Amy Barrett – a decision Trump may regret

Amy Coney Barrett has been nominated and will almost certainly be confirmed as the Supreme Court replacement for Ruth Ginsberg. Barrett is reckoned extremely intelligent and capable though tainted by her association with a charismatic Christian, essentially Roman Catholic though also ecumenical, group known as People of Praise. It excludes women from its higher leadership and was thought to be one of the inspirations behind Margaret Atwood’s the Handmaid’s Tale.

  Born 28 January 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana, she’s a Sun Aquarius conjunct the North Node sextile Neptune and trine Pluto – and tied into an out of element Grand Trine, with North Node trine Saturn in Fixed Taurus trine Pluto, turned into a Kite by Saturn opposition Neptune. Sun Neptune Pluto indicates soaring ambition. An Aquarius North Node is associated with devotion to a cause. Neptune is both spiritual and in aspect to Saturn both socially-aware and slightly paranoid. Saturn Pluto gives grit and perseverance.

   She also has Mars in upfront Aries in a volatile opposition to Uranus square Mercury in practical Capricorn; with a Cancer Moon also tied into what could be a Cardinal Grand Square. A Cancer Moon will be home-focused (seven children) but she hardly looks the submissive wife type – those are fairly explosive aspects.

  Her Sun will catch the tr Uranus square late November to mid-December this year and again next February for a major life’s change. This is a point which affects many of the main players and may well be when the confirmation hearings are held. [See previous post September 19 2020]. She has a ‘lucky break’ tr Pluto sextile her Jupiter/Uranus at the same time late this November to late December, though that’s mild. She looks stressed across the New Year till late January with tr Pluto conjunct her Mercury, which will involve her in toxic arguments. And has a fair few disaster influences through 2021.

   She half fits into the Supreme Court since both have Aquarius Suns and her Jupiter in Sagittarius works with the SCOTUS Jupiter Mars in Leo. But her Saturn squares the SCOTUS Mercury and her Mercury square Mars collides with the SCOTUS Neptune – so she will have a dampening and restricting effect on certain decisions and will fight against what she regards as ‘soft’ judgements.

   Her relationship with Chief Justice John Roberts, another Aquarius, is half friendly; and half fraught due to a composite Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars. This could tie them into life-or-death decisions (Mars Pluto) with irrevocable repercussions for both of them.  A composite Yod can have fated consequences for both parties.

  What is strange – maybe not – is that her relationship with Donald Trump is anything but cosy with an outright-dislike composite Mars Saturn conjunction. By 2022 tr Neptune starts three years of squaring and undermining that; as well as upending the composite Uranus also from 2022.  So if he wins or even if he doesn’t, cases that involve him which appear before the Supreme Court may find him regretting the day he appointed her.  

  And now that I look, Trump’s relationship with John Roberts while not quite as starkly at odds, is hitting a rough patch with panicky fears and disappointment from late April 2021 onwards for a year and upsets in 2022.

  The fates may get their revenge, though at some cost beforehand to America’s reputation and integrity. What a travesty.

Pic: Rachel Malehorn

Juliette Greco – passion born out of pain

Juliette Greco, the singer who became the muse of bohemian postwar Paris, the musical embodiment of the existentialist movement, has died aged 93. She was the darling of philosophers, poets, intellectuals and critics – Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir and others. Jean Paul Sartre, who composed lyrics for her, said “Gréco has a million poems in her voice. It is like a warm light that revives the embers burning inside of us all. In her mouth, my words become precious stones.”

  The composer Ernest Lubin praised her “deep, throaty voice that ranges from a near whisper to raucous abandon,” and her ability to “create a mood of astonishing intensity and conviction.”

  Her talent and emotional resilience were all the more astonishing given the trauma and horrors of her early life. She was born 7 February 1927 9pm Montpellier, France with an absent Corsican father and distant mother. According to wiki her mother referred to her as a child of rape and abandoned her and her sister to her maternal grandparents. When they died, during the war in Paris she and her sister rejoined her mother who was working for the Resistance. All three were captured by the Gestapo and tortured with her older sister and mother being sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp.  She was let out of prison after several months; and after the war found her sister and mother who had survived though in bad condition. Her mother subsequently left the sisters to live in Indochina. Juliette, not yet 20, lived alone in Paris, taking acting classes paid for by a family friend.

  She had a Sun Aquarius, as befits a bohemian icon, in her entertaining and performing 5th alongside Mercury opposition musical Neptune and squaring an intense and dark Mars in Taurus in her 8th house. Mars in Taurus is ultra-determined especially as a focal planet and buried in the 8th would give her a sense of the evils of the world. She also had an influential and controlling Pluto in the 10th with her Cancer Node conjunct her Midheaven trine Venus Jupiter in Pisces, sextiling onto her Moon in Taurus. Taurus rules the throat so is often found in singer’s charts. She also had a tricky, karmic/fated Yod of Moon sextile North Node Midheaven inconjunct Saturn in Sagittarius which would indicate a life of struggle and frustration. Though as with all Saturnine burdens, it would ease through life. But it’s a really tough chart.

  Her Venus also squared Saturn, which given its connection to a highly-sexed approach to life, is interesting. She was married three times and had countless lovers, including Miles Davis whom she knew throughout her life; Quincy Jones, Sacha Distel, Albert Camus, Darryl F Zanuck amongst others.

An extraordinary woman.

Sasha Swire – A ++ for betrayal and character assassination

A rollicking political diary described as “a merciless memoir“ has been slicing through the pervading gloom as a former minister’s wife took payback for being ignored by the Cameron clique. Sasha Swire, heretofore unknown to all but few, is now a household word for indiscretion and betrayal. One reviewer said her “diaries are treacherous, socially contemptible, rude – and gripping.”

David Cameron is portrayed as honourable but lewd (obsessed with penis size) and essentially shallow.

George Osborne is amusing but vengeful. She relates he rushed off to beat then Deputy PM Nick Clegg to the grace and favour house of Dorneywood and plant his toothbrush there, as if it is a flag. (Petty and pathetic.)

Boris Johnson is “desperately lonely and unhappy on the inside”. ‘Yes, he’s an alley cat but he has a greatness of soul, a generosity of spirit, a desire to believe the best in people, a lack of pettiness and envy which is pretty uncommon in politics and, best of all, a wonderfully comic vision of the human condition.’

Michael Gove is “slightly bonkers”, and dishonest about his ambition. “He’s always lied about that. I think he’s quite dangerous.”

Dominic Cummings is “stark raving mad”. “It will all go tits up with him, it always does,” she says. “He’ll explode.”

Theresa May “didn’t have an original idea in her head. And no friends, either.”

  The closeness of Cameron’s circle is “unprecedented… a very particular, narrow tribe of Britain and their hangers-on”. It’s “enough to repulse the ordinary man”.  

  Her reflections are less about the destiny of history and more about houses, seating at state banquets, rivalries, ministerial cars and perpetual plotting. “It is modern-day Hilary Mantel.” What is all the odder is she seemed to have no clue about the likely repercussions of her musings which incensed Sarah Vine, Michael Gove’s wife and embarrassed the Camerons.

  Born 18 January 1963 in London, the daughter of Sir John Nott, a former Tory Cabinet Minister, Sasha Swire has a late Capricorn Sun, a flamboyant Mars in Leo, a cool Saturn in Aquarius with her Mercury in Aquarius inconjunct Uranus, which last would make her a blurter out of the truth as she saw it. More significantly she has a pushily-confident, and by all accounts entitled, Jupiter opposition Pluto and Uranus squaring onto Venus in Sagittarius. Venus Jupiter is superficially charming; Venus Pluto manipulative – and a focal point Venus is fickle in relationships, a social butterfly, who is reluctant to commit in relationships and lacks emotional depth. Her Moon may be late Libra or early Scorpio.

  Her attention-demanding Mars in Leo is heavily aspected by midpoints – opposition Sun/Jupiter, conjunct Pluto/Node, square Jupiter/Node and square Mercury Pluto. So she’s a mix of super-confident, angry and resentful and the last one Ebertin describes as “sharp critic, the desire to attack others, a blackmailer”. She’s not a blackmailer in the ordinary sense since she spread compromising and damaging information without demanding hush money. Though she did reportedly get £250,000 for her book.  And there are more to follow.

   Of the ones in her former friendship circle she has always grated with behind the saccharine smiles were George Osborne, Sarah Vine and Samantha Cameron.  Sasha’s chilly Saturn was in a ratchety conjunction to Osborne’s Mars with her Neptune square – no love lost there. Sarah Vine’s Aries Sun opposition Mars square Jupiter clashed with Sasha’s Capricorn Sun.

Samantha Cameron’s Fixed Saturn in Taurus squared Sasha’s Mars skewering her chances of the spotlight and Sasha’s Sun was trine Samantha’s Saturn and Pluto and conjunct Samantha’s Mars – not much chance of cosy girl nights in with those crossovers.  Dinner parties and holidays must have been rife with snippy comments, with barely concealed aggro running below the surface.

   Michael Gove and wife Sarah Vine look distracted by her now, ramping up in angst across the New Year and through 2021, presumably with the concern she may damage his chances since he’s still in the ring.  Osborne also, who is evidently keen to return to politics if he can, is similarly off balance. The Camerons strangely look concerned over this New Year and into next spring – so there may be more to come.  The publishers no doubt being keen to keep on a roll when they can.

  She was also suitably acerbic about Prince Andrew who she said gave an ‘excruciating’ diatribe about ‘how brilliant he was’ at an official dinner. ‘’It is clear there is a power struggle taking place between him and Prince Charles. A lot of Andrew’s embarrassing friendships with oligarchs, and his imploring anyone who will listen to bail out his wife, has strained their relationship.’ The Sasha/Andrew relationship chart is explosive through 2021.

   She may turn out to be the poor man’s diarist of the age.

Meghan and Harry rocking the Queen’s boat

Heading into her twilight years the Queen must be heaving a sigh of exasperation with her newly-transformed ‘woke’ grandson Harry as he heads (or is dragged) into a political minefield of a variety that will have courtiers screeching. He and lady wife intoning pious words about voting in the US election won’t fool anyone about their intentions and interfering in politics damages the monarchy. Tr Saturn is heading downwards across the Queen’s Capricorn Ascendant into her lower-profile First Quadrant for many years ahead which will undercut her workaholic tendencies, lower her energy and make her yearn for a peaceful existence with her feet up. It can also, unfortunately for those whom duty chains to their post, be a time of banana skins, setbacks and mishaps.

  Her relationship with Meghan always was tricky with Meghan’s emotionally-eruptive Mars in Cancer conjunct the Queen’s controlling 6th house Pluto. In the monarch’s ambit, there is only one crown, a strict pecking order and an expectation of submission from those close. None of which suits Meghan’s spotlight-demanding, ambitious Leo Sun or her allergic-to-control 4th house Pluto. And Meghan’s rebellious Uranus in her performing 5th house is conjunct the Queen’s deeply conscientious, duty-comes-first Saturn and Midheaven – even more than Diana she’s out to rock the boat.

   The Queen’s relationship with her is confused this year, and in a state of disarray and disappointment in 2021/22.  Not going to get easier any time soon. Meghan’s relationship with pa-in-law Prince Charles is on a downward slide for several years ahead; and jangled and jittered where Prince William is concerned especially 2023/24/25.

   Harry’s relationship with his grandmother will be under a sombre cloud late this November/early December; and fairly devastated in 2021/22. With his father Prince Charles, if anything, its in a more parlous state with emotional upsets now, and in spring 2021; serious dissatisfaction now till late November and continuing swampy for several years ahead.  Ditto with brother William, though perhaps even more volatile – with a blocked mid this November to mid December between them; and then eruptions late December to February 2021, with more jolts, jangles and setbacks from April 2021 onwards for more than a year.

  Harry, like his grandmother, has tr Saturn heading into his low profile First Quadrant now for years ahead, so if he were honest he’d prefer to disappear into a comfortable corner and keep his head down. If he pushes ahead, he’ll short-circuit himself. In 2022 tr Uranus moves across his IC into his 4th house for six years thereafter, which will start with family upheavals or sudden changes and usually coincides with a house move or several in the ensuing years. Plus tr Uranus is conjunct his Moon come 2023 which will bring more significant family issues and disruptions to a head – part of which may be ageing relatives rather than his present domestic circumstances, though it will undoubtedly have an impact. And he is increasingly stressed by difficult Solar Arcs through till 2025.

   His relationship with Meghan will be stressed this year across the US election and again late November/early December with tr Saturn in hard aspect to their composite Pluto square Moon. And more so in 2022/23 when tr Pluto opposes the composite Moon and is conjunct the composite Midheaven, posing them gigantic questions about their joint direction in life. Tr Saturn will oppose her Sun/Moon midpoint, the marriage significator, in 2024 which will at least bring a coolness to their connection and could be a split.  Where his Sun/Moon midpoint is under most strain is exactly now till late November with tr Pluto in opposition bringing a sense of internal conflict and anguish about what he really wants.

   He’s not a happy bunny, for sure. And they haven’t even got to the Daily Mail lawsuit scheduled for January which is a stupendous and self-inflicted mistake. No matter who wins or loses, they’ll lose in the long run.

See previous post: September 3 2020 Netflix.

Singapore – pluses and minuses ahead

Singapore like everywhere else is in a panic over the economic hit from the virus. Tourism, international trade, travel, construction and offshore engineering sectors (migrant workers) are all experiencing a sharp downturn. But there are also areas of expansion – in electronics and precision engineering, biomedical manufacturing as well as finance and insurance, with a strong demand for digital payment processing services, as well as IT and digital solutions. So not all negative.

   The Singapore 9 August 1965 10 am chart is trapped till late this November; and experiencing financial disappointment in 2021; and some high-tension upheavals in 2022/23 over the economy and future plans.  There is also tr Uranus moving into the 8th house of international and business finances exactly now and staying there till late decade – much like the UK and EU/Germany. So everyone in the same boat.

  The Singapore 6 February 1819 6pm chart – if accurate – is slipping and sliding uncertainly ahead for three years but picking up confidence and attracting success by 2023 onwards.

  The Bank of Singapore, 1 January 1971, isn’t anywhere near as challenged as it was in 2015 when there was a slowdown. But will be facing a shock or two in 2022/23; and financial angst in 2024.

  Not great but survivable.

SCOTUS pick – risk of a reverse

There is concern that a right-wing, religiously-oriented replacement for Ruth Ginsberg could upset Roe v Wade and Obamacare.

  Roe v Wade was signed 22 January 1973 at 10 am Washington, DC which gives a stalwart Aquarius Sun trine Pluto sextile Neptune in Sagittarius; with an optimistic Uranus square Jupiter Mercury; and a destructive Mars opposition Saturn. There are tremors of an upheaval this year until late December though nothing would be decided that quickly. Though an anti-abortion choice for SCOTUS might send shivers of fear through the chart. Where the major debate comes is 2023/24 with tr Pluto conjunct the Mercury with a seriously rattled and insecure Solar Arc Uranus conjunct Mars in 2024/25. Tr Pluto will also be conjunct the Sun in 2024 so that looks the most challenging time.

   Obamacare was signed in on 23 March 2010 at 11.56 am Washington, DC, and is a Sun Aries opposition Saturn in fair-minded Libra, trine Mars in Leo; with an emotionally intense and nurturing Cancer Moon on the Ascendant opposition Pluto square Sun Mercury.

  There’s a lucky, relief-bringing Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct the Uranus in 2021; although there’s also a directionless tr Neptune conjunct the Solar Arc Midheaven next year as well. A major pressure point could be 2022 when the Moon opposition Pluto connects with the 7th house North Node – which will test its mettle. 2023 will be nerve-stretched with tr Neptune conjunct the Uranus 

 Just when you think the USA can’t sink any lower. Sigh.  Why any sane, civilized country is still angst-ing about either abortion or universal health care is beyond my understanding. A true-believer Roman Catholic shamefully shoehorned onto the Supreme Court who might upset both would be a travesty – all the more so since initiated by a man with the moral calibre of termite.  

Breonna Taylor – home was a dangerous place

Anger has erupted in Louisville, Kentucky which is under a state of emergency after a grand jury decision not to charge any police officers over the killing of Breonna Taylor. A black hospital worker, she was shot multiple times as three officers raided her home on 13 March without knocking and her boyfriend thinking they were being attacked fired his gun. One officer has been charged with “wanton endangerment”

Cases of killings of unarmed black people by police have fuelled anger across the US and beyond, triggered especially by the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis in May.

  Louisville, 1 May 1780, has a Taurus Sun in a controlling square to Pluto with a North Node in Taurus conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol; and a hard-edged Mars opposition Saturn. 

  Breonna Taylor, 5 June 1990, was a Sun Gemini, maybe Moon Sagittarius, Mars in Leo and Jupiter in Libra – so some chart placings similar to Trump. But more significantly she had Pluto in Scorpio in a high-risk and trapped square to Mars in Scorpio. Ebertin ascribes one meaning of ‘the misfortune of having to suffer violent assaults’ to it.  And her Pluto was almost exactly conjunct the Louisville South Node opposition Algol, tying her into the negative, unevolved and fearful energies of her place of birth. Her Saturn in regretful Pisces was also square the Louisville afflicted Mars. Not a good connection.

   When she was killed tr Saturn was exactly conjunct the Louisville Solar Arc Mars, the classic astro-signature for murder or assassination.

  Whatever the outcome instantly, 2021 looks agitated for Louisville with the Taurus Sun in the line of fire of the economically challenging tr Uranus square tr Saturn all year; and a devastating Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the Neptune; and a highly-strung and anxious tr Neptune opposition Uranus.   

Sergei Torop – the Second Coming under scrutiny

A Jesus Christ wannabe, formerly a traffic cop, Sergei Torop, has been arrested in Siberia where he has been running a cult for three decades. He claims the truth of his reincarnation came to him in an awakening in 1990 when he took the name Viaasrion. “I am not God. But I am the living word of God the father. Everything that God wants to say, he says through me.”

  He was charged with running an illegal religious organisation which extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse. An aide, a former boyband drummer was arrested with him. Several thousand followers live in remote hamlets in Siberia, including professionals from Russia and abroad. Followers wear austere clothing and count years starting from 1961, the year of his birth, with Christmas replaced by a feast day on 14 January, his birthday.

 He was born fittingly enough with a Jupiter Saturn conjunction in place, which is the conjunction associated with the birth of Christ. Though his is in Capricorn, whereas the putative Christ chart is in Pisces. Torop also has a Capricorn Sun and Mercury.

  One of the meanings of Jupiter Saturn is hubris – flying too high fuelled by Jupiter’s vision and then being cut down by a hard reality check from Saturn.

  Torop also has a creative, healing though can-de-delusional and detached-from-reality Water Grand Trine of Venus in Pisces trine Mars in Cancer trine Neptune, formed into a Kite by Venus opposition Pluto North Node in Virgo.  He’s certainly talented, a powerful influencer and tied into the zeitgeist.

  He may also have had a focal point Sagittarius Moon squaring onto Venus opposition Pluto which would make him persuasive and designed to work with the public.

   When he had his flash of enlightenment on 18 August 1990 he was on his first Saturn Return and his Solar Arc Sun was opposition his Uranus with the transiting Sun conjunct his Uranus. With his Uranus natally inconjunct his Sun I’d hazard a guess that his birth time would produce an axis which formed a Yod with this quincunx – since this was the point where he clearly got knocked onto his vocational path, however deluded.

Photo:
W0zny

Jackie Stallone – way out there, and then some

Jackie Stallone, the mother of actor Sylvester Stallone, politely described as eccentric with a life to match, has died aged 98.

  She was born 29 November 1921 at 2.52am Washington, DC with a lawyer father and was trained along with the rest of the family in gymnastics, weight lifting, and jogging by bodybuilding pioneer Charles Atlas who lived with them for a while. She became a circus trapeze artist in her teens, a hairdresser and a nightclub chorus girl; later opening a women-only gym, Barbella’s; and was a wrestling promoter in the 1980s with the TV series GLOW – the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. She did little for the reputation of astrology by becoming a celebrity psychic in the 1990s, writing books, appearing on TV and claiming to read ‘asses’ by interpreting people’s butts.

  She had an energetic New Moon in Sagittarius in her financial 2nd house in a maverick square to Uranus in the performing 5th house. With an exuberant and super-determined Mars, Jupiter Saturn in Libra square Pluto. Plus an intense and upfront Venus Mercury in Scorpio. Not a lady who did anything by halves or cared if her behaviour raised eyebrows.

   Charles Atlas, 30 October 1892 3am Acri, Italy, would have a strong impression on her with his Neptune Pluto in Gemini opposition her Sagittarius New Moon; and his Scorpio Sun in a free-spirited conjunction with Uranus connecting with her Scorpio planets.

   [What’s intriguing is that Atlas only had one Earth sign in his chart – Venus in Virgo; and her bodybuilding son Sylvester only had one Earth – Mars in Virgo. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another over-muscled type again has only one – Moon in Capricorn. I always find that strange for some reason as if they ought to lean towards the earthy realm.]

   Jackie was most proud and protective of Sylvester, one of her three children. Born 8 July 1946 7.20 pm New York, he has a Cancer Sun that sat on her Midheaven and his Jupiter in Libra was on her Ascendant. His Moon Jupiter is conjunct his Midheaven so she would have a significant effect on his career ambitions.

  He has a tricky chart with his Sun in the 7th and a packed 8th house with Saturn, Mercury, Pluto and Venus there – so very intense, secretive, often feeling trapped, with a strong ancestral legacy – and a film-star’s ability to project an aura.

  A five star, tin-plated whacko she may have been, but she did have an exuberantly bohemian life and a total disregard for sneers and criticism.