Astrology of Today’s News

Eclipses, Solar and Lunar, are generally assumed to have an effect for six months until the next one appears. Sometimes there are significant events on the Full or New Moon following the eclipse, a month later. But eclipses may also throw out a longer shadow.

 The immensely powerful August 1999 total solar eclipse is one example. It rose in the Eastern seaboard of the USA, crossed the UK, curving down across Afghanistan, Pakistan to finish in southern India. The New Moon in Leo opposed Uranus square Mars in Scorpio opposition Saturn in Taurus. It caused consternation amongst astrologers who were looking for an end-of-the-world event.

   There was a Turkey earthquake a week later which left massive damage and around 45,000 dead and quarter of a million homeless.  The August 1999 eclipse located to Izmit in Turkey had Venus on the Midheaven and the Mars opposition Saturn sitting on the Ascendant Descendant axis so it was a key location.

  But there was also arguably a linked event two years later when Mars returned for the first time to its 1999 eclipse position in Scorpio to square Uranus and both impacted harshly on the 1999 Solar eclipse at 18 Leo.

  The catastrophic Gujarat earthquake in central India on January 26 2001 – exactly on the 1999 eclipse path – occurred as these aspects all came together again. The devastating national foot & mouth epidemic in the UK, also started around this time. Both UK and India have very fixed charts with major planetary configurations in Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius, which were especially triggered off by the eclipse and these transitting planets in fixed signs.

  Even later still in late March 2002, when Mars again in a fixed sign – Taurus – running into the square to Uranus, coincided with a major earthquake in Afghanistan, also on that 1999 eclipse path.

  It’s impossible to keep track of past eclipse charts in following years since there are too many but worth keeping an eye out – as with this one since it was so obvious.

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, having made history by winning an all-time record of 23 men’s Grand Slam singles titles says he has no intention of retiring yet. He started playing aged four and has not stopped since, moving to Germany as a teenager to continue training and then stepping into 20 years of winning – a record ten Australian Open titles, 94 singles titles, a record 38 Masters titles and is the only man in tennis history to be the reigning champion of the four majors at once across three different surfaces.

  Born 22 May 1987 11.25pm Belgrade, Serbia, his Sun Gemini sits in his sporting 5^th house and is sextile a go-ahead Aries Moon, with both inconjunct Pluto in Scorpio.  A focal point Yod Pluto is emotionally intense, enormously powerful, can be manipulative but has obviously been harnessed to channel his obsessive sporting ambitions. His Pluto is also in an ultra-determined trine to a hard-working 6^th house Mars in excitable Cancer.

  His Mars is also opposition a 12^th house Neptune squaring onto his Moon conjunct North Node. A T Square focal point Moon is both sensitive and defensive emotionally, and well-designed to work in the public eye. His 3^rd house Jupiter in upfront Aries and Venus in Taurus make him an amiable and charming communicator. Though he is not an easy personality. Known as mentally tough, his controlling Pluto will hold together his underlying anxieties.

  He may have no wish to retire but with tr Saturn moving through his First Quadrant he will start to ease back and his Solar Arc Midheaven conjunct his Saturn in 2024 (birth time being exactly accurate) may see him revising his plans.  

Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder, actor, politician is a walking example of what relentless determination can achieve. He says: “If you’re always hungry, you’re never really satisfied. The more someone says that this is impossible, the more excited I get over it.” He’s back having a spotlight moment with a three part biographical Netflix documentary out to coincide with the second series of FUBAR, a high-octane action series about a CIA operative on the verge of retirement asked to do one last job.

He’s a moderate Republican and says if he could stand against Trump he would but an Austrian birth precludes the possibility.

   He was born 30 July 1947 4.10 am Graz, Austria with a police officer, former Nazi father, who was abusive. His Leo Sun conjunct Saturn Pluto describes a harsh, overly-controlled childhood – mirroring that of Bill Clinton, another Sun Leo with Pluto Saturn also in Leo though not conjunct, whose stepfather was abusive.

 Schwarzenegger threw himself into bodybuilding, winning Mr Universe aged 20, which gave him entrée to the USA and he came  to be regarded as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time. He shifted over to blockbuster action movies and at one point became Governor of California.

  His Leo Sun, Saturn, Pluto are in his financial 2^nd so making money would be a main priority. He has Jupiter in Scorpio in his performing 5^th house and a restless, uncompromising, excitement-junkie Mars Uranus in his 12^th.  Relocating his chart to Los Angeles put his Jupiter in the successful 10^th and Mars Uranus in his performing/entertaining 5^th which is perfect for action movies. It also puts his Venus, Sun, Saturn, Pluto in his 7th house of close relationships which has led to a complicated love life with several partners and flings.

 What has always struck me as odd is that he only has one Earth planet – a Capricorn Moon in his 6^th house. Whereas muscle-flexing Dwayne Johnson has a Moon Jupiter in Capricorn, Sun Taurus and Pluto in Virgo.  Jean Claude van Damme has Saturn in Capricorn, Pluto in Virgo as well as his Moon. Maybe Schwarzenegger’s singleton, sparsely aspected Moon fits Carl Jung’s theory that what we lack is our gateway to transformation. He was extraordinarily, born with a heart defect which in later life led to open heart surgery and a heart valve replacement.

   On the Los Angeles relocated chart he is moving into a lower profile, less ambitious phase so after this publicity blitz maybe his non-stop-go approach will start to slow down.

Not I would have to confess, an actor I ever warmed to.

ADD ON: He was married to Maria Shriver, niece of JFK, for 35 years until an illegitimate child of his turned up, whose mother had worked in the family home. She is born 6 November 1955 5.12pm Chicago and is a serious and determined, hard-working Sun Saturn in Scorpio in her 6^th house; with a packed family-lineage 4^th house with a changeable Uranus, comfort-seeking Leo Moon and a super-confident Jupiter Pluto in Leo as well.

  Her Leo Moon would chime with his Leo Sun though her Uranus and his Saturn Pluto in her 4^th would complicate the mix. His Jupiter is conjunct her Sun which is positive but her obsessive and defensive Saturn was also conjunct. Her Capricorn Moon falls in his 8^th for a deep connection.  So a fair number of pluses and as many minuses. His Venus in Cancer squares her Neptune – overall he might find her overly dutiful and slightly evasive emotionally. And he is certainly controlling.

  Their relationship chart does have an affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction though Venus is also conjunct Saturn, which latter can give longevity if not warmth to a match.  But what is most significant is a power-struggling composite Mars Pluto hinting at a relationship where one partner dominated. Their marriage split in 2011 when tr Uranus opposition tr Pluto square tr Saturn was rattling up their relationship chart.

  Maria would be used to full-on men since her father Sargent Shriver, who was the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps, was a Scorpio Sun square a high-octane Mars in Leo opposition Uranus. Her relationship with him was not easy either. Oddly enough he died the year her marriage split.

Amongst the many irritations which Boris Johnson poses, one is his New York birth place. For astrologers it means a dilemma over whether to use his London relocated chart or his original entry point onto the earth, both for general predictions and for Solar Returns.

  His relocated chart to London does have a 27 degree Virgo Midheaven which tr Neptune is opposing exactly now which sounds spot on; with his Solar Arc Midheaven this year also catching the tr Uranus opposition – career disappointment and confusion and sudden change of direction. As well as undermining circumstances where domestic life is concerned moving ahead.

  Whereas the New York birth chart with a 12 Cancer MC and 9 Virgo SA MC has less going on.

  The London Solar Return has Neptune on the Ascendant undermining his image and bringing an identity crisis of sorts. The Sun on the IC suggests relative seclusion at home;  with challenges where future plans and friendships are concerned with Pluto in the 11^th inconjunct the Sun.  Plus a Cancer Moon in the 5^th house of children as he welcomes yet another into the Johnson tribe.

  The New York birth chart Solar Return has a domestically trapped Pluto in the 4^th, an angry and argumentative 7^th house Mars, a restless, secretive and emotionally intense 8^th house Venus Uranus, a travelling 9^th house Sun and a having-to-be-responsible-for-children 5^th house Saturn. Either could make sense. But London looks most descriptive.

 The general rule is the birth chart is the basic template and having to relocate adds another layer of complication and too many charts to juggle with. But it is instructive to see it at work here.

  He certainly is not a happy camper in coming months with his Second Saturn Return in play and tr Saturn dampening down his Mutable T Square. For thoughts on his future see June 11 2023 post and other Johnson posts: 30 May 2023; 15 January 2023; 23 July 2022.

What I had not pointed up is tr Uranus moving into Gemini in 2025 and crossing over his focal point Mars in Gemini – that is explosive and not in a good way, insecure, knocked sideways, provoking rash misjudgements and tr Uranus then continues in the three years thereafter to rattle up the rest of the Mutable T Square of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. On the London relocated chart tr Uranus also moves into his 7^th house of close relationships and that is the point where tr Uranus is also square his Sun/Moon midpoint – so a problematic phase for marital togetherness.  

Please add below. Older posts under News on top bar.

Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistle-blower who leaked studies showing successive US governments knew the Vietnam war was un-winnable, had died aged 92. He was put on trial in 1973, charged with espionage, conspiracy and stealing government property, which could have landed him with a possible 115-year sentence and smeared as mentally unbalanced. The case against him was dropped  after a supreme court ruling due to gross governmental misconduct, including a break-in at the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, which in part led to Watergate and Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

  By the end of the Vietnam war in 1975, more than 58,000 Americans were dead and 304,000 were wounded. Nearly 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers were killed, as were about 1 million North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong guerillas and more than 2 million civilians in North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

  He said he never regretted what he did – “I would not have thought of doing what I did which I knew would risk prison for life, without the public example of young Americans going to prison to make a strong statement that the Vietnam war was wrong and they would not participate, even at the cost of their own freedom. Without them, there would have been no Pentagon Papers. Courage is contagious.”

  In recent years he has praised Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

  He was born 7 April 1931 9.47 am Chicago, Illinois, with his parents, originally Ashkenazi Jews, having converted to become Christian scientist. His mother and sister died when he was in his late teens in a car accident when his father fell asleep at the wheel. He joined the marines, served three years in Vietnam, then after an economics PhD on decision theory, became an analyst.

  He had a 10^th house Sun, Uranus, North Node in pro-active Aries on the focal point of a T Square to Saturn in Capricorn opposition Pluto Jupiter in Cancer – hugely resourceful, courageous, impulsive, super-confident and determined, he was custom-designed to make waves and be a trailblazer.  His Sun Uranus was also trine an upbeat Sagittarius Moon.

  Such an emphasised Uranus can be a social catalyst and freedom fighter though can also be lawless, defiant of authority figures, aggressively determined on upsetting the status quo. Without his reckless confidence he would never have tilted his lance at the head of government when the risks were more than considerable.

  When the New York Times printed his information in 1971 his chart was ploughing through heavy seas in what must have been a fearful time with his Solar Arc Midheaven approaching the square to his Saturn; and the discouraging tr Saturn trine Pluto aspecting his SA Sun Uranus.

 Unsurprisingly Nixon disliked him (understatement) – with Ellsberg’s single minded Sun Uranus falling in Nixon’s 8^th setting off an undersea volcanic eruption and dragging secrets into the open. With Ellsberg’s Saturn in Capricorn putting a damper on  Nixon’s Capricorn Sun.

  Their relationship chart had a differing-agenda composite Sun, Venus, Uranus conjunction in an unsettled trine to Pluto; and a hostile, power-struggling composite Mars square Pluto.   That Mars Pluto (= fight to the death) was being elbowed by tr Uranus in Libra when the Pentagon Papers were released which set off the train of events leading to Watergate and Nixon’s near impeachment.

 Earlier this year he announced that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer and had given up his salt-free diet which had improved his life dramatically. He spent his final months eating “hot chocolate, croissants, cake, poppyseed bagels and lox” and enjoying “several viewings of his all-time favourite [movie], Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.

Glenda Jackson, two time Oscar winner for Best Actress for Women in Love and A Touch of Class, with three Emmy Awards, most notably for playing Elizabeth 1, and a Tony Award to her credit, has died.  

  Described as ‘overly fearless as a performer, and overly fearless as a woman’ she was as strong minded as she was talented. Oliver Reed, her co-star in Women in Love, described acting alongside her as like “being run over by a Bedford truck”.

One interviewer described her as “so defiantly charmless that there is something oddly engaging about her, even vulnerable”.

 She was born 9 May 1936 8am (from memory) Birkenhead, England with a bricklayer father and a barmaid mother, and after dropping out of school at 16 won a scholarship to drama college.  She worked constantly on stage, screen and in television to great acclaim but gave up acting in 1992 to become a Labour politician. Her dislike of Tony Blair’s politics made her early Westminster years unsettled and in 2015 she returned to acting, taking on the role of King Lear aged 80, no mean feat, and won a BAFTA for the dementia-ridden TV drama Elizabeth is Missing. Shortly before her death, she completed filming The Great Escaper, in which she co-starred with Michael Caine.

  She was a redoubtable Sun Taurus in the middle of Taurus stellium with Venus Uranus in early degrees and Mars conjunct Algol – not a lady for turning. She had the creative Saturn in Pisces opposition Neptune of the mid 1930s squaring onto Jupiter Moon in Sagittarius which would give her luck and confidence.  Her Jupiter was also on the focal point of a yod to Pluto sextile Mars Saturn which would also give her strong self-belief and allow her to have a social influence.

 Her steely, not to say ruthless edge, came from her Pluto trine Saturn sextile Mars, Algol, Sun. 

  Her creative and thespian abilities were of the highest order but she was not the easiest of personalities.

  I saw her once on stage in Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba and for some reason was in the front row so got the full force of her uncompromising portrayal of the control-freak matriarch in a house full of trapped women. It was a powerfully and pungently scary performance.  “Tyrant of everyone around her.”

Pulitzer prizewinner Cormac McCarthy, deemed one of America’s finest novelists for his gritty portrayal of the backwoods of the US and the outcasts who operated beyond the mores of respectable society. Some criticised his work as too macho, violent and nihilistic, feeling that his books “floodlit the dark underside of the American dream”.

  In his personal life he was reclusive and austere, driving away his first two wives because of his obsession with writing over earning money.

  He was best known for The Road and No Country for Old Men – in the latter, which was turned into a Coen movie, his cowboy hero was a Vietnam War veteran turned drifter who stumbles on a large sum of money in the desert, a discovery that brings into play a psychotic hitman, a sheriff straight out of High Noon and a bounty hunter. ‘If it doesn’t concern life and death,’ Mr. McCarthy once told Rolling Stone, ‘it’s not interesting.’

  He was born 20 July 1933 and despite writing continuously since his twenties didn’t come to public acclaim until he was 60, after which it all took off.

  He was born 20 July 1933 Providence, Rhode Island, and was a Sun Pluto in Cancer square Uranus – creative, controlling, rebellious, not destined for a conventional life. His Saturn in Aquarius opposed his Venus and Mercury in Leo, squelching any inclination he might have had to the high life or playing to an audience.

   It is a chart that really needs a birth time to make sense of his life.

  When he finally broke through in 1992 he was on his Second Saturn Return and a Jupiter Return; with his Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Jupiter and tr Pluto conjunct his SA Jupiter. He got it together courtesy of the fates of good fortune in a major way.

  His writer’s 21^st Harmonic is strong.

 Rarely has a political party suffered such an injurious blow as the SNP, with the chairman Peter Murrell and then the leader, his wife, Nicola Sturgeon, resigning and being arrested during the tortuous police investigation into the missing £600,000 referendum donations.

  Commentators say the arrest of Sturgeon, indicates the police inquiry is nearing its end, after which a report is handed to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal, who will decide whether to bring any charges or drop the investigation.

[The meaning of arrest changed in Scots law five years ago. Nick McKerrell, a senior law lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, said: “Arrest in Scots law can either mean now that you are arrested and not accused, that means to say you are going in to help the police investigate a crime, or you are arrested and charged with a criminal offence.”]  

  The SNP chart, 7 April 1934 is showing in the starkest terms the sense of catastrophic damage the affaire has brought. Exactly now there is a significantly disruptive Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the SNP Pluto at the same time as a trapped, high-risk, enraging Solar Arc Pluto opposition the Mars – upended and battered into paralysis.

  Nicola Sturgeon, 19 July 1970 3.16pm, who is proclaiming her total innocence and was released without charge, is facing a rocky path ahead. Tr Pluto was opposing her Cancer Sun in 2021/22, then moved to oppose her Sun/Mars midpoint and now her Mars through this year and next – which like the SNP chart hints at a dead-halt, meltdown – trapped.

  Exactly at the moment she also has tr Uranus conjunct her Saturn in Taurus for high tension and turbulence and tr Uranus then in 2024 moves on to square the Saturn/Neptune midpoint and then oppose Neptune in 2025 – so a long run of extreme anxiety and uncertainty. She’ll maintain her usual bullish confidence in patches this year but there will be a few disastrous dips as well in October/November this year and across the New Year into February 2024.

  Similarly her husband Peter Murrell, 8 December 1964, is looking poleaxed at the moment with tr Pluto square two of his Sun midpoints at zero degrees Scorpio which extends into and through 2024; with a debilitating series of Solar Arcs between 2024 and 2028. It may not all be this specific issue that is causing the strain but the days of wine and roses are surely over.

  It will put a strain on their marriage obviously with hitches and glitches from this August and Nicola pulling away from what has been in 2024/25.

  There is pressure to insist she resign from the party though at present that is being resisted.  Her relationship with the SNP does show a definite chill this year with tr Saturn square the composite Sun, Mercury Venus and next year Mars on the relationship chart; with an upheaval this August.

  The effect of Pluto moving into Aquarius and then teetering back into Capricorn to tie up loose ends does have the feel of an earthquake. The tectonic plates shift bringing old structures crashing to the ground – and toppling icons off their pedestals.

  Wonder who will be next?

Silvio Berlusconi, media tycoon, politician and billionaire, four time Prime Minister of Italy, responsible for his country’s decline in economic terms and in standards of public life, has died aged 86.

  He exploited his wealth and influence over the media to acquire and wield power in an undemocratic manner. Like Trump and others who followed, he had millions of adoring supporters — and numerous critics outraged by his scandalous sexual behaviour with younger women and his disregard for the law. Throughout his years at the top, Italian prosecutors launched hundreds of investigations into his business affairs. They sought to convict him on charges ranging from tax fraud and false accounting to bribery of judges and illegal political party financing. Only by 2013 was he convicted of tax fraud for which he did not serve a prison sentence but was made to perform a year of community service in an old people’s home near his sumptuous Milan residence.  

  He was born 29 September 1936 5.40am Milan, Italy, the son of a bank employee, graduated in law and went into real estate with questionable financing, and two of his business partners were later convicted of crimes, one of collusion with the mafia.    

  He had a Sun Mercury in Libra is his exuberant 1^st house with an equally super-optimistic Jupiter in Sagittarius in his 3^rd house. His Venus in Scorpio in his financial 2^nd house would give him a taste for spending money and indulging himself in the pleasures of the flesh – the 2^nd house being Taurus’s natural home. Venus also squares Pluto for passion, possessiveness and manipulation; and his Venus opposed an 8^th house Uranus in the chart area of business finances and sexuality – inventive, unpredictable, changeable.

  He also had a creative and neurotic Moon Saturn in Pisces opposition Neptune squaring onto his Jupiter – so he would channel his over active imagination into his boastful Jupiter in the 3^rd to great effect.

  His chart certainly reflects money and sex as foreground issues and given that he was blessed with a gift for self-promotion and communication with a 1^st house Sun and 3rd house Jupiter, his career choice of the media seems logical.

  He fitted the Italy Republic 10 June 1946 4pm chart well – with his Pluto on the Italy Midheaven and his Jupiter conjunct the South Node and his Sun conjunct the Italy 12^th house Neptune. He controlled Italy’s destiny and direction for a while, though pulling it back it into its less evolved traits with his bombastic cheer and appealed to its delusions.