Astrology of Today’s News

Encore l’horreur. Carnage in Nice on the Cote D’Azur to add to the Bataclan bombings in Paris last November, and the Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket attacks in Jan 2015, as well as a tsunami of terrorist atrocities in Turkey, Baghdad, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Mogadishu, Orlando, Somalia, Pakistan, Belgium, Ivory Coast – and that’s just this year.

84 are dead in France with 18 on the critical list this morning after a local resident, a French-Tunisian, around 11 pm last night drove a truck at speed into beachside crowds watching the traditional Bastille Day firework display with their children. He was shooting as he drove, had explosives and other arms in his trick and was shot dead by police.

The Scorpio Moon was within less than a degree conjunct Mars in vengeful Scorpio; and both were moving to conjunct the France Mars MC in Scorpio in the immediate aftermath in the case of the Moon, and coming days for Mars – and oppose the destructive Fixed star Algol, which tr Mars gets to exactly around the 22^nd of this month.

That would be the trigger though they are minor enough influences. What in France’s case is being activated this year is their revolutionary, aggressive and unsettled Uranus in Aquarius opposition Pluto square Mars MC in Scorpio – with tr Uranus sextile the France Pluto and trine FR Uranus through 2016 into early 2017. That’s more major than it sounds, since on country charts, soft transits act like hard.

France is more at risk than many EU countries because of large numbers of immigrants from the old North African colonies, Algeria and Tunisia, who include swathes of disenfranchised, resentful, radicalized youth, especially on the Med coast, which is also where the far-right (Le Pen) have their stronghold. It’s going to get ugly.

Spain should have a problem, but after the Madrid bombings, Azar pulled troops out of Iraq and they’ve had not had too much trouble since. Whereas France has been actively involved in Syria and elsewhere. President Hollande said this morning they would redouble their efforts to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

What covers all three France attacks is the Saturn square Neptune and the Uranus square Pluto – paranoia and neurosis, deep uncertainty from the first; and subversive violence from the second.

Although this sounds like a lone-wolf attack with no overt connections to ISIS or radical groups, ISIS are following Al Quaeda’s strategy of franchising out their ideology to motivate localised attacks. The ISIS 2006 chart has Neptune in Aquarius opposition Saturn square Jupiter in Scorpio which sits exactly on top of France’s Uranus Pluto Mars MC T Square – so France would be a favoured target.

Neptune Saturn aspects have historically been associated with epidemics of illness (amongst other things) – and in an odd way this is like a difficult-to-diagnose-and-treat-malady. Like trying to pin down a poisonous shoal of jelly fish. Very Neptunian.

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There’s a ‘you-broke-it, you-own-it,’ feel to Theresa May’s new cabinet as she lands the pro-Brexiteers with the task of handling the complex and fraught negotiations with the EU and self-starting trade elsewhere. David Davis, Brexit; Liam Fox, international trade; Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary. The major great departments of state go to Remainers – Philip Hammond, the Exchequer; Amber Rudd, Home Secretary; Fallon stays in Defence.

It’s a ‘put your money where your mouth is and deliver on your promises’ strategy which could backfire on her if it goes toes up. And also brings into her tent, personalities with whom she has seriously negative issues.

David Davis, 23 Dec 1948,  a Capricorn Sun opposition Uranus, is looking seriously jangled over the next few months into 2017 as tr Pluto square his Neptune and tr Uranus squares his Mars in Capricorn; and he picks up the tr Pluto conjunction Mars in 2018/19 which is trapped, frustrated, enraged.    His relationship chart with May has a hostile, power struggling composite Mars opposition Pluto square Sun Mercury. 2016/17 look times of high tension, upheaval and disruption between them.

Liam Fox, 22 Sept 1961, is a Virgo Sun trine Saturn Jupiter in Capricorn; with Mars Mercury in Libra square Saturn Jupiter and sextile Uranus – so argumentative and volatile. His Mars Mercury and Saturn all get tr Uranus hard aspects till early 2018, so insecure, argumentative, prone to hasty judgements. His relationship chart with May has an impatient and unkind Mars Saturn square the composite Sun and trine Venus Pluto – so stuck together and resenting it, superficial smarm masks dislike and significantly divergent opinions. It’ll get noisy.

May’s relationship with Boris is no better with a wobbly and bad-tempered composite Saturn opposition Jupiter square Mars and a needs-space composite Sun Uranus. Relations between them will be massively challenged over the time ahead with tr Uranus square tr Pluto bouncing off all ends of that T square for some years to come.

Philip Hammond, the new Chancellor, 4 Dec 1955, known as a steady pair of hands, is a Sun Sagittarius trine Uranus, with Pluto Jupiter sextile Mars Neptune and square Saturn in Scorpio. He’s more of a free-marketeer than she is, reflected in their relationship chart by a composite Sun square Uranus; but there’s also a confident Jupiter trine Mars, sextile Mercury which will help to smooth rough edges.   He’s got tr Saturn conjunct his Sun again this Oct, and tr Neptune square his Sun till late 2017, so a not entirely confident early run. He does have an upbeat Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct his Mars in 2017; but then runs seriously into the buffers in 2018 with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Mars and Solar Arc Saturn square his Neptune.  If his chart reflects the economy, it’s not great.

Amber Rudd, 1 Aug 1963, is a charming and vibrant Sun Venus in Leo sextile Mars; with a serious Mercury opposition Saturn in Aquarius.    Her relationship with May is quite controlling with a composite Sun Pluto but that is in a Half Grand Sextile with Jupiter opposition Saturn, sextile Neptune, sextile Sun Pluto so could be a reasonably productive duo with some flare-ups in 2017.

Theresa May was formally anointed PM by the Queen at 5.44pm today in London.

The Cancer Sun is in the international-finance and hidden 8^th, so much focus on foreign investment and haggling over negotiations – with some difficulty and rolling crises since the Sun opposes Pluto in the 2^nd, which isn’t too positive for internal economic health squaring onto a 5^th house Uranus.  Pluto is however trine Jupiter North Node in the 9^th which will help to bring confidence and positive results.

Uranus is further emphasised being also on the focal point of a Yod to a 12^th house Mars in Scorpio sextile Jupiter. At best Uranus can be a trail-blazer for radical change – it certainly fits a government that has arrived because of a strange turn of fate and is having to take extraordinary steps to become more independent. But it can also be divisive and disruptive. 5^th house is associated with a country’s children, entertainment and speculation.

Saturn in Sagittarius is conjunct the Ascendant which will give a serious, meticulous, rather schoolmasterly/marmy feel to the administration. Neptune in the 3^rd hints at either miscommunications or evasiveness or difficult in getting a clear message across; or transport problems. The Jupiter opposition Neptune square Saturn will give a see-saw effect – high expectations and disappointments, uncertainty, confusion, mental strain, ups and downs.

The 11^th house Scorpio Moon is not well integrated – only a trine to Neptune, wide square to Venus and sextile to Pluto as well as semi-sextile Saturn – perhaps a fairly disconnected population.

Overall it feels a secretive chart with a hidden Sun and 12^th house Mars in vengeful Scorpio.

It’ll get an uplift in 2019 when the Solar Arc Pluto closes the trine to Jupiter to exact.  Though before then, late 2017 looks quite swampy with Solar Arc Saturn square Neptune.  And there may be a few unwelcome surprises with this September’s Solar Eclipse falling opposition Neptune and square Saturn.

It won’t be an easy run in for her. Though she does have tr Pluto trine her Jupiter through till late 2017 as well as a less-than-successful tr Neptune conjunct her Mars. Tr Pluto will also trine Jupiter in this Government chart in 2017/18 – so she’ll keep the ship afloat with a few sinking moments along the way.

Dan Cooper is a mythic character, a real man who hijacked a Boeing 727 on 24 Nov 1971 but who has never been identified. He said he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 in currency and four parachutes. On landing at Seattle, the airline paid the ransom, the passengers disembarked, plane refuelled and took off again. He left by the back exit in mid-air with the money and was never heard of again. 9 years later a few bundles of bills were found, but despite an intensive FBI investigation, which has just been wound down, nothing has ever been found.

On best guesses, he parachuted out at 8.13pm somewhere close to Ariel, WA.  This gives an Air Grand Trine of a tough-minded (with some associations to black magicians) Saturn trine Pluto trine Node in Aquarius, formed into a Kite by Saturn opposition Sun Neptune – so slippery Neptune in adventurous Sagittarius was the driving planet conjunct the Sun. Sun Neptune and Jupiter all in Sagittarius were in a gambler’s square to Mars. And Mars in Pisces was on the focal point of a T Square to Saturn opposition Sun Neptune – so certainly foolhardy and impulsive.

Mercury Venus were also in Sagittarius, making five planets in all – as a sign it tends to rely on its lucky guardian angel turning up at the eleventh hour.

The conjunctions to Fixed stars seem fairly spot on, of which a few examples:

Sun & Neptune to Dschubba is in “the forehead” of the scorpion, connected to secrecy and investigative work, as well as violence and immorality.

Saturn to Mirfak – A bold but dishonest nature.

Neptune to Graffias – a malefic star associated with malice, theft, crime.

Ascendant conjunct Procyon – Hasty and single-minded but also strong-willed and capable of putting thoughts and plans into action. Can take people to great heights and bring them crashing down.

As the file is finally closed on the case the tr Neptune square tr Saturn are conjunct/square the focal point Mars; and tr Pluto is square the 4^th house Uranus.

What a fascinating mystery. The man was in his mid forties in 1971 according to eye witness descriptions, so he’d be in his mid 80s if he’s still around.

Back in the real world away from the infants’ playground of domestic elections, Brit and US, and the snake pit of EU apparatchiks, there are a war-like noises coming from China over the disputed South China Sea. Beijing and Washington are on a collision course over this shipping lane for 60pc of global trade.

What is ominous is the build-up of global armaments which commentators say echoes the late 1930s. China spent $215bn on defence last year, a fivefold increase since 2000, and more than the whole of the European Union combined. Japan has been increasing military spending for the last four years, more so under its nationalist leader Shinzo Abe, who has just been re-elected.

Europe has also seen defence spending escalate after the Russian invasion of Crimea. The worry being that if the US was focussed on the Far East, Putin would take the opportunity with Russia’s beefed-up capability to test Nato solidarity in the Baltics.

http://goo.gl/oyTGCc

NATO, 24 Aug 1949 11.42am Washington, DC, does look very tense in Nov and Feb 2017 with tr Uranus square its Mars; with tr Pluto moving to oppose its Mars in 2018/19 which will be a time of acute pressure, risky and trapped. [The NATO Kosovan intervention came when tr Uranus Neptune in Capricorn were opposing that Mars.]

The USA/China relationship chart is also heavily stressed through 2017/2018 with tr Pluto opposition the composite Mars; and an undermining and increasingly chilly tr Neptune square tr Saturn hitting on the Venus on and off from now till late 2017.

Pin-pointing wars between nations is more difficult astrologically than it sounds. The composite Venus is often involved and even soft transits seem to act like hard. But there isn’t the headline horror you would expect to see.

The China/Japan diplomatic interface looks at breaking point in 2018 with tr Uranus square the composite Venus; and trine the composite Saturn Uranus.

2019/2020 occurs on several of the charts including the USA as a game-changer.

The USA 1776 has a North Node at 6 Leo. At 9/11 tr Neptune was opposition the Node. At Pearl Harbour tr Pluto was conjunct the North Node. In 2019/2020 tr Uranus is square the Node. The Korean, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars didn’t – they were all much more Mutable, hitting on the USA’s 9^th house Mars Uranus in Gemini.

Still, all worrisome, since it could indicate the approaching Saturn Pluto in Capricorn inevitable-war-someplace, might well not be in the Middle East after all.

The removal lorries are already rolling up to No 10 Downing Street to end David Cameron’s career at the top, an ambition which has been his focus for the past three decades. What next? He says he’ll stay as a backbench MP till the next election and maybe thereafter; and Samantha is expected to ramp up her design career, moving into fashion.

He’s got the ‘thank heavens I’m out of that’, lucky break and relief from tension Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct his Uranus, exact in two months’ time, so it’s not all gloom and humiliation. Plus tr Jupiter will conjunct his Pluto Uranus for an uplift in July and then cross his Ascendant in late Aug/Sept for a new cycle to start.

Though he also has tr Neptune square tr Saturn hitting on his Sun/Moon, Mars/Saturn and Mars/Uranus midpoints which suggest setbacks, unpopularity giving the next few months an undertow of swampy and failure-ridden feelings. Tr Pluto has another couple of pressured squares to his Libra Sun before it finally pulls way in early December. Into 2017 tr Saturn moves across his IC, which is often a significant marker in career terms, so perhaps a new job (in addition to Westminster) With some successful Uranus transits to Jupiter midpoints in 2017 as well as tough, confusing ones.  When things go wrong he’s going to get the blame, – and rightly so.

Samantha Cameron is the more practical of the pair with a business-minded Earth Grand Trine of Mars in Capricorn (and Moon) trine Saturn in Taurus trine Pluto, formed into a Kite by Pluto opposition her Venus in Pisces. So a creative and PR career suits her with that charming Venus to the fore, fuelled by all that formidable energy and initiative from Mars Saturn Pluto.  She also has an Aries Sun square Mars so no slouch when it comes to starting new projects. Plus a lucky, high finance Jupiter Neptune sextile Uranus. She’s also got an Aquarius North Node so I’d imagine at some point she’ll find a cause to sink her teeth into.

She looks a touch jangled through 2016/17 with tr Uranus square her Mars (Moon) and then conjunct her Sun; with a really frustrating time in 2018/19 as tr Pluto is conjunct her Mars and trine her Saturn.

It is quite an odd relationship in that her Uranus is conjunct his Sun Venus and her Mars is square his Sun; his Saturn is conjunct her Venus and her Saturn squares his Mars in Leo – so there will have been more rough edges and arguments than are obvious; and it is very work oriented. Their relationship chart has a composite Sun square Saturn which is enduring but cool, a working partnership. That is under considerable pressure from tr Uranus square tr Pluto for several years as they make a huge transition into the next phase. Venus square the composite Jupiter Uranus will help; as will Venus sextile Moon (probably).

Chelsea Manning was hospitalised briefly last week after trying to kill herself in the all-male military hospital where she is serving 35 years for whistleblowing.

Born 17 Dec 1987 in Oklahoma, she’s a high-tension Sun Saturn Uranus Mercury in Sagittarius with an acutely frustrated Mars Pluto Moon in Scorpio. Tr Pluto is sextile her Mars over the next few months until December which will ramp up her sense of being cornered and powerless; with 2017 having a slew of discouraging Saturn transits in conjunction to her Sagittarius planets including Sun. She’s heading for her first Saturn Return which always has a heavy run up. Tr Uranus is square her Venus in Capricorn at the moment which can be an emotional upset, or perhaps just an urge to be free. And her Venus = Neptune/Pluto and Mars/Neptune, so they will also be getting a Uranian jolt and not helping her to think straight.

It’s not going to get easier for her with difficult Solar Arcs stretching ahead.

The one bright spot is tr Pluto square her Jupiter in 2017/18 though that might make her kick even more against the rules. The US government and military really don’t do themselves any favours in their treatment of her which does push the bounds of common decency.

The Labour Party continues to descend further into chaos with veteran MP Angela Eagle provoking a leadership challenge and being on the receiving end of violence and threats as a result.

Born 17 Feb 1961, she’s an odd mix with a detached, cool, rebellious Aquarius Sun opposition Uranus; and a highly emotional Water Grand Trine of Mars in Cancer trine Neptune trine Mercury in Pisces formed into a Kite with Mercury opposition Pluto North Node – so not backwards about making her views known, though perhaps too impressionable with so much water. Plus she has an idealistic Jupiter Saturn in Capricorn.

Tr Uranus is square her Jupiter at the moment till early September, and again in 2017, which was no doubt why she decided to risk a challenge.  And she does have the confident and successful tr Pluto sextile her Jupiter/Pluto and Jupiter/Node midpoints mid July, on and off till late November.

So she’s on a bit of a roll though whether she can breach the bastions of the traditionally chauvinist Labour Party and unions remains to be seen.

Her relationship charts with both the Labour Party 1900 and 1906 chart are riven with hostility which will come to an ugly head, most likely in 2017, worse in 2018/19.

With her Jupiter leading the conjunction to Saturn, the good news and confidence will always come first, and the setbacks second.

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to join the dots. We’re in a Saturn square Neptune year and now have a woman as UK PM, with a female First Minister in Scotland plus two female Scottish opposition leaders; with a possibility of a female UK Labour leader if Angela Eagle prospers (maybe) and a real possibility of the first female US president. Squares aren’t as strong as conjunctions but they carry the same energy. Margaret Thatcher became the UK’s first PM in 1979 on an approaching Saturn in Virgo square the Neptune in Sagittarius.

The below is taken from my Astrological History of the World on Saturn Neptune which also tends to oversee fights for workers’ rights and health as a major issue.

‘Saturn–Neptune has not been traditionally thought of as a feminist influence, but significant times where women came to the fore are clearly marked by its transits. Both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne to exert tremendous feminine influence over matters of state on Saturn–Neptune conjunctions — in 1558 in Taurus, and 1953 in Libra. Both of them were enduring monarchs in typical Saturnine fashion, Elizabeth I ruling for 45 years, the present Queen still in place even longer. Both Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years in the 19th century, have Saturn–Neptune squares in their birth charts, a key indicator of self-sacrifice for the sake of duty.

Benazir Bhutto became the first woman prime minister of Pakistan on the conjunction in Capricorn in 1988, though it proved a short-lived triumph. Around the same time, Margaret Thatcher, the first British woman prime minister, handed in her staff of power and resigned.

In Britain the power and emancipation of women was marked in two stages: the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882, under the conjunction in Taurus, gave wives for the first time ever the right of separate ownership. Then on the next conjunction in 1917–18 in Leo, Maude Royden became assistant preacher at City Temple in London, thereby becoming the first Englishwoman to have a permanent pulpit in London; factory workers shortened their hair to bobs to allow them to work more efficiently; and women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote. In 1988, on the Saturn–Neptune conjunction in Capricorn, the first woman bishop was appointed in the United States by the Anglican Church.

In art and literature, there are key points of interest in works about or by women. Jane Austen’s first novel Sense and Sensibility emerged in 1811 under the conjunction in Sagittarius. Next conjunction around, in Aquarius and Pisces in 1847, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights met with public acclaim.

In the previous century, on the conjunction in Virgo in 1773, Oliver Goldsmith’s play She Stoops to Conquer and Laclos’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses looked archly at women’s behaviour. In 1665 under Saturn–Neptune in Aquarius, Molière produced The Misanthrope and The Dumb Lady. In similar vein during the last conjunction in 1989 in Capricorn the sculptor Anish Kapoor picked up the mood of the moment with his Mother as Void work; and Pedro Almodovar, the Spanish film-maker, produced his cult movie Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown.

The repression of women, especially the persecution of witches, also has its place in the Saturn–Neptune panoply. This emerges from the masculine Saturnine fear of the mysterious, less rational feminine in Neptune. It is also the rational mind’s paranoid fear of superstition and the supernatural. In 1486 the infamous Malleus Maleficarum (the ‘Hammer of the Witches’), which encouraged the zeal of witch-hunters, was published under the conjunction in Sagittarius. In 1736, under Saturn–Neptune in Gemini, the English statutes against witchcraft were repealed, and in 1952 during Saturn–Neptune in Libra the Witchcraft Act was finally repealed. During the same period (1953) Arthur Miller’s renowned play, The Crucible, about the persecution of the Salem witches, reached the stage.