not categorised

Burt Bacharach, the popular musical maestro, has died aged 94. He has been unfairly dubbed as an easy listening composer but leaves behind him an astonishing legacy of 50 Top 40 hits in the UK with more than 1,000 artists having covered his songs – Close To You, I Say A Little Prayer, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, Keep Fallin’ On My Head, The Look of Love, I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself, I Say a Little Prayer, (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me, Make It Easy on Yourself and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again – as well as songs and scores for movies like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Alfie, What’s New Pussycat? and Casino Royale.

  His partnership with lyricist Hal David put the pair up beside George and Ira Gershwin and his musical liaison with Dionne Warwick established her as a superstar. He was classically trained and effortlessly mixed opera and soul, the style of 20^th century composers like Poulenc and Satie with jazz and bepop to wonderful effect.

He was born 12 May 1928 1.15 am Kansas City, Missouri with a fashion journalist father and a dominating, musical mother who forced him to learn the piano.  Married four times with four children, he had a racy romantic life, moving on from actress Angie Dickinson when she became successful and hooking up with Carole Bayer Sager when his career flagged. Not an easy personality he fell out with Hal David when the hits dried up as well as Dionne Warwick, with years of litigation following their parting.

  He had a Taurus Sun square a 7^th house musical Neptune – Taurus ruling the throat and frequently being associated with singers. He had a disciplined, hard-working and well-organised 10^th house Saturn in a hard-edged square to Mars in Pisces; and in an entrepreneurial Fire Grand Trine to Neptune and a lucky Jupiter in Aries in his financial 2^nd house.

  Her emotional life would be adversely affected by a can’t-make-up-his-mind Sun square an Aquarius Moon and an uncommitted Neptune in his 7^th.  He had two Yods – one of Saturn sextile Moon inconjunct Pluto which would give him a tendency to throw his weight around though would also bring him influence. And a wide yod of Pluto sextile Sun inconjunct Saturn which puts heavy demands on a life and requires real maturity to work well.  

  His relationships with Hal David and Dionne Warwick are a mystery since in both cases the relationship charts suggest major aggravation. With Hal David, a resentful Mars opposition Saturn; and with Dionne Warwick a hostile, power struggling Mars opposition Pluto.  But with Hal David there was a composite Neptune North Node conjunction bringing them together to make music for the masses. And with Dionne Warwick there was a musical composite Sun opposition Neptune and a lucky Uranus Jupiter. Music was what held them together. Though the bond only worked as long as the musical flow ran on successfully.

  US female politicians (if that isn’t a faux pas nowadays) made themselves visible at the State of the Union address though were not universally appreciated for their contribution.

  Marjorie Taylor Green, in suitably tiresome-toddler mode shrieked ‘liar’ at Joe Biden while wearing a fur trimmed white coat, supposedly to mimic a Chinese spy balloon. Priding herself on out-trumping Trump and yearning to be his running-mate VP, she’s not short of ambition or chutzpah. Born 27 May 1974 she has a Gemini Sun opposition Neptune trine Pluto which lends heft to megalomania. Her Pluto is in an unyielding square to Saturn and her Mars in excitable Cancer is in a not-always-sensitive square to Venus in upfront Aries.

 Her Solar Arc Sun is conjunct her Mars around now which will amp up her excitability factor. She’ll get an undeserved stroke of luck in late this April/early May and will be pushing bullishly ahead in 2024/25. But she will also be losing left, right and centre over the next three years, especially in 2025. Her relationship with Trump will be drifting apart this year and next with tr Saturn opposition the composite Pluto and then square the composite Sun, Venus.

Kyrsten Sinema, a thorn in Joe Biden’s side as she road-blocked to some of the party’s legislative priorities during the last session, before switching from centrist Democrat to independent, turned up in shrieking yellow, guaranteed to catch attention though for all the wrong reasons. A rival for her Arizona senate seat in 2024 accused “putting her own interests ahead of getting things done for Arizonans” and not supporting Biden’s Medicare policies. She was born 12 July 1976 12.10pm Tucson, AZ

  She’ll continue to be an irritant for Biden and the Democrats through this year into early 2024 as she pushes ahead with high confidence as her Solar Arc Pluto opposes her Jupiter, exact in six months. But she’ll be tripping over landmines along the way with a fair few disasters littering her path this year and more losses in 2024.

  Sarah Huckabee Sanders, 13 August 1982 Hope, AR, Trump’s Press Secretary and now Arkansas Governor, delivered the Republican response, obsessing about peripheral ‘woke’ issues – what the Washington Post described as cultural war-mongering – rather than illuminate GOP policies on issues that directly impact voters.

  Moving ahead she has a balance of high-confidence and successful influences alongside cataclysmic ones through 2023/24 – and she looks most unhappy and disappointed over the 2025 Inauguration.  

 Public opinion is shifting against Brexit though both political parties regard any discussion as too toxic to broach. A recent poll indicated 60 per cent of Britons now think Brexit was the wrong decision and would vote to rejoin the EU at a second referendum. Brexit was sold as a way of controlling immigration and improving the NHS. But the NHS is in far worse shape than it was in 2016. Immigration remains high, with EU immigrants largely replaced by people from outside the bloc. And the IMF predicts the UK will have the worst performing economy in the developed world this year. Young voters are the most pro-EU of the lot, with 79 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds wanting to rejoin.

  No such moves are on the horizon and enthusiasm might fade when faced with no special deals or budget rebate as before; no opt out from the social chapter, acceptance of the free movement of people and possibly the euro.

 The FT today argues a case for a 2026 initial Rejoin referendum, followed by a second referendum on the terms of the deal.

  When the UK originally joined the EU after several years of stop start, French resistance and haggling, tr Pluto was about to move across the UK Ascendant, transforming the country’s image. With the Solar Arc Pluto moving to conjunct the 11^th house (= legislature) Saturn.

  What is intriguing is at that point in 1973 Pluto and Uranus were in Libra, Saturn in Gemini and Neptune in Sagittarius – so an outer planet Air Fire mix as will be the case from 2026 onwards – with Pluto in Aquarius, Uranus in Gemini and Neptune Saturn in Aries.

  The EU/UK relationship chart at that point in 1973 had tr Pluto conjunct the composite Ascendant, altering the joint image.  And tr Uranus in Libra was conjunct the Saturn and thus elbowing the composite Grand Trine    onto a different track.

  By 2026 tr Uranus just into Gemini will re-set relations between the EU and UK as it is conjunct the composite Pluto. And in 2025/26 tr Pluto in Aquarius will trine the EU/UK relationship composite Ascendant also transforming the joint image. These influences are not quite as strong or pointed as was the case in 1973 but there does look to be a definite shift.

  Much water will flow under various bridges between now and 2026, not the least of which is the double-whammy of Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the UK 8^th house Mars for a financial upset of some proportions in 2025/26. And the EU has an undermining run of Neptune hard aspects to its Ascendant and Midheaven before it exits Pisces in 2025.  

  Clearly it will depend on what shape the EU is though at present the euro is more stable and stronger than the pound. The EU’s 12^th house Pluto and the UK’s 5^th house Pluto will both catch the tr Uranus hard aspect from Gemini in 2026 so both will be prompted to leave old certainties behind.

  I’m not convinced just from a gut feeling that a total rejoin will happen but maybe a new form of connection will be cobbled together which suits both sides moving ahead.   

Paco Rabanne, the maverick fashion designer, dubbed the ‘second genius of Spain’ by Salvador Dali, who became known for his metallic ensembles and space-age designs has died. His geometric dresses fabricated from wood, plastic, metal and paper led the French press to brand him “Waco Paco” and Parisian traditionalists called him a fraud but Jane Fonda, wearing his creations in Barbarella, launched him to an international audience and his Paco Rabanne Pour Homme became the world’s bestselling men’s fragrance in the 1970s.

  He made paranormal pronouncements about his astral journeys and drew inspiration from what he said were past life visions. He claimed to have been an ancient Egyptian priest responsible for the murder of Tutankhamun; and a flying saucer pilot, a torturer during the Spanish Inquisition and an 18th-century Parisian courtesan. He predicted the end of the world would come in 1999 after the outbreak of a third world war in 1998. Though he was also also convinced that the Antichrist would arrive in 2005 and the golden age of Aquarius would begin in 2030.

  He never married, lived like a monk in a frugal and disciplined existence, in rented accommodation, never learnt to drive, had few possessions and lived for his work, giving away a good proportion of his earnings and did not smoke, drink or go to nightclubs.

  He was born 18 February 1934 in Pasajes, Spain with a possible 11.45am birth time though its accuracy is in question and I’d doubt it. His father was a Republican colonel who fought against Franco’s troops in the Spanish civil war, but was executed; and his mother was chief seamstress for Balenciaga in Spain. At the age of three Paco, living in a refugee camp along with the remainder of his family, survived the bombing of the village of Guernica by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italian forces acting at the behest of Spanish nationalists. The atrocity at Guernica, killing mainly women and children, was immortalized by Picasso in his outraged anti-war painting. The family fled over the Pyrenees into France and his mother  found work at Balenciaga’s Paris fashion house.

  As befits a maverick Paco had an Aquarius Sun alongside Saturn and Venus and North Node also imbued with revolutionary zeal. And a status-quo upsetting Pluto square Uranus (Moon) in Aries opposition Jupiter. He would not be short of confidence with Jupiter Pluto and delighted in rule breaking at least where fashion design was concerned. His Mars in creative Pisces conjunct Mercury opposed Neptune attracting him to a world of glamour and pzazz, even if his personal habits were austere.

  His 22^nd global-superstar harmonic is exceptionally strong and successful as is his leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17H and his spiritual seeking-and-searching and creative 7H.

  When aged 3 he was bombed at Guernica tr Uranus was exactly square his Venus and tr Pluto was square his Moon.

  I’d hazard a guess that he had to have had at least one outer planet if not several others in his 8^th house.

He certainly survived a terrible childhood and marked his own path in adult life with inspired determination. A trailblazer.

Pakistan is facing its worst set of challenges in its modern history with an economy on the brink of collapse, devastation wrought by climate change, a recent terrorist attack by Pakistani Taliban which left over 100 dead and the legacy of  decades of dysfunction, corruption and woeful governance by the country’s political elites. The global concern is that Pakistan is a nuclear state whose military has a history of meddling and they are effectively caught in a ‘debt trap’ by China, their biggest creditor.

  The Bank of Pakistan chart, 1 July 1948, is in dire straits with a car-crash Solar Arc Sun conjunct Mars exactly now as well as a financial-bubble-bursting Solar Arc Neptune conjunct their Jupiter covering the next few months. More jolts and tension from late May and an undermining slide picking up this May and intensifying through 2024 as tr Neptune squares the Uranus and then Sun Venus in Gemini.

  That echoes the Pakistan country chart which, if the start time is accurate at 9.30am Karachi, has a Midheaven due to catch the dissolving transiting Neptune square in 2024 as well. And earlier through this year tr Neptune is in a high tension square to the Pakistan Uranus; and tr Uranus will rattle the over confident Jupiter in Scorpio square Leo Sun from late April across mid year and on.

  Pakistan’s woes will extend through tr Neptune Saturn in Aries in 2025 square its 10^th house Mars so there won’t be any quick fixes.

 Modern India, born at midnight into the 15^th August 1947 has planets at similar degrees but in different houses. It will be due a financial jolt when tr Pluto moves into Aquarius in late March and won’t find the tr Neptune Saturn square its Mars which is 2^nd house in 2025 beneficial. But on the whole won’t be quite so battered by the present influences as its neighbour.

A massive magnitude 7.8 earthquake and a string of aftershocks have killed hundreds, possibly thousands, and caused catastrophic damage in south-east Turkey and Syria. Only three earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger have occurred in the area since 1970. This one set off a string of tsunami warnings across the Mediterranean, from Greece to Italy, where people have been warned to stay away from coastal areas. The epicenter region is home to millions of refugees and displaced persons, many of whom live in tents & makeshift structures. On the Syrian side of the border, there are more than 4 million people displaced by the civil war.

  The quake occurred just a few hours after the Leo Full Moon square Uranus which is significant since it triggered and repeated positions of the recent Lunar Eclipse chart of 8 November 2022. The Eclipse had a Taurus Full Moon conjunct Uranus with Saturn square – so it was an indication of turbulence ahead.

 Located to Maras, Turkey, the epicentre, the quake chart puts Saturn on the Eclipse Ascendant and Mars on the Eclipse IC – planets on the axis are always deemed to be indicators of major events. And it sparked off other Eclipse positions as well.

  Often Eclipse charts ‘produce’ effects or rather point to their timing months after the Eclipse date. Later New and Full Moons can be a trigger. Lunar Eclipses are often more descriptive than Solar Eclipses.  

  The recent Lunar Eclipse of Taurus Moon Uranus opposition Sun square Saturn also rattled up the Venus in Scorpio on the Turkey chart for an emotionally upsetting time.

Add On:

A previous 7.6 magnitude earthquake which occurred near Istanbul in Turkey on 17 August 1999, caused monumental damage and around 18,000 deaths. A maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme) was observed, marking this event as one of the most destructive earthquakes in the history of the region.

  The 11 August 1999 Solar Eclipse has a Leo New Moon opposition Uranus in Aquarius and square Saturn in Taurus opposition Mars in Scorpio – so was remarkably similar to this one.

  The mystery of the China surveillance balloon shot down over the USA which has caused a major diplomatic fallout is still unsolved. Was it a weather balloon which winds blew off course as Beijing claimed? It hardly makes sense as a spy craft, since with the proliferation of spy satellites and unmanned drones, such a balloon is largely obsolete. There is a thought that it was China’s way of putting Joe Biden on guard.

  Last November Biden and Xi at the Bali summit agreed to improve relations by having the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visit, the first such invitation for five years. That has been summarily cancelled by Washington.

  The USA/China 1912 relationship chart indicates that a diplomatic freeze is likely with tr Pluto opposition the composite Saturn picking up from February 12^th (this month) on and off till late 2024. With bad tempered words through June 2023 and February 2024. And a nervy mood in July 2023 also extending on and off into 2024. The USA/China 1949 relationship chart shows much the same.

  That mirrors the Biden/Xi relationship chart which indicates a severe disruption now till mid March and again late April into early May. With aggravations peaking in May/July 2023 and February 2024. Tensions will run high through 2023 with further separations in 2024.

Biden has Neptune on the IC through Beijing on his astrocartography which does not suggest a military hotspot. His red-flag zones are Moscow and Iran.

  Fascinating facts: Spy balloons were first deployed during the French revolutionary wars and balloons operated by spies with binoculars were used during the American civil war to detect enemy troop movements. They were used more recently extensively during the cold war.   

Pamela Anderson, the Baywatch bombshell with a terrifying childhood and a rackety adult life of sex tapes, scandals, multiple husbands – boobs, blokes, animals and activism – is back centre spotlight with a memoir and Netflix documentary. She traces her path from Canadian rags to Malibu riches via the Playboy mansion. She was sexually assaulted by a female babysitter, raped by a family friend, gang-raped by her boyfriend and his friends — all before graduating high school. Her parents, in their teens when she was born, were “the local Bonnie and Clyde”.  Her wild father who once forcibly held her mother’s face to the cooker and drowned a sack of kittens in the river in front of her is forgiven for everything. This is no woe-is-me, Sussex-style misery memoir. She wrote it herself, “no ghostwriters, no collaborators or book doctors”.

 She has been married six times, early on to the violent drummer Tommy Lee who sounds not unlike her father, delighted in Hugh Hefner and latterly dallied with Julian Assange.

  She was born 1 July 1967 4.08 am Ladysmith, BC, Canada, and has a 1^st house Cancer Sun below a Gemini Ascendant with a fiery Aries Moon. Her Sun is square a downbeat, forced-to-be-self-reliant Saturn in Aries and her Moon is in a fiery opposition to Mars, which is mercifully in her performing 5^th house giving her an outlet for her high energy and aggravation. Her upbeat Jupiter in Leo in her communicative 3^rd house will give her an ever-optimistic outlook.

  Her childhood home with a constantly churning and changeable Uranus Pluto in Virgo in her 4^th would be unnerving but her Venus also there hints at love amongst the chaos. Her Venus square Neptune will give her a forgiving streak if not good judgement about men.

  She seems refreshingly untouched by regret or blame – which makes a change.

Shamima Begum, the erstwhile teenage ISIS bride, stuck in a semi-secure detention camp in northern Syria with her UK citizenship revoked is as divisive a figure as ever as her story airs on BBC. A victim or a threat? Even journalists who know the territory and have interviewed her seem unsure. It is now eight years to the day since she left her mum at a London bus stop on a well-planned exit without a hint of where she was going. She passed through a smuggling network run by a spy for Canada, and lived at the centre of the Islamic State caliphate. Her two best friends have been killed, and her three children have died, two likely of starvation and one of pneumonia.

   Shortly after she arrived she was ‘matched’ with a husband, who demanded absolute obedience and she said it felt like ‘prostitution’. It was all the more savagely ironic since part of her reason in escaping the UK was to get away from her Bangladeshi immigrant mother who kept her tied down. She is evasive about how much she knew of ISIS savagery either before or during her time in the Middle East. Western countries are mixed about opening their doors to ISIS brides.  Canada has recently chosen to repatriate; the USA has been asking nations to do so; Australia has now taken some back. At present she is a stateless person, having had her UK citizenship withdrawn and she has never been in Bangladesh which might be a possibility.

  Born 25 August 1999 London, she is a confident Sun Virgo square Pluto – controlled and controlling – and trine an indulgent Jupiter in Taurus. Her Jupiter is tied into a plethora of Fixed planets square to Neptune with (Moon), Uranus in Aquarius opposition North Node in Leo, Mercury and Venus in Leo square Saturn in Taurus with Saturn opposition Mars in Scorpio. It is not an easy chart to warm to – can-be-vengeful, not overly sensitive, sharp-edged, very obstinate.

  Tr Saturn moving into Pisces will damp down her Sun and Pluto this year; and Uranus has two years to go before it clears her Fixed planets in a jolting and jangling ride that start several years back. She’s an uncomfortable mix with the UK since her Mars in Scorpio and Saturn in Taurus never mind Uranus collide with the UK’s Fixed planets.

 Even those who see her as culpable think she would be better in the UK facing British justice here.

 Nicola Sturgeon for reasons beyond comprehension has allowed herself to be tied in a knot over her sweeping changes to gender identification, allowing self-identification with no medical diagnosis. Only to be wrong footed when a male rapist, up on two charges, decided to switch from he to she and ended up in a women’s prison with an ensuing outcry. She is now saying, Nicola that is, that the he/she (formerly Adam now Isla) is “almost certainly” masquerading as a woman and has been transferred back to a male prison. Which renders the whole barrage of outrage aimed at the Westminster government for banning her new law a touch superfluous.

  She was never moving into a successful phase despite brave words on independence which came to nought with another ruling against a referendum. With tr Pluto aiming to oppose her Mars from late this March for two years she will be trapped, frustrating and enraging. Even before then tr Pluto opposition the Sun/Mars midpoint this month and next and on till late 2023 will have much the same effect.

  She will muster up her bravado with tr Pluto square her Jupiter through this year but it won’t outweigh the negatives and with tr Neptune undermining her Pluto in Virgo from this March into 2024 she will feel disempowered and it runs alongside a disaster prone tr Neptune square her Mars/Saturn midpoint

  Tr Uranus will also upend her rigid Saturn in Taurus from late this May and then square her Midheaven from mid August this year which will force a change of career direction – and those run on into 2024 as well.

  Her popularity appears to be fading even amongst her own supporters and it looks as if she has shot her bolt and is running out of road ahead.

  Her latest Term chart, 13 May 2012 9am has a lacklustre Neptune on the Midheaven (never a good sign for an administration) and the Saturn square Uranus which is now closing the square to exact this year by Solar Arc which will give rise to eruptions, tensions getting out of hand and divisions within the ranks.

ADD ON:  Born 19 July 1970 3.16pm Irvine, Scotland, she had a dental nurse mother and an electrician father, both of whom were experienced by her as fairly Martian, argumentative and competitive types. She has a Sun Mars conjunction  square Jupiter and a Moon opposition Mars. Her mother in particular was controlling with mom’s Pluto sitting exactly conjunct Nicola’s midheaven and their relationship chart has a composite possessive Sun Pluto conjunction. The composite Moon and Neptune are tied into the Sun Pluto in aspect which would inculcate soaring ambition to her daughter. The same is probably true of her father since Nicola has her Sun trine Neptune and sextile Pluto inclining her towards enormous goals in life.

  According to wiki Nicola was a quiet child, preferring to sit with her head in a book than talking to people”. She described herself as being an “austere” teen who’s style tended towards goth, adding that “if you see pictures of me back then, you would struggle to know whether I was a boy or a girl”.

  She married when she was 40 having known her husband for 7 years – he’s a Sun Sagittarius square a volcanic Pluto, Mars, Uranus in Virgo with an Aquarius Moon like Nicola. It seems to be a supportive and affectionate though workmanlike bond. It will go through a period of disruption from this July onwards, perhaps from outside causes.  

She does seem to like tilting at windmills but also has a capacity for attracting a cult-leader style adoration from her supporters. According to them she can do no wrong.