braverman – not having a good year vis a vis her Home Secretary Term chart but has smatterings of Jupiter especially in 2025 so something is going right for her.

Actor David McCallum best known as the Russian spy Ilya Kuryakin in the 1960s tv series and four decades later as Ducky Mallard, the forensic medical examiner in NCIS has died aged 90.

  He was born on 19 September 1933 2am Glasgow, Scotland, the son of two orchestral violinists, and educated latterly in London, playing the oboe and acting before going onto the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art after national service where Joan Collins was a classmate. He became a teen heart throb as Ilya Kuryakin with his Beatles haircut which also earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

  He had a quick-witted 3^rd house Virgo Sun with a chatty Mercury in Libra conjunct Jupiter also in his 3^rd. His Uranus in the 10^th points to an unconventional career that would not always run smoothly, with highs and lows and it was in an unorthodox square to a 12^th house Pluto which marked that early 1930s generation. His serious 7^th house Saturn in Aquarius was square a 4^th house Mars in Scorpio and inconjunct Neptune, suggesting tough experiences in his childhood alongside a good deal of affection with Venus also in his 4^th.

  His Moon was in Virgo as well as his Sun – which was well matched by his two main TV co-stars. Robert Vaughan in The Man from U.N.C.L.E, 22 November 1932, was a Sun Scorpio/Sagittarius but with his Moon, Jupiter, Neptune and Mars all in Virgo.  Mark Harmon of NCIS, has his Sun, Moon, Venus and Mercury in Virgo. A whirlpool of fuss and worry on the set and non-stop chatter.

  He had a curiously disjointed chart but with two yods both involving an Aquarius North Node in the 8^th – Pluto sextile Sun inconjunct North Node and NN sextile Uranus inconjunct Sun. He did have depth and was fated to tie into the spirit of the age in his thespian roles.

The sordid Epstein saga is now into season two with two of America’s biggest banks, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, accused of enabling Epstein’s years of abuse. The latest allegations focus on two titans of Wall Street, long-term friends and business associates of Epstein, Jes Staley (former JP Morgan, then CEO Barclays, resigned over Epstein associations in 2021) and Leon Black – denials all round. And nine months ago the US Virgin Islands launched a second legal case claiming $190 million in damages from JP Morgan on the basis that the bank “knowingly, negligently and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise”. The Virgin Islands’ attorney general who filed this last suit, Denise George, was summarily fired four days later.  Sigh.

  Epstein would entertain the rich and famous on his island, flying women and girls over from Florida on his plane, the “Lolita Express”. The girls who were brought here, many of them teenagers bought and trafficked from eastern Europe, were raped and assaulted; if they tried to escape, he took their passports away. Epstein moved his estate to the Virgin Islands before his death to shield the estate from financial claims from victims who were already lining up.

   The seamy underside of great wealth is a descent into the darker corners of Pluto’s underworld.

   The intriguing question is – will there be a season three, exposing the famous names who allegedly visited Epstein’s homes and were either willingly or honey-trapped into compromising situations.

  Epstein may have died four years ago but his malevolent spirit lives on haunting quite a few lives and not just his victims. Born 20 January 1953, NY, he had a zero degree Aquarius Sun which is being ground down by tr Pluto conjunct in 2023/24 and upended by tr Uranus square the Pluto now into early 2024 over the bank lawsuits. 

  Charts do live on including relationship charts, which need not be absolute proof in this instance of future turmoil, let alone exposure but it could very well be. So who is Epstein’s malevolent spirit going to be haunting – in private or in public?

  The Jes Staley (27 Dec 1956)/Epstein relationship chart has two fated yods indicating an association which would change both their lives irrevocably and then some! The focal point Mars in Pisces inconjunct Neptune sextile Pluto is being undermined by tr Neptune in 2024/25 and this year does not look like fun either with devastating challenges from tr Pluto on the composite Venus and Neptune. The other with a focal point Pluto to Mars sextile Venus is on high emotional alert this year and worse in 2024/25.

  Bill Clinton looks uncertain and uptight this year with swampy Neptunian influences to his relationship chart with Epstein in 2023 to 2025 and beyond. Ditto his relationship with the imprisoned Ghislaine Maxwell – under grinding and discouraging pressure this year and through a turbulent 2024.

   Much the same timeline appears on Bill Gates/Epstein’s relationship chart with tr Neptune square the composite Mars and tr Uranus square the Pluto in 2024.

  Donald Trump has always looked more uneasy about Ghislaine Maxwell than with Epstein. The DT/Max relationship chart has an unpleasant yod of Pluto sextile Mars inconjunct Sun which  is being aggravated this year, with similar timelines to the above through 2024.

  Prince Andrew, who gets a passing mention in today’s Sunday Times piece about the Virgin Islands (fired) AG as having been seen in the Epstein residence with one of the girls, is facing more anxiety vis a vis his unsavoury Epstein relationship  with an upset exactly now, a devastating 2024/25 and more turmoil in 2025.  Ditto with Ghislaine Maxwell.

  None of them looks like escaping the toxic cloud anytime soon – with Uranus at 25 degrees Taurus and Neptune at 28 degrees Pisces – April/June 2024 onwards – being recurring hot spots on several of the above charts.

  Watch and hope for transparency.

 [What on earth is going through King Charles’ head in semi-rehabilitating his errant brother. There was always going to be more emerging financially and otherwise and it risks damaging the throne. He should listen to the Prince of Wales.]

ADD ON: This week JP Morgan Chase agreed to pay $75mn to settle claims from the US Virgin Islands that it had helped Epstein’s human-trafficking operation at his home in the territory. Tuesday’s settlement with the USVI is nowhere near as large, nor as damaging to the bank as it could have been. The $75mn is less than half the $190mn the island government sought. The deal comes after the bank fought back aggressively in court, claiming that “the entity that . . . most actively facilitated and benefited from Epstein’s continued criminal activity was . . . the USVI government itself”.

Hmm, wonder if there will be any justice on that latter score. Doubt it.