Queen Margrethe of Denmark is slimming down the Royal family by removing the royal titles from her second son’s children, though they will be deemed count and countess. Prince Joachim is up in arms and publicly criticising his mother, though her actions follow a similar pattern to Sweden which in 2019 dropped titles for the children of the heir’s two siblings.  In 2016 Queen Margrethe decided the heir to the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Frederik’s eldest and second in line to the throne, would be the only one of her adult grandchildren to receive an annual stipend from the taxpayer.

   When she was crowned in 1972 only 45 per cent of Danes supported the monarchy which has now risen to 77 per cent with only 15 per cent favouring a republic.

  Queen Margrethe was born 16 April 1940 10.10 am Copenhagen, and is an enthusiastic, career-oriented Sun Jupiter in Aries in the 10^th. She also has communicative Mercury in Pisces close to her Midheaven and both Saturn and Uranus in Taurus also in her 10^th – so a public life was inevitable. Her North Node falls in her 4^th, suggesting that establishing a fulfilling home and family life would be an area she had to work at.  She also has Pluto Moon in Leo below her late Cancer Ascendant in an unyielding square to Saturn which will anchor her impulsive Aries tendencies and her excitable Venus Mars in Gemini.

  At the moment her Solar Arc Pluto is exactly conjunct her 4^th house North Node, as a family realignment and squabble occurs. Tr Pluto is also crossing her Descendant into her 7^th so her relationships will become more intense in the time ahead, at times bitter. She looks directionless this year into 2023 with tr Neptune conjunct her Midheaven; with heavy pressures from tr Pluto opposition her Pluto, square her Saturn and opposition her Moon over coming years.

  She is now the longest European serving head of state and the world’s only queen in her own right. Her accession happened with her father’s death on 14 January 1972 7.50pm Copenhagen. That puts a rock-solid, dutiful and hard-working Saturn in Taurus in the 10^th trine a sociable 5^th house Capricorn Sun widely trine Pluto. There’s a more complicated hidden-anger Mars in the 8^th in a volatile opposition to Uranus and widely opposition Pluto, both in the 2^nd.   I’m not familiar enough with the Denmark royal family to know how this worked out in practice but it is a bubbling cauldron.

Tr Uranus is conjunct the Midheaven in 2023 so a change of direction was inevitable.

 Prince Joachim, the second son, 7 June 1969 4.30 am Copenhagen, is a Sun Gemini, like his elder brother and his father, with his 12^th house Sun square a public-career 10^th house Pisces Moon opposition Pluto. Not hugely dissimilar to the UK’s Prince Andrew with his Pisces Sun opposition Pluto. Joachim was overly controlled as a child and has become just as controlling in adult life. Joachim also has his 4^th house Pluto conjunct Jupiter, giving him a pushy confidence about his roots which won’t take kindly to a demotion. He also has an under-loved Saturn Venus in Taurus; and an argumentative Mercury opposition Mars.

  His relationship with his mother has a possessive, power-struggling Sun Venus square Pluto and a resentful, gritty Mars trine Saturn. It will rock n’ roll through 2023 with tr Uranus conjunct the composite Sun Venus and tensions will remain high.

Crown Prince Frederik, 26 May 1968 11.50pm Copenhagen, has carved his own path in the past, running marathons, working among the homeless in Boston and becoming a member of the Danish Navy’s elite Frogmen Corps (like the US Navy Seals.)

  He has a 4^th house New Moon in Gemini with an unsettled and rebellious Uranus Pluto in the 8^th which focuses via a sextile to Neptune onto a Yod focal point Saturn in Aries. He won’t have an easy furrow to plough in life and his Saturn conjunct his mother’s Sun Jupiter hints at a tricky relationship.

  His relationship chart with his brother like Charles and Andrew is competitive and argumentative with a composite Sun square Mars and Mercury square Pluto.

  Who’d be a Royal? Family dynamics are always more pressured than for most with sibling rivalries blown up to epic proportions. And the lifestyle for all its perks is punishingly restrictive.

Qatar heading for the controversial World Cup in November has been lambasted by the family of a UK businessman who allegedly committed suicide after being tortured in a secret detention centre. They released a statement saying: “Qatar is throwing millions at creating a veneer of respectability, which in reality hides a wholly unchanged, barbaric regime. The footballing world should take a long, hard look at where it places its trust”. Ironically Marc Bennett, the dead man, had been proud of his work in preparing for the World Cup through his Qatar Airways job.

  There have already been major concerns about the country’s human rights record especially in regard to migrant workers, living in poor conditions and working in stifling heat, building stadiums and hotels for the event. The Qataris have also been dogged by allegations of bribery and corruption in their bid to host the World Cup.

  More than 1.2 million international visitors are expected in the wealthy resource-rich Gulf State in November for the event.

 David Beckham has come under fire from former team mates for agreeing to a  £10million deal to become an ambassador for the country over the decade, which has resulted in him being the face of the 2022 World Cup. Eric Cantona suggested he isn’t  aware of ‘what has happened there’.

 Beckham, 2 May 1975 6.17 am London (biography) is an acquisitive Taurus with a publicity-attracting Mars square Neptune; and an unyielding and super-confident Jupiter opposition Pluto square Saturn. If his birth time is accurate tr Pluto is conjunct his Midheaven this year and moving into his 10th which can begin with a change, often damaging, to reputation, followed by several years wandering trying to find a direction.  He has a raft of unhelpful transits to midpoint in 2023/24 with plans dissolving under his feet.

 Relocating his chart to Qatar puts Jupiter in his 10^th and Mars conjunct his Midheaven so he no doubt though it would bring him glory but it also puts Pluto in his 4^th and Saturn in his 1^st which will damp down the flame of his enthusiasm, pour cold water on his image and make him feel trapped.

 The World Cup kicks off at 7pm on 20 November 22 with a showy, high-flying, super-optimistic Jupiter Neptune in the 10^th which can promise more than it delivers and is associated with scandals and gossip. It is trine the Sun and sextile an 8^th house Pluto as well as square a 12^th house Mars. With Mars trine an 8^th house Saturn trine Moon. The heavy hand of the state security apparatus will be kept firmly hidden with an 8^th and 12^th emphasis but will be there as an underpinning. The Saturn square Uranus will make for high-tension and sudden jolts.

  Qatar became independent on 1 September 1971 at 12am and has a 4^th house Sun Venus in Virgo as well as a domestically-controlling Pluto in the 4^th sextile Jupiter Neptune – echoing the World Cup chart. What makes for a harsher, ideological bent is an chilly Air Grand Trine of Mars in Aquarius trine Saturn trine Uranus.

 No doubt the World Cup will do what it was intended to do and leave the country richer or at least with a morale boost since tr Pluto is sextile the Jupiter in 2023.

  The Qataris own goodly chunks of London and are regrettably well in with King Charles who accepted bags of cash from the former PM for one of his charities.

  I never understand why people flock to Dubai and the like on holiday or for second homes; or take jobs there, no doubt hoping to earn a chunk. When it goes awry it can have exceptionally damaging consequences.

Anne Sacoolas appeared in a UK court by videolink from the US to face a charge of causing the death of 19 year old motorcyclist Harry Dunn by dangerous driving in a road crash outside the US military base in Northamptonshire in December 2019. She originally had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration and left the UK 19 days later. At this hearing she was granted unconditional bail and the case will next be heard at the Old Bailey on 27 October when she would be required to appear in person though that might change.

  She was born 28 August 1977 in South Carolina and is a Virgo Sun likely opposition a Pisces Moon and square Neptune in Sagittarius; her Mercury in Virgo is also square Neptune and she has an enthusiastic, go-getting Mars in late Gemini conjunct Jupiter in Cancer.

  When the accident occurred tr Neptune was opposition her Mercury so she would be distracted. What lies ahead does not look too cheerful for her with losses through till early this December; forced changes from March 2023 for two years from Pluto on her Saturn/Uranus midpoint; followed by a panicky tr Neptune square her Mars in 2023/24; as well as some catastrophic midpoints. And tr Saturn opposition her Sun as well as an emotionally pressured tr Pluto opposition her Venus; and then tr Neptune and Saturn square her Jupiter in 2025/26 to further dampen her confidence.

  She does have some good luck in 2023 and no doubt it will roll on through endless appeals if there is a conviction.

  Harry Dunn, 22 March 2000, was a Sun Aries trine Pluto, sextile Neptune; with a charming Venus square Pluto; and oddly enough like her an out-of-sign Mars Jupiter conjunction. And a leadership Leo North Node – he would have made something of his life.  

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

“Britain is staring down the barrel of a self-inflicted economic catastrophe.”

“We are now watching the real-time implosion of the governing party.”

  As commentators and economists across the globe look on  aghast and EU leaders permit themselves a sour smile of schadenfreude, UK voters stand frozen as yet another thunderbolt descends after Brexit, Ukraine, the Queen’s departure and this one wilfully wreaked.

  What were they thinking? A FU gesture from free-marketeer  Tories listening only to those they already agree with and arrogantly ignoring the requirement for the budget to be appraised by Office for Budget Responsibility.

 First things first. The Conservative Party 10 May 1912 chart has worked well through Brexit and is now right on the money with the Solar Arc Uranus now conjunct the Taurus Sun for a mighty disruption covering several months with a further battering from this November Lunar Eclipse in Taurus. Plus a discouraging tr Saturn square the Sun exactly now, returning late this November and followed in 2023 by tr Uranus conjunct the Tory Sun. A Westminster insider who described the budget farrago as ‘existential’ wasn’t wrong. See previous post September 24^th.  

  I’ve been puzzling over Liz Truss’s Term chart which in one way seemed solid enough with a business-like Earth Grand Trine though  too much emphasis on Earth can lead to a blinkered outlook and a lack of perspective.  There is also a focal point Saturn in Aquarius square Uranus North Node which is immensely unyielding, compulsively driven to hang onto a chosen path of action, unwilling to bend. Plus Saturn square Uranus is autocratic. And the Pluto sits on the Sun/Mars midpoint which is fanatical, unscrupulous, ruthless and destructive.

  Robert Shrimsley in today’s FT traced the rot back to what he describes as “Brexit absolutism”. “Kwarteng’s statement last week was just one manifestation of the elevation of ideology over economics. The desperate pursuit of unorthodox growth strategies was driven in part by the 4 per cent hit to productivity over 15 years that has been consistently ascribed to the Brexit deal.”

“Lost market access, continued confrontations with the EU, overhyped trade deals that add little to GDP, the sustained assault on British institutions and prime minister Liz Truss’s onslaught on economic orthodoxy. Investors have got the message. Britain is not the bet it once was.”

“The past week has made voters –  more than receptive to the argument that the Tories have mismanaged the economy. The botching of Brexit should be central to that critique. (Many will say it could only be botched, but some versions are clearly worse than others.)” 

  The Brexit referendum of 24 June 2016 was held under the cloud-cuckoo-land Jupiter opposition Neptune, made worse by squaring onto Saturn in self-righteous Sagittarius and Mercury in Gemini forming a Mutable Grand Cross. Plus a disruptive Pluto square Uranus and a resentful, uncompromising Uranus inconjunct Mars in Scorpio. A Mutable Grand Square tends to be scattered, inconsistent, indecisive and suggestible.

  The final Brexit deal pushed through by Boris Johnson exiting the UK from the single market on 31 December 2020 at 11 pm London time has an acutely frustrating Mars in the financial 8^th square a 4^th house Pluto so was never going to be easy financially or in domestic satisfaction – to understate it by a mile. Plus there was a T Square of Jupiter Saturn in Aquarius in the 5^th house, which rules speculation and the financial markets, opposition Moon and square an 8^th house Uranus – so pointing towards financial turbulence and instability. Uranus on the point of a Fixed T Square hints at a determined law-unto-himself approach which eventually after being battered by reality tends to break down.

 There’s nothing much to add from the UK chart that is not in the previous post – though that 2^nd house UK Neptune in Scorpio catching the last and final exact tr Uranus square tr Saturn in early this October is certainly living up to its economically unstable label.  Tr Uranus is already on the highly-strung, nervy opposition to the Neptune and returns in early 2023. Tr Saturn stays on the high-uncertainty aspect into mid this November. Plus the Lunar Eclipse in November will also rattle it up, in effect before and for some months after.

Shell-shocked and exhausting, as well as heart-rending for those already overstretched and under-funded.

ADD ON: 3 October 2022. Martin Wolf, highly regarded as an economic journalist, has made a savage attack on Truss/Kwarteng in the FT.

“The only sort of leader more dangerous than the rogue the UK used to have is the zealot it has now. The dominant characteristic of zealots is their conviction that reality must adapt to their desires, rather than the other way around.”

 He then reeled off government lies of the past decade –  that fiscal austerity after the 2008 crash and Brexit would bring prosperity; that the Northern Ireland protocol had solved the Brexit conundrum; that levelling up was a serious policy. Of the promised jump in productivity growth it is estimated that  output might be 0.4 per cent higher in five years. “The mountain labours and brings forth a mouse.

“The party has been captured by zealots indifferent to reality or simple decency.”

“These people are mad, bad and dangerous. They have to go.”

Roger Waters, musician, singer-songwriter, co-founder of Pink Floyd, has been blowing off his mouth about Ukraine blaming “extreme nationalists” there as well as Washington and the west for provoking Putin into “this disastrous war” and then demonizing Russia for doing so. Olena Zelenska, the resident’s wife, put him in his place and Poland has cancelled two of his concerts, declaring him persona non grata.

  He has a track record as a contrarian, criticising a Live Aid-style concert to raise funds for Venezuelan humanitarian aid claiming it was a US-backed effort to tarnish the socialist government at a time the Venezuelan security forces under Maduro were executing dozens of people and arbitrarily detaining hundreds of others. He bounced the other way in lambasting rightwing Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro. Then he supported the Chinese in their attitude to Taiwan saying. “Taiwan is part of China.” He has been accused of antisemitism in his support of the Palestinians. Every US President since Ronald Reagan, including Joe Biden, he has labelled as a war criminal.

 He’s all over the place and driven as much by his visceral dislike of the USA as anything. There is an odd mindset nowadays afflicting those to whom the USA is like a red rag to a bull so they immediately embrace the opposite. Shades of the 1930s – pro-communist because the fascists are unsupportable. With no sense there’s an inbetween.  

  Except he celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall with a huge concert – he’s not exactly consistent.

  He was born 6 September 1943 Cambridge, England, no time sadly, with his father, a Labour Party activist, devout Christian and a Communist Party member killed in the war when he was five months old. At school he was active in Nuclear Disarmament.

  Waters is a Sun Venus in Virgo square an excitable, volatile Mars Uranus in argumentative Gemini which in turn is trine Mercury in Libra, sextile a super-confident Pluto Jupiter in Leo. His Moon is Scorpio or Sagittarius. Tr Neptune is square his Saturn earlier this year in June/July and again throughout 2023 which will be uncertain and marginally panicky, with more confusion in 2024/25. But his Jupiter will keep him afloat and he probably enjoys being in the centre of a ruckus. His Mercury is square his Uranus/Pluto and his Mars/Pluto midpoints for fanatical and extreme thinking and speaking; and his Mercury/Pluto midpoint is square both Mars and Uranus. A diplomat he is not.

   His Saturn is conjunct the USA Mars for a ratchety interface and square the USA Neptune. Even more significantly his Pluto is conjunct the USA leadership North Node so he will be keen to control/dent America’s claim to greatness.

  The Ukraine 22 January 1918 9.54am Kharkov chart is also a bad fit with his Mars Uranus conjunct the Ascendant and his pushily-confident Jupiter Pluto conjunct the Ukraine Neptune Saturn. The Ukraine 1991 chart like the USA has its Mars colliding with his Saturn for a bad-tempered chemistry.

  He sounds like an old-school Corbynite who never quite took on board what Stalin and his successors were really like.

Moon Jupiter mothers or childhoods evoke an image of supportive cushioning echoed in Ronald Reagan’s thoughts about his mother who “always expected to find the best in people”.  A regular and involved church goer she instilled her religious beliefs in her son and left him with a strong faith in the goodness of people. He had a Taurus Moon opposition Jupiter.

  George W Bush with a Moon Jupiter conjunction in Libra was similarly closer to his mother than his otherwise-occupied father but ended up with a Jupiterian indulgence problem in drug addiction escapism.

  But of the other notable examples I could find most had hair-raising and fractured childhoods as the shadow side of Jupiter came to the fore – or perhaps looked at another way, their Jupiterian optimism was what pulled them through. There’s a risk in finding patterns from celebrity charts since many if not most come from dysfunctional background which will not all be connected to their Moon aspects. But still there are astonishingly dark examples – Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson, Marquis de Sade, Joseph Goebbels, Jim Jones.

  Jim Jones, leader of the suicide cult, had an impoverished unstable childhood, and a neglectful, often absent mother with “no natural maternal instincts” , leaving him to be cared for by neighbours, including the wife of the local pastor. Like several other Moon Jupiter types he had an early desire to become a preacher though he was also a devotee of Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mao Zedong and Mahatma Gandhi, all of whom oddly had Moon Jupiter hard aspects. Jones had a Moon (Uranus) in Aries square Jupiter (Pluto) in Cancer.

Joseph Goebbels, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, close to Hitler and a virulent antisemite was destined for the priesthood in childhood. He had a deformed foot, which historians, speculated may have fuelled his lifelong pursuit of women. He had a Capricorn Moon square Jupiter in Libra.

 The Marquis de Sade is best known for his erotic works filled with violent sexual fantasies. He preached absolute freedom, unrestrained by morality, religion, or law. His family was abandoned early by father and he was raised by servants who indulged his every whim. His cold, distant mother abandoned him, joining a convent. At a Jesuit college, he subjected to “severe corporal punishment.” He had a a Virgo Moon square Jupiter in Gemini.

Alfred Hitchcock, genius film director, who excelled at frightening women in particular. Friendless childhood with disciplinarian, remote parents, Jesuit school with the standard corporal punishment. He suffered from glandular obesity. He had a Moon Jupiter conjunct in Scorpio in his 4^th house.

Charles Manson, responsible for the Sharon Tate gruesome murder, never knew his biological father and his mother went on drinking sprees, leaving him with multiple babysitters before landing in prison. When she was paroled he said the first weeks after she returned were the happiest time in his life. She kept drinking. He landed in a strict school for male delinquents run by Catholic priests, where punishment was severe. More petty crime, more incarceration. Sent to strict reform school, where gang raped, made multiple escapes. He had a 10^th house Aquarius Moon square Jupiter in Scorpio.

 Adolf Hitler, refused to conform to the strict discipline of his school. His father beat him, although his mother tried to protect him. Considered becoming a priest. Moon Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn.

Rudy Giuliani’s father was convicted of felony assault and robbery, served prison time in Sing Sing; worked as an enforcer for an organized crime-affiliated loan sharking and gambling ring. Giuliani considered becoming a priest but shifted to law. A Moon Jupiter conjunction in Leo.

Jimi Hendrix, father trapped in military till he was three, mother struggled and he was cared for by family members and friends. Father returns, impoverished, alcohol and violence,  in and out of foster care. Parents divorced when he was 9 and father got custody. Close to a grandmother. Moon Jupiter conjunction in Cancer in the 8^th.

Johnny Depp, volatile and violent mother with the family moving frequently due to her restless nature. Beatings and outbursts, father a ‘kind man’, non-confrontational who left when Depp was 15. His mother then attempted suicide. He has a Capricorn Moon square Jupiter in Aries.

Another unsettled childhood for Cher, whose parents divorced when she was ten months old. Mother remarried and divorced several times, constant moves and often little money, left at an orphanage for several weeks. Capricorn Moon square Jupiter in Libra.

Leona Helmsley nicknamed Queen of Mean had a constantly moving childhood. Was a businesswoman, flamboyant and tyrannical. Federal income tax evasion. Prison.  Chainsmoker. Aquarius Moon opposition Jupiter Neptune in Leo.

Jodie Foster, parents’ marriage split before she was born, no relationship with her father. Mother raised the children with her female partner in Los Angeles, and managed her acting career from aged 3 onwards. Attracted criticism for allowing her to play a child prostitute when 13 for Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Virgo Moon opposition Jupiter in Pisces.

  Other child stars also had Moon Jupiter mothers – Liz Taylor, Russell Crowe, Charlie Sheen. As does Kim Kardashian with the steamroller Kris Jenner for a mother.

  My shorthand for Moon Jupiter was a mother who offered marshmallows rather than genuine closeness. A sugar coating, not the real thing, which is a touch harsh but contains a nugget of truth. And those who have Moon Jupiter in return sugar-coat mother and only see the best in her.  Though clearly that is more difficult when she is playing out Jupiter’s drama queen performance, or soaking up Jupiter’s excessive (addictive) tendencies herself.  The religious theme runs through many of them even if it didn’t hold into adult life.

  While many of the above can hardly be described as spoilt children which would be another Moon Jupiter thought, a few like De Sade and possibly George W Bush can be.

  Pitch in with any thoughts. The list surprised me I must admit.   

Roger Federer having faced up to the ravages of time and the realities of a chronic knee injury has waved goodbye to professional tennis after a final doubles match with Rafael Nadal. Federer has has played 1,750th competitive matches and won 20 Grand Slam singles titles. He is considered one of the best and most popular players in tennis history. ‘His style of play – described as balletic, graceful and fluent – has endeared him to millions of fans across the world. So too has his polite and charming personality.’

“This is not the end-end, you know, life goes on”, he said “I’m healthy, I’m happy, everything’s great, and this is just a moment in time.” 

  Born 8 August 1981 8.40 am Bale, Switzerland, four days after Meghan Markle, he has a 12^th house Sun Mercury in Leo with a secretive, determined Moon Uranus in Scorpio, a charming Venus in understated Virgo near his Ascendant and a do-or-die determined Pluto square Mars in Cancer. His Mars is conjunct the Fixed star Sirius, bringer of honour and sometimes riches.

 The tr Saturn square tr Uranus is tugging on his Leo Sun and his Moon this year as his life moves into a new era.  Tr Saturn is pulling him away from the past as it squares his Moon and tr Uranus does the same squaring his Sun.  His Progressed Moon is also at the moment opposition his Moon Uranus conjunction for an emotional parting of the ways.

  His 17^th harmonic is the strongest = victory, enlightenment, making a mark on history.

A shock-and-awe, tax-cutting budget from new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng may have favoured the wealthy but it has seriously spooked the markets and sent the pound plummeting. Even the Financial Times describes it as a ‘gamble with economic stability’ with tax cuts amounting to 2% of GDP and no concern for the impact on public finance debt.  “This government may be indifferent to painful reality. But reality usually wins in the end.”

  Inside Westminster there is equally obvious alarm. One supporter of the previous chancellor Rishi Sunak said “she has just taken one of the biggest political gambles since the Second World War – and she is doing it without the support of a lot of MPs who backed others for leader, and even without the support of some of her own people. The fact is that if this plan fails it will burn the Conservatives’ reputation for economic competence for an entire generation. It feels existential.”

 Parallels are being drawn with the early 1970s when Anthony Barber, then Chancellor, promoted  “dash for growth” policies with significant tax cuts and did did it mostly on borrowed money: government borrowing rose from £1 billion in 1970-71 to £4.5 billion in 1972-73. There was a temporary upward blip in the economy then sterling slumped by 15 per cent, inflation shot up to more than 20 per cent, unemployment rose and the Heath Tory government was voted out in 1974. By 1976 Jim Callaghan, the next PM had to go cap in hand to the IMF begging for a loan.

 [ See previous posts on astrological parallels with the 1970s – 24 September 2021 and May 14 2020.]

Kwasi Kwarteng, 26 May 1975, London, is a super-ambitious Sun Gemini opposition Neptune and trine Pluto which in turn forms a ruthlessly determined opposition to Mars in impulsive Aries. The two stark oppositions in his chart will find him struggling to find balance. He’s certainly resourceful and overflowing with initiative with Saturn Venus in Cancer square Jupiter in Aries and Uranus in Libra to add to his two other Cardinal planets. What he lacks are practical, grounded Earth planets and Fixed enduring ones to give him staying power.

 His relationship chart with Liz Truss is odd for a chosen partner with a composite Mars opposition Saturn square Uranus – volatile, bad-tempered, unstable and liable to blow a fuse, which it may do from January 2023 onwards when tr Pluto upends the composite Uranus. There’s also a controlling composite Sun square Pluto – not a match made in heaven.

  His popularity with the UK in general will sag from November onwards. His own chart is slipping and slithering through tricky Neptune transits to midpoints and Uranian jolts as well over coming months; with a wake-up-call disruption from tr Pluto square his Uranus from February 2023 onwards.

  The Bank of England chart, 27 July 1694 JC, is under stress in 2023/2024 with tr Pluto trine the Mars = trapped, fearful, frustrated, no choices. By 2024 problems will escalate with the Solar Arc Pluto in a ‘blocked’ opposition to the BoE Saturn; and tr Neptune square the BoE Saturn into 2025 for high uncertainty and lack of will-power/choices.

 That fits with the general astrological trends:

UK economy in summary. Tr Uranus is opposition the UK 2^nd house Neptune now till mid October and repeating in the spring of 2023 = high anxiety about personal finances. Tr Uranus is also square the 5^th house Venus ruling stock markets, speculation and new projects for jolts and jangles. It’ll be early 2025 before tr Uranus is clear of hard aspects to the UK’s Fixed planets which is making this such a turbulent, uncertain period of rapid change. And 2025 also when there is an economic super-whammy of the wrong variety as the Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct the 8^th house Mars. Once that clears, from 2026 onward tr Uranus is out of the UK 8^th house.

Liz Truss may yet live up to Dominic Cummings’ ‘human hand grenade’ jibe. Her Term chart with a loaded Mars in the 8^th house of finance and debt; and a divisive Uranus in the 7^th is making sense. See post September 6 2022.

Add On; While there is a thought that the markets may have over-reacted to the ‘kamikaze’ mini-budget there have been acerbic comments from prominent economists, never mind an unprecedented slap down from the IMF.

  Larry Summers, former US Treasury secretary, said it made the UK appear “a bit like an emerging market turning itself into a submerging market”. Olivier Blanchard, former chief economist at the IMF, said the statement had been a “textbook example of how not to design and not to sell a fiscal expansion”.

  The FT says “Truss learns the hard way that Britain isn’t America. Reaganism is a good idea, but Reaganism without the dollar isn’t.”  And suggests – in different words – that arrogance is behind the Tory right’s policies in recent years, Brexit included. Not an out-of-date imperial arrogance, but a delusional superpower arrogance nonetheless.

 What is downright astonishing astrologically speaking is her relationship chart with Kwasi Kwarteng – rumours are of disagreements now but if it holds together December is when it will blow a real fuse.

Hilary Mantel, the only British author to win the Booker prize twice for her Thomas Cromwell trilogy has died.  She was extraordinarily prolific by any standards but more so because of the ill-health that plagued her throughout her life.

   She was born 6 July 1952, sadly no birth time, and had a fractured childhood with her mother’s lover, Jack Mantel, moving in with the family when she was seven. He shared a bedroom with her mother while her father moved to another room. They moved when she was 11 to escape the local gossip and disapproval and her father left, never to meet up with her again.

  She married her childhood sweetheart, a geologist, when she was 20, worked as a social worker after university with her debilitating illness — pain, vomiting, fatigue — dubbed psychosomatic by doctors. Eventually she diagnosed herself with endometriosis, a disorder of the cells that line the womb, which required surgery and left her unable to have children. Hormone replacement therapy saw her develop “a steroid moon face” and balloon from her previous size eight to a size 20: “I went to live in a body I didn’t recognise,” she said.

  She had visions as a child, firstly of the Devil when she was seven and again later. Ghosts were natural to her: “I am used to ‘seeing’ things that aren’t there,” she wrote. “Or — to put it in a way more acceptable to me — I am used to seeing things that ‘aren’t there’.”

  She was a Sun Cancer conjunct Venus and Uranus so destined for a unique path in life and marked by the rupture in her relationship with her father. Her Cancer planets were square a creative Neptune and an austere Saturn, as well as being widely trine a determined Mars in Scorpio. Her Jupiter in Taurus was in a confident square to Pluto and her South Node which was merciful given the difficulties of her life. Her Moon may have been Sagittarius or Capricorn.

  Her Mercury in flamboyant Leo was sextile a well-organised Saturn, in an acerbic/argumentative square to Mars and a confident square to Jupiter.

 Her writers’ 21^st Harmonic and her creative 7^th Harmonic were the strongest, marking her out as an exceptional talent when it came to words and communication.

 An extraordinary life – I imagine there would be strong 8^th house and 6^th house planets if a birth time was known for ghosts and visions and health.