DMX – wounded beyond repair

DMX, the American rapper, has died young at 50 of a heart attack brought on by years of drug abuse to a litany of anguished praise by music critics. One described him as a “colossus, a fire-starter and a healer.” Another said “he was a force of nature, an all-or-nothing character who could be profound but also self-destructive.” He fathered 15 kids, sold 23m records, totalled sports car after sports car and moved in and out of prison for petty crimes – drug possession, aggravated assault, driving without a license, tax evasion. He rescued stray dogs, but also pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges.

  The source of his pain and chaos was a childhood from hell, in which he was physically abused by his mother and her boyfriends, spent time in group homes, was introduced to vodka aged 7 by an aunt and to crack cocaine by a music mentor in his teens. In his performance he barked like a dog because angry strays became rare friends during spells of teenage homelessness.

 He was born 18 December 1970, no birth time sadly, New York and had a Sagittarius Sun square Pluto, the legacy of an absent father who was literally out of his control. He also had that emotionally impulsive and super-intense Venus Mars conjunction, in his case even more ramped up being in Scorpio. Though it would be warped by an opposition to Saturn in Taurus, giving him major anger issues. His Mercury in Capricorn was in an outspoken square to Uranus and trine Saturn.

  His Jupiter in Scorpio was square the North/South Node axis which may have been a minor saving grace for him, giving him highs to counter-balance the crashing suicidal lows he suffered from and sang about.

  His creative 5th and 7th harmonic are strong; as was his self-defeating ‘Wheel of Fortune’ 10H and can-be-fanatical 11H.

It’s a tragic comparison to Prince Philip, also born with an absent father and otherwise occupied mother, but somehow got it together.  It’s drugs that are the real killer in terms of damaging lives beyond repair.  

Rachael Blackmore – riding into the history books

Rachael Blackmore, an Irish steeplechase jockey in her early thirties, has become the first woman to win the Grand National at Aintree. Afterwards she said: “I don’t feel male or female right now,” she said. “I don’t even feel human.” She added, “You need some luck to get around with no one else interfering and you need so much to go right, and things went right for me today. I just feel so incredibly lucky.”

Women have been competing for 44 years but this is a significant first. She’s had a good season with wins in the Champion Hurdle at last month’s Cheltenham Festival, where she left as the leading jockey despite nursing bruises after four falls. Another female jockey said “She has taken some terrible falls and bounced back — she really is an animal. The mental strength she has is something to behold.”

  Born 11 July 1989 in Killenaule, Ireland, she has a highly-strung and passionate chart. Her Cancer Sun Mercury are trine Pluto and sit on the opposite side of the zodiac from the can-be-chaotic or can-be-tinged-with-genius triple conjunction in Capricorn. Her full-on Mars Venus in Leo is in a do-or-die determined square to Pluto. She also probably has an Air Grand Trine of Jupiter in Gemini trine Node in Aquarius trine a Libra Moon.

  Her Solar Arc Jupiter is catching the tr Pluto opposition at the moment and throughout this year and next which should bring luck and success her way. Though 2022/23 also look accident-prone which is the bane of race jockeys’ lives so she’ll need to take care.

  Her get-it-together 5th harmonic is strong, even more so her 7H. And intriguingly her breakthrough 13H is the most notable as she demolishes one more barrier.

Prince Philip – the passing of an era ++ his parents

Prince Philip has died just short of his 100th birthday in June.

  Born 10 June 1921 Corfu, Greece, time maybe 10am, into the Greek and Danish royal families he had a peripatetic childhood with the family exiled when he was an enfant and he was educated in France, Germany and the UK. He served in the British Royal Navy with distinction in World War 11 and married the then Princess Elizabeth in 1947.

  He had an assertive and hyper-active Sun Mars in Gemini with his Sun on the focal point of a scattered Mutable T square to Jupiter Saturn in hard-working Virgo opposition Uranus. His Mercury in Cancer close to Pluto and trine Uranus would give him a tendency to express himself forcefully.  His Venus in indulgent Taurus was square Neptune and widely a Leo Moon.

  It was by no means an easy match with Elizabeth though her Sun conjunct his Venus would help, as did her enthusiastic Mars Jupiter in his 7th (10am being accurate BT) and both shared a flamboyant Leo Moon and Neptune – all of which would help to smooth some rough edges. But the relationship chart with a Mars opposition Saturn flags up the one-sided, self-sacrificing nature of the bond, as he had to give up his family names and career to become he-who-walked-behind. It did undoubtedly cause aggravations and irritability as well as resentment.  There’s also a Yod of Uranus sextile Sun Mercury inconjunct Saturn – which indicates a relationship which would change the lives of both irrevocably. There was on the plus side a passionate composite Venus square Pluto, a morale-boosting Sun opposition Jupiter; and a gloss-over-problems Venus trine Moon Neptune. It’s also notable that the Queen’s chart is extraordinarily Fixed while his is weighted to the more adaptable Mutable. Oddly enough Gunther Sachs study found Taurus and Gemini one of the longer lasting matches which wouldn’t seem intuitive but it clearly works.

  The Wedding chart, 20 November 1947 11am London was also exceedingly fraught with Mars Saturn (Pluto) opposition Moon square Saturn – a simmering volcano of aggravation but also arguably the toughness of the aspects was what gave it the strength to endure – since in those days bolting was not an option.

  At the moment the Queen has tr Saturn exactly on the opposition to her 12 degree Leo Moon with tr Uranus moving to square her Moon from late May.  Prince Edward, who oddly on the astro seems to have been the child closest to him, also looks rattled with tr Uranus square his Aquarius Moon exactly now. Andrew has tr Uranus opposition his 4th house Neptune for a highly-strung reaction; and Anne has tr Saturn just into her 4th house, which rules childhood/father.

  Prince Charles has tr Neptune square his Mars this year, just a few days off the exact, so he will be feeling undermined.

  What is heart-warming is how the Queen and Philip spent more time together recently because of the pandemic – and how their relationship weathered the storms to come together in recent years as a rock-solid partnership.

  The UK chart has tr Saturn square the 8th house (rules death) Mars as the country reflects on the passing of an era.

  Scary to think what might come apart at the seams when the Queen moves on.  

Add ON: His mother Princess Alice, a great granddaughter of Queen Victoria, had a troubled life being congenitally deaf, forced into exile, despatched to a sanatorium after a breakdown when Philip was nine years old and diagnosed as schizophrenic. After she came out she devoted her life to charitable works in Greece, sheltering Jewish refugees in WW11 and setting up an order of nursing nuns. She spent her last two years living in Buckingham Palace. She was born 25 February 1885 4.40pm Windsor, England.

 His father Prince Andrew of Denmark and Greece, 2 February 1882, left the family to live with his mistress in Monte Carlo in 1930 and died in 1944, not having seen his wife or son since the outbreak of war.

 Princess Alice had a highly-strung Sun Mars in Pisces opposition Jupiter square Pluto with Saturn in Gemini – a highly Mutable chart like her son and indeed Queen Victoria who was a Sun, Moon in Gemini with Saturn Pluto in Pisces square Uranus Neptune in Sagittarius. The Queen’s father George V1 was also weighted towards Mutable with a Sun Mars Mercury in Sagittarius and Neptune Pluto in Gemini. Mutable is restless, nervy, scattered, often sharply intelligent because of the Mercurial nature of it. What a mercy the Queen is so Fixed.

  Prince Andrew of Denmark and Greece was a Sun Venus in Aquarius square an impractical, over expansive Jupiter Neptune in Taurus. Like Philip he had Mars in Gemini.

  Philp’s connection with neither was easy. The relationship chart with his father had an aggravated, bitter and undermining Pluto Mars Neptune square Venus. With his mother there was an argumentative Sun Mars and a living-through-times-of-constant-change Uranus opposition Pluto tied into Venus.

  It’s a miracle he stood rock steady for all these years in the one marriage.

North Korea – misery piles on misery

‘The Arduous March’ is Kim Jong Un’s euphemistic description of the approaching famine he has flagged up in North Korea, similar he said to the 1990s years of starvation which killed several million people. The 1994-98 disaster years were caused by economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support after the collapse of the USSR. This time round trade with China has come to a standstill with the borders shut due to coronavirus and international sanctions are still in place. All offers of external aid have been rejected and he’s still lashing money out on new missiles. Same old crazy but his poor people are the ones suffering, not the elite.

  The Kim Jong Un leadership chart, 29 December 2011 11.57am, which is the one which is verified, has the erratic tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on the financial Venus this year; but it is 2022/23 when the problems mount with a hardship/deprived tough slog of tr Pluto square the Saturn in 2022/2023 and an explosive, disruptive Solar Arc Mars opposition Uranus in 2023 and an undermining, directionless tr Neptune square the Midheaven by 2024.

 The North Korea, 9 September 1948 chart, looks depressed and stuck this year with Solar Arc Sun square the Saturn and a financially disappointing tr Neptune square Jupiter; tr Uranus squares the Pluto for a considerable upheaval or revolution in 2022; then tr Uranus bumps across the bleak Saturn Pluto midpoints before forming a high-tension, unstable square to the Saturn in 2025. There’s also a raft of truly difficult and damaging Solar Arcs across 2025/2026 as the Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct the Sun for an upheaval/rebellion, and there’s a completely log-jammed and dangerous 2026 with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Mars and Solar Arc Saturn square the Pluto – so not much in the way of sunshine ahead.

  When the mid 1990s famine struck tr Saturn was in Pisces (as it will be 2023-25), the Solar Arc Uranus was conjunct the NK Pluto, the Solar Arc Sun was conjunct the NK Mars; and tr Pluto was crossing the Midheaven for a break down. Some similarities.

Khloe Kardashian – projecting unreality

Khloe Kardashian suffered a cataclysmic misfortune when unedited and un-air-brushed bikini photographs of her appeared on the net. She then wailed about how difficult it is to live up to fans’ demand for perfection without clearly stopping to consider how much she and her ilk have contributed to distorting young women’s idea of what femininity looks like. The celebrity influencer culture is fighting with claw and manicured fingernails to remain relevant with two of the other Kardashians having now unbelievably achieved billionaire status on the back of beauty and fashion businesses. 

  What often strikes me about such women’s charts is how truly difficult they are – most often with afflicted Mars or heavy Pluto. And yet they project this flawless outer image like a polished vase with – one suspects either nothing inside or harbouring a churning cess-pit of dark feelings.

  She has a charming Sun Venus Mercury in Cancer in her performing 5th house opposition Neptune Jupiter  – ethereal, head-in-the-clouds. Yet her Sun Mars Mercury also trines Saturn Mars in Scorpio which is a seriously compacted reservoir of resentment and fear.

  Her older sister Kourtney has Pluto in the 8th opposition Mars, with Mars quincunx Saturn. Next sister Kim has a Sun Pluto conjunction with Mars sextile Saturn and semi-sextile Pluto and a raft of hard-edged midpoints. Half-sister Kendall has Mars square Saturn; and Kylie Mars opposition Saturn. Mars Saturn certainly instils discipline but it does not engender a natural and spontaneous approach to life.

For previous post on Kim Kardashian see January 6 2021.

Pic: By Eric Longden – Vimeo  

Boris – the class clown as wrecker-in-chief

Boris Johnson is still benefiting in the popularity polls from the vaccine bounce and the unaccountable failure of Keir Starmer, the Opposition leader, to sparkle into gear. This despite his Government chart wilting with the undermining tr Neptune square the Sun since late last month, which suggests there is more uncertainty and dither behind the scenes than the graphs suggest.

  There’s not much to add to previous posts except that he is heading to become the PM to risk the break-up of the UK with Scotland in full Braveheart-mode, but also to – unthinkably – be the cause of wrecking the Good Friday Agreement as violence mounts in Northern Ireland. On the latter – his true-believers blame the trouble on the EU’s intransigence when in reality it is the logical consequence of a gung-ho, screw-the-details Brexit, which dismissed Ireland as a tedious irritation, not worthy of consideration.

  What’s intriguing – though this is a touch astro-obscure – is that his relationship charts with the UK, The Good Friday Agreement and the Scotland Act of Union 1707 all contain Yods. Yods amongst other things tend to bring fated changes of direction which can be abrupt and stressed. When Yods appear in a relationship dynamic it suggests unforeseen and extreme shifts in direction for both sides involved and marks their path irrevocably for good or for ill in the aftermath of their coming together. It’s especially marked with the Good Friday Agreement where the highly sensitive ‘reaction’ point in the Yod –  the planet opposition the focal point is Uranus, being disrupted through last year and this by tr Pluto in sextile.

  His relationship chart with the UK has a Yod reaction point of Mars in Taurus, which is being rattled in 2023 by tr Uranus conjunct and also by the Eclipses through 2022 as well. This might well be when a future Scottish Independence Referendum is held – though it would have to be said that Sturgeon looks totally blocked/enraged and Salmond completely deflated by then.  

  I was wondering – comments gratefully received – quite what in the UK chart pointed to the need for a political wrecking-ball like Johnson to upset the applecart at this point. Boris always did feel like a mini-Trump figure – in Kissinger’s example of the sort that turns up at the end of an era.  Pluto in Capricorn’s last karmic payback for past sins; with Uranus in Taurus adding a dollop of financial woes post Brexit, the details of the extensive damage having been obscured so far by the pandemic. It may be almost the end of this decade before the new what-used-to-be-UK entity arises from the ashes.

See previous posts : 5 March 2021 (Brexit a not so merry go round) and 21 February 2021 (Ireland Peace threatened by blundering politicos) and 21 March 2019 (Good Friday Agreement under extreme strain)

Madame Claude – selling gold-plated sex

Pretty Woman, the Julia Roberts movie disneyfied prostitution, with a happy-ever-after ending which was repeated decades earlier by girls of Madame Claude, infamous as the most powerful and exclusive pimp in the world. Her indentured employees were famed for their beauty and sophistication, trained like geishas to fit into elite social circles and often sent for plastic surgery. Netflix is now showing an original French film about the procuress whom JFK, Marlon Brando, Charles de Gaulle and the Shah of Iran amongst many others turned to for their illicit escorts who could mingle with duchesses and never be spotted and some even made it up the altar.

Her client list allegedly spanned kings, presidents, government ministers, ambassadors, and leaders of industry and at her peak she even became an agent of the French state and worked for the CIA in a ‘morale-boosting’ operation. When public distaste for state use of high-level prostitution surfaced she was finally done for tax evasion. Despite subsequent skirmishes with the law she evaded prison time.

  One of her girls said she hated men. ‘She used them strictly to make money and saw them as nothing more than wallets.’ Another likened her to a ‘slave driver on a plantation in the American South.’ She took 30% of their fees as well as any monies spent on their improvement. At her peak she had 200 girls on her books and was charging $5000 a day for their services.

  Born 6 July 1923 9am Angers, France, her earlier years are wreathed in mystery though it was hardly a comfortable or reassuring childhood. She had her Aries Moon in the 8th opposition Saturn in the financial 2nd squaring onto a controlling Sun Pluto in Cancer – not a bundle of compassion, for sure – ego-centric, dominating, cold, hard.

  Her Sun Pluto was also in a self-protective Water Grand Trine to Jupiter in money-making Scorpio trine Uranus, formed into a Kite with Uranus (on cusp of 8th house of sexuality) opposition the Virgo North Node – so definitely out of step with the conventional morals of the society. She also had Mars in Cancer trine Uranus. A Water Grand Trine can be healing but it can also be a fantasist, locked into its own bubble of reality.

  She also had a Yod of Saturn sextile Neptune inconjunct Uranus – which would certainly mark her out for a unique path in life. She would be rebellious, wilful, a trailblazer, uncaring about convention, even lawless. Evidently she is credited with having created the term ‘call girl’ since her clients had to book by telephone.

 She had a daughter who she sent back to be raised by her mother and barely knew.

Sun Pluto in Cancer tied into Saturn and the Moon has echoes of the worst kind of Terrible Mother ever.

Matt Gaetz – a mini-chip off the Trump block

Matt Gaetz, the headline-grabbing Florida Republican congressman, a rabid pro-Trumper and eager conspiracy theorist, is embroiled in a sex scandal that carries real legal jeopardy. It started with reports of sexual relations with a 17-year-old girl and paying for her to cross state lines. (Interstate trafficking of underage children for sex is a federal offence.) And since then has spiralled into a larger inquiry into sex trafficking, started under the approval of AG William Barr, that has led to the indictment of a Gaetz friend and local Florida politician, Joel Greenberg. It hinges round ‘sugar daddy’ websites where women exchange sex for gifts and money.

  Evidently Gaetz showed nude photographs of his conquests around the house and opposed a bill to outlaw revenge porn. Given that he has been one of Trump’s most vocal defenders, the controversy has become the latest proxy battle over the former president’s legacy and ongoing influence. Gaetz has adopted the Trumpian policy of aggressive denials, conceding nothing and hurling accusations at his critics. He is supported by local Florida Republicans who have written the allegations off as fake news so he may not be out on his ear as quickly as many hope.

  Born 7 May 1982 he’s an indulgent and stubborn Sun Taurus with an intense and can-be-sexualised Moon in Scorpio. He’s also got Venus in upfront Aries opposition Mars in Libra, which Sakoian & Acker describe thus: “ Generates relationship problems of an emotional nature often involving sex. The natives are likely to use the opposite sex for sexual gratification without consideration for their feelings.” Not favourable for marriage because of its tendency to create emotional and sexual incompatibility.  And he has a third opposition of an outspoken Mercury in Gemini opposition Uranus – so on a constant see-saw attempting to find balance.

  He’s up and down ahead with late April/early May looking both good and disruptive. Mid June to early July will be panicked and not progressive and his problems will mount throughout July to mid August and again in December which looks like career losses. 2022 from mid year catches tr Uranus conjunct his Sun for an upheaval and he’ll hit a swamp by 2023 as his Progressed Sun opposes his Neptune.

  Just out of idle curiosity I had a flip through his harmonic charts and the three most notable are the 5H, 11H and 15H which on Vendla’s numerology associations are:

5H: Always on-the-go. Inventive, freedom-lover, fast-thinking, “sexy”. Also: Lack of concentration, irresponsibility, sensationalistic, self-indulgent, deceitful, “the player”.

11H: A difficult number to live up to. The positive aspect of number 11 is idealistic and inspired imagination. The negative aspects are fanaticism and unreasonableness, also dishonesty, greed, self-indulgence and even perversion.

15H: It rules magicians, alchemy, black magic, need for erotic experiences, actors and eloquent speakers. It is a “tricky” number, not always lucky.

  These harmonics are also notable with Harvey Weinstein, Jimmy Savile and the 11H with Jeffrey Epstein. Most of these are without birth times so the other harmonics could be connected into the chart axis. See previous post December 14 2019.

Philip Roth – an unreconstructed literary giant

Philip Roth, one of the greats in American literature, is catching the wrath of the current zeitgeist for his out-of-date attitudes to women and sex. Brickbats are being thrown despite him dying three years back, as a weighty new biography details his creative and amorous progress through 31 books, a Pulitzer and numerous other awards, and a string of liaisons.

  Evidently he preferred his sex with a minimum of commitment, domesticity without encumbrance. He cherished privacy and to break the monotony some sexual adventuring. He expected his girlfriends to act like wives and his wives to act like girlfriends.

 Always a controversialist, he hit the big time with his novel Portnoy’s Complaint about extreme masturbation, was notorious in the Jewish community for the shaming and defaming of Jews, for which he was labelled an anti-Semite and a self-hating Jew.

  One reviewer wrote: “No one can accuse Roth of ever hiding who he was: American, Jewish, obsessed with sex, obsessed with death, funny, angry, wise, profane, imaginative, cruel.”

  Born 19 March 1933 1am Newark, New Jersey, with an insurance broker father, he excelled at university and latterly taught creative writing.

  He had a charming and intelligent 3rd house Sun, Venus in Pisces with Mercury in Aries also in the 3rd and Jupiter, Neptune, Mars in Virgo in the 9th – both the 3rd and 9th are the communication houses and the 9th especially would point to a published career. He had an unsettled Uranus in his domestic 4th square a trapped/controlling though influential 8th house Pluto. His Capricorn Moon was square Mercury – perhaps a hint of why he brought so much autobiographical material into his novels. His Moon was also in an angry-against-women trine to Mars and evasive Neptune.

  It’s a curiously untogether chart, perhaps why his emotional life was so disjointed.  Though it pulls together in his creative 5th and 7th Harmonics; and even more so in his Writers’ 21st harmonic which is exceptionally strong.

  He did have an unaspected Saturn in can-be-chilly Aquarius – which would give him an aptitude for solitude, though dent his capacity for self-discipline and organization in certain areas of his life, and lend him a tendency to drift through life without set guidelines.

 His first marriage was short-lived, as was his second to actress Claire Bloom, though he’d had a long live-in relationship with her prior to making a legal commitment. After it split she described him as a mysogynist and control freak, though its unclear what the attraction was. She was born 15 February 1931 and was a Sun and probably Moon in Aquarius with not much in common barring her Venus in Capricorn being conjunct his Moon and her Jupiter in his 7th.