Astrology of Today’s News

The Labour leadership, Corbyn and McDonnell, are in a double-bind pulled between their longstanding dislike of the EU and their membership which favours a People’s Vote by nine to one with 90% wanting to remain according to David Lammy MP.

Corbyn’s relationship chart with the EU has a bitterly hostile composite Mars opposition Pluto; plus a deeply suspicious Saturn Neptune square Uranus. McDonnell isn’t much better with a critical Sun Saturn; a power-struggling Pluto Jupiter; plus a few extra crossed stars.

Keir Starmer, the Labour Brexit spokesman is rowing back on McDonnell’s odd claim that any people’s vote wouldn’t include a remain option. McDonnell isn’t winning much through this year and next with tr Neptune opposition his Mars and square his Jupiter/Pluto. Neither is union leader Len McLuskey in good shape with similar. Both pick up momentum somewhat from, 2021/22 onwards.

Keir Starmer, 2 September 1962, looks on better form than most, despite some grind and groan and setbacks through this year and next. He has tr Uranus conjunct his Solar Arc Jupiter from April 2019 for a few weeks; plus a confidently successful tr Pluto trine his Jupiter/Node also from April 2019, on and off till late 2020; and picking up another couple of Jupiters in 2020.

Angela Rayner, 28 March 1980, will get some uplift this December to mid February 2019; and another boost late March; but thereafter she’s into a tangle of setbacks, aggravations, frustrations and disappointments right through till early 2021.

David Lammy, 18 July 1972, will be relieved with lucky breaks mid this October till early November and again in March and will have moments of high hopes and success through 2019/20. But he’s also got uncertainties and then major disasters picking up from mid 2019 with a dead-halt in 2020/21 as his Solar Arc Mars is conjunct his Pluto.

Add on: Keir Starmer’s relationship with both Corbyn and McDonnell is under strain over the time ahead. With Corbyn there’s an evasive and disappointing composite Sun square Neptune which will be under maximum pressure from mid February 2019 onwards for two years; with a real dip before then as well from the final week of October till the New Year over the critical Brexit period with tr Neptune square the composite Mars; with high-tension mid October to early November and again in early 2019 with tr Uranus square the composite Uranus.

Starmer’s interface with McDonnell is much of a muchness with the above with disruptions and upheavals mid October to early November (and early next year) with tr Uranus trine the composite Pluto. And nerves at twanging point early November to early December, again in February 2019 with tr Neptune opposition the composite Neptune.

In both relationships with Starmer there’s an ego-clash –  a struggle for the upper hand (with Corbyn) with a Jupiter square Pluto; or only-one-can-win (with McDonnell) with Mars square Neptune.

It’s not just a fight for the soul of the Tory Party going on. Labour as well.

Previous posts on Labour September 2nd and 18 2018

The entry of the Sun into Libra (yesterday) was generally considered the most important of the four Cardinal ingresses in the year. How useful ingress charts are is a moot point, having been roundly dismissed by astrologers who studied them in depth across a range of events.

But for what it’s worth, set for London, UK, this Libra Ingress chart does have Uranus conjunct the midheaven. The 10^th house covers Royalty and the government with Uranus suggesting change or at least tensions breaking out. Uranus is in a Fixed Grand Cross opposition Venus square Node opposition Mars – so a mix of excessively stubborn and disruptive. With a downbeat Sun Mercury square Saturn; and an over-hopeful Jupiter trine Neptune sextile Pluto with delusional Neptune in the 8^th house of international and business finances.

The previous late June 2018 Cancer Ingress for London has the head-in-the-clouds Jupiter Neptune even more strongly emphasised, all funneled through a controlling and uncompromising Pluto in the grandstanding 5th; with Neptune in the 7^th, suggesting lack of commitment to co-operative ventures and much miscommunication between partners.

The upcoming late December 2018 Capricorn Ingress also has Neptune in the 7^th even more afflicted on the point of a T Square so more evasion, slipping and sliding.

The Aries Ingress 2019 a few days before the March 29 cut-off Brexit date is brutal with an Earth Grand Trine of Saturn Pluto trine a 7^th house Mars in Taurus trine a wobbly Virgo Moon in the 11^th house of future plans. Not much of a hint of a friendly hand-shake out of that.

I’m rather glad the astrological research specialists have deemed them uninformative. But interesting to see how they fit.

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

Oscar-winning actress Sally Field, is another one out with a misery memoir replete with family drama and damaging adult relationships.

She was born 6 November 1946 4.23am Pasadena, California to a father who baled when he discovered his wife was pregnant by another man. Her mother was an actress with a drink problem who knowingly allowed her stepfather to abuse her for years. Sally started in television roles at 20 and, as with Jane Fonda, found her stride after meeting the acting coach Lee Strasberg. She garnered awards along the way for tv, film and stage performances and now directs as well.

Her much publicized relationship with Burt Reynolds was a nightmare – he took hysterical fits if she tried to talk about herself, refused to allow her to pick up her Emmy for Sybil and tried to prevent her playing Norma Rae for which she won an Oscar.

She is a Sun Jupiter in Scorpio square Saturn Pluto in the 10^th, fitting her for tortured and bleak roles. Her Aries Moon opposes Neptune and trines Mars in Scorpio, Venus, Mercury in Sagittarius – which is a hugely complex relationship to her mother – Neptune addictive, Mars angry, Venus affectionate. Her Sun square Pluto and Saturn would attract her to controlling partners who stamped on her self-worth. Just as well she had Jupiter on hand to give her some buoyancy or she’d have sunk.

Her Uranus is unaspected so she would have difficulty finding an outlet for her rebellious spirit, or it would surface sporadically then disappear.

Burt Reynolds always was a monstrously bad fit for her, though with her childhood abuse, not too surprising. [See post September 17 2018].

His controlling Pluto was conjunct Sally’s midheaven so he would want to dominate; with his Mars in trine giving him a ruthless streak. Their relationship chart has a horrific composite Mars trine Saturn Uranus trine Neptune, with Saturn Uranus opposition Jupiter. Showbizzy from Mars Neptune, looked successful from a driving Jupiter, autocratic and high-tension from Saturn Uranus, cruel from Mars Saturn Uranus.

Her relationship with her mother, 10 May 1922, was another kind of bad with her mother’s evasive Neptune conjunct Sally’s Saturn Pluto; and her mother’s Saturn Jupiter in Libra square Pluto in hard aspect to Sally’s Moon and Neptune – cold, rejecting, sugary-sweet at times, possessive/controlling and very very confusing. Their relationship chart also has a cruel, cold composite Mars square Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Neptune.

Poor kid, it’s a miracle she emerged with any sanity intact.

Her creative, get-it-together 5^th harmonic is strong; as is her artistic 7H; and her actresses’ 15H.

Lily Allen, a successful UK singer and TV presenter, has written a brutally honest (over-sharing according to the Guardian) memoir about her first 33 years. There’s drugs, drink, sex which was good, rape and indifferent, bulimia and erratic parents.

Born 2 May 1985, no birth time, in London to a film producer mother and a Welsh-comedian father who left when she was young, she appeared first on TV aged 3, attended 13 different schools and was expelled from two for drinking and smoking. In her adult life she had best-selling albums, multiple relationships, a miscarriage and a still birth with post-natal depression, was stalked for several years and was recently diagnosed as bi-polar. An exhausting life.

She’s a Sun Taurus widely opposition Pluto with her Sun square Jupiter – so stubborn, over-hopeful and drawn to situations where she felt trapped.

What marks her chart out are two Yods – Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Mars in scattered Gemini. And Mars sextile Venus inconjunct Pluto. Neither are easy to handle well. An apex Mars will tend to go off in all directions at once. An apex Pluto – a tendency to go to extremes and become self-destructive; and veering between being manipulative or withdrawn.

What would save her is her emphasised Jupiter, also on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine to Uranus and Mercury, as well as square Sun giving her optimism despite setbacks. She’ll be due a significant relationship in 2020 with her Progressed Venus conjunct her Sun; with a change in her lifestyle the year after with her Progressed Sun opposition her Uranus. Though next year won’t be calm with tr Uranus opposing her afflicted Pluto – another major upheaval.

The unstoppable popular novelist Stephen King, known mainly for his horror, supernatural, suspense, fantasy and science fiction was 71 yesterday. He has written 58 novels, sold 350 million, written innumerable short stories, won multiple awards and is omnipresent on other authors’ book covers with complimentary puffs and on twitter. The litterati tends to look down on him since he sells but a reviewer commented favourably on his “pungent prose, sharp ear for dialogue, disarmingly laid-back, frank style, along with his passionately fierce denunciation of human stupidity and cruelty.”

Born 21 September 1947 1.30am Portland, Maine, he was brought up by a single mother in relative poverty with his father abandoning them when he was two. He wrote at school and was first published at 20. Thereafter he wrote to earn a living and taught.

He has an intelligent, communicative 3^rd house Virgo Sun conjunct Venus in Libra in a dynamic sextile to Mars in Cancer and a maverick square to Uranus. His outspoken, adventurous Sagittarius Moon is in the performing 5^th and is really the key to his chosen genre since it trines a bleak Saturn Pluto in Leo trine his Aries Midheaven; with his Midheaven opposition Mercury Neptune in Libra on his IC.

Saturn Pluto is drawn to the dark side – Pluto, lord of the underworld and Saturn, the grim reaper, combining to focus interest not just on the worst side of humanity; but also, in its guise as the black magician, to connect to fantasy and the supernatural. All of that channelled through his driving planet Mercury.

He’s due yet another major success in 2019/2020 with tr Pluto sextile his Jupiter and bowling along in good style in 2021/22 with tr Pluto square his Sun/Jupiter. Possibly also heartened as his twitter bete noir Trump stumbles.

Pluto in Capricorn is the great tracker of all matters economic on a macro-level. You could write a history of money through the times of its appearance, roughly every 250 years.  Charlemagne in the 8^th Century –  had an important role in determining the immediate economic future of Europe. He standardised the monetary system which unified the complex array of currencies in use at the start of his reign, so simplifying trade.

Kublai Khan two Pluto in Capricorns later: is considered to be the first of fiat money makers (i.e. paper money not gold or silver). The paper bills made collecting taxes and administering the huge empire much easier while reducing cost of transporting coins.

The next Pluto in Capricorn in early 16^th Century Europe saw the start of Mercantilism. And exactly on cue by the next Pluto in Capricorn in 1776 the Scottish economist Adam Smith was critiquing and rejecting Mercantilism in his book Wealth of Nations – Smith’s work helped create the modern academic discipline of economics and provided one of the best-known rationales for free trade.

The present Pluto in Capricorn picked up in 2008 with the resounding US and global financial crash. Little was learned from the meltdown; and the wholesale rethink of the system that was needed never took place. So it was always on the cards that the necessary correction would happen sometime before Pluto’s exit into Aquarius in 2023/24.

Saturn moving into Capricorn last year heading for a last decan conjunction with Pluto in 2019/2020, on its own, is an indication of a recession. But given the larger picture, it could be the catalyst for a tectonic shift that should have happened after 2008.

And by 2022 Saturn in Aquarius is square Uranus in Taurus which is usually also a sign of a financial crunch. There was a Saturn opposition Uranus in 2009/2010 just after the 2008 crash.

In 2010 Edmund Conway of the Telegraph wrote: ‘The international monetary system has failed, and there is no one willing or able to come up with a reconstruction job.’ He suggested that a coherent international monetary system would only come either 1) after another crisis (perhaps sovereign debt, perhaps a full-blown currency war). Or 2) when one economic superpower gives way to another after a period of chaos.

The EU, UK, Germany all have Uranus moving through their 8^th house of international and business finances from now onwards for the next few years until after 2025, so they are into an unpredictable and unstable phase.

The previous time Uranus moved into Taurus in the mid 1930s, it was just under way for the Jarrow March against poverty and unemployment in the UK, as well as Hitler’s rise to power and ran till 1941.

Addendum for economic not-quite-illiterates like me: Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 started a process to avoid the disaster of the 1930s, when US insistence on repayment of Allied WW1 debts, plus an isolationist, ‘beggar thy neighbour’ attitude led to a breakdown of the international financial system and a worldwide economic depression. Governments had used currency devaluations to increase the competitiveness of their exports and worsening other nations’ deflationary spirals, which resulted in plummeting national incomes, shrinking demand, mass unemployment, and an overall decline in world trade.

Well there’s a surprise – the EU digging in their heels. Actually it’s not. What was more of a surprise were the emollient words coming from the EU before the Salzburg Summit raising false hopes which didn’t fit with any of the UK politicians’ charts.

Theresa May looks poleaxed and devastated despite her customary stalwart utterances. She has tr Pluto square her Sun/Neptune midpoint this month and next over the Party Conference – Ebertin describes that as ‘a tragic deception or illusion.’ With perhaps a jolting shock from Solar Arc Uranus conjunct her Sun.

Her Government chart is also in convulsions from a nervous crisis with tr Uranus conjunct the Sun/Neptune now till mid October; with a bad-tempered setback in the first half of October over the conference with tr Saturn square the Mars.

Theresa May is pretty much all downhill over coming months till late 2019 – hopes dashed, undermined, frustrated, powerless. If she goes, I’d hazard a guess at April 2019 onwards, just after either a hard Brexit or a mushy fudge to extend the agony for another two years. Dominic Raab, her negotiator, looks even more squelched than she does until late 2019.

Olly Robbins, the senior civil servant, who seems to be the senior hand on the wheel, is being battered every which way through October, November and early 2019 with tr Uranus conjunct his Sun and opposition his Pluto. But seems in better shape than the two above – golden pension pot to fall back on and a glittering City job, no doubt.

Philip May, who as chief PM domestic support might give a clue, is looking totally crushed this November and December as is his lady wife and Raab. So either the whole thing is shot or they trail miserably on, praying for a miracle.

Her relationship with Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, who’s been fairly aggressive and contemptuous, is mutually upsupportive at best and being kicked around like a football through this autumn and on till mid 2019.

Yanis Varoufakis was right in his advice not to negotiate at all with the EU – waste of time. Though it would undoubtedly have helped if the Brexiteers had understood let alone explained the complexities and costs of backing out of 40 years of agreements.

As to the nation chart, I’m none to wiser than I was the last time.

Tr Saturn is conjunct the UK and EU Sun 21^st to 28 December this year, which certainly looks downbeat and could indicate a breakdown of talks.

On 29 March 2019 tr Saturn will oppose the UK 10^th house Moon exactly and conjunct the EU Secondary Progressed Mars also exactly. So it could come to a hard split with the UK feeling isolated; and the EU irritable since they won’t get their money and various continental businesses including German will be tearing their hair at the disruption.

The EU certainly looks in financial meltdown with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct their 2^nd house Neptune, exact in 8 months’ time, though in effect beforehand.

On the UK chart as well on 29 March 2019 tr Uranus is square the Jupiter for a moment of relief – though whether that means freedom or a deal isn’t obvious. Solar Arc Pluto is within less than a degree of being conjunct the UK Ascendant (taking back control). Politicians are certainly massively unpopular with Solar Arc Moon exactly opposition the 11^th house Saturn (legislature and future plans) which is hardly a surprise given how hapless the entire bunch have been across the spectrum. But there aren’t the catastrophic economic upheavals you might expect to see with the chaos of a hard Brexit until 2021. Though the Bank of England will be on disaster-watch.

It was always going to go down to the wire and over. But with TMay being intransigent and anyway stuck with an unsolvable conundrum vis a vis Northern Ireland, it’s difficult to see where an agreement could come from.

Chris Evans, larger-than-life presenter, producer and businessman, late of BBC Radio 2 and Top Gear, has added twins to his brood. They arrived on Wednesday night at 10.10 pm and 10.22 pm in Frimley, Farnborough, being dubbed Ping and Pong. Thank heavens for decent birth times.

They have Sun and Mercury in Virgo trine a Capricorn Moon and Mars in early Aquarius; with Sun Mercury also trine an 8^th house Pluto, sextile Jupiter in Scorpio – earthy, practical, noisy, confident. Their money-making Jupiter in Scorpio is trine a creative/musical Neptune in the 10^th, sextile Pluto. An 8^th house Pluto can feel trapped but can also wield behind-the-scenes power. Their charming and theatrical Venus in Scorpio opposes Uranus and squares Mars opposition Node, and sextiles a 7^th house Saturn.  Saturn in the 7^th hints at possible late marriages, perhaps when their Solar Arc Sun is conjunct their Venus aged 40. Though if they follow their father’s footsteps they’ll have multiple liaisons which looks not unlikely with Venus and Mars tied into unpredictable, ever-changing Uranus.

It’ll be interesting to see how they turn out – sometimes twins split the chart’s energy with one living out one strand and the other living out another. Or one taking the positive traits and the other the negative.

Evans, 1 April 1966, is a fiery Sun Mars in Aries with a Leo Moon; and the erratic Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition Saturn squaring onto a lucky and voluble Jupiter in Gemini.

Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who has made allegations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh, is being trashed by Republicans and right-wing commentators. So much for #metoo making a difference. After the alleged incident when she was 15 years old she evidently dropped out of social circulation for several years and has said it ‘derailed her’. Ultimately she moved to study psychology and only recounted the incident in detail a few years ago when in couples therapy with her husband.

Mark Judge, a friend of Kavanaugh’s, whom she claims was present and is refusing to give testimony, wrote a memoir in recent years about his time as a ‘teenage alcoholic.’ One of Kavanaugh’s mentors, who spoke on behalf of him when he was seeking confirmation to a federal judgeship in 2006, Judge Alex Kozinski, abruptly retired from the appeals court last December after several female former law clerks and colleagues accused him of sexual misconduct that included touching, inappropriate sexual comments and forced viewings of pornography in his chambers. And a Yale professor was known for instructing female law students who were preparing for interviews with Kavanaugh on ways they could dress to exude a “model-like” femininity to help them win a post in his chambers, according to sources. (That latter from the Guardian).

Christine Ford, 28 November 1966 is a Sun, Venus in Sagittarius trine Jupiter in Leo; with a Gemini Moon; and Pluto, Uranus, Mars conjunct in Virgo opposition Saturn in Pisces. Half confident and upbeat; half troubled.

Kavanaugh, 12 February 1965, is a Sun, Mercury in Aquarius squaring onto Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune; with a Cancer Moon; and Uranus, Pluto and Mars spread out through Virgo with Saturn in Pisces across the zodiac.

Both have Mars in Virgo within less than a degree; her Saturn is opposition his Mars which does suggest cross purposes; and his Sun is square her Neptune. But there’s nothing much to be concluded from that.

Their relationship chart has a composite Sun in a changeable, chaotic trine to Uranus Pluto and sextile Saturn; with a composite Mars, Uranus, Pluto square Jupiter (maybe Moon). Which again isn’t too informative.

She has been receiving death threats, had to move home and hire security guards to protect her family since her privately made allegation was leaked. Although in some ways she may be relieved she spoke out which a Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct her Mars could suggest; she’s also got a run of agitated, insecure, risky and jolting transits to midpoints right through into early 2019; with more pressures in 2019/2020 with tr Pluto sextile her Saturn and trine her Uranus, then later trine her Mars – which will run on for several years ahead.