Austrian Felix Baumgartner, the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound in 2012 after jumping out of a balloon 24 miles (39 kms) up in the air over New Mexico and smashing the record for the highest ever freefall, has died in a paragliding accident in Italy. According to media reports, he suffered a cardiac arrest while still in the air.
Born 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria, he had an Aries/Taurus Sun conjunct Saturn in Aries on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Neptune sextile Uranus, South Node, Jupiter (Pluto) – super-confident from Jupiter Pluto and adventurous from Jupiter Uranus, self-willed and self-reliant with a focal point Sun and Saturn. His Mars was in a danger-attracting square to Pluto. He found his singular path in life when he started skydiving in the military at 16. He said: ‘The air is where I am at home’, and has “born to fly” tattooed on his arm. At that point tr Pluto just into Scorpio was opposing his Sun and triggering his yod apex.
Over the course of his career he set 14 world records, becoming the first person to jump from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue, the Millau Viaduct in France, the Turning Torso skyscraper in Sweden and Taiwan’s Taipei 101. He also became the first man to fly across the English Channel in a wingsuit in 2003.
His chart has been stressed in recent times with tr Neptune Saturn opposing his Uranus with tr Pluto trine; and the past two years tr Pluto square his Sun. So he had come a full Pluto quarter cycle from his teenage revelation about his life’s direction. Tragic but oddly fitting.
Connie Francis, the American singer, who was the best selling performer in the late 1950s/early 1960s after Presley and The Beatles, with Stupid Cupid, Who’s Sorry Now?, and Lipstick on Your Collar, has died aged 87.
From 1964, her career was blighted by a catalogue of personal tragedies including three divorces, two miscarriages, rape, mental breakdown and the violent death of two close relatives. After being arrested for assault, she admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital, having earlier been committed twice by her father who considered her behaviour “erratic and self-destructive”. Although she never recaptured her earlier success, a few months before her death she enjoyed an unexpected renaissance on TikTok, when her 1962 B-side Pretty Little Baby went viral with 10 billion views.
Her biggest regret she said was “to have allowed my father to control my personal life. He was tyrannical.”
She was born December 12 1937 7.28 am in Newark, New Jersey with her musical talent appearing when she was an infant.
Her Sagittarius Sun was conjunct her Ascendant and square a musical Neptune in a creative and can-be-neurotic opposition to Saturn in regretful Pisces. Her Chiron was in her 7th house of marriage opposition her Sun and square Saturn and Neptune. She also had a super-confident Jupiter in Capricorn opposition an 8th house Pluto.
Her 3rd house Aries Moon was trine Venus. This would relate to her brother George Franconero Jr, to whom she was close, who would provide support in childhood. He was an attorney who had testified against mob activity, refused witness protection and was murdered in 1981 by Mafia hitmen. At that point her Solar Arc Mars was trine her Venus and conjunct her Moon for yet another shock.
Before then in 1974 she was raped at knife point in a motel bedroom. She courageously went public about the assault and sued the motel chain, but developed agoraphobia and was unable to leave her home to perform. She also suffered from paranoia and believed that people were trying to kill her. At that point her Progressed Mars was square her Sun and opposition her Neptune.
The compensation she won from the motel chain paid for a course of cosmetic rhinoplasty, but one operation on her nose resulted in long-term damage to her vocal cords.
Her career stumbled through the 1980s with frequent hospitalizations and disastrous stage appearances though she wrote a memoir Who’s Sorry Now? which became a best seller and she worked to help other victims of violent crime. Through the 90s and on till her retirement in 2018 she revived her career and headlined in Vegas once more.
Apart from the central Saturn opposition Neptune square Sun, two other points of note in her chart. One was her 8th house Pluto making her feel trapped but also giving her influence. The other was an unaspected Uranus in her 5th which would tend to act in bursts of high-voltage energy but being unintegrated in her chart could also be disruptive.
The CIA rides high on Trump’s hate list as he considers the agency the beating heart of a “deep state” that is working to undermine him. The agency’s track record of past screw-ups is not such as to inspire respect anywhere but a new book points to the risks of putting “the instruments of American national security in the hands of crackpots and fools.” The author Tim Weiner, says “I’m not known as a great defender of the CIA but neither am I a defender of willful ignorance.” He says appointing “a coterie of dangerously incompetent and servile acolytes to the highest positions of national security” will blind them to a coming attack.
Made all the more likely since allies may now be reluctant to share sensitive information with the US, given Trump’s on-off bro-romance with Putin and others; and his appointment of those like Tulsa Gabbard, who have had Russian connections.
The CIA, 18 September 1947 12 am Washington, DC, is showing signs of significant panic at the moment with Solar Arc Mars conjunct the Neptune. And Solar Arc Neptune Mercury just over the opposition to Uranus.
Trump’s relationship with the CIA is beyond hostile with a composite Saturn, Sun, Mars, Pluto square Jupiter – and they don’t get much worse than that – which is under increasing strain in 2026 and the years thereafter.
‘Following two impeachments (and two acquittals), an insurrection and another election, Trump is bent on revenge. The new director has also moved aggressively to implement a purge at Langley. “He’s attempting to rid the CIA of its most experienced officers and to impose ideological purity tests. “Ratcliffe said explicitly from the get-go that he aimed to align the leadership of the CIA with the president’s view of the world. Since the president’s view of the world is largely based on falsehoods and imaginary enemies, I think this will be an extremely difficult task.”
Trump’s relationship with John Ratcliffe, 20 October 1945, a Sun Libra with a Mutable T square, the present CIA director, whom Weiner describes as “a spineless person who will do whatever Trump tells him to do” has a cheer-leading composite Jupiter, Sun, Pluto, Alphard conjunction.
While I understand some scepticism about the men in grey suits in the state sector, costing a fortune, often incompetent and rarely held accountable, Trump and others’ obsession with the ‘deep state’ is a psychological curiosity. Maybe connected to his Pluto in the 12th which will give him deep-seated suspicions as well as a desire to wield secret power himself.
Trump’s relationship chart with the US Federal Reserve which also appears to be in his crosshairs is equally toxic with a composite Saturn Pluto square Mars; and an evasive Sun Mercury Neptune conjunction.
What maybe has not been taken on board sufficiently is Trump’s total lack of Earth signs. The ’deep state’ may be dodgy in areas but it is the machinery of government, what keeps it ticking over. He has no understanding of the nuts and bolts of a functioning system – to which he is taking a wrecking ball at the moment. What happens when it all falls down?
ADD ON:
The UK Secret Intelligence Services (MI6) for overseas spooks, 4 July 1909 has a Cancer Sun conjunct a smokescreening Neptune; with a highly-strung, mystical/secretive streak and connection-to-foreign-countries Uranus opposition Neptune square Saturn in self-reliant Aries. Plus a ruthless, ultra-determined Mars square Pluto. The Solar Arc Mars square Pluto is rattling up the natal Neptune opposition Uranus – notably in 2026 – but the specific challenges extending on with a peak over the turn of this decade for an edgier than usual phase.
The relationship with the CIA, which is power-struggling for the upper hand at best, is in turmoil through this winter into early spring 2026 – with much confusion and emotional upsets.
MI5, the UK internal security service, 7 October 1909, has relatively similar placings with a Libra Sun opposition Saturn square Uranus opposition Neptune, also with Mars square Pluto. It looks embroiled in heated arguments at the moment and into 2026 with the Solar Arc Mars square SA Pluto colliding with its Mercury; and a fractious tr Saturn opposing the Mars and square the Pluto across the winter – late September to late January 2026.
The MI5 relationship with the CIA is if anything more fraught – and has been since the 2024 election with tr Uranus conjunct the composite Mars Algol and square the composite Neptune, which last continues through this winter into spring 2026 – with confusion and suspicion reigning. 2026 to 2028 look to be an all time low in relations with an undermining and separating tr Neptune Saturn opposition the composite Sun and conjunct the composite Uranus. There was never much love lost but what little there was is on the ebb tide.
Mars Earth plus Air appears to be a recipe for multiple marriages and enduring, pro-active careers according to two showbusiness types in the news. One is ‘motormouth’ Janet Street Porter, English broadcaster, journalist, writer, media personality, at one point a BBC executive and then editor of the Independent. The other is Billy Joel, American singer, songwriter, and pianist, nicknamed the “Piano Man” who has had a successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s.
Janet Street Porter 27 December 1946 12.30am, is about to launch a one woman stage show called Off the Leash and has been touting herself as “the nation’s favourite pissed-off pensioner”. In an interview she talked about how she “hated” her mother, tried to kill her sister and cheated on her four ex-husbands. One commentator said of her: “She is one of the giants of British media, and has always stood out – a loud-mouthed, working-class woman in an urbane, upper-middle-class men’s world; an aesthete with a love of pop culture and opera, often dismissed as a philistine because she was born with neither silver spoon nor plum in her mouth.”
She has a short-fused Sun Mars BML in Capricorn in her communicative and journalistic 3rd house, with Mercury in outspoken Sagittarius also there. Her Sun Mars are in a publicity-attracting square to Neptune in her 1st. Her Neptune is trine North Node Uranus in Gemini trine an Aquarius Moon in her entertaining and romantic 5th house. Turned into an influential, not-to-say bulldozer Kite with Moon opposition Pluto Saturn in Leo (square Jupiter). Her mother does not come well out of a Moon Pluto Saturn. And her impatient, argumentative Sun Mars in her 3rd house of siblings probably explains why she once tried to push her sister downstairs.
Four marriages and divorces and countless publicized affairs have culminated in a 26 year partnership with a restaurateur. Settled at last.
Billy Joel, 9 May 1949 9.30 am New York, was born into a musically-inclined family with his parents splitting when he was young. He has admitted to suicide attempts in his 20s and problems with alcohol, drugs and depression. He has a Taurus Sun and Mars, as well as Venus as befits a singer (Taurus rules the throat). His Mars is in an intense and frustrating/trapped square to Pluto and his Venus is square Saturn in Leo. He has an Air Grand Trine of a 4th house Libra Moon and Neptune trine Mercury in Gemini trine a 7th house Jupiter in Aquarius.
There is not much obvious in the way of similarities between their temperaments but it is interesting to see how the Mars Earth plus Air Grand Trine they share has worked out – both in career endurance and romantic musical chairs until they finally settle down.
Ingmar Bergman, the film director, was widely hailed as a genius for The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and Fanny and Alexander amongst many others. Martin Scorsese said “it’s impossible to overestimate the effect that Bergman’s films had on people”. Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen both proclaimed him “the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera.”
Like all creative types he had his dark side with allegations (from himself) that he raped a former partner; an arrest for tax evasion and his youthful adoration for Hitler, whom he mourned when he died. Bergman first saw Hitler when he was 16, on a school exchange trip to Germany in 1934and described him as “unbelievably charismatic.” Bergman’s father was pro-Nazi who believed that Hitler was the answer to the world’s problems. Bergan said “The Nazism I had seen seemed fun and youthful. The big threat were the Bolsheviks, who were hated.”
Yet he underwent a seismic shock in 1946 – “When the doors to the concentration camps were thrown open, at first I did not want to believe my eyes,” he would say. “When the truth came out it was a hideous shock for me. In a brutal and violent way I was suddenly ripped of my innocence.” “My feelings were overwhelming and I felt great bitterness towards my father and my brother and the schoolteachers and everyone else who’d led me into it. But it was impossible to get rid of the guilt and the self-contempt.”
It changed the course of his life and career and thereafter many of his films and stage productions dealt explicitly with the evil caused by the Nazi regime.
Bergman was born 14 July 1918 12.15am Uppsala, Sweden, and had a quick witted, communicative 3rd house Cancer Sun with an independent-minded Uranus in his 10th, a charming Venus in Gemini on his Ascendant; and a dynamic Mars in Libra in his entertaining 5th in an ultra-, can-be-ruthless square to a super-confident Pluto Jupiter conjunction in Cancer. Mars Pluto is a hint of his experience of his father as is his 4th house filled with deceptive, can-be-neurotic Neptune, Mercury, Saturn in Leo.
Bergman’s Saturn in Leo exactly conjunct Lilith was also conjunct Hitler’s 10th house Saturn with Hiter’s MC conjunct Bergman’s 4th house Neptune; with Hitler’s Moon Jupiter in Capricorn falling in Bergman’s 8th – so there would be a deep, nebulous and father-issue connection.
Hitler’s Chiron was also closely conjunct Bergman’s Pluto which could be allied to Bergman’s healing journey after his youthful idealism was shattered. In this combination Pluto can show a poisoned Chiron that what they think is good isn’t so. And (in this case unwittingly) Chiron can activate Pluto’s desire for self-transformation, reminding Bergman that his Pluto (= power) could be a force for evil and would hold him back.
What interested me was what was going on in Bergman’s chart when his misplaced idealism (devotion) of Hitler flipped to total disillusionment.
At that point tr Uranus was crossing his Ascendant setting him off on a new path and one where the views of others would not be so persuasive. Tr Pluto was also wading its way through his 4th house pulling him away from past family attitudes and father, having just made the disorientating conjunction to Neptune and then on to Mercury. Tr Saturn was also conjunct his Solar Arc South Node and Sun – also a separating aspect from father and unevolved attitudes.
His relationship chart with Hitler at the point of his unwelcome realization had tr Uranus conjunct the composite Pluto for a total upheaval. Tr Saturn conjunct the composite Mars for anger. Tr Pluto moving into the composite 8th aiming to conjunct the composite Saturn for a period of deep depression.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s right-hand woman is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking offenses, the only person held legally responsible to date. Her family are now claiming she ‘did not receive a fair trial’, claiming she should have been protected under an agreement Epstein entered with the Department of Justice in 2007, in which they vowed not to prosecute any of his co-conspirators after he ‘paid fines, paid “victims” millions of dollars and served 13 months in prison.’ The New York prosecutors claimed the 2007 deal applied only to the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida; and that has been upheld by the Supreme Court. [It was a ludicrously lenient deal given the offences involved.]
Born 25 December 1961 3.20pm Maisons Lafitte, France, she has an intense, secretive 8th house Sun, Mercury, Mars in Capricorn; with an entitled Jupiter on her Midheaven in an unrealistic square to Neptune and inconjunct Pluto in her 4th house of family/father. Her Pluto is conjunct both the Black Moon and Lilith.
Her father Robert Maxwell, 10 June 1923, was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, politician and fraudster. After he mysteriously died by drowning off his yacht (named Ghislaine), it emerged he had embezzled hundreds of millions of pounds from his own companies’ pension funds. According to wiki the UK Foreign Office suspected Maxwell of being a secret agent of a foreign government, possibly a double agent or a triple agent, and “a thoroughly bad character and almost certainly financed by Russia”. He had known links to the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), to the Soviet KGB, and to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. After his death, he was given a lavish funeral in Israel, attended by prominent figures, and buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Robert Maxwell was a defiant and disruptive Sun Gemini square Uranus in Pisces opposition a Virgo North Node; with a ruthless Mars Pluto in Cancer square Saturn. His Mars Pluto fell in Ghislaine’s financial 2nd house opposing her Capricorn Sun Mars – and his spoiling of her probably led her into ‘the arms’ of the wealthy Epstein after his death and the family’s subsequent financial meltdown.
There is nothing ahead on her chart that suggests freedom and luck. Tr Saturn Neptune will square her Capricorn planets markedly in 2025/26 for an undermining and disappointing mood and extending on thereafter as well. With a blocked Solar Arc Sun opposition Pluto in 2027 and worse by 2030 with SA Mars opposition her Pluto.
[I have a faint recollection she signed over her assets to a then boyfriend/husband? just before her trial – if true she would have nothing to come out to.]
The tragic, tawdry, off-the-grid lifestyle of aristocrat Constance Marten and her convicted rapist boyfriend Mark Gordon which lead to their four children being taken into care and adopted because of a domestic violence incident and a fifth baby dying of hypothermia while they were on the run has finally been brought to a halt. After two trials which reporters called ‘jaw dropping’ and the judge accused them of sabotaging the process, they have been found guilty of the manslaughter of their baby by gross negligence
From her first appearance at the Old Bailey, in March 2023, to the end of the second trial, more than two years later, Constance Marten had been represented by 14 barristers. “Because she thinks she’s entitled and doesn’t listen to instructions,” it was said. Gordon ended up representing himself.
The court heard that Gordon had been convicted of raping a woman in the US when he was 14, for which he had served 22 years in prison. And in 2017 he was convicted of assaulting two female police officers at a maternity unit in Wales where Marten had given birth to their first child under a fake identity.
The best background piece is in the Times (paywall)
“The events that conspired to bring Marten to this point include a father who she believes abandoned her aged nine, a mother she blames for pushing her towards a cult as a teenager and years of turbulence with a violent older man.”
She was born 16 May 1987 and has a late Taurus Sun conjunct Algol with a headstrong, excitable and uncompromising Mars in Gemini opposition Uranus and Saturn with her Mars in a pleasure-seeking sextile to Venus in Aries; and a disorganized yod onto Mercury in Gemini inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune. Her Moon probably in Capricorn is conjunct Neptune. Her Black Moon is exactly conjunct her Mars; and her Saturn is exactly opposition Chiron. That last seems significant since it ties into the two key male figures in her adult life who sent her off track.
The first was TB Joshua, a charismatic pastor in Nigeria, later accused of being a predator who committed atrocities on followers at his church compound including rape and forced abortions and insisted they call him “Daddy”. She blamed her mother for having introduced her to a world of evangelical Christianity that would lead her down this path.
A friend of Marten said: “I believe she got brainwashed while she was over there. She was not the same person when she came back. She always used to be wild, but also happy, kind and buoyant. She was darker when she came back and she found things more difficult.”
Joshua, 12 June 1963, Nigeria, had his Gemini Sun conjunct her Chiron and opposition her Saturn; with his bullying Mars in Virgo (conj Uranus Pluto) square her Mercury and his Venus Mercury in Taurus conjunct her Sun; with his Saturn square her Sun. A very Saturn Chiron connection. At the point she met Joshua she had her Solar Arc Saturn conjunct her Neptune and her Solar Arc Pluto opposition her Sun – uncertain, panicky and trapped.
Mark Gordon, 8 June 1974, also had a Sun Gemini beside his South Node which was conjunct her Chiron and opposition her Saturn. He also had a Mars trine Neptune sextile Pluto and Pluto square Saturn Mercury; and Neptune on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Venus sextile Saturn. Hard-edged, determined, quite perverse and slippery.
Their relationship chart had a dominating, control-freak composite Mars square Pluto; and curious yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Algol Chiron, which last was opposition defiant, lawless Uranus as the reaction point.
The wound that never heals tied into the destructive Fixed Star Algol.
With her Chiron in close opposition to her Saturn she would have self-esteem issues due to feeling abandoned when her father left her at nine. At that point “he experienced what he described as an “awakening”. Realising that “everything in my life materially was a completely empty shell”, he obeyed the voice that told him to abandon Constance and the rest of his family, and his inheritance, to begin a new life in Australia.”
Her North Node in Aries hints at the need to walk an independent path in life, not one permanently attached to a partner. If she slides back into her ‘togetherness’ Libra South Node, she meets Vindemiatrix, the widow maker.
What a tangled web. Tragic for a baby who never had a chance.
Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister, known as the enfant terrible of the European Right and ‘Mussolini in high heels’, much feted by Donald Trump, has managed against all expectations to stay in power for three years. No mean feat given her country’s carnival politics – 69 governments in power over the past 79 years.
An English translation of her memoir ‘I Am Giorgia’ runs through her early life relating the tale of her mother amidst money worries and a failing marriage, planning to abort her but changing her mind outside the clinic. She maintains she was an outsider from a young age with a father who abandoned her when she was a year old and a grandmother scarred by wartime food shortages, overfed her, making her a target for bullies at school who nicknamed her “Fatso”. Her father, a communist-sympathising tax official is credited by her with instilling her combative spirit and steeliness of nature because of his lack of love.
Her unlikely rise in popularity from the fringe hard-right was helped along the way as two DJs released a satirical dance video intended to poke fun at politicians which featured her railing against identity politics. “They want to call us parent 1, parent 2, gender LGBT, citizen X, with code numbers. But I am Giorgia. I am a woman. I am a mother. I am Italian. I am Christian!” Suddenly she was an unexpected pop phenomenon.
Once seen as the unacceptable face of the Right she is now charming European leaders with a mix of humour and bluntness and has a good working relationship with Ursula von der Leyen. Her successful immigration clampdown on Mediterranean trafficking boats won praise from Keir Starmer. And she’s regarded as one of Europe’s top Trump Whisperers.
Born 15 January 1977 6.30pm Rome, Italy, she has a hard-working 6th house Capricorn Sun trine a lucky, successful Jupiter in Taurus in her 10th. But what is most noticeable is a heavily aspected Mars in Capricorn in her entertaining 5th house conjunct Mercury which sits midway between a Venus in Pisces trine Uranus, and is thus sextile both, square Pluto and inconjunct Saturn in Leo on her Ascendant. So she is not short on dynamic drive, direct speaking and ruthlessness.
She also has a yod of Saturn sextile Pluto inconjunct an 8th house Venus in Pisces which fits with her start in life feeling out of place in ordinary situations but giving her ultimately the ability to push forward with a singular goal affecting society.
Her Term chart 22 October 2022 9.30am Rome, has an equally strong Mars (in the 8th) square a Libra Sun Venus, inconjunct Pluto and square Neptune Jupiter – so a pro-active administration.
What intrigues me are the father relationships of other female world leaders. All of the below have emphasised Mars giving them courage and drive.
Indira Gandhi to a degree like Meloni had an unhappy childhood with her politician father Nehru often away or in prison. Her Mars in Virgo was on the focal point of a Mutable T Square to a Jupiter opposition Mercury, with her Mars also trine Venus and sextile Pluto.
Golda Meir had a scary childhood in Ukraine with a pogrom brewing and the family moved to the US when she was 3. Her Mars was trine Saturn, sextile Pluto Venus.
Maggie Thatcher idolized her father and perhaps tried to emulate his domineering tactics with her Mars in Libra on the focal point of a Cardinal T square to Jupiter opposition Pluto.
Ursula von der Leyen had a European civil servant father and her chart has (like Meloni and Thatcher) a Mars square Pluto with her Mars also trine Venus and inconjunct Neptune Jupiter in Scorpio. Ultra-determined, charming, over hopeful.
Meloni and Trump have an odd relationship chart with a composite Jupiter Saturn conjunction which will be under pressure from tr Pluto in opposition in 2026/27. In itself it can be the sign of a steady bond that lasts over time. But transformational Pluto bearing down won’t make it easy. Even before then from November through to April 2026 tr Uranus will square the composite Uranus for upheavals and turmoil; plus tr Pluto will continue to square the composite Mars through 2025/2026 for frustrations and possibly diverging objectives.
ADD ON: Francesca Albanese, 30 March 1977 Italy, the fiery UN rapporteur for the Palestinian territories is a controversial and divisive figure. The USA has sanctioned her for her anti-Israel stance while she is a leading light in an upcoming Colombia conference which includes Qatar, Spain and China which aims to progress the implementation of a UN general assembly motion demanding an end to the occupation of Palestine.
She has been accused of anti-Semitism and support for Hamas but is feted by Left-wingers. On October 7, the day of the Hamas attacks in Israel, she tweeted: “Today’s violence must be put in context.” A year earlier she said that “Palestinians have no other room for dissent than violence”.
She has a pro-active Aries Sun in an intense and controlling opposition to Pluto. More significantly she has a tough-minded Saturn in wannabe-important Leo (and Moon) sextile Pluto inconjunct Mars in Pisces. A yod apex Mars, even in softer Pisces, is headstrong, overly assertive, can be self-defeating, rash, disruptive and courageous. Her Mars is also in a publicity-attracting square to Neptune and an excitable trine to Uranus. A force to be reckoned with.
Researching past times of Pluto in Aquarius which next picks up from 2023 till 2042 it caught my eye that the original Jewish diaspora occurred under the Pluto in Aquarius in 60 to 84 AD when the first of the Jewish Wars against the Romans took place. The Romans laid siege to Jerusalem crucifying tens of thousands of escapees whose bodies encircled the city at the end. According to historical records the stockpiles of food inside were intentionally burned by Jewish leaders to induce the defenders to fight against the siege instead of negotiating peace; as a result many city dwellers and soldiers died of starvation during the siege. “Six hundred thousand engaged in armed resistance – both sexes showed equal determination, preferring death to a life that involved expulsion from their country.”
The final Jewish stronghold to fall was Masada. When the Roman soldiers finally broke through into the city they discovered that the 967 defenders had all committed suicide, preferring death over defeat.
There were a further two Jewish-Roman Wars in the decades following in which between 500,000 and half a million Jews were killed.
Under Pluto in Aquarius in the 13th Century Jews were expelled from England although that was for a complex set of reasons to do with the King’s finances and Jewish usury.
Under the next Pluto in Aquarius 2023/2043 transitting Pluto will be opposing the Israel midheaven, Saturn, Pluto, squaring the Sun latterly and then opposing Mars. So Israel looks under escalating pressure of quite staggering proportions. [From old post 2009].
Additional Thoughts:
From The Astrological History of the World
Certain key dates in Jewish history, and indeed the history of Jerusalem, fall under Uranus–Pluto conjunctions, starting with the Jewish revolt against the Romans in ad 70. The Romans then sacked Jerusalem, destroying the Temple, the ancient centre of Jewish religious life and traditionally the site of Jacob’s dream of angels ascending a ladder to heaven. This was the beginning of the Jewish diaspora, or dispersal; the oral laws of Moses were added to the Pentateuch to form the Torah which would bind future Jews together. The winning of the Six Day War by the Israelis under the latest conjunction in 1967 saw the Jews occupy the old city of Jerusalem for the first time since they had been expelled.
In ad 70, the Romans also destroyed the Qu’mran Essene Jewish community. They left behind the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew and Aramaic texts that were not rediscovered until the Saturn–Pluto conjunction of 1947. Under another Uranus–Pluto conjunction, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the great mosque, was built on the Temple Mount in 691 by the Umayyad Caliph to commemorate the Muslim tradition that Mohammed ascended to Paradise from this spot, making it the third most holy place of Islam after Mecca and Medina. Jerusalem was also occupied by the First Crusade in 1099.
There were also two major Jewish massacres under Uranus–Pluto, one sparked by religious differences, the other by anti-semitism. The first took place in the Rhineland in 1095 when Pope Urban II called for a crusade to free the holy places in Jerusalem; the second in 1348 in the wake of the 25 million deaths from the ‘Black Death’ plague in Europe, for which Jews were blamed.
“The Jewish diaspora and persecution are connected to Uranus–Pluto, but two major destructive episodes in the Jewish story do occur under Saturn–Uranus conjunctions. One took place in 1306 when Philip IV expelled Jews from France during Saturn–Uranus in Scorpio. More significantly and catastrophically this century, when Saturn–Uranus occurred in Taurus (Hitler’s sign) in 1942, the Nazis met to discuss the ‘final solution to the Jewish question’, the genocide of the European Jews. Six death camps were set up: Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Madjanek, Chelmo, Sobibor and Treblinka; in the USSR, half a million Jews were killed by the Germans. The call for a Jewish national home, made under Saturn–Uranus in Scorpio in 1896, was not fulfilled until the Saturn–Pluto conjunction of 1947–48.
Nothing can adequately describe the Holocaust, but the Neptune–Pluto conjunction in Hitler’s chart (as with Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Attila the Hun) was obviously a key factor in the delusional megalomania that had such destructively inhumane consequences. But the 1942 Saturn–Uranus conjunction may be a hint of the misuse to which Uranus’s scientific knowledge can be put when in the hands of repressive Saturn, which in its highly negative aspects is connected both to death and to Satan.”
N.B: Uranus Pluto also was significant in the slave trade and colonisation of Africa and its independence.
