Joe Biden takes up the reins

 Joe Biden took the oath as president at 11.48am in Washington this morning. That puts Pluto only one degree away from the Midheaven, which is usually the sign of a controlling administration. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Though heaven knows, he’ll need to take a firm grip to push back on the damage.

   There’s also, as per usual an Aquarius Sun in the 10th, but this year with Saturn Jupiter conjunct and Mercury in Aquarius. At best Jupiter Saturn aims for cautious improvement, a balance between ideals and fiscal common sense. Though in this case the Jupiter Saturn is square an explosive, uncompromising Mars Uranus conjunction in the 12th. Since the disruptions sit mainly in the 12th it might suggest subterranean or underground resistance which could turn violent.

  There’s also an emphasised Neptune in the 11th square the North/South Node axis, which could hint at an indecisiveness about long term plans and lack of commitment in friendly relations; or, since the 11th is the house of parliamentary legislature, confusion (and evasion) amongst the lawmakers.

  Much to ponder and to return to – when I have time – which isn’t at the moment.

  What is a definite plus factor is that the Term Sun is conjunct the super-confident and usually successful Jupiter/Pluto midpoint and conjunct the equally upbeat Jupiter/Midheaven midpoint.

  And bless all who sail in her. What a relief to see the psychotic frenzy flouncing off to Florida.

Alexei Navalny – ignoring risk to follow his dream

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, recently recovered from a suspected novichok assassination attempt by Russia’s FSB spy agency, has been detained on his return to Moscow from hospital treatment in Germany. A judge ordered him into custody for 30 days until a parole review that could imprison him for years. His arrest prompted him to call for a mass protest this Saturday.

“There’s nothing these thieves in their bunkers fear more than people on the streets,” Navalny said. He could be sent to a penal colony by the end of the month if a parole board revokes his probation. While the authorities say they will ban the Saturday, analysts believe that the number of protesters on the street could influence whether Navalny is given a stiff prison sentence or set free.

  It’s a high-wire act for Navalny, who seems intent on a martyr’s crown. 

  Born 4 June 1976 at 1.30pm Moscow, he has Sun Venus in Gemini opposition Neptune and trine Pluto which hints at another dimension of Neptune in super-ambitious mode, single-mindedly following a dream. Neptune Pluto in aspect to the Sun appears in the charts of those who are motivated beyond the norm to make a name for themselves and succeed. His Mars is sextile Pluto and square Uranus so he does have courage and a liking for high excitement.

  The Eclipses of the moment and through 2021 will be setting up crises and forks in the road for him; with a fair few undermining moments but he’ll also get lucky breaks from late April onwards interspersed with the downers.  By early 2022, he’ll be firing on all cylinders and pushing ahead with bullish confidence. If he survives unscathed, he’ll not give up.

  His leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17th harmonic is strong though with indications of ruthless determination/brutal suppression; as is his ‘obsessive dream’ 11H.

  His Jupiter, Mercury and Gemini Sun Venus fall in the 10th house of the Russia 8 December 1991 7.45 pm chart so he is crucial to the modern Russia’s direction.

Pic: Evgeniy Isaev 

Vincenzo Mucciolo – soaring ambition undone by cruelty ++ and son

Vincenzo Muccioli was the charismatic leader of a drug rehab community in Italy, curing heroin addiction by offering community support and craft training in a model farm. His followers regarded him as a saviour though he did practice ‘tough love’ on the addict inmates. How tough only became evident after a brutally beaten dead body turned up in 1989, followed by horror stories emerging of the use of electric cattle prods, of inmates forced into freezers, possible suicides and tales of other bodies.

  He was charged over the body as an accessory though he said he had not known of the murder and was given a suspended sentence. A later court action in 1995 threatened him with a 20 year prison sentence. 4 days later he was dead.

  When he started the centre in 1978, he proclaimed himself a medium, identified with Christ and preached a humble life of poverty. By his death, he lived in a luxury villa, in a garden with peacocks and pink flamingos, drove a Mercedes and had a personal staff that included a liveried butler. His son now runs the centre, charging $50k a year and it’s a $50 million business.

A Netflix documentary 5 part series “SanPa: lights and darkness of San Patrignano” relates the tale.

  Muccioli, born 6 January 1934, was a Sun Capricorn opposition Pluto square Jupiter opposition Uranus –  ambitious, controlling, super-confident, an innovator. Not above dispensing with social niceties to get what he wanted with Jupiter Pluto. A Cardinal Grand Cross is bubbling over with initiative, assertive to the nth degree, determined to succeed. But tending to live a life full of revolving crises.

  His nasty streak came from a Mars Saturn in Aquarius, which wouldn’t be above tolerating cruel treatment. His North Node in Aquarius would devote him to a cause.

  His Sun was trine Neptune with his Virgo Moon possibly conjunct Neptune – lending him his ‘spiritual’ aura and slippery tendencies. He also had a couple of quincunxes – Pluto to Venus in Aquarius; and Neptune to Saturn – a curious mix of ascetic and sensual.

  The early years of the commune had tr Pluto moving in hard aspect round his Grand Cross boosting his Jupiterian streak. But it was the triple conjunction in Capricorn which was his undoing from 1990 to 1995.

  His creative, not always well-balanced, 7th harmonic of the spiritual seeker was notable though with overtones of ruthlessness and brutality; as was his breakthrough genius 13H.

Power corrupts, spiritual power more than most. The end justifies the means can be a Capricornian flaw.

Fuller details below:

Add On: The son Andrea Muccioli, 25 September 1964, still runs the centre. In a recent interview about the documentary series he said: “It is fiction pure and simple.”

“Of course there was violence in San Patrignano, we are talking about a war. A war that, however, was won with the power of love”.

For Andrea, his father’s biggest mistake was “wanting to save everyone”.

About the tape secretly recorded by his driver in which Vincenzo says uncomfortable people should be eliminated, Andrea dismisses it with the thought that it was “Bar chatter, that’s what my father was like, he often exceeded his language.”

About the trial: My father was convinced that he could manage everything in his favour thanks to the media power he had. Eventually he fell ill, and depression strangled him. “I have to die for San Patrignano to continue living” he confessed to me”.

  Pa seen through rose-coloured glasses clearly.

  Andrea is a different personality type with only one Cardinal sign, his Libra Sun. He’s mainly Fixed with his Moon Jupiter in indulgent Taurus in a head-in-the-clouds opposition to Neptune square Venus in Leo widely opposition Saturn in Aquarius. Enduring, stubborn, can turn on the charm when need be, acquisitive. Jupiter Neptune can accompany delusional spiritual leanings or an overly optimistic view of life – and in his case involving family with his Moon tied in. He’s lacking his father’s drive and initiative.

   Down in his midpoints there is a starker story with his father’s cruel Mars Saturn conjunction mirrored in Andrea’s Saturn/Mars midpoint being square his Venus and in aspect to his Sun; with his Mars conjunct his Pluto/Node and his Jupiter square his Mars/Pluto. So he’s not unfamiliar with darker impulses himself.

  His relationship chart with his father is very chained together and, under a veneer of affection, is cold with resentment bubbling way below the surface. There’s a composite Sun opposition Venus square Saturn opposition Pluto; with an ‘adventurous’ Mars square Jupiter.

  Andrea’s personal chart isn’t looking too cheerful with a ‘shocking’ Solar Arc Mars conjunct his Sun now and Solar Arc Sun square his Saturn in 2022 throwing up setbacks and discouragement.

Phil Spector – talent and madness

Phil Spector, record producer extraordinaire, a driving force behind the Wall of Sound – the Ronettes, the Crystals, Ike & Tina Turner and worked with the Beatles, Leonard Cohen and the Ramones – has died in a prison care home where he was incarcerated for murder. Another creative talent with significant mental challenges, he had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and struggled with his psychological state for many years, before shooting a cocktail waitress dead.

   One of his wives related horror stories of her marriage to him as did his children of their treatment(wiki). If true they paint a picture of not just a disturbed man but one who was drowning in his own darkness.

  Born 26 December 1939 at 2.55pm in New York to a first generation immigrant family with his father suiciding at 8, he took up music in his teens, formed a band and had a hit with the Teddy Bears ‘To Know him is to love him.’

  He had an 8th house Capricorn Sun opposition a Cancer Moon square Jupiter in Aries – intense, money-minded, in tune with public taste (Cancer Moon) and super-confident (focal point Jupiter). He also had a showbizzy and head-in-the-clouds Mars in Pisces conjunct Jupiter opposition Neptune which was sextile/trine Venus opposition Pluto.  His Venus opposition Pluto also squared onto a forced-to-be-self-reliant Saturn in Aries opposition a Libra North Node.

  It’s not an exceptionally brutal chart but is certainly conflicted more than most.

  His creative 5th and 7th Harmonics are well aspected. Most notable are his rise-and-fall, self-defeating 10H; and his victim 12H.

Ireland – a stifling and brutal church and state

‘Suffer little children to come unto me’ – for a religious organisation that flag-waves compassion as a guiding light, the Catholic Church in Ireland spectacularly failed to walk its talk. The brutal and inhumane treatment of unmarried mothers over decades has been exposed in a heart-rending report. Overall 60,000 women over 80 years were put into the ‘care’ of the Catholic Church, described by a local journalist as a ‘shadow state’. The infant mortality rate was staggeringly high at 15%; and in one home 75% of the children born there died one year.

  In those days the church controlled schools, owned hospitals; ran orphanages and homes for unmarried mothers. A compliant state paid the church for these services and didn’t interfere. According to the minister for children, Roderic O’Gorman, the report “makes clear that for decades, Ireland had a stifling, oppressive and brutally misogynistic culture, where a pervasive stigmatisation of unmarried mothers and their children robbed those individuals of their agency and sometimes their future”.

   The religious orders who ran some of the homes have apologised but claim that their archives are private, which given that they operated on state money has raised ire.

  The church’s grip has slipped dramatically over the past four decades with a church attendance of 87% in 1981, now down to around 20%.  

  Of the two orders I could find who ran homes:

Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, 5 March 1903 – a controlling Sun Pisces square Pluto organisation, with an afflicted Mars trine Pluto on one side and trine Saturn on the other. Pluto is opposition Uranus and both are being rattled up by the present Solar Eclipses.

Bon Secours Sisters, 24 January 1824, Paris, is a Sun Aquarius trine Mars and sextile Pluto; with a focal point Mars square a Jupiter opposition Neptune; plus a can-be-fanatical Uranus Neptune in Capricorn. And an unyielding Saturn in Taurus.

  Neither were exactly cosy, comforting organisations.

  The Vatican, 7 June 1929, is being stirred up by the Eclipses this year and next rattling up its Gemini Moon, Sun, Mercury and Saturn in Sagittarius. With yet more shocks and jolts as tr Uranus squares its hidden Mars in Leo from mid2021 onwards, joined by the setback-bringer tr Saturn in opposition in 2022. In 2022 as well the Solar Arc Midheaven will conjunct the 12th house Neptune for confusion and indecision and perhaps yet more secrets to emerge from hiding. Their litany of sins mounts daily – with financial corruption, child abusing priests and now this.

  The Ireland 6 December 1922 5pm chart does have a harshly aspected Moon – in Cancer with an exact conjunction to controlling Pluto and in a cold, bleak square to Saturn.  The feminine was ground under foot, for sure.

From what I’ve read over the years the nuns were the worst even more sadistic and cold-hearted than the priests. Audrey Hepburn didn’t do us any favours portraying them as serene and beautiful.

Patricia Highsmith – driven by a killer’s instincts

“A mean, cruel, hard, unlovable, unloving human being … relentlessly ugly. … But her books? Brilliant.” So said Patricia Highsmith’s publisher. And PD James remarked that without the catharsis of fiction she wondered whether Highsmith might have become one of the murderers she wrote so lovingly about.  A new biography relating the chaos and degradation of her life and a collection of her short stories to mark her centenary don’t paint a pretty picture.

  She was born on 19 January 1921 at 3.45 am Forth Worth, Texas, into a marriage which split before she arrived, with a hostile mother, who had tried to abort her and told her. Not surprisingly she suffered depression throughout her life and became alcoholic. Her novel ‘Strangers on a Train’ about two men who ‘exchange’ murders to be rid of inconvenient wives, published when she was 30, became a success, more so with the subsequent Hitchcock film; and she followed it with the best-selling Mr Ripley series about a charming and amoral criminal who murders a rich man and steals his identity.

   She was a frenetic lesbian, having sex ten times a day at times often with women she picked up in bars, or with married women and then deliberately creating havoc in their relationships, leaving a trail of destruction behind. She hated black people, Jews, Latinos, Koreans, Indians, Catholics, evangelicals and Mexicans and women.

  A former lover said she was “an extremely unbalanced person, extremely hostile and misanthropic”, and that “if she hadn’t had her work, she would have been sent to an insane asylum”. Her short stories according to a review “over and over —— we find people driven to murder, suicide or insanity, or all three.“  All commentators on her life remark how hard going it is to stay with the material since it is so bleak and soused in dark cynicism.

  She was a Sun Capricorn in the financial 2nd in an Earth Grand Trine to a Taurus Moon trine Saturn Jupiter in Virgo. And she also had a Water Grand Trine of an 8th house Pluto trine Uranus Mars Venus in Pisces trine a Scorpio North Node.

  Earth Grand Trines can be drawn to the physical side of life, at times to the extent of becoming gross, weighed down by carnality or acquisitiveness – especially with a Taurus Moon. The Water Grand Trine can be creative though also detached from reality.  Her passionately enthusiastic Venus Mars conjunction is echoed in Jeffrey Epstein’s chart and many of his associates. In her case it was ramped up even more by a deviant Uranus and a deeply buried controlling Pluto. Pluto trine Venus is compulsively seductive; Pluto trine Mars can be ruthless.  

 And yet despite the horrors of her personality and the wreckage of her life she was clearly talented. Her creative 5th Harmonic is confident and successful; her creative though not always well-balanced 7th harmonic is notably aspected with a brutal collection of Pluto, Saturn, Mars. Her breakthrough-genius 13H and self-destructive 16H are marked; as is her ‘serial killer’ 18H.  PD James was right. Without her typewriter she could well have been out there destroying the objects of her dislike.  

Armin Laschet – Merkel’s shoes tough to fill

Armin Laschet, the centrist continuity conservative candidate, has become Angela Merkel’s successor as leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union. He may or may not lead the party in the German elections on 26 September as candidate for chancellor. A recent poll indicated only 28% of Germans surveyed thought he had the calibre for the job. His approval ratings fell during the pandemic because of lackadaisical leadership and charges of nepotism over PPE procured from a fashion company that also employs his son to model its clothes. He has raised eyebrows in the past over his dislike of “anti-Putin populism” and his sympathetic comments about Syria’s Bashar Assad.   

  Born 18 February 1961, he’s a Sun Aquarius opposition Uranus with a Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Capricorn.   He will have tr Pluto in a successful conjunction to his Jupiter just before the September election and from late November onwards, though tr Pluto will at the same time conjunct his Saturn which tends to be discouraging. Tr Jupiter will oppose his Uranus on Election day which could hand him a dollop of luck, in a small way; and he has upbeat tr Uranus square his Sun/Jupiter midpoint before the election and again in November.

  It’s possible he could do reasonably well. Though he’s no Merkel. Her Jupiter is conjunct the Germany Midheaven and her Sun Uranus sit in the German 10th house. Her relationship chart with Germany has a power-couple Jupiter Pluto conjunction 

But he could be popular enough with his Moon Venus falling in the Germany 7th and his Sun in the Germany 5th.  Though there’s an awkwardness about his Jupiter Saturn sitting in the Germany 4th opposing the Uranus – differing agendas. His relationship chart with Germany is very up and down. A positive Pluto square Jupiter; a stuck-with-him and resenting-it Saturn Pluto; a disruptive Mars Uranus; and an evasive Sun Neptune.

Pic: Olaf Kosinsky

Anti-vaxxers – paranoid distrust of authority

With relief in sight from widespread vaccination programmes worldwide the anti-vaxxer fanatics are crawling out of their bunkers. They insist “Covid is a hoax”, refuse to wear masks and in the UK have a leader in Piers Corbyn, the elder brother of former Labour leader Jeremy. He has described the Covid vaccine as a ‘satanic death shot’ and regards lockdowns, masks and vaccinations as symbols of an increasingly totalitarian control by a ‘New World Order’.

  In the USA Robert F Kennedy Jnr amongst others are spearheading similar campaigns. Fears appear to range from a fraud perpetrated by capitalist Big Pharma to rip off the taxpayer; to a generalised resistance to state control of individual bodies; to hangovers from the discredited claim that MMR vaccine causes autism due to the mercury compound in the measles vaccine.

   All of which add up to an excessive fear and distrust of authority figures – the state and the medical establishment.

  Piers Corbyn, 10 March 1947, is a Sun Pisces in a rebellious square to Uranus. But what floats his boat is his Mars in Pisces on the focal point of a stressed Yod inconjunct Saturn Pluto in Leo sextile Neptune. Such a Mars tends to be impulsive, overly aggressive, at times self-defeating and often directing hostility towards inappropriate targets. Any windmill will do as long as he can unleash his anger against it.

  Robert F Kennedy Jnr, 17 January 1954, has pushed conspiracy theories about links between Bill Gates, 5G and covid, as well as the debunked autism line. He is a Sun, Mercury, Venus in Capricorn opposition Uranus square Neptune; with Saturn Mars conjunct in Scorpio. Uranus Neptune has a tendency to hang onto delusional ideas even in the face of hard evidence to the contrary. And he’s certainly got anger issues that need an outlet.

   Jenny McCarthy, 1 November 1972 12.42pm Chicago, has been a vociferous critic of the MMR vaccine which she claims resulted in her son becoming autistic, though it later transpired he may suffer from another condition unrelated to the vaccine. She’s a communicative 9th house Scorpio Sun with an explosive, volatile Mars Uranus conjunction square her Capricorn North Node; and a packed 8th house with a Virgo Moon, Venus Pluto in Libra there, which will give her deep-rooted fears of being trapped.

  Jim Carrey, a one-time boyfriend of hers, has also voiced fears about vaccines. Born 17 June 1962 2.30 Newmarket, Canada, he is another Sun Venus in Capricorn, like Robert Kennedy Jnr; and has Mars on a Yod focal point like Piers Corbyn – in his case inconjunct Moon sextile North Node in Leo. With Pluto in his 10th he will have control as well as anger issues.

 Letitia Wright, 31 October 1993 Guyana, the Black Panther actress, hastily withdrew an anti-vaxx tweet last month. She said she was concerned about what people put into their bodies.  She’s a Sun Scorpio with Mars Pluto in Scorpio sextile Uranus Neptune in Capricorn and square Saturn in Aquarius – which is a real pile up of unbudgeable-opinion Uranus Neptune; and a seriously afflicted Mars which will make her both angry against authority figures and fearful.

  It’s not that I don’t think Big Pharma is seriously corrupt – which it is – or that the medical establishment don’t make horrendous mistakes which they won’t own up to for decades. Or indeed that some people don’t react badly to standard medical interventions. But having grown up with the required polio, TB and other vaccinations; plus the usual exotic ones for Africa and India travel and never thought twice about them, it does seem an odd neurosis – and very counter-productive.

PS. I’ve been trying for ages to get hold of the birth date for Andrew Wakefield, the original discredited and disbarred MMR vaccine-causes-fraud medic.  If anyone finds it I’d be most grateful.  He was born in 1957 as Pluto put a toe into Virgo and published his fraudulent study in 1998 as Neptune just edged into Aquarius.

Marianne Faithfull – surviving against the odds

Singer Marianne Faithfull has improbably become one of the Covid success stories – so far, cross fingers. With a history of heroin addiction, bulimia, suicide bids, homelessness, breast cancer, hepatitis C, a 2014 broken hip that became infected after surgery and emphysema, the result of decades of smoking, she was not expected to survive when she went into intensive care last April. She still suffers memory loss, fatigue and lung problems but bounced back to finish her 21st album due out in April in which she reads from the Romantic poets.

  Born 29 December 1946 12.20pm (rectified) London, UK, she’s a fiery, go-ahead Sun Mars in Capricorn conjunct her Midheaven in a showbizzy square to Neptune in her 6th. Neptune in the 6th should make her health more delicate but clearly she has a guardian angel watching over her.

  Her self-protective Pisces Moon is doubly emphasised in the hidden 12th. It is on the focal point of a T Square to Uranus opposition Mercury and on the focal point of a Yod to Pluto (Saturn) in Leo sextile Neptune. The Moon on a T Square tends to be emotionally changeable, restless, resistant to emotional conflict, has cravings for constant stimuli. The Moon on a Yod tends to be emotionally disorganised, defensive, self-defeating with escapist urges which act as protection. What such a Moon is helpful for is a public career since the attention from a wide spectrum of people who don’t expect commitment is easier than one-on-one ties.

  She has another Yod of Mars (Sun) sextile Moon inconjunct Pluto Saturn, which is truly difficult. Two Yods would make her feel she never fitted in and had to walk her own individual road in life and the emotional overload from that extremely sensitive Pisces Moon would be overwhelming at times.   She does have a solid Jupiter Venus in Scorpio, which while indulgent might have helped keep her on track at times.

  Relationships clearly were never her thing despite her much vaunted fling with Mick Jagger. Althogh she was the poster girl for the permissive society and free love in the 1960s she admitted recently she only started appreciating sex in her 50s. Before then she needed drugs or alcohol to get her through. She says her Austrian mother and grandmother being raped after WW11 by Red Army soldiers handed down to her a legacy of hatred towards men.

   The recent Sagittarius Solar Eclipse was conjunct her Mercury exactly and opposition her Uranus as she tidied up what is likely to be her final album. Over the past two years she has had high-stress transits to her Mars midpoints, some of which will continue so she’ll need to slow down.

  An extraordinary life and capacity for survival.

Pic: By Manfred Werner – Tsui