not categorised

Emmanuel Macron has managed to top the domestic unpopularity polls of EU leaders which is no mean achievement given the carnage of reputations of the leading players – Merkel, Rutte, van der Leyen etc.

  Macron’s Sun King/Superman/Jupiterian image has not stood up well to his botched management of the Covid crisis with daily cases now nearing 60,000 compared to the UK’s 4000. Unlike Merkel he appears incapable of owning up to mistakes and broken promises. His fanboy ministers describe him as an expert in epidemiology as he blithely disregards the advice of scientists and doctors, which has only added fuel to the hostility of a disgruntled electorate.  This has pushed the far-right Marine Le Pen to record highs in the polls for next year’s Presidential election, a shift from ‘the unthinkable to the merely improbable’, as one analyst put it.

  Macron was never going to do well given tr Saturn heading downhill on his chart now into his less-successful and lower profile First Quadrant. The uber-ambitious can push on despite the tide running the wrong way but it always leads to misjudgements, banana skins and setbacks for several years ahead. His bombastic Sagittarius Sun Mercury opposition Jupiter doesn’t catch the undermining tr Neptune square until 2024 but before then and exactly over the 2022 election he catches tr Uranus conjunct his Taurus Moon and opposition his Uranus exactly – which does suggest a considerable disruption to his life, domestic and other. Tr Pluto will be sitting exactly on his Ascendant then.

  It doesn’t mean he couldn’t squeak through since the voters will be stuck between a president they loathe and Le Pen who despite having softened her party’s racist image in recent years would be an international embarrassment. Unless there is a third more palatable candidate. But Macron does look unlikely – his relationship chart with France has strongly separative aspects in April 2022 with tr Uranus opposition the composite Sun over the election.

   Le Pen and France don’t look exactly sympatico over the election either with a tough, depressed tr Pluto square the composite Saturn and the composite Mars having been stressed beforehand.

 And her chart is caught between a blocked-in Solar Arc Mars conjunct her Pluto from late 2021 through the election and tr Pluto opposition her 10^th house Mars picking up in 2023.  Plus an unsettled tr Uranus square her Sun across the election.

  It’ll help the UK if Macron is despatched since his obvious dislike and hectoring competitiveness with all things Albion will be a serious problem ahead if he stays. Macron’s relationship chart with the UK has a hostile, power-struggling Mars opposition Pluto Mercury which is being undercut by a smoke-screening and scandal-mongering tr Neptune square this year and the next two. He gets on with Boris Johnson every bit as badly, no surprises for two super-competitive egos and that relationship chart is again sagging badly under a Neptunian assault through the next three or four years.

 France itself is feeling the strain throughout 2022 with the restrictive tr Saturn conjunct the France Pluto, opposition the Uranus and square the Mars. It’ll face the French revolutionary spirit with a few hard truths. There’s also a devastating and confused tr Pluto square the Neptune in 2022/23, exact at the April election; and a jangled tr Uranus conjunct the Solar Arc Sun due for the July. With immense pressure on the France financial Venus as it catches the Solar Arc Pluto opposition Uranus. And by 2024 tr Neptune will oppose the France Virgo Sun, in place exactly for the Paris Olympics which doesn’t suggest a rapturous celebration. Costing gzillions they don’t have.

  A few years ahead to take the shine off the feather-bedded French way of life.

Brazil is being ravaged by the pandemic which President Bolsonaro underplayed resulting in the country having a quarter of all Covid-19 deaths in the world last week. The national health system is on the verge of collapse with intensive care units across the country overstretched and one study estimated in April/May the death toll could reach 5000 a day.

In a further fit of misplaced dictatorial panic, Bolsonaro fired his Foreign and Defence Ministers precipitating the resignation of the three military chiefs. An Opposition leader called for his removal from office to prevent his “coup-mongering, authoritarian delusions” becoming a reality. It’s not clear why the military who brought him to power in 2016 have withdrawn their support, perhaps because of his calamitous handling of the coronavirus outbreak or fear of an authoritarian move to take on dictatorial powers.

 The Brazil 7 September 1822 4.08 pm Piranga chart does hint at a crisis coming exactly now till April 20^th.  The stressed Yod of Pluto sextile Jupiter Moon inconjunct Mars in Scorpio, is tied into Saturn in Taurus from the opposition to Mars – the midpoint opposition of a Yod is a particularly sensitive point and tr Uranus will be conjunct for the next three weeks.

  In an odd way, Bolsonaro, 21 March 1955 2.45pm Sao Paulo, is a mirror image for the country since he also has a Mars in Taurus opposition Saturn in Scorpio which sits across the Brazil MC/IC axis.  His Saturn on the Brazil midheaven could have made for a serious partnership, favourable for administration but instead tipped into Saturn’s shadow side of lust for financial gain and personal advantage.

  On his personal chart tr Uranus is poised to cross his Midheaven at 10 degrees Taurus in May so it could bring a sudden, radical change of career direction. He looks confused, devastatingly so, in 2022/23 with shocks and setbacks bringing high insecurity and perhaps reckless reactions.

  His Swearing In chart, 1 January 2019 4.50 pm, is pressured exactly now but would indicate as 2022 as the more likely exit point as tr Pluto squares the Uranus. It was always an ominous Term chart with a dirty-dealings Sun Saturn and Pluto in the 8^th.

  Bolsonaro is an Aries like Rodrigo Duterte, the assassinating President of the Philippines – both pro-Trumpers.

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The greed-is-good boys are still at it having learned zero from the 2008 crash. Global banks may face losses of $6 billion from the collapse of Archegos Capital, a little known firm that was using tons of borrowed money to make outsized bets that propped up media stocks. Its failure created shockwaves large enough to ripple across Wall Street — and impact everyday Americans’ retirement accounts.

   “It’s a wake-up call. With leverage, comes risk,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at NSC. “This is the second time we’ve learned a lesson this year about leverage.” In January, another hedge fund, Melvin Capital Management, nearly collapsed after its massive bets against GameStop (GME) were blown up by an army of traders on Reddit. A financial analyst said: “it serves as a reminder of the dangers posed by extreme leverage, secret derivatives and rock-bottom interest rates.”

 Bill Hwang who started Archegos in 2012 pleaded guilty to wire fraud and insider trading of Chinese bank stocks and agreed to pay $44 million to settle civil allegations. And investment banks still competed to extend his fund more than $50bn in credit, which was used to build up huge, non-public positions in a small number of stocks.

  Credit Suisse is on the hook for this as well as for the Greensill collapse (see previous post 17 March 2021) and is hurting. It is still stuck in a scary corner from a recent Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Mars and now has a financial bubble-bursting Solar Arc Jupiter opposition Neptune – and most disruptive of all a turning-upside-down Solar Arc Uranus opposition the Pluto.

 But the interest isn’t just one bank.  The Lehman Brothers collapse which precipitated the 2008 crash – after a string of financial institution bankruptcies in 2007 – occurred on a Saturn opposition Uranus, not dissimilar to this year’s Saturn square Uranus extending into early 2022. Pluto was in the final degrees of Sagittarius poised to change sign; and Neptune in last decan Aquarius was at a degree that Saturn will reach in 2022.

This time round – even if money matters follow a roughly similar trajectory – it won’t be as cataclysmic as 2008 since Pluto’s entry into Capricorn was always going to blow a torpedo shaped hole below water in the financial systems. But it might suggest Pluto is attempting to tie up loose ends or rap knuckles one more time with timely warnings about the bottomless pit of avarice leading to perdition – and dragging everyone else down as well.

Erin Pizzey, who became the face of the fight to break the cycle of domestic violence in the UK, setting up Refuge in 1971, was ostracised and demonised when she talked of some violence in the home being reciprocal. She distinguished between ‘genuine battered women’ “the unwilling and innocent victim of his or her partner’s violence”; and ‘violence-prone women’, defined as “the unwilling victim of his or her own violence.” She undertook a study which reported that 62% of the sample population were more accurately described as “violence prone.” Similar findings have been confirmed in subsequent studies. In her book Prone to Violence, she looked at what appeared to be learned behaviour which she described as akin to addiction, stemming from pervasive childhood trauma.

  Her findings and public comments led to attacks by militant feminists for which she needed police protection. She moved to the USA, then the Cayman Islands, then Italy, before returning in poor health to the UK, where she still acts as an advocate for men’s rights, elderly abuse and Arab women seeking refuge.  

   Born 19 February 1939 6pm (from memory) in Shandong, China, with a diplomat father she had a fractured early few years, captured by the invading Japanese, escaping to South Africa, thence on to Beirut, Toronto, Teheran and England when she was nine.

  She does have an individualistic chart with a final degree Aquarius Sun conjunct Mercury Moon in Pisces on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune. She also has an angry Mars in the 4^th trine an 8^th house Saturn in forced-to-be-reliant Saturn, so she would be used to a tinderbox mood in her childhood home.  Her Uranus is conjunct her South Node which would run her against the grain of public sentiment and perhaps make her prone to stirring up trouble by being contrarian.

  But her central Yod when it clicked into place would give her a singular purpose which she has pursued for most of her life despite heavy resistance at times.

I’m not the best person to comment on this since I have a hard time understanding the mindset of women who stay when they should bale. And yes I know – kids, no money etc etc. But if women were brought up to be self-sufficient and independent, not looking for a husband/partner to protect and provide, they they wouldn’t get themselves backed into a corner. But there again that argument doesn’t work since domestic violence and coercive control is as bad amongst high-powered, successful women as others lower down the social scale.  

  What stuck in my throat about Sally Challen, the wife recently let out of prison on grounds of diminished responsibility (coercive control) after being convicted of murder for hammering her husband to death, was her comment before she did him in. She had discovered he’d been texting another woman – ‘if I can’t have him no one else will’ or some such. Pizzey was right about it being an addiction – or a psychological fixation. Not being able to let go of what is toxic. He was undoubtedly a first class jerk and she had already left him at least once but then went back.

  My jury is out on this one – but comments welcome.     

American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri has been letting fly belatedly about sleeping with Boris Johnson years back in his family home while his now ex-wife Marina Wheeler was away. The pair’s relationship during Boris’s tenure as London mayor has come under scrutiny, given that she benefited from thousands of pounds in public money and was given coveted places on trade missions to New York and Tel Aviv alongside Johnson, despite failing to meet the criteria for those trips.

  It’ll most likely be water off a duck’s back as far as he’s concerned since nothing ever appears to stick, with only three points of real astro-interest.  The first is that each have their Neptune conjunct the other’s South Node which suggests a tendency to hold each other back. The second is the relationship chart which has a stressed and potent, power-struggling Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars (Sun) – and that is being elbowed by tr Uranus conjunct Mars from April 1^st to 20^th – so the timing is right. It will arouse anger, insecurity, sharp reactions.

  The other is it may in part be connected to Boris’s Solar Arc Uranus moving to conjunct his Moon – exact now which always did suggest an emotional upset.

 An addendum: she has the notable Mars Venus conjunction (in Aries) which keeps turning up in the highly sexed.

See previous post November 17 2019.

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd last May by kneeling on his neck until he stopped breathing, is transfixing the US. The crucial question is will it end in acquittal as so many such trials have before? The Rodney King beating by police in 1992 resulted in the LA Riots of 1992 after a court whitewash – that was the previous time Saturn was in Aquarius though Uranus Neptune was also in place which is nervy and highly strung.

   Black Lives Matter came into being in 2013 after the death of teen Trayvon Martin at police hands in 2012 with an exoneration for those responsible; others followed with the same result.

  There’s no official start date for BLM but somewhere around mid July 2013 which gives a Cancer Sun and a deeply frustrated and activist Mars Jupiter in Cancer opposition Pluto square Uranus; with Mars Jupiter trine Saturn trine Neptune – a strong chart which, if the date is about right, will face its greatest challenges over the next two years.

  Derek Chauvin, 19 March 1976, is a Sun Pisces trine Saturn in Cancer trine a Scorpio Moon (and North Node). With oddly enough his Mars in Cancer on the same degree as the BLM Mars and his North Node in Scorpio is also the same degree as the BLM North Node.

  More pointedly Chauvin’s Mars is conjunct George Floyd’s South Node and Saturn which is an indication of a regressive connection.

[See post Feb 27 2021 – South Nodes Joe Biden/MBS and Woody Allen/Dylan Farrow].

  Chauvin has tr Pluto exactly opposition his Saturn now till late June and again through 2022 which will put him under strain and is usually discouraging. His Solar Arc Sun is also exactly conjunct his South Node now – facing him up to his more primitive instincts? Chauvin had a record of complaints against him in the police force and a nightclub where he worked as security said he was ‘overly aggressive’ especially with black clientele.

From previous post: USA race tensions – the never ending saga

31st May 2020

Racial frustrations and violence have broken out across many major cities in the US with curfews being imposed, sparked off by the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man, who died after being knelt on by a white police officer.

Los Angeles is one of the worst affected, where memories of the 1992 Rodney King beating are still raw, with the National Guard being called out. Nearly 1,000 protesters circled the perimeter of the White House grounds for the second night running, facing law enforcement vehicles, rows of armoured Secret Service, D.C. police, U.S. Park Police officers and National Guard.

Race riots happen not infrequently in the USA usually after police anti-black violence with a litany running backwards through 2016 Charlotte, NC; 2015 Baltimore; 2014 Missouri; 2001 Cincinnati; 1992 Los Angeles; 1980 Miami; 1968 – widespread after the assassination of Martin Luther King; 1967 Newark; 1965 LA etc etc. The Red Summer of 1919 triggered by white supremacist terrorist attacks spread out across the USA with hundreds of deaths.

But the recent mood has been inflamed by a divisive Trump with a history back to a Klu Klux Klan father, action against black tenants in their rental properties, his full-page ads condemning the Central Park 5 in New York which coincided with the wrongful imprisonment of five young black men on little evidence, his Obama “birther” smears and his refusal to condemn white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va.

Minneapolis, 10 July 1847 10.54am, Minnesota, has a Cancer Sun and Jupiter like the USA 1776 chart so is fairly representative of the nation. This month’s Cancer Solar Eclipse located there puts the New Moon on the IC, so it was always going to be a critical region. With the Eclipse also falling conjunct the Minneapolis Cancer Midheaven almost exactly. The July Lunar Eclipse at 13 degrees Capricorn/Cancer will also impact the Minneapolis and the USA respective Suns.

George Floyd, 14 October 1974, had a six-planet stellium in Libra of Sun, Uranus, Mars, Venus, Moon, Pluto in Libra most of those planets squaring onto Saturn in Cancer; with an idealistic, sympathetic Jupiter in Pisces square Neptune. According to press reports he was ‘an amiable, gentle giant’.

Derek Chauvin, the police officer who has been charged with his manslaughter has a long record of brutality complaints, none of which had led to action against him. Born 19 March 1976, he’s a last degree Pisces Sun square Mars at zero degrees Cancer and trine Saturn. His Mars is trine Uranus and widely square Pluto, so he is impulsive and overly excitable; with an adventurous and opportunistic Jupiter opposition Uranus. Plus an intense Scorpio Moon.

Floyd’s Pluto was opposition Chauvin’s Sun and square his Mars – so a gritty interface. And their relationship chart had a struggle-for-the-upper-hand composite Pluto opposition Jupiter square Sun.

Chauvin’s chart has his volatile Sun square Mars moved by Solar Arc to aspect his Scorpio North Node exactly at the moment; as well as this month’s Cancer Eclipse stoking up his natal Mars in Cancer into a more aggressive mood than usual, spoiling for a fight.

George Floyd had his Sun Mars moved by Solar Arc to approach within a degree of the conjunction to his Neptune. Two Mars and two different outcomes.

There’s nothing much new to say about the USA chart except that tr Pluto is sitting exactly on the opposition to the USA Mercury at the moment and will repeat on and off till late 2021, with more as the Pluto Return follows till late 2023 – that will produce more toxic and bitter debates even than usual. Tr Neptune has just moved to 20 degrees Pisces within a few minutes of a degree to the square to the USA Mars. By late this month it moves to within a hair-breadth of the exact aspect, though it won’t reach the same degree until late March 2021. Neptune hitting Mars usually evokes a sense of panicky failure.

If the USA birth time of 11am is sound (and there are various USA start times which is a running irritation) then the Solar Arc Mars is exactly conjunct the Moon which would point to a combustible situation and an angry populace.

Charles Saatchi has three strands to his public persona – one is as a successful businessman in advertising; which allowed him to build up an extensive modern art collection of the controversial Damien Hirst/Tracy Emin style of paintings and sculptures. The third is a chequered relationship life with talented women. He’s had three marriages – for 20 years to Doris Lockhart, described as a sophisticated multi-lingual woman, and art and wine expert, who became a design journalist. Thence onto Kay Saatchi, a Conde Nast ad executive, who produced him a daughter and split after a decade. Nigella Lawson, the TV cook, was next which also parted company messily after a decade when he was filmed with his hands round her throat. In recent years he’s been with Trinny Woodall, a fashion expert and TV celebrity. 

  He was born 9 June 1943 in Baghdad to a Jewish Iraqi family who fled persecution to settle in London in 1947, so he was born into tough times which would leave their mark. He’s a Sun Saturn in Gemini with an innovative and ferociously determined Mars in Aries trine Venus Pluto in Leo, sextile Uranus. He can turn on the charm when it suits him but will push hard to get what he wants. His father, Nathan 24 December 1907, was an Iraqi businessman, who was also tough with his Pluto square a hard-edged Mars Saturn in Pisces.

   All of the women he married or was with have tricky charts – the first had a stark Saturn trine Pluto trine Mars which doesn’t suggest a remotely easy father; the second had Mars opposition Pluto which would acclimatise her in childhood to being dominated. Nigella Lawson had a depressed mother who was according to her at times violent; and Trinny Woodward has a Sun Mars Saturn in Aquarius, reflecting her unhappiness at being abandoned in boarding school from six onwards.  So one way and another they were all used to an over-heated and/or deprived domestic atmosphere.

  Mars opposition Pluto is a repeating theme through the personal charts and relationship charts with Charles Saatchi – which isn’t an easy energy to handle. Indeed it is there between Nigella and her father Nigel Lawson, of whom she is fond though there are ameliorating aspects as well and an affectionate relationship chart.

  It’s not there in the Trinny/Charles relationship but that is not an easy relationship chart with a constant-worry, workaholic, cool Sun Saturn opposition Neptune square a needs-space Uranus and trine Pluto.

  It is an odd dynamic – being attracted to strong, though emotionally fragile women – and then insisting on having the upper hand. His Moon is late Leo or early Virgo, which doesn’t help to pin down his approach to lunar matters.

  As a slight thought – he is immensely litigious so worth tread lightly before putting out strong opinions.

  On a personal note I have never taken to him since a friend visited his house pre-Nigella days and saw foetus sculptures (I think) and others similar in his sitting room. Why would you want to live with that?

Myanmar’s bloodiest day since the military seized control last month has left at least 114 people across the country dead,  including children, some killed at protests, others in their own homes. Opponents of the 1 February coup call the dead “fallen stars”. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the military of “a reign of terror” that was “sacrificing the lives of the people to serve the few” and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called it a “new low.” The EU delegation to Myanmar said Saturday would “stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour.” The defence chiefs of a dozen nations issued a joint statement Saturday calling for an end to violence against unarmed civilians in Myanmar; and sanctions have been imposed against high-ranking military personnel. Russia and China have so far not commented.

  The coup took place in the early hours of February 1^st when Saturn Jupiter Sun in Aquarius were square the explosive conjunction of Uranus Mars in Taurus. A Virgo Moon was almost certainly opposition Neptune and square the Nodes – and Neptune showing its cosmically chilly and inhumane face.

  The Burma 4 January 1948 4.20am Rangoon chart is in a high-risk phase with the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Mars, almost exactly exact within minutes of a degree; and the Solar Arc Mars within less than a degree of being conjunct the South Node sliding to the country back into the bad old days. Tr Neptune is aiming to start a highly-strung and none-too-rational opposition to the Uranus from late April on and off till January 2023. And there is a disruptive, rebellious tr Uranus square the Pluto from this July onwards; joined in early 2022 by tr Saturn in opposition.

 The 1962 coup which put the military in control for decades occurred the last time tr Saturn was in Aquarius and tr Pluto was conjunct the Burma Mars – so not dissimilar.

  Min Aung Hlaing, the General who masterminded this coup, evidently because he saw his chances of becoming president receding with Aung San Suu Kyi’s resounding victory in the recent elections, was born 3 July 1956. He’s a Sun Cancer trine Mars in Pisces; with the super-confident Jupiter Pluto in Leo in an unyielding square to Saturn in Scorpio. Neptune may prove his downfall with tr Neptune starting to oppose his Mercury and in 2022 his Venus, and more significantly tr Pluto in a devastating square to his Neptune in 2022/23. Plus a car-crash collision type setback late in 2022.

  There’s little the international community can do but financial sanctions against the leadership may have more traction nowadays than in the past.

See previous post 1 February 2021.

The celestial weather of 2021 with the disruptive ping pong match between the status-quo-upholding Saturn and innovative Uranus will run through 2022 as well. Saturn in Aquarius can produce scientific advances but can also be cold and unfeeling. Uranus in Taurus will be keen to upset the applecart in finances and to promote positive earth-centred change, but can be rigid politically – it’ll be mixed and not all plain sailing.

  The North Node is reversing into Taurus from January 2022, so the Eclipses will shift from a Gemini/Sagittarius focus onto Taurus/Scorpio – less scattered, more emotionally intense.

  The April 2022 Solar Eclipse in Taurus has the New Moon conjunct Uranus and Saturn square the Node and the Lunar Eclipse two weeks later in May has the Scorpio Full Moon square Saturn and sextile Pluto – so it will be pressured as well as having the potential for enlightenment or insight. Sudden changes are likely to dominate proceedings.

  Venus will glide in parallel to Mars in Capricorn through February and early March for high enthusiasm and extravagance. Jupiter moves into Pisces in January for a few months and thence swiftly into pro-active Aries in May for a year ahead.

  2022 won’t be anything like as deprived, depressing and stuck as 2020 was when the Saturn Pluto conjunction in place. The Eclipses through 2021 are both upbeat, especially the December 2021 Solar Eclipse which covers the six months following – joyful and happy, the benefits that appear will continue long after the eclipse effect passes. The April 2022 Eclipse is about accepting responsibility and a need to take control, if others can’t or won’t – a time to step up and be counted. The October 2022 Solar Eclipse is slightly manic, emotionally intense, can lead to falling in love or making significant efforts in group activities. [Bernadette Brady: The Eagle and the Lark.] This series was last around in 2004 and 2005.

   Although the Saturn Pluto conjunction has passed, its effects will still linger since both are slow-moving heavyweights and not inclined to ease up quickly. It’ll only be by mid decade that hindsight will be able to give a clear understanding of what has been stripped away.

 2022 will be the last full year of Pluto in Capricorn before it sticks a toe into Aquarius in 2023, so there will be loose ends to be tied up, old structures to tear down and no doubt trenchant resistance to any attempt to remove power from the old guard. Neptune is in late Pisces and moving into Aries come 2025. Uranus is proceeding at standard speed to exit Taurus in 2025 as well, so there may be a sense of heightened anticipation and trepidation about widespread changes to come. But not quite yet.  

Helpful thoughts:

“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” Lao Tzu

 “Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” Dale Carnegie