Astrology of Today’s News

In a case reminiscent of Gary McKinnon, a UK citizen, Lauri Love, son of a prison chaplain and an Asperger sufferer at risk of suicide, is facing extradition to the US on charges of accessing dozens of US government IT systems, including the FBI, the US Army and the Department of Defense, and stealing “massive amounts” of data. If extradited and found guilty of the US charges, he faces a maximum penalty of 99 years in prison. The case now goes to the UK secretary of state, who may, as in McKinnon’s case, refuse to send him.

He committed the cyber attacks as part of a “hacktivist” campaign in 2012 protesting the death of Aaron Swartz, a computer programmer who committed suicide while facing up to 35 years in US prison on charges of computer misuse. According to Love’s American lawyer, the allegations aren’t as serious as they sound. “The information he allegedly copied was never distributed anywhere, it was more a youthful prank. And the security exploit they allegedly used had been publicly disclosed months before and used by tens of thousands of people.”

Lauri Love, born 14 Dec 1984, is a Sun Uranus Mercury in Sagittarius with Mars in Aquarius and Pluto Saturn in Scorpio. That’s not dissimilar to Chelsea Manning, the whistle blowing data-leaker, who is a Sun Uranus Saturn Mercury in Sagittarius with Pluto Moon Mars in Scorpio. Both crusading Sagittarians who have problems with authority figures. Aaron Schwartz was a Sun Venus Pluto Mercury in Scorpio; but he also had Saturn Uranus in Sagittarius; and Mars in Aquarius which can be uncompromising. Sagittarius can be self-righteous and Uranus Saturn struggle for a better society.

Gary McKinnon, is a Sun Mercury in Aquarius square Neptune; with five planets in Mutable signs – Mars Saturn in Pisces, Uranus Pluto in Virgo and Jupiter in Gemini. The mix of Mutable and Fixed is interesting – the first contributing to high nervous tension and incessant curiosity; the second to obstinacy.

Despite losing this court case, Love looks to be over the worst. When he was first hauled in by the police his Solar Arc Saturn was conjunct his Sun Mercury. He’s got tr Pluto as well as Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Jupiter, which should produce some relief. In the UK similar crimes would face a much much shorter sentence.

At least 29 people have been injured in an explosion around 9pm Saturday night in a fashionable part of Manhattan, New York, which is usually crowded at the weekend. The blast is thought to be “intentional” but with no known links to terrorists, well presumably of the ISIS variety anyway. Another device was later found in the same district.

The explosion came a day after the Lunar Eclipse with the Full Moon in Pisces square Mars in Sagittarius. At the time tr Mars was moving through the 8^th located to NY and in an explosive trine to Uranus as well as having moved to exactly square the Lunar Eclipse degree.

The Lunar Eclipse set for NY has Uranus on the IC, so very unsettling.

New York City Inc, 1 Jan 1898, also has Mars (and Venus) in Sagittarius, though five degrees further on. There’s not much showing on that chart exactly, though the tr Saturn square tr Neptune is hitting on the Saturn/Pluto midpoint – 9/11 was very much a Saturn Pluto event. And tr Mars is conjunct the Sun/Saturn and square the Mars/Neptune midpoints.

New York has a very Mutable chart with Pluto Neptune in Gemini and Uranus Saturn also in Sagittarius, which will contribute to its high-wire temperament. Tr Saturn will oppose the NY Pluto after mid October; with tr Neptune square Pluto through 2017, as tr Saturn then opposes Neptune and is conjunct Mars Venus – so tough times ahead though not necessarily to do with atrocities.

Davina McCall, the UK television presenter, has published a semi-memoir called Lessons I’ve Learned. In it she tells of her wild child mother, who had her as a teenager, had a drug and drink problem, left her with her paternal grandparents when Davina was four and died in South Africa, when they were estranged despite a reconciliation years before. Her mother sold stories and photographs of Davina, who had her own adult drug problem, at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting which caused the final split. The mother always liked to play the victim and insisted she didn’t know what she had done wrong.

Davina McCall was born on 16 Oct 1967 and is a Sun Libra – which in women tends anyway to gravitate towards the father. But her Moon influences are dreadful. Either in late Pisces in which case her Moon opposes Uranus, squares Mars and trines Neptune; or in Aries where it would be conjunct Saturn, probably square Mars and opposition Uranus. Either way it is a picture of a chaotic, angry, abandoning, delusional mother.

Mercifully Davina seems to have pulled herself away from her mother’s patterns. An upbringing by steady grandparents would certainly help with that, and has had a good marriage for 16 years with three children.

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Anger and aggression get a bad press but if you think of them as stored-up assertion they sound less off-putting. Mars is the planet of the individual life-force which says ‘I am’. In order to be myself I have to voice and act on my wants and needs, which is not negative, merely an expression of who I am. If my need to assert myself is thwarted by other people or life being difficult, then the ‘I am’ urge doubles, trebles, quadruples until it erupts as impatience or explodes into a tantrum.

A good many relationship problems would be pre-empted if both partners were assertive in small ways from the start, rather than one side being overly nice and placatory, until the unlived Mars resentment builds up and it all turns destructive.

Although having said that Mars is competitive. It loves a good fight or challenge, and may the best one win. In early adult life Martian types can be brash, tactless, insensitive to others’ needs. Telling it like it is – is a definite trait because Mars tends to be straightforward and usually has no agenda. Only as experience crashes in does it get through Mars’ head that a show of empathy and co-operation, however forced and insincere, will make for faster progress and more workable relationships.

Mars is speedy, operates on a high-adrenaline flow, is brave, at times foolhardy, tending to leap before it looks and speak before it thinks. Action is its first response to any trigger without thought of consequences.

In mythology, Mars and Aries, whom it rules, were gods of war (Ares). But in Roman times, Mars was the military power who brought and enforced peace, so he was regarded as essential and only destructive to good purpose.

Mars also represents virility, perhaps why he is always thought of as a masculine energy. Konrad Lorenz’s study of ducks indicated that the ones who were not aggressive couldn’t mate. The impetus to coupling comes from Mars but the aggression has to be diverted or toned down at the point of mating. So sexuality and aggression are intimately connected. Not in the sense of rape – for that Mars needs to be merged with Pluto’s drive for power and control, to produce an overpowering, inhumane and ruthless action. Or in sadism where Mars joins with cold Saturn to inflict pain.

The woodpecker was sacred to Mars for his ability to tap with a sharp beak, strong enough to feel an oak tree; also the wolf and bear. The horned ram in the Aries symbol presumably came about because of rams’ behaviour at rutting, clashing skulls to identify the stronger male to produce better progeny.

It tends to be at its best in kick-starting new projects, but has a low boredom threshold and attention span, unless in Fixed signs. A better sprinter than marathon runner.

However irritating it is to be on the receiving end of a Mars blast, it is an essential part of the life force.

Edward Albee, one of the US’s greatest playwrights has died. A three time Pulitzer Prize winner, he was best known for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – a portrayal of vicious in-fighting in a failing marriage, portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on stage and film. He leant towards dark themes, of what lay on the underside of conventional living.

Born 12 March 1928 in Virginia, he was adopted shortly after birth by wealthy parents he described as unfit to be parents, and became estranged from them as a teenager.

He was a Sun Pisces trine Pluto and his Sun was also on the point of a Mutable T Square to Saturn in Sagittarius opposition North Node in Gemini. Sun in aspect to Saturn and Pluto is bleak. His Moon was Scorpio or Sagittarius, probably Scorpio given his temperament. His Mercury Venus in Aquarius was in a fantasy-prone opposition to Neptune in Leo.

What is interesting is that his creative 7^th Harmonic (septiles) was not only strong marked, it brought together a ferocious collection of Mars Saturn Pluto Uranus tied into Venus and possibly the Moon – so he drew on his dysfunctional childhood emotional relationships for inspiration. He also had a noteworthy actors/orators 15H and writers’ 21H – a talented man.

The Dalai Lama has been urging the EU to voice constructive criticism of China for its continued suppression of the Tibetan people. How much effect he thinks that would have is questionable, since China has always acted belligerently to any adverse comments or indeed contact with the Dalai Lama. Tibet sadly always was a lost cause as indigenous Chinese have been transported in great numbers to live there, with strenuous efforts to obliterate the local culture.

The Dalai Lama, 6 July 1935 4.19am Takster, Tibet, has a very Watery chart with a Cancer Sun trine Jupiter in Scorpio trine Saturn in Pisces, formed into a Kite with Saturn opposition Neptune Moon in Virgo. Undoubtedly talented and a healing presence for many,  he could never achieve his life’s dream. His compassionate Saturn opposition Neptune Moon is being affected this year by tr Saturn in square and tr Neptune conjunct and opposition – so he must be feeling less than upbeat. He’s also got tr Pluto square his 4^th house Mars in 2017/18 which is acutely frustrating and stuck. He does have health issues, unsurprisingly given his age, and with tr Saturn now moving into his 6^th house should be taking it easier in the time ahead.

There’s no real chart for Tibet though an early one of 23 Oct 127 BC JC (OS) seems to work not badly; and there is one for the Tibet National Uprising of 10 March 1959 6.45am Lhasa.

Both would indicate tough times ahead, especially when tr Saturn moves into Capricorn in 2018/2019. There may be more internal unrest but no real sense of liberation.

The Great Bake Off, the UK’s most watched television show, syndicated to 196 countries, will move after its seventh season from the BBC in a three year deal to Channel 4. Though minus its two main presenters who were not consulted about the move.

It first aired on 17 Aug 2010 producing a very strong chart with a lucky Uranus Jupiter opposition Saturn Venus Mars in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn – high-enthusiasm, charm, grit and an enduring quality.

Moves to a different channel often fizzle out and this one will plough through myriad frustrations in 2017/18, before grinding to a halt in 2019 when Solar Arc Pluto squares the Mars and is conjunct the North Node; with Solar Arc Saturn conjunct Mars and square Node.

The unwieldy juggernaut that is the EU has now fished out another arch-federalist to be a Brexit chief negotiator. The appointment of Guy Verhofstadt, ex Belgian PM, is sending shudders down UK spines, being shoehorned in for the European Parliament, to add to the woes of having Michel Barnier, the hardline French chief negotiator for the European Commission. [Don’t ask me what the difference is.]

Verhofstadt described the Leavers as rats leaving the ship – sinking? Titanic? David Davis, chief UK batsman for Brexit, referred to him cheerily as Satan. Senior sources in the EU say the policy is to be so tough on the Brits that it will make Brexit less likely to happen. The EU, with such an incredibly Fixed chart (Moon Taurus square Uranus opposition Venus in Aquarius square Node and Neptune in Scorpio), always acts as if the world was going to adapt to them, rather, heaven forfend, than that they might bend or be pliable themselves, let alone realistic.

Verhofstadt, 11 Apr 1953, is a Sun Venus in Aries trine Pluto and opposition Neptune Saturn in Libra square Uranus – so tough, a touch of the megalomania, a fanatical idealist; with a pushily confident and ruthless Jupiter Mars in Taurus square Pluto. He’s facing an extremely bumpy ride ahead with tr Uranus conjunct in his Sun Venus and opposition Neptune Saturn in 2017; and a stuck-stuck Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Saturn and opposition Venus in 2018.

David Davis, 23 Dec 1948, has his Mars in Capricorn square GV’s Sun Venus and Saturn Neptune and opposition GV’s Uranus – so sparks will fly.

Davis’s relationship charts with both Verhofstadt and Barnier look swamped in confusion (and scandal) in 2017/18. And Davis’s natal Mars is completely deadlocked in 2018/19 with tr Pluto conjunct Mars.

I can’t see what Theresa May’s strategy is at all – since the three Brexiteers she thrust into key negotiating positions are none of them serious players. Fox and Davis appear to be living in never never land – and Boris is just bumbling Boris. She is supposedly micro-managing the exit and certainly dislikes both Barnier and Verhofstadt, and there’s a fair amount of huffing and puffing on those two relationship charts, especially from mid 2017 onwards.

Uranus is the awkward squad, the outsider, the troublemaker, the flag-waver for freedom at all costs, even if the price is chaos and anarchy. It doesn’t care what others think, isn’t one of the crowd, so it can think out of the box and lead the way into the future. Known as the torch-bearer it can be enlightened, a reformer and activist. Certainly rebellious, its instinct is always to upset the status quo which it finds suffocating and stagnant, overly restrictive. Uranus hates barriers, boundaries, cages of any variety and will rattle the bars until they collapse.

Co-operation and compromise don’t come easily since they mean giving up a chunk of individuality for the sake of others’ needs. Strongly Uranian types can come across as selfish and obstinate. They demand partners be just as independent as themselves, so relationships can drift apart since there is no real engagement. Often underlying the detachment or the ‘I’ll jump back and leave first’ is a fear of abandonment. They pre-empt what they see as the inevitable by baling out in advance. Uranus in hard aspect to Sun or Moon suggests parents who were erratic, unpredictable, didn’t relate well and fostered a forced independence on the child, which is not a great model for adult relationships.

There’s always an ambivalence or paradox about Uranus – it is deemed to be the epitome of tolerance and applauds difference, yet can be quite dictatorial. Aquarius ruled by Uranus (and Saturn) is supposedly humanitarian yet also has a considerable number of fascists and extreme right-wingers amongst its number. Maybe that’s a Fixed Air sign trait – ideology is prioritised over empathy.

It is renowned not just for an interest in pushing back boundaries into the future, but is also fascinated by the distant past.

In mythology Uranus was half of the first divine couple, the sky god married to Gaia, the earth mother. In time she came to dislike him so demanded his children despatch him. Only Saturn (Cronus) took up the challenge and castrated him. The blood that was spilled turned into the Furies, and the genitals thrown into the sea reputedly created Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who arose out of the foam. The other myth associated with Uranus was Prometheus who gave mankind the divine secret of fire and thence knowledge, for which he was punished by Zeus, by being chained to a rock and having his liver torn out nightly. He is the symbol for Aquarius, the water carrier  who is not pouring out feelings but handing on the water of knowledge.

So the Uranian/Aquarian inclination towards ideas, scientific knowledge, and all matters up-in-the-head (in the sky) comes at a significant cost in terms of the physical body. There is something against-the-biology about Uranus, in contrast to his earthy, prolific wife. Which, if the myths hold true, causes great anger (the Furies) and suffering (liver also = anger). Consciousness, which is almost certainly ruled by Uranus, was a splitting away from the animal kingdom, the key thing which separates human beings from nature. In becoming ‘intelligent’ beings we lost the sense of being comfortably in our bodies.

What is intriguing is that many of the ‘sexperts’, who studied and wrote about human sexuality were Aquarius – Havelock Ellis, Alex Comfort, Germaine Greer, Betty Friedan, Helen Gurley Brown and Rabelaisian writers like Rabelais, Lord Byron, William Burroughs, Robert Burns. Some plunged happily into the experience but the impression left is that a detached interest in what their temperament couldn’t fully engage with was also part of the equation.

Detachment is a key word for Uranus/Aquarius, which has a dislike of jealousy or possessiveness, since it brings with it a fear of being corralled and tied down.

Uranus rules television (as opposed to Neptune ruling film) and IT/computers/the internet. Television, although it is thought of as domestic, was an early form of digitalisation which seems to strike a chord with Uranus, as does the here-today-gone-tomorrow feel of much television. The social networking world suits Uranus admirably since it gives a sense of connection with a wide circle of friends without the hassle of messy, face-to-face engagements.

Rock musicians often have Uranus in the performing 5^th house, so it promotes a quirky, anti-authoritarian, highly individualistic creativity which is not great art, but appeals to the young at heart. Where high artistic ability comes is when Uranus is tied into visionary Neptune. Historically religious art was connected to Uranus Neptune, which is an inspirational mix.

The house that Uranus falls in is always where the individual wants to go against the grain. Uranus in the 6^th dislikes the corporate team world, so prefers to go freelance. Uranus in the 9^th veers towards alternative philosophies or ideas. In the 7^th dislikes conventional relationships, opts for open marriages or constant travelling; in the 8^th has a leaning towards experimenting in sex; in the 4^th rarely stays living in the same house for long. Whatever everyone else wants, Uranus wants something different.

Uranus in strong aspect to Pluto leads to revolutions and constant churning change, as the Uranus fights for freedom against Pluto’s repressive control. Uranus Pluto’s drive is to collapse old structures precipitately which can lead to chaos if there is no impetus for re-asserting stability once the necessary reforms have been put in place. Getting rid of bad is only part of the process, as we’ve seen only too clearly with Iraq and Libya. If Uranus gets the upper hand for too long it can be very destructive.

Uranus Saturn in the right balance can bring about golden ages where the best of the old is married to the best of the new.