Astrology of Today’s News

Glen Campbell, the fresh-faced country singer whose soulful lyrics – Wichita Linesman, Galveston, Phoenix on My Mind, Rhinestone Cowboy – made him a smash hit in the late 1960s and 1970s, has died of Alzheimers. Born 22 April 1936 8.14pm Delight, Arkansas, he was the seventh of 12 children with a sharecropper father, started guitar playing at five and though he could never read music became one of the top session guitarists in LA, working with Phil Spector, the Beach Boys, The Monkees, The Righteous Brothers, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. Then he carved out his own career.

As ever the public image and private reality were a million miles apart as he described in his autobiography. At the height of his fame he spent his nights hoovering up lines of cocaine while reading the Bible. A tempestuous, violent and destructive relationship with 21-year-old country star Tanya Tucker, also a cocaine addict, fuelled his fall from grace. He eventually cleaned up his act with wife number 4 and took to evangelical religion.

He had a hard-working 6^th house Sun Uranus in Taurus trine his late Leo midheaven, who helped him carve out a unique niche for himself. His creative and neurotic Saturn opposition Neptune squared onto an optimistic, lucky Jupiter – which gave him musical Neptune in the 10^th, sombre Saturn in his childhood/domestic 4^th and expansive Jupiter in his financial 2^nd, so pluses and minuses. His Saturn was in a bleak, enduring trine to Pluto, sextile Moon, Ascendant, Mercury, Mars all in Taurus.  He was an emotionally complicated man – possessive, dependent, angry, shaped by the rigours of his poor childhood, and a mother preoccupied with child-bearing. He also had a creative and healing-for-others-if-not-himself Water Grand Trine of Saturn Pluto and a Scorpio Ascendant, formed into a Kite by Ascendant opposition Moon – so making the Moon, which is usually prominent in individuals who work with the public, the driving planet. His Pluto in the 9^th would give him strong religious beliefs.

His 7^th Harmonic (septiles) is heavily aspected and his strongest with the Harmonic midheaven tied into the Sun, Jupiter and Mercury. That’s most often the prominent harmonic with musical types.

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Trump’s bombastic Mars in Leo just moved up to Defcon1, as expected astrologically given the impending collision with the Leo Solar Eclipse in less than two weeks’ time. His threat to North Korea that it would see “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it continued with provocations, has unfortunate parallels with President Harry S. Truman’s 1945 post-Hiroshima warning to Japan if they didn’t surrender. “They may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” Not only are the words similar but the upcoming (Great American) Solar Eclipse on the 21^st is in the same Saros Series as the one which occurred a month before the first and only nuclear bombs ever dropped, by the USA on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

There’s no inevitability of the same outcome since this eclipse series repeats every 18 years or so. But it is ratcheting up the tension.

The relationship chart between the USA and North Korea is being buffeted by this month’s eclipses – the composite Sun almost exactly on this week’s Lunar eclipse and the composite Mars conjunct the Solar Eclipse. With emotions running very high through September/October with tr Pluto opposition the composite Venus.

Kim Jong Un has a questionable birth date, but was inducted as leader at 11.57am on 29 Dec 2011 in P’yonggang, NK. This chart indicates his grip on power is in its most unstable period over the next six months as Uranus moves by Solar Arc to square the Sun Pluto conjunction exactly. The tension is mounting at the moment with tr Uranus opposition the Saturn, which most often brings temper tantrums, kicking against restrictions and a self-willed, autocratic mood. There’ll be more of the same this December; and an enraged, frustrated, cornered, situation in January 2018, with the exact Solar Arc Uranus square Sun Pluto by late Feb/March 2018 (though the effects tend to precede the exact date.)

The worry is that China will get dragged into the furore. Despite counselling North Korea to back down, they won’t take kindly to US aggression in their region. The Mars Pluto in mid Leo in the 7^th on the China chart is on high alert this week with the Lunar Eclipse in opposition; and tensions are escalating there with the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the China Saturn, exact within a few weeks.

The China/US relationship chart is at its most combative for years in 2017 to the end of 2018 with tr Pluto opposition the composite Mars, which will bring aggravated fury. Tr Saturn is also opposition the Uranus now till early September. With the composite Sun hitting the Solar Eclipse this month as well. All very much on edge.

James Mattis, Secretary of Defense, 8 September 1950, might be a pointer to any US military action, though it’s tricky to extrapolate from his chart which influences come from being in the centre of the swirling chaos of the Trump internal circus and which might be outside pressures. He does look in a high-risk phase with tr Pluto square his Sun/Mars (either this month or Sept/Oct depending on his birth time), and repeating in 2018. He’s also got a ‘jolting shock’ Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Sun this year, maybe early 2018. With a fair amount of Neptunian confusion, losses and mayhem running till 2019. What is most pointed is tr Pluto square his Mars/Saturn midpoint from early 2018 to late 2019 – that is disaster-ridden, dangerous and could be an indicator of military action.

Tense times. But despite the Eclipses becoming a minor obsession this month, there’s not much else showing up as catastrophic. Though on second thoughts the Eclipsed New Moon is conjunct Mars and trine Saturn and Uranus, so quite inflammatory. Late Sept/early Oct look edgy; as does late Nov and Dec 2017.

The Lunar Eclipses located to North Korea all look stressed this month as do the two in 2018, most especially the July one which looks devastating – with the Full Moon conjunct Mars on the Asc/Desc square Uranus.

Guam, 10 Dec 1898, in the direct firing line of threats, looks understandably panicked and that runs on, worsening through 2018/19/20 with tr Neptune square its Pluto and then Saturn Sun. The Guam/NK relationship chart is heavily disrupted exactly now with tr Pluto trine the composite Uranus; at risk of violent interventions through the next few months and  worse in 2018/19 with tr Pluto trine the Mars/Uranus midpoint and then composite Mars. So it is living under the shadow of a brutal attack.

Mike Pence is denouncing as “disgraceful and offensive” suggestions that he is financing-up to prep for the 2020 presidential election. Well he would say that, wouldn’t he, especially within spitting range of the Donald.

Just to run over his political CV. On social and cultural issues, he is to the right of the right – anti-abortion; abstinence is the entire key to sex education; condoms are useless in AIDS prevention; global warming “is a myth”; and evolution is a false theory whereas creationism “is a fact”.

There’s no birth time for him so predictions are iffier than usual. But he does look exceptionally upbeat and successful over the 2021 Inauguration with tr Pluto sextile his Jupiter in Scorpio; and the tr Jupiter Pluto in Capricorn conjunct his Solar Arc Jupiter in the aftermath of the November 2020 election. That’s once he has pulled himself out of a real trough in 2018/19 with tr Neptune square his Gemini Sun.

What is more worrisome may be his economic theories – or at least those of his prime backers, the Koch Brothers. They focus on private enterprise profit, low taxation, removal of big business regulations including the minimum wage; and a shrinking of state power in general. The Kochs fund, among other things, nearly 300 academic courses at colleges and universities, where the syllabus is dictated by the right: Keynes is bad, sweatshops are good and climate change is a myth. They don’t hold strong views on ethnicity, statehood or private vices. They just want more money and less government.

The Kochs’ backstory and influence is documented in Jane Mayer’s 2016 book Dark Money. Their father got his start-up oil money came from Stalin, then the Nazis, graduated in the US to the John Birch Society and he was an abusive disciplinarian of his sons. Mayer writes. Charles’s goal was to “tear the government out ‘at the root’.” Another commentator thought “he was driven by some deeper urge to smash the one thing left in the world that could discipline him: the government”.    All these angry, ‘destroy the state’ guys have ginormous father issues, which they are projecting out onto the global scene. Scary.

The Kochs apparently dislike Trump, though they’re sticking around to help along the tax cut campaign; and definitely dislike Robert Mercer’s camp with Steve Bannon (see post June 29 2017.) Though what seems to join all these alt-righters together is a common cause of wrecking the state and eviscerating the constitution if that’s what it takes. So they will attack the judiciary, the FBI, the media, the EU with its multilateral systems and rules.

Charles Koch, 1 Nov 1935, is a Sun Scorpio opposition Saturn, sextile Mars in Capricorn, sextile Saturn. His younger brother David, 3 May 1940, has a Taurus Sun conjunct Saturn on one side with Saturn square Pluto, and Sun conjunct Uranus on the other. So father comes across as bleak, unyielding, disruptive, certainly a hard driver. And ultra-confident and not averse to breaking a few rules with Jupiter Pluto aspects strong in both charts.

Pence gets on exceptionally well with Charles Koch with a composite Sun Venus square Jupiter in their relationship chart. Both Koch Bros are having an undermining 2017/18; and then move into a roller coaster ride with Uranus causing a fair few upheavals (though that doesn’t always mean bad); but with a considerable amount of disillusionment as well. Both look more enthused from 2022 onwards but that may be business matters with tr Saturn out of Capricorn by then. Charles doesn’t look too enamoured around the Nov 2020 election while David seems very upbeat over the Inauguration, though even he’s still on a Neptunian slide through till 2022.

As someone remarked the one outstanding virtue of Trump is that he’s so incompetent nothing gets done; Pence might well be a different kettle of fish altogether.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/17/dark-money-review-nazi-oil-the-koch-brothers-and-a-rightwing-revolution

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/07/trump-out-in-year-usa-problems-just-beginning-paul-mason

www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/09/robert-rebekah-mercer-charles-david-koch-republican-party

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovitch, owner of Chelsea FC and oil and metal companies, is splitting from his third wife, former model, Dasha Zhukova, mother of his two latest children, in addition to five from his previous relationships.

Abramovitch, 24 October 1966, was orphaned at 4, grew up badly educated, but blossomed after perestroika into the 1990s, investing shrewdly in mineral wealth. His Sun is almost certainly zero Scorpio conjunct Venus in late Libra square Jupiter in Leo, so optimistic and lucky despite his difficult beginnings; with the gritty, innovative Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition Saturn, sextile/trine Mercury Neptune in Scorpio; with an Aquarius/Pisces Moon.

Dasha Zhukova, 8 June 1981, was born into a wealthy family, part of the Russian intelligentsia, studied at a U.S. university and is an art collector, owns an arts centre in Russia, and has a non-profit Foundation which promotes contemporary culture.  She’s a Sun Gemini opposition Neptune and trine Pluto, so creative and influential; with an idealistic Saturn Jupiter conjunction in Libra trine Mars in Gemini; an uncompromising Mars opposition Uranus; and a Leo/Virgo Moon.

Her Sun opposition Neptune squares his Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn – so differing agendas. He’s evidently all work and business, while she has more arty interests.

Their relationship chart does have an affectionate composite Sun Venus Jupiter so there would be a real spark initially. But that squares onto Neptune, which always sets up a scenario for a letdown once the shine wears off. The composite Sun trines Saturn, sextile Uranus – so there would be a real chance of stability and co-operation in innovative projects. But tr Pluto picked up the opposition to the composite Mars this year, running to the end of 2018, which would exacerbate differences and bring bitter arguments or a stalemate. It’s a pity since it could have worked.

Chris Pratt, 38, the face of “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Jurassic Park” has announced he is separating from his wife of 8 years Anna Faris, star of “Mom” for five seasons and the voice of the Jailbreak character in “The Emoji Movie.” And this after years of trilling and coo-ing in interviews about how their destinies intertwined and how deliriously happy they were. Now it transpires they have had problems long time since.

The media blurb was how similar their lives were, growing up in the same location, both getting starts in horror spoofs, working with the same people, both with mothers who have MS, both with dead bug collections. So when they met it was soul-mate time.

Chris, 21 June 1979 4.31pm Virginian, Minnesota, is a Sun Gemini; with a formidable Moon Mars in Taurus in his 7^th, so emotionally volatile. With a hidden Venus in Gemini in the 8^th opposition Neptune square North Node (Saturn) in Virgo – intense, restless, a romantic idealist though subject to illusions. His Venus is also trine a 12th house Pluto, so controlling in a subtle way; and he has a maverick, freedom-loving Uranus in the 1^st.

Anna Faris, 29 November 1976, Baltimore, MD, is a Sun Mars Neptune Mercury in Sagittarius with a Pisces Moon. He’s an Air Sun with Earth Moon; while she’s a Fire Sun, Water Moon – so very different types. Her Jupiter is conjunct his Moon Mars which would give them a boost when together; her Saturn is on his midheaven and square his Uranus, so she’d try to instill discipline into his life but clash over differing aims and his dislike of having his independence restricted.

Their relationship chart is a bit of a mystery with the Sun square Neptune, which fits the movie business, but tends to bring an illusory relationship where disappointment sets in as reality bites. The composite Venus has a superficially sociable square to Jupiter and opposition Mercury but not much else. And there’s a composite Mars opposition Saturn, which suggests a one-sided relationship where the needs of one partner were subsumed, and not always kindly, by the other.

The wedding chart, 9 July 2009, is also not inspiring. Certainly there was a passionately enthusiastic Mars Venus maybe trine Moon, but it was also in a strained inconjunct to Pluto; a high tension Saturn opposition Uranus, with Uranus in a changeable square to Pluto; and a head-in-the-clouds Jupiter Neptune square Mars Venus.

I never trust Mars Jupiter relationships when there aren’t any balancing and grounding factors. They fall into the category of – seemed like a good idea at the time and a great adventure – but when that wears off, the split.

Hillary Clinton is staying out of sight, no doubt writing or proof reading her book What Happened about her election debacle, due out in the fall; and according to reports considering becoming an ordained Methodist minister. Religion has evidently been a staple of her life from her childhood onwards.

If her birth time of 8 am is reasonably accurate, it gives her a marked 9^th house of Mars Pluto Saturn, which would certainly be strong beliefs; and Sun Venus in the 12^th which would be drawn to an active inner life.

Tomorrow’s Lunar Eclipse will oppose her Mars Pluto (Saturn) which will stir up a good deal of her thinking and outlook. She’s in a fairly Neptunian fog over the next two to three years; with tr Neptune hitting on two of her key midpoints; plus a chaotic, disappointing, maybe scandal-ridden tr Pluto square her Sun/Neptune in 2018/19. There’s a Solar Arc Saturn conjunct her Sun end of this year or into 2018, which looks discouraging and stuck; and her Progressed Moon is heading into her 12^th on an 8am birth time very soon to stay there for two years. That is an inward looking time of clearing out the past and tying up loose ends of an old way of life. She looks emotionally downbeat as well with tr Saturn square her Moon and opposition her 8^th house Uranus from this September for a few months.

Any defeat after a punishing campaign takes its toll and she’s very Scorpionic and Fixed so won’t let go hurts and resentments easily. The fact that Trump is turning out to be such a disaster, in some odd way, may make it worse. And she doesn’t look too sympatico with Bill either.

The grotesquely-bizarre, elderly socialite with a cosmetic surgeon fetish Joyce Wildenstein (Catwoman), having split last year from her boyfriend after a fight that ended up with both in prison now says she’s engaged to him.

Born 5 August 1940 in Lausanne, Switzerland, no time unfortunately, is a Sun Leo conjunct Mars in Leo on one side and widely conjunct Pluto on the other; with the Sun squaring Jupiter Saturn in Taurus; and Mars square Uranus Jupiter Saturn. Incredibly fixed, stubborn, flamboyant, volatile and volcanic, materialistic; all Fire and Earth so a bullish personality.

Her Uranus is conjunct Algol, often connected to facial deformity – she evidently thinks she looks beautiful (google her). I’d be inclined to put Uranus Algol on her Ascendant.

Her fashion designer fiancé Lloyd Klein, 15 Feb 1967, is a Sun Aquarius with a late Aries or Taurus Moon opposition Mars in Scorpio, so attracted to angry women. His Mars squares her Pluto, so they will clash mightily. His Neptune opposes her Uranus; his Uranus Pluto is conjunct her Neptune with his Saturn in opposition – all weird crossovers. Their relationship chart has a possessive, controlling composite Sun square Pluto, trine Mars; with Neptune trine Jupiter, sextile Pluto – so something dark and spider’s-webbish about it all. All the outer planets are in the last decan so quite a tangle of aspects. She’s now 76 so it doesn’t have to last a lifetime but I’d doubt if they would make it up the aisle.

Memories of the bloody partition of India and Pakistan are surfacing as both countries celebrate 70 years of independence on the 14/15^th of this month. The end of British colonial rule in 1947, as in Palestine, was a botched, rushed affair with a poorly thought out decision to separate the sub-continent into a Muslim-majority Pakistan and a Hindu-majority India. 15 million felt the need to relocate in haste as ethnic-cleansing violence was spread by militia groups, creating overwhelming refugee crises with over a million dead – and leaving a legacy of bitterness and hostility that plagues Indo-Pakistan relations today.

Prior to Britain’s empire-building takeover for commercial gain from the 18^th Century onwards, there had been an Indo-Islamic world that hosted a fusion of influences from central Asia and local cultures. That was dismantled under the Brits and totally destroyed by partition.

Queen Victoria declared herself Empress of all India on 1 January 1877. That chart has a money-oriented, brutal and determined Mars in Scorpio in the 2^nd opposition a controlling Pluto in the 8^th squaring onto Uranus; and as an echo of the UK chart has a Capricorn Sun on the IC and a Cancer Moon in the 10^th.

In 1947 tr Neptune was moving to square the 1877 Sun and conjunct the Ascendant and square the MC, hinting at the widespread chaos that followed the dissolution of colonial rule. Tr Uranus was just over the sudden-separation square to the Solar Arc MC and Solar Arc Sun; with a panicky Solar Arc Mars square the 7^th house Neptune, creating massive suspicion of neighbours. The Solar Arc North Node had moved to oppose the 1877 Mars and conjunct Pluto in the three years prior as pressure mounted for independence; and was heading to square the 1877 Uranus. With tr Jupiter also moving to conjunct Mars, oppose Pluto and square Uranus. So a definite change of destiny, some elation at the separation but more fear and confusion. With the Solar Arc Venus also impacting on the Mars opposition Pluto square Uranus, ramping up the emotional heat.

Pakistan declared independence on 14th August at 9.30am putting a volatile Uranus Mars on the midheaven. While India took independence at midnight into the 15^th, giving it an inward-looking, lower-hemisphere chart, ambitious for money, but lacking a strong sense of identity with Node on the Ascendant. Both charts have a stellium in Leo of Mercury, Venus, Sun, sitting amidst the challenging Saturn Pluto conjunction which Liz Green describes as the struggle to overcome. Saturn Pluto is tough, enduring, resistant to change, defensive, obsessive, with a self-destructive streak, prone to dramatic life events. Israel born nine months later also has Saturn Pluto even more highlighted sitting in their 10^th, along with Mars and Moon in Leo. Burma also gained independence around the same time in January 1948. All four countries also have the North Node in Taurus which tends to be over-reactive to the slightest threat. So all have similar traits and have faced in different ways a long and difficult struggle to find stability.

Jacinda Ardern’s election as opposition leader in New Zealand, caused a gender ruckus when she was repeatedly asked in interviews about her child-bearing plans. Male politicians are rarely asked their parenthood plans; and Julia Gillard, the former Australian PM’s choice not to have children was used by her political opponents to paint her as unemotional and lacking in empathy. So she’d have been caught both ways, whatever the answer. My recollection is that Maggie Thatcher lay on her delivery bed with newly-arrived twins at her side and filled in her bar-exam application forms. And I doubt if anyone thinks less well of Angela Merkel for not being a mother.

Jacinda Ardern, 26 July 1980, Hamilton, NZ, is a Sun Leo sextile Mars in Libra; with both Mars and Pluto square Mercury in Cancer perhaps opposition a Capricorn Moon; and Venus in Gemini opposition Neptune square Saturn in Virgo – so a mix of flamboyant, good in debate, determined, socially light-hearted and idealistic as well as exceptionally hard working.

She’ll have some slipping and sliding moments for eighteen months; then she’ll hit a roll of Jupiters through till 2022. Her Solar Arc Sun is conjunct her Jupiter possibly in 2019; followed by Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct her Pluto for a major triumph in 2020, at the same time as a lucky tr Uranus trine her Jupiter in Virgo and tr Pluto trine her Mars/Jupiter (2020/2021). She could be in for a major win.