Marjorie

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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry continue to step out together with relatively little fuss (comparatively speaking) apart from the odd bitchy piece a la the Daily Mail today suggesting she’ll get not-invited to Pippa Middleton’s May wedding lest she steal the limelight.

I’m still not convinced it’s a together-till-eternity match with a close composite Sun square Uranus, which favours on-off, separated-by-distance relationships. There’s certainly a passionate composite Venus Mars conjunction and a tough-it-out Saturn Pluto, though that latter probably squares the composite Moon which is bleak. And there’s also a fair amount of Neptune wreathing its illusory magic around which most often ends in disappointment, especially with Mars square Neptune.

They are totally different types of personalities – she a Sun Leo and Moon Libra, he a Virgo Sun Taurus Moon. So Fire Air with Earth Earth. Admittedly her Venus in Virgo helps as does his Venus in Libra, since they resonate with his Sun and her Moon. But maybe not enough.

There’ll be some kind of an upheaval in the relationship come April as tr Uranus opposes the composite Saturn and then moves to oppose Pluto; which may well be circumstances around them changing rather than anything dramatic at an emotional level. The degree of the composite Moon isn’t known but tr Uranus will square it sometime either this year or next, which will be a genuine upset. The year end across into 2018 will also feel separated and irritable with tr Saturn square Mars Venus, which may be just a passing moment.

Prince Harry definitely is smitten and wants a settled partnership with tr Pluto square his Venus throughout this year (and last) and his Progressed Moon going through his 7^th for another year ahead. And he has tr Pluto trine his 4^th house Moon in 2018/19 which is usually domestic and family changes. He’s got tr Uranus square his Sun/Moon midpoint at the moment which quite often accompanies relationship splits, but since he’s had that since early 2016, it may point to a radical reappraisal of what he wants from partnerships and from life. The Sun/Moon midpoint is the marriage of the spirit and the soul, the conscious and the unconscious. But it does suggest a degree of inner conflict perhaps about what his public duties will be in future. And that returns double-fold when tr Pluto opposes his Sun/Moon in 2019/2020.

April shows up on his chart as an emotional upheaval and that returns on and off till early 2018.

Meghan herself looks confused through chunks of this year, edgy, insecure with some highs but more challenges; and a disappointing-in-love tr Neptune opposition her Venus in April, returning later in the year and on and off through 2018.

Just as an addendum: Pippa certainly harbours no great liking for Meghan with a composite Mars square Saturn Pluto, which is very activated through mid March/April and beyond.

Meghan’s relationship to maybe-sister-in-law Kate will be turned on its head in April and jolted mightily in 2018 with tr Uranus opposition the composite Sun.

It’s a shame for Prince Harry since he clearly wants a settled family, but he’s a very different temperament to New Moon in Cancer in the 7th William.

     

 

One of the (many) mysteries of the fledgling Trump Administration is what has happened to the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. Next to POTUS it’s almost the most important post and yet Tillerson has been largely invisible, not present at foreign dignitary meetings with Trump, or giving briefings. Admittedly he inherited an understaffed department, with top staff exiting, and is under threat of budget cutbacks. But he didn’t get to be CEO of Exxon, the world’s sixth largest revenue generating business, by being a shrinking violet. So the fightback must be happening out of sight or is still in the planning stages.

He’s a Sun Aries opposition Saturn square Uranus, so pro-active, innovative, practical; with a fearsome and ruthless Mars in Scorpio square Pluto, and his Sun exactly opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint, so he’s not going to be tramped underfoot for long.

His relationship chart with Trump (minus his birth time) is friendly enough though also controlling – but doesn’t throw up too many clues about the way ahead prediction-wise. Two alpha males and only one boss. Tillerson won’t take kindly to being pushed into a cupboard.

The ones he has real issues with are Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner, who have been sitting in on foreign meetings and plotting a parallel course to the State Department. Tillerson’s relationship chart with Bannon has an argumentative composite Sun Mercury square Mars; with a power-struggling composite Jupiter square Pluto; and a suspicious, crossed-agendas Saturn Neptune square Uranus. That chart is being jolted and jangled for the next two months with a major upheaval in September/October.

With Jared Kushner, the relationship chart is no better with an implacable-dislike composite Mars square Pluto Uranus; and a disappointing/distrustful composite Sun square Neptune. They’ll be jockeying for position this month till early June; with an impatient, seriously stuck late July to late September; and a real flare up in December.

Tillerson’s personal chart looks undermined ahead and insecure with tr Neptune opposition Mars/Uranus, on and off till late 2018; and a high-tension tr Uranus square his Sun/Mars from late April, on and off till 2018. Plus a major setback tr Pluto opposition his Jupiter/Saturn midpoint in Sept/Oct, which tends to be a career loss.

Heaven help the US if the grown ups can’t get their act together and throw their weight around effectively.

Not that Jared Kushner and Stephen Bannon get on well with a disruptive composite Sun square Uranus Pluto, which is being pounded by tr Saturn hard aspects all year; plus a dissolving, undermining tr Neptune square the composite Mars this month and on into 2018.

 

 

There’s been a fractious spat in the EU with Poland after a near universal vote to reappoint Polish Donald Tusk as European council president. Clearly he’s not popular at home. As one of the largest recipients of EU funds, Poland would hardly seem to be in a position to lay down the law, even more so considering the EU parliament last year passed a resolution condemning PM Beato Szydio’s for meddling with the Polish Constitutional Court saying it endangered “democracy, human rights and the rule of law”. But she’s come out all guns blazing saying they would not be blackmailed.

The Poland 24 Aug 1989 1.05pm Warsaw/EU relationship chart is in a flashpoint year with tr Uranus opposition the composite Uranus and Mars, hotting up in April, on and off till early 2018. With a separating tr Uranus opposition the composite Sun in 2019. So the differences won’t subside.

Poland joined the EU on 1 May 2004 along with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia. That chart is on a collision course exactly now with Solar Arc Mars conjunct Saturn, certainly bad tempered, with tr Saturn also this year in an irritable opposition to the Mars, and square the Mars/Pluto midpoint; with a dead-halt Solar Arc Pluto opposition Saturn by 2021, when there is also tr Uranus conjunct the Sun.

The possibilities of getting anywhere near a unanimous agreement on almost anything look slim whether Brexit or a two-speed EU ahead, split into the haves and the have-nots..

 

Another holy roller horror has emerged after a ‘wee free’ minister in Lewis, Scotland hanged himself after being confronted by his wife over several affairs, of which she found evidence on his computer. In some denominations it might raise no more than a few tut tuts, but the Free Church (a misnomer if ever there was one) is exceptionally strict and has dominated life in parts of the north west of Scotland for 170 years. On Sundays due to Church diktats, life grinds to a halt – no shops and restaurants, no play on the golf course; the council-run swimming pool is shut. Only in recent years have there been flights and ferry sailings on Sundays. Needless to say, in addition, all sins and immoralities are roundly condemned in hellfire and brimstone sermons.

The Free Church of Scotland was formed on 18 May 1843 which gives a resolute Taurus Sun conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol, trine Saturn (Moon) in Capricorn, square Neptune Jupiter in Aquarius; with Saturn (Moon) square Pluto Venus; and Pluto Venus trine a crusading Mars in Sagittarius. All of which adds up to enduring stubbornness, a tough almost ruthlessly cruel streak and a fair amount of illusions/delusion. The Jupiter Neptune conjunction is marked being on the focal point of a mini Grand Trine to Pluto Venus trine Mars; and square Sun – Ebertin associates this with a conflict between the visualized ideal and the very different reality. How true.

There used to be an old saying about wee free ministers that around them it was best to keep both hands in your pockets – one holding your knicker elastic and the other your purse. Vulgar but apposite.

At the moment tr Uranus is opposition the Free Church Venus Pluto as the sexual scandal emerged which seems descriptive; moving on to a jolting square to the Saturn (Moon) as the year rolls on, perhaps putting a dent in all that Saturnine authoritarianism. Tr Uranus doing what it does best – rattling cages and forcefully blowing away old restrictions.

What gives with religious zealots? Outrageous and quite dizzying hypocrisy.

     

 

The British artist Howard Hodgkin has died aged 84. His vibrant, colourful oil paintings caught public attention when he was in his forties and his muse has produced prolifically since. He was famously emotive, “a man who loves and hates with a passion, and is very emotional. He will cry very easily and flares up, both in terms of colour and of temper, very quickly,” according to Nicholas Serota who gave him his first exhibition. Yet he always said he hated painting, that it was a gruelling, lonely business and did not come easily.

Born 6 Aug 1932 in London, he had a Sun and Jupiter in flamboyant Leo; and a passionately enthusiastic Venus Mars in emotionally sensitive Cancer sextile Mercury Neptune in Virgo. He also had the stark, depressive and inventive Pluto opposition Saturn square Uranus of his generation. His Uranus was trine Jupiter, so however much he doubted his talent, he had the courage to take risks to become a truly unique artist.

His two strongest harmonics were the creative, get-it-together 5^th and the ‘superstar’ 22^nd; with a stressed, inspirational 7^th Harmonic as well.

 

 

Ireland already reeling from multiple allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and maltreatment in institutional homes like the Magdalene Laundries, has another horror to add to its conscience. In the region of 800 babies born to unmarried women in Ireland ended up dumped in a septic tank at the Bon Secours Home at Tuam run by RC nuns over decades. Reports over the years suggested children in the home were underfed and mistreated, often dying from poor care. But under the iron thumb of an authoritarian, supremely arrogant and cruelly uncaring Catholic Church there was little hope of any action being taken. Illegitimate children were regarded as the product of sin and therefore sinful in themselves.

Not that it is a peculiarly Irish problem, since the Poor Sisters of Nazareth who ran UK orphanages were described in one report as “ruthless, sadistic, mad, depraved.’ And the Abuse Inquiry is now hearing of the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of British children forcibly deported to Australia by the UK government and leading churches and charities, between 1947 and 1970.

Words fail me. Do-gooders and holy rollers. It’s the hypocrisy which is so mind-bending. How do they square their pious superiority with such acts of wanton cruelty? I hope when they got to meet St Peter at the Pearly Gates, they were promptly sent elsewhere.

And the issue of abortion is still stuck back in a mediaeval time warp in Northern Ireland as well. Usually when countries have a punitive attitude to women they have afflicted Moons.

The Ireland 6 December 1922 5pm chart has a Moon Pluto in Cancer square Saturn in Libra which is bleak, tough, suppressive, uncaring. Moon Pluto is also in a Water Grand Trine to Uranus and Jupiter in Scorpio, which will stick the country in a rut, locked into a fantasy-land where facing up to unpleasant realities has to be avoided. Tr Pluto is square the 4^th house Saturn this year; and Solar Arc Pluto Moon will conjunct that Saturn in 2018, which doesn’t hold out much hope for a speedy remedy, at least in the near future. Though from the looks of that there may be more depressing stories creeping out into the open.

Northern Ireland, 3 May 1921 12 am, with highly restrictive laws (unlike the UK) refusing abortion unless the mother’s life is at risk, (ie. not in the case of foetal abnormality, rape or incest) has been described by the UN and judges as cruel, inhuman and degrading, violating a woman’s human rights. The NIreland Moon is conjunct Uranus, trine Pluto and opposition Saturn Jupiter, so not dissimilar to Ireland. Tr Neptune is wending its way round the NI Moon and Saturn over this year and into 2019; with a collision in 2019 so there might be a chance of a change then.

 

 

Momentous times for the USA as tr Pluto heads for its First Return in 2022. On the USA 1776 chart, Pluto in Capricorn opposes Mercury in Cancer, describing a dark, fanatical streak in the American temperament; and that opposition will be seriously rattled through 2017/18 by tr Uranus picking up the square (see Dec 26 Post on US 2017) from this April. With a tremendous upheaval as tr Uranus squares Pluto exactly through 2018. Past experience would suggest it tends to bring out extreme right-wing elements and political scandals.

Ebertin associates Mercury Pluto with: demagogues, plagiarists, those who fraudulently misrepresent, slyness and cunning, irritability, and psychological pressure since Mercury rules the rational mind. That’s all on the negative side – it can, if kept under control, be persuasive and an insightful critic.

Even more pressured will be the tr Pluto opposition the US Mercury, picking up in spring 2020 and exact over the 2021 Inauguration and moving on to conjunct the US Pluto in 2022/23. So a longish period of intensity, fierce debate and mental strain. Pluto will, of course be boosted by the conjunction to Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn which will make it an even more complex scenario.

Previous times of tr Pluto in hard aspect to the US Pluto opposition Mercury were:

1845 to 1851, Pluto in Aries – Democratic President, bitter anti-slavery fights; and the US-Mexican War over the secession of Texas.

1933 to 1938, Pluto in Cancer – Franklin Roosevelt breathes new life into the American spirit with the New Deal, a response to the Great Depression, which works economically for a while before hitting a recession in 1937/38. Dust Bowl storms in 1933/34. J. Edgar Hoover takes over FBI.

Dec 1980 to Sept 1983, Pluto in Libra – Reagan in White House, revitalising a disenchanted nation after Jimmy Carter and the failure of Vietnam. Swingeing tax cuts lead to soaring budget deficit and highest unemployment since 1940. He gets shot in 1981; a recession in 1982 with Pluto conjunct Saturn in Libra.

The 2020 election occurs with an exact conjunction of Jupiter Pluto in Capricorn with tr Saturn four degrees further on. With Jupiter Pluto square Mars in Aries so strong-arm tactics, violence, ruthless and bullying. Looks very capitalist to me.

The 2021 Inauguration chart is all set for a crisis-ridden term with a control-freaky Pluto conjunct the MC (assuming 12 noon) and the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn square a 12^th house Mars Uranus (Moon). That would point to subversive rebellions; i.e underground groups working explosively to disrupt the government. While Jupiter Saturn and Sun in Aquarius might seem to be humanitarian, there is also a fascist streak to Aquarius.  Tr Neptune is also rapidly heading to square the US Mars from March 2012 for two years which   usually accompanies a sense of panicky failure and plummeting morale..

[I’ll have a look tomorrow at countries which have old charts and have been through their Pluto return to see what effect it had on them.]

 

 

Lee Radziwill, Jackie Kennedy’s younger sister, was if anything, more beautiful, elegant with a keener eye for fashion of the two. But she lived forever in her sister’s shadow. While they clearly had an affectionate relationship they were also constantly upstaging each other.

Lee, 3 March 1933 5.46pm New York (astrotheme), was a Sun Pisces opposition Neptune, Mars, Jupiter in Virgo squaring onto a Gemini Moon – so highly enthusiastic and exuberant, constantly scattered, yet also sensitive to slights with such an emphasised Moon. She was dependent with a 7^th house Sun, but needed more love than one person could give her, so she flitted through three marriages and had multiple affairs, including with Ari Onassis before Jackie married him. Her Uranus in the 8^th may well have been another part of her restless need for new sexual partners, and given that it squared Pluto, her life would be in constant turmoil.

Jackie’s Leo Sun fell in her 11^th for a friendly connection, cemented during a difficult childhood with a drunken, roustabout of a father, then parental divorce and a step-family in their teens. Jackie’s Jupiter was conjunct Lee’s Moon and Midheaven so she would bring Lee status; but Jackie’s cool, self-righteous Saturn squared Lee’s 1^st house Jupiter, so Lee would constantly feel criticised.

Their relationship chart had most significantly an afflicted 10^th house Pluto, which does suggest a struggle for the upper hand; with a composite conjunction of Mars Neptune which again suggests an ego/self-esteem clash – one wins, the other feels diminished. There was closeness from a composite Venus square Pluto, though with undertones of jealousy; and superficial niceness from Venus square Jupiter.

Both of them and their relationship lived through tumultuous times with Uranus square Pluto marked on all the charts.

When Jackie died, having grown much richer from Onassis’s death and her subsequent relationship with Maurice Templesman increased her fortune by tenfold through his management, she left nothing to Lee, who was in more impoverished circumstances (comparatively speaking), not even a memento, which seems petty and spiteful.

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/04/jackie-kennedy-lee-radziwill-sisterhood

Looking ahead to the US Midterm elections on 6 Nov 2018 which would be the Democratic hope for a shift in the balance of power, it looks more hopeful for the senior Republicans. What follows is mainly without birth times and some like Nancy Pelosi, now 76, may bow out.

There is certainly a shift in the planetary signs with tr Uranus just into Taurus, Saturn in early Capricorn and Jupiter poised to enter Sagittarius. That could suggest change but Saturn heading to conjunct Pluto in the highly conservative sign of Capricorn would suggest otherwise.  Around the election it’ll be high tension, fanatical, perhaps even violent with an ugly mood around according to the midpoints.

Mitch McConnell, Majority Senate leader (R-KY), 20 Feb 1942, hasn’t much over the election itself but is in a gung ho, revitalised mood from mid Jan 2019 onwards with tr Pluto square his Sun/Jupiter for two years

Paul Ryan, the Speaker, 29 Jan 1970 2.37 am Janesville, WI, has a brilliantly successful tr Pluto conjunct his Mars/Jupiter midpoint in Nov 2018, plus a couple of more minor tr Saturn downers, so not everything he hoped for, but he’ll be on a high. With tr Jupiter about to cross his Ascendant.

Chuck Schumer, 23 Nov 1950, Senate Minority leader, looks seriously jangled with tr Uranus opposition his discouraged Sun/Saturn midpoint; feeling restricted also from tr Pluto trine his Sun/Uranus.

Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader of House of Representatives, 26 March 1940, has an agitated, unsettling tr Uranus conjunct her Sun/Mars; a depressed tr Pluto square Sun/Saturn immediately before; and a tr Pluto conjunct her Jupiter/Node – so really down, with one up.

Barack Obama, no doubt watching anxiously from the sidelines, does have a lucky/relief tr Uranus square his Jupiter at the election; but also a devastating and catastrophic feeling through Jan 2019.

Given the present state of play a good deal of water will have flowed under the bridge by that time and the situation out in the world, never mind in the White House, could be radically different. If there are major economic pressures or a war-situation, then voters tend to opt for continuity.