not categorised

Great men are rarely well balanced and thoughtful human beings and George Orwell, whose chilling insights into truth twisting and totalitarian thinking are still mainstream eighty years after his death, is no exception.

  A new biography of him lays bare the fault line between his writing supremacy and his abject failings as a husband. He was born in India on 25 June 1903, maybe 2.30pm, Moithari, with his father in the civil service, sent back to a typically sadistic English boarding school and then Eton. After a brief sojourn back in India in the police, he decided to become a writer and returned to England penniless. He worked in a bookshop and in Paris as a washer-upper where he contracted tuberculosis.

 Despite his awkwardness in female company he married Oxford educated Eileen O’Shaughnessy who co-wrote  Animal Farm with him. Orwell was addicted to a spartan lifestyle and Eileen often had to do all the household tasks as well as caring for the goat and chickens, part of his plan for subsistence living, in a house with no mains gas, a single cold tap and a leaking corrugated iron roof. She typed for Orwell and his friends. It was an open marriage as he resorted to prostitutes, and she too may have had a lover. When the Spanish Civil War broke out he pawned the family silver to pay for his passage to Spain and she later joined him.

  When Eileen became ill and died on the operating table in 1945 Orwell was absent, having accepted a newspaper offer to report on bomb-damaged German towns. After that with his own health deteriorating he moved with his adopted son to a Scottish island, and died three months after remarrying in 1950.

  A bleak man.

  He had a Cancer Sun conjunct Neptune and Moon – creative, but not well designed for commitment. He had a revolutionary Uranus opposition Pluto square Jupiter in Pisces – which would give his tendency to rock the boat a mellow edge with lucky outcomes. His Air Grand Trine made him a thinker and a communicator but emotionally cool and detached especially since it linked Mars to Saturn in Aquarius to Mercury in Gemini with Saturn opposition Venus. Ice water in his veins is one way to look at him – or, more sympathetically, damaged psychologically so empathy was difficult for him.   If the birth time is accurate it gives an influential 8^th house Pluto, an entertaining 5^th house Jupiter, a chilly domestic Saturn in the 4^th and a living-abroad 9^th house Moon with Sun Neptune also on the  cusp of the 9^th house of publishing and writing. So it is feasible.

  His poor downtrodden wife, Eileen Blair, 25 September 1905, had a Sun Libra conjunct his Mars and square his Neptune Sun which made for an argumentative and delusional/illusory match. Like him she had a Venus in Leo opposition Saturn so was used to doing with less affection and was also used to being pushed around. She had a Mars opposition Pluto, which sat on top of his Uranus opposition Pluto – and that is an explosive and damaging combination.

  Their relationship chart also hints at a masochistic streak since the composite Sun and Venus oppose Saturn and square Mars – cold and downtrodden, demanding a sacrificial partner. There was also a composite Uranus opposition Pluto square North Node – together they made a mark on a time of turmoil and radical change.

  What a destructive relationship.  

  His breakthrough-genius 13H is strong and bleak. His leaving-a-legacy 17H is also marked as is his writer’s 21H and his global presence 22H.

Boris Johnson is resisting suggestions – demands – that his office hand over unredacted What’s App and other diaries and notebooks to the Covid inquiry. The deadline has been extended until Thursday. The inquiry says failing to release the unredacted material would be a criminal offence and the  crossbench peer Baroness Hallett, chair of the inquiry, said it was her role, not that of the government, to decide what was relevant.

  Former head of the civil service Lord Kerslake said in a radio interview that the documents should be released. He said: “There’s some cover-up going on here to save embarrassment of ministers, but there’s also the Cabinet Office fighting for a principle of confidentiality. I have to say I think they’re misguided on this situation.”

  Campaign groups representing bereaved families have said it is “outrageous” that the Cabinet Office thinks it can dictate what material can be released.

  BJ, 19 June 1964 2pm New York, is labouring under the emotionally intense tr Pluto square his Scorpio Moon at the moment (though the rapidly approaching birth of his 8th? child may also be involved with that) – certainly wound up until mid June and again through 2024.  At the same time he has tr Pluto opposition his Mercury/Pluto midpoint which will lead to mental strain and bitter outbursts.

  He’s also got the discouraging transiting Saturn in Pisces wending its way round his whirlwind/typhoon Mutable T Square – exactly opposition his Uranus now for high tension and along with a panicky downer as it opposes his Sun/Neptune midpoint.  That gives way from tomorrow as tr Saturn then squares his Sun/Jupiter midpoint until early July – Ebertin describes this as bringing a negative state of mind, incapability and incompetence,  loss of good fortune or loss of employment, lack of success. It isn’t hugely strong and Ebertin tends to be overly dramatic in his interpretations but it will undoubtedly damp his normal exuberance. These Saturnine discouragers including his second Saturn Return repeat on and off till February 2024. With a blocked tr Saturn opposition his Pluto in 2024.

   He does have tr Jupiter moving into his 8^th house from this July onwards for a year which will bring money in so his speaking engagements and/or publishing contracts won’t diminish.

  Baroness Heather Hallett, 16 December 1949, a retired judge elevated to the Lords by Theresa May is chairing the inquiry. She is a Sun Sagittarius trine Pluto with her Sun also square a disciplined Mars Saturn in Virgo plus a Scorpio Moon. Her Saturn and Mars square BJ’s Mercury, Sun, Venus in Gemini so she’s a fairly implacable opponent.  Her Pluto is also square his head-in-the-clouds, evasive Jupiter opposition Neptune – so she may be just the person to pin him down. Though she’s not having an overly successful year herself with tr Neptune opposition her Mars and square her Sun.

  What is intriguing is that her relationship chart with BJ shows a long hangover of hostility and frustration with tr Neptune undermining the composite Sun opposition Jupiter into early 2024; even worse tr Pluto is in a bitterly aggravated square to the composite Mars through till late 2024. High tensions will spill over in 2024/25 with tr Pluto square the composite Neptune; and there’ll be a considerable upheaval/disruption in their connections in 2025/26. 

  What is odd about relationship charts is that they keep functioning even though the two individuals may have parted company and never meet again. But there is maybe a thought that he will not be  happy about damage the inquiry does to his future chances.

The winds of change in the Middle East appear to have brought together a troubling alliance of Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. ‘This axis of antagonists has rarely cooperated so directly in the past’ and is raising fears in Israel of an outbreak of war in the region. One political commentator said that Tehran was boosting its presence in Syria and Lebanon with these links in order to create an “effective deterrence belt” around Israel. “The presence in Syria and Lebanon is to a large extent a defensive posture, deterring not only the Israelis but by extension the Americans from taking military action against Iran.”

  Benjamin Netanyahu’s chaotic right-wing coalition has inflamed Muslim/Palestinian feeling within its borders and is struggling to maintain its authority in Israel.

  The Israel country chart is a good deal more troubled ahead than that of Iran – see previous posts 27 March 2023 and 30 December 2022. Neither Iran chart, 7 October 1906 and 1 February 1979, is flagging up anything too stressed ahead.  Though the Iran/Israel relationship chart hints at aggravation this year and turbulence in 2024/25. A similar timeline is indicated in the USA/Iran relationship charts with uncertainty and concern this year, escalating in 2024/2025.  

  Iran and Afghanistan do look to be locked in combat in 2025/26.

  The Solar Eclipse of October 2024 in Libra is pointed up in several charts as significant. By that time tr Uranus in late Taurus is trine Pluto giving rise to movements pressing for change to the old order. By 2025 Israel has tr Uranus square its Mars which could be potentially violent.

 2024/2025 will bring a few sobering moments between the USA and Israel with the old rock-solid affinity being less robust than before.  Although on Joe Biden’s astrocartography  Teheran does put Mars exactly on his Descendant so it is one of his diplomatic and warzone hot spots.

Is the Conservative Party about to tear itself apart? Rishi Sunak held hostage by the far-right has no real authority over his Cabinet, caving in to pressure over the disastrous Suella Braverman, facing witch-hunt/ stitch-up yowls over the continuing Covid-party investigation of Boris Johnson. The electorate is distancing itself from the Brexit vote and is alarmed at the government’s inability to get a grip of soaring immigration figures, the economy or indeed other malfunctions of various of public utilities.

  Braverman, 3 April 1980, was the Home Secretary firstly under Liz Truss, then Sunak and formerly chair of the European Research Group. In 2018 she resigned in protest against May’s draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. She resigned as Truss’s home secretary following criticism for breaching the Ministerial Code by sending a sensitive official document to a political ally using her personal email address. Six days later, she was reinstated as home secretary by Rishi Sunak and is facing a firestorm over her remarks about immigrants and trying to avoid public scrutiny of a speeding fine.

  She was born nearly six weeks before Rishi Sunak. Her Aries Sun is in a controlling opposition to Pluto; and she has a flamboyant and bombastic Mars in Leo conjunct North Node on the focal point of a Fixed T Square to Uranus opposition Venus in Taurus – beyond-stubborn and emotionally volatile. Her Mercury in Pisces opposes Saturn in Virgo square Neptune – scattered, nervy, slippery.

 She appears to be at odds with the chancellor Jeremy Hunt. A source is quoted as saying. “There is no love lost there at all. Jeremy is very clear that he is not going to sacrifice economic growth to help her appeal to the Tory right.”

  The party is facing a plethora of ‘apparently irreconcilable political imperatives’ on a number of issues and it is difficult to see where the solution lies.

  The Conservative Party chart, whether 12 November 1867 or 9 May 1912 – has Sun and Saturn conjunct in Scorpio and Taurus respectively and both in the line of fire of tr Uranus hard aspects exactly now, building up pressure through the middle of this year and running through into 2024. So a time of high tension, eruptions and a tug of war between the future (Uranus) and the past (Saturn) – the stalemate won’t be resolved quickly.

  The turnaround on the 1912 chart comes in 2025/26 with tr Pluto conjunct the Uranus for a dramatic shift. Rishi Sun has his Taurus Sun around a similar degree as the Party so will be having the same roller coaster ride through this year and next. He is not a quitter but he may come close as he slithers, slide and sinks through a series of swamps and quick sands this year into 2024.

Television celebrities who become familiar friends on the box in the corner are shining superstars for their fans and nonentities to everyone else. The unholy fuss over the king of daytime tv Philip Schofield is a case in point. He has been at the top in his own narrow orbit for decades with a particular skill in live presenting and is described by the Mail as “so powerful at ITV that he could hire or fire anyone he wanted.” 

   From hero to zero he has landed with a dull thud following a falling out with his co-presenter Holly Willoughby once his protégé and his brother being imprisoned for child sex offences. Now his admission of a clandestine relationship with a young employee has put the final nail in his career. He met him when he was 15, found a job for him, lied about their liaison before coming out as gay – and is now only coming clean because the young man, now in his twenties, became tired of lying.

  Headlines even in the upmarket newspapers did seem like overkill since it was – apparently – not an under-age fling. And the only reason it is worth pausing over is interesting astrology.

  Born 1 April 1962 2 am (from memory) Oldham, England, he has a quick witted Aries Sun in the 3^rd house. But what is eye-catching is an 8^th house Pluto on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Sun sextile Saturn. Such a Pluto would start out in life disconnected from people but it can raise the individual to an influential position where he has control. The downside is a tendency to manipulate or coerce. Pluto in the 8^th would give him the ability to project an authoritative power though in a hidden way. He also has Uranus in his 8^th – and the combination of both Pluto and Uranus in the 8^th does suggest a turbulent family background and inner life, driven by forces he does not always understand or have a good grip on.

  His Aquarius Moon and Saturn oppose an 8^th house Leo North Node square Neptune in Scorpio. An 8^th house North Node is similar to a Scorpio NN and tends to have extreme levels of possessiveness for money and people, low self-control for self-discipline – and can trip into sexual misadventures. Transformation for this Node is difficult until everything is let go and the individual learns to walk lightly and not look back.

  At the moment tr Saturn is moving through his low profile First Quadrant which is a less successful time when banana skins often appear for the over ambitious – and unresolved psychological and emotional issues surface.  His 4^th house Venus in Aries also caught the April Solar Eclipse which usually brings an emotional crisis; and the May Lunar Eclipse was conjunct his Neptune, dragging secrets into the open.

  Industry insiders say his career is finished for good. Astrologically he won’t emerge into a more progressive career patch for a few years. But his 8^th house planets could give him the ability to make a successful businessman. 

Despite being an Aries with an Aquarius Moon, the main drift of his chart is much more Plutonic.

ADD ON: Eamonn Homes, another daytime TV presenter, is putting the boot in with a vengeance in the aftermath, describing Scofield as a narcissist and spilling the beans about his nights out with his young lover. Holmes, 3 December 1959, is an outspoken Sun Jupiter in Sagittarius and that squares his Pluto giving it an extra punch. Plus he has a real sting-in-the-tail Mercury Mars in Scorpio.

  Holmes’ Sun Jupiter square Pluto crashes into Scofield’s Pluto opposition Mars so it will be a clash of the mini-Titans.  Their relationship chart has a seriously aggravated composite Saturn Mars Jupiter Mercury opposition Venus – a reservoir of dislike in their; with an evasive and disconnected composite Sun square Neptune.  

Pots and kettles and point scoring – all a touch unprofessional and unseemly even if the tabloids and the punters lap it up.

Uranus, the sky god, is a trailblazer, a catalyst for change and a lightning striker, illuminating what has become stuck and needs a sharp wake up call. Uncompromising and uncooperative, it fights for tolerance and freedom but can be anarchic and lawless as well as an idealist and humanitarian.

  A Uranus Return comes round every 84 years having moved for an individual through the post-teenage rebellion of the first Uranus square at 21 and the midlife crisis of the opposition at 42 years old.

  For countries the Return does appear to coincide with historic markers.

  The USA had its first Uranus Return in 1860 as the Civil War rapidly approached, spilling out into open clashes in 1861 when Uranus was only one degree over the natal position. Next time round in 1943-44, the USA had just joined WW11 after Pearl Harbor in December 1941 which immediately preceded the Uranus Return. Immediately following the Hiroshima bomb was dropped in 1945. Their next Uranus Return will be in 2027/28.

The UK had its first Uranus Return in 1885 – when the Berlin Conference carved up spheres of influence in Africa for European colonization. The first Irish Home Rule Bill saw an outbreak of hostilities between Catholics and Protestants.

  The next Uranus Return in 1969 saw the Irish Troubles start in earnest in Belfast. There were also problems in Southern Rhodesia with Ian Smith splitting away from the UK, declaring independence and a Republic.

In France their first Uranus Return in 1877 oversaw a constitutional crisis which led to the defeat of the Royalists. The second Uranus Return in 1960 saw an insurrection in the French colony of Algeria with outbreaks of violence; and the following year the Paris police infamously massacred unarmed and peaceful pro-Algeria demonstrators, between 40 and 200. Gabon and Mauritania became independent as the French empire went the way of the British. Algeria followed.

 Germany’s first Uranus Return in 1955 (after 1871) saw the Cold War hotting up as W Germany joined NATO and the USSR signed a treaty with East Germany.

Russia 1917, had their first Uranus Return in 2000 when Vladimir Putin took over and a particularly brutal 2^nd War was being fought in Chechnya.

  What does seem to be common themes in the above are divisions and disagreements with political rivals – or with previously dependent countries, demanding freedom.      

Celine Dion has cancelled all her remaining live shows after being diagnosed with Stiff-Person Syndrome (SPS)a rare neurological disorder. She said the disorder was causing muscle spasms and was “not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to”. The tour was to have been Dion’s first global concert tour in a decade and the first without her husband-manager Rene Angelil, who died from cancer in 2016.

SPS is a rare condition and not well understood,  characterised by fluctuating muscle rigidity in the trunk and limbs and a heightened sensitivity to stimuli such as noise, touch, and emotional distress, which can set off muscle spasms. While there is no cure for SPS, there are treatments – including anti-anxiety medicines and muscle relaxants – which can slow down its progression.

She was born 30 March 1968 Charlemagne, Canada with conflicting birth times of 12.15pm or 12.30 am. She has her Aries Sun conjunct a hard-working, forced-to-be-self-reliant Saturn. Her Aries Moon is trine Jupiter in Leo and may be conjunct Mars in early Taurus.  She also has Venus Mercury in musical Pisces opposition Pluto Uranus in Virgo and trine Neptune.

  I would be inclined to go for the circa 12.15pm birth time since it puts Neptune on the cusp of her performing 5^th house; and a career oriented Sun conjunct Midheaven and Saturn, Moon and Mars in her career 10^th.

  Tr Pluto is square her Aries Moon in 23/24 on this birth time and in recent years both tr Pluto and tr Saturn were moving through her 6th house. She looks understandably anxious ahead with tr Neptune opposition her Uranus this year and tr Uranus opposition her Neptune in 2024; plus a frustratingly trapped tr Pluto square her Mars in 24/25.

  It would be a tough diagnosis for anyone but for a pro-active Aries it will be doubly difficult slowing down and accepting her condition.

Leader of the far-right militia Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes,  has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the US Capitol riot, the longest yet given to a January 6 rioter. Prosecutors had asked for 25 years. Three other members were sentenced to 12 years, eight and a half and four years respectively in jail.

  The judge expressed concern about Rhodes’ violent rhetoric, including a threat to hang former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

  The Oath Keepers was founded 22 October 2009 by Rhodes, no birth date only 1966, and the organization has an aggressive Sun square Mars in Leo which is being ground down by tr Pluto square the Sun in 23/24 and tr Pluto opposition the Mars for a complete dead-halt in 2025 if it hasn’t happened before.

  The dictatorial, autocratic Uranus opposition Saturn in a controlling and unyielding square to (Moon) Pluto is being undermined by tr Neptune over the next three years. Basic meltdown time.

  From a previous post May 5 2023:

The Proud Boys follow the Oath Keepers – both USA far-right, anti-government militia groups – in paying the price for their hell-raising attack on the Capitol on January 6^th 2021 with the aim of preventing Biden from taking office. Hundreds of other rioters have already been jailed for their roles in the armed siege, during which one protester was shot dead and hundreds were injured, including more than 150 police officers. One officer who was beaten by Trump supporters died the next day. Four more took their own lives in the weeks that followed.

 Several members of the Oath Keepers, have already been convicted of seditious conspiracy and now four Proud Boys’ leaders have been convicted in what has become the biggest DoJ investigation ever. The leader Enrique Tarrio was not in Washington on the day of the riot, but prosecutors said he had planned and directed the attack on the Capitol. The jury were told the Proud Boys saw themselves as “Trump’s army”. Tarrio’s defence team tried to put the blame on Trump, claiming the group was incited by the president during his address outside the White House before the riot, when he urged his supporters to “fight like hell”. Trump himself faces a criminal investigation into his role in the attack.

  The Proud Boys, an exclusively male North American far-right neo-fascist organization was set up on 5 September 2016, which gives a Virgo Sun North Node trine Pluto and opposition Neptune square Saturn Mars in Sagittarius. Mars Saturn has military overtones. A focal point Mutable Saturn is a malcontent and self-righteous; and a focal point Mutable Mars is impatient, inclined to scattergun anger. There is also a more traditionally revolutionary Uranus in Aries square Pluto.

  This conviction occurs as the Saturn has moved by Solar Arc to exactly conjunct the Proud Boys Mars – which is a classic collision-setback influence. That chart would certainly fit with the Sibly USA Sag rising chart.

  The Oath Keepers, 22 October 2009, is tied into the USA chart through its Capricorn North Node hooking into the USA Mercury opposition Pluto in Capricorn. Its under extreme pressure this year with undermining circumstances continuing into 2024 – with tr Pluto square the Sun for a wipe-out transformation and tr Neptune moving to oppose the Saturn also in 2024.

   The January 6^th attack happened when tr Pluto Mercury in Capricorn on the Midheaven were triggering the fanatical/rabble-rousing USA Mercury in Cancer opposition Pluto. Worse the transiting Pluto Mercury were square Mars which is ruthless and brutal – and also tied into Saturn in Aquarius conjunct Jupiter which squares Mars Uranus in Taurus. An incendiary moment which lit up the USA chart in quite the wrong way.

  The rhetoric is not quite as raucous as it was but Pluto won’t clear its transit to the USA Pluto (and Mercury) till the end of this October and being Pluto will take time to wind down. Once the Pluto Return is over and done with perhaps along with mopping up lose ends from January 6^th it may be time to wipe the slate clean and see where a rebuild for a new phase can begin.

Please add below. Older posts under News on the top bar – though may be an hour or two for the past month since a cyber goblin ate four weeks’ worth and they are having to be manually reinput.

Moira Woods was a campaigning firebrand who emerged from a troubled childhood to spearhead advances in women’s health and  oversaw Europe’s first sexual assault treatment clinic in Ireland. She led a hectic, varied and passionate life – all of which is perfectly portrayed in her chart.

 She was born 26 September 1934 in London with a colonial civil servant father and a difficult mother, moving constantly abroad with his postings, eventually ending up in various boarding schools from which she was expelled. She was sent to live with her father in Kenya aged 15 and went on to study medicine at Trinity College Dublin, at 16, winning awards for work in psychiatry and surgery while studying.

  She ended up in a 20-year relationship with Cathal Goulding, the former chief of staff for the IRA; protested the Vietnam War, posed as a judge while conducting a mock trial of Richard Nixon; during the Troubles she sat in a church pew and set her coat alight in defiance of Catholic violence. And she co-founded the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement. By this time she had six children whom she regularly took on marches.

 She opened the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in 1979, Ireland’s first menopause clinic in 1980 and became director of Europe’s first dedicated sexual assault treatment unit for both women and children in Dublin in 1985. She was found guilty in 2002 of misdiagnosing the sexual abuse of children in three families though many colleagues thought the conviction unfounded. After the hearing she moved to Tuscany and for 26 years lived with an Italian-American partner, who shared her love of cooking, before returning to Ireland in 2021.

  An obituary said: “Woods was outspoken, irreverent and dismissive of societal norms — though she still enjoyed the finer things in life, such as haute cuisine and designer clothes.”

 She had a Libra Sun inconjunct wayward Uranus. But there were two configurations in her chart that really define her. One was an adventurous, risk-taking and enthusiastic Jupiter Mercury in Libra opposition Uranus in a rebellious/revolutionary square to a controlling Pluto. Such a Pluto would make her run into resistance and she’d be ahead of her time with some of her thinking which would arouse resistance. But she was influential and Jupiter Pluto would give her the self-assurance to push ahead.

  The other is a Mars in Leo opposition Saturn possibly square a Taurus Moon. It would certainly indicate experience of an unkind and unfair mother, breeding a simmering anger in her about injustice. She turned her ‘victimised’ child into a helper of those blighted by life with the aid of her pushily confident Jupiter Pluto. Her North Node in Aquarius would seek a cause to focus her energy on.

  Intriguing woman – and in Ireland of all places.

  Astrologically she is interesting since she turned round what could have been a problematic chart and made best use of the difficult aspects.

 Her leaving-a-legacy 17^th harmonic was strong linking together Mars Pluto (= rape) plus Venus plus Saturn.