Amy Winehouse, the soulful singer and songwriter known for her haunting soul, rhythm and blues and jazz performances, who soared then crashed and burned is being remembered ten years on from her death. Born into a musical family on 14 September 1983 10.25pm (from memory), London, she started performing early and by 24 had six Grammy nominations. She also by that stage had a violent co-dependent husband in jail and paparazzi hounding her through well-publicised drug, alcohol and mental health problems. Her death at 27 was deemed accidental alcohol poisoning since she was off drugs then.
Her Neptune, planet of music, creativity and escapism was the key planet in her chart being square her Virgo Sun Mercury, conjunct her Capricorn Moon, trine Mars Venus in Leo and sextile Pluto Saturn. She had the heavyweight Saturn Pluto in her 5th house of entertainment and performance. I’d hazard a guess that her birth time might be a touch earlier since she was close to a grandmother and an 8th house Moon, even Neptune, would make sense – and would move her Sun towards her 5th house.
She also had North Node in Gemini on her Ascendant so she would be troubled by a lack of a strong sense of her own identity. Her Moon in the 7th suggests she needed a partner for security and would be dependent.
Her creative 5th Harmonic was strong as was her genius/breakthrough 13H. But so were her self-defeating 10H and 16H harmonics and her victim 12H.
When she died tr Pluto was on the cusp of her 8th house conjunct her Progressed Moon, so she was on the verge of a critical and potentially transformative, but hugely challenging time. Her Solar Arc Moon was square her Pluto which would do nothing to help lighten her mood.
Several others died at 27 – Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison. It is the North Nodal Half Return – usually a hint to take stock and rebalance life. The nearest astrological pointer to Amy Winehouse’s demise was Janis Joplin, born 19 January 1943, died 4 October 1970 of an accidental heroin overdose. At the point of her death she had her Solar Arc Moon conjunct her Pluto, and tr Pluto on the cusp of her 8th house.
Many people soldier on through Pluto transiting their 8th house which isn’t easy but does require grit and stamina. It may have been too much for fragile physical and mental health damaged by years of abuse.
All good things – and bad – must come to an end, so Boris’s long cherished dream of thumbing his nose at his Oxford Uni cronies from the portals of No 10 has to fade at some point. There is no indication of an imminent chute out the door with a lacklustre opposition showing no signs of gaining traction. But there are hints as Robert Shrimsley in the FT says today that we may have reached “Peak Johnson” and, while there is greater likelihood of a slow erosion of support than a cliff edge exit, there are straws in the wind. He doesn’t have a fanboy tribe of loyalists and MPs only tolerate him because he wins but as the electorate get aggravated about their special interests being ignored the threat can only grow. Even the Tory establishment Telegraph is beginning to platform criticisms in political opinion columns and letters.
Looking back on previous prime ministers when their star dimmed for astro-clues:-
Swathes of the UK prayed for Tony Blair’s exit after the 2003 Iraq/GW Bush debacle but it was 2007 before he finally gave in to gravity. At the point of his resignation on his relationship chart with the UK the tr Saturn opposition Neptune was sitting on top of the composite Uranus opposition Mercury. Tr Uranus was hovering over the conjunction to the composite Venus opposition Saturn; and tr Pluto was inconjunct the composite Pluto.
When Maggie Thatcher went in 1990 tr Uranus was conjunct the composite Venus, trine the composite Pluto and square the composite Neptune; with tr Pluto was approaching the conjunction to the composite Mercury.
Winston Churchill’s shock loss in 1945 after WW11 happened when tr Pluto was opposition the composite Neptune and tr Saturn was approaching the opposition to the composite Venus and square Pluto.
In the above, composite Venus, Mercury and Pluto appear to be shaken when a political separation occurs, though clearly all three would have had very different chemistry with the UK.
Boris’s relationship chart with the UK has a high-hopes-dashed, balloon-deflating tr Neptune square the composite Jupiter from this spring on and off till January 2023. But it may be the tr Uranus opposition the composite Neptune which causes more significant problems, picking up from June 2022 onwards for a year with tr Uranus trine the composite Moon mid 2022 on as well. Mid 2023 on tr Saturn is square the composite Pluto. And throughout there is the discouraging drag of tr Pluto trine the composite Mars/Saturn and then Saturn between now and 2024.
His relationship chart with the Conservative Party, 10 May 1912, is sagging badly from May 2022 onwards with tr Neptune square the Mars, more so from July 2022 on with tr Uranus trine the Neptune and worse with more obviously separating influences in 2023/24.
His personal chart isn’t too illuminating. The only indications on the career front from the Midheaven/Solar Arc Midheaven are – assuming the birth time is not rounded up – in four or five years with Solar Arc MC conjunct his Pluto; and his relocated Midheaven at 27 Virgo catching the undermining tr Neptune opposition in 2023. He’ll get a lucky break from tr Uranus conjunct his Jupiter in 2022 – though if he made a rapid departure he could probably pick up a healthy book advance or several. But tr Uranus is also in a highly-strung opposition to his Neptune at the same time.
What intrigues me is what is happening to his Moon at zero degrees Scorpio. His Solar Arc Saturn opposes it in 2022; and tr Pluto squares it in 2023/24. For most people the Moon is home, family, relationships, sometimes health issues but for politicians it can also be the interface with the public at large. The Sun/Moon midpoint can be an indicator of voter approval/disapproval. Tony Blair had tr Pluto square his Sun/Moon midpoint when he left; Churchill had tr Saturn square his. Maggie T was less obvious but had tr Saturn trine hers in 1990.
Johnson on this 2pm birthtime doesn’t get to an assault on his Sun/Moon midpoint until 2025 with tr Uranus square but that could trigger earlier if his birth time is marginally out.
The sum total of all this ramble is that it doesn’t look to be coming too soon – though all the indications are the slide from the peak will start to pick up speed from next year. My recollection with Blair is that there was much chewing over the charts in frustration before he slunk off in ignominy with his reputation having been in tatters for a good three years prior. His UK relationship chart had a never-let-go Mars Pluto trine Saturn and Boris’s has a similar composite Mars Saturn with Saturn opposition Pluto. Prising either loose was always going to be an excruciatingly long exercise.
Add On: Carrie Symonds, 17 March 1988, who has her own political ambitions might be a pointer. She has a Pisces Sun which catches the tr Neptune conjunction from May 2023 for a year after which will be lacklustre and undermining. But it runs side by side tr Pluto square her Jupiter with Solar Arc conjunct her Jupiter in 2023 as well so she will have some considerable successes. None of which is much help in plotting the Boris path ahead. His relationship with her is sagging badly over the next eighteen months with tr Neptune conjunct the composite Mars until early 2023.
Add On 2: The Conservative Party 10 May 1912 chart indicates considerable upheavals and disruptions running from late 2022 and peaking in 2023/24 with Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Taurus Sun followed by by tr Uranus conjunct the Sun, Sun/Saturn midpoint and Saturn; with a power-eroding tr Neptune square the Pluto in 2023/2024 as well. So everything will go up in the air. It needn’t mean they’ll certainly lose the next election but that Tory Taurus Sun is sensitive. When Maggie Thatcher was ousted in 1990 tr Pluto was in opposition and John Major was installed as a replacement who won the next election and then lost the following one.
Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, 20 May 1967, would be heavily involved in any defenestration of the PM. His relationship with Boris is on s downward slide this year and next with tr Neptune conjunct the composite Saturn and square Jupiter; with perhaps a crunch point in 2023 when the Tory chart is up in the air as tr Uranus opposes their composite Neptune.
Boris and his ‘nightclub bouncer’ EU negotiator David Frost have decided on a ‘wholesale change of approach’ to the Northern Ireland problem by eliminating all checks on the Irish sea trade border. The threat is that the UK will suspend the Northern Ireland protocol – which was only signed late last year and such a step would be in contravention of international legal obligations – if the EU does not give way.
The UK/EU relationship chart does have an uncertain, confused and evasive tr Saturn square the composite Neptune exactly now as well as a disappointing and evasive/dishonest tr Neptune square the composite Mercury and the disastrous Mars/Saturn midpoint – both of which influences run into and through 2022 – so the distrust and rancour won’t subside.
Frost’s Term chart, 1 March 2021, looks argumentative at the moment with plans not working out from August 12th to late November and much much worse in 2022/23. His relationship with Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s representative is at cross purposes to start with – and again shows next year as the most disruptive.
Both Boris and Frost’s respective relationship charts with the EU will lurch through a few mishaps this year but again it is 2022/23 when the significant struggles show up. The same goes for Frost’s personal chart with failure write large from April 2022 onwards and he and Boris are not exactly in harmony from early 2022 onwards either. Which repeats what’s been said before.
Another teddy is hurled out of the Royal pram with the announcement that Prince Harry is to reveal his thoughts on himself in a ghost-written memoir to be published late in 2022. The UK gave a collective sigh of exasperation and boredom. Enough already.
Wreaking vengeance on everything his 97 year old grandmother has ever stood for raises questions about what his end game is – consciously or unconsciously.
Parallels have been drawn with the Duke of Windsor who flounced off in the huff in 1936. Like Harry, he was an impulsive and rash Sun square Mars, in his case a Cancer Sun and a short-fused Mars in Aries. Though Harry’s scattergun Virgo Sun and Mars in Sagittarius is equally impetuous.
They also share a key planet in Scorpio which opposes the UK 8th house Mars – Saturn in Scorpio for Harry and Uranus in Scorpio for the Duke of Windsor. So in marginally different ways they stir/red deeply buried anger in the country. Sakoian & Acker remark about Harry’s Saturn in Scorpio: “If afflicted — there can be a tendency to scheme and plot. A desire for revenge and an inability to forget past emotional injuries may be present.”
Sakoian & Acker thoughts on the negative side of the Duke of Windsor’s Uranus in Scorpio: “Powerfully charged emotions. They believe in decisive action – likely to have violent tempers and a fierce determination to bring about change, no matter how destructive.”
That 8th house Mars on the UK chart is always triggered when there are major disasters and is being rattled around this year by tr Uranus conjunct and tr Saturn square into early 2022; with a Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the UK Mars in 2024 for a considerable setback. The 8th house also rules business finances so there may be financial implications but it also points to deep-seated changes that are being prodded into gear.
Harry’s Saturn in Scorpio also sits on the IC of the Queen’s Coronation chart of 2 June 1953 11am and in opposition the Midheaven which make sense of his attempts to chisel away at the foundations of her reign, wittingly or narcissistically unwittingly.
There’s nothing to suggest that Harry’s relationship with his brother William or his father Prince Charles will settle anytime soon. Indeed with Prince Charles there may even be a more serious rupture come 2023/2024. Harry’s own chart is careering down a path of catastrophes and disasters through till mid decade.
It’s not that he lacks talent but he is heading for his nadir at the moment with tr Saturn moving through his less successful First Quadrant and it will be in later years, perhaps after the end of this decade that he will have the chance of getting his act together. See previous post July 4 2021.
JR Moehringer, the Pulitzer prize winning ghost-writer, 7 December 1964, does appear to have an obsession with daddy issues having been abandoned as a child by his. His ghosted memoir of Andre Agassi focused on his bullying father who forced him to become a tennis champion.
Moehringer’s chart isn’t dissimilar to Harry’s with a Sagittarius Sun square Uranus, Mars, Pluto in Virgo – if anything it has more father aggro writ large. Moehringer’s relationship chart with Charles is cold, critical, struggle for the upper hand, volatile, disruptive – though there’s nothing much, without a birth time, showing for late next year. But he’ll start from a standpoint of disliking Prince Charles.
The risk is that Harry is continuing Diana’s feud to ensure Charles doesn’t become king and Camilla isn’t at his side.
There’s no publication date apart from late 2022 but around that time the tr Uranus square tr Saturn will hard aspect Charles’ 1st house Pluto in Leo and his Progressed Mars in Aquarius which look like considerable blows. In addition there’s a highly strung, high-anxiety Solar Arc Neptune conjunct his Jupiter and opposition his Uranus exactly. Into early 2023 tr Saturn and tr Uranus both hit on his Scorpio Sun for a jolting and sobering time.
Harry’s relationship with Camilla which is half friendly with a composite Sun Venus and Moon Jupiter, also has an explosive and hostile composite Mars opposition Uranus Pluto (Saturn) – that last heading downhill over the next three years.
To some extent it is Charles’ fault for talking to Jonathan Dimbleby for his biography and making critical comments about his upbringing, which opened the door to confessionals. But he got despatched to Scottish Gordonstoun which was a prison camp compared to plushy Eton to which young Harry was (in my view mistakenly) sent. And one gathers there was more solid info in the book as well.
Even Harry’s usually supportive cousins Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice look to be backing off – messing with the Queen’s Jubilee really is a serious mistake on his part.
Boris Johnson’s chief of staff Dan Rosenfeld is, according to the Times, facing a mutiny from political advisers who feel their views aren’t being taken into account. He is gatekeeping too rigorously and blocking information from the PM. Though how much Johnson would read/absorb is questionable anyway.
This is only a passing piece since the national embarrassment of the shambles of an incompetent and worse an amoral government has to come to a head at some point. But in the context of Yods and disorganisation, Dan Rosenfeld, 2 May 1977, has a central Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct a Taurus Sun. In this he fits the out-of-step feel of the Boris Admin chart, 13 December 2019 11am which has Uranus sextile Moon inconjunct Mercury – and that one is on the money.
A Mercury focal point scatters in all directions leaving loose ends around and there is a difficulty in assembling thoughts or communicating them in a clear and simple way. There was a delicious Andy Davey cartoon this morning which I shouldn’t reproduce – but why not? It is blissfully apt for the dog’s breakfast of Covid rules laid down. Tierney remarks of such a Mercury: “may tend to combine too many concepts in a haphazard, disjointed way and fail to establish coherency.”
A focal point Sun on the other hand can abuse personal will and authority. It’s the too little ego, too much ego conundrum. Interestingly Johnson’s Jupiter is conjunct Rosenfeld’s Sun so he will support his chief of staff’s tendency to shut out other viewpoints.
Their relationship chart also has a composite Yod of Uranus sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars so together they’ll be self-willed, slap dash and impetuous.
Of note in the immediate future. Boris’s personal chart has his Progressed Moon opposing his afflicted/emphasised natal Mars building up now and exact in August and his Progressed Moon will then in coming months wade round in hard aspect to his Saturn and Uranus Pluto which will make for a bone-shaking ride.
The Admin chart has a run of Neptune squares to the Solar Arc Sun and the Sagittarius Sun from late July to next spring which will lead to a general feel of slipping and sliding downhill with confusion, muddles and evasions. And the Solar Arc Saturn is moving to close the conjunction to the 12th house Venus Pluto to exact within seven months, which might rub the shine off Boris’s beyond mystifying popularity.
Sajid Javid, who was handed the poisoned chalice of the Health Department after Matt Hancock fell on his sword was born 5 December 1969 and has a Saturnine Yod (see post Renee Zellweger below).
He’s a Sun Sagittarius; with Venus in Sagittarius sextile Uranus inconjunct Saturn in Taurus. He’s understandably jittered and jangled this year courtesy of two highly-strung, over-hopeful midpoints being tossed around; plus the Eclipses throwing crises in his path into early 2022. But he’ll get into a more confident stride from early 2022 with tr Pluto square his Jupiter on and off till late 2023. His high expectations won’t bear fruit since he runs into disappointments in 2022, disasters in 2023 and a total road block in 2024 with his Solar Arc Pluto square his Mars.
The ranting, rancid, far right-wing Katie Hopkins has been booted out by yet another media outlet. She has been dumped as a cast member of Australia’s Big Brother VIP after describing Covid-19 lockdowns as “the greatest hoax in human history” and joking about breaching quarantine rules. Last year she had her Twitter account with 1.1m followers permanently suspended for violating the platform’s “hateful conduct” policy. Prior to that she was repeatedly retweeted by Donald Trump. She has previously compared migrants to cockroaches, claimed the photograph of a dead Syrian boy lying on a beach that sparked a wave of compassion across Europe was staged, and said dementia patients should not “block” hospital beds.
I’d forgotten quite how stark her chart is. Born 13 February 1975, she has an Aquarius Sun (shades of Sarah Palin); with a ‘charitable’ Jupiter Moon in Pisces that has clearly been mislaid. What fuels her bile and venom is Mars in Capricorn opposition Saturn square Pluto. Mars Saturn attracted her to the military but her epilepsy prevented her from taking up a gun-toting career. It tends to make for short-tempered, hard-edged individuals and tied into a focal point control-freak Pluto it is as far from sentimental as you can get. Palin has a Sun conjunct Mars Saturn.
Tr Neptune is opposing her Jupiter this year and next which will dent her high hopes. This December’s Solar Eclipse will conjunct her Neptune in a probably vain attempt to get her to pursue a more spiritual path. Mishandled it brings more self-deceit.
Marjorie Taylor Greene also has Jupiter in Pisces – clearly compassion got lost along the way and they home in on its guru-chasing tendencies, elevating Trump to the Great Almighty.
Actress Rene Zellweger, three decades into a super-successful career, festooned with awards – Oscars, Golden Globes, Baftas and Screen Actors Guild – still has to find a settled relationship. She’s flitted from short-lived liaisons to Jim Carrey, a brief marriage, and thence on to various ports of call but never stopping for long. She is now much puffed as being in a hopeful hook up with Ant Anstead, a twice divorced Brit TV presenter.
What is noteworthy about her chart is it features one of the most difficult Yods onto a focal point Saturn from a Neptune sextile Jupiter Uranus (Pluto). Initially it produces all the Saturnine downsides of uncertainty, low confidence, self-defeating attitudes. A considerable degree of inner strength is needed to make it work, which involves the Saturnine virtues of self-discipline, endurance over time and steadiness of purpose. Along with it goes a sense of frustration and personal failure. The first Saturn Return at 29 or just after is usually when a significant turning point comes and that’s when she landed the Bridget Jones role that shot her to stardom.
Others born around that time who share the same Saturnine Yod in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries are: Jennifer Aniston, Beau Biden, Chaz Bono, Beau Biden, Alexander McQueen (fashion designer), Cory Booker, Dan Aronovsky (surreal, melodramatic, psychological horror film director), Pauley Perrette (former NCIS oddball), Andrew Breitbart (right wing media founder), Bobby Brown (Whitney Houston ex-husband). Quite a few of those have had more obvious struggles than most despite being successful.
What makes it trickier for Renee Zellweger is that her Saturn conjunct a Taurus Sun falls in her 8th house so she will be ambivalent about close relationships – wanting them intensely and yet putting up barriers.
Ant Anstead, 28 March 1979, Plymouth, England, has several astro-plus points where she is concerned with his New Moon in Aries conjunct her Venus in Aries and his Jupiter in Cancer square her Saturn so he’ll lift some of her tendency to gloom. But his Mars in Pisces in her 7th opposition her Pluto isn’t so great – argumentative and a fight for control.
The relationship chart has a needs-space composite Sun opposition Uranus and a supportive, enthusiastic Sun trine Jupiter – in certain circumstances, which won’t include 24/7 closeness, it could work for a while. Though it’ll rock on its axis later this year with tr Pluto square the composite Uranus.
She will have a tricky few years towards and across mid decade with tr Pluto square her Saturn in 2023/23 which will be heavy going. And she has tr Neptune square her Sun/Moon midpoint at the same time. Followed by tr Pluto square her Sun in 2025/2026. But for all that she’s in a reasonable place on the career front with Saturn moving upwards in her chart and Pluto strengthening her reputation until later this decade.
Floods in northern Europe have caused at least 120 deaths with 1300 missing in Germany which has caught the worst of it, with rainfall heavier than seen for a century.
The recent Lunar Eclipse of late May, still in effect, had the Sagittarius/Gemini Full Moon sitting across the Midheaven/IC axis located to the affected region; with the June Solar Eclipse having the North Node conjunct the MC. So it was a key location for the recent Eclipses which both also had the destructive Mars opposition Pluto in place. This week the transiting Cancer Sun was triggering both the Eclipse Mars and Pluto; with the transiting Yod focal point Venus Mars also tugging at the Eclipse Pluto (see post below).
I don’t know whether it is a coincidence but modern Canada which recently suffered the worst heatwave in over 80 years came into being only four years before Germany. Both have Pluto in Taurus, in the case of Germany in the 8th, and for Canada opposition Saturn in Scorpio – and those Plutos will be heavily unsettled by tr Uranus conjunct Pluto from mid 2022 onwards for a year.
Major natural disasters sometimes precede seismic or significant changes in a country’s destiny not caused by the catastrophe but happening on a parallel track.
Germany is certainly in the midst of a phase of tremendous upheaval and disruption with tr Pluto opposition the 10th house Uranus exactly now, returning this December; and then tr Uranus hitting the Pluto which will erupt deep-seated energies – as indeed happened through the 1930s. It won’t be the same this time round but won’t pass without leaving a profound mark on the country.
Canada Heatwave see post June 30 2021
Add On: July 21 2021
China has also been overwhelmed with a year’s worth of rain falling in three days, bursting rivers, overwhelming dams and sparking landslides. Water flooded underground railway tunnels leaving passengers trapped in rising waters and 200,000 people have been evacuated with more dams threatening to give way.
The recent Gemini Solar Eclipse had Neptune conjunct the IC located to Zhengzhou where deaths are mounting, with the North Node on the Descendant. The Mars opposition is 8/2nd house – usually houses are not supposed to be relevant for eclipses but disasters do tend to have 8th house planets which make sense. The recent Lunar Eclipse has the Full Moon sitting almost exactly on the Ascendant/Descendant axis.
Locations with planets on the Eclipse chart axis are traditionally regarded as crisis zones.
Yods don’t appear in every birth chart – two planets in sextile which are in quincunx/inconjunct/150 degree aspect to a focal point planet. So it’s worth paying attention when they appear in transit either celestially or in a chart. The recent Venus Mars conjunction being a case in point – with Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Venus Mars.
The rule of thumb interpretation for a quincunx/yod is – needing adjustment, unsatisfying, energy draining, strained – the planets don’t function well together as a team. So there’s always a left-out feeling as if one planet can’t express itself or only erratically which leads to too much and then too little of the focal point’s nature.
Yods are not much researched and one theory is that having fast moving planets on the focal point doesn’t count as a Yod but is more a double quincunx. But not everyone agrees.
In general there is a sense of energies that need to be reassembled or adjusted before there can be progress. Without that there’s a haphazard and disorganised, sometimes passive-aggressive or self-defeating mood.
Tierney remarks: “The quincunx can be viewed — as a “nagging problem” operating over an extended period of time.” As opposed to squares and oppositions which bring clear conflict and crises that demand decisive action.
Obviously this week’s Yod had the faster-moving inner planets Venus and Mars on the focal point – and transiting Yods won’t operate exactly as they do with a more concretised birth chart Yod. But there will almost certainly be the same – not-quite-clicked-into-place and disorganised feel about the mood.
In an individual chart a Yod usually has to wait for a ‘fated’ event i.e. a chance happening from outside which clicks it into place and what follows is a singular, focused sense of direction. One of the classic examples is Michael Phelps the swimmer who was a disorganised kid with ADHD etc and his parents eventually sent him off aged 7 to swim to soak up his energy. And the rest is history. His Yod has Mars has a focal point.
There are interesting examples of relationship Yods formed either on synastry – comparing the two charts – or in the composite chart itself. Where they occur one individual will change the destiny of the other in a significant way, sometimes leading to a radical alteration of life’s direction. Their coming together tends to be unexpected and fast-moving rather than a steady development. The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson are one example, Jaqueline Kennedy and Ari Onassis another. In the latter case Onassis’ Uranus was quincunx Jackie’s Sun sextile Jupiter. Myra Hyndley and Ian Brady, the Moors murderers (child killers) are another example. And Liz Taylor and Richard Burton with Liz providing the focal point planet, so being the main instigator of change.
The most recent example is Donald Trump and Jared Kushner with two Yods formed in their synastry and a central composite Yod in their relationship chart. They changed each other’s destiny for good or ill.
