not categorised

Hungary has lost its attempt in the European Court of Justice to reverse the outcome of a vote by MEPs that could lead to a country being stripped of voting rights in Brussels. Red flags have been raised over recent anti-democratic reforms curbing the independence of Hungary’s judiciary, central bank and media. In reality, the risk of losing voting rights is slight since it would take the support of 26 of 27 member states to agree and Poland has pledged support. Though it will still be possible to suspend funding to a member state found to be in breach of fundamental EU values.

   Poland is also in the frame for similar.

  What’s intriguing is the Enlargement chart from 1 May 2004 which welcomed in Hungary, Poland, several other former eastern bloc countries, Malta and Cyprus was always a fraught affair – with a hostile, power-struggling Mars opposition Pluto and an evasive Sun square Neptune. It is in trouble this year and over the next two – with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn in hard aspect to the Taurus Sun and then Neptune in 2022; with tr Neptune square the Pluto and Venus this year into 2022, followed by an even more undermining tr Neptune square Mars in 2022/23.

  The Hungary/EU relationship chart was hit amidships by the late May Lunar Eclipse being conjunct the composite Sun setting up a critical few months ahead. Tr Uranus will be in an explosive, no compromise opposition to the composite Mars from July onwards into 2022.

  The Poland/EU relationship chart looks equally rattled by the Gemini/Sagittarius Eclipses this year and a road blocked tr Pluto square the Mars.

  Much depends in Hungary on the political fate of the authoritarian Viktor Orban. His Third Term chart, 10 May 2018 – only three days after Putin dug in for another six year stint –  has a ruthless, control-freak Mars Pluto in Capricorn square Uranus and trine Sun, which suggests a crisis-ridden administration. There will be acute frustration and aggravation from a blocked tr Pluto conjunct the Mars in 2022/23 as well as bitter arguments and with obvious instability as tr Pluto moves to square the Uranus in 2023/24, with further major road blocks approaching then as well. All with the caveat that there is a helpful Jupiter in there opposition the Term Sun which may get him out of a few tight corners.

   Orban is another populist demagogue Gemini with his Sun in a controlling square to Pluto; and a callously unpleasant Mars in Leo opposition Saturn in Aquarius.  His Neptune in Scorpio is being rattled by the tr Uranus opposition and tr Saturn square this year into next and tr Uranus then proceeds to upend his Fixed planets over the next several years. If his birth time is accurate there may be a total road block in three years as his Solar Arc MC is conjunct his Pluto.

  His relationship with Hungary is sagging badly from 2022 onwards.

   It was too much to hope that Trump having been – more or less – seen off that his Gemini bro-romancers might have been dragged off stage with him. The two Polish leaders are also Gemini, never mind the UK. Sigh.

Hungary see previous post November 17 2020.

Poland see February 22 2021

An improbable coalition of far-right, secular centre and Arab-Israeli have formed with the intention of outing Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel’s longest serving prime minister, after four elections in two years failed to form a government. It will need parliamentary backing to take office and Netanyahu is throwing his considerable political skills and weight into blocking it.  If it goes ahead Naftali Bennett, pro-settler, a religious nationalist and against a Palestinian state, will serve as prime minister until 2023. If it holds together that long, he will be replaced for the remaining two years by Yair Lapid, a centrist and standard-bearer for secular Israelis.

   Netanyahu is certainly sagging through this year with tr Neptune opposition his Virgo Midheaven and tr Saturn still crawling through his low-profile First Quadrant – so not his shining hour.  But he still has tr Pluto conjunct his Jupiter aiming for a final exact aspect mid August to late November which will give him a lift. So who knows what he’ll get up to as he faces corruption charges ahead. His Solar Return from this October looks high-risk, trapped and threatening as well as directionless.  Tr Pluto square his Libra Sun in 2022/23 will also put him under considerable pressure. The composite Sun of his relationship chart with Israel at 10 degrees Leo certainly looks to indicate a relationship at separation point this year.

   Naftali Bennett, 25 March 1972, a controlling and super-confident Aries Sun opposition Pluto square Jupiter, was born only four days before the much criticised UK Home Secretary Priti Patel.  He also has his Mars in bulldozer Taurus in a hard-edged, angry conjunction to Saturn opposition Neptune.

 Yair Lapid, 5 November 1963, is a Sun, Mercury, Neptune in Scorpio square Saturn in Aquarius – with Mars in Sagittarius square Pluto Uranus.  He’s equally determined though in a different way. His prospects are changeable to put it mildly in 2021/22 with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on his Scorpio planets and his natal Saturn.

  There’s also a new president in for a seven year term, Isaac Herzog, 22 September 1960, son of a former president and grandson of Ireland’s first chief rabbi, before becoming chief rabbi of Palestine, and then Israel. He is seen as less conservative.

  All of this is internal Israeli minutiae and will no doubt end up in churning political chaos ahead. What struck me as significant given that all of them will likely be involved in the fate of Israel over next few years, no matter what their role. Their charts all reflect to a great degree the upheavals and disruptions on the Israel country chart up to and across the middle of this decade.

   Herzog in particular looks undermined in 2024 with tr Neptune opposition his Virgo Sun; in a state of high anxiety in 2025 with Solar Arc Neptune conjunct his Saturn; and totally trapped and in a high-risk situation in 2026/27 with his Solar Arc Mars and Sun hitting his Pluto.

  Bennett will be facing a collision in 2024/25 with his Solar Arc Sun conjunct his Mars just as tr Uranus squares his Mars; and tr Pluto and tr Uranus will tug at his Saturn in Gemini opposition Neptune for three years after that, never mind tr Neptune conjunct his Sun in 2026.

  Lapid, will be jolted and jarred up to and across mid decade as well with his Solar Arc Uranus Pluto crossing his Scorpio planets.

  So whatever happens, the face of Israeli politics will be changing radically though that will be in the context of a country undergoing massive changes as tr Uranus moves across in hard aspect to the Israel Pluto, Saturn, Mars in Leo in the 10^th until mid decade, never mind tr Uranus conjunct its Taurus Sun in 2023/24.

   See previous post May 11 2021.    

‘Hating Peter Tatchell’ is a new netflix film about the Australian-born LGBTQ+ and human rights activist, who over half a century has charged headlong into battle without regard for his safety, protesting against homophobia, apartheid and the death penalty. He says: ‘I’ve been violently assaulted over 300 times, had 50 attacks on my flat, been the victim of half a dozen murder plots and received tens of thousands of hate messages and death threats over the last five decades, mostly from homophobes and far-right extremists.’

  Odd examples of his protests: 2003 ambush of Tony Blair’s motorcade in protest at the Iraq war; a bid for an arrest warrant for Henry Kissinger over the indiscriminate bombing of Cambodia in the 1970s; an exposé of the Nazi war criminal Dr Carl Værnet; confronting Hans Eysenck over his advocacy of electric shock aversion therapy to “cure” gay people; his efforts to persuade world health chiefs to stop the persecution HIV/Aids sufferers; and the outing of bishops who colluded with an anti-LGBTQ+ church despite their own homosexuality. He has spoken out against the dictatorships in Franco’s Spain, Pinochet’s Chile and Khomeini’s Iran and his attempted citizen’s arrest in 2001 of Robert Mugabe on charges of torture, saw him beaten unconscious by two bodyguards and left with brain damage. At an appearance at a gay pride march in Moscow recently he was punched by rightwing thugs which left him with permanently blurred vision in his right eye.

  He considers himself lucky in comparison to pro-democracy campaigners in Iran, environmentalists in Russia or political activists in Zimbabwe. “If I was doing what they are doing, I’d be dead.”

  He was born 25 January 1952 at 2.30am Melbourne, Australia, with his parents splitting when he was four. His mother remarried and his stepfather, an evangelical Christian of Prussian heritage beat him regularly. “He was a monster –  I used to think he was an escaped Nazi war criminal.”

  I was intrigued to see what astrologically drove his obsessive need to fly into danger and indulge in David and Goliath battles with the forces of darkness.

  Two things stand out from his chart. One unsurprisingly is a marked Uranus in a Cardinal Grand Cross. It sits in opposition to Mercury square Saturn opposition Jupiter which gives him a yen to become a cloaked crusader in pursuit of social justice. It makes for an impatient, overly restless temperament who revels in causing disruption, a freedom fighter and innovator. Well handled it points to an individual who is a light-bearer for enlightened causes who has a good deal to offer.

  The other is his Aquarius Sun square Mars in vengeful Scorpio, which would make him combative, always spoiling for a fight and likely to attract strong responses.

  He also has an opinionated Pluto in the 9^th giving him entrenched beliefs.

Certainly not designed for a quiet life.

  His raison d’etre for allowing the film to be made was to show people that one person could make a difference. Which he undoubtedly has though at a considerable cost to his health.  Some years back he managed to get himself tied in a knot over the age of consent since he argued many people under 16 started their sex lives without damage, some as young as nine! But it brought the wrath of the lobby against child abuse down on his head and blotted his copybook.  

A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children found at a former residential school set up to forcibly assimilate indigenous people in Canada has shone a spotlight on the ‘cultural genocide’ policies of the early government.  

The Indian Act of 12 April 1876 aimed amongst other things to eliminate First Nations culture in favour of assimilation into Euro-Canadian society. Further amendments led to the establishment of compulsory boarding schools run by the government and RC Church whose aim was to separate the children of indigenous parents from their families. The children were often not allowed to speak their language or to practise their culture, and many were mistreated and abused.

The first such school was opened in 1 December 1883 at the behest of the first prime minister of Canada, John A Macdonald, who had tasked an Irish lawyer, journalist, politician Nicholas Flood Davin to make recommendations. His Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds led to the creation of a network of such schools which over a hundred years incarcerated around 150,000 children. By the 1930s about 30 percent of Indigenous children were attending residential schools.

  The Indian Act, 12 April 1876 Ottawa, has an innovative Aries Sun trine Uranus but is also ruthless and cruel with a Pluto Mars conjunction and Mars Venus opposition Jupiter Moon square Saturn. Mars in aspect to both Pluto and Saturn does suggest brutality.

  The first Industrial school, 1 December 1883, has hardship and deprivation written all over it – with a Saturn Pluto conjunction in Gemini opposition Sun.

 Nicholas Flood Davin, 13 January 1840, the architect of the scheme, was a Sun Capricorn with an unpleasantly hard-hearted Pluto trine Saturn, sextile Mars – so in tune with the Indian Act.

  John A Macdonald, 10 January 1885, Glasgow, was another Sun Capricorn conjunct Mars trine Neptune and Pluto respectively with a pushily confident Jupiter square Pluto.  He is credited for his key role in the formation of Canada though heavily criticised for his indigenous peoples’ policies.

My non-astro thoughts:

Outraged disbelief at the Roman Catholic Church for their reprehensible behaviour here and in Ireland and elsewhere and wishing plague and pestilence on them for their hypocrisy.

The early Canadian whites’ attitude isn’t much different from the colonialists in Africa and Australia; and in modern day with the Chinese in Tibet or with indoctrinating the Uighurs, and North Korea. It’s a fascist one-note policy – you’re one of us or you don’t exist. But that has probably been true of most, though not all, civilizations at all times. The invading force wants to put its mark on the territory it has taken over.

   Colonial attitudes are coming under attack, quite rightly for their brutality in some areas. But it is too blinkered to see it all as a ‘privileged white’ issue. Superpowers have good and bad sides – Genghis Khan created his great Mongol Empire on the back of appalling genocides but practised religious tolerance when he was established. Mali in west Africa which became a centre for Islamic learning at its height in the 13^th century ran on widescale slavery.

  It’s too easy to beat ourselves up about historical sins from the recent past but taking a wider perspective indicates it’s as much about the human condition over millenia as anything else.

Add On: The Canada chart describes a tough-minded and adventurous national temperament. The Saturn in Scorpio opposition Pluto in Taurus gives grit, perseverance and endurance though isn’t awash with sentiment. Mars opposing Jupiter hints at a risk-taking mentality; and the Sun Uranus in Cancer in the 4^th give a strong but rebellious sense of identity. The Sun Uranus squares Neptune on the Aries Ascendant softening the national image, wreathing it in a smokescreen of niceness.

   This First Nation atrocity may turn out – as ever – to be a short-lived outrage that gets swept under the carpet after a few judicious words of apology – but two things seem pertinent in the near future. The Lunar and Solar Eclipses are rattling up the Canada Solar Arc Midheaven, Solar Arc Sun Uranus and the natal Venus in Gemini this year and the Eclipses will also impact the Saturn opposition Pluto in 2022 so there is a sense of change in the air, or at least change that will be precipitated by crisis.

  At the same time tr Uranus will conjunct the Canada Pluto opposition Saturn, as indeed will tr Saturn in Aquarius, throughout 2022 which suggests a radical upheaval internally, against a fair amount of resistance and with some deprivation and hardship. Eclipses hitting the Canada Saturn in 2022 can bring chickens home to roost and exact a price for past mistakes.

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Naomi Osaka, the women’s NO 1 tennis champion, four times Grand Slam winner and reigning US and AU Open champion has withdrawn from the French Open after a botched handling of her refusal to attend press conferences. Her reason was that her mental health issues made facing negative media questions damaging. Initially it did sound an overly precious excuse and sent Piers Morgan off on a rant, but it then emerged she has suffered from major depressive bouts.

  She was born 16 October 1997 in Chuo, Japan but moved to New York when she was three, with her Haitian father taking on the role of tennis coach having been inspired by the Williams’ sisters father.

  She is a Sun Libra opposition a self-doubting Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries close to her Aries Moon. Her Sun is also square Neptune and it’s possible her Moon is also conjunct Saturn and square Neptune.  A prominent Neptune is surprisingly common amongst athletes but it can be ultra-sensitive, in particular when tied into Saturn. 

  She also has a super-intense Pluto, Venus, Mars in Sagittarius which will ramp up her emotional temperature and give her acute frustrations. She also has a lucky Uranus Jupiter in Aquarius which sextiles her Pluto, Venus, Mars. A Saturn trine Mars will give her self-discipline but tends to go along with fairly harsh treatment.

  It is a punishing lifestyle at the top in global sport though it does pay. Her last year’s fees were reputed to be $55 million. It requires an obsessive and fairly masochistic drive to keep up with the training schedule and constant travel. And parental pressure, though she does talk fondly of them, won’t help.

Actress Kate Winslet has become the TV hit of the year for her portrayal of a moody, middle-aged grandmother and detective in Mare of Easttown. Her penchant for not opting for commerce-driven movies despite her early success in Titanic possibly stems from her thespian background with actor grandparents who ran an English provincial repertory company.  She has still acquired an impressive array of awards – Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Emmys.

  She was born 5 October 1975 at 7.15am in Reading, England and is a Sun Pluto in Libra – similar to Gwyneth Paltrow, though a million miles apart in life choices.  Kate’s Sun is conjunct a Libra Moon Mercury and opposition a confident, pro-active Jupiter in Aries so she’s focused, intense and enthusiastic. She has a well-organised Saturn in Leo in her career 10^th in an erratic, inconsistent, can-be-dictatorial square to Uranus.  Her Mars in upfront Gemini in her spread-the-word 9^th house makes her a dedicated campaigner for vegetarian, animal cruelty and other issues that interest her. 

  Her actor’s 15^th harmonic is strong as are her creative 5^th and 7^th Harmonics.

  She’s been married three times, the middle one to director Sam Mendes and since 2012 to a nephew of Richard Branson. The last few years will have been tough going with the tr Uranus square tr Pluto tugging on her Libra planets but she’s now clear of those.

  She’s on a roll at the moment with tr Pluto conjunct her luckily Jupiter/Uranus midpoint, on and off till late 2022. And this year her Solar Arc Midheaven is conjunct her Venus which will boost her popularity.  There’ll be a dip in her fortunes in 2023 when tr Neptune squares her Mars but overall she’s got a good many years of hard work and success ahead.

  Settled in England at the moment, she has her best success line through eastern USA, not quite exact for the Philadelphia area in which this series is set but near enough.   

The last two remaining Dionne Quintuplets have celebrated their 87^th birthday. They had a tumultuous upbringing being removed from home a few weeks after their birth to be turned into a tourist attraction in return for free medical care. They were returned to their parents aged nine and for years were bullied by their five elder siblings and sexually abused by their father. All left home at 18 and had little contact with their parents after that. Their parents lived in considerable style because of the money generated by them in childhood. In the late 1990s the three sisters still alive were awarded compensation by the Canadian government for their exploitation. The two others had died in adult life from a seizure and a blood clot.

  Born 28 May 1934 at 3.56 am in Callander, Ontario, Canada, they had a horrifically difficult chart. A first house Gemini Sun squared Neptune in the 5^th house of children and trined Jupiter which was light enough and their Jupiter probably saved them, dangling enough hope under their nose to get them through.

   But their intensely emotional Scorpio Moon is massively afflicted. It opposes Mars in Taurus and Algol and is in a cruel-treatment square to Saturn in Aquarius as well as being on the focal point of a Yod to Uranus Venus in Aries sextile Mercury in Gemini. Tierney says of a Moon Yod apex point that it ‘undergoes its most strained period during the individual’s early developmental years’ – and leads to emotional defensiveness and lack of trust.

It says a good deal for their spirit that they are still trucking on in their late eighties.

One of America’s worst outbreaks of racial violence happened 100 years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma when a white mob killed 300 black people, ran amok in one of the country’s most prosperous Black communities known as Black Wall Street, destroying hundreds of Black-owned businesses, churches and homes – the equivalent of $32 million dollars worth of damages nowadays. 10,000 were left homeless and a further 800 injured. Witnesses reported seeing bodies tossed into the muddy Arkansas River or dumped into mass graves, making it impossible to count the dead.

  It was triggered when a young white woman screamed inside a building and a young black man was arrested for assaulting her though she later said nothing happened.

   The attack and killing started around 10pm on 31 May 1921 – the Gemini Sun was in a rebellious square to Uranus opposition Jupiter, which last has a habit of amplifying whatever it touches. More significantly the Sun was conjunct a heated Mars, and Mars was in an ‘accident-prone’, bad-tempered and cruel (assassination associations) square to Saturn. Uranus was also in a disruptive trine to Pluto as well as an explosive, no-compromise square to Mars. And Mercury was close to Pluto which wouldn’t help since it tends to exaggerate negative opinions and bitterness.

    The North Node is Libra hints that learning to cooperate would be the mature way to go while Venus sat on the South Node pulling the unevolved back into primitive reactions.

  The Tulsa incorporated chart, 18 January 1898, has a Sun, North Node and Venus in Capricorn as befits a commercially ambitious hub with Mars Mercury also in Capricorn. The signature Neptune Pluto in Gemini of the time sat across from Moon, Saturn and Uranus in Sagittarius making for a tough-minded local temperament, though also paranoid and prone to wild fantasies.

  When the massacre occurred tr Pluto was exactly opposition the Tulsa Mercury – shades of the USA chart at the moment – which leads to hasty thinking, high levels of irritability, lies and does lend itself to mob fever. The tr Sun Mars, tr Uranus and tr Jupiter Pluto were also moving in hard aspect to the Tulsa Pluto Neptune in Gemini and Saturn in Sagittarius maybe Moon – on the day and in the shocked aftermath.

  Just a stray thought – Jupiter Saturn is always written up in slightly upbeat language but my impression is that in Earth signs it has a much less agreeable effect.  

The happy day came sooner rather than later with Boris hitching with Carrie yesterday at a small family event just after 2pm in London with celebrations to come next year. It was conducted at a Roman Catholic Cathedral on the spurious grounds that Boris, baptised originally as RC although non practising, could have his two previous marriages and divorces regarded as non-existent since they were conducted under other religious umbrellas.

  On the wedding chart there’s a light-hearted, social butterfly Venus and Mercury in Gemini on the Midheaven, similar to Boris’s own chart. But in this case it squares Neptune hovering just below the Descendant which suggests illusions, delusions and disappointments later when reality kicks in. Good for show and public relations, less so for commitment. The Sun in the intellectually stimulating and far-travelled 9^th house is in an expansive square to Jupiter.  

  What is most problematic is a crisis-attracting, ruthlessly determined Mars opposition Pluto Moon – which suggests bitter power-struggles or at least a serious power imbalance causing resentment and major arguments. The argumentative Mars opposition Moon would be exact just as the vows were exchanged. The Pluto is also inconjunct the Midheaven and Venus which is strained.

 There’s also a restrained Saturn in the sociable 5^th squaring onto a high-tension, self-willed 8^th house Uranus.

 It’s not the most peaceful of charts and indicates a fair amount of aggro around the day itself, never mind the pattern it lays down for the marriage. The Moon will move by Solar Arc to oppose the Mars exactly in eight months which will lead to domestic arguments and the heat is likely to rise over the next four years with the Solar Arc Mars moving to oppose the Pluto exactly. This fits with my somewhat gloomy predictions from the previous post see May 24 2021 below – of 2025 being high noon time.

  Usually wedding charts by some odd quirk reflect many of the themes of the relationship chart.  Their’s has a Neptune opposition Venus which is ethereal and romantic to start with but the shine usually wears off. There’s also a Saturn square Uranus which suggests different agendas – one more progressive than the other which leads to constant eruptions. There is a helpful and lucky Jupiter in the middle of it all which will smooth rough edges – conjunct the Sun, opposition Uranus and square the Saturn. Though it can also lead to arrogance getting out of hand. The composite Pluto is inconjunct the Sun and possibly square the composite Moon which makes for possessiveness but also a tussle for the upper hand.

  What’s odd about the choice of a wedding date is that tr Neptune has just started to conjunct the composite Mars in their relationship chart, running on and off till early 2023, which will bring a panicky sense of failure about the relationship and tr Uranus is exactly conjunct the composite Sun now which is normally a separating aspect. Both tr Saturn and tr Uranus will continue to aspect the Sun all this year.

  Their personal charts are not showing up much of cheer apart from minor Jupiter transits in BJ’s case square his Mars and in Carrie’s conjunct her Mercury and her Jupiter/Uranus midpoint.

  Carrie’s Venus in Taurus opposition Pluto is being buffeted every which way by tr Uranus conjunct her Venus and opposition her Pluto exactly now and both being squared by Solar Arc Neptune this year – none of which looks like blissful contentment. Tr Uranus will continue to shake up her Venus into early 2022 and tr Saturn will also be in discouraging hard aspect through this year.   

Will be interesting to read the biographies at a later date as to what exactly what was going on.