Marjorie

Donald Rumsfeld, Defence Secretary under GW Bush and principal architect of the calamitous Iraq invasion post 9/11, has died.  Kissinger called him the most ruthless man he ever met. John McCain called Rumsfeld “one of the worst secretaries of defence in history”. He had the unique distinction of being both the youngest (under Gerald Ford) and oldest man to be US secretary of defence and served four presidents in different roles.

  His arrogant refusal to acknowledge intelligence or listen to military advice plunged Iraq into civil war, that cost trillions of dollars and caused the deaths of 4,500 US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. The US occupation fomented international terrorism, making America more of a target while undermining its global stature. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were also blots on his record. GWB finally fired him. Rumsfeld He never expressed remorse or regret for his actions, lies or mistakes subsequently.

 He was born 9 July 1932 5.40pm Chicago, Illinois and had an intense, deeply buried and controlling 8^th house Sun Pluto in Cancer in a disruptive square to Uranus – he relished wielding power behind the scenes and upsetting the status quo. He also had an assertive/argumentative Mars in Gemini on his Descendant which was widely trine Saturn in cool Aquarius trine a Libra Moon conjunct his Midheaven.

  When 9/11 happened tr Pluto in Sagittarius was exactly opposition his Mars and tr Saturn in Gemini was conjunct so the destructiveness of 9/11 aroused his anger and brought him to the fore. His Solar Arc Pluto was also conjunct his Midheaven then boosting his propensity for ruthlessness and control freakery.

  His relationship chart with the USA 1776 has a hard-edged, can-be-damaging composite Mars opposition Saturn Moon which was also in the line of fire of the war-mongering tr Saturn opposition tr Pluto.

  His relationship chart with the hapless GW Bush had a monstrously difficult, bullying and calamitous composite Pluto Venus Mars square Saturn.

  He and the other Iraq-attack promoter Dick Cheney made an unpleasant pair. Cheney, 30 January 1941 7.30pm Lincoln, NE, is a Sun Aquarius opposition Pluto square Jupiter Saturn in Taurus – driven by power and money.  His Neptune is conjunct Rumsfeld’s Midheaven for a slippery and ultimately harmful connection.

Dozens of people have died in Canada amid an unprecedented heatwave with temperatures up to 20 degrees above average. Lytton in British Columbia reached a record 49.6C on Tuesday, more than five degrees hotter than Canada’s former highest temperature, which, until this week, stood for 84 years.

 The Canada national chart isn’t too informative but the recent 10 June Solar Eclipse set for Vancouver certainly is. It puts a can-be-destructive Pluto conjunct the Midheaven in a brutal opposition to Mars in the domestic 4^th.

  The Lunar Eclipse of 24 May, still in effect, is much the same with Pluto in the 10^th opposition Mars in the 4^th on the IC; and disruptive and ‘unique’ Uranus on the Ascendant.

  Vancouver itself was incorporated on 6 April 1886 and it has a ‘collision’ Solar Arc Mars square the Sun exactly now. British Columbia, 20 July 1871,  is in a tumultuous time of change picking up last year with tr Pluto opposition the Uranus and in a confused square to Neptune, continuing through this year and then tr Pluto opposing the Sun in 2022/23 so there will be challenges ahead.  

  For events like this often Eclipse charts are the most useful.  

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Gwen Berry, the US hammer thrower has responded to criticism after she turned away from the American flag on the podium at the Olympic trials medal ceremony, saying she “never said that I hated the country. All I said was I respect my people enough to not stand or acknowledge something that disrespects them.” She draped a T-shirt carrying the words “activist athlete” over her head. Joe Biden issued a statement saying that “part of the pride in our country means recognizing there are moments where we haven’t lived up to our highest ideals. And it means respecting the rights of people granted to them in the Constitution to peacefully protest.” Other athletes have offered support to her.

   In 2019, Berry lost some of her sponsorships after raising her fist in protest on the podium at the Pan American Games in Peru and received a 12-month probation from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee for the act. She has accused critics of her protest of favouring “patriotism over basic morality”.

  Born 29 June 1989 St Louis, Missouri, she has a Cancer Sun opposition the highly-strung, can-be-tinged-with-genius and also chaotic Saturn, Neptune, Uranus conjunction in Capricorn and trine Pluto. The Sun Neptune Pluto marks her out as more than usually ambitious. Her Pluto is also in an angry and aggravated square to Mars in flamboyant Leo with her Mars in an enthusiastic conjunction to Venus.  Plus she has her North Node in dedicated-to-a-cause Aquarius.

  She’s certainly determined, enraged, uncompromising and unpredictable. Her Moon is in stubborn and earthy Taurus. Tr Neptune square her Jupiter this year until early 2023 will dash a few of her hopes; the tr Saturn square tr Uranus will tug at her aggravated Mars square Pluto; and there are muddled, unhelpful Solar Arcs in 2022 so it won’t be easy in the immediate future.

  If I’m honest I’d have to admit to being conflicted. There are clearly huge and ongoing injustices that keep not being addressed which do damage to a goodly chunk of the population – and they need to be faced up to and brought under control.  I quite understand why those in a position to make a stand do so.

  And yet and yet – maybe its just compassion fatigue or oppression exhaustion – it does jar. As do the present run of USA TV police crime and medical series which have gone into propaganda mode. Which is perfectly understandable at one level given the inequities perpetrated against the black community.  And I am a huge believer in drama being a good vehicle for putting new ideas out into the culture. But but but – is it effective?  I’m not sure.

Pic: jenaragon94

Jill Biden has made it to the front cover of Vogue looking cheerful, energetic and capable with neither she nor Joe, as yet, giving any indication of the turbulence hinted at in the disruptive Inauguration chart.

  She’s an odd mix with her husband, having a chatty, argumentative Sun Mars in Gemini on the focal point of a go-ahead Jupiter in Aries trine Pluto. She’s no submissive, arm-candy wife.  Her Moon may be late Taurus/early Gemini.

  Her Sun, maybe Moon, fall in his 7^th house which is good for partnerships but her Sun Mars are conjunct his Saturn Uranus possibly her Moon as well, which will be scratchy if they are together for extended periods without the distraction of high-powered careers. Though her Moon may oppose his Sun Venus in Scorpio which will add an affectionate touch. Her Venus in Cancer is also conjunct his Jupiter which will smooth round rough edges. Her Saturn in hard-working Virgo sits in his 10^th so she will keep him organised.

  Their relationship chart has a confident and lucky composite Sun square Jupiter and a tied-together Saturn Pluto conjunction on the focal point of a look-on-the-bright-side mini-Grand Trine of Jupiter trine Neptune.

  The Solar and Lunar Eclipses this year are impacting her Sun Mars in Gemini especially the upcoming December Sagittarius Eclipse as she makes the tricky transition into a goldfish bowl existence. There will be arguments, crises, significant turning points now and until mid 2022. Where she will start to be uncertain will be when tr Neptune opposes her Saturn from May 2022, on and off into early 2023; and she also has a calamitous Solar Arc Mars conjunct her Pluto, hitting exact late 2022/early 2023.

  The strain on the Inauguration chart shows up around 2023 and 2024 with the Solar Arc Sun in a downbeat, stuck conjunction to Saturn early in 2023, followed by tr Pluto conjunct the Inauguration Sun from late March 2023 onwards, on and off till late 2024. Then Solar Arc Saturn closes the aggravated, accident-prone and explosive square to Mars and Uranus to exact in early and mid 2024.

  Joe Biden’s personal chart also hints at a gathering storm through 2023/24. The Scorpio/Taurus Eclipses of 2022 will pose some challenges with a rolling disaster or two from tr Neptune opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint from April 2022 onwards for a year; and the pressures will mount in 2023 with confusion, indecision, vagueness with high hopes not producing results. With 2024 looking disaster strewn and again disappointing.

  Kamala Harris will be under rising pressures with tr Pluto square her Libra Sun through 2022/23; with panicky-failures in 2022, a significant setback around the fall of 2023 and high uncertainty and anxiety through 2024.

  The four years of the USA moving through its First Pluto Return will take its toll.  The USA chart also shows 2024/25 as troublesome, accident-prone and worrisome years with the Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the USA Mars and then square the USA Neptune.

See previous Post: 4 March 2020

Lebanon once dubbed the ‘Switzerland of the East’ for its financial prowess and the playboy-capital Beirut as the ‘Paris of the Middle East’ for its vibrant cultural and social life is in a sorry state. A ruinous civil war, wholesale corruption at a high level, an economic crisis with currency devaluation pushing the Lebanese pound to 16,000 to the dollar from 1,500 18 months ago, and a breakdown of public services largely due to an inability to form an effective government have reduced the country to rubble. ‘For many households, basic services including health, electricity, water, internet and education are almost out of reach, but this has made little impact on politicians intent on protecting a patronage system run along the sectarian lines that has undermined competent governance for decades.’

   The Lebanon, 1 January 1944 12 am chart, is riddled with three Yods with focal points Sun, Mercury, Saturn respectively so it was always going to plough a fairly unique furrow and be under periodic strain, even more so than most countries. The ‘leadership’ North Node is conjunct Pluto and the Part of Fortune which does suggest extremes of prosperity and the opposite as Pluto goes in for periodic purging phases – deconstruction and reconstruction. Although this modern chart only started in 1944, it will have resonances with the much older charts – and at one point three thousand years ago Lebanon was home to the Phoenicians who had an expansive maritime trade network that lasted over a millennium and was the dominant commercial power for much of classical antiquity. Like most empires it eventually crumbled only to rise up later and repeat.

  Last year’s mammoth explosion which was in part a result of corruption but was also a symbolic parallel for the present widespread destruction. It occurred when the Solar Arc Neptune was opposition the focal point Saturn and tr Pluto was moving across the focal point Mercury. Both these influences are still around this year.

    In the past the international community, in particular France, has always come to the rescue but there is a hardening of attitudes until there is internal reform of both the government and national finances. The Bank of Lebanon chart, 1 August 1963, is highly stressed until mid decade with a run of difficult Solar Arcs – so any attempts to put the country onto a sensible track won’t happen overnight. The country chart has a faint indication of better news come 2024 when the Solar Arc Mars Uranus is conjunct the Jupiter.

See previous post August 5 2020

Pic	User:BlingBling10

Sajid Javid has been made the new Health Secretary. He was formerly Home Secretary and latterly Chancellor until he resigned after disagreements with Boris about his independence in the role following a stand-off with bully-boy Dom Cummings.

   He was born 5 December 1969 in Rochdale, England with immigrant parents, had a comprehensive school education followed by provincial university and then a sparkling career in banking in New York and with Deutsche Bank, earning gzillions.

  He’s a Sun Sagittarius with a confident and adventurous Jupiter in Libra (and Moon) trine Mars in Aquarius, sextiling onto Mercury in outspoken Sagittarius. His Mercury is also in an intense and determined square to Pluto. It’s a chart that really needs a birth time to pull it together.

  His Sun will be in the line of fire from this coming December’s Solar Eclipse which will be challenging. But he does have a super-confident tr Pluto square his Jupiter from early 2022 till late 2023 which will help as he takes on the herculean task of overseeing the end of the pandemic and then catching up on the backlog of neglected health cases and overseeing reforms moving ahead. Where he looks less ebullient will be 2023/4.

  His relationship with Boris isn’t great at the best of times and is sliding and slipping through 2021/2022. He’ll be jousting with Michael Gove for supremacy as well with a few clashes.

  There’s positive and negative on his interface with the NHS as his Jupiter is trine the NHS Mercury, Uranus, Venus and Moon and his Mercury is conjunct the NHS Jupiter. But his Uranus is conjunct the NHS Neptune and square the NHS Cancer Sun and his Pluto is conjunct the NHS Mars and squares their Gemini planets – so there will be a fair amount of pushing and pulling, and resistance internally.

  The NHS is in a swampy phase with tr Neptune opposition the Mars, now till early 2023, and opposition the Venus, Uranus, Mercury until Neptune moves out of Pisces in 2025; with major bumps on the road from tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on the Pluto Saturn in Leo.

  Brexit hasn’t helped with curbs on foreign workers coming in on whom the NHS rely. And then there is the political hot potato which to date no one has dared to tackle – making people pay for at least part of their treatment. Most of Europe works on a basis of part state funded, part private insurance funded. Apart from anything else it would stop nuisance visits to GPs/A&E hospital units from time wasters.  

The shine has worn off the Trump family brand with even Ivanka and Jared reportedly jumping overboard after catching flak over the January 6^th outrage. Senior’s inability to let go his obsessive grievance and his hours-a-day ranting over ‘a stolen election’ is also evidently grating. Plus he’s jealous about Kushner’s “seven-figure” book deal and fears he’ll claim credit for pa-in-law’s achievements. Last but not least the Manhattan district attorney is circling the wagons with the first suggestion of possible criminal charges against the Trump Organization. The initial sally, which sounds minor enough, will put the spotlight on CFO Allen Weisselberg, whom they are trying to turn.

   The relationship charts between Trump and both Ivanka and Jared indicate there is the start of year-long phase of hyper-anxiety, confusion and paralysis from July 7^th with tr Uranus opposition the composite Neptune in both – even more jarring for Jared since that forms part of the composite Yod with his father-in-law. That Yod always hinted at two things – a relationship that would irrevocably change the lives of both and an underlying ego-battle where only one could win. That influence runs on and off into May 2022.

  This covers the time when Trump’s personal chart goes into financial and career meltdown. He has the chaotic, scandal-prone and physically undermining tr Pluto conjunct his Sun/Neptune midpoint July to mid August and again this December. Then he has two poleaxing Solar Arcs – his Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his 2^nd house Neptune and his Solar Arc Neptune opposing his 10^th house Uranus. They will both come exact in three months though can trigger early. From late this July tr Neptune returns to square his Sun and then retrogrades in aspect to his Moon and back again until March 2022. Returning with one final hit to his Sun in November 2022 to January 2023.  Plus the tr Uranus square tr Saturn is hitting on his Pluto and calamitous Mars/Saturn midpoint through this year into early 2022.

  There’s clearly more than ripples running through the family with the composite Suns of Ivanka with Don Jnr and Eric and even Jared all catching the upcoming December Sagittarius Eclipse head on – and that usually points to a crisis or two in the months after.

 Ivanka this year is still picking up the super-confident tr Pluto square her Jupiter though it could push her to take unnecessary risks which end up in conflict with authority figures. But she’s still having a discouraging uphill struggle with worse in 2022/23/24 when she runs in disasters and failures. Jared will also hit acute frustrations and aggravations in 2023/24.

 Weisselberg, 15 August 1947, is into his bumpiest patch for years with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on his Pluto Saturn in Leo this year. He’s pretty rock solid and has shown no sign so far of flipping on Trump but their relationship chart is showing signs of acute stress this year with much much worse come 2022/23.  

See previous post February 28 2021.

The manifest failings of health secretary Matt Hancock have always been in plain sight – screw ups over PPE for health workers, and cronyism over contracts, Covid-infected hospital patients dumped back in care homes and a test-and-trace system that didn’t work. All of which caught him in Dom Cummings’ crosshairs and he was scud-missiled with an expose of Boris’s contempt for his abilities. All of which begged the question why is he still there? To which the answer was simple – he is Boris’s human shield, to deflect and soak up criticism.

  Whether this latest embarrassment – a “steamy clinch” with Gina Coladangelo, the lobbyist and long-term friend he took on as an aide last year (initially undeclared), who was subsequently given a paid non-executive directorship at the Department of Health, will be the final straw that broke the camel’s back is moot. And that last sentence contains at least three political transgressions that should bin him for good.

  There are conflicting views about what comes next. Some say No 10 would worry he might tell his own version of the past two years if freed of ministerial responsibility. Others despair that if he stays the government is seen as sleazy, hypocritical and arrogant –  one rule for them and another for the rest of us.

  Hancock born 2 October 1978 is a New Moon, Mercury, Pluto in Libra with an ultra-determined, risk-taking, seductive (and vengeful) Venus, Uranus, Mars in Scorpio. His Jupiter in flamboyant Leo is in an opportunistic square to Mars which in turn is exactly in opposition to Chiron. That hardly suits him for his present role but the emphasised Jupiter may explain his Teflonesque abilities to survive in the face of repeated failures.

   Within a few days tr Uranus will oppose his Uranus for his mid life crisis which may upend his life and ambitions; plus a panicky/confused/devastated tr Saturn square his Sun/Neptune midpoint now and square his Mars/Uranus midpoint also from July 7^th, which latter can accompany a violent separation.

  That coincides with tr Uranus squaring the composite North Node and Mercury on his relationship chart with Boris, which is surprisingly competitive, with hints of power struggles, and backs up the notion that he would be a risk if dumped onto the back benches.  He’s not quite the bland nonentity he looks. Whatever happens he’s in for a shockingly bad 2022/23 with tr Pluto square his Mars/Pluto and Saturn/Neptune midpoints.

Princess Charlene of Monaco is in a tumultuous year with her husband Prince Albert facing yet another paternity suit (denied) to add to his two previous illegitimate children. In addition she has been suffering from complications to a severe ear, nose and throat infection which has kept her in her native South Africa since January, though Albert and their twin children have visited her.

  It was always a marriage predicted to hit the skids after a respectable interval having produced an heir, with the bride in tears at the wedding, supposedly having bolted just before and always looking sad since.

  Their relationship chart is exceptionally stressed with a composite one-sided, unfair-treatment composite Mars Saturn conjunct Moon and trine Sun; with the Sun inconjunct Uranus and Mercury inconjunct Pluto. Admittedly the Sun is opposition Jupiter for superficial largesse and square Neptune giving it an ethereal aura but it was always going to end in disappointment.

  The ties that bind are starting to unravel this year with tr Neptune opposition the composite Pluto and aggravating challenges will mount through 2022 to 2025 as tr Pluto squares the composite Saturn, then Mars, then Moon. It won’t be a harmonious split with the children no doubt being a major stumbling block.

  Charlene, a charming Sun Venus in Aquarius with a Leo Moon  does have her marriage-significator Sun/Moon midpoint showing signs of separation and marital upsets throughout this year into early 2022; with emotional and family upheavals from mid 2022 onwards as tr Uranus squares her 4^th house Moon.  Intriguingly she has tr Uranus crossing her Ascendant and moving through her 1st house from this year onwards for seven years ahead – Princess Diana had similar when she made her bid for freedom.  And Charlene has also been making radical statements with her appearance, sporting a very un-Princess-like shaved hair-cut.

  Prince Albert, a downbeat and Saturnine Pisces with a hidden Capricorn Moon has been in a trapped phase since his 2011 marriage, a belated affair in his fifties so clearly not his favoured state, with tr Pluto moving through his 8^th.  Pluto will conjunct his 8^th house Mars from early 2022 to late 2023 which will be depressing and totally road-blocked emotionally, financially and psychologically; and even before then tr Neptune is in an undermining conjunction to his Sun exactly now repeating to early 2023 and will move to square his 7^th house Saturn from mid 2022 onwards.