Astrology of Today’s News

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Will the yin and yang be permanently out of balance with the rise of misogyny? In the perpetual pendulum swing of effect and counter-effect it’s difficult to remember Martin Luther King’s sage words – “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” 

 Fifty years ago, Kabul was cosmopolitan and modern with women wearing stylish western dress: pre the Islamic stranglehold, Iran was also liberated. Intriguingly the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan in 1996 on a late Neptune in Capricorn which was exactly where Neptune was for the UK 1832 Reform Act which specifically restricted voting to men.   

   What surprised me researching my Astrological History of the World was the connection between Saturn Neptune and women’s as well as worker’s rights. Which is significant since there is another Saturn Neptune conjunction approaching in 2025 in Aries once Pluto has cleared its feet of the overly masculine sign of Capricorn.

   Pluto through Aquarius (2023 to 2043) also has a drive for freedom with last time round, in the late 18^th Century, Thomas Paine writing the Rights of Man and Mary Wollstonecraft writing to promote the rights of women.

  All countries have their own specific arc of history but looking at the UK, the first key change towards the emancipation of women came with the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882, with Saturn Neptune together in Taurus, which gave wives for the first time the right of separate ownership. Then on the next Saturn Neptune conjunction in 1917–18 in Leo, the campaign for women’s suffrage succeeded in getting the vote for women over the age of 30.

  Both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne to exert feminine influence over matters of state on Saturn Neptune conjunctions — in 1558 in Taurus, and 1953 in Libra. Both of them were enduring monarchs in typical Saturnine fashion, Elizabeth I ruling for 45 years, the present Queen still in place after 70 years.  Benazir Bhutto became the first woman prime minister of Pakistan on the conjunction in Capricorn in 1988, though it proved a short-lived triumph.

  Literature also rose to the challenge and produced memorable novels by or about women – Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer and Laclos’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Molière’s The Misanthrope and The Dumb Lady. More recently Pedro Almodovar, the Spanish film-maker, produced his cult movie Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown.

  Not that anything happens without a backlash and Saturn Neptune also has associations with the persecution of witches – arising from the masculine Saturnine fear of the mysterious, less rational feminine in Neptune. But there is a glimmering of light at the end of the tunnel.

Add On: The two previous Saturn Neptune in Aries were in 1702/1703 and 1379.

Felicitously, in line with Saturn Neptune’s proclivity towards the feminine, Queen Anne took over in 1702 as monarch from her brother-in-law William of Orange to reign for five years. The 2018 Olivia Coleman movie ‘The Favourite’ related court intrigues as she sank into depressed middle age after 17 pregnancies with no issue. She was born on 6 February 1665 when Saturn and Neptune were both in Capricorn, so she followed the pattern. When she took over the throne Saturn was in the final degree of Pisces about to join Neptune in Aries.

  For 1379 I can find nothing of significance but historians might pitch in with other thoughts.   

A Texas ban on abortions after six weeks has gone ahead despite Chief Justice Roberts of SCOTUS calling the enforcement scheme as “not only unusual, but unprecedented” and said it deserved more exacting judicial scrutiny. He was over-ruled by five of his conservative colleagues. Over recent years other such attempts at state level have been blocked. Justice Sonia Sotomayor voiced her dissent calling it “a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights.” President Biden condemned the law.

  Trying to extract a pattern from a plethora of charts, what is eye-catching is the presence of Aquarius both in the pro- and anti-lobbies.

  Texas, 2 March 1836, has Mars Mercury in Aquarius which on an 11am start chart for the USA is conjunct the US Moon and also coincidentally conjunct the US Solar Arc Mars. I have found Mars in Aquarius in the past, amongst its less admirable qualities, to show traits of being downright ornery, aggressively wilful and inordinately stubborn, not a sentimentalist or compassionate. Saudi Arabia and Northern Ireland (1922) also have Mars in Aquarius.

  The Texas Neptune in Aquarius is also conjunct the USA South Node – pulling it backwards into a swamp.

   Amy Barratt and Brett Kavanaugh, the two most recent Trump nominees are both Sun Aquarius with conservative Samuel Alito having Venus Jupiter in Aquarius.

 The SCOTUS chart also has a controlling Sun Pluto in Aquarius which tr Uranus is upending at the moment squaring the Sun and will continue to do so through 2022 into 2023 as it squares the Pluto. Many things may come to pass with the USA’s Pluto Return and not all of them laudable.

  It would also have to be said that John Roberts, who comes across as a moderating voice, is also a Sun, Mercury in Aquarius. Roe v Wade, signed 22 January 1973 10 am Washington, DC, also has an Aquarius Sun which will be under considerable pressure from tr Pluto conjunct the Sun from April 2024 onwards so it could be a major plank in the election campaigning, extending right through 2025. Both the negative and positive poles of Aquarius will be in full flight.

  My other faint thought is that an overly strong Mars tends to slant, not surprisingly, to an overly macho, masculine view of life – and there are several Mars Uranus hard aspects amongst the relevant charts. Moon Mars usually indicates anger at women/mother and countries which have regressive and repressive attitudes towards women and women’s issues tend to have difficult Moon aspects.  Also there is another pattern of a Cancer Aquarius combination prominent in charts, including the USA, which is an uncomfortable mix.

  Muddled thoughts but it is depressing in a supposedly enlightened country.

See post September 24 2020.

Ed Asner, the actor renowned for playing the crusading newspaper editor in The Mary Tyler Show and the follow up Lou Grant has died aged 91. He was born 15 November 1929 at 6am in Kansas City Missouri, with a poor immigrant rag-and-bone/junk man father. He was a political activist most of his adult life, especially against US support for the El Salvador junta, which he reckoned cost him his Lou Grant series and his presidency of the Screen Actors Guild to right-winger Charlton Heston.

  Two Astro-points of interest. He had a 1^st house Mercury in intense Scorpio trine a 9^th house crusading and opinionated Pluto; with Pluto also trine his Sun Mars in Scorpio – so he would be relentless in getting his views across.

  His Lou Grant groundbreaking show’s themes reflected his own viewsviews. Among the controversial issues it covered were abortion, prostitution, child pornography, racism, homophobia, the negative treatment of Native Americans, Vietnam vets, Vietnamese immigrants, illegal aliens, US support of military juntas, big business corruption and third world dumping.  An obituary remarked “Looking back, it is a wonder the show lasted five years, and that Asner remained a star and in work.”

  He continued to appear regularly on television thereafter though not in a major series and latterly had a productive career in animation voice overs.

  On his astrocartography, his Sun Mars were on his Ascendant through El Salvador so it would arouse his combative spirit.

In Scotland, the SNP are preparing to shake hands with the Greens in a power-sharing deal that will give Nicola Sturgeon a majority after the last election fell short. The seven Green MSPs agreed to most of the government’s policy agenda, including seeking another vote on independence before the end of 2023, and were handed two junior minister roles. It is still to be signed off by the Green party but Sturgeon is robustly claiming it would now be “impossible” for Boris Johnson to ignore her demands for another referendum.

  En passant, since it’s hardly important, the relationship between Sturgeon and both Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, co-Green leaders, will deteriorate fast through 2022/2023 with frustrations and aggravation.

  Nicola Sturgeon’s Term chart, 13 May 2021 9am, has a directionless, lacklustre Neptune on the Midheaven which isn’t helpful plus a controlling Sun trine a 7^th house Pluto which will attract hostility and intense arguments. Plus a financially deprived Saturn in the 8^th square Uranus – so economic problems will loom large.

 Her personal chart, 10 July 1970 3.15 pm Irvine, Scotland, has been labouring through transiting Neptune’s uncertainty and misjudgements as well as Uranus jolts and arguments; and heavy pressure from tr Pluto opposition her Cancer Sun through 2021. Those continue throughout 2022 though will be joined by tr Pluto square her Jupiter from early 2022 to late 2023 which will give her renewed confidence for a major push. But she will run into a plethora of traps, brick-walls and insurmountable obstacles from March 2022 onwards as tr Pluto opposes her Sun/Mars midpoint for two years plus Neptunian catastrophes from May 2022 onwards. Worse in 2023/24 when tr Pluto squares her Mars – which sounds as if nothing is going her way in the foreseeable future.

 From this November the Lunar Eclipses will start to impact her Neptune in Scorpio opposition Saturn in Taurus and that unnerving effect will roll on throughout next year.

  Into 2023 tr Uranus will square her Midheaven for a change of career direction throwing up problems either with or because of her husband Peter Murrell, CEO of the SNP. He’s also looking logjammed come 2023 to 2025.

The trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will start this week in California. She is charged with six counts of fraud relating to her now-defunct medical startup. The company, founded in 2003, claimed it would revolutionize the medical testing space with a new blood diagnostic technology. Theranos had reached a valuation of $10bn before it was exposed for overstating its core technologies and fabricating claims.

 Jurors can expect to hear from patients misled by Theranos results, including a woman whose test results falsely signaled a miscarriage despite a healthy pregnancy, a man who was falsely indicated to have prostate cancer, and two others who received false positive HIV test results. Holmes is expected to lean on what is known as a Svengali defense, arguing that her role in the Theranos con was largely influenced by an allegedly abusive relationship with Balwani. His lawyers have called her allegations “outrageous, salacious and inflammatory”. He has his own separate trial early next year. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.

  Holmes was born 3 February 1984 in Washington, DC, daughter of a vice-president of Enron, the energy firm which went bankrupt after an accounting fraud scandal. She has an Aquarius Sun square an ultra-determined and hard-edged Mars Saturn in Scorpio with Mars in a wide conjunction to Pluto – not short of driving determination.  She also has a high-finance, head-in-the-clouds, selling-a-dream Jupiter Neptune conjunction in Capricorn. Her Uranus opposes her Gemini North Node which could suggest tendency to run against the grain of public interest.

  At the moment she has tr Uranus square her Sun exactly and both it and tr Saturn collide with her Mars as well for a few months ahead; with tr Uranus in a jolting opposition to her Saturn into 2022. October looks catastrophic for her with tr Saturn square her Mars/Pluto midpoint with much slipping and sliding courtesy of Neptune for three years ahead with 2024 bringing a considerable upheaval; though 2025 looks more upbeat.

 Ramesh Balwani, 13 June 1965, Pakistan, is much of a muchness with her having a Gemini Sun on the point of a T Square to Mars in Virgo opposition Saturn; and Uranus Pluto in Virgo square Jupiter North Node. Neither are exactly sentimental idealists to put it mildly.

    Their relationship chart has a competitive composite Sun opposition Mars and needs-space Uranus square Saturn – it was never destined to be a happy combination. Mars Saturn can indicate a one-sided relationship but in this instance it might well point to a folie a deux focused on a damaging outcome. There’s also an intense Venus Mercury opposition Pluto.

 He is not looking anything but flattened over the next fifteen months with tr Neptune square his Sun Mercury and opposition his Mars; with a high-anxiety tr Uranus opposition his Neptune from mid 2022.

ADD ON:

  Her baby boy arrived 10 July 2021 and has a Sun, maybe Moon in Cancer, opposition Pluto with a tricky Venus Mars in Leo opposition Saturn square Uranus – not a settled temperament for sure with a ramped up Venus Mars clamped down by Saturn and a prominent, control-or-be-controlled Pluto.  Pretty much following the family pattern. His Saturn is conjunct mom’s Sun and her three Scorpio planets collide with his stressed T Square.

  Forbes have an intriguing piece on her family background which points to a pushy jealous mother.   

https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2019/02/17/4-startling-insights-into-elizabeth-holmes-from-psychiatrist-whos-known-here-since-childhood/?sh=d6f6aed366b0.

 She’s described by a family friend as having been ‘an emotionally withdrawn child of a once-illustrious family being driven by a jealous mother who wanted her daughter to make a name for herself —- both parents were striving to improve their position in the world and pushed her hard despite low grades and lack of business and technical skills.’

  Both parents were Sun Aquarius. Father 1 February 1946 and mother 21 January 1951 (genealogy website). Her father was/is a charming, persuasive and controlling Sun Venus Moon Mercury in Aquarius opposition Pluto; with a hard-edged, unkind Mars Saturn in Cancer which runs down through the family’s DNA. Her mother has her Sun, Venus and Mars spread out through Aquarius with Pluto opposition Venus and widely Mars.

  If mother was the pushy one then it is likely that Elizabeth has a Pisces Moon trine Pluto and maybe Mars.

  Though the relationship chart with her father is Ivanka-Trump-papa hair-raising with a composite Mars, Saturn, Pluto, Uranus which is punishing.

Hurricane Ida marked the 20^th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by coming ashore on Sunday as a category 3 or 4 and moving inland it has been downgraded to a category one storm. It is described as the worst storm behind Katrina’s category 5 which killed 1800 and caused $125 billion worth of damage in 2005.

  Katrina was always an astrological mystery since it did not show up on the eclipse angles at the time.  This time round the previous Lunar Eclipse of 26 May 2021 had the Gemini Sun opposition Moon sitting close to the Ascendant/Descendant axis with the brutal and destructive Mas opposition Pluto in place. There’s nothing much triggering this eclipse chart though the Moon is in early Gemini, but that’s minor enough.

  Similarities with Katrina are also minor – in 2005 Mars in mid Taurus was conjunct the New Orleans Sun Neptune in Taurus, whereas at the moment tr Uranus is one degree away from that conjunction. Tr Saturn is opposition its Katrina placing – and tr Pluto and tr Neptune are sitting at 21/22 Mutable signs.

  The only chart which flags up much for the location for this event is the rece4ntCancer Ingress which puts Saturn on the Ascendant opposition Mars and square Uranus which looks disruptive and damaging.

So not much of astro-note.

Portugal is gradually moving out of confinement with a 70% vaccination rate. But the newly re-elected President Rebelo de Sousa’s 2^nd Term chart, 9 March 2021, is limp and lacklustre with a Sun Neptune in Pisces conjunction which doesn’t augur well for a firm and decisive hand on the tiller ahead.

  The Bank of Portugal, 15 November 1975, isn’t showing red flags at the moment but will be dragged down by arguments in 2022 and running into a major blockage by 2023.

This coincides with a panicky tr Neptune square the 8^th house (financial) Pluto in 2023/24 on the Portugal 5 October 1910 9am chart. The Solar Arc Pluto will also square the highly-strung Neptune opposition Uranus then which suggests devastation and confusion – and could be connected to a natural disaster as well as perhaps economic problems. There will be several years of tough slog and hardship thereafter.

  On the Portugal 25 April 1974 5.15pm chart, there are upheavals, divisions and disruption from tr Pluto square the Uranus opposition Mercury this year. Again it will be 2023/24 which are the most discouraging with the two years after that not much better.

 On de Sousa’s personal chart, 12 December 1948, a Sun Sagittarius trine Pluto, he looks gloomy, uncertain and tossed about by events this year with a mixed 2022 having its upbeat moments as well as major headaches; and worse in 2023/24.

 Antonio Costa, the PM, is not in his easiest phase having a Cancer Sun opposition Saturn which are catching the tr Pluto hard aspects this year and next, so a considerable and depressing slog.

 The other two political front runners – Santos looks energised and successful this December; and Rio is not in good shape having his Leo Sun and Uranus battered by the tr Saturn square tr Uranus into early 2022; and an unhappy phase ahead through 2023/24/25.

PS: I need to look back but although some of the above may be local it does rather fit a general pattern of quite a considerable general disturbance as Pluto moves into Aquarius followed by Neptune and Uranus shifting sign.  

Justin Trudeau may be regretting his decision to call a snap election on September 20^th. It was intended to swap his minority government for a majority one on the back of vaccine-related optimism but he has slid smartly in a downward direction. His image as a golden boy of politics has been tarnished since 2015 by ethics scandals, unkept promises and blackface images.

  He was born 25 December 1971 9.27pm Ottawa, and has a Capricorn Sun square Mars opposition Pluto, so a forceful temperament. His Jupiter is in an opportunistic and adventuring square to his Mars in Pisces on the cusp of his 8^th; and he has an imaginative, neurotic, not always decisive Neptune opposition Saturn.  His Solar Arc Midheaven is squaring his Uranus exactly over the election which does sound like a change of career direction; with two discouraging/bad tempered Saturn transits to Mercury midpoints; and a devastating and confused tr Pluto conjunction with his Solar Arc Neptune.

  Erin O’Toole,22 January 1973 Montreal, Conservative Party, is doing well at the moment in the polls and has a sprinkling of Jupiters around with tr Jupiter square his Solar Arc Pluto over the election; and confidently upbeat tr Pluto conjunct his Mercury/Jupiter in December with real success through 2022/23 from tr Pluto conjunct his Sun/Jupiter midpoint. He is a Sun Aquarius sextile Neptune and trine Pluto; with a hard-edged Saturn opposition Mars; and an adventurous, lucky Jupiter square Uranus.

 Jagmeet Singh, the other front runner, 2 January 1979 Scarborough, ON, is an uber-determined Sun Mars in Capricorn square Pluto. He has mixed fortunes at the election with a disastrous tr Uranus opposition his Mars/Saturn midpoint at the same time as a successful tr Pluto conjunct his Sun/Jupiter midpoint. He’s looking in better spirits in October, upbeat in December and forging ahead in 2022.  

Germany is heading for momentous elections in late September which will see Angela Merkel’s exit as Chancellor.  Pundits have been confounded with the recent surge up the polls of Olaf Scholz of the leftwing SPD, though he is more popular than his hard-left party. Armin Laschet of Merkel’s CDU party has had a gaffe-ridden campaign and slid badly; as has Annalena Baerbock of the Greens.

  Germany was always in for a profound change with tr Pluto opposing the 10^th house Uranus this year, back in exact aspect this December; followed in 2022 by tr Uranus conjunct the 8^th house Pluto which will bring an even more profound and deep-rooted gear shift.

  I must admit to being surprised by Scholz’s striking success in recent weeks since he has had tr Neptune square his Gemini Sun and square his Saturn, both exactly from late July through this month and that influence runs on into early September – which would normally be undermining. Though he does admittedly have his Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct his Saturn and opposition his Sun which would give him a lift. He was born 14 June 1958 and has a Gemini Sun trine Jupiter and opposition Saturn.

  There may well be a lengthy period of coalition wrangling after the election and Scholz’s October looks crisis and disaster-ridden but he’ll be into a more successful streak in December.

  Armin Laschet, 18 February 1961, a Sun Aquarius opposition Uranus with Jupiter Saturn in Capricorn, does have tr Jupiter in a lucky-break opposition his Uranus over the election exactly and conjunct his Sun by late December both of which are minor but upbeat; with tr Pluto conjunct his Jupiter Saturn through December as well. So maybe just maybe he’ll pull up from his present position.

 Annalena Baerbock, 15 December 1980, is an idealistic Sun Neptune in Sagittarius sextile Pluto, with a determined Mars square Pluto as well as Jupiter Saturn in Libra – a mix of soft and hard.

  She’s had a lacklustre tr Neptune square her Sun Neptune earlier this year in June and July and it returns in 2022. But tr Jupiter is exactly trine her Pluto at the election and conjunct her Solar Arc Mars in late December – which again are minor influences but she may get some compensation out of the post-election wheeling and dealing.

None have Merkel’s magic touch with Germany with her Jupiter conjunct the Germany Midheaven; and their relationship chart having a successful Jupiter Pluto and enthusiastic Venus Mars.

Scholz’s chart is a bad fit with Germany with a truly difficult relationship chart linking Mars Pluto Saturn and the Sun – so if on an outside chance he got in he would not be popular. Ditto Baerbock. Aschet is a so-so mix with some merits, some anxiety and maybe a resigned sense of being stuck with him.

  As ever, elections are a tricky guesstimate.