The wrecking ball that has knocked the SNP not just sideways but face-planted into Loch Ness has shocked supporters into appalled silence and even bitter enemies are gasping with astonishment. Gone is Nicola Sturgeon, the glory girl First Minister, deliverer of multiple election wins. Doubly diminished is her husband Peter Murrell, the power behind the throne and SNP chief executive for two decades, who was arrested yesterday over an investigation into party finances, held for over 12 hours and released without charge, though searches in their home are still ongoing.
Their marriage always was a bone of contention, blurring the dividing line between the affairs of party and the affairs of government – and exacerbated criticism of ruling party with too tight a grip on power and lacking in transparency.
Additional thoughts to previous posts – 19 March, 15 February, 3rd February 2023.
Peter Murrell, 8 December 1964, has Boris Johnson’s Jupiter in Taurus opposition Neptune in Scorpio (conjunct Venus) described by Ebertin as scandal prone due to instability and certainly has a tendency to varnish over the actualite. Murrell also has a combustible Sagittarius Sun square a volcanic Uranus, Mars, Pluto in Virgo – for a man with a public image so meek he was known as mouse, he was not what he seemed.
He is a few weeks past his Second Saturn Return when reality bites and his Mutable Sun and Virgo planets will not enjoy the pounding they get from Saturn, planet of retribution, in 2024. At the moment he has the same influences as collapsed Boris in a heap. Uranus in hard aspect to his Jupiter and Venus Neptune which has brought him down to earth with a bump.
Nicola, 19 July 1970 3.16pm Irvine, has tr Pluto opposing her Mars at zero degrees Leo now till mid June, and again on and off throughout 2024. That is a deeply frustrating, trapped, scary influence and mirrors Peter Murrell’s tr Pluto square his Sun/Mars midpoint running at the same time. Their woes won’t disappear in a hurry.
Nicola looks poleaxed exactly now (mid March to early April) and again October to mid November and across the New Year and January 2024 – so one can only assume she would know in advance about the party finances investigation coming to a head now. Which raises all manner of questions about the timing of her resignation and the election of Humza Yousaf, the continuity candidate, who might not have fared so well had these events transpired before his election on a narrow margin to become leader and FM. Though it makes sense of why he was elected with tr Uranus conjunct his Mars in Taurus which usually accompanies a shock and insecurity rather than a triumph.
The SNP, 7 April 1934, has tr Uranus exactly square the Aquarius North Node now, sending their cause off track. The Solar Arc Uranus is also exactly conjunct the Pluto for a disruption and an upheaval; and the Solar Arc Pluto is exactly opposition the Mars in Aries and conjunct Jupiter .That latter often leads to an above-the-law arrogance and thinking they cannot not lose which often rebounds in conflict with authorities.
The Scotland 25 March 1005 chart is in a discouraging year with tr Pluto opposing the Saturn; and more significantly tr Uranus opposition the Pluto at 18 degrees Scorpio – arguably a turning point in destiny.
Life is achanging – first Boris gone, then Trump indicted and now Scotland forced to rethink its direction. Pluto in Aquarius plus Saturn in Pisces – plus that history-changing 18 degree marker of Uranus North Node from last August sending out ripples to upset the status quo ante.
Cartoon: Grateful thanks to the Telegraph.
“The SNP ran Scotland as a one-party state. Now its authority is crumbling. The party enjoyed a long stretch of near total power. Today it’s a personality cult without a personality.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/06/snp-scotland-one-party-state-now-authority-crumbling/
“The arrest of Mr Murrell for 12 hours, the arrival of the police outside the home he shares with Ms Sturgeon in Glasgow this week and the police search of the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh all add up to something important and new: the most high-profile engagement ever seen between the criminal justice system and a modern British political party. To understand what is at stake, non-Scots should try to imagine the tensions and responses if the house and offices of a recently retired British prime minister had been searched in the same manner. This is a high-stakes moment for politics generally.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/06/the-guardian-view-on-the-police-and-the-snp-a-high-stakes-moment
“Sturgeon won victory after victory but this, it transpires, was a diet founded on empty calories. Far from advancing the case for independence — the sole SNP belief that may not be sacrificed or trimmed for political expediency — Sturgeon exhausted it. The British government, via the Supreme Court, is not blocking a second independence referendum so much as the Scottish people, who demonstrate no great enthusiasm for such a caper, very much are.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-referendum-in-sight-snp-is-all-out-of-ideas-t8j6tdpcd
Thanks Marjorie. A brief look shows that NS’s 7th house Saturn has been stationary by progression since about 2020, and around the same time PM’s Mars stationed by progression too. Their composite has a “Thor’s Hammer” configuration that is repeated in the Davison (which is often telling). Interesting that the apex of that Thor’s Hammer is Saturn in Aries is in partile conjunction with the Scotland 1005 chart you posted.
PM has an out-of-bounds Mercury. Stay within the rules or eventually get burnt – is one way that it can manifest. It is a very complex dynamic, because “the rules” may not have always been there to help the individual, they may have been forced outside of them to survive in some cases. So in their minds, what may seem extreme to others is justified to them.
Scotland is not poleaxed. This is a dispute about finance accounting with SNP money supposedly set aside for an independence referendum used instead for day to day running of the SNP. Not great but criminal ?
Comparisons with Trump and Johnson who care for nothing but themselves and who have presided over massive amounts of corruption are hugely overstated
Support independence. Fair. And pros and cons can be discussed. Similar to Brexit – independence is as much emotional as practical.
But defending the SNP because they support independence is no good. Instead of SNP, consider a “Westminster” party has been involved in something like this. It will be like – let’s get independence and get off the corrupt and opaque Westminster politics.
But I am glad that it has come to a point where SNP is compared with Trump and Johnson , and the SNP supporters saying “it is not as bad” rather than “we are saints” 🙂
Going back to the point of “Not great but criminal” .. Dont bet on this yet. For the use of funds in a different manner than what was originally planned, do you think police will be searching their home for 2 days , with reports that they dug in the garden? We have to wait and see if it was just “not great” or was it “crminal”
Really?
Thanks Marjorie. The raid has curious timing in view of the recent leadership elections. Isn’t it odd that tomorrow is the ‘birthday’ of the SNP? Plus, full Moon 16 scales-of-Justice Libra quincunx Uranus in financial Taurus today.
Something is in the air. On 4th April the FT reported a raid by Belgian and German police on the Brussels headquarters of the EPP, the largest group in the EU Parliament. Broadly, this raid is about alleged corruption in EU politics.
And former ‘colourful’ scandal-ridden Italian PM, Silvio Berlusconi, is now in intensive care – diagnosed with leukaemia. He remains leader of Forza Italia, and is apparently being cheered on to recover by all sides of the political spectrum in Italy.
Pluto in Aquarius rattling the status quo perhaps, boosted by the upcoming Aries eclipse square Pluto?
Thanks Marjorie
The 12th House Pluto in Cancer T Square as the focal point of the Sun/Mars/Uranus in Aries opposition Jupiter in Libra is interesting. Power, controlling and secretive, conspiratorial machinations behind the scenes with the accent on Cancerian themes of nationhood and patriotism. The treatment of Alex Salmond and Craig Murray fit nicely there I think too. I suspect a deal has been done behind the scenes (that T Square again) in which Humza gets a gerrymandered version of the continuity “win”, a shoo in so to speak, in exchange for his ongoing support during any trials and in public opinion more generally. Its banana republic stuff and as a Scot deeply shaming. We are definitely better than that.