Astrology of Today’s News

Another proxy war has broken out to add to global tensions this time in the Caucasus, stemming from a local territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is pitting Turkey against a surprising coalition of Russia, France and the USA.

 FT: ‘Mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous region when both Armenia and Azerbaijan were part of the Soviet Union. The conflict began when the region’s Armenian-majority population sought to join Armenia, sparking a war that killed more than 20,000 people before a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 ushered in an uneasy stalemate.’

   Turkish President Erdogan’s support for Azerbaijan and his warmongering rhetoric has been condemned by Moscow and Ankara’s Nato allies. Russia and Turkey already back opposing sides in the Libya and Syria civil wars. Both Moscow and Paris have accused Erdogan of sending mercenary fighters from Syria to Azerbaijan. Macron has taken an increasingly tough line against Nato ally Turkey in recent months, over Libya and Ankara’s contentious gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean.

  Just to add to the complexity from an astrological viewpoint there are a plethora of charts for Azerbaijan and Armenia stemming from the messy break-up of the Russian Empire post-1917 and the equally confused dissolution of the USSR in the early 1990s.

  One date which both seem to share is 28 May 1918 when they took a tentative step towards independence. If it is sound, there is an undermining tr Neptune square Jupiter and opposition Mars which runs on and off into early 2021; with a short, sharp shock from Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Sun soon; and a high-tension, paranoid, suspicious tr Uranus square Saturn and the Neptune/Saturn midpoint into spring 2021.

   The 1991 charts are so muddled they are hardly worth looking at.

  Erdogan’s 4^th Term chart, 9 July 2018 4.30pm Ankara, is keyed up with an over-reactive tr Uranus square his stubbornly cantankerous Mars in Aquarius, repeating exactly late this month and through November, again next spring. He’s in a risk-taking mood. But will run into a major blockage with Solar Arc Sun opposition the Term Pluto, exact in six months. He’ll be stop start through 2021, over optimistic at points and then nailed down.

  The Turkey chart, 29 October 1923 8.30pm, is also facing mountainous problems with tr Pluto square the Saturn through 2020/21 suggesting hardship, deprivation and internal discontent; with an upbeat tr Pluto sextile Jupiter at the same time. If the start time is right then significant financial problems lie ahead, worsening along with other restrictions from 2023/24 onwards.

   The relations between Turkey and Russia (1917) are deteriorating this year and through 2021 with tr Neptune opposition the composite Mars Saturn; with further tensions erupting from April 2021 onwards into 2022 with tr Uranus square tr Saturn in hard aspect to the composite Sun square Neptune – stress levels will rise.

  France which has an oddly toxic relationship with Turkey at the best of times, will be chilly, critical and seething by this New Year. Though the worst aggravation will wait till 2022/23/24 as tr Pluto is in hard aspect to the composite Saturn, Venus and then Mars and Pluto.

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s special adviser and ‘dark arts’ practitioner, has garnered a toxic reputation like many PM advisers before him which eventually led to their downfall and ousting. Indeed he’s been round this circuit before as bagman for Michael Gove in the Department of Education when the dirty tricks and abusive name-calling of opponents got to such a pitch in 2014 that Gove was removed to a political sinecure.  Cummings reinvented himself via the successful if less than honest Vote Leave campaign into Brexit and thence onto No 10.

  He’s had significant crashes in his career including early on involvement in a “spectacularly unsuccessful” project to set up an airline in southern Russia where he spent three years after university.

  Described as “mad, bad or brilliant – perhaps all three”, he’s known not to suffer fools or those who disagree with him gladly and is openly contemptuous, often in offensive language.

  Born 25 November 1971 in Durham, he has a Sun Neptune in Sagittarius opposition Saturn in Gemini square Mars in Pisces. A focal point Mars tends to be strong-willed and aggressive, attracting antagonism and conflict. In a Mutable sign it makes him scattergun in approach and high-wire in temperament, often not successful because he goes off in too many directions at once and lacks focus.

   I’d hazard a guess at an Aquarius Ascendant given his boho-anorak style of dressing and because it would mean tr Saturn was heading downhill in his chart over his Russia fiasco in the mid 1990s.  That possible birth time circa 1pm would put his self-righteous Jupiter in his 9^th with his antagonistic Pluto in his 7^th, and Mars in his 1^st. Maybe wrong but makes sense.

   His chart was head-scratchingly obtuse over Boris’s win and indeed Brexit – he clearly has odd reactions. Though on a 1pm birth time it would put tr Saturn heading for his Midheaven and now moving through his upper quadrant thereafter until 2021/22 which would make sense. Thereafter he may sink again.

  For all his sang froid he looks seriously shaken this month, which is when the Boris government chart starts its meltdown. (See previous post).  Cummings will be jittered, jangled, nerve-stretched and making bad decisions for several weeks. He’ll get a lift in this December and next February but is heading for real disaster come mid-March into April 2021, repeating in September and the New Year into 2022. He’ll be tripping over  one disaster after another. The Solar and Lunar Eclipses from mid 2020 to late 2021 are rattling up his five Sagittarius planets so it will be a crisis point in his life.

  His relationship with Boris is one of the world’s great mysteries since there’s a bad-tempered and restrictive composite Mars Saturn in their relationship chart which is (even worse) in a hostile inconjunct to Pluto; an argumentative, conflicting-standpoints Mercury opposition Uranus Pluto and a needs-space Venus conjunct Uranus.  And their synastry is no better, with Cummings T Square of Sagittarius Sun Neptune opposition Saturn square Mars colliding with Boris’s Saturn in Virgo opposition Uranus Pluto square Mars in Gemini. They are absolutely not what the other needs since both go off at tangents and spin around like Catherine Wheels in a Force Nine gale.

  Their relationship chart doesn’t indicate an instant separation but there’s a decidedly swampy, undermining and dissatisfied feel with tr Neptune opposition the Sun/Pluto midpoint now and then opposition Pluto around that sinkhole phase next March 2021 and continuing on in the same vein into 2022. They don’t look in lockstep or harmony over the alleged Brexit point on December 31^st.

  Cummings and Carrie Symonds are not remotely sympatico and the gulf between them will widen late this November into December with tr Saturn conjunct the composite Mercury, Sun. with upheavals through December and aggro over the New Year till late January; with more fireworks from mid 2021 onwards.

  With his old buddy Gove, he’s sensing panic in the air now with a definite chill between them from mid November through December; by late March 2021 onwards they won’t know where to turn – and whatever they had going as a partnership will be sinking in a morass of question marks.

   With the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, he has an odd connection with a supportive composite Sun trine Jupiter; but the Sun also on the focal point of a composite Yod of Saturn sextile Venus – so a fated bond that will irrevocably change both their lives. It’s under darkening clouds from late February onwards for two years with a discouraging mood between them.

  Cummings and the Tory Party 1912 aren’t a great match with a hostile, power-struggling composite Mars square Pluto which is being upended from July 2021 onwards worsening through 2022.

  The UK are no more enamoured of him with a ratchety-dislike composite Mars square Saturn. There’ll be more discontentment and disappointment between them from February 2021 onwards, with the March/April dip marked on this chart as well.

  Nothing definite regretfully from the astrology. Though none of this batch look remotely chipper as they set foot into 2021.

  His chart is better suited to an airline business (albeit unsuccessful) than affairs of state. He does have fairly extensive business interests some of which have raised eyebrows about conflicts of interest.

China is ramping up the pressure on Taiwan, conducting military exercises off the coast and summarily removing an agreed median line in the Taiwan Straits which helped prevent military accidents. Opinion is divided as to whether Beijing is trying to provoke a reaction or to shake Taiwan’s morale and indicate displeasure about closer contacts between Taipei and Washington and a possible arms sales. Officials say it is the worst escalation of military activity in more than two decades.

  The history of modern China is so muddled there is no clear chart for Taiwan though the 1 January 1912 chart did show up the three Taiwan Straits Crises with China in 1954/58/95, so has a validity.

  On that chart tr Pluto is opposing the Neptune at the moment until late this November for maximum confusion and high-anxiety; and that rolls on through 2021/22; with indications of a total turnaround and massive upheaval come 2022 with tr Pluto conjunct the Uranus. Along the way 2021 looks economically stressed with tr Uranus conjunct the Saturn in Taurus with tr Saturn in square; at the same time as a high-risk, scary, trapped tr Pluto trine Mars. Muddle and mayhem will run on till 2024. Part of that will be pandemic and consequent economic damage.

  The China 1949 chart is in bullish mood till late this November with tr Pluto conjunct the Jupiter; and will be on high-alert and aggressive form from July 2021 onwards as tr Uranus starts to square the 7^th house (= neighbours) Mars in Leo and moving on to square Pluto in 2022. When tr Uranus is in hard aspect to Mars it usually tests an individual or country’s self-esteem and the likelihood is of rash over-reactions to prop up morale.

  Xi Jinping’s 2nd Term chart, 24 October 2017 12.30pm Beijing, is moving into shaky territory from May 2021 onwards with tr Neptune square the Saturn; though the effects of that will come sooner as tr Neptune squares the Moon in late February/March. Tr Pluto is also square the Term Uranus from late February 2021 on and off to late 2022, which is usually a time of maximum instability for an administration – and that extreme wobble will be exacerbated by Solar Arc Uranus opposition the Sun exact in early 2022 for a shocking surprise.  If he survives that still clinging onto his perch then tr Pluto squares the Term Sun in 2023/24 putting him under severe pressure; and after that tr Pluto squares the Jupiter in 2024/25. He may or may not survive politically to rise again from the ashes when the Pluto Jupiter effect rescues him.

Chris Wallace, senior television anchor and journalist with Fox News, had the unenviable task of attempting to moderate the Trump-Biden first debate. By all accounts he lost control but in fairness there would be little chance of reining Trump in when he went off on one of his semi-psychotic rants. A hefty dose of opioids was about the only lever that might have done the trick and avoided what was described as a national embarrassment, an epic moment of shame for the ages – as well as a dumpster fire, a car-crash etc etc.

  Wallace, 12 October 1947, has his Sun, Neptune and Venus spread out through Libra; with a penetrating Mercury in Scorpio square a hefty collection of Saturn, Pluto and Mars in Leo.

  If anything, he’d lean more towards Biden with a composite Sun Venus in a workmanlike trine to Saturn; and an enthusiastic Mars Jupiter in their relationship chart.

His relationship chart on the other hand with Trump has a palpable dislike and power-struggling composite Sun, Mars, Pluto.  It’s a good deal starker in terms of outright aggravation than the Trump/Biden relationship chart. Wallace would press Trump’s buttons.

  Trump was in any event even more out of control than usual for two astro-reasons.  One was Mars Saturn and the other Pluto. Firstly there was a celestial Mars Saturn square yesterday which was activating his Venus (conjunct Saturn) and tr Saturn had until a couple of days before been inconjunct his attention-hogging Mars in Leo. Mars Saturn mixes two very different energies. Mars is go-ahead, assertive, competitive, angry when pent up. Saturn is restrictive, putting blocks in the way of forward movement. It’s why it is associated with accidents and broken bones since hot-headed Mars running smack into Saturn’s rigidity and brick-wall qualities isn’t a good combination.

It’s also associated with both assassinations and the military. Saturn’s Grim Reaper plus Mars’ warlike tendencies = death.  But it also points to the necessity for soldiers to obey, which means they have to suppress their personal wishes in order to do as they are told. This breeds an underlying resentment over time, which builds up and can have explosive consequences.  Dysfunctional childhoods – cruel parents – often show up as Mars Saturn in a chart – and it does breed self-discipline, the ability to withstand tough conditions. But there’s also a simmering volcano effect, whereby the underlying anger only stays hidden for so long and then blows, often with destructive effect. At a more trivial level it’s very ratchety and irritable.

   The other is his Pluto – from what I can gather, not having watched, he wouldn’t let anyone else speak and constantly interrupted, which suggests a desperation to exert control on everything and everyone in his environment. Allowing any other voice or presence floor space would pose a death blow to his shaky self-esteem and that threatens psychological implosion – it’s narcissism on steroids.

  He’s just had tr Uranus upending his 12^th house Pluto which is conjunct his Mars/Saturn midpoint, both at 10 degrees Leo, so he’d go into the debate standing on very shaky ground. Falling poll numbers and the NY Times expose of his tax returns indicating his claims of being a financial genius were built on sand would have penetrated through even his rhinoceros hide to shatter his illusions of grandiosity, entitlement, and superiority. What lies underneath that in him is inner inadequacy, shame, and vulnerability. Shame is especially corrosive for a narcissist and they will go to the ends of the earth to avoid facing it or worse feeling it.  And of course it could well be a dementia symptom.

“Some people try to be tall by cutting off the heads of others.” —Paramahansa Yogananda

Please add below. Older posts under News on top bar.

“Trump taxes show chronic losses and years of tax avoidance” ran the New York Times headline as it claimed to have sight of Trump’s tax returns for the past 15 years. The revelations will damage Trump’s claim to be a successful businessman, capable of stewarding the US economy. He could be due a possible $100m bill if he loses a decade-long IRS audit battle. Plus other debts which are due to be repaid in coming years. There are also question marks about how his businesses have continued to function if they have constantly lost vast sums of money.

  Trump’s astro-timeline below from a previous post. What is worth highlighting is his Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his slippery 2^nd house Neptune, exact in a year’s time, though possibly in triggering earlier which was always going to have a poleaxing effect on his finances – a sharp reality check for evasive practices; with a highly-strung (nervous meltdown) Solar Arc Neptune opposition his 10^th house Uranus, exact at the same time = reputation damaging. His Progressed Moon is moving into his 2^nd house in the middle of 2021 to stay for two years plus, which always bring up cash concerns. Then he faces a grind-to-a-dead-halt, enraged and high-risk catastrophe by late 2022 with Solar Arc Mars square his Pluto; with 2023 being restricted every which way and feeling a very cold draught from Solar Arc Pluto square his Saturn. Plus a great deal of Neptunian dissolution from spring 2021 onwards.

The house of cards starting to topple, validating the acerbic description from years back by another businessman of Trump – “a con man with credit.” Another question being who supplied the credit – the Deutsche Bank et al revelations may fill in a few blanks.

  His adult children, heavily involved in his businesses all look stressed ahead. Donald Junior has a completely-blocked, deprived and depressed Solar Arc Pluto square his Saturn now; a neurotic, panicky, uncertain tr Pluto square his Saturn/Neptune midpoint late this November to late December; and a scarily trapped tr Pluto square his Sun/Mars over this New Year and on and off through 2021. 2021 looks insecure, jangled, uneasy as he heads for another deprived, discouraging road block in 2023 from Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Pluto.

  Eric is looking forward to 2022 being his year of cataclysm with a hugely disruptive Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Uranus and Solar Arc Mars conjunct his Venus; with a nightmarish 2023/24 and even worse 2026.

  Ivanka does have a bullishly upbeat tr Pluto square her Jupiter across the New Year and on and off through 2021; but she also has depressed patches making heavy weather of progress with major glooms from late February on and off through 2022 as well with tr Pluto square her Sun/Saturn midpoint; plus her slippery Venus Neptune in Sagittarius may well shake loose a few undermining secrets through 2021 as well as it comes under aspect from a run of tr Neptune squares. Her nadir looks to be 2022 with Solar Arc Pluto square her Mars which is trapped and scary; and 2023 with Solar Arc Saturn conjunct Uranus which will upset her applecart.

Methinks losing the election would be the least of their worries and even another WH stint wouldn’t protect him. It’s all going to build from now – but 2022/23 look to be the real disaster years for the Trump and family finances.

August 31 2020 post:

From 5^th July he picks up the catastrophic tr Uranus square his Mars/Saturn midpoint, to which Ebertin ascribes accidents, illness or tests of nervous strength. At the same time he has the disruptive tr Uranus square his Pluto. Both keep running till late September, and return in April 2021 along with a blocked tr Saturn in opposition to both his Pluto and Mars/Saturn, and those run on and off till early 2022.

   July 6 to August 18 he has the discouraging tr Pluto opposition his Saturn, returning late November till late December.

   He will get some uplift mid August to late November from tr Pluto trine his Mars/Jupiter midpoint though that’s minor and it won’t outweigh the fraught tr Pluto opposition his Mars/Uranus running at the same time which will bring a struggle for survival and a real test of nerves, and the other influences.

  He’s got an extended run ahead of Neptune transits which tend to lower energy and undermine ego-driven ambitions, and can also indicate underhand and deceptive tactics. He’s nerve-stretched at the moment and not thinking clearly with tr Neptune square his Sun/Uranus midpoint late April to late August. Tr Neptune squares Uranus/Node through September; and opposes his Progressed Moon over the election.

  Into 2021 from late March 2021 tr Neptune squares his Moon and then his Sun, on and off till early 2023.

  The June Lunar Eclipse this year will be opposition his Uranus for a shake up; and more significantly the December 23 Sagittarius Eclipse will conjunct his Moon and oppose his Sun.

  A Solar Eclipse opposition a natal Sun usually brings a realisation of not always being right and needing to acquire a fresh perspective. A Solar Eclipse conjunct the Moon brings up the past and tests the foundations of life in a major way. It can bring public image under scrutiny. Robert Jansky says: ‘If society considers you a valuable person it will let you know.

Add On: I’ve been so focussed on the election and immediate aftermath I completely overlooked the cataclysmic state of Trump’s chart moving ahead.

  In addition to the Neptunian low energy/low confidence swamp he moves into courtesy of transiting Neptune from next spring for two years he has a run of disastrous Solar Arcs. Mid to late 2021 his Solar Arc Saturn is conjunct his 2^nd house Neptune which will bring a significant panic and rising neurosis possibly around his personal finances. In addition his has Solar Arc Neptune opposition his 10^th house Uranus which may have a dissolving action on one of the planks of his career – and could also have a neurological component. Worse by far is Solar Arc Mars square his 12^th house Pluto come late 2022, followed swiftly by Solar Arc Pluto square his Saturn, both of which are likely to run him into a dead-halt meltdown. These Solar Arcs are not dependent on his birth time – but what it does mean in the unlikely event of his re-election that he would almost certainly not see out the term.

Boris in full-Trumpian spate is, according to reports, attempting to shoehorn two right-wingers into key broadcasting jobs, which should be put out to tender and a selection process. The prospect of Charles Moore, ex-Telegraph editor, as possible BBC chairman will invoke shudders of horror amongst the inmates. As will Paul Dacre, former Daily Mail editor, in as head of Ofcom (the government regulatory body for broadcasting) – which latter has been described like putting Genghis Khan in charge of social care in the community.  

  Both men are oddly enough Sun Scorpios as is the BBC, Dacre born on the same day as Prince Charles.

  Charles Moore, who once employed Boris Johnson as a journalist and described him as a nightmare to work with, was born 31 October 1956 and is a Sun, Mercury, Neptune in Scorpio in an innovative and can-be fanatical square to Uranus and trine Mars in Pisces. If he is confirmed, he’ll upset the applecart at the BBC and it’ll be a noisy term.  His ambitious Mars in Pisces falls in the BBC’s 10^th conjunct its rebellious Uranus and his Uranus opposes the BBC’s stubbornly opinionated 9^th house Mars. His self-righteous Saturn in Sagittarius is square the BBC Uranus for sharply differing agendas; and his Pluto sits in the BBC’s 4^th which will prompt him to put an iron hand on internal matters.

  He is looking more satisfied than usual come late November into December with tr Pluto trine his Jupiter after an acutely frustrating October/November as the civil service mandarins dig in their heels about due process. Across the New Year and January he’s into disaster territory, with more later in the year; and there’s nothing that looks either easy or too successful over the next three years.

  Paul Dacre, 14 November 1948, has the same blip upwards late November to late December; but will have an exceedingly messy, discontented three years after that. If he does get it, he won’t enjoy it. Though he’d have more than just the BBC to contend with since the rest of the TV network and social media would also come under his remit.

  His crossover with the BBC if anything is worse than Moore’s with his Pluto conjunct the BBC Neptune and opposition the BBC Mars with his Venus Neptune conjunct the BBC Saturn and his Mars square the BBC Moon etc.

  The BBC chart is hitting its roughest patch in 2022 with tr Saturn square the Midheaven; a shocking collision Solar Arc Mars opposition the Sun and tr Neptune opposition the Moon. And that’s the juncture when Moore is having his greatest impact in turning the place upside down.

   It’s not that the BBC shouldn’t be reined in – the bloated and obscenely expensive, top-heavy bureaucracy needs a slash-and-burn, scorched-earth policy; and the left-wing, London-centric approach needs rebalanced. But a Boris vengeance spree handing on the baton to Moore could be a step too far.

Amy Coney Barrett has been nominated and will almost certainly be confirmed as the Supreme Court replacement for Ruth Ginsberg. Barrett is reckoned extremely intelligent and capable though tainted by her association with a charismatic Christian, essentially Roman Catholic though also ecumenical, group known as People of Praise. It excludes women from its higher leadership and was thought to be one of the inspirations behind Margaret Atwood’s the Handmaid’s Tale.

  Born 28 January 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana, she’s a Sun Aquarius conjunct the North Node sextile Neptune and trine Pluto – and tied into an out of element Grand Trine, with North Node trine Saturn in Fixed Taurus trine Pluto, turned into a Kite by Saturn opposition Neptune. Sun Neptune Pluto indicates soaring ambition. An Aquarius North Node is associated with devotion to a cause. Neptune is both spiritual and in aspect to Saturn both socially-aware and slightly paranoid. Saturn Pluto gives grit and perseverance.

   She also has Mars in upfront Aries in a volatile opposition to Uranus square Mercury in practical Capricorn; with a Cancer Moon also tied into what could be a Cardinal Grand Square. A Cancer Moon will be home-focused (seven children) but she hardly looks the submissive wife type – those are fairly explosive aspects.

  Her Sun will catch the tr Uranus square late November to mid-December this year and again next February for a major life’s change. This is a point which affects many of the main players and may well be when the confirmation hearings are held. [See previous post September 19 2020]. She has a ‘lucky break’ tr Pluto sextile her Jupiter/Uranus at the same time late this November to late December, though that’s mild. She looks stressed across the New Year till late January with tr Pluto conjunct her Mercury, which will involve her in toxic arguments. And has a fair few disaster influences through 2021.

   She half fits into the Supreme Court since both have Aquarius Suns and her Jupiter in Sagittarius works with the SCOTUS Jupiter Mars in Leo. But her Saturn squares the SCOTUS Mercury and her Mercury square Mars collides with the SCOTUS Neptune – so she will have a dampening and restricting effect on certain decisions and will fight against what she regards as ‘soft’ judgements.

   Her relationship with Chief Justice John Roberts, another Aquarius, is half friendly; and half fraught due to a composite Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars. This could tie them into life-or-death decisions (Mars Pluto) with irrevocable repercussions for both of them.  A composite Yod can have fated consequences for both parties.

  What is strange – maybe not – is that her relationship with Donald Trump is anything but cosy with an outright-dislike composite Mars Saturn conjunction. By 2022 tr Neptune starts three years of squaring and undermining that; as well as upending the composite Uranus also from 2022.  So if he wins or even if he doesn’t, cases that involve him which appear before the Supreme Court may find him regretting the day he appointed her.  

  And now that I look, Trump’s relationship with John Roberts while not quite as starkly at odds, is hitting a rough patch with panicky fears and disappointment from late April 2021 onwards for a year and upsets in 2022.

  The fates may get their revenge, though at some cost beforehand to America’s reputation and integrity. What a travesty.

Pic: Rachel Malehorn

Juliette Greco, the singer who became the muse of bohemian postwar Paris, the musical embodiment of the existentialist movement, has died aged 93. She was the darling of philosophers, poets, intellectuals and critics – Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir and others. Jean Paul Sartre, who composed lyrics for her, said “Gréco has a million poems in her voice. It is like a warm light that revives the embers burning inside of us all. In her mouth, my words become precious stones.”

  The composer Ernest Lubin praised her “deep, throaty voice that ranges from a near whisper to raucous abandon,” and her ability to “create a mood of astonishing intensity and conviction.”

  Her talent and emotional resilience were all the more astonishing given the trauma and horrors of her early life. She was born 7 February 1927 9pm Montpellier, France with an absent Corsican father and distant mother. According to wiki her mother referred to her as a child of rape and abandoned her and her sister to her maternal grandparents. When they died, during the war in Paris she and her sister rejoined her mother who was working for the Resistance. All three were captured by the Gestapo and tortured with her older sister and mother being sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp.  She was let out of prison after several months; and after the war found her sister and mother who had survived though in bad condition. Her mother subsequently left the sisters to live in Indochina. Juliette, not yet 20, lived alone in Paris, taking acting classes paid for by a family friend.

  She had a Sun Aquarius, as befits a bohemian icon, in her entertaining and performing 5^th alongside Mercury opposition musical Neptune and squaring an intense and dark Mars in Taurus in her 8^th house. Mars in Taurus is ultra-determined especially as a focal planet and buried in the 8^th would give her a sense of the evils of the world. She also had an influential and controlling Pluto in the 10^th with her Cancer Node conjunct her Midheaven trine Venus Jupiter in Pisces, sextiling onto her Moon in Taurus. Taurus rules the throat so is often found in singer’s charts. She also had a tricky, karmic/fated Yod of Moon sextile North Node Midheaven inconjunct Saturn in Sagittarius which would indicate a life of struggle and frustration. Though as with all Saturnine burdens, it would ease through life. But it’s a really tough chart.

  Her Venus also squared Saturn, which given its connection to a highly-sexed approach to life, is interesting. She was married three times and had countless lovers, including Miles Davis whom she knew throughout her life; Quincy Jones, Sacha Distel, Albert Camus, Darryl F Zanuck amongst others.

An extraordinary woman.

A rollicking political diary described as “a merciless memoir“ has been slicing through the pervading gloom as a former minister’s wife took payback for being ignored by the Cameron clique. Sasha Swire, heretofore unknown to all but few, is now a household word for indiscretion and betrayal. One reviewer said her “diaries are treacherous, socially contemptible, rude – and gripping.”

David Cameron is portrayed as honourable but lewd (obsessed with penis size) and essentially shallow.

George Osborne is amusing but vengeful. She relates he rushed off to beat then Deputy PM Nick Clegg to the grace and favour house of Dorneywood and plant his toothbrush there, as if it is a flag. (Petty and pathetic.)

Boris Johnson is “desperately lonely and unhappy on the inside”. ‘Yes, he’s an alley cat but he has a greatness of soul, a generosity of spirit, a desire to believe the best in people, a lack of pettiness and envy which is pretty uncommon in politics and, best of all, a wonderfully comic vision of the human condition.’

Michael Gove is “slightly bonkers”, and dishonest about his ambition. “He’s always lied about that. I think he’s quite dangerous.”

Dominic Cummings is “stark raving mad”. “It will all go tits up with him, it always does,” she says. “He’ll explode.”

Theresa May “didn’t have an original idea in her head. And no friends, either.”

  The closeness of Cameron’s circle is “unprecedented… a very particular, narrow tribe of Britain and their hangers-on”. It’s “enough to repulse the ordinary man”.  

  Her reflections are less about the destiny of history and more about houses, seating at state banquets, rivalries, ministerial cars and perpetual plotting. “It is modern-day Hilary Mantel.” What is all the odder is she seemed to have no clue about the likely repercussions of her musings which incensed Sarah Vine, Michael Gove’s wife and embarrassed the Camerons.

  Born 18 January 1963 in London, the daughter of Sir John Nott, a former Tory Cabinet Minister, Sasha Swire has a late Capricorn Sun, a flamboyant Mars in Leo, a cool Saturn in Aquarius with her Mercury in Aquarius inconjunct Uranus, which last would make her a blurter out of the truth as she saw it. More significantly she has a pushily-confident, and by all accounts entitled, Jupiter opposition Pluto and Uranus squaring onto Venus in Sagittarius. Venus Jupiter is superficially charming; Venus Pluto manipulative – and a focal point Venus is fickle in relationships, a social butterfly, who is reluctant to commit in relationships and lacks emotional depth. Her Moon may be late Libra or early Scorpio.

  Her attention-demanding Mars in Leo is heavily aspected by midpoints – opposition Sun/Jupiter, conjunct Pluto/Node, square Jupiter/Node and square Mercury Pluto. So she’s a mix of super-confident, angry and resentful and the last one Ebertin describes as “sharp critic, the desire to attack others, a blackmailer”. She’s not a blackmailer in the ordinary sense since she spread compromising and damaging information without demanding hush money. Though she did reportedly get £250,000 for her book.  And there are more to follow.

   Of the ones in her former friendship circle she has always grated with behind the saccharine smiles were George Osborne, Sarah Vine and Samantha Cameron.  Sasha’s chilly Saturn was in a ratchety conjunction to Osborne’s Mars with her Neptune square – no love lost there. Sarah Vine’s Aries Sun opposition Mars square Jupiter clashed with Sasha’s Capricorn Sun.

Samantha Cameron’s Fixed Saturn in Taurus squared Sasha’s Mars skewering her chances of the spotlight and Sasha’s Sun was trine Samantha’s Saturn and Pluto and conjunct Samantha’s Mars – not much chance of cosy girl nights in with those crossovers.  Dinner parties and holidays must have been rife with snippy comments, with barely concealed aggro running below the surface.

   Michael Gove and wife Sarah Vine look distracted by her now, ramping up in angst across the New Year and through 2021, presumably with the concern she may damage his chances since he’s still in the ring.  Osborne also, who is evidently keen to return to politics if he can, is similarly off balance. The Camerons strangely look concerned over this New Year and into next spring – so there may be more to come.  The publishers no doubt being keen to keep on a roll when they can.

  She was also suitably acerbic about Prince Andrew who she said gave an ‘excruciating’ diatribe about ‘how brilliant he was’ at an official dinner. ‘’It is clear there is a power struggle taking place between him and Prince Charles. A lot of Andrew’s embarrassing friendships with oligarchs, and his imploring anyone who will listen to bail out his wife, has strained their relationship.’ The Sasha/Andrew relationship chart is explosive through 2021.

   She may turn out to be the poor man’s diarist of the age.