Malta: Galizia murder – high level humiliation

The car-bomb killing of investigative reporter Caruana Galizia in 2017 – “a one woman wikileaks” – who led the Panama Papers investigation into corruption in Malta sent shock waves through the government. Joseph Muscat was eventually forced to resign as prime minister as several with close ties to himself, senior government officials and senior police officers were implicated.

  A damning independent inquiry has found that the state had to bear responsibility after creating a “culture of impunity” which led “to a collapse in the rule of law.” The judges called for immediate action to rein in and regulate the links between politicians and big business.

   Three men suspected of setting off the bomb were arrested in December 2017 – one plead guilty in a plea bargain, resulting in a 15-year jail term. Two others await trial. The self-confessed middle man turned state witness and was granted a pardon. Muscat denies any involvement in the murder.

 Caruana Galizia was born one month before Malta became independent and was – as befitting a journalist – a serious Sun Virgo opposition Saturn; with a defiant Uranus, Pluto, Mercury in Virgo on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine to a passionately enthusiastic Venus Mars in Cancer trine Neptune. Idealistic and keen to push back the frontiers of knowledge. Her Mars sextile Pluto would give her courage though that was severely blocked when she was murdered with tr Pluto opposition her Venus Mars and her Solar Arc Mars Venus was in an explosive conjunction to her Uranus.  

  Malta’s natal Virgo Sun was badly shaken in the aftermath with a Solar Arc Mars conjunction and tr Saturn in Sagittarius square both. Tr Pluto was also on the Malta Descendant provoking strong hostility from across Europe for the atrocity and the lack of government/police action before or after. Tr Neptune was also opposing the Malta Uranus exactly and Mercury for panic and high-anxiety.

  Joseph Muscat, the former prime minister who denies all and any involvement, was born 22 January 1974, and is a Sun, Venus, Mercury in Aquarius trine Pluto, sextile Neptune and square Mars in Taurus – not short of super-charged ambition and a liking for material wealth. He also has an Air Grand Trine of Jupiter in Aquarius trine Saturn in Gemini trine Uranus – seven planets in Air making him communicative, but emotionally detached. His stressed Yod of Neptune sextile Pluto inconjunct Mars is being rattled around this year with tr Saturn square tr Uranus colliding with the focal point Mars. He’ll have problems from that Yod with rash, overly assertive actions which can be self-defeating. When Galizia was killed his Solar Arc Pluto was in an over-confident square to his Jupiter which can lead to tangles with authority figures if a line is crossed and rules are transgressed.   His Yod was always going to be sent off onto a different trajectory this year.

  The Malta chart isn’t saying much that is illuminating apart from tr Uranus square the Venus this year – and an undermining tr Neptune opposition the Virgo Sun in 2023/24 – but that could be for other reasons. There is a Yod of Mars sextile Sun inconjunct Saturn on the natal chart which will exert a heavy karmic price for transgressions but they may not come home to roost with full force until 2025/2026 when tr Uranus will square the focal point Saturn and tr Pluto squares the Mars. All three legs of the Yod will be under attack between 2023 with Neptune first and then Pluto and Uranus – so it will be a phase of rolling wake-up-calls urging a new direction and outlook.