not categorised

Lewis Hamilton, the Formula 1 racing driver, had the momentum to win the recent Abu Dhabi championship race and was closing in on his eighth title, which would have made him the most decorated F1 driver in history. Instead there was what was described as “a capricious decision by race stewards to allow five lapped cars to overtake the safety car on the penultimate lap. Their intervention ensured that Hamilton’s lead was overhauled by Max Verstappen, driving with fresh tyres. It transformed a thrilling contest into farce.”

  Instead of throwing a tantrum, he graciously congratulated Max Verstappen, though the decision is being appealed. At present Hamilton is signed up to Mercedes until 2023.

  He was born 7 January 1985 at 3.30am (biography) in Stevenage, England and grew up with divorced parents, started racing early and as the only black competitor suffered a good deal of racist abuse.

  He has an ambitious and successful Sun Jupiter in Capricorn and was born at the time of the Full Moon in Cancer (split parents) and the opposition is sextile/trine an obsessively conscientious Saturn in Scorpio. He’s also got a 12^th house Pluto in an ultra-determined and courageous trine to a passionately enthusiastic Mars Venus in Pisces; with Mars in a high-octane square to Uranus.

  Those who have raced beside him for years say they don’t really know what makes him tick and one commentator described him as “an outlier amongst outliers” so his tricky childhood would have given him a defensive shell. His Saturn on the Ascendant will also make him seem shut off.

  He has lost the super-successful tr Pluto conjunct his Jupiter and before that Sun/Jupiter midpoint which made his recent years so fortunate. Next year looks the usual muddle of highs and glitches. Though tr Jupiter moving into his 4^th might suggest (birth time being accurate) that he’ll want to slow down and relax more ahead.

 Max Verstappen, 30 September 1997 1.20pm Hasselt, Belgium, the present Formula One champion, is the son of a racing driver and the youngest to compete in formula one races.  He has an ambitious 10^th house Libra Sun trine an adventurous and lucky Jupiter Uranus, in a wide sextile to a ruthlessly determined Mars Pluto in Sagittarius. His Virgo Moon Mercury are trine Neptune, sextile Venus in Scorpio – practical and charming.

  His Mars Pluto square Hamilton’s Venus Mars in Pisces so not much love lost there but it is a highly competitive sport so no surprises there.  

  The Promethean torment of Julian Assange continues with UK judges now deeming he can be extradited to the USA, which will lead to lengthy appeals and a longer stay at Belmarsh Prison where he has been since 2019. His travails started in 2010 with allegations of rape and molestation in Sweden, leading to him seeking asylum in the London Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012 where he stayed for seven years until they kicked him out. That cost the Metropolitan police around £12 million to guard the embassy.

  His lawyers argue that extradition to the US where he could face 175 years in a maximum security prison could endanger his health and he has already reportedly suffered a mini-stroke recently.

  Whatever you think of Assange – and I don’t think much of his morals, decency or careless disregard in some of what he published – he did expose uncomfortable truths and official crimes and cover-ups which would otherwise have stayed hidden. Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said “Virtually no one responsible for alleged US war crimes committed in the course of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars has been held accountable, let alone prosecuted, and yet a publisher who exposed such crimes is potentially facing a lifetime in jail.”

No public interest defence is permissible under the Espionage Act.

Assange was born 3 July 1971 3pm (biography) Townsville, Australia with an 8^th house Cancer Sun in a rebellious, revolutionary square to Uranus. He’s also got a mutinous-about-authority- father-figures Mars in Aquarius in his 4^th. His angry, headstrong Mars is further emphasised/afflicted by being on the focal point of a wide-ish Yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Mercury – no surprises he channelled his rage into widespread communication. Plus an emotionally intense Venus in wayward Gemini square Pluto.  And a head-in-the-clouds Jupiter Neptune conjunction in an unrealistic can-be-paranoid opposition to Saturn. His judgement isn’t too sound.

  As he launched his high-risk wikileaks information flood in 2010 tr Pluto was conjunct his Solar Arc Jupiter for a burst of supreme confidence. Then the ceiling fell in as tr Saturn was conjunct his Solar Arc Midheaven with both conjunct his Pluto for a dead halt. And his over hopeful natal Jupiter Neptune had its enthusiasm well and truly dented as tr Pluto then moved across his Solar Arc Neptune and opposition his Solar Arc Pluto in the years that followed. That exemplifies Jupiter Neptune’s ‘false happiness’ streak with the fantasy-bubble bursting as cold reality breaks through.

   When he had his mini stroke earlier this year tr Saturn was square his Scorpio Moon and tr Pluto was in an intense and exasperated opposition to his Mercury. 

  He’ll stay bullish at times through 2022/23 with tr Pluto square his Jupiter/Pluto midpoint but that runs alongside high levels of nervous strain and mental confusion and nothing much that looks remotely cheering thereafter.

 Relocating his chart to London is bad news with Mars in the 8^th, a hidden 12^th house Sun and a domestically-trapped and unsettled Pluto Uranus in the 4^th. If he’d not been so arrogant he’d have skipped off somewhere safer.

Pete Duel, an American actor best known for the 1970 TV western comedy ‘Alias Smith and Jones’ was according to Quentin Tarantino one of the inspirations behind the character Rick Dalton, a washed up actor played by Di Caprio in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’. Duel was found shot on New Year’s Eve 1971, reportedly suicide though as ever conspiracy theories pointed to murder.

  He had evidently been depressed about his excess drinking which had led to a road accident with a DUI court case pending and had talked about suicide early on in his adult life. Tarantino described him as an undiagnosed bi-polar.

  He was born 24 February 1940 7.59 am Penfield, New York with a creative, hidden 12 house Sun Pisces and an exuberant Jupiter Venus in Aries on his Ascendant. His Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries was conjunct Mars in Taurus with both square Pluto – which would give rise to intense frustrations. He did have a dark streak.

  When he died there was a transiting Pluto opposition Mars which would resonate with his deeper angst. His Progressed Moon was opposition his Progressed Mars and his Progressed Saturn was square his Progressed Pluto. All of which would contribute to a mood of black melancholy.  Tr Neptune was also square his Moon which wouldn’t clarify his thinking.

  The astrology won’t give definitive answers but it looks less of a brutal assault than was showing on the Hendrix chart, more a descent into deep gloom.

Ioan Gruffudd, a recognizable but not A-list actor (Hornblower, Australian TV Harrow etc), has split from his actress wife to hook up with his co-star. So far, so uninteresting. Except the Daily Mail has helpfully aired the wife’s chagrin at the split with a series of raging social media posts. All appears to be settling down now presumably the lawyers have got a grip to settle details of custody battles and alimony.

  The only fact of astro-intrigue in the scenario is that the about-to-be-former and humiliated wife Alive Evans was born on 2 August 1968 only three days before Marine Le Pen, the far-right French politician. She has the same bleak and fated Yod focal point Saturn as Le Pen and it squares her volatile Mars in Cancer. So she will have a short fuse. She’s also a Sun Leo so will feel the public dent to her ego more sharply than most. Her Sun is being elbowed by the tr Saturn opposition and tr Uranus square at the moment into early 2022.

  Not that he is exactly a slouch when it comes to heated discussions, 6 October 1973, with his Mercury in Scorpio opposition Mars in Taurus square Jupiter (Moon) in Aquarius. Though he has sensibly decided to keep his head down in public over this spat. He also has a Yod onto his Mars inconjunct Neptune sextile Pluto so will be impulsive and self-willed. He’s also got an unbudgeable Sun Pluto in Libra square Saturn.

  His Sun is conjunct her South Node so he will tend to pull her back in a less helpful direction. To develop she needs to stand on her own two feet – with an Aries North Node.

  It will always have been an argumentative chemistry between them with a composite Sun Mercury square Mars in their relationship chart and a needs-space Venus Uranus.

Their Wedding chart of 14 September 2007 contained more than a hint of a turbulent, exciting and unpredictable liaison. The Virgo Sun was in opposition to Uranus square Mars and opposition Pluto and Jupiter. A roller coaster all the way through.

Ethan Crumbley, 15, the latest in a long line of school shooters, ended four young lives and wounded another seven of his peers, some of them seriously, on November 30^th in Michigan. What is unusual in his case is his parents have been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter. He used his father’s new 9mm Sig Sauer semi-automatic handgun, which he had claimed was his own in troubling Instagram posts beforehand, to which his parents had been alerted by the school.

  Born 28 April 2006 (wiki) he is a Sun and Moon in Taurus opposition Jupiter in Scorpio square Neptune – stubborn, over confident and delusional. With his Sun in a contradictory low self-esteem square to Saturn. And his Jupiter in a Water Grand Trine to Mars in volatile Cancer trine Uranus – Water Grand Trine types can be detached from reality, living in their own bubble. He would get double messages from his father which are always confusing for children – both spoilt and punished.

  It isn’t a particular brutal chart though his self-defeating 10th Harmonic is ruthless and over-pushy;  and his ‘serial killer’ 18H is also heavily aspected and stressed.

  His father James Crumbley, 25 July 1976, a Sun Saturn in Leo with Venus Mercury also in Leo seems to have been the main influence on him – though not clearly all in the right direction with Junior’s Taurus Sun exactly conjunct his father’s South Node and trine his father’s Mars and opposition his father’s Uranus.

  Their relationship chart has a power-couple/tussle-for-the-upper-hand Jupiter square Pluto; and an unkind/cruel composite Mars Saturn – quite a mix.

  His mother Jennifer, 1 April 1978, a Sun Aries opposition Pluto trine Neptune had an even more fractious relationship with him – their relationship chart has a composite T square of Mars opposition Neptune Uranus square Sun; and a resentful, chained-together Saturn square Pluto. An elder half-brother (same father, different mother) left the family home last year because of difficulties with his stepmother/Ethan’s mother.

  Nothing much to conclude apart from the usual – the gun-toting genie is out of the bottle in the USA and there’ll be no stuffing it back in. That argument is well and truly lost. But holding parents’ responsible might just make a small dent in the problem.    

The France presidential elections due in April 2022 are hotting up with the four front runners spotlighted – Emmanuel Macron, the centrist president, centre-right Valerie Pecresse, far-right Eric Zemmour and equally far-right Marine Le Pen.

What’s clear from the France chart is that there will be widespread confusion, turbulence and upset which may not all be connected to the election but will have a bearing on it. Tr Pluto will square the France Neptune from March onwards bringing a widespread sense of devastation. With the France revolutionary and angry T Square of Uranus opposition Pluto square Mars being triggered from two directions. The Solar Arc position of the Fr Uranus opposition Pluto will sit directly on top of France’s Venus, which could be a considerable financial upset, though the economic news at present is relatively promising. The other is tr Saturn throwing cold water on the revolutionary T square from March 2022, on and off into 2023. It will be particularly noticeable in May just after the  new President takes up the reins from 13^th May.

  France will be shaken to its core either by external events or – it it isn’t a stretch – by having made a quirky election choice and having panicky second thoughts after the event.

  Macron, 21 December 1977 10.40 am Amiens – a Sun and three planets in Sagittarius with a flamboyant Mars in Leo in his 7^th and Taurus Moon –  was a surprise winner last time round with his reforming, upbeat approach which ran into the usual intransigence about changing the sclerotic top-heavy state sector. He has tr Saturn now moving below his Ascendant into his lower-profile, less successful quadrant. Which doesn’t mean he won’t win since that can take a while to kick in but he will be sailing into the wind. He’s feeling unloved running into the elections and nerve-shattered over the result.

  Valerie Pecresse, 14 July 1967, 12.10am Neuilly Sur Seine is a Sun Cancer sextile Uranus Pluto in Virgo and trine Neptune, widely square Mars in Libra in her 7^th. Tr Pluto is in a frustratingly blocked square to her Mars through February to mid March so she’ll have a tough run up. Tr Saturn is better placed for her than Macron. But her Solar Arc Neptune is opposition her Mercury which will not give her a clear head for campaigning or laying out a strategy.

 Marine Le Pen, 5 August 1968 11.20am Neuilly Sur Seine – a Sun Venus in Leo with an ambitious 10^th house Mars in Cancer in a publicity-attracting trine to Neptune, sextile a chaotic Uranus Pluto in her 12^th; and a Saturnine Yod onto Pluto Uranus sextile Neptune with her Saturn square Mars. She’s a complicated, hard-edged, erratic personality who keeps trying and keeps running into setbacks. Tr Pluto is square her Saturn this month which is discouraging and moving on to oppose her Mars in 2023/24 which is very stuck. Her Solar Arc Pluto is also in a blocked square to her Sun now and her Solar Arc Mars in an even more trapped and irritating conjunction to her Pluto now and still in effect over the election – presumably downcast and enfuriated with Eric Zemmour stealing her thunder.

  Eric Zemmour, 31 August 1958 6.45 am Montreuil – is a controlling Sun Pluto in Virgo with an argumentative Mars in Taurus in his 9^th and Saturn in Sagittarius in his 4^th – not an easy man to warm to. Just to be difficult he has tr Pluto square his Jupiter over the election from March onwards which can be successful and is certainly confident. But at the same time tr Pluto is square his Sun/Saturn midpoint which can be depressing and sometimes coincides with health issues  Plus a couple of Neptunian enthusiasm-dampers.

  The usual muddle and ambivalence in all the charts. What is for sure is it will be a pivotal election.

ADD ON: Tr Neptune Jupiter in Pisces are also conjunct the France South Node. Jupiter Neptune in mundane terms often  coincides with financial bubbles bursting, which fits its standard meaning of ‘false happiness’ – overly inflated expectations. Ebertin has it as – poor speculation, a scandal caused through one’s own instability, losses, political conflicts. Visionaries, dreamers, hypocrites.

Thanks to Candy for: ‘The last time there was a Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Pisces was in 1856.

Late May- early June 1856 was marked in France by a sudden and massive rise in the water levels of major French rivers. The flood of 1856 went down as one of the major floods in the history of France.

There was also a boom in France (including a massive stock market bubble where stocks rose by 50% in 1855-1856) and then a crash and recession in 1857-1858.’

A brief shooting star in the musical firmament, Jimi Hendrix’s legacy lives on as the greatest instrumentalist of all time for his innovative electric guitar playing. There is a new  collection of rare, unreleased Hendrix recordings now available from an official “bootleg” record label (whatever that is?)

  Hendrix was born 27 November 1942 10.15 am Seattle, Washington with his father initially away in the war and he had a fractured, poor childhood in and out of foster care with both parents drinkers. He was a shy, reclusive child who came alive when he got first a ukulele and then a guitar. After a brief and unhappy stint in the military, he backed other singers and eventually made his breakthrough in 1966. By 1969 he was the highest paid rock star in the business and was regularly using cannabis, hashish, amphetamines, LSD and alcohol.

  In September 1970 aged 27 he was found dead in London in mysterious circumstances which led to rumours of foul play though the coroner, while recording an open verdict, deemed it death by asphyxiation after taking barbiturates and alcohol.

 He had a creative and hidden 12th house Sun Venus Mercury in Sagittarius in a talented, super-ambitious, though highly-strung and scattered Half Grand Sextile with his Sun and Sagittarius planets opposition Saturn Uranus in Gemini trine an 8^th house Pluto and sextile Neptune. His Moon Jupiter in Cancer were also in his 8^th, hinting at supportive grandparents who were probably his saving grace.  A complex, self-doubting and troubled soul, driven by demons he didn’t understand.

   When he died tr Neptune was exactly square his Aquarius North Node and tr Uranus was square his Solar Arc Saturn, shaking up the central configuration of his chart. Tr Saturn was opposition his Solar Arc Midheaven and his Progressed Mars was opposing his SP Saturn. Most significantly three of his Mars midpoints were under brutal assault at the time.  

  A former roadie who worked for Mike Jeffrey, Hendrix’s manager (now dead) claims Hendrix was killed for a $2m life-insurance policy taken out amid concerns about his increased drug-taking, and that the manager told him Hendrix was “worth more to him dead than alive”. Wright’s version is that Hendrix was killed on Jeffrey’s orders by a gang who forced wine and painkillers down his throat until he drowned. The doctor on-call at the time said in an interview that the patient seemed to have “drowned” in a large amount of red wine.

  Tr Neptune was exactly square his Mars/Saturn midpoint = a mysterious death according to Ebertin, undermining of the vitality thro’ poison, gas or epidemic. Tr Pluto was also exactly conjunct Mars/Pluto = misfortune to suffer violent assaults.  And tr Uranus was conjunct Mars/NNode – quarrels, upsets within co-operative associations.

  Was he murdered? With these influences it is possible, but not definitive proof. A mystery that will never be solved.

The former GOP Senator Bob Dole’s death has brought a flood of ovations about his bravery, statesmanship and patriotism. He was badly wounded in WW11 but recovered to collect a law degree and enter politics, become a prominent player in the Republican Party, standing as potential VP and nominee in several presidential elections. He was regarded as bipartisan, one of the last figures from an era when Congress functioned well.

   What is less highlighted in the reverential  obituaries is his post-Senate career from 1996 lobbying for a range of shady and kleptocratic foreign figures. One commentator wrote: ‘In many ways, Dole helped open the floodgates to an explosion of sleazy lobbying that has drenched Washington in the past few decades.’

  He was the only former GOP nominee to endorse Donald Trump (and who continued praising the former president) and his own 1996 nomination was overseen by Paul Manafort (Trump’s erstwhile campaign manager, condemned by the Senate Intelligence Committee for his ties to Russian intelligence.)

  Dole was born 22 July 1923 12.10am Russell, Kansas, and had a patriotic 4^th house Sun Cancer. His 3^rd house persuasively and powerfully charming Pluto Venus in Cancer fitted the USA chart well and he even had the USA’s Saturn in Libra.  His Venus Pluto were in a Water Grand Trine to Uranus in Pisces trine Moon Jupiter in Scorpio, which would give him a healing presence for others though would also lock him in his own interior world. He looked a very private, secretive man from the chart. Hard-working, determined, quite seductive in a political sense and good at selling arguments to the other side with Moon Jupiter in the 7^th.

  His Mars in flamboyant Leo close to his Sun and in an opportunistic square to Jupiter might give a pointer to his less than shining-white tendencies.

Please add below. Older posts under news on top bar.

  Even by the ultra-low standards of Boris Johnson’s typically shambolic and duplicitous approach to governing, this week has hit a new record. Caught out lying over a No 10 staff Xmas party last year when people were dying of covid and families banned from meeting together has evoked a spluttering response. Added to which the excruciating testimony of a young Foreign Office whistleblower about the fiasco of the UK withdrawal from Afghanistan has put senior civil servants and the former Foreign Secretary firmly in the crosshairs – and accused Boris personally of putting the lives of dogs before people as rescue animals in a sanctuary were airlifted out instead of British citizens and vulnerable Afghans.

    The whistleblower said that less than 5 per cent of Afghanis asking for aid received help and some of those left behind have since been murdered by the Taliban. Junior staff had struggled to manage a tsunami of desperate pleas from Afghans in the absence of senior leadership and any system to prioritise their appeals. Staff who had never studied Afghanistan or worked there were making decisions on who to evacuate without ever having heard of the organisations for which they worked. The head of the diplomatic service did not return from his summer holiday until 11 days after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary were also on holiday.

  To mop up the Foreign Office first – the original 27 March 1782 chart works remarkably well with bleak tr Saturn conjunct the Pluto exactly now, which was around previously in August over the calamitous withdrawal. There’s plenty of Neptune ahead over the next three years to scrape back the veneer of faux superiority which has always seemed to be the FO’s modus operandi.

  The more up to date Foreign Office, 17 October 1968,   has a ‘karmic’ (mistakes have to be paid for) Saturnine Yod onto a pushily confident Jupiter Pluto sextile Neptune Venus. That Saturn has moved by Solar Arc to square the Mars exactly now for a car-crash experience. With an upsetting Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the FO Venus and in 2022 the FO Neptune – with massive uncertainty come 2024 as the Solar Arc Neptune Venus square the Saturn – which will forcibly shift the Foreign Office into a new track.

 Onto Boris:- On his personal chart his Progressed Moon is exactly square his Saturn and moving on to square his Uranus within a few weeks and his Pluto after that.  So this whole period from three months back has been shaking up his loose-cannon Mutable T Square onto Mars in Gemini, for a hugely uncomfortable, teeth-gritting ride. His Progressed Moon was opposition his Mars over the Afghan withdrawal and his mother died three weeks later in September. His Solar Arc Saturn will also oppose his Scorpio Moon, exact in six months. Tr Pluto will square his Moon in 2023/24. That is a great deal of pressure on his Moon which rules his body, his home life and for a politician the relationship with the public.

  His Term chart has the Midheaven catching this month’s Solar Eclipse for a crisis with tr Neptune continuing to square the Sun and the Solar Arc Saturn closing the conjunction to the Pluto to exact in six months, which is discouraging and logjammed.

  His relationship with the Tory Party is sagging from all the murmurs and going seriously downhill from spring 2022 onwards on the astrology.

  The Afghanistan shambles which has cost countless lives through the Foreign office’s ineptitude and indifference led to the Foreign Secretary Raab being promoted sideways to Deputy PM as punishment for being on vacation.  Sir Philip Barton, the hapless civil service head, who continued his hols despite the murderous chaos has the ‘continued support’ of the present Foreign Secretary. It would make you howl into the abyss.