Astrology of Today’s News

Venturing down the rabbit hole to plumb Trump’s motivations is a doomed task with Venezuela the most immediate mystery. Damaging the fentanyl trade is a worthy cause except that would mean targeting Mexico not further south; and even cocaine mainly sourced out of Colombia comes into the USA from other places. Oil is a possibility since Venezuela has almost a fifth of all known global reserves – but it accounts for less than 1% of world production. Most of Venezuela’s reserves are “heavy sour” crude, which is expensive to extract.

 Regime change appeals to Trump since the main allies of Venezuela are China, Russia and Iran. Immigration is another excuse since millions of Venezuelans have fled the economic crisis and political repression there with hundreds of thousands going to the US.

But none of the above really explain why Trump is so intent on  Maduro’s capture or why US warships are within striking distance of Venezuela, with dozens already killed in attacks on boats alleged to have been transporting drugs.

[My own tuppence worth is he is play acting what he thinks a president ought to be. In typically contrary fashion he wants a Nobel Peace Prize for Gaza, Ukraine etc etc to even up with Obama; and at the same time he wants to bestride the globe like a latter day Alexander the Great.]

  His dutiful bagman Pete Hegseth, the hapless Defence Secretary, loyally following his whims has been accused of  war crimes in killing survivors of bombed ships. Democrats called him  “incompetent, reckless, and a threat to the lives of the men and women who serve in the armed forces”. “He has lied, dodged, deflected, and shockingly scapegoated his subordinates.” He also violated Pentagon policies by sharing sensitive details via the Signal messaging app hours before airstrikes in Yemen.

 Maduro is looking highly unsettled with tr Uranus opposition his Sun Mercury, more so after July with Uranus square his Uranus and a discouraging Solar Arc Sun conjunct his Saturn in 2026 as well.

 His relationship chart with Trump is implicitly hostile with a composite power-struggling Mars Pluto conjunction just below the horizon. Which may be another reason for the attacks – Trump always needs someone on whom to vent his spleen. Maduro just happens to be handy. On the relationship chart it looks to be rumbling on certainly throughout 2026.

 Pete Hegseth, 6 June 1980 8.28pm Forest Lake Minnesota, shows no signs of budging immediately though tr Saturn in late March and then tr Neptune opposition his Midheaven in July onwards may take the ground out from under his feet. He does have his Solar Arc Pluto square his Jupiter at the moment which can either mean he is brass-necking it out or running into conflicts with authorities – in Congress maybe. He is in calamity territory this month and again  mid March to mid April and will have a few down moments in late January 2026 as tr Saturn squares his Venus and opposes his Moon.

 Where his relationship with Trump may blow up is July/August 2026 and on when tr Uranus squares their composite Mars Jupiter. Hegseth’s relationship chart with Maduro is exceedingly stressed from now right through 2026 and beyond.

For details, charts etc see previous post September 17 2025 Venezuela

Frank Gehry, the Canadian–American architect who made magic with crumpled titanium and fish curves in buildings like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, has died. He was inspired by pop art, what he called ‘cheapskate aesthetic’, to create buildings that were almost art, almost sculpture – and at times an assemblage of a hardware store. His increasing use of the computer latterly was used to realise extraordinarily complex and innovative forms.

 Born 28 February 1929 in Toronto he was the son of Jewish immigrants, and moved to California in his late teens. After a stint as a lorry driver, he gained an architecture degree, did military service, and had a slow start in the building design field. By the mid 1980s he produced the California Aerospace Museum with a F104 Starfighter hovering over a giant door; and a restaurant, Rebecca’s, in Venice, California  featured giant trees, an octopus, alligator and several fish hanging about its interior.

 In the late 1990s the Bilbao Guggenheim put him on the world map and was hailed as the leading example of the new  computer-led design – a piece of urban sculpture, writhing along the riverbank, part palazzo, part ship. In two years, his museum was said to have added $400m to the city’s fortunes.

  Fish were a constant theme in his work which with a Pisces Sun and a creative Water Grand Trine with Pluto and a Scorpio Moon is maybe not surprising. He also significantly had an inspirational, attention-demanding Fire Grand Trine of Neptune in Leo trine Saturn in Sagittarius trine Venus in Aries, formed into a Kite by Saturn opposition Mars in Gemini, making Mars his driving planet. His Sun was also trine Pluto and sextile Jupiter in Taurus. He would rarely doubt his ideas or his ability to succeed. His Mercury in forward-looking Aquarius may have been on the focal point of a Fixed T square to Jupiter opposition his Scorpio Moon. His chart oozes confidence.

  Intriguingly Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi/British architect, recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st century, 31 October 1950, had a marked Mars Saturn hard aspect in her chart like Gehry. She was a Sun, Mercury, Venus in Scorpio trine Uranus (Moon) in Cancer so a similarly Water-heavy chart to him. She had marginally less Fire though her Pluto in Leo trine Mars in Sagittarius would give her drive with Jupiter in Aquarius sextile Mars and opposition Pluto for confidence. Her Mars was also square Saturn in Virgo.

 Norman Foster, the UK architect, 1 June 1935, has a New Moon in Gemini square a creative Saturn in Pisces opposition Neptune, and trine Mars. He has his Mars on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Saturn sextile Uranus – so Mars Saturn is a key component of his talent.

 Mars Saturn gets a bad reputation as destructive and accident-prone or prone to abusive/cruel behaviour. But it must be its ability to concentrate energy and perhaps its associations with bones and structure which comes into play with architects. That plus the self-discipline which it also instils.  

 Frank Lloyd Wright, the American architect had a Mars square Saturn. Though oddly Le Corbusier, known for his ‘brutalist’ designs did not though his Saturn and Mars were both in Leo, widely separated – his North Node fell on the midpoint of Mars and Saturn.

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The Montecito car-crash scenario hits another bump on the road with Meghan’s heavily slated, vacuous Christmas special making much of family love and togetherness. With uncanny and tragic timing it coincides with her estranged father in hospital with an amputated leg seriously ill.  He has not seen his daughter since before the 2018 wedding nor her children and has been in poor health in recent years with two heart attacks and a stroke.

  Family friction can run deep but she will regret it personally (I think) and more so professionally if she does not see him before it is too late.

 There was (and astrologically is) a strong connection between Meghan and her father with his Cancer Sun sitting exactly on her Ascendant which gives a deep link though it can turn competitive. His Chiron is conjunct her Venus in Virgo which will trigger deep insecurity in him about his loveability. ”It’s a powerful “wounded healer” connection, where one person’s presence illuminates the other’s deepest pain, offering a chance for profound transformation but requiring courage to navigate vulnerabilities and transform wounds into wisdom.”

 Thomas’s Pluto falls close to her Sun – so there will have been issues of control in the past.

 Their relationship chart has a high vitality though also argumentative composite Sun Mars Mercury conjunction. With a power couple composite Jupiter Pluto conjunction though that has clearly turned into an internal power-struggling conflict between the pair.

 Looking at her chart from a fresh angle she does have Eris, planet of chaos and discord conjunct her Midheaven. It  disrupts, provokes and shatters illusions. To date the turnover of staff in California has been remarkably high with 25 having come and gone in recent years. She also has Nessus, which has a reputation for manipulation, lying and double dealing exactly on her Ascendant close to the rise-and-fall Procyon.

 Both Eris and Nessus can be used constructively but like Prince Harry she does not appear to have found a way of turning them to good use.

  There is something slightly epic about her/their trajectory. It reminds me of the hero’s tragic flaw in Greek drama – a deep-seated character defect or error in judgment that leads to downfall, making them relatable yet ultimately doomed, often stemming from traits like excessive pride, ambition, jealousy, or indecision. It’s the internal weakness that sets off a chain reaction, causing a reversal of fortune from good to disaster, even for noble figures. 

 Just to add a detail, Meghan’s 10th house Chiron is conjunct Harry’s 4^th house Taurus Moon – which stretching a point might suggest that instead of digging deep to find her own potential and true vocation she fell back into Harry’s Royal roots to give her validation.

And so it rumbles on.

The Eurovision Song Contest is brewing up for a turbulent winter as Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia have already indicated they will boycott it after Israel was cleared to compete. Ireland’s RTÉ said it felt that its “participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk.” There were also allegations of unfair voting practices.

 The first Eurovision, 24 May 1956 in Switzerland 7pm, started on a Full Moon with the Gemini Sun opposition the Sagittarius Moon. There was also a super-confident Jupiter Pluto conjunction in Leo in an enduring and stubborn Fixed T Square opposition Mars in Aquarius square Saturn in Scorpio. Unbudgeable normally – except that tr Uranus which opposed the Saturn last month will return for the same in April 2026, one month before the competition which runs 12 to 16 May 2026.

  The Taurus Sun for the first semi final on May 12th 2026 will move cross the square to the 1956 Jupiter and Mars before ending up just short of being square the Pluto at the final four days later. The mood will be heightened and there may be repercussions in the aftermath with tr Uranus moving to hard aspect the 1956 Full Moon from mid June 2026 onwards into 2027.

Brigitte Bardot has stepped out of seclusion in St Tropez to voice a documentary about her life in aid of her animal rescue charity. Propelled to dizzy heights as one of the best known symbols of the sexual revolution in the 1950s and 60s, she withdrew after 47 films, having had enough of global stardom and being a prey for the paparazzi.

  “Lovers fell at her feet, from Alain Delon to Serge Gainsbourg, money flowed into her bank account and directors wrote — and changed — scripts at her behest. The Vatican saw her as Satan incarnate, while French film producers saw her as the guarantee of box-office receipts.”

 She talks of the sadness she carries in her with multiple suicide attempts when she was younger, two abortions and a ruptured relationship for many years with her only son whom she handed over to his father.   

Married four times, by her own count, she has had a total of 17 romantic relationships and would leave for another relationship when “the present was getting lukewarm”; she said, “I have always looked for passion. That’s why I was often unfaithful. And when the passion was coming to an end, I was packing my suitcase.”  “Feminism is not my thing,” she said. “I like guys.”

  Born 28 September 1934 1.15 pm Paris, France, she had an overly strict childhood, being whipped on occasion by her father when she misbehaved. She has a knowledgeable and ambitious Libra Sun widely conjunct her Midheaven from her 9^th house with a restless Gemini Moon close to her Descendant – she will appreciate the support of a partner but her Uranus on the cusp of her 5^th will incline her towards romantic escapades and make her emotional attachments erratic and unpredictable.  Her Moon is sextile Mars, square Neptune and trine her Sun – charming and vague.  

 A successful Jupiter Mercury in Libra in her 10^th will have brought her luck and prominence and square an 8^th house Pluto will have given her determination and influence. Though Pluto in the 8^th also hints at an underlying senses of being trapped with no choices. Which given her drive for freedom will have put her in a double bind. That plus a frustrated Mars opposition Saturn, a relic of her abusive childhood,  will have resulted in self-destructive behaviour in early adult life. That Mars in Leo is a peculiarly sensitive spot since it opposes a yod apex Saturn (inconjunct Pluto sextile Venus).

Her wounded-healer Chiron falls in her 6^th house of small pets which clearly gives her purpose and an outlet for her depression with a cause to live for.  Indeed her Chiron is trine her Aquarius North Node which needs a cause to promote and trines her Sun. Plus her Moon is just in latter stages of the 6^th house.

 When she gave up her film career in 1973 tr Pluto in Libra was conjunct her Sun bringing about a profound transformation in her personal life and in her career direction as it headed for her Midheaven and 10th house.

A complicated lady.

Fred Astaire, the “greatest popular-music dancer of all time”, whose uncanny sense of rhythm, creativity, effortless presentation, and tireless perfectionism delighted audiences through almost eight decades, was born the same year as Noel Coward. But despite both sharing Neptune Pluto in Gemini opposition Saturn in Sagittarius, a Gemini Moon and Jupiter in Scorpio, they were very different temperaments. Coward was all mouth and words with 3^rd/9^th and Mercury emphasis. While Fred Astaire was more physically focused with a 6^th house Taurus Sun and Gemini Moon.

 Fred Astaire, born 10 May 1899 9.16pm Omaha, Nebraska, started dancing early, initially with his older sister Adele, prompted by their ambitious mother and they stayed together as a duo for over 20 years with Astaire acquiring his signature top hat to match the height of his taller partner.  Adele was gregarious, confident and comedic, while the studious, anxious Fred was perfectionist, nicknamed by her as “Moaning Minnie”. She ultimately married Lord Charles Cavendish, son of the Duke of Devonshire.

 Fred also had an inspirational Fire Grand Trine of Mars in Leo trine a 12^th house Uranus in Sagittarius trine Venus in Aries, formed into a Kite by Uranus opposition his 6^th house Moon. The 6^th house is Virgo’s natural home which would create his tendency to fuss and worry about getting everything exactly right and being health obsessed.

 But perhaps the clue to Astaire’s unsociable and uptight personality and his dislike of socialising, premieres and publicity was his unaspected Sun. This made him aloof, overly independent, wrapped up in his own world.

 His most memorable dancing partnership was with Ginger Rogers through the 1930s – Top Hat, Swing Time and Shall We Dance amongst others which provided vital escapism for Depression-era audiences.

 Ginger Rogers, 16 July 1911 2.18am Independence, Missouri, was not an easy match for Fred Astaire although they shared Jupiter in Scorpio, but her Mars fell in his entertaining 5^th which would help and her Saturn in Taurus conjunct his Sun would make it a working partnership. Their relationship chart had a fearsome composite Mercury, Mars, Pluto, Venus in Gemini hinting at the extreme lengths he would go to – rehearsing once for ten hours at a stretch leaving her feet bleeding.

 There are moves afoot at the moment to do a biopic about Astaire though his widow Robyn, a former jockey, 45 years his junior, insists he was “explicit in his will that he did not want his life story to be depicted on screen”. Though whether that will be enough to stop it is not certain.

Noël Coward’s comedy Fallen Angels was so shocking to bourgeois morality a hundred years ago it was nearly banned. Now restaged in London as a period piece about two “girls behaving badly” on a champagne-fuelled night, bemoaning their stale marriages to golfing husbands and lusting after a Frenchman both regard as the great love of their lives, it has garnered good reviews. Written when Coward was 23, he had a precocious grasp of the tensions of wedlock, and the trade-off between respectability and the hungers of the flesh. (The Lord Chamberlain’s office only reluctantly granted it a performance licence, alarmed by its allusions to premarital and extramarital sex.)

 Coward, playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time called “a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise”, was born 16 December 1899 2.30am Teddington, England into a poor background; and started performing on stage as a child, prompted by his mother.

  He had a packed communicative 3^rd house with an outspoken Sagittarius Sun conjunct Saturn opposition a 9^th house Neptune; as well as a sharp-tongued Saturn conjunct Mars in Capricorn and Venus in Capricorn so he would not be backward about expressing his opinions. He also had a restless, mischievous Gemini Moon conjunct Pluto opposition Uranus Mercury in Sagittarius adding another layer of penetrating and upsetting insight and wit to his repertoire. With Uranus Pluto he liked to upset conventional ideas. He also had a lucky Jupiter in Scorpio in his financial 2^nd house making his adult life more secure than his childhood.  The generation signature Neptune Pluto in Gemini sat either side of the North Node making him notable in the culture of his time.

He achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards –  Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter, and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He also composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), screenplays, poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. In the Second World War, he ran the British propaganda office in Paris.

  A life well lived. Coward had penetrating insights and a talent to amuse and entertain.

Quotes: “It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit”.

“Never trust a man with short legs his brain is too near his bottom.”

Actress Sydney Sweeney’s unglamorous choice of a role playing Christy Martin, the first great female American boxer, a working-class lesbian and survivor of domestic violence, appears not to have gone down well in the US. Whether that is due to the subject matter or Sweeney’s divisive reputation as a Maga supporter isn’t clear, though the critics praised her ‘powerful characterisation.’

Sydney Sweeney, born September 12, 1997 at 12.42pm Spokane, Washington, has a creditable cv of good movies from The Handmaid’s Tale, Sharp Objects, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Euphoria, The White Lotus and Immaculate. She appeared to fall foul of media hysteria in a confected scandal about a jeans advert and her dating of Scooter Braun (don’t ask something about Taylor Swift).

 Her mother is a former criminal defense lawyer and her father works in the hospitality industry. At school she was active in numerous sports, soccer, baseball team, snow slalom skiing, wakeboarding, taekwondo, jujitsu, grappling, and kickboxing. She said she began practicing combat sports at age 5 to help manage her hyperactivity.

  She is a Sun Virgo conjunct the North Node on her Midheaven sextile a 12^th house Mars in determined Scorpio inconjunct a 5^th house Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries which hints at a good deal of buried anger and a tough start in life some of which will have been channelled into sport given that the 5^th house rules sporting activities. A Saturnine yod can be self-defeating and needs maturity and self-discipline to get the better end of it. Her Sun is also trine a hard working and creative Moon Neptune in Capricorn sextile her Mars in Scorpio. Pluto on her Ascendant will make her difficult to understand; it is sextile her Uranus and in a dogmatic square to her Mercury.

 It is a heavy and tricky chart which may explain why she attracts a degree of hostility. Her career will carry on regardless for many years to come with increasing success towards the end of this decade. Though 2027/28 will be challenging as her Solar Arc Saturn will oppose her Mars for a setback.

 Christy Martin, 12 June 1968 Mullens, West Virginia, scaled the heights as a boxer but married her much-older trainer who dominated and then nearly killed her. Like Sweeney she has a yod focal point Saturn in Aries. In her case it is inconjunct Pluto Uranus in Virgo sextile Neptune; and her Saturn is also in another yod sextile her Sun Mars and Venus in Gemini inconjunct Neptune – so she was clearly marked out for a singular path in life.  Her guardian angel comes in the form of her Jupiter in Leo which is trine her Saturn, sextile her Mars and square her Neptune. Like Sweeney she has a Capricorn Moon – so they would connect.

Paddington Bear has returned in a new stage musical as a fun Christmas distraction from the drear and gloom elsewhere. Critics love it  – “imaginatively staged, immaculately performed and utterly winning”; “funny, feel-good, family-friendly musical that looks set to run and run”. It brings ” the stowaway bear gorgeously to life”.

  Paddington, star of 35 million books, published in 20 countries in over 40 languages, in movies and adaptations for television was the inspiration of author Michael Bond. He was touched by the stories of Jewish refugee children sent to England during the war with labels round their necks; and that combined with a lonely teddy bear in a shop window near Paddington Station which he took home for his wife’s Christmas turned into one of the most successful series of children’s books ever. Paddington Bear from “darkest Peru” was sent to the UK by his Aunt Lucy carrying a jar of marmalade.

  Michael Bond was born 13 January 1926, a year which produced a good many notables, including Queen Elizabeth 11 and David Attenborough. He had a Capricorn Sun on one leg of a yod sextile Uranus in Pisces inconjunct Neptune which was exactly conjunct Ceres. Neptune on the apex of a yod can produce a dreamer and an escapist which in this case was turned to good use. And Ceres, the nurturing and nourishing archetype which rules mothers, family bonds and relationships as well as food, gives deep empathy.

 Bond’s Neptune Ceres is also opposition Venus in Aquarius square a conscientious, hard-working Saturn in Scorpio – an enduring Fixed T square.

 He was working as a Blue Peter (children’s tv) cameraman when the inspiration came to him. He had another inconjunct of Pluto to Mars. That Pluto was being triggered by tr Uranus conjunct its Solar Arc position when the first Paddington set foot on the page. And his Solar Arc North Node was opposing his Neptune and triggering his T square and Neptunian yod when the inspiration first came to him two or three years earlier. After publication he was able to become a full-time writer.

 A heart-warming tale from a more innocent time in mainstream entertainment.