Marjorie

Gordon Brown, former Chancellor and PM, has stuck his head above the parapet indicating he’ll play a part in any debates about Scottish independence, following his 2014 interventions arguing to uphold the union.

  He’s been low profile since giving up his Westminster seat in 2015 and though touted for a few high profile economic jobs has stayed off the publicity radar, although lending his support to child poverty and other campaigns.  His time as Chancellor 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair oversaw major reform of Britain’s monetary and fiscal policies, the longest period of sustained economic growth in UK history, and mounting debt. As PM, he introduced rescue packages in 2008 and 2009 to help keep the banks afloat during the global financial crisis, dramatically increasing result the national debt. His premiership was regarded as a failure with his temperament unsuited to high office. An ex-Treasury civil servant described him as ruthless and Stalinist in approach.

  Born 20 February 1951 8.40 am Glasgow, Scotland, he has a see-saw and oddly disjointed chart. His 12^th house Pisces Sun shares this hidden self-protective chart area with Jupiter, North Node, Venus and Mars also in Pisces in the 12^th. His Venus Mars oppose Saturn in Libra with Saturn square Uranus on his IC – so he will be autocratic, not practising what he preaches with Saturn Uranus; and prone to setbacks and a short fuse from Mars Saturn. His Saturn in the 6^th also indicates some health issues and he does have eyesight problems. All of that might have added up to a retiring, backroom or creative personality. But he’s also got an attention-demanding Moon Pluto in Leo in his 5^th house opposition Mercury in Aquarius. This will give him a tendency to be ego-centred, and also contemptuous, stubborn and bullying.

He’s a highly complex man who discovered much like Boris that gaining his long dreamt of crown didn’t suit him after all.

  Odd that both he and Boris fervently wished for the top spot for years (decades) and then when they got it the ceiling fell on their heads. Brown got the 2008 crash and Boris got the pandemic.  And both have afflicted Mars in aspect to Saturn and Uranus – in Boris’s case his Mars also ties into Pluto.

   Brown is up and down (like most people) in the immediate future with undermining Neptune transits to his Mars Venus this year and next. But his Solar Arc Jupiter picking up the tr Pluto trine will keep him buoyant and his Solar Arc MC is conjunct his Jupiter late 2022/early 2023 which looks like a successful phase. That coincides with tr Jupiter moving across his Ascendant in 2023 for a revival of confidence. So who knows he might manage to be on the winning side of keeping the union together.

Pic: Andrew “Skuds” Skudder

Janet Yellen, former chair of the Federal Reserve, has been confirmed as the first ever female US treasury secretary in a bi-partisan Senate vote of 84–15. As such she will be responsible for guiding the economic response to the pandemic. When at the Federal Reserve she was known for focusing attention on the impact of bank policies on workers and the costs of America’s rising inequality.

  Born 13 August 1946 (6 days before Bill Clinton), in New York, no birth time, she was an over-achiever from the start, having an illustrious academic career before moving into government advisory roles.

  She has a Leo Sun on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine of Jupiter trine Uranus, so she is lucky as well as talented and not averse to taking risks. She also has Pluto, Mercury and Saturn in Leo sextile Mars, Venus, Neptune in Libra – determined, ambitious, enthusiastic and charming. Her Moon is either Aquarius or Pisces.

  This year’s economically challenging tr Uranus in Taurus square tr Saturn in Aquarius Leo will shake up her Pluto which will make for a disruptive few months from late March and especially May onwards into 2022.

  It would be a high stress job at the best of times so difficult influences are to be expected. But this year does look exceptionally challenging with some high hopes dashed with tr Neptune opposition her Sun/Jupiter midpoint from this March on and off into 2022. Later in 2022 will be nerve-stretched and again with hints of financially deflating circumstances.

Katie Price, former glamour model turned media personality and businesswoman, once worth £40 million and now bankrupt, has been talking on television (where else) about the anguish of having her eighteen year old son Harvey sent off to a residential care college. He was born with a rare genetic disorder affecting his eyesight, autism and Prader-Willi syndrome which can cause learning difficulties and behavioural problems. He has the cognitive age of a seven year old and is twenty stone. He is unable to control his weight, requires 24-hour care and his autism can lead to meltdowns when he becomes distressed and angry.

  Whatever you think about her, her chaotic love life and tendency to star in her own reality show, she’s cared for her son and several other children. She says “I hated him going to residential. I cried. But I was at crisis point. It was affecting the other kids, it was the danger-zone for him, smashing the house up. He needs to have his independence and I think he’ll enjoy it – make friends. I want him to be in a room with his mates while he plays the keyboard and sings his songs.”

  The move depends on local authority funding for the likely cost of £300,000 to £350,000 a year for a full time, all-year round residential student with high health care needs.

  Harvey was born 27 May 2002 at 1.15am (newspaper report), London, and like his mother is a Sun Gemini and like her also has Venus in Cancer, in his case in the playful 5th house. He has a tough Saturn North Node in the 4^th opposition Moon Pluto in the 10^th so he has not been short of challenges and restrictions in his life.

   His Mars in Gemini in his 5^th will make him expressive when it comes to anger and his Mars is trine Uranus which has a hint of volatility.  His Uranus and Neptune in Aquarius in his 1^st and conjunct his Ascendant will add to his fairly highly strung temperament with 6 Air Planets and an outspoken Sagittarius Moon.

 Katie was born 22 May 1978, no birth time, and hasn’t been short of difficulties either with a Mars Saturn conjunction in Leo, which will have attracted her to tricky partners and car-crash situations. But she’s also got a pushily confident Jupiter square Pluto and in an adventurous trine to Uranus, so she’s never lacked guts even when her common sense was lacking.  

  She’s not an ideal match for Harvey with her Mars Saturn opposition his Neptune Uranus, but she’s never been backward about displaying her affection for him and insisting that others accept him for who he is.   

  The father Dwight Yorke, 3 November 1971, a Trinidadian footballer, has never been in the picture and wasn’t a good match for either Katie or Harvey. He’s a Sun Scorpio with Saturn in Gemini conjunct both their Suns and his Saturn opposes Neptune Venus Jupiter square Mars in Aquarius. With his Mars conjunct Harvey’s Uranus, so he wouldn’t be much help.

Last week had definite signs of Boris’s government losing the plot altogether as it descended into panic over the new virus strain, scaremongering the electorate on the basis of unsubstantiated research. And Matt Hancock’s idiotic idea about paying people who had positive Covid reactions money that would have cost the Exchequer a sum equivalent to half the Defence Budget was so unhinged it didn’t inspire confidence either. It was smartly dropped.

  Whether this was hysteria breaking out, or a Trumpian style distract-and-deflect tactic as Brexit horror stories started to grow isn’t clear. Though it is becoming obvious that the cross-border EU trade problem isn’t just teething troubles. Not only has €6bn of EU share dealing shifted away from London, the fishing industry is talking in dire terms about bankruptcy. As are businesses who trade in both directions to and from the EU, some of whom are talking about having to set up offices in Europe to survive.   

  Just to cap a perfect week, polls say that Scotland and Northern Ireland want referendums on independence, with Sturgeon saying she’ll hold one whether Westminster approves or not. The economic arguments against any breakaway from the lucrative tax-generating south of England, which effectively foots the bill for the needy regions, is overwhelming. But it may not be a match for sentiment or indeed antipathy to Boris, whose Woosterish uber-English schtick, is a turn-off. Though any unification of Ireland would be a long ways off; and Sturgeon’s chart (see post below) although bullish now is running into the buffers in a couple of years.

 Boris’s Term chart, 13 December 2019 11 am London, was always heading into a swamp – indeed it started with sodden feet – with a dithering, indecisive Sagittarius Sun square Neptune. That Term Sun was not only battered by the December Solar Eclipse but is also about to collect a tr Neptune undermining square from late March onwards running into 2022. The leaden 12^th house Saturn, Venus, Pluto conjunction comes exact by Solar Arc later this year, about which there is not a whiff of freedom and merriment, quite the reverse. Plus the 9 degree Sagittarius Midheaven will be pulled this way and that by the May Lunar and December Solar Eclipses this year.

Boris’s personal chart has the exact jolting Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Scorpio Moon now to the minute of a degree. He must be under huge pressure physically, which is one of the Moon areas. He’s still lurching from the December Solar Eclipse opposing his Mercury, Sun, Venus – and the June/December 2021 Eclipses will rattle up his Uranus Pluto and Saturn.

  He has similarities to Trump in terms of the almost psychotic levels of chaos he clearly thrives in, wrecking what lies around him.

  He does have a Water Grand Trine of Saturn in Pisces trine Moon trine North Node in Cancer (conjunct Venus Sun) and that has his South Node in Capricorn as the driving point. Water Grand Trines can live in their own reality bubble and not always connect to what’s going on – and if he defaults to his line-of-least-resistance Capricorn South Node – too much pride, self-righteous, opinionated, opportunistic – then he’ll remain stuck in his childhood patterns.

  Recent polls suggest if he went to election now he’d lose his entire majority and maybe his own seat with an electorate unhappy over his handling of the pandemic and Brexit.

  His relationship chart with the UK doesn’t indicate much of an uptick ahead, quite the reverse, with a disappointing tr Neptune opposition the Mercury Uranus and square Jupiter running now till early 2023. Plus a disastrous, resentful run of tr Pluto trine the Mars/Saturn midpoint and then Saturn through till 2024.

  By which time he’ll have caused the damage and no doubt be off in bunterish fashion to pastures new.

  As if the virus wasn’t scary enough  – having a shambling shower of incompetents supposedly in charge of Everything just puts the tin lid on it.  

Add on: Gordon Brown: UK could become ‘failed state’ without reform.

For once Brown appears to be talking sense and it might be a way out of a break-up. He advocates a federal system with more power for nations and regions

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-55791179

Larry King, dubbed by Ted Turner, as “the most famous interviewer in the world” has died aged 87 after an extraordinarily successful career and an equally unforgettable though less happy private life. During a 50 year career he carried out 50,000 TV interviews with the great, the good and the famous of his day. He did little to no research, preferring to approach his guests as a viewer might and was criticised for his soft approach though, like David Frost, he often was effective at drawing out secrets.

  He had suffered multiple medical problems in recent years – diabetes, heart attacks, early-stage lung cancer, and a stroke.

  He was born 19 November 1933 at 10.38am Brooklyn, NY and had a chequered start to his career with a serious gambling problem, mounting debts, even a grand larceny charge against him for allegedly stealing money from an industrialist Louis E. Wolfson. It was dropped because the statute of limitations had expired, but he continued to face problems over bad checks and debts, eventually filing for bankruptcy. In his early forties having hit rock bottom he slowly rebuilt his career.

  His marital life was a conveyor belt of constant change, producing various children and by the time he died he was on to number eight wife who was divorcing him.

   A Sun Mercury in Scorpio trine an intense Pluto in his 7^th house of relationships gave him determination and a persuasive streak. Though he’d also end up in power struggles in his close relationships, which added to his Pluto being in a constantly-churning square to Uranus wouldn’t make for marital serenity or longevity.  He also had Neptune in his 8^th – good for creating a super-star aura – bad for commitment. His Sun/Moon midpoint, the marriage significator was square Neptune which would double up on his emotional slipperiness when it came to dedication. His colourful Sagittarius Moon in his hidden 12^th was conjunct Mars, giving him anger issues with women as well; with his Moon trine Uranus and inconjunct Pluto. Not an easy domestic life or relationship with his mother who had to bring up two children after his father died when he was nine.

  His leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17^th harmonic was heavily aspected; as was his ‘obsessive dream’ and enduring 11H.

  Unlucky in love/gambling and stratospherically fortunate in career terms. What a strange life.

Alexei Navalny’s suicidally courageous return to Russia after recovering from an attempted assassination by poisoning brought tens of thousands of his supporters out onto the streets in unsanctioned demonstrations. They were adding their voices and feet to his protests against high level political corruption, spotlighted in a YouTube film, released a few days ago and viewed 50 million times, about Putin palace on the Black Sea. This allegedly cost $1.4 billion paid for by oligarchs for the Kremlin leader. It includes an indoor ice-hockey rink, casino, vineyard and pole-dancing stage. These were probably the largest demos against Putin since 2011 when anger about a rigged election spilled out onto the streets.

  For Navalny, see post 19 January below.

  Putin’s latest 4^th Term residency chart, 7 May 2018 11.05 am Moscow hinted at a super indulgent run ahead with a Taurus Sun opposition Jupiter, but also a catastrophic, disruptive, violent, crises-ridden one with rebellious, unpredictable Uranus on the Midheaven trine a ruthless and brutal Mars Pluto. Tr Pluto is moving to conjunct the Mars from late next month one and off till late 2022, which will be frustrating, trapped and scary for his rule with the potential for violent over-reactions. The greatest instability will come in 2023/24 when tr Pluto squares the Uranus which often accompanies the collapse of an administration or the overthrow.

  Putin’s birth date is uncertain and there is a plethora of charts for Russia around the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The 8 November 1917 2.12am chart (Nick Campion) is a workable chart for tracking events. Putin came to presidential prominence on the Uranus Return and it has moved a full quarter to the square over the next two years. This February also has a highly-strung, confused tr Uranus square Neptune and the high-tension, jolting square to the Russia Saturn in Leo picking up mid this year and running into 2022, before the tr Uranus square Uranus comes exact in 2023. The Solar Arc Saturn squares the Moon (the populace) at the moment for an unhappy electorate; with indications from Solar Arcs to the Mars of anger and violence in 2023/24.  

  Upheavals are also flagged up on the Russia 28 March 1462, with the Pluto in line for a transiting Uranus hard aspect in 2023/24, as it was at the time of the 1917 Revolution.

   I can’t say that either of the later 1991 charts ever say much to me and on rootling around discover Zip Dobyns thought that Gorbachev’s resignation chart of 24 August 1991 9.32pm made more sense for modern Russia since it worked against events.  Which at the end of the day is the only thing that matters.  It indicates major aggravation over the next two years with again 2023/24 being flagged up as combustible times when resentment was likely to spill over.  

Super-talented engineer, scientist and former astronaut, Julia Payette clearly has gaps in her team building skills, having been forced to resign as Canada’s Governor General after a workplace review investigated accusations of harassment of civil servants. It’s the first time a GG has had to leave over a scandal.

   Born 26 October 1963 in Montreal, she’s a Sun Libra with a scientific Saturn in Aquarius; and an intense trio of Scorpio planets – Venus Neptune and uber-determined Mars – and maybe Moon. More significantly she has two Yods, which suit her for a distinctive path in life.  One is Pluto sextile Neptune Venus inconjunct Jupiter, which well handled does give ability as a social spokesman but can have problems with self-aggrandisement and self-righteousness. The other is Jupiter sextile Saturn inconjunct Pluto which again can be influential, though also has problems with wielding power in a modulated way.  

  She’s in a sticky year with a frustrating and trapped tr Pluto conjunct her Solar Arc Mars exactly now and a challenging tr Pluto square her Libra Sun from next month on and off for two years ahead.

  Her Term chart, 2 October 2017, did hint of aggravation and trouble ahead with a highly enthusiastic Mars Venus opposition Neptune, square Saturn and trine Pluto; and an adventurous and opportunistic Uranus opposition Jupiter. That has a potential for muddles, evasions, setbacks and ruthlessness. Her stint was never going to be seamless and serene.

  Her emphasised Jupiter falls in PM Justin Trudeau’s 10th house so he no doubt assumed she was going to burnish his image when he selected her.  

Poet Amanda Gorman was the breakout star of Joe Biden’s Inauguration with her poem ‘The Hill We Climb’, written and delivered by her to much acclaim.  

  Born 7 March 1998 in Los Angeles, she had a speech impediment as a child and has an auditory processing disorder which makes her hypersensitive to sound. She was chosen as the youth poet laureate of Los Angeles in 2014, published a poetry book in 2015, won a scholarship to Harvard to study sociology and was named the first national youth poet laureate in 2017. She founded the non-profit One Pen One Page, which runs a youth writing and leadership program.

  She has a Pisces Sun, Mercury and Jupiter spread out through Pisces with a Cancer Moon – creative and emotionally sensitive. Plus another tougher side to her personality with a super-determined Mars in upfront Aries trine Pluto, sextile Neptune, Venus, Uranus in Aquarius, and a forced-to-be-self-reliant Saturn in Aries which is widely trine Pluto and maybe square her Moon.

  She was recommended by Jill Biden and amended her poem after the Capitol assault on January 6^th. A bundle of talent who has achieved an amazing amount at a young age.

 Her three emphasised Aquarius planets suit her as a symbol of this Administration and her youth a nod to bridging the generation gap as she saluted an incoming president 56 years older than her.   

 Joe Biden took the oath as president at 11.48am in Washington this morning. That puts Pluto only one degree away from the Midheaven, which is usually the sign of a controlling administration. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Though heaven knows, he’ll need to take a firm grip to push back on the damage.

   There’s also, as per usual an Aquarius Sun in the 10^th, but this year with Saturn Jupiter conjunct and Mercury in Aquarius. At best Jupiter Saturn aims for cautious improvement, a balance between ideals and fiscal common sense. Though in this case the Jupiter Saturn is square an explosive, uncompromising Mars Uranus conjunction in the 12^th. Since the disruptions sit mainly in the 12^th it might suggest subterranean or underground resistance which could turn violent.

  There’s also an emphasised Neptune in the 11^th square the North/South Node axis, which could hint at an indecisiveness about long term plans and lack of commitment in friendly relations; or, since the 11^th is the house of parliamentary legislature, confusion (and evasion) amongst the lawmakers.

  Much to ponder and to return to – when I have time – which isn’t at the moment.

  What is a definite plus factor is that the Term Sun is conjunct the super-confident and usually successful Jupiter/Pluto midpoint and conjunct the equally upbeat Jupiter/Midheaven midpoint.

  And bless all who sail in her. What a relief to see the psychotic frenzy flouncing off to Florida.

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, recently recovered from a suspected novichok assassination attempt by Russia’s FSB spy agency, has been detained on his return to Moscow from hospital treatment in Germany. A judge ordered him into custody for 30 days until a parole review that could imprison him for years. His arrest prompted him to call for a mass protest this Saturday.

“There’s nothing these thieves in their bunkers fear more than people on the streets,” Navalny said. He could be sent to a penal colony by the end of the month if a parole board revokes his probation. While the authorities say they will ban the Saturday, analysts believe that the number of protesters on the street could influence whether Navalny is given a stiff prison sentence or set free.

  It’s a high-wire act for Navalny, who seems intent on a martyr’s crown. 

  Born 4 June 1976 at 1.30pm Moscow, he has Sun Venus in Gemini opposition Neptune and trine Pluto which hints at another dimension of Neptune in super-ambitious mode, single-mindedly following a dream. Neptune Pluto in aspect to the Sun appears in the charts of those who are motivated beyond the norm to make a name for themselves and succeed. His Mars is sextile Pluto and square Uranus so he does have courage and a liking for high excitement.

  The Eclipses of the moment and through 2021 will be setting up crises and forks in the road for him; with a fair few undermining moments but he’ll also get lucky breaks from late April onwards interspersed with the downers.  By early 2022, he’ll be firing on all cylinders and pushing ahead with bullish confidence. If he survives unscathed, he’ll not give up.

  His leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17^th harmonic is strong though with indications of ruthless determination/brutal suppression; as is his ‘obsessive dream’ 11H.

  His Jupiter, Mercury and Gemini Sun Venus fall in the 10^th house of the Russia 8 December 1991 7.45 pm chart so he is crucial to the modern Russia’s direction.

Pic: Evgeniy Isaev