Astrology of Today’s News

Mother Teresa, the saint of the poor, will become a Vatican-stamped saint on Sunday, which has resurrected the old complaints about her harsh approach to suffering. One critic said “Standing firm against planned parenthood, modernisation of equipment, and a myriad of other solution-based initiatives, Mother Teresa was not a friend of the poor but rather a promoter of poverty.” One doctor was outraged about the appalling lack of hygiene he uncovered – reuse of hypodermic needles, the shortage of medical care, systematic diagnosis, and necessary nutrition, as well as the scarcity of analgesics for those in pain. She seemed to think that suffering was a noble end in itself – a ‘Gift from God’, she said, so did little to alleviate it amongst those she supposedly cared for.

Born 26 August 1910 2.25pm? Skopje, Macedonia, she was a Sun Mars in Virgo trine Saturn in Taurus; Saturn square Venus and a Taurus Moon trine Mars, which I must say did give me pause for thought when I first saw her chart. It seemed hard for a figure of compassion. She had an Earth Grand Trine of Mars trine Uranus trine Moon, which would make her good with money although perhaps limited in imagination. That was formed into a Kite by Uranus opposition Neptune which can be fanatical. So visionary Neptune was the leading planet, fuelled by that tough, uncompromising earthy energy.

Her healer 12^th Harmonic is pretty potent tying together Mars Pluto Neptune, which would certainly suit her for working amongst the poorest of the poor in Calcutta. But also has hints of ruthlessness hiding behind religiosity.

Neptune can be a cosmically cold planet.

(Photo: ITV)

Poldark and Tom Hiddleston have slumped in the twitter lust polls since ITV’s Victoria launched Rufus Sewell back into the spotlight as the tragic but charming Lord Melbourne, who mentors the young queen before her marriage.

His best work has been done on stage and in BBC costume dramas – Middlemarch and Charles 11: The Power and the Glory and now he’s back with another winner.

Born 29 October 1967 he has five planets spread out through Virgo – Jupiter, Moon, Venus conjunct Pluto conjunct Uranus – so very earthy, rebellious, slightly chaotic. His Sun and Mercury are in intense Scorpio sextile Mars in Capricorn, which in turn squares Saturn in self-reliant Aries. Plus a wide-ish Yod of Jupiter sextile Sun inconjunct Saturn which is difficult to handle well. He’ll always have felt like an outsider.

He’s quite a mix of seductive, restless and adaptable, tough, used to hard conditions. He said once: “My favourite things are just wandering from place to place, going to cafés, taking photographs. My favourite day is a happy accident.”  Both of his marriages were very brief.

He looks in good spirits this month with tr Pluto trine his Jupiter/Uranus as good crits roll in. With more good news through Dec/Jan with tr Uranus opposition his Solar Arc Jupiter.

Both presidential candidates are in their late 60s/70, so their physical stamina will be a genuine concern. Health isn’t easy even with an accurate birth time which gives house positions. Assuming Hillary’s 8.01am birth time is accurate: it did seem to work for her concussion and blood clot in December 2012, which produced tr Uranus square Mars/Node which fits with an accident; and her Solar Return had Neptune in the 6^th trine Sun Saturn which is fragile health for the months ahead.

In her Oct 2015’s Solar Return she did have Saturn in the 6^th which can also mean exceptionally hard work, which it certainly will have been, or it can be health issues. There’s nothing in the Solar Return for the year from October 2016 in the 6th house, though some of her Neptune midpoints and her Mars/Pluto are stressed from Nov into 2017 and beyond. But that could mean the pressure of the rolling crises which the presidency always brings. What I might worry about is tr Pluto trine her Saturn/Neptune this December and again through 2017 which can coincide with illness. Plus tr Uranus moving into her 6^th house of health (very birth time dependent) from May 2017 onwards till mid 2018. In a younger person that wouldn’t be a worry, since it’s more likely to be job-related.

Plus if her birth time is accurate then tr Saturn is moving midway through her 1^st quadrant so ambitious projects will drag more on her energy. She’s really pushing against the grain of what her psyche wants. And again sometimes the psyche just says enough. You won’t listen, then I’ll make you slow down.

Looking at the Huma Abedin email in which she talked about confusion, I’m not sure without other details I’d read too much into that. She was travelling absolutely non-stop and meeting a bewildering number of people, when jet-lagged half the time.

Donald Trump, again age-related has several sticky influences that will bring high-tension this month and next, and can therefore can be a heart indicator. His Solar Return from June 2016 for a year has Pluto in the 6^th square Neptune opposition Jupiter – which does suggest at least challenging pressures on his energy.

Mind you Obama had the same afflicted Pluto in his 6^th on his natal Solar Return from August 2008 over his first win, but he was younger and less likely to keel over from the unrelenting pressure.

Solar Returns aren’t always that great a guide, since they can be very so-so in the information they provide. You’d have been hard pushed to predict Obama’s first win either of his natal or Washington, DC Solar Returns. His 2^nd win was certainly more obvious with Jupiter conjunct the MC located to DC.

Donald Trump does look remarkably chirpy from late Nov right through till late January with tr Uranus trine his Sun/Jupiter which is sudden success and good fortune. Though equally he has his Progressed Moon conjunct his Saturn through the second half of November which looks downbeat.

Urgh, I just want it over.

The tectonic plates are shifting mid Atlantic, pulling the USA further apart from Europe, which wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. US political leaders aggrieved over the EU’s €13bn tax penalty for Apple are muttering about possible US retribution; and US corporate heads are saying there are wider ramifications from the “devastating blow” to the principle of legal certainty in Europe. Now France has called for a complete suspension of talks on the Transatlantic pact which was intended to unite Europe and North America in a vast free trade zone, accusing the US of blocking any workable compromise.

A commentator said: “The project is infinitely more than a trade deal. It is part of a strategic push to bind together the two halves of North Atlantic civilisation at a dangerous moment when the Western liberal order is under threat. The two sides are currently drifting towards divorce.”

The grass-roots, anti-globalisation activists have said that TTIP is a secret capitalist cabal which would allow the international conglomerates free rein and damage the interests of working people and national governments. [See post June 28 2016]

Intriguingly it has been said that Brexit was ‘the first primordial scream against this emerging world order’ and now the collapse of TTIP may be the second. Interesting times.

France never did sit comfortably with the USA and memories of their anti-Iraq stance and freedom-fries are still fresh. The USA 1776 Aquarius Moon is conjunct the France Pluto opposition Uranus square Mars in Scorpio – so emotionally a complete collision. The relationship chart has a few positives but those will be submerged by the hostility of a composite Mars inconjunct Pluto; and a tension-inducing, divergent-agenda Uranus Saturn conjunction. That latter is being stressed at the moment with tr Pluto opposition the composite Uranus till early December; and tr Uranus square Saturn early in 2017; with aggravation dragging on for years as tr Pluto moves on to oppose the Uranus/Saturn midpoint and then Saturn in 2019/2020.

The EU isn’t much better vis a vis the US with the EU do-or-die-determined Mars in Sagittarius square Pluto clashing with the US Uranus. That relationship chart has an emotional-shock tr Uranus conjunct the financial composite Venus exactly now, and again in 2017; with a dragging, discouraging tr Pluto sextile the composite Pluto Saturn now and in 2017; as well as a seriously disappointing, undermining tr Neptune opposition the composite Mars in 2017/2018.

So even a change of US President and indeed French and perhaps German leadership next year isn’t going to bridge the gulf.

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Douglas Henderson changed the world by achieving the impossible, as was once thought, by eradicating smallpox, which had killed two million a year for a hundred years. He was an American epidemiologist, who went into public health medicine and ultimately to the World Health Organisation.

“With a combination of clever science, incredible organisation and blunt persuasion — often meted out face to face — the indomitable Henderson succeeded in totally eradicating smallpox — the first human infectious disease to be eliminated — through vaccination alone.” The last naturally occurring case was in 1977.

Born 7 September 1928, he was a Sun Virgo, as befits a man of service in healing, which squared onto Saturn in Sagittarius opposition Mars in Gemini, so he used his disciplined, hard-edged, courageous Mars Saturn to the best of all possible ends, working for years out in the field in dangerous places. His Sun was also trine Jupiter in Taurus which would give him confidence; and he was part of the Pluto in Cancer square Uranus in Aries generation, which was determined to change the status quo.

He latterly became Dean of John Hopkins and served under three US Presidents. He died aged 87.

His healer 12^th Harmonic is strongly aspected, with overtones of risk and incredible stamina. Even stronger is his leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17^th Harmonic.

Hillary Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, is finally ditching her husband Anthony Weiner after yet another sexting scandal has emerged. He’s clearly got a problem but I wonder if there’s more to it, since it’s a peculiarly aggressive act given the prominence of his wife’s boss and friend.

Anthony Weiner, 4 Sept 1964, is a rebellious and chaotic Sun Uranus Pluto Mercury in Virgo with a passionately enthusiastic Mars Venus in Cancer, a Leo Moon, and Jupiter in indulgent Taurus widely opposition Neptune.

His Sun Uranus Pluto fall in Hillary’s 10^th house – so arguably he wishes to control and destabilise her, maybe unconsciously but the urge will be there. Their relationship chart does show a fair amount of power-struggling for the upper hand with a composite Pluto opposition Jupiter square Saturn; and an explosive Mars Uranus. His relationship with Bill is worse with a composite Mars Pluto Venus Sun which is outright hostility.

His relationship with Huma, 28 July 1976, has a composite Sun Mars square Saturn, so tough, unkind, with a fair amount of game-laying and delusion wrapped up in it as well from Neptune opposition Jupiter square Sun (Moon) Mars. Their synastry is terrible with his Sun Uranus Pluto conjunct her Mars. Makes you wonder why they ever got together.

She has a Leo Sun Saturn with Venus Mercury and probably Moon in Leo – so will be concerned about keeping up appearances. Her Sun Saturn are sextile Pluto, square Uranus and trine Neptune, so she’ll be used to tricky men in her life.

Her relationship with both Hillary and Bill looks blocked and discouraging through till the year end and well into 2017.

A week’s a long time in politics and there seems no end of hitches, glitches and scandales along the way of this one. And there’s another two months plus to go. Sigh.

Comic actor, Gene Wilder, has died – Blazing Saddles, Willy Wonka etc – who ‘specialised in playing eccentrically lovable oddball characters nervously struggling to make sense of the confusion of an uncertain world.’

Born 11 June 1933 5.30am Milwaukee, Wisconsin, into a Russian Jewish immigrant family, he was always interested in performing and after an unhappy detour into a military school where he was assaulted for being Jewish, he settled into a long, distinguished career. Charlie Chaplin inspired him for his ability to be “funny, then sad, then both at the same time.”

His mother was sick during his childhood which left him with heavy guilt. “My mother was suffering every day of her life and what right did I have to be happy?” he said. Only after she died, when he was 24, did he start to kick his self-loathing.

After two decades of making successful comedies in the 1970s and 1980s, he fell out of love with Hollywood. “I like show but not the business,” he said. He moved to Connecticut, and virtually disappeared from the screen, and went on to write three novels, a collection of short stories and a well-received memoir.

He had a first house Gemini Sun trine Saturn in Aquarius on his Midheaven, a testament to his unhappy mother which paradoxically made him well-organised and a hard-worker. His Sun was also square a 4^th house Mars Jupiter in Virgo. He had three inconjuncts in his chart – a Yod of Pluto sextile Mars inconjunct Saturn MC which would be tough to cope with; and his Moon was inconjunct Venus Mercury – so he’d never feel he fitted in, which would give him inspiration for his oddball characters.

Interestingly he had a strong 13^th Harmonic chart with a Grand Trine/Kite and a Grand Cross. The 13H is associated with genius and breaking with the orthodox.

Both Robin Williams and Peter Sellers, with very different natal charts, also had strong 13^th Harmonics, so it must be something to do with tragi-comic mavericks, who were able to use their vulnerabilities and instabilities to make others laugh.

Yowls of outrage and disbelief have greeted the EU Commission’s demand that Apple pay back £11 billion ($14.5 billion) to Ireland in back taxes. They say that Irish tax benefits are illegal, allowing Apple to pay effectively a corporate tax rate of no more than 1%. Ireland and Apple said they disagreed and would appeal.

The Apple Nasdaq chart, 12 Dec 1980, shows up the cataclysm most clearly. There’s tr Uranus opposition the Apple Pluto now – a major upset; and tr Pluto conjunct the Apple Mars in money-minded Capricorn, which runs till December and is transcendentally enraged. With the Apple Mercury picking up the tr Saturn conjunct and tr Neptune square through coming months, which is uncertain and confused.

I imagine there’ll be a hasty relocation since Apple’s presence in Ireland was largely a paper exercise.

Sonia Rykiel, the revolutionary fashion designer has died aged 86. Born 25 May 1930 11.55pm Neuilly Sur Seine, “she defined the whole idea of French chic in all its sexy, sassy, nonchalant, slightly arrogant glory.” She launched her clothes when the students were storming the barricades in 1968, stressing that women’s clothes were about ‘absolute freedom’ and she called it the start of the hippie fashion movement. She popularised fashion and pioneered mail order.

She had a 4^th house multi-tasking and populist Gemini Sun square a creative and iconic 8^th house Neptune. She also had a sensuous Taurus Moon trine Neptune, sextile Venus in Cancer – so she stamped her mark on the new femininity. She was innovative and tough with a Saturn in Capricorn opposition Pluto square Uranus; and had a do-or-die determined Mars in Aries square Pluto, sextile Jupiter in her attention-seeking 5^th house.

Coco Chanel, her forerunner, also liberated women from the old corseted-style though she was much less bohemian in her approach. Born 19 Aug 1883 4pm Saumur, France, she had an 8^th house Sun Venus in Leo square Neptune; with Neptune trine Uranus, sextile Jupiter; and an understated Pisces Moon opposition Mercury in Virgo square Saturn in Gemini. Her chart like Sonia Rykiel’s highlighted creative Neptune but her intense Leo Sun would hold her to a more high-end style.

Elsa Schiaparelli, 10 Sept 1890 (no time sadly), Rome, Italy, who was Coco Chanel’s great rival between the Wars, was influenced by the Surrealists Like Dali and Jean Cocteau. She had an interest in psychics and spiritualism, married a psychic conman and only after he abandoned her with a baby did she start to design. She was a Sun Virgo square Mars in Sagittarius; with the hallmark Neptune Pluto in Gemini of the 1890s which was not always stable and would certainly attract her to surrealism. It squared Saturn in Virgo and was trine Mercury in Libra trine Jupiter – so she was a strange mix of realistic and hard-working, and off-the-wall. Her Leo Moon was probably opposition Jupiter square Venus in Scorpio which would make sense of a fashion career.