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Loretta Swit, the actress best known for playing head nurse Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan in the superlatively successful TV war comedy drama M*A*S*H has died. It ran between 1972 and 1983, and its finale drew one of the largest TV audiences of all time: 125 million people.  She won two Emmys and numerous nominations in her 11 years in the series about army doctors in the Korean War, though it was regarded as an anti-establishment critique of the Vietnam War. It was a pioneering show that explored issues such as PTSD, sexism and racism.

   Alan Alda also came to fame playing Captain “Hawkeye” Pierce in the drama.

She was born 4 November 1937 7.50 am Passaic, New Jersey to Polish immigrant parents, and had a 12^th house Scorpio Sun and Mercury opposition Uranus; with her Scorpio Moon conjunct her Ascendant making her intense and charismatic. She had filmic Neptune in her 10^th in a creative opposition to Saturn in Pisces. And an enthusiastic, high-vitality Jupiter Mars conjunction in Capricorn square Venus in Libra – not a personality to miss making an impression.

 She would have a not-always-easy relationship with Aquarian Alan Alda – 28 January 1936 5.07 am New York –  since his Pluto opposed her Mars but their relationship chart had a composite Sun exactly conjunct the North Node opposition Chiron square Neptune opposition Saturn – which brilliantly describes a medical drama that caught the spirit of the age and became a cultural landmark.

  Launched on 17 September 1972, M*A*S*H had a health-oriented Virgo Sun Mars conjunct Pluto trine North Node and square a successful Jupiter helping it stay a family favourite for a decade plus.

The horrifying spectacle in Liverpool when a car deliberately rammed into a post-football crowd injuring 79 was partially alleviated when remarkably no one was killed (as yet). What makes it all the stranger was the culprit charged yesterday by the CPS appeared to be a decent family man. Comments on his birth chart – 4 November 1971 – will have to wait till he is tried since contempt of court laws for prejudicing trials are strict in the UK.

 I am struggling to articulate a vague thought – but his background is very odd for this kind of atrocity.

  It follows on from a tragic fire accident near Oxford in the middle of May when two firefighters and a member of the public were killed in a fire, which also struck me as significant in a way I could not put a finger on. In the UK firefighter deaths on duty are rare. There were no such fatalities on duty in 2023, with only 3 reported in the past decade. That too is odd and as yet no explanations have been given.

  All that comes out of the UK chart is the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the 8^th house Mars, exact this month, which did suggest a catastrophe though mercifully on the Liverpool occasion it did not result in mass deaths.

 Otherwise the Progressed Moon has been moving through the UK’s 12^th house since May 2023 – which is usually a time of endings and introspection. The start coincided with Charles’s coronation in May 2023. His Cancer diagnosis was announced in February 2024.

   The injured Cavalry black and white horses of April 2024 had the Progressed Moon midway through the 12^th. That was when a Taurus Sun was opposition Scorpio Moon square Pluto.

 The Southport dance class killings of children in late July 2024 which led to anti-immigration riots may also fit the pattern.

  These latest incidents in May 2025 had the Progressed Moon at 2 degrees Libra just over the conjunction to the UK Uranus and  moving to cross the UK Ascendant this September/October.

 Not sure if that adds up to much but there is a sense of out-of-the-ordinary events forming a pattern that is difficult to pin down or articulate.

 The Liverpool chart, 28 August 1207 JC (thanks Jane) is certainly on edge with challenging, can-be-brutal tr Pluto square the Mars this year; and a Neptune Return with a worrisome tr Neptune Saturn conjunct the Neptune and opposition Venus; plus a tr Uranus square Uranus upheaval.

  The Liverpool Football Club, 3 June 1892, whose post-match celebration was wrecked, has its Uranus in Scorpio under pressure this year from tr Pluto in square; and its Mars in Aquarius at 11 degrees square the UK’s 8^th house Mars in Taurus. More upheavals will come since the Solar Arc Saturn is square the Uranus in 2026.

The Liverpool Solar Arc Sun is exactly opposition the Liverpool FC Neptune Pluto in Gemini at the moment linking their destiny.

 Strange times – not as horrific as the Kings Cross Fire or Zebrugge disaster when tr Pluto was opposition the UK Mars – but definitely strange, scary as well as damaging.

Justin and Hailey Bieber are catching headlines with the billion dollar sale of her make up brand and his increasingly bedraggled appearance, which hint at trouble in paradise for the power couple. He has had mental health issues, perhaps concerns about the Diddy Coombs trial because of an earlier friendship and confusion over the success of his wife which threatens to overshadow his need for attention.

 Hailey has also come through health issues, including a ‘mini stroke,’ in January 2023, and a life-threatening post-partum hemorrhage which she suffered after giving birth in August of last year.

  She was born 22 November 1996 8.15am Tucson, Arizona, and is a determined Sun Pluto in Sagittarius in her 12^th trine a 4^th house Saturn so tough minded and persevering. She has a money-oriented Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus in her financial 2^nd house. A 5^th house Aries Moon points to children being an important part of her life though it is inconjunct her Sun Pluto hinting at a need for constant adjustment between doing and being, work and her personal life.

 With her Solar Arc Saturn conjunct her Moon now she will be less than enchanted with her home life and at lack of emotional support. And with tr Saturn Neptune both crossing her IC into her 4^th this year she will be facing up to more disappointment and contemplating a domestic move ahead – and all on her First Saturn Return.

Justin Bieber, 1 March 1994 12.56am Stratford, Ontario, Canada, a downbeat Sun Saturn in Pisces with a Libra Moon is also facing the prospect of upheavals and significant changes in his closest relationship with tr Uranus aiming to conjunct his Descendant and move into his 7^th next month and oppose his Pluto as well. His Sun/Moon midpoint at 2 degrees Capricorn will also be undermined by tr Neptune Saturn into 2026.

  They were married somewhere around September 2018 when Mars was just into Aquarius, Uranus just into Taurus and Saturn just into Capricorn – all of which will be undermined and jangled in the next two years.

  Their relationship chart has a highly-strung composite Sun Neptune Uranus in Capricorn – differing needs plus illusions leading to disappointment. With Uranus opposition Moon (birth times being accurate) so constant ups and downs. Worst of all a composite Pluto Mars conjunction which suggests a power struggle for dominance with underlying hostility. Tr Uranus will oppose the composite Pluto from this July onwards and thence on to the opposition to the Mars as well in 2026 – which will almost certainly lead to a messy and long-drawn out split.

Ellie Simmonds, the retired Paralympian swimmer, winner of gold medals at three Olympics, who suffers from dwarfism, has opened up a discussion on disabled babies in a documentary  Should I Have Children?

  Her previous 2023 documentary Finding My Secret Family on tracking down her birth mother who had given her up for adoption when she was two weeks old, overwhelmed by her condition, won a Bafta.

  Born 11 November 1994 in Manchester, she was lucky enough to be given to loving and supportive adoptive parents who nurtured her talent as a swimmer.  And she clearly had the drive to cope with a punishing training schedule for years on end. She has a determined stellium in Scorpio with her Sun conjunct Jupiter and Pluto and square Mars in Leo, with Mercury, North Node and Venus also at earlier Scorpio degrees.

  What intrigued me was her weighted Scorpio Sun square Mars, which is not dissimilar to Oscar Pistorius, the South African paralympic sprinter, who had his lower limbs amputated because of a congenital defect when he was months old. His Scorpio Sun is square Mars in Aquarius and he also has Mercury, Pluto, Venus in Scorpio. His Pluto is trine Jupiter giving him added confidence.

 In astrology Scorpio used to be known as the miracle maker for its ability to set goals and make them happen. In both cases overcoming disabilities must have taken extra drive and motivation.

 Pistorius, of course, ended up notorious for killing his girlfriend and spending a decade in prison – which is the other side of a Fixed (Scorpio) Sun Mars. But the single-minded determination of both charts is what would bring them success in their respective sports.

A Macron marital spat or a jovial moment of horseplay?  An unguarded moment before exiting the French presidential plane in Vietnam invited a good many mischievous comments, when Brigitte appeared to strike Emmanuel in the face. She declined to take his hand on descending the stairs a minute later and his clenched fist and jaw hinted at a tense mood.

  Their 24 year age gap has always attracted raised eyebrows, especially since she met him as a teacher and mother of three when he was 15. She is now 72 to his 47. With his second Presidency creaking unhappily to a close with less than two years to run there will be tensions in the air.

 She was born 13 April 1953 3pm Amiens, France and has an intense, secretive and determined 8^th house New Moon conjunct Venus in Aries opposition Saturn Neptune in Libra; with a 12^th house Pluto (= pulling strings behind the scenes) in an ultra-determined, can-be-dominating square to Mars in stubborn Taurus and a pushily confident square to Jupiter. Her Sun/Moon midpoint, the marriage significator, is conjunct her New Moon Venus so she will attract an affectionate partner.

 He was born 21 December 1977 10.40 am Amiens, France,  and has an 11^th house stellium in Sagittarius of Neptune, Venus, Sun, Mercury in a laid-back opposition to Jupiter in Cancer; with a flamboyant Mars in Leo in his 7^th on the focal point of a Fixed T square to a Taurus Moon opposition Uranus, and a publicity-attracting trine to Neptune – indulgent, stubborn, attention-seeking. He has Saturn on the cusp of his 8^th with Pluto at the far end of his 8^th – so much goes on below the surface.

 He’s a very different personality type to her – more out there and changeable, though both are obstinate. Both have their respective Moons in hard aspect to Uranus so will be drawn to an unconventional domestic life.

 His Taurus Moon is conjunct her Mars and her Aries Moon is opposition his Pluto – so it will always have been a volatile and intense relationship.

  Their composite chart has an affectionate Sun Venus conjunction though it is in an over hopeful square to Neptune which can suggest disappointments when reality creeps in. Plus a composite Mars square Saturn hinting at underlying resentment since one partner has to submerge their needs and personality to make togetherness work. Plus a power-couple though changeable Jupiter square Pluto Uranus.

 Their bond has hit a bumpy patch recently with an unsettling and separating tr Uranus square the composite Sun through late April to mid May (continuing on from last year); and an impatient/irritable tr Saturn square the composite Mars until a few days back – so tempers will have been simmering. They will continue to flounder and snap with tr Saturn Neptune undermining their composite Mars till early 2026. They also have an unaspected composite Moon at 2 degrees Taurus which will be under pressure from tr Pluto square until the end of this year.

  He has tr Saturn moving through his 2^nd house at the nadir of his First Quadrant, so not a successful time – and on when unresolved psychological issues can surface.

 She has tr Saturn moving through her 7^th and now into her 8^th which can be a time of feeling separated from close partners.

  Life in the goldfish bowl can be unkind. But it comes with the territory.  

 The Pluto generations differ from each other and can be gauged against the events of those times. There will be additional factors since for example the mid 1960s Pluto in Virgo had the rebellious, reforming, status-quo-upsetting Uranus Pluto conjunction. Way back when, the Pluto in Gemini generation also had Neptune in Gemini to contend with. So not all simple.

 Of them all I have always thought Pluto through Cancer was the most difficult (damaging) at an emotional level.   

Pluto in Gemini 1882 – 1912

Cities, skyscrapers

Telecommunications.

Electrical age starts.

Yellow Journalism

***

Pluto in Cancer 1912 – 1937

World War 1

Emancipation of women

Old family values destroyed

Wall Street Crash

The Great Depression

***

Pluto in Leo 1937 – 1956

Fascism + World War 11

Nuclear bombs

Baby Boomers

Rock ‘n’ roll

TV, growth of movies and theme parks.

***

Pluto in Virgo 1956 -1971

Medical advances:

Polio & measles vaccines

Heart pacemaker

USA Medicare Act.

European Economic Community

Asian flu pandemic

Suez Crisis

Russia invades Hungary

Advent of hippies

Back to the land movement

Concern about the purity of food and healthy eating.

***

Pluto in Libra 1971 – 1983

Divorce rate jumps

Changing expectations of marriage

Independence women

USA Equal Rights Legislation

Domestic violence shelters first

Bloody Sunday Watergate

Munich Olympics massacre.

Iranian Revolution

Opening Up of China

***

Pluto in Scorpio 1983 – 1995

Money and sex Economic shift

Brinks-Mat Gold Robbery

AIDs and Child sexual abuse surface

Crack Cocaine

Indira Gandhi assassinated

Chernobyl disaster

Fall of USSR/Berlin Wall.  

***

Pluto in Sagittarius 1995 – 2008

Globalization

Multiculturalism

Schengen EU – cross border travel

New media + Fox News

Sebrenica Massacre

Oklahoma bombing

Al Quaeda/terrorism

Rabin assassinated

Foot & mouth disease and mad cow disease.

***

Pluto in Capricorn 2008 – 2023

Economics and Government

Financial crash

Migrant crisis

Populism & neo-nationalism

Global warming

Barack Obama elected

***

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS 2023 – 2043

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS 1532 – 1552

Henry V111 splits with Rome

RC versus Protestant schism

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS 1778 – 1797

Rebellious, inventive, enlightened

USA independence

French Revolution

Industrial Revolution

Scientific advances

Uranus discovered.

Explorers

Social thinkers

A Pluto in Aquarius sage: Michel de Montaigne, born February 1533

“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”

“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.”

“I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.”

“He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.”

“Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.”

“Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.”

“The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.”

Pic: Brain reading history book.

The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone – the first lady of lingerie and an unlikely choice by David Cameron for elevation to the House of Lords in 2015 – will hit BBC screens this week.

 From a poor, under-educated background she built a business empire over two decades mainly through brilliant self-publicity. She was regularly described as one of the UK’s most successful businesswomen, with few questions being asked. Her claim that her push-up bras were used by Julie Roberts in Erin Brokovitch appear to be unsubstantiated and even before her peerage her business appeared to be losing rather than making money.

  According to the BBC website an irate businessman wrote to David Cameron and said “Miss Mone is not a successful entrepreneur, she is a small time businesswoman with a PR exposure far in excess of any actual success.”

  Her first marriage broke up and she moved onto Doug Barrowman, an accountant and investment financier and businessman, whose wiki entry rattles through various company financial hitches and glitches.

   Baroness Mone of Mayfair has now been stripped of the Conservative whip and is on leave from the House of Lords since a business connected to her is under investigation by the National Crime Agency in the post-pandemic PPE-acquisition mess.

 Born 8 October 1971 4.55pm Glasgow, Scotland, she has an eye-curling chart with a Libra stellium in her 8^th house ranging from Pluto, through a Uranus, Sun, Mercury conjunction to Venus. She has a high-finance, overly optimistic, can-be-scandal-prone Jupiter Neptune conjunction opposition Saturn in Gemini. An Air Grand Trine of an assertive, determined Mars in Aquarius on her Ascendant conjunct her North Node trines a Gemini Moon trine her Sun, Uranus, Mercury in Libra. Her chart is mainly communicative Air with two inspirational Fire planets – no grounded Earth and no creative/empathetic Water.

   She left school at 15 and worked as a model and “ring girl” at boxing matches before moving into promotions and sales and thence into setting up her first company with the help of an investor. A successful PR executive, who was a key figure in building her early media profile said: “”She had two driving forces. One was to be very rich and one was to be very famous.”

 A story for modern times – interesting to see the chart that produces this kind of result. And not quite what you might expect.

Susan Brownmiller, whose influential 1975 book “Against Our Will,” became a key pillar of the feminist movement and transformed the social and legal understanding of rape as a tool of violence and power, has died. In its wake, rape crisis centers were opened throughout the country, courtroom rules of evidence were changed to reduce the hurdles in prosecuting rapists, and laws were drawn up to allow rape to be charged as a crime in marriage.

 The author who said she had never been raped herself, spent four years researching “Against Our Will,” which examined the historical context of rape from ancient Troy to Vietnam and an early 1970s war in which Pakistani soldiers raped hundreds of thousands of women in neighboring Bangladesh.

She argued that rape should not be seen solely as a sexual act but as an exercise of power and intimidation whose ultimate effect was to keep women subservient. ‘Nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear.’

 Her book attracted a great deal of criticism — with accusations she colluded with racism; and those against feminism have dismissed it ‘as essentialist (seeing men as having an inbuilt urge to subjugate women), universalist (making sweeping generalisations across cultures and histories) and reductionist (reducing women’s subordination to a single cause).’

  She was among the first feminists to raise the issue of the sexual abuse of children. At the time she was writing, there were no national statistics on this crime in the USA.

  She was born 15 February 1935, New York, no birth time, and said it was her childhood lessons in Jewish history about the pogroms and Holocaust which drove her later activism.

 Her chart is starkly powerful, hinting at a personality driven by rage and fear – rebellious, influential and keen to make a difference, with an innate understanding of the darker side of life. Her Aquarius Sun Mercury (and Saturn in Pisces) were in an assertive and communicative trine to Mars in Libra; with her Mars in an uncompromising opposition to Uranus square Pluto (Moon) in Cancer. Pluto on the focal point of a Cardinal T square does bestow penetrating insight and ideas that are ‘before their time’ and tending to arouse strong resistance. Though as it turns out her work kickstarted vital reforms. Her ‘activist’ North Node in Aquarius would also help motivate her.

  A creative though not always realistic Water Grand Trine of Jupiter in Scorpio in a confident trine to Pluto trine a sympathetic Venus in Pisces, formed into a Kite by Venus opposition Neptune would give her high ideals.

 Ceres, the star associated with Demeter, is close to her Pluto, which may also be relevant – since in mythology Demeter raised hell when her virginal daughter Persephone was carried off to the underworld by Pluto, who (depending on the version) either raped Persephone or separated her from childhood and brought her to maturity.

 When Against Our Will was published her Solar Arc Neptune, the driving planet of her Grand Trine/Kite was exactly conjunct her natal Mars – bringing together the two major configurations in her chart for the ground-breaking moment of her life.

She would start researching her book as Pluto moved into Libra in 1971 (until 1983) which was a time that the divorce rate jumped along with changing expectations of marriage, more independence for women, with USA Equal Rights Legislation and the first domestic violence shelters opening.

Jane Fonda looking magnificent on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival says “I don’t feel like an old person. I’m much younger than I was when I was in my 20s, in all the ways that matter’. She still works out with a trainer every day to keep trim.

  She was born 21 December 1937 9.14 am New York the daughter of actor Henry Fonda and a socialite mother who committed suicide when she was 12. Her father gave her a sense she had to be perfect and she contracted bulimia which continued well into her forties. Recently she said she always felt she had to seek the validation of men in order to prove that she had value and as a consequence, she attached herself to “alpha males”, some of whom reinforced her feelings of inadequacy, despite her professional success. She was married to French film director Roger Vadim who turned her into an almost soft-porn star; author/activist Ted Hayden who was dismissive of her talents and billionaire Ted Turner was diagnosed bi polar.

  Now she says she’s given up on close relationships, having owned up to being frightened of emotional intimacy, though scared of nothing else, having been shot at and been close to bombs.  

  She’s had an extraordinary life moving form a seemingly  shallow, surgically enhanced mannequin to a reviled anti-Vietnam activist who betrayed her country as Hanoi Jane. Two Oscars came her way (Klute and Coming Home) and her fitness videos remain popular which she started to raise money for her left-wing second husband Tom Hayden’s activist cause.

  She has a Sun Sagittarius on the focal point of a Mutable T square to Saturn in regretful Pisces in a creative opposition to a film-star 8^th house Neptune. Her Sun is also sextile Mars in determined Aquarius and inconjunct Pluto on her Descendant, which latter would attract her to controlling and intense partners. She’d also be dependent at points in her life with a 7^th house Leo Moon.  Her Venus in Sagittarius square Neptune would not help to anchor her in committed relationships.

  Her 3^rd house activist Uranus is unaspected which can indicate too much or too little reforming zeal – or more likely spurts of high-octane activity and fallow periods in between. She also has an enthusiastic Jupiter on her Ascendant in a pushily-confident opposition to Pluto. 

Her Mars in determined Aquarius is sextile her Sun. widely opposition her Moon and inconjunct her Pluto – so she’s not short of courage.

   Her relationship charts with both her parents have composite Mars Pluto hard aspects suggesting a one-sided relationship, requiring submission from her as a child.  

 Jupiter moving through her 5^th at the moment will put her in the spotlight though tr Neptune square her Sun may reduce her vitality somewhat into early 2026. And tr Uranus square her Mars this June and on and off into 2026 may knock some of her plans off track.