not categorised

Nora Ephron, writer, and filmmaker, cut a swathe through popular culture for decades with her iconic screenplays for When Harry Met Sally (1989), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and even earlier Silkwood (1983). Her quirky take on life hewn out of a childhood with two alcoholic parents proved a liferaft when her second marriage to Watergate Carl Bernstein collapsed over his infidelity. She wrote the semi-autobiographical novel Heartburn based on her marriage, later turned into a Meryl Streep/Jack Nicholson movie. As well as writing 14 screenplays and directing 8 films she also wrote 3 plays, the last of which Lucky Guy won a posthumous Tony Award nomination after she died of leukaemia in 2012.

  A new biography by Kristin Marguerite Doidge charts her life from a glittering journalistic start to directing in her 50s and beyond. She was famed for her fierce intellect and unsparing sense of humour, which often alienated those on the receiving end and constantly plundered her friends’ lives for her fiction which caused resentment. A flinty personality she was unconcerned with what other people thought about her and yet despite it all she was the doyenne of rom-coms and foodie movies (Julie and Julia).

Her Heartburn was seen as a classic scorned wife’s revenge describing the husband as “capable of having sex with a Venetian blind;” and describing the mistress (Margaret Jay) as looking like a giraffe with “big feet”.

  Ephron was born 19 May 1941 New York, no birth time, and had a larger-than-life, lucky and creative Sun, Jupiter, Uranus in Taurus trine Neptune; with Saturn also in Taurus. Enduring and stubborn to the nth degree. She also had a Yod onto Mars in Pisces inconjunct Pluto sextile a North Node in needing-to-work-at-relationships Libra. A Yod would give her an outsider’s view of life with a barbed edge from Mars inconjunct Pluto but also lend her, once she found her track, dynamic focused energy.

  Her Moon was in surprisingly sensitive Pisces which would be where she got her romantic yearnings from.

  An interesting woman who carved her own path through life.

Pluto Returns are not a passing distraction but a crossroads that comes around every 250 years. A country’s move away from the past into what comes next takes years to settle.

  Looking ahead through the USA 2024 and 2028 elections they coincide with the turmoil of the massive outer planet shift into new signs. And the 2028 election will be in the midst of the directionless, disappointing transiting Neptune in Aries square the USA Venus, Jupiter and Sun in Cancer. It’ll be 2032 before anything looks back to relative stability.  

 The present extreme divisiveness won’t disappear in a puff of smoke so it isn’t surprising it’ll take that long. Roe v Wade came in on early Pluto in Libra so maybe Pluto’s entry into Aquarius might restore its security. Other liberal legislation, for instance for same-sex marriage, was only enacted in individual states since 2012 – when tr Pluto in Capricorn was around the opposition to the USA Sun.  

  [Just as an aside I always wondered about that late 2012 period which coincided with Obama’s re-election, as well as same-sex marriage progress and oddly the devastating Sandy Hook shooting. Not only was tr Pluto heading for the USA Sun opposition. But there was a poleaxing and confidence-destroying Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the USA Neptune and square Mars – which at the time I couldn’t quite nail down an event or mood significant enough to explain it. But it did shaft a spear through USA morale and the sense of national identity, for sure.]

  This Biden Term was always going to be fractious, explosive and aggravated with the worst of the jolts coming in 2023/2024.

  The 2024 election will be held on a do-or-die-determined Mars opposition Pluto for extreme rhetoric, bile and venom – with a Sun opposition Uranus in place which could suggest a swing in a different direction. Neptune lingers in the final stages of Pisces.

  The 2025 Inauguration chart has a controlling Sun Pluto conjunct the Midheaven opposition Mars on the IC – so a discontented population and power-hungry administration. Three planets in directionless Pisces in the 11^th don’t suggest a solid future strategy. Uranus in the 1st will be defiant and unconventional. [To be noted the Biden Term has Pluto conjunct the MC so it doesn’t necessarily point in either political direction.]

  The 2028 election will be even more fraught than the 2024 with a Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars on the focal point, with a downbeat Sun opposition Saturn; and a hope-for-change Uranus Trine Pluto.  The USA will have just undergone a Uranus Return, the first since 1943/44.

The 2029 Inauguration again has controlling Sun Pluto in the 10th with an edgy, disruptive and ruthless Sun Pluto square Saturn and trine Uranus trine Mars – either hardship and tough conditions, or a war somewhere out in the globe to contend with.

  The 2032 election will be tense with a Sun square Pluto and Pluto trine Mars around election day. Tr Uranus Saturn conjunct in early Cancer will be starting to conjunct the USA Venus, Jupiter in Cancer. By this election tr Neptune in Aries has finally cleared the square to the USA Sun and opposition to the USA Saturn which brings to an end a discontented and undermining few years since 2025.

  The 2033 Inauguration is the first to look upbeat with the Sun, Mercury and a confident/successful Jupiter Pluto in the 10^th. That’s reminiscent of Obama’s First Term with Sun Jupiter in the 10^th.

  On similarities to the USA Civil War (1861 – 1865) see previous post May 6 2022. There are some repeat influences around 2027/28 when there is a Uranus Return on the USA chart and tr Pluto in hard aspect to the Leo North Node.

  The late decade period also looks challenging on the USA First President chart, 30 April 1789 12.45pm New York. Tr Pluto in Aquarius will square the Taurus Sun in 2027/28. Even before then tr Pluto will be opposition to the Uranus as it enters Aquarius in 2023/2024 – so a highly-changeable phase of several years.

   Pluto in Aquarius had best get its act together to bring back the age of enlightenment and kick loony-tunes Neptune in Pisces into the kerb.   

Periods of rabid nationalism and institutional lunacy often follow times of national humiliation. Fascism in Germany grew out of the punitive measures meted out at Versailles in 1919 after their defeat in World War One. Russia’s present day macho chest-beating stems from the morale-crushing collapse of the old USSR empire in 1989. China emerged from a century of humiliation in the 1940s to foist the madness of Mao on the poor Chinese.

  The astrology for both Germany and Russia were similar with transiting Pluto opposition or conjunct their respective Suns as they sank to their nadir. The UK had tr Pluto conjunct its Sun in 2012/13 as it set sail down the ‘Take-Back-Control’ Brexit road .

   On the face of it the USA hasn’t faced any similar identity-crushing moments. Except for 9/11 which was a considerable dent to national pride, followed by an obviously botched Middle Eastern intervention, and then the 2007/8 sub-prime mortgage fiasco leading to the financial crash.  Tr Pluto opposition the USA Sun was around 2013/2014, during Obama’s 2^nd Term which had seen the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage/affirmative action pushed forward (and blocked). In the November 2014 midterms Republicans secured a Senate majority and expanded their control in Congress to a level not seen since World War II.

  This is a stretch – but I wonder if having surprised themselves mightily by voting in Obama (twice), (Heaven’s to Betsy a Person of Colour) and seeing liberal legislation passed wasn’t a blow to the rednecks and other fledgling MAGA types. Their ideal USA isn’t the military power-house that Germany and Russia wanted (although it once was). But their dream country shares similarities in crushing any internal dissent of their totalitarian and xenophobic mindset; and in parallel with Nazi Germany puts a strong emphasis on racial purity.

   There are slight similarities between the Germany 1871 chart and the USA chart in that both have an afflicted Mercury with can-be-fanatical aspects, in the US case to Pluto and for Germany Uranus and Neptune. So the national temperaments are prone to fixed, obsessive ideas.

  When Hitler was made Chancellor in 1933, tr Uranus in Aries was conjunct the Germany 7^th house Neptune (square the Mercury opposition Uranus) so it would be a moment of high excitement and delusion. Hitler’s leadership of the Nazi Party starting in 1921 to his death in 1945 coincided with tr Pluto moving through the Germany 10^th house of career, which can be a time of ruthless power seeking. As he suicided, it exited – on a Nodal Return.

  Not sure what all this proves vis a vis the lunatics taking over the asylum in the USA.  Apart from the fact that the propensity for extreme ideologies has to be there in the first place to be triggered. But it might spark off a few other thoughts so do pitch in.

  My personal view is that religion is the source of a good deal of evil and misogyny in the world and appears to be embedded in the USA mindset, despite being exposed again and again as egregiously hypocritical, money-grubbing and fraudulently pious on matters of sexual behaviour.

Other thought is it has always struck me that the USA more than most countries needs a hated ‘other’ in order to maintain internal cohesion. If all the inhabitants are psychologically focused against – first all all the feared Commies and then the Arabs, there is less energy for domestic fighting. But once those external enemies are vanquished the anger comes home to roost and it creates aggravation on home turf. A strong need for ‘those like Us’ and revulsion against ‘those that are not Us’ is behind a good deal of the present divisiveness.

  In the next post I’ll look at the USA ahead through the next three elections for clues on when the daylight will dawn again.     

The sickness at the heart of the United States erupted with the right-wing weighted Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. It hands back decisions on abortion to individual states, 26 are whom are likely to impose wholesale bans even for rape and incest pregnancies. Public opinion was in favour of keeping Roe v Wade so it may affect the outcome of the Mid Term elections. Even Trump apparently is wary of electoral kickback on the decision.

 Former attorney general Eric Holder, an Obama appointee, called for reforms to the Supreme Court’s structure “to ensure that the Court serves the interests of the people instead of the interests of an extreme, minority faction.” Another commentator said: “What has allowed the court to untether itself from public opinion is deep dysfunction in our political system.”

  Republicans have appointed six of nine current justices on SCOTUS, despite more Democrats having won the popular vote in the Presidential elections, seven out of nine, during their appointments. The savage irony is that Trump, with the moral calibre of a whelk, foisted in the last three right-wing justices. Given the extreme positions of some of them there is a real danger that gay legal rights, affirmative action, contraception may be at risk as well. This week, the court struck down a century-old gun control law which had restricted concealed carry weapons in New York state.

  The previous post May 3 2022 covers most of the detail.

  Two Astro-points of note. The USA chart itself is showing shocked alarm exactly now from the Mars/Saturn and Sun/Neptune midpoints so it reflects a sense of the damage done and panic ensuing. The Pluto Return is also exact at the moment, returning on and off till late 2023.

  The other is that SCOTUS, already plummeting in popularity because of a sense that it is overly politicized, will get a mammoth circuit-board-frying jolt centred around the August 1^st Mars Uranus North Node conjunction which will square its Pluto. The disruptive tr Uranus square the SCOTUS Pluto picks up from July 8^th and runs through till mid October, returning in early 2023. Tr Saturn is in a blocked conjunction to the Pluto from October to mid November and then moves on to a discouraging opposition to the SCOTUS Mars Jupiter in 2023 – so there will be repercussions.  Though with a chart as fixed as SCOTUS it will take a hurricane of monumental proportions to bring about a shift. Tr Neptune is also opposing the Saturn Venus in Pisces through till late 2024 suggesting sliding popularity.

  No wonder Chief Justice John Roberts, a moderate centrist, is looking devastated.

 Clarence Thomas, whose concurrence on this issue suggested other liberties might be at risk – was born 23 June 1948 9pm Pin Point, Georgia. His Chiron is at 18 Scorpio in the direct line of fire of the early August Mars Uranus Node in Taurus opposition. His Sun, Mercury, Venus in Cancer fit the USA chart and both have additionally an Aquarius Moon which sits uncomfortably with all that Water. He’s buoyed up with confidence now and that runs on and off till late 2023, though alongside disappointments, high anxiety, discouragement. Ultimately – like the other zealots on SCOTUS (see previous post) by 2024 and beyond – he’s facing dashed-hopes, losses and undermining circumstances.

  For his wife Ginny Thomas – ‘her right wing activism a threat to SCOTUS’ see post January 30 2022

   I can’t think of any grand conclusions – except the USA  may have to crash into rock bottom before there’s a turning point. Maybe the extremists get carried away in their fanaticism and push their luck so far the great silent majority finally stand up and say enough – which would include refusing to put up with gerrymandering and manipulating electoral rights to block out any but the right wing.

  All countries have a darkness at their heart and maybe Pluto is just dyno-rodding through the US sewers to dump the cr** out into the open in order to evoke enough of a response to clear at least some of it out of the way.  Faint hopes.

Colombia has voted in its first leftist head of state following similar victories for the left in Peru, Chile and Honduras. Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter in the 1980s, who became a senator and mayor, was voted in on promises of a better future for the poor. He has a reputation for meandering speeches and high-handedness. His vice-president will be Francia Márquez – a prize-winning defender of human and environmental rights – marking the first time that a black woman fills the post.

  There is concern that as in Peru and Chile, leftist outsiders who come to power tend to over-promise and under-deliver and their approval ratings plummet.

  Petro born 19 April 1960 is probably a final degree Aries Sun with a confident Jupiter trine Pluto; and a Yod of Mars sextile Saturn inconjunct Uranus. He shares the same Yod with John Eastman, Trump’s lawyer, born on April 21,  who is being lambasted by the January 6 investigations over ludicrous claims of voter fraud. A focal point Uranus produces a maverick temperament, often wilful and rebellious,  sometimes lawless with a tendency to create divisions around him.  Prince Andrew, born in February 1960 also has a Yod focal point Uranus inconjunct Saturn sextile Mercury – disruptive, lawless and divisive certainly fit.

  In Petro’s case tr Uranus is square his Uranus on and off through this year into early 2023 pushing him onto a different track. His Solar Arc Jupiter is also opposition his Pluto now for a resounding success in the ballot. 2023/2024 look to be high pressure challenging years with tr Pluto square his Sun.

  He’ll be sworn in on August 7 when the disruptive/explosive Mars Uranus North Node conjunction is still in place squaring the Leo Sun opposition Saturn in Aquarius – so it will be a turbulent term ahead.

  Colombia like many South American countries has a myriad of start dates. 17 December 1819 is one and it is labouring mightily through a Neptunian swamp with its Sagittarius Sun, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn Pluto in Pisces catching the directionless and disillusioning Neptune hard aspects through the next two years.

 Petro’s relationship chart with Colombia is part friendly and part riddled with aggravation and prone to setbacks. The composite Sun, Venus, Saturn Mercury square Mars with be stressed and jolted in 2024/2025.

Unloved and incompetent leaders, no obvious successor and uninspiring opposition – sound familiar? Pluto in Capricorn is waging a scorched earth strategy before it exits in 2023/24 as the UK, USA and France, never mind Germany and elsewhere, survey the wreckage of their political landscape populated with fifth-rate dramatis personae.

  Boris Johnson has, as expected face-planted, in yesterday’s ballots, with the worst bye-election result in history in one seat which wiped out a 24,000 Tory majority in favour of the Lib Dems; and Labour regained the ‘red wall’ Wakefield seat.  Also as expected, BJ is blithely brushing aside notions of resigning from a sunny swimming pool in Rwanda, whence he has escaped to brew up a diversion and duck the fallout.

 This is all a rehash but useful to draw it together. BJ’s personal chart has a trapped, running-scared tr Pluto opposition the Solar Arc Mars exactly now; and Solar Arc Saturn opposition his Scorpio Moon, exact within weeks, but in full effect now. The Pluto Mars restrictions and frustrations will run on through the next three years. 2023 will be discouraging and heavy-going with tr Saturn in Pisces square his Mars and then hitting his Saturn Return as well as Uranus, Pluto. But it is 2024 when his chart shows most upset with tr Neptune squaring his Sun Venus in Gemini; tr Pluto starting to hammer two key Sun midpoints; and if his birth time is accurate – a career-blocking Solar Arc Midheaven conjunct his Pluto.

 His relations with the Tory Party will continue to plummet with a sinking-failure tr Neptune square the composite Mars now and into 2023; and tr Saturn square the composite Sun Venus in 2023 also – which might suggest an earlier exit.

  But his First PM chart, 24 July 2019 3.12 pm flags up 2024 as the key disaster zone for him as well. So best guesses is he may stick around like an unwelcome house guest for longer than seems possible.

 The Opposition leader Keir Starmer’s crunch point on his leadership chart, 4 April 2020 10.45am London, is coming within weeks as the Solar Arc Saturn closes the conjunction to Mars to exact. There’s nothing to suggest he’ll pick up traction any time soon with 2023/24 looking discouraging on his Leadership chart. His personal chart without a birth time is gloomy at the moment, downbeat with heavy Saturn transits in 2023 though with a few hints of luck as well – and by late 2024 he’s completely flummoxed and worse through to 2026 and beyond.

  [I wonder whether he’s in the same boat as Neil Kinnock who prayed for Maggie Thatcher’s exit as he faced her weekly across the despatch box. She went in late 1990 and he stayed for only eighteen months, lost an election to John Major and departed. John Smith stepped up briefly to the Labour leadership and on his death was replaced by Tony Blair who swept to victory in 1997.]

  The Liberal Democrats did exceptionally well – and for once a political party chart appears to work well. The Liberal Democrats 3 March 1988 – has its Jupiter picking up the confidence-surge tr Pluto square through 2022/23 so they should continue to prosper in the short term. Though 2024 looks like a dead-halt year. Ed Davey, 25 December 1965, is buoyed up by ambitious dreams with tr Neptune square his Jupiter now but he likewise will not find 2024 to his liking with a frustratingly trapped tr Pluto conjunct his Mars.

  The odd couple are reported to be splitting up. Nonagenarian, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and model Jerry Hall, formerly of the Mick Jagger tribe, raised eyebrows when they were hitched six years back, but now according to reports have decided to call it quits.

  There were some positives about the match with her Cancer Sun sitting in his relationship 7^th house conjunct his Jupiter and her social-butterfly Venus in Gemini opposition his Sagittarius Moon, plus her Pisces Moon probably conjunct his Pisces Sun. But it was always going to be an argumentative combination with a composite, can-be-competitive Sun Mars conjunction. Plus there’s a power-couple composite Jupiter Pluto conjunction giving them both a morale boost initially at the prospect of an attention-grabbing relationship. But once the shine wears off what brought them together would start to rankle and they’d both be fighting for the upper hand and last word.

  She was born 2 July 1956, Texas, no time and he 11 March 1931 11.55pm Melbourne, Australia.

Both are strong, unbudgeable personalities – she has a super-confident Jupiter Pluto in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio and doesn’t give way easily. He has Pluto and an 8th house Mars opposition Saturn in Capricorn square Uranus – so hard-driving, and do-or-die determined.

  Tr Uranus has been upsetting their apple-cart since 2020 as it moved through early to mid Taurus hitting the composite Jupiter Pluto and then Sun – with more upheavals in 2023.

 The wedding chart of 4 March 2016 hinted at an excess of confidence and indulgence from Sun opposition Jupiter sextile/trine Pluto Moon; along with a constant-bickering Mercury square Mars.

  Both of them look downbeat this year. She has tr Saturn dampening her usual high-spirits as it opposes her Jupiter Pluto and squares her Saturn into early 2023; with a confused tr Pluto square her Neptune in 2022/23 and a romantically  disappointing tr Neptune square her Venus this year as well.

  Similarly he has tr Neptune square his Moon and a frustrated and impatient tr Pluto opposition his Mars. Both of them have a complicated relationship past and she’ll be well used to emotional hitches and glitches having had four children with the notoriously wayward Jagger. Murdoch has been married four times and an Australian newspaper quoted Andrew Neil, a former editor of Murdoch’s Sunday Times, as saying advice to wannabe brides was – “Don’t fall in love with Rupert. He turns against lovers and chops them off.”

Add ON: It’s a great pity there is no birth time for her which might explain a lot. She’s clearly always gone for difficult relationships.

 With Mick Jagger, 26 July 1943 2.30am Dartford, England, her Saturn opposed his Taurus Moon with her Jupiter Pluto in square and her Venus Mercury was conjunct his Saturn.  Saturn in relationships gives longevity and endurance but cuts down on warmth. Her Pluto square his Moon would make her possessive but her Uranus was conjunct his Leo, Sun, Pluto in Leo which would not make for a settled mix. Her Sun falls in his 2^nd so money would be an important element in the mix.

  Their relationship chart has a composite showbizzy Mars opposition Neptune square Mercury Sun which would be argumentative and not mutually supportive – egos would loom large. There was also the classic power-couple Jupiter Pluto conjunction so togetherness offered great influence. But the internal dynamic especially with an ego-maniac like Jagger wouldn’t be pretty.  Especially since there was also a dominating composite Mars trine Pluto.

 There was less Saturn in her relationship with Brian Ferry but dollops of Mars with her Cancer Sun conjunct his Mars and her Mars square his Uranus – plenty of hot attraction to start with which turned into running competition to win arguments.  Their relationship chart has a seriously aggravated composite Sun Pluto square Mars (Moon). He evidently wanted to marry her but a even more successful rock star turned up in the shape of Jagger so he was dropped.   

Her Jupiter Pluto in Leo will crave flamboyance and gold glitter. She’s not a lady of simple tastes.

A charismatic entrepreneur and brilliant showman as well as a a psychopathic gambler, an unscrupulous conman, and possibly a murderer, Colonel Tom Parker left an indelible mark on the 20^th Century.  He masterminded Elvis’s meteoric rise to fame as the ‘King of Rock and Roll’, turning a boy from poor white stock in Tupelo, Mississippi into the most popular entertainer on Earth. Having discovered Presley as a 20 year old in 1955, he ruthlessly controlled his life and pocketed up to half of his income until the “Heartbreak Hotel” singer’s death in 1977.

 A new movie starring Tom Hanks has garnered bad early reviews – ‘deliriously awful’, ‘a nightmare’ – but it does spotlight an intriguing personality. Hanks said: “There would have been no Elvis without Colonel Tom Parker; there would have been no Colonel Tom Parker without Elvis. A symbiotic relationship.” “He saw Elvis’ effect on an audience … realized that guy was forbidden fruit, and you can make an awful lot of money on forbidden fruit.”

Parker was born 26 June 1909 in the Netherlands as Andreas van Kuijk, became a showground and carnival huckster and a docker with criminal tendencies, who fled to the USA after the brutal murder of a woman, possibly in a burglary gone wrong. He adopted a new name and a fictitious military title and made history, all the while lying seamlessly and treating people like dirt, sticking to the old maxim, ‘You don’t have to be nice to people on the way up if you’re not coming back down’.

  Parker was a Sun Cancer with a creative Venus Neptune also in Cancer opposition Uranus square Saturn in Aries. He would be a good organiser with a focal point Saturn and not a sentimentalist with it being in Aries – autocratic with Uranus square Saturn, and a good illusionist from Neptune. Cancer is a sign with a nose for public taste. Tom Hanks is also a Sun Cancer trine Mars in Pisces giving him a resonance with Parker despite his ‘good guy’ image as an actor.

  But Parker also had his Mars in a ruthless, can-be-criminal square to Pluto. His controlling Pluto fell in Elvis’s 7^th house of partnership so there would be a possessive, one-sided connection between them.

  Elvis, 8 January 1935 4.35 am Tupelo, MS, was a Sun, Mercury and Venus in Capricorn opposition an 8^th house Pluto. Such a Pluto can occur with individuals who have a powerful, unseen influence, an aura they project onto the public. Though at a personal level it also goes along with a sense of being trapped by circumstances or people outwith their control. His Venus in Capricorn opposition Pluto squared onto a maverick Uranus in his performing 5^th house making him a mould-breaker in the entertainment business. Rock singers often have Uranus in the 5^th.

He had an ambitious Mars in the 10^th and a money-magnet Jupiter in Scorpio trine his Pluto – so he would have become a success without Parker though not on the same scale. Elvis’s leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17^th harmonic and his global superstar 22^nd harmonic are notably striking.

  Parker’s hard-driving and potentially duplicitous T Square of Saturn square Uranus opposition Neptune Venus keyed into Elvis’s financial Capricorn planets, his ambitious Mars in the 10^th and his influential/trapped Pluto in the 8^th – with Parker’s Neptune in Elvis’s 8^th house of business finances, not a good augury for straight dealing. Parker’s Uranus was conjunct Elvis’s Sun for a life-changing connection; and Parker’s executive/organising Saturn was in Elvis’s performing 5^th which is classic for a behind-the-scenes, entertainment businessman. It was a complicated, gritty, deceptive, power and money hungry bond largely tilted in Parker’s direction.

 Their relationship chart had a super-charged, power-couple T square of Sun opposition Jupiter square Pluto  – which together would see them change the face of a global culture but would demand obedience to a joint strategy. Once individuals with such a connection start to seek independence it causes major aggravation with a constant battle for the upper hand. In this case it never came to that.   

A fractured France is surveying the political chaos of a shock result in the parliamentary elections. Emmanuel Macron, voted President only two months back as the least worst option, lost his majority. Both left and right surged to new highs with Marine Le Pen improving her seat count by ten-fold. His power as executive head of state remains intact but he could be condemned to lame duck status for five years in all but foreign policy and security, which are under the direct control of the presidency. He could seek a coalition alliance though none of the other parties are keen or call new elections. His health, environment and maritime ministers all failed to win seats in the election.

  Election predictions are always a nightmare with only rare occasions when a win is clearly signposted. What this one showed was Macron moving into a low-profile, less successful, banana-skin strewn few years which isn’t going to get easier.

   His bombastic Fixed T Square of a Taurus Moon opposition Uranus square Mars in Leo was being rattled by transiting Uranus over the Presidential election (again in January 2023). Even more damaging and disruptive its Solar Arc positions are hitting his Sagittarius Sun for the first time this year and buffeting him severely up to 2025 and that always presages a life-changing crisis period of several years. By 2024 tr Neptune will square his Sun into 2025 which is undermining and confused.

 His wife Brigitte, a political partner, has a car-crash setback on her chart from Solar Arc Mars square Saturn exactly now covering a few months; plus an insecurity-inducing shock from tr Uranus conjunct her Mars over this second election. Which repeats October/November this year and April 2023. She’s also sagging badly in 2024/5.

  Marine Le Pen and left-wing Jean-Luc Melenchon may be rubbing their hands in glee at the moment but they are running into the buffers in a serious way through 2023/2024 with both having tr Pluto opposition their Mars, which is trapped and frustrated. Le Pen also looks seriously blocked around 2026/27 when the next election may be due.

  The really interesting question always was – what is happening to France? The country’s bull-headed, contrary, rebellious Pluto in Aquarius opposition Uranus square Mars in Scorpio on the Midheaven is under dark Saturnine clouds this year and then gets a dose of Uranian lightning strikes and thunderbolts through 2023/2024. Which could suggest the old born-in-a-revolution spirit will resurface in street demonstrations. Tr Pluto is square the France Neptune in 2022/23 for widespread confusion and disillusionment and then moves to square the Saturn in 2023/24 for a discouraging and deprived slog through difficult times with low morale. By which time in 2024 there is an undermining tr Neptune opposes the France Virgo Sun. Whether Macron stays the course or not the next three years will go down as one of France’s least enjoyable chapters. By 2024 there will be glimmerings of revived confidence from an upbeat tr Pluto square the France Jupiter extending through 2025.

  Macron’s First Presidency chart 14 May 2017 which might give pointers to an exit date – point to this August to December as being particularly destabilizing; with more upheavals and potential fall-off-perch moments by 2024. It’ll shake even his titanium-coated amour propre.

  Be interesting to contemplate the EU minus its two leading players – Merkel gone and Macron tripping over domestic horrors.

See previous post April 2 2022

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