Astrology of Today’s News

Louise Gluck, the American poet, has won the Nobel Prize for Literature to add to her Pulitzer, various other awards and her former Poet Laureate status. Regarded as one of the pre-eminent poets of the age, her poems rooted in myth and nature, are “dreamlike, chilly, enigmatic”, “relying on mood, suggestion and atmosphere and scene setting, which settings are usually dark”. In her first collection — “Firstborn” – there is a tortured array of thwarted lovers, widows, cripples and angst-ridden families. Even the robins are woebegone.  Her widely anthologized “The Drowned Children” is alarmingly matter of fact. And the poems written after the death of her father were described as “brutal and sorrow-filled.”  

  Born 22 April 1943 in New York (no birth time sadly) she became anorexic in her late teens, an effort she said to become independent from her mother and connected to the death of an elder sister before her birth and the illness dominated her twenties. She described her decision to forgo higher education in favour of therapy as necessary: “…my emotional condition, my extreme rigidity of behaviour and frantic dependence on ritual made other forms of education impossible”. She was also obsessed with death.

  She married twice but neither lasted.

  She is a Sun Taurus square Pluto with her Sun quincunx Neptune; with a Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars in Pisces with her Mars square Saturn, Venus, Uranus. That is a truly tricky mix. With a battened-down, over-controlled Sun and surges of anger and assertiveness from a stressed and volatile Mars. The nature connection would come from her Sun and Mercury in Taurus – the darkness and obsession with death from an afflicted Pluto tied into Mars and Saturn. Luckily Neptune is there to soak up the angst and channel it in creative directions.  

Her Moon is either late Scorpio or early Sagittarius and may be square her Mars and opposition her Uranus and maybe Saturn – emotionally overwrought and agitated.

  She doesn’t look overly enchanted exactly now with a high-stress set of transits to midpoints into early 2021. But in general she’s in an upbeat phase with tr Uranus conjunct her lucky Mars/Jupiter midpoint across probably this summer/autumn and repeating next spring; when she picks up a super-confident and successful tr Pluto opposition her Jupiter/Pluto midpoint. And she has her Solar Arc Sun moving to conjunct her Jupiter probably in 2021 as well which will bring her good fortune and acclaim.  Her Solar Arc Venus is also exactly conjunct her ‘leadership’ North Node in Leo now. So ups and downs with no doubt personal travails from age and general world collapse with rays of sunshine into next year.

“A Village Life”: A later poem:

In the window, the moon is hanging over the earth,
meaningless but full of messages.
It’s dead, it’s always been dead,
but it pretends to be something else,
burning like a star, and convincingly, so that you feel
sometimes
it could actually make something grow on earth.

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Another country with Pluto in the 8^th  which moved towards historic changes as transiting Uranus in Taurus approached and then crossed the Pluto, was India. Unification occurred under Queen Victoria on 1 January 1877 and the long push for independence from colonial rule built up through the 1920s and 30s. Tr Uranus in Aries had moved through the India 7^th house of relationships in the 1920s as Gandhi’s protests made an impact. In 1940 when tr Uranus was conjunct the India Pluto the Jinnah-Muslim League in Pakistan demanded a separate homeland for Indian Muslims openly for the first time. This was in opposition to Gandhi’s aim of an India based on religious pluralism.

  Independence which became a three-way split – away from Britain and old India split into two – didn’t happen until 1947 but the winds of change had been exerting pressure steadily.

  Old India no longer exists so the return of tr Uranus in Taurus to the 1877 chart over the years in 2023/24 may not have much direct effect. Though the 1947 India independence chart does have tr Uranus squaring the Mercury, Pluto, Saturn, Venus and Sun from this year right through till 2023 so it will be a bumpy ride, probably economically in 2021 with tr Saturn in square to tr Uranus and opposition Saturn Pluto Venus.

  If Germany were to follow suit, it would be split from the EU towards the late 2020s and split internally as well. Though nothing ever happens exactly the same.

Photo: Laurie Jones 

Virtuoso guitarist Eddie Van Halen, whose squealing, pealing guitar sound almost single-handedly recharged and reshaped heavy metal in the late 1970s has died. He was renowned for the remarkable rapidity of his playing, complex harmonics and innovative fingerings which led to his standing comparison with Jimi Hendrix and helped his band to become one of the bestselling acts in the history of rock.

   His rock band was known for their flamboyant stage performances and their orgiastic, drug-taking, rock’n’roll wild men image.

  Born 26 January 1955 1.05am Amsterdam, Netherlands to a musician father who played saxophone and clarinet, he started with his brother on classical piano at six. He died of throat cancer after a number of health worries in recent years including diverticulitis, tongue cancer and a hip replacement. He struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse and had started smoking aged 12. Not a healthy lifestyle.

  He had a Sun Aquarius near his IC sextile a high-energy Mars in Aries in his 6^th. He also had a complex mix of lucky and tough influences. His influential, controlling 10^th house Pluto opposed an Aquarius Moon and Mercury squaring Saturn in Scorpio exactly conjunct Black Moon), giving him a life of some hardship and depression despite his success – some of it self-destructive since he was obstinate to the nth degree. He also had a fortunate, adventurous Jupiter Uranus in Cancer trine Saturn and in a can-be fanatical square to musical Neptune on his Ascendant. His Neptune was also trine his Moon Mercury.

  A crazy, chaotic life.  But talented in his way – with a notable creative 5^th harmonic, a leaving-a-legacy 17H; and a heavily aspected though stressed superstar 22H.   

Following on from the Germany post below – seismic changes ahead.

Tapping into ‘archaic energy’, rooted in the far distant past always involves a perilous journey into the depths of the 8^th house, going way beyond the boundaries of the conscious mind. What the Germany country chart and Hitler’s shared was Pluto in the 8^th. Amongst its many meanings is an interest in the occult and a temptation to use magic forces selfishly to dominate others. Pluto is about power and in the 8^th uses unseen methods (magic amongst others) to gain control and to manipulate, sometimes over financial matters.  It need not be as overt as it was with Hitler, since it can operate unconsciously.

  In Hitler’s case it was especially strong since his Pluto was conjunct Neptune which added a megalomaniac strand to his ambitions and doubled up his leaning towards the supernatural. He is known to have been fascinated by magic and occult practices (even stripping out the fabricated nonsense written about him). A favourite book of his on magic by Ernst Schertel was underlined by him – “He who does not have the demonic seed within himself will never give birth to a magical world”. And his mentor Dietrich Eckhart claims to have been the one calling the tune. “We have given him the ‘means of communication’ with Them. I shall have influenced history more than any other German.”

  Hitler was empowering himself through the 1930s as tr Uranus moved across the conjunction to the Germany Pluto stirring up deeply buried archetypal energies (see previous post 5 October 2020) which repeats in 2022. In an individual chart, 8^th house planets connect directly into the ancestral line in a way that others who don’t share this placing lack. It’s a blessing and a curse. Being deeply unconscious, 8^th house planets can attract circumstances seemingly out of the native’s control and lead to a life filled with more drama than most.  

What makes Germany perhaps more susceptible than other countries to being caught up in fantastical or mythic beliefs is Uranus square Neptune in the 10th/7^th houses. This tends to bring emotional and psychic confusion, a highly-strung temperament and fixed opinions which are impervious to rational argument. So extremism, fanaticism, rigid and unreasonable attitudes. When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 tr Uranus in Aries was conjunct the Germany Neptune and moving to square the Uranus.

  Carl Jung believed that the mythic figure of Wotan or Odin was personified in Hitler who carried/lived out unconscious “psychic forces” that moved through the German people. Hitler’s 7^th house Venus Mars in Taurus was conjunct the Germany Uranus so he was tied into the German psyche at a subterranean level.

  Of Wotan Jung said: “He is the god of storm and frenzy, the unleasher of passions and the lust of battle; moreover he is a superlative magician and artist in illusion who is versed in all secrets of an occult nature.” The storm, passion, frenzy and lust are redolent of Dionysius the nature god of death and rebirth and sexuality – which equates well with Pluto. Though the magician/artist in illusion has overtones of Hermes, Mercury and Uranus, the trickster gods.

   The Magician has a gift for miracle and deception and is a “maze of contradictions”, an incorporation of many disparate elements (as portrayed in the Tarot figure). He has the magic sun power as well as Medusa’s snaky locks – an ability to remain ambiguous and carry the polar opposites. To be and not be at the same time.

  Fascism lives out the death and rebirth myth, centred on the ego of the god-like leader, who destroys the past (Mao?) to create a new order entirely to his command and credit. So is destructive and creative. Inherent in fascism is absolute obedience amongst the followers – “He who does not think as the group does is excluded, harassed, killed or declared insane.” (Chasseguet-Smirgel.) And London analyst Christopher Bollas says of the fascist state of mind that it “entertains no doubt or uncertainty”.  The modus operandi is a process of denigration, character assassination, caricaturing, all of which distorts the views of opponents to render them less intelligible and credible. They have to be discredited because no separation of view is possible from the accepted one. Sound familiar?

  All of the above sound very Plutonic.

   Sakoian & Acker connect the Saturn Pluto conjunction to the magician, with its ability to channel occult powers through structured systems. The power urge of Pluto plus the status urge of Saturn.

  The other facet of the magician is revelation which links back to Uranus and Mercury.

  There will be no one astrological signature for an archetype as complex as the magician.

  Winston Churchill also had Pluto in the 8^th opposition Mercury and square Uranus; with Neptune on the cusp of the 8^th – so he also had the power to wield unseen power and sway the masses. Not that there’s any suggestion he practised occult powers – often 8^th house abilities are unconscious. Movie superstars who fairly often have Pluto or Neptune in the 8^th are unaware of why they have an uncanny ability to project an aura that rings a chord with millions of fans.

  It remains to be seen what will stir in the German psyche – and part of the tr Uranus effect will be financial. As it will be for the UK and EU since it is moving through their financial 8^th houses respectively at the same time.  When the UK 8^th house Mars is triggered as it will be in 2021 it often coincides with destructive accidents – ferry sinkings, train crashes etc if past experience is anything to go by. What will uncoil from deep within the national psyche remains to be seen. But worth watching out for.

A “cruel and incompetent” administration guilty of “institutional obstinacy” is the conclusion about the UK Post Office fiasco which saw almost 3000 employees and hundreds of postmasters mistakenly blamed for losses and bankrupted, sacked or jailed. In reality the financial discrepancies were due to a faulty IT system. To date £58 million has been paid out in compensation for false prosecutions with the judge remarking that the evidence he heard from the Post Office side were akin to ‘flat earth’ assertions.

  The CEO at the time Paula Vennells, who pushed for prosecutions over the alleged shortfalls, has since been awarded a CBE, resigned form the Post Office and been appointed chairperson of a healthcare trust and a non-executive board member of the Cabinet Office. She is also an Anglican priest.

    And she has a chart and a half!

  Born 21 February 1959, she has a Pisces Sun opposition Pluto square Jupiter in Sagittarius opposition Mars in Gemini – that’s Boris on steroids.  Sun Pluto = controlling, not good at backing down and admitting mistakes. Mars Pluto = uber-determined, ruthless. Mars Jupiter = opportunistic.  Jupiter Pluto = pushily confident. All in Mutable signs – scattergun, a whirlwind in a storm.

  Her Mars in Gemini is further highlighted/afflicted by being on the focal point of a Yod to Saturn sextile Neptune – has problems modulating anger and assertiveness, too much or too little leading to self-defeating behaviour. Bil Tierney remarks: “A mismanaged yod with Mars as an apex planet, can result in fateful consequences of a crucial nature due to rash or disruptive actions on the individual’s part.”

  Her future happily enough looks panicked, undermined and a swamp for several years ahead.

  It’s not often I feel sympathy for militant, paranoid anti-government arguments. But in this case I’ll make an exception. There were suicides and some have died before this got sorted. And it shouldn’t just be Vennells that takes the rap. All the decision makers inside the Post Office should be named and shamed.

But really – rising from failure to failure. Shades of Dido Harding, another Boris luvvie.

Kenzo Takada, the Japanese-French fashion designer who founded a global brand of perfumes, skincare products, and clothes, has died of a covid-related illness aged 81. His use of flamboyant, bright, often clashing colours and flower prints, were flaunted with theatrical delivery in his shows.

  He was born 27 February 1939 in Japan but came to France in his twenties and remained there throughout his long and successful career.

  He was a Sun, Jupiter, Mercury in creative Pisces with a Gemini Moon. His Mercury Jupiter were opposition Neptune square and adventurous Mars in Sagittarius – he was well-designed for a life of publicity and attention and not short of courage when it came to making his mark.  He had an Earth Grand Trine which is good for business and connected him to the material, earthy real. “Nature is very important to me,” he said. “Part of me is an ecologist.”  His creative Uranus in Taurus trine Neptune was also trine Venus in Capricorn with his Venus square Saturn which would add to his talent for design. His Venus was in an intense and passionate opposition to Pluto.

  His creative, get-it-together 5^th harmonic had a Half Grand Sextile so oozing with ability. His tinged-with-genius 13H was also well aspected; as was his global superstar 22H; and leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17H.

The reunification of Germany in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin wall is celebrated every year on 3 October.  The promise of the time by Chancellor Helmut Kohl was to transform East Germany, a drab Soviet Union client state, home to 16 million people, into a ‘blooming landscape.’ With a further declaration to allay anxiety that a united Germany would become too powerful – “Germany will not go it alone, there will be no unilateral nationalism and no ‘restless Reich.” The first promise hasn’t quite materialised since the east still lags economically behind the west.

  Looking back over Germany’s tumultuous 20^th Century history, with two World Wars, a divided and then reunified country, what is noticeable is one of the key trigger points of the Germany country chart’s is the 8^th house Pluto in Taurus. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 tr Pluto in Scorpio conjunct the Sun was opposition the Germany Pluto with the Solar Arc Neptune square the Pluto.

   In the years running into World War 11 as Hitler’s power rose tr Uranus was conjunct the Germany 8^th house Pluto; through the war years tr Saturn moved through the Germany 8^th crossing over the Pluto creating blockages and setbacks. World War 1 had other factors at play although the transiting Uranus Jupiter midpoint in the grandstanding 5^th house was exactly square the Pluto. So it is a highly sensitive point for Germany.

  The other key directional indicator is the Germany Midheaven at 9 Cancer which was highlighted for both World Wars. Tr Pluto conjunct the MC for the start of WW1; Solar Arc Jupiter square the MC for WW11. And the other end of the Midheaven on the IC was spotlighted for the 1990 Reunification with the triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune, Saturn in Capricorn moving across the base of the Germany chart.

   The relevance of all of this for present day Germany is that tr Uranus will return to its 1938/39 position at 17 degrees Taurus to conjunct the Germany 8^th house Pluto from June 2022 onwards. Life never repeats exactly but it will stir an archaic energy in the German psyche – as well in this instance as cause economic disruptions given the state of global trade, since the 8^th house rules international finances as well as deeper transformations.

   The triple conjunction of Saturn, Pluto, Jupiter has been moving through the Germany 4^th house causing domestic unrest and pressure for change; with a hopes-dashed tr Neptune square Jupiter now till late January 2021, which may be partly covid-related.

  Tr Pluto will start to oppose the Germany 10^th house Uranus from late January 2021 onwards for two years for a forced change of direction. That again echoes the 1930s when tr Pluto in Cancer was conjunct the Uranus in 1934/35 just after Hitler was named Chancellor in 1933. With the key difference that this time tr Pluto is not moving through the power-hungry 10^th but bringing domestic and internal challenges in the 4th. There is also upcoming a devastating Solar Arc Pluto opposition the Germany 7^th house Neptune in 2023, suggesting differences with a neighbour.  

  Whatever the outcome it is a time of seismic change for Germany. Relations with the EU will be exceptionally confused through 2021/22 with tr Pluto conjunct the composite Neptune and highly uncertain in 2022 with tr Neptune square the composite Saturn.  Relations with France, in days gone by the power-couple drivers of the EU, are bumpy and muddled this year into next spring; with the gulf widening precipitately in 2023/2024 as tr Uranus opposes the composite Sun and tr Pluto is in a high-risk, aggravated square to the composite Mars.

  Germany’s relations with the other starter EU nations:

Italy – aggravated in 2020/21 and in a state of significant upheaval from mid 2021 onwards for three years.

Netherlands – disappointed and undermined in 2021; undergoing a radical shift in relations along with increasing pressure from 2021 to 2024.

Belgium – again 2023 to 2025 look to be the nadir years.

Luxembourg – much the same, undermined through 2021/22 and turned upside down thereafter.

All options are open but it will be into the melting pot, for sure.

  The Germany/UK relationship chart isn’t that informative though 2022/23 will be discouraging and 2025 looks high-tension, unsettled and a turnaround in relations.

Add On: On the prospect of Bavaria splitting from Federal Germany – historical charts are always iffy but there appears to have been a significant moment on 16 September 1180 JC when the Wittelsbach dynasty that survived till 1918 took over as rulers. It gives a Libra Sun square Pluto in Cancer which clashes mightily with the Germany 1871 Saturn Sun opposition North Node Midheaven square Mars in Libra. Not much love lost there.

The Bavaria chart, if sound, is under exceptionally heavy pressure in 2021/22 with tr Pluto opposition the Saturn for a discouraging slog; and then in rebellious mood come 2023/24 with tr Pluto square the Uranus.  The relationship chart with Germany 1871 again has the same separating influences come 2023/24 as some of the other relationship charts.

Revelations about Boris Johnson’s childhood and messy romantic life in Tom Bower’s biography “Boris Johnson: The Gambler” have filled in a graphic background to what was already known or suspected. And it helps flesh out and give a context to his birth chart.

   His father Stanley – a Sun Mars in Leo square Uranus – was not only an emotionally distant and mainly never-there father and a serial womaniser, he was also violent towards his first wife. She claims he broke her nose in an altercation, which he said she deserved. She ultimately ended up in a mental hospital with depression for eight months. Boris was sent off to preparatory school aged ten and then Eton, compounding his unhappiness and sense of alienation. When his father was home, he instilled a dog-eat-dog, cut-throat desire to win arguments at any cost in his children, setting them up in competition with each other.

  Stanley Johnson, 18 August 1940, has an incredibly fixed as well as angry and competitive chart with Saturn Jupiter and Uranus in Taurus and Pluto Mercury in Leo as well as his Sun Mars – nothing will budge him. Boris is the polar opposite with his jitterbug four Gemini planets, Uranus Pluto in Virgo and Saturn in Pisces.

  Evidently the only stable parenting figure in Boris’s early childhood was a grandfather which explains his two 8^th house planets.

  What I hadn’t really concentrated on before now since it is out-of-sign is Boris’s Grand Trine of Scorpio Moon trine Saturn trine Node, Venus Sun in Gemini, formed into a Kite by Saturn opposition Uranus. Moon Saturn is depressive (as is Saturn opposition Pluto), an indication of a less than warm and nurturing childhood. Moon trine Venus hints paradoxically at an affectionate connection to women figures in his life. Bower comments again and again that “only a woman could ever be his confidante.” And yet as Jennifer Arcuri, one of his recent mistresses, also comments he had a blind spot inherited from Stanley: ‘An inability to take women seriously.’ His intensely emotional and highly sexual Scorpio Moon is tied into his chart in a highly complex and contradictory web, trine Saturn and trine Sun Venus, as well as sextile Uranus and tied into his Neptune and Jupiter by more minor aspects.

  He comes across as exceptionally lonely with no real friends, only a conveyor belt of passing romantic affairs. His second wife for 25 years Marina was the one mainstay of his life, who kept him grounded, through endless affairs and wayward pregnancies. The affair with Carrie Symonds, according to those close, would have fizzled out had Marina not decided that she’d had enough and much to his horror filed for divorce. Jennifer Arcuri (admittedly hardly a detached observer) commented of Carrie: ‘Boris got caught by a flirtatious minx. She’s controlling him.’

 Boris’s attitude to men/father figures is all wrapped up in his Saturn opposition Uranus Pluto square Mars. Mars Saturn reflects cruelty and anger; Mars Pluto ruthlessness and black rage; Mars Uranus is explosive.

  His relationship chart with his father has a volatile, high-wire, needs-space Mars conjunct Uranus in a can-be-fanatical square to Neptune; with a power-struggling for the upper hand Jupiter square Pluto; and a chilly Saturn square Mercury, Venus.

  The tensions in the wider Johnson family, laid bare in Bower’s book, make clear how Boris’s grown up children from his marriage expressed their contempt for his behaviour when the divorce happened, siding with their mother.

  Two minor points. One is that Rachel, Boris’s sister evidently refuses to condemn her father. Born 3 September 1965, she has a prominent Sagittarius Moon probably square Saturn opposition Pluto, Uranus Sun in Virgo. Which validates the notion that Sag Moons tend to airbrush out what they don’t want to see. [Ever since Solaia pointed it out I have found countless examples.]

 The other is another comment from Jennifer Arcuri who seems, contrary to appearances, to be perceptive. ‘She saw him as an introvert, a depressive who enjoyed solitude, and someone who needed to be alone. Paradoxically, particularly on those days of his greatest public successes, he could decline into an intense depression.’

  Which might explain his astrology when he won the last election when all his chart indicated was negativity.  Ditto Cummings. A psychological trait to ponder – and to keep in mind for election predictions.

   He’s undoubtedly a talented if anguished man, which latter need not prevent him from making a considerable impact. His leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17^th Harmonic is strong; as is his 15H = a magic number in numerology which rules alchemy, black magic, need for erotic experiences, actors and eloquent speakers. It is a “tricky” number, not always lucky, and sometimes it can be associated with illness. His 7th harmonic is also marked which suggests a seeking soul who needs peace and can be cold and self-centered. His can-be-self-defeating 10H and 16H are also notable.

Trump fatigue is setting in as his capacity for hogging the headlines knows no bounds. Now he appears to have caught Coronavirus along with Melania and Hope Hicks.

  His age and obesity will put him especially at risk. His Progressed Moon (in Virgo) is exactly square his 10^th house Uranus now and for the next few weeks. He has Aquarius and thus Saturn and Uranus ruling his 6^th house of health. Tr Pluto is moving to a challenging and discouraging opposition to his Saturn from late November so both his 6th house rulers are under strain at the moment. Plus he has had a highly pressured run of difficult transits to mid points:

The catastrophic tr Uranus square his Mars/Saturn midpoint, to which Ebertin ascribes accidents, illness or tests of nervous strength, was in place till late September in which latter days the virus may have been gestating; at the same time as the disruptive tr Uranus square his Pluto.  Mid August to late November he has tr Pluto opposition his Mars/Uranus which will bring a struggle for survival and a real test of nerves. He is under a staggering amount of strain coming in from all quarters.

  His Lunar Return from 23 September for four weeks has the Saturn Pluto conjunction on the cusp of his 6^th.

  Melania’s chart is showing acute frustration and irritation till late November, followed by a truly stressful four weeks till late December. Late October to late November – high tensions, seclusion, nervousness, separation. She also has a blocked Solar Arc Sun square her Pluto very soon. That may not all be illness since she’s in the eye of the Trump storm.

There’s nothing much showing on Hope Hicks’ chart without a birth time apart from a few discouraging days late this November into December with tr Saturn square her Libra Sun.