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Incarcerated for over half a century, cult-leader Charles Manson’s protégé and co-perpetrator Leslie van Houten has been released on parole. While in prison since the murder she committed aged 19, she has finished a master’s degree in humanities and participating in a range of mental health and self-help programs.

 Two things intrigue me – what kind of chart indicates an entire adult life behind bars and what was Chiron’s input?

  She was born 23 August 1949 5.51am Los Angeles, with her Virgo Sun and Saturn sitting on her Ascendant square Chiron exactly on her IC with Moon Pluto in her 12^th.

 Chiron on the IC points to the wound being in the family leading to feelings of rootlessness and insecurity with a need to people-please to be accepted – a classic cult mark. Squaring her Saturn and the Sun would only add to her sense of worthlessness leading to self-destructive behaviour and an intolerance of vulnerability or weakness. One description of Saturn square Chiron is ‘locked in a self-imposed box. Carrying depression as a wound. Carrying loneliness as a wound.’

 Talk about attracting what you most fear.

  Manson, 12 November 1934 4.40pm Cincinnati, OH, had his Chiron at 8 degrees Gemini, exactly square her Saturn – so he tapped deep into her issues.

  [For previous Charles Manson post see 20 November 2017; for previous Van Houten 1 December 2020.]

  The other self-destructive partnership still in headline-grabbing gear is the endless saga of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s ill-fated match.

  As with all matters astrological there are always several factors involved. In their case Pluto – with the relationship chart having a composite Sun opposition Pluto which makes for a possessive and controlling match which eventually splits with a long-drawn out hostile, bitter battle. His Pluto squares her Sun natally and her Pluto squares his Mars – all set for an endless bout of toxicity. Plutonic relationships are about transformation – they arrive for a reason in each individual’s life to precipitate a change. Once the lesson has been learnt and the transition to a deeper self-understanding accomplished there is no longer a need for the Pluto tie and they can split. The Jolie-Pitts have clearly not quite got there yet. See previous post 17 August 2022.

 Chiron of the unhealable wound is described as an animal cowering in a cave lashing out in pain. Pitt’s Chiron is conjunct Jolie’s Black Moon (no idea what that means but doesn’t sound healthy) and square her Neptune and Sun. Her Chiron squares his Venus Moon in Capricorn.

  It is a karmic bond with his wound being attracted to her darkness (which she has in spades from a traumatic mother and childhood with a Moon Mars opposition Pluto.) His Moon Venus conjunction and Jupiter in his 4^th suggests a supportive childhood which may have exacerbated her own sense of unworthiness from the mess in which she grew up.  Chiron square Venus in synastry can also bring up accusations that the Venus half is profligate with money – which is partly what this recent bout of accusations vis a vis their once jointly owned Provence winery is about.

   Will it ever end? The 2024/25 Solar Eclipses will be shaking up her Mars Moon in Aries opposition Pluto which might lay a few rays of daylight in. But with tr Pluto moving through her 7th for another decade and a half she’s unlikely to find relationships mellow -quite the reverse.  Their relationship chart will grind on under immense strain for another three or four years yet.    

ADD ON: Looking at other incarcerated Manson followers Chiron does loom large.

Patricia Kernwinkel has Chiron sitting on her Ascendant and conjunct Charles Manson’s Scorpio Sun Venus.

Susan Atkins has Chiron conjunct her Midheaven and conjunct Manson’s Sun Venus.

Robert Beausoleil has his Chiron conjunct his Sun widely conjunct his Ascendant and conjunct Manson’s Sun.

 Charles Watson has his Chiron conjunct his IC and Manson’s Chiron is square his Sun.

All birth data on ADB. Manson fed into all those deep wounds and created havoc.

Mark Rutte has ended a 13 year run in the Netherlands as prime minister, bowing out after a row over immigration collapsed the coalition government. He said he will stay on as a caretaker prime minister until the general election in November. Known as “Teflon Mark,” for his ability to survive a series of political crises, he is described as a manager not a visionary –  pragmatic, flexible and boring. His popularity has sagged in recent times, with his exit over migration seen by some as a strategic ploy to allow his own party to win the next election.

 He started his run on 14 October 2010 on a lucky Jupiter Uranus in Pisces but all indications from that chart are that he should have bowed out at last time round in early 2022. Then there was a Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the Sun and Solar Arc Uranus opposition the Saturn hinting at the end of the road.

  His personal chart, 14 February 1967 6.53 pm The Hague is a mix of jolting change and great relief pending from new opportunities on the horizon. Tr Neptune is conjunct his 7^th house Saturn in Pisces at the moment exactly, pointing to disappointments in partnerships; with a tense, jolting Solar Arc opposition his Neptune, moving to square his Aquarius Sun in 2024 – at the same time as tr Uranus rattles up his Sun square Neptune (and SA Saturn).Tr Pluto is square his Mars at zero degrees Scorpio which is paralysed and frustrating in 2023/24 and he has a major setback from Solar Arc Mars square his Saturn in late 2024.

  However he also has his Solar Arc Midheaven conjunct his Jupiter for success and his Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct his Uranus bringing a lucky break with relief also in 2024. Plus tr Saturn moving above the descendant on his chart which is usually a career marker upwards. With tr Jupiter moving across his 10^th house mid 2024 to mid 2025 which usually brings promotion or recognition in some way. He’ll no doubt be handed a helpful gig to ease the pain.

  He was a so-so fit with the Netherlands, 26 July 1581 JC, with his Aquarius Sun conjunct the Netherlands Saturn and his Neptune square the Neth’s Saturn – dull with ripples of distrust.  But his Jupiter did conjunct the Neth South Node so he would provide a sense of faux comfort even if he did not produce any progressive policies.

Boris and Carrie Johnson Mark Three arrived last week, born 5 July at 9.15am in London, named Frank Alfred Odysseus. A glowing Carrie instagrammed that it was Boris who selected the name of the Greek king and hero of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. who was known for his intellectual brilliance, cunning and versatility.

  This one looks to be the biggest handful of the three. He has a friendly 11^th house Cancer Sun trine a 7^th house Saturn – so far so sensible. But he also has a maverick Uranus conjunct his Midheaven in a volatile square to a rumbustious and passionate Venus Mars in Leo. With Mars on the focal point of a yod to Pluto sextile Neptune. Super-ambitious and self-willed with problems moderating his assertiveness and aggressiveness. Anger will be an issue as it is with his father whose Mars is on the point of an explosive T Square. Venus Mars as remarked before has a reputation for what used to be described as promiscuity (sexual/romantic incontinence). With a doleful Saturn in Pisces in the 7^th he will marry later than some and find it a burden, with his 8^th house Neptune tending to back away from commitment.

  His mischievous Aquarius Moon, which will make him delight in shocking those close with provocative comments, is square to Jupiter suggesting a mother who spoils him, at least superficially.

  Romy, born 9 December 2021 9.02am London, has not been burdened with a mythological forebear. She has a creative and hidden 12^th house Sagittarius Sun Mercury square a vague Neptune in the 3^rd house of siblings. She has a persuasive, seductive, passionate Venus Pluto in Capricorn and a 4^th house Uranus, hinting at frequent home moves and an unsettled domestic life. Her Aquarius Moon is conjunct Jupiter in her 2^nd house so she’ll be keen on finding financial security. She does have a strong-minded Mars in Scorpio in her 11^th so she’ll be no slouch when it comes to standing up for herself. But will be nothing like as unruly as her latest brother.

 Wilfred Johnson, 29 April 2020 9am, has a rebellious, unconventional Sun Uranus conjunction in his 11^th so will have maverick friends and forge a unique path in life. He has a caring, creative Neptune in his 10^th which will soften the rougher edges of his opinionated and stubborn Mars in Aquarius in his communicative 9^th house. His pushily-confident Jupiter Pluto conjunction opposes his Moon, so he’s likely to attract himself to challenging partners. Though with Saturn in his 8^th he may find closeness not a familiar experience.

  All three have rip-roaring Mars in Fixed signs so the family squabbles will be noisy and all three have prominent Moon Jupiter aspects suggesting a drama-queen mother of whom they think well.

Pic Instagram

  Curiouser and curiouser, the impenetrable ongoings within and without the Kremlin are mystifying analysts. Prigozhin having knocked out a few Russian planes on his aborted march to Moscow, was allowed to leave with only sharp words as his punishment, then evidently returned five days later. Turkey’s Erdogan is backing off previous support for Putin by releasing Ukrainian prisoners and is now supporting Sweden’s entry into NATO.

 Pinpointing an exact date for a leader’s exit is never easy. But there are some similarities in the timings amongst various toppled heads of state. Putin’s 4^th Term chart, 7 May 2018 11.05am Moscow, has the Solar Arc Pluto exactly conjunct the Mars for a moment of paralysis and high risk; as well as tr Pluto square the Uranus exactly now as well which is the ultimate destabilizer – it picked up early this year and returns on and off through 2024 as well.

 Assuming Putin’s First Presidency chart, 7 May 2000, marks the moment he took up the reins and the start of his Russia overlordship, it is also mightily logjammed exactly now with the Solar Arc Saturn opposition the Pluto. As well as tr Uranus square the Uranus and conjunct the Saturn, over recent weeks and repeating into early 2024.

  When Margaret Thatcher was unceremoniously ousted on 22 November 1990 from her reign which started 4 May 1979, tr Pluto was conjunct her first PMship chart Uranus (exact aspect one month later). Her start chart also had an accident-prone setback from tr Saturn square Mars; and an unhappy/unpopular tr Neptune square Venus.

  Richard Nixon’s presidency chart from 20 January 1969, was similarly afflicted by tr Pluto conjunct the Uranus was he resigned on 9 August 1974. Tr Uranus was also opposition the Solar Arc Saturn; Solar Arc Neptune was square the Moon and tr Neptune was also square the Moon = total disruption, high tension and mourning.

  Spanish General Franco’s death on 20 November 1975 brought to an end four decades in control since 1 October 1936. Ill health caused him to deteriorate in the final years and when he finally left the stage he had a combination of fairly similar influences (as above) to his In-charge chart – tr Pluto conjunct the Solar Arc Mars and conjunct Sun; Solar Arc Uranus square Saturn and Neptune; Solar Arc Saturn Neptune square Pluto; and tr Uranus opposition Uranus.

  When Tsar Nicholas was summarily toppled in the Bolshevik revolution on 15 March 1917, tr Uranus was square the Solar Arc Saturn of his reign chart and tr Saturn square the Mars.

  King Charles 1, beheaded after the English Civil War, 30 January 1649 JC, had tr Saturn conjunct the Solar Arc Pluto of his Reign chart, 27 March 1625 JC and a devastating Solar Arc Neptune opposition Pluto when he departed.

  That meltdown devastation repeated for Saddam Hussein at his downfall, 9 April 2003, when tr Pluto was conjunct the Neptune and tr Neptune square the Solar Arc Pluto on his initial presidency chart, 16 July 1979.

  Putin does not have Neptune Pluto but he certainly has Pluto Uranus and Pluto Mars as well as Saturn Pluto. Nothing is ever certain and Kim Jong Un survived a Pluto Uranus on his leadership chart early on though it left him wounded thereafter.  But Putin does seem to be running out of road imminently.

Sex and the BBC has a decidedly sleazy feel with yet another alleged entanglement between a presenter and a teen over torrid online encounters and shedloads of money for porno pics which supposedly fuelled the boy’s cocaine addiction. Nothing is established in hard fact as yet and the BBC’s excuse for leaving it to stew for seven weeks until The Sun (tabloid paper) spilled the beans was they could not get any contact with the boy, only his mother. That may not hold up when the whole imbroglio unravels but it feels like a familiar BBC playbook – when accused, stall, stonewall, refuse to engage until forced at gunpoint. A stupendously top heavy and stratospherically expensive management is almost impossible to manoeuvre into decisive action.

  The BBC chart, 14 November 1922 6pm London, is Scorpio so ultra-determined and not inclined to give in without a fight even when blatantly wrong. Jupiter Mercury also in Scorpio beside Sun the 5^th adds a Leonine feel plus the Sun is in an evasive square to Neptune. Mercury Jupiter also square Mars in Aquarius which last in my experience is self-righteously aggressive and unwilling to admit being wrong. There is also a Water Grand Trine of a 10^th house Uranus trine Pluto trine Mercury – which has a tendency to create its own bubble of reality, thereby cutting out signals from the outside world.

  Now that is all negative – and much of the above has a positive, creative and entertaining side as well. But the BBC has always been a law unto itself and gets offended at being criticized which stems in part from arrogance and entitlement.

 Over the past year they have lurched from chairman Richard Sharp going over conflicts of financial interest involving Boris Johnson, Philip Scofield and some dreary DJ whose come-down over allegations of sexual misconduct followed the same BBC scenario of obfuscate, deny, until forced to come clear.

  Tr Uranus square the BBC Neptune at 18 degrees Leo earlier this year would not help and now tr Uranus is opposing the Scorpio Sun for another serious jolt, having just moved from the square to the Midheaven – both of these last two repeat into early 2024. It will continue to rock on its axis.

 Tim Davie’s Director General Term, 1 September 2020, was always going to be a series of catastrophic crises, some of them carnal – most apposite. There was a Saturn Pluto in Capricorn opposition Venus square Mars in late Aries as he started. The Solar Arc Pluto is now conjunct the Saturn (which is more or less what saw Boris out of No 10). The Solar Arc Venus is square the Mars also now for a sexual scandal with overtones of insensitivity in the handling thereof which fits Venus square Mars.  Tr Pluto makes a paralysed, trapped square to the Mars till late this year – and if he survives, 2025 looks terminal for his BBC career with Solar Arc Pluto square Mars – though he may not make it that far.

 Born 25 April 1967, he is a Sun Taurus conjunct North Node with Moon Neptune in Scorpio so reasonably good at toughing it out. But he has some poleaxing midpoint transits all this year which will make even him wilt.

 His relationship chart with the BBC is fairly tied together with a controlling composite Sun opposition Pluto but also an explosive, volatile Mars Uranus. It looks heavy on the discussion front this year but not necessarily parting company.

Cillian Murphy of Peaky Blinders renown is portraying another morally ambiguous character in Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster out this month about the ‘father of the atomic bomb.’

  The real question for Murphy plumbing the soul of theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer was what combination – ambition, madness, delusion and/or deep hatred of the Nazis allowed him to agree to an experiment which could obliterate humankind. “He was dancing between the raindrops morally. He was complex, contradictory  – but ultimately unknowable.”

 Early reports indicate it is a powerfully affecting film.

   Oppenheimer, 22 October 1904 8.15am? New York, did have worrisome aspects to his character with an incident in his student days at Cambridge when he left a poisoned apple on the desk of a tutor he was jealous of who had made him feel inadequate. His parents pulled him out of a charge of attempted murder by placing him under psychiatric care where he was diagnosed as perhaps schizophrenic.

  His affair with Communist sympathizer American psychiatrist Jean Tatlock is highlighted in the film, though they had split before he took over the Manhattan Project in 1942. She suicided from depression in 1944.

 Apologies for not noticing the time was marked DD (dirty data) by ADB. There are a variety of suggested times and the one which makes most sense is around 8pm, which was Ebertin’s pick (see above). This puts Opp’s Taurus Sun and Mars in his 6^th square Saturn in scientific Aquarius in his 3^rd – undoubtedly intelligent, hard-working and chillingly unsentimental. His Pluto and Neptune on this time would be in his 8^th – as was the case with Churchill and Hitler. Hidden powers of great magnitude for good or ill.  Opp’s Pluto was also in an experimental, innovative, pushing-back-the-boundaries opposition to Uranus squaring onto a Virgo North Node.  His 9^th house Moon opposed Chiron exactly. His Uranus and Sun were both trine a last degree Leo Midheaven.   

 His comments at the time of the first test in mid July 1945 from the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad-Gita – “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”.  “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendour of the mighty one” – give a hint of his spiritual struggle to reconcile his hubris with the devastation it brought.

Cillian Murphy, 25 May 1976 Cork, Ireland, has Jupiter, South Node, Mercury, Venus in Taurus so he would have some resonances with Oppenheimer; but Murphy’s critical Saturn Mars and Uranus clashing with Oppenheimer’s Moon points to equally strong reservations about him.  Murphy’s South Node conjunct Opp’s Mars is intriguing – suggesting it pulls the actor back into his primitive urges, good for the role but not so much for his peace of mind.

  Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote and produced the movie, has his Pluto conjunct Opp’s North Node.

  Oppenheimer’s doomed liaison with Jean Tatlock, 21 February 1914, was a tortured affair, On the upside her Sun Venus in Pisces fell on his IC on the cusp of his 4^th which would give an illusion of comfort. But her Mars was conjunct his 8^th house Neptune and her Pluto sat in his 8^th as well opposition his Uranus.

  His wife Kitty Oppenheimer, 8 August 1910, a Sun Leo square Saturn in Taurus with a highly strung Uranus opposition Neptune had her Saturn conjunct his Sun and Mars which was not auspicious – an aggravated chemistry. Her Mars on his midheaven would add a competitive element to their connection. After the war she became alcoholic and after his death in 1967 took up with a partner whose wife had just suicided and she died five years later.

  Blighted lives.

Looking for a ‘nuclear’ signature: – at the Hiroshima bomb in 1945 Pluto was sitting exactly on the Uranus/Neptune midpoint. Neptune Pluto is the key aspect I’d expect to see around nuclear incidents or Neptunian variations thereof. Chernobyl had Uranus conjunct the Saturn/Neptune midpoint exactly with a disastrous-accident Saturn conjunct the Mars/Pluto and square the Sun/Mars midpoints; and Sun opposition Pluto trine Neptune.

  At the moment for those worrying about Putin’s itchy finger on the button – we have moved through and survived without incident tr Pluto hitting the Uranus/Neptune midpoint in 2021/22. Though there is still tr Neptune conjunct Uranus/Pluto running this year till early 2024; and tr Uranus square the Neptune/Pluto midpoint in 2025. But all of these aspects have occurred once in a while in the past without a nuclear incident. 

 

Bruce Springsteen is yet another ageing rocker putting the youngsters to shame with a three hour tour-de-force in front of 65,000 fans in Hyde Park  starting with ‘No Surrender’. Rumoured to be his last tour he has another London outing tonight. A reviewer said: “he played with fire in his belly, a twinkle in his eye, and the energy of a man half his age.”

  He was born 23 September 1949 10.50pm Freehold, New Jersey and now in his eighth decade he has produced 21 albums over a career spanning sixty years.

  His Libra Sun sits in his 4^th house of home and family as does his Saturn in Virgo. In his childhood his father had mental problems and his mother was the breadwinner. His Sun is square a rebellious and unconventional 1^st house Uranus which did not make his school years easy.  He has a full performing/entertaining 5^th house  with musical Neptune, Mercury and Moon in Libra and Venus in Scorpio there. Plus a lucky financial Jupiter in his 8^th – and perhaps most important of all to tie up his power-packed life a do-or-die- determined Mars Pluto in Leo in his 3^rd house.

  He married singer Patti Scialfi, 29 July 1953 Deal, New Jersey, after his first marriage failed and they have three children together, spending their time between a New Jersey horse ranch and homes in Florida and Los Angeles.

  She is a Sun Leo which sits close to his Mars with her light-hearted Jupiter Venus in Gemini sitting on his Ascendant and her Pisces Moon in his 10^th. Their relationship chart has an affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction.

  He has a powerfully successful get-it-together 5^th harmonic, a musical 7H; and leaving-a-legacy 17H and superstar 22H.

  From unlikely beginnings he made it to the top and stays there. His chart does not indicate a halt to his career and with Jagger still going strong at 80 and Elton John at 76 he may keep going, though 2025 may be lacklustre with his Solar Arc Neptune square his Sun.

Jim Caviezel, a talented actor with strong religious convictions which include advocating QAnon conspiracy theories, is an unexpected success with his latest movie about child sex traffickers, outselling Indiana Jones at the box office. “Sound of Freedom” is an action thriller based on the real-life exploits of a crusading former Homeland Security agent. The film was completed in 2018 and rejected by major studios, including Disney but was saved by Angel Studios, based in Utah, the most religious state in America, and partially crowd funded.

  The producers deny any connection with QAnon’s  false belief that a highly organized network of global elites are kidnapping children, having sex with them and harvesting their blood. But critics accuse the movie of warping the truth about the reality of child exploitation.

  Caviezel, born 26 September 1968 11.14am Mount Vernon, Washington, is interesting astrologically since he was born with a tricky Saturnine yod in place and in a year which produced many acting notables. Will Smith was born one day earlier, with Helen McCrory, Hugh Jackman, Gillian Anderson, Timothy Oliphant (Justified), Guy Ritchie, Marine Le Pen and Pauley Perrette (late of NCIS) all having that emphasized/afflicted Saturn in Aries inconjunct Neptune sextile Pluto.

 Caviezel has an 11^th house Libra Sun conjunct Uranus sextile a 1^st house Sagittarius Moon which is conjunct Neptune – his Sun inclines to unconventional ideas; his Moon is wreathed in fantasies and visions.  Saturn inconjunct Neptune can be prone to neurotic fixations though is also creative. His Mars in Virgo on his midheaven fuels his ambitions along with a powerfully confident Jupiter, Pluto, Uranus stellium in Virgo in his 10^th house of career.

 He’s had an oddly patchy career in terms of public prominence with notable highlights starting in a breakthrough role early on in 1998 in Terence Malick’s The Thin Red Line about Vietnam. Thence onto Mel Gibson’s controversial, blood-soaked The Passion of Christ in 2004 which he was warned might harm his career. The TV series Person of Interest on the perils and benefits of an Artificial Intelligence machine with a mind of its own had consistently high ratings (2011 – 2016). In it he played an ex-CIA assassin turned good guy while still indulging in copious violence with fists and guns. He evidently won’t do hot romance in movies because of his religious beliefs but has that odd American predilection which allows for righteous brutality but forbids sex.

  Another Mel Gibson tortured Christ movie may be in the making with him back in the lead though nothing has yet been seen of progress. Gibson’s successful/confident Jupiter Pluto is conjunct Caviezel’s Mars Midheaven so good for career ambitions. Except for the Saturnine element creeping in which will have a dampening effect.

  Strange beliefs never held Tom Cruise back but at least he doesn’t inject them into his movies.  

Women’s rights are a relatively recent phenomenon in historical terms even in the west. Full voting rights were established in many countries only in the early 20^th Century. The UK took several steps towards equality in voting starting in 1918 with a final completion in 1928. The USA adopted full suffrage for women in 1920, having seen a previous attempt in 1848 struck down by the Supreme Court.

  Saturn Neptune conjunctions have been present at several of the landmark women’s equality markers. The UK Married Women’s Property Act of August 1882 which allowed married women to own and control property in their own right occurred with Neptune and Saturn in Taurus.   The UK Representation of the People Act February 1918 on a Saturn Neptune in Leo – and this was when the push for full voting rights for women in the USA was underway.  

   Both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne to exert tremendous feminine influence over matters of state on Saturn–Neptune conjunctions — in 1558 in Taurus and in 1953 in Libra. Both Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years have Saturn–Neptune squares in their birth charts.   Benazir Bhutto became the first woman prime minister of Pakistan on the conjunction in Capricorn in 1988, though it proved a short-lived triumph. Around the same time, Margaret Thatcher, the first British woman prime minister, handed in her staff of power and resigned.

  Afghanistan has a chequered history towards women with the then king issuing legislation in 1919 to abolish slavery, guarantee secular education, and institute equal rights for men and women. In  1929 the king was overthrown and all voting rights were removed. It wasn’t until after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that people regained the right to vote in 2004.

The Taliban who arrived in 1996 are notorious for their misogyny and violence against women. Since their appearance on the scene, women have been forced to wear the burqa at all times in public, not allowed to work, or be educated after the age of eight. Not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperone, which led to illnesses remaining untreated. Under 16 years of age marriage encouraged.  80 per cent of Afghan marriages are forced.

 Recent hardening of anti-women decrees, banned them from university education, gyms, public baths, public parks, and amusement parks. The education ban was condemned by Islamic scholars inside Afghanistan, and by the Muslim World League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and by Muslim-majority countries including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. This year the Taliban began to restrict access to contraceptives. They stated that “family planning is a western agenda”.

  Taking the founder of Taliban, Mullah Omar’s investiture as First Taliban Emir on 27 September 1996, as a putative chart for the Taliban it gives Sun Libra conjunct North Node opposition Saturn (Moon) in Aries square Jupiter – with Pluto at zero degrees Sagittarius. It is undergoing massive force changes at the moment with tr Pluto conjunct the Uranus and the Solar Arc Sun opposition Saturn squaring the Uranus. The present ruler has issued a statement recently backtracking on recent restrictions on women but whether that is to be believed and a ploy to gain international recognition or not is questionable. Perhaps Pluto having moved on two signs might indicate a shift up and coming.

 The Afghanistan 19 August 1919 12 am country chart, is inherently unsettled and very fixed at the same time. There is a Leo Sun conjunct Saturn opposition Uranus square a Taurus Moon conjunct the South Node.  A focal point Taurus Moon on the South Node might suggest obsessive and regressive views of mother/women.  Uranus ‘should’ be tolerant but can in negative mode be lawless or law-unto-itself type of entity  – and opposition Saturn can also be authoritarian.  The Afghanistan chart is due for a fair amount of turmoil before tr Uranus exits Taurus as it will square the Sun in 2024 and conjunct the Moon and then in 2025 square the Uranus, before moving to square the Saturn – a three year patch of jolts, jangles and turbulence which may undermine the Taliban and assist the women (maybe).

  Afghanistan under the Taliban feels a touch like North Korea under Kim Jung Un – a surreal and dystopian nightmare.

  To wrap up Saturn Neptune:

  Saturn Neptune conjunctions were also around for key points of interest in works about or by women. Jane Austen’s first novel Sense and Sensibility emerged in 1811 under the conjunction in Sagittarius. Next conjunction around, in Aquarius and Pisces in 1847, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights met with public acclaim.

   In the previous century, on the conjunction in Virgo in 1773, Oliver Goldsmith’s play She Stoops to Conquer and Laclos’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses looked archly at women’s behaviour. In 1665 under Saturn–Neptune in Aquarius, Molière produced The Misanthrope and The Dumb Lady. In similar vein during the last conjunction in 1989 in Capricorn the sculptor Anish Kapoor picked up the mood of the moment with his Mother as Void work; and Pedro Almodovar, the Spanish film-maker, produced his cult movie Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown.