Astrology of Today’s News

Lou Taylor, Britney Spears’ former manager, has filed legal documents to halt Spears’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart asking for full accounting over the last 13 years of Taylor’s involvement in the conservatorship, after he claimed he believes the star’s money had been mishandled. Allegations and hot denials are flying in all directions and Taylor has already issued a defamation suit against a Britney fan. So as well to tread lightly until a court clarification. Taylor denies being involved with the alleged bugging of the star’s bedroom or controlling her medical treatment.

 Taylor’s company Tri-Star parted ways with Spears in August 2020 amid allegations that she and others were getting death threats. A recent CNN documentary reported that Spears blames Taylor for many conservatorship-related issues. Taylor has a Rolodex of celebrity clients, including Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler, Gwen Stefani, Reba McEntire, Priyanka Chopra, Mary J. Blige and several Kardashians. She appears to be a devout Christian with a pastor husband.

 The potential termination of the singer’s conservatorship is expected to be addressed in court on November 12 midway between Mars square Saturn and Mars opposition Uranus so it will be high tension and aggravated.

  Lou Taylor, born 30 October 1965 in New York, is a Sun Scorpio trine Jupiter in Cancer and trine Saturn in Pisces – capable, private, creative, not always realistic. She has a passionate Venus Mars in Sagittarius in a relentlessly determined and volatile square to Pluto Uranus in Virgo, so when push comes to shove she won’t budge easy. She has a steely core.

At the moment she has her Solar Arc Saturn opposing her Sun for a discouraging setback; early this December looks deflating and unlucky; 2022 will be enthusiasm-denting; but her major problems pick up in a calamitous 2023/24.

  Her Sun and Neptune Mercury in Scorpio all fall in Britney’s financial 2^nd house so money would be the main draw with some confusion arising (Neptune). Taylor’s Uranus Pluto is also conjunct Britney’s Mars in Virgo and square Britney’s Sun and Neptune which is a damaging connection with Taylor wielding the power but in a chaotic way. Taylor’s Jupiter is also on Britney’s Midheaven which could suggest a profitable career partnership or Taylor’s status being raised by her position on the Spears bandwagon.

  Their relationship chart has been wobbling badly since 2020 with tr Pluto upending the composite Uranus, with aggravations this year – but the more telling problems will come in 2023/24.

  Britney’s own chart has that tr Neptune opposition her Mars right through till early 2023 so she may lose a few battles along the way before clearing her feet of this mess.

See previous posts: September 13 2021

Pic: Mike Maguire

Spooks, politicos and lawyers collide to throw more questions than answers around the Steele Dossier which purported to show Trump’s Kremlin connection before the 2016 election. A Russian analyst has been arrested by US authorities for lying.  He was the source for the most incendiary allegation that Trump was compromised during a trip to Moscow in November 2013 for the Miss Universe beauty pageant. Trump has denied the claim however, a report by the Senate intelligence committee said that the FSB spy agency presided over a network of secret cameras inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel where Trump stayed, including in guest bedrooms.

  In 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller said no criminal wrongdoing had taken place between the Trump campaign and Moscow but he noted there were multiple contacts in 2016 between Russian spies and Trump aides. The Kremlin had run a “sweeping and systemic” operation to help Trump win, Mueller said. The bipartisan report by the Senate intelligence committee was dismissive of Steele’s dossier, but corroborated key elements in it.

  Former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, 24 June 1964 was born five days after Boris Johnson so has a similar Saturn opposition Uranus Pluto square Mars in Gemini – scattergun and uber-excitable. With the Jupiter opposition Neptune adding a streak of over optimism – all of which may have sent him jumping to conclusions and relying on his unreliable judgement. His Cancer Sun does trine Saturn which might give him some anchoring.

 His relationship chart with Trump is all over the place through this December and more so in 2022/23, so more may emerge to clear the fog.

  But who’d know? Some of the dossier appears to be on the money and intelligence is often straws in the wind, which sometimes prove to be accurate and sometimes not. And sometimes the truth only emerges fifty years down the line, if then.    

One of Hollywood’s darkest rumours from decades back has been given credence with a claim that Natalie Wood was, as suspected, sexually assaulted by Kirk Douglas in her teens. Her sister in a memoir says she was waiting outside in a car with her mother outside Douglas’s LA hotel suite into which the young Natalie had been despatched by her stage-mother-from-hell in the hope of gaining career advancement. She returned later dishevelled and upset and was told by her mother to “suck it up”. In later years Natalie discussed the assault with her sister.

 Kirk Douglas, 9 December 1916 10.15 am New York, was renowned both as a womanizer and having a ferocious temper, courtesy of his Mars in Capricorn opposition Pluto in Cancer. His Sagittarius Sun was inconjunct Natalie’s 8^th house Uranus and even more damagingly his Saturn in Cancer was conjunct her already over-stressed and frightened Sun, Pluto, Mars in Cancer. Her mother was already a monster with those planets in her 10^th and she was delivered on a platter to another. 

His Scorpio Midheaven was also exactly conjunct her North Node – so her karmic Scorpio journey with its overwhelming drive for success made her vulnerable to his career status.

  When the assault occurred around 1955 when she was 17 or thereabouts her chart was labouring under a life-changing collection of explosive and disturbing influences – her Solar Arc Moon was conjunct her 8^th house Uranus (8^th house ruling sexuality) and her Solar Arc Midheaven was in a blocked conjunction to her powerless Pluto. Tr Uranus was conjunct her Mars Pluto Sun with tr Neptune square Sun, Mars, Pluto; and tr Saturn in Scorpio trine. It’s a miracle she survived the psychological damage from that period.

  Sadly there’s no birth date for the mother.

  So beautiful and so much grief and pain.

For previous post on Kirk Douglas see February 6 2020

Not a good week for the House of Commons as a different scandal tainted the other side of the aisle.  Claudia Webbe, a Labour MP once a power figure on the far left, was given a suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of a campaign of harassment, including threatening to “use acid” and distribute naked pictures of woman friend of her partner. She had the whip withdrawn when charges were laid and now sits as an independent. If her appeal fails her sentence will prompt an automatic recall petition in Leicester East.

   That seat does not have a good record having been represented previously by Keith Vaz, who was infamous for a litany of offences (see wiki) for over thirty years – and mystifyingly survived them until unprotected sex with male prostitutes and cocaine did for him and he resigned some time after that exposure.

   Webbe was part of the Momentum set and has been supported by Jeremy Corbyn, McConnell and Diane Abbott over this debacle.

  Born 8 March 1965 she has four planets in Pisces including her Sun, Venus and Saturn and Mercury with a formidable and fearsome collection of Uranus, Pluto, Mars in Virgo across in opposition. That collection in Virgo is combustible, volatile and prone to aggravated outbursts. She’s also got a Boris Johnson type Jupiter (Moon) in Taurus opposition Neptune whose attributes run along a spectrum from visionary dreamers at one end to hypocrites and those who cause scandals through their own instability at the other.

  Maybe an early warning signal from next year’s Scorpio/Taurus Eclipses which will be rattling up both ends of this opposition.

Pic David Woolfall.

The new Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, now governing with an enlarged majority replete with right-wingers, appears to be backing revisions to the country’s “peace constitution. This would be a historic step, overturning a post-world war 11 promise by the defeated Japanese never to resort to war. Some nationalists see it as an anachronistic source of shame. Opinion polls suggest that a “yes” vote would be uncertain and the move could provoke large scale demonstrations that have not been seen since the 1970s.

  Kishida, 29 July 1957, has an innovative Sun Uranus in Leo in a can-be-fanatical square to Neptune. And a formidable Mars, Mercury, Pluto in Leo so he will be ruthlessly determined when necessary. He was first sworn in on 4^th October, replacing his predecessor, at which point he promptly called for an election.  There’s a hard edge to this chart with a combative Sun Mars trine Saturn. And its Venus in Scorpio conjunct Algol will catch the Lunar Eclipse late this month and again in May 2022.

  He’ll be pushing ahead confidently from early 2022 with tr Pluto trine his Jupiter which continues into 2023 but by that time he’s got tr Pluto square his Neptune in 2023/24 which can be confusing not to say devastating. 2023/24 is also when he’s running into major problems with the insecure tr Uranus square his Mars, followed by tr Uranus square Mercury and Pluto in 2025.

 The Japan chart itself will be moving through stormy seas with its Aquarius Sun square Neptune catching the jolting tr Uranus hard aspects from 2023 to 2025. And there is a panicky failure tr Neptune conjunct the Mars in 2022/23.  And both the Japan/China 1912 and Japan/China 1949 relationship chart indicate the 2023 to 2025 years to be seriously stressed.

What an unholy mess. A Tory MP acted as a paid advocate for private interests while serving as an MP, was censured, whereupon Boris Johnson decides to retrospectively upend the decision, fire the official finger-pointer and shift the goalposts for the future. The opposition finally woke up, shrieking blue murder and even Tory backbenchers hung their heads in shame. Twas said part of the reason behind this bullrun by the prime minister was to subvert future investigations of who paid his interior decoration bill for No 10.

   Sleaze has been piling up into towering mounds through the pandemic with dodgy deals for health-related contracts, all eliciting grumbles but not gaining much traction. But this one appears to be a step too far.

  The Boris Government chart 13 December 2019 11 am, was always extremely questionable with a hidden 12th house Pluto Venus Saturn – which points to dirty dealings behind the scenes. With the Solar Arc Saturn closing the aspect to exact over the next six months it is finally meeting its comeuppance. The Sagittarius Midheaven is also in line for a conjunction from this December’s Solar Eclipse, rattling up a significant crisis. The economic think tanks are also ominously totting up and exposing what the Brexit damage is likely to be.

   Worth keeping an eye on.

Owen Paterson, the MP found to have broken lobbying rules has now resigned saying he wanted a life “outside the cruel world of politics”. He had blamed his wife’s suicide in 2020 on the standards investigation. Born 24 June 1956, he is a Sun Cancer conjunct Venus in Gemini trine Neptune, sextile a pushily-confident Jupiter Pluto in Leo which in turn square Saturn. Quite a go-getter. He also has Mars in Pisces square Mercury in Gemini opposition North Node in Sagittarius – some hints of Boris in there.

Dr Aaron T Beck, a pioneer in the field of psychology and father of cognitive therapy, has died aged 100. His work revolutionised the diagnosis and treatment of depression and other psychological disorders by prompting patients to focus on distortions in their day-to-day thinking, rather than on conflicts buried in childhood. He touted the idea with an anti-Freudian maxim: “There’s more to the surface than meets the eye.”

  Some psychologists called his method superficial and little more than a morale booster, but it became required training for psychiatry residents and has been used to treat bulimia, panic attacks, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and drug abuse. He engaged in public and private dialogues with the Dalai Lama and together they concluded that CBT and Buddhism have much in common.

  Born 18 July 1921 Providence, Rhode Island, he was a pro-active and emotional Sun Mars in Cancer; with a penetrating Mercury Pluto also in Cancer in an innovative trine to Uranus. His Uranus was in an adventurous opposition to Jupiter (conjunct Saturn) and square a sociable Venus in Gemini. While his Mercury would dig deep his Venus in social butterfly Gemini would be happier on the surface.

  His Harmonics are particularly marked in the ‘healer’ 12H; and leaving-a-legacy for history 17H; as well as the global-renown 22H.  His spiritual-seeker 7H was also strong.

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Brazen betrayal is the theme of “A Spy Among Friends” a new TV drama series about Kim Philby, who not only deceived and double-crossed his country as a soviet agent, but also his closest friend Nick Elliott as well as the service they both worked for. It takes a special kind of amoral and unscrupulous personality to live that kind of a lie for decades. Elliott served in MI6 with Philby, having come up through similar upper-class Cambridge-educated backgrounds and stood by him against all accusations after MacLean and Burgess defected in 1951.

  Writer Ben Macintyre said Elliott could no more believe that Philby could be a Soviet spy than that he could fly to the moon. This was “the inner circle of Britain’s ruling class where mutual trust was so absolute and so unquestioned that there was no need for elaborate security precautions. They were all part of the same family.” Philby was ousted from the service and Elliott still supported him until 1963 when Philby confessed and fled to Moscow.

  Philby was born in Ambala India on 1 January 1912 at 2.30pm (unverified bt) and became persuaded by communism when at Cambridge. He sold secrets to the Soviets for 26 years before defecting.

  He had a Capricorn Sun, possibly in the secretive 8^th, which makes sense; and an intense, also secretive Mercury in the 8^th opposition Pluto. But more significantly he had his Mars in Taurus conjunct Algol and possibly his Moon as well opposition a charming Venus in Scorpio. The ultra-powerful and can-be-destructive Algol wreaking havoc behind the scenes.  He also had the can-be-fanatical Uranus opposition Neptune of the time square a stand-alone North Node in Aries. The 25 years he spent in Moscow after his defection were unhappy and disillusioning.

  Nick Elliott, born 15 November 1916, played in the drama by Damien Lewis, had his Scorpio Sun conjunct Philby’s Venus for a friendly connection and opposition Philby’s Mars (Moon) – he selected the charm and ignored the ruthlessness. Elliott’s Jupiter was conjunct Philby’s North Node so arguably providing a naïve cover for his illicit activities; and Philby’s Neptune was conjunct Elliott’s South Node for the most devastating of triple betrayals – of friendship, country and MI6.

 Their relationship chart had an emotionally-loaded and risky composite Grand Trine of Pluto trine Venus trine Mars and North Node, which would in part be soaked up in the joint secret service work they shared. But was blown apart in the early 1960s by tr Uranus and Pluto in Virgo opposing the composite Mars.

  When Elliott was finally forced to accept the truth, his chart showed clearly the extent to which he was shattered – Solar Arc Mars opposed his Neptune for panicky-failure. His Solar Arc Saturn squared his Mars for a major setback. His Solar Arc Mercury opposed his Pluto provoking the gloomiest of thoughts. And tr Saturn then in Aquarius was conjunct his Uranus and moving to square his Sun – jolting, discouraging and a sharp reality check.

The Nodal cross overs are interesting since they were at the heart of the most damaging events in the history of British espionage.

As a further thought, looking at Philby’s chart against the UK, it puts his Sun within less than a degree of the UK Sun for a strong connection but his duplicitous Neptune fell in the UK 10th; and his Saturn in Taurus was in a hostile conjunction to the UK 8th house Mars. Philby’s Mars Moon in Taurus was also in the UK 8th square the UK Saturn. He was certainly suited to work behind in the scenes in the realm of dirty secrets but his Algol square the UK Saturn, ruling the country’s legislature and his Neptune would put him at cross purposes to the UK’s interests.

Add on: Have added chart for St John Philby, his father. His wiki entry worth reading. Pro-Arabist, anti-semitic, thought to have handed over info to the Saudis – so had slightly the same leanings as his son, though how he squared his ‘socialist’ views with the House of Saud isn’t clear. Makes it all the more astonishing that Philby Jnr was welcomed into M16 with no questions asked.

Bosnia could be in imminent danger of breaking apart as Serb separatists carry out their threat to recreate their own army. The international representative warned that the country was facing “the greatest existential threat of the postwar period”. Recent Bosnian Serb police “counter-terrorist” exercises last month were, he said “tantamount to secession without proclaiming it.” There is a “very real” prospect of a return to conflict, he said. With Russia and Serbia supporting the breakaway factions.

  The Dayton Agreement which brought an end to the bloody Bosnia War of the early 1990s has been criticized for creating an ineffective and unwieldy political structure, with the  single sovereign state known as Bosnia and Herzegovina composed of two parts, a largely Serb-populated area and another mainly Croat-Bosniak-populated one.

  The Bosnia independence chart, 3 March 1992, is exhibiting more than the usual degree of jitters with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on the Mars, Saturn, Venus in Aquarius this year and next.  With the New Year to mid February 2022 especially disruptive and explosive as tr Uranus squares the Mars. The discouraging Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the Sun also hits exact in six months; with collisions and shocks in 2024 as the Solar Arc Mars is conjunct the Sun. In 2023 there is rebellious and turbulent tr Uranus opposition Pluto.

   The treaty which ended the war, signed in Paris on 14 December 1995 at 11.48am, shows disappointment writ large with tr Neptune square the Sun Jupiter over the next three years and tr Pluto in an upsetting conjunction to the Uranus through 2022/23. So the predictions may not be far off the mark.