Marjorie

David Crosby of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash, one of the most influential rock singers of the sixties, has died at 81. Described by Rolling Stone magazine as “rock’s unlikeliest survivor” after heavy cocaine and alcohol abuse led to a liver transplant in 1994, he was revered for his creative talent despite the running conflicts his lifestyle and tempestuous nature stirred up.

  He was born 14 August 1941 9.02 am Hollywood with a cinematographer father and was a Sun, Mercury in Leo trine a high-octane, argumentative Mars in Aries in his 7^th house of relationships, sextile Jupiter – bubbling over with high vitality and lucky with it. He had an influential though also controlling 10^th house Pluto; and a troubled and turbulent collection of an 8^th house Taurus Moon and Saturn and Uranus.

  His Uranus was in a creative trine to Neptune sextiling onto Pluto. His deeply buried Saturn was square his Sun and trine a hidden Venus, North Node and Neptune in his 12^th – which latter would tilt him towards addictions. He seemed to have strong ancestral/family connections back several generations hinted at by his 8^th house planets.

 Off-stage, he had multiple run-ins with US law enforcement, including an arrest in 1982 on drug and weapons charges and five months inside.

 His creative 5^th and 7th Harmonics were strong especially the 7^th as was his global superstar 22H.

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

 Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister since 2017, once revered as a progressive and a breed apart, a counter to populist, reactionary politics of Trump, Brexit, Boris et al, is to step down saying she has run out of steam.  In recent times she has been increasingly criticised for her hard-line Covid policies as New Zealand grapples with a cost of living crisis, a sharp rise in interest rates, lower house prices and a rise in crime.

  She was born 26 July 1980 in Hamilton, New Zealand with a rectified birth time of 1.59 pm. Her father was a police officer and she was raised in the Mormon faith. She has an entertaining and knowledgeable Sun Leo with a hard-working Capricorn Moon. Her Saturn in conscientious Virgo is on the focal point of a T square to a Venus opposition Neptune, so she will have had a tendency to over work and over worry – Saturn square Neptune also suggests a hope for a fairer society.  But she’s also go-ahead and assertive with her Moon opposition Mercury square Mars and Pluto so has a steely backbone.

  Tr Saturn on this birth time is now moving across her IC into her 4^th house which makes sense of a change in her career and house move. She’ll also have been undermined and racked with uncertainty as tr Neptune opposed her Saturn through last year and as she exits. She’s unlikely to disappear into domestic retreat though the next two years look edgy.

  Her First Term 26 October 2017 chart with a Sun Jupiter conjunction was confident and lucky – though it indicates her departure with tr Pluto square the Uranus through till late 2022 when she made her decision. Her Second Term, 6 November 2020, was beset with difficulties from Saturn Pluto but if anything was a touch overly confident in laying down draconian Covid policies with a Jupiter, Pluto, Saturn conjunction.

  Her connection with New Zealand is a powerful one with their relationship chart having Pluto opposition Neptune square Sun Jupiter – and she did propel New Zealand onto the world stage but Jupiter Pluto relationships do have a habit of going wrong down the road.

  New Zealand is moving through one of the more difficult periods in its history with tr Pluto moving across the massively frustrating conjunction to its Capricorn Sun Mars from 2021 till late 2023; with the additional setback of Solar Arc Saturn square the Mars through 2023 and further compounded by a challenging tr Pluto square Pluto in 2023/24. Tr Neptune is also in an undermining square to the financial Venus through this year. With further hurdles to overcome as tr Pluto is in a destabilising square to the NZ Uranus in 2026 and then square the NZ Saturn. Into the 2030s New Zealand will be a transformed country though the process of getting there won’t be easy.  

Italy’s most-wanted fugitive mafia gangster Matteo Messina Denaro who had been on the run for thirty years has been captured at a health clinic. He was one of Sicily’s most ruthless crime bosses in the 1990s, convicted and sentenced to multiple life terms in absentia. He was a protégé of the Cosa Nostra “boss of bosses” Salvatore “Toto” Riina, who declared all-out war on the Italian state. Denaro holds the key to some of the most heinous crimes perpetrated by the Sicilian mafia, including the bomb attacks in 1992 that killed the anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and the killing in 1996 of Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 12-year-old son of a mobster-turned state witness who was strangled and dissolved in acid. He once claimed, “I filled a cemetery, all by myself”.

  Born 26 April 1962 in Castelvetrano, Italy, he is a Sun Taurus opposition Neptune square Saturn in Aquarius opposition a ‘leadership’ North Node in Leo.  Taurus at its most negative features amongst dictators and brutal criminals. He also has a rules-don’t-apply-to-me, super-confident Jupiter opposition Pluto, which is sextile/trine his Sun. And it was that Jupiter opposition Pluto having moved by Solar Arc to impact his Sun which marked his final take down just now. Jupiter Pluto can bring success but it can also bring conflict with authorities.

  Salvatore Riina, had like him, been a fugitive for decades before he was picked up in 1993. He was an even nastier piece of work if possible than Denaro, advocating the killing of women and children, and blameless members of the public as a distraction. Hit man Giovanni Brusca estimated he murdered between 100 and 200 people on behalf of Riina.

  Riina was born 16 November 1930 4pm Palermo and was a Sun Scorpio trine Jupiter Pluto in Cancer. When he was finally captured tr Pluto was conjunct his Sun with tr Saturn approaching a square; and the tr Uranus Neptune in Capricorn was approaching the opposition to his Jupiter Pluto – his luck ran out. Because of his lack of repentance he was imprisoned under punitive conditions until his death in 2017.

Like bad fiction.

One of the UK’s worst sex offenders turns out to be a Metropolitan police officer, who has admitted 51 charges of rape and domestic abuse over 18 years. David Carrick was allowed to keep working even after he had been arrested on a rape charge days after Wayne Couzens, another serving Met police officer was sentenced for rape and murder recently. Multiple criminal complaints about Carrick were routinely ignored. It turns out 800 Met officers are now being investigated for over 1,000 sexual and domestic abuse claims.  More than half of Met officers found guilty of sexual misconduct over a four-year period to 2020 remained in their jobs.

  The media and political response has been one of outraged disbelief.

  It was always clear from the Metropolitan Police chart of 29 September 1829 that there would be a massive, catastrophic setback coming with the Solar Arc Mars moving to conjunct the Met Police Libra Sun now and, worse, conjunct the Pluto over coming months into 2024. And both Carrick and Wayne Couzens, born in the 1970s, have their Pluto in early Libra fitting into the Met controlling, power-hungry Sun opposition Pluto. Not just rotten apples in the barrel but fitting in with a corrupt, misogynistic ethos.

 Carrick, 4 January 1977 has a peculiarly bleak and hard chart with a Capricorn Sun opposition Saturn square Pluto (Moon) in Libra – unyielding, un-empathic to put it mildly especially towards women. His Neptune in Sagittarius is conjunct the Met Jupiter to allow him to slither around as he pleased and his Sun is conjunct the Met Neptune allowing him to evade scrutiny.

  Couzens, 20 December 1972, convicted of the rape and murder of Sarah Everard, had his Jupiter conjunct the Met Neptune compounding the look-the-other-way Met mentality.

  Their respective relationship charts with the Met indicted they fitted in comfortably to the force. Carrick had a composite Sun sextile Jupiter and Mars square Neptune.  While Couzens had a composite friendly Sun Venus conjunction and an over-optimistic Jupiter Neptune.

  Sir Mark Rowley, the new Commissioner, has his work cut out ahead to sluice out the Augean stables. His Term chart from 12 September 2022 does have a reforming, practical Grand Trine with Uranus to Pluto to the Sun but since it all focuses onto Neptune it may turn out to be a damp squib.

  The Met ahead has tr Uranus square the wannabe-important Saturn in Leo, shaking its amour propre now and into next month. With tr Pluto square the Mercury from late March bringing bitter discussions and arguments for two years ahead and more as tr Pluto is conjunct the Uranus in 2024/25. That last might suggest a major clear out but there is a sense of drift in the last few years of this decade as tr Neptune squares opposes the Sun and is conjunct the Pluto.   

  Though I suppose looking on the bright side tr Uranus giving a mighty tug to one leg of the Met Grand Trine of Pluto trine Saturn trine Jupiter exactly now might be expected to see some shift in direction and that plus tr Pluto conjunct Uranus in 2024/25 could also upend the status quo and bring in new practices.

Whatever happened to the trusted Brit bobby? Scary in London with trust completely broken. And given that overall in England and Wales there is a 1% conviction rate for rape with the police being the initial gatekeepers after the event, it is beyond imperative that attitudes within the force are forcibly hauled into modern times.

Gina Lollobrigida, sultry and prolific actress, a post-war international sex symbol acclaimed as one of the world’s most beautiful women has died at 95. Known as “La Lollo”, the “temptress of the Tiber”, she made a film a month in the 1950s and by the 1970s was setting up a second career as a highly-thought-of photographer.

  She did not respond well to criticism and became litigious at the drop of a hat, which didn’t stop her insulting her compatriot Sophia Loren as they conducted a public feud. “We are as different,” she said, “as a fine racehorse and a goat.”

 Latterly she ran unsuccessfully for the European Parliament and for the Italian Senate.

 She was born 4 July 1927 3am Subiaco, Italy and was an intense Sun Pluto in Cancer with an attention-demanding and inspirational Fire Grand Trine of an adventurous Jupiter Uranus in Aries trine Mercury in Leo trine Saturn in Sagittarius (which last can be prickly when criticised). She also had Mars, Neptune, Venus in Leo as well – flamboyant and entertaining.

  Sophia Loren, 20 September 1934 2.10pm Rome, also had Mars in Leo – entertaining, passionate and ego-centric; with her Mars in a hard-edged opposition to Saturn Moon in Aquarius so was just as steely as La Lollo. Their relationship chart has an explosive and competitive composite Sun Mars trine Uranus which would not make for harmony and peace.

From old post on women/stars dying as Neptune exits sign.

1901: Neptune leaving Gemini – Queen Victoria dies.

1915: Neptune leaving Cancer – Mary Baker Eddy and Emily Davidson (suffragette who suicided by horse at the Derby). Florence Nightingale also died with Neptune in late Cancer (1911)

1929: Neptune leaving Leo – Emmeline Pankhurst (the great suffragette), Ellen Terry, Isadora Duncan.

1943 – Neptune leaving Virgo – aviator Amy Johnson, writer Beatrix Potter.

1957 – Neptune leaving Libra – Laura Wilder (Little House on the Prairie), scientist Irene Curie

1968 – Neptune leaving Scorpio – Helen Keller, Enid Blyton, Dorothy Parker, Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Little Mo, Sonja Henie, Gypsy Rose Lee, Sharon Tate.

1983 – Neptune leaving Sagittarius – Nathalie Wood, Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), Anna Freud, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Gloria Swanson, Ethel Merman, Lillian Hellman, Indira Gandhi.

1998 – Neptune leaving Capricorn – Princess Diana, Mother Theresa, Ella Fitzgerald, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Evelyn Laye, Dorothy Lamour, Claudette Colbert, Margueurite Duras, Patricia Highsmith, Mary Leakey.

2011 Neptune into Pisces 2011/12.

Liz Taylor – March 2011

Amy Winehouse – July 2011

Jane Russell – Feb 2011

Whitney Houston – Whitney Houston Feb 2012

Esther Williams 2013

Revenge served piping hot has topped the global Spotify chart and racked up a staggering 111 million-plus views on YouTube as Latin-American songbird Shakira lets fly at her ex-husband –footballer Gerald Pique footballer. They parted after 11 years and two children and he has taken a younger girlfriend much to her fury.

  In the new song, she says she is worth “two 22-year-olds” and likens herself to a Ferrari while her replacement, she sneers, is a Renault Twingo, one of the cheapest cars on the market. For good measure, she describes herself as a Rolex watch to the other’s Casio. Pique seems to have taken it in good humour by turning up to work in a Twingo and persuading watchmakers Casio to sponsor his new venture. Though his chart hints otherwise so it may have been an astute PR strategy not dreamed up by him.

 It will help her pay off a huge tax bill for which she blames him and perhaps allow her to move house. She has also let fly at her mother-in-law who lives next door and has placed  a life-size witch doll on her balcony overlooking her MIL’s home.

  She says: “I never thought what for me was a catharsis and a release would go straight to number one in the world in Spanish at my age of 45.”

  Shakira was born 2 February 1977 9.30 am or 10.08 am Colombia, which gives her a Fixed Grand Cross of a Sun Aquarius opposition Saturn in Leo square Uranus opposition Jupiter – beyond-stubborn, enduring and changeable. Plus she has an emotional Cancer Moon opposition Mars making her inclined to fly off the handle. And an intense and possessive Pluto in the 7^th.

He was born 2 February 1987 4.22 am Barcelona, Spain, and is also a Sun Aquarius in a controlling square to Pluto; with a Moon and Mars both in Aries and his Venus, Uranus and Saturn in Sagittarius – excitable and restless.

  The miracle is they lasted together as long as they did. Her Pluto opposes his 4^th house Mars which would set up a bitter power struggle; her argumentative, short-fused Moon opposition Mars falls across his 8^th/2^nd intensifying the effect with financial implications;  her Uranus is conjunct his Pluto for constant turmoil; and her Neptune is conjunct his Ascendant Saturn which would damp his enthusiasm and make him uncertain.

Her Venus is conjunct his Moon would help slightly and the relationship chart did have an affectionate composite Sun Venus. But that apart it sets the scene for a running oneupmanship battle with composite Jupiter opposition Pluto; an explosive Mars square Uranus; and a strained Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Moon. That last has overtones of a fated connection that was meant to be but impossible to live with.

  He looks more rattled than he is letting on with his Progressed Moon square his 4^th house Mars exactly at the moment and his Progressed Mars squaring his Sun in the months to come. So he is uptight and seething.

  Shakira may be about to meet the love of her life this year with her Progressed Sun about to conjunct her Venus and is certainly in for good luck when tr Uranus is conjunct her Jupiter from mid 2023 into 2024 which may help her tax problem.

An amusing distraction from the woes of the universe.

The discovery of classified files from Joe Biden’s time as vice-president stashed at a former office and two of his homes has taken the glow off his recent run of successes. The scandal threatens to embarrass his administration just as the FBI criminally investigates Donald Trump, for putting the nation’s security at risk by mishandling classified information. There is a difference in that Trump hoarded nearly 100 classified documents at his Florida estate and refused to hand them over until the FBI raided his property. Biden’s supporters insist his files only numbered 10 and his staff turned them over, though waiting until the mid terms were over to announce the fact which has a sniff of dirty politics. But perception is all and any defence is going to sound like splitting hairs to many who only glance at the headlines.

  Biden has had a run of political triumphs so far in terms of progressive acts passed and economic management so his shoe-in for 2024 seemed inevitable although most Democrats would prefer another candidate. But the second half of his term was always when trouble was going to brew so all bets are off until nearer the date.  

 On his Administration chart, 20 January 2021 11.48 am Washington, DC, pressure will start to mount with tr Pluto square the Moon from now till early February, and escalate further with tr Pluto conjunct the Term Sun from late March in and off till late 2024. With a run of discouraging and disruptive Solar Arcs through this year and next – SA Sun conjunct Saturn; SA Saturn square Mars Uranus through 2023/24 as well; SA Saturn conjunct Jupiter in 18 months and SA Pluto square Moon in 2024. It will get progressively more challenging between now and the election.

 His own chart is especially rattled and disaster-prone mid February to mid March and again mid November to late December this year with tr Neptune opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint – though that could be anything other than the above, including a dose of flu.  Mid February to late March also has a devastating and confused Sun/Neptune midpoint triggered, which returns twice again in 2023 and on until late 2024.

  The May 5 Lunar Eclipse will rattle up his Mars for an argument or two; with a few outbursts as tr Uranus opposes two Mars midpoints and his Mercury from late May 2023 onwards. Plus other less than helpful midpoints.  He will rev up in confidence from late February 2024 for two years on and off with tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint but whether that is enough to carry off the election remains to be seen. He also has tr Pluto trine his 10^th house Neptune in 2024/25 which may not be helpful for ambitions and personal glory trips.

  Merrick Garland, the AG, who has been landed with the task of nailing down Trump and now overseeing the investigation of Biden is having a year of massive upheaval with tr Uranus opposition his Scorpio Sun and square his Pluto and tr Neptune square his Venus.  He was sworn in on a Sun Neptune conjunction which never bodes well – indecisive, over timid, a dither-and-delay term. His relationship with Trump is aggravated at the best of times and in a state of disruption through March.  His relationship with Joe Biden is stressed for the next two months, edgy thereafter and up in the air in 2024.

Ominous signs that an undead Boris Johnson may bounce back from his ignominious dismissal last year to joust for high office again are causing ripples of alarm. He’s being punted by the far right ERG, concerned that a ‘leftist’ Rishi Sunak may renege on hard-line Brexit policies.

  Since he withdrew, having been able to only summon support from less than a third of the Parliamentary party, he’s been busy filling the coffers, benefiting from more than £2.5m in earnings from speeches, hospitality, free accommodation, gifts and donations to his new company, The Office of Boris Johnson. He is topping the leaderboard of MPs in terms of donations and cash from work unrelated to his MP job.

Wealthy Tory donor Lord Bamford has given him use of a £20m London townhouse and a cottage in the Cotswolds; his office recently took £1m from Christopher Harborne, an investor in crypto and aviation fuel based in Thailand, who is a Farage/Brexit supporter; and he recently received more than £250,000 for a speech in Singapore about blockchain, the technology behind crypto currency.

 His carelessness about where he takes his funding is likely to tell against him. And his relationship with the Tory Party (1912) is on a downhill slide throughout this year into early 2024 with tr Neptune square the composite Mars plus a few other divisive arguments from May onwards.

  His chart is mixed ahead with his Solar Arc Jupiter and Progressed Mars closing in on his Midheaven over the coming year (dependent on birth time being accurate) which suggests his ambitions will be undiminished in coming years, if anything he’ll go into super-charged mode. The question is where?

  For the immediate future he has tr Saturn moving into Pisces in March, putting a chill on his scattergun Mutable T Square – first squaring his Mars in March and then proceeding to cross his Saturn for his Second Saturn return and oppose his Uranus – which will be around all year.  That will induce high levels of irritability about setbacks.  Plus he has the emotionally intense tr Pluto square his Scorpio Moon from late March, on and off till late 2024. Tr Uranus will be making a final hit on his Jupiter opposition Neptune through next month (February) to mid March which will bring high hopes that then hit the ground with a thud as a hard reality check steps in.

  What will be of key importance and worth watching is the May 5^th Scorpio Lunar Eclipse which sits exactly on top of his Neptune and opposes his Jupiter. Into 2024 from April onwards tr Neptune squares his Sun Venus which is usually not helpful for high ambition and tr Saturn will oppose his Pluto as well. Plus he picks up discouraging Pluto hard aspects to midpoints.

   Carrie Symonds, his wife, 17 March 1988, a charming, possessive and excitable triple conjunction in Capricorn plus Mars with a Pisces New Moon is catching tr Neptune earlier as it is in an undermining conjunction with her Sun from this May onwards into 2024. May 2023 looks an especially fraught month for her with tr Uranus hitting one of her Mars midpoints as well.

  Her relationship with Boris has been sagging under his demotion with tr Neptune conjunct their composite Mars in 2022 and returning for a final time early January to mid February; with pressure and tensions mounting from mid February onwards from midpoints.

  Both are high-wire, over-reactive and ambitious personalities so a life of enforced idleness is not on the cards.

  Never say never but I’d reckon it was more rather than less likely that he is persuaded to go elsewhere. Jupiter moves into his 8^th house from this July for a year which will bring more money his way for a year so he may get distracted by cash registers ringing, especially if Westminster rules are tightened to prevent politicians raking in questionable money.

The Ukraine invasion drags on heading for its first anniversary in late February. A diplomatic solution for a peaceful settlement is all but impossible with Putin preparing for a spring offensive with a surge in recruitment, emboldened by a rare victory in capturing the town of Soledar.

   The consensus now among leading western states is that the only way to persuade Russia that it cannot succeed in its war of conquest is for Ukraine’s armed forces to liberate much more territory. ‘Vladimir Putin’s current strategy is bleak and uncompromising. He appears to believe that even with a military stalemate Russia can outlast Ukraine, along with its western backers, by putting his economy and society on a war footing.’ Russian warships left Novorossiysk this week, prompting renewed fears of a landing from the Black Sea.

  The pressure is on Western allies to send tanks and armoured vehicles. Britain, France, Finland and Poland are preparing to fulfil their promises though Germany and the US are still dragging their heels. Military experts believe that Russia will launch its multipronged attack in the spring to divert Ukrainian resources away from Donetsk and Luhansk.

     German Chancellor Olaf Scholz known for his cautious style, has for months voiced hesitancy about supplying tanks for fear of escalating the conflict and provoking Putin, who has hinted he could resort to nuclear weapons. Scholz may only be act on tanks if he can do so in tandem with the USA. “He needs the cover of a nuclear power,” said an analyst. “A European consortium might not be enough for him.”

  Sorting through relevant charts what stands out on several of them are key Astro-markers at 18 degrees Fixed signs which suggests that late April into early May when tr Uranus is at 18 Taurus will be a point to watch. It may be a coincidence and the North Node has retrograded away from the degree which made 1 August 2022 a potentially momentous time in history (see previous post 17 June 2022) but it does resonate.

Neither the Ukraine country chart, 24 August 1991 2.31pm. Kiev nor Zelensky’s personal or term chart looked as if 2023 would be the year of triumph.

  Ukraine has tr Neptune opposing its Mars from mid March to mid April 2023 and on and off till February 2024 which usually accompanies a panicky sense of sagging morale and failed plans. With a seismic upheaval and change of direction in April when tr Uranus opposes the 10^th house Pluto for the final time. Where tensions lift and luck returns will be around mid 2024 onwards with tr Uranus square the Jupiter; though 2024/25 will be an uphill struggle with tr Pluto conjunct Saturn, which would be the case even if hostilities ceased with a massive rebuilding exercise needed.

  Zaluzhnyi, the Ukrainian miliary chief, will have ups and downs through 2023 with a specific setback around late April/early May and successes later in the year. 

  Zelensky’s personal chart, 25 January 1978 2pm Krivoj Rog, Ukraine, will be rattled considerably by tr Uranus opposition his Uranus in March square his Moon in April and his Midheaven shortly after; plus a trapped, scary and frustrating tr Pluto opposition his Mars from late March on and off till late 2024. Plus a dashed-hopes tr Neptune square his 1^st house Jupiter from May onwards into 2024.

  His Term chart, 20 May 2019 10am, has a reasonably productive tr Pluto trine the Sun, Mercury through this year; though also an enthusiasm-undermining Solar Arc Neptune square the Jupiter within weeks.

  Zelensky’s relationship chart with Olaf Scholz, the overly cautious German Chancellor, is under a damp cloud later at the moment and sagging badly with disappointment through 2023.

 Ukraine’s relationship with the EU will be under major strain from late this March and proving a disappointment from May onward.

  What is pivotal – maybe – is Putin’s survival, though there’s no saying if he goes, the same or worse might not follow in the Kremlin. His 4^th Term chart’s lucky/over confident Sun opposition Jupiter will pick up tr Uranus hard aspects late March to mid May, which might fit with a spring offensive. But before then he has the destabilising tr Pluto square the Term Uranus from mid February on and off till late 2024 – which often coincides with fall-off-perch-moments for leaders. Plus he has the increasingly desperate, high-risk, frustrated and ruthless Solar Arc Pluto getting to the same degree as the Mars in three months and exact within 6 months – so a last and final brutal push.

 The Ukraine Invasion chart of 23 February 2022 has Saturn at 18 degrees Aquarius so it will be rattled in late April/early May 2023 by the tr Uranus square. That chart has the North Node conjunct Algol as well as a savage Pluto, Mars, Venus conjunction and an over-hopeful Jupiter Neptune in Pisces.

  That’s the best I can do – looks to be escalating towards spring and dragging on for another year.  Poor Ukrainians.

Pic: Map on Spring Offensive from The Times.