Astrology of Today’s News

Italy and Germany are flagging up as the most immediately troubled of the EU countries, which given that they are the third and first largest economies, is a considerable worry. Though most of the other EU members, like elsewhere globally, are also labouring over the coming years.

 On Thursday, the capable Mario Draghi resigned as Italy’s prime minister although the president insisted he stay in place.  The Italy 17 March 1861 chart is on cue for the tumultuous 1st August conjunction of Uranus, Mars and North Node rattling up its Mars in Taurus square Jupiter at the exact 18 degree mark.  The Bank of Italy, 10 August 1893 also has its Leo Sun exactly in the line of fire.

  Tr Saturn is also trekking across that sensitive point this October to mid November, ramming the message home, that life is achanging and not for the better immediately.  

  There are concerns about a coming EU recession with record energy prices and inflation, and a currency that has slumped to parity with the US dollar for the first time in 20 years (though remaining steady so far with the UK pound).

  Not only is Germany facing domestic hardship with cuts in gas supplies because of Russia sanctions and retaliation. But its position as the EU’s exporting powerhouse will be at risk as Russia pulls the plug on cheap energy supplies; and its reliance on globalization is exposed. A total stoppage to Nord Stream 1 supplies would hit eurozone growth by 3.5 per cent until the first quarter of next year and could mark the bloc’s worst downturn since the 2008 financial crisis.

  The Germany 1 January 1871 chart has an 8^th house (financial) Pluto in Taurus being hammered this year and into next by tr Uranus conjunct Pluto bringing major disruption. And the challenges and pain will continue with a trapped tr Pluto trine the Germany Mars in 2023/2024; worsening – as it is in many of the EU charts – through the entry of Neptune into Aries alongside Saturn in 2025 when they oppose the Germany Mars and square the Saturn which will bring major headaches and a sense of failure.

 The Bundesbank (central bank) 26 July 1957, is discouraged this year and worse into 2023 – devastated/confused in 2023/24 with tr Saturn opposition Mars, Mercury, Pluto, Venus and tr Pluto square the Neptune. By 2025 tr Pluto will oppose the BBank Sun for a challenging, potentially stuck time forcing a move away from the past.

The EU chart itself, 31 December 1957, is being undermined by a Solar Arc Neptune conjunct the Sun over this winter, so disappointed and unrealistic about finding practical solutions to the malaise. Again the truly difficult years will be 2025/26 with an economically blocked and potentially damaging Solar Arc Pluto opposition the 8^th house financial Moon and square Uranus; and a discouraging Solar Arc Sun square Saturn in 2026.

  The EURO 1 January 1999 chart is flagging at the moment with tr Neptune square the Moon into 2023 and will have an uphill struggle with tr Pluto square the Saturn in the final months of this year from August onwards. 2024/25 will be desolate with tr Pluto conjunct the Neptune. Late this decade will be monumentally difficult for the EU itself, the currency, Germany – and the UK as tr Neptune squares the respective Suns with other Solar Arcs piling on the challenges.

  The other EU countries point to considerable problems building from now and culminating around the 2025 mark.

  I’m not sure why Neptune moving into Aries in 2025 was thought to be a bringer of sunshine since it isn’t showing up as such.

Sorry to be so gloomy – re-reading the above wasn’t enlivening. But the astrology is what it is – and we have survived worse before.

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Getting a divorce at 91 may appear bizarre but is a strangely fitting epitaph for novelist Fay Weldon’s haunted history in the marital stakes. Her best known novel turned into a successful film The Life and Loves of a She-Devil is a tale of relentless and sadistic vengeance against a cheating husband and his mistress. Though she insisted it was really a tale of envy.

 Born 22 September 1931 5.50pm Alvechurch, England, with a philandering father who was abandoned and a wayward mother, from a bohemian free-loving, intellectual family, she had a rackety childhood. Her grandfather was a writer fascinated by astrology, poltergeists and ghosts which permeate her writings as well.

   She was an unexpectedly single mother at 22 by a nightclub doorman and went on to marry a schoolmaster 25 years older. He wanted the respectability of a marriage for job applications and didn’t want sex, but extraordinarily pimped her out to his friends and got her a job in a Soho clip joint. He was despatched and she married a jazz musician, who left her 30 years later for an astrologer who told him the marriage was compatible.  Much vituperative media coverage followed. She then married a poet and former bookseller 15 years her junior, who became her manager after their marriage in 1994. He is now accused of ‘coercive control and financial mismanagement’ despite having moved her into his mother’s house and signing half over to her.

 She is evidently now in a nursing home and can’t talk after a stroke, a back operation and grieving for one of her sons who died recently.    

  The gothic and spooky ambience of her life was there from the start with a New Zealand earthquake separating her father from the family and she never saw him again, through a surprise pregnancy, into sadistic husband Number One, thence onto the jazz musician. Having baled for his astrological soul-mate, he then died almost eight hours before their  divorce was finalised, allowing her to remarry. That did feel uncanny at the time.

  She is a Virgo as befits the author of 30 books, with her Sun on the cusp of her intense 8^th with Venus in Libra and Mars in vengeful Scorpio also in her 8^th. The 8^th house has a reputation for producing oddly eerie events and coincidences.

Her generational Saturn in Capricorn opposition Pluto square Uranus in Aries gives her grit, perseverance, initiative and a strongly innovative and disruptive/de-stabilising streak. Her Jupiter in flamboyant Leo opposes her Aquarius Moon and is in a lucky/adventurous trine to her Uranus.

  Two things are intriguing astrologically.  One is strong planet aspects in her chart to her Neptune/Pluto midpoint which points to supernatural, mystical and occult interests – as well as confusion, obsession and inner torment.

   More significantly for her matrimonial prospects, her Neptune falls in her relationship 7^th house and is exactly square her Sun/Moon midpoint, the marriage significator. Nuptial bliss for her is an area wreathed in confusion, deception and lack of commitment. Her second and third marriages were to creative types which would soak up some of it. But Neptune with its hallucinatory qualities, and its tendency to idealise and then condemn, raises impossible expectations and induces deep resentment when reality takes a bite out of the dream.

  There are no birth dates for any of the husbands or the weddings which is a shame.

  A strange and not exactly loveable woman.   

Ivana Trump, first wife of Donald and mother of Don Jnr, Ivanka and Eric, has died after apparently falling down stairs. She was a competitive skier and model, born in Czechoslovakia,  who became a business woman after her marriage with real estate investments, her own clothing, beauty, and jewellery lines, wrote books and had a tabloid advice column.

  Her first husband was an Austrian ski instructor who she reportedly married in order to obtain Austrian citizenship, allowing her to leave her communist home country without defecting. The Trump marriage, forged three weeks after meeting, collapsed into acrimony after 13 years over his infidelity with Marla Maples. The split was gossip-magazine fodder for months and her settlement included $14 million, a 45-room Connecticut mansion, an apartment in the Trump Plaza, and the use of Mar-a-Lago for one month a year. Ivana subsequently raised the three children.

  Post-divorce, she married an Italian businessman for two years, had a longer relationship with an Italian count and then briefly married an Italian actor, though she kept in touch amicably with him.  Not a dull life.

  She was born 20 February 1949 12.55am Gottwaldov, Czech Republic, she was a Sun Mars in Pisces (good combo for a skier) opposition Saturn square a Sagittarius Moon – used to hardship, needed an audience, emotionally scattered. Her Sun was trine an 8^th house Uranus making her overly-excitable, highly-strung. Her Venus in sociable Aquarius was in a persuasive/seductive opposition to Pluto  and her Jupiter in money-magnet Capricorn was in a square to dreamy Neptune.

  Her marriage to Trump didn’t have much going for it from the synastry – with his Sun conjunct her Uranus and his Moon opposition her Uranus – not well-designed for a 24/7 match. Though his Moon in her 2^nd would give financial comfort.  But their relationship chart does have slightly better connections with a lucky, adventurous (and opportunistic?) Sun Jupiter opposition Mars and a passionate Venus square Pluto.

  It was generally thought she was closest to Ivanka, though I wonder. Ivanka’s  Mars in Virgo square Sagittarius Moon sits uncomfortably with her mother’s Saturn opposition Mars Sun; and Ivanka’s Saturn was conjunct her mother’s Neptune and square her Jupiter – a fair number of irritants between them and Ivanka would damp her mother’s fights of fancy and confidence.

 Don Jnr was an even worse match with his volatile and uncompromising Mars in Leo square Uranus crashing into his mother’s Pluto and Venus. If anything I would have said she got on best with Eric with his Sun conjunct her Jupiter and his Moon conjunct her Sun. And his Aquarius Moon is showing signs of separation and loss at the moment.

  One of the wonders – from an astro-bystander point of view – is Ivanka’s relationship, frankly with both parents. Despite her daddy’s-favourite status during the White House days, her crossover with him is truly difficult.  Their relationship chart has a composite Sun, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus conjunction with Uranus conjunct Pluto – and that is a tinderbox of resentment. Her relationship chart with her mother was marginally easier but not entirely stable with a Mars opposition Jupiter square Uranus and Venus trine Pluto Saturn. Unfortunately she’s the one of the three kids there is no birth time for which would help.

Who will be thrown to the lions as a useful scapegoat to divert responsibility from Trump for the January 6 Capitol Attack? There is a short list as the select committee investigation uncovers increasingly damaging evidence that the president knew the election had been lost yet still exhorted his fan club to take action.

  Those in the know suggest Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, is a likely candidate, followed by lawyer John Eastman, Sydney Powell another Trump lawyer, and Rep. Scott Perry, who allegedly was part of the push to get the Justice Department to overturn the election.

“The strategy is to blame people his advisers called ‘the crazies’ for what the president did,” Liz Cheney said at the hearing Tuesday. “This, of course, is nonsense. President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.”

Meadows, 28 July 1959 1am Verdun, France, is a stubborn and ego-centric Sun Leo on the point of a Fixed T Square to a Taurus Moon opposition Neptune, with a ruthless Mars Pluto in Virgo. His Solar Arc Mars Pluto has been crunching damagingly across his Neptune and Sun since last year, extending on for two or three years ahead, but peaking with maximum devastation within a few months. His Mercury and Sun/Pluto midpoint will twang uncomfortably to the August 1^st tr Mars, Uranus, NN in Taurus square.  Though he won’t go down without a confident push back in 2023/2024.

Sydney Powell, 1 May 1955, a Sun Mercury in Taurus opposition Saturn at 18 degrees Scorpio square Pluto in Leo is immensely tough and unyielding.  But not only is her Solar Arc Mars now exactly square her Saturn for a car-crash few months she’s also got the tr Uranus, Mars, Node hard aspects hitting both.  And her Solar Arc Saturn in a depressing and high-tension opposition to her Jupiter Uranus now and into 2023 – when she reckons her luck has run out.

 John Eastman, 21 April 1960, is a Sun Taurus in a materialistic and super-ambitious Earth Grand Trine to Pluto and Jupiter and opposition Neptune. His Progressed Mars may be conjunct his Sun about now which usually produces a shock of significant proportions; with a disruptive/explosive Solar Arc Mars square his Uranus in 2023/24.  

Scott Perry, 27 May 1962, a controlling Gemini square a pushily-confident, rules-don’t-apply Jupiter opposition Pluto. He has tr Pluto in a trapped, scary, infuriating square to his Mars – maybe this year, depending on birth time, but certainly in 2023. That will jam him up.  

Stephen Bannon, 27 November 1953, former Trump adviser and playmate, is being forced to appear in front of the committee under threat of imprisonment for contempt if he doesn’t.  He shares Trump’s luck-of-the-devil in wriggling out of legal hotspots but may not have much choice this time round. His Solar Arc Pluto is conjunct his Saturn for a dead-halt around now with undermining Neptune squares to his Jupiter and Solar Arc Mars this year and next.  2023/24 don’t look to be singing and dancing years though some of that could be health issues since his overweight, cigar-smoking, volcanically-angry lifestyle is hardly conducive to wellness.

Add On: Rudy Giuliani is also implicated in the ‘unhinged’ Trump White House after the election loss with insults, profanity and shouting at strategy meetings revealed by staffers.

 Born 28 May 1944, he’s an innovative, disruptive and erratic Sun Uranus in Gemini trine Neptune and sextile a ruthlessly determined Mars Pluto in Leo – with stratospheric ambition. Tr Saturn is damping his enthusiasm this year in opposition to his Jupiter. In 2023 tr Neptune will square his Saturn bringing uncertainty and a degree of panic; with further immense pressures, frustrations and a scary sense of being completely trapped in 2024 to 2027. Not his high point, for sure.

Redemption is not a gift granted to all or easily acquired. Tatum O’Neal, John McEnroe’s first wife, like her siblings has had a lifelong battle against her demons with no resounding victory at the end of it all. Her mother actress Joanna Moore lost custody of Tatum and Griffin her brother to their father Ryan O’Neal, due to her alcohol and drug problems. Which repeated one generation later as Tatum had her three children moved to John McEnroe’s custody because of her heroin addiction.

  This is a complicated family psycho-drama of only the sort that Hollywood could brew up. The grand patriarch is actor Ryan O’Neal, who was estranged from his three adult children for decades. He married Joanna Moore and had Tatum, who won an Academy Award at 9 for Paper Moon; and Griffin who has said his struggles with addiction began when he was 9 years old. He told People magazine, “My life has been a reign of drug and alcohol degradation. I had to self-medicate my entire life because there was pain everywhere. There were drugs everywhere in my family all day, every day.” His family’s problems stemmed from his father who gave him cocaine at the age of 11. “He was a very abusive, narcissistic psychopath. He gets so mad he can’t control anything he’s doing,” O’Neal said.

  Ryan O’Neal skipped through another marriage with child, and went on to a third and very tempestuous marriage with Farrah Fawcett, producing Redmond O’Neal, who has had a history with law enforcement on drugs, firearms and robbery charges and had a prison stint.

  A gigantic shipwreck doesn’t begin to cover the damage done.

  There are too many charts to cover in detail so I’ll pick salient points. Ryan O’Neal, 20 April 1941 9.34 am LA, is a control-freak, ultra-stubborn, indulgent and charming Sun Venus in Taurus square Pluto with Pluto widely opposition an 8^th house Mars in Aquarius. His Mars in in a short-fused square to Saturn which is conjunct an adventurous Jupiter Uranus in Taurus. 6 planets in Fixed signs – unbudgeable.

Joanna Moore, 10 November 1934, no birth time, his first wife was a charming Sun Venus in Scorpio square Saturn in Aquarius which would be a bulldozer meets brick wall relationship given his Taurus ++ chart.

 Tatum, 5 November 1963 3.38am LA, Joanna/Ryan’s daughter, is a Sun Scorpio like her mother conjunct Neptune with Venus also in Scorpio and Saturn in Aquarius. They are oddly similar given that Joanna had a Pluto square Uranus and Tatum a Uranus conjunct Pluto. Their relationship chart has a possessive and affectionate Venus Sun square Pluto and a chained-together Saturn opposition Pluto. She was still having brushes with the law over drugs a few years back.

  Griffin, Tatum’s brother, 28 October 1964 9.01pm LA, another Sun Scorpio with Mercury Neptune in Scorpio has a Fixed Grand Cross of Moon Mars in Leo opposition Saturn in Aquarius  square Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune. Another tank meets an immoveable object type relationship with his ultra-Fixed father. Neither would give way. There was a shooting incident between them in 2007.

  Farrah Fawcett, 2 February 1947 3.10pm Corpus Christi, Texas, Ryan wife number three, had an 8^th house Sun, Mercury, Mars in Aquarius opposition Pluto with Pluto conjunct Saturn in Leo. Whatever possessed that pair to get married is anyone’s guess – volatile wouldn’t begin to describe it though they did reconcile during her last illness. But the wreckage of their marriage left poor Redmond, 30 January 1985 2.55am LA, trying to cope with the fallout. He is a Sun Aquarius square Pluto (controlling father) with a Mars Venus conjunction in Pisces trine Saturn in Scorpio sextile Jupiter in Capricorn, with his Saturn opposition a Taurus Moon (chilly mother).

  Surveying all the charts and relationship charts what is intriguing are two things. One is the mix of affection and aggravation. The other is strong Jupiters throughout.  Tatum’s birth chart has Jupiter on the point of a Yod which can lead to delusions of grandeur. Griffin has his Jupiter in indulgent Taurus on one leg of his Grand Square. Redmond has an emphasised Jupiter as well.

  Too much Jupiter can be as damaging as too much Neptune.  None of the O’Neal kids appear to have done a John McEnroe and emerged in any kind of fit shape.  

Putin is ramping up the rhetoric on Ukraine, daring the USA and its allies to try to defeat Russia. He has increasingly cast the war as a battle between Russia and the USA, triggered by  the humiliation of Russia since the 1991 fall of the USSR, and the enlargement of NATO. The reason for the recall of the lower house of the Russian parliament this Friday during the vacation isn’t clear but could be a hint that Putin intends to boost his efforts. The Russian parliament has already pledged to help two Russian-backed self-declared breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine to develop their legal system.

  This may not be hugely significant but the Jupiter in Scorpio on Putin’s 4^th Term chart, 7 May 2018 11.05 am, is at 18 degrees and thus in line for the Uranus, North Node, Mars in Taurus opposition on 1^st August – and Uranus will oppose the Term Jupiter till mid October. That chart has a Sun opposition Jupiter which will bring luck but also arrogance, over-confidence and a tendency to go too far. Tr Pluto is also moving to conjunct the Term Mars exactly from August 4 to December 10 for the final time which can be ruthless though also trapped, frustrated and enraged – and since the Mars is tied into a square to Uranus it could also potentially be destabilising. Tr Puto will square the Term Uranus exactly in 2023/24 which will be a precarious time for Putin.

 Zelensky’s Leo Moon on a 2pm 25 January 1978 birth time is in the final minutes of 17 degrees and could be 18 and squares Uranus – so it is also being rattled up by tr Uranus now and more so across early August and on.

  The Russia 8 December 1991 relationship chart with the USA has Neptune at this super-sensitive degree catch the tr Uranus Mars North Node opposition in early August – and indeed tr Uranus opposes the composite Neptune now till made October. With undermining Neptune transits as well.

   The USA/Russia 1917 relationship chart is aggravated and blocked with tr Pluto opposition the composite Mars throughout this month till early August, and again late year and on and off till late 2023. Nothing easing up anytime soon.

  Putin looks likely to blow himself up with his Ukrainian land-grab in the longer term but it may not be over for months or even another year yet, leaving the poor (and very stalwart) Ukrainians having to suffer more destruction. See previous post 30 May 2022.  

ADD ON: Nikolai Patrushev, Putin’s close ally from his KGB days and his Security Adviser, a possible successor, has been stepping up his vocal support for the Ukraine invasion. He’s also in line for the August 1^st fireworks display since the tr Uranus, Mars, North Node in Taurus will square his Pluto exactly. Born 11 July 1951, no birth time, he’s an excitable, short-fused, none-too-realistic Sun, Uranus, Mars in Cancer square Neptune and Jupiter. His Sun square Neptune is moving by Solar Arc to hard aspect his Saturn within months and extending through 2023 into 2024 = panicky, uncertain, pressured, blocked, having to face reality.

John McEnroe, the original super-brat and enfant terrible of 1980s tennis, has accomplished an astonishing transformation into a popular, much respected establishment figure. He constantly hectored umpires – “you can’t be serious” – and threw contempt at the strait-laced organisers as he headed for three Wimbledon singles titles in 1981, 1983 and 1984, and four US Opens and retired at 26. His rumbunctious New York nightclub lifestyle and tempestuous, drug-addled first marriage to the actress Tatum O’Neal made him a paparazzi favourite.

  A well-reviewed documentary about his life and personality hits the screens this week, relating his tense relationship with his ex-Air Force father and manager and his ‘no softie either’ mother, as well as the fallout after the O’Neal marriage split, ultimately handing him full custody of their three children because of her heroin addiction. Then he met musician Patty Smyth and appears settled in relative harmony with two more children, bringing his brood to five aged between 23 and 36. She said “I married a bad boy who became a really good man.”

  He was born 16 February 1959 10.30pm Wiesbaden, Germany, and has an astonishing chart. His Sun, Mercury in Aquarius in his sporting 5^th house oppose Pluto which squares onto Jupiter opposition an 8^th house Mars Moon in Gemini. A volcanic mix which acts like a windmill in a hurricane. A high-wire temperament he is short-fused and impatient to the nth degree. His Jupiter square Pluto = over-confident, rules don’t apply. Mars square Pluto = do-or-die determined, desperate when boxed in. Pluto square Moon = intense emotional reactions. Pluto opposition Mercury, Sun = controlling, dislikes being ordered around. His Mars Moon is further emphasised being on the focal point of a Yod to Neptune sextile Saturn. Learning to handle and modulate his anger and reactions will have been a hard life lesson.

  His Venus in sensitive Pisces in his hard-working 6^th house will make for good working relationships with colleagues though since it is unaspected he may be less demonstrative at an affectional level elsewhere. His wife Patty suggests in the film he may be on the autistic spectrum.

  Last but not least he has an maverick and innovative Uranus in his 10^th house of career.

  His second wife Patty Smyth, 26 June 1957, a Sun and Venus in Cancer with a Gemini Moon is quite a Saturnine connection, giving him structure and common sense with her Saturn opposition his Moon and his Saturn opposition her Sun.

  His first wife Tatum O’Neal, a former child star with disastrous showbiz parents, 5 November 1963 3.38 am Los Angeles, in contrast had her Mars opposition his Moon stoking him up  and her Saturn opposition his Uranus. Their relationship chart has a hostile composite Mars opposition Pluto and a tricky Yod onto Venus Saturn.

  His relationship chart with Patty Smyth has certain of the same elements as with Tatum O’Neal but in a diluted form. It won’t all have been easy but it clearly gives him what his complicated temperament needs.  

  He’s at a phase of his life where he is contemplating what ambitions he wants to fulfil for the next decade plus. He may go through a two or three years muddle until he clears his head and then he will start to branch out.

His global star 22^nd harmonic is powerfully successful. His leaving-a-legacy-for-history is intensely determined.  His 5H and 11H are also marked.

  A talented though initially troubled individual and inspiring to see that change is possible.

Like ferrets fighting in a sack, the warring contenders for the Tory throne and their supporters are proclaiming their virtues while smearing the rest with allegations of financial, sexual and other moral improprieties. Eleven have thrown their hats into the compound to date with a hope from the organisers that this will be whittled down to two by July 21^st. Then it goes out to the Tory membership so it will be early September before there is a decision.

   Rishi Sunak is ahead on the betting with 33 MPs backing him; with Penny Mordaunt next, followed by Liz Truss and then Tom Tugendhat.

 Below is a speedy run round their charts, with no birth times, so information is missing.

Rishi Sunak, 12 May 1980, is a Sun Mercury in Taurus in a steady trine to Saturn in practical, hard-working Virgo and opposition an innovative Uranus; with an energetic/enthusiastic Jupiter Mars in Virgo. His midpoints are lacklustre veering towards disastrous now and worsening in August. So unless he has a magical missing ingredient it doesn’t look likely.

Penny Mordaunt, 4 March 1973, a New Moon in Pisces  with a confident Pluto trine Jupiter. Again she has lacklustre midpoints and an exceptionally jangled 1 August. She’ll have the odd lucky break in 2023 but her moment will come in 2024/25 with tr Pluto conjunct her Jupiter.

Tom Tugendhat, 27 June 1973, a Sun Cancer square an ultra-determined Pluto opposition Mars. Tr Neptune square his Saturn now and into August looks very uncertain.

Jeremy Hunt, 1 November 1966, a Sun Venus in Scorpio square Jupiter in Leo, has an unfulfilled-hopes tr Pluto trine his Jupiter/Neptune now till early August and a disappointed tr Neptune square his Jupiter/Node in August. He’ll shine after 2025.

Liz Truss, 26 July 1975, a Sun Leo sextile Pluto; with a hyper-active Uranus opposition Jupiter square Saturn Mercury in Cancer. She looks panicked now till early August with tr Neptune square her Sun/Mars midpoint and blocked with tr Pluto opposition her Mars/Pluto – but after a high-tension August 1^st, she moves onto a luckier run from the 5^th right through till late year with tr Pluto conjunct her Jupiter/Uranus midpoint– which would cover the time, if she got through, when the vote goes out to the membership.

Nadhim Zahawi, 2 June 1967, a Sun Gemini trine Mars and sextile Saturn in Aries; with a sociable Venus Jupiter. Dashed hopes now into August as his tax situation is called into question – with better prospects in 2024/25 though mixed in with a few disasters then as well.

  Kemi Badenoch, 2 January 1980, a Sun Capricorn trine an enthusiastic Mars Jupiter in Virgo. She’s having a tough slog now into early August with diminishing returns.

Suella Braverman, 3 April 1980, a Sun Aries opposition Pluto with Mars in Leo square Venus in Taurus – she’s slipping, sliding and slithering through a Neptunian swamp between now and the year end and beyond.

Sajid Javid, 5 December 1969,  a Sun Sagittarius with an upbeat Mars in Aquarius trine Jupiter and a publicity-attracting square to Neptune.  He was on a confident roll earlier this year and will be again but not until next January with undermining Neptune transits to a key midpoint until early August.

Grant Shapps, 14 September 1968, a Sun, Jupiter, Pluto in Virgo with Uranus in Virgo as well; and Mars in flamboyant Leo. Neptune is being less than helpful to his elevated ambitions this year and into 2023.

Rehman Chishti, 4 October 1979, whom no one has ever heard of but is presumably hoping for a spot of name recognition, is a Sun Pluto in Libra with a stellium in Scorpio. Nope.

  Liz Truss is the only one with Jupiterian uplift (and Ben Wallace oddly enough) and next year Sajid Javid – but birth times can make all the difference.

Two standers-on-the-sidelines exercising their lungs in exhortation and condemnation are:

Dominic Cummings, 25 November 1971, a paranoid Sun Neptune in Sagittarius opposition Saturn square a chaotic, troublemaker Mars (Moon) in Pisces. He’s on a high until early August pleased to be back in the spotlight again no doubt but sinking into mild disappointment thereafter.

David Frost, 21 February 1965, has BJ’s Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune which is being hit amidships by the August 1^st Uranus, Mars, North Node conjunction. If only Jupiter was involved it could be lucky, but more likely coming down to earth with a bump – and then some. And that will continue right through 2023. More damagingly he has tr Neptune opposition his Mars in Virgo through this month until early August which brings a sense of panicky failure – one can only imagine he is less than enchanted at the short list.

  Whichever of the three Conservative Party charts is used there is a massive shake-up coming now and in 2023/2024 with tr Uranus hard aspects upending old certainties.

  My guess would be that this replacement will be a short term tenant of No 10 and moving on fairly rapidly.

Joe Biden is having to swallow past criticism of Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince, whom he had vowed to make a pariah for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as he goes begging bowl in hand for cheaper oil for American consumers. Critics are outraged not only because Biden appears prepared to overlook the assassination of Khashoggi, MBS’s political opponent (which earned him the nickname ‘Mr Bonesaw’) but also MBS’s pursuit of the long-running, barbaric war in Yemen.

  Realpolitik always involves unpleasant compromises and there’s not much of dramatic interest in this sorry state of affairs astrologically except for one oddity.

 Biden has his ultra-determined and stubborn (and vengeful) Mars in Scorpio conjunct MBS’s South Node with both conjunct the Saudi Arabia’s Scorpio North Node.  So there is a complicated dance of the fates going on.

  I can’t think that MBS’s South Node conjunct the Saudi Arabia’s North Node makes him a progressive force for the country as he pulls it back to its autocratic worst, imprisoning and torturing relatives and opponents  – shades of the back-stabbing Tudor monarchs of ye olde England. And into the middle of this trundles old Joe.

 Relocating his chart to Riyadh puts JB’s Moon exactly on the Ascendant and Jupiter in the 4^th close to his IC – so it is a country, despite his rhetoric, where he feels strangely comfortable. Not that he gets on with MBS, whose Mars, Mercury in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio clash badly with JB’s Scorpio Mercury, Sun, Venus. But there is a strange pull with MBS’s Venus in Leo square Pluto in tight aspect to Joe’s Taurus Moon. A complicated web of connection.

  The Scorpio/Taurus Nodes are being triggered by this year’s Eclipses so all three – MBS, JB and Saudi Arabia are on alert for game-changing crises and arguments.

  MBS’s Crown Prince chart 21 June 2017 6.19 am Riyadh, is labouring this year and next, with an unstable tr Pluto square Uranus and an uncertain, worrisome tr Neptune square Saturn, moving on to Neptune square the Sun by 2024/25. So his early aggressive ebullience will be muted somewhat.

  I’m not all that familiar with Node crossovers but they seem to be cropping up more and more these days so worth exploring.