Astrology of Today’s News

Desperate for a win, Trump has thrown a spanner in the works of the Ukraine situation by trying to force through a Putin-friendly deal with no room for manoeuvre.

  The Invasion Declaration chart, 23 February 2022 at 9pm Moscow, had a ruthless Mars Pluto conjunction which won’t close by Solar Arc for another twenty months; though there will be significant movement from August 2026 onwards as tr Uranus squares the Declaration Sun.  

 Zelensky’s Term chart, 20 May 2019 10am Kiev, which started with a late Taurus Sun Mercury conjunct Algol, will be seriously rattled this December as tr Uranus is conjunct the Sun, returning mid March to early April 2026. He is already sagging not only with exhaustion but corruption scandals within his government and also manpower and equipment shortages. This could topple his administration. Another bout of turbulence which could also upset the applecart will come from tr Pluto square the Uranus picking up from mid February 2026 and running till late 2027. If he stays in situ then tr Neptune square the Mars from late March to late April 2026 and again in October will be sinking-failure phases.

  His own personal chart, 25 January 1978 2pm Krivoj Rog, Ukraine, does hint he is running out of steam never mind road. Solar Arc Neptune is conjunct his Sun Neptune conjunction in Aquarius now (and over past few months) for low motivation and indecision. With tr Pluto moving to conjunct his Sun Venus from late March 2026 on and off till late 2027 which will be life-changing. What also flags up is this December with tr Uranus square his Saturn at 28 Leo for a sizeable jolt.

 Fixed sign planets at 28 degrees which tr Uranus will trigger does show up in both the Ukraine 1918 and Ukraine 1991 chart – so this December does look like a critical point of upset.

 Whether an unfair deal is pushed through or not, the ill-feeling between Ukraine and Russia will roll on for years to come – which shows clearly on both country’s relationship charts.

 Vladimir Putin’s 5^th term, 7 May 2024, got under way with Neptune and the unlucky Scheat in place, which will be keyed up over coming months into spring 2026. He’ll also feel the ill winds of tr Neptune undermining his Mars/Neptune midpoint from March 2026 onwards though what will really bite, bringing failure and low morale will be 2027 when tr Neptune is conjunct the term Mars.

 The crucial question is whether the transiting Saturn Neptune conjunction of 2026 will repeat the earlier experiences of accompanying radical changes in Russia – 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and 1953 Stalin’s death.

 The Russia 8 December 1991 chart will be pressured through 2026 though the explosive moments will come late 2026 into 2027, worsening dramatically through into 2028 (which could also include a natural disaster).

  The Russia 8 November 1917 chart will be on red alert and insecure from June 2026 onwards with tr Uranus square the Mars – with again 2027 looking like a time of maximum chaos.

Add On: Matthew Syed, as ever a sane voice, in today’s Sunday Times:

“Don’t blame Trump. We’re the ones who falsely raised Ukraine’s hopes

The US president’s cynicism was never in doubt, but why did Europe promise the world and then withhold it?”

Imposing a deal that will dismember Ukraine, annex its territory and permanently thwart its membership of Nato. “Trump’s upside? A 50 per cent share of profits in Ukraine-based investment as a route to further deals with Putin on minerals.”

Why did we dither on weaponry and allow laundered Russian oil to keep finding its way into global markets.

  The “West” will have lost a war to “a kleptocratic, failing nation with an economy smaller than Italy’s. This should have been the greatest mismatch since Soviet tanks rolled into Finland in 1939 but we stand on the sidelines while Putin and Trump plot to carve up a sovereign ally in our back yard.”

Food for thought.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret MacDonald were later inspirations for Klimt.  He was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist influential on Art Nouveau and Secessionism. She was an artist and designer working with embroidery, gesso panels, leaded glass and repoussé metalwork, her innovative work inspired by Celtic imagery, literature, symbolism, and folklore. Both were  important figures of the Modern Style though she has been marginalised in comparison to him despite his claim that she was the greater genius.

 Klimt’s Lederer masterpiece (sold recently) was inspired by Margaret Macdonald’s large gresso panel, The May Queen (a middle section above).

Rennie McIntosh, 7 June 1868 11.15 am Glasgow, Scotland, had a 10^th house Gemini Sun with an inventive Uranus also in his 10^th opposition a Capricorn on square Neptune Jupiter in Aries in his 8^th . He drew his inspiration from deep places within him with such a focus on his 8^th and that plus a ‘leadership’ Leo North Node marked him out as a trailblazer. He’d be emotionally intense with his Moon trine Mars Pluto in Taurus and his Saturn on his IC hinted at a domestic life focused on work.

  Latterly the couple lived in Port Vendres in Catalan France and then in Hampstead and he died of cancer aged 60.

 Margaret Macdonald, born 5 November 1864, Staffordshire, England, met him at Glasgow Art School after her family moved north. She was a Sun Mercury in Scorpio opposition Pluto so every bit as intense and enduring (stubborn) as he was. Her Mars in Gemini was in a hard-working trine to Saturn and inspirational trine to Uranus, with her Saturn probably square her Capricorn Moon.

 Neither were easy temperaments and with her Mars conjunct his Sun they would argue though she would also fuel his ambitions.

 Their relationship chart was complicated  with a competitive composite Sun square Mars; a chained-together Saturn Pluto pacified by a connected Jupiter; an upbeat and affectionate Jupiter, Venus, North Node, Mars imprinting their togetherness on the cultural mood of the time; and most significantly two yods bringing them together in a way that affected the destiny of both.

 One of their most famous creations was Miss Cranston’s Tea Room in Glasgow.  Catherine Cranston, 27 May 1848, was a leading figure in the development of tea rooms (as an alternative to pubs) and was a major patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald, for his work on her home Househill and the tea room. She had a Gemini Sun like Rennie McIntosh which in her case was square Neptune and sextile a tough-minded Mars Saturn in Aries. She had a revolutionary Uranus Pluto in Aries so would be on the leading edge of new developments. Her Jupiter in enthusiastic, showy Leo was square Rennie Mcintosh’s Mars Pluto and Margaret’s Scorpio Sun and Pluto as she gave them an outlet for their intense visions.

Pity poor Karoline Leavitt, the highly articulate, polished blonde spokesperson for Trump as she is forced to defend his ever more outrageous comments.  Describing his ‘Quiet Piggy’ retort to a female journalist asking about Epstein as “frank and honest”, she is rapidly moving into Comical Ali territory.  He was Saddam Hussein’s mouthpiece who caused worldwide amusement before the 2003 Iraq invasion with his wildly-at-odds-with-reality television statements.

 I haven’t caught up with her responses yet to his tantrum over Democrats telling military personnel to refuse illegal orders. On his Truth Social he posted “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH”. Even by his standards he appears to be heading down a slippery slope.

Never mind his delusional ravings about the economy. “This is the golden age of America, because we are doing better than we’ve ever done as a country. Prices are coming down and all of that stuff.” The reality is that beef is up 14 percent since January, coffee 19 percent from last September, and a loaf of bread often closer to $4 than $3. Health insurance costs rose this year by six percent on average and likely to rise even more in 2026 as subsidies are phased out.

 There are also major cracks within the MAGA tribe on a variety of issues. 

  Political appointees come and go in any administration but Leavitt might be a useful barometer for what is to come as she is increasingly being forced to defend the indefensible.

 Her Virgo Sun sits exactly on his Ascendant, as befits his communication channel.

Her relationship chart with Trump which has been more fraught than surface appearances suggest will move back into high-stress territory from March 2026 onwards with an undermining tr Neptune opposition the composite Mars. That is at the same time as his 2025 Inauguration chart has its bully-boy Sun Pluto opposition Mars square Moon closing to exact by Progression. Extreme anxiety is hinted at from mid May 2026 onwards when tr Uranus opposes the composite Neptune, followed by a potentially separating tr Uranus square the composite Venus into 2027.

Not forgetting the swamps and storm winds to come over this winter with tr Neptune on Scheat which will be buffeting the 2025 Inauguration chart as well. Interestingly his Inauguration chart has (lying) Nessus conjunct Venus Saturn in mid Pisces, rattled up the the recent September Lunar Eclipse.

 Leavitt’s personal chart is showing jolting changes with tr Uranus square her Virgo Sun in May 2026 and will continue to rock n’ roll thereafter with tr Uranus opposition her Pluto on and off into 2027. If she sticks around it won’t get easier.

 Likewise Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff, 14 May 1957, in her relationship with Trump is frustrated and trapped now till early December; with late April through to late September 2026 sagging badly because of circumstances or cracks in their togetherness. One way or another confidence-undermining influences run on through 2027 to early 2028. Plus major disruptions also through 2027.

 All of the above are running alongside two conspicuous and troubling influences on the USA chart. One is the Solar Arc Sun square the Mars within a few months for an upsetting, collision-type event, followed by an undermining, directionless SA Sun opposition the USA Neptune around spring 2027. At the same time as tr Neptune (Saturn) squares the USA Venus and then the USA Jupiter in a confidence-eroding run from late March 2026 on throughout 2027 to spring 2028 – all of which look financially stressed and bubble-bursting.

  Past experience has indicated that twisting the astrology to get overly hopeful about the fall of dictators and the like is usually unwise.  But all the signs are there of the USA finally falling out of love with Trump. His relationship chart with the USA is sending up distress signals with tr Neptune square the composite Sun from late April 2026 onwards with more high-tension eruptions from July 2026 as tr Uranus squares the composite Saturn – both running through 2027. Not all coming up roses despite the brag and bombast which can only get more desperate as even he (maybe) is forced to face reality.

[Andrew Neil, the journalist, who is sensible, reckons there’ll be nothing much to emerge about Trump from the Epstein files since it would have come out before now. But his defeat at the hands of his own in backing down and agreeing to publish is indicative of a weakening of his power platform.]

See previous post on Leavitt and Wiles: White House – two women at the top. 1st May 2025

PS: Someone should point out to Trump that pigs are amongst the most intelligent of animals.

A Gustav Klimt painting, nearly destroyed in a fire in WW11 when looted by the Nazis, has sold for a record-breaking $236.4m. Latterly it had been owned by the Estee Lauder heir.

 Klimt born 14 July 1862, Vienna, Austria, after a conventional start painting murals, became famous as a “painter of women”. ‘Eros, sexuality and femininity were variously interpreted by him as alluring danger. Life, love, and death can be determined as the important themes of his work.’ His work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe.

 In real life he had many relationships with women and fathered at least fourteen children.

 He grew up in poverty with a gold engraver father, one of seven children. One sister died young, another became mentally disturbed leaving their mother depressed and three brothers had artistic talents though, Ernst, the closest to Gustav, died in his late twenties.

 Gustav Klimt was a creative Sun Cancer with an Aquarius/Pisces Moon. He had two conjunctions forming a Mutable T square with Uranus Venus in Gemini opposition a Sagittarius North Node square Saturn Jupiter in Virgo – light-hearted, lucky, hard-working, tuned into the cultural mood of the moment. Plus a publicity-attracting Neptune Mars conjunction in Aries.  His Pluto was sparsely aspected being only sextile Mercury and maybe conjunct his Sun/Moon midpoint. An unaspected Pluto can be intense, fuelled by compulsive urges of great power but over time does need to be held in check.

The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction was Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, which sold in 2017 for US$450.3m.

  There is little that connects the two painters, one born 400 years after the other, apart from talent and luck – talent on its own not always being enough to bring success in life or the hereafter.

 Leonardo da Vinci, 23 April 1452 (Gregorian Calendar) 9.40 pm Vinci, Italy, was a Sun Taurus in his creative and audience-attracting 5^th house in a determined square to Pluto. His Moon conjunct Jupiter in Pisces was on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune on his Midheaven. With a second yod from his Jupiter Moon sextile Sun inconjunct his 10^th house Neptune.  Neptune, the dream-weaver and image-creator was highlighted as was confident, expansive, fortunate Jupiter. In some ways a more obvious super-star artist chart.

Dick van Dyke, the legendary entertainer and comedian, will be 100 years old in less than a month. His performances on screen and stage over seven decades won him numerous awards and made him a household name with the Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Poppins and Diagnosis Murder. He has been married twice, with a long affair in between and most recently at 86 married a make-up artist 46 years his junior.

 He has an upbeat Sagittarius Sun conjunct Mercury sitting in his performing 5^th house. But there are stand out features in his chart. One is a heavily aspected Neptune in Leo on his Ascendant which is trine his Sun and on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Uranus sextile Jupiter. His Neptune is also square Mars Saturn and Moon in Scorpio in his 4^th hinting at a turbulent childhood. His Mars Saturn are also in a creative though stressed Water Grand Trine to Pluto trine Uranus. His spaced-out Neptune probably protected him from the difficulties of his childhood and his ever-optimistic Sagittarius Sun would also help.

Comedians often come out of difficult backgrounds which are at odds with their light hearted banter.

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‘Nessus, is considered by many as the bad boy of the centaurs, but he also has a positive role, to use William Burroughs’ expression of “wising up the marks” and making us better equipped to deal with the risks and dangers we inevitably face.’ Ben Belinsky’s new ebook gives the lowdown on “Nessus”, the  third centaur 1993 HA2, which runs in an elliptical orbit between Saturn and Pluto, so carries a dark energy.

Key words for Nessus: ruthless, manipulation, lying, confidence trick, double-dealing, revenge, rape, sexual abuse, poison (including emotional poison),curses /removes curses.

  It is no surprise to see Nessus on Harvey Weinstein’s Descendant opposition his Mars in Scorpio square Pluto – a bully in relationships.  His elevated status started to collapse in 2014 when tr Nessus was conjunct his North Node. Karma.

 Two other intriguing examples from Ben Belinsky’s research are Tony Blair whose Nessus is conjunct his Taurus Sun which does fit with Teflon Tone. But even more so when the Iraq attack took place as tr Nessus was square his Mercury opposition Neptune Saturn focusing attention on the ‘dodgy dossier’ which was his excuse for supporting GW Bush.

  Winston Churchill was another with his Sagittarius Sun conjunct Nessus which the author puts down to his intuitive sense that Hitler could not be trusted.    In addition, Churchill’s Moon was conjunct Chariklo with its ability endure the unendurable – “Never, never, never give up!”

 Meghan Markle has Nessus exactly conjunct her Ascendant and her Procyon – perhaps hinting at the untrustworthy reputation she has attracted. With Procyon, the Fixed star of the wheel of fortune, the rise and fall.

Nessus quotes

“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” Voltaire

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” George Orwell

“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.” William Burroughs

“One who causes others misfortune also teaches them wisdom.” African Proverb

https://moonletter.co.uk/e-books/#nessus

Robert Jay Lifton, the psychiatrist who shed light on the darkest chapters in modern history including Chinese brainwashing, Hiroshima, the Holocaust and the Vietnam War, has died aged 99.

  His later investigations into war crimes and the experiences of Vietnam veterans in the early 1970s led him to formulate his theory of the “atrocity-producing situation” in which he believed ordinary people could commit acts of such extraordinary cruelty as the My Lai massacre.

  His book The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide was based on interviews with both perpetrators and victims. He argued the Nazi doctors committed their crimes using a process of personality “doubling”, whereby the moral medical practitioner was psychologically divided from the immoral “killing self”. The book drew criticism from those who felt Lifton’s approach was too forgiving. Lifton responded that humanity best serves the future when it confronts its own potential for evil rather than dismissing it as “unexaminable”.

The research for Nazi Doctors took an emotional toll, and he had frequent nightmares in which he or his family were imprisoned in camps. On hearing this, a friend and Auschwitz survivor remarked: “Good, now you can do the study.” It remained an important lesson for Lifton. “One has to offer the self to the suffering in some degree,” he said.

He was born 16 May 1926, no birth time, in New York, a week after |David Attenborough and three weeks after Queen Elizabeth 11, so he shared their stalwartly enduring Fixed chart. In his case his Taurus Sun exactly conjunct Algol was opposition Saturn square Neptune opposition Jupiter.

 His Pluto exactly conjunct Sirius (the brightest star in the sky) was in a courageous and determined trine to Mars in Pisces with Mercury sextile Mars which fits with writing about the darkest of subjects.

See previous post on Algol: Greg Wise – an Algol that breeds empathy 24th March 2024 by Marjorie

‘Despite Algol’s malevolent reputation for destruction it has another purpose which is to force us to face suffering and horror and not brush it aside.’

Glenn Close is the ‘standout role’ in the new Benoit Blanc Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery with Daniel Craig according to early reviews. She plays  a righteous woman quivering with religious fervour – or “a sad character with no life outside the church”, as Close puts it – with the creepy habit of materialising behind people and making them jump. The movie opens in cinemas on November 26 and Netflix in early December.

  It’s a far cry from Fatal Attraction, but she has a rare talent for a star of being a prolific character actor as well – Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians, The Wife, five seasons of the tv legal drama Damages, The Hunger Games, All’s Fair, and on.

 Born 19 March 1947 2.12 pm she had a fractured childhood with her doctor father who had worked in the Congo, serving as personal physician to the corrupt ruler, the kleptocrat Mobutu, joining the Moral Rearmament cult when she was seven. She lived in communal centres for fifteen years before breaking away at 22 to become an actress.

  She has described it as “a kind of psychological abuse couched in underlying misogyny”. Buchman’s Moral Rearmament movement posited what he called a “God‑controlled Fascist dictatorship” as a countermeasure to communism. She later said “I have long forgiven my parents for any of this. They had their reasons for doing what they did, and I understand them. It had terrible effects on their kids, but that’s the way it is.”

 She has been married three times, with various other relationships and has a daughter.

 She has an 8^th house Pisces Sun in a mixed element Water/Fire Grand Trine to a 12^th house Saturn in Leo trine Jupiter in Scorpio.  Her Saturn is in a determined but bleak conjunction to Pluto on her Ascendant; with her emotionally intense Pluto opposition Venus in Aquarius in her 7^th house of relationships and on one leg of a yod sextile Neptune inconjunct Mercury Mars in Pisces in her 8^th. She is immensely complex, deep, defensive, difficult to get to know and tied into her grandparents’ generation with three planets in the 8^th. As if that was not enough she has an Air Grand Trine of Venus (Moon) in Aquarius trine Neptune trine Uranus – with Pluto as the driving planet off the opposition to Venus giving her a powerful personality and image.

 It is a  miracle she is not more troubled than she appears though her relationship life a la Hollywood has been a constantly moving carnival. Her Sun/Moon midpoint, the marriage significator, is conjunct her 8th house Mars so togetherness would always be a fraught affair.

 Mars on the focal point of a yod can be overly assertive/aggressive though being in the 8^th will mask its more obvious effects. She has a reputation for insisting for or asking for auditions when roles were not offered to her – so that driving determination may come from her yod apex Mars Mercury.

  Her Jupiter in the 4^th may refer to her first happy 7 years of life as a child when she was close to her grandparents out in the country.

The BBC already wilting under the Trump faked-misspeak brouhaha is facing another deluge of righteous criticism with the publication of Dianarama by Andy Webb, a former BBC TV reporter. Uncovering the truth about Martin Bashir’s tactics in persuading Princess Diana to speak out on Panorama in 1995 has taken decades. It triggered her divorce from Prince Charles, stoked her paranoia and left her isolated, propelling her towards the events which would ultimately kill her in Paris two years later.  Webb describes it as, “a story more lurid, more fantastical, than anything that happened at the Tudor court of Henry VIII”. An estimated 200 million people worldwide watched the programme.

   Twenty-five years later, the BBC commissioned an investigation by Lord Dyson which found that Bashir had won Diana’s trust through “deceitful behaviour”, having seriously breached the BBC’s editorial rules. His inquiry concluded that the BBC’s initial internal investigation in 1996 had been “woefully ineffective” and that the corporation had “covered up” any wrongdoing.

Bashir first approached Earl Spencer, providing forged bank statements which suggested an associate was spying on his sister. He also, the book claims, told Diana that Prince Edward had Aids and that Tiggy Legge-Bourke, William and Harry’s former nanny, had been having an affair with Charles, had aborted his baby and would marry him when the Queen abdicated in the near future.

Sir Richard Eyre, the theatre director who was a BBC governor at the time of the initial investigation in 1996, told the author that the board “would have insisted on a full-scale inquiry” had they not been kept in the dark about Bashir’s deceit.

For Prince William, the BBC cover-up meant that his mother went to her death without ever knowing the truth. “She was failed not just by a rogue reporter but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions.”

Bashir, 19 January 1963 12.30pm London, has an ambitious Capricorn Sun in his 9^th house of widescale communication with Mercury in Aquarius on his Midheaven. More notably he has two tricky T squares Saturn in his 10^th (= transgressions will be punished) is in a hard-edged opposition to Mars in flamboyant Leo in a publicity-attracting square to a slippery Neptune and intense Moon in Scorpio in his 6^th. There is a queasy feel about that one. Plus an overly confident, rules-don’t-apply-to-me  Jupiter opposition Pluto in a square to a sugar sweet Venus. Using charm and duplicity to get his own way whatever it took.

  His Jupiter falls in the BBC’s 10^th house hinting that they saw him as a success bringer. Though his Saturn conjunct the BBC Mars, his Mars on the BBC IC and his Moon Neptune in Scorpio falling close to the BBC Mercury and Sun hints at a fractious interface with his Neptune working its smokescreening magic for a while.

 His synastry with Diana was hardly inspiring with his Capricorn Sun conjunct her Saturn sparking off her feelings of guilt/unworthiness; with his Mars conjunct her Uranus for explosive revelations; and his Uranus conjunct her Mars Pluto in Virgo which would tap into her fears.

 The Panorama was transmitted on 20 November 1995. If it was 8pm there was serendipitously the shiwpwrecking Scheat exactly conjunct the Midheaven and Procyon (wheel of fortune, rise and falls) on the Ascendant. There was a, intense and determined Scorpio Sun conjunct Pluto; with a wildly exuberant Jupiter Venus Mars in Sagittarius blocked by a square to Saturn in the legal/fair minded 9^th. With a highly strung Uranus Neptune on the Descendant.  

 The over-the-top Jupiter Venus Mars fell in Diana’s 1^st house as she attracted a stratospheric audience for an iconic interview; though Sun Pluto on the cusp of her 12th suggested behind-the-scenes-dirty-dealings.

   As the Vatican and Richard Nixon’s Administration learned to their cost – it’s not only the original sin it’s also the cover up that does the damage.