Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, voted the world’s greatest living composer in a 2019 survey by BBC Music Magazine, has died aged 70 of brain cancer.

Her ‘sinuously alluring’ music was acclaimed for its sparkling beauty – meditative, mystical and complex, often informed by the sound of the wind, footsteps in the snow or the rush of waves. She wrote concertos as well as opera scores.

  Her opera Innocence, based around the legacy of a school shooting, won plaudits when it came to Covent Garden, described by a reviewer as “a piece of modern music-drama worthy to stand in the rich tradition that stretches from Monteverdi to Britten and beyond” and “a truly great opera for our troubled times”.

  She was born 14 October 1952 in Helsinki and was a sickly child, often left alone listening to music. She had a Libra Sun conjunct Saturn and Neptune square Uranus – hard-working, creative, idealistic, and could be nervy and obsessive. Her Neptune square Uranus would give her an inventive streak.  Her charming Venus in Scorpio opposed Jupiter in indulgent Taurus and squared onto a controlling and influential Pluto. Her lack of self-worth from Saturn was balanced out by a confident and determined Jupiter Pluto.

  Her leaving-a-legacy-for-posterity 17^th harmonic is strong.

[Putin’s original birth date is only a week earlier but that puts his Mars in a ruthless trine to his Pluto. He also picks up the negative side of Sun Saturn Neptune which can be suspicious and neurotic. And houses will make all the difference.]

  One of her other operas La Passion de Simone (2006) recounted the life of the French philosopher Simone Weil, who supposedly starved herself to death in an English hospital in 1943 aged 34. Like Saariaho, Simone Weil had been a sickly child and campaigned constantly for a fairer society which may have rung a bell with the composer since her Saturn Neptune is also tuned into creating social improvements.

  Simone Weil, 3 February 1909 5am Paris, France, was a Sun Aquarius on one leg of a yod sextile Mars inconjunct Neptune Moon in Cancer – emotionally sensitive to an extreme degree. Her Mars was also in a fearful, frustrated opposition to Pluto. And like Saariaho, Weil had highly-strung Neptune Uranus aspects, in her case in opposition and tied into her Moon and Venus.

  Another musical icon gone.

Montenegro has a new president, replacing the strongman Đukanović, whose party held sway for three decades and whose abuse of power led the country to be designated a hybrid regime instead of a democracy.

  Montenegro is  part of the Balkans, bordered by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Croatia and the Adriatic Sea. It formally became a member of NATO and has been in negotiations to join the EU since 2012, with 2025 being the putative date of entry. It is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and the Central European Free Trade Agreement.

  ‘Montenegro has historically stood at the crossroads of multiculturalism and over centuries this has shaped its unique co-existence between Muslim and Christian populations. Despite tensions between religious groups during the Bosnian War, Montenegro remained fairly stable, mainly due to its population’s perspective on religious tolerance and faith diversity.’ (wiki)

  The new President Jakov Milatovic, 7 December 1986, Milatović, who campaigned on a pro-EU and anti-corruption platform, won around 60 percent of the vote in the presidential runoff according to local pollsters.

  He was sworn in on 20 May 2023 at 12.24pm Podgorica, and faces a challenging term. There is a last degree Taurus Sun on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine of Mars in Cancer trine Neptune. That will be under a frustrating, trapped, somewhat risky tr Pluto opposition the Mars in 2023/4 and then there is a disruptive tr Uranus conjunct the Sun in 2025. There is also a high-octane and perhaps overly forceful T square of Pluto opposition Mars square Jupiter North Node in Taurus so he will have luck but over confidence may trip him up.

  He is a serious though changeable Sun, Saturn and Uranus in Sagittarius with his Sun Saturn square an exuberant Mars Jupiter in Pisces. Plus he has a persuasively charming Pluto Venus in Scorpio.

  Montenegro independence was proclaimed 3 June 2006 8.28pm Podgorica, which gives a Gemini Sun on the cusp of the 7^th  = keen on cooperating with neighbours. But the Sun squares onto a Moon opposition Uranus so settling down to alliances and committed relationships won’t be easy. Plus there is an exceptionally difficult Mars conjunct Saturn in the 8^th house square Venus opposition Jupiter – a country where frivolity and darkness sit side by side and where the ancestral past weights heavily on present events.

  The Mars in the country chart is the same degree of Cancer as it is on Milatovic’s Presidency chart – suggesting a tough, financially frustrating two years ahead as tr Pluto opposes the Mars – and a challenging few years thereafter as tr Pluto moves to oppose the Saturn.

Milo Dukanovic, the ousted president, who had been at the top as prime minister or president for decades, tunes into the darker side of Montenegro. Born 15 February 1962 6.55am Niksic, he has an emphasized Saturn, Mercury, Mars in Aquarius on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Pluto and a Cancer Moon – might makes right, cold, determined.  He also has a Sun Jupiter in Aquarius opposition Uranus in Leo – very Fixed.  The not-so-humanitarian, light-and-love-to-all facet of Aquarius – in negative aspect it can be obsessive, fanatical, extreme in its views.

In the land of the beautiful people, backbiting and vicious rumours lurk a millimetre below the glossy exterior. The news that British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, long thought to be the steely Anna Wintour’s successor as editor-in-chief, is to move out and up into the Conde Nast stratosphere, has led to suggestions of a rift – all denied.   

  He was vaunted as an editor for the new age – working class, black, gay, keen to push diversity with a transgender model, a first man on the cover, disabled stars, Dame Judi Dench at 85 the oldest cover star, a Braille edition launched for the first time and the Duchess of Sussex as guest-editor in 2019.

  He was born 22 February 1972 11.55pm (from memory) Takoradi, Ghana, with a seamstress mother who gave him a love for fabric and colour. He became a model at 16, a fashion director at 18, and has worked with Italian and American Vogue. His 2008 “Black Issue” for Vogue Italia, which featured only black models was so successful Condé Nast was forced to print another 40,000 copies.

  He has an artistic, image-making Pisces Sun Mercury on the focal point of a Mutable T Square to a creative and nervy Saturn opposition Neptune. His Jupiter in money-magnet Capricorn in his 2^nd is in a super-confident square to Pluto and a dynamic trine to a hard-working Mars in Taurus in his 6th. His design-conscious Venus in Aries in his entertaining/performing 5^th house opposes an inventive Uranus.

  His needs-a-cause North Node in Aquarius is in an Air Grand Trine to a tough Saturn trine Pluto – so he’ll never be happier than when he is fighting for the suppressed and deprived.

  If his birth time is accurate than his Solar Arc Midheaven is conjunct his Uranus for a sudden change of direction, mirrored in tr Uranus square his Leo Midheaven in 2024. Tr Saturn in Pisces is depressing his Pisces Sun Mercury and the Mutable T Square throughout this year. The transition won’t be easy with a discouraging tr Pluto trine his Saturn this year and his Pluto in 2024/25 – but he’ll find a new cause in the years thereafter.

  He and Anna Wintour are a clashing combination with her formidable Scorpio Sun opposition his stubborn Mars in Taurus and her Mars in Virgo opposition his Sun – Mars in synastry is competitive.  Her Uranus is square his Pluto for a disruptive feel, her elusive Neptune is conjunct his Uranus and opposition his Venus and her critical, cool Saturn is square his Gemini Moon.

  This is repeated in their relationship chart with a composite Sun Mercury opposition Mars and trine Pluto – making for arguments and power struggles. There are positives in terms of a business-oriented Earth Grand Trine, a power couple Jupiter trine Pluto and a creative Moon opposition Neptune – but all of that may end up barbecued by the sparring Mars and controlling Pluto.

  At the moment tr Uranus is exactly square the composite Venus for an emotional upset and that will rock n’ roll through 2024 with tr Uranus square the composite Uranus as well.

  All of it a trifle in comparison to Ukraine, China, Russia, debt ceilings, AI panics and dodgy doings in Westminster but the astrology is informative.  

Please add below. Older posts under news on top bar.

‘Astrology is a language of symbols, like dreams, myths, religious narratives and fairy tales.  A chart is an architecture of metaphors. With symbols it is not possible to have a simple and clear definition. Symbols are magical doors.’

  A new astrology book takes the cook-book journey through planets, signs and houses but in a Neptunian soul-full way. A magical mystery tour both deceptively simple and insightful as it weaves connections and dances a thread between opposites and the evolution of the signs and elements.  

  It took my Saturnine temperament a while before I acclimatized to the stream of consciousness approach of Jean-Marc Pierson, the author – a Sun Neptune in Scorpio. But there are nuggets of gold in there with his constantly shifting perspective from one to the opposite and it brought me several ‘aha’ moments as he threw a new light onto the building blocks of astrology.

 ‘Aries jumps on the stage and fights for a place. The show goes on with Leo holding the space: this is who I am. Sagittarius takes some distance and wonders: But who am I?’

‘Aries energy, Taurus substance, Gemini information.’

‘Air signs: Gemini comes first to create links with no strings attached. Libra binds. But she operates in Air. She binds from a distance, she casts spells, she enchants, she charms.’

 ‘Taurus is gain: Scorpio is loss.  Holding on or letting go. Demons and angels fight for the throne. Scorpio is the other side of Taurus.’

    ‘Pisces: Where there is a saviour, there are victims; where there is a healer there are sick people. Where there is a redeemer there is a fallen angel. Demons are spiritual beings too.’

‘Aquarius in the Capricorn of the future.’ Revolutionaries get their way and then create new structures.

Houses: In the first house we simply are. In the second we become flesh. In the third house we start asking questions.

 11^th house  – hopes and wishes – ‘the most complex kinds of hopes and wishes are called Ideologies. They involve the vision of a bright future for a humanity freed of its chains.’  

The sixth house serves you. It is your inner slave. Your inner servant.

Planets: ‘With Neptune we want to go to heaven. Pluto is Neptune’s shadow in the world of below. Pluto is the naked and unbearable truth: we are not in heaven. We are fallen angels. We have demons within.’

‘Jupiter is a Miracle Grow energy (plant food). Saturn is a crystallizing energy. Uranus is shake and change.’

  Started as a blog it comes in bite size pieces and will give a beginner struggling to understand the basics a grasp of the difference between Fire and Water, between Cardinal and Mutable and the other zodiacal ingredients. For hoary old veterans, it brings a jolt of awareness – I never thought of Venus Libra as ‘glue’ but it make sense of its binding quality (at a distance.) As does Capricorn emerging from water with its fishy tail and evolving onto land.  Aquarius/Air ideologues being hopeful travellers. Taurus, the throat, I eat I sing.

   The author Jean-Marc Pierson, a devotee of Howard Sasportas and Liz Greene as well as Stephen Arroyo, studied psychology at university, has worked on farms and in gardens, as an actor and storyteller. He was born 4 November 1961 at 9.30pm, Laxou, France. He uses Placidus house system which is what I have used here.

  It puts his Sun Neptune conjunction in Scorpio as well as Mars in Scorpio in his entertaining and performing 5^th house. And Uranus Pluto, widely conjunct in Virgo in his 3^rd house. His image-making Neptune draws him to magic and mystery, using language to tantalise, paint pictures, weave patterns. Uranus Pluto in the communication 3^rd house was guaranteed to produce a quirky approach.

  His ‘leadership’ Leo North Node does suggest he will go places.

https://www.wessexastrologer.com/

‘A cup of tea changes bitter to better’ must be a slogan Sarah, Duchess of York, is clinging to fervently as she launches her ‘Tea Talks’ podcast relating her ‘hilarious misadventures’ and sets the record straight.  No doubt she hopes it will drown out the bad news over the unexplained £500k loans made to her by her failed media investment firm, Gate Ventures. She is among a group of directors being pursued by liquidators with a £19 million lawsuit in the offing.

  Plus, of course, Prince Andrew’s will he/won’t he exit his palatial 39 bedroom abode and downsize to a five bedroom shoebox with no separate wing for the Duchess. Plus plus  more Epstein and Sarah/Andrew breadcrumbs emerging.

  Trying times.

  Born 15 October 1959 9.03am (from memory) London, she is an impulsive Sun Mars in Libra sextile Uranus with an impetuous Aries Moon in her exuberant 5^th house which also rules children from whom she seeks nurturing. Her Moon is on the focal point of a yod to Pluto sextile Neptune which will make her emotionally disorganized, affected by her childhood malfunctions more than most (her mother left the parental marriage when she was in her teens.) 

  She has Venus Pluto in Virgo on her Midheaven which gives her a certain persuasive charm but also makes her controlling, overly indulgent, manipulative. Her Venus Pluto are trine Saturn and sextile an evasive, delusional 12^th house Neptune Mercury in Scorpio. Her Pluto Venus are also square a 1^st house Jupiter giving her an over confident streak that prompts her to act as if rules don’t apply to her.

  For all her devil-may-care jollity she’s not in an upbeat time

    Not only is transiting Saturn opposition her Pluto this year and her Midheaven, so is her Solar Arc Saturn in opposition to Pluto – road blocked all round. With tr Saturn also square her Jupiter this year which will put a damper on her self-confidence and her finances.

  Next year tr Saturn moving into her 4^th does indicate a house move – as does Prince Andrew’s tr Uranus opposition his Scorpio Moon (see post 2nd March 2023). She’ll get a shock of significant proportions late 2024 when her Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct her Mars; and another considerable setback in 2025 with SA Mars conjunct her 2^nd house financial Saturn at the same time as tr Neptune and Saturn in Aries are square her Saturn – which will bring a money meltdown of some proportions. Though 2025 also sees Jupiter moving through her 8^th for a year so there may be generosity coming her way in cash and in kind.

Her relations with the senior Royals are not great to start with – chilly with William, an underlying hostility with Charles and more so with Camilla. There looks to be some sort of ructions this August onwards and more upheavals in 2024.  So any hopes of being welcomed back into the royal embrace look questionable.

  Her ill-defined relationship with Prince Andrew will be undermined this year with a confused tr Neptune square the composite Sun with more enthusiasm-dampeners in 2024. Not a terminal split but not contented either.

Great men are rarely well balanced and thoughtful human beings and George Orwell, whose chilling insights into truth twisting and totalitarian thinking are still mainstream eighty years after his death, is no exception.

  A new biography of him lays bare the fault line between his writing supremacy and his abject failings as a husband. He was born in India on 25 June 1903, maybe 2.30pm, Moithari, with his father in the civil service, sent back to a typically sadistic English boarding school and then Eton. After a brief sojourn back in India in the police, he decided to become a writer and returned to England penniless. He worked in a bookshop and in Paris as a washer-upper where he contracted tuberculosis.

 Despite his awkwardness in female company he married Oxford educated Eileen O’Shaughnessy who co-wrote  Animal Farm with him. Orwell was addicted to a spartan lifestyle and Eileen often had to do all the household tasks as well as caring for the goat and chickens, part of his plan for subsistence living, in a house with no mains gas, a single cold tap and a leaking corrugated iron roof. She typed for Orwell and his friends. It was an open marriage as he resorted to prostitutes, and she too may have had a lover. When the Spanish Civil War broke out he pawned the family silver to pay for his passage to Spain and she later joined him.

  When Eileen became ill and died on the operating table in 1945 Orwell was absent, having accepted a newspaper offer to report on bomb-damaged German towns. After that with his own health deteriorating he moved with his adopted son to a Scottish island, and died three months after remarrying in 1950.

  A bleak man.

  He had a Cancer Sun conjunct Neptune and Moon – creative, but not well designed for commitment. He had a revolutionary Uranus opposition Pluto square Jupiter in Pisces – which would give his tendency to rock the boat a mellow edge with lucky outcomes. His Air Grand Trine made him a thinker and a communicator but emotionally cool and detached especially since it linked Mars to Saturn in Aquarius to Mercury in Gemini with Saturn opposition Venus. Ice water in his veins is one way to look at him – or, more sympathetically, damaged psychologically so empathy was difficult for him.   If the birth time is accurate it gives an influential 8^th house Pluto, an entertaining 5^th house Jupiter, a chilly domestic Saturn in the 4^th and a living-abroad 9^th house Moon with Sun Neptune also on the  cusp of the 9^th house of publishing and writing. So it is feasible.

  His poor downtrodden wife, Eileen Blair, 25 September 1905, had a Sun Libra conjunct his Mars and square his Neptune Sun which made for an argumentative and delusional/illusory match. Like him she had a Venus in Leo opposition Saturn so was used to doing with less affection and was also used to being pushed around. She had a Mars opposition Pluto, which sat on top of his Uranus opposition Pluto – and that is an explosive and damaging combination.

  Their relationship chart also hints at a masochistic streak since the composite Sun and Venus oppose Saturn and square Mars – cold and downtrodden, demanding a sacrificial partner. There was also a composite Uranus opposition Pluto square North Node – together they made a mark on a time of turmoil and radical change.

  What a destructive relationship.  

  His breakthrough-genius 13H is strong and bleak. His leaving-a-legacy 17H is also marked as is his writer’s 21H and his global presence 22H.

Boris Johnson is resisting suggestions – demands – that his office hand over unredacted What’s App and other diaries and notebooks to the Covid inquiry. The deadline has been extended until Thursday. The inquiry says failing to release the unredacted material would be a criminal offence and the  crossbench peer Baroness Hallett, chair of the inquiry, said it was her role, not that of the government, to decide what was relevant.

  Former head of the civil service Lord Kerslake said in a radio interview that the documents should be released. He said: “There’s some cover-up going on here to save embarrassment of ministers, but there’s also the Cabinet Office fighting for a principle of confidentiality. I have to say I think they’re misguided on this situation.”

  Campaign groups representing bereaved families have said it is “outrageous” that the Cabinet Office thinks it can dictate what material can be released.

  BJ, 19 June 1964 2pm New York, is labouring under the emotionally intense tr Pluto square his Scorpio Moon at the moment (though the rapidly approaching birth of his 8th? child may also be involved with that) – certainly wound up until mid June and again through 2024.  At the same time he has tr Pluto opposition his Mercury/Pluto midpoint which will lead to mental strain and bitter outbursts.

  He’s also got the discouraging transiting Saturn in Pisces wending its way round his whirlwind/typhoon Mutable T Square – exactly opposition his Uranus now for high tension and along with a panicky downer as it opposes his Sun/Neptune midpoint.  That gives way from tomorrow as tr Saturn then squares his Sun/Jupiter midpoint until early July – Ebertin describes this as bringing a negative state of mind, incapability and incompetence,  loss of good fortune or loss of employment, lack of success. It isn’t hugely strong and Ebertin tends to be overly dramatic in his interpretations but it will undoubtedly damp his normal exuberance. These Saturnine discouragers including his second Saturn Return repeat on and off till February 2024. With a blocked tr Saturn opposition his Pluto in 2024.

   He does have tr Jupiter moving into his 8^th house from this July onwards for a year which will bring money in so his speaking engagements and/or publishing contracts won’t diminish.

  Baroness Heather Hallett, 16 December 1949, a retired judge elevated to the Lords by Theresa May is chairing the inquiry. She is a Sun Sagittarius trine Pluto with her Sun also square a disciplined Mars Saturn in Virgo plus a Scorpio Moon. Her Saturn and Mars square BJ’s Mercury, Sun, Venus in Gemini so she’s a fairly implacable opponent.  Her Pluto is also square his head-in-the-clouds, evasive Jupiter opposition Neptune – so she may be just the person to pin him down. Though she’s not having an overly successful year herself with tr Neptune opposition her Mars and square her Sun.

  What is intriguing is that her relationship chart with BJ shows a long hangover of hostility and frustration with tr Neptune undermining the composite Sun opposition Jupiter into early 2024; even worse tr Pluto is in a bitterly aggravated square to the composite Mars through till late 2024. High tensions will spill over in 2024/25 with tr Pluto square the composite Neptune; and there’ll be a considerable upheaval/disruption in their connections in 2025/26. 

  What is odd about relationship charts is that they keep functioning even though the two individuals may have parted company and never meet again. But there is maybe a thought that he will not be  happy about damage the inquiry does to his future chances.

The winds of change in the Middle East appear to have brought together a troubling alliance of Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. ‘This axis of antagonists has rarely cooperated so directly in the past’ and is raising fears in Israel of an outbreak of war in the region. One political commentator said that Tehran was boosting its presence in Syria and Lebanon with these links in order to create an “effective deterrence belt” around Israel. “The presence in Syria and Lebanon is to a large extent a defensive posture, deterring not only the Israelis but by extension the Americans from taking military action against Iran.”

  Benjamin Netanyahu’s chaotic right-wing coalition has inflamed Muslim/Palestinian feeling within its borders and is struggling to maintain its authority in Israel.

  The Israel country chart is a good deal more troubled ahead than that of Iran – see previous posts 27 March 2023 and 30 December 2022. Neither Iran chart, 7 October 1906 and 1 February 1979, is flagging up anything too stressed ahead.  Though the Iran/Israel relationship chart hints at aggravation this year and turbulence in 2024/25. A similar timeline is indicated in the USA/Iran relationship charts with uncertainty and concern this year, escalating in 2024/2025.  

  Iran and Afghanistan do look to be locked in combat in 2025/26.

  The Solar Eclipse of October 2024 in Libra is pointed up in several charts as significant. By that time tr Uranus in late Taurus is trine Pluto giving rise to movements pressing for change to the old order. By 2025 Israel has tr Uranus square its Mars which could be potentially violent.

 2024/2025 will bring a few sobering moments between the USA and Israel with the old rock-solid affinity being less robust than before.  Although on Joe Biden’s astrocartography  Teheran does put Mars exactly on his Descendant so it is one of his diplomatic and warzone hot spots.

Is the Conservative Party about to tear itself apart? Rishi Sunak held hostage by the far-right has no real authority over his Cabinet, caving in to pressure over the disastrous Suella Braverman, facing witch-hunt/ stitch-up yowls over the continuing Covid-party investigation of Boris Johnson. The electorate is distancing itself from the Brexit vote and is alarmed at the government’s inability to get a grip of soaring immigration figures, the economy or indeed other malfunctions of various of public utilities.

  Braverman, 3 April 1980, was the Home Secretary firstly under Liz Truss, then Sunak and formerly chair of the European Research Group. In 2018 she resigned in protest against May’s draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. She resigned as Truss’s home secretary following criticism for breaching the Ministerial Code by sending a sensitive official document to a political ally using her personal email address. Six days later, she was reinstated as home secretary by Rishi Sunak and is facing a firestorm over her remarks about immigrants and trying to avoid public scrutiny of a speeding fine.

  She was born nearly six weeks before Rishi Sunak. Her Aries Sun is in a controlling opposition to Pluto; and she has a flamboyant and bombastic Mars in Leo conjunct North Node on the focal point of a Fixed T Square to Uranus opposition Venus in Taurus – beyond-stubborn and emotionally volatile. Her Mercury in Pisces opposes Saturn in Virgo square Neptune – scattered, nervy, slippery.

 She appears to be at odds with the chancellor Jeremy Hunt. A source is quoted as saying. “There is no love lost there at all. Jeremy is very clear that he is not going to sacrifice economic growth to help her appeal to the Tory right.”

  The party is facing a plethora of ‘apparently irreconcilable political imperatives’ on a number of issues and it is difficult to see where the solution lies.

  The Conservative Party chart, whether 12 November 1867 or 9 May 1912 – has Sun and Saturn conjunct in Scorpio and Taurus respectively and both in the line of fire of tr Uranus hard aspects exactly now, building up pressure through the middle of this year and running through into 2024. So a time of high tension, eruptions and a tug of war between the future (Uranus) and the past (Saturn) – the stalemate won’t be resolved quickly.

  The turnaround on the 1912 chart comes in 2025/26 with tr Pluto conjunct the Uranus for a dramatic shift. Rishi Sun has his Taurus Sun around a similar degree as the Party so will be having the same roller coaster ride through this year and next. He is not a quitter but he may come close as he slithers, slide and sinks through a series of swamps and quick sands this year into 2024.