Kevin McCarthy has been removed as House Speaker on a little-used technicality by fellow Republican Matt Gaetz on a personal-spite and attention-grabbing mission. Gaetz is so disliked within the GOP that even Newt Gingrich thinks he should be expelled. The short-sighted Democrats, gleeful about McCarthy’s downfall, hastened his exit by voting with Gaetz, ignoring the possibility they may end up with worse.
Gaetz, 7 May 1982 Hollywood, Florida, is a Sun Taurus with a self-aggrandising, arrogant yod of Venus sextile Mercury in Gemini inconjunct Jupiter in Scorpio; with Venus in an insensitive opposition to Mars in Libra. His Mars is catching the transiting Pluto trine in 2023/24 which will be blocked and frustrating. Alongside that, he does have a bullish tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Pluto so he won’t disappear down a foxhole without a fight. He’ll zip up in confidence and luck in 2025/26 with tr Pluto square his yod focal point Jupiter but that could bring poor judgement and self-defeating actions through his overwheening confidence. Self-doubt is not in his repertoire.
He certain dislikes McCarthy with a vengeance with their relationship chart having a composite Sun Mercury opposition Mars square Saturn which will bring extreme aggravation and hostility.
McCarthy, 26 January 1965 12.40 pm Bakersfield, CA, only emerged as Speaker after multiple rounds, so was never regarded by either side as inspiring. He is a Sun Aquarius with a Boris-Johnson-type scandal-prone Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune which is the driving rod of an Earth Grand Trine. Gaetz Taurus Sun is exactly conjunct his Jupiter and opposition his Neptune – bringing about his downfall.
What next? ‘It is not clear who in the House G.O.P. can earn the majority of votes needed to win a speaker’s race. Until someone can win 218 votes or more, the House will continue to hold elections in an ongoing speaker’s race. In the meantime, essentially all other action in the House will be halted.
One deadline is looming. The government will shut down in mid-November after the expiration of a temporary funding measure that Congress approved over the weekend. That’s unless Congress can pass all 12 of its yearlong spending bills or another stopgap funding bill — a tall task made even more challenging by the chaos of a speaker’s race.’
Barcelona’s famously unfinished Sagrada Familia cathedral designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi is nearing completion, 141 years after the first stone was laid. When the final tower is finished in 2026 it will be the world’s tallest church, at 172.5 metres. Gaudí’s works are individualized not to say eccentric art nouveau in appearance, influenced by his passion for nature and religion.
The first stone was laid on 9 March 1882 when there was a super-confident Jupiter Pluto in Taurus with Jupiter in a spiritual (over-hopeful) conjunction with Neptune all square Mercury in Aquarius. A creative Sun Venus in Pisces opposed a maverick, innovative Uranus which in turn was trine the Taurus planets. At the moment tr Uranus is just over the lucky (what a relief) conjunction to the Jupiter and in 2025 the Pluto as the finishing touches are put in place.
Gaudi, 25 June 1852 9.30am Reus, Spain, had a Cancer Sun conjunct North Node in a Water Grand Trine to Neptune in Pisces trine Jupiter in Scorpio with his Neptune opposition Mars in earthy Virgo and his Jupiter opposition Saturn – highly creative, lived in his own bubble of fantasy reality and would be healing for others if not himself – and up and down with Jupiter Saturn opposing. He had Pluto, Uranus, Saturn in Taurus in his religious 9th house which made his fixed beliefs central to his life and increasingly an obsession. His 7th house Neptune was also highlighted being on the focal point of a yod to a Libra Moon sextile Venus which would lead him to seek seclusion and an ideal of beauty.
At the moment his posthumous Solar Arc Jupiter is conjunct his Pluto so wherever he is, he’ll be feeling pleased.
He never married or had a relationship as far as is known. A complicated and unhappy man with health problems, some self-inflicted because of his odd food fads. Latterly he lived like a tramp and when killed in a tram accident and taken to the mortuary he was first thought to be a vagrant. Sagrada was only a quarter built at that point.
I went years ago on a week long Gaudi tour of Barcelona and I would have to confess by the end of it if I never saw another Gaudi building I would not be bothered. Not my taste.
Melania Trump now reportedly in possession of a renegotiated pre-nup (her third) is clearly hedging her bets and protecting her son Barron’s future in case the family supertanker keels over – or maybe it is her payoff for agreeing to stay in situ as the devoted wife should Trump re-enter the White House. Or both.
She’ll be one to watch through October since the late month Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio catches her Taurus Sun exactly by opposition. Since the Eclipsed Full Moon is also conjunct an exact Jupiter in Taurus opposition Mars in Scorpio, her pre-nup could be an early effect of an opportunistic Jupiter Mars. But it can backfire. She also has an uncertain, worrisome tr Saturn square her Neptune and panicked tr Neptune opposition her Pluto in October. Plus a tormented, obsessive Neptune/Pluto midpoint being triggered as well. 2024 looks blocked, frustrated and powerless with a disaster or two in May. Though tr Pluto square her Jupiter this year and next will give her the confidence to successfully push to protect her position and assets – being a Sun Saturn in Taurus.
She is not a happy lady from mid November through December 2024 – but that could be ‘quelle horreur’ at being stuck in the goldfish bowl again or the opposite.
Her relationship chart with Donald has been sagging through this year with tr Neptune square the composite Venus and that runs through 2024 as well. Where it gets to upheaval-time is by 2025 with tr Uranus conjunct the composite Sun. That is when his Sun/Moon midpoint, his marriage significator, is catching the tr Saturn opposition which can be a separating aspect.
The Trump tribe are worth keeping an eye on since Ivanka has the mid October Libra Solar Eclipse this year hitting her Jupiter, Pluto, Mercury in Libra. All three Trump kids have a run of fairly disastrous midpoints now into early next spring.
I don’t normally write about Barron since he has been too young but he is now nearing 18. Born 20 March 2006 5.30am New York, he has a 1st house Pisces Sun square a 10th house Pluto which suggests he experiences both parents as controlling or possessive, leaving him with no sense of being able to make his own choices. Tr Neptune is squaring his Pluto this year and conjunct his Sun in 2024/25 for a confusing time ahead, which will be exacerbated by his Solar Arc Uranus conjunct his Sun, exactly in six months – which will be quite a turnaround for his life.
His relationship chart with his father has a mix of lavish affection and fear-inducing domination.
Describing the newly appointed UK Defence Secretary as a “newly minted moron” Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian security council, said if British troops were sent to Ukraine they would be “ruthlessly eliminated”. Shapps had taken it upon himself on the first day of the Tory Conference to grandstand about Brit Army instructors being sent into Ukraine, provoking Rishi Sunak into issuing an embarrassing retraction.
Shapps, 14 September 1968, took over Defence of which he has zero experience in late August, his fifth cabinet position in the past year. He has been elevated by four out of the past five prime ministers despite a series of scandals. The DM in a scathing piece some years ago said he made up for “lack of talent in braggadocio, vanity and vainglorious self-promotion.” He earned the nickname Duracell Bunny, for his dogged ability to keep going despite countless scandals.
The UK is lobbying to sell Saudi Arabia 48 Typhoon fighter jets in a £5 billion deal though Germany could scupper it over human rights issues and the civil war in Yemen. As one commenter remarked ‘Remember the Golden Rule – whoever has the gold makes the rules.’
Shapps is a scattered Sun, Jupiter, Uranus Pluto in Virgo with a bombastic Mars in Leo; and a tricky yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Saturn. His life underwent an upheaval when he moved to Defence with tr Pluto trine his Uranus but it will continue to do that for another fifteen months so it will be turbulent and nerve-stretching road ahead. Slightly worrisome is the proliferation of Uranus Neptune aspects by Solar Arc and transit which could suggest a fanatical stubbornness or just extreme worry. But it would not point to good judgement, for sure. Plus a shock come June 2024 as tr Uranus squares his Mars.
His Defence Term chart, 31 August 2023, has a Water Grand Trine of Jupiter trine Uranus trine Pluto formed into a Kite with Sun opposition Uranus. And Uranus further highlighted being on the focal point of a yod to Saturn sextile Neptune. Water Grand Trines can live in an unrealistic bubble – and an overdose of Uranus can be destabilizing, pointing to an obsession with rocking the boat and upending the status quo. Which is not what Defence needs.
The UK/Russia 8 November 1991 relationship chart shows considerable stress at the moment with tr Uranus opposition the composite Uranus and that will extend through 2024 with tr Uranus square the composite Mars as well. With disappointment and bad feeling running through till 2025. The UK/Russia 1917 relationship chart also shows aggravation.
It isn’t that Ukraine should not be supported but a throwing a loose cannon like Shapps into the mix is a considerable mistake.
Skewering a politician or a public figure with one freeze-framed image in a cartoon takes a particular set of skills and mindset. Peter Brookes is at the top of the pinnacle, contributing to The Times for three decades, and now at 80 has produced another collection of his latest work entitled Torrid Times.
He says that cartoonists are “the permanent opposition”. “In other words whoever’s in power, you administer a good kicking when it’s deserved.” “I’m a columnist, a visual columnist. I have to make an argument in a cartoon that is cut and dried. You don’t have room for much ambiguity.”
He was born 28 September 1943 Liverpool, England, and is a Sun conjunct Neptune in Libra trine Uranus, sextile Pluto. His Neptune is conjunct Mercury in late Virgo square Saturn with a Mars Uranus conjunct in Gemini.
Libra is concerned with fairness. Moon, Mercury, Venus in writerly Virgo; and Saturn, Mars, Uranus in Gemini – he was designed to communicate. Mars Uranus is unconventional, uncompromising and rebellious, inclined to challenge authority figures and to take the outsider’s view. Uranus trine Neptune is creative and inspired; as is Sun Neptune – and Mercury Neptune thinks and communicates in images. He also had his Saturn square Neptune (and Mercury) making him wish for a fairer society.
James Gillray, 13 August 1756, the Georgian era caricaturist, went for biting satire as well. His most famous work: The Plumb-pudding in Danger depicts Napoleon Bonaparte and British PM William Pitt carving up the globe.
He was a Sun Venus in Leo trine Pluto; with Mercury in Leo conjunct Neptune; and a heavily aspected Uranus which was on the focal point of a yod to Jupiter sextile Sun, square Pluto and in a wide opposition to Mars. With his Neptune opposition Saturn.
He did have similarities to Brookes – strong Neptune for creative images; strong Uranus for a mischievous twist; and an influential and stinging Pluto.
GB News which is the UK’s right-wing tv answer to Fox – the “home of free speech” – has tripped into another storm of controversy after actor Laurence Fox said of a female journalist on air: “Who would want to shag that?” Dan Wooton, the show’s presenter has also been suspended and decisions will be made soon whether they will survive.
GB News ratings are up, outstripping Murdoch’s TalkTV but the concern will be about advertisers, notoriously sensitive about public outrage, as well as regulators. GB News attracts a majority male audience, mainly middle-class and older.
It launched 13 June 2021 8pm and has an angry (infuriated) Pluto opposition Moon Mars in Leo, hence the tendency to veer towards shock jock-types and twitter-type provocateurs. There is a Gemini Sun square Neptune never a good sign in a commercial venture; and a can-be-autocratic Saturn square Uranus. There will be ongoing hassle for three years with tr Pluto opposition the Moon in 2023/24; opposition Mars in 2024/25 and the SA Pluto opposition Moon Mars in 2025/26 which may see it hit the buffers.
Laurence Fox is a phenomenon all on his own, being the scion of a renowned theatrical family. He had a sound acting career before giving it up to become an opinionator and activist. Born 26 May 1978, London, he is a Sun Gemini with a pushily confident Pluto square Jupiter Venus in Cancer; and a troubled, impatient and hard-edged Saturn Mars in Leo square Uranus which will make him inclined to erupt in a reckless fashion. His Capricorn/Aquarius Moon is not well integrated into his chart barring, maybe, a trine to his Sun, so emotionally distanced.
His father James Fox, famously gave up a successful acting a career to become an evangelical missionary at one point before latterly returning to the screen. Born 19 May 1939, he is a Sun Taurus in an Earth Grand Trine to Mars trine Neptune; with a truly difficult Mars opposition Pluto square Saturn Venus in Aries, suggesting a dominating and aggravating father.
James was one of three sons of Robin Fox, 15 July 1913, a celebrated theatrical agent and a notorious womaniser, who fell out with a director who wanted to employ his son since he insisted he could not act and should stay working in a bank. Which explains a good deal of that Mars Pluto Saturn Venus T square in James’ chart.
All of which suggests there were issues going back at least two generations of problems with masculine anger. Laurence Fox fits in with most of the American right-wing, loud-mouth presenters who are enraged about authority figures and the establishment – and usually women as well. Instead of projecting it out onto society and politics he might be happier if he resolved his own personal issues.
Dan Wooton, 2 March 1983, a GB News presenter and Daily Mail contributor, is a Sun Pisces in an adventurous and lucky square to Jupiter Uranus in Sagittarius. But also with a highly stressed Mars in Aries which is conjunct Venus and inconjunct Saturn Pluto.
Neither Laurence Fox and Wooton, look in a progressive phase with Fox’s Gemini Sun catching the tr Saturn square this year as well as tr Uranus square his Mars Saturn in 2023/24. Wooton is struggling through thick mud this year and the next two or three with tr Pluto square his Pluto and then Saturn and finally tr Neptune square his Mars. He may have one lucky break but it won’t be good thereafter.
Maybe the new era circa 2026 onwards will not favour the screamers.
Dianne Feinstein, the oldest serving American senator whose ‘historic career began in tragedy and ended in controversy’ has died. She became San Francisco mayor after a 1978 assassination but recently was criticized for hanging on through prolonged bouts of ill health. She was renowned as a tenacious trailblazer, and a stalwart centrist, at times upsetting both extremes. She refused to ally herself with women’s rights groups, supported programs to fight the Aids epidemic, but vetoed domestic partnership legislation, frustrating LGBTQ+ rights activists. She was an ardent gun control advocate; and supported the death penalty. After 9/11 she investigated CIA torture as head of the powerful Senate intelligence committee and memorably faced off against the then CIA director, John Brennan.
“She was a political giant,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Born 22 June 1933 12.44am San Francisco, she had a quick-witted 3rd house Cancer Sun alongside a Gemini Moon. Her Moon squared Mars in hard working Virgo in her 6th – in part a legacy of her abusive mother. She had an unconventional and innovative Uranus in her 1st house square a 4th house Venus, Pluto, Mercury in Cancer in her domestic 4th. Her childhood was described as tumultuous and she had three marriages.
What stands out is a Saturnine yod of Venus sextile Jupiter in Virgo inconjunct Saturn in Aquarius in her 11th. That demands maturity, self-discipline and responsibility to get the best of it.
Her chart keys into the USA chart with her Cancer Sun and her Pluto Mercury in Cancer connecting with the USA Mercury in Cancer opposition Pluto. It would not always be an easy relationship but she made a difference.
Going to war, going on vacation, finding love, luck, success or being accident prone – where in the world? Pin pointing why certain locations are comforting while others bring bad vibes is the function of astrocartography otherwise known as locational astrology, developed by San Francisco astrologer Jim Lewis. Plotting the birth chart on a world map or relocating the chart to a specific town can change your fortunes.
The classic example is Sean Connery, born into poverty in Edinburgh, who had his mega-successful Jupiter Pluto on his Midheaven line through Hollywood and his Sun Neptune midheaven through eastern USA, New York down to the Bahamas where he retired. The Midheaven lines show career prospects. His first wife, Diane Cilento, was Australian where his Saturn Descendant line ran so it would be an uphill struggle to make it work. His second wife Micheline, who is French-Moroccan, gave him a settled home life, indicated by his Chiron on the IC line (4th house = home and family) through Morocco and Southern Spain where they lived for some years.
It need not even mean going to the location indicated. One happy marriage came about with the UK partner having her Venus Ascendant line through Detroit where her husband had been born. The association alone may be enough. One London stock trader who made a pile on the Tokyo Exchange had his Venus Pluto Midheaven through Japan which he never visited.
Yoko Ono, born in Japan, has her Venus midheaven line through Liverpool, where Beatle John Lennon was born. Queen Elizabeth II had her Venus Ascendant line through Greece, the birthplace of her lifelong husband Prince Philip.
Celebrities who run activist campaigns in Africa like Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie have strong lines running through that location drawing their attention. As does Princess Anne who has done sterling work for Save the Children for decades. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should also look to Africa for their future success. Harry’s Lesotho charity which supports young people in Africa is headquartered where he has his high-vitality Mars Uranus on the Midheaven with a successful and charitable Jupiter Neptune in the 10th.
Where it can get tricky for couples deciding on a major domestic or work relocation is if a specific place suits one and not the other. Hollywood for Megan emphasises her 1st house attention-seeking Leo Sun. But it puts Prince Harry in the shadows with a 12th house Sun and 8th house Moon.
What is marginally odd is that Meghan has her Sun in the 10th conjunct the Midheaven for London – which indicates great success and prominence though it puts her Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto in the 12th so she never felt at home. London gave her Prince Harry and a £42 million wedding as a springboard for future success but she would not feel nurtured.
Mars lines indicate a heated location likely to bring arguments or accidents. Uncannily every American president in recent times who volunteered or was pulled into military activity did so on a world zone through which one of their four Mars lines ran. For Roosevelt it was Pearl Harbor; for Harry Truman, Japan and Korea; for Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Ford, it was Vietnam; for Jimmy Carter, Iran. Margaret Thatcher’s Mars on the midheaven (the key Mars line) runs straight through the tiny Falkland Islands, where Britain declared war after the Argentinian invasion in 1982. George W Bush had his Mars Midheaven line through Afghanistan.
Actress Natasha Richardson, born in London, who was married to Liam Neeson, tragically died after a ski-ing accident near Montreal, Canada. Her chart relocated there put Mars conjunct her Ascendant there opposition Saturn. She had that accident-prone aspect natally but the Canadian location highlighted it.
Pluto lines are recommended to be treated with caution. JFK had his Pluto midheaven through Dallas, Texas, where he was assassinated in 1963. Obviously not everyone dies on their Pluto midheaven lines, since regular world travellers will cross theirs several times a year. Additional factors will have been in play. In JFK’s birth chart he had an unaspected and uncontrolled Pluto which Dallas triggered.
Years ago I was reluctantly persuaded to lecture on a cruise ship in the eastern Mediterranean, which given that my Pluto MC runs through Athens and down through Egypt, both of them on the itinerary, I was nervous beforehand. Not too much else showed up in my chart in terms of predictive influences – and my Pluto is well integrated in my chart, so I agreed. But it was not a happy voyage, the scary highlight of which was being in Luxor one day before the first Al Quaeda terrorist massacre of 62 tourists. Plus I had a serious nose-bleed, requiring hospital treatment. A close shave.
Astrocartography can be uncannily accurate but it may not always be fully lived out and can function in obscure ways. On my own chart – Big Sur in California is my idea of healing heaven with Venus, Mars, Neptune and Chiron lines anchored there. India with which I have strong and friendly career connections flags up. But I have never quite worked out what I am supposed to do with my most successful career lines running through Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the UAE. Maybe in another lifetime.
On mulling over those lines through the Middle East and further north – those regions did have a resonance for me. I read voraciously of explorers in Arabia when I was a teenager and since have been fascinated by melting-pot Middle Eastern history ancient and modern.
I even have a tenuous connection extraordinarily enough with Kazakh/Mongolia where my Chiron/MC line runs. It is connected to a friend who sadly suicided just as he was going out there to film. I had introduced him to an intermediary who was able to get permissions and make the impossible happen. But tragically it wasn’t enough.
So the lines do spark up interest even if never visited.
Not everyone is mobile or has a choice about uprooting but astrocartography can still indicate places where connections at a distance can be made or explored.
Michael Gambon, one of the greats of British theatre has died. An illustrious six decade career firmly founded on years with Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre, allowed him to branch out in TV and films – Maigret, The Singing Detective, Dad’s Army, The King’s Speech and Gosford Park until he landed the role of Dumbledore in six of the Harry Potter films.
He was born 19 on October 1940, no birth time, in Dublin into a working class family, which moved to England when he was six. He left school at 15, became an apprentice toolmaker, then a qualified engineering technician. Aged 24, he wrote a letter to the Gate Theatre in Dublin outlining an imaginary theatre career and was taken on.
He was a Sun Libra in a mischievous, oddball inconjunct to Uranus which was in turn in a creative trine to Neptune. He had the grounded Saturn Jupiter conjunction in Taurus trine his Venus in Virgo. His Mars in Libra conjunct his North Node was in a determined sextile to Pluto conjunct his Chiron. His Uranus was further emphasized being opposition his Mercury in Scorpio. He would definitely stand out from the crowd.
He did have a wonderful – and well-trained – stage voice which maybe his Neptune sitting on his Mercury/Pluto midpoint helped.
His actor’s 15th harmonic was well aspected.
I once saw him in Checkhov’s The Cherry Orchard and he was superb and memorable. His Maigret was also a tour de force.
I wondered what had motivated him to make such a bold and dramatic switch out of engineering into the theatre. When he was 24 in 1964 tr Uranus Pluto in Virgo were conjunct his Venus and trine his Saturn Jupiter conjunction – arguably making him aware that his day job might fulfil his Saturn in Taurus but did nothing for his Jupiter – so ideals and dreams won the day as well as luck.
