Astrology of Today’s News

  Jeremy Corbyn, until recently UK Leader of the Opposition and of the Labour Party, has been suspended from the party after a damning report on anti-Semitism by the equality watchdog. While he was not named personally the report took to task the leadership for “serious failings in ….. in addressing antisemitism and an inadequate process for handling antisemitism complaints”.

  Jeremy Corbyn, 26 May 1949 no birth time sadly, has a substantially Air chart with a Grand Trine of Gemini Sun trine Jupiter in Aquarius trine Neptune plus Venus, Mercury, Uranus in Gemini.  Air suggests an individual attached to ideas and theories and can be ideologically tunnel-visioned. He’s also got an angry Mars (Moon) in Taurus square Pluto which is often found in the charts of shock jocks, conspiracy theorists and those who have exceptionally strong likes and dislikes.

   Narendra Modi of India, if his birth date of 17 September 1950 is sound, has Mars in Scorpio square Pluto, which lives out in his divisive and hate-filled rhetoric against all non-Hindus.

   Corbyn always sided with the Palestinians to an extent where he allowed his dislike of successive and suppressive Israeli government policies over the occupation to leak into ethnic slurs against the Jews.

  David Icke born in 1952 is another Mars in Scorpio square Pluto. It doesn’t make for nuanced opinions. There seems to be a need to have ANother to attack/destroy. Daddy issues that get writ large out into the world.

   Corbyn looks rattled at the moment with tr Uranus square his Sun/Neptune midpoint; more so from mid 2021 onwards with tr Uranus square his Pluto and then opposing his Mars the following year which will bring major strains and tensions.

  His relationship with the present Labour leader Keir Starmer was always evasive and a battle for one-upmanship. Tr Pluto is opposition the composite Sun for the final time this month exerting maximum pressure; then moving into a confused and devastated square to the composite Neptune from early 2021 for two years.

Add On: Parallels are being drawn between Neil Kinnock’s expulsion of the Militant Tendency from the Labour Party circa 1983. But this isn’t too similar since back then both Saturn and Pluto moving into early Scorpio and tr Neptune moving into Capricorn were rattling the Labour Party 1906 Uranus in Capricorn opposition Neptune in Cancer square Mars in Aries T Square for years of turmoil.

At the moment the transiting Node is conjunct the Party Pluto with the next two sets of Eclipses rattling up the Pluto suggesting power-struggles, resentment and hostility but it isn’t the same extended wrangles as in the 1980s. Where there’s likely to be more ructions is 2024 with tr Uranus square the Party Sun Venus and 2025 with the Solar Arc Sun conjunct the Pluto.

Pic Chris McAndrew.

The assassination in 1991 of Detlev Rohwedder, German manager and politician responsible for the privatisation of state-owned property in former East Germany, has been turned into a German documentary ‘A Perfect Crime’ put out by Netflix. The Red Army Faction was suspected of being responsible but no one was ever charged.

  Rohwedder, born 16 October 1932 1.45pm Gotha, Germany, was a 9^th house Sun Libra in a Cardinal Grand Cross opposition Uranus square Saturn in Capricorn opposition Pluto – ambitious, full of initiative, tough-minded, controlling, stubborn, born to live through disruptive times. He also had Mars on the cusp of his 8^th house square a Taurus Moon and his Scorpio Midheaven. With Neptune, Venus, Jupiter also in the 8^th. The strong 8^th house would give him a heavyweight personality and an aura of influence, perhaps why his death is still of interest.

  Mars in the 8^th always had a reputation for sudden death though I’ve known people with it in their charts who survived into their nineties. However there does seem to be a sliver of truth in it given that JFK also had Mars on the cusp of his 8^th house.  When JFK was shot, tr Saturn in Aquarius was opposition his Solar Arc Pluto and both within a degree of being square his 8^th house Mars in Taurus.

  Likewise Rohwedder has planetary activity around his 8^th house Mars with his Solar Arc North Node being exactly square his Mars, and tr Venus square as well as tr Moon; with tr Pluto just past the square and conjunct his Midheaven. The tr Uranus Neptune in Capricorn conjunction was also conjunct his Ascendant. So the axis of his chart was being substantially triggered as well as his Mars.

  I’m not sure why this is of such interest now but it is astrologically on point.  

Fay Weldon, the author, best known for The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, and for the dramas of her private life, has always been adept at catching the headlines. She’s done it again, accusing her third husband of 30 years, who managed her affairs, of coercive control and financial mismanagement. Her second husband left her she claimed as the result of one visit to an astrologer, which resulted in her going on a media rant against astrology. He died within eight hours of their divorce coming through, which always felt a touch spooky.

  Her best-known She-Devil novel written when she was 52, featured an unattractive wife who took her revenge on her unfaithful husband and his lover to almost psychotic lengths, wrecking both their lives. It echoes a theme in her own life from her childhood: “I was born large, blonde and big-boned into a family of small beautiful women. My mother thought it was unlikely that anyone would marry me.”

  Born 22 September 1931 5.50 pm Alvechurch, England, she has a communicative Virgo Sun on the cusp of her 8^th house; with a zany Aquarius Moon conjunct her Ascendant from the 12th opposition Jupiter in Leo.  Plus the signature tough-minded Great Depression Pluto in Cancer opposition Saturn in Capricorn square an innovative Uranus in Aries. Such a Uranus can be a law-unto-itself type of personality, a disrupter, self-willed and unpredictable, though also a trailblazer.  In addition she has Venus in Libra in her intense 8^th conjunct her Sun as well as an unaspected Mars in vengeful Scorpio. Such a Mars can be uncompromising, constantly on the go, prone to irrational outbursts.

  Her Sun/Moon midpoint which is the marriage significator is square her Neptune sitting in her 7^th house both of which point to an attraction for creative men and a difficulty in making total commitment. Her Sun/Moon is also sesquiquadrate Pluto which again is a hint of power-struggles within close relationships. She always insists “My only ambition was always to be married.”

   She has well-aspected creative 5^th and 7^th harmonic charts, as well as the writers’ 21H so clearly has talent. Though not I suspect much self-awareness or insight.

Photo: Mogens Engelund

Emmanuel Macron is fighting battles on several fronts in true Gallic fashion, revving up his four fiery Sagittarius planets and a 7^th house Mars in Leo to fend off attacks from the Arab world, from Brussels and from his unhappy voters.  

   He has been pushing back, almost single-handed in the international community, against Turkish President Erdogan’s expansionist military activities in Libya and in the Armenia dispute. As a consequence he has reaped the whirlwind of an Arab boycott of French goods over his support for secularism and free speech after the Charlie Hebdo cartoon killings. His refusal to compromise over French fishing rights in UK waters – a tiny proportion of GDP for both countries –  has brought him into conflict with Angela Merkel and Brussels. Though it is a politically sensitive and symbolic issue for him. And last but not least the French pandemic figures are soaring leading almost certainly to another unpopular full lockdown.

   Tr Saturn is about to dip below the Capricorn Ascendant on his personal chart from mid December onwards, usually a sign of a lower profile few years ahead – though it can take a while to kick in and he’ll be aided by upbeat, lucky tr Jupiter following suit through his 1^st house for the first year. His Presidency chart, 14 May 2017 11.28am shows signs of a complete turnaround from late February 2021 onwards as tr Pluto squares the 10^th house Uranus and that will run for two years till the end of his term. This December’s Sagittarius Solar Eclipse will also catch his Presidency Saturn as well as his personal chart so his life won’t get any more peaceful.

   And from April 2021 onwards for a year or more he will have tr Saturn square tr Uranus hitting on his 7^th house Mars as well as his Uranus and Moon – so the economic pressures amongst others will bear down heavily on him. His relationship with France will be even more stressed than usual from March 2021 onwards.

  On the Brexit fishing climbdown he is under pressure from Angela Merkel who is looking chilly with him across into early December. His relationship chart with Boris Johnson is hostile as well as explosive at the best of times with Boris’s scattergun and overly aggressive Mars in Gemini square Macron’s Saturn in Virgo; and Boris’s slippery Neptune in a head-in-the-clouds opposition to Jupiter crossing swords with Macron’s Uranus opposition Taurus Moon square Mars. On the relationship chart there is a power-struggling composite Sun Mercury opposition Pluto Venus and a high-tension Uranus square Mars in their relationship chart. Relations between them are sagging more than usual as of now till late January; with a confused and bad-tempered dip in December up to the middle of the month – so the cliff hanger may continue or at least residual bad feelings will.  

  The France chart is confused and downbeat in early this December which could be the ongoing virus; with the 10^th house Moon being rattled by several Eclipses from this November onwards hinting at crises in the rulership. There is strain showing on its financial Venus in two years’ time under assault from a couple of tumultuous Solar Arcs at the same time as major confusion as tr Pluto squares the Neptune. The real revolution sets in by 2023 as tr Uranus starts to square the France Pluto and Uranus and then oppose the Mars the following year. Whoever takes over the next Presidency in 2022 will have a bucking bronco of a ride.

Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in to the Supreme Court at 9.17pm in Washington yesterday. This puts Moon Neptune in Pisces in the 10^th which can suggest a caring approach though Neptune’s religious zealotry can also be chilling, as well as its slippery indecisiveness. There’s a divisive and rebellious Sun Mercury in the grandstanding 5^th opposition Uranus which points to a public display of sorts which arguably runs counter to society’s inclinations, Uranus being in the 11^th.

  More significant is an ambitious Mars in Aries in the 10^th which squares Saturn, Pluto, Jupiter in the 8^th. This is an appointment which will set out to make waves but may well run into hidden obstacles and resistance – and at times attempt to manipulate and use secret methods to gain desired results. It’ll be a crisis ridden role.  

  Her first major drama will come late May/early April 2021, when her relationship with Chief Justice John Roberts is also jangled – and her relationship chart with SCOTUS is moving through stormy seas thereafter for two years, with considerable disappointment about her performance and also in dashing certain of her hopes for what she could achieve.

  Her relationship chart with the USA indicates inherent strains in the chemistry as her views are out of step with the prevailing culture; and there will be increasing confusion through till 2023.

  The two she gets on least well with are Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

  The relationship chart with Kamala Harris has a toxic dislike composite Mars opposition Sun square Pluto which will be a struggle to the death (metaphorically speaking).  That is being triggered by the Eclipses in 2021 and undermined by tr Neptune from late March 2021 on and off into 2022.

  There is an aggravated composite Mars Saturn in her relationship chart with Trump, suggesting, au naturellement, that it is a one-sided affair where she is expected to do the master’s bidding. 2022/23 will put paid to that notion with tr Neptune square the Mars Saturn and tr Uranus upending the composite Uranus and Venus.

See previous posts – September 19 and September 27 2020 .

ADD ON; She was sworn in by Chief Justice Roberts next morning at 10 am on the 27^th – though the earlier chart is likely to be the significant one.

  The planetary aspects are the same anyway – with a contrarian Sun Mercury opposition Uranus; Neptune Moon opposing the Midheaven; and an attention grabbing 5^th house Mars square Jupiter Saturn Pluto.

There are increasing fears that India has slid into autocracy with PM Narendra Modi’s increasingly despotic and Hindu nationalist policies stifling dissent by labelling any anti-government comments as seditious, leading to incarceration for terrorism without trial. Amnesty International has been forced to leave after its bank accounts were frozen and staff harassed and intimidated after reporting on rising human rights violations suffered by Muslims and other minorities. Police brutality goes unchecked; little is done to counteract the appalling rape epidemic against lower caste women and children.

   Writer Pankaj Mishra said after Modi’s landslide second victory in 2019 that he had seduced India with envy and hate, exploiting inequality, division and grievance. The reputation that India had in post-colonial independence days as a secular democracy valuing personal liberty is being tarnished if not destroyed.

  Modi has made some advances since he was elected in 2014 with expanded rural electrification and banking, cooking-gas and toilet-building schemes. But he has not brought the rapid growth, national security and enhanced global status he promised with a disastrous attempt at currency reform in 2016 and his inept handling of the pandemic. He has picked fights with China and Pakistan and lost; and imposed an effective coup on mainly Muslim Kashmir which is being talked of as the sub-continent’s Palestine.

   India is heading for a significant change of direction and upheaval from mid 2021 onwards as tr Uranus moves to square the entrenched Pluto Saturn and the Aquarius Midheaven in the India chart and the following two years tr Uranus will square the India Venus and Sun. Tr Saturn will also be making its downbeat presence felt in 2021/22 which may be the economic hit from the pandemic and the global recession having an impact.

   Will the pressure for change bring more libertarian policies? Modern India was born out of the repressive, tough-minded and unsentimental Saturn Pluto conjunction in Leo, so will not find the process of change easy. The India Mercury conjunct Pluto Saturn has some similarities to the Mercury opposition Pluto in the USA chart, so both countries will have a tendency to attract demagogues who use inflamed and toxic rhetoric.  

   When Modi was first elected in 2014, with a track record from his days as Governor of Gujarat for inflaming hatred, the tr Uranus in Aries square tr Pluto in Capricorn was moving towards the hard aspect to the Solar Arc Mercury, Saturn, Pluto conjunction, so wakening up that particular dragon from its underground layer. Tr Pluto is still this year and in 2021/22/23 pulled on the Solar Arc Pluto, Saturn and Venus. So it may wait till tr Pluto moves into Aquarius in 2023/24 for the winds of change to really make themselves felt.

  Through the latter stages of this decade and into the early 2030s India will be undergoing a massive transformation, a death and collapse of the old and birth of the new as tr Pluto starts wading in opposition to its Fixed Leo planets and then conjunct its Midheaven. 2022 will start with domestic unrest as the tr Pluto opposes the Cancer Moon but it will take a critical build up of pressure to make much of a difference.

  By 2026 tr Uranus will be out of the India 12^th house into a lighter, brighter, hopefully more libertarian phase, as it moves across the Ascendant and into the India 1^st house for six years thereafter.  

Pluto in Capricorn (with Saturn added) and Neptune in Pisces have much to answer for.

Actress Katie Holmes’ love life is a matter of consuming interest to the tabloids, more because of her long defunct marriage to Tom Cruise, than much to do with her career.

  Having lately parted from a long and private relationship with actor/musician Jamie Foxx, she’s now out and about in public with a New York chef Emilio Vitolo Jr. It’s only been six weeks since they got together – much to his mother’s dismay since he had a live-in fiancée at that point, now gone the way of all things.

  All I can say is that Holmes must like a challenge since her relationship chart with Emilio, has a composite Sun, Pluto, Saturn, Mars conjunction and they don’t get more intense, possessive, dominating and power-struggling than that. Plus a head-in-the-clouds, over-hopeful Neptune opposition Jupiter. They are clearly still in the starry-eyed phase though tr Saturn squaring the Pluto, Saturn and then Mars may knock some of the shine off before New Year.

   Emoilio, 19 August 1987, is a flamboyant and entertaining Sun, Mars, Venus and Mercury in Leo which fall in her 1^st so he will give her image a boost; his Jupiter in Aries is also trine her Sagittarius Sun which will give her a warm glow of confidence.  But his Uranus is also conjunct her Sun for a tendency to go his own way; his Pluto squares her Jupiter for upmanship-fights ahead; and his Neptune is conjunct her entertaining 5^th house Mars which suggests ego-clashes for attention.

  She does have her Progressed Moon moving through her 7^th house now which will put her on the lookout for a committed relationship but she will be pushed and pulled, not knowing what she really wants. Her emotional life will be due a major shake up come mid 2021 onwards with tr Uranus opposition her Venus in Scorpio. And I’d hazard a guess that the great love of her life is several years away.

The leading vaccine manufacturing pharmaceutical companies – Novavax and AstroZeneca – look revved up and raring to go from this New Year or just after.

  Novavax, the US company, was founded 18 June 1987, with a Gemini Sun opposition an innovative Uranus; a go-ahead Jupiter in Aries in a risk-taking and opportunistic square to Mars Mercury in Cancer; with a Yod of a super-ambitious Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Venus.  Tr Pluto will square its Jupiter from late this December, repeating throughout 2021; and tr Pluto will trine the Sun/Jupiter midpoint from late January 2021, on and off for two years. So very much a confident, successful, full-steam-ahead phase.

 AstroZeneca, British-Swedish, 6 April 1999, has an upbeat Sun Jupiter in Aries sextile inventive Uranus. With a ruthlessly determined Mars in Scorpio opposition Saturn square Neptune. Their chart hints at a setback or two before the end of the year but is then on full-flood from late February 2021 as tr Pluto is conjunct the Mars/Jupiter midpoint, on and off for two years – which is the classic marker for kick starting successful new projects.

  Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline have less showing on their charts. Though dates can be a moveable feast with pharmaceuticals since they tend to merge and sell on constantly.

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Power-couple-to-be Democratic style are hopefuls Doug Emhoff and Kamala Harris. He’s taken leave of absence from his job as a successful Hollywood entertainment lawyer to campaign for her and is reportedly looking forward to being “Wife-guy” after the election.

  Born only a week earlier than Kamala on 13 October 1964, he has a relatively similar chart. Both are Sun Libras – like the Michael Douglas/Catherine Zeta Jones match. He has a hard-working Capricorn Moon while she probably has an upfront Aries Moon. The only other difference is his lawyerly and balanced Mercury in Libra in contrast to her intense and penetrating Mercury in Scorpio.

  Both are go-getters with strongly Cardinal charts giving them initiative and both have Venus, Uranus, Pluto in Virgo so at least they’ll understand each other’s restlessness.

  Both have Jupiter at 24 degrees Taurus which is being boosted by tr Pluto trine from late this December to late January 2021, which looks like a confidence-boosting few weeks.