Astrology of Today’s News

Freedom of speech has been dragged centre foreground again after the attack on Salman Rushdie and has triggered a spat in the Society of Authors, who of all people should have been waving the banner for the right to speak up or write without fear of retaliation. Joanne Harris, the chairperson, best-selling author of Chocolat, put out a tone-deaf tweet about writers receiving death threats, assumed to be a sideswipe at J.K.Rowling with whom she has had a long dispute over her stance on gender identity.

 Rowling in response said that Harris had “consistently failed” to defend female authors who disagreed “with her personal position on gender identity ideology”. She had  allowed the women to be intimidated into silence, citing Rachel Rooney and Gillian Philip, who had suffered “severe personal and professional harm” because they dared to “challenge a fashionable ideology which has been remarkably successful in demonising those who protest against the current attack on women’s rights”.

  Joanne Harris, 3 July 1964, no birth time, in Barnsley, England, was born two weeks after Boris Johnson and has the same high-wire, argumentative and beyond-stubborn Mars in Gemini on the point of a T Square to Saturn opposition Uranus Pluto in Virgo. Like him she had a turbulent upbringing with a French mother and English father and respective families who didn’t speak each other’s language. One of her recurrent themes not surprisingly is identity as well as mother/child relationships, the emotional resonance of food, the outsider in the community.

  Her Cancer Sun, Mercury and North Node are in a wide Water Grand Trine to Neptune and Saturn in Pisces – good for creativity, not always for interfacing with reality. Her Neptune also opposes indulgent Jupiter in Taurus, hence her love of food, and a tendency to be a dreamer.   

  She has a son who came out as transgender this year.

  Harris’s focal point and aggravated Mars in Gemini is conjunct Rowling’s North Node so it is a fated and inflammatory interface. Their relationship chart hints at a tendency to oneupmanship tussles and ego-clashes.

 The Society of Authors, founded 18 February 1884, has its Neptune at 18 degrees Taurus agitated at the moment by tr Uranus (Mars North Node) conjunct – with tr Saturn wending backwards and forwards till early 2023 in hard aspect to the Aquarius Sun, Neptune, Scorpio Moon and Pluto – a downbeat time. With tr Pluto in a disruptive trine to the Uranus this year and next; plus tr Uranus hitting on the Fixed T Square 2023 to 2026 – so the Society will be going through a major upheaval.

  Joanne Harris, facing calls for her resignation, has tr Uranus conjunct her Jupiter (opposition Neptune) at the moment and repeating into early next year, which like BJ, may bring her down to earth with a bump.  Her Solar Arc Neptune is also in an undermining opposition to her Sun; and tr Saturn is dampening her enthusiasm as it squares her Jupiter in October/November. Not her shining hour.

   J.K. Rowling, 31 July 1965 9.10pm (rectified) Bristol, England, is moving into a lower profile few years with tr Saturn dipping below her Ascendant though she shows no sign of stepping back from voicing her opinion and supporting her pet causes. Death threats made after Rushdie’s latest assault may cause her to pull back if visibility becomes too obvious a risk. Tr Neptune is opposing her Virgo Moon this year into 2023 and she has a frustrating, blocked and scary Solar Arc Mars square her Pluto exact in 18 months.    

Singer Darius, of Pop Idol and West End Musicals renown, who has twice before survived near death experiences, has died at the young age of 41. No cause has been given. In 2010 he broke his neck in a car crash which could have paralysed or killed him. Then he was left seriously ill in 2017 when he went into a near-fatal coma after drinking Thames sewage water while promoting water filters for a charity which left him with bacterial meningitis and severe brain swelling.

  He shot to fame in 2001 and after Pop Idol appeared on stage in Chicago, Guys and Dolls and Funny Girl. He was married to actress Natasha Henstridge from 2011-2018 and was weeks away from a reunion tour with his former co-stars.

   Born in Glasgow, Scotland on 19 August 1980 2.34pm, he had a Scottish mother and Iranian father, and started singing as a teenager, appearing at Covent Garden with Scottish Opera.

  He had a lucky/talented Jupiter in Virgo on his Midheaven with a hard-working, well-organised Saturn in Virgo also in his career 10^th. His entertaining Leo Sun was conjunct his North Node and Mercury in Leo in his communicative 9^th house trine musical Neptune and square an independent-minded Uranus on his Scorpio Ascendant. His adventurous Sagittarius Moon was in his 1^st house and – most significantly for his high-risk life he had Mars Pluto conjunct.

  At the moment his Mars Pluto had moved by Solar Arc to cross over his Moon which would bring considerable challenges both physical and emotional. His Progressed Mars was also exactly conjunct his Uranus for a shock and a collision of sorts; and his Progressed Moon through his 8^th would bring an intense time psychologically.

  In 2010 when he had his car crash he was on his First Saturn Return; with his Solar Arc Mars just over the conjunction to his Uranus which can accompany accidents; with Solar Arc Pluto to follow; and his Solar Arc Neptune was in a devastating square to his Pluto.

  When he contracted meningitis in 2017, tr Pluto was square his Pluto for the start of his mid-life/individuation crisis; with his Solar Arc Pluto  approaching the square to his Sun; and his Solar Arc North Node was conjunct his Saturn.

  His outer planets did seem to mark up his major life events strikingly; with the transitions – Saturn Return and Individuation crisis – seemingly difficult to negotiate. Next year he was heading for his Uranus opposition which is the end of the Individuation phase from late 30s to early 40s.  

Add On: By all accounts he was quiet, gentle and polite, never got angry, which begs the question of what he did with his Mars Pluto conjunction. In its negative manifestation it can be overly forceful, ruthless, cruel, criminal, greedy and destructive. It won’t be noisily angry and impatient since Pluto anchors the Mars down, but it does harbour a volcanic reservoir of molten hot feeling – hostility, hatred, bitterness, desperation.  It does give superhuman courage and endurance and individuals who have it can work well in crisis or risky areas of work. But it is one of the aspects in a chart that has to be lived out otherwise it turns inwards and causes damage.

  In raw form,  Mars is about aggression and Pluto about power. When experienced in childhood the only option is submission. Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine’s father, was a Mars Pluto type. In adult life, learning to utilise Mars Pluto can be scary since to means facing up to the internal demons which the parent or early circumstances implanted. It is usually more difficult for women than men. But continuing to live out the docile, submissive side only attracts the energy to attack from the outside.  As in Carl Jung’s thought that what we are not conscious of and refuse to live out meets us on the outside as if it were fate. Both Darius’s previous two brushes with death came during periods when his Mars Pluto was being triggered in his chart – as it was for this final event. See above.

  Similarly Gandhi. He had a Mars (Venus) in Scorpio opposition Pluto (Jupiter in Taurus) square a Leo Moon and had an enduring commitment to peace and non-violence. He was assassinated when the tr Saturn in Leo (conjunct Pluto) was tugging on his Mars opposition Pluto square Moon configuration. I never quite bought into Gandhi’s ascetic, holier-than-thou image since it is not reflected in his chart which reflects a boiling cauldron of darker feelings – lust, power, ego and greed. But arguably what he didn’t live out came to meet him on that fateful day.

  What can happen is that individuals are scared of a) turning into the Mars Pluto monster who made their lives a misery; or b) admitting their desire and capacity for power and not knowing how to own and use it in a positive way. Mars Pluto can move mountains and cope with cataclysmic disasters. What it is not good at is living a sedate 9-5 humdrum suburban existence.  

Liz Cheney, the surprising adversary-in-chief of Trump and demolisher of the stolen-election lie on the Jan 6 investigation, is about the pay the price for deserting the GOP’s party line.  She is facing  defeat for her Republican seat as her Trump-backed rival now has a 29-point lead over her.

 Cheney isn’t unique in that most of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump have lost renomination or opted to leave.

  What is so extraordinary is that she came from a family entrenched in Republican ‘values’, sniped at Obama when he was in residence, supported Trump when he was elected and during his term. It was only in the aftermath of the 2020 election that she flipped and has come to be seen by Democrats as a principled politician while her own party have stamped her as a “swamp rat”.

  There is some pressure on her to go for an anti-Trump run for the 2024 Presidential election. She is uncommitted as yet and it is reckoned such a run would be a kamikaze stunt, not successful individually, but perhaps an effective wrecker of DT’s chances.

  She was born 28 July 1966 11.57pm  (birth certificate) Washington, DC and has an expansive Jupiter in Cancer on her IC and a flamboyant Sun Mercury in Leo also in her 4^th – roots, family lineage all important to her; and has an enthusiastic Venus Mars in Cancer in her communicative 3^rd house. She is married with five children which fits the Cancer emphasis.

  The rebellious, mould-breaking Uranus Pluto conjunction of the mid 1960s is trine her Capricorn Midheaven so it may not be so odd that she stepped away from political obedience to speak her mind. Her Sagittarius Moon sits in her 9^th house suggesting she will live abroad at some point so a future ambassadorship is not out of the question.

  Tr Uranus is now moving through her first house since 2018 till 2026 which will make her independent-minded and uncaring about others’ reactions; and tr Saturn moving through her upper quadrant until April 2028 will see her at her peak, working hard and shouldering responsibility. Though it won’t all be successful with a downbeat Solar Arc Sun and then Mercury opposition her 12^th house Saturn this year and next. Tr Neptune conjunct her Saturn from 2024 to January 2026 will be uncertain and undermining; and her Progressed Mars square her Neptune exact over the 2024 election won’t be encouraging.

 2026/2027 look more upbeat and successful with her Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct her Pluto and then Uranus. At that point she will be under exceptionally heavy pressure with tr Pluto opposition her Mercury and Sun. By 2028 Saturn is ready to dip below her Ascendant into a lower-profile few years – which doesn’t mean she couldn’t win. Macron won the last election on similar but it tends to bring a lacklustre career patch of a few years with sagging motivation and energy.

  She’s certainly not making headway in 2024.  

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Trade unionist Mick Lynch, General Secretary of the Rail Workers and promoter of the recent strikes, is striking fear into the heart of the government and right-wingers about a return to the bad old days of constant disruption. Although there is widespread unease about financial hardship amongst the wider population which should garner sympathy for wage claims, he has two major problems. One is ‘Spanish practices’ in sections of the rail industry which halt modernisation; and the tilt towards Russia which has always been the trade unions’ Achilles Heel. He recently said the EU had provoked trouble in Ukraine, when asked about the Russian invasion and has long-standing sympathies for the pro-Putin separatists who have been fighting in the east of the country for almost a decade.

 Lynch was born 10 January 1962 (Companies House) in London and like Arthur Scargill, the miners leader who jousted with Maggie Thatcher, he is a Sun and Venus Capricorn – almost on the same degrees. Both have Jupiter in humanitarian Aquarius. Lynch also has a do-or-die-determined and ruthless Mars in Capricorn trine Pluto, sextile Neptune.

  Lynch’s Sun and Scargill’s oppose the UK’s 10^th house (= ruling classes) Moon with Lynch’s Mars, Venus, Saturn also in the UK 4^th which represents the masses and the UK’s roots. His Pluto falls in the UK’s 12^th so he’ll be drawn to wielding subversive power. His Neptune opposes the UK’s 8^th house Mars so he could undermine the UK’s commercial ambitions.

  Doing a quick skip round other UK and other trade union notables and campaigners for workers rights. Wat Tyler, who led the 14^th century Peasants’ Revolt may also have been a Capricorn.

  There is a fair smattering of Aquarius through the charts, not Sun, but other planets. Bob Crow, 13 June 1961, had Jupiter in Aquarius as had Stalin (tho’ he was hardly humanitarian). Jack Jones and Ernest Bevin had Mars in Aquarius.    

  Marx and Lenin were Sun Taurus – and there is a fair smattering of Taurus through the other charts as well.

  Mick Lynch ahead will be pushing on with confidence and running into massive resistance. He has several lucky and enthusiastic Jupiter midpoints being triggered for the next three years. Plus a discouraging tr Pluto conjunct his Saturn in 2023/2024 as well as a sinking Neptunian Solar Arc into 2024 alongside a Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Neptune which won’t be encouraging.  He’ll win some and lose more than a few.

  He may well be a significant player in the UK’s rocky ride through the blocked Solar Arc Pluto square Sun, exact in 3 months; and tension-erupting, can-be-rebellious Solar Arc Saturn opposition Uranus, exact in 18 months.  Plus tr Saturn conjunct the UK Pluto from early 2023 and recurring throughout the year which will also be seriously stuck. Plus all the rest of the financial and economic jangles from transiting Uranus on the UK Neptune and Venus into 2023.

  Eventually the storms will pass but it won’t be a smooth passage for a year or several.

Pic: Steve Eason.

Anne Heche has been declared dead as a result of injuries sustained in her self-inflicted car crash becoming the fourth of five siblings to die; and still estranged from her religious mother.  

  The family upbringing was damaging to put it politely. Nancy Heche, 10 March 1937, Vinita, OK, married her childhood sweetheart, lived with her family in an Amish settlement, lost one child early on to illness and her husband in 1983 to AIDs, with an 18 year old son dying in a car crash soon after.  Her husband was a closet homosexual, whom Anne said abused her as a child and declared  that her mother knew but dismissed her story. Since her husband died, Nancy has become a Christian therapist and motivational speaker intent on “overcoming homosexuality.” Not surprisingly the gulf between mother and daughter widened when Anne became the poster child for lesbianism in her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres in the late 1990s.  

  A reviewer of Nancy Heche’s memoir The Truth Comes Out said “faith in her Bible-sanctioned marriage made Nancy blind, deaf and stupid”.

   Nancy has an extraordinarily difficult chart with a Water Grand Trine of Sun Saturn in Pisces trine Mars in unrelenting and unforgiving Scorpio trine Pluto; with Pluto in a pushily confident opposition to Jupiter. Plus her Sun Saturn opposes Neptune. A Water Grand Trine can be healing though with Mars, Pluto and Saturn involved it is likely to be as far from sentimental as you can get – unkind, vengeful, hard-edged, unyielding. There is a tendency to live within a bubble of a self-created imaginary world and not interface well with reality.

  There are three African dictators born early that month with a similar configuration – March 8,  Juvénal Hayarimana, president of Rwanda (1973-94), a totalitarian dictator, nicknamed “invincible”. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian President accused of running a police state, fraud and vote-tampering, corruption. And Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ, President of Nigeria, accused of human rights abuses, interested in consolidating his personal power. The negative side of this Grand Trine is not all about peace, love and healing for sure.

 With Nancy’s megaton Pluto sitting on Anne’s Midheaven she’d be a controlling and smothering mother, clearly intent on imposing her own values. Nancy’s depressed and critical Sun Saturn in Pisces opposed Anne’s Jupiter Pluto Moon in Virgo, denting her daughter’s confidence. Nancy’s Mars was conjunct Anne’s Neptune and opposition Anne’s Sun – giving rise to another battle of wills. And Nancy’s Uranus in Taurus was conjunct Anne’s Saturn for a clash of viewpoints and attitudes.

  No wonder the poor kid turned out a confused mess.

  Their relationship chart has an afflicted needs-space, rebellious Uranus and a tussle for the upper hand Jupiter square Pluto so was never going to be an easy connection.

With such a tragic life one should feel sympathy for Nancy Heche but she’s not a temperament that attracts compassion and at least some of the misery could have been alleviated if she had not been so brain washed and blinkered.

For details on Anne Heche see August 6 2022 below.

Identical twins who had a major fall out lasting a decade is an intriguing astrological puzzle.

  Matt and Luke Goss, a massively successful music duo in the 1980s split up after facing financial ruin having been mismanaged.  Matt went onto a solo music career playing a Las Vegas residency at Caesar’s Palace, while Luke went on to a film career.

 They didn’t speak for a long time until their mother’s death in 2014.

  They do appear to have different temperaments. Matt is a fixer, who nursed his mother in her final months of cancer and cared for his stepfather for four years after her death. He says: ‘Me and my brother could not be more different. Luke’s more of a rocker kind of guy. I like George Michael, love Amy Winehouse, love soul. Yes, we’re identical twins but we don’t even really look exactly the same anymore.’ They got together for a sell-out reunion gigs three years ago and aired their  tears and tantrums, ego clashes and music differences in a documentary After The Screaming Stops at the same time.

Luke was born 29 September 1968 in Lewisham, England at 6.11pm with Matt arriving 10 minutes later at 6.21pm.

  The time difference was enough to shift the house position of the super-confident and pushy Jupiter Pluto in both charts to sit on Luke’s Descendant which will make him come on strong in relationships and be overly intense at times and controlling. In Matt’s chart, Jupiter Pluto falls in the helpful, hard-working 6^th house so he will be less full-on in one-to-one interactions.

  The other key difference between them are the Midheaven aspects with Matt’s highlighting confidence, determination, discipline and the ability to overcome setbacks. Luke’s Midheaven aspects are also lucky but more sporadic, less disciplined.

  Luke’s Ascendant aspects to Midpoints highlight a personal of dynamic confidence; while Matt’s hint at a changeable image.

  It may not amount to much but it isn’t often identical twins with high profile lives and settled birth times crop up.

  They do have a fairly tricky chart with a Saturnine Yod of Jupiter Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Saturn in tough-minded Aries which takes maturity to get the best out of it; and a needs-space Sun Uranus conjunction in their 7^th house – so neither was well-designed for hothouse 24/7 togetherness. They needed their independent space.

  Interesting question of how easy it would be to get on in a relationship with one self. Speaking personally I’d think not at all.

Novelist Salman Rushdie, for years the target of Islamist death threats, has been stabbed repeatedly on stage while speaking at a literary event in New York State. His agent said he is now on a ventilator and unable to speak, may lose one eye, the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver stabbed and damaged. He is one of the most celebrated and successful British authors, with his second novel, Midnight’s Children, winning the Booker Prize in 1981. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, brought about international turmoil. Many Muslims argued the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad was blasphemous. Rushdie was forced to go into hiding, under police protection.  

   Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini broke off relations with the UK in protest and issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s assassination in 1989. In Mumbai, Rushdie’s hometown, 12 people were killed during Muslim rioting, the British embassy in Tehran was stoned, and a $3m (£2.5m) bounty was put on the author’s head. The book needless to say became a best-seller.

 Rushdie was born 19 June 1947 2.30am Mumbai, India, was sent to the UK aged 14, studied at Cambridge University, became a UK citizen, allowed his Muslim faith to lapse, worked briefly as an actor and advertising copywriter, while writing novels. He has been married four times, and has two children.

The death sentence against Rushdie stopped being formally backed by Iran’s government in 1998 and in recent years the author has enjoyed a new level of freedom. But threats to his life always lingered under the surface, and Iran’s current supreme leader – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – once said the fatwa against Rushdie was “fired like a bullet that won’t rest until it hits its target”.

  Rushdie has a New Moon in communicative Gemini conjunct an outspoken and provocative Uranus; with Venus also in social butterfly Gemini trine Neptune. He has the bleak, tough-minded Saturn Pluto in Leo of his generation in his domestic, family and childhood roots 4^th house. He was born just two months before the tumultuous partition of India and Pakistan which became the subject of Midnight’s Children. His Pluto is in a pushily-confident square to a 7^th house Jupiter in Scorpio which opposes a determined and stubborn Mars in Taurus.

  All of his marriages have been short-lived so his 7^th house Jupiter hasn’t brought stability to his close relationships.

  When the fatwa was declared on 14 February 1989 his Solar Arc Sun and Moon were both conjunct his 4^th house Saturn which would be a considerable setback and sobering moment. In the scary, dangerous years following his Solar Arc New Moon moved across his Saturn/Pluto midpoint and then Pluto as he hid from public view. In the immediate aftermath his finances improved considerably so not all negative.

  At the moment his Jupiter at 18 Scorpio caught the recent tr Uranus, Mars, North Node opposition which is shaking up his life.  Jupiter on its own would not cause too many problems but since it ties into both Pluto and Mars the reverberations would be risky.

  He’ll have an undermining phase ahead, assuming he pulls through, with tr Neptune square his Uranus this year and then his New Moon with assorted midpoints also being weakened though he will have one upbeat influence in 2023/24.

  His temperament wasn’t one that was easy to warm to and however repellent the attacks on him, there was always a slight suspicion that he set out to be provocative and it blew up in his face. His self-defeating 10^th harmonic and 16^th harmonic are both strong.

   Which isn’t to say there should not have been a tougher response in the UK to hard-liners repeating the fatwa. Racial and cultural over-sensitivities blunted what should have been a flat refusal to accept outrageous attacks, verbal and otherwise. A good deal of the rot started around that time of not tackling such issues head on. As Joan Bakewell remarked at the time it is the problem for a basically tolerant society when it takes in intolerant elements. It doesn’t know what to do with them. Being laissez-faire about fanaticism is a slippery slope.        

Add On: The attacker Hadi Matar, born 12 September 1997 (CNN), with Hezbollah sympathies has his Pluto conjunct Rushdie’s ‘bull in a china shop’ South Node in Sagittarius so at the very least will anchor him down though there may also be a sense in trying to control Rushdie’s words and message. Rushdie’s Gemini North Node highlights his ability to communicate. Matar’s Pluto squares his Mercury so he’ll have a closed-minded and dogmatic/fanatical mindset.

  Matar’s Mars at 18 degrees Scorpio is exactly conjunct Rushdie’s Jupiter with both being triggered by the tr Uranus opposition at the moment.  Both of them oddly enough have their Mars in hard aspect to Jupiter natally which can be opportunistic or a ‘holy warrior’ who is inclined to justify aggressive responses with a moralising excuse.

  Their relationship chart has tr Pluto exactly conjunct the composite South Node at the moment – evoking a primitive response.     

There’s usually a nodal connection between victim and perpetrator, even where it is random.

Trump is at it again, backed up by the GOP, claiming not only to be wholly and on every matter sinless, but to be above the laws by which ordinary mortals have to live. Questioned on financial irregularities which have caused his accountants to drop him like a hot brick, he pleads the Fifth Amendment; and hurls brickbats over the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago looking for classified government papers.

  For all his prima-donna grandstanding he is more than concerned at the moment. He has a catastrophic tr Uranus square his Mars/Pluto in Leo at 18 degrees, which caught the August 1^st triple whammy and continues on till mid October, returning May 2023. Ebertin describes this influence as “calamities of great consequence.” In addition he has the growing storm (of typhoon dimensions) building up towards November/December with his Solar Arc Mars square his Pluto, exact in four months but in effect before and after.

  Plus a disappointing tr Neptune opposition his Sun/Moon midpoint and Mars/Jupiter midpoint late October to early January 2023. He does have one lucky Jupiter midpoint transit late October to mid this November so something will be going right in the midst of the ceiling falling on his head.

  He will have some blips of good fortune in 2023 in April, June and July but is also facing a grind-to-a-halt Solar Arc Pluto square his Saturn, exact this time next year as well.

  He does bring cheer to the Republicans on their 12 October 1853 chart since his Jupiter is conjunct their Libra Sun and his Sagittarius Moon and South node are conjunct their Jupiter with his Sun across the zodiac. He may plug into their least evolved selves with that South Node but they certainly will see him as a lucky talisman. His Pluto is conjunct their Mars in Leo so he may well scare them not a little.

   When will they fall out of love with him? The slide picked up in 2021 with tr Neptune square the composite Pluto. It is a chained-together relationship so will take some unpicking. But tr Saturn is chipping away at the composite Sun Mars between now and early 2023 which are separating aspects. And tr Neptune is going its best opposing the composite Venus from April 2023 onwards, moving on to an uncertain square to the Saturn. With separating jolts and jangles from tr Uranus square the Mars Sun from May 2023 onwards. So it won’t all be champagne, or even diet coke, and happy smiles.

  Why the USA has been blighted with his head-twisting, reality-distorting perversions has to be partly the USA rabble-rousing Mercury opposition Pluto which is being pounded by the Pluto Return which tends to attract huckster-showmen. And also his Pluto being conjunct the USA ‘leadership’ Leo North Node. His MAGA platform would resonate with a country losing its self-confidence as a world leader. He was always going to be a divisive figure, causing anger with his Sun conjunct the USA Mars.

  Never say never with personalities like Trump who have the luck of the devil and a shape-shifter’s uncanny ability to survive against the odds. But even he will be hard pushed to come through the next eighteen months in exuberant form.

Psycho-babble: I’ve always been allergic to any tendency to manipulate reality and the psychological mechanism behind it  has always fascinated me.

“Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that occurs in abusive relationships in which the bully or abuser misleads the target, creating a false narrative and making them question their judgments and reality.”

  Christopher Bollas, the London analyst, years ago wrote a paper on The Fascist State of Mind which he thought shared a similar mind pattern to sexual perversion.  Both are fuelled by delusional narcissism. There is a false idealization of the self, a delusional grandiosity in the perpetrator. This is accomplished by a ‘cleansing of the self’ with the badness being projected onto others who are then to be destroyed. What follows is the possible birth of a new, forever empty self to be born …. with no past (which is severed) and with a future entirely of its own creation.

  The narcissist’s world view is one which “entertains no doubt or uncertainty”. Distortion of the views of opponents to render them less intelligible and credible is the first move. They have to be discredited because no separation of view is possible from the accepted one. It is a relentless process of  denigration, character assassination and caricaturing.

 Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, the French analyst, writing about  perversion and group delusion echoes the same thought. “He who does not think as the group does is excluded, harassed, killed or declared insane.”

  It might go aways to explain the continuing adoration and blind acceptance of Trump by his fanclub who are caught up in the unquestioning group-think as was true of the Hitler/Mussolini supporters – until it wasn’t.  Reality has to creep in at some point. Though pulling the veil away and facing the fact that idols have feet of clay comes very hard. The unreal dream of an idealised leader is comforting to a certain personality type.    

Creativity emerging from destruction is another redemptive tale from the life and talent of Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer, who has just died aged 84. He was seven when the US detonated an atomic bomb over his hometown of Hiroshima. He was riding to school on his bicycle at the time. “When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience: a bright red light, the black cloud soon after, people running in every direction trying desperately to escape. I remember it all,” he said. Many of his relatives were killed, along with  140,000 other inhabitants. His mother, a teacher, was severely burnt and died of radiation exposure within three years. He himself developed osteomyelitis, a bone marrow disease, which left him with a permanent limp.

  He said he was never able to put the memories behind him but he preferred to think of things that can be created, not destroyed, that bring beauty and joy. He gravitated towards clothing design,” because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic.”

 He sought to make clothes for ordinary people, not the elite and designed uniforms for staff of Sony, the Japanese electronics giant, and for Lithuania’s first Olympic team after the collapse of communism. He also produced the black turtlenecks that became part of the signature attire of his friend Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder. Latterly he was best known for pioneering a pleated style of clothing that never wrinkles, earning himself the sobriquet “prince of pleats”.

  Born 22 April 1938 in Hiroshima, the son of a Japanese army officer, he initially wanted to become a dancer or athlete, but changed his mind after reading his sister’s fashion magazines. Fashion design was unheard of in Japan at that time as an occupation for men, so he studied graphic design, before moving to Paris and then New York.

   He had his Sun conjunct Mercury in Taurus with Uranus, Venus and Mars spread out through Taurus as well. Earthy Taurus is ruled by Venus and is both creative and tactile, so sensuous fabrics make sense. He also has the classic fashion-business aspect of Venus square Jupiter which delights in having a pleasing look. Neptune in Virgo trine Uranus Venus would add to his artistic abilities and inspiration. His Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries is unaspected making him solitary by inclination and he was seemingly a private man. A hard-working Capricorn Moon probably opposed Pluto and maybe trined Venus and/or Mars – giving rise to stressed issues around his mother, understandably.

  His Mars in late Taurus conjunct the South Node and sextile Pluto give a hint of his traumatic childhood. Mars close to the South Node is described by one astrologer as “touching the darkness.”  His South Node is a degree and a half away from Algol so that also resonates with the atrocity. The Scorpio North Node is one of the more challenging positions and points to transformation through loss.

     When the bomb dropped in 1945 tr Pluto in Leo was about to trine his Saturn and square his Solar Arc Sun and Mercury in the devastating aftermath.

  A testament to the ability of the human spirit to survive and bring new life.