Astrology of Today’s News

The howls of gallic outrage from Emmanuel Macron over the political humiliation of being excluded from the Aukusa pact with the knock-on economic damage of a cancelled multi-billion submarine contract, are causing wry amusement elsewhere. There was already disquiet in Washington about EU investment agreements with China and the gas pipeline deal with Russia; and there has been continuing resentment about lack of EU financial commitment to NATO. So there’s more than a smidgeon of hypocrisy about the indignation.

  And as Nick Timothy points out in the Telegraph, ‘Aukus is not a “new Nato”. There is no collective security clause, tying Britain into conflict in particular circumstances. The treaty is about capabilities, and pooling expertise that would otherwise have remained secret. If China attacks Taiwan, the treaty would not force Britain to become a belligerent.’

   Joe Biden clashes badly with Macron at an astro-level  – his determined (and ruthless) Mars in Scorpio square Pluto sits on top of Macron’s Uranus in Scorpio square Mars in Leo which is a volcano waiting to blow. But this would not be a decision based on personality issues since Biden gets on just as badly with Boris Johnson, despite all present purrs to the contrary.

   Biden’s relations with the EU will bump along until 2024 when they may blow up into a major disagreement.

  France itself is facing a tough few years ahead – but is hardly alone in that. The Eclipse shift into Taurus/Scorpio from this November’s Lunar will rattle up its revolutionary and vengeful Mars in Scorpio and Midheaven. Repeating with the May 2022 Lunar Eclipse in Taurus. The October 2022 Solar Eclipse in Scorpio will oppose the France Saturn for another sharp reality check and a double dose of problems to resolve.

  2022/23 will also be bedevilled by a devastatingly confused tr Pluto square Neptune. There’s also a financially blocked Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the France Venus after mid 2022.

  In 2023/24 tr Pluto will square the Saturn for hardship, financial cutbacks and a dreary slog; and there’s a lacklustre tr Neptune opposition the Virgo Sun come 2024. By 2025 it’ll start to bounce again in confidence and enthusiasm with tr Pluto square the Jupiter.

  The central bank of France, 18 January 1800, will be under severe pressure in 2022/23 with tr Pluto conjunct the Sun, deconstructing the old and hoping the new arises out of the ashes. There’s an enthusiasm-deflating tr Neptune square the Jupiter right through till early 2023; with high anxiety in 2022 as well from tr Saturn square tr Uranus hitting on the Neptune. Then another dose of panic and possibly misjudgements in 2023/2024 from tr Neptune opposition the Uranus.

  Nearer the time I’ll look at the French elections due April/May 2022 but from memory Xavier Bertrand’s chart looked reasonably hopeful.

Jimmy Greaves, a much-loved English footballer who was a prolific goal-scorer has died aged 81. He started playing professional football at 17, semi-retired at 30 after a successful career, but returned despite suffering from alcoholism to play until he was 40. In his later years he had a broadcasting career as well as several business interests.

  He was born 20 February 1940 with a Pisces Sun and a Cancer Moon. His Sun was sextile Saturn in self-reliant Aries and Mars in early Taurus both of which squared Pluto – he had a backbone of titanium and will-power to match. His upbeat Jupiter Venus in Aries was also in a confident/successful trine to Pluto. 

  A curious hybrid of imaginative and ultra-determined, enthusiastic and depressive.

Clive Sinclair, the inventor of the UK’s first mass-market home computer has died. Despite his great successes, his long career was a triumph of perseverance over repeated failure.  On occasion his inventions were before their time. In the 1980s he conjured up the C5, an electric three-wheeler, which proved a commercial disaster and later an e-bike, but they anticipated a trend that is now becoming commonplace.

  He was born 30 July 1940 in Richmond, England (no birth time), into a family of engineers, excelled at maths at school but did not go to university. He had an incredibly obstinate chart with a Sun Pluto conjunction in Leo with his Sun and Mars in Leo square Jupiter Saturn in Taurus and his Mars square Uranus in Taurus – dogged determination would be ingrained in his DNA. He had the creative Uranus trine Neptune of his generation and in his case it sextiled onto Mercury in Cancer – so he would have ‘eureka’ moments of insight. Sitting amongst all this enduring Fixed planets was a jitterbug Moon and Venus in Gemini which would keep him constantly on the move.

  His get-it-together 5^th harmonic was strong as was his leaving-a-legacy 17H.

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The weird and macabre tale of multimillionaire real estate heir Robert Durst has come to a fitting end with a murder conviction for the killing of a long-time friend Susan Berman twenty years ago, who was about to tell police she helped him cover up the killing of his wife Kathy. He is suspected of doing away with three people over forty years but managed to evade justice until giving an ill-considered interview to a documentary The Jinx, which produced enough evidence to nail him. He has never been charged in the disappearance of his wife and was acquitted of violent death of a roommate in Texas, where he was living under cover. He admitted dismembering the victim’s body and tossing it out to sea.

  During the trial, prosecutors painted a portrait of a rich narcissist who didn’t think the laws applied to him and ruthlessly disposed of people who stood in his way.

  He was born 12 April 1943 in New York and said he witnessed his mother falling off a roof when he was seven though the family dispute this. A psychiatrist diagnosed him as possibly schizophrenic. Over the years he travelled under dozens of aliases and at one point owned seven Alaskan Malamute dogs all of which disappeared in mysterious circumstances which a relative suggested was him practising killing his wife.

  He is a Sun Aries in an expansive square to Jupiter, perhaps Moon in Cancer. What is striking is his Mars in obstinate, contrary Aquarius opposition North Node square Venus in Taurus closely conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol.  Venus square Mars tends to be insensitive to the needs of others. He also had Pluto on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine to Neptune trine Uranus Saturn in Gemini – controlling, inventive, autocratic.

  A birth time would be illuminating. But on his harmonics – the serial killer 18H is not especially marked.  But the 7H is which can be mentally unstable. Also significant are his ‘gaining immortality’ 17H; ‘destructive’ 16H; and rise-and-fall 10H.

  What is also pertinent is that his long time friend Susan Berman, a mobster’s daughter, born 18 May 1945, had her Taurus Sun conjunct Algol and conjunct his Venus – so she attracted the full brunt of his dangerous affection. And his second wife Kathy, 15 June 1952, had her North Node exactly conjunct his South Node and her Pluto was conjunct his North Node.

Fur and feathers are flying with the surprise announcement of a secretly-negotiated USA, Australia, UK deal to sell nuclear powered submarines to Australia. The French are upset since it scuppers a $66 billion contract to sell diesel-submarines to Australia. The Chinese have their nose out of joint since it is widely seen as an effort to counter their influence in the contested South China Sea.

   The AUKUS pact was announced in Canberra at 10.37am on 16 September 2021 (I’m not sure whether this was the original tri-partite Biden/Morrison/Johnson announcement) – but whichever came first there is a lacklustre, indecisive Sun opposition Neptune which isn’t too inspiring though it is balanced by a controlling Sun trine Moon Pluto. The next two years will be the testing time as the Solar Arc Neptune moves to close the opposition to exact.

  What is clear from all the charts – China 1912 and China 1949, USA, UK, Australia and France – is that the real problems will emerge in 2023/2024. And that occurs right across all the relationships between each of them. There will be rumblings of discontent and disillusionment before then but that is when it peaks. With the exception of France/UK who will squabble throughout, as is their way, which may be over other bones of contention.

Add On: It may be coincidental but picking up from an older post about the charts of US and UK warships – USS Abraham Lincoln, Gerald Ford, Milwaukee and HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales – all look rattled in 2023/24. So there may be more obvious tensions than usual which doesn’t mean outright conflict but it could be sabre-rattling and responses. The two key Australian warships HMAS Canberra and Adelaide also look to be moving through a similar, highly disruptive patch.

Add On/2: The Australia USA relationship chart in essence is Plutonic, which suggests closeness though also perhaps one-sided control and dominance with a tendency for provoking oneupmanship battles with a composite Pluto opposition Sun and Jupiter as well as trine Mars. Where relations will be rattled most severely will be in 2024/25 when tr Pluto in Aquarius opposes the Mars and tr Uranus opposes the composite Saturn – which could be facing a fraught situation together, or ructions caused by a change-over Presidency.

  The USA/UK relationship may hit problems next year though that could be for different reasons. Biden and Johnson do not get on to put it mildly with hostility and suspicion writ large on their relationship chart.

As a further throwaway addendum – China is not a success region on Biden’s astrocartography, assuming an accurate birth time.

Patrick Dempsey, ‘McDreamy’ of the long-running TV medical series Grey’s Anatomy until he parted company in 2015 with rumours of producer spats has been accused in an upcoming book of ‘terrorizing’ the set and upsetting certain cast and crew members.

   At the time he said he’d done 11 years of 15 hour days and wanted time with his family and to diversify, though his career hasn’t exactly gone stratospheric since. He recently returned to the series recently as a dream in his former wife Meredith’s fevered Covid-induced coma.

  He was born 13 January 1966 11.45am Lewiston, Maine and has a career-oriented 10^th house Capricorn Sun trine Pluto Uranus in Virgo and sextile Neptune in Scorpio – he’s got ambition to spare and filmic talent though will be erratic and unpredictable. His determined Mars in Aquarius conjunct Venus in his 10^th will be pushy and stubborn; and his Jupiter square Pluto would make him ride roughshod over social niceties at times. His Saturn in the 11^th probably wouldn’t make him an over friendly team member. But it isn’t too hair-raising a chart.

  Where one problem undoubtedly lay was with the formidable producer Shonda Rhimes, 13 January 1970. She’s another Sun Capricorn with Venus and Mercury close by so they might have understood each other’s approach. But her Mars in Pisces opposition Pluto which is ultra-determined and not-to-be-tangled-with hits his Pluto Uranus and his Saturn in quite the wrong place which would turn into a battle of wills.

   Ellen Pompeo, the star, 10 November 1969 1.24pm Everett, MA, is a Sun Mercury in Scorpio which clashes with his Mars so it would be argumentative at times; especially since she also has Mars in obstinate Aquarius. But her Jupiter is square his Sun and their relationship chart is affectionate with a few rough edges so it would swing along well most of the time.

   Two things strike me – One is that he does not have a ‘terrorist’s chart’. He’s an actor, has a marginally tricky temperament and wants his own way – and that’s a surprise? The other is that baling out of a long-running success rarely is a good idea no matter how bored/exhausted it feels. He looks reasonably jammed up for two years ahead with his Solar Arc Uranus Pluto squaring his Mars.

  His rise-and-fall 10^th harmonic is marked, as are his creative 5^th and 7^th Harmonics so he may come back into focus but not instantly.

The day of the long knives reshuffle has turned out to be distinctly vanilla flavoured with a muted reception even from the right-wing media. The two key appointments of Michael Gove to Housing and Liz Truss to the Foreign Office are deemed to be Boris strategies for seeing off rivals. Truss had the highest approval rating of Cabinet members in a recent poll and was a critic of his recent tax rise. Her allies say he’ll hope sending her overseas will damp her chances of campaigning for party leadership. Though Theresa May thought the same when she landed Boris as travelling emissary and that didn’t stop him. Gove has been handed another poisoned chalice.

  Liz Truss, 26 July 1975, a Sun Leo with a well-organised Saturn in Cancer, certainly looks the unhappiest of the crew over 2022/23. She’ll have the odd blip of success but is mainly heading into calamity country.

  Michael Gove, 26 August 1967, a Sun, Mercury Venus in Virgo with Uranus Pluto also in Virgo and Mars Neptune in Scorpio, also looks to be struggling through swampy territory for two years with even greater setbacks and catastrophes in 2023/24.  His relationship with Boris is more uncertain even than usual in 2021/22 and nerve-stretched and jangled the two years after that.

 Nadhim Zahawi, 2 June 1967, Baghdad, one of the wealthiest MPs with oil and other interests, has become Education Secretary. He’s another Gemini with his Sun square Uranus Pluto and trine Mars; and a hard-edged Mars opposition Saturn. He’ll be rattled towards the end of this year with tr Uranus triggering several midpoints.

   His relationship with Boris looks expansive in essence though subject to ups and downs with some disappointments looming 2021 to 2023.

 Nadine Dorries, 21 May 1967, a close friend of Boris, is causing comment since she comes in as Culture Secretary, therefore overseeing the industry regulation.  Not that raising eyebrows is a new experience since her wiki entry shows a long political career littered with controversies and arguments. She’s – yet another – Sun Gemini conjunct Venus opposition Saturn; with a stubborn and outspoken Mercury in Taurus opposition Neptune square Uranus.

  She’s having a good December this year but that apart is not finding satisfaction or success in her progress through next year.

  Her relationship with Boris is friendly with a composite Sun, Venus, Mars and a fated-to-be-together Yod of Mars sextile Uranus inconjunct Saturn in their relationship chart – but even they are on a gentle decline.

  The jury seems to be out on whether this reshuffle indicates an early election but it certainly comes at a time when his Government chart from December 2019 is moving deeper into unpopularity time with the Solar Arc Saturn moving to conjunct Venus exactly in six months.  All the indications are that 2022 is when the full extent of the economic hit from Covid/Brexit will be exposed.  

  His own chart is emotionally on edge at the moment, partly presumably with his mother’s death which may well have been flagged up some months back when his Solar Arc Uranus was conjunct his Moon. His Progressed Moon at present is just over the opposition to his Mars and moving to square his Saturn, then Uranus before the end of this year and square his Pluto into early 2022 so he’ll be bounced from pillar to post in terms of his feelings and reactions.

 Interesting that Liz Truss is the only one without an overloaded Mutable chart – Boris seems to attract his own windmills-in-a-storm type of personality.  

The next Ingress falls next Wednesday the 22^nd as the Sun moves into Libra. Only Cardinal Ingresses – Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn – are regarded as proper ingresses; and there are mixed views about how useful they are or indeed which should take priority.

  The previous Cancer Ingress this year in late June did have an aggravating and fairly calamitous Mars opposition Saturn square Uranus opposition Moon so did not augur well for the three months to follow.

  This upcoming ingress has a dynamic and argumentative Sun Mars in a disciplined trine to Saturn; with an emotionally unsettled Uranus opposition Venus square Saturn; and an intense and controlling Moon opposition Mercury square Pluto. So not all sweetness and harmony but marginally easier than what went before.

  The upcoming Capricorn Ingress is fairly scattered and apart from a Mars trine Saturn and an emotionally intense Moon opposition Venus Pluto is nowhere near as difficult as the late 2020 Capricorn Ingress with its Mars square Pluto Saturn Jupiter.  

Comedy fans have been outraged by nice-guy and devoted-husband John Mulaney falling off his pedestal, divorcing his wife, finishing his second stint in rehab for alcoholism, cocaine and prescription drug abuse and becoming a baby daddy in a celebrity romance.

   Aah the Hollywood gap – between the image and the reality.

  Mulaney, 26 August 1982 in Chicago, best known for Saturday Night Live has a Virgo Sun square a rebellious, quirky Uranus (Moon) in Sagittarius. His Mercury in communicative Virgo squares a creative Neptune; and he has a super-charged Jupiter Mars in Scorpio as well as a stubbornly determined Saturn Pluto which could tilt him at times towards depression.

  His life is certainly going through a fair upheaval with his Solar Arc Pluto just over the conjunction to his Uranus and heading to square his Sun. He won’t be on top form for a year or two with a couple of unhelpful Solar Arcs denting his enthusiasm and prospects.

He built a lot of his comedy out of his relationship with his now ex-wife Anna Marie Tendler who was often the hero of his stories, presented as smarter and more grounded than he is.  She is a make up artist, born 9 June 1985, and is a Sun Gemini opposition Uranus so quite rebellious in her own way. She has an emotionally intense Venus in Taurus opposition Pluto in Scorpio which impacts his Jupiter – so she probably was a morale booster and motivator for him. And she also has Saturn in Scorpio and Jupiter in Aquarius so will be more fixed and steadier than him.

  Their relationship chart is quite close, possessive, controlling with a composite Sun square Pluto, but there is also an illusory composite Venus opposition a head-in-the-clouds Jupiter Neptune conjunction. It has been under heavy and separating pressure in recent years from first tr Uranus square the Sun and opposition Pluto and then tr Pluto following on to do similar.

  He has hooked up with actress Olivia Munn, 3 July 1980 4.30am Oklahoma City. She had a fractured childhood with parents divorcing when she was two, followed by a verbally abusive Air Force stepfather stationed in Japan, when she spent most of her childhood. She has a Sun Cancer square Pluto; with a truly difficult Venus opposition Neptune in the 7^th square Mars Saturn opposition a Pisces Moon. She’ll be emotionally on edge, defensive and over-reactive at times.

Mulaney’s Virgo Sun is conjunct her Jupiter which is good and supportive and his Mars Jupiter are trine her Sun, with his Venus in Leo sextile her Venus in Gemini, both of which are also OK. But that apart – both are very Mutable, she’s very highly-strung.

  Their relationship chart is not inspiring with a dominating Mars Pluto admittedly in a square to Venus which suggests their connection would be a hot and strong attraction initially but will prove to be a tug of war as it continues. She certainly won’t be as steady as his ex-wife and like him she looks deflated over the next two or three years with tr Neptune opposition his Mars/Saturn midpoint and her Mars.

The fans reaction is being described as parasocial, which wasn’t a word I had come across although the concept is familiar.  Viewers or listeners come to consider media personalities as friends, despite having no or limited interactions with them. Repeated exposure to the media persona causes the media user to develop illusions of intimacy, friendship, and identification.