Marjorie

Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary, has leapt in with both feet over the seeming poisoning of a Russian living in the UK. Sergei Skripal and his daughter are critically ill in hospital after being found unconscious in Salisbury. He is a former army officer who spied for MI6 and was freed from Russian prison in a spy-swap a few years ago. Counter Terrorism Police have taken over the investigation though have said there is no risk to the general public, so unlike the killing in 2006 of Alexander Litvinenko, a defector and former Russian secret service agent who died from radioactive polonium. Porton Down, the UK’s secret weapons research facility, is trying to establish what the unknown substance in this instance is.

Boris Johnson said he was not pointing fingers at this stage but described Russia as “a malign and disruptive force”. Mr Skripal’s relatives have told the BBC Russian Service that the former spy believed the Russian special services might come after him at any time. His wife, elder brother and his son have died in the past two years, some in mysterious circumstances, the family believe. Russia has denied any involvement.

Sergei Skripal, 23 June 1951, is a Sun Uranus in Cancer with his Uranus on the point of a T Square to Jupiter in Aries opposition Neptune – rebellious, keen to see changes and spearhead reform, not always practical or realistic. His Jupiter is also in a confident trine to Pluto Venus in Leo.

Tr Pluto is opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint at the moment. And that pairing is also highlighted in his relationship chart with Russia (8 November 1917) which has a composite Uranus opposition Venus square Mars Pluto. That indicates a life or death power struggle with deep hostility on both sides. Tr Uranus is square the composite Pluto Mars at the moment. That chart also has a deeply suspicious and undermining composite Sun Saturn Neptune conjunction. Skripal’s reforming Uranus is conjunct the Russia 1917’s controlling 10^th house Pluto, so he would react badly to the authoritarian rule.

The UK/Russia relationship chart also looks set back on its heels and irritable at the moment with tr Saturn exactly opposition the composite Mars. It’ll rumble for a few months. But it’s likely to pater out. During Theresa May’s time as Home Secretary she refused an inquiry into Litvinenko’s death, since it would ‘upset’ diplomatic relations. London is host to a great many Russian criminals and wealthy oligarchs. Though into 2019/2020 relations between the two countries will move through a highly disruptive phase.

Hate to be boring but we’re back in the White House, mopping up a few more loose ends.  Given that tensions appear to be rising sharply amongst the charts of the key inmates still resident and on the Trump Administration chart come March/April/May (see posts below), the Mueller Investigation might seem the place to start. The Washington Post reckons Trump himself is under scrutiny on two fronts. His relationship chart with Mueller looks nerve-wracked in April with tr Neptune square the composite Uranus; with violent disruptions starting even earlier from late this month as tr Uranus squares the composite Saturn/Pluto; and more toss-it-in-the-air influences picking up late April into May – tr Uranus square Sun/Pluto which Ebertin describes as separation by force majeure.

It is possible that Trump may fire Mueller and the latter certainly looks very deflated from early May onwards, as if his plans have collapsed, with tr Neptune opposition his Mars. He’ll cheer up from July and will have a much better 2019/2020.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary will be in the middle of whatever melee ensures. She looks pushed to the brink through this month with tr Uranus opposition her Mars/Saturn midpoint, at the end of her nervous tether; with a hint of a break for a few days late April into May; then back in catastrophe-mode from mid May, on and off into early 2019 with tr Uranus opposition her Mars/Pluto midpoint. She has tr Uranus square her Venus also late April/early May with Solar Arc Neptune opposing her Venus in Cancer this year – so emotionally very upsetting.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross was doing the TV rounds after Trump’s shock steel trade tariff announcement; though there seems to be some flip-flopping going on. Their relationship looks to be gently sagging from now onwards with tr Neptune opposing the composite Sun through into 2019.

A bygone era of gifted amateur athletes died with Roger Bannister this week. The first man to break the four-minute mile in 1954, while working as a junior doctor and only training part-time, it shot him to instant celebrity. He gave up competitive running a few months later and became an acclaimed neurologist. He once said that athletes should not get too hung up if they enjoy a few drinks or even the odd cigarette and that “you don’t have to make your life boring to be a good runner”. He later said that he deplored the “narrow professionalism” of sport in the modern age.

Born 23 March 1929, he was a Sun Uranus in Aries squaring onto a disciplined Saturn in Capricorn opposition Mars in Cancer; with a Grand Trine of Saturn trine Venus in Taurus trine Neptune in final degree Leo. Neptune often occurs strongly aspected in sportsmen’s charts, as does that odd mid Aquarius degree where his Sun/Saturn sat.

When he cracked the world record and fulfilled his dream tr Neptune was opposition his Jupiter/Uranus midpoint, which can either lead to disappointment or good fortune. And he always modestly put his world-breaking feat down to luck.

Those were the days athletes competed for fun and didn’t fuss too much. C B Fry equalled the world record for the long jump, between puffs on a cigar.

The Eurosceptics have swung the Italian election, where immigration and the economy were the two key issues in addition to political corruption. The two parties garnering most votes campaigned on a radical overhaul of the EU’s legally binding restrictions on public spending and low taxes. The result is being compared with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in the US; although there is no intention of leaving the EU or euro, merely subverting the EU’s fiscal policies. Germany and other northern Europeans will fiercely resist any such demands. Berlusconi and Matteo Renzi’s parties were thrashed. There will now be a protracted period of agreeing a coalition.

Since 2013 more than 600,000 migrants have travelled from Libya: unemployment is currently at 11%, with youth unemployment running above 50 per cent in one region; and 18 million people are at risk of poverty. Italy is the EU’s third largest economy but its GDP is still six per cent below its pre-Lehman peak in 2007.

The relationship charts between Italy 17 March 1861 and Italy Republic 10 June 1946 4pm Rome give no indication of an outright split. But there are signs of major tensions brewing. The EU/Italy46 looks devastated right now with tr Pluto square the composite Neptune and that runs on and off till late 2019; with bad tempered ructions in 2019 and a few uncomfortable shocks.

The EU/Italy 1861 looks more agitated this year, jolted, jangled and prone to outbursts.

It’s a tough haul ahead on the Italy 1946 chart with pressures and disappointments mounting from 2018 right through till 2021. So no easy way out of their trough. And that coincides with major pressures on the EU’s chart with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct their 2^nd house Neptune in late 2019, plus tr Neptune square their Saturn at the same time for a period of great uncertainty.

Generation X, who are so dubbed following on from the baby boomers, were born (with varying dates) from roughly 1960 to 1977.

Sociologists described them as alienated youth, the “latchkey generation”, who had less adult supervision because of increasing divorce rates and working mothers. They were sometimes characterized as slackers, cynical and disaffected, into grunge and hip hop. In midlife, they appear to have become active, happy, and achieving a work–life balance. ‘Independent, resourceful, self-managing, adaptable, cynical, pragmatic, sceptical of authority.’ They are also credited with being the greatest entrepreneurial generation in U.S. history; and are deemed to be a “dark horse demographic” which “doesn’t seek the limelight”.

Astrology doesn’t lump together such a wide span of years into one astro-generation. Pluto was in Virgo from 1958 to 1972; Neptune in Scorpio 1958 to 1971. Uranus in Virgo 1962 till 1969 and then in Libra for seven years.

The 1960s batch would be very different from the 1970s, especially the mid-1960s when the revolutionary, inventive and erratic Uranus Pluto conjunction was around, at times in the tough-minded opposition Saturn in Pisces. Pluto in Libra from 1972 is a different energy, putting more focus and pressure on relationships.

Neptune in Scorpio might account for the grungy musical tastes. Pluto in Virgo would bring a changing attitude to work and health. Especially in the 1960s there were advances made in the area of health with leading-edge Uranus Pluto around. Virgo is also an understated planet, less flamboyant than the Pluto in Leo boomer generation. The X-ers would come of age sexually as AIDs erupted in the 1980s.

They do seem to have matured from disaffected youth to solid citizens; and were the heroes of 9/11 with most of the firefighters and police coming from this generation.

Rick Scott, Governor of Florida, was headlined as reversing his long-held support for the NRA in saying under-21s should be barred from owning guns  after the Stoneman Douglas shooting. Though he still voted against any restrictions on assault weapons and is deemed not to have given up much. He can’t stand for Governor re-election this year since he’s term limited and may go for a Senate bid later this month.

Born 1 December 1952 in Bloomington, Illinois, (4.30am?) he served in the navy, took a law degree, co-founded the largest private for-profit health care company in the U.S, from which he was forced to resign as chief executive in a controversy over the company’s business and Medicare billing practices. The company later pled guilty to fourteen felonies. It cost more than $2 billion to settle claims and at the time was the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history; though Scott was never charged. He’s a climate change denier; has an A+ rating from the NRA, and a questionable record on the death penalty and allowing parents to interfere in school curricula (ie. evolution is controversial).

He has a Sun Mercury in Sagittarius in his financial 2nd house opposition a Gemini Moon in his 8th; with Jupiter in money-magnet Taurus in an ‘adventuring’ and can-be opportunistic square to Mars in Aquarius. His Uranus opposes Venus in Capricorn squaring onto a 12^th house Saturn Neptune in Libra – which is erratic, autocratic, evasive. On this birth time he also has a controlling and influential 10^th house Pluto.

If the birth time is sound, then tr Saturn is heading downward in his chart, moving through his 2^nd house, which is generally not a hugely successful time with misjudgements and banana skins around. But even without the birth time, he has a raft of Neptune transits from early April, on and off till December 2019 square his Mars/Saturn, Mars/Neptune and Jupiter/Uranus – none of which look like good news. Plus come April 2019 till late 2020 he has tr Pluto square his Neptune Saturn which will be devastating and highly discouraging. Plus his Solar Arc MC conjunct within six months over the following 12 months. So a definite low.

His relationship with Trump is sagging from May onwards for 18 months with tr Neptune opposition their composite Sun.

Two were missed off the White House whirlygig (below) – Gary Cohn and HR McMaster.

Cohn, Trump’s top economic adviser, has been rumoured to be on the brink of leaving for months but stayed to stop the president from imposing steep tariffs. He believes passionately that protectionism is economically backward and won’t lead to increased prosperity. Trump went ahead yesterday with plans for a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminium imports, which tipped the Dow Jones down 500 points.

Cohn, 27 August 1960, looks in an explosively bad mood with tr Uranus square his Sun/Mars now and square his Mars/Pluto within days. His relationship chart with Trump is in upheaval at the moment with tr Pluto opposition the composite Uranus, worsening dramatically from mid March onwards with tr Pluto opposition Mars; and separating with tr Uranus square the composite Sun in April. All of these influences repeating into 2019 so it’s not going to get easier. He looks more upbeat in 2019 so maybe he’ll have flown the coop by that time.

HR McMaster, the National Security Adviser, is also tipped to leave, since he appears not to get on with Trump or Defense Secretary James Mattis. His chemistry with Trump always was fractious with a composite Sun, Mercury, Mars, Uranus. Though a million times worse with James Mattis – their relationship chart has a composite Sun, Mercury, Pluto, Mars square Saturn – and they don’t get much worse than that. It may come to a head with Mattis in April/May as tr Uranus trines the composite Pluto Mars. McMaster and Jared Kushner also have a hate-in with a composite Pluto opposition Mars, which is picking up tr Saturn squares this year; and as of this moment tr Uranus opposition the composite Sun and conjunct Mercury within days.

An additional thought – Trump was described by Politico as the loneliest man in Washington, made more so by the loss of Hope Hicks, one of his longest serving aides. She exited as tr Uranus was square his Venus (conjunct Saturn) for the final time. And that’s a fair description from the astrology. If the Kushners bale back to New York, he’ll be left with ? ? Melania and his two sons. Hmm.  Just had a look – he’s even falling out with Stephen Miller, his far-right policy advisor with tr Uranus square the composite Venus, Mercury, Sun at the moment and through March; and tr Neptune taking the shine off their enthusiasm as it hard aspects their composite Jupiter square Uranus now and later.

Please add below. Older posts under News on top bar.

An epidemic of conspiracy theories is another sign of our time. Mass shootings become ‘false flags’ staged by governments. Teenage survivors telling their stories are dubbed crisis-actors. Attempts to censor these delusional rants are taken as proof of a conspiracy to bury the truth.

Mob hysteria, or Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI), has always been around, with a superstitious, fearful and powerless peasantry in days gone by susceptible to the spread of wild ideas. But it does seem to be worse at the moment, in part fuelled by an anti-government streak in the American psyche; as well as in other countries where governments undoubtedly do get up to no good.

The internet provides a welcoming series of echo chambers where lone wolves can meet kindred spirits, so the critical mass rises as they reinforce each others’ beliefs.

The Worldwideweb was launched in August 1991 under the Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn, a Millenial event. Uranus Neptune has many positive attributes but one side effect can be to create emotional and psychic confusion; and contributes to an inability to digest rational evidence if it contradicts firmly held views. Pluto in Scorpio will also be at work, making for entrenched opinions, as well as deep and dark suspicions. Not that all conspiracy theorists are Millenials. Most high-profile ones are older, but without the internet they probably wouldn’t exist/or have much traction.

What is noticeable in both Alex Jones (Infowars) and David Icke’s chart is a Sun square Mars – they’re angry, especially at authority figures; father in childhood and father-figures (rulers) in adult life; as well as having an accentuated and rebellious Uranus close to their Moon.

You’ll have to forgive the psychobabble but paranoid personalities fascinate me. Leave aside for the moment  ‘the paranoid is the only one who sees the truth’, of which more below. Paranoia occurs in the first months of life, when a helpless, highly anxious infant tries to cope with a mother, who can’t be on tap 24/7. So mother gets split into good (when she’s there) and bad (when she’s otherwise occupied). Negotiating this phase by understanding she’s both wonderful (idealised) and frustrating (loathed) is a step along the way to maturity, leading to mourning for the lost paradise and an acceptance of separation.

The paranoid feelings will recur through life, but for some, they remain stuck in this splitting stage where people are either all good or all bad. Usually what happens is they perceive the ‘bad’ to be those on the outside, while they protect their image of themselves as shining white. Them are irretrievably guilty; I’m morally upright. Trump? It’s an inability to develop complex thinking and feeling. People, even the good-enough parent, are a mix of pluses and minuses; as is the individual themself.

Out in the howling internet, one of the fallacies that such simplistic splitting leads to is ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ For example, the USA has got up to all manner of dirty tricks, so is bad; therefore anyone against the USA, for example Russia, has to be good. Rather than facing a variety of horrible truths; 1) there may be no goodies amongst rulers anywhere; 2) some are better/worse than others; 3) both will have positive attributes which are not negated by their bad behaviour.

Splitting does make life easier for a lazy mind – I’m right and you’re wrong. Rather than facing the uncomfortable fact that “genuine tragedies are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights.” (Hegel). That is not a conundrum that is easily assimilated.

None of which ignores the fact that governments in varying degrees at varying times act egregiously badly and manipulate the population. “It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be moulded until they clothe ideas and disguise.” (Goebbels)  Or to carry out provocative acts and blame it on the other side to justify starting a conflict; of which there is copious evidence. See URL below.

But to move from an understanding that bad sometimes happens, to a mindset which is suspicious of every incident, even turning videoed mass shootings into ‘false flags’, is an indication of a pathology (illness).

http://washingtonsblog.com/2015/11/the-first-question-to-ask-after-any-terror-attack-was-it-a-false-flag.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/28/florida-shooting-conspiracy-theories-youtube-takedown

Millenials are generally considered as the generation born between the early 1980s to mid 1990s. That would coincide with Pluto in Scorpio, 1984 to 1995; and Neptune in Capricorn, 1984 to 1997. Uranus was in Sagittarius 1982 to 1989 then in Capricorn for the triple conjunction with Saturn and Neptune and moved out in 1995.

There’s a range of views about their characteristics: – special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional, pressured, and achieving. Confident and tolerant, but also with a sense of entitlement and narcissistic. More miserable. Pragmatic idealists. Dislike staying for long in same job. More open-minded, and more supportive of gay rights and equal rights for minorities; self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and receptive to new ideas and ways of living. “The trend is more of an emphasis on extrinsic values such as money, fame, and image, and less emphasis on intrinsic values such as self-acceptance, group affiliation and community.”

Pluto in Scorpio will make them intense, secretive, will-driven, interested in power and for some in the occult, resourceful in crisis, aware of the seriousness of life. Pluto in Scorpio is essentially about regeneration; and they will have strong views about sex and money. Evidently they are ditching credit cards and avoiding debt (apart from student loans). And are more obese – maybe the misery factor. And having less sex than previous generations, perhaps Pluto’s repressive tendencies, or realism about AIDs etc.

The late 1980s to mid 1990s batch will be different from those born earlier in the 1980s, since they have the triple and then double conjunction in Capricorn. Uranus Neptune around 1990 to 1995 is highly-strung, tinged with genius in certain cases, certainly inspired/creative but can also be fanatical. Radically different ideas about the handling of money, both individually and globally.

I suspect we haven’t seen the full potential of this generation yet. Pluto in Scorpio and a heavy dose of Capricorn will take maturity for its full potential to emerge.