not categorised

Tom Cruise is still hitting the hot spot at sixty with yet another box office blitz in Top Gun: Maverick which is his highest-grossing movie yet. He has been going strong since his breakthrough in the 1980s with the original Top Gun, and The Color of Money, Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July and then in the 1990s he starred in A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview with the Vampire and Jerry Maguire. Since then, he has largely starred in science fiction and action films – six of the hugely successful Mission: Impossible films amongst others. All of this despite his involvement with the scandal-ridden Scientology Church which has had no impact on his popularity.

  Born 3 July 1962 New York, without birth time, he is a Sun Cancer in a creative, self-protective Water Grand Trine to Neptune trine Jupiter opposition Pluto – making influential and super-confident Pluto his driving planet. His filmic (and evasive) Neptune is also in an imaginative though can-be-neurotic square to Saturn in Aquarius opposition a ‘leadership’ North Node in Leo.  He’s well designed for the fantasy business. And his action-man tendencies come from a heavyweight Mars in Taurus in an adventurous and adrenaline-junkie square to Uranus. At the moment his Solar Arc Jupiter is opposition his Neptune giving his movie ambitions a tremendous boost.

 2024 may be less buoyant with tr Saturn in Pisces undercutting his Jupiter opposition Pluto; and 2025/26 will be slow going with his Solar Arc Saturn square his Sun.

 His best buddy David Miscavige, who took on the mantle from Ron Hubbard to run the scientology business has seemingly disappeared out of sight as lawyers have been trying for four months to serve a federal trafficking suit brought by former members but have failed to locate him. Three ex-Scientologists refer to repeated sexual assault of children by senior Scientology officials, and allege human trafficking, forced labor, and other forms of child abuse.

  Miscavige, 30 April 1960 Brogan, OR, is a Sun Taurus with an Earth Grand Trine of Sun trine Pluto trine Jupiter formed into a Kite by Sun opposition Neptune  – materialistic, a good businessman, super-confident with Neptune in Scorpio as a driving planet which covers the spectrum from spirituality to outright cons. He also has a Yod onto wayward, maverick Uranus which will be rattled up mid this March onwards with tr Uranus square his Uranus and more so by 2025/26, potentially pushing his life onto a different track.

  He’ll face some jeopardy from this June; though his greatest trials will come in 2024 to 2026 with his Solar Arc Uranus square his Saturn and his Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Mars which will be a considerable setback.

  It’s a highly controlling and possessive relationship with Cruise with the relationship chart having a composite Sun square Pluto though the Sun is also trine Jupiter so reassurance and morale-boosts are included. But there is also an irritable, resentful composite Mars square Saturn which usually occurs in a one sided relationship where one partner has to suppress their identity to make it work. That has been under strain over the past two years and more so through 2023/24 with tr Pluto in hard aspect. Be interesting to see if any cracks show.

Michelle Obama has been coming clean about the extent of her resentment at the sacrifices required of her as a wife and mother which allowed Barack to build his career at the expense of her own. It rang a lot of bells with many women especially her definition of toddlers as ‘terrorists’ and her wry admission she couldn’t stand her husband during those years. Princeton and Harvard educated, she was a trained lawyer but  had to cut back her legal work to part-time as he eyed a run for the presidency. The children were ten and seven when the family moved into the White House after years on the campaign trail.

 Now her books outsell his and she attracts rave audiences for her appearances. Her recent “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times” had an initial print run of nearly three million copies.

  Born 17 January 1964 Chicago, with parents who had not been to college she fought her way up through intelligence and dedication.  She is an ambitious Sun Capricorn but what is eye-catching is her stubborn Mars in Aquarius and coolly insightful Saturn in Aquarius probably conjunct an Aquarius Moon. In some ways she is a harbinger of what is to come – an intelligent, self-assertive, independent-minded individual, not content to be boxed into an apple-pie-baking, stay-at-home mom. Both her daughters who were born during Neptune Uranus in Aquarius have Moon Uranus aspects (probably) so she brought them up to value their independence as well. Both are also argumentative with Mars in Gemini and Sagittarius respectively and would be noisy, boisterous children.

  When Malia was born in 1998 tr Neptune was heading to conjunct Michelle’s Mars, undercutting her forward gear. And by the time Sasha turned up in 2001 tr Uranus was conjunct Michelle’s Saturn. By the time Barack fulfilled his ambition to move into the White House in 2008 tr Neptune in Aquarius was conjunct her Saturn. All of her Aquarius planets were floundering through these years.

  During the early toddler years her relationship chart with Barack was being undermined with the affectionate composite Sun opposition Venus square Saturn being swamped by tr Neptune in hard aspect.  

  There’s no birth time for her but on his chart his relationship needs and patterns are highly complicated – with a needs-space Uranus in his 7^th as well as a possessive Pluto and a having-to-work-at-it North Node. At times flying solo would have been easier for him than cooperating with his South Node in his 1st. Her changeable Uranus Pluto conjunction fall in his 7^th so to a degree she fits his pattern. Her Sun Mars is conjunct his 12^th house Saturn Jupiter which is half great and half exceedingly tricky and scratchy. Her Saturn falls just below his Aquarius Ascendant so she would remind him of his duty and also help to ground him when his Leo Sun square Neptune threatened to take him off into the clouds.

  She has been a reassurance to many with her admissions about coping with self-doubt and being honest about the knots and wrinkles of any long running and imperfect relationship (as all of them are – and some more than others). Tricky keep a relationship running smoothly with two strong individuals.

Brazil has said farewell to “the nightmare” of the past four years under the Bolsonaro administration during which nearly 700,000 died of a mishandled Covid outbreak, millions were plunged into poverty, and Amazon deforestation soared. Lula da Silva the incoming president declared a war on hunger when he was inaugurated just after 3pm yesterday.

 The Brazil 7 September 1822 4.08 pm Piranga chart does have tr Uranus crossing the IC into the 4^th house which suggests a decisive change of direction both domestically and in terms of future direction. But it won’t be easy with the global economic crunch undercutting Brazil’s finances with tr Neptune opposition the 8^th house Mercury. And the Bank of Brazil, 31 December 1964, is coming down to earth with a bump as their over-optimistic Jupiter opposition Neptune is rattled by tr Uranus; with a panicky tr Neptune opposition Mars all year as well. There’s a chance of an ill-advised over-confident push to revive the economy in 2024 but it will be knife edge for some years to come.

 Lula was sworn in at 3.04 pm with practical, sensible, well-organized Saturn on the Midheaven. There will be unrest from subversive movements with Uranus in the 12th and the Bolsonarists will be in there fighting their corner. A 9^th house Pluto suggests international tussles which may arise from Lula’s multipolar approach to foreign policy. He disapproves of sanctions and will clash with Biden’s push back against authoritarian regimes, wishing to have relations with everyone.  There may well be friction between Brazil and the USA over the next two years.

 Lula himself, 27 October 1945 8am (from memory) Ribeira, Brazil, who was president between 2003 and 2010, is a Sun Scorpio with a charming, if over-hopeful Jupiter, Venus, Neptune in Libra and a tough-minded Saturn Mars (Moon) in Cancer. He’ll run into the buffers by 2026 when his Solar Arc Sun opposes his Saturn Mars and his Pluto is conjunct his Sun – which is when the Bank of Brazil is flagging up major problems as well. But before then he’ll certainly be a major improvement on what went before.

The coming (already here) recession appears to be acutely sensitive ahead to the decisions of Jay Powell, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, described by one of the broadsheets as ‘the most important person in the world right now.’ “Money makes the world go round —- and he has his hand on the most important lever.” Central banks are stuck between rock and a hard place forced to choose between increasing interest rates to bring inflation down but in so doing suppressing chances of economic revival.  

 Decades back in the worst recession since WW11, Paul Volcker,  former chairman of the US FedRes raised interest rates from 11.2 per cent in 1979 to 20 per cent in 1981 and drove the US economy off the cliff with global repercussions. There was a recovery after three or more years, as there always is, though long-term effects contributed to the Latin American debt crisis, long-lasting slowdowns in the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan African countries, and the later failure in the US savings and loans businesses.

“ Will Powell change direction too early, too late or, by some miracle, at just the right time? The health of the US economy (and by extension that of the rest of the world) depends on the answer to this question.”

 Powell, 4 February 1953, Washington, DC, is a steady and stalwart Sun Mercury in Aquarius opposition Pluto, trine (Moon) Neptune (Saturn) in Libra. He has a Yod of Saturn Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Mars in Pisces. His Mars is being sucked into a swamp by tr Neptune conjunct from mid May 2023 onwards into early 2024. That is usually accompanied by a sense of panicky failure.

  Tr Pluto will continue to square his Saturn from 2022 till late 2023 which is an uphill slog and usually discouraging. With his Solar Arc Mercury and then Sun opposition his Saturn now till 2025. And 2023 also sees tr Uranus square his Sun, Mercury and Pluto from now into 2024. All in all a white-knuckle ride ahead for him with no signs of great success.

  His relationships with other top economic and political figures also reflect high anxiety. With Joe Biden, panic will set in through February and will peak as tr Pluto moves into Aquarius in late March through April.

 Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, looks very fraught and aggravated with Powell in March and onwards; as well as mighty confused by his decisions.

 Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, is equally floundering vis a vis Powell at the moment and throughout 2023 and stuck in late January.

  Kristalina Georgieva, IMF chief, is at odds with Powell from April onwards into 2023.

 Andrew Bailey, chairman of the Bank of England, is in turmoil with Powell from February onwards, descending into devastating confusion from late March as tr Pluto squares their composite Neptune.  UK PM Rishi Sunak, himself a financier by background, will be hopping up and down from March onwards in his relationship with Powell and that extends through the year. UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is not looking too supportive either throughout 2023.

  Transits to composite charts can show up splits in relationships and pressures; or a challenging situation both are facing jointly.  But one way or another it looks like a rocky road ahead economically.

See previous post: Pluto into Aquarius – shock waves through central banks. 10th September 2021.

Lying to look good is common enough but fabricating an entire fantasy around a never-happened CV and life history takes deception to a whole different level. George Santos, the newly elected Republican congressman for Long Island claimed to be  a wealthy, biracial, Ukrainian descendant of Holocaust survivors whose mother died in 9/11. He claimed to have worked at companies that never employed him and to be a graduate of two universities, only to admit later that he has no college degree at all.  In two previous political campaigns he pitched himself as a gay man of Brazilian descent and pro-Trump. His claims of wealth don’t appear to be backed up by evidence and his mother died in 2016.

  He recently admitted to being guilty of “résumé embellishment” but insisting the larger story about his life is true: “I’m not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up the fictional character and ran for Congress.”

  He was born 22 July 1988 in New York state with Brazilian parents from a family who had lived in Brazil for at least three generations.

  He is possibly/probably a Sun Leo at zero degrees and has two wide-ish yods in his chart. His Sun is sextile Jupiter in Gemini inconjunct Neptune; and his Jupiter sextile Mars is inconjunct Pluto (Moon) in Scorpio. A yod onto Pluto (Moon) does hint at a difficulty with wielding power; and a yod onto Neptune would certainly indicate illusion, delusion and possible deception. Neptune Pluto together as the markers of his chart hint at stratospheric ambition.

  He also has an emotionally changeable/unstable Venus in Gemini opposition Uranus Saturn in Sagittarius.

  There may be repercussions ahead for his wild claims and questionable tactics with tr Pluto opposing his Sun and tr Neptune squaring his Saturn Uranus this year.

  His mendacity is so flagrant it is almost funny and maybe even a wake-up call for a political class that has in recent years cut itself loose from truth, honour and decency.  

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Another mass killing, another perverse and destructive whackjob running amok. Killers charts tend to follow similar astro-patterns but some stand out as particularly notable. Bryan Kohberger just arrested for the knife murders of four students in Idaho in mid November has a chart that certainly makes a statement.

  Born 21 November 1994 in Pennsylvania, he is a graduate student at Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. According to relatives he was an obsessive vegan as a teenager and a Libertarian politically = believes in the rights of the individual to be free from coercive powers of the state.

  He is a Sun Scorpio conjunct Pluto and Jupiter – so super-charged confidence and a belief that rules don’t apply to him. All ramped up by his Sun, Pluto, Jupiter and Mercury in Scorpio all being in a volatile, argumentative square to a flamboyant Mars in Leo and sextile a highly-strung Uranus Neptune in Capricorn. He would have problems with authority figures and was sitting on a boiling reservoir of anger.

His Cancer Moon may have been in a Water Grand Trine to Saturn in Pisces trine Venus in Scorpio – Water Grand Trines can be detached from reality, living in their own bubble.

  When the murders took place on 13 November, a week before his birthday, tr Uranus was exactly opposition his Mercury; and the transiting Jupiter Neptune in Pisces square Mars was in hard aspect to the Solar Arc positions of his Sun, Pluto, Jupiter, so pumping up his sense of entitlement to do as he pleased. Plus tr Saturn was conjunct his Solar Arc Neptune which would not do much for his grip on his sanity.  

  His DNA was evidently found at the scene and there may also have been an accomplice but that is not yet clear.

Barbara Walters, the pioneering US TV news presenter, has died aged 93 after a career spanning half a century. She survived a roller coaster childhood with a nightclub manager/showbusiness producer father whose fortunes fluctuated and he eventually went bankrupt. Her career in television started slowly and she worked her way up a male-dominated milieu to become the first US female network news anchor in 1976; and retired from a 52-year career in 2014 with a last appearance on her daytime show, The View. Over her career she interviewed world leaders including UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Cuban President Fidel Castro as well Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

She was born 25 September 1929 6.50am Boston, Massachusetts, with a charming and cool Libra Sun on her Ascendant which was opposition a 7^th house Uranus and square a knowledgeable Saturn in Sagittarius in the communication 3^rd. Uranus rules television so that fits and is also a pointer to her less successful attempts at marriage.  She had an influential and controlling Pluto in her career 10^th in a do-or-die-determined square to Mars Mercury in Libra in her 1^st house, making her well-equipped to talk seriously with powerful people. She had a confident Jupiter Moon in Gemini in the communication 9^th so extended her interests onto the international scene and was well-designed to cope with a constantly changing agenda.

  Her marriages were short-lived with the third one becoming the fourth after a divorce and remarriage but that didn’t stick either.  

Israel facing a historic moment on its path with a Nodal Return and a liberating Uranus conjunction to its Taurus Sun has turned its face against progress and doubled down on the worst of the past.

 Benjamin Netanyahu, still facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, was sworn in yesterday as prime minister, heading the most right-wing administration in the country’s history, made up of Jewish ultranationalist and religious parties. He has promised to overhaul the judicial system, accelerate settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and highlight Jewish identity in public life. These and other plans have drawn unprecedented criticism from the defence establishment, business community, education system, LGBT+ rights groups, legal officials.

  Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich, an ardent supporter of Jewish settlements, is set to be finance minister, with a second post in the defence ministry with sweeping administrative controls over the occupied West Bank.

     Ben-Gvir, convicted of incitement to racism in 2007 and a former disciple of the anti-Arab ideologue rabbi Meir Kahane, will serve as national security minister with expanded powers over the Israeli police and responsibility for border police who operate in the West Bank. He has advocated that that soldiers receive blanket legal immunity from prosecution.

Avi Maoz, an extreme religious nationalist known for his anti-LGBT+ views, will serve as a deputy minister with some responsibilities over education curriculums in secular schools.   

 2022 has already seen Israeli forces kill more Palestinians in the West Bank than in any year since the United Nations began systematically recording fatalities in 2005, after the last major Palestinian uprising. The bloodshed has been blamed by Palestinian and Israeli rights groups and U.N. experts on Israel’s excessive use of force and open-fire rules as well as rising assaults by settlers in the West Bank.

 Israel’s chart always did reflect an impossibly and obdurately stubborn country with an 8^th house Taurus Sun square Mars in Leo and a 10^th house war-like, unyielding Saturn, Pluto, Moon conjunction. To expect it to adapt to pressure, self-awareness or even shame was never a productive hope.

 It was always heading into a turbulent phase now, keyed up by tr Saturn square the Israel Sun and opposition the Mars this January/February. But really blowing up into an explosively stormy patch with tr Uranus square the Saturn across mid March to early April and then conjunct the Sun from August 2023 onwards into 2024. The Israel violence-attracting Mars/Pluto and Mars/Saturn midpoints will be triggered across the middle to late this year (2023) as well. Then by 2025 tr Uranus will square the Israel Mars as well which will shake the country’s pride and cause over reactions.

  Netanyahu’s relations with Joe Biden will be tense and bitter but relations with the USA are likely to be defused by there being too many battles to be fought elsewhere. Relations between Israel and Iran look more fraught over the next four years; and with Palestine/Gaza, when 2023 and 2024 will see a rapid deterioration in mood.

 The First and Second Intifada of 1987 and 2000 both kicked off with brutal, destructive Mars Pluto aspects with a dash of Jupiterian expansiveness added in. The nearest this coming year has of similar note will be May 2023 when there is Mars in Leo opposition Pluto square Jupiter – which somewhere or other on the globe is causing to cause major problems.

  Certainly with this Israeli government in place there is guaranteed, as the outgoing Defence Minister said, to be ‘blood spilled.’

 Benjamin Netanyahu, 21 October 1949 10.15 am Tel Aviv, will not have an easy ride ahead with his ruthless Pluto Mars in Leo being upended by tr Saturn opposition in February and then Uranus rattling up both planets which will shake even his nerve, extending into 2024. Tr Pluto is also squaring his Sun through 2023.

 ADD ON:

His government was sworn in around 4.30 pm on 29 December 2022. If the time is accurate it puts an impractical and indecisive Neptune on the Midheaven with a confident (overly so) and dependent 7^th house Sun square Jupiter Moon in the 10^th and trine Uranus. Plus the ratchety, impatient Uranus square Saturn of the moment.  

  It’s not particularly destructive as charts go though Pluto on the cusp of the 8^th and Mars in the 12^th might point to a fair amount of nefarious, behind-the-scenes dealings.