Astrology of Today’s News

Trump’s first month has been mercifully crisis-free. Of a global variety, I mean. Which given the internal chaos of his administration and appointments (and lack of them), and conflicting foreign policy utterances is a huge blessing. One commentator wrote that there is “an unprecedented degree of policy incoherence on virtually every major issue the country faces.” Trump chops and changes his opinions; and his senior cabinet lieutenants then go out into a concerned world to contradict what he’s said. The State Department has been kept out of the loop on key decisions like the Yemen raid, the travel ban, dropping a commitment to a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine. Tillerson hasn’t attended meetings with three foreign Prime Ministers and hasn’t been given, as he was promised, free choice of his staff.

Trump is, as another commentator said, not listening to the grown-ups in his political team – Tillerson (State), Mattis (Pentagon), Pompeo (CIA), John Kelly (Homeland Security). The job that pulls everything together is the National Security Adviser, now named as HR McMaster. Across the board he is well thought of but he won’t be able to succeed as long as Bannon and Kushner continue to run their own foreign policies and Trump continues to go whimsically off message.

McMaster, 24 July 1962, is a Sun North Node in Leo opposition Saturn; with Jupiter in Pisces opposition Pluto Venus in Virgo square Mars in Gemini; with Mars trine Saturn and square Pluto – leadership qualities, serious, confident, at times scattered with a Mutable focal point Mars, and evidently not afraid to tell his superiors what they don’t want to hear.

His relationship with Trump is fiery with a composite Sun Mercury Mars and Mars conjunct Uranus square Neptune. It looks stressed and enraged between them from now till mid March with tr Pluto opposition the composite Mars, returning on and off till late 2018; with high-tension upheavals mid March to mid April; and constant humps and bumps the month after – and that runs on to early 2018 and beyond. So not much of a honeymoon period.

Trying to disentangle the top relationships to get a sense of the general shape of coming events isn’t easy. There are always personal and interdepartmental rivalries; and sometimes potentially hostile relationships can be forged into a workable partnership if they are facing an external hostile situation.

Trump: Feb 27th to March 19 tr Uranus at 22 degrees squares his Mars/Uranus midpoint so he’ll be more argumentative and self-willed even than usual, fighting against restrictions, accident prone.

From March 19 to April 4 tr Uranus squares his Saturn and his Mars/Node which is tense, irritable, again kicking against limitations to his freedom, and can be stressful on the health front; quarrels within community.

April 4^th to April 23^rd tr Uranus squares his Sun/Mars and Mercury/Pluto midpoints – reckless, impulsive, bad-tempered, overtaxing strength; and fanatical, again overtaxing strength in some cases leading to a breakdown.

April 24 to May 10 tr Uranus squares his Venus and Moon/Asc – nervy, feeling unloved.

Plus April 6^th to May 17^th tr Neptune is opposition his Jupiter/Pluto – disappointment, undermining of confidence and power, deception and cheating.

So nothing restful for him or the USA/world; and that’s even before the late August Solar Eclipse on his Mars; and his Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Mars which will be within a degree of exact from three months from now; and exact in 15 months time. Even for someone who likes running on high stress, he’ll need the constitution of an ox to handle these influences.

March, April and May spark up on virtually all the top cabinet charts and relationship charts as agitated and undermining, and on the midpoints of the Term chart, so it doesn’t look as if anything is going to settle down soon.

I’ll return to individual relationship charts as they become newsworthy. The Trump/Bannon partnership looks to be hitting muddles and miscommunications from March 9^th onwards; and is really on the skids from mid May to late July as tr Neptune opposes their composite Sun Saturn.

The Oscars 2017 kicks off at 5.30pm, 26 February, Los Angeles, on an overly excitable day with a deeply buried, intense 8th house Uranus Mars in Aries opposition Jupiter square a grandstanding Pluto in the 5^th, so bubbling with underground anger and the possibility of disruption. In addition Mars Uranus are trine Saturn which is edgy and bad-tempered. Plus a filmic and vague Neptune conjunct the Solar Eclipse in the 7^th – so quite a day.

Emma Stone, up for Best Actress for La La Land, is a determined Sun Pluto in Scorpio, with a lucky natal Jupiter in her 10^th; and a showbiz/actress T Square of Mars in Aries opposition Venus Moon in Libra square Neptune in the performing 5^th She looks very much on edge with tr Uranus square her Sun/Mars midpoint but since tr Jupiter is also square Sun/Mars; and tr Uranus is trine her Jupiter/Pluto and opposition her Jupiter/Node, she should be in with a real shout.

Viola Davis, 11 Aug 1965, up for Best Supporting actress for Fences, is a Sun Mercury in Leo; with Jupiter in Gemini trine Mars in Libra maybe trine an Aquarius Moon; and Saturn in Pisces opposition Uranus Pluto (Venus) in Virgo square North Node in Gemini – so quite unpredictable and a firecracker. She looks upbeat in the run up, though overly intense through the Oscars with her rewards coming in April.

Octavia Spencer, 25 May 1970, is a Sun Gemini trine Uranus in Aquarius maybe trine an Aquarius Moon; with Mars in Gemini trine Jupiter in Libra – so a communicative Air chart; with Mercury Saturn in Taurus and Pluto in Virgo giving her some practical ballast. Like Viola David she has little showing over the Oscars (without a birth time); and gets better news towards May.

Enda Kenny, the Taoiseach or Prime Minister of Ireland is under pressure to resign as party leader because of his handling (or lack of it) of the treatment of a whistleblower into malpractices in the police force. The scandal has already led to the resignation of the Police Commissioner in 2014 and the Justice Minister.

Kenny, 24 April 1951, is a tough-minded, stubborn Sun Mercury Mars in Taurus; with Mars square Pluto, so he’ll not be budged quickly. He does look devastated with tr Pluto square his Mars/Saturn midpoint which is a catastrophic setback this month; plus a jolting Solar Arc Sun conjunct his Uranus this year. But he’s also got decidedly bullish transits as well of tr Pluto trine Jupiter/Uranus and later square Sun/Jupiter so he won’t be completely down and out. He’s also got a very confident tr Pluto square his Mars/Jupiter in 2018/19 so he’ll be roaring back to form.

His term chart, 6 May 2016 2.22pm Dublin, always did look crisis-prone with a 7^th house Neptune opposition Jupiter square Mars Saturn in the 4^th – so major domestic aggravations with evasiveness and over-confidence compounding the situation. But it also has a lucky and solid Earth Grand Trine of a 5^th house Pluto trine a Taurus New Moon trine Jupiter so nothing is certain.

His two putative successors Leo Varardkar and Simon Coveney don’t have anything showing (without birth times) which look upbeat.

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Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, is embroiled in family scandals involving allegations of money laundering; and has also been embarrassed by the return of 44,000 Pakistanis from Saudi Arabia in the past four months for terrorist or criminal activity. But surprisingly for a country which was written off in the not too distant past as a failed state, it is growing economically and part of that is due to Sharif’s policies.

Born 26 Dec 1948 4.15am Lahore, he will be hit by this February’s Solar Eclipse opposing his 10^th house Saturn and his Solar Arc Uranus, which will be jolting and a sobering reality-check; and perhaps land him with blame for the actions of others in the family. He looks deeply insecure through March; and is anyway in a less than vibrant phase of his career with tr Saturn now moving through the central section of his first quadrant. Always a time when banana skins grow longer for career politicians. 2018/19 will be financially tight times for him.

His Presidency chart has the enthusiasm and confidence dampening tr Saturn opposition Jupiter this month and again later in the year. But that apart, not much of note. Though the Feb Pisces Eclipse is conjunct the 4^th house Neptune of that chart which again points to an undermining family situation, eroding his power base.

The Pakistan chart has tr Pluto opposition the Cancer Moon picking up this month and running till late 2018 which will arouse outbursts of strong feelings from the population, affecting the government since the Moon is 10^th house. And this February Eclipse will also be conjunct the Solar Arc Mars MC Uranus, so a volatile time.

Algeria largely missed the Arab Spring, partly because they’d already had their uprising two decades before which was a searing experience. Although an Islamic country, the government, under a lifetime president, has a policy of keeping the radical elements at bay. There is close military co-operation with Russia who supplies arms and equipment, so it is regarded by the USA with some suspicion.

A recent spoof piece allegedly by Le Pen suggested building a wall round France and getting Algeria to pay for it was exposed as a joke; but there is anxiety in France about Algerian immigrants, second and third generation, who remember the brutal suppression by the French in the Franco-Algerian War fifty years ago which left a million dead and many tortured. Those living in France now face marginalisation and high unemployment and some have turned to terrorism.

Algeria gained independence on 3 July 1962 at 10.38am Algiers.

In 2017 tr Neptune will conjunct the 7^th house Jupiter bringing financial woes, loss of confidence. 2018 will be unsettled with tr Uranus square the Moon and trine Uranus, so the population will be more likely to demonstrate and voice their disapproval.

Relations with the USA are on a downhill slide in 2017 with high tension and a turnaround of diplomatic policy. It’s just possible that Algeria comes into Trump’s eyeline since his even-more-control-freaky-than-usual Pluto MC line runs through the country. Certainly relations with France look stressed in 2017; and highly discouraging in 2018/19. But the riskiest time for the country looks like 2021/2022 when tr Pluto is trine their Mars in Taurus.

Actor Harrison Ford nearly landed on a Boeing 737 passenger plane when he brought his own solo-piloted craft into a California airport and mistook the taxiway for the runway. He crashed a vintage plane in 2015 into a golf course; and was seriously injured in a Star Wars set accident the year before. And there have been several accidents before that, including the car crash when young which scarred his face.

Born 13 July 1942 11.41 am Chicago, Illinois, he has lucky Jupiter conjunct his midheaven and a Cancer New Moon also in the 10^th, so certainly designed for a high profile career.

He doesn’t have a specially accident-prone chart except in recent times as his Solar Arc Saturn made the conjunction to his Mars over the 2014 accident; and Solar Arc Uranus will conjunct his Mars in three years’ time – hopefully he’ll have given up or been forced to before that hits.

At the moment he’s also got tr Uranus square his Sun and Moon, which can be jolting and maybe that’s why his concentration slipped.

The ‘hot felon’ whose perp-walk pic won him a modelling contract during his time in prison for illegal gun possession and street gang crimes has hit the New York Fashion Week catwalk. He had already done a nine year stretch for felony grand theft. Heavily tattooed with chiselled cheekbones and steely blue eyes, his ‘rough trade’ background is clearly doing him no harm amongst the fashion glitterati.

Born 7 Feb 1984 in Stockton, California, Jeremy Meeks has a chart that certainly has the potential to go bad with the tough, vengeful Mars Saturn in Scorpio square an Aquarius Sun. With four planets in Capricorn including Jupiter, he’ll be attracted to and lucky with money. His Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct his Venus in Capricorn at the moment; and his Solar Arc Venus is just over the conjunction to his Sun – so the Venusian world of luxury and indulgence will be focusing his attention.

He’s married with three children and says he’s found God and turned his life around, which, if true, is a happy story of redemption from someone who looked to have a really tough start in life.

Ex-Goldman Sachser Steven Mnuchin has been confirmed as Treasury Secretary after facing withering criticism over his former bank’s treatment of foreclosure victims in his hearing. During his time there, he worked in the mortgage department, dealing with products such as collateralised debt obligations and credit default swaps, which arguably played a major part in the 2008 financial crisis.  Elizabeth Warren called him “the Forrest Gump of the financial crisis”. “He managed to participate in all the worst practices on Wall Street,” she said. “He spent two decades at Goldman Sachs helping the bank peddle the same kind of mortgage products that blew up the economy and sucked down billions in taxpayer bailout money before he moved on to run a bank that was infamous for aggressively foreclosing on families.” In 2009, he became chairman of a troubled housing lender, IndyMac, renamed OneWest. Two California housing watchdogs filed a federal complaint against the company, accusing it of violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against blacks, Hispanics and Asians.

He has no government experience; and neither does National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, also former Goldman Sachs. Mnuchin also finances movies – The Devil Wears Prada, the X-Men franchise and Avatar.

Born 21 Dec 1962, New York, he’s a last degree Sun Sagittarius trine Mars in Leo and Uranus in early Virgo; with Pluto Uranus opposition Jupiter in Pisces – a risk-taker, impulsive, outspoken, overly confident. His relationship chart with Trump is high-pressure, stressed and could easily end in a catastrophic fall out. There’s a high-octane Mars Pluto conjunction, which could all too easily turn into bitter hostility. It is sextile Neptune and inconjunct the composite Sun – so a composite Yod of an extraordinarily powerful variety, which could certainly be used for crisis-management and pushing through bold schemes against heavy resistance. But it has all the seeds of destruction wrapped in it, either of the relationship (ultimately most likely) or in the joint projects on which they embark.

There is a sugary sweet composite Sun opposition Venus square Jupiter as well, so initially good feelings, but once they get scraped away with tr Saturn square the composite Sun and conjunct Jupiter from later this month effectively right through till November, the underlying bruising ego-clashes will show through. Tr Uranus will also oppose the composite Neptune and square Uranus late April/May and again late in the year, so it’s going to be a very rocky ride. Trump has given him four months to come up with a plan for deregulating Wall Street, tax reforms etc.

Every criticism Trump threw at Hillary Clinton – untrustworthy where national security was concerned, in bed with the swamp alligators – is unbelievably a thousand times truer of him. Conducting a high-alert security crisis in a Florida dining room with guests present, as if it were a piece of street theatre is beyond parody.

Notable Royal events in the UK have occurred close to eclipses in the 20^th Century, though sporadically.

Edward V11 died and George V acceded to the throne the days before a Solar Eclipse; and the Royal Family’s name was changed from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor two days before another Solar eclipse in 1917.

Edward V11 abdicated in December 1936 three days before a Solar Eclipse in the 11 North series which oversaw (though not exactly) the death of Queen Victoria in 1901.

His successor King George V1 died and Queen Elizabeth acceded five days after a Lunar Eclipse in 1952; and she was crowned in 1953 five weeks before a Solar Eclipse which was conjunct the UK’s 10^th house Cancer Moon. There was an 18 North Solar Eclipse in late July 1925 when HM Queen would have been conceived; and that repeating series oversaw the death of her uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten who was killed by the IRA five days before another such in 1979. One series later in 1997 Princess Diana was killed in Paris, two days before the 18 North Solar Eclipse.

Both Prince Charles’ weddings occurred near or on Solar Eclipses. To Diana in 1981 two days before; and to Camilla on the exact day.

Prince William was born on a Solar Eclipse in 1982 and Kate Middleton on a Lunar Eclipse six months earlier.

So there’s a fair sprinkling of connections to Eclipses though not a hugely regular pattern.  The North Node ties individuals into the zeitgeist so in many ways it isn’t surprising. Though it doesn’t always make for an easy life.