not categorised

Bo Burnham is an American satirist, stand-up comedian, musician, actor and filmmaker who came to success early at 16  on YouTube. In 2016 he described Trump as ‘joke proof’ and says he prefers to avoid politics, taking aim instead at cultural attitudes in general. Though his ‘That Funny Feeling’ – a litany of anxiety and dread – became a TikTok hit after the recent 2024 election.

 He was born 21 August 1990 at 2.10pm Hamilton, Massachusetts, and has a knowledgeable 9^th house Leo Sun with Venus, South Node and Jupiter also in Leo in his communicative 9^th. His chart is dominated by an Earth Grand Trine with Mercury in Virgo in his 10^th trine Saturn in Capricorn trine Mars in Taurus – and that is formed into a Kite by Mars opposition a 12^th house Pluto. Making Pluto, which plumbs subterranean depths in the 12th his driving planet. A more heavyweight chart than might be expected but all about getting a message across with a punch. Plus an Aquarius North Node in his chatty 3^rd which will demand a cause to focus his attention and energy.

 When he became an overnight success in 2006 aged 16 his Solar Arc Jupiter was square his focal point Pluto with tr Jupiter conjunct his Pluto – giving him a tremendous boost. His Solar Arc Sun was also exactly conjunct his Moon for a new beginning and his Progressed Mars was sitting on his Descendant exactly moving him in an upward direction – though none too tactfully.

 His early satire was sometimes misjudged for which he has apologised. He described it as “shock-jock offensive comedy done by a 16-year-old without any tact”.

  He’s one of the triple conjunction in Capricorn generation so very much at home across the social media. His chart is unlike earlier satirists Librans Oscar Wilde and Gore Vidal but with marginal similarities to Virgoan Dorothy Parker.

Quotes:

“I would say don’t take advice from people like me who have gotten very lucky. We’re very biased. You know, like Taylor Swift telling you to follow your dreams is like a lottery winner telling you, ‘Liquidize your assets; buy Powerball tickets – it works!”

“Being famous is complete luck, and that’s something you can’t bank on.”

“Your hard work and talent will not pay off.”

“I like to joke about being gay because it’s something teenagers would never joke about.”

“Uncharted territory is a good place to be in.”

“I fully embrace myself as a hypocrite.”

“I do weird things, and people watch.”

“It’s all about surprising people, and you’re not surprising people if you’re making them laugh every five seconds.”

The gales of laughter which met the first Bridget Jones movie in the midst of the deadening Saturn opposition Pluto of 2001 are being revived as No 4 Mad about the Boy hits the screens in the UK to appreciative audiences. Coincidentally Jupiter has returned to Gemini for where it was for the first BJ Diary. The fourquel has just earned the best box office opening ever for a romantic comedy in the UK and Ireland, with top rankings in Poland, the Netherlands and Norway. The USA missed out since it appears not to be to the American taste and over there is going straight to streaming.

 The Bridget world appears to have moved on from the alcohol-fuelled, chaotic world of publishing of number one movie to a tale of a widowed single mother, navigating the challenges of parenthood, work and modern dating. Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson reappear, Colin Firth briefly as the deceased spouse, with two new love interests including Chiwetel Ejiofor, who was memorable in the TV Dancing on the Edge drama series – and voicing Scar in the Lion King. He also has Jupiter in Gemini.

 Novelist Helen Fielding, 19 February 1958, whose creation it was from the start, has a creative New Moon in Pisces in a determined opposition to Pluto and in an ambitious, optimistic trine to Jupiter, North Node and Neptune in Scorpio; which latter trio are further emphasized being on the focal point of a Fixed T Square to Venus opposition Uranus.

Renee Zellweger, 25 April 1969 2.41pm Houston, Texas, is a different temperament though she acts the shambolic, accident-prone heroine well. She has an emphasized Saturn in final degree Aries conjunct a Taurus Sun on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Neptune sextile Uranus, Virgo South Node, Jupiter (Pluto) – she lacks Helen Fielding’s optimism with her heavy Saturn. Her Fire Grand Trine should give her a lift of faith and confidence except her Leo Moon sits in the 12^th trine a 4^th house Mars trine an 8^th house Venus in Aries -so it may take a while through life before she frees up her inspirational streak.

 Her Midheaven in Gemini is appreciating tr Jupiter moving through her 10^th as it did for the first BJ movie.

 Chiwetel Ejiofor, 10 July 1977, London, with a stream of awards behind him for stage and screen work, is a Sun Cancer square Pluto; with a disciplined, hard-edged Saturn in Leo square Mars in Taurus and Jupiter in Gemini. He’s on his Jupiter Return this year as is the Bridget Jones movie phenomenon.

 A piece of flim flam is a welcome relief in all the swirling uncertainty and fear.  

Black Moon Lilith represents the wild feminine that does not want to be tamed and in mythology was cast out of paradise. It ‘represents the untame-able, feral spirit of those who’ve been exiled from dominant social structures. The outsiders, the outcasts, and the marginalized who flourish in our culture’s figurative underground. The people who refuse to sand down their sharper edges or submit to systems of supremacy — even when that defiance comes at a cost. Lilith is at home in the stories that have been silenced, the redacted parts of the text, and the facets of life that we suppress. Lilith is as ungovernable as the dirt, the shadows, and the wild Earth itself.’

  What is confusing (!) is that Black Moon is not a planet and can mean several things.  It is a symbolic, bodiless point in our skies.

  It is best identified in a personal chart via the free calculator which gives four different placings.

https://astrostyle.com/cosmic-calculators/lilith-sign

 It gives the Mean and the True Lilith which can be at different degrees as well as the Asteroid Lilith and Waldemath Dark Moon.  

  Marilyn Monroe is most often mentioned in relation to Lilith – 1 June 1926 9.30 am Los Angeles, California – though I am not sure she represents the anti-patriarchal streak associated with the concept.

 Her True Lilith Black Moon is conjunct her Ascendant and the Asteroid Lilith is in her 10^th. (That curious four pronged fork on my software).

 Germaine Greer has her True Lilith in her 1^st  and Mean Lilith in her 12^th also in Aquarius. But neither Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinem have much of note.

 It all seems too confused to be a point (whichever) I would use as a guide.  But all comments welcome.

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‘Tradwives’ are a money-making bandwagon for social media influencers keen to promote ‘the feminine urge to take care of your husband’ – dressed in floral, baking cakes and slapping on the makeup before the ‘provider man’ comes home from his day’s labours. They have struck a chord amongst some fans of the ‘traditional’ marriage which is submissive and in line with Biblical mores. The movement has been linked to the alt-right movement though the views of supporters of the concept range from the moderate to the extreme.

 Extracting a common thread from the charts of the notable Tradwives influencers is risky since some may just have jumped on a commercially attractive ploy – and in any event are a contradiction in terms since they are working hard independently.

 But the first two I looked at had strong Mars Saturn aspects – which can be a masochistic trait, a learnt response to a difficult childhood where their identity was denied. Mars = I want, I will do, I am. Being blocked by Saturn it has to submit to The Other.

  Estee Williams, 28 December 1998, Virginia, is a Sun Capricorn with a leadership Leo North Node so hardly a shrinking violet. Though her Pluto conjunct Lilith may be a clue.

 Hannah Neeleman, 25 June 1990,  is a Sun Cancer with her Saturn square Mars and Mars inconjunct Pluto. Her Venus opposes her BML.  Huge anger issues.

 Cynthia Loewen, 13 November 1993, is a controlled and controlling Sun Pluto (Moon) in Scorpio square Saturn – very battened down.

 Nara Smith, 27 September 2001, a Sun Libra trine Neptune. Her Mars is square her Sun and inconjunct her Saturn.

Alena Pettitt, 19 November 1985, is another late Sun Scorpio conjunct Saturn with her Pluto South Node opposition her BML.

  No great conclusions since Tradwife is way off my personal radar though I confess these social/cultural fads and manias do get wearing.

 I would also have to confess to being judgemental about women who (in my view) sell their souls out of laziness/cowardice and leave the heavy lifting to the husband. Not that bringing up children is easy but it does seem to be an opt out in a good many cases.   

Brad Kochunas’ reflections on astrology, soul, myth and imagination are gathered together in his latest book Dark Skies.

  Thought-provoking and mystical in approach, his insights and attitudes are informed by his work for three decades in prison mental health. He puts forward the idea of ‘therapeutic astrology’ rather than psychological astrology which latter he says is about “striving for personal growth, self-improvement, actualization of potential and/or making out lives better.”  He does not do predictions at all and says the focus should be not what we want out of life but what life wants of us.

‘Therapeutic astrology dedicated to exploring and discovering what psyche and soul desire, rather than ego, brings us to a different understanding of what is means to be human.”

  I struggle with some of his concepts and outlook but what made sense on second reading was his notion of sitting with the darkness – in prison with men guilty of horrific crimes for whom there was no redemptive healing and no future as we understand it bar an acceptance of soul. Which he relates in ordinary life to a state in which ‘each carry the underworld as a constant companion.’ And quotes Jung as saying: “The serious problems in life are never fully solved. — The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not in its solution but in our working at it incessantly.”

  While it can sound nihilistic, especially as he points out in an American culture so geared towards optimism, sitting under a dark sky and being with the shadow can feel strangely reassuring. He quotes Thomas Moore in the Dark Nights of the Soul, “Many people claim to have integrated their shadow sides but that effort is itself a work against the dark.  The real task is to live in, and with, the darkness, appreciating its unredeemed value and loving its irreversible qualities.”

 And W.B. Yeats: “Who can distinguish darkness from the soul?”

  He regards the 4^th, 8^th and 12^th house as the carriers of the shadow with the houses that follow being the houses of identity – 1^st, 5^th, 9^th.

 There are chart examples and interpretations of prison inmates and their counsellors, of the latter many have Pluto in the 12^th. As well as of Christopher Reeve and Michael Fox struck down by physical disabilities; David Bowie and other creative celebrities as well as notable criminals; and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

  In troubled times where there is no escape from anxiety, uncertainty and fear, a zen-like attitude can be helpful. It is also true in his words that  “Reluctance to engage darkness, silence and emptiness are symptoms of a diminished cultural soul and an arid spirituality.”  

  My Earth, Air, Cardinal and Jupiterian temperament baulks at the passivity of some of his ideas if taken to extreme. But it is a constructive antidote to a striving, got-to-get-better approach. When you can’t fix it, sit with it.

  One other perceptive insight on Neptune which has been degraded in recent times by conspiracy theories, delusions and the like.

   ‘In Neptune’s association with Pisces, we can never overlook that Pisces is the matrix out of which something new arises to birth. It is the fecund chaos present at the creation of the world. It is the massa confuse of alchemy.   The Piscean moment before manifestation, before birth, is the ultimate uncertainty and it is potent.”

Published by the Wessex Astrologer.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing when mulling over the efficacy of predictive tools. But the past is not always a good indicator of a precise repeat when similar influences occur ahead.

 Trump survived an assassination attempt on 13 July last year near Butler, Pennsylvania. Relocating his chart there pulls his 12^th house Mars in Leo across his Ascendant into his 1^st house pushing him further into the spotlight in a flamboyant way. Transiting Uranus exactly conjunct Algol conjunct tr Mars in Taurus were hovering around his midheaven and exactly square his Mars for a sudden, explosive event causing great insecurity and leading to a fiery reaction.

 Trump’s Solar Return from June 2024 has a high-risk Pluto square Mars in the 7^th and 11^th. Set for Butler, Penn, it putls Pluto closer to the 8^th square Mars which make sense of a dangerous event.

 His Lunar Return which covers that event from Jun 21 2024 has Pluto on the Midheaven, which can be ominous, square Mars with Uranus in his 1st. The aftermath in his Lunar Return from 18 July 2024 has Uranus, Algol, Mars in the 8^th as the enormity of what had happened began to sink in with Saturn and Neptune in his 6^th house of health; and a trapped Pluto in his 4^th.

  Mars Pluto and Mars Uranus Algol would all point to a brush with danger.

  Those influences repeat from late this April into May 2025 with tr Uranus back conjunct Algol at 26 Taurus which squares Trump’s Mars – and also rattles an unsettling number of other charts especially across the Middle East and elsewhere.  On April 26^th, as well, the trapped, scary, can-be-ruthless and overly-aggressive Mars in Leo opposition Pluto is back for the final time. Plus Neptune has for the first time dipped its toe into Aries.

 Which also, just to be cheerful, coincides with the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the 8^th house Mars in the UK chart moving to exact to within a minute or so. Which could be financial/economic fallout to whatever is going on elsewhere as well as a more physically shocking experience.

  The UK Solar Return from December 31 2024 for a year ahead does have Mars in the 7^th house of partners/enemies opposition Pluto in the 1^st, perhaps hinting at a front-seat participation in whatever is happening – plus a financially uncertain Saturn Neptune in the 2^nd.

Solar Returns for the USA are trickier with no settled start time but on the Sibley chart, the July 2024 Solar Return has an explosively aggressive Mars Uranus Algol in the 7^th house of neighbours; with a stubbornly extreme Pluto in the 3^rd opposition Mercury.  Which makes sense as Trump throws the old  global order into disarray.

   The USA July 2025 Solar Return has Mercury in the 7^th opposition Pluto in the 1st as intense diplomatic discussions continue though lessening in aggression; with an unsettled electorate from Uranus in the 4^th plus a financially uncertain Neptune Saturn in the 2^nd and Mars in the 8^th.

 Bit of a hotch potch but Lunar Returns can be helpful. Country Solar Returns I don’t normally do but they seem to be reasonably illuminating.

  The levels of extreme anxiety in the USA and to a lesser extent elsewhere may to a degree be amped up by the Mars opposition Pluto and Uranus Algol which have been running since last year – and will finish after late April 2025 for Mars Pluto and in July when tr Uranus moves into Gemini (though returning to Taurus for a few months later in the year). Late this coming April does look like a toxic hot spot.

The tawdry spectacle of an unhinged Kanye West dragging his compliant maybe-spouse Bianca Censori on flesh-baring, publicity parades may be coming to a finish. Despite denials it does look like the end of the road.

  His close partner signifier Sun/Moon midpoint is around 2 degrees Taurus which is catching the tr Pluto square exactly now and on and off till late 2025 – that is classic split up indicator. Added to which their relationship chart has a composite Sun at zero/one degrees Aries which will be undermined by tr Neptune Saturn from April onwards and on into 2026 as tr Neptune Saturn continue to disintegrate the composite Sun square Mars opposition Neptune.

Kanye West, 8 June 1977 8.45am (unverified) Atlanta, Georgia, has a birth chart notable for several outstanding features. He has his Gemini Sun conjunct an expansive Jupiter opposition Neptune which on its own is scandal-prone and would incline him to go well over the score and trip himself up through arrogance. That opposition is formed into a Half Grand Sextile to Pluto and Saturn – talented, enduring, tough-minded. But it also squares onto an over-sensitive Pisces Moon which is further distressed by being on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Saturn and Pluto.

  Such a Moon especially in Pisces can be unstable, unbalanced and prone to confusion, overly defensive and inclined to react in self-defeating ways, constantly looking for maternal support. An emphasised Moon often seeks a public audience since appreciation from a crowd makes up for lack of one-to-one nourishment.

 He also has Mars Venus conjunct in Taurus which ramps up his passionate enthusiasm, his hyper-sexuality and can lead to lack of sensitivity in intimate relationships – a placing he shares with Hitler and his Mars is also the same degree of Taurus as that of Adolf Eichmann, perhaps why he veers towards Nazi symbolism.

Bianca Censori, 5 January 1995 Melbourne, Australia, no birth time, was born at the time of the highly-strung Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn which is conjunct Mercury on one side and her Sun on the other. So she will be inclined to an unconventional lifestyle. In addition and most significantly she has Mars in Virgo opposition Saturn in Pisces (conjunct Moon) square Jupiter in Sagittarius conjunct Pluto in late Scorpio.  Like Kanye West she has a strong streak of Mutable, whirlwind chaos in her temperament. And a masochistic streak from Mars Saturn amplified by Jupiter Pluto.

 The relationship chart, not surprisingly, had a power/ domineering streak from a composite Mars trine Pluto – and a publicity-seeking Mars opposition Neptune which is the crucial feature of their togetherness though ultimately where only one could get the ego-boost.

An odd reflection of the culture of the times.

  Solar Returns have their fans but are a hit and miss tool taken on their own for predicting elections and the aftermath.

 In a quick skip backwards – only JFK had lucky, successful Jupiter in his Solar Return 10^th on his election.

 Trump in 2016 for his successful run had Uranus conjunct the Solar Return Midheaven which makes sense of a change of career direction but that could mean several things.

In 2020 when he lost, Uranus was still in his SR 10^th with a power-propelled Jupiter Pluto on his SR Descendant – and admittedly Procyon on the SR Ascendant conjunct his emotionally-wounded natal Venus Saturn in Cancer.

 In 2024 he had Neptune in his SR 10^th square a hidden Venus, Sun, Mercury in his 12^th square a Saturn opposition Moon, none of which looked resoundingly cheerful for him.

 George W Bush won in 2000 with Neptune in the SR 10th along with Mars and Jupiter Saturn Pluto in the 8^th.

Obama won in 2008 with Uranus on the SR Descendant (Washington, DC) and Venus Saturn Mars in the SR 12^th.

Nixon won in 1968 with Uranus Pluto in the SR 9^th and Sun in the SR 10^th. With Sun in the SR 10^th the following year.

Trump in his Solar Return from June 2025 for a year has Sun conjunct the Midheaven and Jupiter in the SR 10^th – which looks successful.

 Last time it came up for discussion I bought a recommended book on Solar Returns but did not make much headway with it.  Though I gleaned that the SR Ascendant was significant and that Solar Returns cannot be treated on their own as a standalone chart.

Comments more than welcome.

Actress Tuppence Middleton, of Downton Abbey and War & Peace renown has been speaking of her obsessive compulsive disorder which constantly threatens to overwhelm her.

  This is a speedy and not comprehensive flit across a few well known OCD sufferers.

 Tuppence Middleton, 21 February 1987, is a Sun Pisces trine Pluto, sextile Neptune with a heavily aspected Mars in Taurus – trine Neptune and Uranus and widely opposition Pluto; with her Saturn semi-sextile her Mars/Pluto midpoint.

 Afflicted Mars appear to be a constant theme. Khloe Kardashashian, 27 June 1984, has Mars Saturn conjunct in Scorpio and her Saturn conjunct her Mars/Pluto midpoint and her Moon = Mars/Saturn midpoint.

 Howard Stern, 12 January 1954, a Capricorn Sun Venus opposition Uranus square Neptune, also has Mars Saturn conjunct in Scorpio; and his BML conjunct his Mars/Pluto midpoint.

Billy Bob Thornton, 4 August 1955 7.05 am Hot Springs Arkansas, has his Sun Mars conjunct in Leo  square Saturn in Scorpio with his 6^th house Aquarius Moon opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint.

Daniel Radcliffe, 23 July 1989 another Sun Leo and Mars in Leo has his Sun square his Mars/Saturn midpoint. His Uranus square his Mars/Pluto midpoint and his Moon possibly also opposition his Mars/Pluto plus his Pluto square his Sun/Mars midpoint.,

Charlize Theron, 7 August 1975 8.23 am Benoni, South Africa,  a Sun, Mercury in Leo with Mars in Taurus. Her Moon is conjunct her Mars/Uranus midpoint. Her Mars/Pluto midpoint is conjunct her Moon/Saturn midpoint.

 Not comprehensive but interesting. Suppressed anger and thus fear, not surprisingly leads to hyper-anxiety.