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New Zealand gave 2022 a cautious welcome with Covid restrictions easing, having moved through a sombre few months recently with the Solar Arc Saturn squaring the Sun.

  That has now passed on but the country will still be facing significant challenges ahead which are not too obvious at the moment with the economy giving every indication of bouncing back. Tr Pluto will continue the pressured conjunction to the NZ Capricorn Sun through this month and again later in the year, but more portentously tr Pluto will conjunct the high-stress Sun/Mars midpoint in February and from March the frustrating, trapped Mars for a tough two years ahead. Indeed this is followed in 2023/2024 by tr Pluto square the NZ Pluto and then the NZ Uranus – so the whole phase from 2021 right through till 2026 will be ones of momentous change and disruption.

  The NZ Saturn will be rattled around by tr Uranus conjunct early February to mid March this year which will bring tensions to the surface, but that will be fairly minor disruption. Not all plans will work out as hoped this year and next with tr Pluto conjunct the Jupiter/Neptune midpoint; and 2023 will have an accident-prone or other setbacks from Solar Arc Saturn square the NZ Mars.  Since the 4^th house Mars is being targeted from several directions it will trigger a fair amount of domestic aggravation and anger.

  The Bank of New Zealand chart, 1 August 1934, points to a regressive year in 2021 with the Solar Arc square the Sun but that has now passed. The transiting Saturn will oppose the Sun and conjunct the Saturn from this March on and off till early 2023 which will have its moments of discouragement though this influence comes round not infrequently. The next significant astrological influences will be 2023/24 with tr Uranus square the Sun and Saturn; with a heavily restrictive tr Pluto square the Mars/North Node midpoint in 2023/24. Which fits the pattern of other central banks all showing strain as we move towards mid decade.

  Jacinda Ardern’s popularity rating is sliding but not disastrously so. Her Term chart from 6 November 2020 11 am will be jolted and jangled by the tr Saturn square tr Uranus hitting on the Sun in January and then April this year; and there will be a dreary slog from tr Pluto conjunct the Saturn continuing on from last year through to the year end.

  Her own personal chart, 26 July 1980, has the uncertain, undermining tr Neptune opposition her hard-working Saturn in Virgo throughout 2022 till early 2023. 2023 will also be lack lustre with her Solar Arc Neptune opposition her Sun and 2024 being a year of sudden upheavals for her.

  I’m sorry to be dramatic about the country’s transits ahead but they do point to a disruptive phase of considerable magnitude.  The previous times transiting Pluto was in hard aspect to the same planets were:

1938 and through WW11 with tr Pluto in Cancer in opposition. And in 1983 to 1988 with tr Pluto in Libra in square – though not much happened then that was overly obvious apart from a stock market crash at the end.  Part of this time round may be battling climate change.

The legendary Betty White whose TV career spanned eight decades, the longest uninterrupted career of any actor in television history which scooped her eight Emmy awards, has died just two weeks short of her 100^th birthday. She is best known for The Golden Girls but she moved from one groundbreaking performance to the next from early on, becoming one of the first women producers in Hollywood with the 1950s TV sitcom Life with Elizabeth which broke with convention in including a black performer at her insistence.

  She honed her image as a ditzy blonde through talkshows, gameshows, sitcoms and multiple autobiographies but the reality was a tough, savvy operator in the LA shark pond. She was cast in the The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a character who was sweetness and light in public but “vicious as a barracuda in private”. She played it to perfection.

  One commentator said: ‘While not an obvious trailblazer like Joan Rivers, White was a quiet revolutionary in her way – a gloved knife rather than a Rivers-like axe smashing down walls, whose onscreen jibes came with a sweet smile instead of a sneer.’

 She was born 17 January 1922 at 6.38 pm Oak Park, Illinois, was married three times, the last one a keeper, had no children and was a keen animal activist.

  Her practical and ambitious Capricorn Sun in the hard-working 6^th was conjunct a charming Venus and trine a Virgo Moon so keeping busy was what she did best. Her Sun Venus were also square Jupiter in fair-minded Libra in her 3^rd so she’d communicate easily and have an upbeat, enthusiastic approach. Where she got her grit and tenacity was a Water Grand Trine of Pluto trine a determined Mars in Scorpio trine Uranus. Water Grand Trines are creative and can be healing for others.

  Oddly enough PD James, the crime writer, born two years earlier had the same Grand Trine and she had a dark streak which isn’t as obvious in Betty White’s bouncy performances but she would need a core of titanium to survive as long as she did in television.

  Betty White’s Uranus was in her 7^th house of close relationships so she would find one-to-one commitment in marriage cramped her style and her first two attempts were short lived. Her North Node was also in Libra so her development would depend on her becoming less independent and self-sufficient. Her third husband, Allen Ludden, 5 October 1917 4pm Mineral Point, Wisconsin, felicitously had his Libra Sun conjunct her North Node so was able to make an enduring match. She described him as the love of her life. He did have an Air Grand Trine of his Libra Sun trine Jupiter Moon in Gemini trine Uranus which would key into her Jupiter which would smooth round problems. It was by no means an easy combination but there was enough Jupiter and Neptune in their relationship chart to swirl it in good feelings.

The Royals won’t put on as united a public front for Prince Andrew as the Maxwell siblings have done for Ghislaine. Even the Queen may be belatedly facing up to the fact that she’s reached, if not a point of no return, certainly a fork in the road where her allegedly favourite son is concerned.

  Her relationship chart with him is heavily Neptunian with the composite Sun opposition a Moon Neptune conjunction, so swirled in illusory hopes and unrealistic expectations. It took a hit when he was forced to exit his trade envoy job in 2011 after his dodgy Middle and Far Eastern political and financial connections were exposed as well as his friendship with Epstein. At that point tr Pluto was squaring the composite Moon and tugging on the composite Sun and Neptune.

   The tr Uranus square tr Saturn has recently been chipping away at their composite Midheaven Mars opposition Pluto  – with tr Saturn exactly conjunct the Midheaven at the moment. A serious reality check.

  Her own Moon at 12 degrees Leo is also being pounded by tr Saturn in opposition in early January and tr Uranus square in March, so she will feel under-supported and distressed.

  Prince Charles and Andrew were never bosom buddies with a competitive composite Sun Mars in their relationship chart; and a chilly composite Moon square Saturn. That latter is being walloped around by the tr Saturn square tr Uranus exactly now through till March as well.

  Prince William who harbours a strong dislike of his uncle Andrew will be involved in intense and perhaps bitter discussions from March onwards as he makes his view clear, presumably on the damage that having Andrew visible at Windsor is doing to the monarchy. The years between 2023 and 2026 will see William at his most determinedly hostile.

  Sarah Ferguson, the divorced but still financially supported/housed and 150% cheer-leading former wife, will find the sands shifting under her feet. Her relationship with Andrew is sagging badly from May this year onwards, with upsets mid year and on in similar fashion into 2023. A Royal watcher remarked recently that they are each other’s only support. And what lies ahead for her through 2023 to 2025 looks fairly dire with a poleaxing series of blocked, discouraging and aggravated Solar Arcs.

It’s sad to think of the Queen having to cope with this mess at her age, though perhaps if she’d sent him into exile years back, or been stricter about his dodgy connections, it would never have reached this point. And heaven knows she lived through Princess Margaret’s eye-curling loves and dissolute habits, never mind a couple of her uncles whose behaviour would have felled the monarchy decades back if there had been a more invasive media then.

The Australian economic contraction caused by Covid has been less severe than feared. The signs are that the economy is primed for a rebound with expansion through 2022 and full employment by late in the year. The financial hit from the decoupling with China over political differences and criticism of the Wuhan origins of Covid, has also been lower than feared with alternative markets found for exports.

  There will be a federal election in 2022, before late May, with PM Scott Morrison’s popularity rating way down over vaccine bungles, taxpayer funded grants, parliament’s #MeToo reckoning and the government response to devastating bushfires. But the opposition leader remains an unknown quantity.

  The first seven months look fraught with the Australia country chart’s Mars/Uranus and Mars/Pluto midpoints being triggered which are catastrophe-prone so there may be natural as well as other disasters to contend with and the same goes for New Year into January 2023. Tr Neptune is also square the AU Jupiter from mid May onwards, on and off into 2023, which usually means high-hopes don’t produce the expected results and it can accompany financial bubbles deflating.  The Taurus Sun and maybe Taurus Solar Arc Midheaven will also catch the eclipses so there will be challenges prompting a rethink of past attitudes and actions.

  But really it is 2023 where red flags go up when there will be a slipping and sliding series of Neptune transits to key midpoints undermining confidence.

  The Bank of Australia chart, 14 January 1960, will stay bullishly confident from March 2022 till late 2023, which isn’t to say there won’t be sizeable hiccups along the way in April and May; and deflated hopes in May to early August 2022; with a degree of panic in six months.  But like the other central banks, where the real trouble shows up in 2024/25 with considerable angst as major blockages crop up financially with a pervasive sense of failure.

  Scott Morrison’s Term chart, 24 August 2018 6.15pm, will run into severe head winds slowing progress to a halt, and causing aggravation from March onwards as tr Pluto is conjunct the Mars and that runs right through the election.

  His own personal chart, 13 May 1968, with a Taurus Sun opposition Neptune, square Jupiter and trine Uranus Pluto in Virgo will be buffeted by the Eclipses. His Venus in Taurus catches the 30 April Solar Eclipse which can bring an emotional upset; and the Lunar Eclipse a fortnight later in Scorpio will catch his Neptune and Sun so it will be a time of rolling challenges and crises, with the likelihood that he’ll be evasive and try to smokescreen his way out of tight corners.

Canada heads into 2022 with an economy roared back to pre-pandemic levels and a full recovery with 5.4% growth in the  third quarter. Hopes are that this will continue though there is uncertainty about the impact of the Omnicron variant.

  The key factor astrologically is what will happen when transiting Uranus crosses the Canada Pluto in Taurus and opposes the Saturn which picks up from May 2022 onwards for a year thereafter.  The only previous time this has occurred was in 1938 to 1940 over the outbreak of World War 11 which is not helpful as a comparison, since it is unlikely to repeat in the same way.

   Saturn opposition Pluto is a stubborn streak in the national temperament, the ability to withstand tough conditions and an extreme resistance to change.  Uranus will arrive with a thunderbolt, intent on unsettling the status quo. Tensions will rise and there will be a disruptive and unsettled mood at the very least.

 The Bank of Canada chart, 11 March 1935 is showing signs of a change of direction at the moment with the the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct its Pluto now and even more so in 2023/24 with tr Pluto square the Uranus so there will be an economic shift but with Uranus involved, the trickster planet, it can go up or down.  The significant problems show up for the central bank by 2026.

  The recent surprise unpopular election for which Trudeau was roundly criticized and as a result lost his majority, emerged with no political party happy. A commentator said: “There wasn’t really a winner. There was just a whole bunch of losers.”

  His latest term chart from 26 October 2021 has a deadlocked and scary Mars square Pluto and Sun square Saturn so is not too uplifting. Though Mars trine Jupiter sextile Venus will help in rolling out a morale-boosting charm offensive.

  Where Canada starts to really want space from Trudeau will be 2023/2024.

  His personal chart indicates 2024 as the change-of-direction year with tr Uranus conjunct his Midheaven and a panicky-failure tr Neptune conjunct his Mars into 2025. Even before then he will be under considerable pressure from 2023 with tr Pluto starting to trine his Saturn.

  The crucial factor for Canada in the near future will be what tr Uranus square its incredibly Fixed Pluto in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio brings a few months’ hence. And indeed the effect the Eclipses will have on it.

Ghislaine Maxwell has been found guilty on five of the six counts of recruiting and trafficking young girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein, including the most serious charge of sex trafficking a minor. It means she could spend the rest of her life in prison. A date for sentencing has not yet been set. There is speculation she may name names of Epstein friends who visited his establishments to shorten her sentence and she is also appealing.

  What is most noticeable about her chart is tr Pluto conjunct her 9^th house Saturn from March 9^th onwards, on and off till late 2023 which is discouraging and tough-going. Her delusional and arrogant Jupiter Midheaven in Aquarius opposition a 4^th house Leo Moon square Neptune is being rattled by tr Saturn square her Neptune and then opposition her Moon in January, followed by tr Uranus hard aspects which will bring high anxiety and some glimmerings of hope.

  Her Solar Returns look less challenging ahead but that may be because the lower security prison she will be sent to will be ‘Disneyland’ compared to the tough New York facility she has been incarcerated in for 500 days.

  The verdict does not bode well for Prince Andrew though his name did not crop up, nor that of his civil case accuser Virginia Guiffre. He visibly flaunted Maxwell as a friend, inviting her into the inner Royal circle so can hardly escape contamination. His own court case is becoming increasingly desperate with his lawyers’ attempts to get it thrown out on technicalities.  

  He has his Mars Venus in Capricorn at 27 and 28 degrees so it will pick up the tr Pluto conjunction from the 3^rd February, running off and on till late 2023 – trapped, scary, enraging, emotionally ramped-up – which could bring on health issues since they are in the 6^th. Plus his Solar Arc Moon is conjunct his Mars within a few months which will be testing. His Progressed Moon is moving through his 8^th house, from three months back, and staying there for another 18 months which can feel like purgatory (where the spirits of the dead go to suffer for their sins). Or at the very least it feels torn by inner conflict – made worse in his case because his secretive 8^th house Mercury in Pisces will catch the Progressed Moon conjunction just after it has collided with his Progressed Mars – all around the middle of this coming year; followed by a downbeat Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Mercury.  It won’t be a fun year for him.

  Mind you Virginia Giuffre is not looking overly pleased either with tr Pluto opposition her Mars and square her Pluto Saturn in 2022/23. That court case may come to a stalemate.

   Of those who have been named as high-profile Epstein friends, the relationship charts with Maxwell indicate:-

 Donald Trump – there is a discouraging tr Pluto square the composite Saturn from January 2^nd on their relationship chart at the same time as it squares the panicky Mars/Neptune midpoint; followed by a trapped, high-risk, enraging tr Pluto square Mars from March onwards for two years. And by 2024 tr Neptune will conjunct their composite Sun – so all in all bad feelings are running high.

Alan Dershowitz –also has tr Pluto square the Maxwell composite Mars from this March till late 2023.

 Bill Clinton will be rattled from July this year on and off into 2023 with tr Uranus opposition their composite Venus Mars conjunction; with worse in 2023/24.

Andrew’s relationship chart with Maxwell will be edgy now till April, but won’t get seriously pressured until 2024/25 when tr Pluto is conjunct the composite Sun.

  The ripples spread out.

April Ashley, model, actress, writer and an early transgender woman who had sex reassignment surgery in Casablanca in 1960, has died. She was probably inter-sex and had an unhappy childhood with an abusive mother, joined the navy, attempted suicide and eventually ended up in Paris performing in a drag nightclub which allowed her to save for her Moroccan surgeon. She came back to a successful modelling career until a Sunday tabloid exposed her story courtesy of a snitching friend and cut short her career. A marriage followed to a cross-dressing aristo scion but that didn’t last and a judge deemed it an illegal match so she fled to the US to avoid discrimination. She only returned when legislation made her situation tenable and she received an MBE in 2012 for services to transgender equality.

  She seemed a genuinely nice person who only wanted to live a quiet life and be accepted for who she was – unlike the raging trolls who are spitting poison at the moment.

  She was born 29 April 1935 7.45 am Liverpool, she had a friendly 11^th house Sun, Mercury and Uranus in Taurus – so steady and innovative. She had a regretful Moon Saturn conjunction in Pisces in her 10^th, a legacy of her uncaring mother which opposed Neptune and squared onto a social-butterfly 12^th house Venus in Gemini.

  The two key configurations in her chart were a healing Water Grand Trine of her Pisces Moon connecting her to the public trine Pluto South Node in Cancer trine Jupiter in Scorpio – despite her hard life she had a streak of confidence which brought her luck from Jupiter Pluto. The other was a Yod of Saturn sextile Sun Mercury inconjunct Mars which would give her anger issues but once she took charge of her life she would pursue a decisive course, which involved a clear separation from the past.

  When she had her gender reassignment surgery in 1960 tr Uranus was conjunct her Solar Arc Pluto pulling on one leg of her Solar Arc Grand Trine; and her Solar Arc Mars in the run-up was opposition her Uranus. It took almost two years to recover from the seven hour operation and after effects but she said she’d never been happier.

  Her 13^th harmonic was exceptionally strong and transformative. In numerology it is the number of upheaval, change and rebirth. This number is associated with exploration and breaking with the orthodox. It requires adaptation to change to be successful. She was a brave woman.    

See also Jan Morris post November 21 2020 – who also had gender reassignment surgery from the same doctor in 1972. Like April Ashley she seemed extremely nice and not a ranting activist.

An unseasonable tale of debauchery in high places is the BBC’s festive gift in the form of A Very British Scandal, relating the scandalous divorce and life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll.  With an unedifying cast of well-heeled cads and bounders, it paints an unsavoury picture of what passed for high society amongst the Brit establishment.

  What is most extraordinary of all is the event packed life of the central figure of Margaret, whose 1960s divorce became the scandal of the century. She was born 1 December 1912 in Glasgow, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, had an abortion after becoming pregnant at 15 by a 17 year old David Niven; proceeded to have flings with Prince Aly Khan, an engagement to  Max Aitken, the son of Lord Beaverbrook; Glen Kidston, a married man who died in a plane crash, and Charles Fulke Greville, the Earl of Warwick. At 20, she married Charles Sweeny, an Irish-American golfer and stockbroker, who turned out to be pathologically jealous, making her a mystifying choice for a bride. She had three children and eight miscarriages during their ten year marriage. And a near fatal accident, falling 40 feet down a life shaft.

  She then married the dashing and impecunious Captain Ian Campbell, holder of the Argyll title and lands and paid for the restoration of Inveraray Castle, his family pile, despite him being a violent, vicious drunk. They were well-suited since she desperately wanted a son with him and having failed to conceive, planned to fake a pregnancy by padding her stomach and buying a newborn baby boy from Poland. Step two was to forge letters to prove sons from his first marriage weren’t his, to secure her place at Inverary.

He retaliated by suing for divorce, having found her stash of polaroid photos of sexual liaisons with an unknown headless man – widely deemed to be Duncan Sandys, the Minister for Defence or the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. Having been the It socialite girl of her day she fell dramatically from grace being vilified by the press, betrayed by her friends and exiled from the establishment.

  She turned to psychics for guidance and was a client of Eva Petulengro whose later memoirs described her as “ a cross between a high-class whore and the wicked witch who gave Snow White the apple.”

  Her later years were a downward spiral of debt since she refused to give up her extravagant lifestyle, losing first her parents’ London home, then being evicted from Grosvenor House Hotel and finally, flat broke, being supported by friends and her first husband, dying in a nursing home at 81.

  A life of breathtaking selfishness and zero self-awareness – or maybe she didn’t care.

  She had an impulsive and adventurous Sun Mars in Sagittarius in a hard-edged opposition to Saturn; with a pushily confident and sharp-tongued Pluto opposition Mercury Jupiter in Sagittarius. Her Sun was almost certainly square her Virgo Moon which may also have been linked to her Mars and Saturn if an early morning birth – so she’d never know what she wanted and wasn’t well-served by either parent.

  It’s a chart that really needs a birth time and the standard signs of promiscuity or sex addiction – Venus Saturn or heavy Scorpio are missing. Though her Jupiter was conjunct her Venus/Mars midpoint which Ebertin describes as a ‘healthy sex relationship’ and Jupiter was square her Venus/Saturn midpoint which points to ‘illegitimate relationships’. Her turbo-fuelled Jupiter clearly magnified both of these.

She did have a tight, out-of-sign Yod of Uranus sextile Mars inconjunct Pluto which would give her a tendency to go to extremes, so moderation was never her thing.  Such a Pluto would make her manipulative and bullying, and while the positive attributes could have made her influential, the fall- out from mismanaging it would be severe. Tierney talks of self-destructive passions which would reduce the individual to a ‘frustrating level of obscurity and isolation.’

  It might explain why she refused to deal in private with the divorce, sparing herself the humiliation of a public trial. As one commentator said both she and the Duke had each other round the throat and weren’t about to let go. He equally had a control-freak Pluto.

  Her pleasure-seeking 9^th Harmonic unsurprisingly was heavily aspected; as was her self-defeating 16H.

  When she fell down the lift shaft in 1943 her Solar Arc Pluto was opposition her Uranus; and during her 1963 divorce her Solar Arc Sun was conjunct her Uranus – so rebellious, wayward Uranus was clearly a key planet, on one leg of the Yod.  Also around the divorce the transiting Pluto Uranus in early Virgo were squaring her Mars Sun and probably conjunct her Moon.

  Her pleasure-seeking 9^th Harmonic unsurprisingly was heavily aspected; as was her self-defeating 16H.

    Ian Campbell, Duke of Argyll, 18 June 1903, was a controlling, unpredictable and self-willed Sun Pluto in Gemini opposition Uranus square Jupiter (Moon) in Pisces; with a chilly Venus opposition Saturn; and an emotionally detached and critical Air Grand Trine of Mars trine Saturn trine Mercury. It was certainly no love match but their North Nodes were conjunct the other’s South Nodes so it was a karmic connection of sorts – both bringing out the worst in each other. And both of their self-willed Jupiter Plutos also clashed.

 Their wedding chart, 22 March 1951, had a dominating, cruel Mars trine Pluto, an ego-clashing Mars opposition Neptune; and a high-tension, disruptive Sun opposition Saturn square Uranus.

  Not sure why this is worth pausing over but it is mind-boggling.

The Saturn Uranus square has been creating tensions and discomfort through 2021 and will continue through 2022. There was an exact aspect three days ago; it stays in orb through January/February and again July onwards until it makes one final exact aspect in October 2022 and by the New Year into 2023 is moving on.

 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.

  The conjunctions of Saturn Uranus can bring golden ages, the foundation of empires and enlightened thinking, though extremist aspirations also creep in. The hard aspects tend to coincide with economic crises and often conflicts between opposites. Saturn, upholder of the prevailing tradition meets/clashes with Uranus the liberator, innovator, torchbearer for the future, symbolizer of sudden change and creative thought and catalyst for sweeping away outworn structures to make way for new possibilities.

  Andre Barbault has a helpful survey in his book Planetary Cycles: Mundane Astrology looking at the sweep of Saturn Uranus 45.5 year cycles over the past century plus. He nutshells Saturn Uranus as  dry, hard, a thirst for conquest, authoritarian power.

 He looks at the cycle from the Saturn Uranus conjunction of 1805 to 1852 as one when the USA consolidated its territorial ambitions, tripling in size. Then the next cycle 1852 to 1897 kick started capitalism with an economic and industrial revolution. This was hampered in the US at the Saturn Uranus square which oversaw the Civil War of 1861 and the unrest only settled when the trine came round five years later. The following opposition saw speculative disasters and by the square of 1885 there were imperialist tensions and rivalries around the globe.

 1897 to 1942, conjunction to conjunction, he categorises as imperialism to fascism and it follows the same pattern through economic crisis – square over 1930/31 as well as imperialist rivalries at the hard aspects.

  1942 to 1988 sees the USA take over as superpower; with the Korean War and Vietnam War on the hard aspects as well as political weakness with Watergate.

 The 1988 to 2032 Saturn Uranus cycle he calls Globalization. With the collapse of the USSR it ceases to be a bi-polar world. The 1999 square saw the dot com bubble bursting,  anti-globalization demos and a north-south economic divide. The 2008 opposition accompanied the economic super-crash.

  There is a risk of forcing historical events and shifts to fit the astrology but there is enough syncronicity here to make it worth pondering.  Standing back to see a larger pattern with the present turbulence as a passing two year phase can make it more bearable. The sextiles and trines, soft aspects, are always easier and we are moving towards the Saturn in Aries sextile Uranus in Gemini in 2025. This is the final staging post on this ‘Globalization’ cycle that started in 1988 and ends in the Saturn Uranus conjunction of 2032 in late Gemini.