not categorised

The confected outrage over gender fluidity and pronouns has been well and truly skewered by the genuine article. Comedian Eddie Izzard, who came out 35 years ago as transvestite and more recently transgender, defended JK Rowling against accusations of being transphobic. “We need to look at the things she has written about in her blog. Women have been through such hell over history. Trans people have been invisible, too. I hate the idea we are fighting between ourselves.”

  Eddie was born 7 February 1962 7.30 pm (unverified) in Aden, Yemen, to English parents, and was brought up in Northern Ireland and Wales. He knew from aged four that he was transgender. “I’m gender fluid. Your brain gets coded male or female when you’re young. Mine got coded both ways. I have the gift of both, although it doesn’t feel like a gift at first.”

‘If [people] call me she and her, that’s great – or he and him, I don’t mind. I prefer to be called Eddie, that covers everything.”

 He cut his teeth as a street entertainer, ‘made burbling, conversational surrealism his stock in trade’ and hit fame in his thirties as a stand-up comic, often in drag, following in the Monty Python tradition – as Darth Vader in the Death Star canteen (“Give me penne all’arrabiata or you shall die!”), the thoughts of a busily munching squirrel (“Did I leave the gas on?”) or God as James Mason. ‘Izzard didn’t just riff off recognisable reference points but spun big existential questions into hallucinogenic gold.’

Now 58 he has stayed the course, has built a stage and screen acting career, sold out Madison Square Garden, was the first solo comedy act to play the Hollywood Bowl, did a long stint in Paris, performing in French, and has gigged in Germany, in German. He/she has also caught the headlines doing astonishing back-to-back marathon runs for charity, to be repeated this month on a treadmill. He’s a dedicated Labour activist and may go into politics.

   His/her chart has an astonishing six planets in Aquarius, a sign often associated with comedians –  Jimmy Tarbuck, Jimmy ‘Scnozzle’ Durante, Ned Sherrin, Michael Bentine, Barry Humphries, Les Dawson amongst others. In Aquarius he a disciplined, determined and sharp-witted Mars Saturn conjunction, as well as sunny, charming, chatty, lucky Mercury, Sun Jupiter and Venus. Neptune in Scorpio sits in square with Uranus as well as a leadership North Node across the zodiac in Leo. So incredibly Fixed and enduring.

  He/she probably has unaspected Pisces Moon which will tend to make his feminine impulses act erratically. On his artistic 5^th Harmonic the Moon is heavily aspected in opposition to Sun, Jupiter, Venus square Pluto Saturn (Mars) so through his creative work he can fully express his emotions and feminine side. His mother died when he was six of cancer.

  The other cross dressing though not transgender comedian Barry Humphries, the Australian Dame Edna Everage, was also a multiple Aquarius with Sun, Saturn and Venus in Aquarius with a Sun Saturn trine Jupiter.

Hilaria Baldwin, wife of Alec, being ‘outed’ as not-Spanish is a silly season twitterfuffle. Only in America where ethnicity is as carefully calibrated as caste in India, would it even have surfaced. A celebrity influencer sprinkling a little distinctive glitter on her bio to separate her out from the crowd is hardly pass remarkable. Though her sin appears to be taking away attention from proper Latinas and appropriating what isn’t hers.

  She was born in Boston on 6 January 1984, spent some holidays in Spain growing up, maybe more though she’s vague when pushed, and her parents now live on Mallorca. She is the mother of Baldwin’s five children, whose names are Spanish-influenced and she is multi-talented – teaches yoga, podcasts and writes, co-owns a chain of yoga studios, has penned fitness books and has a signature calming ointment to her name. 

  She’s a Sun Capricorn sextile Saturn in obsessively conscientious Scorpio. What probably draws her to the flamenco-vibe is her four planets in adventurous, far-travelled Sagittarius – Venus Uranus and a fantasy-prone Neptune Jupiter. She also has an ultra-determined Mars in late Libra conjunct Pluto which is sextile her head-in-the-clouds Jupiter Neptune Mercury. Her free-spirited, wild-child Gemini North Node opposes her Sagittarius planets. And she has a loves-to-shock Aquarius Moon.  

Alec Baldwin, born 3 April 1958, is an upfront Sun Aries with an excitable and uncompromising Mars in Aquarius opposition Uranus square Mercury opposition Neptune. His Venus in Aquarius resonates with her Moon; her Mars Pluto is conjunct his Jupiter; and her Venus in Sagittarius connects with his Aries Sun.  They are both high-octane personalities and both have strong Mercury Neptune aspects which will be no drawback in the showbusiness world of make believe.

The UK will be more buffeted by the transiting Uranus square Saturn than many countries (except the EU – and now that I think about it India, Pakistan and China). Tensions will run high over restrictions to freedom as well as the fallout from economic disruptions.

  Tr Saturn will square the UK 8^th house financial Mars in late March/early April, mid July and across the New Year into 2022 for setbacks, irritations and accidents. But it is tr Uranus which will have the more obvious effect as it forms a shocking/insecure/over-reactive conjunction to the UK Mars through most of May, late November through December 2021 and again in February 2022 – there will be financial and other major upsets. When tr Pluto hit this part of the UK chart a few decades back there were a stream of major disasters – ferry sinkings, Kings Cross fire etc. So it will be accident prone on a larger scale than Saturn.

  2022 will see much the same as tr Uranus square tr Saturn hits on the UK 2^nd house Neptune. Uranus won’t clear the UK’s Fixed planets until early 2025 so it will be a bumpy ride with multiple forced changes coming one on top of each other.

  Any legislature changes with extended devolution or splits is likely to come in 2023/24 with tr Uranus square the 11^th house Saturn.

  What will be interesting to watch to see how it turns out is the UK 5^th house Venus. The 5th is the chart area of entertainment as well as financial speculation. The Solar Arc Sun opposes the Venus exactly in nine months and the Solar Arc Midheaven is conjunct in eighteen months. Both of which might suggest positive outcomes although tr Saturn and tr Uranus will be impacting the Solar Arc Sun, Solar Arc Midheaven and Venus throughout 2022 as well, so it will be a time of jolts, jangles and stop-start progress.

  Back in 2021 minor good news will come from tr Jupiter conjunct the UK Pluto in Pisces June 9^th to July 2^nd, and again in January. Might be sporting successes. Jupiter is also moving through the UK 5^th from late January 2021 for a year which will – some of the time – lead to renewed self-confidence. Though Jupiter will battle with tr Saturn moving through Aquarius as well, which latter requires effort to take responsibilities seriously.

There’s uncertainty now till late January 2021; and some downbeat moments March to mid April, mid September to mid October and Jan/Feb 2022. And losses late May, on and off to March 2022. But those are run of the mill life-being-normal kind of influences.

   Northern Ireland, 7 December 1922 3.28pm Belfast, is shifting off an old track with tr Uranus impacting on its Water Grand Trine of Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto so is having to cope with new circumstances and changes. It will cause strain but it may not all be negative since it will force the country to rethink its ambitions for the future. Pluto moving through the 10^th (start time being accurate) from exactly now onwards for a decade can be seen as a search for a new direction. 2022 will be a time of high anxiety about domestic matters and deep questioning of roots and family past.

  Relations with Ireland 1949 look undermined, unresolved and damaged through 2021/22 with tr Neptune conjunct the composite Mars and opposition Saturn; not warmly co-operative; pushed and pulled by circumstances in 2022/23 and turned upside down by 2024 with completely new agreements needed.

  Wales, 3 March 1284 JC, is ploughing through discouraging times in 2021/22 and is low in morale with tr Pluto conjunct the Pluto Saturn and tr Neptune conjunct the Pisces Sun. And the Devolution 1998 chart is no more settled with tr Uranus square tr Saturn causing disruption.

  Scotland, up in arms over Brexit, is the most likely to aim for separation though economic realities as well as a Sturgeon v Salmond split in the SNP may make for a tighter vote than it appears now if it came to a referendum.  The Scotland Act of Union, 1 May 1707 JC suggests that 2023 may be the most likely time for a Scexit push with tr Uranus conjunct the 1707 Sun and square the Pluto Jupiter. But it is a tightly welded-together chart and won’t split easy. Uranus has been round this circuit several times in the last four centuries.

  The Scottish Devolution chart, 17 November 1998, would point to 2024/25 as the times of radical change. Neither of the two ancient Scotland charts of 1034 and 842 indicate much in the way of a drive for independence.  

  Maybe Keir Starmer’s ideas for a constitutional commission to extend devolution may gain traction.   

Add ON:

England – there are two charts – 11 May 973 JC and 25 December 1066.

  The 1066 chart shows dampened hopes through 2021 with tr Neptune opposition the Jupiter – high expectations which end in disappointment.  But both charts would indicate that 2023 to 2025 are the years of major turmoil, uncertainty and upheaval.

  The 1066 chart has tr Pluto conjunct the financial Venus in 2022/23 for considerable economic challenges; with a series of insecure, shocking, highly strung, undermining jolts from Solar Arcs in 2023/24 – tr Uranus conjunct the Neptune and Solar Arc Sun square Neptune; Solar Arc Uranus opposition Mars; and tr Neptune square Uranus.

  The 973 chart has much the same timeline with uncertainty in 2023/24 from tr Neptune square the Saturn; and tr Uranus conjunct the Taurus Sun, Mars and square Pluto in 2024/25.

   So not dissimilar to the timeline of the ructions on the UK 1801 chart and the 1707 Scotland Act of Union chart.  It doesn’t mean there will be an outright split. But the England identity will certainly go into a full wash-and-spin which won’t be too comfortable.

The final (allegedly) moment of the irrevocable parting of the ways from the EU will come at 11pm London time tonight.

  This produces a mixter maxter chart with three distinct strands:

Neptunian dreams with Venus in freedom-loving and adventurous Sagittarius opposition a wild-child Gemini North Node square Neptune in the employment and health 6^th house.

Uranus in the financial 8^th in an innovative trine to the Sun and an erratic square to Jupiter Saturn in Aquarius – adventurous, opportunistic, dictatorial, inconsistent.

  And a log-jammed, frustrated, furious – and then some – 8^th house Mars square Pluto Saturn Jupiter, which will take superhuman effort to push through financial problems. It also suggests bitter wrangling over financial matters, immediately and with escalating tensions in three and four years time as the Mars Pluto Saturn move by Solar Arc to exact.

Last and probably least there’s a flashy Leo Moon sitting on the UK Jupiter and opposition Jupiter Saturn in Aquarius – continuing the contradictory themes of high hopes and pessimism.  

Add On: Next day commentaries:

‘The UK has repatriated economic sovereignty and discovered that, far from allowing it to humble the EU, it has harmed itself. [Brexit] is still a promise without a plan. We have broken out of one regime of international relationships into a holding position – worse than what came before.’

‘I voted for Brexit – but not for this. Sean O’Grady thought that Leave could lead to a better deal for Britain. But, he writes, what we’ve ended up with instead is the worst of all worlds.’

‘A trade deal that requires a high degree of continued alignment on labour market regulation, environmental standards, state aid and much else besides doesn’t entirely free the country of its past ties.

 [But]no longer will it be possible to blame the EU bogey for the country’s troubles, or for sitting on our hands and doing nothing. No more excuses. Britain must learn to stand on its own two feet.’

‘Another union — that between the nations of England, Scotland and Wales and the province of Northern Ireland, will take centre stage in Brexit’s next act. Forget the guff about embarking on a new Elizabethan age. “Global Britain” is at present heading towards the rocks of constitutional break-up.

The decision to leave the EU was, at its heart, an expression of English nationalism. A reordering of relationships within the UK is inevitable — and a parting of the ways a real and present danger.

 Changing minds to guarantee the preservation of the Union will require, at very least, two steps. The first, which should be the easiest, is Mr Johnson’s departure in favour of a prime minister ready to redistribute power within the UK. The second (contingent on the first) is a constitutional offer to Scotland — and to Wales and Northern Ireland — that would create an essentially federal union. The status quo is no longer an option.’

An astro thought popped into mind at the news that Meghan and Harry had produced their first Archewell love-and-compassion podcast which featured, amongst other celebrities, seventeen-month-old Archie saying ‘Happy New Year.’ Reviews suggest it was ‘blandly Californian. Like Goop but without the fun.’ Vacuous and naff.

 For a couple whose raison d’etre for bolting was a driving desire for privacy, fuelled in part ‘twas said by Harry’s dislike of being in the Royal goldfish bowl, it seems a tad strange to be exposing their offspring to a gawping public. And naming their (presumably hopefully mega-million dollar) foundation after him. Especially after all the fuss about keeping his birth and christening under wraps.

  When Archie arrived I winced a touch at his chart which has the Saturn Pluto conjunction in his 10^th of career. Saturn in the 10^th suggests a workaholic, disciplinarian, chilly mother and with Pluto added in she becomes even more hard-driving and controlling. It doesn’t mean he won’t be successful long term, since he’ll have duty welded into his DNA but it certainly doesn’t point to a playful, carefree childhood where he’s left to make his own choices.

  Meghan’s Pluto squares Archie’s Midheaven, so she will be instrumental in dictating his path in life until he breaks free.

  The relationship charts with both Meghan and Harry have composite Sun Venus so there will be a good deal of affection. But with Harry it’s a more sociable and enjoyable, fun interface; while with Meghan there’s an emphasis on work and money.

   Relations within the Royal Family don’t appear to be easing much. Will and Harry, if anything will move further apart through this year; and Harry and his father Charles will also be jolted and jangled, perhaps by other family events with a sense of disappointment lingering.

  Meghan and the Queen will be moving through a tumultuous two years with more aggravations and frustrations following.  Meghan and Charles are drifting, with 2022 being a sore point as enthusiasm is dampened; and the same with Will who’ll find it tricky to keep calm as angry influences blow up in 2022/23.

  Which mirrors the Harry/Meghan relationship chart on which family tussles loomed large with a composite Moon square Saturn Pluto which sees continuing pressures hanging over from 2020 through 2021, and worsening in 2022/23 as tr Pluto opposes the composite Moon.

A shell-shocked USA, battered by rancour over Trump’s presidency and his chaotic, vengeful exit, never mind the pandemic, could be forgiven a sigh of relief at the hope of quieter times ahead. With no mid degree Fixed signs on the USA 1776 chart the disruptions of the prevailing 2021 tr Uranus in Taurus square tr Saturn in Aquarius won’t have much direct impact.

   But certain themes will run on from last year with tr Pluto opposition the USA Mercury, exact now till late January, repeating mid August to late November. On its own, this would bring mental strain and intense, probably bitter, debate. But it will be ramped up by Mercury being natally opposition the USA Pluto and therefore a harbinger of more momentous changes to come as Pluto heads for its First Return since the USA was founded in 2022/23. (Examples of other countries going through a Pluto Return see post: October 16 2020.) The divisiveness and fraudulent misrepresentation will run on.

  One consolation to be drawn is that Joe Biden’s Jupiter in Cancer is conjunct the USA Mercury so he might manage to pour syrup on the worst of the hatred and bitterness.

  The Eclipses in Gemini/Sagittarius in June and December will continue to rattle the USA Uranus and Mars, leading to a heated, argumentative mood, both internally and externally.  [The Gemini and Sibley 1776 USA charts will also have their Ascendant’s affected by these Eclipses so they will bring about – as last year – a re-evaluation of America’s image in the eyes of the world and its relationships.]

   What is worrisome is tr Neptune square the USA Mars late March to mid April, early September to mid October, mid January to mid February 2022. Traditionally this brings about a panicky sense of failure, with dented self-esteem.

  Similar occurred before:

 In 1980 with tr Neptune in Sagittarius opposition the USA Mars, in the final year of Jimmy Carter’s presidency generally regarded as lacklustre. The US was in a minor recession spawned by the 1979 oil crisis; the unemployment rate rises to 6.3%.

In 1938 with tr Saturn in Virgo square the USA Mars. President Roosevelt on his less successful 2^nd Term hints at US neutrality in the approaching war with Germany.

In 1897/98 tr Neptune in Gemini is conjunct the USA Mars. William McKinley President – the Spanish–American War started after an explosion on USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. It led to the U.S. emerging predominant in the Caribbean region and acquiring Spain’s Pacific possessions.

In 1857 Neptune in Pisces square the US Mars – Franklin Pierce president, an anti-abolitionist; the Supreme Court ruled that Blacks are not citizens and slaves cannot sue for freedom, driving the country further towards the American Civil War of 1861.

  Not terminal but on the whole uninspiring times in US history.

  What is also worth considering given the aggravated nature of the aspects on Inauguration day is the USA First President chart, of 30 April 1789 12.45pm New York. Tr Pluto is square the Mercury on this chart also at 24 degrees, so similar phases of ramped-up debate as indicated by the 1776 chart throughout 2021 Tr Neptune is conjunct the Saturn for uncertainty and paralysis, picking up late February and running till January 2022.

What to watch for is tr Uranus conjunct the First President Taurus Sun at ten degrees – with tr Saturn in square – which does suggest considerable disruption. This runs from April 2021 on and off until early 2022.

  Interestingly previous occurrences of this coincided with the Neptune transits above to the USA Mars.

Uranus in Taurus conjunct the FP Sun, June 1853 to March 1854, during Pierce’s presidency who is ranked as one of the worst and least memorable U.S. Presidents.

Uranus at 10 degrees Taurus – May 1937 to Feb 38, Franklin D Roosevelt after a successful first term from 1933, failed to garner support for his Second Stage New Deal intended to drag the USA out of the Great Depression. The business community objected, equating him with Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. The Supreme Court became his primary domestic focus during his second term after the court overturned many of his programs. Roosevelt’s “court packing” plan ran into intense political opposition from his own party, since it upset the separation of powers. Although by 1941, seven of the nine Justices had been appointed by Roosevelt.

  Overall the influences tended to coincide with ineffective presidencies.

The Queen’s dislike for Tony Blair has reportedly put the blockers on him getting an Order of the Garter which was bestowed on all his predecessors.  In turn this has stopped those who came after him being given the honour which is in the sovereign’s personal gift.  Relations between Blair and the Palace have been strained since the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana in 1997 and didn’t warm up much in the ten years following of his tenure at No 10 as prime minister, with his wife Cherie famously knee-stiffening rather than curtseying to the monarch. Classy.

   Blair and HM are certainly badly-matched despite both being Sun Taurus. His Pluto is conjunct HM’s Neptune for confusion and opposition HM’s Mars Jupiter for irritations and frustrations and game playing; and square HM’s Saturn Midheaven for a resentful sense of being stuck with this and not happy.

Relations are just as bad in a different way with Cherie, whose Mars is in an implacable-dislike opposition to HM’s 6^th house Pluto and Cherie’s Saturn opposes HM’s Sun and squares HM’s Moon for a frosty chemistry.

Tony Blair and HMQ’s relationship chart has a chilly Sun opposition Saturn Moon. Though again the chemistry between Cherie and HM is worse with an aggravated and hostile composite Mars opposition Pluto and Pluto in a power-struggling, one-up-manship square to the composite Jupiter.

  Blair keeps popping up into the public arena trying to sound like a senior statesman and being roundly boo-ed off stage. He’s had a tough decade with the tr Uranus square tr Pluto bouncing off his Venus in Aries opposition Neptune Saturn in Libra square Uranus; with his Solar Arc Pluto grinding across the conjunction to his Neptune Saturn when the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry Report came out.  He’s still got tr Pluto square his Mercury through 2021/22, bringing intense discussions and some mental strain; and his Solar Arc Sun will form a neurotic, confused and stuck square to his Neptune Saturn in late 2022/23; followed by his Solar Arc Moon in opposition Saturn Neptune across the middle of this decade which may bring family disruptions and concerns. So his travails are likely to continue.

  Tr Pluto will conjunct his Midheaven from February 2021 onwards which can sometimes mean damage to reputation and a fall from grace, followed by many years thereafter of searching for a vocation. But since he’s been there anyway for a decade plus it’s difficult to see quite how it will turn out.  Though by all accounts he will soon get a knighthood if only to allow for those who followed him to get their elevations of whatever variety.  

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…” Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Things to be thankful for moving into 2021 – the drearily restrictive Saturn Pluto conjunction in Capricorn harbinger of grief and hardship is gone. Like all Saturn Pluto experiences, it heralded tough conditions requiring perseverance though it also bred resilience. There has also been a downbeat run of Solar Eclipses across 2020 which predicted traumatic transformation, separations, restraints and frustration. The final Eclipse from earlier this month will admittedly cast its shadow across the first few months of 2021 but thereafter there is more cheer.

  Saturn and Jupiter will move through Aquarius, although they will never return to the Great Conjunction just passed. The energy should be lighter with the shift from Earthy, sombre Capricorn into Airy, scientific, curious and communicative Aquarius. Aquarius can be stubborn, emotionally cool and its reputation for humanitarian idealism is sometimes over-stated when it veers toward ideological fanaticism, but it will provide a contrast to what has gone before. It will promote scientific and especially technological advances.

  Jupiter will skip merrily into Pisces for ten weeks from mid May, promoting sympathy, charity, creativity and dreams.

  The key planetary theme for the year will be Uranus in Taurus square Saturn in Aquarius, which is a high-tension mix as conservative, traditional Saturn clashes with progressive, liberal-minded Uranus. There will be strong reactions to limitations on freedom, with self-willed behaviour, outbursts of irritability, as those who attempt to pursue dictatorial  policies run headlong into rebellions – whether politically or at an individual level. The year will be marked by inconsistency and contradictory approaches and results. In an individual chart, Saturn square Uranus points to a person who doesn’t practise what they preach – they don’t walk their talk.

  There are exact Saturn Uranus squares in February, June and December and it will also makes its presence felt when other planets move in aspect to both. January will be a ratchety month with Mars in Taurus, and in the latter days the Aquarius Sun, colliding with both Saturn and Uranus – for stresses, strains, broken crockery and aggravations. May, August, November with the Sun in Fixed signs will also be erratic times.

  The first of the upbeat eclipses comes in June with the Solar Eclipse of June 10 at 19 degrees Gemini in a Saros Series that accompanies inspirations, visions, hunches and prophetic dreams and surges of creativity which according to Bernadette Brady ‘will leave the individual enriched.’  Its beneficial effect will be felt perhaps a month before and for several months afterwards.

  The June Eclipse does square Neptune as does the December Solar Eclipse – so some Neptunian drift will be evident. There is also a challenging, trapped Mars opposition Pluto across the midyear eclipses will suggests some frustrations will continue, requiring perseverance and persistence.

  The December 2021 Total Solar Eclipse at 12 degrees Sagittarius is in ‘a joyful, happy’ Saros series. ‘There is a sense of good news, falling in love, a peak experience that is joyful in some way.’ The benefits will continue long after the Eclipse passes over.

  There are also two Lunar Eclipses: A Total Lunar on 26 May at 5 degrees Sagittarius/Gemini with the Full Moon square Jupiter so it will have its uplifting moments. And a Partial Lunar Eclipse on 19^th November at 27 degrees Taurus/Scorpio which again squares Jupiter.

Saturn square Uranus rolls on into 2022 causing a few tensions early and late in the year.

  2021 won’t be a perfect year by any means or completely seamless but in comparison to what went before it should have its walk-in-the-park times.

 “Welcome to the future, negotiations without end.” That’s one acerbic view of the Brexit deal with the text containing no fewer than 244 references to “arbitration tribunals” and a further 170 to a “partnership council” – the bodies that will decide the details and settle future disputes, hinting at further negotiations. There will be 19 specialised committees and four working groups which will hold at least 21 meetings each year, excluding aspects affecting Northern Ireland.

Britain and Europe should expect years of continued wrangling over trade, warned Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Those who think the Brexit drama comes to an end with this deal will be bitterly disappointed.”  

Among several issues not nailed down by the agreement sealed on Christmas Eve are:

* Financial services – with future rules “still to be established”, despite the sector employing more than 1 million people, paying more than £75bn in tax.

* Professional qualifications in services jobs – with nothing agreed on their recognition in the EU, despite the UK enjoying a huge surplus in such exports.

Anton Spisak, a Brexit expert, said “I’m astonished how thin the deal is. This falls even below the standard of some recent EU FTAs [free trade agreements].”

 The UK/EU relationship chart never did show a clear breach apart from a shift onto a new footing with tr Uranus trine the composite Uranus now till late January 2021. That’s followed by the irritatingly contradictory stop-start tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on the 2^nd house Neptune in late March/April, May, July, November and across the New Year into 2022 so financial wrangles and panicky, erratic progress. Confusion, evasion and indecisive discussions in late April and May, again through 2022 with tr Neptune square the 3^rd house composite Mercury (transport issues?). Tr Uranus will square the 5^th house Venus and trine the 12^th house Jupiter in 2022 and square the 5^th house Mars in 2023 – that could affect financial services amongst other things, since 5^th house covers speculation. Some positive outcomes, others unsettling and creating insecurity and bad-temper.

  The UK EEC chart of 1 January 1973 when the country joined the bloc is no clearer.

The French needless to say are crowing contemptuously with the Libération newspaper describing the agreement as offering only “a facade of commercial freedom for the UK”, while committing London to maintaining standards on the environment, workers’ rights and climate change.

“While the US is shaking off Trump’s 2016 win, to restore their role, influence and image in the rest of the world, Britain is consumed by the eccentric plan of the conservative elite to return to exerting [global] influence from a position of splendid isolation.”

“The United Kingdom finds itself once again facing a question that was never resolved after 1945: its place in the world. It’s like Back to the Future, from the 1950s.”

  Only time will tell whether the doomsayers are right or the Rule Britannia choir will intone their way into the promised land of a (not entirely) free and fruitful Britain.  Grasping at straws I suppose it will help not having to be a net contributor to the EU as the UK like elsewhere wrestles with the pandemic economic hangover.

George Blake, the British spy who worked as a Russian double-agent and sent many MI6 agents to their deaths, has died in Moscow.  He was sentenced to 42 years in prison after he was caught in 1961 when a Polish defector pointed to a mole but Blake escaped and fled to Moscow.

  He was born 11 November 1922 at 3pm in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with a Protestant Dutch mother and a Sephardic Jewish father, who had been a decorated WW1 officer and a naturalized British citizen. Blake spent his teens in Egypt where he was influenced by a Marxist cousin, studied Russian at Cambridge University, joined the Dutch Resistance during WW11, returned to the UK, joined the Royal Navy and was recruited by MI6. His intended marriage failed because of the family of the girl objected to his Jewish background and he was then posted to Germany and South Korea where he was captured and interned by the North Koreans in 1950. He was recruited there by the KGB and said what swayed him was the American bombing of defenceless Korean villagers. He also said later he had never felt British: “To betray, you first have to belong. I never belonged.”  

    Blake had a Water Grand Trine with legs in the two hidden houses which makes sense of an inordinately complicated, doubly deceitful spy lifestyle. The hidden house are secretive by nature and the Water Grand Trine would give him the ability to live within his own bubble. His wayward Uranus in the 12th was trine Pluto in the 4^th and trine Mercury Jupiter in Scorpio in the 7^th, formed into a Kite by Pluto opposition Midheaven – talented, focussed, successful in his own terms and lucky with such an emphasised Jupiter, which is further highlighted being on the focal point of a T Square to Mars in Aquarius opposition a Leo Moon.

  He’d be persuasive with Jupiter in his 7^th having an enthusiastic way with words and since it is prominent in his chart, it would give him the ‘good fortune’ to survive internment and then be able to break out of prison and make his way out of the UK and across the European border into the USSR.

  His 8^th house Scorpio Sun was square Neptune giving him an intense and obsessive idealism. He also had an inspirational and entrepreneurial and risk-taking Fire Grand Trine of Moon trine Venus trine Ascendant formed into a Kite by Moon opposition Mars.

  So his two driving planets off two Kites were his Midheaven and his Mars. Relocating his chart to Moscow put his Mars conjunct the Midheaven with his Moon in the 4th  – it would bring out his ambitious streak and also be a reassuring location for a settled domestic life.

  When he was turned during the Korean War, tr Uranus was moving across his IC pulling him away from his roots and his Solar Arc Uranus was about to cross his Ascendant, moving him into a defiant and rebellious phase of his life.

  Knowingly betraying and sending anywhere between forty and several hundred fellow agents to their deaths took a cold and ruthless streak no matter how he justified it to himself – and he had an unyielding Saturn square Pluto as well as a can-be-cruel Mars trine Mars. He also had a strong 18^th harmonic, common amongst serial killers; and a destructive 16H. His Pluto sat on the UK 1801 midheaven, so he did have the capacity to do damage; and his Pluto opposition the UK Sun and his Saturn square would give him no love for the country whom his father had embraced.

  But for all that he was an intriguingly complex man with a fascinating chart.