not categorised

The announcement that Camilla will be Queen was adroitly slipped in with Queen Elizabeth’s anniversary celebrations making it less likely to raise a fuss.  She has been a mellowing and supportive presence in Charles’ life, crucial for his stability and morale when he takes over the throne.

  Born 17 July 1947 7.10 am London, she has a 12^th house Cancer Sun trine a 4^th house Jupiter in Scorpio pointing to a contented, happy family upbringing and both of these chime well with Charles’ Scorpio Sun. Camilla also has a charming, motherly Moon Venus in Cancer in her friendly 11^th. And a stalwart Saturn Pluto in Leo just below her Leo Ascendant.

  She is reserved and has never given any indication of wanting to upstage Charles; indeed all reports were she was hesitant at thoughts of marriage to him at all.

  Diana on the other hand with a 7^th house Cancer Sun and a 5^th house Venus in Taurus was much more outgoing and hungry for attention. Diana’s rebellious Uranus was square Charles’ Sun which was never going to work and her airy Aquarius Moon was a bad fit with his Scorpio temperament. Plus her argumentative and uptight Mars Pluto was conjunct Charles’ Saturn which produced a very gritty interface.

   Camilla has kept her head down and not put a foot wrong since their 2005 wedding, slowly building an empathetic reputation especially for her work with domestic violence victims and her calming presence at the side of the heir.

  There will always be snipers, bearing grievances on behalf of Princess Diana and betrayed wives in general, but she’s faced her trials well.

  What is likely to be a challenge ahead is her aggravated relationship with Prince Harry. She gets on well enough with Prince William  whose New Moon in Cancer is close enough to her Cancer Moon and Venus. But Harry’s Virgo Sun collides with her Uranus (and Charles’ Uranus for that matter) and his Mars Uranus collides with Camilla’s Mars – very ratchety. And it reflects Camilla’s relationship with Diana which was understandably stressed with an explosive composite Sun, Mars, Uranus conjunction and a tussle-for-the-upper-hand Jupiter Pluto. Just to set the difficulties in concrete Camilla’s Saturn Pluto falls in Harry’s 8^th and his Saturn Pluto in her 4th.

  Camilla’s relationship chart with Harry is fairly unfixable with a composite Mars opposition Uranus Pluto square Moon opposition Jupiter. Their connection is sagging through this year in a discouraging way and will move through more upheavals and ruptures in 2023/2024. Mind you Harry’s relationship with his father and brother are not good ahead either for several years. And Meghan is a bad fit with Camilla since C’s Saturn Pluto is conjunct M’s Leo Sun and M’s Mars in Cancer square Saturn in Libra collide with C’s Moon Venus.

  Camilla’s Solar Arc Midheaven will conjunct her Uranus (birth time being accurate) which does suggest a radical change of direction late this year or early next, coinciding with a fair amount of nervous anxiety.  Maybe once the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations are over she’ll make a further step backwards.

Who’d have thought Mike Pence would be spear-heading the first signs of a Republican backlash against an increasingly out of control Trump?  Pence infuriated his former boss by refusing to  overturn Biden’s victory on January 7^th, hours after the insurrection on Capitol Hill. He said the American people not the vice-president decided elections. Pence’s former former chief of staff Marc Short at the weekend described some of Trump’s advisers on the election as “snake oil salesmen” and joined several senior Republicans – senators John Barrasso, Lisa Murkowski and Marco Rubio amongst others – in voicing opposition to  Trump lies.

 Trump appears to be ramping up the rhetoric, calling at a Texas rally for massive protests against “radical, vicious, racist prosecutors” which according to legal experts could constitute obstruction of justice and backfire on him. Former Richard Nixon White House counsel John Dean attacked Trump’s talk of pardons for the rioters as the “stuff of dictators”. Veteran prosecutors say Trump’s comments seemed to reveal that the former president now feels more legal jeopardy from the three inquiries in Atlanta, Washington and New York, all of which have accelerated since the start of 2022.

  Pence was a half-good fit with Trump being himself a Sun, Mercury and possibly Moon in Gemini (though given his mother issues a Cancer Moon may be more likely.) and his Jupiter falls in Trump’s 4^th which is good. But Pence’s Mars and Uranus in Leo falling in Trump’s 12^th conjunct his Pluto always was going to be a problem at some point. Pence’s underlying rebellious streak could blow Trump out of the water or at least have a destabilizing effect when he finds a backbone.

  Their relationship chart has an ambitious composite Sun trine Neptune sextile Pluto  – so the end probably justified the buttoned-lip years for Pence. But there’s also a festering bitterness at the humiliating submission required, from a composite Mars Pluto North Node conjunction. Splitting apart a Mars Pluto relationship always comes after extraordinary difficult and with a great deal of hostility, vengeance and rancour since its do-or-die quality never gives in gracefully or at all.

   And it is that composite Mars Pluto which is starting to rock n’ roll in earnest this year with tr Saturn opposition the composite Mars exactly now, again in August/September and this December; and opposition the Pluto across the middle of next month (March), in late August to mid September, and again in the first half of this December. To top up the aggro tr Uranus will throw in a hand grenade into their togetherness this May and again in December as it squares the composite Mars.   Their relationship will be blown to smithereens. Added to which tr Pluto opposes the composite Venus from this March on and off till late 2023 which will pile on the emotional intensity.  

  Pence’s chart looks edgy and uncertain mid this May to mid August; with a calamitous few weeks mid June to mid July and mid October to early November this year and again in early 2023. He looks slightly more upbeat in 2023 though also blocked moving into 2024.

Add ON: “Former president Donald Trump is facing a total of 19 legal actions – about half of which allege improper conduct during his presidency.

Most of the cases fall under three themes: financial wrongdoings that made him more money; his role in the January 6 2021 insurrection; and his alleged interference in the 2020 election. Trump has denied wrongdoing in most of these cases. He has filed motions to dismiss several of them and has filed countersuits in some cases.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2022/feb/07/donald-trump-list-legal-cases

For Trump timeline see September 22 2021.

Queen Elizabeth is mourning the day her father George V1 died seventy years ago which is also the anniversary of her accession. During her long reign, she has seen 14 British prime ministers occupy No 10 and survived on the throne for longer than Queen Elizabeth 1 (44 years) and Queen Victoria (64 years).  

  Oddly enough there was also a transiting Saturn square Uranus running in February 1952 in Libra/Cancer which were both tugging on her dutiful 6^th house Pluto in Cancer; with tr Neptune in Libra square her North Node. What is most noticeable is tr Pluto in Leo in a blocked and scary opposition to her Mars as her life-as-she-knew-it ground to a halt and she faced the momentous challenges that lay ahead. Tr Pluto over the next three years would wend its way in hard aspect round her Fixed and obsessively conscientious T Square involving her Midheaven as she learnt to handle the burden of her new role.

  The UK chart also showed a distinct shift at that point in 1952 with tr Uranus conjunct the Midheaven and tr Saturn exactly opposition the UK 7^th house North Node in Aries; with tr Venus conjunct the IC and tr Sun conjunct the UK Venus so it would be an emotional time.

  George V1 died aged 56 in the middle of the night so there is no definite time. He was born 14 December 1895 3.05 am Sandringham, England and as the second son, behind his brother the Duke of Windsor, never expected to inherit the throne.

 Nervy with a pronounced stammer and poor health, he was not well designed for the rigours of monarchy, unlike his stalwart daughter Elizabeth. He had a Sagittarius Sun Mercury opposition an 8^th house Neptune Pluto in Gemini, which would make him prone to instability. His Jupiter on his Midheaven would help but it was nothing in comparison to Elizabeth’s dutiful Saturn in Scorpio on her Midheaven locked into a Fixed planet opposition.  She may have had her faults as a detached mother but she is custom-built for standing rock steady over the long haul.

The revolving door at No 10 spins even faster with a fifth aide out and several ministers hinting they will voluntarily walk the plank. It’s 50/50 whether Boris will resign though he’s temperamentally unsuited to facing reality and tends to double down when facing impossible odds which offer a platform for a good going rant and rave.

  There’s not much to add to what has been said before (below various posts) except that what is becoming obvious is how central and complicit Carrie is to the various scandals that have threatened to bring him down. From wallpaper, to the celebratory death-to-Cummings drinks and other parties, the holiday in Mustique or the evacuation of animals from Afghanistan, her influence is clear. Not that he has to take her advice or jump to her commands but he does appear to be part of a duo for whom a sense of entitlement that no rules apply is paramount.

  An insider said,  “Her interventions are symptomatic of the fact that the government doesn’t know where it’s going; she only has influence because there’s a vacuum.” She is the first prime ministerial spouse who has had a career in politics but appears not to be calculating according to those close, more emotionally reactive and she cultivates cliques where you are In or Out.  “She’s slowly cut out the people who were close to him and surrounded him by people who are Carrie-approved. The whole thing is so toxic.”

  All of which could sound like sexism or spite. BUT – look at the relationship charts between Carrie and several top level departures.

  The most surprising recently was Munira Murza, 7 May 1978, for 14 years a stalwart Boris aide. She objected to his Jimmy Savile smear against Keir Starmer but that was clearly the elastic-snapper of tensions which had been mounting for some time. Her relationship chart with Boris is mainly positive and supportive – with Carrie it is poisonous and unfixable with a composite Saturn, Pluto, Mars conjunction which (again!) is in a Yod sextile Neptune inconjunct Venus Algol. Tr Pluto is just starting to square one leg of that Yod this month.

  Carrie famously did not get on with Dominic Cummings, for which she could be forgiven since he is a weirdo – their relationship chart has a bitter Pluto Mercury Mars tie up.

  With David Frost, recently unexpectedly gone supposedly for Brexity and other reasons, there’s a composite Sun, Mars, Neptune, Pluto connection with Carrie which is equally less than rapturous.

  And Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, also fails in the Carrie popularity contest – and vice versa – with an aggravated-dislike composite Saturn Mars with Mars conjunct Pluto.

  Liz Truss doesn’t fare well either with her (another Yod, onto Saturn), or Priti Patel. In almost all cases Boris’s relationships with the above are, while not perfect, not riven by dislike.

  What was always going to be problematic was Carrie’s chaotic and highly strung triple conjunction of Uranus, Saturn, Neptune in Capricorn with Mars added in for extra zest. Her Uranus Saturn oppose Boris’s Sun Venus so it isn’t a comfortable match; and her indulgent and acquisitive Pluto opposition Venus in Taurus fall across his financial houses and her Pluto trines his Midheaven – so she will want to control his spending/earning as well as his career direction.

 Their relationship chart has a Yod of Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Sun – which is overweeningly self-important as a couple and will be where the sense of entitlement and joint ambition comes from. It’ll be upended by tr Uranus conjunct the composite Sun from mid March till early April, and mightily challenged by the Taurus Solar Eclipse in late April.

  Her own chart catches both tr Uranus and the Eclipse at the same times since her Venus opposition Pluto is at the same degree – for emotional upsets and crises. She’ll be rattled across the May elections and is heading for a swampy 2023 with tr Neptune conjunct her Pisces Sun.

  Another sideline to the present furore.

See previous posts 25 January and 30^th January 2022.

ADD ON: Australian Lynton Crosby who was reportedly coming in as chief Boris adviser, appears – at the moment – to have declined. Born 23 August 1956, he has his Mars in Pisces which would clash with Carrie’s Sun which also would not appreciate the quincunx from his controlling Sun Pluto in Leo.

  But one of his cronies, David Canzini, 17 March 1964, has moved in as a senior aide – he also has his Mars and Sun in Pisces; and in his relationship chart with Carrie is ratchety, with hostile undertones and tussles about who holds the power.

 Lord Ashcroft has added his voice to the anti-Carrie lobby in a new book First Lady to be published March 29^th. What he says echoes other critics about a lonely, beleaguered Boris surrounded by Team Carrie. Ashcroft, 4 January 1948, has his Capricorn Sun conjunct Carrie’s Mars and Neptune so a competitive interface. Again the relationship chart is heavily aggravated.

  She is a lady who arouses strong feelings.  

Add On2: Skipping back through last year Boris and Carrie’s wedding chart came to light, see May 30^th. It certainly echoes most of the above given that it has a hair-raising Mars opposition Pluto Moon tied into Neptune. Which hardly suggests marital harmony and bliss to follow.

Latest inmates to the No 10 – in brief.

Stephen Barclay MP in as Chief of Staff which is an odd combination of roles. A Taurus with a ramped up Venus Mars in Gemini, which latter is being seriously deflated from mid April by a panicky-failure tr Neptune square Mars and then Venus. April could be the month to upset his applecart with tr Uranus also conjunct his Sun – or May if he clings on. And is facing a catastrophic summer thereafter.

  Guto Harri, fresh in from GB News, now Communications chief, is a Sun Cancer with Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn square Jupiter, is facing disruptions ahead but marginally later than April.

Tom Brady, the American football quarterback, whose name is synonymous with his sport, has announced his retirement after a 20 year career, seven Super Bowls and every quarterback record in the book. He said he no longer wanted to give 100% commitment to the game to pursue other interests so is retiring at the top of his game. He is building a new mansion with his wife model Gisele Bundchen (reportedly worth a combined $650 million) in the exclusive Indian Creek Island on Miami Beach only doors down from Ivanka and Jared Trump.

  Brady was born 3 August 1977 at 11.48 am San Mateo, California and although slow to start in his sports career had a dogged perfectionist streak which saw him battling to the top. He has an ambitious 10^th house Sun conjunct Saturn on the cusp of his 11^th. That Saturn is interesting since although it will fuel his need to be important he has also foregone top fees to ensure his team mates got their fair share of the budget.

  He also has an inspirational and entrepreneurial Fire Grand Trine of his Leo Sun trine Neptune (surprisingly common amongst athletes) trine an Aries Moon. This is formed into two Kites by Moon opposition Pluto and Neptune opposition an 8^th house Mars. He has a super-complicated, highly talented and very driven chart.

  His wife Gisele Bundchen, the top earning model up to 2017, is reputably even wealthier than Brady. She was born 20 July 1980 5pm Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and has two children with him and looks after a third from a previous relationship of his. She has a sociable 7^th house Cancer Sun square a controlling and influential 10^th house Pluto with her ambitious Mars also conjunct her Midheaven. She has a light-hearted Venus in Gemini in an ethereal opposition to Neptune and a seductive trine to Pluto.

  It doesn’t look the most intuitive match with Brady’s Saturn falling in her 8^th conjunct her North Node and his Pluto conjunct her Midheaven – Saturn would cut down on warmth and bring hard lessons with the Node involved and he’d be fairly controlling as well.  But her Sun is in his 10^th which would boost his reputation though her Pluto is conjunct his Ascendant so she’d be keen to control his image. Her intense Scorpio Moon is conjunct his Uranus and his Aries Moon is opposition her Mars both of which would be ratchety and require space. They would never have survived together in a nine-to-five suburban existence for sure, but their pressured schedules individually which would keep them apart a good deal of the time would help.

  Their relationship chart does have a morale-boosting composite Sun, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury conjunction so they’ll have kept afloat on sheer exuberance and their respective success; but there will have been explosive moments with the composite Mars Mercury square Uranus, sextile Pluto and trine Neptune.

 He already has business interests in sporting products and has just branched out into fashion. Tr Pluto moving through his 4^th could be domestically unsettling but may be soaked up in the new house they intend to build from scratch. He does look on edge for the next few months, February especially, with unforeseen disruptions – and his focus will be on his finances for the next two years. It won’t all go to plan with a major obstacle slowing him to a halt when his Progressed Mars squares his Pluto in two or three years but before that he’ll be on a high.

  If anything she looks more stressed ahead with tr Saturn moving through her low profile First Quadrant into and through her chart area of personal finances for two years ahead.  Tr Pluto will oppose her Sun from this March, on and off till late 2023; and tr Neptune will oppose her Saturn this year for uncertainty and anxiety. With a career-stopping Solar Arc Saturn conjunct her 10^th house Moon by 2024.

  But that could be from various factors not all connected to his retirement. Though it will be a challenging transition since he’s renowned as being obsessive.

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Peter Mandelson, the former Labour politician and spin doctor known as the Prince of Darkness and usually described as ‘disgraced’ since he was forced to resign as Cabinet Minister over a financial scandal, has been drawn into the Epstein/Ghislaine Maxwell web.

  Photographs of him have emerged attending an Epstein birthday party in Paris in 2007 the year after Epstein was charged with counts of unlawful sex acts with a minor; and he visited Epstein’s Caribbean island, though friends were quick to assert that was Ghislaine Maxwell’s invitation since they were good friends of long standing through her crooked father.

  Mandelson has a ‘moth-like attraction’ to the rich so would share that interest with Epstein and indeed up at that level it is a very small world indeed. Newspaper reports in 1999 have Mandelson, then a Labour MP, dining regularly at Sunninghill Park, Prince Andrew’s home. In 2000, both Mandelson and the Prince were witnesses at the wedding of merchant banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild to Lynn Forester, an American broadcasting entrepreneur who was a longstanding friend of Epstein. In 2001, Prince Andrew was appointed the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, and Mandelson was reported to have been a key figure in lobbying for the duke. Between 2004 and 2008 Mandelson was EU Trade Commissioner based in Brussels with huge influence.

  The FBI currently hold Epstein’s phone book which has ten numbers for Mandelson and 16 for Prince Andrew. Only a few people in the book, which seems to have been compiled by Ghislaine, are listed with multiple numbers.

 Mandelson was born 21 October 1953 – with a chart reasonably similar to Richard 111, the Hunchback King, and to Vladimir Putin if his birthdate is accurate.  He has a Libra Sun conjunct a slippery Neptune as well as Saturn, trine Jupiter in Gemini – and square Uranus which opposes his North Node in Capricorn.

  That late Cardinal degree seems to echo through the Epstein circles’ charts. Prince Andrew has his Venus Mars in Capricorn exactly conjunct Maxwell’s Saturn and exactly conjunct Mandelson’s North Node. Epstein has Saturn Neptune in late Libra square Mercury in Capricorn. Mandelson’s North Node is also conjunct Epstein’s (probably) zero degree Aquarius Sun. Virginia Guiffre has her Mars in late Cancer square Saturn Pluto in late Libra clashing with most of the above.

  Mandelson’s Mars in Virgo is conjunct Prince Andrew’s North Node, which would make it a facilitating relationship for work. Epstein’s South Node is exactly conjunct Andrew’s Ascendant and Maxwell’s North Node falls in Andrew’s 1^st house conjunct his Uranus, while her Moon is on his Ascendant – so both have the capacity to affect his image. As does Virginia Guiffre with her Leo Sun conjunct Epstein’s South Node, Maxwell’s Moon and North Node and Andrew’s Ascendant and Uranus.

  Mandelson’s relationship chart with Maxwell has another repeating factor in the Epstein saga – a composite Venus Mars conjunction – as well as a possessive, controlling composite Sun square Pluto. It looks rattled through this year.

  His relationship chart with Prince Andrew is showing signs of a downhill slide in 2024/25.

  Mandelson’s personal chart is moving through troubled times with a panicky, undermining tr Neptune opposition his Mars this year, with a hugely pressured and challenging tr Pluto square his Sun this month and on and off till late 2023 – and it is joined in 2023/2024 by tr Pluto square his Saturn which will be discouraging.

  It’s a real spider’s web of interconnections with undertones of a Greek or Shakespearean melodrama. The fates stalk amongst them exacting their slice of karmic retribution.

Love him or loathe him Nigel Farage is a pivotal figure in UK politics, without whom Brexit would not have happened. A new biography by Michael Crick sets out his life and the events which led to the most seismic event in decades.  Although an outsider he was right man in the right place aided by luck to propel the Euro-sceptic momentum towards a referendum.

  Robert Shrimsley in an FT review remarks: “For all his skills, Farage is rarely close to the real action. He operated in his own pool, effective when the ripples reached others but always swimming apart from those in power.” And he described him as being like a character in a novel “neither hero nor heroine, confidante nor villain, but who is nonetheless essential to the denouement of the story. Perhaps this is Farage: a gifted, ruthless, mercurial and sometimes reptilian figure who was key to getting the teams on the pitch but had to watch the match being decided by others.”

  Born 3 April 1964 4.30pm Farnborough, England, he combines the rebellious chaos of the Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn – along with a rumbustious Mars in assertive Aries and an Aries Sun and Jupiter in his intense 8^th house. His Jupiter trine a Sagittarius Moon would give him dollops of undeserved luck – according to Crick that came from the 1997 death of Sir James Goldsmith which finished off the Referendum Party allowing UKIP to rise; and Tony Blair’s decision to agree to a new and proportional electoral system for the UK’s European parliamentary elections which allowed Ukip its only major electoral breakthroughs and Farage’s access to the broadcast media.

 What is significant about his chart vis a vis the UK are two things. One is his Aries Sun conjunct the UK 7^th house Aries North Node which was keyed up over the Brexit vote by tr Uranus in Aries in the run up and tr Pluto square in 2016. An Aries North Node has lessons to learn about being independent. The other, which Boris also shares, is his Saturn in Pisces conjunct the UK Pluto, which was also marked around the time of Brexit. In synastry, one person’s Saturn on the other’s Pluto can indicate large scale ventures undertaken together or mutual suspicion and political intrigues. Farage’s Neptune was also conjunct the UK’s Solar Arc North node in 2016.

 Farage’s relationship chart with the UK has – surprise surprise – a stressed and fated Yod of Uranus sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars; with a downbeat Sun Mercury square Saturn North Node – and the composite North Node conjunct Algol. He was definitely a catalyst for change for good or for ill.

  His lucky Jupiter is getting a boost from tr Pluto square from this month on and off till late 2023, which will send him into a confidence overdrive but that can backfire. Everything else on his chart looks either deflated, on a downhill slide or downright calamitous for the next three years with undermining tr Neptune conjunct his Sun/Saturn and square his Mars/Pluto and then Sun/Uranus midpoints; with a couple of car-crash Solar Arcs late this year into 2023; followed by a devastating tr Pluto conjunct his Sun/Neptune in 2023/24. So nothing going quite to plan.

[ The leading pro-Brexit Tories Rees Moog, Steve Baker and journalist Daniel Hannan have much the same mix of Jupiterian luck and confidence over the next two years alongside a few sinkholes – though less disastrous than for Farage. Apart from Rees Mogg walking into a considerable setback within months as his Solar Arc Mars squares his Saturn.]

Whoopi Goldberg, the American actor (her choice), comedian and TV presenter, has put her foot in it again, with an ill-chosen comment about the Holocaust, which has had her suspended from her chat show The View for two weeks. She has had an award-strewn career for films and on stage. But also a track record of defending the indefensible – Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski, Mel Gibson – before having to backtrack.

 Born 13 November 1955 12.48pm New York, she has a heavily populated, opinionated 9^th house with her Scorpio Sun, Saturn, Moon and Mercury there. She has a super-confident if a touch over-pushy Jupiter Pluto in Leo in her 7^th square her Sun Saturn so she does come on strong; and her Mercury is also in an outspoken (blurt it out) square to Uranus. Her Uranus is also trine a charming Venus in colourful Sagittarius in her 10^th.  Plus she has a driven-by-unconscious-forces Mars Neptune in her 8^th.

  She looks rattled at the moment with tr Saturn just over the square to her Moon and tr Uranus heading for a final unsettling opposition to her Moon in March. Then she has the downbeat tr Saturn square her Sun, on and off all year, as it criss-crosses her Ascendant into her lower profile First Quadrant for some years to come. Plus there is an enthusiasm-dampening tr Saturn opposition her Jupiter Pluto conjunction early next year. Not to mention the Scorpio and Taurus Eclipses will rattle her Mercury, Moon, Sun and Saturn in 2022/23 which will brew up a few more challenges.

  Her Neptune is also spreading confusion around as tr Pluto squares it from this March, on and off till late 2023; and in 2023 her Solar Arc Sun squares her Neptune as well. So muddles and indecision, partly perhaps over financial matters but also affecting other areas.  She is moving into a less successful few years ahead though it may take a while to kick in.

  Not her favourite year or two, for sure.  

Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy empire, four years after his death is embroiled in lurid stories of drugs and worse around his luxury mansions where heavily publicised wild partying was the norm. Teenage girls as young as 16 were trafficked, drugged, beaten, groomed for prostitution, and raped at ‘mini mansions’ owned by his friends and frequented by celebrities. Jennifer Saginor, daughter of his live-in physician who was also his lover, tried to blow the whistle in a 2005 memoir but Harper Collins, the publisher, pulled most of it for fear of retaliation from Hefner.

  She said that wannabe ‘playmates’ who didn’t pass auditions at the Playboy Mansion would be housed at a network of Beverly Hills homes where they were fed false promises of modelling contracts and movie roles while ‘traded like cattle’ between rich and powerful men. The women were instead drugged and ‘pimped out’.

 Hefner, born 9 April 1926, 4.20pm Chicago, was a political activist in the Democratic Party and for the causes of First Amendment rights, animal rescue, and the restoration of the Hollywood Sign.

 He launched the original magazine in 1953 with financial help from his mother and the first copy, featuring a nude Marilyn Monroe calendar pic, sold over 50,000 copies.

  What is eye-catching about his chart is how strong his control-freak Pluto is – in the 10^th, square his Aries Sun, trine his Moon and Venus in Pisces and inconjunct his Mars in his ‘performing’ 5^th. He was not a man do do anything by halves and looked to be a dominator. His Moon Venus was in a wide conjunction – a combination described once by astrology Richard Idemon as the ‘poisoned apple’ – the mother who offers sexuality wrapped up in nurturing, which might explain a lot.

   He also had a Fixed T Square of Neptune in Leo opposition Jupiter in Aquarius square Saturn in Scorpio – unbudgeable and acquisitive. With an unpredictable, constantly changing Uranus in his 7^th house of relationships.

  The first Playboy, then named Stag Party, 1 December 1953, had Venus in sexy (can be sleazy) Scorpio conjunct Mercury square Pluto trine Uranus and inconjunct Jupiter.

  What always chokes me off about these stories is how long it takes for them to see the light of day. Everyone knew and no one could get it published. I’ll bet there are a fair few who were on the guest lists who must be a touch edgy.