Nigeria’s youth are out on the streets protesting against police brutality, in particular the federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious unit long accused gross human rights abuses, including extortion, harassment, torture, and extrajudicial killings and demanding justice for victims. President Muhammadu Buhari has now promised to disband Sars and enact police reforms.
Nigeria gained independence on 1 October 1960 from British colonial rule with a stark chart of a tough Mars in Cancer on the Ascendant in a hard-edged opposition to Saturn square a Libra Sun and sextile/trine Pluto. It is Africa’s largest economy with the world’s third largest youth population; and has been through civil war and military coups in the past sixty years. It has a reputation for political corruption and high crime, some of it international as well as a thriving economy.
Transiting Uranus in Taurus is moving to form an Earth Grand Trine to the Nigeria Pluto and Saturn this year and next, so could arguably be well placed to get a grip of practical problems and build on its commercial talents though with some disruption as well. There will be more mutinies and arguments come 2022 when the Solar Arc Mars is conjunct the Pluto for a major setback few months. Even before then there will be anti-social or activist uprisings, again involving the young with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the 5th house Neptune in 2021.
Tr Pluto sextile the Pisces Midheaven in 2022/23 might give hope of a more stable direction for what should be a prosperous and thriving country.
What’s interesting in parallel are the protests in Thailand against the bizarre young king against whom no criticism may be voiced – except it is. See previous post July 29 2020.
It’s almost as if Pluto in Capricorn is gearing up for a blowout to leave its mark before it exits Capricorn in 2023/24 – and not before time.
The USA stands on the brink, facing a historic fork in the road, with the most polarised climate since 1860. It won’t matter much whether Biden wins outright and then faces a hostile Supreme Court and perhaps Senate as Obama did, road-blocking his agenda; or Trump finagles in via the skewed and undemocratic Electoral College system. The challenge is whether a much overdue overhaul of the revered and ancient Constitution is faced up to in coming years.
Legal brains suggest three possibilities ahead – 1) civil war; 2) the break-up of the USA via peaceful secession of various states a la Scotland’s possible exit from the UK; or 3) stagnation similar to the decline of the once mighty Turkish Ottoman Empire over the final two centuries of sclerosis.
This prologue, above and below, is a precis from an excellent piece by Edward Luce in the FT.
Trump’s actions have shattered faith in the idea of checks and balances and the Barrett SCOTUS nomination could light the fuse that ends in a full-blown crisis over America’s founding creed.
Some think the third option is the most likely, as America drifts into becoming the “sick man of the west and reconciles itself to the fact that renewal is not possible. Rather than providing a blueprint for modern reforms, the constitution acts as an entrenched roadblock to change.”
Norman Ornstein says: “If the system is the same in 2030 as it is now, America will start to fall apart.” “The US Senate is an affirmative-action programme for white, rural, Christian conservatives, who have an increasingly powerful veto over America.”
The Constitution, 4 March 1789, is beset by major confusion exactly now, running on from 2019 with tr Pluto square the Neptune; and continues on an increasingly disruptive track with tr Uranus throwing in firecrackers and causing upheavals in square to the Pluto in 2022 and moving on to square Venus and then the Mars in 2025; with tr Saturn dampening enthusiasm and erring on the side of conservatism – with aggravated arguments – from 2022 as it is conjunct the Pluto, Venus, Mars and then crosses over the Sun Saturn in Pisces in 2024.
All of which coincides with the USA 1776 Pluto Return in 2022/2023 with lingering after effects.
The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) 2 February 1790, is in a state of acute uncertainty in 2021 with tr Pluto square the Neptune from late January (till late 2022) and tr Neptune conjunct the Saturn from March onwards for a year; plus a troublesome, rebellious and defiant tr Uranus square the Uranus late this November into December and repeating next spring, and facing even greater instability and challenges to its direction as tr Uranus square the Sun after July 2021 and Pluto in 2022. 2022 is also picking up the downbeat tr Saturn in Aquarius conjunct Sun and Pluto and a high-tension Solar Arc Saturn square Uranus in 2022 as well.
The USA First President chart, 30 April 1789 12.45 am New York, is also in for an exceptionally rough ride with tr Uranus conjunct the Taurus Sun in April and again over the New Year; at the same time as tr Neptune continues to conjunct the Saturn through into January 2022 as well. 2022/3/24 have a raft of roller-coaster difficulties as tr Uranus is conjunct the Pluto and then tr Pluto opposes the Uranus in 2023/24 which could upset the applecart.
The USA 1776 chart shows 2021 as a time of panicky failure with tr Neptune square the Mars with the hostile and toxic debates running on as tr Pluto continues to oppose the Mercury. Then the Pluto Return in 2022/23, followed by setbacks from Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the Mars and square the Neptune in 2024/25.
It certainly fits the thought that suggests this election won’t resolve much, indeed may exacerbate tensions and strain with the liberal push for change running into entrenched conservatism. It also fits Kissinger’s thought that Trump is the kind of figure who turns up at the end of an era. A Pluto Return can bring about the Icarus-like fall of an empire which rose on the previous one and he might just the unwitting exposer of the flaws in the USA governmental system (a la Pluto in Capricorn). Given the Cancerian nature of the USA – shining a critical light on the past and revered forbears, and letting go the old traditional way won’t be easy.
Phil Collins, drummer with Genesis and solo artist, is involved in a matrimonial muddle with a difference. His third wife, the much-botoxed and back-combed Orianne Cevey, whom he married and then expensively divorced some years back and then got together again, appears to have married again unbeknownst to him. She is still living, presumably with new hubbie, in Collins’ Miami house, has changed the key codes and is refusing to move out. Much legal wrangling to follow. They have two late teenage sons.
Collins, 30 January 1951 12.05 am London, has a 4th house Aquarius Sun trine a 12th house Saturn; with an enthusiastic Mars Jupiter in musical Pisces in his performing 5th, trine an intensely emotional Scorpio Moon in his 1st house trine Uranus. So a Water Grand Trine which is talented, healing for others if not himself, but tending to make him live in his own bubble of reality. And he has a controlling and influential Pluto in his career 10th.
Orianne Cevey, formerly a translator, born 24 March 1974 in Switzerland, is a New Moon in Aries trine Neptune and opposition Pluto – super-ambitious and controlling. She’s also got a showbizzy Mars opposition Neptune.
Apart from both sharing a Venus in Aquarius and Jupiter in Pisces it’s not that obvious what the attraction was for a double stint at togetherness. Her Sun opposition Pluto sits on top of his 12th house Saturn; her rebellious Uranus is conjunct his Ascendant and Moon. Her Mars is in his 8th and her Neptune in his 2nd, so money would have been an issue.
Their relationship chart does have an optimistic and supportive composite Sun Jupiter though it opposes a needs-space Uranus and a struggle-for-the-upper-hand Pluto. The composite Venus is in a cool opposition to Saturn with a hint of passion from a sextile to Mars. It’s a so-so chart which would be fine as long as they could live out the power-couple Jupiter Pluto but once that went adrift it would be a tussle.
Tr Pluto is moving to square the composite Mars perhaps as early as this New Year but certainly extending on and off through next year which will be a bitter and aggravated barney.
The Affair meets Downton Abbey in a bizarre luvvie-land headline-grabber with Dominic West canoodling more than openly with actress Lily James in Rome over the weekend. This resulted in friends saying his wife and mother of his four children, Catherine Fitzgerald, was devastated since she thought they were still happily together. Next photo-op is West plus a hesitant lady wife appearing together, with forced smiles and kisses to say their ten year marriage is strong.
West, 15 October 1969, is a laid back Sun Jupiter in Libra with a seductive, manipulative Venus Pluto in Virgo; a Sagittarius Moon; and a hard-edged Mars in Capricorn trine Saturn in Taurus.
His wife Irish landscape gardener and aristocrat Catherine Fitzgerald, 18 May 1971, is an odd mix with him, being a stalwart and serious Sun Saturn in Taurus trine Pluto; with a Moon in Aquarius/Pisces. Her Sun Saturn opposes his elusive Neptune and her Venus in Aries/Taurus is conjunct his Saturn. Their relationship chart has an expansive and optimistic composite Sun square Jupiter; with Jupiter in a superficially affectionate trine to Venus; with Venus in a needs-space square to Uranus.
It’s not exactly overflowing with affection and is moving through turbulent times with tr Uranus square the composite Sun and opposition the Jupiter through this year till spring 2021; and tr Saturn is conjunct the composite Mars and trine the Pluto later this month into early November, which will be downbeat and angry. Even worse from late February 2021 onwards there is a seriously aggravated tr Pluto conjunct the composite Mars (maybe Moon). Methinks it may not survive the pounding. Though Mars trine Pluto relationships do not split easily or without a great deal of rancour since one partner will always have exerted control and won’t appreciate being forced to let go.
In many ways he finds Lily James, 5 April 1989, easier for light hearted companionship since she is a Sun Venus in Aries which sits well with his Libra Sun and Jupiter. Though she’s also of the triple conjunction of Saturn Neptune Uranus in Capricorn generation so will be unpredictable and chaotic, unlike his more sensible wife. Their relationship chart isn’t too inspiring with only a flash of initial attraction from composite Mars square Venus; though there is a possessive composite Sun square Pluto which can exert a pull at the start.
Lily James has just split from The Crown’s Matt Smith, 28 October 1982, a Sun, Jupiter, Venus in Scorpio. Her relationship with Smith looks a good deal cosier than with West with an affectionate composite Sun Venus sextile Mars. But tr Saturn conjunct the composite Sun clearly did for that – but who knows? It has been on and off for the past five years. It could even flare up again. Musical chairs in celeb relationships move at dizzying speed.
Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State and before that US Ambassador to the UN, under Bill Clinton, has an excoriating piece in the FT about Trump whom she describes as “a president born with both a silver spoon and a forked tongue in his mouth” who has debased American democracy. His message that no one should fear the virus, she points out is “rebutted by the bones and ashes of 1m dead.” Her fear is that his allegations that the election will be rigged against him will incite chaos and the possibility of violent confrontations. “Should the outcome be close, the verdict may not be known for weeks and will likely be rejected as fraudulent by one side or the other.”
She was born 15 May 1937, sadly with no birth time in the Czech Republic and has a stalwart Taurus Sun opposition and uber-determined Mars in Scorpio square Saturn in early Aries with Uranus Mercury also in Taurus. She also has a pushily-confident Jupiter in Capricorn opposition Pluto in Cancer which sits sextile/trine her Sun Mars opposition. A formidable lady, who has lived through dangerous and dramatic times.
She’s not looking exactly upbeat for a few months ahead with two undermining Neptune transits to midpoints running now until late January; a downbeat November with tr Saturn in hard aspect to her bullish Jupiter and Pluto; and a confused, plans-not-working-out tr Pluto square her Mars/Neptune midpoint late November to late December. She will pick up tr Pluto in aspect to her Pluto Jupiter from late next February onwards which will give her a boost.
If the above are reactions to the election then she may be right about delays. Though there could be other factors in her personal life which are involved.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, had a good run early in the covid wars but is losing the battle to keep numbers down despite draconian lockdowns of pubs and restaurants. And she is additionally entangled in a Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s botched handling of complaints against Alex Salmond who was cleared in court of sexual harassment charges. Salmond supporters claim it was a conspiracy ‘to get Salmond’ who had been Sturgeon’s mentor in the early days – all hotly denied.
Her Cancer Sun square Jupiter in Libra is under a dark, damp cloud through November with tr Saturn in hard aspect; plus an emotionally upsetting tr Uranus square her Moon mid November to mid December.
But Alex Salmond looks no more cheerful with tr Saturn opposition his lucky Jupiter Uranus conjunction and square his Neptune also through November. He’s also got a scary, trapped, enraging Solar Arc Mars square his Pluto exact in three to four month’s time but in effect earlier which does not look successful. Plus a panicky-failure sinker of tr Neptune conjunct his 10th house Mars late January to late February 2021.
Their relationship always was an edgy one – part friendly with a composite Sun Venus; highly ambitious as a duo with a composite Jupiter Pluto conjunct but that can turn into a struggle for the upper hand when it goes sour; and a seriously aggravated Moon opposition Uranus square Mars – which last tr Pluto will be leaning heavily on from late January 2021 for two years. And before then for obvious reasons their connection is on a downhill slide at the moment till late January 2021; with an additionally explosive jolt late December to early February 2021.
Nicola Sturgeon’s Administration chart, 12 May 2016 9.35am always hinted at a muddled term ahead with an over-hopeful Neptune opposition Jupiter square an accident-prone Mars and Saturn in Sagittarius; plus the crisis-ridden Uranus square Pluto. The first half of November looks testing and high-tension with late December to early February moving through emotional upsets. Pluto moves by Solar Arc to square the Uranus, exact in nine months, which is often a destabilising influence – which is around the time of the next Scottish election in May 2021, when the term finishes anyway. But it could suggest the result might not be quite the foregone conclusion is seemed earlier this year.
Airnb, the vacation rental San Fran company, which has until this year been a runaway success, privately valued at $31 billion, is moving into uncharted territory. With Covid showing no signs of slowing down and air travel becoming less attractive possibly for several years ahead their commission-based business is certain to be less lucrative.
Founded 11 August 2008, it has a Leo Sun opposition Neptune; with a hard-driving Mars in Virgo opposition Uranus square Pluto. That latter T Square is moving into a swampy three years with undermining Neptune transits first conjunct the Uranus in 2021, then in a panicky-failure opposition to Mars in 2022, then on to square the Pluto undercutting its power base. 2021 looks additionally disaster-strewn from April onwards with the Mars/Pluto midpoint getting elbowed by tr Saturn and tr Uranus; plus a jolting Solar Arc Saturn opposition the Uranus. There’s perhaps a momentary lift in 2023 but then a car-crash setback in 2025. Not looking great.
Two of the founders were born within days of each other. Brian Chesky, 29 August 1981, is a New Moon Virgo with the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Libra and a ruthless, uber-determined Mars square Pluto. He’s looking shell-shocked at the moment with upheavals and disruptions in 2021 and a mountainous uphill struggle by 2022/23 with the trapped and enraged tr Pluto opposition his Mars.
Joe Gubbia, 21 August 1981 is a Sun Leo trine Neptune, sextile Pluto and square Uranus with Jupiter Saturn together in Libra and another do-or-die-determined Mars square Pluto. He’s aggravated now, facing obstacles in 2021 and seriously jangled by 2023.
They may have to put their clearly inventive thinking caps on and dream up a new project for a new age.
Louise Gluck, the American poet, has won the Nobel Prize for Literature to add to her Pulitzer, various other awards and her former Poet Laureate status. Regarded as one of the pre-eminent poets of the age, her poems rooted in myth and nature, are “dreamlike, chilly, enigmatic”, “relying on mood, suggestion and atmosphere and scene setting, which settings are usually dark”. In her first collection — “Firstborn” – there is a tortured array of thwarted lovers, widows, cripples and angst-ridden families. Even the robins are woebegone. Her widely anthologized “The Drowned Children” is alarmingly matter of fact. And the poems written after the death of her father were described as “brutal and sorrow-filled.”
Born 22 April 1943 in New York (no birth time sadly) she became anorexic in her late teens, an effort she said to become independent from her mother and connected to the death of an elder sister before her birth and the illness dominated her twenties. She described her decision to forgo higher education in favour of therapy as necessary: “…my emotional condition, my extreme rigidity of behaviour and frantic dependence on ritual made other forms of education impossible”. She was also obsessed with death.
She married twice but neither lasted.
She is a Sun Taurus square Pluto with her Sun quincunx Neptune; with a Yod of Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars in Pisces with her Mars square Saturn, Venus, Uranus. That is a truly tricky mix. With a battened-down, over-controlled Sun and surges of anger and assertiveness from a stressed and volatile Mars. The nature connection would come from her Sun and Mercury in Taurus – the darkness and obsession with death from an afflicted Pluto tied into Mars and Saturn. Luckily Neptune is there to soak up the angst and channel it in creative directions.
Her Moon is either late Scorpio or early Sagittarius and may be square her Mars and opposition her Uranus and maybe Saturn – emotionally overwrought and agitated.
She doesn’t look overly enchanted exactly now with a high-stress set of transits to midpoints into early 2021. But in general she’s in an upbeat phase with tr Uranus conjunct her lucky Mars/Jupiter midpoint across probably this summer/autumn and repeating next spring; when she picks up a super-confident and successful tr Pluto opposition her Jupiter/Pluto midpoint. And she has her Solar Arc Sun moving to conjunct her Jupiter probably in 2021 as well which will bring her good fortune and acclaim. Her Solar Arc Venus is also exactly conjunct her ‘leadership’ North Node in Leo now. So ups and downs with no doubt personal travails from age and general world collapse with rays of sunshine into next year.
“A Village Life”: A later poem:
In the window, the moon is hanging over the earth, meaningless but full of messages. It’s dead, it’s always been dead, but it pretends to be something else, burning like a star, and convincingly, so that you feel sometimes it could actually make something grow on earth.
Another country with Pluto in the 8th which moved towards historic changes as transiting Uranus in Taurus approached and then crossed the Pluto, was India. Unification occurred under Queen Victoria on 1 January 1877 and the long push for independence from colonial rule built up through the 1920s and 30s. Tr Uranus in Aries had moved through the India 7th house of relationships in the 1920s as Gandhi’s protests made an impact. In 1940 when tr Uranus was conjunct the India Pluto the Jinnah-Muslim League in Pakistan demanded a separate homeland for Indian Muslims openly for the first time. This was in opposition to Gandhi’s aim of an India based on religious pluralism.
Independence which became a three-way split – away from Britain and old India split into two – didn’t happen until 1947 but the winds of change had been exerting pressure steadily.
Old India no longer exists so the return of tr Uranus in Taurus to the 1877 chart over the years in 2023/24 may not have much direct effect. Though the 1947 India independence chart does have tr Uranus squaring the Mercury, Pluto, Saturn, Venus and Sun from this year right through till 2023 so it will be a bumpy ride, probably economically in 2021 with tr Saturn in square to tr Uranus and opposition Saturn Pluto Venus.
If Germany were to follow suit, it would be split from the EU towards the late 2020s and split internally as well. Though nothing ever happens exactly the same.
