Marjorie

Serena Williams, the tennis superstar, 22 times Grand Slam winner, has announced her engagement to Alexis Ohanian, the American-Armenian co-founder of Reddit. She was born 26 September 1981 8.28pm Saginaw, Michigan and he 24 April 1983 New York.

She has her Sun and Saturn Jupiter Pluto Mercury in Libra with a Virgo Moon and Venus in Scorpio. While he is a Sun in Taurus opposition Saturn Pluto, with Mars also in Taurus; a Virgo/Libra Moon, Venus in Gemini and a lucky Uranus Jupiter in Sagittarius. It’s not intuitively that strong a mix. On the upside his Venus does trine her Libra Sun Saturn Jupiter which is affectionate; his Moon is around her Moon Sun which gives a shared resonance; his Sun is on her Ascendant which can be good though also competitive. Her Venus in Scorpio opposes his Mars in Taurus which is hot, passionate and sexy but not overly sensitive. And his Saturn Pluto is conjunct her Descendant which isn’t too emotional, better suited to a business relationship.

The relationship chart has a morale-boosting composite Sun trine Jupiter; but the Sun is also square a cold, overly hard-working Saturn and trapped Pluto; with Saturn Pluto trine Mars which will create aggro down the line. Plus an ego-clashing, mutually unsupportive composite Mars opposition Neptune squaring onto the composite Moon. Plus a needs-space composite Venus square Uranus.

Possibly more minuses than pluses. And it will go through a fair number of ups and downs in 2017 with tr Saturn in hard aspect to the composite Moon, Neptune, Mars; and tr Uranus opposition Saturn Pluto; and tr Pluto square Sun.

He’s got a very see-saw chart with his Sun opposition Saturn Pluto; Venus opposition Uranus Jupiter; and Neptune opposition Node – all planets sitting together in two groups on opposite sides of his chart, so he won’t find relationships easy to maintain. She on the other hand has a very bunched together chart with all planets within a trine, so will be fairly self sufficient – and certainly very work-oriented.

Actor Michael Fassbender is aiming for some downtime after a making a dozen movies over the past five years. He garnered Oscar nominations and multiple awards for several – 12 Years a Slave, Shame, Steve Jobs and MacBeth and has three in post-production for 2017. He even mentioned perhaps giving up acting in future.

All of which fits with tr Saturn moving below his Sagittarius Ascendant. 2 April 1977 12.30am Heidelberg, Germany.

This is a time when old ambitions lose their enthusiasm and there is no longer the physical or mental energy to carry on at the full tilt of the previous few years. It’s a time to stop and re-think a future path, which may take a year or two.

He’s also had a debilitating, morale-sagging tr Saturn square tr Neptune hitting on his Virgo Moon opposition Mars square Neptune T Square through 2016. The Light Between Oceans this year got mixed reviews and not great box office; and his previous Steve Jobs movie was a commercial disappointment as well.

Having said all that, he has a powerfully confident and influential chart so he’s not going to disappear down a rabbit hole. His Aries Sun Venus are in an inspirational, entrepreneurial Fire Grand Trine to filmic Neptune on his Ascendant trine Saturn in Leo, formed into an even more talented and hard-driving Kite with Sun Venus opposition Pluto exactly on his Midheaven. I’d imagine he may focus on his production company for a while and perhaps more so as he gets older. Pluto on the MC likes to be in control.

Through 2017/18 he does have tr Pluto square his Mars/Jupiter midpoint which should fuel his fertile imagination and channel his energy into new projects. There’s lots ahead for him though he may wind down some acting commitments for a while.

Screen and stage actress, singer and dancer Debbie Reynolds has died, a day after her daughter Carrie Fisher, of a stroke aged 84. She had a bright, bubbly image which hit the big time when she was 19 in Singing in the Rain and she went on to have a long and enduring career in films, television and on Broadway. Though her emotional life was a train wreck. Her first husband Eddie Fisher left her for a newly-widowed Elizabeth Taylor, when Debbie, already unhappy in the marriage, was pregnant with her second child. Her next husband gambled away her fortune and was serially unfaithful; and she went bankrupt after her third marriage ended.

Born 1 April 1932 5.49pm El Paso, Texas, she had a 7^th house Sun Uranus Mercury in Aries which squared onto a 10^th house Pluto – so she was very contradictory in relationships, needing support and independence at the same time; would be controlling and possessive while staging rebellions and insisting on freedom.

Her Aquarius Moon in the performing 5^th was opposition Neptune and square an 8^th house Venus in Taurus. The 8^th house often appears in movie stars’ charts and appears to have the ability to project an aura for the public. Doris Day, another effervescent blonde actress, had Venus in the 8^th; and with a disastrous marriage track record much like Debbie Reynolds, she also shared a 7^th house Aries Sun square a 10^th house Pluto.

Debbie Reynolds’ relationship with her daughter Carrie went through phases of separation, was turned into an acidly funny book and movie in Postcards from the Edge, but ultimately grew close. Debbie’s Venus in Taurus was conjunct Carrie’s Moon so there would be a streak of real affection; but Debbie’s controlling Pluto was conjunct Carrie’s Descendant and trine Carrie’s Mars; and Carrie’s Pluto was opposition Debbie’s Moon – so there would be aggravations and power struggles.

Their relationship chart had a similarly complicated mix with an affectionate composite Sun opposition Venus; and a muddled composite Moon which was opposition a vague Neptune, square a defensive and cool Saturn, trine possessive Pluto, and sextile needs-space Uranus.

Debbie recently had been living through a very challenging phase with the tr Uranus square tr Pluto in hard aspect to her Sun; with tr Uranus opposition her Pluto and square her Uranus; and tr Neptune moving into her 6h house of health.

Have there been more celebrity deaths in 2016? It may be an optical illusion on the back of a highly uncertain year when all events were amplified by social and other media. If you look back to other years there were a fair number of notable passings.  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/goodbye-celebrities-who-died-2011-98971

There’s nothing this year as there was in 2011 when Neptune was shifting sign, which did seem to be a signal for superstar film ladies moving up to ethereal thrones. See below for list of Neptunian leavings.

It’s certainly true that everyone – and some more than most – have taken quite a battering from the tr Uranus square tr Pluto in recent years, topped in 2016 by the low energy, illness-prone Saturn square Neptune. Plus several who have gone this year, came out of the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll generation whose lifestyle of excess was always going to catch up with them at some point. George Michael and Carrie Fisher seemed to have still been using when they went. Hard drugs are not heart friendly.

I was struck years ago when Diana Dors, the actress died. She had a Cardinal Grand Square in her chart of Libra Sun opposition Uranus square Saturn opposition Pluto – and had overcome the tr Saturn Pluto in Libra bouncing off all four ends of that. She died after those pounding, destructive influences passed over which seemed a shame as if she’d almost made it past the winning post. But it was all too much and she succumbed to cancer.

There wasn’t a higher death toll in general this year, so just an over sensationalised media making us more aware of what heretofore might have been mentioned in one para on page 10.

NEPTUNE changing sign.

1901: Neptune leaving Gemini – Queen Victoria dies.

1915: Neptune leaving Cancer – Mary Baker Eddy and Emily Davidson (suffragette who suicided by horse at the Derby). Florence Nightingale also died with Neptune in late Cancer (1911)

1929: Neptune leaving Leo – Emmeline Pankhurst (the great suffragette), Ellen Terry, Isadora Duncan.

1943 – Neptune leaving Virgo – aviator Amy Johnson, writer Beatrix Potter.

1957 – Neptune leaving Libra – Laura Wilder (Little House on the Prairie), scientist Irene Curie

1968 – Neptune leaving Scorpio – Helen Keller, Enid Blyton, Dorothy Parker, Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Little Mo, Sonja Henie, Gypsy Rose Lee, Sharon Tate.

1983 – Neptune leaving Sagittarius – Nathalie Wood, Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), Anna Freud, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Gloria Swanson, Ethel Merman, Lillian Hellman, Indira Gandhi.

1998 – Neptune leaving Capricorn – Princess Diana, Mother Theresa, Ella Fitzgerald, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Evelyn Laye, Dorothy Lamour, Claudette Colbert, Marguerite Duras, Patricia Highsmith, Mary Leakey.

2011 – Neptune leaving Aquarius – Jane Russell, Elizabeth Taylor.

‘Democracy is the least worst alternative’ is a saying precis-ed from a speech by Winston Churchill: “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

The ancient Greeks prized their version of democracy (no women or slaves allowed to vote) and theorised endlessly about which was the best form of government – democracy, oligarchy or monarchy. In an imagined debate, Herodotus, the historian, put the pro-democracy case as “accountable government – refers all decisions to the common people.” Whereas his opponent said: “Democracy is a kind of mob rule. There is nothing more stupid or given to brutality. The approach of the general populace is that of a river swollen with winter rain: they rush blindly forward and sweep things before them”.

All empires, dynasties and civilizations with different forms of government have their day historically and then they fade, usually slowly, disintegrating into stagnation, excess and collapse. Often it takes a triple conjunction of three out of the four outer planets – Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – to mark the changeover. In the tumultuous 5^th Century AD when a quadruple conjunction of Saturn­, Neptune, Pluto, Jupiter in Taurus was followed 30 years later by a Uranus, Pluto, Saturn conjunction, the Roman Empire fell which had been the dominant force for 450 years. It was a bleak century of confusion and mass migration with the Barbarians taking over the European continent, and the Picts, Scots and Anglo-Saxons invading England. The Slavs raided and settled in the Balkans, and in China the oppressive Jin Dynasty fell, giving way to 150 years of confusion.

Two triple conjunctions later in the 7^th Century the Persian Sassanids, who have controlled much of the Middle East, fall and this is the effective start of the medieval Greek Byzantine Empire. The Merovingian Dynasty in Europe declines, with power passing to the founders of the Carolingian Dynasty. India is lapsing into the Dark Ages.

The next triple conjunction in the 10^th Century sees dynasties that rose under the previous triple conjunction in Germany and China now fade. The next one in the 14^th Century sees the founding of the powerful Ottoman Empire, which will last for 600 years. 18^th Century triple conjunction establishes for the first time a European balance of power and ends centuries of conflict. Large-scale German and Scots-Irish immigration to North America starts.

The most recent triple conjunction 1988/91 collapsed the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe, whose ideological base was set by Marx and Engels in the previous triple conjunction.

That’s a bit long-winded but it gives a picture of the constant rise and falls, the ebb and flow of history. It doesn’t necessarily need a triple conjunction. It can be double conjunctions or for example Pluto returning to a particular sign which is a once in 250 year occurrence.

The UK and France lost/gave up their empires when they were on a Half Pluto Return (i.e tr Pluto opposition natal Pluto) and a full Neptune return. When the USA was on its Pluto Half Return in the 1930s it was poleaxed by the great depression but recovered. It is moving towards the full conjunction in 2022.

If there’s one thing that history tells us is that what goes up must come down at some point. Portugal had the first global empire in the 15th and 16^th centuries and was one of the world’s major economic, political and military powers. Now it’s a holiday destination with financial woes. Baghdad was once the centre of civilization in the 8^th Century. Britain in its heyday had the largest empire in history and for over a century, was the foremost global power. It held sway over 23% of the world population and 24% of the Earth’s total land area. “The empire on which the sun never sets”. Now it’s way down the food chain, partly because of two stupendously expensive world wars.

Nothing lasts for ever.

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Haaretz, the Tel Aviv liberal newspaper is in no doubt where it stands over Netanyahu’s strop about the UN Resolution against the illegal settlements, and indeed about the resolution itself.

‘Netanyahu Is Dragging Israel Into the Abyss.’

‘UN Resolution Is a Breath of Hope in Sea of Darkness and Despair. It’s now even more crystal clear: The world thinks the settlements are a crime.’

‘UN Vote: World Beginning to rescue Israel from itself.’

‘Santa Obama delivered a wonderful Christmas present to Israel when the United States opted not to veto Friday’s United Nation Security Council vote condemning settlement policy.’

‘Obama’s UN Vote on Israeli Settlements: Where Have You Been for 8 Years, Mr. President?’

Just as Netanyahu thought the coming of Trump would be his ticket into the promised land, it all fell apart. A Trump administration cannot simply reverse the stated will of the UN security council – backed in this case by permanent members China, Russia, France and Britain – any more than it can unilaterally scrap last year’s multinational nuclear deal with Iran. It is likely the resolution will accelerate existing moves to prosecute Israel at the international criminal court and may also encourage new boycotts and sanctions.

Commentator Simon Tindall wrote: ‘The UN vote has highlighted the extraordinary extent of Israel’s international isolation under Netanyahu. Even he cannot persuasively dismiss the unanimous opinion of countries as diverse as Japan, Ukraine, Malaysia, Venezuela, Angola and Spain. It takes a lot to make an enemy of New Zealand, but Netanyahu has managed it.’

The Israel chart does have tr Saturn on the cusp of the 3^rd house, staying there for the next four years. In an individual’s chart this usually coincides with a time of difficulty in communicating with those around and of feeling cold-shouldered. Tr Uranus will square the Israel 25 Cancer MC from late April on and off till early 2018 which does suggest plans get derailed and a new direction has to be sought. With tr Uranus also on the cusp of the 7^th and staying in that house for seven years, ruptures in relationships are likely.

By 2018 the Solar Arc Moon will conjunct the Israel Neptune which suggests a concerned and undermined population; with an insecure, explosive tr Uranus trine Mars picking up in 2018 as well.

The most recent Netanyahu Prime Minister term chart, 14 May 2015 11.05pm Tel Aviv, will start to wobble come February 2017 as tr Pluto is conjunct the Uranus and that runs for two years.

His own personal chart, 21 Oct 1949 9.30am Tel Aviv, is running downhill with tr Saturn now way below the Ascendant, moving by 2017 into its lowest ebb success-wise in 2017/18. Tr Neptune will oppose his midheaven in Jan/Feb 2017 which will make him directionless, perhaps mired in domestic muddles. By 2018 tr Neptune will oppose his 10^th house Saturn, so it’ll be uncertainty and chaos. Plus his Solar Arc Pluto will conjunct his Sun in 2018; and his Solar Arc Saturn squares his Mars in 2019/20 – which is blocked and setback on his heels.

His relationship with Trump is not remotely easy with a composite Moon square Pluto Saturn Mars Sun. They’ll feel locked together and unhappy with it, with some sparring from April 2017 onwards.

The EU has just finished its second Saturn Return a week  ago, which is generally a get-real time – face facts and adjust forward plans accordingly. The EU Saturn is 3^rd house, so discussions over restrictions on travel have loomed large, though in typical EU fashion haven’t produced much agreement or movement away from unworkable schemes. Tr Saturn will continue moving through the EU 3^rd house till December 2017 when it moves into the EU 4^th, adding to pressure for internal and domestic change, with more tensions erupting.

There’s not much on direct planetary transits in 2017 – some tough, undermining midpoint transits and a couple of upbeat ones. The Progressed Mars moving through the 4^th does get tr Pluto conjunct at 18 Capricorn in 2017/18, so again internal aggro, frustrations and high risk.

By 2018 tr Saturn is starting its three year stint in the EU 4^th, joining tr Pluto and Prog Mars there – so there’s a build-up of resentful, mutinous, enfuriated energy flying around the EU population. Into 2018 as well, tr Uranus moves into the EU 8^th house of business and international finances for seven years which will be roller coaster, up and down.

The real challenges start late 2018 into and through 2019/2020 when a whole series of influences congregate. Tr Saturn will conjunct the EU Capricorn Sun. Solar Arc Pluto will conjunct the 2^nd house Neptune; and the Solar Arc MC will conjunct the EU Pluto – that looks discouraging, a financial meltdown, and blocked with secret scandals emerging. But the real whammies will come from tr Uranus in 2019 and on in hard aspect the EU Fixed Grand Cross – first in opposition to Neptune, then square Uranus, conjunct the 8^th house Moon and finally square Venus. That will de-stabilise the EU’s financial stability and provide a running series of shocks over several years.

What will be ‘interesting’ to observe is that Germany’s relationship chart with the EU is under severe strain at that point with tr Saturn opposition the Pluto and conjunct the composite Sun in 2019; with tr Uranus rattling the cage quite profoundly as it moves in hard aspect round the composite Fixed T Square of Venus Mars Uranus Moon, starting in 2019 and running on till 2020. Germany is very embedded in the EU and gains a good deal from an under-valued euro (from their point of view). But there will be enormous pressure on that relationship.

Germany, 1 Jan 1871 12 am Berlin, has the same axis of the UK and the EU, so like them has tr Uranus moving through the 7^th which can indicate separation from partnerships. The Solar Arc Moon will conjunct Mars, exact in three months’ time, which suggests a shocked population. And there will be a sharp change of direction this year from late April into May as tr Uranus squares the 10^th house Germany Uranus, repeating in November and early 2018. Tr Pluto will square the 7^th house Neptune from early 2017 through 2018 which will raise major questions about commitment to close partners with a good deal of swirling confusion and a sense of devastation around.   In 2019, tr Saturn will move into the Germany 4^th house crossing the Capricorn Sun which is likely to be discouraging internally.    And in 2019 as well, tr Uranus will conjunct the Germany 8^th house Taurus Moon which will be a partnership split with financial consequences. The Bundesbank (Central Bank) chart, 26 July 1957 is also showing 2018/19 as high-stress years.

France, 21 Sept 1792 3.30pm Paris, looks less likely to change direction. There will be the final tr Uranus sextile/trine the France Pluto opposition Uranus this coming February 2017, which will attempt to instil new reforms. But thereafter there’s not much of note till late 2017 when tr Saturn squares the Virgo Sun. 2018 will show move movement with a jolting tr Uranus conjunct Saturn and opposition Neptune Jupiter, so it’ll be edgy but not a radical. The EU/France relationship chart isn’t showing anything like the ructions that there are on the Germany/EU relationship chart. There’s an unsettled tr Uranus opposition the composite Neptune Jupiter in 2018, but nothing too dramatic, really until 2023/24. The Banque de France (central bank) is having a sagging few years from 2017 to late 2019 with tr Neptune square Venus Mars; and a totally stuck Solar Arc Sun opposition Pluto in 2018/19, so struggling financially with a bubble-bursting Solar Arc Neptune conjunct Jupiter in 2010/21.

“I want to tell people that dreams are possible. Perhaps my dream will unleash other dreams.”

“Great dreams never come off first time. I tried, I failed, I fell, I picked myself up again, I rebuilt myself.”

So said Frenchman Thomas Coville who has just smashed the round-the-world unassisted solo sailing record, at his sixth attempt, by an extraordinary eight days. It was evidently a highly risky venture given the huge size of his Sodebo Ultim trimaran – a 31-metre long and 21-metre wide craft equipped with a 35-metre high mast carrying up to 680 square metres of sail area.

“Nothing else in the world resembles this exercise. It requires total focus. It’s severe and extremely violent and that’s what’s so magnificent about it,” said another sailor. “With a multi-hull, if you get it wrong, you’re dead.”

Surviving winds of up to 45 knots, he described his boat as like “a dragonfly” skating on the water. The risk of capsizing meant he could sleep for no more than 30 minutes at a stretch during the 49 day voyage.

Born 10 May 1968 7.35am Rennes, France, he’s a stalwart and practical Sun Taurus which is opposition Neptune square Jupiter opposition his Midheaven – a Fixed Grand Cross, giving him formidable stamina and obstinacy. His Mars in early Gemini is also tied into that Grand Cross.

His Sun is also trine the breaking-barriers Uranus Pluto in Virgo. His Saturn in self-reliant Aries conjunct the go-solo North Node in Aries opposes his Libra Moon in the 5^th.

Unsurprisingly his ‘obsessive dream’ 11^th Harmonic is marked; as is his incredible-endurance 16H; and his strength and stubbornness in the face of difficulties 8H. His get-it-together 5H has an entrepreneurial Fire Grand Trine, focussed in a Kite by a ruthlessly determined Pluto opposition Mars.

An inspiration in a world obsessed either with flim flam or inflicting carnage.

Relations between Israel and Egypt by all accounts have become closer since Al-Sisi took over as Egyptian president. The two countries have a shared determination to stamp on Hamas and other jihadist groups operating in the Sinai, bordering both countries, with increasing military, intelligence and diplomatic co-operation. Sisi is determined to keep the Muslim Brotherhood and allies firmly at bay; while Israel is keen to divide and if not conquer then distract the Middle East by allying with ‘moderate’ or at least anti-Iran Arab states.

Which makes it all the stranger that Sisi led the UN resolution to condemn Israeli settlements, only to withdraw it under pressure from the new Trump administration, which includes amongst the new intake some who are pro-settlers, including Jared Kushner. It may be that it was a faux gesture on Sisi’s part to appease Egyptian public opinion which is hostile to Israel and pro-Palestine. And his Presidency chart, 8 June 2014 11.18am Cairo, is certainly moving into its most unstable few months as the Solar Arc Pluto moves to square the Uranus, exact in 3 months’ time.

The relationship chart between Egypt, 14 March 1922 10.43pm GMT Cairo, and Israel certainly looks very fraught and under extreme pressure through 2017. In February tr Pluto will square the composite Mercury, moving on in March to square the composite Mars – so heated arguments of a toxic variety. Tr Uranus will conjunct the composite Sun in March which is a separating influence, moving on to square the composite Pluto from late April which will turn all former diplomatic relations volte face. At an outside stretch, they could together be facing a situation of extreme danger together. But a shouting match and hostile moves by one side or the other seem more likely.

It was thought that Al-Sisi and Netanyahu had forged a special bond, both being strong, not to say dictatorial, rulers, with avowed aims for stability. But tr Pluto is opposition the composite Uranus on their relationship chart this month turning everything on its head; with more bumps and jolts through 2017.