Marjorie

Italy is heading for an early March election with populists on Left and Right leading the polls with two thirds of voters behind them. They’ve abandoned plans to leave the euro, plotting instead ‘to subvert monetary union from the inside with parallel currencies and deficit spending in open violation of the Maastricht Treaty. All view the euro system as a racket run largely in the interests of Germany.’ (Telegraph). Italian output is still low compared to pre-2008 levels and not much improved from the mid 1990s when the lira was pegged to the deutschemark. The result is likely to be a hung parliament.

The EU will be watching with trepidation through February and more so come late March onwards as tr Saturn opposes the composite Pluto, then Uranus; with the Eclipse conjunct the composite Mars Venus, which tr Uranus then aspects into 2019 as well as opposing the composite Saturn. So there are likely to be ructions.

Where the Bank of Italy, 10 August 1893, looks in better fettle is by 2022 onwards, but there’ll be a fair few mountains to climb before they get there.

Unexpected co-operation between North and South Korea over the Winter Olympics in February, which includes marching under a unity flag, has brought a sharp backlash in South Korea. Japan has warned that Kim Jong Un is just buying time to continue his nuclear missile programme and Rex Tillerson says the USA is not easing up pressure either. It would certainly suit North Korea to unify and move the USA out altogether but that’s hardly likely to happen.

The Olympics chart, 9 Feb 2018 8pm Pyongchang, SK, isn’t too illuminating and Olympics are always fraught anyway with possibilities for mishaps in organisation rife. Though it does look reasonably bad-tempered with Moon Mars in the 3^rd; and there’s an unstable 5^th house Pluto square an 8^th house Uranus. The Aquarius Solar Eclipse at 27 degrees Aquarius falls on the 15^th which will certainly rattle up SKorea with its Sun, Saturn, Mercury in Leo in line for a shake-up. Locating the Eclipse to  P’yongch’ang it puts Jupiter on the midheaven which could be great success, though Jupiter isn’t always beneficent on these charts.

The SK/NK relationship chart does look at high tension next month with tr Uranus opposition the composite Mars; and continuing to be on edge throughout the year.

Japan, which has a bitterly toxic interface with NK, with a composite Mars opposition Pluto, will be even more uptight from March onwards, blocked in April and generally disbelieving.

The USA, off balance with this latest manoeuvre, will be on high alert after mid March with more sparks flying; and applying maximum pressure.

Kim’s leadership chart, 29 December 2011 11.57am, is facing a setback, exactly as the Winter Olympics closes in late February with tr Saturn conjunct the Sun Pluto. Across this odd turn of events next month the Solar Arc Uranus is coming to close the square to the Sun Pluto, which certainly indicates a turnaround, though usually of an unstable variety.

A red-faced Mike Pence had to sit beside his wife at Sunday church listening to his pastor denouncing and condemning Trump for his alleged s***hole remarks, calling them “hurtful, dehumanising, visceral, guttural, ugly. There was nothing that was loving in that adjective, nothing loving in that statement about Haiti. We can do better than this, we can do better than this as a nation.” The speech was met with repeated standing applause from the audience.

Pence’s spiritual double-bind will worsen next week as he goes (maybe) on his much delayed trip to Israel, where Palestinians are outraged about his support for Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy to the ‘capital’ Jerusalem. Haaretz, the liberal Israeli newspaper writes: “In Mike Pence’s eagerness to be the evangelicals’ messiah, he’s happy to boost the occupation, kill the idea of two states and bully the Palestinians, and frame it all as divinely ordained.” They point out the order was signed in front of a Christmas tree. (Go read Revelations: End of Times). Pic credit: Evan Vucci / APEvan Vucci / AP

The unholy combination of an amoral POTUS and saintly VP is moving into swampy territory from here on in. Karen Pence, even more zealously religious than her husband and probably the trouser-wearer in the marriage, certainly disapproves of Trump, with her Saturn conjunct his Moon and opposition his Sun. She must squirm every time they have to do a smiley on-parade pic. Both she and her husband have their Pluto on Trump’s Ascendant so will desperately wish they could change/control his public image. Fat chance of that.

Both their relationship charts with Trump pick up tr Pluto square the composite Neptune from early February running till late 2019 which will bring confusion of a high order, veering towards devastation. Perhaps the contradictions of their hypocrisy will become too much even for them. Karen Pence’s relationship chart with Trump will also skid towards a major eruption in April as tr Saturn opposes their composite Mars. With her husband having his hiccup with Trump in the same month with tr Uranus opposing their composite Venus.

What was it someone said? – for feeling types it’s a tragedy; for thinking types a comedy. A fairly black comedy but it’s gone so far over the line of bad farce, you have to give a cynical chuckle. And then start praying.

Pence has tr Neptune square his Gemini Sun from mid 2018 onwards which will put his gas at a peep.

Dylan Farrow has given an interview in which she stands firm about her allegations of abuse aged 7 by her adoptive father Woody Allen (denied by him). She talked about her outrage of years of being ‘ignored and disbelieved and tossed aside.”

A housekeeper initially raised concerns with her adoptive mother Mia Farrow about Allen’s behaviour towards Dylan, with whom he seemed to be obsessed; and a divorce was imminent. He immediately sought custody of three of the children, including Dylan, and had started an affair with an elder adoptive teenage sister, whom he subsequently married. The custody judges’ full ruling, in which he award custody to Mia Farrow, makes bracing reading. He slammed Allen’s inadequate parenting skills, lack of insight into the effects of his actions on the children and the judge concluded that the abuse of Dylan had most likely, though not provably, happened. (I can email it to anyone who’d like to read it.)

Dylan, 1 July 1985, is a feisty Sun Mars in Cancer on the focal point of a Yod to a Jupiter sextile Uranus; so will be volatile and stressed. She’s also got Venus in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio widely square Jupiter – emotionally shut down but softened by that focal point Jupiter in Aquarius.

Her Pluto in Scorpio opposes Allen’s Uranus, so she has the capacity to turn his life upside down; and her Uranus is conjunct his Sun, saying the same – not happy in the same space. Her Venus opposition Saturn hooks into Allen’s Aquarius Moon as well as his Mars opposition Pluto, so she would arouse strong feelings in him.

Their relationship chart is combustible with a Yod of Mars sextile Uranus inconjunct Sun; a chained-together and resenting it Saturn trine Pluto, and a struggle for-the-upper-hand Pluto trine Jupiter as well. The composite Moon may square Mars for more anger.

Poor kid to have to drag this all up again.

The lead actor in Woody Allen’s latest, as yet unreleased, movie Rainy Days has said in the light of the recent #metoo exposures, he is giving away his fee. Timothy Chalamet, best known for Homeland, said: “I don’t want to profit from my work on the film, and to that end, I am going to donate my entire salary to three charities: Time’s Up, the LGBT Centre in New York, and Rainn [the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network].”

Woody Allen was accused of sexual abuse by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, which were renewed in October 2017 when she wrote a piece in the Los Angeles Times titled “Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?”. He denies the allegations. He left Mia Farrow to marry another adoptive daughter. A trove of his personal archives, stored at Princeton University since 1980, have been fully read for the first time, and it is filled with musings about men falling for teenage girls.

Allen, born 1 December 1935 10.55pm New York, has a 4^th house Sun, Jupiter, Mercury in Sagittarius in a self-doubting and self-effacing square to Saturn, making him home-oriented, private. But what stands in contradiction to those planets is an unpleasantly obsessive T Square of a ruthless Mars in Capricorn opposition Pluto square Venus which does suggest a certain warp in his attitude to romance; and given Mars in his 5^th, getting his own way.

His Venus is also trine an Aquarius Moon, an aspect Richard Idemon used to describe as the ‘poisoned apple’.

He’s in for a serious jolting this year with tr Uranus about to square his Mars and Pluto in March/April; before then, exactly now, he’s facing a major setback with tr Saturn conjunct his Sun/Mars midpoint and a deeply depressed tr Pluto conjunct his Sun/Saturn from March till late 2019. There’s more angst in 2019/2020 as tr Pluto is conjunct his Venus and Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct his Pluto. And at the moment his Solar Arc Saturn is conjunct his midheaven – doing its Saturnine thing of bringing chickens home to roost – finally. His putative son with Mia Farrow, Ronan Farrow, was the one who broke the #metoo story last year.

Dolores O’Riordan, the Irish singer with a haunting voice, often compared to Sinead O’Connor, has died in a London hotel aged 46. A smash hit in her native Ireland and the USA, at her height she sold 40 million records, duetted with Luciano Pavarotti and toured with REM and Oasis. But she found fame difficult to handle and was ultimately diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.

Born 6 September 1971 near Limerick in Ireland, she was the youngest of nine children, brought up by a devout Catholic mother who imposed a strict religious upbringing, and was beaten at school by nuns. In later years she revealed that she had been sexually abused as a child, leading to anorexia, the overuse of alcohol, manic depression and suicidal thoughts. She married and had three children, but she had left them in Canada to try to get her life together, when she died.

She was a charming Sun Venus in Virgo, though a square to Saturn would induce self-doubt. Hints of her unhappy childhood come through an Air Grand Trine of Saturn in a harsh trine to Mars in a volatile trine to Uranus, with Saturn in a creative/neurotic opposition to Neptune (Jupiter). A surfeit of Mutable signs would make her inclined to nervousness and anxiety; and Saturn opposition Jupiter would bring highs and lows. Her Jupiter sextile Pluto would give her spurts of confidence, but clearly not enough to outweigh her other concerns. Her Moon in late Pisces/Aries was probably opposition Pluto, so she’d store up difficult feelings inside.

This year she had a raft of difficult transits to midpoints approaching; but most significantly her Solar Arc Mars, pulling on all the energy of her Grand Trine/Kite, was about to oppose her Pluto and was maybe around the conjunction to her Moon. Often life crises appear when Solar Arcs of central configurations move to collide with, and put strain, on natal planets.

Keanu Reeve’s hugely successful franchise John Wick is to be turned into a Starz tv drama series, though he won’t be playing a leading role, being tied up in the mark 3 JW movie due out in 2019.

Born 2 September 1964 5.41 am Beirut, Lebanon with an English mother and a father of Hawaiian-Chinese descent, who was imprisoned for dealing heroin, he had a fractured childhood moving round the world with a succession of stepfathers. In his adult life, a steady girlfriend gave birth to a stillborn baby and was killed herself later in a car accident, so he hasn’t had an easy  life , despite a run of smash-hit blockbusters including The Matrix.

He has a Virgo Sun conjunct Mercury, Uranus, Pluto in his 12th so he carries a good deal of inner turmoil – with a regretful singleton Saturn in Pisces sitting in opposition in his 6^th house. He’ll channel a good deal of his restlessness and angst into work. He has Jupiter in indulgent Taurus in the much-travelled 9^th in a spiritual/idealistic opposition to Neptune which is also sextile/trine a highly emotional and passionately enthusiastic Mars Venus (Moon) in Cancer. A complicated individual.

He’s got a great deal of mileage ahead of him with tr Saturn now across his IC and on the rise for the next two decades. He’s nearly out of several years of Neptune oppositions to his Virgo planets and three years of the tr Uranus square Pluto hitting on his Moon. And he’s moving towards a major major success come 2021/22 with tr Pluto trine his Jupiter. Though with an intensely emotional phase before then with tr Pluto opposition his Mars Venus from this April till 2020.

Michelle Williams, the latest face of Hollywood unequal pay, has congratulated Mark Wahlberg for donating his $1.5 million fee for the re-shoot of All the Money in the World to the Time’s Up campaign in her name. She got 1% of his fee. Though what’s odd about that story is they have the same agent and often disparities are down to some actors having Rottweiler agents, while others don’t. The agent gets a cut so it’s to their benefit to bump fees up to maximum. Though clearly female actresses have always been undervalued.

Born 9 September 1980 3.07am Kalispell, Montana, she says she was self-sufficient and secretive as a child, which suggests she didn’t ask for much back then. She’s had a sterling career with multiple awards for screen and stage work; and was married to Heath Ledger with whom she had a child.

She has a New Moon Jupiter in Virgo sextile Uranus and square Neptune in her performing 5^th house. She’s also got Saturn Mercury in Virgo also square Neptune. All that Virgo will make her self-effacing putting the work before glory and her heavily aspected Neptune also wouldn’t make her a tough negotiator. Plus she has Pluto, Mars and Uranus in her 4^th house, so her childhood would be scary and her father especially wouldn’t take kindly to confrontation or demands.

Mark Wahlberg, 5 June 1971 7.15am Boston, Massachusetts, on the other hand, has a financial 8^th house Mars in Aquarius trine his Gemini Sun trine Uranus; and Venus, Mercury, Saturn in Taurus trine Pluto and opposition Jupiter in Scorpio – so he will be more money-minded.

She looks to be having a rather undermining time ahead with tr Neptune opposing her Sun and Moon from mid 2018 for eighteen months, and then moving on to oppose her Jupiter.

Jeremy Corbyn’s chart (UK opposition leader) is a mystery. I’ve been staring at it for weeks deciding whether there’s anything worth saying which is odd given that he is regularly touted now as a replacement for the feeble May.

His Leadership chart, 24 September 2016 12.51pm Liverpool, makes more sense with a successful, lucky Sun Jupiter in the 10^th which is moving to an exact conjunction this year – which all looks good for him, as the left are dominating all three of the Labour Party’s centres of power: the trade unions, the shadow cabinet in parliament and the national executive. He could be set to lead Britain’s most radical government ever. Where his leadership charts hits real problems is by 2019 with tr Pluto starting a two year square to the Uranus, which aspect often topples leaders from their perches.

He has two major problems since his young voters are generally pro-Europe while he like many old left-wingers is not; and the other is that it’s unclear whether the UK would be happy to elect what the Labour Party is now being forced to become.

He’s not exactly seeing eye-to-eye with Momentum (8 October 2015) which is driving through the draconian changes, with upheavals in their relationship chart this year and aggravation plus in 2019/2020. His relationship with both the 1900 and 1906 Labour Party charts are also fraught with tension. Momentum itself looks set back on its heels in 2019 though more upbeat in 2020/2021.

The Labour Party 12 Feb 1906 chart looks much more together and successful come 2021/2022.

Joe Biden topped a recent poll for a possible Democratic candidate in the 2020 election, beating Sanders, Oprah and Warren. Long ways off, much water to flow under bridges before then. But a quick look suggests he has several influences in his favour then, and a few that aren’t.

At the election he has tr Pluto opposition his Jupiter for a confidence boost; and tr Jupiter square his Pluto over the Inauguration plus tr Pluto trine his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint. If his birth time (from memory) is sound then the tr Jupiter Pluto conjunction will be around the trine to his MC at the election. What’s not so great is the tr Jupiter Pluto square his Mars/Neptune midpoint in November 2020 which usually dashes hopes of a win; along with a blocked tr Saturn square his Solar Arc Pluto. Also tr Saturn is running through his 2^nd house, the lowest point of his first quadrant through the campaign which will really pull down his energy. He may not put himself forward but he looks relatively upbeat until after January 2021 when tr Uranus moves to square his Pluto and opposes his Mars, which looks high-risk and extremely insecure.

Republican Mitt Romney also may or may not stand and is schtum about whether he’d take on Trump for the candidacy. He looks chirpy enough at the Inauguration with tr Pluto conjunct his Sun/Jupiter midpoint, and enthusiastic between the election and inauguration. But in general he’s labouring under tr Neptune squaring his Uranus from 2019 and approaching the conjunction to his Pisces Sun from March 2021 onward, which may undercut him; as well as Solar Arc Neptune square his Sun through 2020. Like Biden he looks fairly rocked by events of 2021 with tr Uranus opposition his Pluto and square his Venus.