not categorised

 “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.

Festive cheer all round. A time to look forward and shut the door on the old year.

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” Lao Tzu

Cordialement

Marjorie

PS For the horticulturalists, the middle pic of red berries and white flowers is an Arbutus (strawberry) tree that grows around here. One of the few that fruits and blossoms at the same time in late autumn.

On the table Amaryllis and poinsettia, the latter being my one concession to Christmas decorations.

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

  The Brexit Deal was signed at 2.44pm and announced at 3pm in London, with sighs of relief all round. The devil will be in the detail but even Nigel Farage says the long haul out of the EU is over. It will still have to be ratified by both parliaments but the reckoning is that Boris has enough to see it through even if the batshit crazy ERG-ers mount a challenge (violently anti-Eu types who really wanted a No Deal fallout.) Commentators added below.

   The announcement chart has a co-operative 7^th house Sun Mercury in an easy trine to Moon Uranus in the friendly, networking 11^th. And Moon Uranus square a Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Aquarius in the international 9^th  – marrying idealism and materialism though it won’t be seamless. With both Uranus and Mars hitting on Jupiter Saturn there will be jolts, hitches and glitches along the way.

   Two aspects raise more obvious question marks.  One is the indecisive Neptune in the 10^th square North Node on the Ascendant opposition Venus. The other is the dirty-dealing-in-secret Pluto in the 8^th in a frustrating and trapped square to Mars. Luckily the Mars Pluto square is almost exact so although the next few months will be fraught, it may not cause much aggravation beyond that.

   There’s not much indication of triumphant celebrations on any of the charts of key figures – negotiators, Boris etc. I take that back – Ursula von Leyen has tr Uranus opposition her Jupiter for a considerable sigh of relief, which she deserves having pushed Barnier aside to take over negotiations. Boris isn’t looking too chirpy but then he didn’t over his resounding election victory either. One of the oddities of his temperament.

 There will be all manner of griping and groaning but from an initial reaction it does seem in the circumstances like a triumph for Boris which Theresa May couldn’t have managed to pull off.

Add ON: The media as to be expected are split between the contemptuous left-wing and the jubilant right-wing. Below thoughts to ponder from various commentators.

   The general view appears to be “Even with this deal, nobody is a winner.” A trade agreement along the lines of the one negotiated between the two sides will leave Britain facing a 4 per cent loss of potential gross domestic product over 15 years compared with EU membership, according to the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility.  Britain will begin its “independence” facing unsatisfactory frictions in the roughly half of its trade that is with the EU, especially in services.

   It is certainly not the easy deal Brexiters blithely predicted. Manufacturers – face costly extra bureaucracy which is likely to hit exports to Europe. There is even less for the service sector, the engine of the British economy. The price of British sovereignty is essentially the first trade deal designed to reduce access. This – represents a much harder Brexit than even many Leave supporters thought they were voting for in 2016.

   In the long term, however, Britain is weakened. The UK alone carries less clout in the world. The Union is in great peril. Northern Ireland will look ever more toward the Republic; Scotland appears likely to return the Nationalists to power with their agenda of a second independence referendum. More important, the UK’s economic trajectory is now slower and lower.

     Finally shorn of the economic advantages of EU membership, the UK is going to need a more agile and effective leadership than this government has thus far generally shown itself capable of delivering.

  There’s also an argument that Brexit is now four years out of date. “The whole ‘Global Britain’ model doesn’t reflect the more protectionist, nationalistic world we’re living in,” said Thomas Wright, the director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. “Becoming a global free trader in 2016 is a bit like turning into a communist in 1989. It’s bad timing.”

“The world is now dominated by three gargantuan economic blocs – the United States, China and the European Union. Britain has finalised its divorce from one of them, leaving it isolated at a time when the path forward seems more perilous than it once did.”

‘The prime minister –  has run down the clock and squandered diplomatic goodwill until the only viable option was a bad Brexit softened at the edges by the prospect of it being implemented in an orderly fashion. To have avoided the very worst-case scenario is a pitiful kind of achievement. Mr Johnson deserves no credit for dodging a calamity that loomed so close because he drove so eagerly towards it. This, too, is intrinsic to his modus operandi. His core skill is getting out of scrapes that his own negligence and recklessness get him into.’

‘So far, the government has given little indication of its plans. A vision for post-Brexit Britain, its economy, and its place in the world, have yet to be spelt out. It is far from clear, moreover, that a government that has mishandled much of its response to coronavirus is capable of steering a traumatised country through the extraordinary period of change ahead.’

Extras:

“Brexit was always in part fuelled by the allure of destroying the present. The farce has been presented as a drama, when reversing more than 40 years of cooperation for peace and prosperity is truly a tragedy.”

“This deal will see the poorest communities across Britain hit hardest – especially in the north and the Midlands, which are more reliant on manufacturing, set to be a significant loser. For all the talk of “nothing to lose”, analysis by IPPR shows that a Brexit deal like this will cause the most harm to those least resilient to it. “

“We share the view of most informed world opinion, especially American, that beyond our weaker economic position, we shall become less important allies for the US because of our forfeiture of influence in Europe.”

“Post-Brexit Britain can indeed exclude Polish plumbers and Romanian car-washers. There will be immense popular disappointment, however, trending to anger, when it becomes understood that our newfound liberty does nothing to resolve the far more serious problems posed by non-EU immigration, especially from Africa and the Middle East.”

“In the words of Churchill after Dunkirk: “wars are not won by evacuations”.

Boris and the Brexiteers broke it – they own it. And they won’t escape the brickbats as the actualite throws a spotlight on the mendacity.

Oliver Sacks, the neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and author was once described as the “poet laureate of contemporary medicine”, and “one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century”. He became widely known for writing best-selling case histories about both his patients’ and his own disorders with some of his books adapted for plays and films. He was fascinated by how the brain deals with perception, memory, and individuality and once said the brain is the “most incredible thing in the universe”.

  He was born on 9 July 1933 in London (no birth time sadly), the son of a Lithuanian Jewish doctor father with his mother being one of the first female surgeons in England. She was one of 18 siblings and he had an extremely large extended family of eminent scientists, physicians and other notable individuals.

  He was evacuated with his brother when he was six to a boarding school out of London where he remained until 1943, being half-starved and badly treated by a sadistic headmaster.

  He’s another with an extra difficult chart. He had a controlled Sun Pluto in Cancer with his Pluto in a disruptive square to Uranus – not the recipe for a settled life but he had the makings of a breakthrough-researcher. He also had a Yod of his Cancer Sun sextile a confident Jupiter in Virgo inconjunct Saturn (and Moon?) in Aquarius, which last points to a scientific bent. His Saturn opposed Mercury and Venus in Leo making him fear he was less intelligent/articulate than he’d like and less lovable. A Saturnine Yod often brings major difficulties initially with low self-esteem and feelings of despair.

  His medical career had a rocky start as he went through periods of self-doubt and he dabbled extensively in recreational drugs. He was described by a colleague as “deeply eccentric” and he admitted to suffering ‘severe shyness’. He never married, remained celibate for most of his life though ultimately he settled into a committed partnership with NY Times writer Bill Hayes.

  Like many genius level thinkers his Neptune is strongly marked – not obvious on his chart without a birth time. But it stands out amongst his midpoints.

   An outstanding mind and talent went hand in hand with a fairly tortured life.

Pic: Luigi Novi.  

Patrick Stewart, a respected classical thespian and an intergalactic hero has had an extraordinary six decade career on stage and screen from unlikely beginnings. He honed his talents in the Royal Shakespeare Company only coming to an unexpected and reluctant superstar role in his late forties as Captain Luc Picard in Star Trek which has been reprised this year with another scheduled for shooting once the pandemic lifts.

  He’s been filling in his spare time recently recording one of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets every day and posting them on Twitter and Instagram.

  He was born 13 July 1940 in Mirfield, England, no birth time sadly, in a home with no indoor bathroom. He was happily spoiled by his mother for five years until his father, a Regimental Sergeant Major with a sterling record, returned from the war, suffering from combat fatigue — post-traumatic stress disorder. He was violent towards Patrick’s mother and she refused to leave. In recent years Patrick has supported campaigns against domestic abuse and violence against women.

   At school, he joined the drama club which he said was a revelation. “The first moment that I walked onto the school stage I felt safe — it was the safest place I’d ever been. For one thing I wasn’t Patrick Stewart, because I didn’t like Patrick Stewart very much.” He left school at 15 to become a trainee journalist, but an English teacher encouraged him to apply to the Bristol Old Vic theatre school and he was given a full local authority grant to fund him through it.

   He was born at a challenging and dangerous time during World War Two when there was a Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Taurus square Mars, Mercury, Pluto in Leo – all of which may well tie into his Scorpio Moon, well some of it will undoubtedly tie in. Incredibly fixed and enduring, determined, adventurous and brave. He’s also got the inspired, creative Uranus in Taurus trine Neptune in Virgo of the time, which in his case, sextiles onto his Cancer Sun, so is an integral part of his personality.

  With Saturn leading his Jupiter conjunction he’ll always experience the setbacks and difficulties first, then the rewards and luck second. He’s got a high coming in three years time when his Solar Arc Jupiter is conjunct his Pluto, but will still have to face the Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Pluto which is stuck in about eighteen months time.

  A lovely man and super-talented, though with a distressingly difficult chart. 

The UK once nominated as Treasure Island by an over excited pro-Brexiteer has now turned into a Leper Colony, shunned by Europe and elsewhere as a plague carrier. Deemed a global Typhoid Mary as Covid-19 appears (according to a panicky media) to have gone rogue, the UK is now the sick man of Europe and beyond.

  The foreign media are having a field day:

“Once more shown the yawning gulf between the prime minister’s airy promises and the real world.”  

“A man who thinks optimism is a substitute for hard truths and proper management.”

“The continental blockade is “even more effective than that decreed by Napoleon in 1806, cutting Britain off from the rest of Europe and from parts of the rest of the world.”

“Already girding for the country to finalise its messy divorce from the EU, the sudden sense of being cut adrift from the bloc – and from the world at large – feels like a bitter taste of what might be to come.”

   Not all of the bad publicity is fair since the incidence of infection is higher in some other countries; the ‘mutant’ virus may well be spread across the EU but is more obvious in the UK since it has better genome testing to pinpoint it; and the science behind the evolving virus may well have been misrepresented by a clearly agitated PM. Mutations seem to be normal and often occur in a less virulent form.  

  The UK chart has remarkably little to show for all the meltdown-anxiety apart from Solar Arc Mars conjunct the 3^rd house Mercury.  The third house is the chart area to do with transport and everyday movements, so anger or shock at yet another set of lockdown restrictions does fit. But other than that not much on planetary aspects though there are a sprinkling of less than ecstatic transits to midpoint:

Tr Pluto opposition Mars/Ascendant exactly now till late January 2021 – forcible adjustment to new circumstances, quarrelsome, subjugation.

Tr Neptune square Saturn/Node – feeling neglected, misunderstood, lonely, uncertain – October 2020 to late January 2021.

Tr Uranus square Sun/Pluto – December 21^st to early February 2021 – sudden adjustment to new circumstances (arrest), carrying out fanatic reforms.

  On midpoints in early 2021 – late January through February looks no better with tr Pluto square the Uranus/Neptune midpoint – losses, catastrophes, blown around by events and unable to resist. Plus tr Pluto conjunct the Mercury/Pluto midpoint at the same time which tends to bring bitter attacks, nervous strain, deceit.

   And Boris’s Term chart certainly has a calamitous-fiasco tr Neptune square the Mars/Pluto midpoint, from October 2020 to late January 2021.  See previous posts.

   One thought did strike me looking at the ‘Great Conjunction’ of Saturn Jupiter in the Capricorn Ingress chart. It falls on the Ascendant located to London so would appear to be more significant for the UK than elsewhere. And thinking about the Jupiter Saturn conjunctions in the last century, they did coincide with momentous events for the UK which drew a global spotlight onto Great Britain, and not all negative.

  The Prince Charles and Diana fairytale wedding of 1981 on Jupiter Saturn in Libra was watched by megabillions round the globe. It didn’t end well but for the moment it was a British triumph and a delight.

In 1960 on the Jupiter Saturn in Capricorn, the Beatles burst onto the music scene and became the most influential band of all time, known round the globe.

In 1940 on the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Taurus the Battle of Britain was fought, with the German air force bombardment of the UK, intended to soften the country up to sue for peace. Against the odds it failed, the UK stood firm and it was the first German defeat and a crucial turning point in the war. This conjunction also saw the evacuation of Dunkirk, another against-the-odds UK triumph, which rescued one third of a million Allied troops from occupied France, although there were also heavy losses.

In 1901 with the Jupiter Saturn in Capricorn in place Queen Victoria died, who had been on the throne for nearly 64 years.

  So history-changing moments which brought the UK into the spotlight, not all enjoyable, but not all disastrous either. 

  2000 and 1921 had such conjunctions but I can’t think what was too earth-shattering in those years. If anyone likes to pitch in, you’re welcome. And for historians if you’ve an idle moment over the festivities to check events against Jupiter Saturn conjunctions the previous occurrences are listed on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_conjunction#List_of_great_conjunctions_(1200_to_2400_AD)

   The England 1066 chart does have Jupiter Saturn in Virgo. The 1801 chart has Jupiter and Saturn both in Leo, though not conjunct, and they only came together late in 1801 as both moved into Virgo. So there will be a resonance.

  George Clooney has been joking about coping with three year old twins during lockdown as he does publicity rounds for his latest movie The Midnight Sky which streams on Netflix from tomorrow.

  The twins were born 6 June 2017, no time sadly, which makes them restless, chatty Geminis with an intense Scorpio Moon, Venus in Taurus and Jupiter in Libra – which fits them in neatly with their very different parents.

   George, 6 May 1961 2.58 Lexington Manor, KY, is a Sun Mercury in Taurus with Moon Saturn in Capricorn and Pluto in Virgo – very earthy – though he does also have Jupiter in Aquarius and Venus in Aries. He’ll connect with their Scorpio Moon and Venus in Taurus.

  Amal, 3 February 1978, Beirut, no birth time, has a predominantly Air chart, as befits a high IQ human rights lawyer, with a Sun Venus in Aquarius trine Pluto and widely trine Jupiter in Gemini with a Sagittarius Moon. She’ll resonate with their Gemini Sun.

  George and Amal’s synastry isn’t that remarkable (two charts compared to one another) but their relationship chart is super-strong, very private, and power-couple-influential. There’s a composite Grand Trine of Sun to Mars to Neptune, formed into a Kite by Sun opposition Pluto.

  There will be a few hitches, glitches and bumps along paradise road through 2021/22 with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn catching George’s Taurus Sun (in 2022) opposition Neptune (in 2021); and Amal’s Sun Venus square Uranus; as well as their composite Saturn. Amal looks frustrated and trapped through 2021/22 with tr Pluto opposition her Mars as well which may well be a legal case causing angst and some risk.

  Billy Connolly fans are in for a treat with an ITV special to mark his 60-year career on stage in stand-up comedy. One critic remarked that “hot angry hurt was the jet fuel of his comedy – roaring at 400 words a minute – shouting, swearing, singing, turning audiences to liquid — the stories bursting from him like blood from a severed artery.” He also appeared in 40 films most notably Mrs Brown opposite Judi Dench.

  Born 24 November 1942 4.30am Glasgow, Scotland, he had an appalling childhood with his mother abandoning the family when he was four, unkind aunts (one psychotic) who were forced to act as caretaker parents; and an abusive father after he returned from the war.

  He has now stopped touring after contracting Parkinson’s, says art is his life or he is taking it easy in his Key West home with his second wife therapist Pamela Stephenson with assorted grandchildren coming to visit.

  He has a charmingly outspoken Sun Venus in Sagittarius in an erratic opposition to Uranus Saturn in Gemini in a talented Half Grand Sextile to Neptune and Pluto in his 10^th – so he would become, as often happens with Pluto in the 10^th, something of a legend. He’s also got the blessing of Jupiter in his 10^th which would help his progress towards success. Neptune in the 12^th is a pointer to his struggles with alcoholism.

  He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2013 along with prostate cancer though the latter has now cleared. That was when his Solar Arc Midheaven was conjunct his Neptune, making his direction uncertain. Tr Saturn was then moving downwards through his First Quadrant which would pull him back from an overly busy, high profile lifestyle.

  He does have tr Pluto coming up to oppose his Jupiter through 2021/22 which should lift his confidence though he seems sanguine about not having long to go.

His creative, ‘seeking soul’ 7^th harmonic is strong. Even more so is his genius/breakthrough 13H which as I recollect Peter Sellers also had. And his super-star 22H is challenging, angry and highly communicative. Not an easy start but he made the most of his abilities.

 Pamela Stephenson, 4 December 1949, is another Sagittarius with a Taurus Moon in an intense square to Pluto and a hard-edged Mars Saturn in Virgo which squares his Moon. It’s not intuitively an easy match but it has lasted for forty years and he credits her for saving him when he was on a downward alcohol spiral.

  Eccentric, idiosyncratic, an unrepeatable talent – very much a one off.