Another holy roller horror has emerged after a ‘wee free’ minister in Lewis, Scotland hanged himself after being confronted by his wife over several affairs, of which she found evidence on his computer. In some denominations it might raise no more than a few tut tuts, but the Free Church (a misnomer if ever there was one) is exceptionally strict and has dominated life in parts of the north west of Scotland for 170 years. On Sundays due to Church diktats, life grinds to a halt – no shops and restaurants, no play on the golf course; the council-run swimming pool is shut. Only in recent years have there been flights and ferry sailings on Sundays. Needless to say, in addition, all sins and immoralities are roundly condemned in hellfire and brimstone sermons.
The Free Church of Scotland was formed on 18 May 1843 which gives a resolute Taurus Sun conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol, trine Saturn (Moon) in Capricorn, square Neptune Jupiter in Aquarius; with Saturn (Moon) square Pluto Venus; and Pluto Venus trine a crusading Mars in Sagittarius. All of which adds up to enduring stubbornness, a tough almost ruthlessly cruel streak and a fair amount of illusions/delusion. The Jupiter Neptune conjunction is marked being on the focal point of a mini Grand Trine to Pluto Venus trine Mars; and square Sun – Ebertin associates this with a conflict between the visualized ideal and the very different reality. How true.
There used to be an old saying about wee free ministers that around them it was best to keep both hands in your pockets – one holding your knicker elastic and the other your purse. Vulgar but apposite.
At the moment tr Uranus is opposition the Free Church Venus Pluto as the sexual scandal emerged which seems descriptive; moving on to a jolting square to the Saturn (Moon) as the year rolls on, perhaps putting a dent in all that Saturnine authoritarianism. Tr Uranus doing what it does best – rattling cages and forcefully blowing away old restrictions.
What gives with religious zealots? Outrageous and quite dizzying hypocrisy.
The British artist Howard Hodgkin has died aged 84. His vibrant, colourful oil paintings caught public attention when he was in his forties and his muse has produced prolifically since. He was famously emotive, “a man who loves and hates with a passion, and is very emotional. He will cry very easily and flares up, both in terms of colour and of temper, very quickly,” according to Nicholas Serota who gave him his first exhibition. Yet he always said he hated painting, that it was a gruelling, lonely business and did not come easily.
Born 6 Aug 1932 in London, he had a Sun and Jupiter in flamboyant Leo; and a passionately enthusiastic Venus Mars in emotionally sensitive Cancer sextile Mercury Neptune in Virgo. He also had the stark, depressive and inventive Pluto opposition Saturn square Uranus of his generation. His Uranus was trine Jupiter, so however much he doubted his talent, he had the courage to take risks to become a truly unique artist.
His two strongest harmonics were the creative, get-it-together 5th and the ‘superstar’ 22nd; with a stressed, inspirational 7th Harmonic as well.
Ireland already reeling from multiple allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and maltreatment in institutional homes like the Magdalene Laundries, has another horror to add to its conscience. In the region of 800 babies born to unmarried women in Ireland ended up dumped in a septic tank at the Bon Secours Home at Tuam run by RC nuns over decades. Reports over the years suggested children in the home were underfed and mistreated, often dying from poor care. But under the iron thumb of an authoritarian, supremely arrogant and cruelly uncaring Catholic Church there was little hope of any action being taken. Illegitimate children were regarded as the product of sin and therefore sinful in themselves.
Not that it is a peculiarly Irish problem, since the Poor Sisters of Nazareth who ran UK orphanages were described in one report as “ruthless, sadistic, mad, depraved.’ And the Abuse Inquiry is now hearing of the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of British children forcibly deported to Australia by the UK government and leading churches and charities, between 1947 and 1970.
Words fail me. Do-gooders and holy rollers. It’s the hypocrisy which is so mind-bending. How do they square their pious superiority with such acts of wanton cruelty? I hope when they got to meet St Peter at the Pearly Gates, they were promptly sent elsewhere.
And the issue of abortion is still stuck back in a mediaeval time warp in Northern Ireland as well. Usually when countries have a punitive attitude to women they have afflicted Moons.
The Ireland 6 December 1922 5pm chart has a Moon Pluto in Cancer square Saturn in Libra which is bleak, tough, suppressive, uncaring. Moon Pluto is also in a Water Grand Trine to Uranus and Jupiter in Scorpio, which will stick the country in a rut, locked into a fantasy-land where facing up to unpleasant realities has to be avoided. Tr Pluto is square the 4th house Saturn this year; and Solar Arc Pluto Moon will conjunct that Saturn in 2018, which doesn’t hold out much hope for a speedy remedy, at least in the near future. Though from the looks of that there may be more depressing stories creeping out into the open.
Northern Ireland, 3 May 1921 12 am, with highly restrictive laws (unlike the UK) refusing abortion unless the mother’s life is at risk, (ie. not in the case of foetal abnormality, rape or incest) has been described by the UN and judges as cruel, inhuman and degrading, violating a woman’s human rights. The NIreland Moon is conjunct Uranus, trine Pluto and opposition Saturn Jupiter, so not dissimilar to Ireland. Tr Neptune is wending its way round the NI Moon and Saturn over this year and into 2019; with a collision in 2019 so there might be a chance of a change then.
Momentous times for the USA as tr Pluto heads for its First Return in 2022. On the USA 1776 chart, Pluto in Capricorn opposes Mercury in Cancer, describing a dark, fanatical streak in the American temperament; and that opposition will be seriously rattled through 2017/18 by tr Uranus picking up the square (see Dec 26 Post on US 2017) from this April. With a tremendous upheaval as tr Uranus squares Pluto exactly through 2018. Past experience would suggest it tends to bring out extreme right-wing elements and political scandals.
Ebertin associates Mercury Pluto with: demagogues, plagiarists, those who fraudulently misrepresent, slyness and cunning, irritability, and psychological pressure since Mercury rules the rational mind. That’s all on the negative side – it can, if kept under control, be persuasive and an insightful critic.
Even more pressured will be the tr Pluto opposition the US Mercury, picking up in spring 2020 and exact over the 2021 Inauguration and moving on to conjunct the US Pluto in 2022/23. So a longish period of intensity, fierce debate and mental strain. Pluto will, of course be boosted by the conjunction to Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn which will make it an even more complex scenario.
Previous times of tr Pluto in hard aspect to the US Pluto opposition Mercury were:
1845 to 1851, Pluto in Aries – Democratic President, bitter anti-slavery fights; and the US-Mexican War over the secession of Texas.
1933 to 1938, Pluto in Cancer – Franklin Roosevelt breathes new life into the American spirit with the New Deal, a response to the Great Depression, which works economically for a while before hitting a recession in 1937/38. Dust Bowl storms in 1933/34. J. Edgar Hoover takes over FBI.
Dec 1980 to Sept 1983, Pluto in Libra – Reagan in White House, revitalising a disenchanted nation after Jimmy Carter and the failure of Vietnam. Swingeing tax cuts lead to soaring budget deficit and highest unemployment since 1940. He gets shot in 1981; a recession in 1982 with Pluto conjunct Saturn in Libra.
The 2020 election occurs with an exact conjunction of Jupiter Pluto in Capricorn with tr Saturn four degrees further on. With Jupiter Pluto square Mars in Aries so strong-arm tactics, violence, ruthless and bullying. Looks very capitalist to me.
The 2021 Inauguration chart is all set for a crisis-ridden term with a control-freaky Pluto conjunct the MC (assuming 12 noon) and the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn square a 12th house Mars Uranus (Moon). That would point to subversive rebellions; i.e underground groups working explosively to disrupt the government. While Jupiter Saturn and Sun in Aquarius might seem to be humanitarian, there is also a fascist streak to Aquarius. Tr Neptune is also rapidly heading to square the US Mars from March 2012 for two years which usually accompanies a sense of panicky failure and plummeting morale..
[I’ll have a look tomorrow at countries which have old charts and have been through their Pluto return to see what effect it had on them.]
Lee Radziwill, Jackie Kennedy’s younger sister, was if anything, more beautiful, elegant with a keener eye for fashion of the two. But she lived forever in her sister’s shadow. While they clearly had an affectionate relationship they were also constantly upstaging each other.
Lee, 3 March 1933 5.46pm New York (astrotheme), was a Sun Pisces opposition Neptune, Mars, Jupiter in Virgo squaring onto a Gemini Moon – so highly enthusiastic and exuberant, constantly scattered, yet also sensitive to slights with such an emphasised Moon. She was dependent with a 7th house Sun, but needed more love than one person could give her, so she flitted through three marriages and had multiple affairs, including with Ari Onassis before Jackie married him. Her Uranus in the 8th may well have been another part of her restless need for new sexual partners, and given that it squared Pluto, her life would be in constant turmoil.
Jackie’s Leo Sun fell in her 11th for a friendly connection, cemented during a difficult childhood with a drunken, roustabout of a father, then parental divorce and a step-family in their teens. Jackie’s Jupiter was conjunct Lee’s Moon and Midheaven so she would bring Lee status; but Jackie’s cool, self-righteous Saturn squared Lee’s 1st house Jupiter, so Lee would constantly feel criticised.
Their relationship chart had most significantly an afflicted 10th house Pluto, which does suggest a struggle for the upper hand; with a composite conjunction of Mars Neptune which again suggests an ego/self-esteem clash – one wins, the other feels diminished. There was closeness from a composite Venus square Pluto, though with undertones of jealousy; and superficial niceness from Venus square Jupiter.
Both of them and their relationship lived through tumultuous times with Uranus square Pluto marked on all the charts.
When Jackie died, having grown much richer from Onassis’s death and her subsequent relationship with Maurice Templesman increased her fortune by tenfold through his management, she left nothing to Lee, who was in more impoverished circumstances (comparatively speaking), not even a memento, which seems petty and spiteful.
Looking ahead to the US Midterm elections on 6 Nov 2018 which would be the Democratic hope for a shift in the balance of power, it looks more hopeful for the senior Republicans. What follows is mainly without birth times and some like Nancy Pelosi, now 76, may bow out.
There is certainly a shift in the planetary signs with tr Uranus just into Taurus, Saturn in early Capricorn and Jupiter poised to enter Sagittarius. That could suggest change but Saturn heading to conjunct Pluto in the highly conservative sign of Capricorn would suggest otherwise. Around the election it’ll be high tension, fanatical, perhaps even violent with an ugly mood around according to the midpoints.
Mitch McConnell, Majority Senate leader (R-KY), 20 Feb 1942, hasn’t much over the election itself but is in a gung ho, revitalised mood from mid Jan 2019 onwards with tr Pluto square his Sun/Jupiter for two years
Paul Ryan, the Speaker, 29 Jan 1970 2.37 am Janesville, WI, has a brilliantly successful tr Pluto conjunct his Mars/Jupiter midpoint in Nov 2018, plus a couple of more minor tr Saturn downers, so not everything he hoped for, but he’ll be on a high. With tr Jupiter about to cross his Ascendant.
Chuck Schumer, 23 Nov 1950, Senate Minority leader, looks seriously jangled with tr Uranus opposition his discouraged Sun/Saturn midpoint; feeling restricted also from tr Pluto trine his Sun/Uranus.
Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader of House of Representatives, 26 March 1940, has an agitated, unsettling tr Uranus conjunct her Sun/Mars; a depressed tr Pluto square Sun/Saturn immediately before; and a tr Pluto conjunct her Jupiter/Node – so really down, with one up.
Barack Obama, no doubt watching anxiously from the sidelines, does have a lucky/relief tr Uranus square his Jupiter at the election; but also a devastating and catastrophic feeling through Jan 2019.
Given the present state of play a good deal of water will have flowed under the bridge by that time and the situation out in the world, never mind in the White House, could be radically different. If there are major economic pressures or a war-situation, then voters tend to opt for continuity.
Trump may be incapable of controlling his temper or curbing his pathological vengeful streak but there is some method in his madness. As one commentator remarked he is practising a pinball version of government – ‘multiple metal balls ricocheting in all directions, unleashed by an intemperate and gleeful player-in-chief, all accompanied by a non-stop cacophony of bells, klaxons and flashing lights.’ To him, all that matters is the racket and more importantly the distraction it causes.
His most significant mentor early on, whose playbook he clearly still follows, was Roy Cohn, a New York lawyer, whose ‘creed was to always be on the attack, to counterpunch whenever punched and to never apologize. Never, ever, ever apologize – even if you’re in the wrong, because your opponents will take a mile.’
They first came together in the early 1970s when Trump and his father were under a Justice Department investigation after allegations that their company had systematically discriminated against black people seeking housing. Cohn’s advice was to tell Justice Department to go to hell and fight back in court. So Donald and Fred countersued the federal government for $100 million. Ultimately, the Trumps settled without admitting guilt, which allowed them to declare victory.
Cohn was McCarthy’s chief counsel during the anti-Communist hearings, though he resigned in disgrace and went into private practice where he represented several mafia bosses and the Trumps, for whom he brokered the gargantuan tax abatements and the mob-tied concrete work that made the Grand Hyatt hotel and Trump Tower projects. He was charged three times in Federal investigations in the 1970s and 1980s with professional misconduct, including perjury and witness tampering, and was accused in New York of financial improprieties related to city contracts and private investments. He was acquitted of all charges. Eventually in 1986 he was disbarred for unethical and unprofessional conduct, including misappropriation of clients’ funds, lying on a bar application, and pressuring a client to amend his will. He died of AIDs, contracted it is thought through gay sex, despite having used homosexual allegations as a weapon to destroy careers during the McCarthy era.
And he survived as a mover and shaker in a highly dubious 40 year career before being nailed by the authorities. Outrageous brass neck gets you a long way. A technique his young pupil clearly took on board.
What is interesting is that Cohn, 20 Feb 1927, a slippery Sun Jupiter in Pisces had his heavyweight Mars in Taurus conjunct Trump’s MC – so his unyielding and combative determination (and greediness) would stiffen the young Trump’s backbone.
Trump’s MC at 24 Taurus is only one degree away from Algol, the planet of destruction, violence and mischief. The 17th century English astrologer William Lilly believed any planet to be afflicted when within five degrees of conjunction. One view is that Algol has a tendency to lie, and is less than honest in dealings with others. Algol is most associated with the myth of the snake-locked Medusa – one of whose habits was to (metaphorically) spit poison at anyone who faced her head on and paralyse them.
Evidently the right-wing conspiracy nutjobs who fed Trump the line about Obama wiretapping Trump Tower, have now ramped up their rhetoric to make Obama the chief bogeyman. On this logic, Trump now becomes the victim, his presidency under attack by a Machiavellian ‘deep state’ conspiracy. There’s always been a strand of paranoia more marked in the US than in most other western countries, encouraging such things as the growth of the anti-government militias. This present seriously scary mood does fit the pattern of the tr Uranus square the US Mercury opposition Pluto which kicks off in April, which historically has been associated with rabid right-wing hysteria. Mercury opposition Pluto in itself which is part of the US temperament is prone to fanaticism, and seeing dark intent, secrets and danger everywhere around. It has a tendency to paranoia and obsessiveness.
Trump’s 12th house Pluto undoubtedly taps into this. Scary and very disorientating when reality gets twisted.
Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble. Everywhere.
The White House is going off like a firework factory hit by a scud missile. Europe is teetering on several brinks. Theresa May, wrestling with the multi-headed hydra of Brexit, is also facing a looming Tory campaign funds crisis which may see several constituencies have to rerun the vote. And there is a possibility of Northern Ireland, after Sinn Fein wins in the recent election, ultimately going the way of Scotland and demanding independence. Is that her tr Neptune conjunct her singleton Mars in Pisces picking up in April?
Now the fissures in the tempest tossed Vatican are widening at an alarming rate as Pope Francis’s reforms have run into the intransigence of the old guard. His efforts to reform the governance of the Vatican, financial and otherwise, tackle the problem of bishops who have covered up child abuse, and modernise attitudes to divorce and homosexuality have aroused such internal hostility there is now talk from some quarters of asking him to go. Last week the final remaining abuse survivor in his commission of child abuse resigned because of “shameful lack of cooperation.” So he’s being stalled at every turn.
His Election chart, 13 March 2013 7.06pm Rome, has just been through the very rocky Solar Arc Uranus square Pluto a couple of months back. There is the final hit of an emotionally intense and conflicted tr Pluto square Moon this September/October; with a downbeat tr Saturn square Sun on and off till the autumn. There will be heavier challenges in 2018 with tr Pluto conjunct the catastrophic Mars/Saturn midpoint; and it only gets worse with a blocked Solar Arc MC opposition Pluto in 2019, as well as sudden-shock Solar Arc Mars conjunct Uranus. It was always going to be a divisive Papacy with an argumentative, self-willed and uncompromising Mars Uranus on the Descendant.
There have been concerns about his health in recent months as he passed his 80th birthday. His own personal chart, 17 Dec 1936 9pm Buenos Aires, is certainly under immense and frustrating challenges in 2017/18 with tr Pluto square his Mars; and then in 2018 his Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct his Pluto and tr Uranus is square Pluto, which in older people can suggest health issues, certainly a life-changing series of events.
The Vatican chart, 7 June 1929 11am, is facing disappointment and unpopularity this year with tr Neptune square the Sun/Moon midpoint; with a pressured Saturn Return; and more of an undermining slide in morale in 2018 with tr Neptune square the Gemini Sun; plus a high tension tr Uranus trine Neptune. So it won’t be coping well in an atmosphere of suspicion, delusion and strain.
Pluto in Capricorn grinding its way relentlessly on with the herculean task of dismantling old style governing practices against heavy resistance from the status-quoers. Razing to ashes before the phoenix can arise.
North Korea will be the urgent headache were President Obama’s words to Donald Trump as he exited the White House. With Kim Jong-Un now proudly proclaiming that their nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles are almost ready and fears in the USA that their defences against such an attack isn’t robust enough, tensions are mounting. And since the missile sites are widely dispersed and mobile, destroying them on the ground in advance isn’t an option.
The upcoming Leo Solar Eclipse in late August this year could be a crisis-point. The relationship chart between the USA and North Korea has the composite Mars at 27 Leo, close to the Eclipse – which will also set a fuse under Donald Trump’s Mars Ascendant in Leo. The North Korea 9 Sept 1948 chart has Saturn at 28 Leo; and Kim Jong-Un’s leadership chart has Neptune on the Eclipse. So the country may be bearing the brunt as he gets more delusional even than usual.
Kim Jong may be destabilised altogether by 2018 with the Solar Arc Uranus square the Sun Pluto on his leadership chart, 29 Dec 2011 11.57am. And the country looks even more bedraggled and impoverished than ever in 2018 with tr Neptune opposition the Virgo Sun.
James Mattis, Secy of Defense, does looked shocked with a crisis around the August Eclipse with his Venus at 28 Leo; and is certainly facing a major jolt as his Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct his Sun, either later this year or into early 2018.
This may be joining too many dots together and whatever transpires could be entirely unconnected with several different scenarios running simultaneously.
If anything the USA/N Korea relationship chart points up 2017 as high tension; and 2018 as more likely for an engagement with tr Pluto sextile the composite Mars, tr Uranus square Uranus and trine Pluto.
Donald Trump’s astrocartography does have his Mars Desc running through western North Korea and China; with his Pluto Desc through eastern China – so it is a hot spot for him. And now that I look the China/USA relationship chart has a composite 25 Leo Sun which will also catch the Eclipse. In any action against North Korea, China will inevitably be drawn in.
