Astrology of Today’s News

Siegfried Sassoon was one of the most celebrated of the World War One poets and renowned for his fictionalised autobiography, the Sherston trilogy. Decorated for bravery as a soldier, he turned against the war and became a leading voice against the senseless slaughter.

“You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by,

Sneak home and pray you’ll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.”

“The War Poems”

He spent time in a psychiatric hospital under Dr WR Rivers immortalised in Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy, where he formed a friendship with poet Wilfred Owen and Robert Graves. Sassoon was troubled by his sexuality, having affairs with Ivor Novello amongst others later on, though he did marry and have a child. Throughout his life he was plagued by nightmares and lived as one biographer put it ‘posthumously’ after the war, unable to leave it behind, dying ultimately at 81.

He fell out with Graves, after the publication of Graves’ war novel Goodbye to All That, written in a hurry to pay off Laura Riding’s hospital bills (see previous post), whom Sassoon disliked and disapproved of. Sassoon found the book factually inaccurate and insensitive in the confidences it broke.

Sassoon, born 8 September 1886, was a Sun Virgo on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine sextile an unforgiving Mars in Scorpio and sextile Saturn in Cancer; with Uranus Jupiter in Libra trine Pluto in Gemini. There would have been a passing affection between the two men with Graves’ Venus conjunct Sassoon’s Sun but not destined to last since Graves’ chaotic and manipulative Neptune Pluto squared S’s Sun. G’s Mars was also conjunct S’s Mercury which would spark up irritation; and even more so G’s Uranus was in an explosive conjunction to S’s Mars. G’s expansive Jupiter was conjunct S’s which might have helped to lift Sassoon out of his unhappiness but he clearly felt that Graves was sloppy and careless.

Their relationship chart was fraught with a superficially friendly Venus Jupiter damped down by a conjunction with Saturn and all three squared an obsessive, tormented Neptune Pluto conjunction which was in turn in an aggravated trine to the composite Mars.

Graves wondered whether Sassoon was attracted to him, which is possible. And there may well have been writer’s envy mixed in since Graves’ book outsold Sassoon’s, though the Fox Hunting Man did win awards. Sassoon did sound as if he had Virgo’s nit-picking tendencies and his Mars in Scorpio wouldn’t help. Later biographers remarked that both men’s memoirs though very different each had their own merits. Both had exceptionally strong and fairly similar ‘writers’ 21^st harmonics. With a destructive/military Mars Saturn T square; and a talented Grand Trine/Kite pulling into aspect Mercury Pluto and Mars.

The war scarred both of them deeply but Sassoon never seemed able to leave it behind.

Seymour Hersh, one of the giants of US journalism has published his memoirs ‘Reporter’ to generally rave reviews. John Le Carre talks of his ‘low cunning and tireless legwork, warmth and humanity.’ He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his exposé of the massacre in My Lai, Vietnam when US soldiers massacred 109 Vietnamese civilians. He doggedly tracked down William Calley who had been in charge and then initially he could find no editor willing to publish his piece. Since then he has received numerous awards for books and reportage over decades in DC, Vietnam and the Middle East, including Abu Ghraib and Bin Laden’s death.

One gripe does come from Haaretz: ‘Missing from all these mainstream reviews was any mention of what should have been Hersh’s career-ending disaster – the apologetics for Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin which culminated in a supposed expose of the Khan Sheikhoun sarin attack.’ Multiple agencies and governments later laid the blame at Assad’s feet.

Hersh was born 8 April 1937 8.05am Chicago, Illinois. He has an 11th house Aries Sun which is on the focal point of a T Square to an ultra-confident Jupiter opposition Pluto, so ego-centric and unconcerned about social niceties in going for what he wants. Mercury in Taurus is also on the focal point of that opposition heightening his ability to communicate; as does Pluto in the 3^rd which is the journalistic house and Jupiter in the publishing/global 9^th.

He’ll be drawn to war and dark subjects by Pluto which trines Saturn; and to adventure by his Mars in Sagittarius. His compassionate Pisces Moon is in his career 10^th, so he’ll have a feel for public taste and appreciate his work attention it brings. It opposes Neptune in the 4^th squaring onto a Sagittarius North Node in his 7^th – the emphasised North Node also puts him in the centre of the zeitgeist.

I wouldn’t imagine he’s the easiest man to get along with work-wise or emotionally but he made a difference. He’s been married since 1958 to a psychoanalyst and has three children.

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Mamma Mia2 is cheering cinema audiences globally overtaking expectations for the opening weekend. The old cast re-assembles including Meryl Streep, playing a ghost since she’s now dead. Lily James – of Downton Abbey, Cinderella, War and Peace and Darkest Hour fame – plays Meryl Streep’s younger self.   And Amanda Seyfried – Gringo, First Reformed, Fathers and Daughters – plays her daughter Sophie.

Both Lily James, 5 April 1989 UK, and Amanda Seyfried, 3 December 1985, have heavily Fire charts.

Lily James has her Sun Venus Mercury conjunct in Aries as well as an Aries Moon; with the triple conjunction of Uranus Neptune Saturn in Capricorn square. She’ll have initiative aplenty, be pro-active and extremely restless. She’s also got a Yod of Pluto sextile Saturn Neptune inconjunct Mars in Gemini which will make her impulsive, scattered, at times inclined to trip herself up. Tr Neptune is square her Mars exactly now which doesn’t sound too upbeat for a launch and will hang around till late 2019. Though tr Jupiter will briefly conjunct her Pluto this month which will help lift her confidence.

Amanda Seyfried has Venus, Mercury, Saturn conjunct in Sagittarius with Sun Uranus also in Sag and a Leo Moon; plus a powerhouse Pluto opposition North Node square Jupiter in Aquarius. Despite all the fire and a strong Jupiter she says she suffers from stage fright and panic attacks – perhaps from an overload of Mutable signs.

Like the hundred-headed Hydra, Steve Bannon’s wrecking-ball ambition never dies, just springs up elsewhere with a new initiative. He’s now intent on setting up a foundation in Brussels to support right-wing, anti-establishment groups in the run-up to the European Parliament election next May.  “Right-wing populist nationalism is what will happen. That’s what will govern,” he said. “You’re going to have individual nation states with their own identities, their own borders.”

Over the past year, he has held talks with right-wing groups across the continent from Nigel Farage and members of Marine Le Pen’s Front National in the West, to Hungary’s Viktor Orban and the Polish populists in the East. He envisions a right-wing “supergroup” within the European Parliament with as many as a third of the lawmakers which would have the ability to seriously disrupt parliamentary proceedings, potentially granting Bannon huge power within the populist movement.

Born 27 November 1953 Norfolk, VA, he’s a fiery Sun Sagittarius with possibly a Leo Moon conjunct Pluto. What gives him his inflammatory rhetoric is a Cardinal T Square of Uranus opposition a Capricorn North Node square a showbizzy Mars Neptune in Libra. A focal point Cardinal Mars is reckless, openly confrontational and disruptive, revelling in head-on collisions, though has little staying power. Equally a focal point Cardinal Neptune is overly impatient and won’t stay the course to see visions take root, indulging in corner-cutting, quick n’ easy schemes that don’t involve long-term effort.   His CV is littered with failures and multiple career changes. His rise-and-fall, self-defeating 10th Harmonic is strong.

The stars are not well-aligned for his grandiose venture with tr Neptune undercutting three of his midpoints till late 2019; a dashed-hopes tr Pluto square his Mars/Neptune till late 2019 as well, which tr Saturn will also square over the May election. He’ll get a battery recharge in 2020/21 but by 2021 he runs into a catastrophic triple hit of tr Pluto square his Mars/Saturn as well as make a devastating square to his Neptune running till late 2022. Plus a blocked Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Saturn. Then he’ll no doubt dust himself off and be after another windmill to joust at.

Denzel Washington’s reprise of Equalizer has been a surprise hit at the box office after so-so reviews – “wastes a star turn from the Oscar-winning actor”; “has a “plot that reads like middle-aged male fantasy”; ”a grisly exploitation movie at best.” Ah well, as per usual the punters and the critics are poles apart in taste.

In Equalizer 2 Washington again plays a former black-ops agent, now soft-spoken Lyft driver, who is drawn back into action to avenge a friend´s death. He’s had an illustrious, award-winning career over nearly forty years so he probably doesn’t care anymore.

He was born 28 December 1954 12.09 am in New York, the son of a preacher father and had many childhood friends who ended up in prison. He credits his mother sending him to military school as a teenager for getting him off that track and he took a college degree in drama and journalism. He’s famously private, a devout Christian, and has been married to the same wife for 35 years with four children.

He has a quick-witted and ambitious 3^rd house Sun Mercury in Capricorn (on the cusp of his 4^th) with a maverick Aquarius Moon in his performing 5^th house. A lucky Uranus Jupiter in Cancer in his 10^th marked him out for an unusual career where he’ll be lucky and increasingly respected the older he gets. He’s got a creative and self-protective, as well as tough-minded, Water Grand Trine of Saturn in Scorpio (conjunct Venus) trine Mars trine a Cancer midheaven. Fairly emotionally battened down, he won’t be  an easy man to get to know and he’ll allow few into his inner circle.

He’ll have a few ups and downs for two or three years ahead but will bounce up with a positive change of direction in 2022.

Trump isn’t the only one agitated about Iran. Israel is watching with concern as Assad’s army, including troops of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, now wearing Syrian army uniform, are advancing towards the border with the Golan Heights. The assumption is that Assad doesn’t want a confrontation with Israel but Iran and Hezbollah who are also fighting with the Syrian forces are a different matter.

President Hassan Rouhani’s 2^nd Term chart, 3 August 2017 11 am Teheran, is on high alert with the Mars in Leo (conjunct Sun) colliding with this week’s Lunar Eclipse. That Mars Sun is also conjunct Trump’s 12^th house Pluto so neither side will give way. Hassan is facing mounting criticism for the unravelling economy in Iran, hit by US sanctions and the expense of foreign wars in the Middle East; with a restive population angry about rising prices, mounting rare demonstrations of displeasure.

His Term chart looks fraught with rapidly changing and challenging events this November to February 2019; with dashed hopes mid September to early February 2019. And both the Iran 1 Feb 1979 and 7 October 1906 charts look similarly afflicted with undermining Neptunian woes till late 2019. The Iran 1979 chart will be particularly affected by this Lunar Eclipse since it clashes with the Mercury, Mars, Sun in Aquarius.

Israel having just about wound down the recent squall with Hamas in Gaza, is being faced with serious questions as the Lunar Eclipse is conjunct their 10^th house Moon and next month’s Solar  Eclipse is conjunct their 10^th house Saturn – a time for facing their past (Moon) and asking whether they have built their country on solid foundations; and facing major ethical responsibilities and a challenge to restructure (Saturn). Though with a chart so irretrievably fixed as theirs, changes are unlikely. December this year and January 2019 will be high-tension and insecure with tr Uranus trine their Mars.

Mohammed bin Salman, 31 August 1985, the Saudi Arabia Crown Prince who is jousting for supremacy in the Middle East against Iran, has a Fixed Grand Square of Venus in Leo opposition Jupiter in Aquarius square Pluto opposition a Taurus North Node which will catch the Lunar Eclipse as well for what may feel like an emotional crisis but will most likely pump energy into his pushily confident Jupiter Pluto.

The entire world seems to be churning at the moment.

A spectacular Total Lunar Eclipse this Friday will be the longest-lasting of recent times and deep red. Known as a blood Moon, it gains its hue from the light of the sun behind behind bouncing off the earth and reflecting back onto the Moon’s surface.  In ye olden days there were regarded as an omen of terrible events. In the Hebrew Bible The Book of Joel warns that “the sun will turn into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.”

It will start around 22.50 hrs UK time, 21.50 hrs European time and continue into the early hours. The Moon falls at 4 degrees Aquarius conjunct Mars opposition Sun North Node at 4/5 degrees Leo squaring onto Uranus in Taurus.

Astrologically as well as astronomically it’ll be quite an event.  Mars will heighten anger and aggravation, especially in no-compromise Aquarius and in an explosive, disruptive square to Uranus, bringing an impulse to overthrow the existing order of things.  The Eclipse effect tends to last for several months after the date, though it’s more complicated this year with two Solar Eclipses to factor into the mix as well.

It will stir up Donald Trump’s 12^th house Pluto, brewing up more of a storm than usual as his inner chaos is triggered. It will also elbow Theresa May’s Uranus in Leo with a considerable jolt – a change of direction will be forced on her; and to some extent the EU ditto though their Uranus is not as close, but they may experience a financial hit.  Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia will also be in the line of Eclipse fire. And the Middle East appears to be catching the strongest effects with Uranus, Pluto, Mars and the Full Moon all sitting on the axis through that region (see following post).

The Eclipsed Full Moon falls exactly across Prince Charles’ Leo Asc/Aquarius Desc (and Camilla’s if her 7.15 am birth time is accurate) which suggests a major image shake-up.  The Duchess of Cambridge has her Mercury Venus in Aquarius also picking it up for what will feel like an emotional crisis and challenge her beliefs/opinions. Meghan has her Mercury Sun in Leo also catching it for what will also be a major challenge – poor soul she’s sorely afflicted by her can’t-keep-their-mouths-shut family.

Greece which is suffering a destructive series of wildfires has Saturn almost exactly conjunct the MC for the Lunar Eclipse; and Laos which has suffered a deadly dam burst has Saturn exactly conjunct the descendant for the Eclipse.

A tempestuous, torrid and sordid tale lies behind Robert Graves’s lost play But It Still Goes On which is being staged for the first time.

Graves was a towering figure in 20^th Century literature with his WW1 war memoirs, poetry, historical novels (I, Claudius) and writing on mythology. But he had an extraordinarily tangled emotional life, at one point taking poet Laura Riding in as his secretary, then lover in a menage a trois with his then wife Nancy.  Riding who appeared to be more than slightly mad, certainly manipulative and thought she had occult powers then pulled an Irish poet, Geoffrey Phibbs, away from his wife  to make up a menage a quatre. Phibbs fled after a few weeks and Graves was sent to bring him back.

After an evening of high hysteria, Riding threw herself off the balcony of the four-storey flat. She was not expected to survive but did after an expensive hospital stay for which Graves had to foot the bill, which serendipitously drove him to write his bestselling memoir of the First World War, Good-bye to All That. The play features a tempestuous female character who falls from a great height.

Graves was born 24 July 1895 4.26am in London. Laura Riding 15 January 1901, New York.

She was a Sun Capricorn with a head-in-the-clouds and ethereal Neptune opposition Jupiter Venus in adventurous Sagittarius. Of most significance however was her Pluto in Gemini opposition Uranus squaring onto Mars in Virgo which was an unstable volcano of anger, ruthlessness and recklessness on a very short fuse.

Graves had his Sun in at zero degrees Leo with a Moon Mars conjunction in late Leo; and a very complicated Venus in Virgo square Neptune Pluto in Gemini. The latter no doubt spurred his creativity but would make him prone to obsessions and wouldn’t make for an easy emotional life. His Venus was conjunct her Mars so he would be drawn like a moth to a flame by her high-wire temperament. Her (almost certainly) Scorpio Moon squared his Moon Mars, so it was a combustible combination.

Tr Neptune was conjunct his Moon as she made her leap, and he paid for his treatment though she shut him out thereafter,

Their relationship chart had a cruelly unkind and explosive composite Mars square Saturn Uranus; and an illusory/disappointing composite Sun trine Neptune. Though out of his torment she spurred him on to write some of the ‘greatest and most lyrical love poetry of the 20^th Century.’

A nightmare muse but she did act as a catalyst for some of his most  memorable work.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/did-robert-gravess-lover-fall-window-pushed/

Leo di Caprio isn’t short of prestigious projects as he nears his fortieth anniversary in the film and entertainment business, having started at 5 years old in commercials before moving on to television roles. He now produces as well as acts and is scheduled for a Scorsese bio-pic about Roosevelt and a Tarantino horror on the Manson murders scheduled for release in 2019 (doesn’t sound enticing).

Born 11 November 1974 2.47am Los Angeles, he had a fractured childhood with divorced parents and spent part of his childhood with his maternal grandparents in Germany. He has Sun, Mars and Venus in Scorpio in his 2^nd, so intensely driven, charming, though not one to forgive and forget if he’s been hurt, focussed on money. He has a creative, self-protective and highly enthusiastic Water Grand Trine of Jupiter trine Mars trine his midheaven. His hard-working, well-organised Saturn in his 10^th gives him executive ability though squaring onto his Libra Moon will make him emotionally defensive, all the more so given that his Moon is also conjunct Pluto.

His romantic life has always been tabloid fodder as he moved through a succession of mainly models. His latest, Camila Morrone, 16 June 1997, stepdaughter to Al Pacino is a Gemini with maybe a Scorpio Moon. Though it doesn’t look too hopeful as a long term bet with his Saturn conjunct her Venus and possibly her Moon conjunct his Mars. Her Jupiter in his 5^th will make for fun social companionship but it’s likely to be argumentative as well.

He’s going through a sticky year with his Progressed Moon through his 8^th until late 2019, so trying to work out what he actually wants from his life, With some Neptunian morale sinkers till late 2020. Then he’ll hit his stride again with a rip-roaring success in 2021/22