not categorised

Leonardo di Caprio’s repetition compulsion for losing girl friends when they turn 25 is still in operation as yet another one exits on cue. Quite what he is re-enacting isn’t entirely obvious.

  He was born 11 November 1974 2.47am Los Angeles which gives him a charming and seductive Sun Venus in Scorpio in his financial 2^nd house with Mars in Scorpio also in his 2^nd in an enthusiastic trine to a 6^th house Jupiter and a 10th house Saturn. Money and work are his priorities.

   His Libra Moon sits just below his Ascendant conjunct Pluto and square Saturn which hints at an emotionally bleak childhood and a controlling and disciplinarian mother. Though his relationship with his mother in publicity photos appears close and he describes her as the driving force in nurturing his talent. His parents split when he was one but continued to live in neighbouring houses to be able to co-parent and he talks of it as a happy time.

 Not to be overly Freudian about it, the younger-girlfriend syndrome will be tied somehow into his relationship with his mother. Immelin Indenbirken, 14 February 1943, born in Germany during the war, is an Aquarius with a Gemini Moon and Venus in Pisces. Her Jupiter sits in Leo’s 10th conjunct his Saturn and trine his Scorpio planets so her enthusiasm would spur him on. Her Venus is trine his Scorpio planets for good feelings. What does stand out is her Pluto square his Mars which suggests a power imbalance and underlying fear.

  That Mars Pluto theme repeats in several of his relationships with past girlfriends. The submissive one gets a chance to dominate perhaps? He also appears to pick girl friends who are unlikely to stick around to eternity.

 Gisele Bundchen had her Uranus conjunct his Sun Venus. Bar Refaeli had her Venus opposition his Uranus. Camila Morrone, the latest to leave, has her Saturn opposition his Moon and their relationship chart has a composite Venus square Uranus.

  His relationship chart with his mother is strong on the power-couple energy and possessiveness with a composite Jupiter trine Pluto trine Sun. Plus a dominating Mars square Pluto. There’s a constant oneupmanship battle going on which is clearly never spoken nor even possibly conscious.

  He will have a fear of being trapped with a Moon conjunct Pluto as he was by his mother so when girlfriends get to the stage of being obviously adult or starting to flex their muscles in the relationship it’ll trigger his defences.

  His chart is Water Air – with a Water Grand Trine and a stellium in Libra – which is a difficult combination and a tight-rope act balancing emotions with thinking. He’ll veer between being immersed in feelings or being overly detached – and constantly pulled between the opposites.

  He does have hints of significant emotional change coming up. Tr Uranus will oppose his Venus Sun in 2023; tr Jupiter will move through his 8^th from May 2023 for a year which brings positive emotional changes, fewer defences and maybe insight as he pulls away from the past. Tr Pluto will square his Sun/Moon midpoint in 2024/25 which will force him to face what he wants out of close commitment – it won’t be easy but the end result may bring better connections – and last but not least Uranus moves out of his 8^th in 2025 which will be more settled emotionally thereafter.  

Mikhail Gorbachev described as a “one-of-a kind statesman who changed the course of history” has died. Celebrated in the west for playing a critical role in ending the Cold War, he was blamed in Russia for the turbulence that his reforms unleashed – glasnost (“openness”) allowing for freedom of speech and perestroika (“restructuring decentralizing economic decision-making “) –  and the sharp drop in the standard of living domestically.

BBC broadcaster John Simpson paid tribute to “a decent, well intentioned, principled man who tried to rescue the unrescuable”. His biographer William Taubman said his main issue was that Russia simply had no real experience with the freedom it was being offered. “He gave us all freedom – but we don’t know what to do with it,” said liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg.

  He was the first and the last president of the Soviet Union, from March 1990 till December 25, 1991 and as Yeltsin and other hardliners took over after a coup he retreated away from front line politics.

  He was born 2 March 1931 in Stavropol with a questionable birth time of 8.30pm and was one of the innovative Depression generation, like Rupert Murdoch born eight days later.  Gorbachev had a confident and lucky Pisces Sun trine Jupiter in Cancer, but his chart was dominated by the signature tough-minded Pluto Mars in Cancer opposition Saturn and Venus in Capricorn square a revolutionary, status-quo-upsetting Uranus in Aries conjunct North Node. His early years were blighted by Stalin’s worst excesses with various relatives being imprisoned, tortured and starved which would make sense of his Mars Pluto Saturn aspects. His Moon in Leo was trine Uranus but otherwise not well integrated into his chart.  

  When the collapse of the USSR came with the fall of the Berlin Wall on 1989, the triple conjunction in Capricorn was in place, with tr Saturn Neptune exactly opposition his Jupiter and then moving in to upend the rest of his Cardinal T square in the years following. His relationship chart with Russia 1917 has a potentially ‘transformational’ composite Sun opposition Pluto and a reforming Pluto trine Uranus. But the power struggle he unleased with Russia’s hardliners saw him defeated.

  His chart is substantially Cardinal giving him initiative and resourcefulness but he was up against Russia’s Fixed energy which tends towards stasis and inertia and resists change.

His get-it-together 5^th harmonic is strongly aspected; as is his rise-and-fall, wheel-of-fortune 10H. His leaving-a-legacy 17H is stressed but his global-eminence 22H is highly positive.

   It can be a problem with an over-active Uranus that it aims to disrupt stuck situations without giving sufficient thought about how to bring about stability on the far side.

  Rupert Sheldrake who has a background in botany once said to me that plant development is a question of the balance between creativity and structure. Which seemed a useful analogy.

  Uranus is creative in introducing change but situations also need stability. Too much change or too fast and it ends in anarchy or chaos, lacking in solidity. Reconstruction needs to follow deconstruction otherwise the phoenix won’t arise from the ashes of the old.      

Add ON: It would have to be said I don’t see what the strong astrological connection between Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan was – though confirmed birth times might help. There were faint traces of amiable feelings with MK’s Sun conjunct RR’s Venus and both trine RR’s Jupiter – and maybe MK’s Jupiter in RR’s 7^th (though birth times are iffy). If anything Gorbachev and Maggie Thatcher, though poles apart politically, had more resonance together. 

  Gorbachev did fit well with the USA chart with his Leo Moon conjunct the USA ‘leadership’ North Node and his reforming Uranus Node square the USA Sun and opposition the USA Saturn.  

Liz Truss, affectionately dubbed ‘the human hand grenade’ by the ever acerbic Dominic Cummings is lurching her way towards No 10, despite misgivings about her erratic and absurd economic policies.

 He reckoned she blew up everything she touched and she’s wasted no time in casting aspersions over Emmanuel Macron, throwing poison darts at the Chinese and Russians and heading for an explosive relationship with Joe Biden and the US. Ukraine and the Northern Ireland Protocol being the initial areas of conflict.

  Born 26 July 1975 Oxford, no birth time, she’s a Sun Leo with two T squares – a Cardinal T Square of Jupiter in confident Aries opposition an adventurous Uranus square a rigid Saturn Mercury in excitable Cancer – and a Mutable T Square of Venus opposition a Pisces Moon square Neptune in Sagittarius.  She’s an odd mid of an executive with organising ability though a tendency to be domineering and overbearing; and a head-in-the-clouds disorganised daydreamer. Plus she has Mars in ultra-stubborn Taurus which I might suspect from her belligerent, combative approach is on the chart axis.

 The USA will be in the firing line of her ire. Her Saturn is conjunct Joe Biden’s Jupiter so she squelches his enthusiasm; her Mars opposes his Scorpio Mars Mercury; and his Saturn is opposition her Neptune and square her Venus – not much love in there.

  Their relationship chart is incendiary and volatile with a composite Mars Uranus conjunction, suggesting two individuals, neither of whom will be happy to compromise. That will blow a fuse this December to mid January and again February to mid March.  At a time when the USA/UK relationship chart is also being upended. Not so much an ice shower falling on the special relationship as light-the-touch-paper and stand back.

  Her connection with Biden also has a tussle-for-the-upper-hand Jupiter square Pluto which suggests a constant jousting for power. There’ll be no room for a win-win in their relations.

 Her relationship chart with the USA is equally stark and hostile with a composite Mars Jupiter opposition Pluto square Saturn, which is under discouraging Saturn transits from early 2023 right through next year.  

  The Conservative Party (1912) is looking less than enthusiastic about her progress with their composite Sun, Saturn, Mars catching an undermining run of Neptune squares until 2024.

  The UK will be having anxious moments about her across the New Year into January and it is essentially a ratchety, irritable, strained relationship.

 What is intriguing is that all of her composite charts – with Biden, the USA, UK, Conservative Party – all have Jupiter Pluto hard aspects. That suggests a thirst for personal power is ingrained in all her relationships. Not even Maggie Thatcher and Tony Blair, both of them micromanaging control-freaks, had such Jupiter Pluto aspects. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

  She is tied into the UK chart with her Sun conjunct the 10^th house UK Jupiter; her Mars in the UK 8^th not far from the UK Mars and in hard aspect to the UK’s financial Neptune and Venus. Most significantly of all her Pluto is conjunct the UK’s Ascendant so she will attempt to railroad changes through which will affect the UK’s image abroad and be felt as coercive and bullying.

  What is floating her boat at the moment against all odds is tr Pluto conjunct her lucky Jupiter/Uranus midpoint which runs out early this December – with a catastrophic tr Pluto opposition her Mars/Pluto picking up on December 9^th running till mid January 2023, and repeating late year; and a depressed slog from mid January, also on and off till late year. Plus a failure-strewn tr Neptune square her Sun/Mars midpoint throughout 2023.

  What is odd is that the two central T squares in her chart – the Cardinal Uranus Jupiter Saturn Mercury and the Mutable Venus, Neptune Moon are colliding at the moment and for the next several years as their Solar Arc positions sit on top of the other T Square. Usually this presages a life-changing crisis – again interesting to watch.

  The November 8^th Lunar Eclipse in Taurus will conjunct her Mars – which will bring a shock, an over hasty reactions and arguments running on for months thereafter.

   She is volunteering for a poisoned chalice given the economic calamity the UK and elsewhere are facing but her approach won’t bring too many remedies. Making relations with the USA and the EU worse is hardly helpful in these troubled times.

Add On: The major thorn in her side in domestic politics is likely to be not the leader of the Opposition but Mick Lynch, spokesman for the Rail Union, who is speaking up for struggling workers in every industry. Not even Maggie Thatcher’s relationship with miners’ leader Arthur Scargill was as bad.

 Lynch’s Saturn in Aquarius opposes her Leo Sun and her Saturn in Cancer opposes his Capricorn Sun. His Neptune opposes her Mars and his Pluto is conjunct her Venus, square her Neptune opposition her Moon. Saturn criticises and sets up barriers. Neptune undermines. Pluto controls. If the outcome wasn’t so serious, it would be good spectator sport.

 That translates into an astoundingly difficult relationship chart. With a locked together, fated, deeply frustrating and self-defeating Yod onto Saturn inconjunct Pluto Uranus sextile Neptune, with Saturn opposition Sun.  For good or for ill, individuals with a Yodal relationship chart have their destiny intertwined.  

  Tr Pluto is bearing inexorably down on the composite Yod, squaring the Sun and Saturn through this year till late 2023 – depressing, discouraging and an unrelenting battle. With a worrisome tr Saturn square Neptune on one leg of the Yod in early 2023; and tr Uranus in a highly-strung opposition in 2024. The other leg of the Yod is catching the undermining tr Neptune opposition to Pluto and Uranus now till 2025. As if that wasn’t enough tr Pluto will square the composite Mercury from March 2023 till late 2024 for bitter arguments and hostile discussions.

  See previous Mick Lynch post 15 August 2022. He does have a ‘leadership’ North Node in Leo as Maggie Thatcher did – born to be out front.  Liz Truss’s North Node is Scorpio – born to be embroiled in endless arguments until she learns to let go.  

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Leaving a legacy that dominates a culture for decades is a rare talent. Nearly fifty years after his death the genius of J.R.R.Tolkien is still capturing attention with a new Amazon TV series The Rings of Power out.

  Tolkien’s achievement in The Lord of the Rings was to create a mythology, a high fantasy world with a detailed history for Middle-earth, a complete language for his elves and a set of archetypes for a whole range of fantastical creatures. His books went on to generate a vast sub-culture of fans for other-worldly mediaeval fiction, films and video games and inspired later writers.

 Tolkien was born 3 January 1892 10 pm Bloemfontein, South Africa, and moved to England when he was three after his father died. His mother died when he was 12 and he was put under the guardianship of a Roman Catholic priest. WW1 interrupted his studies and he returned from the front line with trench fever, which cut short his military career. He became a philologist and professor of Anglo Saxon at Oxford. Along with serious academic writings, he started work on The Lord of the Rings and eventually became successful and almost a cult figure.

  He had a serious Capricorn Sun in his entertaining 5^th house which was sextile Mars in Scorpio and, if the birth time is accurate, that was inconjunct the Midheaven and widely inconjunct Pluto Neptune in Gemini.  His prominent Neptune Pluto in the 9^th house which rules higher education and publishing fits an academic and a fantasy writer – and his Neptune Pluto was in a communicative Air Grand Trine to Venus in Aquarius and Saturn in Libra.  

  His Jupiter and Moon in Pisces were square his Pluto Neptune giving him confidence and an active imagination. Jupiter trine his Mars gave him vitality and an appetite for adventure.

  His 4^th house Mercury in Capricorn gave him an interest in his roots and lineage and no doubt spurred on his interest in creating a mythology for England. His Mercury was sextile Uranus and inconjunct Neptune Pluto, channelling even more energy through that iconic and supernaturally-inclined combination.

  Not surprisingly his leaving-a-legacy for history 17^th harmonic is strong; as was his writer’s 21H; and even more so his global reputation 22^nd harmonic.

  A fascinating man.  

Twenty five years on the memory of Princess Diana burns brightly and still raises strong reactions. She died on 31 August 1997 in Paris, causing worldwide shock and an outpouring of grief in the UK. 2 billion people watched her funeral on television.

  She died two days before an 18 North Solar Eclipse in the same Saros cycle as the previous one which oversaw the death of the Queen’s uncle, Earl Mountbatten, killed by an IRA bomb while holidaying in Ireland. This Saros cycle usually accompanies illness or accidents and is given to obsessive worry. Eclipses repeat in the same cycle every 18.5 years approximately and this one has particular relevance for the Royal Family.  It was the closest to the birth of Lady Diana Spencer in 1961.

  Eclipses marked her life as she was married two days before an eclipse on 31 July 1981, a service watched by a global audience of 700 million people. This cycle, not seen as a luck-bringer, puts pressure on personal relationships, with the caution that hasty decisions are not wise since information is distorted and possibly false. Tiredness or health problems are also associated with it.

  Prince William, the eldest son and heir to the throne in succession to his father, was born on the day of a solar eclipse in June 1982. This series is challenging in effect, dealing with separations or the ending of a union, although the long-term outcome is hopeful.

  Born 1 July 1961 7.45pm (memory) Sandringham, England, Diana had a charming and people-oriented 7^th house Cancer Sun and Mercury so was adept at making everyone she met feel special; and in trine to Neptune would give her a healing presence. Her 5^th house Venus would also give her a radiant and entertaining glow. She needed a stabilising partner in life but she would be conflicted and contradictory emotionally. Her yearning for Watery togetherness sat uneasily with a maverick Aquarius Moon in a freedom-loving opposition to Uranus square Venus conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol. And she had an angry, argumentative 9^th house Mars Pluto in Virgo. On the one hand this gave her the ability to spread a message to a wide audience about the tragedy of AIDS and landmines, dark subjects the public would otherwise have turned away from. But it would also give her considerable inner turmoil, resentment and hostility.

 She was also born with a Saturn Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn/Aquarius, which for a very few individuals ties them into the spirit of the age and whose lives seem marked out by destiny. Messiahs in their own sphere, they carry the hopes of their era. John Lennon was born in 1940 with Jupiter–Saturn in Taurus and became the unlikely hero of a generation. The Beatles’ debut occurred on the 1960 Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Capricorn, and his death on the conjunction in Libra in 1980.

  Similarly, Diana, born on a waning Jupiter–Saturn conjunction, was married in 1980 during the exact Jupiter–Saturn conjunction but never quite made it to the next one in 2000.

  What appears to happen is their Jupiterian fame pitches them too high into the realm of the gods and Saturn, the grim reaper, comes into play to cut them down to size as mere mortals. Most US presidents in the past 200 years who were inaugurated on a Jupiter Saturn conjunctions were either assassinated, survived an assassination attempt or died while in office.

  When Diana died, most significantly tr Pluto was putting pressure on her natal Mars Pluto conjunction – building up from the previous year, so she would be amped up, feeling trapped and not thinking clearly, driven by her demons. She also had tr Neptune conjunct her Saturn which brings great uncertainty; and an accident-prone tr Uranus opposition her Sun/Mars midpoint. Strangely she also had tr Uranus conjunct her Jupiter which is usually associated with luck and relief from tension though it may also have stoked her high-spirited streak into taking risks.  

 On her astrocartography, the United States would be where her Cancerian sun shone at its brightest. A glittering public career would have been guaranteed and her Jupiter (easy) on the I. C. (home) line runs through New York and down to the Bahamas, both places where she was happy to relax and feel accepted. Her Venus (love, affection, indulgence) on the I. C. (home) line, and the Jupiter ascendant (confidence-bringer) line both run through Egypt, the home of Dodi Al Fayed. Her Sun I. C. line (spiritual home) runs through India where she frequently visited Mother Teresa, and which was also the home of one close friend, an Indian heart doctor, after her separation from Prince Charles. Her Neptune (sacrifice, pity for the suffering) midheaven line runs through Africa, as does her Jupiter ascendant, giving her confidence to raise her land-mine campaign to international notice. Her other Jupiter midheaven and Neptune descendant lines, with much the same meaning, run through the Far East, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, suggesting she had much to do in future in this mine-strewn area before her life was cut short. She had Pluto cross lines (‘parans’) through Paris, northern France, and significantly through the Mediterranean, the scene of sailing holidays a few weeks before her death, hinting that this was not a safe area for her. Jupiter in the midheaven crossing her Venus ascendant also in the Mediterranean zone perhaps distracted her, suggesting as it does glittering acclaim, a glitzy lifestyle and a good deal of lavish indulgence.

Her Sun fell on the UK midheaven so she was a guiding star for her time.

Add On: Penny Thornton wrote to me suggesting a 2.10pm birth time which she resourced from Diana’s personal comment to her that she was born just before a Wimbledon match.

https://www.astrolutely.com/the-princess-of-wales-time-of-birth/

It would give her a charming Libra Ascendant and put her passionate Venus in the 8^th; with her Moon on the cusp of the 5^th house ruling parties and children. A much-travelled Sun in the 9^th’ influential-out-in-society Mars Pluto in the 11^th though also difficult friendships.

 When she died tr Neptune would have been crossing the IC and tr Saturn crossing the Descendant. When she married tr Uranus would have been trine the MC and Solar Arc Pluto sextile the MC – certainly feasible.  

  The high-tension, unsettled and economically challenging Saturn Uranus square which haunted last year has another few months to run. The final exact aspect falls this October and by January 2023 it is out of orb. Though the Eclipse effect will carry resonances of it further ahead.

 Ebertin describes Saturn Uranus as irritability and inhibition, tensions, kicking against limitations on freedom and separations. But also the power to endure and cope; growth of strength through overcoming difficulties and dangerous situations.

  Levels of anxiety are peaking globally at the moment which will come from a mix of Astro-influences, some of which affect individual countries more than others. The shift of Pluto into another sign will be part of the high uncertainty as the celestial tectonic plates prepare for a move. The June 2022 Cancer Ingress chart also had a Mars square Pluto to add to Saturn Uranus, adding another layer of fear and desperation.

 The upcoming Cardinal Ingress charts from 23 September for Libra and 21 December 2022 for Capricorn will still have the Saturn Uranus stamp but without Mars Pluto and will have the addition of easy-going, lucky Sun Jupiter contacts so should be marginally less stressful. [Caveat: I don’t put much store by Ingress charts which can be so-so in terms of useful information.]

  Eclipse charts tend to make more sense. The previous late April 2022 Taurus Solar Eclipse was in a series which highlighted the unreliability of authority figures. The upcoming late October Solar Eclipse at 2 degrees Scorpio is in a Saros Series hinting at forceful even manic activity intent on taking power – and huge efforts in group activity. Which might, in the UK’s case, be when public tolerance snaps over energy prices and inept government. The tr Uranus opposition the 2^nd house UK Neptune picking up this July, running on exactly now and repeating in early 2023, certainly mirrors the extreme concern over impossibly high living costs.

  The October Solar Eclipse has the almost exact Saturn square Uranus plus two quincunxes of Mars to Pluto and Jupiter to the New Moon – a mix of extreme aggravation and grandstanding on the part of some.

  The October Scorpio Eclipse will have an impact on the Royal Family since the Queen’s Taurus Sun, Prince Charles’ Taurus Moon and Prince William’s Scorpio Midheaven Jupiter (and Prince Harry’s Pluto) will all be in close aspect and triggered by it.  Boris Johnson’s Zero degree Scorpio Moon will also be shaken up.

  The Lunar Eclipse of 8 November at 16 degrees Taurus conjunct Uranus and square Saturn may well be the more powerful of the two. The Mars quincunx Pluto is still in place, along with Saturn square Uranus emphasized by the Lunar Eclipse closely entangled, with a financial-bubble-bursting Jupiter Neptune conjunction.

  It will have a considerable impact on various countries – Ukraine with its 10^th house Pluto catching it and Russia’s Scorpio Sun (with Moscow sitting under part of the Eclipse path). China will get a sobering reality check as its Saturn is elbowed. The EU and UK will catch both the Solar and Lunar Eclipses in its financial houses; and Germany, and Italy will be particularly aware of the Lunar Eclipse.

  No greatly reassuring conclusions except that the April 2022 Solar Eclipse’s focus on unreliable leaders was all too accurate. There will clearly be a few more humps and bumps before we clear this phase.  

Legendary Vietnam photojournalist Tim Page has died. Described as the wildest of the “wigged-out crazies running around Vietnam”, he rode a motorcycle to the front lines, jumped on and off helicopters like a hobo riding a train, went into high-risk situations where other journalists would not venture and kept returning to combat zones despite being injured four times. On one occasion he floated wounded in the South China Sea for hours before being rescued after the ship he was on was strafed. The fourth time a shrapnel wound in the head sent him into rehabilitation for a year.

  What is intriguing and refers back to the Ranulph Fiennes/Black Elk post, July 9 2022, is he had a ‘delusional’ sense of invulnerability that carried him into and through situations of extreme danger.

  The Times obituary remarks: “His fearlessness derived from a karmic belief that he was living on “free time from the gods” after a near-fatal motorcycle accident when he was 16.

“I had seen the tunnel. There was no light at the end and it did not seem scary . . . This was the dawning, the overture to losing a responsible part of my psyche. A liberation happened at that intersection,” he wrote later.

   He was born 25 May 1944 with his biological father killed in the World War 11 (like Fiennes) and he never knew the identity of his birth mother. He was adopted and left home at 17 to travel abroad with no plan in mind, driving overland through Europe and the far east. He taught himself photography and eventually got a staff job with UPI in Saigon.

  He was a Sun Uranus in Gemini trine Neptune and sextile  Mars Pluto in Leo conjunct North Node in Cancer. The Mars Pluto would be essential for a crisis-zone career, giving him courage and grit; Sun Uranus Neptune is creative and a maverick. He was immersed in the Vietnam War drug culture – marijuana, LSD and opium – which also had Neptunian overtones.

  His Sun was square his Neptune/Pluto midpoint which points in two directions – one is a craving for alcohol/drugs. The other is a leaning towards psychic, supernatural and occult beliefs which he obviously utilised to boost his fearlessness.

  Ranulph Fiennes has his Uranus square his Neptune/Pluto midpoint which gives supernatural experiences.

  When Page had his teenage near-death experience tr Neptune was square his Pluto for a devastating and other-worldly event. Tr Pluto was conjunct his Solar Arc Jupiter which would give him a sense of supreme power – there was nothing he could not overcome.

  Mind magic sometimes works.

There’s nothing like good news to keep you cheerful. Luckily the astrology is the bearer of better tidings than scientists who have said there is a one in six chance of a major volcanic eruption this century which could cause abrupt climate change and the collapse of civilisations with millions of lives in danger.

The Mount Tambora eruption of 10 April 1815 in present-day Indonesia was the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded human history. The ash from the eruption column dispersed around the world and lowered global temperatures in an event known as the Year Without a Summer in 1816, bringing extreme weather and harvest failures around the world.

  In 1815/16 there was the classic natural-disaster aspect of Neptune (in Sagittarius) square Pluto (in Pisces), a rare occurrence. The next Neptune Pluto square does not occur until the early 2060s.

  The Vesuvius volcano, 24 August 79 AD, was one of Europe’s deadliest, and it also happened when there was an approaching Neptune (in Taurus) square Pluto (in Aquarius). Though it did not have the global effect of Tambora.

Huaynaputina, 19 February 1600, the largest eruption ever recorded in South America had a significant impact on Earth’s climate, causing a volcanic winter: temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere decreased; cold waves hit parts of Europe, Asia and the Americas; and the climate disruption may have played a role in the onset of the Little Ice Age. Floods, famines, and social upheavals resulted.

  It happened when there was a Pluto Uranus conjunction in Aries trine Neptune in Leo.

  Uranus Neptune aspects are also often around over natural disasters, like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

  The effects of the Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines, 15 June 1991, were felt worldwide as it ejected more particulate into the stratosphere than any eruption since Krakatoa in 1883. Over the following months, there was a global layer of sulfuric acid haze, global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C in the years 1991–1993, and ozone depletion temporarily saw a substantial increase. It happened on the Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn sextile Pluto.

Similar aspects were in place for the Ambrym eruption circa 50 AD, reckoned the third largest volcanic explosions in recent geological history. Pluto was sitting on the midpoint of a Uranus trine Neptune then.

 Krakatoa, 27 August 1883, Indonesia, caused a volcanic winter with Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures down by 0.4 °C in the aftermath.  Sulfur dioxide gas ejected into the stratosphere darkened the sky worldwide for years afterwards and produced spectacular red sunsets reflected in paintings of the time. Ships as far away as South Africa rocked as tsunamis hit them, and smaller waves were recorded on tidal gauges as far away as the English Channel. It happened on a Neptune in Taurus trine Uranus in Virgo.

  The next Uranus Neptune aspects are 2038 to 2042 with Uranus  in late Cancer/Leo square Neptune in late Aries/Taurus. Pluto in 2043 will move into Pisces.

  In summary, Neptune Pluto hard aspects or Uranus Neptune tend to be around for major major disasters. But there is nothing imminent. Mind you they did say in the coming century – even I don’t worry that far ahead.

Katherine, the Duchess of Kent, once a highlight of Wimbledon Trophy day, who disappeared into obscurity after she gave up her HRH title and stepped back from public life 20 years ago, has revealed she taught music at a Yorkshire primary school for thirteen years.

  There had been speculation she was a recluse, suffering from agoraphobia, given her earlier bouts with depression after an abortion in 1975 because of rubella and having a stillborn son two years later. But clearly not. She just wanted a quiet life out of the spotlight.

  Music always been her passion and she also gave piano lessons in a rented studio flat near her official residence at Kensington Palace, served as the president of the Royal Northern College of Music, and was the director of National Foundation for Youth Music from 1999 to 2007. At the primary school she was known as Mrs Kent and no one noticed.

She was born 22 February 1933 8am York, England, and married the Queen’s first cousin the Duke of Kent when she was 28, going on to have three children, and became the first member of the royal family to convert to Roman Catholicism since the passing of the Act of Settlement in 1701.

 She has a see-saw chart with a 12^th house Pisces Sun, North Node, Mercury opposition Neptune, Mars and Jupiter in Virgo in her 6^th house. So her life will have been a balancing act, swinging from one extreme to another. Her friendly Aquarius Moon is conjunct a cool Saturn which in turn is conjunct a friendly, charming Venus. Her 12^th house Pisces Sun, North Node will incline her towards music and also to understanding those suffering mental problems.

   Her independent-minded Uranus in her 1^st house square her 5^th house Pluto will make him more determined to rock the boat and pursue her own course than her ethereal image suggests.

  See-saw personalities tend to need another half to make them feel stable and both she and the Duke of Kent have their respective Suns in each other’s 7^th house which is ideal, though it isn’t close combination with his Saturn conjunct her Sun and her Uranus opposition his Sun.

  Their relationship chart is not easy with a volatile composite Uranus opposition Mars Jupiter square Pluto; and Sun trine Uranus sextile Moon Saturn. But they seem to have got on with their lives without causing great upheavals or attracting undue publicity.