Astrology of Today’s News

Uranus moving on to 18 degrees for the final time in a few weeks (April 24 to May 12) is raising anticipation or dread about momentous events occurring. It is true that a planet moving to a sensitive degree can stir up the ether and trigger, in this case, both the Solar and Lunar Eclipse charts from late in 2022 which had 18 degree Saturn as well as the history-changing Uranus, North Node, Mars conjunction of last August at 18 degrees. And, of course, the May 5 2023 Lunar Eclipse hanging over the Coronation with Uranus at 18 Taurus close to the eclipsed Full Moon.

Question one – does the number itself matter?  Some astrologers and numerologists attach a meaning to the degree. Numerologists think 18 equates to ‘strength, a natural leader, sometimes great material success, but also conflicts and enemies, fire and explosions, including from natural elements.’ The 18^th harmonic oddly is seen in the charts of serial killers. Though just as the 9^th harmonic which makes it up as 9 X 2, can be in its positive manifestation humanitarian and negatively a financial con artist, there is a spectrum of meaning.

 Sabian symbols assign enigmatic meanings to astrological degrees:

17-18 degrees Taurus: a Symbolical Battle Between “Swords” And “Torches”. Maybe warmongers versus trailblazers of new ideas.

Or A Woman Airing An Old Bag Through The Open Window Of Her Room. The feminine getting rid of old baggage.

18-19 degrees Taurus – A New Continent Rising Out Of The Ocean. Hope for the new possibilities of the Pluto in Aquarius era for two decades ahead.

  Looking through recent charts which feature 18 degrees Fixed there are some amusingly apposite ones – wealth-acquiring Elvis had Jupiter at 18 Scorpio. Charles Babbage, father of the computer had Uranus at 18 Leo – mind you so does Prince Andrew, with his contrarian tendencies leaning more to the minus side. Sex-toy supremo Jaqueline Gold had her Mars at 18 Taurus. Matt Hancock, UK politician who resigned after a sex scandal has Venus at 18 Scorpio. Pluto at 18 Fixed include Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu. The Sun at 18 Fixed has the Tory Party 1912 in Taurus and Richard Sharp, BBC chairman in Aquarius.

   Administrations which kicked off under 18 degree Fixed – Xi Jinping’s 3^rd Term; Giorgia Meloni in Italy, the Swedish PM,  Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak’s term.

  All of the above will be shaken up or provided with an opportunity for change when Uranus comes back round for a final time to 18 degrees.

  The key global shift indicated by last August’s coming together of the North Node and Uranus wouldn’t happen in the blink of an eye, and often the scale of a change can only be seen in retrospect – small ripples extending out to create a giant wave. See post 17 June 2022.

  For individual charts it may be no more or less important than any other transiting Uranus hard aspect, which will bring the impetus to move away from old compromises and restrictions and strike out in a new direction in whatever arena of life is indicated by the personal planet involved.

Robert Peel must be turning in his grave as his brainchild of a modern, liberal metropolitan police force of 1829 has been slated as a racist, women-hating and gay-bashing ‘boys club.’ This is only the latest inquiry to issue a set of trenchant criticisms of London’s police force and who knows whether it will have any more impact than the previous ones.

  Sir Robert Peel, 5 February 1788, was a lifelong politician, twice prime minister and Home Secretary, and regarded as one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party as well.   He played a central role in making free trade a reality and set up a modern banking system. He supported Catholic Emancipation, the Reform Act and the repeal of the Corn Laws.

  Intriguingly his chart with its Aquarius Sun conjunct Pluto is being rattled up exactly at the moment by the tr Uranus square – so he may be waving a bony finger from the crypt. He had four planets in Aquarius, Jupiter in Gemini and Neptune in Libra – a thinker and a communicator.

 The London Met founded 29 September 1829 was the largest and first of the police forces with others following in different locations by circa 1850.  

  The Met chart has been extraordinarily accurate with the Solar Arc Mars opposing the Sun over large year’s scandals and now moving to conjunct the Pluto next year. With a nerve-stretched SA Neptune opposition the Uranus now. All of which reflects a devastating phase, that could spell the end of the entity altogether or at least grind it to a frustrating and aggravating halt as reforms are put in place.

   With a natal Sun opposition Pluto it is a control-freak organisation but it also has the capacity to be inspirational with a Fire Grand Trine. Tr Pluto is exactly square the Mercury at zero degrees Scorpio as bitter discussions and divisive arguments gets under way running into and through 2024 and beyond as tr Pluto is then conjunct the Uranus for a period of upheaval in 2024/25.  Tr Neptune and Saturn in Aries will create more setbacks and lower morale from 2026 onwards for two or three years – so it won’t be an instant transformation into a new Met.

  Mark Rowley, the new commissioner, started on 12 September last year a Sun opposition Neptune which does not exactly inspire confidence.

Howls of derision from columnists greeted Boris Johnson’s claims that he wasn’t lying in his assurances to the House of Commons about lockdown parties at No 10. Even the Telegraph have joined the Guardian in picking holes in the ‘Dodgy Dossier’ his lawyers produced at great expense (to the taxpayer) which turned itself in serpentine convulsions to proclaim his shining innocence.

  Marina Hyde in the Guardian is as ever worth a chuckle, as is John Crace.  ‘How can you tell if Boris is lying? Because he’s breathing and his lips are moving.’

  He may get let off in a technicality but in Hyde-speak he ‘feels inescapably yesterday’s man’ and even the Times remarks ‘he has lost the crowd –  Johnson has dazzled and amazed. But he is a magician whose trick won’t work anymore. The spell has been broken.’

  He does have tr Saturn exactly square his focal point Mars as he steps up to strutt his staff in front of the inquiry – that usually indicates a setback; and it repeats later in the year as he moves through his Second Saturn Return (grow up and face reality time).

  The key Astro-fascinator is what happens when tr Pluto squares his Scorpio Moon from this Thursday onwards till mid June. Pluto tends to pull up intense emotional reactions, sometimes destructive ones, churning up old childhood issues with accompanying pain and hurt. The Moon usually connects to domestic or family relationships but in politician’s it is also intimately connected to the general public. The Scorpio Moon rarely exposes vulnerability but self-control won’t be easy with Pluto in play.

  Moving into 2024 tr Neptune will make an undermining square to his Sun Venus with a career-blocking his Solar Arc MC conjunct his Pluto for a career – though that latter could come earlier if his birth time is marginally out. Tr Jupiter through his 8^th from this July for a year could bring money his way so he may be off on a commercial jaunt at that point. But Jupiter then heads towards his midheaven from mid 2025 for a successful career year thereafter. He’s not only a greased piglet he has a rubber-ball karma that will bounce him back from experiences that would obliterate others from public view.

  His relationship chart with the Tory Party 1912 is on a sharp downhill slide this year from this month onwards; and the UK won’t be overly enamoured of him either.

  Another Gemini with cockroach powers to withstand repeated blasting is heading for a fractious court appearance over the Stormy Daniels payoff. Trump would be the first US president to face criminal charges. Paying off the porn star to keep quiet about their affair was not illegal but recording it as legal fees amounted to falsifying business records and covering it up to fool voters is another kind of crime. It is not a clear-cut case with little precedent. A touch of the Al Capone’s about it.

 He still leads the polls of primary voters, way in front of De Santis with all other contenders nowhere. But some senior Republicans are speaking out against him. John Bolton, former National Security Adviser, said “The Republican Party has to cleanse itself of the damage Trump has done to it.” He didn’t want to see him win the Republican candidacy “not just for the good of the Republican Party, but for the good of the country”.

  In typical fashion he has calamities and lucky escapes alternating through the year. April looks nerve-stretched until the 24^th when a catastrophic crisis blows up and runs on till May 9^th as tr Uranus squares his Mars/Pluto midpoint at 18 Leo. Then his lucky jinni pops up from late May till mid June and mid November to early April 2024 as two Jupiter midpoints are sparked into life.  Though he also has a discouraging tr Pluto opposition his Saturn/Pluto midpoint picking up early February and running into 2025.

  If his birth time is accurate then from May 2024 he has tr Jupiter moving across his 10^th house until mid 2025, which looks worryingly upbeat and successful. Plus tr Uranus crossing his MC from June 2024 onwards suggesting a change of direction. And tr Uranus square his Mars from July can produce shocks and ego-dents as well as put stress on health in older types.

Gwyneth Paltrow was looking nervy and uptight in court as she faced a $300,000 claim over a ski-ing accident which both parties claim was the other’s fault. According to the complainant, who has a sole eye witness, she carelessly crashed into him breaking his ribs and causing brain damage. She has dismissed his lawsuit as an attempt to ‘exploit her celebrity and wealth’ and counter-sued seeking $1 in ‘symbolic damages’ but also payment of her lawyers’ fees. This is the culmination of seven years of legal claims and counter-claims, during which dozens of motions have been filed. It all depends on who the jury believes and if she loses it could tarnish her image.  Though on the facts as the DM has them it does sound iffy with a starstruck claimant.

  She was born 27 September 1972 5.25pm Los Angeles, into a wealthy family with an actress mother and film producer father. She has a fearsome collection of a Libra Sun conjunct Pluto conjunct Mars in late Virgo in her 7^th house. Not a lady who does anything by halves and she will attract herself to determined partners in life.  Her Sun Pluto Mars also square a lucky, successful 10^th house Jupiter in Capricorn. Her Mars is also in a hard-edged square to Saturn. Her restless Gemini Moon is conjunct a 4^th house Saturn and she has Uranus in her 8^th. Her emotional life won’t be settled or easy, continuing on from a challenging childhood, maybe the reason why she is a go-getter professionally.

  Both her husbands, Chris Martin and now Brad Falchuk, have complicated charts. Chris Martin, 2 March 1977, has a Pisces Sun on the focal point of a yod to Saturn sextile Pluto, Mars opposition Saturn; and possibly his Moon conjunct Saturn in Leo.  Brad Falchuk, 1 March 1971, has a yod as well onto Uranus from Sun sextile Saturn; Mars square Pluto and Moon conjunct Saturn. Neither are straightforward or relaxed by temperament and she clearly is drawn to their struggles since they match her own.

  Tr Saturn is about to descend into her lower profile First Quadrant after this year which may not have an immediate effect but she will find her ambitions sagging and her success rate slumping as well in coming years.

  This trial is due to take eight days and her influences are incredibly mixed. She has two upbeat, lucky Jupiterian midpoints triggered mid March to late April. Those run alongside two tr Pluto horrors picking up from later this week until mid June and again in 2024 – squaring her Mars/Neptune midpoint which is crisis, weakness, plans not progressing plus acute frustration from her Mars/Pluto midpoint being leant on as well.

  2024 sees tr Neptune opposition her Mars in Virgo from April, on and off into 2025 – which will feel like failure and evoke panic.  Tr Neptune will continue to oppose her Mars/Pluto and Mars/Sun midpoints until 2027 with tr Saturn chipping into its tuppence worth of woe which won’t be a barrel of laughs and will dent her confidence.

  It’ll be a rocky ride though money will hardly be an issue.

  Her brand name GOOP website flogging beauty products and questionable health cures started as a newsletter in 2008 as Pluto moved into Capricorn and is now value around $250 million. It might be the beginning of the end as Pluto changes sign.

Xi Jinping’s state visit to Moscow brings together two autocrats keen to establish a post-American world order where the east rises and the west declines – while trade continues to flow. Xi in typically inscrutable fashion is presenting himself as a peace broker over Ukraine, though his plan says nothing about Russian withdrawal, in an attempt to maintain some credibility in Europe. He is basking in the success of his recent efforts to restore relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran and keen to establish credibility as a power-broker. It’s a difficult balancing act since he also needs Russia for alternative energy supply routes in the event of a China/US clash over Taiwan.  

  The Washington Post remarks ‘the world is at a dangerous crossroads’ and there could indeed be a significant shift in the global power balance with China, Russia and Iran lining up against the United States, Britain and other NATO allies.

  All of which might fit in with the history-changing Uranus North Node (and Mars) conjunction of last August. (See post 17 June 2022). Previous occurrences oversaw:

1961 – the start of the Berlin Wall build.

1946 – the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem by Jewish terrorists which led to a hasty British withdrawal, the set-up of Israel two years later which led to decades of trouble in the Middle East.

1976 – the death of Mao Tse Tung.

1870 – German unification with France supplanted as the dominant European land power.

1939 – the first Anglo-Afghan War, one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between Britain and Russia. Also the First Opium War between UK and China. Twentieth century nationalists considered 1839 the start of a century of Chinese humiliation, and many historians considered it the beginning of modern Chinese history.

  The final exact aspect of Uranus to that 18 degree point comes late April/early May this year and will trigger Xi Jinping’s 3^rd Term chart and Putin’s 4^th Term chart – both with fixed planets at 18 degrees. It also rattles up the Xi/Putin relationship chart (assuming Putin is born 1952)which has a composite Sun at 18 degrees Leo.

 If that relationship chart between Xi and Putin holds good they are likely to encourage each other on to unwise, overly confident actions, some of which will fail through 2024.

  The Russia 1917/China 1912 relationship chart indicates confusion/delusion through 2023/24 with the composite Neptune catching the tr Pluto opposition; with an uncertain and panicky tr Neptune square the composite Saturn in 2024.

  It is all too easy to catastrophise in these troubled times and I hesitate to pile worry on top of woe. But it was always true that a) The USA’s Pluto Return could shift its status as top dog. Pluto Returns tend to accompany rise and falls; and b) Joe Biden’s Term chart indicated that the greatest and riskiest problems would come late in 2023 into 2024 when the Inauguration’s Solar Arc Sun would close the conjunction to  Saturn to exact; and the SA Saturn would close to the disruptive and perhaps violent square to the Mars and Uranus.

   China’s relationship chart with the USA looks discouraging but not necessarily combustible over the next two years. Ditto China with the EU, though 2025 could throw a few firecrackers into the mix.

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  The glory days are over as Peter Murrell, chief executive of the Scottish Nationalists for almost 25 years, exits stage left to join his wife Nicola Sturgeon off the podium. He took responsibility for lying about a recent fall in membership numbers which critics feared might see the the bogus 30,000 being used by the SNP ‘party machine’ to support Humza Yousaf. He is seen as the continuity candidate, preferred by the establishment to take over as First Minister.

  Despite being seen as a political power-couple par excellence and skilled at winning elections, Murrell and Sturgeon leave behind them a party in freefall and a string of scandals from mismanaged ferry contracts to questions over campaign funds, as well as a country suffering the consequences of the ‘monomania’ with independence obscuring the need to improve failing public services.

Peter Murrell, 8 December 1964 Edinburgh, is a Sun Sagittarius conjunct South Node square a fearsome collection of Pluto, Mars, Uranus in Virgo – more chaotic than he appears, determined and ruthless. He also has the Boris Johnson over-confident/over-optimistic Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune and Venus in Scorpio. Tr Uranus is shaking that up exactly now, bringing him down to earth with a bump for once to be forced to face a cold dose of reality.

  His Jupiter falls in Nicola’s 7^th conjunct her Saturn so he boosts her morale and takes the edge off her negativity.  Like, her he has an Aquarius Moon.

  It was always a relationship geared towards work with a composite Sun, Venus opposition Saturn; and a publicity-attracting Mars square Neptune. He met his future wife in 1998  at a SNP youth weekend which he was organising. They started working together in 2003, announced their relationship in 2004 at the party’s annual conference and married six years later. Alex Salmond always said their relationship in holding to two top slots would be a recipe for disaster and it contributed to their falling out. As it happens it lasted longer than expected.  But it will be a difficult transition to life away from the power centre and spotlight with tr Uranus hitting the composite Mars and Neptune from mid 2023 into 2024.

 Nicola Sturgeon, 19 July 1970 3.16 pm, Irvine, Scotland, always was facing a complete dead-halt, scary, trapped, enraging phase as tr Pluto moved into Aquarius from this week opposing her Mars in Leo on and off till late 2024.

Astro-thought.  Murrell has his Neptune at 18 degrees Scorpio. The Scotland 25 March 1005 chart has its Pluto at 18 degrees Scorpio.  That 18 degree Fixed point will be rattled up by tr Uranus late April/early May – and has popped up in all manner of global charts in recent posts.  It was highlighted last year as an indicator of history-changing times when Uranus, North Node and Mars came together at 18 degrees Taurus – see post 17 June 2022.

I had been struggling with the notion that all the charts I have seen it in recently were somehow mysteriously connected to one event. Maybe it is more likely that as a shift in the celestial tectonic plates occur with this being an especially sensitive point, that it rattles up significant figures but all within their own sphere of operations. An underground volcano sends up a tsunami which spreads out across a broad coast line. Different regions, different outcomes but all from the same trigger point.

  Whither Scotland?  None of the three candidates looks up to much, so are likely to be interim cup holders. The SNP having moved through its Uranus Return in 2018 and its Third Saturn Return early this has shot its bolt for the time being and will be back to the drawing board for a re-vision for some time to come. But Scottish Labour and indeed Tories are not exactly on form either, so it’s anyone’s guess.

Add On:  Mike Russell, 9 August 1953, has taken over as SNP CEO from 18 March 2023. His term chart hints at a dire year ahead as he proclaims the party is in “a tremendous mess”. There is a dithery, indecisive Sun Neptune conjunct square Mars – and tr Neptune won’t clear the exact aspects until January 2025. Plus the Sun Neptune conjunction will close to exact in 2025 for much of the same. Assuming he stays in position it will be a muddy trail ahead.

  He is a stalwart and influential/controlling Sun Pluto in Leo sitting on the midpoint of a Jupiter trine Saturn Neptune.  His Sun Pluto will be rattled up by tr Uranus jolting squares from now onwards, more so after mid year into early 2024.

Entrepreneur Jacqueline Gold, who has just died, took four seedy backstreet sex shops and transformed the Ann Summers lingerie and sex toy brand into a multimillion-pound retail empire, playing a key role in the sexual liberation of British women and the high street.

  When she took the company over in her late twenties it was a male oriented business – staff and customers – but she trailblazed the idea of using a direct sales model based on Tupperware parties, where vibrators were sold to small groups of women within their homes. When she put forward the idea to her all-male board they resisted, saying ‘Women aren’t even interested in sex.’ She described the move as taking “the company from the raincoat brigade to a female institution”.

  She was made a CBE in 2016 for services to women in business and social enterprise and died recently after a long battle with cancer.

  She was born 16 July 1960 and had a fascinatingly illuminating chart. She was a Sun Cancer which sign is ambitious and creative, female-oriented but more significantly has a nose for public trends. Added to that she had a defiant Uranus in a courageous and uncompromising square to Mars in determined Taurus as well as in an adventurous risk-taking trine to Jupiter. Even more to the point she had Neptune in Scorpio almost certainly opposition a tactile Moon in Taurus squaring onto a flamboyant Venus in Leo. All the strands of her temperament came together to make an oddball success of an offbeat business.

The Iraq attack twenty years ago was an arrogant folly of gargantuan proportions which set in motion a cascading avalanche of ruinous effects across the Middle East and beyond. With no American plan for rebuilding after the defenestration of Saddam, the country fell prey to chaos, conflict, corruption and sectarianism. Iran was emboldened, the Islamic State’s violence moved into the vacuum and the disintegration of Syria followed. Millions were displaced and it sounded the death knell for the notion of western intervention as a force for good.

 One Iraqi said: ‘We have a saying that captures the devastation of our country: ‘Saddam has gone, but 1,000 more Saddams have replaced him.’

IS-led terror attacks fuelled the resurgence of populism and ethnonationalism in Europe, leading for example to Brexit where immigration was a central theme. Donald Trump ran for president on an anti-immigration, anti-Muslim platform.

  Putin used the same pretext of ‘pre-emption’ as GW Bush et al had done in invading a country that had no plans to attack anyone.

  Baghdad is safe and prosperous now but the state remains weak. Money laundering flourishes and Iraq remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

  The attack went ahead on 20 March 2003 on the basis of false intelligence with questionable legality and in the face of strong public opposition in the UK where two million marched in a stop-the-war protest a month before, which Tony Blair blithely ignored.

  The attack was launched at 5.30 am on a Saturn in Gemini opposition Pluto in Sagittarius, which is the aspect most connected to war and deprivation. Pluto was almost exactly on the midheaven at the start in Baghdad and both squared onto a Pisces Mercury Sun. There was also an Air Grand Trine of Saturn on the IC trine an 8^th house Moon trine a 12^th house Venus = emotionally cold – formed into a Kite by Saturn opposition Pluto making power-hungry and destructive Pluto the leading planet. The Air influence may also connect to the aerial bombardment. Uranus was at zero degrees Pisces. No Earth signs hints at a lack of practicality and realism.

  What struck me at the time was the difference between the US view – relocated to Washington, DC, the attack had a grandstanding ‘shock and awe’ Sun in the performing/entertaining 5^th with overtones of financial interests (and costs). Whereas set in London it suggested hard work with little appreciation from a 6^th house Saturn and powerlessness with Pluto in the 12^th – and was hardly the UK’s finest hour politically or militarily.

When it kicked off tr Neptune in Aquarius was squaring the UK’s 8^th house Mars, which suggests failure. And the UK’s Pluto, both natal and Solar Arc was being rattled.

  The previous Total Solar Eclipse of December 2002 had a Sagittarius New Moon conjunct Pluto and Neptune on the Ascendant set for Bagdad; and the following Lunar Eclipse of May 2003 was even more descriptive with Uranus on the Midheaven and Pluto on the Descendant.

  GW Bush, 6 July 1946 7.26 am New Haven, CT, had the transiting Saturn opposition Pluto sitting directly on top of his Gemini North Node conjunct Uranus with his SA Saturn square his North Node – so a destiny-changing moment for him leading to impulsive decisions. Tr Neptune was just over the devastating/confusing opposition to his 1^st house Pluto as he was struggling to cope with the fallout from 9/11.

  Tony Blair, 6 May 1953 6.10am Edinburgh, intent on striding the world stage playing with the big boys, had a friendly relationship chart with GWB with a composite Sun Venus trine Neptune, so overtones of illusion and delusion as well. But more significantly there is a Jupiter Pluto conjunction, hinting at misplaced over-confidence in the partnership leading to a rules-don’t-apply-to-us folie a deux. Transiting Neptune was moving in square to that Jupiter Pluto and midpoints across the invasion and in the disastrous aftermath.

  On Blair’s own chart tr Neptune was conjunct his 10^th house Moon undermining his political reputation; and tr Saturn was moving downhill through his less successful, banana-skin-strewn First Quadrant.

   Iraq itself has two charts, both of which work well.

23 August 1921 6am Baghdad – had the panicky-failure tr Neptune exactly opposition its Mars; tr Saturn opposition Pluto in hard aspect to its Jupiter Saturn conjunction; the SA Moon and SA South Node conjunct the Pluto – which is descriptive of the collapse. Tr Uranus at zero Pisces was also heading to hard aspect the Descendant and Midheaven for a complete re-set of direction and relationships.

14 July 1958 4am Baghdad – tr Uranus was exactly opposition the Pluto for an almighty disruption. The tr Saturn opposition Pluto was colliding with the Iraq Saturn in Sagittarius opposition Moon Venus in Gemini; and tr Neptune was moving across the Iraq Uranus Mercury during and immediately after.

  It was terrifying to watch at the time and even more chilling to reflect on the knock on effects worldwide in later years.

Move along, nothing to see here, was the finance experts view of the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, until another couple of banks keeled over, the US government caused consternation by going against practice to bail out SVB depositors and Switzerland had to pony up $45 billion to shore up Credit Suisse.

 Gerald Baker in The Times points to 2008 parallels with a series of isolated incidents with small hedge funds down in 2007, the run on Northern Rock, Bears Stearns’ collapse in 2008 and onto the final straw of Lehman’s implosion bringing the whole house of cards down. This time round is not the same since the banks are not overloaded with toxic assets but it just goes to show how economic predictions can swing from  Pollyanna to catastrophe in the blink of an eye.  

  Could Switzerland be bankrupted by this crisis is one of the  wilder conjectures. Seems unlikely but with last time in mind ’the unimaginable may become the inevitable very quickly.’

 The Bank of Switzerland, 20 June 1907, looks mired in consternation and panic from this May on and off until January 2025 with tr Neptune square its Gemini Sun and conjunct its Saturn. Into 2025 there will be a totally road-blocked Solar Arc Pluto square Mars – so this is not a crisis that will evaporate this year.

  The Switzerland country chart, 12 September 1848 12.55pm does look under considerable pressure for the next three years with tr Pluto trine Mars and then its financial Venus but is unlikely to go the way of Ireland after 2008.

  Credit Suisse heading for its Second Uranus Return from this August onwards might do worse than look back to 1940/41 when it had its First Uranus Return to see the likely effects. See previous post on Credit Suisse 18 January 2022.

And post below Bank collapse 11 March 2023.

ADD ON: Switzerland is preparing to use emergency measures to fast-track the takeover by UBS of Credit Suisse which they see as the only option to arrest a collapse in confidence in Credit Suisse. UBS has requested some form of indemnity or government agreement to cover future legal costs. As of May 2022, UBS is the third largest bank in Europe.

  Founded by a merger on 29 June 1998, it is facing an uncertain three years ahead. This year tr Saturn in Pisces will square its financial Venus in Gemini opposition Pluto; with the Solar Arc Sun moving to an undermining opposition to its Neptune; and tr Neptune will conjunct the Jupiter  from mid this May on and off into 2024 none of which is usually good news on the money front. It will face worse in 2024/25 with tr Pluto in a devastatingly confused conjunction to the Neptune.

  The USA First Republic bank is also in trouble despite a rescue package of $30bn from JPMorgan and 10 other banks. Its stocks has fallen more than 75 per cent after panicked investors realised it would not benefit from the special Federal Reserve funding vehicle. Founded 1 July 1985 it is a Sun Cancer like UBS. Its Solar Arc Venus is opposing Neptune this year for a flutter of uncertainty; but its greatest woes will come in 2024 when the Solar Arc Mars squares the Saturn (and it may trigger late this year) with tr Pluto squaring the Pluto also forcing through unwanted changes. Plus tr Uranus will conjunct the financial Venus to bring upsets.

  The financial pundits are still holding onto a ‘bullish assessment’ but admit it is pro tem being ‘trumped by bearish nerves.’ While they insist this crisis is different from 2008 since banks are not loaded down by toxic assets, there are different problems. This time round central banks need to calm inflation by raising rates and that adds pressure to banks used to easy money over recent years.

Pluto’s entry into Aquarius will keep the upset running.