Even Rupert Murdoch must quake in the face of a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems over repeated claims on Fox News that it rigged its voting machines as part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump. Dominion lawyers have also obtained rafts of internal messages that are “evidence that Fox knew the lies it was broadcasting about Dominion were false” and that without Fox, “these fictions” about electoral fraud would never have gained the same traction among large number of Americans. “Fox took a small flame and turned it into a forest fire,” the company claims in its lawsuit.
Rupert Murdoch himself will be in the hot seat under oath this week either having to deny he has control over what happens at Fox or defend its campaign to promote the biggest lie in US electoral history. Whether or not Fox goes the way of the Murdoch-owned UK tabloid News of the World which broke under the phone hacking scandal which has cost Murdoch’s company more than £1bn ($1.2bn) over the past decade, it looks to be facing a turbulent few years ahead.
It started transmissions on 7 October 1996 with a Libra Sun in an expansive square to a successful 10th house Jupiter. There’s a flamboyant Mars in Leo (to match Trump’s) in its performing 5th house; sitting alongside a power-behind-the-throne, can-be-shady 8th house Pluto which is in an unyielding trine to Saturn sextile Uranus in Aquarius. Tr Pluto moves to conjunct the Uranus from late March 2023 on and off till late 2024 which will cause a massive disruption and upheaval which will run on into 2025/26.
Rupert Murdoch, 11 March 1931 11.55pm, does have tr Pluto in a trapped, frustrating and enraging opposition to his 8th house financial Mars exactly now running into January 2023 and repeating in later 2023. He’s so old there is no saying what that refers to but it could certainly include massive irritation at being faced with his hugely profitable baby being hammered in court.
Jan Morris, the celebrated travel writer and author, well known as a transgender pioneer, received glowing obituaries when she died in 2020 aged 94. She led an extraordinary life, a cavalry officer during WW11, marrying and having five children, climbing three-quarters way up Everest to witness Hillary conquer it in 1953, and reporting in Egypt on the Suez crisis with details that led ultimately to Anthony Eden’s resignation as prime minister. And went on to be an acclaimed writer and historian. All this despite having been aware since she was three or four that she’d been born into the wrong body.
Her only daughter Suki Morys has now written a sharply critical remembering of the reality of life at home. “She told the world we were fine, yet she never actually asked us whether we were. She may have been a wonderful writer, but, much though I loved her, she was a lousy parent who damaged all four of her living children one way or another.”
It brings to mind the German phrase – street angel and house devil.
Suki remarks that much of Jan’s memoir Conundrum was fantasy. “She romanticises anything that is remotely emotional, because she never talked about anything emotional.” Talking of the early death of her sister as an infant Jan had described a tear-filled sojourn with her in hospital. Whereas Jan’s wife said when their child was dying Jan refused to visit her and lacked sympathy afterwards.
Suki also suggests that Jan had a sexist view of women, relegating them to house mothers. Suki’s brothers were sent to top schools while she, the only daughter, was constantly moved around and deemed never good enough.
“As I grew older, I couldn’t come to terms with the fact that Jan wanted to be a “woman” when her view of “women” was totally the opposite of what she was. She wasn’t at all maternal; she struggled to even give her own children a hug, stiffening to a board when we tried. She couldn’t cook, I never saw her clean anything and she certainly didn’t want to stay at home and be with her family. She disliked the very idea of “family”. The honest fact is that she didn’t want to be a woman, at least not the way she saw women.”
What stands out from Jan’s chart is a Fixed Grand Square of Mars in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio square Neptune Moon in Leo opposition Jupiter. Mars Saturn suggests a tough childhood which can produce a hard-edged temperament, impatient and unsentimental. That squaring onto Moon Neptune might indicate an idealised view of mother but can also be deceptive and fantasy prone. Jan also had an afflicted Saturn in Scorpio squaring onto Moon Neptune and Jupiter so was completely unbudgeable, over-controlling and obsessive to the nth degree.
Suki suggests Jan’s problems came from a father who never recovered from being gassed during WW1 and his subsequent closeness with his mother – which would make sense of his boundaryless Moon Neptune.
Given her sick father I have given her a 10.15pm birth time though one is not known. It is plausible with Neptune in the 4th and a traveller/writer’s Jupiter in the 9th and a cold Saturn in the 5th house of children. Unfortunately there are no birth dates for any of the children.
Previous Post: 21 November 2020
Jan only started to transition in her forties and eventually underwent reassignment surgery, after which she wrote a well-received book about her experience Conundrum. She remained attached to her wife and although they divorced they remained together and formed a civil partnership.
Born 2 October 1926, no birth time sadly, in Clevedon, England, she was a Sun and Mercury Libra trine Jupiter in Aquarius and square Pluto – so not lacking in confidence or the ability to communicate with insight. What is most striking about her chart is a Fixed Grand Cross of Saturn in obsessively conscientious Scorpio opposition Mars in Taurus square Jupiter opposition Neptune and perhaps Moon in Leo. Mars Saturn has a military connotation and gives discipline and the ability to cope with tough conditions but also suggests an element of unfairness, even cruelty, in childhood. The Jupiter and Neptune would soften the effect. If it was an after noon time birth with the Moon is tied in, it would certainly make the feminine a major issue in life.
Her Venus in workaholic Virgo also opposed Uranus forming a Mystic Rectangle with the Saturn opposition Mars – and having three oppositions in the chart she would have a constant struggle to balance the opposites in her temperament.
Her transition started fittingly enough on the Uranus Pluto in Virgo conjunction of the 1960s – Uranus Pluto pushes the boundaries back, and in Virgo, in particular in the area of health and medicine. But the time of her surgery Pluto had just moved into Libra and tr Uranus was just over the conjunction to her Sun – both bringing profound changes to her identity and life.
Ulysses S Grant, the 18th US President from 1869 to 1877, was an effective civil rights executive who created the Justice Department, prosecuted the Klan, worked to protect African Americans civil rights and promoted an innovative Native American policy. He also campaigned against polygamy and pornographers. Before his political career, he had been a military officer and Commanding General, who led led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865. His term of office was tainted by scandals which led later historians to write him off as a sub-standard president but in recent times his achievements have marked him out as notable.
He was born 27 April 1822 5.47am Point Pleasant, Ohio, grew up with an ability to manage horses and joined the army. After a hiatus when he left his military career to pursue business ventures which failed, the family lived in poverty for some years. On Lincoln’s call to arms in 1861 he re-enlisted and eventually was appointed as commander by Lincoln.
He was a Sun Taurus conjunct Saturn on one side and Jupiter on the other which were all trine Uranus Neptune in Capricorn – so he would be inventive, determined, practical. His Pluto at zero degrees Aries was square Uranus Neptune giving him a rebellious streak and an inclination to upset the old mould. His ’crusading’ Aquarius North Node opposed Mars in flamboyant Leo, tying him into the mood and events of the moment. His Venus in Pisces was trine a patriotic Cancer Moon, giving him a sentimental streak.
In the final year of his life, in dire financial straits and dying of throat cancer, he wrote his memoirs, with his friend Mark Twain offering financial assistance, which were a major success. He lived for only five more days after finishing it. His wife received about $450,000 in royalties (equivalent to $13,600,000 in 2021.
His inspired and idealistic 11th harmonic was strong, as was his humanitarian 9H; and his breakthrough-genius 13H.
A manic urge to take power in the area of relationship was the thrust of the recent Solar Eclipse in Scorpio. Applying it to something as inconsequential as the sentimental gushing and whingeing from the Montecito pair might seem over the top were it not for the resonance it has in the zeitgeist – albeit as a momentary distraction from the horrors of Ukraine, the plight of the underfed and frost-bitten poor and general nerve-wracked uncertainty about the state of the world in general.
Meghan clearly sees the Netflix docuseries as a way of empowering herself by ‘telling her story’ her own way.
Everything has been pretty much covered in previous posts. But odd thoughts.
Meghan clearly craved Princess Diana’s global superstar status but would they have got on? Hmm, doubt it. Meghan’s 12th house Mars is conjunct Diana’s Cancer Sun and that is a competitive interface. Meghan’s wayward 5th house Uranus in Scorpio collides with Diana’s Aquarius Moon opposition Uranus square Venus in Taurus which would have led to more fireworks. And Meghan’s 4th house Pluto falls conjunct Diana’s Midheaven so there is something about that over-controlled, powerless childhood of Meghan’s that leads her to want to grab hold of and take over Diana’s reputation and mantle.
Prince Harry, despite his stalwart efforts to look upbeat is not in a good place emotionally or mentally with tr Saturn at the nadir of his First Quadrant. See previous posts, 28 October, 12 September, 21 April 2022 – and in search.
Is Meghan feeling the love from reams of public attention? Hmm. Her Solar Arc Uranus is square her Saturn exactly now which suggests a high level of tension, tugging on her Moon, Saturn, Jupiter square Mars – there’s a great deal of her childhood unhappiness seeping out – or exploding out. Three of her Mars midpoints look blocked and bad tempered with setbacks in January 2023 and more so after mid 2023 onwards.
Harry is not looking altogether content in his relationship with Ted Sarandos, CEO of Netflix, across this New Year and through January and on till late 2023. Ditto Meghan – so the post mortem on the series or the general state of Netflix finances may not be to the young couple’s liking.
Prince Charles has a downbeat tr Saturn square his 4th house Scorpio Sun across the New Year; and before that is irritated with Harry, though from the looks of the astrology he may be more upset by the memoir Spare due out on January 10th. And of course he does have tr Pluto square his Taurus Moon from the end of March which – in part – may be more family tensions.
William is seething with Harry over the next three months and generally depressed about their fractured relationship with no light at the end of the tunnel over the next two years.
Add On: What has always puzzled me given mother Doria’s dignified and steadying presence at the Royal Wedding and after, are Meghan’s Moon aspects – a harsh, unkind conjunction of her Moon with Saturn square Mars even with a gloss of Jupiter to smooth a few edges does not describe your ideal mother or early supportive nurturing.
Doria, 2 September 1956, is a Sun Jupiter in Virgo which is conjunct Meghan’s Venus for an affectionate connection. Though Doria’s Water Grand Trine of Mars in Pisces trine Venus in Cancer trine Saturn in Scorpio collides with Meghan’s maverick 5th house Uranus. Water Grand Trines can be healing but they tend to live inside their own bubble of reality and are difficult to pin down. Added to that Doria’s Neptune falls in Meghan’s 4th so there would be an evasiveness or inability to offer solid domestic support for whatever reason. In their relationship chart there is a composite Sun square Neptune which repeats the theme.
Father Thomas would be a more dominant presence in her childhood with his Pluto conjunct Meghan’s Sun as opposed to Doria’s erratic Uranus in Leo.
What intrigues me is the repetition of Jupiter Pluto amongst the three charts. Doria’s Pluto is conjunct Thomas’s Jupiter and both of those fall in Meghan’s 2nd house of finances. And there is a composite Jupiter Pluto in Meghan’s charts with each respective parent.
Jupiter Pluto fuels ambitious plans to succeed at the highest levels and can be ruthless. Both of them inculcated in young Meghan a driving urge to make it big in the world.
Meghan’s Jupiter/Pluto midpoint was being triggered when she met Harry in 2016. It has the potential to bring great success as long as individuals act ‘morally and ethically and not let your power and success go to your head. This aspect has the potential to make you very powerful very quickly before you have the wisdom and humility to use it safely. Wide knowledge and spiritual development are needed before you amass power and wealth.’ Just so. Use it badly and it backfires.
“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” Arthur Miller.
The treachery at the heart of a lifelong friendship which brought together two men who in reality were enemies but only one knew it, is the theme of a new drama about Cold War Soviet spy Kim Philby and his MI6 buddy Nicholas Elliott. Starring Damien Lewis as Elliott.
They met during the Blitz in London in the early 1940s and their MI6 intelligence careers progressed in tandem. Except that Philby, recruited by Soviet intelligence in 1934, passed secrets to Moscow that sent hundreds — perhaps thousands — to their deaths. For nearly three decades he deceived colleagues, family, friends, wives, lovers and his country. When he came under suspicion Elliott leapt to his defence, convinced it was a witch hunt. After being cleared the first time, Elliott helped him to find work as a journalist in Beirut, where he resumed working for MI6 and the KGB.
Philby is described as duplicitous but also generous, funny and intelligent. When Elliott finally faced the truth he insisted on going to Beirut to confront Philby in early 1963. A few days later Philby left a message for his wife saying he would be late for dinner and fled to Moscow. She had no inkling of her adored husband’s double life.
A lethal charmer, ‘he was also a ruthless dissembler, one of the greatest liars this country has ever produced. He started out as a committed communist but became addicted to the drug of secrecy, the thrill of infidelity, political and personal.’
Philby was born 1 January 1912 2.30pm Ambala, India with an Arabist explorer father, was educated in England ending up at Cambridge University. He had a deeply-buried 8th house Capricorn Sun and secretive 8th house Mercury in Sagittarius in a opposition Pluto which would make him a convincing speaker but also capable of fraudulent misrepresentation. He had an ultra-charming Venus in Scorpio close to expansive Jupiter in his 7th so he would be extremely personable. And it opposed a dynamic Moon Mars on his Ascendant. Plus he had a highly-strung, can-be-fanatical Uranus opposition Neptune squaring a 12th house Aries North Node.
What is striking is the juxtaposition of that ramped up, sugary charm sitting alongside (and covering up) his hidden depths from his 8th.
George Blake another MI6 Soviet agent who fled in 1961 also had strong hidden house emphasis in his chart – Scorpio Sun in the 8th, Uranus in 12th and Pluto in 4th. See post 26 December 2020. Like Philby his early roots were not British – born in the Netherlands, part childhood in Egypt and eventually landed in Cambridge University. (Where else? – it really is a cess pit that place or was for a variety of reasons.)
Nicholas Elliott, 15 November 1916, was a Sun Scorpio with his Sun conjunct Philby’s seductive Venus and his Jupiter was conjunct Philby’s North Node and square his Uranus opposition Neptune, arguably offering him enthusiastic cover. Elliott’s Pluto opposed Philby’s 8th house Sun, with the 8th house clearly having the upper hand, dangling Elliott on a string. What may have been Elliott’s Achilles heel was his Saturn Venus conjunction in Leo, maybe close to his Moon square his Jupiter which might have given him an over-rosy view of certain situations – not helpful in a spy. And his South Node was conjunct Philby’s slippery Neptune
Their relationship chart had a business-like composite Sun opposition Saturn and an adventurous Uranus Jupiter square Venus. With underlying hostility creeping in from the composite Mars conjunct North Node trine Pluto – though that would also have been soaked up in their respective clandestine careers. But it was that aspect which exploded when Elliott finally faced the truth as tr Pluto was conjunct the composite South Node and opposition Mars, with tr Uranus moving along behind. Tr Saturn also then in Aquarius was about to cast a chill as it squared the composite Venus and crossed the adventurous Uranus Jupiter.
Philby’s third wife Eleanor, 15 September 1913, was a Sun Virgo which fell in Philby’s sociable 5th house with her Jupiter conjunct his Sun. Their relationship chart had tr Neptune conjunct the composite Sun when he walked out leaving her to face the truth of his betrayal. Tr Saturn was also conjunct the composite Uranus for a major shake up and tr Pluto was moving in square to the composite Mars for a devastating blow. She had a Mars Pluto conjunction in Cancer in her natal chart which would attract her to dramatic and damaging situations and relationships.
It’s difficult to imagine the kind of energy that would have to go into leading such a double life and lying to everyone close.
A Spy Among Friends is on ITVX from December 8 based on the novel by Ben McIntyre.
The fine line between courage and madness, mythic heroism and blind unrealistic faith was never clearer than in explorer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl’s epic 1947 Kon Tiki voyage between South America and the South Sea Islands. Obsessed with the notion that ancient Peruvian peoples had crossed 900 miles of stormy sea to people Polynesia, he set out against a mountain of objections to build an old style raft without spikes, nails or wire. Experts predicted that the balsa would break under the strain; the logs would wear through the ropes, get waterlogged and sink; that the sail and rigging would be stripped by winds; that gales would swamp the raft and wash the crew overboard. Surprisingly the raft proved sea worthy and made an average rate of 37 nautical miles a day.
Heyerdahl himself amazingly could barely swim. Having twice almost drowned as a boy, he had grown up terrified of water which makes the feat all the more hair-raising. Daily progress broadcasts caught public attention and was described as “the world’s first reality show.”
In three months after 3,700 nautical miles they sighted land.
In later years he conducted fieldwork in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Canada and never deviated from his controversial theories.
He was born 6 October 1914 4.40 pm Larvik, Norway and had a Libra Sun trine an adventurous Uranus Jupiter in Aquarius. Two things stand out in his chart – one is a ferociously determined Water Grand Trine of Saturn Pluto in Cancer trine an 8th house Mars Mercury in Scorpio trine a Pisces North Node – Water Grand Trines can be creative and healing but tend to live in their own bubble and don’t always interact well with reality. He also had an emphasised Neptune in Leo opposition Uranus square Mars Mercury opposition a Taurus Moon – a Fixed Grand Cross. He followed his dream with single-minded stubborness.
There are several themes running through other explorers’ charts which tally. Marco Polo, 15 September 1254 JC also had a Water Grand Trine of Uranus trine Neptune Jupiter trine Mars and Pluto in Scorpio – Uranus for pushing back boundaries, Neptune for a vision, Jupiter luck and Mars in Scorpio ultra-determined.
David Livingstone, 19 March 1813 10.30pm – another Water Grand Trine of a Pisces Sun trine Jupiter trine Uranus.
Richard Burton, 19 March 1821 9.30 pm Torquay, UK, a determined Sun Pluto in Pisces and a Pisces North Node like Heyerdahl with a highlighted Uranus Neptune in Capricorn square Jupiter Mercury in Aries.
Ranulph Fiennes, 7 March 1944 12.30pm, another Sun Pisces with a tough Mars Saturn in Gemini and an accentuated Pluto in Leo conjunct the leadership Leo North Node and on the focal point of a Uranus trine Neptune. He shares his Leo North Node with David Livingstone and Marco Polo.
Not all the same but similar enough themes running through – heavy Water concentration or/and Neptune – Uranus Neptune for the eureka moment of finding what their intuition led them towards. And a strong degree of unrealism allowing them to discount cautions and forge ahead risking death to fulfil their vision.
Two-time Emmy winner Kirsty Alley, best known for Cheers, Veronica’s Closet and Look Who’s Talking has died after a battle with cancer aged 71. A long-time scientologist she had a well-publicised struggle with her fluctuating weight.
Born 12 January 1951 she was a creative and ambitious Sun Capricorn square a filmic Neptune; with a Yod onto Pluto from Sun sextile North Node (Moon) in Pisces. Such a Plutonian yod would make her feel out of step with herself never mind the world around her and tend to make her an extremist and overly intense in her views. The controlling side of Pluto would be magnified since it opposed Mars in stubborn, contrary Aquarius. Quite a heavyweight personality yet underneath also scared of being powerless, which would contribute to a weight problem, since excess girth can act as a buffer against threats from the outside. Her Neptune would also make her addiction-prone.
Her Saturn was also emphasised being on the point of a T square to Mercury opposition Uranus which would make her early years discouraging.
Turbulent lives filled with emotional angst appear to be the norm for female country and western singers. Tammy Wynette’s broken life is highlighted in a new miniseries which takes a journey through her tumultuous third marriage with alcoholic and abusive country artist George Jones. Her father died when she was nine months old and she was brought up largely by grandparents. She had a breakdown during her first teen marriage and received ECT, careered on through six marriages in total, none of them happy, and had a hysterectomy without her consent at one point which led to chronic abdominal pain, drug addiction and eventually killed her at 55 from a blood clot.
She was born 5 May 1942 1.20am Red Bay, Alabama, and was a Sun Taurus trine a 12th house Capricorn Moon; with an unsettled Uranus Saturn in Taurus in her domestic/family 4th house and an intense Pluto in her 7th. Her saving grace came from a creative Venus in Pisces opposition and 8th house Neptune squaring onto an enthusiastic and lucky Jupiter in her performing 5th house. Her emphasised Neptune would raise her to musical heights though also skew her judgement when it came to emotional relationships. She’d opt for Neptunian types who walked on the dark Plutonian side.
George Jones, 12 September 1931, has a Virgo Sun, Venus and probably Moon conjunct her Neptune so a deep but illusory connection.
Shania Twain, one of the world’s biggest-selling female recording artists, is still with us and has a new album out soon. She grew up in poverty in Canada, one of five children. Aged 8, her mother would get her out of bed to take her to sing on stage in bars, at midnight. At 14, she got a job at McDonald’s which she did after school, then worked the bar at night. Her stepfather was physically and sexually abusive, which taught her to downplay her appearance. By the time she was 22 her parents were killed in a car crash, so she had to raise her younger siblings. Her first marriage split after her husband had an affair with her best friend and she married her best friend’s husband. A straight swap.
She lost her voice in 2004 due to Lyme’s disease, only recovering it seven years later after risky open-throat surgery.
She was born 28 August 1965 3.30pm Windsor, Ontario, and is Sun Uranus Pluto in Virgo sextile an ambitious 10th house Mars in Scorpio which in turn is in a hard-edged, can-be-victimised trine to Saturn. Her Mercury in entertaining Leo squares Neptune.
Skipping across other country and western female signers similarities emerge.
Dolly Parton, 19 January 1946 8.25 pm Little River, TN, has a harsh Mars Saturn in Cancer opposition Venus and Sun in Capricorn square Jupiter.
Patsy Cline, 8 September 1932 11.05pm Winchester, VA, has her Mars in Cancer conjunct Pluto opposition Saturn square Uranus – and that is tough and scary. She grew up in a dysfunctional, poor family, moving frequently with an abusive father and nearly died of a throat infection aged 13. The second of her two marriages was “fueled by alcohol, argument, passion, jealousy, success, tears and laughter.” Her Capricorn Moon was trine a Jupiter Neptune conjunction in Virgo close to her Virgo Sun.
Tanya Tucker, 10 October 1958 – another poor, peripatetic childhood and a constantly changing, chequered romantic life as an adult. She’s another with a Jupiter Neptune conjunction and an afflicted Mars in Gemini square Pluto.
What stands out is the combination of fear and mistreatment from an oppressed Mars alongside strong Jupiters, which would help to give them the optimism to rise out of their misery (mainly).
Jupiter Neptune can live in cloud cuckoo land but having an ever-hopeful approach, however unrealistic, helps to overcome the depression and damage of ill-treatment and look to a better future. Plus the anguish does give a bite to their plaintive, melancholic songs.
Robert Downey Jr has been remarkably forgiving of his counter-culture film director father in a ‘sad and affectionate’ home-movie portrait about to air on Netflix, which only finished after senior died of Parkinsons aged 80.
Robert Downey Sr was addicted to drugs and alcohol and introduced junior to marijuana when he was six years old. Not surprisingly Jr continued on to develop a full-blown addiction leading to ‘fifteen years of total insanity’ which nearly wrecked his career. He had several run-ins with the law in the late 1990s and early 2000s and even spent time behind bars after missing his required drug tests. He credits his then wife for sobering him up in 2003 after which his career took off again largely thanks to Marvel.
In an interview, Downey Jr. said: “When my dad and I would do drugs together, it was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew how.”
He was born 4 April 1965 1.10pm New York, Robert Jr has a lucky, successful and indulgent Moon Jupiter in Taurus in his 10th, suiting him for a career in the public eye but also attracting him to hedonistic pleasures. His Moon Jupiter oppose a 4th house Neptune describing his creative, film-maker father who was also hooked on other forms of escapism. There are various ways Neptune in the 4th can manifest but a sick or druggie father is certainly one of them – not a great role model.
Downey Jr also had a volatile, volcanic Mars, Uranus, Pluto in Virgo opposition an 8th house Saturn which would give him a hot-lava reservoir of anger issues and depression.
Sr, born 24 June 1936, in Iowa, was a Sun Venus in Cancer conjunct Mars in final degree Gemini which in turn squared Saturn – a mix of charm, wildly enthusiasm and short-temper. His Virgo Moon Neptune were conjunct his son’s Mars Uranus Pluto and opposition Saturn so it was a difficult emotional connection where nurturing was concerned.
When Jr finally got clean of drugs in 2003 tr Pluto was just finished squaring his natal Pluto (and Saturn). That mid life crisis – aged 38 to 42 years old – which starts with tr Pluto square natal Pluto is a vital transition if the second half of life is to be fulfilling. It pulls away from the past – and is followed by tr Neptune square natal Neptune and then the Uranus opposition.
His relationship chart with his father is tight and controlling/possessive with a composite Sun Venus Mercury square Pluto; with two strained Yods – one not surprisingly onto a Neptune apex planet and the other onto Saturn. Not an easy bond but Jr appears to have risen above or moved beyond the more damaging aspects of it.
