Leslie van Houten, one of the Manson gang, has been refused parole again after nearly five decades in prison. The California Governor reversed her release, as has happened several times before. She is serving life, commuted from a death sentence, for helping Manson and others to kill the Los Angeles grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, when she was 19 in August 1969. This was the day after the Sharon Tate murders in which van Houten was not involved.
Two others of the Manson gang are also still in prison with Manson and one other having died inside.
Van Houten was born 23 August 1949 5.51 am Los Angeles in a middle class home but took to drugs in her mid teens, at 17 was forced by her mother to have a late term abortion when she got pregnant; and ended up living with Charles Manson in a commune where he doled out copious quantities of LSD.
She has a Sun Saturn in Virgo on her Ascendant; with an intense Moon Pluto in Leo in her 12th and an adventurous Jupiter in Capricorn in her 5th opposition Mars in Cancer. It’s not a particularly brutal chart but she does have a strong self-destructive 16th harmonic chart and a stressed 12H. In numerology 12 ‘warns against being a victim of circumstances, or dragged into other people’s affairs where you will be the one suffering the consequences.’
Her opportunistic, risk-taking Jupiter opposition Mars fell across Manson’s Midheaven opposition Pluto so his power trip would tap into her reckless streak. And when she committed the murders her Solar Arc Uranus was opposition her Jupiter triggering her over-confidence.
Her chart is surprisingly upbeat for someone just turned down for parole. Tr Pluto is on the final conjunction to her Jupiter till after mid this month; with another Jupiter midpoint uptick after mid 2021.
By this time she’ll be so institutionalised it would be challenging in the extreme to move back into the world. But it does seem a stretch to keep her there after all this time.
Mark Rutte, the Netherlands PM, is being criticised for not shutting down Black Friday sales. Shoppers were crowding in though numbers were significantly down on previous years. He’s in the usual political double-bind of too much or too little and not being able to please everyone. The Covid spike in early November appears to be going down though slowly.
Born 14 February 1967 7.30 pm The Hague, he’s a hard-working though not always decisive Sun Aquarius square Neptune; with a five planet batch in Mutable signs of Mercury, Venus, Saturn in Pisces opposition Pluto Uranus in Virgo. Mutable planets tend to be highly-strung and prone to anxiety though also overly adaptable, getting swept around by prevailing circumstances. His secretive and intense 8th house Aries Moon is square Jupiter and trine Neptune as well as opposition Mars in Scorpio so he will blow soft and tough.
He looks pumped-up and overly-confident at the moment with his Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct his Pluto; and will be bullish and go-ahead from late February 2021 for two years with tr Pluto opposition his Jupiter. But he also has the slow erosion of tr Neptune conjunct his Venus now, and opposition his Pluto and then Uranus in 2021 and on to conjunct his Saturn by mid decade. So there will be disappointments galore.
His latest Term which started on 26 October 2017 does have a lucky Sun Jupiter conjunction, but it starts to look less stable from late February 2021 for two years with tr Pluto squaring the Uranus; with great uncertainty in 2022 if it’s still running.
The Netherlands 26 July 1581 JC chart will be rattled mightily by the tr Uranus square tr Saturn in 2021 hitting on the Leo Sun; and in the following year the financial Venus and Uranus. It’ll be a rocky ride, shared by almost every other country, running into a serious setback in 2022 from Solar Arc Mars square the Saturn.
The Bank of Netherlands, 25 March 1814, will be under mounting pressure and stress from late February 2021 with tr Pluto trine the Mars; and sagging throughout the year with tr Neptune conjunct the Pluto; with panics about failures in 2022 from Solar Arc Mars conjunct the Neptune; running into two years of cutbacks and shortages in 2023/24 from tr Pluto conjunct the Saturn. So an extended period of recovery from the economic hit.
Philip Green, known alternatively as the King of the High Street and the ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’ has seen his flagship company Arcadia go bust with the loss of 13,000 jobs. He and his wife Tina live tax-free in Monaco and were heavily criticised for the sale in 2015 of department store BHS for a token sum. He denied having done so to avoid a massive pension plan liability. After a highly critical media campaign he later paid £363m to make good the scheme.
There appears to be no requirement for companies to repair any deficit in the pension schemes but he’ll still be attacked if he doesn’t in this instance since he and his wife built their fortune on a 2005 £1.2bn dividend they took out of the business. The Arcadia group of shops, bought by him was transferred immediately to his wife and is majority-owned by her Taveta Investments, set up on 19th June 2002.
He was born 15 March 1952, with a property developer father who died when he was 12 and he left school at 15 with no O-levels. He travelled in the USA and Far East and set up his first business when he was 21 and went on from there.
He is a Sun Pisces, like Rupert Murdoch, with a super-determined and unsentimental Mars in Scorpio trine his Sun, in a ruthless square to Pluto and trine Uranus – hard-driving, a risk-taker, bad-tempered. His Jupiter in go-ahead Aries is in a confident trine to Pluto and opposition both Saturn and Neptune in Libra. The Jupiter Saturn will give him mood swings and Jupiter Neptune can be delusional or at least given to unrealistic dreams.
His get-it-together 5th Harmonic chart is well-aspected; and his rise-and-fall 10H (from hero to zero) is also notable. His strongest harmonic is his what-gives-him-pleasure 9H, often the case with avaricious money men.
His worst year is yet to come with tr Neptune conjunct his Sun and his Jupiter/Node midpoint in 2022 along with a shockingly insecure tr Uranus opposition his Mars and square his Pluto. There’ll be a few swampy patches in 2021 but the year after will be his nadir.
Not that he’ll be left without a bean but his fortune is already thought to be a fifth of what it was a few years back. Down from nearly £5 billion to under £1 billion.
Taveta is also taking in water with tr Neptune eroding the Saturn in Gemini opposition Pluto from a couple of years back through till February 2021; and then heading for the Gemini Sun come 2022/23.
There are straws in the wind of the coming of the new age of Aquarius – part of which will be tolerance of difference, an acceptance of a rainbow not just of ethnicity but also of opinion. Aquarius is not all a beacon of perfection but it does have its merits.
This is a thinking-in-progress piece so it will wander.
Since progress usually comes as a result of a backlash against a retrograde step there are encouraging signals that the ‘cancel culture’, ‘wokery’ and ‘snowflakery’ are increasingly attracting criticism and that freedom of speech is heading for a revival. The latest brouhaha in Eton of all places has seen a strong response to the firing of a teacher who opened up a debate on the prevailing idea of ‘toxic masculinity’. He questioned the radical feminist orthodoxy to encourage discussion about the positive aspects of both sexes/genders. 1000 students signed a protest against his removal. Eton claims his lecture was in contravention of the Equalities Act – I’m not sure if that stipulates both sexes are interchangeably the same. If it does it’s wrong.
An old boy remarked: ‘Eton is meant to be a bastion of learning and free speech. George Orwell went to Eton. What would he think? 1984 was meant to be satire, not a how-to manual.’
The Eton hash follows Suzanne Moore’s resignation over the trans argument and the assault on JK Rowling by the shrieking banshees – both of whom are attracting a groundswell of support from the normally silent majority that would have been unthinkable a year ago.
Two things strike me – one is that over-sensitive reactions come from people who perceive themselves as helpless victims, demanding (and bullying) big daddy state or institutions to protect them. And secondly that much of the recent phenomenon of de-platforming has mainly centred around the topic of femininity and male-to-female transgenderism.
Camilla Long bravely took on the subject of female victimhood in The Sunday Times yesterday, asking if this is what early feminists died for. ‘You find this princessy poor-me language creeping into nearly every corner of female experience.’ Misery sagas about the menopause, menstruation etc etc.
There’s also an oddity about allowing the most delicate/neurotic to legislate for the majority. It’s not what you’d normally associate with Capricorn. The old psychological adage that ‘there’s no one more powerful than a victim’ has been proved true over and over again in recent years. And has allowed the culture to be menaced by those howling anguish at the slightest trigger.
Maybe it’s more Neptune in Pisces that has been causing the hyper-sensitivity and woe-is-me wailing. Which would make more sense. [Neptune in Pisces from 2011 to 2026.]
They always say that each sign fears the one before. Drowning-in-water and emotion-saturated Pisces may well be quailing as it views the ascendancy of Airy, emotionally detached Aquarius in the years before it exits.
Aquarius is traditionally regarded both as an androgynous (of indeterminate sex) sign and as against the biology. Hence the connection to its co-ruler Uranus, the sky god, estranged husband of Gaia, the earth mother, who was castrated by his son Kronos (Saturn). Though the other co-ruler of Aquarius is the earthbound Saturn which makes for an uncomfortable combination.
It’ll be ironic if the ambi-sexual and non-sexual Aquarius takes the heat out of this particular debate.
A resume of what the conjunction can mean and its fated associations.
Jupiter—expansive, idealistic, high-minded, a soaring energy —is usually described by astrologers in glowingly positive terms. It brightens, keeps optimism high, boosts confidence, smooths rough edges and produces pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. The downside is a tendency to impracticality, or paradoxically to narrow-mindedness when its lofty philosophy moves into self-righteousness. Mythologically connected to Zeus, the supreme deity (who fathered myriad children — many of them illegitimate, to the intense aggravation of his wife, Hera), it is an energy that brings Olympian aspirations. The thunderbolt and the eagle were Zeus’s symbols, although Jupiter as ruler of Sagittarius is also connected with Chiron, the centaur, the wise but wounded healer, philosopher, teacher, who helps others but cannot cure himself.
The Jupiter–Saturn mix is an interface of opposites. Idealism versus materialism; high-flying boundless ambition versus melancholy awareness of the inevitable limitations of life; the urge for immortality versus the Grim Reaper at the core of the human condition. The birth of a new messiah for the culture, or an upsurge of optimism, are usually seen as the outcome of Jupiter–Saturn conjunctions, which occur every 20 years and whose influence spans about 12 months. Saturn’s ability to give structure and apply self-discipline has the capacity to ground Jupiter’s soaring vision, but the balance is difficult to strike. Disappointment can follow the heady new beginnings, as Jupiter’s tendency to attempt too much too soon crash-lands. The combination of energies is symbolized by the myth of Icarus, who ignored his father’s advice and flew too close to the Sun, which melted his wax wings and caused him to plummet to earth and die.
Jupiter–Saturn can, then, tell a cautionary tale about the dangers of inflated ambition. This has uncanny resonances in the assassinations or untimely deaths of American presidents and other major figures, such as Princess Diana and John Lennon, and even Queen Victoria’s consort Prince Albert, who were raised to mythical status only to be cut short in their prime.
Cultural icons – and death
The zeitgeist, or spirit of the age, is often carried by a few personalities, whose lives seem marked out in some special way by destiny. Messiahs in their own sphere, they bear the hopes of their era, often reflected in these conjunctions. The most influential pop group of all time, the Beatles, was centred on John Lennon, a Liverpudlian Catholic born in 1940 with Jupiter–Saturn in Taurus; Lennon became the unlikely hero of a generation, with his wit and his songs of peace and protest. The Beatles’ debut occurred on the 1960 Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Capricorn, and Lennon’s shocking death on the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Libra in 1980. He was a legend, dead by the age of 40, and whose life was seemingly fated by these paradoxical conjunctions to rise high only to short-circuit.
Similarly, Diana, Princess of Wales was born in 1961 on a waning Jupiter–Saturn conjunction in Capricorn and Aquarius, and was married in 1980 during the exact Jupiter–Saturn conjunction — fittingly in the relationship sign of Libra — in a fairy-tale wedding watched by 700 million TV viewers around the globe. Tragically, high hopes disintegrated through the unhappy and increasingly scandal-prone years that followed, ending in her sudden death in a Paris car crash in 1997.
The attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II also occurred in 1981 on the Jupiter Saturn Libra conjunction.
Queen Victoria’s much-loved consort Prince Albert died at the early age of 42 from either typhoid or cancer, on the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Virgo sending his widow into seclusion for years. Victoria herself died during the Jupiter–Saturn conjunction in Capricorn in 1901, after a long and successful reign.
American presidents
Jupiter–Saturn has a special relevance to the United States and American history. One of the key dates after the Declaration of 1776, when hostilities with the British came to an end and American independence was formally recognized in 1783, fell during the Saturn–Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn.
More tragically, nearly every American president in the past 200 years who has been inaugurated on a Jupiter–Saturn conjunction has either been assassinated or survived an assassination attempt or else has died while in office. Thomas Jefferson, James Munroe, George W Bush are the exceptions to this rule.
J. F. Kennedy, elected in the hope of a new ‘Camelot’ in 1960, with Jupiter–Saturn in Capricorn, was dramatically shot in 1963 in Dallas. Ronald Reagan was inaugurated under Jupiter–Saturn in Libra and survived serious injuries sustained in an assassination attempt in 1981.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was voted in for an unprecedented four terms, the second of which, in 1940, fell during Jupiter–Saturn in Taurus. He died in office three months after his fourth inauguration in 1945, aged 63.
Warren Harding elected in 1920 on Jupiter–Saturn in Taurus, and died suddenly aged of 58 in 1923.
William McKinley, voted to a second term of office in 1900 under Jupiter–Saturn in Capricorn, survived less than a year of his second term, being shot by an anarchist on 19 September and dying eight days later; he was 58 years old.
James Garfield, elected with Jupiter–Saturn in Taurus in 1880 was shot by a deranged admirer of his critics in the July of his inauguration year, dying two months later from the wounds, aged 50. He was succeeded by Chester Arthur, whose health suffered badly under the strain of office.
Most famously of all Abraham Lincoln, elected for his first term of office on the Jupiter–Saturn conjunction of 1860 in Virgo, was shot by an actor in April 1865, months after his second inauguration; he was 56.
Elected in 1841 on the run-up to the conjunction in Capricorn, William Henry Harrison caught pneumonia at his inauguration and died a month later.
Intriguingly Thomas Jefferson, born in 1763 and one of only two presidents to survive a Jupiter–Saturn election, has the conjunction in his birth chart in Leo and Virgo. Roosevelt, who was born in 1882 and who survived through to his fourth term, also has a Saturn–Jupiter conjunction in Taurus in his chart.
George W. Bush, elected on the Jupiter Saturn conjunction of 2000, faced a dangerous presidency, with the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001, setting off a war against global terrorism.
Legend has it that the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Pisces of 7CE was the Star of Bethlehem which led the three wise men to the birth of Christ.
From: The Astrological History of the World. Marjorie Orr.
Thanks to Hugh for: The cycle of Jupiter Saturn Great Conjunctions is now moving to Air signs for a couple of centuries. The last time that happened was in the 13th Century. A foretaste of the new heavenly cycle was the 1980s and 1990s which was when the first of the new Conjunctions occurred in Libra.
Without wishing to put a damper on the event it should be noted that the previous cycle in the Middle Ages was not a time of particularly great joy as it coincided with the Mongol Invasions, the Great Famines in Europe of the early 14th century, the Black Death, the 100 years war, the Peasants Revolt and the Jacquerie.
An even older Air cycle of Great Conjunctions in the 5th and 6th Centuries was pretty traumatic too seeing the fall of the western Roman Empire, the Great Justinian Plague and the decline of the world of late Antiquity. One thing common to both those cycles was disease and population collapse.
Hard to believe given what happened in the 20th century but demographers are convinced that the human world population fertility is already well past its peak and that increasing life expectancy is basically now all that is keeping growth going. The fact that COVID has now started to dent even that trend suggests we may be about to see the same again over the coming centuries. Vettius Valens gives as one of the characteristics of Aquarius as “few offspring”.
Actor Michael Fox has announced his retirement due to health concerns. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease thirty years ago and started drinking heavily and suffered from depression. He then pulled himself together and started a foundation to advocate for sufferers of the disease. He’s still leaving the door open for the possibility of an improvement which might see him return but says for the time being he is finding it difficult to memorize lines.
Born 9 June 1961 12.15 am Edmonton, Canada, he has a 4th house Gemini Sun sextile an excitable Mars Uranus in Leo in his 5th. His steady Taurus Moon is conjunct Venus opposition an 8th house superstar Neptune and square a 12th house Jupiter and Saturn. In addition to being super-indulgent and eternally optimistic, such a Jupiterian T Square if handled well can give the ability to be an enlightened social spokesperson. His Moon Venus is also in a charmingly seductive trine to his Pluto North Node in Virgo. He has Mercury in Cancer in his performing 5th house trine Neptune, sextile Pluto – giving him abilities as a comunicator.
When he was first diagnosed in 1991 he was on his First Saturn Return with the triple conjunction of Saturn Uranus Neptune in Capricorn moving through his psychological 12th house so it would be a deeply unsettling experience. In addition – and worse – tr Pluto was then square his Mars and Uranus which would be scary, trapped and hugely disruptive. His Progressed Mars was also opposition his Pluto so he would feel completely cornered.
At the moment he is on his Second Saturn Return with the triple conjunction of Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter moving through his 12th house. So in addition to feeling held back he will be sensing a need to gradually let go old ambitions. Tr Neptune has also been squaring his Gemini Sun this year, finishing up late January 2021, which is low energy.
His get-it-together 5th Harmonic is exceptionally strong; as is his victim/healer 12H; and ‘seeking soul’ creative 7H and his actors’ 15H.
His fourth book is out: “No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality.”
There is an irony for such a Jupiterian personality whose half-glass-full approach to life has helped him stay buoyant through a devastating disease that it is Saturn which pulls him down. Or maybe not. It’s always the eternal struggle for the Jupiter Saturn conjunction. Jupiter raises high to the Olympian heights while Saturn cuts down to earth.
The groundhog day of coronavirus lockdown may extend till spring according to the UK government, thereby obliterating Christmas. In laissez-faire USA, the number of cases is spiralling with an increase likely after Thanksgiving. France having seen a spike in early November imposed a second full-scale set of restrictions which is now easing slightly but will be reimposed if the situation reverses. And so it drags on in many though not all countries.
The astrology would indicate a shift in mood after the middle of this December as Saturn and Jupiter move into airy Aquarius out of leaden Capricorn and begin a gradual move away from Pluto. But that will not necessarily open a gate into the sunny uplands instantly. Mars in Aries which has been causing aggravation and frustration since mid year in square to the triple Capricorn conjunction won’t exit until January 9th and has one last scary, blocked hard aspect to Pluto running into December 23rd.
Neptune is also sitting on the Saturn/Uranus midpoint exactly now until the New Year which suggests a paralysis of will, and the need to resign to the inevitable. The December 14th Total Solar Eclipse is in a Saros series with a similar theme – caught up in events beyond control, checked, blocked, a great deal of frustration – with the advice to avoid rash action until the dust settles.
The December Eclipse highlights Neptune on the focal point of a Mutable T Square which is not encouraging – indecisive, confused, impractical, lacking will-power. Mars is trine the New Moon Mercury for a burst of energy, but also squares Pluto for a major road-block. It lasts in effect for several months.
Into January Mars moves into Taurus and promptly rattles up against Saturn in Aquarius for setbacks and Uranus in Taurus for insecurity and irritations as well as Jupiter for a few rays of sunshine; with the first economically-challenging tr Saturn square tr Uranus due mid February.
Relief may creep in only in small stages.
The delightful Marina Hyde is on form in the Guardian about the Boris gibber and witter in the face of impending doom.
Two women in the news this week for raising the ire of dictatorial regimes are both of the Pluto in Scorpio generation.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, 28 May 1987, an Australian academic has been released after 804 days in Iranian prisons. She attended a conference in Iran and was arrested on espionage charges which she has strenuously denied. The Australian government has refused to confirm her freedom was extracted through a prisoner swap. She went on repeated hunger strikes and her health had deteriorated during long stretches in solitary confinement.
She has a New Moon in Gemini with her Sun on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Pluto in Scorpio sextile Neptune – so a curious mixture of over and under confident. Her Pluto is in an intense opposition to Venus in Taurus and her Neptune opposes Mars, with the two oppositions forming a Mystic Rectangle, whose energies are always hard to balance.
Her life is certainly turning upside down as her release is organised with tr Uranus opposing her Pluto and an upbeat tr Pluto trine her Solar Arc Jupiter. Ahead is up and down with successes and contentment as well as uncertainties and concerns. She will experience a psychological backlash from spending so much time in fear and conditions of deprivation after the euphoria of freedom wears off. When she was arrested her Solar Arc Neptune was square her Pluto – not unlike Jake Haendel (post below) when his brain collapse locked him in.
The other in a more perilous situation is Loujain al-Hathioul, 31 July 1989, who led the charge to allow women to drive in Saudi Arabia, and is back standing trial this week in in a special court which deals with national security crimes and terrorism. She was arrested in early 2018 and told her sister last year that “she had been held in solitary confinement, beaten, waterboarded, given electric shocks, sexually harassed and threatened with rape and murder. She was shaking uncontrollably, unable to hold her grip, to walk or sit normally”.
She’s an intense and stubborn Sun Leo square Pluto in Scorpio with the triple conjunction of Uranus, Saturn, Neptune in Capricorn opposition Jupiter and trine Venus. When she was arrested in 2018 her Solar Arc Neptune was opposition her Sun and tugging on her Pluto, though Solar Arc Neptune won’t get to the exact square to her Pluto until 2022. At the moment tr Saturn is opposing her Sun with tr Uranus squaring her Sun which is high tension, being buffeted around; and she has a tranche of less than wonderful transits to midpoints over the next few years. Her triple conjunction is moving by Solar Arc to oppose her Sun and square her Pluto won’t clear for almost a decade ahead for a protracted period of crisis. She is one brave lady taking on that regime.
It’s telling that both women have their Pluto in Scorpio aspecting their Sun – as does Jake Haendel. And all three had relatively similar Pluto Neptune Solar Arc collisions when they went into effective meltdown, their lives paralysed.
A locked-in patient who returned from a twilight non-existence has been telling his extraordinary story. Jake Haendel is a former opioid and heroin addict who wreaked catastrophic brain damage on himself. Expected to die, he remained in a non-communicative state, with his father describing him as ‘a houseplant’ although he was aware of everything going on around him. He later called himself as a ghost inside a broken machine.
After nine months he made a breakthrough and started rudimentary signals to express himself. He has now recovered the power of speech and hopes to walk again soon. Earlier this year he contracted Covid but bizarrely it appeared to speed his recovery once it had passed. Doctors regard him as a unique case and a medical miracle, though they are aware that after injury different areas of the brain are “recruited” to recover lost function, forming new neural pathways in an effort to heal. Jake believes he thought himself better.
Born 31 October 1988 in Massachusetts, he’s an incredibly determined and stubborn Sun Pluto in Scorpio; with the brilliant and chaotic triple conjunction of Uranus Saturn in Sagittarius and Neptune in Capricorn squaring onto Mars in Pisces, so highly strung, a risk-taker and reckless.
When he collapsed into a coma in December 2017 he was just over his First Saturn Return, which can be a sharp reality check. And his Solar Arc Neptune was moving to square his Sun; tr Neptune was square his Solar Arc Pluto and trine his natal Pluto. Tr Neptune was moving to conjunct his Pisces North Node and his Solar Arc Pluto was moving to square his Node over his long months of locked-in-ness. Pluto Neptune can bring devastation and confusion.
When he made his first tentative movements towards communication in June 2018 tr Jupiter then in Scorpio was conjunct his Pluto stirring his confidence. Tr Pluto in the weeks before had been square his Mercury. And tr Saturn was conjunct his Neptune about to finish moving across his triple conjunction.
His beyond-obstinate Sun Pluto in Scorpio would be what dragged him into the depths and pulled him back out. A miracle-making Scorpio. Though he’s still in transition with a disruptive tr Uranus opposing his Sun and then his Pluto through 2021.
His breakthrough 13th harmonic is strong; and even more so his 16H which carries a warning of catastrophes, sometimes self-inflicted but also brings an extraordinary will to survive.
Mystic Medusa interestingly has highlighted another addict, veteran Alex Minsky born the year before and she says:
‘Sun-Pluto in Scorpio often undergo intense and unusual experiences, almost like a legendary journey into darkness to face demons. It is a life-death-rebirth vibe, a mythological epic transformation trip – you embody this.’
