The Aries Solar Eclipse of March 29th is certainly living up to its turbulent Saros Series with a major 7.7 magnitude earthquake hitting Myanamar and Thailand with many dead and injured. It is the strongest quake to hit Thailand since the 1839 Ava Earthquake, of 8.3 in magnitude.
The Partial Solar Eclipse of 29th March located to Mandalay has Venus, Saturn, North Node and Scheat all on the chart axis conjunct the Descendant.
The previous Lunar Eclipse has Mars conjunct the Ascendant and Mercury on the Midheaven.
The Burma 4 January 1948 4.20am chart has a Capricorn Sun square Neptune catching the Solar Eclipse and tr Saturn square the Uranus.
Thailand, 24 June 1932 5 am Bangkok, is even more obviously affected with the emotionally upsetting Solar Eclipse square the Venus in Cancer and the Mars in Gemini trine Saturn in Aquarius under assault from tr Pluto conjunct the Saturn now and tr Neptune sextile the Mars. With more problems looming as tr Uranus heads for Gemini.
Sentebale, the Lesotho charity[ founded in 2006 to help children and adolescents struggling to come to terms with their HIV and AIDS diagnosis has been torn apart by a rancorous dispute between the chairman, a Zimbabwean lawyer, Dr Sophie Chandauka, and the founders Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and the board of trustees. It was initially set up in April 2006 in honour of Princess Diana.
On a quick skip through the tabloids it would seem to be a push to have African-led leaders of the organisation, not helped evidently by a meeting last year when Meghan attempted to sideline Dr Chandauka to distance her from Harry in photographs. So presumably partly a personality clash with overtones of a backlash against colonialist founders and trustees.
Prince Harry continues to be travailed by less than helpful astrology with Tr Saturn having just finished opposing his Sun.
Dr Chandauka, 19 February 1978, Harare, Zimbabwe, is a Sun Pisces opposition Saturn in can-be-self-important Leo; with an argumentative Mars (Moon) in Cancer in a ruthless square to Pluto and a volatile trine to Uranus with her Uranus in an outspoken square to Mercury. A forceful and difficult personality.
Her Uranus sits exactly on Harry’s Midheaven throwing him off track; with her argumentative Mars in his 7th; her chilly Saturn square his Moon and her Neptune conjunct his Mars, which would paralyse his ability to respond. That was never going to work.
Their relationship chart has a hostile composite Mars Saturn indicating serious dislike.
Prince Seeiso, 16 April 1966, Lesotho, is a late Sun Mars in Aries – and his relationship chart with Chandauka is even worse with a composite Mars Saturn opposition Neptune square Venus.
Dr Chandauka’s Mars sits exactly on Meghan’s Ascendant for a competitive chemistry – and the relationship chart was worse than the above in a different way with a composite power-struggling Mars square Pluto, and Mars trine Uranus sextile Saturn; and a needs-space Sun opposition Uranus.
It should have been possible to oust the chairman but for some reason the courts refused to handle the matter. Nothing seems to be going right for the Harry household.
Adolescence, a Netflix mini-series, about knife crime, social media, male rage, toxic masculinity and the impact pernicious, misogynistic online influencers like Andrew Tate can have on young men has become a surprise hit.
Created by actor Stephen Graham and his wife it follows the case of a 13-year-old boy arrested for killing a female classmate.
A reviewer wrote: “Adolescence is a loud wake-up call to parents who are raising children in times of social media… I grew up on conversations they speak in emojis… I grew up on books they scroll reels… I grew up on self-discovery they are surrounded by comparisons… the pandemic is NOW! We just don’t see it.”
Stephen Graham was born 3 August 1973 Kirkby, England, no birth time, with a social worker mother and paediatric nurse stepfather, a Swedish grandmother and a Jamaican grandfather. He started acting very young and has had a memorable career with a recent outing in Peaky Blinders. He has an entertaining Leo Sun in a confident opposition to Jupiter, and in a compassionate trine to Neptune with an ambitious sextile to Pluto. His Pluto in turn is in a tough, enduring square to Saturn in Cancer. Plus a volatile, excitable Mars in Aries opposition Uranus and a Libra Moon. A complex temperament, both confident and inclined to depression, he will have highs and lows.
His creative Neptune is heavily aspected being sextile Pluto, square Venus in Virgo, trine Sun, sextile Jupiter and inconjunct Saturn and South Node.
What is intriguing is to see quite why Andrew Tate has become the figurehead for the latest social mania.
Tate, 1 December 1986, Washington, DC, no birth time, has a Sagittarius New Moon conjunct a know-it-all, self-righteous Saturn which squares onto an enthusiastic and opportunistic Mars Jupiter in Pisces. He has a litany of criminal and civil cases approaching from human trafficking, rape to financial fraud. All hotly denied.
He has a sexually manipulative Venus Pluto conjunct in Scorpio trine Mars Jupiter, sextile Neptune which fits.
A sample of his ‘influencing’ – women belong in the home, can’t drive, and are a man’s property; rape victims must “bear responsibility” for their attacks. He dates women aged 18–19 because he can “make an imprint” on them. In clips, the British-American kickboxer – who poses with fast cars, guns and portrays himself as a cigar-smoking playboy – talks about hitting and choking women, trashing their belongings and stopping them from going out.
In 2022 he became one of the most famous figures on TikTok, where videos of him have been watched 11.6 billion times, though was banned elsewhere. He appeared on InfoWars, the podcast of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones; was pictured with far-right YouTuber Paul Joseph Watson and met Donald Trump Jr at Trump Tower. He met with Nigel Farage and has spoken of ties with the anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.
I am less interested in him than in what he represents in the culture and why such extreme views have been given an audience.
Dying days of Pluto in Capricorn? The North Node conjunct Algol in 2022? Tate does have his North Node in Aries prompting him to fight against any backsliding into dependency. If his Moon is conjunct Saturn and square Mars he will certainly dislike women and want to cause them harm. Maybe at a guess he has Pluto in his 10th also pointing to a dislike of being controlled by women so he has to suppress them.
No clear answers about the cultural phenomenon though the boys-have-lost-their-bearings worry is a good deal older than the last three years. The rise of feminism threw old certainties out of the window – and further back Pluto in Cancer during World War One broke up the old family structure and gave women independence.
A friend mentioned, maybe from this series which I haven’t seen, there was a gripe that only 20% of men/boys were attractive to women. The other 80% were rejected which is what gives rise to male resentment. She said in the bird kingdom it was why the male birds adopted brilliant plumage in the hope of attracting a mate. In other mammal species, the males have to fight each other for supremacy to gain the females acquiescence. Animals analogies are not always a good fit. But my sense is we have forgotten what the original laws of nature were. In chimp society (nearest to human), the alpha male has the right to mate but only if the female agrees, otherwise her girlfriends in the troop will attack him. There is also a clear cut ranking/pecking order where the alphas get first go of the food. The low rankers only get crumbs – and no females.
Maybe it is something to do with a narcissistic culture where everyone expects to get exactly what they want without making an effort. The old tribal initiation rites where boys were separated from their mothers and sent out as teenagers to undergo trials of strength to become men would be regarded with horror nowadays but there may have been a grain of sense in the end result.
My other – unpopular – opinion is that men and women have a different psychological make up, with men being more dependent on their egos, which is not necessarily a bad thing but just the way it is. Perhaps a half Pluto cycle – from Cancer at the start of the 20th century to a shift out of Capricorn – is forcing a rethink about the male/female balance and roles.
Rachel Reeves, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, is facing flak from all directions as she is poised to make £5 billion welfare cuts and hack back the civil service at a time when inflation is rising, borrowing costs are up, the economy is flatlining and defence costs are rising.
She does have tr Uranus square her Aquarius Sun exactly at the moment and moving to square her Mercury in Aquarius from mid May so the over-wrought, excitably irritable mood will roll on. On top of that tr Neptune will oppose her Saturn/Pluto midpoint throughout April which is associated with shattered nerves, instability and evasiveness. The mood around her will worsen from late May when tr Saturn opposes the Saturn/Pluto midpoint; and even more so from July as tr Uranus is opposition her Mars/Saturn midpoint bringing catastrophes, calamities, high insecurity and will test her nervous strength. That last repeats Oct/Nov and into 2026 as does the assault on the Saturn/Pluto midpoint. So the good times won’t be rolling along any time soon for her.
She does have a confident tr Pluto opposition her Jupiter returning September to early December for a confidence surge so she may brass-neck out a deteriorating situation.
Her relationship with Starmer at best is built on high hopes that will inevitably lead to disappointment and is very (karmically) tied together with a composite yod of Pluto sextile Neptune, Sun inconjunct Mars. Their destinies will be intertwined for good or ill – and will be under serious stress from this July with tr Uranus opposition the composite Neptune – extending into 2026 with a separating tr Uranus opposition the Sun and Venus on one leg of the yod so something will blow apart. The composite Uranus this year at 11 degrees Libra is catching both Solar Eclipses in hard aspect – for a change-or-else choice.
Reeves’ relationship with the UK is more than fraught this year and next – with tr Neptune Saturn conjunct the composite Mars, tr Pluto conjunct the composite Sun, and tr Uranus in a jolting square to the Saturn in 2026. Even if she goes early, she’ll get the blame for subsequent problems.
The Starmer Government chart, 5 July 2024 12.19 pm London, with an explosive, insecure Mars Uranus in the financial 8th and Saturn Neptune in the health and employment 6th house fits the current trends.
A sporting round up with two greats – George Foreman and Eddie Jordan gone and the IOC (Olympic Committee) facing the fall-out from a questionable election result.
George Foreman, 10 January 1949, 9.15pm Marshall, Texas, was a heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medallist who in his career had 76 wins and only five losses, one of them against Muhammad Ali. After retiring he became a minister as well as a successful businessman leaving behind $300 million (£236.24m), mostly from his trademark George Foreman Grill. He had five wives, 12 children and 15 grandchildren.
He had a confident, lucky Sun Jupiter in Capricorn in his sporting 5th house square Neptune, alongside an assertive 5th house Mars in Aquarius widely opposition Pluto. He had Uranus in his 10th hinting at an unconventional career and it opposed a 4th house Venus square his Sun/Moon midpoint – one reason for his multiple marriages, the first four very short lived. His Gemini Moon was conjunct his Midheaven suiting him for a public career.
Eddie Jordan, 30 March 1948, Dublin, Ireland, no birth time, the legendary Formula 1 team owner, has also died. He started life as a racer before turning his attention to team ownership.
He had a go-ahead Aries Sun, catching this month’s Solar Eclipse, opposition Neptune; with an adventurous Uranus opposition Jupiter (Moon) in Sagittarius. Plus an ultra-determined Pluto, Saturn, Mars in Leo. A fiery, entrepreneurial chart, attracted to excitement and risk, as well as doggedly enduring and stubborn.
Aries always seems fitting for a racing car enthusiast.
The International Olympic Committee, 23 June 1894 Lausanne Switzerland has elected a new president in Kirsty Coventry, a Zimbabwean gold medallist and sports cabinet minister in the government of Zim President Mnangagwa (widely known as “The Crocodile”). Seb Coe lost heavily which has produced sharp reactions and not all sour grapes.
Marina Hyde lets fly in the Guardian: “Coe’s decisive loss yet again confirms of the IOC that you can’t win as an outsider in an insider’s race. It’s not that he’s an unknown quantity, more that he’s a known quantity. They certainly can’t be risking a new broom, after all, just as they couldn’t risk looking too hard into a quite staggering array of vote-buying/bribery/corruption/doping/political/sportwashing scandals down the decades. Once you realise that the one thing sport’s biggest wigs really hate is a sporting chance, it all becomes so much easier to understand.”
The IOC will not enjoy tr Neptune Saturn in Aries conjunct its Mars and square its Cancer Sun from this month right through 2026. With a grind-to-a-halt Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the Saturn in 2026 as well.
Sebastian Coe, 29 September 1956, has his Libra Sun conjunct the IOC South Node – so maybe he reminds them of their failure to strive for progress. His relationship chart with the IOC is explosive and aggravated so he would have wakened it up – and attracted hostility.
Kirsty Coventry, 16 September 1983, in contrast has an IOC relationship chart dominated by controlling Pluto so she may not deviate too far from the party line.
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A fire which knocked out power to Heathrow Airport, the busiest airport in Europe, has raised questions about how well infrastructure is protected in the UK, whether from accidental damage or from deliberate sabotage.
What is clear is it fits the pattern of the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the UK 8th house Mars drawing ever closer. See previous post: Oil Tanker crash – UK 8th house red alert 11th March 2025.
The fire broke out at a sub-station close to Heathrow just after 11 pm on Thursday 20 March; with Jupiter on the cusp of the 8th opposition Moon which sounds overly-amiable. Saturn, North Node, Neptune, Scheat in the 4th trine a 9th house Mars is more descriptive.
Heathrow started as a small airfield and evidently the first experimental flight took off on 25 November 1930 when Uranus was a 11 degrees Aries, catching the up and coming Aries Solar Eclipse later this month.
Conspiracy theorists have raced to blame Russia since it fits a pattern and Starmer has been vocal in his support for Ukraine. But as yet there is no proof of anything subversive.
With or without an attack on national territory, relations between the UK and Russia are seriously strained. The UK/Russia 1991 relationship chart does have an explosive tr Uranus exactly square the Mars at the moment and increasing chill from tr Saturn square Venus Sun in coming weeks. The UK/Russia 1917 relationship chart is equally separated, worse in 26/27.
Keir Starmer, 2 September 1962, is under huge pressure at the moment – though there are local UK political challenges to his policies ongoing, as well as the global situation. His Solar Arc Sun Pluto is now sitting exactly on top of his Neptune which hints at confusion if not devastation of a significant order. His Solar Arc North Node is at 10 degrees Libra catching this Aries Solar Eclipse so it is a critical turning point for him.
His relationship chart with Putin (assuming 1952 birth date) is heading into catastrophic territory from the final days of this month with more turbulence to come from this August into 2026.
His relationship with Trump is being upended exactly now with serious frustrations and aggravations returning later this year.
The Saros Series of this Aries Solar Eclipse on the 29th (in effect before and for several months after) did point to violence, accidents and a generally stressed time. See previous post: Eclipses, Sun & Moon 2025. 24th February 2025.
Turner and Constable were two landscape artists of genius, born within a year of each other, whom art history has been keen to see as rivals. Though they had different subject matter, backgrounds and temperaments and both have gone down as world class talents so any confected conflict is an irrelevance. Turner is best known for his skyscapes and Constable for his idyllic country scenes leading Frank Auerbach to say: “There isn’t a Turner that doesn’t somehow fly and there isn’t a Constable that doesn’t burrow.”
Turner, born 23 April 1775 1.10 am (unverified) London, was the son of a barber and for him painting “represented freedom and upward mobility”.
A Sun Taurus inconjunct Saturn in Libra, he had an Earth Grand Trine of Neptune in Virgo trine Pluto trine Jupiter in Taurus, with Pluto inconjunct Mars in Leo. He had an Aquarius Moon probably and was evidently known as a ‘bit of a card’ and a practical joker as befits his Moon and two quincunxes.
John Constable, 11 June 1776 Colchester, England, had a “comfortable, privileged” upbringing as son of a Suffolk mill owner. He was a Sun Gemini with an Aries Moon, with his Pluto trine Neptune and inconjunct Jupiter. Plus an enthusiastic Venus Mars in Gemini. He was never as rich as Turner, and had to wait till he was 52 to put “RA” after his name. Initially there was little demand for paintings of the British countryside until the French awarded him a gold medal and he became known as “the father” of French landscape painting.
Their relationship chart had a friendly composite Sun Venus conjunction in an ambitious trine to Pluto and to Neptune; with a irritable composite Saturn square Mars. Not a disaster but the circumstances of their talents and the hothouse art scene would create tensions.
In a way it is odd that Turner was attracted to the wide open skies being a Sun Taurus with an Earthy Grand Trine. While Constable with his Gemini stellium and Aries Moon was drawn to nature and the earth.
Neptune may finally be showing its hand as Donald Trump’s miscalculations begin to undermine his bellicose platform. The Nobel Peace prize recedes into the distance as Netanyahu and Putin both short circuit his promise of instant settlements of conflicts and the economy creaks under the boomerang effect of tariffs.
On a 10.54 am birth time in his personal chart tr Neptune is now entering his 8th house for many years to come, starting off with a conjunction to the shipwrecker Scheat, usually not a harbinger of financial luck or mental clarity. Even without the birth time, his Solar Arc Neptune is conjunct his Moon now and moving on to oppose his Sun in 2026. Swampy, unrealistic, much confusion, disappointments.
His relationship with key players all point to late April as a crisis point. That is when tr Uranus is square his Mars in Leo for a final time. But it is also rattling his relationship chart with the Supreme Court and with Chief Justice John Roberts who has already issued a rare statement to say attacks on judicial branch of government are not ‘appropriate’. There will be a run up of differences and attacks through earlier April as well – so perhaps too little too late the Justices are standing up for the rule of law and the constitution. Relations won’t improve late year and through 206/27, all being equal, they will worsen considerably.
Trump is also mightily unnerved by Netanyahu or by the situation created by Netanyahu’s continued onslaught of Gaza. With sharp words at the moment; upheavals and turmoil through April there will be an explosive finish in late April into early May this year.
His relationship with Putin, who appears to be dancing rings round him, will be aggravated by events late April and much much worse in May with high-tension leading to explosive outbursts and major panic as dangerous consequences overtake the best laid plans.
His Inauguration chart is also highlighting late April into May as loss-making, confused and insecure. With a mental meltdown mid June into early July.
Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve chair, like Roberts has a slippery, evasive, distrustful relationship chart with Trump – with anxiety mounting through May between them as the Fed Reserve chart also shows stress and confusion.
No great conclusions standing on the sidelines except to point up the timeline. If it were not so important and so damaging, there would be an eerie fascination watching the coach-crash of events unfurling.
Simon Tisdall in the Guardian:
“If Robert K Merton, the founding father of American sociology, were alive today, he’d be fascinated by the Donald Trump phenomenon. Scarcely more than 50 days into his second presidential term, hapless Trump provides daily proofs of Merton’s universal “law of unintended consequences”.
Rooted in ignorance, error, wilful blindness and self-defeating prediction, Trump’s rash actions produce contradictory, harmful and often opposite results to those he says he wants. The ensuing chaos characterises what may become the briefest honeymoon in White House history.
Boomeranging US tariffs – which are to American prosperity what the Titanic was to ocean travel – are the tip of the unintended consequences iceberg. Defiant foreign retaliation has brought stock market crashes and inflation fears – the exact opposite of what Trump promised voters.”
ADD ON: Trump’s latest bizarre offering in the Ukraine peace process as Putin ignores his promise that attacks on infrastructure will stop is that the USA take over nuclear power in Ukraine. Specifically the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world which has been in Russian-occupied territory, near the front line since 2022.
What is worrisome is that Zaporizhzhia, 1 April 1980, not only has an Aries Sun in line of this month’s Aries Solar Eclipse and autumn’s Libra Solar Eclipse for a major crisis. More ominous than that is its Mars at 26 degrees Leo on the focal point of a T square to Venus opposition Uranus – which is being badly rattled through April, peaking in an explosive jolt late April into May. Trump’s meddling is only likely to make things worse.
Zaporizhzhia’s year ahead will also be marked by a collision from the Solar Arc Sun square Mars in six months and a Solar Arc Mars opposition the Sun on the same degree mid to late 2026 into 2027. And nothing settling down well into 2026.
Paul Gauguin, the French artist renowned for his Tahitian paintings has had his image restored in a new book, based on recently discovered material. Condemned until recently as a French colonialist who spread syphilis to underage girls in the South Seas, it now emerges he never suffered from the disease and was much revered in Polynesia both by the girls he married and the local community for his fight against the corrupt French authorities.
He was born 7 June 1848 10 am Paris, amidst the tumult of Europe’s revolutionary year but was brought up in Peru where his journalist father (later imprisoned for the attempted murder of his mother) took the family. Back in France Gauguin began his career in banking and started painting in his spare time, mentored by Pissarro. When he was in his thirties he moved to Tahiti, then a French colony. During his time there he controversially married three adolescent Tahitian girls with whom he later fathered children.
Doctors have concluded his health problems did not stem from syphilis, but from eczema and erysipelas, aggravated by infected bites of the Simulium buissoni fly.
He had a strong belief in equality between the sexes, much influenced by a grandmother who was a fierce fighter for women’s rights and much admired by Karl Marx. Gauguin cherished her writings and actively encouraged the women in his circle, including his wife, to find fulfilment through independence.
He fell foul of the French authorities after he exposed the corruption and injustice of local French officials and pleaded for fairer taxation and treatment for the Indigenous people. He was sentenced to three months in prison on a charge which on re-examination proved his accusations to be correct but only a few months after his death.
He had a 10th house Gemini Sun square Saturn in Pisces on the cusp of his 8th – perhaps a hint of a strong grandmother. His 10th house creative Venus in Gemini was square a Virgo Moon (on his late Leo Ascendant) opposition Neptune in his 7th. His relationship to women/mother was idealized, confused and the choice of younger partners/brides though normal for the times would also be driven by his Moon Venus = the sexualized mother. The revolutionary year of his birth with its Uranus Pluto in Aries was square Mars in Leo and Jupiter in Cancer – so he would be inclined to fight against authority figures. It also describes an explosive father.
Relocating his chart to Polynesia puts the Sun on his IC, so very much where he felt at home; though a 6th house Moon hinted that it might be less helpful on the health front.
Add On: Gauguin had a brief but famously ‘intense and turbulent friendship’ with Vincent van Gogh, which ended with the mentally unstable Van Gogh cutting off his ear as an over-reaction to being abandoned by his idol and mentor. Although they went in different directions they continued to write each other letters up to van Gogh’s suicide in an insane asylum at age 39.
Van Gogh, 30 March 1853 11am Zundert, Netherlands, had an exceptionally bunched chart with seven planets in his career 10th house. They ranged from an overly-excitable Mars Venus conjunction in Pisces which squared onto Jupiter Moon in Sagittarius opposition North Node in a hurricane-force Mutable T square. Plus an early degree Aries Sun and a later degree Mercury in Aries in a mentally over-loaded conjunction to Pluto which was conjunct Uranus. Although five years younger than Gauguin he was also marked by the revolutionary, status-quo-upending Uranus Pluto conjunction.
Van Gogh’s Pluto was square Gauguin’s afflicted Mars in Leo so it was never going to end well. Gauguin’s Saturn in Pisces was also conjunct Van Gogh’s hyper-active Mars Venus in Pisces for another friction point.
When the ear-cutting incident occurred as Gauguin left Arles, Van Gogh’s Solar Arc Mars was less than a degree over the conjunction to his Pluto for extreme frustration and rage; his Solar Arc Saturn was in a depressed opposition to his Moon; tr Neptune in Gemini was in a confused conjunction to his SA Mercury – and he was one his Jupiter Return.
