Marjorie

The sad but not unexpected death of Sinead O’Connor has brought a raft of poignant accolades –  “Supremely gifted, terrifyingly vulnerable and hilarious – even at her bleakest she’d make you laugh.” “A heroic talent who spoke truth to power – and found redemption in art. Her music made everything worthwhile.” “A complicated, sensitive, erratic woman from a very difficult, abusive background, who led a life beset by controversy, confrontation, mental health problems and terrible personal tragedies.” “ She was a volatile person, passionate, intelligent, contrarian.”

  She was born 8 December 1966 in Dublin with no verified birth time, with a kleptomaniac mother who abused her physically and sexually about which she spoke openly. She had issues with the Catholic Church and nearly wrecked her career by tearing up the Pope’s photograph at one point. She compared the Ireland she grew up in to Iran: “a theocracy, slightly less potent but the same situation.” She ricocheted through several marriages, had four children, became a priest and then converted to Islam and spent a good deal of time in mental hospitals with a bipolar diagnosis with two previous suicide attempts. She never recovered from the suicide of one of her sons, aged 17 last year.  

 “A reputation as a crazy self-destructive person pursued her down decades of erratic and polarising behaviour, whether declaring then retracting lesbianism or being ordained as a renegade Catholic priest whilst campaigning against sexual abuse in the church, then converting to Islam.”

  She had the rebellious, chaotic Uranus Pluto in Virgo of the mid 1960s – it’s energy so visibly lived out it must have been on the angles of her chart or in her 8^th house. It opposed Saturn in Pisces and Chiron square an outspoken Sagittarius Sun. Her Chiron conjunct Saturn and opposition Pluto and Uranus would have made her psychic wounds deep. Depression, a grinding sense of betrayal, grief and loss of power would come from Chiron Pluto. Chiron Saturn hints at fear, deep insecurity, an over-compensation in work to stave off sorrow.

  Her Taurus North Node in a different way hints at a turbulent life searching for peace and different values. The recent May Lunar Eclipse was exactly conjunct her South Node.

   Her Mars was sparsely aspected being only sextile Jupiter which would make her  overly-energetic and uncompromising.

  Her Moon was late Libra or Scorpio and the latter sounds more likely.

Her singing touched the hearts of many and her courage.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66330500

‘The huge outpouring in the Irish Republic since the death of Sinéad O’Connor reflects a late realisation that she helped the country confront its own trauma, writes Una Mullally.’

‘She was part of a generation intent on dragging Ireland out of theocratic oppression, and towards a sense of empathy and liberation.’

‘O’Connor was a lighthouse for those who felt adrift in Irish society. She offered a new moral compass beyond the lie of societal piety, one that pointed towards an uncharted direction of authenticity.’

‘O’Connor had been right all along, and everyone knew it. As Ireland became a more secular country, she was one of the leading voices for confronting the Catholic Church while maintaining a personal spirituality.’

‘In recent days, people have recalled her attendance at reproductive rights marches in the early 1990s and her kindness towards the Traveller community, refugees, trans rights organisations, and the Dublin Aids Alliance.’

  Her rebellious revolutionary, status-quo-upsetting Uranus Pluto falls in the Ireland 4^th – 6 December 1922 5pm Dublin as she set about uprooting the country from its reactionary past. Her Saturn Chiron fell in the Ireland 10^th conjunct their South Node as her pain and anguish set the country on a new road, pushing it into unfamiliar territory and away from old damaging securities.   

Nigel Farage is back on a roll after languishing in the backwaters since his Brexit victory with the furore over his bank account being closed because of his political beliefs. He’s extracted apologies from the BBC, the resignation of the NatWest CEO and is now calling for the entire bank board to go. He has also catapulted the government and Treasury into clamping down on the banking industry to stop any future blackballing.

  Like him or loathe him, Farage does have an extraordinary effect effect on the UK as a catalyst or demolition expert depending on your viewpoint. He presses the plunger and the situation explodes. Not a man to cross clearly. Though he was right in this instance.

   It is blissful when the astrology is spot on – which in this case it is.  Farage, born 3 April 1964 4.30pm Farnborough, England has an 8^th house Aries Sun on the focal point of a yod to Pluto sextile Neptune. The yod would give him a sense of being an outsider, always out of step with the consensus, with an awkwardness stemming from a variable sense of self-esteem – too much ego and then too little.

  But what is instructive is his Aries Sun is conjunct the UK’s 7^th house North Node in Aries. That was what was being triggered running into the Brexit referendum with the revolutionary/anarchic tr Uranus in Aries square tr Pluto in Capricorn in place. The UK’s 7^th house Aries Node hints at innate challenges when it comes to cooperation with neighbours.  Farage’s 8^th house Sun was in there with laser-like intensity, widening the cracks.

  Farage’s Sun is also conjunct the NatWest’s Saturn and opposition the BBC’s Saturn – which will hit both in a way that damages their sense of self-worth.

   He’ll continue to be a thorn in someone’s flesh for a long time to come. Though he’ll hit a blockage or two into 2024.

Harry Truman is the forgotten piece of the narrative when it comes to the nuclear bomb. Oppenheimer may have created it (along with others) but Truman was the one to give the order to use it, described by one commentator as “the most history-altering executive decision since Pontius Pilate”. He took on the presidency on April 12 1945 after Franklin D Roosevelt’s death.

  Although he retired unpopular in 1953 and his presidential reputation languished for decades, he was eventually resurrected to the top 10. And he did have a fair number of credits including staying in Europe after 1945, implementing the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and establishing NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. He decolonised the Philippines, desegregated the military and put the Atomic Energy Commission under civilian not military control. The Korean War was a failure; but appalling as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, some argue the nuclear bombing can be seen as preventing a third world war in later years.

 He was born 8 May 1884 4pm Lamar, Missouri, into a livestock and farming family. Two things are intriguing about his chart. One is he has both Neptune and Pluto in his 8^th house like Winston Churchill and Hitler. It wasn’t conjunct but it would give him an innate ability to influence events. His Taurus Sun was conjunct his Neptune in the 8^th. The other key factor was his Pluto conjunct not only Mercury but also Chiron. Pluto on Chiron in the 8^th certainly conveys the darkness, depth and intensity of the ‘destroyer of worlds’. He appeared not to have had any qualms about the order to bomb but the 8^th house is deeply unconscious and projected into the world it would bring an earth-shaking howl of pain and horror.

  His relationship chart with Japan has a composite Mars Pluto square Moon North Node which in a different way echoes the utter ruthlessness of their connection and the bitterness left behind.

  When the Hiroshima bomb was dropped tr Saturn was conjunct his Solar Arc Sun Neptune in his 10^th so it must have given him a tremor of concern even if it did not show; with tr Pluto conjunct his SA Saturn adding to the gravitas of the moment.    

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Israel is galloping towards the point where it will lose the unique status of being the only democracy in the Middle East as the ultra-right wing parliament voted to strip the country’s supreme court of its powers to block government decisions. The opposition walked out, joining a huge crowd of protesters, with reservists, the Israeli security establishment as well as labor unions threatening action, with strong concerns also being raised by Jewish lobby groups in the USA.

  Critics argue it will become a sham democracy with no check on the power of the executive. Israel has no written constitution, nor a second parliamentary chamber to balance the Knesset. The supreme court has been the backstop on issues deemed to threaten the rights of citizens and democracy, including long-running arguments over the role of religion in a secular society, the definition of a Jew, the treatment of Israel’s Arab minority and Palestinians in the occupied territories.

 Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said:  “We are governed today by a bunch of militants, nationalists, chauvinists, [and] radicals. Reckless, irresponsible, and totally inexperienced people.” He said if US administrations present and past had taken far tougher lines against Netanayhu’s policies — and placed Israel’s special relationship with the United States in the balance — it would have had positive effects.

  Biden has been mildly disapproving but no more with no indication on the astrology that he will toughen his stance.  The Israel/USA relationship chart is not flagging up much movement until next year when a confused tr Pluto trine the delusional Jupiter Neptune conjunction picks up, running for two years. That will bring a reality check as old illusions get demolished. The process will intensify in 2025/26 with tr Neptune Saturn square the composite Mercury Venus.

   Inside Israel, confidence is being undermined by tr Neptune square the Jupiter exactly now and that runs on and off till early 2025. But the key detonator for the turbulence to come is tr Uranus conjunct the 8^th house Taurus Sun from this August on and off into 2024 and then an explosive, violent, insecure tr Uranus square the Israel Mars by 2025 into early 2026. This year and next there are also a run of catastrophic, high-risk transits to Mars midpoints; and a devastating Pluto square the Sun/Neptune midpoint through 2024/25.

  There is more detail in a previous post: Israel – on a dark road backwards 30th December 2022.

  One explanation for the state of Israel now  is the rapid rise in the population of ultra-orthodox Jews and the consequent decline in the influence of the largely secular Ashkenazi community which has resulted in the growth of religious fundamentalism and conflict with the liberal mainstream in society. The right-wingers are pushing for more settlements and outright annexation of lands under military rule since 1967.

 Shades of Modi in India and to a similar degree the stranglehold of the GOP in the USA.

  On a petty personal note there is an odd resonance at the moment of schadenfreude – that’s the wrong word – more an irritated ‘I told you so’ about several political screw-ups. Nicola Sturgeon for one and Boris Johnson for two who rose to prominence despite it being glaringly obvious they were not fit for any kind of constructive purpose. Israel at a different level should have had international policing put in when it was established in 1948, to protect the indigenous Palestinians as per the Balfour Declaration – except post WW11 the USA/UK had too much on their plate elsewhere. Israel has been steadily marching up the wrong road since it was established, content to bask in the support of big brother USA.  It is difficult to see where this ends.  

Sigourney Weaver, veteran of some of the biggest blockbuster franchises of all time – Alien, Ghostbusters and Avatar – and a statuesque 5 foot 11+ tall, is still going strong and largely flying under the radar of Hollywood hype by living quietly in New York. She’s back on TV screens next month in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, based on Holly Ringland’s book, which is a ‘harrowing but engrossing and exquisitely rendered tale about grief, domestic abuse and trauma; how a group of women come together to heal through the lushness and language of flowers.’

  She was born 8 October 1949 6.15 pm Manhattan, NY, with an English mother and TV executive father. Told repeatedly she had no talent in her twenties, she persevered and landed Alien as only her third movie. Oscar nominations followed and she won a Golden Globe best actress for Gorillas in the Mist and commendations for playing the alpha boss in Working Girl. She has been married to Jim Simpson, a theatre director, since 1984 with one non-binary child in their 30s.

  She has an understated and hard-working Sun Neptune in Libra in her 6^th house square a successful Jupiter in Capricorn on her Midheaven and sextile a do-or-die-determined Mars Pluto in Leo in her performing 5^th house. Venus in Scorpio in her 7^th endows her with great charm and will attract affectionate partners in life. Her Taurus Moon sits on her Ascendant giving her a down-to-earth image – it is sparsely aspected barring a sextile to a quick-witted Uranus in her 3^rd, which will increase her vulnerability though it is not at first obvious. Her Saturn in Virgo also in her 5^th will give her organising ability in the entertainment field.

 Her husband Jim Simpson, 21 February 1956, Hawaii, is a Sun Pisces trine Neptune and square Saturn – both are highly Neptunian though it is also a high-octane mix with his Jupiter Pluto in Leo sitting close beside her Mars Pluto. His Cancer Moon is somewhere around her independent-minded Uranus so two constantly changing careers will help. His Neptune opposes her Moon so he will be tricky to pin down at times. It won’t all have been smooth sailing with their relationship chart having a composite Mars, Neptune, Saturn conjunction square Uranus for high tension and sacrifices demanded of one partner.  But a composite Sun trine Pluto will bring closeness and a Jupiter square Venus adds a sparkle of frivolity to smooth round rough edges.  Their wedding chart had an easy going Sun Mercury square Jupiter with a passionate Venus Pluto and a showbusiness Mars Neptune so it did get off to an auspicious start.

  With Jupiter moving through her 1^st house this year she’s into a lucky patch and tr Saturn is moving through her high profile, hard-working 4^th Quadrant till the end of this decade so she won’t be retiring any time soon.

“The Father of Capitalism”, Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith, propagated his ideas about the wealth of nations during the last Pluto in Capricorn in the 18^th Century.  He laid the foundations of a free market economy replacing Mercantilism, based on restrictive trade practices, which had started on the previous Pluto in Capricorn in the 16^th Century.

  Pluto in Capricorn is the great tracker of all matters economic on a macro-level. You could write a history of money through the times of its appearance, roughly every 250 years.  Charlemagne in the 8^th Century had an important role in determining the immediate economic future of Europe and founded banking. He standardised the monetary system which unified the complex array of currencies in use at the start of his reign, so simplifying trade.

Kublai Khan two Pluto in Capricorns later: is considered to be the first of fiat money makers (i.e. paper money not gold or silver). The paper bills made collecting taxes and administering the huge empire much easier while reducing cost of transporting coins.

  This present Pluto in Capricorn picked up in 2008 with the resounding global financial crash. But as yet no real indication of what the inevitable coming changes will be in trade and global finances.

  Smith, born 5 June 1723 JC/OS in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, was a Sun Gemini opposition a serious, knowledgeable Saturn in Sagittarius in a controlling, determined (ahead of his time) square to Pluto. He also had a risk-taking, no-compromise Mars in Aries opposition Uranus square Mercury in Cancer so would not be backwards about expressing his views which for the time were controversial and unpopular. 

   His ideas did gradually come to be accepted in the late 18^th century as the Industrial Revolution got underway and free trade spread via the British Empire round the globe. Though it was not an overnight switch but more the sowing of the seed of a theory, boosted by other thinkers which took time to germinate.

The smoke signals continue to float above the US Supreme Court indicating all is not well in the halls of justice with political, financial and religious interference ongoing. Athena, goddess of justice had Medusa’s head on her shield to scare off those who would transgress against the scales of integrity, honesty, righteousness, impartiality, rectitude. Quite where any of those fit in with Clarence Thomas’s shenanigans is mystifying. The latest revelations are of an astute and expensive PR campaign to defend Clarence Thomas when the 25^th anniversary of his appointment came round a few years back with reruns of Anita Hill’s story of his alleged sexual harassment of her.

  It continues to this day as he is sanctified and she is smeared. And all this when Thomas is also exposed along with his wife as being on the receiving end of generous support from benefactors. There have been other revelations recently about wealthy conservative donors gaining access to justices outside the public eye.

  SCOTUS, 2 February 1790, has a controlling (and secretive) Sun Pluto in Aquarius with Pluto in an ambitious trine to Neptune and a ruthless opposition to Mars conjunct Jupiter. It is sailing through stormy seas with tr Uranus last year square the Sun, this year square the Pluto and in 2024 square the Mars.  Plus an undermining tr Neptune conjunct the Venus. Quite whether that is enough to put it back onto the paths of righteousness is questionable. But there may be more murk to emerge.

  There are two names mentioned most frequently as string pullers. One is  Leonard Leo, a staunch Roman Catholic and longtime executive of the Federalist Society, an influential nonprofit organization for conservative lawyers. He has led advocacy campaigns to help confirm every conservative Supreme Court justice over the past two decades.

  The other is Harlan Crow, a Texas billionaire and GOP donor who ProPublica revealed this year has taken Thomas on luxury vacations, has made donations to dedicate a library wing to him in Savannah, Ga etc.

 Neither have verified birth dates other than net sources so what follows needs to be regarded with caution. Leo, 1 November 1965 Long Island, if accurate, is a slippery Sun and Neptune in Scorpio with Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition Saturn and in a ruthless square to Mars (Venus) in Sagittarius. Which looks feasible. This chart is very entangled with the SCOTUS chart though the puppet master’s grip may be loosening through this year and next.

 Harlan Crow, 10 October 1949, a billionaire in real estate Texas, has a collection of Nazi memorabilia and has been more than generous to Thomas over the years. On this birth date he is a Sun Neptune in Libra square Jupiter in Capricorn with a hard-nosed and ruthless Mars Pluto in Leo which taps into certain elements of Hitler’s chart so is also feasible.

  Clarence Thomas is on a slide from 2025 onwards with tr Neptune and Saturn square his Cancer Sun, Mercury, Venus.  More on Clarence and Virginia Thomas in previous post 7 April 2023.

  But what it says about the state of the US nation is more to the point. This week ‘the Democratic-led Senate judiciary committee voted to advance a supreme court ethics reform bill that would tighten financial disclosures and bolster recusal requirements for justices. The vote was 11-10 along party lines, with Republicans adamantly opposed.’ That really is the rot at the heart of the US -both the justice system and politics.

“It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.” Aristotle

“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” Montesquieu

Josephine Chaplin, the daughter of Charlie Chaplin and his fourth wife, Oona O’Neill, who starred in many French films has died.  She was the sixth of 11 children fathered by the comic screen legend and the third of eight with O’Neill, daughter of the Nobel prize-winning playwright Eugene O’Neill.

   It is a mind-boggling prospect being part of such a vast Chaplin tribe, the child of a world renowned screen star on one side and the grandchild of a Nobel winning playwright on the other.

 [Detail on Chaplin and Oona O’Neill, who married when she was 18 and he 53, in previous post February 18 2022.] 

  Josephine, 28 March 1949 12.10am Santa Monica, CA, was a Sun Aries on the cusp of her 4^th house opposition Neptune on her Midheaven with Pluto in her 8^th – anchored in the family, a creative legacy but trapped. 

   What is a recurring pattern through several of the family charts is a last decan Aries or Libra marker – of either Chiron, Sun or North Node. In her case her North Node was at 25 degrees Aries conjunct her mother’s Chiron Mercury in Aries. Her father Charles Chaplin had a 27 degree Aries Sun.

 The half siblings from an earlier marriage born around the time of Oona O’Neill – Charles (1925) had Chiron Mercury at 25/22 Aries; Sydney (1926) had Chiron at 26 Aries; and Maurice (1927) had his Sun at 22 Aries conjunct Chiron at 1 Taurus.

  Her full brother Michael (1946) had Jupiter Chiron in last decan Libra.  Eugene O’Neill had his Sun at 23 Libra.

  Tied together by fame (Nodes), plagued by issues of identity (Aries) and struggling with the wounds and vagaries of fate (Chiron).

  Chiron close to Mercury is interesting for Oona O’Neill since it would give her a sense of being wounded in her intelligence and way with words, not surprising with such a notable father.   

  Josephine’s North Node conjunct her mother’s Chiron suggests that Josephine’s development lay through connecting with her mother’s pain.  

  What is also significant is the Aries energy especially in a North Node which suggests a need to stand alone and/or take the lead. Tricky in a family with such powerful connections in the zeitgeist that they could never completely escape.

  All quite a fated tangle as is probably true in a great many families.

Singer Tony Bennett has died. Called “the best in the business” by Frank Sinatra, he had a career spanning seven decades and was still performing in his mid nineties on stage with Lady Gaga when suffering from Alzheimers.  He released 61 studio albums between his debut, Because of You, in 1952, and his second album of Lady Gaga duets, Love For Sale in 2021. One of the original crooners, he held onto his sophisticated, emotionally understated style of jazz music through the merry go round of fashions in pop. His fortunes did slump when the Beatles appeared but after overcoming a cocaine addiction he reinvented himself, his popularity stronger than ever.

  He was born 3 August 1926 in New York, no birth time, into a poor Italian immigrant family with his father dying when he was 10. Drafted into WW11, he faced racism from officers because of his ethnicity and witnessed discrimination against fellow black soldiers; and had the horror of being present at the liberation of a sub-Dachau concentration camp. It turned him into a pacifist and an activist for civil rights, marching with Martin Luther King in the 1960s.

  He had started singing early in the family, then as a singing teenage waiter and after the war was spotted by Bob Hope and broke into the professional circuit.    

He became known as the torchbearer for the Great American Songbook with hits including The Way You Look Tonight, Body and Soul, and (I Left My Heart) In San Francisco.

  He was a Sun Leo but what probably marked him out as one of a generation of outstanding singers was his Neptune in Leo conjunct his Mercury opposition Jupiter square Saturn in Scorpio. Burt Bacharach born two years later was another Neptune in Leo square his Taurus Sun; and Frank Sinatra born in 1915 had Neptune in early Leo.

  In Tony Bennett’s case his Mercury Neptune Jupiter would give him his deceptively easy-listening style which only came about through the obsessively hard work of Saturn. He also had a seductive Venus Pluto North Node in Cancer and a Gemini Moon.

During his damaging time in the forces during World War 11 as a late teenager he had the pressured, challenging tr Pluto conjunct his Sun; and a disruptive tr Uranus opposition his Solar Arc focal point Saturn; as well as a high-risk, scary and horrifying Solar Arc Venus Pluto square his Mars in Taurus. He said the experiences scarred him for life though he did not let it show. Except he did have a cocaine addiction and near suicide attempt in the late 1970s which was career-related but may also have been when old terrors resurfaced. That was when tr Uranus was conjunct his Saturn and tr Saturn was conjunct his Solar Arc Venus Pluto.

  What would keep his darker feelings under control was his Venus Pluto conjunction and his obsessively conscientious Saturn in Scorpio.