Astrology of Today’s News

A downbeat Hong Kong marked the 25^th anniversary of its handover to the Chinese by swearing in John Lee Ka-chiu, a hardline former HK policeman, as chief executive. He is one of several top HK officials sanctioned by the US over the Chinese territory’s declining autonomy and freedoms; and the European Parliament has recently begun to investigate whether he should  sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act. As Hong Kong’s former security chief, Lee has been instrumental in the crackdown on opposition figures. His upcoming cabinet includes four other high-ranking officials under sanctions.

   To add weight to his elevation the ceremony was attended by Xi Jinping, who spoke about Hong Kong’s future as a city run by “patriots”. Hong Kong was ceded to the British in 1842 after the Chinese lost the First Opium War – so it would always rankle amongst nationalists but when it was handed back in 1997 there were promises, now broken, of maintaining HK’s political independence.

  His Swearing In took place on this morning July 1 at 10.20 am (I think, any corrections gratefully received). That gives an alarmingly ruthless and oppressive chart with a Pluto opposition Moon square Mars; with Mars in Aries on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine of Saturn to Mercury. No quarter will be given to democracy activities. There’s also an evasive Mercury square Neptune and the autocratic, high-tension Uranus square Saturn is tied into the North and South Node by hard aspect. The next two years will be do-or-die determined when it comes to imposing his will and if the time is right the populace will be up in arms in 2023/2024 with tr Pluto opposition the Moon. But no guesses who’ll win that battle.

 He was born 7 December 1957 and is a rigid Sun Saturn in Sagittarius trine Uranus with a can-be-fanatical Uranus square Neptune tied into the North and South Nodes; plus a vengeful Mars in Scorpio.

 The Hong Kong 1 July 1997 chart is devastated and dismayed with its Solar Arc Mars square the Neptune exactly now inducing a feeling of panicky failure. With more to follow as tr Pluto is conjunct the Neptune in 2023/24 for demolished hopes for the future. There are vestiges of a fight back after mid decade but it may be a faint hope given Xi Jinping’s Presidency chart for 24 October 2017 having a confident surge, putting in place major changes between now until late 2025. It has a lucky Jupiter Sun conjunction opposition Uranus – so underserved good fortune.  Admittedly with a few uncertainties as well along the way but generally the fates will be kinder than he deserves.

Ghislaine Maxwell appeared unbowed as she faced a 20 year sentence over sex trafficking and listened to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse give harrowing testimony. As the judge noted she evinced sympathy but ducked responsibility. That will be partly because she hopes to appeal, though, as a lawyer noted, she is also a narcissist, who thinks of herself as the victim. Much was made in her plea of litigation about the damaging effect of her father, Robert Maxwell.

  She was born 26 December 1961 3.20pm Maisons Lafitte, France which puts her ambitious Capricorn Sun, Mercury and Mars in her intense 8^th house and a lucky, confident Jupiter conjunct her Midheaven. Both would contribute to her need for status and wealth. Sakoian & Acker remark of a 10th house Jupiter – if afflicted there may be ‘hypocrisy and vainglory, leading to disgrace and reversals of fortune.

   In her case the Jupiter effect is magnified being opposition a flamboyant, life-in-the-five-star-lane Leo Moon which even worse squares onto Neptune. Her Neptune will give her a distorted view of reality, prone to delusions, tending to over-idealise some people and ignore unpleasantness.  A Fixed focal point Neptune can accentuate sensuality and cravings as a need to escape inner loneliness and pain.

  She seems to have veered towards the negative end of the energies in her chart – since all of them could have been utilised in a constructive way.

  Although she tried to blame her father Robert Maxwell, who was undoubtedly a brute, for sending her off-course what in reality she took from him was an insatiable need to be fed excessive quantities of money. She was his favourite and saw that she lacked nothing in the way of material indulgence. When he died and his fraudulent empire collapsed, she had a desperate need to replace her sugar daddy.

  Robert Maxwell, 10 June 1923, Ukraine, a Sun Gemini had a do-or-die-determined and ruthless Mars Pluto in Cancer trine Jupiter trine Uranus – adventurous, lucky, good at attracting money and cruel – a bulldozer.  His Venus in Taurus was conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol. Where he connected with Ghislaine’s chart was his money-magnet Jupiter conjunct her Neptune and square her Moon and Jupiter Midheaven; and his Neptune conjunct her wannabe-prominent Leo North Node. Plus his bullying Mars Pluto was opposition her Capricorn planets. An extreme mix of good and bad.

  Jeffrey Epstein, 20 January 1953, a late Capricorn/Aquarius Sun, had his Jupiter in indulgent Taurus opposition her Neptune – so much of a muchness with daddy’s largesse. And Epstein’s Pluto was conjunct her 4^th house North Node so he would exert control over her though he was nothing like the dominating monster her father was, at least as far as she was concerned.

There is an Astro-oddity I can’t get my head round – in both cases her composite relationship chart with both men highlights a close Chiron connection – which doesn’t on the face of it make sense. With her father there’s a composite Sun Chiron and with Epstein there’s a composite Venus Mars Chiron opposition Uranus square Neptune. Though I suppose taking Chiron as representing her core wound – neither of them did her any good.

  When the sentence was handed down tr Uranus was square her Progressed Mars for a shock and Solar Arc Saturn is in a car-crash-setback square to her Mars exactly now as well. The discouraging, deprived and depressing tr Pluto conjunct her Saturn is dragging on through this year and next. By 2024 she has a sobering, face-reality Solar Arc Saturn square her Sun with an emotionally intense Solar Arc Pluto square her Moon in late 2024/25. By tr Neptune Saturn will start to square first her Mars and in the three years following square her Sun and then Mercury. Nothing to suggest an appeal will produce results.

  Relocating her chart to New York where the trial was held and Connecticut federal prison which will be home ahead, it puts a trapped Pluto in the 8^th which makes sense. It’s a low-security though not a minimum-security prison and was evidently the inspiration behind the TV series Orange is the New Black.

Joe Biden’s passivity in the face of the Roe V Wade reversal has riled activists who say he should be doing more than prompting voters to take action at the Mid Terms. Frustrated Democrats say the responses by party leaders have been inadequate and they aren’t fighting or willing to push boundaries.

Progressive lawmakers like Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have suggested building abortion clinics on federal land, funding people to seek abortions out of state, limiting the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction or expanding its membership and ending the filibuster. Warren called on Biden to declare a national medical emergency. White House officials say the administration has moved to protect access to the abortion pill and the president has pledged to protect women who seek to travel across state lines to get an abortion.

  Abortion rights supporters say Republicans have routinely broken the rules in recent years for example, by blocking Obama’s Supreme Court pick — and that for Democrats to continue observing the niceties amounts to unilateral disarmament.

 The Moon, ruler of the feminine realm, is badly aspected in the Biden Administration chart. Hidden in the 12^th house it is conjunct the explosive Mars Uranus conjunction and square Pluto, Midheaven, Sun and Saturn. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that a woman’s issue has become one of the key trigger points for aggravation. The Term Moon is stressed this year and next by tr Pluto square and really won’t be settled throughout his run.

  The Moon on his personal chart is not well situated or integrated either. In Taurus, it is on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Neptune sextile Venus, Sun and is also square Pluto. Tierney describes a Yod-al Moon as overly defensive, habitually self-defeating. It can be transformed (in some cases) to become caring – but it will always be an overly-sensitive and vulnerable area of his chart. It picks up the transiting Pluto square in 2024/2025 putting more pressure on his weak spot (which will also include children aka Hunter).

  His relationship with Elizabeth Warren is fraught and bad tempered exactly now as tr Saturn opposes their composite Mars through till later this month; and a disappointing tr Neptune opposition the composite Venus throughout this year into early 2023. Relations between them will blow up altogether with tr Uranus square the Mars come 2024.

 He’s not popular with Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez either with tr Neptune conjunct the composite Saturn and opposition Pluto this year and next; worsening through 2023/24 with tr Pluto square the composite Mars.

  Solar Arc Saturn will move to close the aggravated square on Biden’s Administration chart  by mid 2023 which will stress the already strained Term Moon – which could be other Presidential complications as well – but doesn’t bode well for this issue.

  There is a dispiriting sense in the US, echoing the UK, of having voted in the wrong leaders who are incapable or unwilling to face up to problems.  Voters’ remorse doesn’t make it any easier to live with.

   

Nora Ephron, writer, and filmmaker, cut a swathe through popular culture for decades with her iconic screenplays for When Harry Met Sally (1989), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and even earlier Silkwood (1983). Her quirky take on life hewn out of a childhood with two alcoholic parents proved a liferaft when her second marriage to Watergate Carl Bernstein collapsed over his infidelity. She wrote the semi-autobiographical novel Heartburn based on her marriage, later turned into a Meryl Streep/Jack Nicholson movie. As well as writing 14 screenplays and directing 8 films she also wrote 3 plays, the last of which Lucky Guy won a posthumous Tony Award nomination after she died of leukaemia in 2012.

  A new biography by Kristin Marguerite Doidge charts her life from a glittering journalistic start to directing in her 50s and beyond. She was famed for her fierce intellect and unsparing sense of humour, which often alienated those on the receiving end and constantly plundered her friends’ lives for her fiction which caused resentment. A flinty personality she was unconcerned with what other people thought about her and yet despite it all she was the doyenne of rom-coms and foodie movies (Julie and Julia).

Her Heartburn was seen as a classic scorned wife’s revenge describing the husband as “capable of having sex with a Venetian blind;” and describing the mistress (Margaret Jay) as looking like a giraffe with “big feet”.

  Ephron was born 19 May 1941 New York, no birth time, and had a larger-than-life, lucky and creative Sun, Jupiter, Uranus in Taurus trine Neptune; with Saturn also in Taurus. Enduring and stubborn to the nth degree. She also had a Yod onto Mars in Pisces inconjunct Pluto sextile a North Node in needing-to-work-at-relationships Libra. A Yod would give her an outsider’s view of life with a barbed edge from Mars inconjunct Pluto but also lend her, once she found her track, dynamic focused energy.

  Her Moon was in surprisingly sensitive Pisces which would be where she got her romantic yearnings from.

  An interesting woman who carved her own path through life.

Pluto Returns are not a passing distraction but a crossroads that comes around every 250 years. A country’s move away from the past into what comes next takes years to settle.

  Looking ahead through the USA 2024 and 2028 elections they coincide with the turmoil of the massive outer planet shift into new signs. And the 2028 election will be in the midst of the directionless, disappointing transiting Neptune in Aries square the USA Venus, Jupiter and Sun in Cancer. It’ll be 2032 before anything looks back to relative stability.  

 The present extreme divisiveness won’t disappear in a puff of smoke so it isn’t surprising it’ll take that long. Roe v Wade came in on early Pluto in Libra so maybe Pluto’s entry into Aquarius might restore its security. Other liberal legislation, for instance for same-sex marriage, was only enacted in individual states since 2012 – when tr Pluto in Capricorn was around the opposition to the USA Sun.  

  [Just as an aside I always wondered about that late 2012 period which coincided with Obama’s re-election, as well as same-sex marriage progress and oddly the devastating Sandy Hook shooting. Not only was tr Pluto heading for the USA Sun opposition. But there was a poleaxing and confidence-destroying Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the USA Neptune and square Mars – which at the time I couldn’t quite nail down an event or mood significant enough to explain it. But it did shaft a spear through USA morale and the sense of national identity, for sure.]

  This Biden Term was always going to be fractious, explosive and aggravated with the worst of the jolts coming in 2023/2024.

  The 2024 election will be held on a do-or-die-determined Mars opposition Pluto for extreme rhetoric, bile and venom – with a Sun opposition Uranus in place which could suggest a swing in a different direction. Neptune lingers in the final stages of Pisces.

  The 2025 Inauguration chart has a controlling Sun Pluto conjunct the Midheaven opposition Mars on the IC – so a discontented population and power-hungry administration. Three planets in directionless Pisces in the 11^th don’t suggest a solid future strategy. Uranus in the 1st will be defiant and unconventional. [To be noted the Biden Term has Pluto conjunct the MC so it doesn’t necessarily point in either political direction.]

  The 2028 election will be even more fraught than the 2024 with a Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars on the focal point, with a downbeat Sun opposition Saturn; and a hope-for-change Uranus Trine Pluto.  The USA will have just undergone a Uranus Return, the first since 1943/44.

The 2029 Inauguration again has controlling Sun Pluto in the 10th with an edgy, disruptive and ruthless Sun Pluto square Saturn and trine Uranus trine Mars – either hardship and tough conditions, or a war somewhere out in the globe to contend with.

  The 2032 election will be tense with a Sun square Pluto and Pluto trine Mars around election day. Tr Uranus Saturn conjunct in early Cancer will be starting to conjunct the USA Venus, Jupiter in Cancer. By this election tr Neptune in Aries has finally cleared the square to the USA Sun and opposition to the USA Saturn which brings to an end a discontented and undermining few years since 2025.

  The 2033 Inauguration is the first to look upbeat with the Sun, Mercury and a confident/successful Jupiter Pluto in the 10^th. That’s reminiscent of Obama’s First Term with Sun Jupiter in the 10^th.

  On similarities to the USA Civil War (1861 – 1865) see previous post May 6 2022. There are some repeat influences around 2027/28 when there is a Uranus Return on the USA chart and tr Pluto in hard aspect to the Leo North Node.

  The late decade period also looks challenging on the USA First President chart, 30 April 1789 12.45pm New York. Tr Pluto in Aquarius will square the Taurus Sun in 2027/28. Even before then tr Pluto will be opposition to the Uranus as it enters Aquarius in 2023/2024 – so a highly-changeable phase of several years.

   Pluto in Aquarius had best get its act together to bring back the age of enlightenment and kick loony-tunes Neptune in Pisces into the kerb.   

Periods of rabid nationalism and institutional lunacy often follow times of national humiliation. Fascism in Germany grew out of the punitive measures meted out at Versailles in 1919 after their defeat in World War One. Russia’s present day macho chest-beating stems from the morale-crushing collapse of the old USSR empire in 1989. China emerged from a century of humiliation in the 1940s to foist the madness of Mao on the poor Chinese.

  The astrology for both Germany and Russia were similar with transiting Pluto opposition or conjunct their respective Suns as they sank to their nadir. The UK had tr Pluto conjunct its Sun in 2012/13 as it set sail down the ‘Take-Back-Control’ Brexit road .

   On the face of it the USA hasn’t faced any similar identity-crushing moments. Except for 9/11 which was a considerable dent to national pride, followed by an obviously botched Middle Eastern intervention, and then the 2007/8 sub-prime mortgage fiasco leading to the financial crash.  Tr Pluto opposition the USA Sun was around 2013/2014, during Obama’s 2^nd Term which had seen the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage/affirmative action pushed forward (and blocked). In the November 2014 midterms Republicans secured a Senate majority and expanded their control in Congress to a level not seen since World War II.

  This is a stretch – but I wonder if having surprised themselves mightily by voting in Obama (twice), (Heaven’s to Betsy a Person of Colour) and seeing liberal legislation passed wasn’t a blow to the rednecks and other fledgling MAGA types. Their ideal USA isn’t the military power-house that Germany and Russia wanted (although it once was). But their dream country shares similarities in crushing any internal dissent of their totalitarian and xenophobic mindset; and in parallel with Nazi Germany puts a strong emphasis on racial purity.

   There are slight similarities between the Germany 1871 chart and the USA chart in that both have an afflicted Mercury with can-be-fanatical aspects, in the US case to Pluto and for Germany Uranus and Neptune. So the national temperaments are prone to fixed, obsessive ideas.

  When Hitler was made Chancellor in 1933, tr Uranus in Aries was conjunct the Germany 7^th house Neptune (square the Mercury opposition Uranus) so it would be a moment of high excitement and delusion. Hitler’s leadership of the Nazi Party starting in 1921 to his death in 1945 coincided with tr Pluto moving through the Germany 10^th house of career, which can be a time of ruthless power seeking. As he suicided, it exited – on a Nodal Return.

  Not sure what all this proves vis a vis the lunatics taking over the asylum in the USA.  Apart from the fact that the propensity for extreme ideologies has to be there in the first place to be triggered. But it might spark off a few other thoughts so do pitch in.

  My personal view is that religion is the source of a good deal of evil and misogyny in the world and appears to be embedded in the USA mindset, despite being exposed again and again as egregiously hypocritical, money-grubbing and fraudulently pious on matters of sexual behaviour.

Other thought is it has always struck me that the USA more than most countries needs a hated ‘other’ in order to maintain internal cohesion. If all the inhabitants are psychologically focused against – first all all the feared Commies and then the Arabs, there is less energy for domestic fighting. But once those external enemies are vanquished the anger comes home to roost and it creates aggravation on home turf. A strong need for ‘those like Us’ and revulsion against ‘those that are not Us’ is behind a good deal of the present divisiveness.

  In the next post I’ll look at the USA ahead through the next three elections for clues on when the daylight will dawn again.     

The sickness at the heart of the United States erupted with the right-wing weighted Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. It hands back decisions on abortion to individual states, 26 are whom are likely to impose wholesale bans even for rape and incest pregnancies. Public opinion was in favour of keeping Roe v Wade so it may affect the outcome of the Mid Term elections. Even Trump apparently is wary of electoral kickback on the decision.

 Former attorney general Eric Holder, an Obama appointee, called for reforms to the Supreme Court’s structure “to ensure that the Court serves the interests of the people instead of the interests of an extreme, minority faction.” Another commentator said: “What has allowed the court to untether itself from public opinion is deep dysfunction in our political system.”

  Republicans have appointed six of nine current justices on SCOTUS, despite more Democrats having won the popular vote in the Presidential elections, seven out of nine, during their appointments. The savage irony is that Trump, with the moral calibre of a whelk, foisted in the last three right-wing justices. Given the extreme positions of some of them there is a real danger that gay legal rights, affirmative action, contraception may be at risk as well. This week, the court struck down a century-old gun control law which had restricted concealed carry weapons in New York state.

  The previous post May 3 2022 covers most of the detail.

  Two Astro-points of note. The USA chart itself is showing shocked alarm exactly now from the Mars/Saturn and Sun/Neptune midpoints so it reflects a sense of the damage done and panic ensuing. The Pluto Return is also exact at the moment, returning on and off till late 2023.

  The other is that SCOTUS, already plummeting in popularity because of a sense that it is overly politicized, will get a mammoth circuit-board-frying jolt centred around the August 1^st Mars Uranus North Node conjunction which will square its Pluto. The disruptive tr Uranus square the SCOTUS Pluto picks up from July 8^th and runs through till mid October, returning in early 2023. Tr Saturn is in a blocked conjunction to the Pluto from October to mid November and then moves on to a discouraging opposition to the SCOTUS Mars Jupiter in 2023 – so there will be repercussions.  Though with a chart as fixed as SCOTUS it will take a hurricane of monumental proportions to bring about a shift. Tr Neptune is also opposing the Saturn Venus in Pisces through till late 2024 suggesting sliding popularity.

  No wonder Chief Justice John Roberts, a moderate centrist, is looking devastated.

 Clarence Thomas, whose concurrence on this issue suggested other liberties might be at risk – was born 23 June 1948 9pm Pin Point, Georgia. His Chiron is at 18 Scorpio in the direct line of fire of the early August Mars Uranus Node in Taurus opposition. His Sun, Mercury, Venus in Cancer fit the USA chart and both have additionally an Aquarius Moon which sits uncomfortably with all that Water. He’s buoyed up with confidence now and that runs on and off till late 2023, though alongside disappointments, high anxiety, discouragement. Ultimately – like the other zealots on SCOTUS (see previous post) by 2024 and beyond – he’s facing dashed-hopes, losses and undermining circumstances.

  For his wife Ginny Thomas – ‘her right wing activism a threat to SCOTUS’ see post January 30 2022

   I can’t think of any grand conclusions – except the USA  may have to crash into rock bottom before there’s a turning point. Maybe the extremists get carried away in their fanaticism and push their luck so far the great silent majority finally stand up and say enough – which would include refusing to put up with gerrymandering and manipulating electoral rights to block out any but the right wing.

  All countries have a darkness at their heart and maybe Pluto is just dyno-rodding through the US sewers to dump the cr** out into the open in order to evoke enough of a response to clear at least some of it out of the way.  Faint hopes.

Colombia has voted in its first leftist head of state following similar victories for the left in Peru, Chile and Honduras. Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter in the 1980s, who became a senator and mayor, was voted in on promises of a better future for the poor. He has a reputation for meandering speeches and high-handedness. His vice-president will be Francia Márquez – a prize-winning defender of human and environmental rights – marking the first time that a black woman fills the post.

  There is concern that as in Peru and Chile, leftist outsiders who come to power tend to over-promise and under-deliver and their approval ratings plummet.

  Petro born 19 April 1960 is probably a final degree Aries Sun with a confident Jupiter trine Pluto; and a Yod of Mars sextile Saturn inconjunct Uranus. He shares the same Yod with John Eastman, Trump’s lawyer, born on April 21,  who is being lambasted by the January 6 investigations over ludicrous claims of voter fraud. A focal point Uranus produces a maverick temperament, often wilful and rebellious,  sometimes lawless with a tendency to create divisions around him.  Prince Andrew, born in February 1960 also has a Yod focal point Uranus inconjunct Saturn sextile Mercury – disruptive, lawless and divisive certainly fit.

  In Petro’s case tr Uranus is square his Uranus on and off through this year into early 2023 pushing him onto a different track. His Solar Arc Jupiter is also opposition his Pluto now for a resounding success in the ballot. 2023/2024 look to be high pressure challenging years with tr Pluto square his Sun.

  He’ll be sworn in on August 7 when the disruptive/explosive Mars Uranus North Node conjunction is still in place squaring the Leo Sun opposition Saturn in Aquarius – so it will be a turbulent term ahead.

  Colombia like many South American countries has a myriad of start dates. 17 December 1819 is one and it is labouring mightily through a Neptunian swamp with its Sagittarius Sun, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn Pluto in Pisces catching the directionless and disillusioning Neptune hard aspects through the next two years.

 Petro’s relationship chart with Colombia is part friendly and part riddled with aggravation and prone to setbacks. The composite Sun, Venus, Saturn Mercury square Mars with be stressed and jolted in 2024/2025.

Unloved and incompetent leaders, no obvious successor and uninspiring opposition – sound familiar? Pluto in Capricorn is waging a scorched earth strategy before it exits in 2023/24 as the UK, USA and France, never mind Germany and elsewhere, survey the wreckage of their political landscape populated with fifth-rate dramatis personae.

  Boris Johnson has, as expected face-planted, in yesterday’s ballots, with the worst bye-election result in history in one seat which wiped out a 24,000 Tory majority in favour of the Lib Dems; and Labour regained the ‘red wall’ Wakefield seat.  Also as expected, BJ is blithely brushing aside notions of resigning from a sunny swimming pool in Rwanda, whence he has escaped to brew up a diversion and duck the fallout.

 This is all a rehash but useful to draw it together. BJ’s personal chart has a trapped, running-scared tr Pluto opposition the Solar Arc Mars exactly now; and Solar Arc Saturn opposition his Scorpio Moon, exact within weeks, but in full effect now. The Pluto Mars restrictions and frustrations will run on through the next three years. 2023 will be discouraging and heavy-going with tr Saturn in Pisces square his Mars and then hitting his Saturn Return as well as Uranus, Pluto. But it is 2024 when his chart shows most upset with tr Neptune squaring his Sun Venus in Gemini; tr Pluto starting to hammer two key Sun midpoints; and if his birth time is accurate – a career-blocking Solar Arc Midheaven conjunct his Pluto.

 His relations with the Tory Party will continue to plummet with a sinking-failure tr Neptune square the composite Mars now and into 2023; and tr Saturn square the composite Sun Venus in 2023 also – which might suggest an earlier exit.

  But his First PM chart, 24 July 2019 3.12 pm flags up 2024 as the key disaster zone for him as well. So best guesses is he may stick around like an unwelcome house guest for longer than seems possible.

 The Opposition leader Keir Starmer’s crunch point on his leadership chart, 4 April 2020 10.45am London, is coming within weeks as the Solar Arc Saturn closes the conjunction to Mars to exact. There’s nothing to suggest he’ll pick up traction any time soon with 2023/24 looking discouraging on his Leadership chart. His personal chart without a birth time is gloomy at the moment, downbeat with heavy Saturn transits in 2023 though with a few hints of luck as well – and by late 2024 he’s completely flummoxed and worse through to 2026 and beyond.

  [I wonder whether he’s in the same boat as Neil Kinnock who prayed for Maggie Thatcher’s exit as he faced her weekly across the despatch box. She went in late 1990 and he stayed for only eighteen months, lost an election to John Major and departed. John Smith stepped up briefly to the Labour leadership and on his death was replaced by Tony Blair who swept to victory in 1997.]

  The Liberal Democrats did exceptionally well – and for once a political party chart appears to work well. The Liberal Democrats 3 March 1988 – has its Jupiter picking up the confidence-surge tr Pluto square through 2022/23 so they should continue to prosper in the short term. Though 2024 looks like a dead-halt year. Ed Davey, 25 December 1965, is buoyed up by ambitious dreams with tr Neptune square his Jupiter now but he likewise will not find 2024 to his liking with a frustratingly trapped tr Pluto conjunct his Mars.

  The odd couple are reported to be splitting up. Nonagenarian, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and model Jerry Hall, formerly of the Mick Jagger tribe, raised eyebrows when they were hitched six years back, but now according to reports have decided to call it quits.

  There were some positives about the match with her Cancer Sun sitting in his relationship 7^th house conjunct his Jupiter and her social-butterfly Venus in Gemini opposition his Sagittarius Moon, plus her Pisces Moon probably conjunct his Pisces Sun. But it was always going to be an argumentative combination with a composite, can-be-competitive Sun Mars conjunction. Plus there’s a power-couple composite Jupiter Pluto conjunction giving them both a morale boost initially at the prospect of an attention-grabbing relationship. But once the shine wears off what brought them together would start to rankle and they’d both be fighting for the upper hand and last word.

  She was born 2 July 1956, Texas, no time and he 11 March 1931 11.55pm Melbourne, Australia.

Both are strong, unbudgeable personalities – she has a super-confident Jupiter Pluto in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio and doesn’t give way easily. He has Pluto and an 8th house Mars opposition Saturn in Capricorn square Uranus – so hard-driving, and do-or-die determined.

  Tr Uranus has been upsetting their apple-cart since 2020 as it moved through early to mid Taurus hitting the composite Jupiter Pluto and then Sun – with more upheavals in 2023.

 The wedding chart of 4 March 2016 hinted at an excess of confidence and indulgence from Sun opposition Jupiter sextile/trine Pluto Moon; along with a constant-bickering Mercury square Mars.

  Both of them look downbeat this year. She has tr Saturn dampening her usual high-spirits as it opposes her Jupiter Pluto and squares her Saturn into early 2023; with a confused tr Pluto square her Neptune in 2022/23 and a romantically  disappointing tr Neptune square her Venus this year as well.

  Similarly he has tr Neptune square his Moon and a frustrated and impatient tr Pluto opposition his Mars. Both of them have a complicated relationship past and she’ll be well used to emotional hitches and glitches having had four children with the notoriously wayward Jagger. Murdoch has been married four times and an Australian newspaper quoted Andrew Neil, a former editor of Murdoch’s Sunday Times, as saying advice to wannabe brides was – “Don’t fall in love with Rupert. He turns against lovers and chops them off.”

Add ON: It’s a great pity there is no birth time for her which might explain a lot. She’s clearly always gone for difficult relationships.

 With Mick Jagger, 26 July 1943 2.30am Dartford, England, her Saturn opposed his Taurus Moon with her Jupiter Pluto in square and her Venus Mercury was conjunct his Saturn.  Saturn in relationships gives longevity and endurance but cuts down on warmth. Her Pluto square his Moon would make her possessive but her Uranus was conjunct his Leo, Sun, Pluto in Leo which would not make for a settled mix. Her Sun falls in his 2^nd so money would be an important element in the mix.

  Their relationship chart has a composite showbizzy Mars opposition Neptune square Mercury Sun which would be argumentative and not mutually supportive – egos would loom large. There was also the classic power-couple Jupiter Pluto conjunction so togetherness offered great influence. But the internal dynamic especially with an ego-maniac like Jagger wouldn’t be pretty.  Especially since there was also a dominating composite Mars trine Pluto.

 There was less Saturn in her relationship with Brian Ferry but dollops of Mars with her Cancer Sun conjunct his Mars and her Mars square his Uranus – plenty of hot attraction to start with which turned into running competition to win arguments.  Their relationship chart has a seriously aggravated composite Sun Pluto square Mars (Moon). He evidently wanted to marry her but a even more successful rock star turned up in the shape of Jagger so he was dropped.   

Her Jupiter Pluto in Leo will crave flamboyance and gold glitter. She’s not a lady of simple tastes.