Astrology of Today’s News

Kevin Spacey unceremoniously dumped by Netflix in 2017 over allegations of sexual harassment and shunned since despite being cleared by courts in the UK and the US of allegations is being supported by fellow thespians who insist he has been badly treated.

Stephen Fry accepted Spacey had been ‘clumsy’ and ‘inappropriate’ but should not be lumped in ‘with the likes of Harvey Weinstein’. Trevor Nunn, Liam Gleeson, Sharion Stone have spoken out asking he be allowed back into the industry. F Murray Abraham accused his detractors of being “vultures”.

  In the initial court case Spacey was cleared of all allegations and his accuser was ordered to pay him $40,000 (£31,600) in damages.

Sexual offence allegations always inhabit a swamp where it is all too easy to leap to judgement in either direction. Always believing accusers discounts those with ulterior/vengeful, pecuniary motives. While those who routinely deny sexual offences brandish questionable motives behind allegations as a get-out-of-jail-free card every time as a way of silencing victims.

 The middle-of-the-road bemused assume there is no smoke without fire and a Netflix dismissal spoke volumes – except they acted without any investigation or proof.  

 Two things were always true – well three. Spacey was psychologically damaged by a sexually abusive, neo-Nazi brute of a father. Secondly he is hugely talented as an actor. Thirdly much sexually clumsy or provocative behaviour passed as the norm in pre-#METOO days and I speak as someone who started work in a Glasgow paper newsroom and then in television. I don’t mean rape or underage, just the jousting between the sexes or same-sexes was an ever present part of working life. Modern HRs would have a breakdown nowadays at what went on and no one raised an eyebrow.

  Spacey’s birth data is somewhat muddy but the one he claims himself of 27 July 1959 5.51 am South Orange, New Jersey, worked well enough when it came to his fall from grace.  At that point tr Pluto was square the Aries Midheaven with tr Uranus just across it and into his 10^th for a spectacular career and reputation meltdown.

 He has a Leo Sun square a 10^th house Taurus Moon opposition Neptune so will have an ego, creative abilities and at times a lack of common sense and realism. His Moon is trine Saturn trine Mars Pluto in Virgo – for a cruel childhood which left its mark in anger and probably loss of empathy. His sensitivity to others’ wishes and needs will have been blunted. Mars Pluto can be overly forceful in approach and enraged when opposed.  Plus he has his North Node in Libra hinting that cooperation is not his strong point. On this birth time his Chiron is on the cusp of his 8^th house of sexuality which may be significant.

  But guilty or not, or to what degree, he has no magic eraser coming up to wipe out the past seven years and restore his former glory. Tr Pluto is square his 10^th house Moon this year and next for challenges and blockages in his career along with a good deal of emotional angst. Then tr Pluto moves to oppose his Sun and square his Neptune in 2025 to 2027 putting him under tremendous pressure. At the same time tr Neptune Saturn in Aries will square his Saturn; and tr Uranus will square his Pluto Mars also from 2025 through 2027. It’ll be an uphill struggle ahead.

Slovakia is in turmoil after an assassination attempt on its pro-Russian prime minister, Robert Fico, by a disturbed, possibly politically-motivated pensioner. Slovakia is a landlocked country in Central Europe,  bordered by Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic from which it split in 1993. A developed country with an advanced high-income economy, it is a member of the EU, the UN, NATO and other European groups.

  Slovakia, 1 January 1993 12 am Bratislava, has an expansive, go-ahead Jupiter on the Ascendant with a volatile, ambitious Mars in Cancer in the 10^th opposition a highly-strung, can-be-fanatical Uranus Neptune in Capricorn. Mars is also trine a money-minded Pluto in the 2^nd house of finances with Pluto in an unyielding square to Saturn.  It is a tough chart with a propensity for violence. Transiting Uranus is exactly square the Solar Arc Mars now  and moving to oppose the Pluto within weeks, on and off into early 2025 which will cause unrest, though it is a battened-down country which won’t de-stabilise easily. The SA Mars then moves to square the Pluto by 2026 which suggests significant trouble ahead, financially and in terms of risk. The country looks to be hemmed in at that point.

Robert Fico, 15 September 1964, has been prime minister on and off since 2006, being ousted in 2018 after corruption allegations and the murder of a journalist investigating his ties to a Mafia cartel. Despite the accusations, he bounced back in 2023, on a pro-Russia campaign, insisting on no military support for Ukraine with opinion polls suggesting a third of Slovaks believe the war was provoked by the West.

  He is a Sun Virgo conjunct Pluto with Uranus, Mercury also in Virgo. His Mars in flamboyant Leo is inconjunct his Saturn for a hard-edged temperament. He also has the Boris Johnson Jupiter in indulgent Taurus widely opposition Neptune.

  Exactly now he has tr Uranus square his Mars/Pluto midpoint which Ebertin describes as ‘violence, brutality, disasters or calamities of great consequence.’ 

  He has been under pressure this year with tr Pluto opposition his Mars for a caged in, scary mood, running on and off into the New Year. With 2026 stacking up to be a meltdown year. He has survived but will no doubt be a long time in recovery.

 His 25 October 2023 Term chart has been edgy since the start with Saturn trine a Sun, Mercury, Mars collection in Scorpio.

‘Dazzling, beautiful, hypnotic and unsettling’ was how the ‘wicked Anita’ Pallenberg was described by her friend Marianne Faithfull. The epitome of the 1960s sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, she ricocheted amongst the Rolling Stones, from Brian Jones, to Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. She did stupendous quantities of heroin, indulged in a fascination for Aleister Crowley rituals and was potent, volatile, and often chaotic.

   The miracle is any of them survived though there were deaths around her of a sudden infant death of one of her three children with Richards and the ‘Russian roulette’ death of a 17 year old boy she was entertaining in her bedroom – and the death of Brian Jones from drowning in later years.

 Catching Fire, a documentary about to be released is based in part on her unpublished memoir titled Black Magic.

 She was born 6 April 1942 in Rome, no birth time, with a frustrated artist/Italian travel agent father whom she claimed had worked in Berlin as an interpreter between Mussolini and Hitler. Her mother was a secretary in the German embassy. A wild child at school, she emigrated to New York, fell in with the avant-garde set and became a model.  At 21 she met the Stones and fell in with Jones – and embarked on an irresponsible and self-centred lifestyle, where the damage she inflicted on others, not the least her two children never seemed to cross her mind. Her daughter was removed by Keith Richards’ mother who called Anita an unfit mother after the SIDs death of her second son.

  Latterly Anita finally emerged sober, completed a degree course at St Martin’s School of Art in textiles and fashion, and became a doting “gangster granny” to her five grandchildren. She died in 2017 from complications due to hepatitis C.

  She had an upfront, fiery, pro-active Aries Sun sextile a passionately enthusiastic Mars Jupiter in Gemini. Her Venus in Aquarius (Pisces)was inconjunct Neptune and square Saturn, Algol, Uranus in Taurus which would space her out, make her inordinately stubborn and headstrong, a risk-taker as well as harbouring low emotional self-esteem; with Algol thrown in to pull her towards the dark side. Her Sagittarius Moon was either in an escapist square to Neptune or an excitable opposition to Jupiter Mars – either of which is possible.

  Her Pluto in Leo was conjunct Chiron, trine Mercury and sextile Uranus. Pluto close to Chiron, Melanie Rhinehart describes as emphasising sexuality and the use or abuse of power and can lend a destructive quality.

  Her son Marlon, who remained with her, seems to have emerged intact from his chaotic childhood, where he was often left to clean up a drug mess before the authorities showed up. Born 10 August 1969 he is a Sun Leo square Neptune but has not followed his parents down the music route. He has two yods of Venus sextile Saturn inconjunct Mars and Jupiter Uranus sextile Mars inconjunct Saturn – not an easy life but he seems to have developed maturity early on.

Alice Munro, the Canadian Nobel Literature Prize-winner, renowned as the master of the modern short story and compared to Chekhov, has died at 92. She drew on the lives of her neighbours for stories which became parables about the tests of character faced by people everywhere and managed to invest the humdrum events and parochial dramas of daily small-town life with a haunting significance. “She offered subtle, quiet and often moving observations about sex, desire, work, discontent and ageing; yet her writing was peopled by types whose claustrophobic lives might not have seemed, on the surface, to promise much.”

The novelist John Updike wrote “she moves gimlet-eyed and rabbit-eared through a world of romantic possibilities, marital fury, poignant offspring (daughters, as a rule), and un-ignorable signs of ageing.”

 She was born 10 July 1931 9pm Wingham, Ontario, with a teacher mother and failed fox and mink farmer father. She wrote of her father’s independence, self-sufficiency, forbearance and appreciated his love of history books. Her mother was difficult, distant and ill with Parkinson’s during Alice’s solitary and poor childhood. Yet her death in Alice’s late twenties, brought anguish, anxiety and ulcers which interfered with her writing.

  She starting writing early, excelled at school and college and her first collected short stories won a major award with many others following. Her dream was to write an all-embracing novel but short stories were where she excelled.

 She was of the Shirley Conran generation with the tough Saturn in Capricorn opposition Pluto square an inventive Uranus. In Alice’s case her talent for pushing back the boundaries in her chosen field was aided by a confident Jupiter Pluto conjunct her Cancer Sun in her hard-working 6^th house.

  She evidently regarded herself as ‘a plodder’ which may have had something to do with a heavy 6^th house (Virgo) element plus an 8^th house Mars in Virgo as well as Neptune, and a Taurus Moon. Her Mercury in Leo was conjunct Jupiter but was otherwise unaspected, perhaps allowing giving her a single-tracked ability to concentrate on what interested her.

  What is of note psychologically is her 8^th house Mars – she came from a large family who had intermarried over generations with one great grandmother committing suicide. The other is her Chiron exactly conjunct her Taurus Moon hinting at her unmothered childhood where she had to take over the caring role as her mother’s condition deteriorated. Her mother was her wound which threatened to overwhelm her when she died even though they were not emotionally close.

 Her creative 5^th and 7^th harmonics were strong as was her writer’s 21^st; as well as her leaving-a-legacy 17H and her global reputation 22H.

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The astrological Moon – soft, protective, sensitive, maternal, sentimental, moody, mysterious, evasive, programmed by the past, a seeker of comfort – has as many faces as there are different kinds of mothers.

  In mythology the renowned mothers: Demeter for one is so possessive of her daughter Persephone she wreaks destruction on earth when separated from her.  Hera, the ultimate tiger mother, intent on producing perfect children, ultimately damages them. The nightmare Medea becomes a family annihilator, killing her children because her lover/their father rejected her.

  And then there is Gaia, the ancestral mother of earth. The second hexagram of the I Ching talks of the earth ‘in its devotion carries all things good and evil without exception’. Strength and swiftness combined with gentleness, straight, square, great and enduring. The archetypal mother who stands behind the often imperfect human variants which followed.

  Which house the Moon falls in a chart, at a simplistic level, is what gives comfort because it feels either protective or carries familiar echoes of childhood. An afflicted Moon will tend to bring the negative end of the effects.

Moon in the 1^st house – can project a soft aura of helpfulness and be sensitive to atmosphere, often shape-shifting to fit in with the prevailing influences and dominant people around. Keen to be well thought of. Changeable and moody, with a fondness for food. It does carry a hint of Moon in Aries which can be emotionally over-reactive.

Moon in the 2^nd house of money – need their finances to be secure before they will be happy. Money and possessions bring comfort and they can be fickle, both savers and spenders.  Emotionally fixed so dislike compromise and prefer a steady lifestyle without too much change, Can be stubborn and jealous.

Moon in the 3^rd house of siblings, everyday routines, communication and thinking patterns – brothers, sisters, even cousins can stand in for mother in terms of providing emotional support. Emotional patterns from childhood may affect attitudes and thinking clearly not always easy since they tend to be easily influenced by those close. Prone to daydreaming. Curious and restless.

Moon in the 4^th house of family, roots, childhood, the earth – a happy home life is a necessity, comfort gained from knowledge of the family lineage. Theoretically it should indicate as Moon in Cancer does a special connection to mother but I have known cases where the father was the one providing the stability and security. Moody, a tendency to brood rather than be upfront. Possessive of family members.

Moon in the 5^th house of children, romance, entertainment and speculation – emotional connection to and fondness for children, in certain cases children are used as comforters, changeable in romantic relationships, attention-seeking and can be dependent. Impulsive where financial speculation is concerned.

Moon in the 6^th house of work/service and health – physical energy is often affected by emotional state which can interfere with work. Fondness for small pets. Interest in food, diet and hygiene. A worrier and a perfectionist.

Moon in 7^th house of close relationships (and enemies) – need the security of a one-to-one relationship. Can marry less for love and more for the offer of enduring support. Sensitive to others’ needs, dependent. Good at dealing with the public.

Moon in the 8^th house of transformation, death and rebirth, confidential matters, sex and joint finances – intensely emotional, passionate, secretive, never admit being hurt, in touch with unseen forces that lie beyond reality, interest in the paranormal and spiritualism. Finances connected to family or close relationships for good or ill.  A grandmother will be important childhood influence, an emotional support.

Moon in 9^th house of travel, knowledge, belief systems, social customs – comfort in childhood often comes through books and in adult life through travel. Interest in foreign cultures, often lives abroad for a portion of life. Sustained by intellectual interests with a curiosity about spiritual and religious belief systems.

Moon in the 10^th house of career and reputation – often aim for a public career where their ‘Lunar’ nose for social trends helps their ambitions. Politicians who interact with the general public and others are influenced by their mother. Women can be helpful in career.

Moon in 11^th house of friends, group and social/community interests and long term plans –  comfort comes from friendships rather than family. A knack of excelling in group activities. Dislike of being isolated or alone. Friendships may be superficial and not constant.

Moon in the 12^th house of secrets, the unconscious and creativity  –  felt under-mothered early on with a tendency to compensate in adult life by staying emotionally introverted. Need peace and a protective space. Easily hurt. Hyper-sensitive, can be psychic.

  That is a skimming of Moon in the houses – I am sure there will be lots of examples which may widen the meanings so do pitch in.

Putin has seized the start of his fifth term with all-systems-change Uranus in the 10th to shake up his senior security officials and rein in military spending, indicating a major shift in the handling of the Ukraine war. Out goes Defence Chief Sergei Shoigu, rumoured to be involved in corruption as well as criticized for runaway spending, chaotic mobilisation of reserves, poor tactics and setbacks on the front line. In comes a pliant technocrat, economic expert Andrey Belousov, who has never served a day in the army. Shoigu moves to head the country’s security council, distancing him from discontent over patchy progress in the war.

  The outgoing head of the security council, Nikolai Patrushev, is also moving to a new post as yet to be revealed.

 With the exception of tr Uranus square the Jupiter in the Ukraine 24 August 1991 2.31pm chart, which might bring a moment of light relief this June, December and early 2026, there is not much to suggest an easing of strain on beleaguered Ukraine. There’s a deprived-slog tr Pluto conjunct the Ukraine Saturn till late 2025.  The relationship chart between Ukraine 1991 and Russia 1991 also indicates the two still being caged together with frustration, fear and destructive influences through this year and on till late 2026.

 Belousov, the economist, 17 March 1959, now handed the poisoned chalice of the Ukraine campaign, is a late Sun Pisces trine Jupiter; with confident Jupiter square Pluto. He looks slightly overwhelmed this year with his SA Pluto conjunct his Neptune. His relationship chart with Putin (1952) looks rattled across July/August and through 2025 with wins and losses.  That odd July hot spot which appears in many Middle Eastern and other charts pops up between them as well so there may be more than Ukraine on their plate. Though the Ukraine invasion chart also has a 26 degree Taurus North Node so it will be part of the celestial pinball hit.

 The Putin 7 October 1952 birth chart which has been disputed may well be accurate since the relationship with Shoigu shows yup precisely with tr Uranus square the Mercury Pluto exactly now. And is also reflected in the shift with Patrushev on that relationship chart.  

Tens of thousands of Georgians have demonstrated in Tbilisi to protest a controversial “foreign influence” bill backed by the government which is seen as a move towards authoritarianism and restriction of free speech. A commentator said: “What’s happening here right now is an absolute face-off between people who want Georgia to have a European future and the person who does not.” A similar law in Russia since 2012 has been used to marginalise voices challenging the Kremlin.

 This is also a clash between the young Georgians and an older generation with a predominantly conservative Orthodox Christian background who dislike imported western ideas such as the promotion of equality for LGBT+ minorities.

  In the middle of it stands Bidzina Ivanishvili, a multi-billionaire with a personal fortune estimated to be equal to a third of the country’s GDP, ‘much of it made in the shady and shambolic Russia of the 1990s.’ He has no formal government role on paper but his influence is vast.

Since the 1990s Georgia has cracked down on corruption and worked towards gaining membership to the EU, a step supported by 89 per cent of the population, according to one poll last year. But there has also been recent democratic backsliding, with the EU making recommendations for political reform, including “de-oligarchisation”, a direct reference to Ivanishvili.

  Georgia declared independence around 12.30 pm on 9 April 1991, Tbilisi, Georgia and has a 10^th house Aries Sun which was buffeted by last month’s Solar Eclipse as the country faces the worst unrest since 1991. Tr Uranus will conjunct the Venus for emotional reactions in June and again in November (after the October election) and again in early 2025. So the ramped-up mood won’t subside anytime soon.

  The Aries sun is inconjunct Pluto and Pluto is opposition Venus and square Moon – so the national temperament will always be super-intense. It was in a state of high tension over the Russia Ukraine invasion in early 2022 when the Solar Arc Sun was opposition the Pluto.  There is also an up-and-down Jupiter opposition Saturn for mood swings; and the inventive but nervy and can-be-fanatical Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn of the time. That Uranus Neptune is moving by Solar Arc to square the Pluto later this year into next with a devastating SA Neptune square the Pluto, followed in 2027 by what could be a rebellion or revolution as SA Uranus squares the Pluto.

 The relationship chart between Georgia 1991 and Russia, 8 December 1991, has a tussle-for-the-upper-hand built in with a composite Jupiter opposition Mercury Sun square Pluto. When the Ukraine invasion took place tr Saturn in Aquarius and tr Uranus in Taurus were both shaking up that T square by hard aspect. Tr Uranus is in its final assault this month and again late December to mid March 2025 – so protests against the Russian-isation of the country will continue.

 Ivanishvili, 18 February 1956, certainly has a chart for a mega-billionaire with an Aquarius Sun opposition a super-lucky and determined Jupiter Pluto in Leo; with his Mars in Sagittarius trine Pluto Jupiter and sextile his Sun. Not short on chutzpah.

 He’s in a couple of years of significant upheaval with tr Pluto opposition his Uranus, finishing late this year; and tr Uranus square his Jupiter Pluto from this July into 2025 when it squares his Sun. He’ll lose as much as he wins. Tr Pluto is also square his Neptune and conjunct his Mercury through this year and next so muddles, evasions and worries.

 His relationship chart with Georgia 1991 is sagging badly at the moment through till early 2025 – with the April and October solar eclipses rattling up the connection between them.   

Barron Trump, just turned 18, briefly emerged into the political arena as a Florida delegate to the Republican convention in July only to be hastily withdrawn by his mother Melania, who has always been protective of his privacy.

  This is only en passant since the astrology could be interpreted either way.  But since he has a challenging, high-stress and undermining set of astro-influences through this year it is worth noting.

    Born 10 March 2006 5.30am New York, he has an over-controlled chart with a possessive mother 10^th house Pluto which squares his Pisces Sun, adding a ditto father into the mix. Poor kid can’t have ever felt he had any choices.

  At the moment his Progressed Mars is opposing his Pluto for an infuriating and frustrating road-block of a year. He’ll feel trapped and possibly scared – it draws to exact over the Inauguration and just beyond. Plus tr Neptune is in an undermining conjunction to his final degree Pisces Sun from exactly now till early September, again on and off till early 2026. The September Lunar Eclipse will also catch his Sun for a crisis of direction.

  With tr Saturn moving across his Ascendant into his less successful, lower profile First Quadrant from early 2025, he may want to back away from ambitious plans and with tr Uranus opposition his 9^th house Moon in 2025/26 he may well decide to move home/country which would suit him. He is/was close to his grandparents and evidently speaks Slovenian. Relocating his chart to Melania’s birthplace puts his Sun on the Midheaven and his Jupiter and Moon in the 5^th so it could well suit him.

  But his relationship charts with both parents have composite yods which suggests bonds he can’t escape, however much they induce strain.

 See previous posts: 20 January 2024 and 3 October 2023 for further details.

Shirley Conran, a dynamo and trailblazer –  designer, journalist, novelist and campaigner to liberate women in the kitchen, bedroom and at school –  has died.

  Born 21 September 1932 3am Hendon, England with a wealthy, small businessman father who was also a violent alcoholic,  she studied painting at Cheslea, married designer Terence Conran in her twenties and had two children. After her divorce, she switched to journalism, becoming women’s editor at the Observer magazine, and then  “Femail” at the Daily Mail.

   Struck down a year later by the debilitating myalgic encephalopathy (ME) virus, she fell into debt but retrieved her situation by writing the bestseller Superwoman – “life is too short to stuff a mushroom” – which sought to liberate women from the tyranny of housework.

  Next on her schedule was a raunchy novel, Lace, which urged women to take control in the bedroom and everywhere else in their lives. Other bestsellers followed. Still not finished, in recent years she embarked on Maths Action, to promote maths as a suitable subject for the female sex. She had three husbands in all and three divorces but remained close to Terence throughout her life.

  She was born at that tough but inventive and inspired time when there was an enduring, gritty Saturn in Capricorn opposition Pluto (conjunct Mars in Leo) square Uranus in Aries. It would give her a temperament ideally suited to disrupting norms, pushing through social reforms and trailblazing new paths. Though her dislike of compromise and overly individualistic approach would not make for easy one-to-one partnerships and cooperation. She had a 2^nd house Sun Mercury in Virgo, perfect for a money-earning career from communication; with a Gemini Moon in her 10^th house of career, giving her a ‘nose’ for what would suit prevailing trends of public taste – and squaring Jupiter Neptune in Virgo would give her a dose of optimism and strong self-belief. Her scary, unstable father is well described in Saturn opposition Mars Pluto

 A Cardinal T square onto Uranus would give her a revved-up, hyper-restless temperament. An 8^th house North Node would also early on give her an exceptionally needy streak, with financial tugs of war likely but as she got it on track, her business acumen brought her stability and security. Her emphasised Saturn in the 6^th would give her a workaholic streak though also hinted at health issues and after her ME struck it forced her for the rest of her life to spend three months of each year in bed in a darkened room.  And still she accomplished more than most would in ten lifetimes.   

Her breakthrough 13H was strong as was her leaving-a-legacy-for-the-future 17H.