Marjorie

‘When ambitious psychopaths get control democracy goes wrong’ – a thought from author Robert Harris, whose trilogy of novels about power and ambition in Ancient Rome has been dramatized for the stage. He said when he wrote it he had “absolutely no idea the parallels with Brexit and President Trump would be so obvious”. Rome had been a Republic for centuries ruled by an intellectual elite until it was torn apart by populists whipping up the mob and within 25 years had become a dictatorship with an Emperor.

The self-glorifying Pompey is given a Trump-like head of hair, Cicero is condemned as an “enemy of the people” for being moderate and the dithering Brutus, having stabbed Caesar, admits that “there is no plan”. “The people have swept away the old certainties,” Mark Antony says. “What matters now is who they’ll follow.”

Caesar, he thinks, is more like Putin “in his willingness to smash everything up, the identification of the state with himself, the sense that he’s running things with a network of cronies.” Jeremy Corbyn, he twinned with Cato, who would wander the streets of Rome barefoot, in the same clothes he’d worn for weeks and saw himself as a man of the people. “Michael Gove and his Brexiteers fall on the populist side and the Remainers are more Senatorial. That is the great division that has been thrown up in modern Britain that compares to the Roman republic.”

Harris was born 7 March 1957 in Nottingham into a working class family with a printer father, wanted to be a writer from an early age, went to Cambridge and worked for the BBC and newspapers as a journalist. He also wrote novels through his 20s and hit the big time with Fatherland, about a Britain after WW11 under a victorious Hitler, when he was 35. Thereafter he’s written more best-sellers on mainly political or historical subjects.

He’s a Sun Pisces in a hard-working square to Saturn in thoughtful Sagittarius; with Venus Mercury in Pisces trine Neptune. What drives his extraordinary output apart from his Saturn, is an ultra-determined Mars (Moon) in Taurus square Pluto and in a confidently enthusiastic trine to Jupiter in Virgo. He does have creative talent from marked 5th and 7th Harmonics.

Sadly Caesar’s chart – a Sun Cancer opposition Saturn (Uranus) in Capricorn square Neptune –  does have some similarities to Putin’s. They are both highly Cardinal charts with Sun, Saturn, Neptune aspects and Jupiter in Taurus. Putin’s chart is more like King Richard 111.

The leaders of the Japanese religious doomsday cult who released the nerve gas sarin on the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 13 and injuring 5,500 have been executed by hanging. Aum Shinrikyo was started as a yoga and meditation group in 1984 and expanded into a popular though money-grabbing cult, with a mish-mash of Armageddonite beliefs and a habit of bumping off any who got in their way. The gassing was intended to kill three judges, presiding over a case that had been brought against AUM.

The founder Shoko Asahara, 2 March 1955, who masterminded the attack, was partially blind from birth, known as a bully and extortionist at school and went on to father 12 children. He was a Sun Pisces; with a heavily aspected Neptune squaring onto Venus in Capricorn opposition Jupiter Uranus and opposition Mars in Taurus. Steve Jobs born a week earlier had the same Grand Cross with Mars in late Aries – so there was potential for luck, talent and vision in his chart but clearly it all went sideways. Asahara also had an obsessive and tough-minded Saturn in Scorpio square Pluto, trine Jupiter Uranus and sextile Venus.

When the attack occurred the fanatical Uranus Neptune in Capricorn was in place on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine to Sun trine Pluto and probably conjunct the midheaven; with the Moon in Scorpio square Mars.

The tr Uranus Neptune was then shaking up his Grand Cross, exacerbating his delusional tendencies. He faced 27 counts of murder in 13 separate indictments and the prosecution argued he gave orders to attack the Tokyo Subway in order to “overthrow the government and install himself in the position of Emperor of Japan”.

His multiple-killer 18^th Harmonic has a pushily-confident Pluto Jupiter aspect. His can-be-domineering 5H is particularly strong and paranoid; even more so his 7^th harmonic which can be spiritual but also unbalanced.

The 2021 Inauguration chart is nothing like any Administration in recent times. It has Pluto conjunct the midheaven from the 9^th with Sun, Jupiter Saturn in Aquarius square a 12^th house Mars Uranus and Moon (assuming time is 12 noon).

Pluto hasn’t been in the 10^th in a presidential chart since the early days. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison probably had it with 10am oath-taking on 3^rd March 1801/4 and 1809 with a Pisces midheaven. Pluto can be control-freaky but also influential and transformational, pointing to a strong leader. Jefferson pursued vigorous trading policies; and was for religious freedom and tolerance although he kept slaves and forced the removal of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands. Both he and Madison were Constitutionalists and regarded as above average.

The USA 1776 chart does have tr Pluto opposition the USA Mercury in 2021 and moving to their First Pluto Return in 2022/23. I initially thought that might produce more of the fanaticism we’ve seen recently. But a previous hard aspect was around in 1933 to 1936 when Franklin D Roosevelt proposed the New Deal in response to the Great Depression – focusing on relief, recovery and reform. The next Pluto hard aspect to the USA Mercury opposition Pluto was in 1980 to late 1982, which covered the end of Jimmy Carter, then early Reagan – his Star Wars Defence Strategy, attempted assassination and ultimately the détente with Russia which ended the Cold War.

As to the Sun, Saturn, Jupiter square Mars Uranus Moon:- Woodrow Wilson’s Term had a Moon Mars Uranus in 1913 preceding WW1. George H Bush had Uranus trine Mars (Gulf War 1). GWB had an even more stark and warlike Mars opposition Saturn square Mercury Uranus though it was more obvious being across the Asc/Desc axis. 2021 looks like hidden disruption.

Jupiter Saturn in Aquarius could well point to a better balance between idealism (liberal and humanitarian policies) and materialism; as opposed to the crassly (and incompetently) commercial approach of this administration. Though if mishandled, Aquarius does have its fanatical side, so need not all be good.

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Michael Avenatti, the pugnacious lawyer who represents porn actress Stormy Daniels in her ongoing legal dispute with Donald Trump, says he’ll run against him in 2020 if he thinks there is no other candidate with a real chance of beating him.

Avenatti’s background is as an attorney and entrepreneur, a media regular, who in the past has represented high profile clients who made the international headlines. He is also a professional racing car driver.

He was born 16 February 1971 10.07 pm Sacramento, California, and has an attention-grabbing 5^th house Aquarius Sun widely square Saturn in Taurus and inconjunct Pluto in the 12^th. His Scorpio Moon opposes his Saturn – so he’s fixed and tough. He also has a crusading Mars in Sagittarius with a high-finance Jupiter Neptune conjunct in Sag as well in his financial  2nd.

His Sun opposes Trump’s Mars in Leo; his Mars opposes Trump’s Uranus and his midheaven is conjunct Trump’s Saturn Venus in Cancer – a competitive, combative, explosive interface with Avenatti’s career hitting Trump in his sensitive spot (unloved) Saturn in Cancer.

Their relationship chart shows an ongoing battle with tr Pluto square the composite Venus in 2018, the composite Mars in 2018/2019, then across midpoints onto square the Sun Mercury in 2021/22 – so a long drawn out and angry tussle.

He’s not in a great place at the moment, Avenatti, with a blocked Solar Arc Pluto opposition Saturn, exact in two months; and an undermining tr Neptune square his Mars on and off till late 2019. He’ll have some reassuring moments this September/October and next April but otherwise not seeing his plans work as he had hoped. He’ll face a disaster or three from May 2020 onwards; but he’s also looking elated over the election itself with tr Uranus opposing his Jupiter/Uranus midpoint. It seems unlikely he’d run with no political experience. But something is going right for him on the night.

Claude Lanzmann, the film maker has died, best known for his nine-and-a-half-hour epic Holocaust documentary Shoah. He filmed gruelling interviews with concentration camp survivors and pretended to be pro-Nazi in order to film the guilty.

Born 27 November 1925 8.15 pm Bois Colombes, France, into a Jewish family, he joined the French communist resistance when he was 18 during the occupation of France, fighting alongside his brother and father, and narrowly escaping the Gestapo. His mother was arrested several times but managed to escape. After the war, he studied philosophy in Germany, became a journalist and covered East Germany for Le Monde. Part of the French intellectual left elite he was friends with Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir (with whom he had a long relationship in the 1950s) and François Mitterrand.

He had an entertaining 5^th house Sagittarius Sun with a public-career Taurus Moon in the 10^th; and a confident Pluto opposition Jupiter. But what dominates his chart is a hidden, intense, creative and healing Water Grand Trine of a probing 12^th house Pluto trine Uranus trine Saturn Mars in Scorpio in his 4^th – the scars of his childhood ran very deep.

His Mercury in Sagittarius was also in his 5^th trine Neptune and square Uranus so he’d be compelled to get his story across. He also had a Yod of Uranus sextile Venus Jupiter inconjunct Neptune. An apex Neptune initially can be emotionally disorganised and escapist with deep feelings of unworthiness and needs periods of seclusion to re-centre. Once on track, it can release all of Neptune’s healing and creative powers.

His imaginative 5^th and 7^th Harmonics are strong, as is ‘obsessive dream’ 11^th and leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17^th. But his most heavily aspect harmonic is the 13^th which is associated with upheaval, change and rebirth, exploration, genius and breaking with the orthodox.

Pic: ActuaLitté

England has fallen over itself in a frenzy of jubilation having battled through to the next round of the FIFA World Cup much to their surprise. What follows is loaded with the usual caveats of no birth times, sports’ charts not always being informative and me knowing zero about football.

Gareth Southgate, 3 September 1970, the team manager, a hard-working Sun Mars in Virgo, does have a lucky tr Uranus opposition his Jupiter in Scorpio until early September; but he loses the also-lucky tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Uranus midpoint three days before the final on the 15^th. Still he’s on a roll.

Harry Kane, the England captain, 28 July 1983, a Leo with a highly-strung Uranus Neptune trine Mars, hasn’t much showing without a birth time apart from tr Jupiter square his Solar Arc Uranus Neptune right through this month which is minor enough. He does have tr Pluto conjunct his Neptune Uranus from 12^th July just before the Final, which will wind him up considerably but whether that’s over-stretched nerves or  a let down I wouldn’t hazard a guess .

A fugitive conman and fraudster on the UK’s Most Wanted list has been finally nabbed. Mark Acklom has a long criminal history and is believed to have posted as an MI6 agent and banker to swindle a widow out of nearly $1 million of her savings during a year-long affair in 2012.

Born 1 June 1973 in London, he started his crime spree early at 16 stealing his father’s American Express card and posing as a stockbroker to commit a £1m fraud that included obtaining a £446,168 mortgage on a house and hiring private jets. The judge described him as “utterly selfish and completely ruthless” and gave him four years in juvenile detention; and his poor parents had to sell their house to pay back his debts. Since then he’s been in prison three times in Spain. He is married with two daughters.

He has five planets in Gemini – Sun, Moon, Saturn, Venus and Mercury, and while it isn’t true of all Geminis, there is a decidedly shifty and slippery streak in some.  His Sun is in an expansive trine to Jupiter, an evasive opposition to Neptune and is widely trine Pluto, for hints of delusions of grandeur. His Saturn, Venus, Mercury are trine an innovative Uranus and in a risk-taking square to Mars in Pisces.

It a predominantly Air sign chart, so emotionally detached with an over-active mind that needs constant stimulation; and little sense of his physical needs so times of rest are crucial – prison must have given him a chance to recharge though I can’t imagine Spanish jails are exactly a spa.

His ‘creative’ 7^th Harmonic is strong and entrepreneurial, though it can also point to mental imbalance. His 9H is very marked which is pleasure-seeking and common amongst fraudsters (Madoff, Ponzi etc). His self-defeating, highs-and-lows, wheel of fortune 10H is also heavily aspected. But the most notable is his 12H which is odd since it is supposed to be the victim/healer harmonic, neither of which seem to apply in his case. Be interesting to hear what comes out at trial.

Angela Merkel has survived to fight on, reaching an agreement on an immigration deal that almost blew her fragile new coalition government apart. Her 4^th term chart, 14 March 2018 12.02pm, is buoyed up by Jupiter so likely to slide through most hiccups and it didn’t show any indications of a cataclysmic meltdown now. But she’s got more problems on her plate than migrants with the German economy giving signs of heading for a recession. Retail sales and industrial production are down, the auto businesses will be hard hit by Trump tariffs, the banks are not looking robust and the huge German trade surplus won’t protect the country if debtors fail or there is a global crash. (NB Trump may be unwise to launch a full-scale trade war but he’s not wrong about EU protectionism which lands a 10% tariff on US cars imported, while US has only a 2.5% tariff on EU cars.)   For all its image as the Rolls-Royce of Europe, German is ill-prepared for the 21^st Century, lagging badly on technology and infrastructure.

Merkel’s own chart has a ‘shocking collision’ Solar Arc Sun square her Mars, exactly in four months; and before then the July Cancer Solar Eclipse will conjunct her 8^th house Sun Uranus which will bring more crises than usual in the months thereafter. 2019 does look like meltdown time despite Jupiter moving through her 1^st. It’ll only give her a temporary lift as tr Pluto makes a disastrous and confusing square to her 10^th house Neptune plus a tumultuous opposition to her Uranus from April onwards for two years. Followed in late 2019 by a total-failure Solar Arc Neptune conjunct her Mars. Plus she has tr Saturn wading through the nadir of her 1^st quadrant in her 2^nd house for some years, – banana skins, misjudgements, lower energy, less success, lost her mojo.

The Bundesbank (central bank) chart, 26 July 1957, also indicates 2019/2020 as hugely disruptive with tr Uranus square Sun and Uranus, leading to devastation in late 2020/early 2021 with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Neptune. Even before then. this year into mid 2019, it’s on a knife edge with tr Uranus opposition Neptune, trine Pluto and Venus.

The Germany chart, 1 January 1871 12 am, has this July’s Solar Eclipse conjunct the 10^th house Uranus for a forced rethink about direction. With the next two year’s Eclipses colliding with the 4^th house Germany Venus, the Sun, and then Saturn – so a rolling phase of challenges, crises and hard choices. Plus tr Neptune starts to square the Germany Jupiter from May 2019 onwards into 2020 which is financial bubble-bursting time and will lower confidence sharply. And tr Uranus is conjunct the Germany Taurus Moon on the cusp of the 8^th from June 2019 onwards into 2020, which will bring economic shocks. Tr Uranus then rolls through the Germany 8^th house of business finances for seven years – as it does in the EU and UK charts.

All of the above coinciding with an explosive three years in the relationship between the EU and Germany up to early 2021, starting this year as tr Uranus shakes up the composite Grand Cross of Venus, Uranus Mars and Moon; plus a separating tr Saturn square Pluto this year and then Sun Mercury across the New Year. Germany is very tied into the EU with a 10^th house Pluto opposition Sun but that will be tested to the limits, especially with tr Pluto and then tr Saturn squaring the Germany 7^th house Neptune causing it to question its commitment to close relationships.

Another power couple bites the dust. Singer, songwriter Cheryl Tweedy has split from her ten year younger husband Liam Payne, of boyband One Direction.

Born 30 June 1983 8.28pm Newcastle on Tyne, England, she’s had a successful singing career, is known as a fashion icon and as a judge on X Factor; but seems less talented at picking husbands with this being her third failed marriage. The Daily Mail is trailing the notion that her mother was a problem driving a wedge between the happy couple. And with Saturn Pluto conjunct her midheaven, she would seem to have had a fairly controlling, stubbornly determined mother. Cheryl’s Pisces Moon is also square Uranus Jupiter; and she has her Cancer Sun, Mars and North Node all in her 7^th house of close relationships. Her emotional responses will be changeable and volatile; with co-operation not being her strong point. She’ll insist on being in charge.

Liam Payne, 29 August 1993 1 pm (?) Wolverhamption, England, is a Sun Virgo with an Aquarius Moon; and a super-charged, high-wire Uranus Neptune in Capricorn square Mars Jupiter in Libra. He’s Earth, Air while Cheryl is Water Fire – so polar opposites in temperament.

Their relationship chart does have an affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction; but that squares a struggle-for-the-upper-hand Jupiter Pluto; and there’s also an explosive composite Mars trine Saturn Uranus. With the composite Moon opposition Mars – so a fair few more minuses than pluses.

Neither of them are in a successful patch career-wise with tr Saturn moving through their respective first quadrants for several years ahead. She looks especially damped down with her Solar Arc Saturn Pluto conjunct her Jupiter in 2019.

Pic: Georges Biard