Finland became a NATO member yesterday as a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which was launched by Putin in the expectation it would check Nato’s expansion and weaken Western cooperation. Finland’s entry will more than double the size of NATO’s border with Russia, adding another 800 plus miles. Finnish support for Nato membership leapt from a third of the population to almost 80% last year.

  The application had been delayed by Turkey who have also blocked Sweden from joining because of its support for Kurdish militants. Sweden does not share a border with Russia and can count on bilateral security guarantees from the US and UK even without membership.

  The Nato chart, 24 August 1949 11.42 am Washington, DC, indicates a significant change of direction with some disruption as tr Uranus is exactly square the 10^th house Pluto at the moment. There are ominous signs of aggravation brewing from two Solar Arcs, exact within four months but in effect all year – Solar Arc MC square Mars and SA Mars square Uranus. It’ll be a nervy, explosive, tinderbox phase. The Finland/NATO relationship will equally be on edge from the middle of next month with tr Uranus square the composite Mars repeating mid December to mid March 2024 – which may just be Russia upping the rhetoric or being provocative.

  The Finland 6 December 1917 3pm Helsinki country chart has relatively similar planetary position to the Russia 8 November 1917 chart with both having Uranus at 20 degrees Aquarius. So both are in a status-quo-upsetting year.  One by choice and one having tripped through bad judgement into a quagmire.

  Late 2024 looks trapped and scary on the Finland chart with Solar Arc Mars opposition the Pluto but that could be for any number of reasons, including financial ones. This year is a hugely significant juncture for Finland with Pluto crossing its Midheaven, bringing an urge to take control of future direction. Pluto is also conjunct the Venus now exactly and on and off till late 2024 which will heighten emotional reactions considerably.

  The Finland/Russia 8 December 1991 relationship chart which showed up last year’s alarm and concern with tr Pluto square the composite Mars Neptune, hints that 2024 may see diplomatic relations cooling further with a separating tr Saturn in hard aspect to the composite Sun, Venus and Pluto – as well as a turbulent tr Pluto conjunct the composite Uranus into 2025 as well. 

The signing took place at 2.46/7 pm in Brussels on 4 April, which puts a heavily aspected Mercury in Taurus on the Zero Taurus midheaven square Pluto – so very much a Pluto in Aquarius event. Mercury also sits on the midpoint of a Mars in Cancer trine Saturn which has military association. There is a Sun Jupiter in the international 9^th. Saturn in the 7^th – chilly relationships with those closest.

  There is also an exact 2^nd house Virgo Moon opposition an 8^th house Neptune both in close aspect to the Fixed star Alkaid in Ursa Major at the end of the tail of the great bear. Perhaps the disappointment on the Russian side though that is probably over hopeful.

  Edgy times for those living close to the bear’s lair. Well it probably always has been but more so at the moment.

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Nigel Lawson, the controversial tax-cutting chancellor under Margaret Thatcher, has died aged 91. To Tories he was and is a ‘titan’ and a ‘transformational’ figure, who cut taxes and rolled back the state, leading the privatisation drive that put swathes of the public sector under the control of private companies.

  His policies turned the City into the world’s leading financial centre, but the “Lawson boom” ended in the deep recession and economic misery of the early 1990s and contributed later to the financial crisis of 2007-8. After he fell out with Maggie and helped force her fall from grace, in his retirement in the House of Lords he became a leading proponent of Brexit (from his home in France). He helped to force David Cameron into calling the 2016 referendum and became a prominent climate change dissenter, challenging what he called the propaganda of global warming “alarmists”.

  Pretty much on the wrong side of history at every turn.

  He was born 11 March 1932 7am (from memory) London and was a 12^th house Sun Mars in Pisces with a maverick Uranus just below his Aries Ascendant in a status-quo-upsetting square to Pluto. Plus an entertaining and grandstanding Jupiter in Leo in his performing 5^th house in a lucky trine to Uranus.

  The surprise is not that he fell out with Maggie Thatcher, the surprise is they survived together as long as they did – for his six years as Chancellor. His Uranus opposed her Libra Sun and her Uranus was conjunct his Sun – not designed for cooperation. His Saturn was also conjunct her South Node, dragging her into the past – when she finally resigned the transiting Node was also conjunct her natal South Node.

  Their relationship chart had an irritable composite Mars Saturn conjunction, suggesting one had the upper hand; plus a needs-space composite Sun opposition Moon square Uranus.

  More to the point since Maggie is long gone and the UK is still standing and bearing the scars of his decisions – his Uranus is conjunct the UK’s 7th house Aries North Node which was pivotal to the Brexit decision in the referendum. He played on the UK’s resistance to cooperative partnerships and with his Saturn in opposition to the UK’s 10^th house Jupiter, arguably dented the UK’s status and success.

  His relationship chart with the UK is chained together and festering with resentment; as well as destabilizing.

  Transformational cuts two ways.

Reparations for slavery are becoming a hot topic both in the USA and in Europe, with many Caribbean nations as well as individuals calling for compensation. In the UK a former BBC reporter whose ancestors were plantation owners has joined the campaign and the Guardian is doing a grandstanding mea culpa because their founder John Edward Taylor gained his wealth from the Manchester cotton industry.

  The history of British/English involvement in slavery has danced to the tune of Uranus Pluto with its participation in transatlantic slavery beginning in 1592 under Uranus Pluto in Aries; and taking over the slave trade to South America in 1713 under Uranus Pluto in Virgo.

  Uranus Pluto is more commonly associated with rebellions and revolutions, present during the civil rights unrest in the USA in the 1960s with Uranus Pluto in Virgo in place and over the independence from colonial rule for 12 African states. But that Uranus Pluto conjunction also oversaw Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment as well as Martin Luther King and the Kennedy brothers’ assassinations.

  During the previous Uranus Pluto conjunction in the 1840s and 1850s Natal in eastern South Africa, became a British colony and another Anglo-African War broke out. In the USA Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

  In the eternal war between the forces of total oppression (Pluto) and the will for freedom (Uranus) sometimes one wins, sometimes the other. There is not another hard Pluto Uranus aspect until the 2040s. But it may be that Pluto moving into Aquarius, ruled by Uranus, combining as it does the two conflicting energies raises the same mood.

  The moves to abolish slavery came in stages in the UK, first with a ban internally in the UK and only after 1833 in British overseas territory.

 What is intriguing is that the two key acts – the Slave Trade Act 28 March 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act 28 August 1833 both had Pluto square the North Node – and the 1833 Act had Uranus in Aquarius. Pluto square the NN is puzzling at first glance but perhaps a hint that the zeitgeist/spirit of the Age was moving against Pluto’s need to control and to project its hatred and contempt towards those who are different and therefore deemed inferior.

John Edward Taylor, 11 September 1791, who founded the Guardian, was for his time a liberally-minded activist. He had a Virgo Sun with a trailblazing Uranus in Leo opposition Pluto in Aquarius; and a wide hope-for-a-better-society Saturn opposition Neptune.  He set up the Manchester Guardian as a direct result of his horror at witnessing the Peterloo Massacre of 16 August 1819 when the cavalry charged a crowd of 60,000 working class protesters who were demonstrating to demand reform of parliamentary representation. [It took nearly a century before universal suffrage was voted in for men over 21 and women over 30.]

  The Peterloo Massacre happened on peculiarly difficult influences with a highly-strung Uranus Neptune in Sagittarius square Saturn Pluto in late Pisces. In the aftermath there was a crackdown on reform with journalists and protest organisers arrested.

  The Manchester Guardian was born on 5 May 1821 with a Uranus Neptune in Capricorn square Pluto in final degree Pisces; with a curiously mixed Mercury, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter in Aries – outspoken, angry, erratic.

  Whether John Edward Taylor would appreciate being castigated for his commercial connections which were not slave-owning but dependent on the cotton which slaves picked is questionable. His Solar Arc Pluto is conjunct his North Node in Libra now as his liberal credentials are tainted; and tr Uranus is squaring his Uranus opposition Pluto this year, upsetting his reputation.

 The Guardian, like most newspapers, is in for a rough ride over coming years with tr Neptune conjunct its Pluto reducing its influence in 2024/25 and a debilitating tr Neptune Saturn in Aries square its Uranus Neptune in 2025.

  This is a bit of a hotch potch as I try to unscramble my thinking about —— what? Judging the past by present day standards. How do you repair the damage done to generations of slaves with intergenerational trauma still having an effect?  And how far back do you go with historical sins? 

  Colonial is becoming one of those annoying buzz words in circulation.  Genghis Khan and son from the Mongolian steppes ‘colonised’ most of the European continent and all in between in the 13^th century. The Arabs/Moors ‘colonised’ Spain between the 8^th and 15^th centuries. The USA were never really colonialists – get in, destroy, get out – is more their thing. The Brits were territorially greedy for sure but the empire crumbled into dust 70 years ago. Why now?

  Maybe Pluto moving into Aquarius is setting up the Uranus v Pluto battle once more for a two decade tussle ahead.   

Tom Cruise may well have saved movies as he soared to the number one banking star in Top Gun Maverick, grossing $1.5 billion, but there are still puzzling questions over his complicated private life.  A celebrity magazine alleged he had not seen his daughter Suri, now 16, since he divorced her mother Katie Holmes a decade ago. The two children from his previous marriage to Nicole Kidman stayed with him in the Church of Scientology. But Katie Holmes got full custody and has refused to allow her daughter near the Hubbard cabana.

  Suri Cruise, 18 April 2006 3.26am Los Angeles has a Moon Pluto in Sagittarius trine an Aries Sun and her Pluto opposes Mars. So a highly intense and complicated relationship to both parents.

   A Sun, Pluto, Mars father would certainly indicate simmering resentment about his controlling tendencies. A strongly Plutonic father can be omnipresent and a bully – or oddly enough absent and literally out-of-control.

   A Moon Pluto mother suggests a possessive and strongly bonded (not always happily) connection with mother. Though in this case it might be partly circumstances. Katie Holmes’ Sagittarius Sun is conjunct Suri’s Pluto and Katie’s Pluto falls in Suri’s 8^th house, so the relationship will be fairly enmeshed. Katie’s Jupiter is conjunct Suri’s Saturn so she will at times act as a cheerer-upper.

  Tom Cruise, 3 July 1962, NY, a Sun Cancer in a Water Grand Trine to Jupiter trine Neptune, formed into a Kite by a  super-confident Jupiter opposition Pluto. Highly creative, headstrong, lives in his own bubble of reality. He also has a ruthless Mars in Taurus conjunct Algol in a volatile square to Uranus. His Uranus and Pluto fall in Suri’s 7^th house of close relationships which suggesting a contradictory need to control and be free.  His Mars Algol are also inconjunct her Pluto for underlying aggravation.

  She will feel trapped by both parents and the circumstances of her upbringing. While it may take time to step out of their shadow and the dynamic of the parental relationship, she will show her rebellious streak to become her own person towards the end of this decade.

Growing up in the Hollywood fishbowl ain’t easy and that is leaving aside the screwball Scientologists.

See previous Tom Cruise post January 3 2023.

An excoriating FT expose of Asma Assad, wife of the Syrian president, once hailed by western media as a ‘rose of the desert’, turns the spotlight back onto the chilling picture of a greedy profiteer who has amassed billions for herself and her family out of the bloodied ruins of starving country. She appears to control the economic levers consolidating the Assad’s grip on Syria, shaking down the rich merchant class (imprison in hotel and extort a la MBS in Saudi) and even – horrifyingly – crafting a corrupt humanitarian assistance system, monetising NGOs and the aid sector which takes in international money.

  The economy is teetering on the brink of collapse and what little still exists appears to be controlled by Asma Assad and family across multiple sectors, including real estate, banking and telecommunications. “For any new business to get done today, Asma [and her people] take a cut,” says a relative. 

  The other revenue stream to keep the family afloat evidently comes from Bashar’s younger brother Maher, head of the army’s notoriously brutal fourth division, who runs weapons, oil smuggling, alcohol and sales of the illegal amphetamine Captagon.

     Asma was born 11 August 1975 in London to Syrian parents, and after graduating in computer science worked with Deutsche Bank as an economic analyst and then JP Morgan. She is a Sun Mercury in Leo square Mars conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol and conjunct her South Node. Algol on Mars and the South Node does sound terrifyingly brutal and primitive. She also has Saturn in Cancer on the focal point of a T Square to a ‘lucky’ Jupiter opposition Uranus – such a Saturn gives her executive, organising ability but a dislike of sharing the driving seat.

  Tr Uranus will square her 18 degree Leo Sun late April/early May for an upset though the heftier jolt will come after mid year 2024 when tr Uranus is conjunct her Mars, North Node – and on Solar Arcs she met hit the buffers come 2027.

  The Assad Presidency, 17 July 2000,  looks rattled this year with tr Uranus square the Uranus and tr Saturn in Pisces will dent a few high hopes in 2023/24. SA Neptune will square the Saturn in 2024 for uncertainty and instability; with a disruptive 2025 with tr Uranus conjunct the Saturn and more so with SA Sun opposition Uranus in 2026.

  [I had hoped it might collapse when tr Pluto was opposing the 25 degree Cancer Sun and Mars 2018 to 2021 but alas not.]

  Brother Maher Assad, 8 December 1967, a key player in the family mafia,  Sun Sagittarius with Saturn in Aries sextile Mars in Aquarius, is running into the reefs come 2027.

  Bashar Assad, 11 September 1965, a Sun, Pluto, Uranus in Virgo is also heading into a load of trouble in coming years as his Solar Arc Sun Uranus Pluto cross over his Mars Neptune in Scorpio with his Solar Arc Saturn in opposition – and that could be terminal for his ambitions and regime.

  The most recent modern Syria chart of 1 January 1944 does hint at a degree of relief in 2024/2025 as its Jupiter is activated but it will be a long haul to rebuild the wreck left behind by a brutal civil war and a mafioso regime.  Both Asma and Bashar’s relationship charts with Syria have control-freak, destructive Mars Pluto composite aspects. No surprise there.

  A spate of negative publicity in 2021 about Asma Assad, describing her as a ‘cheerleader for evil’ led to calls for her to be stripped on British citizenship. She herself was sanctioned in 2020 for accumulating “ill-gotten riches at the expense of the Syrian people”.

  Algol has a lot to answer for in its negative manifestation – and hers also squares the Black Moon.  

The apocalypse is coming or the Day of Judgement – or not. Donald Trump has been indicted over the Stormy Daniel payments and will be the first former US president to face criminal charges, to be fingerprinted, taken for a mugshot and compelled to stand as an accused defendant before a judge and maybe a jury.

He is screaming witch hunt and rousting up his followers, who manage to ignore his lifetime of grift, malfeasance and bad behaviour – none of which have ever come home to roost. After accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, two impeachments, a refusal to participate in a peaceful transfer of power and even the deadly January insurrection it hardly seems pass remarkable. Yet it seems to have come as an explosive surprise.

     The sealed indictment will be released by the court on Friday or several days later.

  After Mueller (and several high profile political UK inquiries on unrelated topics) all of which turned out to be total damp squibs I am not inclined to get overly hopeful about karma doing its thing.

  What is worth watching however is that late April/early May patch when Trump has tr Uranus square his Mars/Pluto midpoint which Ebertin describes as ‘calamities of great consequence’. It is also marked in his relationship chart with porn star Stormy Daniels with transiting Saturn opposing the composite Uranus just before and then square the Mars exactly then – so his irritability at her will erupt. He’ll have some luck early to late April and again mid to late May as two Jupiter midpoints come to his rescue. As someone remarked he’s like a sci-fi entity that is dissolved and then recreates itself. Another version of Teflon.

  Alvin Bragg, 21 October 1973, the NY DA, is an inventive and reforming Sun Uranus in Libra with a stalwart Pluto trine Jupiter, sextile Neptune, inconjunct Mars and square Saturn. He looks logjammed and frustrated ahead with tr Pluto opposition his Sun/Mars midpoint and that runs on through 2024. He’ll recover his mojo by 2025.

  What is interesting is that his Pluto is conjunct DT’s 2^nd house Neptune exactly, so he has gone for Trump’s Achilles’ Heel – which is money. Though it is a weak and legally complex case on which to pin retribution for a lifetime of wrongdoing.

 Stormy Daniels also hits Trump in his financial 2^nd house with her Pluto conjunct his Jupiter, with his wealth/profligacy drawing her in.  Her Neptune is conjunct his Moon and South Node – appealing to his lower nature. Her Uranus is close to his IC so she could have the potential to shake his foundations and send his career off track.

   One can but hope.

Pope Francis has cancelled engagements after being hospitalized with a bout of pneumonia and breathing problems. Now 86 and facing internal dissension in the Vatican he must be wondering whether taking the Pope Benedict route to resigning might not be a relief.

  His election chart, 13 March 2013 7.06pm, is heading into a road block with the Solar Arc Mars closing the square to the 4^th house Pluto within weeks. Tr Uranus will also oppose the North Node at 18 Scorpio late April into early May; and there’s an energy-sinking tr Neptune conjunct the Sun/Mars midpoint from May on and off into 2024. Which sounds as if his time in office is running to a close.

  His own personal chart, 17 December 1936 9 pm Buenos Aires, Argentina, has tr Pluto square the zero degree Taurus Midheaven exactly now till mid June and again in 2024 which would sound like a forced change of direction. Plus tr Neptune is square his 6^th house Sagittarius Sun mid March to early next month and on and off to January 2024, which will pull his energy down.  Plus his Solar Arc Midheaven is conjunct his Pluto round about now.

  All of which would suggest a winding down of his papacy. It is a shame since his heart always seemed to be in the right place though sweeping the Augean stables of the Vatican clean of muck was one labour of Hercules he could not quite complete.

See previous post January 27 2023.

The USA’s obsession with guns has always felt like a lost cause. An evil jinn that has been allowed to flourish with no hope of corking it back in a bottle. Another school shooting evokes local grief and general sighs of disbelief, outrage and despair but no solution.

  Barack Obama said it was his biggest regret after the Sandy Hook 2012 shooting was not being able to push through change. He called on Congress to pass extensive reforms to the country’s gun laws, including banning assault weapons and guns with high-capacity magazines, and ramping up background checks on those buying guns.  But ran into a resounding NO.

  The National Rifle Association (NRA) 17 November 1871, which has kept the John Wayne spirit alive, is an inordinately stubborn Scorpio Sun opposition Pluto; with a harsh Mars Saturn conjunction (in traditional astrology associated with assassinations/the military).  There are the faintest signs of a – maybe – forced shift in attitude with tr Uranus moving to conjunct the Pluto at 18 Taurus late this April into early May, before moving in 2024 to oppose the Sun. So there will be pressure exerted though it’ll need a monumental push to make much headway against all that Fixed energy. The Solar Arc Pluto is also opposing the Neptune now for a tremor of deep uncertainty. Plus tr Pluto is opposing the NRA Uranus in 2024/25 for another elbow in the ribs to prod it onto a different trajectory.

  The relationship chart between the USA and the NRA is on a fast downhill slide at the moment, worsening in 2024/25. Though there’s less indication with the Republican Party of any great diplomatic fallout.

  I wouldn’t hold my breath about the USA moving into a more rational mindset but there are hints of the NRA losing its grip to a degree.

  The Nashville shooter had three guns, two of them AR-style weapons. She had bought seven weapons at five different stores, legally and locally, despite being under medical supervision for an emotional disorder. Her parents did not think she should own a weapon.

Paul O’Grady, comedian, TV presenter, animal lover and drag artist, has died unexpectedly aged 67. He rose to fame in the 1990s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, going on to present BBC One game show Blankety Blank, other light entertainment and celebrity chat programmes.

  In the 1990s he brought drag culture into the mainstream and campaigned for the LGBT community with sharp-tongued and mischievous glee.

 He was born 14 June 1955 at 7.30am in Birkenhead, brought up in a working class family and was an altar boy. He left school at 16, had a daughter following a brief relationship, and worked initially as a care officer for older people. He put the spikey, caustic Lily Savage alter ego out to pasture in 2004, banishing her to a “a convent in Brittany” and proceeded to forge a successful, multifarious career in television. He won a Bafta for the Paul O’Grady Show, became an advocate for animal rights and having left a long-running BBC Radio show recently was appearing in a new touring production of Annie.

  He had a maverick, unconventional and trailblazing Uranus on his Cancer Ascendant conjunct Jupiter in flamboyant Leo trine an Aries Moon conjunct his Midheaven, sextiling onto Mercury in Gemini – he had flair, a gift for words and a comedian’s quirky talent for seeing the humour in bleak places. His Gemini Sun was trine Neptune and sextile Pluto giving his talent weight and influence as well as money-making potential.

  Though unexpected, he had a truly Jupiterian exit with tr Jupiter moving through his 10^th house at the moment and tr Pluto exactly opposition his Jupiter.

  He had been under considerable pressure with acute frustration through 2021/22 with his Progressed Mars conjunct his focal point Pluto, which may have left a mark.

  Jupiter through the 10^th is not uncommon when people die especially celebrities since there tends to be a celebration of their lives with much publicity.