Astrology of Today’s News

Portugal, once one of the EU’s basket cases, is now applauded as a booming success. But behind the economic growth lies chronic under-investment in public services and infrastructure. Tourism is at record levels, there’s an upswing in the housing market, a growing tech sector, strong exports and foreign investment coming in. But the fear is that another recession could prove problematic and despite the recovery and the fall of unemployment, there’s a sense of precariousness with low wages a major worry.

The Portugal October 5 1910 9am Lisbon chart is on tenterhooks at the moment – both buoyed up by tr Pluto square the Jupiter till December, but also nerve-stretched as tr Pluto is conjunct the Uranus and opposition Neptune which is much less predictable and stable. Those run till late this year. Tr Uranus will have a few jolts and surprises in store as it is opposes the Scorpio Moon and is conjunct the 6^th house Saturn between now and early 2020 which may have implications for employment or the health service.

Assuming the start time is accurate then tr Neptune will be in an undermining and indecisive square to the Solar Arc Midheaven till early 2020 as well. It’ll continue up and down on this chart till 2022 is clear with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Jupiter for a distinct upswing and square the Uranus Neptune for disruptions and anxieties.

The 25 April 1974 5.15pm Lisbon chart is relatively similar with upheavals through 2021/22 as tr Pluto square the Uranus; along with at least some financial good news.

The Bank of Portugal, 15 November 1975, is jumpy at the moment with conflicting policies and erratic circumstances running into next spring; looking more cheerful in 2022 and then facing challenges in 2023 – so ups and downs.

Oscar Wilde, the most popular playwright of his day and still a treasure trove of witty sayings in common currency would have been 165 this week. He led a charmed life until he foolishly challenged his lover’s father in a libel suit, lost and was himself charged with gross indecency. Despite an open chance to flee abroad he arrogantly or stubbornly refused to go, partly on the bidding of his Irish nationalist mother, and was imprisoned for two years which led to his early death at 46.

Born 18 October 1854 3am Dublin (time unverified), his father was an Anglo-Irish doctor and his mother a poet and supporter of Irish revolutionaries. He was educated at Trinity Dublin and Oxford where he gained a reputation for being an aesthete. An early romantic relationship failed and he married Constance when he was 30. After a literary and journalistic career he wrote his novel Dorian Gray and then a series of successful plays – Salome, A Woman of No importance, Lady Windermere’s Fan, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest.

He had a Libra Sun square Jupiter in Capricorn, which on this birth time would make him extravagant with money, overly confident and an entertainer. He had an intense Mercury in Scorpio opposition a quirky and outspoken Uranus square a flashy Leo Moon – focal point Moons are often found in charts of people in the public eye who crave an audience. His Mars in flamboyant Sagittarius was also in his 3^rd house of communication. Saturn in Gemini was in a creative square to Neptune which latter sat on his Descendant, suggesting an uncommitted approach to close relationships; with his Saturn on his Midheaven sextile the Moon and trine his Sun. He had an influential, though trapped Pluto in the 8^th in a stressed quincunx to Mars.

It’s not a very together chart – though the Harmonics bring more aspects into play with a very marked leaving-a-legacy 17H, a writer’s 21H, superstar 22H, break-through-genius 13H, and creative 5H and 7 H.

When he foolishly leapt into suing the Marquess of Queensberry, father of Lord Alfred Douglas, for libel for calling him a sodomite, the transiting Neptune Pluto in Gemini was crossing his midheaven. Not only is Neptune Pluto associated with scandals, it also warps judgement, leading to confusion and can ultimately lead to devastation. When he was sentenced his Solar Arc Pluto was conjunct his Saturn which is dead-halt and depressing.

His benighted mother evidently swore she’d never talk to him again if he backed down from the fight with the Marquess of Queensberry, such was her dislike of English aristocracy. Her persuasions effectively condemned him to death because of the toll a harsh prison regime took on his health. He died three years after being released.

His mother Jane, 27 December 1821, had a fanatical and erratic Sun, Uranus, Neptune in Capricorn which squared Oscar’s Venus; and her Saturn Jupiter in Aries fell in his 8^th opposition his Sun. Their relationship chart had a dominating, power-struggling composite Mars opposition Pluto. All such a waste since he could have spent productive years abroad without any problem. Even the authorities were making it easy for him to escape.

‘Crushing prison terms’ of thirteen years apiece were handed out to Catalonia separatist leaders for organising a referendum on self-determination in 2017. It has brought violent protestors back onto the street in Girona and Barcelona, still aggrieved at the punitive response from Madrid’s heavy-handed suppression when they were first arrested. Other separatist leaders are in exile to escape prison. A UN inquiry deemed that the pre-trial imprisonment and any subsequent sentences would be in violation of international law.

“This is the old Spain reasserting itself”, said Carles Puigdemont, former Catalonia president, at present in Belgium. Far-right nationalists think the sentences were not severe enough.

Spain, 22 November 1975 12.45 Madrid, is in upheaval with another election due in early November when tr Uranus will be exactly on the opposition to the Uranus, moving to square the Saturn late December and through January 2020 – that will bring an authoritarian streak to the fore to clash mightily with forces of rebellion. There are also hard aspect crossovers between Solar Arc Pluto to the Spain Mercury; and Solar Arc Mercury to the Spain Pluto – which suggests a hardening of attitudes, bitter and vengeful debate and high tension.

The old reunification of Spain 19 January 1479 JC chart works remarkably well and also suggests a mood of panicky failure running throughout 2019 and heightening mid November to mid December, with another highly uncertain patch in February 2020.

Assuming the start time for the 1975 chart is accurate, then tr Saturn and tr Pluto are both wading through the 12^th – so whatever light is waiting at the end of the tunnel won’t become obvious until the shift over to Aquarius picks up gradually in 2021 and with more bite two years later as tr Saturn Jupiter and then Pluto cross the Spain Ascendant for an image makeover and a revisioning of identity.

Gemini Man directed by Oscar-winning Ang Lee, starring the world’s most bankable actor Will Smith and produced by the super-successful Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Pirates, Enemy of the State, CSI etc) should have been a soar-away triumph. Instead critics have savaged “a silly sci-fi thriller about a cloned hitman”, called it a “witlessly hackneyed setup” drowning “in endless spy cliches, half-heartedly generic twists, forgettable dialogue and non-existent characterization.” Oops.

Rotten Tomatoes have it at 26%, Metacritic at 39% and opening box office was a disappointing $7.5 million against the hoped for $20 to $30 million. It’s questionable whether it can rescue the $140 million costs from foreign box office.

Will Smith, 25 September 1968 9.47pm (from memory) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has an entertainers’ 5^th house Libra Sun in a quirky conjunction to Uranus in final degree Virgo; with Mercury and Venus in Libra also in the performing 5^th. But what really dominates his chart is one of those odd Saturn focal point Yods from a pushily confident Jupiter Pluto sextile an intense Moon Neptune in Scorpio.

Yods always have a fated quality and especially so with Saturn prominent. He started out of school in rap music with considerable success but ended up with a nearly $3 million tax debt in the late 1980s. He was struggling financially when he was picked up by NBC for a sit com and within six years by the mid 1990s was a prime box office draw. At that point the triple conjunction of Saturn, Uranus, Neptune in Capricorn had all been in hard aspect to his focal point Saturn. It usually takes a major shift to get Yods onto the right track.

He’s in the middle of another one at the moment with tr Pluto square his Saturn in 2019/2020 which will be tough going, requiring considerable effort to move ahead – pushing boulders uphill and can be discouraging. Tr Pluto is also moving in sextile to both legs of the Yod until late 2021 which will add another layer of pressure; and his Solar Arc Sun Uranus will conjunct his Neptune and Moon also for another three years ahead. All of which will prompt him to shift him onto a different track.

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Jeopardy is rising for Trump’s hash-and-crash personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who once had hopes unbelievably of becoming Secretary of State. He’s now entangled in the attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden over unfounded allegations of corruption involving his son which are driving the impeachment process. And two Soviet-born US citizens, both associates of Giuliani, were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of campaign finance violations, while trying to leave the US on one-way tickets, with Giuliani also under federal investigation. Trump advisers have long been pressing the president to distance himself from Giuliani and he now appears to be wavering on whether to let him go or not.

Giuliani, 28 May 1944 2.31pm New York, a wayward Sun Uranus in Gemini with a ruthless, do-or-die-determined Mars Pluto in Leo was never that great a fit with Trump since G’s Saturn in Gemini sits on top of Trump’s Sun and opposition his Moon; and G’s Mars Pluto plus Moon Jupiter in Leo give him as expansive an ego as Trump’s.

Their relationship chart has been sagging at points through this year with tr Neptune square the composite Sun and opposition Jupiter. And those come back to exact from mid this November to mid December and again throughout 2020 over the election. And there will be a huge upset between them from mid 2020 as tr Uranus squares the composite Pluto.

Giuliani’s personal chart is mixed ahead – with a major hiccup late December and through January 2020; with career losses from late January 2020 onwards; and a disastrous calamity late March into early April; with hitches, glitches and major bumps along the way from tr Uranus square his Mars Pluto from this November till spring 2020 plus some Neptunian sinkers. But he does have his Solar Arc Sun conjunct Jupiter, exact in 11 months’ time which will bring him a lift as will his Solar Arc Jupiter square his Mars in late 2020.

In addition to Trump and other political turmoil, he’s also involved in a messy divorce and has obviously a complicated business life – so it’s impossible to disentangle what influences will affect which part of his life. He lives, like Trump, amidst constant drama and also like his master has a strong self-destructive 10^th Harmonic.

See previous posts: September 13 and January 28 2019.

The tragic tale of the murdered Dupont de Ligonnes family took another twist with news that the father on the run since killing his wife and four children in 2011 had been arrested in Scotland. That turned out to be a case of mistaken identity after early media stories brewed up a fanciful drama of plastic surgery and false passports. Although there have been sightings in the past eight years it is thought that father Xavier could have killed himself after dispatching and burying his family.

Xavier Dupont was born 9 January 1961 11.15 am Versailles, France into an aristocratic family and considered himself part of a Roman Catholic elite. Around the time of the murders, he sounds as if his narcissism had slid into semi-psychosis; although he had made preparations for some months before, buying a gun, quick lime and tools for the burial – and had serious financial problems.

He was/is a Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury in Capricorn so status-conscious, socially ambitious, materialistic. Even more significantly he had a Water Grand Trine of Mars in Cancer trine Venus in Pisces trine Neptune, formed into a Kite by Venus opposition Pluto North Node – making controlling Pluto the driving planet. Water Grand Trine individuals can live in their own bubble and become divorced from reality.

Around the time of the killings his Solar Arc Jupiter was exactly in opposition to his Pluto which would exaggerate his already overwheening sense of superiority and push him to step across the boundaries of the law. His Solar Arc Mars was also conjunct his Uranus in the run up which would have been explosive, impulsive and uncompromising. His Mars had also been under assault from tr Pluto in opposition with tr Uranus about to move to the square.

His wife, Agnes, born 9 Nov 1962, was a stalwart Sun Neptune Venus in Scorpio square a flamboyant Mars in Leo with a pushy Jupiter in Pisces opposition Uranus Pluto.

Son 1, 7 July 1990, was a Sun Jupiter in Cancer trine Pluto, opposition Saturn, Neptune (Moon Uranus) in Capricorn with Jupiter opposition Saturn square Mars in Aries.

Son 2, 28 Sept 1992, was a Libra Sun square Mars with Mars opposition Uranus Neptune in Capricorn and Jupiter sextile Pluto with a Scorpio Moon.

Son 3, 29 May 1997, was a Gemini Sun opposition Pluto sextile/trine Uranus. With Mars square Venus and trine Neptune. A Pisces Moon.

Daughter, 2 Aug 1994, was a Leo Sun square Jupiter with Mars (Moon) square Venus in Virgo and square Saturn in Pisces; and Venus trine Neptune Uranus, sextile Pluto.

All of them had emphasised/stressed Mars so it was an angry family and emotionally intense since most had Venus in aspect to outer planets.

All in all a strange and unsettling story since if he had intended to kill himself after the event it isn’t clear why he went to all the trouble of burying their bodies so methodically. Nor indeed does his trenchant Roman Catholicism fit with his actions.

His self-destructive 10^th Harmonic is exceptionally strong and ruthless with a Mars opposition Neptune square Pluto; and his can-be-unbalanced 7H linked a pushily confident Jupiter to Pluto to a fanatical Neptune Uranus.

Japan’s worst storm for sixty years with torrential rain and tornado-like winds have led to 7.5 million people being advised to evacuate. There are wind speeds of 225km/h (140mph) with half a metre of rain expected and to add to the misery there was a magnitude 5.7 earthquake as well.

The recent July Lunar Eclipse in last decan Capricorn, located to Tokyo, had Uranus on the Midheaven square Mars on the Ascendant – which is a pointer towards significant disruptive events over the next few months. With the July Solar Eclipse having the Cancer New Moon conjunct the Ascendant with a watery Neptune on the Midheaven. Eclipses with planets on the axis usually indicate major events following for that location.

On the Japan country chart tr Pluto is moving to make another disruptive square to the Japan Uranus within weeks; with Solar Arc Saturn approaching less than a degree of being exactly square the Mars for a major accident/setback; and an upsetting Solar Arc Uranus square the Japan Neptune and conjunct Mercury. There’s a loss/mourning Solar Arc Venus conjunct Saturn; and oddly – a Solar Arc Sun opposition Jupiter. Uranus Neptune often accompanies nerve-stretching events, sometimes earthquakes and other natural disasters. Jupiter, with its amplifying effect, is also often present.

Utterly terrifying. There are videos on twitter of lorries being blown around like toys.  The force of nature on the rampage is truly scary.

Eliud Kipchoge, the Kenyan distance runner, has become the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours, beating the mark by 20 seconds. His triumph this morning in Vienna this morning won’t be recognised as the official world record because it was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating pacemakers. He currently holds the world record at 2 hours 1.39 minutes. He said, “Now I’ve done it, I am expecting more people to do it after me.” He compared the feat to being the first man on the moon in the build-up to the event and said he had made history just as Britain’s Sir Roger Bannister did in running the first sub four-minute mile in 1954. After Bannister the four-minute mile became the standard, being achieved to date by 1400 runners and the present record is 3.43.

Kipchoge, 5 November 1984, was brought up by a single mother, ran two miles every day to school but didn’t take up running seriously until his late teens.

He has a Scorpio Sun conjunct Saturn with Pluto and Mercury at either end of Scorpio as well – not short of determination, for sure. His Mars in disciplined and ambitious Capricorn is sextile his Saturn for more grit. Plus three planets in sporting Sagittarius and a fiery Aries Moon.

There are good things happening in the universe away from the political mayhem.

Pic: Denis Barthel

Howls of outrage have greeted Peter Handke’s Nobel Literature Prize for 2019. The Austrian novelist and playwright of Slovenian heritage is a highly controversial figure for his support for the Serbs during the 1990s Yugoslav war and his friendship with former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic. Handke once denied the Serbian massacre at Srebrenica and publicly suggested that Sarajevo’s Muslims had massacred themselves and blamed the Serbs, and denied the Srebrenica genocide.

In 1999 Salman Rushdie named him the runner-up for “International moron of the year” in the Guardian, for his “impassioned apologias for the genocidal regime of Slobodan Milošević”. (The winner was actor Charlton Heston, for being a gun lobbyist.)

The Swedish Academy which oversees the award said he had been recognised for “an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience”. Doesn’t sound an enticing read though he is evidently a talented writer.

Born 6 December 1942 6.45 am Griffen, Austria, he has an upfront and enthusiastic Sun, Mercury and Venus in Sagittarius in his 1^st house with his Sun opposition a downbeat Saturn in Gemini. His Saturn Uranus on his Descendant trine a creative 10^th house Neptune, and sextile an opinionated and influential 9^th house Pluto. His has Jupiter in patriotic Cancer deeply buried in his 8^th which would give him a connection to his roots. His mother who suicided when he was 30 came from Slovenia. His Jupiter is trine a bitter, emotionally intense and vengeful Moon Mars in Scorpio in his 12th.

Milosevic, whose funeral he attended, after he died during his War Crimes trial in The Hague, 20 August 1941 10 pm Pozarevac, Serbia, did have Jupiter in Gemini which fell in Handke’s 7^th;  and Milosevic’s Sun and three other planets in Leo plus his Mars in Aries would chime with Handke’s fiery Sagittarius emphasis. Though in reality it would have been a gritty partnership with Milosevic’s Saturn in Taurus opposition Handke’s Mars.

The composite was intensely emotional and warped with a composite Mars opposition Pluto square Venus which – with hindsight – would suggest revelling in brutality, death and hatred. If that energy had ever turned inwards they’d have killed each other.

On Handke’s personal chart his Solar Arc Midheaven is exactly conjunct his Sun at the moment; with tr Jupiter just over his Sun and other Sag planets. Into 2020 tr Pluto will trine his Midheaven and oppose his Jupiter so the criticism may not do him much damage.

You would have thought after the sex scandal last year which deleted the 2018 Literature prize at the time, they’d have been more sensible.