Sebastian Junger, American journalist, war correspondent and author of The Perfect Storm, is no stranger to death or danger. But a near terminal experience in 2020 from an internal medical rupture which evoked an image/hallucination of his father, who had died eight years earlier, sent him into an exploration of near death experiences.
‘As he felt himself hover over a terrifying black pit, “I became aware of something else: my father.” Eight years dead, this physicist and atheist reassured his dying son. “It’s OK, there’s nothing to be scared of,” he seemed to be saying. “Don’t fight it. I’ll take care of you.”
The Times reviewer said: “It is fascinating to read a clear-eyed rationalist’s case for an afterlife.”
“Knowing that oxygen starvation produces euphoric hallucinations still does not explain why so many people see a loved one or even whole family reunions.”
I wondered if there were any clues in his chart about what was going on when he nearly died and why he would have had the reactions he did.
Born 17 January 1962 7.42pm Boston, Massachusetts, he has a 5th house Sun, Venus, Mars in Capricorn so attention-seeking, a performer. His Sun conjunct Saturn in Aquarius is on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Uranus and a Gemini Moon in his 10th. His father would have been a key though not easy influence in his life.
He also has Pluto just below his Ascendant opposition Chiron on his Descendant.
When his pancreatic artery ruptured in June 2020 he was exactly on his Second Saturn Return which is usually a weighty moment of decision-making, a significant marker in life. More so in his case given that his Saturn is loaded being beside the Sun and on the yod apex.
Even more notable than that, his 7th house Chiron (opposition Pluto) was feeling the impact of an exact Progressed Mars conjunct his Chiron. Pluto opposition Chiron natally suggests an individual drawn to danger and excitement, almost to an addictive degree. With the suggestion that it may have emerged out of a lack of containment by the mother – which with Uranus Pluto on the Ascendant indicating a traumatic birth would seem not unlikely.
Melanie Rhinehart also talks of Pluto Chiron aspects bringing a connection to the ancestral line who bring a ‘protective membrane around the living, shielding them from direct exposure to the world of archetypal energies beyond.’ And with it comes a compulsion to study death, and where used constructively to ultimately transform society’s view of it.
On his draconic chart his Uranus, Pluto and North Node all fall in his natal 8th, the house of death and rebirth.
This is a fair amount of special pleading and rambling but intriguing all the same.
Paula Vennells, former boss of the Post Office on the hook for the Horizon debacle was supposed to be the highlight of the inquiry but was somewhat overshadowed by the election announcement. She was in charge when innumerable sub postmaster/mistresses were wrongly on the basis of a malfunctioning computer system. Some went to prison, others died before apologies were wrung out of seemingly shameless managers.
She sniffed into a tissue throughout her questioning by barristers, blamed underlings, said she didn’t know and generally flailed around ducking all responsibility and self-awareness. And this from an Anglican priest no less.
Born 21 February 1959, she has an eye-catching and toe-curling chart with a Pisces Sun Mercury opposition Pluto square Mars opposition Jupiter. A Mutable Grand Cross involving Mars Pluto is a pile-up of control issues, changeability, indecision, poor concentration, desperation and opportunism from Mars Jupiter. And overall a tendency to be swept along by prevailing events. She also has an unyielding Saturn in Capricorn inconjunct Mars (maybe on the focal point of a yod involving a flamboyant, attention seeking Leo Moon) and trine Pluto, sextile Neptune. The yod with Saturn on the focal point sounds more than feasible since it always bring an element of karmic payback for failures of decency and responsibility.
She has already forfeited her CBE for bringing the Honours system into disrepute, lost her health service job (finally) and is facing a highly uncomfortable few years after tr Uranus moves into Gemini in 2025 as it rattles up all her Mutable planets for three years or so.
Syria pushed down the agenda recently because of other Middle Eastern tensions may become a pressing issue again with the EU electorate increasingly resistant to any uptick in immigrant refugees. Tiny Lebanon, which has been overwhelmed with millions of Syrian refugees since the uprising against Assad in 2011, is at the end of its tether and has recently seen an increase in migrant boats heading for Cyprus and Italy.
The best solution to relieve the pressure would be an engagement with Assad in the hopes of settling the internal situation. But that seems a faint hope.
Assad’s Presidency 17 July 2000 has survived brutal challenges in recent years with tr Pluto opposition the Mars, North Node and Sun in Cancer and is heading for a different set of disruptions in the next two or three years. This year there is an uncertain, panicky Solar Arc Neptune square the Saturn. From mid 2025 tr Uranus will conjunct the Saturn for a period of high-tension and eruptions; with an applecart-upsetting Solar Arc Sun opposition the Uranus in 2026. Plus tr Pluto conjunct the Neptune and opposition Venus in 2026/27.
Assad’s personal chart, 11 September 1965, no birth time, is moving through a critical – life-changing – phase with his Solar Arc Sun Pluto Uranus conjunction crossing over his natal Mars Neptune conjunction in Scorpio – which will bring a shed load of problems, aggravations, challenges, and disappointments. This year looks caged, trapped and high-risk; 2025 looks agitated, insecure and undermined and so on till 2028.
On top of his political and geopolitical pressures and risk from understandably disaffected Syrians, he is also coping with his wife’s leukaemia diagnosis following her breast cancer a few years back. Asma Assad was born 11 August 1975 and is looking rattled with tr Uranus conjunct her Mars from this August onwards into 2025. Their relationship chart, which is a stressed at the best of times is on alert right through this year and next from sudden Uranian jolts as well as the late Virgo/Pisces eclipses in late 2024/25 exerting pressure on their joint influence.
Bashar Assad’s relationship chart with Syria 1 January 1944 is in for a severe shake up from this June onwards through till early 2026 with tr Uranus square the Mars and then Pluto. There may be repercussions from the Middle Eastern instability across this summer which extend on.
Riots on the tiny Pacific island of New Caledonia have produced a grandstanding visit by French president Macron intent on squashing the revolt and countering growing Chinese influence in the region.
A French journalist said ‘in the ongoing blame game, it’s hard not to point to Macron himself as the arsonist in chief. He’s the one who set in motion a parliamentary vote in Paris’ which went against previous assurances and set off the insurrection. ‘Paris’s answers have been characteristic of Macron’s top-down style. Instead of asking one of the few experienced French officials that the locals value, the 69-year-old former high commissioner Thierry Lataste, he was accompanied on his trip by a clone-like trio of 40-something technocrats guaranteed not to contradict him.’ He is now backtracking.
New Caledonia remains part of France, having voted against independence. It is the world’s third biggest nickel producer, with up to 30 per cent of global reserves, but a fifth of the residents live below the poverty threshold.
New Caledonia was annexed by France on 24 September 1853. The Libra Sun trine Saturn in Gemini is being stressed by tr Pluto trine Saturn now and by tr Neptune Saturn in Aries opposition the Sun in 2025/26. Even more heated is tr Pluto opposition the Mars in Leo, square Pluto in Taurus in 2024/25 and then square the Venus – so a long stretch ahead of challenges and aggravation.
Despite voting against independence in recent referendums the relationship with the French overlords has never been good. The relationship chart has a composite Mars Sun opposition Pluto square Uranus opposition Neptune which is implacably hostile, disruptive and unstable. The Mars Pluto is being rattled by this coming September’s Lunar Eclipse and early/ late eclipses in 2025. With the entry of tr Neptune Saturn into Aries causing more discord through 2025 to 2027. Nothing that will settle soon.
New Caledonia seems like a dot on the map where France’s priorities are concerned but the problems there may be symptomatic of larger celestial challenges. Tr Pluto is already squaring the France Saturn opposition Jupiter. Tr Uranus is still wending its explosive way round the France revolutionary, turbulent Fixed T Square of Pluto opposition Uranus square Mars with another significant jolt come this June (and on into 2025). Plus plus Solar Arc Sun square the Pluto opposition Uranus, exact in six to nine months but on the same degree within a week or so. Plus the France Sun at 29 Virgo is catching the tr Neptune opposition now till early September and again into early 2025. That is a perfect storm of considerable force.
Macron himself has a last degree Sagittarius Sun and Mercury which tr Neptune is busy undermining. His Term chart of 13 May 2022, is being rattled now by tr Uranus conjunct the Sun and then square Saturn in June, repeating across November, the New Year into April 2025. He’s not standing on solid ground.
The UK election on July 4 2024 has an upbeat tr Jupiter in Gemini trine Pluto in Aquarius running through most of the campaigning. Though there are ominous signs of aggravation from Mars in Taurus from 9th June which makes a high-risk, ruthless square to Pluto on June 11th and aims for the explosive/destructive Algol Uranus conjunction by 18 July – all the while ploughing through the UK’s deep, dark 8th house of finances, secrets and transformation. Plus Neptune conjunct the ‘shipwreck’ Scheat throughout till early September.
The global situation in the Middle East and elsewhere is poised on a knife edge right through June, with tensions reaching a peak through July which will have an impact; with the probability of other ‘black swan’ events guaranteed to throw the best laid political plans into confusion.
Election astro-prediction is a tricky business with charts often being without a birth time so information is missing. Plus campaigning is stressful which shows up and can be mistaken for a loss rather than plain exhaustion or panic at winning. The latter in this case is even more likely given the poisoned chalice that comes with a victory. Sometimes a defeat can open up opportunities for lucrative jobs in the private sector especially for chancellors so there can also be rejoicing in the face of an election loss. Or a down-the-liner regards a loss as an opportunity to step up the chain of command as the leader topples.
The UK chart has tr Pluto trine the Uranus from late this month to July 18th which sounds like a change. At the same time tr Pluto is opposition the UK Jupiter (= confident, over confident); conjunct the Neptune/Node midpoint (= panic, breakdown of relationships); and square the Sun/Saturn midpoint (= depressed about health/NHS?) – which adds up to a whole lot of conflicting agendas and reactions.
The relationship charts between the UK and Starmer hint at a lack of trust from a composite Sun, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn conjunction and suspicion about his implicit drive for control from a composite Mars opposition Pluto – which Blair also had with the UK. He started with optimism and ended in hostility. With Rishi Sunak there are also trust issues but although it is a less stressed relationship chart, there are slight hints of a parting of the ways this year.
Keir Starmer, 2 September 1962, does have tr Jupiter in Gemini square his Sun Pluto in Virgo exactly on the day of the election which should give him a mild boost. He looks energized now till late May, jittered and jangled through June. His Leadership chart looks uncertain through June and is moving through a gruelling several-year phase which won’t end soon. Plus his personal chart shows major confusion from SA Pluto conjunct his Neptune this year and then SA Sun conjunct his Neptune probably early next year; and a car-crash (metaphorically speaking) late 2025/26 with Solar Arc Mars conjunct his Sun Pluto. If he does win, it won’t last; or personal issues will interfere with his ambitions.
Rishi Sunak, 12 May 1980, is slap bang in the middle of his midlife crisis of tr Uranus opposition Uranus when he reflects on all his unfulfilled ambitions from the past and makes impulse decisions. He looks upbeat and lucky from early August with tr Uranus square his Jupiter/Node midpoint (or that could be in 2025 if his birth time is late in the day). Before then all that is showing both on his personal and PM chart are highly emotional tr Pluto aspects to Venus and Venus midpoints.
Amended: Now that I look carefully, if his birth time is late evening then he has two fairly catastrophic aspects. One is his Progressed Mars square his Neptune exact on a 10pm birth with his Solar Arc Pluto less than a degree away from a square to his Mars. Both of these look like a swingeing defeat.
Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, is feeling lucky in the first half of June and again after July 8th with tr Uranus opposition his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint. Though completely jammed in before and after the election with tr Saturn square his Mars/Pluto midpoint.
Oliver Dowden, Deputy Prime Minister, is upbeat across the election with tr Uranus opposition his Mars/Jupiter and Jupiter/Node midpoints. Grant Shapps, the Defence Minister, on the other hand looks devastated and hemmed in – though global events could also play a part in that.
Ed Davey, LibDems, will be frustrated and trapped right through campaigning and the election result with tr Pluto conjunct his Mars.
Richard Tice, Reform, will get an uplift in the aftermath of the election from July 8th onwards into August with tr Uranus conjunct his Jupiter in Taurus and in August opposing his Jupiter/North Node midpoint.
The usual mixter maxter of conflicting influences. I wouldn’t completely write the Tories off though the country undoubtedly wants change. Better the devil you know????? Or not.
Add On: Greens – Carla Denyer, 24 September 1985 (twitter birthday + company check) – tr Jupiter square her Mars in Virgo on the day itself and her SA Sun conjunct her South Node. Not much else. Adrian Ramsay, 1 January 1982, tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint up to and over the election – sounds as if something is going right for them.
ADD ON: A fleeting glance at other notables.
Jeremy Corbyn standing as an independent with Sun, Venus, Mercury and Uranus in Gemini will appreciate Jupiter’s move into Gemini from this week onwards. In a generally upbeat year he isn’t making much progress across campaigning and the election.
Wes Streeting, Shadow Health, is labouring mightily, feeling discouraged across campaigning; and sagging badly late July to early September. Like Starmer his 20256/27 is very bad news.
Suella Braverman, former Home Secretary, seriously rattled until after the election and more so in August and on. Tending to erupt into over reactions.
Boris Johnson -frustrated and irritable till after mid July, discouraged thereafter.
Penny Mordaunt, in a generally upbeat year though not over the election with her Mars/Saturn and Saturn/Node midpoints both at 29 Pisces catching the undermining tr Neptune conjunction plus shipwrecking Scheat.
Add On: Michael Gove resigning may be a hint of what he regards as the likely scale of an impending Tory defeat. Described as “the most consequential politician never to have held one of the four great offices of state” he will be remembered for stabbing Boris Johnson in the back and for his mystifying support for leave in the Brexit referendum. His relationship with Rishi Sunak was never amiable with a composite Mars Pluto conjunction with Pluto square Saturn and Mars square the composite Sun – chained together and resenting it. There is real dislike in there.
Oddly enough his chart is reasonably similar to Bashar Assad’s, born two years earlier. Both are Sun Virgos with Uranus, Pluto and Mercury in Virgo as well as Mars Neptune conjunct in Scorpio. Gove will find the years from 2026 to the end of this decade difficult with his Solar Arc Pluto Uranus conjunct his Mars Neptune.
ADD ON: The Diane Abbott situation is proving a headache for Keir Starmer. The former shadow Home Secretary under Corbyn’s regime she was suspended last year for saying Jewish, Irish and Traveller people do not face racism “all their lives” but that Labour Party restriction has now been lifted, though there are conflicting claims about whether she has been barred from standing again as an MP. Born 27 September 1953, she is a Sun Libra with her Mars in Virgo conjunct Starmer’s Sun Pluto conjunction – so a clash of sorts was always inevitable. Their relationship chart is riddled with problematic aspects. A cool Sun square Saturn; and ego clashes and disappointment from a Neptune opposition Jupiter square Mars T square. It won’t get easier over the next two or three years.
Election UK July 4th – day itself plus Sunak and Starmer charts. Details tomorrow. Mars moving into Taurus on June 9th squaring Pluto and then aiming for Uranus and Algol conjunct around July 16th – all looks fraught, especially since Mars is moving through the UK’s deep and dark 8th.
The International Criminal Court seeking arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders over the Gaza conflict has outraged Israelis and landed western leaders in a tricky dilemma, despite their recent warnings to Netanyahu about pulling back. The ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s move effectively puts Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on par with Hamas leaders Yehiya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed al-Masri and adds another layer of complexity to a situation grid-locked by Netanyahu’s refusal to discuss an end game and Hamas’s implacably hostile, kamikaze mindset. It is the first time that The Hague court has pursued the leader of a western-backed state.
The ICC was founded on 1 July 2002 to investigate genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and has a Cancer Sun inconjunct Neptune = good intentions but not always productive. The Saturn in Gemini opposition Pluto of 2002 (in the aftermath of 9/11, and in the midst of Afghan and pre-Irag wars) suits the ICC for tackling wars and brutality.
Karim Khan, 30 March 1970, Edinburgh, Scotland, is a UK barrister of Pakistani origin, who was in charge of the ICC’s probe into Russia’s war in Ukraine. He has had a long career in domestic and international criminal law, working on cases on the former Yugoslavia and post-genocide Rwanda.
”The biggest potential hazard confronting Khan would come if he was unable to secure support from the very countries — particularly in Europe — who created the ICC, and who would have to execute any arrest warrants.“ So far France has come out in support of the ICC move.
Norway, Ireland and Spain have recognized a Palestinian state in the face of Israel’s condemnation.
The ICC’s reforming Uranus is exactly opposition Israel’s stubborn and ego-centric Mars in Leo for a clash of agendas. Intriguingly the ICC’s Jupiter in Cancer (conjunct Mars) sits on top of Israel’s patriotic Cancer Midheaven which at a simplistic level would seem helpful in making Israel more successful. But clearly Jupiter brings its other dimension of influencing Israel to “acquire a sense of cultural responsibility and ethics in public life” (Sakoian & Acker). June 2025 would look to be a high-stakes moment with tr Uranus square the Israel/’s Mars and the ICC’s Uranus.
The Israel/ICC relationship chart has a tussle-for-the-upper-hand composite Jupiter Pluto conjunction in an unyielding square to Saturn; with an evasive/disappointing composite Sun Mercury opposition Neptune; and a different-agenda Uranus square Venus. Transiting Saturn is chilling relationships as it squares the composite Sun Mercury all this year.
Karim Khan, is a Sun Aries opposition Uranus – go-ahead, uncompromising, keen to break old moulds; with a hard-edged, determined Saturn Mars in Taurus with Saturn opposition Jupiter. He looks on red alert this year with his Solar Arc Mars square his Sun. All the 2024/25 eclipses catch his Sun Mercury in Aries and his Pluto in late Virgo – challenging times for him. 2025 looks nerve-stretched.
Amal Clooney, 3 February 1978, whose background as a lawyer is human rights has been brought in as one of several special advisers. She is a Sun Venus in Aquarius square Uranus in Scorpio and trine Pluto; with her Saturn in Leo at 28 degrees conjunct the Israel Mars and opposition the ICC’s Uranus – which will make 2025 a year to watch as tr Uranus moves to hard aspect that degree.
Never again. Lessons will be learnt. The cop-outs from monumental institutional failures follow a sickeningly repetitive pattern. Lies and cover-up costing the taxpayer billions in compensation and delays in payouts even after promises have been dragged out of a reluctant government. Tory and Labour, politicians and civil service – a culture of institutional arrogance, evasiveness and denial.
The Infected Blood Inquiry has found that doctors, health service managers, pharmaceutical companies, and politicians share responsibility for 30,000 blameless people being infected with HIV and hepatitis C across more than 20 years. 3,000 have died, with most of the others consigned to live diminished and blighted lives. The medics knew from the early 1980s that the blood and plasma being transfused into patients could be tainted with potentially fatal viruses, yet they kept using it for another decade. Most of the recipients suffered from haemophilia, but there were also new mothers, children with breathing difficulties and accident patients who needed transfusions. Haemophiliac children were used as ‘objects for research’ and given products derived from imported blood, some of which came from American prisoners and drug addicts.
Sir Brian Langstaff who led the inquiry was excoriating in his criticism, talking of the establishment’s reflexive ‘denial, disbelief, dismissiveness and delay’.
Coming in the middle of the Post Office Inquiry which has exposed blatant and outrageous malfeasance in pursuance of a cover up for a management/political/commercial screw up with innocent lives blighted and destroyed – and in the week when it became clear that NHS whistleblowers were harassed rather than listened to – maybe the time has come to say enough is enough. The cynics will point to Hillsborough, Grenfell, Iraq, Sir David Kelly Inquiry, the Child Abuse Inquiry, Windrush – in some cases a whitewash job and in others forthright in their criticism but did action follow??
Pinning an astro-signature on the Establishment is not easy but in mundane astrology Saturn rules government and law and order, the civil service resides in the 6th house, the ruling classes in the 10th and the legislature is the 11th. In the UK chart Saturn in Leo which can have a stubborn/arrogant streak sits in the 11th. A smokescreening Neptune rules the 6th; with Neptune in the financial 2nd opposition a secretive 8th house Mars and trine the 10th house Cancer Moon.
Transiting Uranus shaking up the UK’s Fixed planets in recent years is on its final stretch squaring the UK 11th house Saturn exactly now till late month; and repeating late December to mid March 2025. So arguably there may be a jolting shift onto new attitudes for the future. Plus the Solar Arc North Node is also within a degree of being square the 11th house Saturn – much pressure being applied.
The UK chart has a fair-minded Libra Ascendant so likes to look as if it always acts within the law and in pursuit of decency and justice. But that is the persona, the brand image it projects. Tr Pluto is trine the Uranus conjunct the Ascendant from the 12th so will be exerting pressure on the UK’s reputation.
Last but not least both tr Uranus moving through the 8th and the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the 8th house Mars in 2025 may be blasting more buried scandals into plain light of day.
Skipping across historical charts:
UK Civil Service 23 November 1853
Westminster 27 April 1840
Simon de Montfort Parliament 20 January 1265 JC
What stands out from all three is the proliferation of Taurus planets. Taurus gives continuity and endurance, though at the heart of Taurus always lies a desire for power and an acquisitiveness which dislikes letting go – of resources or control.
Sir Brian Langstaff whose oral summary of his report left no doubt as to his condemnation of a system of deliberate obfuscation, intriguingly is also a Sun Mercury in Taurus square an unbudgeable Saturn Pluto in Leo with his Mars also in Leo exactly conjunct the UK’s 11th house Saturn. Maybe just maybe, his denunciation of the culprits embedded in a cosy culture which thought itself untouchable might manage to bring a new culture of transparency and responsibility in future.
See previous posts: Infected Blood – 50 years on victims still await justice. 27th July 2023
And UK politics – a broken model + 1999 Solar Eclipse chart
Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash comes when the country is faced by unprecedented external challenges as well as an approaching regime change at some point as the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in poor health, reaches his mid 80s.
Raisi, a hard-liner, was loyal to the supreme leader who is the ultimate power and had been mentioned as a possible successor. A new hardline parliament was elected in March on what was widely regarded as a rigged election with turnout for some of the elections falling below 10%, and nationwide was 41%. ‘The effective exclusion of reformists from political participation in parliament for the first time since 1979 adds to the sense of a country in uncharted waters.’
Ebraham Raisi, 14 December 1960, was a Sun Sagittarius; with his Mars in Cancer in a hard-edged opposition to Saturn, earning him a fearsome reputation as an executioner. His Sun at the moment has caught the Solar Arc Saturn exactly squaring his Sun – as the accident-prone Mars Saturn and karma caught up with him.
His Term of Office 5 August 2021 also flagged up an accident-prone tr Uranus opposition the Mars/Saturn midpoint exactly with the SA Saturn moving to oppose the Sun within months of exact, for closure.
Ayatollah Khamenei, 17 July 1939, is under severe pressure with tr Pluto conjunct his Mars and opposition his Pluto and square his Saturn before the year is out. He has had a trying two years; and his Solar Arc Pluto opposition SA Mars are both squaring his Cancer Sun at the moment. Which is a poleaxing amount of pressure.
For further details on Iran and Israel see posts below 14 April and 2 April 2024.
Add On: There is another birth date for the Ayatollah of 19 April 1939 which may or may not be accurate. One net source gets repeated by other net sources into a concrete fact.
That April birth date looks feasible. A hard Sun Aries conjunct Moon and Saturn square Pluto on one side and Mars in Capricorn on the other. It looks as heavily stressed as the other date with Solar Arc Sun square the Saturn and SA Pluto opposition Saturn sometime over 2024/25.
