Astrology of Today’s News

The fraught Aries Full Moon today is the preceding one to the Lunar Eclipse on 19^th November. The Moon opposes Sun Mars and squares Pluto, so no surprises there is a challenging, frustrated, stuck mood this week.  

  Occasionally Lunar Eclipse events trigger on the Full Moon before or after – and given that this upcoming November Taurus Lunar Eclipse is conjunct the destructive Fixed Demon star Algol there is an understandable trepidation about what it might bring.

  Looking back through all Eclipses in the 20^th Century which were close to Algol what is surprising is that none had significant events on the day itself or even close to the date. And during the Eclipse-effect period there were some remarkable achievements as well as noteworthy calamities.

 Queen Victoria died a few months before the 1901 Solar Eclipse conjunct Algol; President William McKinlay was assassinated a few months after; and Theodore Roosevelt died in 1919 a few months before an Algol Eclipse as well.

   Pandemics and plagues appear to hang around, not surprisingly – Asian flu, Manchurian plague etc – but the Spanish flu ended on one such.

  There were some horrors – the 1901 NY Stock Exchange panic; the 1919 formation of the Italian fascist party; the 1957 accidental dropping of a hydrogen bomb at Albuquerque; the Somalia military USA operation gone bad with 1000 Somalis and 18 US servicemen dead; the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster with 7 astronauts dead. And most Algol-ish of them all the Fred and Rosemary West child sexual abuse and murder trial in the UK in 1994 which left the country sick as a dog as the gruesome evidence emerged. The verdict was announced the day before the Algol Lunar Eclipse.

  These Eclipses also saw the birth of powerfully dominating entities which would affect the culture.  1994 Amazon founded. 1976 Apple formed. 1957 Dr Seuss The Cat in the Hat launches to be the best-selling children’s book of all time. 1920 ACLU formed. 1919 League of Nations, United Artists, Save the Children Fund and the Grand Canyon National Park. 1901 JP Morgan accomplishes the first billion dollar deal.  Not all positive but a hint of Algol’s creative side.

  Clearly the Algol Eclipse will have the most powerful effect on charts which have planets in that degree or within a five degree orb. It’ll be worth watching France for one which has a Scorpio Mars Midheaven being rattled; and the same goes for Trump who has his Taurus Midheaven on Algol. The traditional view was that Algol was the planet of destruction, violence and mischief, had a tendency to lie and be less than honest in dealings with others.

  The geographical locations which may be eclipse critical are Moscow/Russia with the Sun on the Midheaven opposition Moon Algol on the IC; as well as due south of there through Saudi Arabia, the UAE and eastern Africa.

  Oddly enough, or maybe not, the Brexit June 2016 referendum chart had Mars in Scorpio opposition Algol; and David Frost the present UK negotiator has his Term chart 7^th house Mars conjunct Algol as he sets about wrecking good feelings and destroying any hopes of diplomacy.

  There is a side of Algol, planet of Medusa, that is hellbent on nihilistic destruction. But it was always said that it had another purpose which was to force us to face suffering and horror and not brush it aside.

  In the ancient myth, Poseidon/Neptune raped Medusa, then exceptionally beautiful, on the floor of Athena’s temple in order to irritate his arch-enemy. Athena, in a fit of rage at the desecration, turned Medusa so ugly that no one could look directly at her without being turned to stone and she was banished away to the ends of the earth —- victim-blaming, maybe prompted by an underlying jealousy of her beauty.

   In one version Medusa, even more horrifyingly, becomes paralysed so all that moves is her repellent snake-entwined head. Perseus manages to kill Medusa, beheading her by looking at her reflection in his shield and not directly at her. Out of her corpse springs Pegasus, the winged horse of creativity. Athena then wears Medusa’s head on her shield as a protection.

   So there is a safeguarding side to Algol as well as a damaging one as well as a surge of imaginative power that emerges when the death-dealing capabilities are quelled. That only occurs when a strategy is found which allows the ugliness/horror to be faced without being destroyed by it.

  Taking a step back from Medusa/Algol, the catalyst for the scenario is Neptune’s battle with Athena – the god of the oceans versus the goddess of the land. Though perhaps more aptly, the god of the watery unconscious (wherein all creativity lies) battling it out with the goddess of the conscious mind, the bringer of laws and social order. I’m not sure what is trying to be born out of the watery depths after an almighty struggle at the moment – but I travel hopefully.

Relevant Eclipses:

May 16 2003, Lunar 25 Scorpio

18 Nov 1994 Lunar 26 Taurus

3 November 1993 Solar 22 Scorpio

13 May 1976 Lunar 23 Scorpio

May 13 1957 Lunar 23 Scorpio

May 18 1920 Solar 27 Taurus

15 May 1919 Lunar 23 Scorpio

17 Nov 1910 Lunar 24 Taurus

18 May 1901 Solar 20 Taurus.

Moves to hold Steve Bannon, former aide to Trump, in contempt for refusing to testify before the 6 January Capitol riot congressional investigation committee, are gathering pace. It is the first of several confrontations that promise to test the boundaries of executive privilege — the presidential prerogative to keep official communications secret — and will determine how far the House committee will be able to go in uncovering the story behind the deadliest attack on the Capitol in two centuries. Trump has urged former aides to reject requests to testify and has issued his own lawsuit to block information being released.

 On the day before January 6 Bannon on a radio show said “Now we’re on, as they say, the point of attack — the point of attack tomorrow. It’s going to kick off. It’s going to be very dramatic.”

  Many Democrats fear that the case against Bannon may drag on for months, potentially long enough for Republicans to gain the House majority in 2022 and bury the inquiry — and with it, any hope of revealing fresh information about what precipitated the riot.

  Bannon born 27 November 1953, is facing a run of major problems ahead – not all of which may be connected to this matter since he’s always embroiled in one rumpus or scandal or another. Plus he never looks healthy and the amount of high level ranting and raving he does must put a strain on his system.

  He does have one pushily-confident Pluto transit to a Jupiter midpoint until late this November but it finishes for good then; and in any event it runs side by side at the moment with a panicky, disastrous tr Neptune opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint from mid this month till mid January 2022. Piling on his woes will be this December’s tr Pluto square his Mars/Saturn midpoint which will accompany another calamitous crises till the New Year. After which he has an insecure, rattled tr Uranus opposition his Sun/Mars midpoint until mid February.  Plus he has a dashed-hopes tr Neptune square his Jupiter running off and on till early 2023.  And a dead-halt Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Saturn somewhere around now.

  The Eclipses in Taurus/Scorpio in 2022/23 will also trigger his Saturn, Mercury, Venus in Scorpio bringing a few chickens home to root and an emotional and intellectual crises or two.

  His relationship chart with Trump is showing signs of a disappointing slump from mid January off and on till the year end.

  And whatever it means, he will be devastated around the time of the 2024 election.

Selma Blair, a bubbly, zany, irrepressible actress with a cult following – Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions etc – is starring in a documentary about her struggles with multiple sclerosis, in the hope it helps other sufferers. She was diagnosed in 2018 but has been plagued by odd ailments all of her life – constant pain, fatigue and unpredictable mood swings which persisted into adulthood. After the birth of her son in 2011 she had problems with her vision and experienced involuntary muscle contractions in her neck. Despite a gruelling schedule of treatments she is insisting on publicising her condition.

  She was born 23 June 1972 at 8.45 am Southfield, Michigan, and has a friendly 11^th house Cancer Sun in an expansive opposition to Jupiter in her entertaining 5^th house square a controlling and influential Pluto. She’s also got a 12^th house Mars in Cancer exactly conjunct her South Node in a Half Grand Sextile to Pluto and a Scorpio Moon conjunct Neptune.

  Mars, Scorpio Moon, Pluto is quite a heavy combination especially with Neptune tied in – and they would seem to be the driving planets of her chart. The North Node in her 6^th would suggest health as an issue that would be an integral part of her path in life.

  Her victim/healer 12^th Harmonic is particularly strong with a Grand Trine and a Grand Square of planets.  She’s making the best of a rough deal from the fates.

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Michael Caine despite headlines to the contrary may not be retiring after all as scripts continue to roll in, albeit slower than in his heyday.  Now 88 he’s written successful books recently and had back problems which have kept him anchored for a while. But he’s clearly still keen to see what is on offer.

  Born 14 March 1933 at 10.10am in London with a Billingsgate-porter father and a cleaner mother, the family lived in a house with no electricity in a slum. He dreamed of becoming an actor to give him another life and played bit parts on stage and TV through his twenties before hitting it big in Zulu and then The Ipcress File when he had turned 30. And never looked back with 130 movies now to his credit.

  He has a 10^th house Sun and Venus in Pisces, making him ideally suited to a filmic career; with his Sun in a confident opposition to Jupiter in Virgo and a determined trine to Pluto; and his Venus is opposition a showbizzy Mars Neptune and Jupiter. His Libra Moon is in the entertaining/performing 5^th house opposition Uranus square a 2^nd house Pluto – so a tumultuous domestic and emotional life and a tendency to over-control financially and in other ways.

  He may drift a little through 2022 with tr Neptune conjunct his Sun but that could suit movie-land as well.

  His actor’s 15^th harmonic is exceptionally well aspected, linking an influential Pluto to an easy-going Jupiter Venus and the Moon, which last rules the public.  His 22^nd Harmonic hinting at global success is also emphasised.

He does come across occasionally as resentful – which will be his focal point Pluto. But I met him once and he was extremely charming and supremely professional. Turned up on time, did everything he was asked courteously, spoke fluently, smiled and left. Most impressive.

  His 1933 generation did produce some notables, see Jean Paul Belmondo see post 7 September 2021.

“The — exuberant and attention-attracting, and hard-working Mars, Neptune and Jupiter in Virgo which was around from late November 1932 till July 1933 produced a considerable number of names – Yoko Ono, Kim Novak, Nina Simone, James Brown, Carol Burnett, Ruth Ginsburg, Quincy Jones, Philip Roth, Michael Caine, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jayne Mansfield, Willie Nelson, Gene Wilder, Joan Rivers, Joan Collins. That plus the determined-to-be-different Uranus Pluto would make them stand out.”

Colin Powell, Secretary of State during GW Bush’s first term has died of covid complications. He was a professional soldier for 35 years before moving into politics and was known as ‘the reluctant warrior’ for his generally non-interventionist stance. Though his support of the UK Blair/Campbell ‘dodgy dossier’ justifying the Iraq attack did for his political career.  He came across as sensible and warm-hearted though his career had various questionable blips – whitewashing the My Lai massacre for one, serving under Nixon and others (see wiki).

  He was born 5 April 1937 in New York, no birth time, and had an Aries Sun and Moon in Capricorn/Aquarius. He had a pushily-confident Jupiter in Capricorn opposition Pluto square Mercury in Aries so would be a communicator. Though he also had a wide Neptune opposition Saturn in Pisces which would undercut his decisiveness at times.

  An interesting man and the first African-American to be Secretary of State, followed by Condoleeza Rice. But I always thought he lacked the ‘killer’ instinct needed for high level political survival.  

Madonna’s first-born Lourdes Leon, a 25 year old model, actress, singer and influencer, has been holding forth about what a control freak her mother is. Isn’t that a surprise? Lourdes said: “She has controlled me my whole life. I needed to be completely independent from her as soon as I graduated high school.” She reportedly paid her own college tuition and rented her own Brooklyn apartment. Though she softened the criticism by saying she admires her mother for being “empowering to other women”, “ahead of her time” and being an exceptionally hard worker.

  Lourdes was born 14 October 1996 4.01 pm Los Angeles, the daughter of fitness trainer Carlos Leon, whose relationship with Madonna broke up a few months after her birth.

   She has an intense 8^th house Libra Sun in a creative though vague square to Neptune; a charming actressy Venus in Virgo in her 7^th; and a confident, lucky Cardinal T Square of Mercury in Libra opposition Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries square Jupiter in Capricorn. She won’t be short of initiative or resourcefulness. She has an intense Scorpio Moon in an impatient-with-mother square to Mars in Leo. Her Moon is in the 9^th suggesting she’ll live abroad at some point and her opinionated Pluto is also in her 9^th in a tough-minded trine to Saturn.

  She won’t be a slouch when it comes to hard work herself.

  The synastry with her mother is quite tricky with Madonna’s self-righteous, overly rigid Saturn in Sagittarius in Lourdes’s 10^th house of career, so mom would teach her discipline. Madonna’s controlling Pluto is also exactly conjunct Lourdes’s Descendant which won’t make room for much compromise; and even less so given Madonna’s Leo Sun being conjunct Lourdes’ Mars – combustible and liable to erupt at any point.

 But there are all manner of plus points as well – Madonna’s Jupiter conjunct L’s Sun, Madonna’s Moon in L’s 7^th and Madonna’s Venus softening Lourdes’ Saturn trine Pluto.

  One of these can’t live with them can’t live without them family dynamics.

  The relationship chart has a possessive composite Moon Pluto conjunction; a volatile Mars trine Uranus; and a high-tension Saturn square Uranus.  Not a disaster but not a recipe for 24/7 harmony.

Veteran actor William Shatner came full circle today launching across the final frontier as the oldest space traveller yet in the footsteps of his fictional alter-ego, Captain James T Kirk of Star Trek. He was on board a rocket operated by Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin company and returned safely to earth.

Born 22 March 1931 4am Montreal, Canada, he’s had a full and illustrious career starting in classical Shakespearean theatre in his twenties before moving onto a variety of roles in film and television before landing Star Trek in his thirties. His version oddly enough only lasted three years and at the time was not too successful but it later became a cult hit and stuck with him for the rest of his career. He later played T.J. Hooker and then winning awards in the legal dramas The Practice and Boston Legal as well as appearing in advertisements, games, TV shows and music albums. He’s always had a reputation for accepting any work that came his way.

  He’s been married and divorced four times and famously had a falling out with Leonard Nimoy who played Mr Spock opposite him after a long friendship though he never knew why.  

  He is part of that tough-minded, resourceful, constantly on-the-go Depression generation with Saturn in Capricorn opposition Mars, Pluto, Jupiter in Cancer square an innovative Uranus North Node in Aries. He’s spilling over with initiative and restlessness with so many Cardinal planets including an Aries Sun and Mercury. Though I’d hazard a guess he leaves a fair amount of chaos in his wake.  His Neptune in the 7^th hints at commitment issues in marriage. His Taurus Moon will be indulgent and give him some anchoring.

  Oddly enough Leonard Nimoy was born only four days after him so has a remarkably similar chart, apart from a Cancer Moon. Neither would be especially easy personalities to get on with, however appealing Shatner’s boisterous approach to life appears.

  Shatner has, felicitously, his Solar Arc Neptune conjunct his Midheaven at the moment, giving him a genuinely cosmic crown. Though life looks more boxed in through 2022/23 with tr Pluto opposition his 6^th house Mars, which may tie him down.    

The horrors and misery of a gambling addiction have been laid bare by former footballer and manager Paul Merson in a memoir, who has wrestled with alcohol and cocaine as well. A documentary showed his brain patterns light up when shown gambling images but not looking at happy families.  His habit has cost him £7 million and he hopes by talking of his problems to shine a light on a condition which causes one suicide a day at the moment. “This is a hideous disease, cunning, baffling. It’s just constantly waiting all the time,” he said.

  He was born 20 March 1968 in London and has a complicated chart. His final degree Pisces Sun sits on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Jupiter in flamboyant Leo sextile Neptune. With a Yod focal point Sun he will be an odd mix of low self-esteem and over-confidence and will have found moderating his will power tricky.

  One of Jupiter Neptune’s meanings, according to Ebertin, is a scandal or losses through one’s own instability and he has it in spades.

 The late November Lunar Eclipse and the May 2022 Lunar will affect his Neptune so will shake up his central Yod.

  He also has an unaspected Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries so will lack structure and boundaries in certain areas of his life. Self-discipline and self-preservation can be lacking; and he will find it tricky to order and organise his life.

 

 

  

 

Judge Judy, the stratospherically successful reality courtroom tv series, which has run for 25 seasons and surpassed Oprah in ratings, is being replaced with a new Judy Justice series from November 1^st. Judith Sheindin, who presides on the arbitrations, is a former prosecutor and family court judge, renowned as being tough.

  She is a clear cut Sun Mars Venus in Libra in a confident and opportunistic square to Jupiter; with Neptune Mercury in Libra trine Uranus Saturn sextile Pluto. Lots of Libra for the scales of justice; and an accentuated Pluto for influence, a liking for control and penetrating comments.

  Her original show launched on 16 September 1996 with a successful, money-generating Jupiter in Capricorn; a hard-edged and not always compassionate Mars Saturn Pluto.  This new show starting on November 1^st looks less vibrant with Saturn in Aquarius on the point of a T Square; though the approach may be softer with Venus highlighted.

  Her own chart is buoyant exactly now with tr Pluto opposition her Jupiter; but she is generally in an uphill climb ahead until late 2023 with tr Pluto square her Sun and a Solar Arc Pluto conjunct her Sun.

Petri Hawkins-Byrd who played her stalwart bailiff on the show for 25 years was not asked to audition for the new show which left him, he said ‘confused and dismayed.’

 Born 29 November 1957 in New York he is a Sun Saturn in Sagittarius with his confident and enthusiastic Jupiter in Libra conjunct Judy’s Venus, Mars, Sun – so it was a good and successful combination. His Venus opposes her Jupiter for a superficially friendly interface; but there would have been an undertow of darker feelings with his Mars North Node in Scorpio square Judy’s emphasised Pluto.

  The relationship chart points to a relationship where control was an element with a composite Sun Mercury square Pluto – possessive and dominating. With again a veneer of icing sugar from a Jupiter Venus aspect along with edgier aspects.