Astrology of Today’s News

With Keir Starmer a policy-free mystery, there are ominous signs that Tony Blair stands poised to re-enter the UK political arena on the Labour side to fill in the void when they sweep to a momentous victory at the next election (or so they hope.)

  In the 16 years after he exited No 10, he started by advising questionable emirs, oligarchs and despots, then set up the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which unbelievably has 750 staff in 40 countries advising governments in Nigeria, Rwanda, San Francisco, Serbia, Togo and many more.  100 of its staff are currently “embedded” in other governments. But ‘Blairism for the planet’ as the Telegraph neatly puts it has not yet reached these green pastures.

  Maybe not for much longer. According to reports he is poised to infiltrate Blairites into key positions in readiness for taking over – with him presumably as puppetmaster.  

  He and Starmer are alike in one way in that both have Earth Sun with strong Pluto aspects. Blair is a Sun Taurus square Pluto and Starmer a Sun Pluto in Virgo. But both are heavy on control and not exactly soulmates. Starmer’s idealistic/evasive Neptune opposes TB’s Sun and squares TB’s 10^th house Aquarius Moon for a confusing interface.  And Starmer’s ‘leadership’ North Node is conjunct TB’s South Node. This could indicate that Starmer’s role as head of the party tugs on TB’s egocentricity/self-interest, and maybe TB threatens to undermine Starmer’s position by repeating the mistakes of the past. It is certainly a strong and fated connection on the nodal axis.

  Their relationship chart has an inspirational (maybe not realistic) Grand Trine with an irritable/resentful one-sided Mars opposition Saturn which does not suggest an equal partnership.  

  Blair is certainly ready for a significant change in his life with tr Uranus square his Pluto this year and next; and heading for a ‘lucky break’ tr Uranus conjunct his Jupiter in 2025.  His Solar Arc Jupiter is aiming to conjunct his South Node by this coming New Year which may see him falling back onto old tropes, standing on his pride instead of putting his ideals first. He’ll run into a major failure, panicky setback in 2025 alongside his lucky break – as his Progressed Mars squares his Neptune. That is on the same degree now and through 2024 but since Progressed Mars moves slowly won’t clear the aspect until 2026 – and indeed it won’t get better for him since his Prog Mars then squares his Saturn which in many ways is worse. 

  Whatever his plans, hopes and dreams, while he’ll get some luck, he’ll also hit major reverses.  Given the state of Starmer’s chart with a disastrous 2025/26/27 ahead, it does not suggest the TB will find a ready platform in a centrist Labour Government to strut his stuff.

  Their relationship chart moves into swampy territory in 2024/25 with tr Pluto square the composite Neptune; is in a state of upheaval in 2025 with tr Uranus square the composite Pluto and the resentful Mars opposition Saturn is being rattled as well.

  Interesting times, if as clear as mud what is coming.

Andrew Malkinson lost a third of his life after being ‘kidnapped by the state’ for a rape he did not commit in 2004. No DNA evidence linked him to the crime, with the prosecution case based solely on contested eyewitness identification. The court was never told that a key witness only came forward on the day he was arrested for another crime – and that he was addicted to heroin and had multiple criminal convictions. Malkinson did not match key parts of the victim’s original description of the attacker. She said she remembered causing a “deep scratch” to her attacker’s right cheek but Malkinson was seen at work with no scratches the next day. He was also 3in taller, had chest hair, when her attacker’s chest was described as hairless and shiny, and had prominent tattoos on his forearms when no tattoos were mentioned.

 DNA evidence exonerated him finally, though not from Greater Manchester Police, who had lost the original clothing but from forensic swaps held by another agency. He is now living in financial hardship and faces another long battle, perhaps for years, to claim compensation.

   He was born 23 January 1966 in Manchester, and has the same Saturn Chiron opposition Uranus Pluto square Jupiter as Sinead O’Connor (and oddly enough J.K. Rowling).  He has a friendly Sun Venus in Aquarius with a determined Mars (Moon) also in Aquarius. His Jupiter is trine Mars (maybe Moon) and inconjunct Neptune and that plus Jupiter being on a focal point of a T- square would give him enough optimism to keep him afloat through difficult years  He said he survived in prison by studying pure mathematics and Buddhism.

 When he was convicted tr Pluto was square his Chiron and his Pluto Uranus in Virgo.

  The compensation body is the one tasked with handling the Post Office debacle which does not raise too many hopes of a speedy closure. Living with the anger at the outrageous injustice – and staggering incompetence/malpractice of the original police and prosecuting authorities – would take a zen-like level of detachment. Urgh.  Poor man.

Add On: Greater Manchester Police founded 1 April 1974, like the London Met has a Sun opposition Pluto – heavy on control and power. It also has Jupiter inconjunct Pluto hinting at over-confidence and a hard-edged, can-be-destructive Mars Saturn in Gemini with the North Node sitting on the midpoint. That North Node is opposition Malkinson’s Jupiter.  So his optimism/lucky genie was squelched by GMP’s South Node (= die-hard, regressive, under-developed). GMP’s Mercury is conjunct his Chiron making him feel his words went for nothing.  

  Their relationship chart has a composite Sun in an evasive/disappointing square to Neptune. More significantly there is a fated yod, changing the lives of both irrevocably – of Sun sextile Saturn inconjunct Uranus. There are likely to be far-reaching implications, beyond the reality-check of the moment as tr Saturn is conjunct the Sun .  

Add On: It now transpire there was significant DNA evidence three years after Malkinson was convicted which could have cleared him and the Criminal Cases Review Commission and others in authority did nothing about it. The CCRC, 31 March 1997, has a hard-edged, unsentimental Sun Saturn in Aries trine Pluto with its Uranus conjunct Malkinson’s Venus Sun and its Mars in allegedly meticulous Virgo conjunct Malkinson’s Uranus Pluto. Not a combination which was designed to lead to constructive cooperation.

The CCRC are due a serious shake up late in 2024 into 2025 when the Solar Arc Sun Saturn squares the Uranus – and not before time. Let’s hope they have sorted the Post Office compensation by then.

Kevin Spacey has been found not guilty in a London court, on a majority verdict, of all charges of sexual assault that were laid against him arising from his time as director of the Old Vic Theatre. Separate criminal charges in LA and Massachusetts were dropped in 2018 and 2019. In 2022, he was found not liable in a civil trial in New York.

  Prosecutors claim he was a “sexual bully” who “abused the power and influence” his fame afforded him. His legal team countered by suggesting the alleged victims sought to exploit the actor’s “wealth and influence” and had “waited for the bandwagon to roll by to jump on it”. His lawyer said it was “easy” to lie about him: “A man who is promiscuous, not publicly out, although everyone in the businesses knows he’s gay, who wants to be just a normal guy – to drink beer and laugh and smoke weed and sit in the front and spend time with younger people who he’s attracted to… “It’s a life that makes you an easy target when the internet turns against you and you’re tried by social media.”

  He was one of the first actors subject to allegations of sexual misconduct when the #MeToo scandal engulfed Hollywood in 2017. Spacey said “There was a rush to judgement and before the first question was asked or answered I lost my job, I lost my reputation – I lost everything, in a matter of days.”

  He was erased from Ridley Scott’s All The Money In The World, with Christopher Plummer reshooting his scenes as billionaire John Paul Getty – and axed from his role as scheming politician Frank Underwood in Netflix’s House Of Cards.

  His birth data are iffy but 27 July 1959 5.42am South Orange, New Jersey, looks about right. His father, reportedly a racist neo-Nazi, was abusive, physically and sexually of his older brother from whom Spacey is now estranged.

  On this chart he has a boisterous Leo Sun on his Ascendant square an earthy Taurus Moon in his career 10^th opposition Neptune in his 4^th. More significantly he has an ultra-determined Mars Pluto in Virgo, legacy of a bullying father, which falls in his financial 2^nd and it trines his Moon and Saturn in Capricorn. He will be driven by remembrances of his unhappy childhood. A troubled man.

  He also has Mercury Uranus in Leo square Jupiter giving him an adventurous and impulsive streak.

  The question on everyone’s lips is whether he can make a comeback and whether the big studios will be prepared to withstand negative social media to invite him back into the fold.

  He does have a lucky tr Uranus opposition his Jupiter exactly now giving him a gigantic sigh of relief as the UK trial folds in his favour and that fortunate influence returns on and off into early 2024. But he will have various mountains to climb ahead and a fair few setbacks as well. His Mars Pluto in Virgo is catching the tr Saturn opposition from this September on and off into January 2024 which will be irritable with a few significant glitches; and even more irksome will be his Solar Arc Saturn opposition his Mars in late 2024. 

  2024 to 2027 will be a gruelling test of his ability to transform and slough off the past as tr Pluto squares his Taurus Moon in 24/25 and then opposes his Leo Sun in 25/26, followed by a square to his Neptune up to late 2027. It will pull away much of his old personality, grind him down and reissue him as a transformed personality. And as if all that was not enough the tr Neptune Saturn conjunction in Aries in 2025 will square his Saturn for high uncertainty.

  He won’t be stepping back into his old lifestyle anytime soon. But maybe the lessons he has and will learn will turn him into a beacon of insight and wisdom.

  Pity since he was/is a very talented actor and it is a waste.

The worst treatment disaster in the NHS is still the subject of an inquiry half a century later with a compensation scheme not yet established for the victims of the infected blood scandal. Experts estimate that about 2,900 deaths from 1970 to 2019 were caused by patients being given unscreened blood contaminated with HIV and hepatitis, imported from the USA, from high-risk groups including prisoners and drug users. An inquiry was set up by Theresa May in 2018 to examine how it happened and whether there was a government cover up.

The medical background; By 1960 the life expectancy for a person with severe haemophilia was less than 20 years old. When Judith Pool, an American researcher, made a breakthrough in 1965 by isolating a vital factor V111 in blood which would revolutionize the treatment of haemophilia, it was hailed as a breakthrough. That was when the leading edge Uranus Pluto conjunction was in health-conscious Virgo – a time of many medical breakthroughs.   

  Then came AIDs in the early 1980s, with the first clinical case being reported on June 1981 on the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Libra. That was just weeks before the July Solar Eclipse in the 1 North series which Bernadette Brady connects to relationship challenges and health issues.

By the mid-1980s, it was confirmed that HIV/AIDS could be transmitted through the use of blood and blood products, such as those used to treat hemophilia. Approximately half of the people with hemophilia in the US eventually became infected with HIV through contaminated blood products; thousands died. The overwhelming impact of HIV on the bleeding disorders community was felt into the next few decades.

  The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was also transmitted through contaminated factor products, pooled from the blood of hundreds of thousands of donors. Before testing for HCV began in 1992, an estimated 44% of all people with hemophilia had contracted it. With the advent of more sophisticated screening methods and purification techniques, the risk of contracting HCV through factor products is virtually nil.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853992/

Most children born with haemophilia in the US today can look forward to long, healthy and active lives.

  The Infected Blood Inquiry was set up in the UK on 2 July 2018 when there was a Water Grand Trine of a Cancer Sun trine Jupiter trine Neptune with Sun opposition Saturn – caring, well-intentioned, can be overly-self-protective, not always realistic. But it also has a stubbornly determined and uncompromising Mars in Aquarius opposition North Node in Leo widely square Jupiter which might give hope that it will walk its own independent road and not give in to outside pressure. The chairman has already insisted on £100k interim payments to some 4000 individuals.  The end of the inquiry is flagged up by the Solar Arc Saturn now closing the opposition to the Sun to exact.

  There is also a Yod of Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Venus in Leo which if handled properly will produce a strong social goal and can be helpful for legal affairs. So its heart is probably in the right place. The Inquiry Venus will be rattled by tr Uranus in square on and off until spring 2024 – so the repercussions will roll on.

   There is no way of knowing whether it will be any better handled by the disastrous Post Office compensation scheme or even Windrush.  A mixture of inertia, gross incompetence and lack of motivation (or a gun at their head) may drag matters out – or not. The Inquiry chair Brian Longstaff, 30 April 1948, is not one to be pushed around – an excessively steady and Fixed Sun Taurus square Saturn Pluto in Leo and Mars in Leo – but he only issues his conclusions. Getting them acted on is another matter.

The sad but not unexpected death of Sinead O’Connor has brought a raft of poignant accolades –  “Supremely gifted, terrifyingly vulnerable and hilarious – even at her bleakest she’d make you laugh.” “A heroic talent who spoke truth to power – and found redemption in art. Her music made everything worthwhile.” “A complicated, sensitive, erratic woman from a very difficult, abusive background, who led a life beset by controversy, confrontation, mental health problems and terrible personal tragedies.” “ She was a volatile person, passionate, intelligent, contrarian.”

  She was born 8 December 1966 in Dublin with no verified birth time, with a kleptomaniac mother who abused her physically and sexually about which she spoke openly. She had issues with the Catholic Church and nearly wrecked her career by tearing up the Pope’s photograph at one point. She compared the Ireland she grew up in to Iran: “a theocracy, slightly less potent but the same situation.” She ricocheted through several marriages, had four children, became a priest and then converted to Islam and spent a good deal of time in mental hospitals with a bipolar diagnosis with two previous suicide attempts. She never recovered from the suicide of one of her sons, aged 17 last year.  

 “A reputation as a crazy self-destructive person pursued her down decades of erratic and polarising behaviour, whether declaring then retracting lesbianism or being ordained as a renegade Catholic priest whilst campaigning against sexual abuse in the church, then converting to Islam.”

  She had the rebellious, chaotic Uranus Pluto in Virgo of the mid 1960s – it’s energy so visibly lived out it must have been on the angles of her chart or in her 8^th house. It opposed Saturn in Pisces and Chiron square an outspoken Sagittarius Sun. Her Chiron conjunct Saturn and opposition Pluto and Uranus would have made her psychic wounds deep. Depression, a grinding sense of betrayal, grief and loss of power would come from Chiron Pluto. Chiron Saturn hints at fear, deep insecurity, an over-compensation in work to stave off sorrow.

  Her Taurus North Node in a different way hints at a turbulent life searching for peace and different values. The recent May Lunar Eclipse was exactly conjunct her South Node.

   Her Mars was sparsely aspected being only sextile Jupiter which would make her  overly-energetic and uncompromising.

  Her Moon was late Libra or Scorpio and the latter sounds more likely.

Her singing touched the hearts of many and her courage.

Add On:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66330500

‘The huge outpouring in the Irish Republic since the death of Sinéad O’Connor reflects a late realisation that she helped the country confront its own trauma, writes Una Mullally.’

‘She was part of a generation intent on dragging Ireland out of theocratic oppression, and towards a sense of empathy and liberation.’

‘O’Connor was a lighthouse for those who felt adrift in Irish society. She offered a new moral compass beyond the lie of societal piety, one that pointed towards an uncharted direction of authenticity.’

‘O’Connor had been right all along, and everyone knew it. As Ireland became a more secular country, she was one of the leading voices for confronting the Catholic Church while maintaining a personal spirituality.’

‘In recent days, people have recalled her attendance at reproductive rights marches in the early 1990s and her kindness towards the Traveller community, refugees, trans rights organisations, and the Dublin Aids Alliance.’

  Her rebellious revolutionary, status-quo-upsetting Uranus Pluto falls in the Ireland 4^th – 6 December 1922 5pm Dublin as she set about uprooting the country from its reactionary past. Her Saturn Chiron fell in the Ireland 10^th conjunct their South Node as her pain and anguish set the country on a new road, pushing it into unfamiliar territory and away from old damaging securities.   

Nigel Farage is back on a roll after languishing in the backwaters since his Brexit victory with the furore over his bank account being closed because of his political beliefs. He’s extracted apologies from the BBC, the resignation of the NatWest CEO and is now calling for the entire bank board to go. He has also catapulted the government and Treasury into clamping down on the banking industry to stop any future blackballing.

  Like him or loathe him, Farage does have an extraordinary effect effect on the UK as a catalyst or demolition expert depending on your viewpoint. He presses the plunger and the situation explodes. Not a man to cross clearly. Though he was right in this instance.

   It is blissful when the astrology is spot on – which in this case it is.  Farage, born 3 April 1964 4.30pm Farnborough, England has an 8^th house Aries Sun on the focal point of a yod to Pluto sextile Neptune. The yod would give him a sense of being an outsider, always out of step with the consensus, with an awkwardness stemming from a variable sense of self-esteem – too much ego and then too little.

  But what is instructive is his Aries Sun is conjunct the UK’s 7^th house North Node in Aries. That was what was being triggered running into the Brexit referendum with the revolutionary/anarchic tr Uranus in Aries square tr Pluto in Capricorn in place. The UK’s 7^th house Aries Node hints at innate challenges when it comes to cooperation with neighbours.  Farage’s 8^th house Sun was in there with laser-like intensity, widening the cracks.

  Farage’s Sun is also conjunct the NatWest’s Saturn and opposition the BBC’s Saturn – which will hit both in a way that damages their sense of self-worth.

   He’ll continue to be a thorn in someone’s flesh for a long time to come. Though he’ll hit a blockage or two into 2024.

Harry Truman is the forgotten piece of the narrative when it comes to the nuclear bomb. Oppenheimer may have created it (along with others) but Truman was the one to give the order to use it, described by one commentator as “the most history-altering executive decision since Pontius Pilate”. He took on the presidency on April 12 1945 after Franklin D Roosevelt’s death.

  Although he retired unpopular in 1953 and his presidential reputation languished for decades, he was eventually resurrected to the top 10. And he did have a fair number of credits including staying in Europe after 1945, implementing the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and establishing NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. He decolonised the Philippines, desegregated the military and put the Atomic Energy Commission under civilian not military control. The Korean War was a failure; but appalling as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, some argue the nuclear bombing can be seen as preventing a third world war in later years.

 He was born 8 May 1884 4pm Lamar, Missouri, into a livestock and farming family. Two things are intriguing about his chart. One is he has both Neptune and Pluto in his 8^th house like Winston Churchill and Hitler. It wasn’t conjunct but it would give him an innate ability to influence events. His Taurus Sun was conjunct his Neptune in the 8^th. The other key factor was his Pluto conjunct not only Mercury but also Chiron. Pluto on Chiron in the 8^th certainly conveys the darkness, depth and intensity of the ‘destroyer of worlds’. He appeared not to have had any qualms about the order to bomb but the 8^th house is deeply unconscious and projected into the world it would bring an earth-shaking howl of pain and horror.

  His relationship chart with Japan has a composite Mars Pluto square Moon North Node which in a different way echoes the utter ruthlessness of their connection and the bitterness left behind.

  When the Hiroshima bomb was dropped tr Saturn was conjunct his Solar Arc Sun Neptune in his 10^th so it must have given him a tremor of concern even if it did not show; with tr Pluto conjunct his SA Saturn adding to the gravitas of the moment.    

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Israel is galloping towards the point where it will lose the unique status of being the only democracy in the Middle East as the ultra-right wing parliament voted to strip the country’s supreme court of its powers to block government decisions. The opposition walked out, joining a huge crowd of protesters, with reservists, the Israeli security establishment as well as labor unions threatening action, with strong concerns also being raised by Jewish lobby groups in the USA.

  Critics argue it will become a sham democracy with no check on the power of the executive. Israel has no written constitution, nor a second parliamentary chamber to balance the Knesset. The supreme court has been the backstop on issues deemed to threaten the rights of citizens and democracy, including long-running arguments over the role of religion in a secular society, the definition of a Jew, the treatment of Israel’s Arab minority and Palestinians in the occupied territories.

 Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said:  “We are governed today by a bunch of militants, nationalists, chauvinists, [and] radicals. Reckless, irresponsible, and totally inexperienced people.” He said if US administrations present and past had taken far tougher lines against Netanayhu’s policies — and placed Israel’s special relationship with the United States in the balance — it would have had positive effects.

  Biden has been mildly disapproving but no more with no indication on the astrology that he will toughen his stance.  The Israel/USA relationship chart is not flagging up much movement until next year when a confused tr Pluto trine the delusional Jupiter Neptune conjunction picks up, running for two years. That will bring a reality check as old illusions get demolished. The process will intensify in 2025/26 with tr Neptune Saturn square the composite Mercury Venus.

   Inside Israel, confidence is being undermined by tr Neptune square the Jupiter exactly now and that runs on and off till early 2025. But the key detonator for the turbulence to come is tr Uranus conjunct the 8^th house Taurus Sun from this August on and off into 2024 and then an explosive, violent, insecure tr Uranus square the Israel Mars by 2025 into early 2026. This year and next there are also a run of catastrophic, high-risk transits to Mars midpoints; and a devastating Pluto square the Sun/Neptune midpoint through 2024/25.

  There is more detail in a previous post: Israel – on a dark road backwards 30th December 2022.

  One explanation for the state of Israel now  is the rapid rise in the population of ultra-orthodox Jews and the consequent decline in the influence of the largely secular Ashkenazi community which has resulted in the growth of religious fundamentalism and conflict with the liberal mainstream in society. The right-wingers are pushing for more settlements and outright annexation of lands under military rule since 1967.

 Shades of Modi in India and to a similar degree the stranglehold of the GOP in the USA.

  On a petty personal note there is an odd resonance at the moment of schadenfreude – that’s the wrong word – more an irritated ‘I told you so’ about several political screw-ups. Nicola Sturgeon for one and Boris Johnson for two who rose to prominence despite it being glaringly obvious they were not fit for any kind of constructive purpose. Israel at a different level should have had international policing put in when it was established in 1948, to protect the indigenous Palestinians as per the Balfour Declaration – except post WW11 the USA/UK had too much on their plate elsewhere. Israel has been steadily marching up the wrong road since it was established, content to bask in the support of big brother USA.  It is difficult to see where this ends.  

Sigourney Weaver, veteran of some of the biggest blockbuster franchises of all time – Alien, Ghostbusters and Avatar – and a statuesque 5 foot 11+ tall, is still going strong and largely flying under the radar of Hollywood hype by living quietly in New York. She’s back on TV screens next month in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, based on Holly Ringland’s book, which is a ‘harrowing but engrossing and exquisitely rendered tale about grief, domestic abuse and trauma; how a group of women come together to heal through the lushness and language of flowers.’

  She was born 8 October 1949 6.15 pm Manhattan, NY, with an English mother and TV executive father. Told repeatedly she had no talent in her twenties, she persevered and landed Alien as only her third movie. Oscar nominations followed and she won a Golden Globe best actress for Gorillas in the Mist and commendations for playing the alpha boss in Working Girl. She has been married to Jim Simpson, a theatre director, since 1984 with one non-binary child in their 30s.

  She has an understated and hard-working Sun Neptune in Libra in her 6^th house square a successful Jupiter in Capricorn on her Midheaven and sextile a do-or-die-determined Mars Pluto in Leo in her performing 5^th house. Venus in Scorpio in her 7^th endows her with great charm and will attract affectionate partners in life. Her Taurus Moon sits on her Ascendant giving her a down-to-earth image – it is sparsely aspected barring a sextile to a quick-witted Uranus in her 3^rd, which will increase her vulnerability though it is not at first obvious. Her Saturn in Virgo also in her 5^th will give her organising ability in the entertainment field.

 Her husband Jim Simpson, 21 February 1956, Hawaii, is a Sun Pisces trine Neptune and square Saturn – both are highly Neptunian though it is also a high-octane mix with his Jupiter Pluto in Leo sitting close beside her Mars Pluto. His Cancer Moon is somewhere around her independent-minded Uranus so two constantly changing careers will help. His Neptune opposes her Moon so he will be tricky to pin down at times. It won’t all have been smooth sailing with their relationship chart having a composite Mars, Neptune, Saturn conjunction square Uranus for high tension and sacrifices demanded of one partner.  But a composite Sun trine Pluto will bring closeness and a Jupiter square Venus adds a sparkle of frivolity to smooth round rough edges.  Their wedding chart had an easy going Sun Mercury square Jupiter with a passionate Venus Pluto and a showbusiness Mars Neptune so it did get off to an auspicious start.

  With Jupiter moving through her 1^st house this year she’s into a lucky patch and tr Saturn is moving through her high profile, hard-working 4^th Quadrant till the end of this decade so she won’t be retiring any time soon.