Astrology of Today’s News

 

 

The UK has turned itself into another kind of global laughing stock, at least at political level, for the ineptitude of their approach to the Brexit negotiations. The great silent majority both Leavers and Remainers, huddled inside behind snowdrifts, just wish they’d get on with it. But incompetence, bickering, lack of decisive leadership, whatever, has turned the whole sorry process into a stumble through a swamp in a thick fog catastrophe.

Which is fairly what was expected from a Government chart, 9 June 2017 12.35pm which has Neptune squaring a Full Moon. There’ll be a jolt or two come April/May but I wouldn’t be surprised if it drifted along somehow till 2019.

Theresa May does look disheartened, uncertain, feeling as if failure was staring her in the face with tr Neptune conjunct her Mars now, tr Saturn square her Sun across the middle of March, followed in late March by a disastrous tr Pluto conjunct her Mars/Saturn midpoint, on and off till late 2019; plus another Neptune sinker from May onwards, till late 2019.

Boris Johnson has cleared Neptune transits from his main planets; but is getting the tr Neptune square his Sun/Mars midpoint from April onwards till late 2019, which is not a winning combo. Even before then he looks trapped and frustrated and that will also be around till late 2019.

The shine is rubbing off David Davis, indeed it’s even sinking into his irrepressibly optimistic exuberance that he’s not winning with tr Saturn conjunct his Mercury Jupiter, now till late March, repeating till the autumn. With an infuriated, blocked tr Pluto conjunct his Mars now till late 2019.

Philip Hammond has lost the undermining tr Neptune square his Sun Mercury and actually looks fairly cheerful from late March onwards; with a few nervy moments admittedly, but is in better spirits than most of his colleagues.

Where is Winston Churchill or Maggie Thatcher when you need them? Not that I was a fan of the latter but she at least she made decisions.

 

   

 

There are a dizzying number of disagreements spewing out of the Oval office, so for clarity sake I’ll skip some of the astro-detail.

Jared Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded, preventing him seeing top level intelligence, because of concerns that foreign countries were in a position to take advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience. There’s a really nasty piece in the Daily Beast by Rick Wilson, headed The Deep State Takes Out the White House’s Dark Clown Prince, some of which looks in UK terms quite libellous. But for a full-throated denunciation it’s quite fun.

Kushner was always going to have a poleaxing couple of years with tr Pluto conjunct his Capricorn Sun, which natally squares Pluto; plus he has sometime this year a jolting Solar Arc Sun square his Uranus ; with high insecurity in late April/early May; and he looks completely panic-stricken from May onwards with tr Neptune square his Mars/Pluto midpoint.

Ivanka also looks stressed, facing losses, jolted, nervy till May and then in a state of upheaval thereafter. Her relationship with Jared is undermined this year with tr Neptune square the composite Sun. Her relationship with her father, not half as cosy as appearances would suggest at the best of times, is moving into unfamiliar territory from mid May onwards with tr Uranus starting to trine the composite Sun, then Mars and continuing on in 2019 to trine Saturn.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/06/nepotism-corruption-handmaiden-trump-presidency

Trump himself looks to be separating out from Jared with tr Saturn square the composite Sun, on and off till the autumn; with an unwelcome surprise in June and on.

John Kelly, a tough Sun Taurus trine Saturn and Mars in Virgo is sagging this month; and in a teeth-clenching fury or totally trapped from late March onward. If he sticks around, his 2019 is worse.

Hope Hicks, just back from a long session to the House intelligence panel, is floundering around this year with tr Saturn square her Libra Sun, conjunct her Neptune and square her Mars till late autumn. Plus Solar Arc Saturn Uranus square her Mercury also around now. Her relationship with Himself is hitting a low from early April with tr Neptune square the composite Mars (repeating across 2019).

Trump has let fly at Attorney General Jeff Sessions again and that rift can only widen come May with tr Uranus square the composite Saturn and then opposition the composite Mars.

The man in the hot seat where the Mueller Inquiry is concerned, Donald McGahn, the White House lawyer, is a Sun Mars in Gemini square Uranus Pluto in Virgo. His chart collides with Trump’s Gemini Sun opposition Moon; and their relationship chart is on high alert in a few days’ time and through March; and shifting into a different gear in May.

All I can say is that Trump must have extraordinary genes if he can cope with this amount of shrieking adrenaline-fuelled chaos without keeling over.

Now that I look at his Term chart. Tr Pluto is exactly square the Uranus now for an unstable few weeks, repeating till late 2019; then tr Uranus squares the midheaven from March 3^rd for several weeks which is also a forced change of direction. With more upheavals and disruptions to come when tr Uranus squares the Sun from mid May, on and off into 2019.

   

 

Max Mosley, the privacy campaigner, has been pushing for tighter press regulation since details of a sado-masochistic party he attended were published in Murdoch’s News of the World and is pushing for data protection laws which would allow personal history to be removed from archives.

He’s now discovering that pitting yourself against the media comes at a cost as leaflets have evidently been found by the Daily Mail from the early 1960s when he was still campaigning for the far-right party, inspired by his father, the fascist Oswald Mosley, who was interned during WW11 for his pro-Hitler views. The pamphlets printed in several papers contain racist material, which has raised questions about the evidence Max Mosley gave under oath at his libel trial against NoW.

Born 13 April 1940, just before his mother was interned with his father for three years in the grounds of Holloway Prison, he’s a confident Sun Jupiter in Aries opposition North Node in Libra square Pluto in Leo; his Pluto is also in a tough-minded bleak square to Saturn in Taurus. So an exceptionally strong Pluto – he likes to be in control. His Mercury in Pisces opposes Neptune and sextiles Uranus in Taurus; and he has an enthusiastic and vocal Mars Venus in Gemini.

He’s been responding in typically bullish fashion and will continue to do so but he also looks rattled with tr Pluto trine his Uranus and Mars/Saturn midpoint now; and tr Uranus will upend his Saturn square Pluto from mid-May onwards as it squares Pluto and then is conjunct Saturn, on and off into 2019.

The Mail indicates it will have more to come tomorrow.

His father Oswald, 16 November 1896, was an MP, originally Labour and then formed his own party, which merged to become the British Union of Fascists in 1932, espousing policies which were protectionist, strongly anti-communist, strongly anti-zionist, nationalistic and authoritarian. He had an exceptionally hard chart with his Scorpio Sun conjunct Uranus, Saturn and Mercury – an outsider, obsessive, obstinate, a persuasive speaker. His North Node in Aquarius attracted him to a cause behind which he could throw his energy. His Mars in Gemini opposed Venus in Sagittarius; and his Pluto (conjunct Neptune) was in a pushily confident square to Jupiter.

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Bombing resumed as usual in eastern Ghouta – hell on earth – a day after the UN ceasefire agreement. Which is down to Assad with Putin looking increasingly on the wrong foot.

Putin leapt in to prop up Assad in 2015 and prove his muscle as global player. Now his claim of ‘victory’ in December is looking meaningless, and he’s mired in an intractable and expensive conflict from which there is no easy exit, no investment benefit to Russia and is domestically unpopular as a waste of money and men.

An ex-Syrian diplomat in exile said. ‘The only winner so far is Iran. It achieves what it wants without too much noise.’ Another commentator said: ‘alliances that were more or less predictable are now splintered and opaque. A chessboard once easy to read could now outwit a grandmaster of global geopolitics.’

Putin has an election coming up in March, which should be a foregone conclusion. But he does have tr Pluto square his Neptune on his personal chart picking up from election day and running across the second round (if there is one) and on to late May, repeating on and off till late 2019 – that is confusing, can be devastating. His 2012 Presidency chart looks bullishly confident; though sagging into April.

There are uneasy tensions in the Russia/Iran relationship charts, peaking in March/April/May. When Israel’s chart is also on high alert, repeating late in the year as well.

See previous Syria post: February 11 2018.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/24/russia-putin-syrian-war-intervention-assad-ghouta-turkey-iran

I’m not a great catastrorpherian or given to  apocalyptic fears, but another World War fought in the Middle East, isn’t too much of a stretch given the chaos out there.

   

 

The ‘eloquent, purposeful, and clear-eyed’ response from the pupils of Stoneman Douglas School to the killing of 17 of their friends has evoked admiration (mainly). The reaction does seem different with this mass shooting, as if teenagers have had enough. An insightful piece in Slate (URL below) notes some of their tactics:

*Give Donald Trump Precisely 5 Percent of Your Mental Energy

*Don’t Waste Time Fighting People Who Don’t Share Your Values and Goals

*They Don’t Seem Hellbent on Having Leaders

*They Expect to Win

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/we-should-all-take-a-lesson-from-the-stoneman-douglas-students.html

This generation is known as post-Millenial, Generation Z, the Plurals or just the Internet generation, since they grew up with it – mid 1990s to mid 2000s – though the dates are fluid.

They all have Pluto in Sagittarius which spanned those years, so will hold strong opinions. Sackoian & Acker are on point for this: ‘An ability to perceive the fundamental causes of problems connected to the wider social order. Have little tolerance for hypocrisy and social injustice. Sometimes they become revolutionaries if they feel that existing institutions are unworthy of their respect.’

The late 1990s to early 2000s also have Uranus Neptune in Aquarius so are keyed into high-tech communication and have a broadly humanitarian outlook, with not much concern for tradition or approval.

The ones who have been speaking out at Stoneman Douglas are 17 and 18, so will have the redoubtable Saturn in Taurus square Uranus in Aquarius; and in 1999 square Neptune in Aquarius. Those born mid 2000 have Saturn Jupiter in Taurus. Plenty of Fixed planets give staying power. By 2001 the Saturn opposition Pluto was in place, which gives a different kind of endurance.

I’d think the Pluto in Sagittarius combined with Uranus in Aquarius is what marks them out as different.

There is, of course, always a negative side to any energy. Pluto in Sagittarius can be over-opinionated, ‘a religious fanatic bent on imposing his view on others.’ (Remember Al Quaeda kicked off under Pluto in Sag). Self-righteous and strident (Maggie Thatcher had Pluto in the 9^th which has same effect.)

The negative side of Uranus in Aquarius can make them erratic and unreliable in friendships; not keen on conventional committed relationships; and prompted to hold impractical social ideals.

Jupiter Saturn in Taurus isn’t all good – Dick Cheney has one.

Uranus square Saturn – can be autocratic, dictatorial and inconsistent.

What is certain is that Generation Z will make their views known with considerable force. Sometimes they’ll be right and sometimes they won’t.

Who are Generation Z and why are they different?

Their formative experiences have been the post-9/11, post financial crisis and increasingly globalised world. The way they communicate, consume information and search for answers is totally dominated by the digital world – they are utterly dependent on IT and could not envisage a workplace without smartphones, streaming media and cloud computing (even if it’s a manufacturing environment they’ll still expect to be able to WhatsApp their friends at work – why wouldn’t they)?

Theirs is a world where communication is instant, bitesize and informal. Use of email in an office environment will seem to them like writing a letter would be for those in their 30’s and 40’s.

Their idea of the workplace and work is more flexible, less permanent, career focused but less traditional and more about having experiences and being involved in the zeitgeist. There will be no stigma attached to moving around multiple employers, they’ll do it seamlessly as ‘career multi-taskers’.

They will crowdsource information and answers, they won’t want the bloke in the pin-stripe suit who says he’s an “expert”, they’d rather ask Suri or their followers on Instagram.

 

 

English actress Emma Chambers, best known for playing oddball roles in Nottinghill and The Vicar of Dibley, has died aged 53 from natural causes. She suffered from asthma and serious allergies.

Born 11 March 1964, she was a Sun, Mercury, Mars in Pisces trine filmic Neptune; with her Mars in a high-tension opposition to Pluto (Uranus) in Virgo. Her Venus in Taurus was also trine Pluto Uranus, so a lively spark. Her Moon was in maverick Aquarius and she had an upfront, go-ahead Jupiter in Aries. Tr Pluto had been making heavy weather conjunct her confusing Sun/Neptune conjunction in January; with tr Neptune making a tranche of hard aspects this year, some last year, some up and coming – to her Pluto, square her Mars/Pluto and Sun/Uranus, conjunct her Mars. Not an easy time.

 

 

Sridevi, the Bollywood superstar has died suddenly aged 54. She appeared in almost 300 films over five decades and was considered one of the few Indian female stars capable of box office success without the support of a male hero.

Born 13 August 1963 in Madras at 5,30am (unverified), she started acting aged four, working in five local languages. Her screen image was a glamorous one, but her private life, relentlessly exposed in gossip columns, ‘spoke of her lack of conversational abilities, her romantic liaisons and heartbreaks as well as her bouts of cosmetic surgery.’

She was a charming and flamboyant Sun, Venus, Ascendant in Leo opposition Saturn in Aquarius square Neptune (Lilith) opposition MC with a 10^th house Taurus Moon – so the birth time looks feasible. A 7^th house Saturn does suggest a hard struggle to find a supportive partner in life; and a 10^th house Moon is well-designed for a public career, with much nourishment from her audience. Her filmic Neptune was also heavily aspected. Her Sun Venus were in a high-fashion, glamourous trine to Jupiter in Aries.

She was exactly on a Progressed Moon Return when she died, pushing her back into the spotlight of publicity. Tr Pluto was already in her 6^th house of health, with tr Saturn heading for the cusp. Her Solar Arc Mars was due to square her Uranus in 2019, which is often a heart signature, though usually in older people. Tr Neptune was undermining two of her midpoints as well this year – Sun/Mars and Mars/Saturn.

Her superstar 22^nd harmonic was confident and successful; as well as her 11H. As were her 5H, 7H, 11H and 13H – so a talented lady.

 

 

“It was 50 years ago this month, and yet, almost every night, I lie in my bed remembering Hue. More than any other experience I had in more than five decades of covering war, it haunts me.” And the Tet Offensive in Vietnam was the location for some of war-photographer Don McCullin’s most searing and memorable images – of wounded and battle-shocked soldiers and civilians.

Described as one of our greatest living photographers and a photojournalist without equal, he spent 60 years documenting the poverty of London’s East End, and the horrors of wars in Vietnam, Cambodia, Lebanon, Congo, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iran. Recently, aged 81, he travelled to Iraq to photograph the Battle of Mosul and took another trip to Palmyra in Syria in early 2016. He has vowed to continue with his work until he “can’t press that button any more”.

Born 9 October 1935 in London he had a tough upbringing with a violent mother, a sick father, evacuation during the war, frequent truancy and a youth of street fighting and local gangs. He described Finsbury Park in north London where he grew up as a place of ignorance, bigotry, poverty and violence. During his National Service he became a cameraman but couldn’t pass the theory exams (he’s dyslexic). A commission from the Observer picture editor when he was 23 got him started on his long and distinguished career more by accident than design. He covered wars in Vietnam, Biafra, Cyprus and Northern Ireland but focused on its terrible effects on people rather than on the fighting.

He says: “Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”

Actor Tom Hardy will reportedly play him in a film, based on his autobiography, Unreasonable Behavior.

He’s a Sun Libra sextile Mars in adventurous Sagittarius; with a confident Jupiter in Scorpio trine Pluto in Cancer; and a Mystic Rectangle of Venus in Virgo opposition Saturn (Moon) in Pisces which is trine/sextile Uranus opposition Mercury in Scorpio. His Neptune is in a publicity-seeking square to Mars. Mercury in Scorpio is often found in research journalist’s charts and has the ability to dig deep and see below the surface.

His chart is replete with creative quintiles and septiles. His get-it-together 5th Harmonic is focussed on Mercury and the war-signature Saturn Pluto. His 7th Harmonic is pulled to military/situations of cruelty with Mars Saturn prominent focussing onto filmic Neptune. His enduring, endless-struggle 8th Harmonic is enormously strong. He also has a marked and brutal 13H – breaking with the orthodox, genius; and a leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17H.

From unlikely beginnings he pulled himself away from his roots with a world-class talent and a mix of determination and guts. Though admittedly Jupiter Pluto has a reputation for creating its own good fortune.

www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2018/02/23/the-tet-offensive-50-years-later-photographs-and-memories-still-haunt-vietnam-war-photographer-don-mccullin/?hpid=hp_hp-visual-stories-desktop_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.d5b3aba0f98e

 

 

Matt Pritchett, the delightfully funny Telegraph cartoonist is celebrating his 30^th work anniversary. His deceptively simple line-drawings pack a real punch and raise a smile.

Born 14 July 1964, he’s from a family of newspapermen but went to Art School, so came into the business from a different direction. He works in the office, first reading all the morning papers and then producing several rough sketches for approval, often homing in on the important story of the day before the editor.

He’s a Sun Cancer, which sign often has a nose for the public mood, which is trine Neptune and in a confident sextile to Jupiter in practical Taurus. He has a passionately enthusiastic Mars Venus in Gemini and the tough-minded signature Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn of the 1960s generation.

His two strongest Harmonics are the inspired-imagination 11H; and the unorthodox, genius 13H – which latter was also notable in Peter Sellers’ chart and seems to be significant amongst comedians.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/31/matt-cartoons-february-2018/