Astrology of Today’s News

Compassion for refugees escaping discrimination is being  touted as “unsustainable” by UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, whose hard line on migrants has earned her brickbats from several quarters. She is now challenging whether the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention is “fit for our modern age”.

  The Convention was drawn up in 1951, originally focused on  Europe’s post-war refugees. It says they should not be returned or expelled from a country against their will if they fear for their life or freedom. Almost 150 countries have signed up to the Convention. Braverman argues the the threshold has been lowered so that asylum seekers need only prove that they face “discrimination” instead of a real risk of torture, death or violence. “But we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin is sufficient to qualify for protection.”

  The UN Refugee Convention was signed on 28 July 1951, when there was a hopeful, charitable Neptune opposition Jupiter square an innovative Uranus Mars in Cancer. There are hints of major stress on the agreement in 2025 with the Solar Arc Mars conjunct the Saturn, the SA Sun conjunct Neptune and square Mars and the SA Saturn square the Pisces North Node. Even before then tr Uranus square the Pluto hints at disruptions forcing a change in outlook.

 The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), 14 December 1950, is going through its own agonies at the moment with a trapped/paralysed tr Pluto conjunct the Mars at the moment as well as the unsettling/forced change tr Uranus square Pluto. With tr Pluto moving on to a discouraging, uphill slog in square to the Saturn in 2024/25 – plus tr Neptune having been in an undermining square to the Sun last year moving to square the financial Venus up to 2025.

  Nothing that looks like a solution.

  Suella Braverman is but a blip on the landscape and will soon be history one way or another. But maybe it takes a Sun Aries opposition Pluto to speak the unspeakable. Plus she has Uranus and Mars tied into a Fixed Cardinal Grand Cross so she is not backward about voicing her trenchant opinions and refusing to back down.

   Migrants are a pressing and almost insoluble problem for most countries especially those with generous state subsidies with understandable concern from governments over costs and resentment from the public at being overwhelmed by outsiders when they themselves are struggling.

  All countries need migrants to fill certain jobs and ultimately to support an ageing population through paying taxes. But the pressure in numbers from war, and climate change never mind mediaeval beliefs in their home land, will only increase.

  Countries near frontlines are worst effected. Lebanon with 5.5 million population has 1.5 million refugees from Syria.  Jordan who took in Palestinians in 1947 and 1967 has around 2.18 such refugees with a total population of 11.15 million. Turkey has around 3.6 million Syrian refugees and a population in total of around 85 million.

  Sometimes compassion is not enough.

ADD ON: The 1951 Convention was widened in 1967 (4 October) to include refugees from outside Europe. It has a Libra Sun opposition Saturn in Aries which is being rattled up by the October 2024 Libra Solar Eclipse and its Uranus by the September 2024 Lunar Eclipse.  With trenchant divisions through this year and next. So much the same timeline as above with pressure for change.

Suella Braverman – not having a good year vis a vis her Home Secretary Term chart but has smatterings of Jupiter especially in 2025 so something is going right for her.

Actor David McCallum best known as the Russian spy Ilya Kuryakin in the 1960s tv series and four decades later as Ducky Mallard, the forensic medical examiner in NCIS has died aged 90.

  He was born on 19 September 1933 2am Glasgow, Scotland, the son of two orchestral violinists, and educated latterly in London, playing the oboe and acting before going onto the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art after national service where Joan Collins was a classmate. He became a teen heart throb as Ilya Kuryakin with his Beatles haircut which also earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

  He had a quick-witted 3^rd house Virgo Sun with a chatty Mercury in Libra conjunct Jupiter also in his 3^rd. His Uranus in the 10^th points to an unconventional career that would not always run smoothly, with highs and lows and it was in an unorthodox square to a 12^th house Pluto which marked that early 1930s generation. His serious 7^th house Saturn in Aquarius was square a 4^th house Mars in Scorpio and inconjunct Neptune, suggesting tough experiences in his childhood alongside a good deal of affection with Venus also in his 4^th.

  His Moon was in Virgo as well as his Sun – which was well matched by his two main TV co-stars. Robert Vaughan in The Man from U.N.C.L.E, 22 November 1932, was a Sun Scorpio/Sagittarius but with his Moon, Jupiter, Neptune and Mars all in Virgo.  Mark Harmon of NCIS, has his Sun, Moon, Venus and Mercury in Virgo. A whirlpool of fuss and worry on the set and non-stop chatter.

  He had a curiously disjointed chart but with two yods both involving an Aquarius North Node in the 8^th – Pluto sextile Sun inconjunct North Node and NN sextile Uranus inconjunct Sun. He did have depth and was fated to tie into the spirit of the age in his thespian roles.

The sordid Epstein saga is now into season two with two of America’s biggest banks, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, accused of enabling Epstein’s years of abuse. The latest allegations focus on two titans of Wall Street, long-term friends and business associates of Epstein, Jes Staley (former JP Morgan, then CEO Barclays, resigned over Epstein associations in 2021) and Leon Black – denials all round. And nine months ago the US Virgin Islands launched a second legal case claiming $190 million in damages from JP Morgan on the basis that the bank “knowingly, negligently and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise”. The Virgin Islands’ attorney general who filed this last suit, Denise George, was summarily fired four days later.  Sigh.

  Epstein would entertain the rich and famous on his island, flying women and girls over from Florida on his plane, the “Lolita Express”. The girls who were brought here, many of them teenagers bought and trafficked from eastern Europe, were raped and assaulted; if they tried to escape, he took their passports away. Epstein moved his estate to the Virgin Islands before his death to shield the estate from financial claims from victims who were already lining up.

   The seamy underside of great wealth is a descent into the darker corners of Pluto’s underworld.

   The intriguing question is – will there be a season three, exposing the famous names who allegedly visited Epstein’s homes and were either willingly or honey-trapped into compromising situations.

  Epstein may have died four years ago but his malevolent spirit lives on haunting quite a few lives and not just his victims. Born 20 January 1953, NY, he had a zero degree Aquarius Sun which is being ground down by tr Pluto conjunct in 2023/24 and upended by tr Uranus square the Pluto now into early 2024 over the bank lawsuits. 

  Charts do live on including relationship charts, which need not be absolute proof in this instance of future turmoil, let alone exposure but it could very well be. So who is Epstein’s malevolent spirit going to be haunting – in private or in public?

  The Jes Staley (27 Dec 1956)/Epstein relationship chart has two fated yods indicating an association which would change both their lives irrevocably and then some! The focal point Mars in Pisces inconjunct Neptune sextile Pluto is being undermined by tr Neptune in 2024/25 and this year does not look like fun either with devastating challenges from tr Pluto on the composite Venus and Neptune. The other with a focal point Pluto to Mars sextile Venus is on high emotional alert this year and worse in 2024/25.

  Bill Clinton looks uncertain and uptight this year with swampy Neptunian influences to his relationship chart with Epstein in 2023 to 2025 and beyond. Ditto his relationship with the imprisoned Ghislaine Maxwell – under grinding and discouraging pressure this year and through a turbulent 2024.

   Much the same timeline appears on Bill Gates/Epstein’s relationship chart with tr Neptune square the composite Mars and tr Uranus square the Pluto in 2024.

  Donald Trump has always looked more uneasy about Ghislaine Maxwell than with Epstein. The DT/Max relationship chart has an unpleasant yod of Pluto sextile Mars inconjunct Sun which  is being aggravated this year, with similar timelines to the above through 2024.

  Prince Andrew, who gets a passing mention in today’s Sunday Times piece about the Virgin Islands (fired) AG as having been seen in the Epstein residence with one of the girls, is facing more anxiety vis a vis his unsavoury Epstein relationship  with an upset exactly now, a devastating 2024/25 and more turmoil in 2025.  Ditto with Ghislaine Maxwell.

  None of them looks like escaping the toxic cloud anytime soon – with Uranus at 25 degrees Taurus and Neptune at 28 degrees Pisces – April/June 2024 onwards – being recurring hot spots on several of the above charts.

  Watch and hope for transparency.

 [What on earth is going through King Charles’ head in semi-rehabilitating his errant brother. There was always going to be more emerging financially and otherwise and it risks damaging the throne. He should listen to the Prince of Wales.]

ADD ON: This week JP Morgan Chase agreed to pay $75mn to settle claims from the US Virgin Islands that it had helped Epstein’s human-trafficking operation at his home in the territory. Tuesday’s settlement with the USVI is nowhere near as large, nor as damaging to the bank as it could have been. The $75mn is less than half the $190mn the island government sought. The deal comes after the bank fought back aggressively in court, claiming that “the entity that . . . most actively facilitated and benefited from Epstein’s continued criminal activity was . . . the USVI government itself”.

Hmm, wonder if there will be any justice on that latter score. Doubt it.

Project 2025, an American  conservative campaign, preparing for the possible election of Donald Trump in 2024, has issued a blueprint for the reshaping of the federal government closer to Trump’s vision. One insider said, “The president Day One will be a wrecking ball for the administrative state.” Politico on the other hand says “little of the Project 2025 agenda is likely — even remotely likely — to happen.”

  Behind the project is the Heritage Foundation, 16 February 1973, which over the years has become an increasingly influential think tank, central to the Reagan and GW Bush administrations, especially on foreign policy.

  It also appears to have been the initiator of “Affordable Health Care for All Americans” which turned into Obamacare. It has evidently become more politicized in recent years though flip flopped over Trump, describing him as “a clown” in 2015 and suggested he was unfit to serve another term in 2020. But they have form for shifting allegiances when opportunistic.

The Heritage Foundation chart has an Aquarius Sun Venus trine Uranus so will be reformist in outlook. There is a ‘wish for a better society’ from Saturn opposition Neptune and also a ruthless Mars square Pluto.

  It looks to be powering ahead through this year with tr Pluto conjunct the Jupiter but high hopes of success will be deflated by SA Neptune conjunct Jupiter, exact in late summer 2024. And it will run into a catastrophic phase of setbacks and disappointments come 2026/27 with tr Neptune Saturn opposition their Pluto and square Mars, at the same time as SA Pluto squares the Sun. Nothing that looks like progress with their project.

 Their blueprint document on Project 2025 was published on 21 April 2023 which has a Sun conjunct North Node in Taurus square Pluto. It is not too informative though like the Heritage Foundation it could forge ahead with high hopes this year with tr Pluto square the Sun/Jupiter midpoint and then run into an uphill battle in 2024/25.

   The Sun moves into Libra today, the third Cardinal Ingress of the year, regarded by some traditional astrologers as the key ingress of the year.

  How useful they are for guidance is disputed but for ingress fans here are three different locations to check out as events unfold.

  Set for Delhi, India the Libra Sun is at the midheaven, giving India prominence although the Sun opposes Neptune conjunct the IC, hinting that domestic issues may undermine their glittering moment. An ambitious 10^th house Mars is sextile an 8^th house Venus and inconjunct Jupiter so there will be no shortage of confidence or financial ambition. Pluto in the 2^nd hints at a driving need to stay in control of money matters.

  Set for Washington, DC, it puts the Libra Sun in the communicative 3^rd opposition a 9^th house Neptune pointing to confusion in international affairs. Jupiter and Uranus in the 10^th look successful with changes being pushed through. Arguments are likely with a 3^rd house Mars and some financial restraints with an 8^th house Saturn.

 Set for London, UK, a hidden 12^th house Sun and a mutinous 4^th house Pluto suggest that anchors will continue to drag despite a pro-active and noisy 1^st house Mars.  And 8^th house Jupiter Uranus could suggest better financial news and positive changes.

  But as I say hit and miss results from Ingress charts.  Eclipse charts are more descriptive usually – to follow in coming days.  

Rupert Murdoch has resigned and allegedly retired (though maybe not from backseat driving) to hand over Fox and News Corp to his son, Lachlan, a ruthless promoter of the right-wing zealots who made Fox a consummate money-spinner until recently. Lachlan takes over with defamation lawsuits over reporting of Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories likely costing Fox toe-curling amounts of money. One is a damages claim pending for $2.7bn and the whole imbroglio has left Fox’s reputation severely dented.

  Onlookers are uncertain whether he can hold the empire together. Murdoch senior structured the ownership of his companies in a four-way split amongst his children so sibling rivalry could bring down the edifice at some point. ‘Lachlan is Right-wing, while James and Elisabeth are more liberal. James wants to hold onto Fox News and turn it into a centrist “force for good”, while Elisabeth wants to sell it.’ All three might sell off the Times and Sunday Times and The Sun which don’t appear to interest them.

Lachlan, 8 September 1971 9pm (rectified) London is not a chip of the old titanium-spined block having a Virgo Sun and Venus with a nervy and overly-hopeful Saturn opposition Neptune Jupiter conjunction. He has an ideologically-fixed Air Grand Trine of Mars in ornery Aquarius conjunct North Node trine Saturn trine Uranus, formed into a Kite by Saturn opposition Neptune Jupiter making Neptune Jupiter the driving planets. Jup Nep as well as being wildly optimistic can also be scandal-prone due to the bearer’s instability. He also has a fixed Taurus Moon.

  This October’s Lunar Eclipse will catch his Moon, creating a crisis or two, and next October the Solar Eclipse in Libra will rattle up his Uranus. Not a smooth run in, for sure.

  Fox News, 7 October 1996, is in turmoil with tr Pluto conjunct the Uranus in 2023/24 and the October 2024 Solar Eclipse hitting its Libra Sun exactly which will bring a fork in its road ahead.

  News Corp, 5 October 1979, amongst whose assets are the Dow Jones & Company (publisher of The Wall Street Journal), News UK (publisher of The Sun and The Times), News Corp Australia, and book publisher HarperCollins, will run into serious setbacks almost immediately with SA Mars conjunct the Saturn within a few months and SA Saturn square the Mars in 2025. Both Solar Eclipses in 2024 will catch the News Corp Libra Sun, Pluto, Venus for upsets, financial and otherwise, and forced changes.

  The fall out between the squabbling siblings will be a spectacle in itself. See previous post 14 April 2023. James and Lachlan are at daggers drawn at the best of times with a composite Mars square Pluto in their composite chart – this year looks unsettled but 2025/26 will be when the real tug of war sets in.

  Ditto Elisabeth who has a bad tempered Mars Saturn conjunction in her relationship chart with Lachlan and nothing looks settled on that front for several years ahead.  Mind you her relationship with brother James, if anything, is worse and that is moving into a hostile swamp for two or three years ahead.

  Families. Not a good business mix.

Also see previous posts – 24 February 2023 and 11 December 2022.

A tangled web of claims and counter-claims has erupted in a surprising diplomatic clash between Canada and India over the murder in British Columbia in June of a Sikh separatist leader, wanted as a terrorist in India. Justin Trudeau has pointed a finger at Narendra Modi’s government as being behind the assassination.

  Canada’s support for Sikh secessionists – who want a homeland in the disputed Punjab region which was cut in half during the bodged partition of 1947 – goes back to Pierre Trudeau who refused to hand over a Sikh militant to India, who then went on  to be responsible for the Air India bomb on 23 June 1985 which killed 329 people.

 Canada is home to the largest Sikh population outside India, with about 770,000 people. Open incitement to violence against Indians has flourished in recent years with extremists, parading floats celebrating the assassination of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, who was killed by Sikh extremists. Trudeau says he respects freedom of expression and other constitutional rights and the rule of law.

  Given that India is Canada’s 10th-biggest trading partner in 2022 and growing;  and Canada’s top source of migrants practical politics will take over at some point.

  What is of interest is that the Canada/India relationship chart while superficially friendly at one level is also deeply suspicious and aggravated. When the 1985 Air India bomb exploded tr Pluto in early Scorpio was square the composite Mars. And that will repeat in 2024/2025 with tr Pluto in Aquarius opposition the Mars – with, as before, a high-tension run up as tr Pluto opposes the composite Sun this year. Relations won’t get back to anything resembling equanimity until 2026 – and will worsen before that happens.

Add On: With more emerging about Sikh supporters of the separatist movement abroad being targeted, it will put Western countries in a bind. India is becoming one of America’s most important foreign partners as a bulwark against China, with a raft of new deals on defence, high-tech manufacturing, artificial intelligence. The UK also is in advanced stages of negotiating one of its biggest post-Brexit free trade agreements with New Delhi. France is now India’s second-largest arms supplier and India is a member of the Quad strategic security initiative, which also includes Australia, the US, and Japan.

  If there is evidence of Delhi-backed assassinations abroad, there will be diplomatic and commercial challenges ahead.

  The USA/India relationship chart is faltering through this October to mid November and again in early 2024 with a disappointing tr Neptune square the composite Mars. And under immense pressure from this year through till 2026 with tr Pluto trine the composite Neptune and opposition the Mercury Sun and then square Pluto. There may well be a reset in relations but perhaps not the one that was first mooted.

  The UK relationship chart with India is confused through late this year with tr Pluto square the composite Neptune and then undergoing a total turnaround under pressure with tr Pluto square the composite Sun in 2023/24.  Australia ditto.

  Change was always expected of the positive variety but this looks more aggravated.  The India chart always hinted that financial worries would mount with tr Neptune square the 2^nd house Uranus Mars this year and worsening in 2025/26.

A diplomatic minefield.

Folk singer Roger Whittaker, best known for his baritone singing voice, trademark whistling ability and guitar skills, has died. His popular numbers were Durham Town, I Don’t Believe in If Anymore, New World in the Morning and The Last Farewell. He had his greatest successes and fan base latterly in Germany.

 He was born in Nairobi, Kenya on 22 March 1936 at 7.45 am and initially studied medicine, trained as a teacher and completed his National Service in the Kenya Regiment which he said sorted him out. He married in 1964 and had five children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

  He had a 12^th house Aries Sun with Mars in Aries conjunct his Ascendant from the 12^th and a rebellious and unconventional Uranus conjunct from the 1^st. The creative Neptune in Virgo opposition Saturn in Pisces of the mid 1930s falls across his performing 5^th and 11^th houses, with his Saturn conjunct Mercury and a Pisces Moon squaring onto an amiable, optimistic, laid-back Jupiter in Sagittarius in his much travelled 9^th house.  His Sun/Moon midpoint which is his marriage significator was exactly square his Jupiter which would make for a contented relationship and shared happiness.

  His Mars was square a 4^th house Pluto hinting at tensions in his childhood and a reservoir of anger which he said the army sorted out. In 1989, his parents still living in Kenya, were subjected to a brutal attack by a robbery gang in which his mother was tortured and his father was murdered. He  said of the incident: “It will affect me for the rest of my life, but I believe we should all live without hate if we can”.

Will the unthinkable happen and Trump get re-elected? Not only are sensible Americans agitated at the prospect so are the reasonables of the rest of the world. Only the dictators elsewhere are adjusting their plans in the hope of a fellow-traveller back in the White House. Putin may drag out the Ukraine campaign for that reason.

 This is not a detailed look at election fortunes since previous posts have covered Trump and Biden ad nauseam and will no doubt be reprised in future.

  But there are two factors of Astro-note. One of which is the Republican Convention on 15 July 2024 which looks fraught in the extreme with a Sun trine Saturn Neptune in Pisces sextile an exact, explosive Mars Uranus conjunction in Taurus  – edgy, uncertain with a clash of no-compromise attitudes.  Trump also has tr Uranus exactly square his Mars in Leo then – which can be a shock to self-esteem and tends to provoke an extreme reaction. In some older types it can also be health related (heart) but he seems to be immune to the vagaries that affect normal people.

  Exactly then on the USA chart the Solar Arc Saturn is conjunct the Mars to within a minute of a degree which usually accompanies a setback of considerable proportions. The Solar Arc Saturn then moves on to square the USA Neptune for high-anxiety and uncertainty in 2025.

  Also exactly in July 2024 Trump’s relationship chart with the USA has the composite Jupiter at 26 Leo which tr Uranus will be square – which is impossible to say which way it will go. Great relief that he is out of the running – or a lucky break for him.

  I fear the dread will continue on right through 2024 until and unless the GOP regain their sanity. But that may not happen. Not fun for worried Americans and global onlookers, but the astrology will be worth watching.

  William Hague in The Times yesterday;

“For British people, it is unthinkable that anyone indicted in relation to fraud, conspiracy, taking classified documents, paying hush money and attempting to overturn a legitimate election could ever be a serious candidate again. But to Americans — living in two separate worlds of their own newsfeeds, bitterly divided by race, wokeness, abortion and many other issues, using a system of primary elections in which name recognition is a huge advantage — it has become thinkable. Indeed, it is on the verge of becoming probable.”

Coco Chanel who initiated a revolutionary shift in women’s fashion away from the tyranny of the corset to become a leading light in couture, perfume and accessories had an extraordinary if not altogether edifying life. She rose from extreme poverty, slept with wealthy men who bankrolled her start in business, slid through the beds of British nobility which allowed her to duck out of accusations of spying for the Germans during World War 11 which earned her the protection of Churchill concerned she might expose the pro-nazi sympathies of Royals and others. She was according to French intelligence a ‘vicious anti-semite’ and a regular morphine user.   Though there is some documentation suggesting she might have also worked with the French Resistance.

  She was born 19 August 1883 4pm in Saumur in a poor house hospice with a laundrywoman mother and an itinerant street vendor father. Her mother died when she was 11 and she was sent to a convent orphanage where she learned to sew.

   She had a secretive 8^th house flamboyant Sun Venus in Leo square a creative 5^th house Neptune and also square Pluto in the attention-demanding 5^th. She had Mars in Gemini conjunct her Descendant so would attract fiery partners. She was the mistress of some of the most influential men of her time, including the Duke of Westminster, but never married.

  Her sensitive, self-protective Pisces Moon opposed Mercury and squared a hard-working Saturn in her 6^th house of work so she would be emotionally battened down. Her Sun/Moon midpoint was exactly conjunct her Chiron and close to both Pluto and Saturn – so a bleak relationship life despite the money and the luxury – or maybe one in which she was a habitual user of the men she attracted. Her Jupiter in the 7^th nearing the cusp of her 8^th would give her an ability to charm men of high standing and wealth.

  Her Uranus trine Neptune like her two 5^th house planets was creative, giving her ‘eureka’ moments of inspiration.  

  Her Scorpio North Node in the 10^th would push her on to succeed and acquire possessions but they would not offer satisfaction unless she was able to let go what she had built up and move away from the past which would have been painful and clearly did not happen. She evidently became tyrannical and lonely towards the end of her life.

 Her creative 5^th harmonic, breakthrough 13H; leaving-a-legacy 17h and global-fame 22^nd harmonic were all strong.

  All credit to her for having pulled herself up from unlikely beginnings but not, I fear, a pleasant woman.

Add ON: The other rags to riches French story was Edith Piaf, though she seemed a nicer sort. Like Chanel she had a strong get-it-together 5^th harmonic and an even stronger global-superstar 22^nd. Both harmonics with a strongly marked Venus.

 Coco Chanel’s 5^th and 22^nd both had an afflicted Mars – the 5H tied into Saturn Neptune which is fairly perverse. In the 22^nd a yod of Mars inconjunct Pluto sextile Jupiter – ruthlessly ambitious.