Marjorie

Spain is deadlocked politically with difficulties forming a majority coalition to rule – with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the 10^th house Sun that is not surprising. One unexpected consequence may be the return of the separatists who have just been granted immunity by Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s socialist caretaker prime minister to the fury of the nationalists. The Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium in 2017 to avoid prosecution after organising an unlawful referendum on Catalan independence. If he returns he promises to pick up the battle again. Though there does not seem the same appetite amongst the public for another independence drive.

 Spain is in for a sticky three years ahead (like everywhere else) with a panicky, undermining tr Neptune Saturn in Aries square the Mars in 2025 and an uncertain SA Neptune opposition Saturn in 2026 and square the Uranus two years later; plus tr Pluto opposition the Saturn for a tough slog through 2024/25 and on to square the Uranus. It may not all be political but it won’t help. Their proportional representation voting system appears to encourage grid locks such as this.

  Carles Puigdemont, 29 December 1962 10.30 pm Girona, Spain does look as if he is moving up in the world career-wise with his Solar Arc Sun now rising about his Descendant to be joined next year by transiting Saturn. So he could become a player again for years ahead. He is a Sun Capricorn trine the revolutionary Uranus Pluto in Virgo which sits on his Ascendant.

  On this birth time he starts a successful 12 months from mid 2024 on.  Though he’ll have a few hitches and glitches before then. He will hit a swamp in 2025 and then find tr Uranus moving across his Midheaven sets him off on a new trajectory from 2026.

 Pedro Sanchez, the present caretaker PM, 29 February 1972 10.25 am Madrid, is a Sun Pisces with a forceful Mars in Taurus on his Ascendant; a confident Pluto square Jupiter; and a tough-minded Air Grand Trine of Saturn trine Pluto trine North Node. He has tr Saturn moving through his 11^th at the moment which fits with difficulties in trying to assemble a workable team. He should get some uplift from tr Jupiter moving through his 1^st at the moment. But there is not much else showing for the immediate future.

  His relationship chart with Puigdemont is surprisingly amiable with a composite Sun, Venus, Jupiter though there is also an aggravated Saturn square Mars – smiles and arguments.

  Spain appears to be in as much of a political turmoil as everywhere else in its own way and disaffected by its leadership of all stripes.

  The EU would not take kindly to a revived separatist movement since it raises awkward questions for other countries like Italy and elsewhere.

On Wednesday,  Samantha Markle will be launching her last and final attempt to sue Meghan, her younger half-sister, for comments she made on Netflix and in the Oprah interview. She claims that Meghan’s insistence that she grew up as an only child who longed for siblings is defamatory. If Samantha succeeds, which seems unlikely, Meghan could be forced to testify and release private messages and emails by January 2^nd with a trial date for July 2024.

  Tensions will be running high with the approaching Mars and Sun in Leo opposition Uranus hitting exact across this coming weekend.  Plus the Sun close to vengeful Mars in Scorpio a week later. Not much give or flexibility in those influences.

  Samantha, born 24 November 1964 in Los Angeles, is an outspoken Sun Sagittarius in a downbeat square to Saturn in late Aquarius on one side and in a fiery, competitive square to Mars on the other. Her Mars is also conjunct Uranus and Pluto in Virgo so she’s volatile, excitable, prone to stirring up disruptions. And she has the over-hopeful Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune. Plus a Leo Moon.

  Her Leo Moon would connect her to Meghan in childhood though her Sun conjunct Meg’s Uranus with her Saturn in square would contribute to a parting of the ways; as would Sam’s disruptive Mars, Uranus, Pluto sitting on Meg’s Venus.  Their relationship chart has a close, possessive/controlling composite Sun, Venus, Pluto conjunction sextile Mars – so the opposite of distant, more a love/hate mix.

  Samantha looks deflated late this December with tr Saturn square her Sun. At the same time tr Uranus will conjunct her Jupiter December 10^th to mid March 2024, which on its own should give her a lucky break but since it also tugs on her Neptune that may undercut a positive turn in her fortunes.

  Meghan’s chart is not registering much apart from the waning months of a lacklustre Solar Arc Sun square her Neptune. And a rattled SP Mars conjunct her Sun/Mercury midpoint. Plus her Progressed/SA Midheaven conjunct her Chiron which has been around all this year – which does not suggest a healing, more a reminder of the wound that will not heal getting in the way of her progress. The first half of December will see a setback as tr Saturn opposes her Mars/Pluto midpoint. Next year will be a mix of pluses and minuses with July looking tense.

  I am fascinated by Meghan’s whole family dynamic and Harry’s – a kind of folie a deux, sharing childhood gripes, that most of us have and with maturity grow out of.

  At the risk of bringing the ceiling down on my head I am beginning to wonder about Meghan’s controlling tendencies – in common parlance, coercive control –  pulling the partner away from friends and family and isolating them. Harry has never looked happier than recently when off on his own with the blokes at a Formula One do.

  “I would measure the duration of the marriage in years rather than decades,” says Graydon Carter, former Vanity Fair editor. “I think she has run rings around poor Harry and gotten what she wanted: notoriety, money, and a title. His usefulness to her diminishes daily.”

  My other even darker thought is that in her initial delusional ‘I want to be as famous as the saintly Diana’ campaign she did not stoke the flames of sibling rivalry between Harry and William in the faint hope of toppling Will/Kate and stepping up a notch closer to the throne. It is the only thing that makes sense of her obvious discomfort at being down the pecking order. She knows only too well from showbusiness that top of the bill takes precedence. 

  Did Andrew at some point not campaign with the Queen to replace Charles as heir during the whole divorce/early Camilla shenanigans? And Diana was convinced Charles would never be King. Succession fights did not die out with the Tudors.     As far as Meg and Harry are concerned that is water under the bridge but they really have burnt so many bridges behind them it is difficult to see where the remedy lies.

For light relief or maybe more depressing black comedy about the state of British politics  – Nadine Dorries, erstwhile Culture Secretary and devoted fan of Boris Johnson issues her political memoir. In it she points to a shadowy sinister cabal (Gove, Cummings  and the scheming “Dr No”, a Government insider so brutish, that he once butchered a rabbit dear to a former partner in revenge) that has controlled the Tory Party for ever. It was them she insists who brought her idol down. As opposed to his lies and incompetence.  

 An associate of Michael Gove remarked crisply that Dorries  writes best-selling fiction. Though the quality of her literary outpourings since 2014 in the fantasy sphere appears questionable. The Telegraph described one as a “misery novel” “told in vacuous language”. Reviewer Christopher Howse said The Four Streets was “the worst novel I’ve read in 10 years.”

  Having established herself as ‘an author’ Boris Johnson then made her Culture Secretary. One Tory MP reacted to the news of her appointment by telling the FT: “Nadine bleeding Dorries. Was whoever decided that on LSD at the time?”

  The FT today after a lunch interview remarked: “Dorries blurs fact and fiction so easily, I’m not even sure she notices. Her defensiveness, acquired through fire, seems to stop her questioning herself.” Along the way of mozzarella and grilled vegetables she remarked: “ I’m actually smarter than these guys in No 10. All they had to do was work with me.”

 Born 21 May 1957 Liverpool, she has BJ’s Sun Venus in Gemini though at the start not the finish of the chatty sign. With her Sun in a controlling square to Pluto in late Leo. What marks her chart out as singular is a Yod of Mercury in Taurus sextile Mars in Cancer inconjunct Saturn in Sagittarius – and a Sun inconjunct Neptune, with Neptune in a can-be-fanatical/unrealistic square to Uranus. An uneasy self-righteousness will be an ever present companion as she tilts at windmills. Her afflicted Neptune will create more than a few problems distinguishing reality from fantasy.

 Her relationship chart with Michael Gove is hostile with a composite Mars Pluto conjunction. Her relationship with Boris is a flurry of flowery passionate enthusiasm with a composite Sun, Venus, Mars plus an irrevocably-tied-together-by-fate for good-or-for-ill yod – Venus Mars sextile Uranus inconjunct Saturn. Saturnine yods require maturity to give of their best and if mishandled can be self-defeating.

  They will crumble into history together as of little consequence.

  How could they make her Culture Secretary??

  “All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”  T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

  A timely new biography of T E Lawrence (of Arabia) comes from transglobe explorer Ranulph Fiennes who in his army days fought in Oman and shares Lawrence’s taste for devil-may-care adventure.

Lawrence led the Arab revolt against the Turks in the desert as part of the Allies’ World War One strategy to occupy the Ottoman empire and keep the Germans busy. By 1918 he was one of the most celebrated figures in all the Middle East and the Turks had put a price on his head of £15,000 (about £1.3 million today). Ultimately he was betrayed by the politicians, his dream of independence for the Arabs crushed as the Middle East was carved up into French, British and Russian spheres of influence after the war.

 He was born 16 August 1888, maybe 4.16 am (rectified) in Wales, as one of five illegitimate children to a father who inherited a baronetcy. After Oxford he went travelling, became an archaeologist with an interest in the Middle East and on the outbreak of war was seconded into British intelligence headquartered in Cairo.

  From unlikely beginnings he developed into one the greatest generals in history in history as he created a new form of hybrid warfare, with modern weapons operating alongside irregular forces. His strategies were followed in the Churchill’s guerrilla operations in World War II; the Viet Cong used his tactics during the Vietnam War and they were influential when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001 using a combination of air strikes and Arab tribesmen on the ground.

  Late in the war he was captured, tortured, beaten and almost certainly raped by the Turks. A year later the war ended and with peace his vision for the Middle East was crushed. He returned home seeking anonymity, joined the RAF under an assumed name, and after his famous identity was exposed, moved to another army unit where he died aged 46 in a motorcycle accident.

  His book Seven Pillars of Wisdom written after the way was praised by Churchill – “It ranks with the greatest books ever written in the English language. As a narrative of war and adventure it is unsurpassable.”

  Lawrence had a Sun in Leo square Jupiter in Scorpio, with Mercury Saturn also in Leo square Mars in Scorpio – flamboyant and attention-seeking, confident, keen to be taken as a person of importance, used to hardship, utterly determined. His Venus in Virgo and possibly Sagittarius Moon were in hard aspect to Neptune Pluto in Gemini, which was the signature conjunction of the era. Emotionally overwrought – passionate, idealistic and unrealistic, a visionary.

  When World War 1 ended and his dreams for the Middle East died, tr Uranus in Aquarius was opposition his Leo Sun with tr Saturn conjunct his Sun for a rupture with the past. Tr Saturn moved soon after to square his Neptune Pluto for an uncertain aftermath of anxiety, betrayal and coping with war trauma.

  His global superstar 22^nd harmonic is outstanding as is his leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17H.

Ranulph Fiennes, 7 March 1944 12.30 pm Windsor, England, like Lawrence has his North Node in the leadership sign of Leo. Fiennes’ Moon Jupiter in Leo are also conjunct Lawrence’s Sun. Both have hard Mars Saturn aspects, suiting them for military life and hardship. Though Fiennes has an explorer’s Pisces sun.

The dedication to Seven Pillars of Wisdom:

I loved you, so I drew these tides of
Men into my hands
And wrote my will across the
Sky in stars
To earn you freedom, the seven
Pillared worthy house,
That your eyes might be
Shining for me
When I came

PICS: Cloud Hills in Dorset a woodsman’s cottage where he spent his final anonymous years after WW1. Now under National Trust care.

The Beatles have crowned their generation-spanning influence with one last offering, a reworked demo made by John Lennon which never made it to a finished song before now. It is described as a McCartney production tour de force in which he and Ringo Starr pay homage to the late Lennon and Harrison with one “last Beatles song.”

  What is striking looking at all four charts is how fixed they are, maybe not surprising for a quartet of enduring success.

John Lennon, 9 October 1940 6.30 pm Liverpool,  was a relationship-oriented Sun Libra conjunct his Descendant; with an emotionally possessive Moon opposition Pluto and Chiron in his performing 5^th and the heavyweight Taurus triple conjunction of the era of Saturn, Jupiter close together and Uranus. Uranus was also trine Neptune for creativity. He was born on a Jupiter Saturn conjunction, made his debut in a pop band on the next Jupiter Saturn conjunction and was shot on the following one in 1981.

Ringo Starr, 7 July 1940 12.05 am Liverpool,  is a Cancer Sun on the cusp of his performing 5^th house; with a megaton Mars Pluto Moon in Leo also in his 5^th and  Jupiter Saturn in Taurus with Uranus in Taurus trine Neptune.

 Paul McCartney, 18 June 1942 2pm Liverpool, is a Sun Gemini conjunct Jupiter and square Neptune, with Mercury, Saturn and Uranus also in Gemini, a sign much favoured by pop stars. Like Ringo he has a fiendishly determined Mars Pluto conjunction in Leo with his Leo Moon in an amiable square to Venus in Taurus.  A mix of easy going and incredibly stubborn.

 George Harrison, 24 February 1943 11.42pm Liverpool, had a Sun Pisces in his entertaining 5^th house on the focal point of a yod to Neptune sextile Pluto; with his Sun square Saturn Uranus; and his Mercury opposition Pluto in Leo square a Scorpio Moon. Plus an exuberant Mars opposition Jupiter. An individual not entirely comfortable in his own skin. He died of cancer in 2001.

  As with all groups of musical brothers stuck together for long periods of time there would be disagreements and irritations, especially given the proliferation of obstinate fixed signs.

 Ringo looks to have been closest to John Lennon and he has an intense, not easy bond with McCartney, superficially friendly with undercurrents of a power struggle.  

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Royal mania has hit Spain with the coming of age of Princess Leonor, heir to the throne. Banners with her photograph decorated lampposts and official buildings were festooned with bunting as she pledged her allegiance to the constitution though the ceremony was boycotted by republican government ministers and Catalan and Basque nationalist MPs. She will automatically become head of state in the event of her father King Felipe’s absence.

 Born 31 October 2005 1.46am Madrid, Spain, she went to school in Wales, took the international baccalaureate and began three years of military training in August. Princess of Asturias in the army becomes Cadet Borbón.

  She has a determined and confident Scorpio Sun conjunct Jupiter in the quick-witted 3^rd house so she’ll communicate well. Her Sun is square a creative, hope-for-a-better-society Neptune opposition Saturn in Leo which in turn squares onto Mars in determined Taurus on her Midheaven. Very Fixed, stubborn and enduring. Her Libra Moon is trine/sextile Neptune and Saturn but otherwise unintegrated. Her persuasive, seductive Venus Pluto in Sagittarius in her 4^th will tie her to family. Her 7^th house Uranus hints at an unconventional relationship life and choices ahead and given her independent Aries North Node as well she may take time to settle down.

  Her childhood won’t have been a cakewalk with Mars square Saturn since discipline would be instilled early on and require considerable sacrifices.

 Her parents are not the easiest of matches with her mother Queen Letizia’s Sun Mars in Virgo sitting on top of King Felipe’s Pluto opposition Mars with Letizia’s Saturn in square. That is a teeth-gritting, monarchical scenario of stiff upper lip and suppress your needs for the sake of appearances.

 Leonor will have proved a challenging child for both with her Saturn in Leo opposition her father’s Aquarius Sun and her Mars in Taurus square his Aquarius Moon. And Leonor’s Pluto Venus in Sagittarius is square her mother’s Sun Mars in Virgo and opposition her mother’s Saturn for quite a clash.

  Leonor’s Scorpio Sun should resonate for Spain, 22 November 1975, since it has a Scorpio Sun and Mercury though the Spain Uranus in Scorpio is also conjunct her Sun which could suggest differing agendas. But despite the aggravations and political obstacles the relationship chart between herself and Spain has a composite Sun, Venus, Pluto conjunction which will create an emotionally intense bond.

  She has the feel of an individual who will make a considerable difference one way or another and instigate far reaching changes though there will be major pressures in the 2030s as tr Pluto starts to square that composite Sun, Venus, Pluto.

Robert de Niro defending himself over allegations he was verbally abusive to a former aide rather proved her point when he shouted at her across the courtroom as his temper got the better of him.

  Born 17 August 1943 3am New York, he has a robust chart, essential for a mammothly successful career as one of the most influential actors of his generation, known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese. But it almost certainly does not make him an easy-going, light-and-peace personality.

  He has a Leo Sun conjunct North Node square a heavyweight Mars in Taurus, the latter tending to have a slow fuse but can be volcanic when it blows. He also has a super-confident Jupiter Pluto in Leo on the focal point of a mini Grand Trine of Uranus to Neptune giving him the self-assurance and determination to get what he wants. Sitting side by side with all that bountiful self-belief is a super-sensitive Pisces Moon opposition Mercury Venus and widely square Saturn.  And admittedly Leo has a vulnerable underside behind all the strutting bravado which can get prickly when criticised.

  In addition his Mars sits on his Moon/Pluto midpoint which will make him irritable, excitable and prone to outbursts.

  I make no comments about the case itself since it is a swamp of claims and counter claims. The assistant wants $12m in damages for emotional distress and reputational harm while he sued her previously alleging she stole from him.

  His Sun square Mars is being seriously rattled by tr Uranus square his Sun next year which will bring a mood of explosive insecurity. And uncertainty and worry will come before then from tr Neptune square his Saturn just after the middle of this month till late December. His Solar Arc Mars is also inconjunct his Moon exactly now which won’t calm his prickly defensiveness.

  Who would be a celebrity?  The price of fame is very high.

The shambles at the heart of Boris Johnson’s No 10 sojourn is being laid bare in excruciating detail at the covid inquiry. Back into the limelight today sharpening his quill to give evidence is the poisonous Dominic Cummings. His selection by BJ to being the in-charge-of-everything Svengali was an astrological mystery since everything in the other’s chart is at cross purposes.

BJ’s windmill-in-a-hurricane Mutable T Square of Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn square Mars in Gemini collides head on with  Cummings’ Mutable T Square. DC’s Saturn in Gemini is conjunct Boris’s focal point Mars with DC’s Sun Neptune opposition Boris’s Mars; and square his Uranus with Cummings Pluto trine Boris’s Mars. Cummings’ Mars in Pisces is conjunct Boris’s Saturn and opposition his Uranus Pluto – and that is some heap of aggravation and potential for resentment. A destructive/ self-destructive Mars Saturn feste.

  The relationship chart does little to clear up the puzzle – there is admittedly a controlling composite Sun Pluto; but there’s also a highly stressed and over-heated Yod of Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Mars Saturn. It looks an exceptionally masochistic connection. The aggravated composite Mars North Node Saturn in Aries was elbowed by this month’s Solar Eclipse in opposition.

  At the time of his appointment Matthew Parris described Cummings as “a brilliant and prosecuting intellect. One of the sharpest tongues in modern political history, and a free spirit who cares not a jot whom he offends or what people think of him. Mr Cummings has a mind which is the very antithesis of Mr Johnson’s: logical, razor-sharp, directed, and ideologically remorseless.”

“That he will fall out with his new master within months is almost certain. That, when he does, the world will know about it in coruscating language, equally so.” “ (BJ) has set his own time bomb ticking. And in Mr Cummings, he has appointed his own literary executioner.”

   All water under the bridge now and Dominic Cummings is facing the same Saturnine slog as Boris over the coming eighteen months. But it does feel like full circle to an unbelievable damaging phase.

 Boris’s throwaway thought to avoid a lockdown by letting old people die to save the economy is a particularly choice titbit from the inquiry given it was probably the oldies who voted him in.

May be stretching a point – but Pluto in Capricorn’s swansong? Exposing the fault lines in government systems.

Boris Johnson is joining GB News as a presenter, programme maker and commentator in the new year, aiming to play a key role in coverage of both the UK and USA elections.  He’s also more imminently facing a tough week image-wise as the covid inquiry promises juicy titbits from the chaos at No 10 as the pandemic hit.

  Despite a column in the Daily Mail he’s diminished considerably in stature and influence since he was ousted with his articles hardly setting the world on fire.

  Neither the DM nor GB News fit with his liberal progressive outlook but he’ll be in the business of earning money and getting a platform so he may not be overly fussy.

 He’s in a Saturnine phase which won’t suit his wing-and-a-prayer approach as tr Saturn is hitting his Mars, Uranus, Saturn and Pluto T Square this year up to March 2024. It’s grow-up-and-get-real time with rolling setbacks but he won’t take it kindly. After that tr Neptune is in an undermining square to his Sun and Venus in Gemini from April 2024 on and off till early 2025.  Tr Pluto is also square his Scorpio Moon throughout 2024 for emotional and domestic challenges.

  What is unquantifiable since his birth time may be marginally out is that both his SA Jupiter and Progressed Mars are sitting on his Midheaven at the moment which should give his career a hefty boost. But if his birth time is out by five or ten minutes that may not hold good in terms of timing.

  His relationship chart with GB News is less than settled this month and again late December to early February as tr Neptune squares the Gemini Sun; with a fair amount of upheaval and disruption from tr Uranus opposition the Pluto over the New Year and January to March 2024. With more tensions later in the year.

  His wife Carrie,  17 March 1988, is having a droopy year with tr Neptune conjunct her Pisces Sun into early 2024. But will recover her confidence and drive in 2024/25 as tr Pluto squares her Jupiter.

  Her relationship chart with Boris, tied together with a fated yod of composite Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Sun North Node, looks to be hitting heavy weather in 2025/26 as tr Pluto opposes the composite Uranus and squares the Saturn. This timing is echoed in his chart with tr Uranus square his Sun/Moon midpoint, his marriage significator. Changes of one sort or another will be afoot.