Astrology of Today’s News

Charles Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, has been talking about his upbringing and his third marriage. He says his unhappy, traumatic childhood with his mother leaving when he was two and being sent to boarding school at 8, sent him into two failed marriages until he went into therapy to sort himself out. He has four children from his first 18 year marriage, two children from the next 6 years to divorce; and one from this decade-long one to a Canadian philanthropist.

  Born 20 May 1964 (no birth time) he has a final degree Taurus Sun with Mercury, Jupiter, Mars also in Taurus trine Uranus Pluto in Virgo with Neptune in Scorpio. His Moon is in Virgo; and his Venus North Node in Cancer is in a trine to regretful Saturn in Pisces.

  His present wife, whom he married in 2011, Karen, born 30 November 1972 in Edmonton, Canada, is founder and chief executive of Whole Child International, an LA charity that works to improve the lot of orphaned, abandoned, or abused children. She’s an idealistic Sun Neptune in Sagittarius with her Sun in a sensible opposition to Saturn in Gemini and sextile Pluto. Her Pluto is also in a super confident square to Jupiter and in turn her Jupiter is sextile a passionately enthusiastic and highly-determined Venus Mars in Scorpio – so she’s quite a power house.

  Her Venus Mars in Scorpio fits in with his Taurus Mars, Jupiter, Mercury – and her upbeat Jupiter Pluto picks up his Venus in Cancer as does her Libra Moon. Her Sun Neptune do sit as cross purposes to his Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn but with maturity and experience they’ve obviously made it work.

  Their relationship chart has a mutually-supportive composite Sun Jupiter conjunction in an affectionate opposition to Venus which is all good.  It’s also got two Yods of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Saturn; and Mars sextile Node inconjunct Venus – so it’s obviously a relationship that has come together for some greater purpose and will change both of their lives irrevocably. Saturn will involve a great deal of hard work and Venus may hint at their stewardship of Althorp House to which they have evidently returned full-time only last year with the intention of living there and embarking on a restoration project.

Photo: Edwardx

Singer, songwriter Lily Allen has married actor David Harbour, best known for Stranger Things in Las Vegas, in a wedding officiated by an Elvis impersonator. Both have had complicated lives with Lily Allen on her second marriage with two children from a previous one, blighted for several years by an unstable stalker, with pregnancy mishaps and post-natal depression as well as a diagnosis of bi-polar.  He had an alcohol addiction and is bi-polar as well.

  Born 2 May 1985 in London, she’s a Sun Taurus opposition Pluto in Scorpio with her Sun square Jupiter in Aquarius – so she will tend to head for controlling relationships and be fairly possessive and stubborn herself.  Her Venus in Aries squares Neptune which will be helpful creatively and musically but less so for commitment in relationships. Her Libra Moon may also square Neptune.

  He was born 10 April 1975 in New York and is a go-ahead Sun Aries with Mercury, Jupiter and Moon also in Aries with a confident Pluto opposition Jupiter (Moon) Mercury square Saturn in Cancer. A focal point Saturn will have given him frustrations in his early adult life but will gradually mellow into a more productive phase through his middle and later years. He’ll be a good organiser and executive. His Mars in stubborn Aquarius is in a volatile trine to Uranus and square an indulgent Venus in Taurus.

  Her Venus, Mercury in Aries and Libra Moon chime with his Aries planets; and his Venus is a good fit with her Sun although they are not conjunct. But his Uranus is conjunct her emphasised Pluto which will cause some disruptions and he’ll threaten her need for control.

  Their relationship chart has a close, affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction; and there is an inspirational composite Grand Trine of Neptune trine North Node trine Mars, formed into a Kite by Mars opposition Pluto – that is super-powerful and if well-directed could create an effective duo capable of moving mountains. But the risk is that the volcanic energy turns inward and causes problems. Mars Pluto is power-struggling and dominating, so one or other will fight for the upper hand.

   She looks happy with her Solar Arc Venus conjunct her Sun this year but the honeymoon months will be edgy with an uncertain tr Neptune opposition the composite Saturn till late February next year. And she will be jolted and jangled with tr Uranus conjunct and tr Saturn square her Sun from spring 2021 too spring 2022.

  The wedding chart has major pluses from a successful and lucky Sun trine Jupiter trine Uranus; but there’s also a less helpful, aggravated Mars square Saturn Pluto – so the marriage ahead won’t be without its tough patches.

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Two genuinely creative influencers have died. Terence Conran, the pioneering designer who founded Habitat and ushered in a revolution in home design, shopping and eating out. And Toots Hibbert, the Jamaican singer who helped to make reggae one of the great global musical forces.

  Conran born 4 October 1931 (no birth time) was from the tough Great Depression generation with Saturn in Capricorn opposition Pluto squaring an innovative, mould-breaking Uranus opposition Venus in Libra. His Sun in Libra opposed the North Node in Aries perhaps (likely) square a Cancer Moon. Cancer is a sign of designers and is home-oriented, certainly has a nose for public taste and with the Moon on the focal point of a Cardinal T Square he’d have initiative aplenty as well as an inclination to work with the public. He also had an adventurous, risk-taking Jupiter in Leo trine Uranus and square an ultra-determined Mars in Scorpio.

 Not surprisingly with an afflicted Venus and a Moon yearning for more than the admiration of just one person, he married and divorced several times and produced a handful of children, all of whom have become successful in design or cooking.

  Toots Hibbert, born 8 December 1942, who has died suffering from Covid-19, was recognised as the father of Reggae and in a long career sang all over the world. “With a voice like a Caribbean Otis Redding, and a phenomenal stage presence, Hibbert was also a multi-instrumentalist.” He had more chart toppers even than Bob Marley.

  He had the inspirational Neptune trine Uranus which produced so many notable musicians of that period – and in his case emphasised by having Saturn conjunct Uranus and Pluto sextile. His colourful, widely travelled Sagittarius Sun was conjunct Mercury, Venus and maybe Moon; with like Conran he had an ultra-determined Mars in Scorpio in an adventurous trine to Jupiter in Cancer.

  Both had global superstars 22^nd Harmonics stronly aspected and breakthrough-genius 13H, as well as creative 5H.  Hibbert in addition had his strongest harmonic as the musically creative 7^th harmonic and leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17H.

  They were famous for having talent.

The suicide of a Bollywood actor, Sushant Singh Rajput, in June has dominated headlines for months, sparking off a curiously Indian media storm, with sensationalist coverage, unverified conspiracy theories and allegations given air time on nationwide newscasts. The coronavirus outbreak, the second-largest in the world, has been pushed to one side.

  He apparently had been struggling with depression but mental health and suicide are still taboo subjects in India, despite suicide being the most common cause of death in the age groups of 15–29 years and 15–39 years – and India having the highest suicide rate in the South-East Asian region. But the problem is largely ignored and in this instance blame for his death has been levelled at the cut-throat Bollywood system. And more recently at his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, who as the furore intensified and his father pointed accusing fingers, has been arrested on drug charges with a suggestion that she had abetted his suicide. It was alleged she had bought cannabis for him, though no drugs were evidently found in her apartment. She had lived with Sushant though a few days before his death, she moved to her own Mumbai residence.

  He was born 21 January 1986 (no birth time) and had a charming Sun Venus in Aquarius in a controlled square to Pluto; with a Gemini Moon maybe opposition Saturn; and an adventurous Jupiter in Aquarius square Mars in Scorpio.

  There’s nothing too specific showing on his chart around his death – apart from a downbeat tr Saturn conjunct his Sun Venus which would damp his spirits; a highly-strung tr Neptune square his Uranus – and his Progressed Mars is conjunct his Solar Arc Pluto which is more indicative of extreme frustration

 He’d also had several Neptune transits to midpoints on the run up but nothing pass remarkable.

  His girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, 1 July 1992, is an equally charming Sun Venus in Cancer though her Venus and perhaps Moon oppose the zany, high-wire Uranus Neptune in Capricorn. She’s also got an exceptionally tough Pluto opposition Mars in Taurus square Saturn in Aquarius so she didn’t have it easy growing up for sure – and it may well have given her a tendency to walk on the wild side.

  It wasn’t that great a match though the relationship chart does have an affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction; but there was also a power-struggling composite Mars square Pluto so one partner would be the one dominant one, calling all the shots with underlying resentment.

  The synastry reflects this with her Pluto in Scorpio conjunct his Mars and her Mars opposition his Pluto. So there would be a masochistic edge to their interface.  

Mutiny is afoot in the Shetland Islands, the furthest north of UK territories, where the local council has voted decisively to look at declaring independence from Edinburgh and London. The population of just over 20,000 is concerned about local poverty (with costs being 60% higher than the mainland) despite having the Sullom Voe oil and gas terminal, as well as oil fields and lucrative fisheries and salmon production on their patch.

  Shetlanders look enviously at the Faroes, to the north of them, which has a parliament able to raise and spend taxes while at the same time getting generous subsidies from Denmark, to which it is affiliated.

  The Shetlands are 111 miles from the mainland, and geographically closer to Bergen than Edinburgh. Culturally there are still strong ties to their Nordic roots. They came under Scottish rule on 20 February 1472 JC. This gives a Pisces Sun in a controlling opposition to Pluto. There’s a good deal of unrest in particular around 2023 –although they’ve been in situ for centuries and there’s nothing too definitive on the chart that would suggest a complete rupture.  

  It will give Nicola Sturgeon a headache since their arguments are much the same as the SNP’s about splitting from London. The relationship charts between the Shetlands and Scotland 842 AD and Scotland 1005 AD have tr Neptune undermining the composite Suns and other planets till almost mid decade; and the 1034 AD chart also looks highly pressured.

  The Shetland/UK 1801 relationship chart is at daggers-drawn at the best of time with palpable dislike – and its stress-to-breaking-point looks more likely after mid decade up to 2029, building up a head of steam after Pluto moves into Aquarius, being conjunct the composite Mercury, Venus and then the Sun.

The pioneering feminist Shere Hite, known for her best-selling The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality, which reportedly kickstarted the real sexual revolution for women in the 1970s, has died in London aged 77. Her book, which has sold 50 million copies since, encouraged women to take control of their sex lives and was dismissed as “anti-male”, dubbed the Hate Report, by Playboy. Sustained criticism of her in the US, much of it highly personalised, led her to renounce her US citizenship in 1995.

Born 2 November 1942 (no time sadly) in the socially conservative US state of Missouri, to her 16-year-old mother, she was raised by her grandparents.

  What’s intriguing is the similarities between her chart and that of Barbara Amiel (see post below) – though in Hite’s case the interest in sexuality would be further heightened with the already passionate Venus Mars in highly sexed Scorpio conjunct her Sun and all square an intense Pluto. I’d hazard a guess that her Pluto is on the point of a T Square connected into the chart axis. Though it is already on the focal point of a mini Grand Trine of Saturn Uranus in Gemini trine Neptune. An emphasised Pluto is often a researcher, delving into unknown territory, coming up with ideas often before their time and running into hostile resistance.

Her Moon is either late Leo or early Virgo, almost certainly conjunct her North Node.

  Her enduring 11^th harmonic is strong and her global influence 212H even stronger; as is her ‘breakthrough 13H and both her creative 5^th and 7^th harmonics.

Dame Diana Rigg, who has died aged 82, was a superlatively gifted classical stage actress yet she’s best known to most as the sexy secret agent Emma Peel in 1960s television series The Avengers and more recently as Lady Olenna Tyrrell in Game of Thrones. She could play it seductive, zany, funny or straight with a penchant for strong women characters and had a wonderful range.

  Born 20 July 1938 2am Doncaster, England, she grew up partly in India, but was sent home to boarding school at eight where she was unhappy. A teacher persuaded her to take up acting and she trained at RADA.

  She had a striking chart with a formidably determined Sun, Mars, Pluto in Cancer in her 3^rd house of communication with Moon Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries; and Uranus in Taurus in an inspired trine to Neptune in Virgo. She had an unaspected Jupiter in Pisces in her 10^th, which would tend to make her a loner or fairly detached as well as lucky in her career and increasingly respected the older she got. Not an easy personality but she harnessed all that volcanic power and anger to forge a memorable career.

  Her personal life was erratic with one longish affair, followed by a brief marriage to a painter and a decade-long second marriage to a theatrical producer.

  ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ is coming to an end after 14 years, sending shock waves through their tens of millions of Insta and social media fans. Unfortunately their massed ranks were not translated into viewing figures for the television show which have been dropping in recent times. The show catapulted the Kardashian-Jenner family into international superstars with a multimedia empire replete with clothing lines, cosmetics companies, apps and never-ending tabloid interest in their every move.

  It also made a fortune for the network E! which twittered “We have enjoyed following the intimate moments the family so bravely shared by letting us into their daily lives. While it has been an absolute privilege and we will miss them wholeheartedly, we respect the family’s decision to live their lives without our cameras.”

  Piers Morgan, on the other hand, always ready with an acid quip said: ‘A bunch of very average looking dumbo bimbos have taken us all to the cleaners and made billions out of prancing around and doing this. Not a brain cell between them.’

  The show launched on 14 October 2007 with a Libra Sun trine Neptune sextile Jupiter and Pluto in Sagittarius – so plenty of oomph. With a healing/creative Water Grand Trine of Mercury in Scorpio trine Node in Pisces trine Mars in Cancer, formed into a Kite with Node opposition Venus Saturn in Virgo.  A strong chart for what has undoubtedly been a success no matter how much it trivialised the culture.

   Mama bear Kris Jenner, known as the savviest businesswoman in the industry, 5 November 1955 6.42 am San Diego, CA, is a determined Scorpio in the 12^th so good at pulling strings; with a megaton successful and lucky Jupiter Pluto in Leo on her Midheaven in an unyielding square to Saturn Venus in Scorpio in her 1^st – no pushover, for sure. Her family-oriented Cancer Moon square Neptune Mercury is under a Saturnine wet blanket now till November – and more so in 2021/22 with tr Pluto opposition her Moon and in the following year square Neptune. Not all her children are happy about her decision to pull the plug. She’ll no doubt bounce back with another ambitious project but perhaps not before 2025 when tr Uranus squares her Jupiter Pluto after which her Solar Arc Jupiter Pluto is in a hugely successful conjunction to her Sun by 2026.

  Kim Kardashian, 21 October 1980 10.46am Los Angeles, is struggling with husband Kanye West’s bi polar meltdowns and I suspect the PTSD aftermath of a seriously frightening robbery in Paris four years ago. That last occurred when tr Saturn in Sagittarius was about to disappear below her Ascendant into her low profile first quadrant where it stays till mid decade so her ambitious drive won’t be what it used to be – despite her 180 million Insta followers.  Her chart has lucky Jupiter conjunct her Midheaven opposition a Pisces Moon square a daydreamy and impractical Neptune in her 1^st; balanced by a well-organised Saturn in her 10^th; with a controlled Sun Pluto in Libra. And Mercury, Uranus, Mars all tucked into her 12^th so finding space for herself will be important. She has ups and downs ahead with a buoyant tr Pluto trine her Jupiter in 2022/23 but a challenging tr Pluto square her Sun at the same time; followed by two car-crash Solar Arcs in 20224/25 – so her attempt to revision her life will run into a few obstacles.

Another revenge memoir is out, though not political. This one is by Barbara Amiel, wife of former media tycoon Conrad Black who ended up in prison. ‘Friends and Enemies’ lambasts the socialite luminaries, once her BFFs during her years of obscene wealth and ostentatious display, who dumped her like a hot brick when he went into convict gear. It is described by one reviewer as “608 gloriously indiscreet pages of elegant vitriol. It could equally well be called Sex and Spite in High Society, a cautionary tale of lavish lifestyles, failed marriages, half-hearted suicide attempts and oral sex with an aristocratic pensioner.”

   All too unlikeable but interesting from an astrological point of view. Amiel said in an interview ‘I love sex. Opera and sex are my two great passions.’ And a commentator wrote at the time of the Black duo’s showiest phase: “She has an operatic sense of her own tragedy. There is something of the ancient Greek about the couple’s disdain for ordinary people and their belief in the entitlement of the elite.”

  And all this from mundane beginnings on 4 December 1940 at 8am just outside of London. Her parents split when she was 8, and she moved with her mother to Canada when she remarried, only to find herself out on the street at 14 with her mother saying she couldn’t cope with her anymore.  She slept in cellars, lived in dodgy boarding houses, worked nights in factories and studied to get into Toronto University. She married her first husband when she was a student which lasted a year; the next one lasted five years; and the third also collapsed.  Aged nearly 50 she met media mogul Kerry Packer, who funded her into a new flat. The publisher George Weidenfeld followed, then onto Conrad Black and a glittering life of in-your-face opulence with multiple houses, private jets, couture clothes by the roomful.

 To do her credit she stood by him when he was inside for 42 months in a U.S. prison, convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice; and is still with him.

  She has a hair-curling chart with a 1^st house Sagittarius Sun trine Pluto in Leo, sextile North Node in Libra, tying her into the zeitgeist. But what makes her chart extraordinary is a stubborn-to-the-nth degree Fixed T Square of a seductive, passionately enthusiastic Venus Mars in Scorpio opposition Jupiter Saturn in Taurus squaring onto Pluto; with another Fixed T Square of Mars Venus opposition Saturn square an Aquarius Moon. Very little will budge her when she’s on track and that is doubly so with Pluto as the focal planet – which gives her immense staying power and a capacity for ignoring anyone or anything that attempts to get her to change course. Sexuality is often emphasised with a Fixed sign Pluto and in her case with a multiplication factor given that she also has Venus Mars in Scorpio and Venus Saturn. And contempt is usually a weapon of choice for handling people she considers beneath her.

 Her get-it-together 5^th Harmonic is well aspected as is her obsessive 11H but her strongest is the 19H which is associated with personal success, happiness and prosperity. However 19 is not a lucky number – being ‘karmic’ in the sense that the person is forced to develop their individuality.

  Her final stand-by-your-man husband, Conrad Black, 25 August 1944 6.15am Montreal, Canada, is built in a different mould from her having a substantially Mutable – ie adaptable – chart, which he’d need to cope with her extreme Fixedness. He has a Sun Jupiter conjunction in Virgo with Venus, Mercury Mars also in Virgo and Uranus in Gemini. His Moon is in Scorpio which will hook into her Venus Mars and his Moon squares Pluto so he will be emotionally intense.

  It’s not that obviously a perfect match since her Saturn falls in his 8^th putting up barriers to emotional intimacy; and his Scorpio Moon isn’t a great mix with her Aquarius Moon – but with mellowing years it clearly works.