Astrology of Today’s News

 

Princess Basmah, a senior Saudi royal, granddaughter of the founding monarch, has revealed she is being held in prison and in urgent need of medical care. She says she has been detained since last March without charge in Riyadh with one of her daughters, with no explanations for their arrests, despite repeated pleas to her uncle King Salman. She had been a frequent advocate of reform in the kingdom, including a change to a constitutional monarchy, and improvement in women’s rights and humanitarian rights.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the arrest fitted a clear pattern of dissenters being ruthlessly silenced by Prince Mohammed. “Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s rampant repression of all forms of critics, including people he can extort money out of, the space for dissent has shrunk greatly,” said a senior women’s rights researcher at HRW. “This is particularly the case for women, many of whom have been silenced, imprisoned, or are in exile right now.”

Basmah Bint Al Saud was born on 1 March 1964 in Riyadh, the 115th and youngest of King Saud’s children, during the final months of her father’s reign, as he was overthrown in a palace coup. Her mother took her to Beirut but had to flee, when she was 11, to the UK when civil war broke out. She was educated in Britain, Beirut and the USA, married a Saudi and had five children.

She has a stark chart with a Sun Mars in Pisces opposition Uranus Pluto in Virgo – so acclimatised to danger and frustratingly trapped circumstances. Her Sun (Mars) are in a Water Grand Trine to Neptune and a North Node in Cancer which has a potential to be a healing force.

Her relationship chart with her cousin MbS, the power-hungry Crown Prince, is conflicted and undermining with an argumentative composite Sun Mars in a hostile trine to Pluto, an evasive, unsupportive opposition to Neptune with a resentful Saturn square Pluto.

There’s nothing much on her chart (without birth time) to suggest good news anytime soon.

Her unhappy plight is unlikely to make much of a dent on the Jared/Trump/MbS bro-romance. But there are signs of a pulling-away this year from the present White House incumbents. With the Jared/MBS bond being seriously tested by events in May/June and beyond. And Trump who was less than enamoured over the oil debacle isn’t looking too pleased with MbS or vice versa either as the year proceeds.

The West may have its drawbacks but looking at countries like Saudi Arabia is like stepping into a horror episode of Game of Thrones.

Trump’s latest distract-and-divert blame-game has landed on the World Health Organisation, as he proclaims he intends to stop funding after a 90-day review. This despite the fact that the WHO was warning about the virus from late January. Bill Gates said: “Halting funding during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds.” But it had the required effect of grabbing the headlines.

The US is the global health body’s largest single funder, giving more than $400m in 2019. There are legitimate grounds for criticism of the WHO but it has been more on the ball this time round than many governments, particularly the USA.

The constitution was signed on 22 July 1946 at 3.l30 pm in New York and it began on 7 April 1948.

Both charts sit uneasily with Trump’s. The 1946 is close to his own though the Mars is in Virgo and squares his Uranus Sun and Moon for an irritable chemistry. The 1948 chart is worse with the Pluto Saturn Mars in Leo aligned with his vengeful and bombastic, grandiose Mars; and the WHO Uranus in Gemini colliding with his Sun and Moon.

The 1946 chart has the panicky-failure tr Neptune opposition Mars and square Uranus this month extending on and off into 2021; with a major turbulence in 2021 from tr Uranus square the Pluto. The 1948 chart has an upsetting Solar Arc square the financial Venus exactly now and the disruptive tr Uranus square Pluto in 2021.

Trump has been warned that his severing ties with international organisations only makes it more likely that China will step into the vacuum and gain in power and influence.

Apocalyptic comparisons have been made by the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the event of the lockdown continuing into the summer. The worst economic hit for 300 years, he cheerily intoned, since 1709. That was the year of the ‘Great Frost’, the worst winter in 500 years, which lasted for three months, sparked food shortages, caused thousands of deaths especially in France, and a huge deficit to the economy. In London on the night of 5 January 1709 a temperature of minus 12 C (10 F) was recorded. The severe cold occurred during the time of low sunspot activity known as the Maunder Minimum. Almost all the rivers in the north and centre of Europe froze, roads were blocked and many cities including Paris were cut off from supplies for months.

The Great Frost occurred when Uranus and Pluto were conjunct in Leo trine Neptune and sextile Saturn in Gemini. Uranus Pluto is disruptive; add Neptune for devastation and confusion and Saturn for hardship and it was not a fun time.

The England 11 May 973 AD chart shows up the devastating effects clearly as tr Pluto made its Return (a once-in-250- year occurrence). Not only was tr Pluto conjunct the natal Pluto with tr Uranus not far behind, both were also in square to the England Sun Mars in Taurus – so it was a considerable catastrophe. The England Saturn was also on a Return; and the Solar Arc Saturn was exactly square the North Node. A perfect storm.

Although France was most affected. The 10 August 843 AD chart has a last decan Leo Sun which also caught the tr Uranus conjunction; with tr Neptune square the Saturn and conjunct the France Uranus for extreme agitation.

There are no astro-similarities at the moment, though the economic hit is likely to roll on for several years, which the money-men are only beginning to grasp. The over-optimistic hoped for a V shaped dip, but the fall out is likely to drag on for several years, until mid decade. The UK, EU as well as Russia will have their multiple Fixed planets under assault from tr Uranus hard aspects until it moves into Gemini; and the USA is heading for its first Pluto Return.

 

Fame-hungry reality stars with criminal convictions are meat and drink to TV producers. Following Tiger King, there’s a Brit scaled-down version in Quiz, a dramatized version now airing of one of the biggest gameshow scandals in history. Charles Ingram, a former army major and his wife, were accused of cheating in Who Wants to be a Millionaire? in 2001 with a million prize at stake. They were given suspended prison sentences and subsequently went on to appear in other reality shows. They are some who still claim the ‘coughing’ major is innocent. Two years later he was convicted of a separate and unrelated insurance fraud, having had a history as a habitual claimant over alleged loss of personal possessions.

Born 6 August 1963 he has a needs-attention Leo Sun and Venus with his Sun opposition Saturn and square to Neptune, as well as trine Jupiter in pro-active Aries and sextile Mars in Libra. A focal point Neptune will be – at the very least –detached from reality, can be delusional, and at worst will be slippery and evasive.

When the offence occurred in 2001 his Solar Arc Mars had moved to exactly conjunct his Neptune; and tr Neptune was opposition his Venus and trine his Mars exactly. Tr Pluto was also trine his Sun and was about to run into the catastrophic conjunction to his Mars/Saturn midpoint.

The happy couple are revelling evidently in this new found spotlight, despite it focussing on their guilt.

 

Trump is losing it as criticism mounts and attention slides away from him with the State Governors taking an increasingly strong and sensible grip on the pandemic. Yesterday he delivered what Jon Sopel, the BBC North America editor described as “the most dizzying, jaw-dropping, eyeball-popping, head-spinning news conference I have ever attended.” He didn’t talk about the dead, the dying, their families or a population in fear. He voiced ‘a profound sense of grievance’ that the media had been nasty in suggesting his handling of the crisis had been defective. ‘Contempt seemed to ooze out of every pore.’ ‘You feel he wants to be loved, and can’t understand it when love is not forthcoming.’ Plus ca change except his reactions are ramping up to ever more extreme levels of megalomania.

Over the briefing he did have tr Mars in Aquarius opposition his Pluto which would escalate his rage, hatred and desperation to new levels. But that’s fast-moving. What will be interesting is to see what happens when tr Uranus squares his Pluto come this July until late September, which suggests a considerable upheaval; and in someone his age can be health-related. Mind you despite all of the pointers to progressive dementia with physical side effects he is still able to rant and rave on his feet for long periods. Maybe its the hatred that keeps him going, pumping adrenaline through his system.

Following on from the previous post below of 10^th April, which details his transits, there must be considerable panic brewing amongst those closest to him, both family and political allies.

Mike Pence has been viewing their relationship with dismay since late March with tr Neptune square the composite Sun till late April, as he sees what a swamp he’s standing in.

Mike Pompeo also is agitated as is Mitch McConnell with tr Uranus elbowing their relationship charts.

There are too many charts to go over in detail – so to encapsulate there is a good deal of activity, jolting and fracturing, when tr Uranus gets to 7 degrees Taurus from early May and building up to even more turbulence in June. Mike Pompeo’s relationship chart with Trump has an aggravated Venus Saturn opposition Mars which will get a full-frontal assault from tr Uranus early May to mid June. Mitch McConnell’s relationship with Trump is also destabilising in May with tr Uranus square the composite Pluto; and separated in August and September.

Ivanka, Don Jnr and Jared all have major upsets showing with Trump senior through May/June. And Ivanka’s Scorpio Sun will be upended by a tr Uranus opposition in May; and Don Jnr’s Mars in Leo gets the tr Uranus highly-insecure and explosive square in June. Melania is also is a period of considerable turmoil with her Taurus Sun catching the tr Uranus conjunct now; and her relationship with Trump looks exceptionally fraught come June.

Hope Hicks, brought back in to prop Trump up, though technically on Jared’s staff, was looking at a disaster in March, is very off balance this month and devastated come July.

I can’t imagine any of them having the guts to stand up to him and tell him he’s unfit. And the track record of raving lunatic dictators going on and on is depressingly familiar. Maybe they could slip something soporific into his coca cola to leave him to wander through the daisies at Mar a Lago. One can but hope.

[The headline is that blissfully funny line from Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as the effects of his hallucinogenic cigarette start to bite.]

 

Bruce Willis, twenty years divorced from Demi Moore, has decided to shack up with her and their two adult daughters during the CV quarantine. Leaving his present wife Emma and two young daughters to self-isolate by themselves. He’s stayed friendly with Demi and the three of them have attended each other’s celebrations over the years. But it’s an odd arrangement.

Bruce, 19 March 1955 6.32pm Germany, is a complicated personality, inordinately stubborn and private. He has a ‘dependent’ 7^th house Pisces Sun in a Water Grand Trine to a lucky Jupiter Uranus in his career 10^th trine an obsessive Saturn in Scorpio. His Saturn opposes an unbudgeable 8^th house Mars in Taurus squaring onto Venus in Aquarius opposition Pluto. Not an easy man in close emotional space, for sure and unyielding when it comes to getting his own way.

Demi, 11 November 1962 2.16 pm Roswell, New Mexico, isn’t easy either with a Sun, Venus, Neptune Mercury in Scorpio in the 8^th square Mars in Leo with Mars widely opposition Saturn in Aquarius; plus a super-confident Jupiter opposition Pluto Uranus.

Their relationship chart is incredibly fraught with a composite Mars opposition Saturn square Moon; a head-in-the-clouds, over-hopeful Jupiter opposition Neptune; an adventurous Jupiter square Uranus trine Pluto. Mars Saturn in a relationship chart usually indicates a considerable degree of self-sacrifice from one partner as the other, not always kindly, insists on getting what they want. So pretty one sided.

Emma, his ex-model wife since 2009, was born 18 June 1978, and is a Sun Gemini sextile Saturn Mars, so used to self-sacrifice; with a confident and lucky Jupiter square Pluto trine Uranus, with Venus in Leo and a never-admit-she’s-hurt Scorpio Moon.

Her relationship chart with Bruce is, all things considered, positive with an affectionate composite Sun Venus sextile an enthusiastic Jupiter Mars trine Uranus Pluto. While it’ll have its ups and downs and periods of separation, it’s not bad. Though even it has a Saturn square the Mars Jupiter which suggests one partner – no guesses which – gives up their wishes to placate the other.

Despite the supposedly cosy ex-wife and present-wife friendship, Emma and Demi aren’t bosom pals. Emma’s Mars (Saturn) is conjunct Demi’s Uranus (Pluto) and Emma’s Uranus is conjunct Demi’s Mercury, Neptune and square Demi’s Mars. Their relationship chart may have an irritable composite Moon opposition Mars; and an evasive Sun square Neptune.

To be honest if I were left with a choice I wouldn’t be stuck in the same space as Bruce Willis 24/7 for weeks on end, even if it is 10,000 square feet plus a large garden.

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

 

David Icke, the controversialist conspiracy nut, is back in the headlines after a quiescent period. On a London Live TV show he blamed Israel for the coronavirus, suggesting it was using the pandemic to “test its technology”. The broadcasting station owned by Evgeny Lebedev, owner of the Evening Standard newspaper and The Independent, has been reported to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom. Icke described moves to require people to be vaccinated as “fascism”. He has previously spoken of “the global conspiracy Rothschild-Zionism, a secret society putting its agents in places of power.” He early on described himself as “the Son of the Godhead”; and suggested that an inter-dimensional race of shape-shifting reptilians were an elite (the Illuminati) in place to manipulate global events. The reptilian thesis may (or may not) be a Swiftian allegory.

Born 29 April 1952 5.15pm Leicester, England, he has an intense 8^th house Taurus Sun, which will prompt him to explore realms beyond reality. His Sun is in opposition to a money-making and angry 2^nd house Mars in Scorpio which is in a rage-filled, trapped square to Pluto. That will be where his hatred comes from and his aggro against anything that smells remotely like an authority or power figure. He has a contrary Uranus Moon conjunct his Midheaven in an autocratic square to a paranoid Saturn Neptune on his Ascendant opposition Mercury.

He does have talent as an influencer, gained a vast popular following and gave a voice to child abuse stories when no one else would, though tended to go too far in naming names without evidence. His output has been described as “a mishmash of most of the dominant themes of contemporary neofascism, mixed in with a smattering of topics culled from the U.S. militia movement.” He is against gun control.

It’s not clear what he’s been up to recently but he did have the tr Uranus square tr Pluto battering its way round his central Cardinal T Square of Midheaven, Uranus, Moon, Mercury, Saturn and Neptune through the middle of the last decade; along with tr Saturn ploughing through his low profile First Quadrant.

He’s now embarking on a new cycle with tr Saturn moving into his through his 4^th; though the Eclipses this year will rattle his cage somewhat. Tr Uranus will conjunct his deeply buried Taurus Sun starting in June which will give him a jolt or two and that continues into next year, when it opposes his Mars – so there may be financial upsets.

As if life wasn’t difficult enough without unhinged cuckoos squawking nonsense about the place.

 

Married actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory are expanding their initiative to feed NHS workers meals from High-Street restaurants, after raising nearly £1m. They started Feed NHS scheme in London but now say it will roll out to other UK cities. They have teamed up with restaurant chains including Leon, Dishoom, Wasabi and Tortilla, to “get food to these people who were working such long hours and weren’t able to get food.”

They have been married since 2007 and remarkably successful at holding it together with two busy, successful careers. He’s known for Band of Brothers, Brody in Homeland and more recently Bobby Axelrod in Billions. She’s had a varied career ranging from Harry Potter, through a Scorsese film to a Bond Skyfall and most notably recently Peaky Blinders.

He was born 11 February 1971 and she 17 August 1968. She’s a Sun Leo square Neptune and trine Saturn in Aries with her Saturn on the focal point of a Yod to Neptune sextile Pluto Uranus. He’s a Sun Aquarius square Saturn in Taurus with his Saturn on the focal point of a Yod to Mars in Sagittarius sextile Uranus. So they are remarkably similar. Her Venus Mercury Jupiter in Virgo are trine and fit well with his Virgo Moon and his Venus in Capricorn. Her Moon in Gemini is opposition his Jupiter, maybe Mars. Both have their Mars in a Fire sign.

Their relationship chart isn’t on the face of it exceptional but it clearly works. The composite Venus is in a cool and enduring opposition to Saturn; with a volatile, needs-space composite Mars Uranus; and a vague composite Sun Neptune which being in the movie business possibly soaks up the more negative ends. With perhaps a composite Moon square Jupiter to smooth round rough edges.

She’s in for a lucky and highly pressured 2021 with tr Uranus in a fortunate trine to her Jupiter; but tr Pluto is also squaring her focal point Saturn for two years which will be a considerable slog.

He’s also in for a dash more luck and an adventure or two come 2021/22 when his Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct his Jupiter.

 

The Cancer Sun of the NHS (UK National Health Service) sits exactly on Boris Johnson’s Midheaven with the NHS Neptune on his Ascendant. Who’d have thought that health would become the defining issue of his career and image? The NHS Mercury, Uranus, Venus (Moon) in Gemini are conjunct his Sun, Venus for a close connection though with hints of aggro from the NHS Mars in square. Most significantly the NHS’s Taurus North Node which hints at years-long struggles over money and equipment are exactly aligned with his head-in-the-clouds Jupiter opposition Neptune; with the NHS unyielding Pluto Saturn in square. There’s a savage irony about his fate being so interwoven with that of the NHS.

The relationship chart has some mutual support and luck from a composite Sun trine Jupiter; but otherwise is a complicated mess of an unsupportive Mars Uranus square Neptune; and a discouraging Saturn square Pluto.

Switching tack for a moment I was pondering on what makes Boris tick – chronically competitive, a chancer, an unapologetic liar and an inveterate and unashamed womaniser. Like Trump, the answer seems to lie with father.

Johnson senior – Stanley – was the one to instil the dog-eat-dog, cut-throat desire to win all arguments at any cost in his children. He was also a serial seducer, which according to friends drove his first wife, Boris’s mother, then the mother of four young children, into a mental breakdown and a series of bouts of depression.  He had political ambitions himself but they didn’t get anywhere near as far as Boris; and he evidently bristles when referred to as Boris’s  father – jealousy and an ego-clash.

Stanley has a very different sort of chart to jitterbug Boris, with a heavyweight Sun Mars in Leo in an explosive square to Uranus; with Saturn Jupiter in Taurus and Pluto Mercury in Leo. He’s incredibly fixed and obstinate and not much budges him from his chosen course. He shares an indulgent Jupiter in Taurus with Boris. But he will be a disturbing presence with his three Taurus planets falling in Boris’s 8^th, and a controlling Pluto in Boris’s 10^th square Boris’s Moon – suggesting he’d like to be the one with his hands on the reins of power. Stanley’s Neptune squares Boris’s Gemini Sun Venus, so he’d be evasive and tricky to pin down and most pertinently his Sun Mars is square Boris’s focal point/afflicted Mars. A combustible, rocket-fuelled chemistry with a tendency to flare up into arguments.

Their relationship chart, not surprisingly, has an incendiary composite Mars Uranus in a mutually unsupportive square to Neptune and a serious dislike square to Mars. There’s also a power-struggling composite Jupiter square Pluto. Taken altogether it suggests a fight for the spotlight which only one can win – and winning is all that matters since egos are at stake. Boris has been running on that playbook since he was knee high to a grasshopper.

And it does explain Boris’s ruthlessly unpleasant T square of Saturn opposition Uranus Pluto square Mars. His self-deprecating ‘all a jolly jape’ Sun Venus Mercury in Gemini is a camouflage for a frenzied need to get ahead of rivals using any and all tactics, no matter how questionable. A commentator once described him as a ‘man without a moral compass’. Like Trump he learned it at his father’s knee.

One thing a near death experience does – usually – is bring a reality check which strips away the ego’s defences to open up a deeper layer of meaning. It’ll be interesting to see whether he can lose the relentless gameplaying he created as a childhood defence to step out and become his own person.