Marjorie

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.

Liam Neeson has stepped into the #metoo debate, suggesting there was a ‘bit of a witchhunt’ going on with some allegations being about ‘childhood stuff.’ Twitter has been fairly mixed in response with some outrage and some support for his honesty. In the past he’s generally been thought liberal, doing a film for Amnesty about the legalisation of abortion in Ireland and being pro-gun control.

Born 7 June 1952 9.55pm (astrotheme) Ballymena, Ireland, he has a Gemini Sun Mercury on his Descendant conjunct Venus opposition a 12^th house Sagittarius Moon; with his Sun trine Neptune (Saturn) in Libra trine an Aquarius North Node – restless, multi-talented, communicative and emotionally quite detached. His ambitious, ultra-determined Mars in Scorpio in the 10^th is in an adventurous opposition to Jupiter in indulgent Taurus. And he has the signature superstar influential Pluto in the 8^th. Uranus in his 7^th square Saturn, could make him uncompromising and at times autocratic.

He’s not in his best of years with his Solar Arc Sun in a blocked conjunction to Pluto, with Solar Arc Mercury following in 2019; an undermining tr Neptune square his Moon and Venus this month; a disaster-prone tr Pluto square his Mars/Saturn midpoint also this month, repeating later in the year; and an unsecure, jolting tr Uranus opposition his 10^th house Mars from mid 2018 for eighteen months. Tr Uranus, on this birth time, will also oppose his midheaven next month. There may be other reasons than a lashback from these comments. But one way or another he’ll be out of sorts. He’ll get a lift in early 2020 from Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct his Uranus.

Tunisia, which kick-started the Arab Spring and was the only and brightest hope emerging from the melee of 2011 is descending into violent unrest because of economic woes. The unity government of centrists, moderate Islamists and independents, was forced to push through austerity measures this year to meet the demands of foreign lenders including the IMF. Tourism has been hit because of terrorist attacks, the currency has fallen, inflation and unemployment are up. The governments since 2011 have made moves towards democratic reform but the underlying problems of poverty remain unsolved. A heavy-handed response to street demonstrations has seen 800 arrested which has only strengthened resistance to the government.

Tunisia gained independence on 15 June 1956 at 5pm, Tunis, which gives a confident,  controlling Jupiter Pluto conjunct the MC but on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine of Sun trine Neptune which adds a layer of impracticality and wishful thinking to the mix.

There are certainly indications of changes afoot this year with tr Uranus approaching a square to the natal Uranus from May onwards; tr Uranus opposing the Solar Arc Midheaven at the same time; and then tr Uranus trine the natal Midheaven from July onwards. Even before then tr Uranus will trine Pluto and then oppose the Tunisia Neptune in March/April which will be highly-strung, nervy, possibly fanatical and push through radical changes. Some of the shifts may be positive though it looks a bumpy ride. It may take till 2021 to clear the economic trough and bring a morale and financial boost to Tunisia. Though there’s always the risk with Pluto conjunct the MC of a strong-man leader (dictator) emerging to take control.

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The BBC is sinking itself deeper into the mire over equal payment for women with the China editor resigning because she had discovered, despite promises to the contrary on contract renewal, that she was not on parity with male editors in similar jobs. Carrie Grace said she had discovered over the previous year the two male foreign editors were paid 50% more than the two female editors. Today’s John Humphreys then compounded the aggravation by cracking jokes off mic, as he thought, on the subject, leading to threats of a mass walkout amongst female presenters.

The Moon in the BBC chart is sparsely aspected and tucked away out of sight in the 4^th house; with the Progressed Moon now almost in opposition in the 10^th, pulling the issue of women employees out of the kitchen into the public arena.

The late January Lunar Eclipse in Leo is also going to oppose the BBC Mars suggesting a major barney on issues of balance and transparency is brewing and will continue through the year with the July 2018 Lunar Eclipse rattling the BBC Mars as well.

Tr Jupiter is moving towards a conjunction to the BBC Scorpio Sun within two weeks, which should give the BBC a confidence boost. But perhaps it’s also doing the cause of womankind good, since Jupiter moved into Scorpio just as the #metoo campaign kicked off. Not that is likely to move to a fast conclusion given the BBC’s customary intransigence and bureaucratic obfuscation.