Power-couple Senate leader Mitch McConnell and Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, married since 1993, are heading into a troubled few months ahead.

  Elaine Chao, born 26 March 1953 in Taipei, Taiwan, was under investigation for conflict of interest involving her father and sister’s considerable business interests in China which have extensive ties to the Chinese state and Chinese elites. Her department also handed over $78 million grants to Kentucky where her husband is senator – the investigation of this was short circuited when the acting Inspector General was removed.

  She’s a Sun Aries with an enthusiastic Venus Mars in materialistic Taurus and Jupiter also in Taurus in a pushily confident square to Pluto (Moon) in Leo. She also has two Yods of Mercury sextile Jupiter inconjunct Neptune Saturn; and Pluto sextile Saturn Neptune inconjunct Mercury in Pisces. Highly-strung, scattered, not easy to pin down.

  Her relationship with Mitch McConnell has a good many positive points. Her Sun is trine his Pluto, for a close connection; her enthusiastic Venus Mars are probably conjunct his Taurus Moon; and her upbeat Jupiter is conjunct his Mars Saturn Uranus so she’ll boost his morale. There are rough edges though with her Pluto Moon square his Mars Saturn Uranus so it won’t have been without its aggravating moments. Two high pressure jobs will help to soak up some of that.

   Their relationship chart has a close and affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction which is square a needs-space Uranus, which again the jobs will help to mitigate. On the downside there is also a power-struggling composite Mars square Saturn Pluto which will have created resentment and tensions and a fair amount of teeth-gritting on one side.

  Their relationship is being undermined by disappointment with tr Neptune conjunct the composite Sun Venus now till late January 2021 and jangled by tr Uranus square the composite Saturn over the election to late this November. And it could get extremely fraught from mid 2021 onwards with the composite Mars square Pluto being upended by both tr Uranus and tr Saturn in hard aspect. That may bring a few home truths out in private.

  Elaine Chao has a whole raft of difficulties, uncertainties and disappointments with tr Pluto square her Neptune now, then worse across the New Year to late January with tr Pluto square her Neptune/Saturn midpoint and then tr Pluto starts a discouraging square to her Saturn from late January for two years thereafter. With various Saturnine setbacks between now and Saturn exiting Capricorn in this December; plus a few Neptune sinkers now and running across next year as well.

  Mitch McConnell who is up for re-election is plodding resolutely and gloomily on till late November with tr Pluto trine his Saturn; with a sprinkling of tr Saturnine dips in November as well. Across New Year looks high tension and late January onwards on and off for two years will be depressed and nervy.

  Just extraordinary given all the hoo ha about the great Satan China – that not only has Trump got bank accounts there, Ivanka has a strong foothold, and the GOP Senate leaders’ family are there as well up to their necks. And they have the gall to go after Hunter Biden – who admittedly is a loose cannon who should have been reined in. By the by his relationship with his father looks heavily restricted and irritated from late January, whatever that means.

Singer Don McLean has been talking about his iconic 1971 “American Pie” mega-hit which has spawned an army of fanboy codebreakers . Who was the jester who sang for the king and queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean? What exactly was revealed the day the music died? The Vietnam war, social revolution, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, JFK, Mick Jagger, Martin Luther King, Charles Manson, Hells Angels, The Beatles, hallucinogenic drugs, God, the Devil.

  He made his name with a few standout hits like “Vincent” and “Wonderful Baby” and cruised along successfully for decades with an amiable image until his second wife of 30 years Patrisha McLean, reported him for domestic violence and divorced him. She has since talked about their relationship in a travelling exhibit about domestic violence called Finding Our Voices. He has issued flat denials and the subsequent court cases were kept confidential.

   But his daughter from that marriage recently published an essay in which she talked about her childhood: “My father was afraid to let us leave the house. He always told us that it was dangerous outside. Friends were not allowed to come over.” She also said her father would grow angry whenever she would show signs of growing up: “He could never forgive us for growing up. He wanted to keep us, his lost children, in a Peter Pan fantasy. Every sign of growth caused an outburst……. Every day he talked wistfully about the good times when we were immobile, mute, helpless against any influence. “I remember when you were first born,” he’d say, “you were the first thing that was ever completely mine.”

  McLean was born 2 October 1945 4.17 am New Rochelle, New York, and has a stellium of Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune in Libra in his 1^st, trine Uranus and Midheaven and sextile Pluto in Leo. An emphasised Pluto in the 11^th would make him influential out in society as well as fairly controlling in his attitudes. His Libra planets are also in a square to a volatile, over excitable Mars in Cancer in his 10^th so he would have a short fuse.  Uranus on his Midheaven would also make him inclined to walk his own road and not co-operate.

  It’s not that obviously violent a chart though he would be inclined to flare up at irritations. His midpoints including his Moon are tied into various Mars midpoints. But what is perhaps significant is an unaspected Leo Moon in his hidden 12^th. He would have a strong sense of disconnection, of never feeling at home within himself or supported by his environment. It is seen as the most psychologically traumatic of any of the planets which lack integration in the chart – leaving the individual feeling acutely vulnerable. He admits in a recent interview to never having been happy and also always needing to be in control.

  His Saturn in Cancer will be regretful about hurts of childhood and since Capricorn rules his 5^th house of children he’d over-protect his children as a way of not causing himself pain.

  Not that I’m making excuses. He was old enough to get his act together and get himself sorted – without acting out his ***t over everyone in his close environment.   Never get taken in by showbusiness smiles – the public image usually hides enough secrets to fill a psychiatric textbook.

Poland has ruled that abortions for foetal abnormalities violate the country’s constitution and has effectively imposed a near-total ban on terminations. This in a nation, where the Catholic Church holds undue influence, that already had some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. Rape, incest, or the mother’s health being at risk will still be allowable reasons.

  Recent polls show there is little public support for a tightening of restrictions and major protest demonstrations are planned for this weekend.

   Poland’s history is messy in the extreme back for 150 years but modern independent democratic Poland got under way on 24 August 1989 at 1.05pm Warsaw. That was hardly an auspicious date for the feminine of Poland with a massively afflicted Gemini Moon square Mars and Sun in Virgo and on the focal point of a strained Yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune.

  The Gemini Lunar Eclipse of late this November will rattle up the Poland Moon with more upsets from the Eclipses in 2021. The Solar Arc Pluto on one leg of the Yod will also be in a totally-blocked and enraged square to the Mars within a few weeks which will bring strong reactions – perhaps involving health, economic and other factors as well as this. There’s also a shocked/upset Solar Arc Sun square Uranus exact now. It’ll be a bumpy ride ahead.

  There are also some concerns in the UK where abortion has not been a contentious matter for several decades that foetal abnormality could be opposed as a reason for abortion on the grounds that it is discriminatory and “eugenic”. There are loud campaigns by disability rights activists to strike down what is known as Ground E (that there is a substantial risk that, if the child were born, it would suffer physical or mental abnormalities that would result in serious handicap) or to restrict the conditions that fall under it. For example concerns about abortion for cleft palate or Down Syndrome.

Why is the world going backwards?

ADD ON:

Poland’s conservative President Andrzej Duda was sworn in for a second five-year term on 6 August this year around 10am. Most opposition parliamentarians and former presidents and prime ministers did not attend the swearing-in ceremony, indicating their disapproval of Duda’s disregard for the constitution during his first term and his almost total acceptance of the ruling right-wing party’s policies that have put Poland at odds with European Union leaders. His party has moved to snuff out opposition through controlling the public broadcaster and eroding the independence of the judiciary by interfering in the appointment of judges and forcing some into early retirement.

   International election observers noted this recent election campaign was “characterized by negative and intolerant rhetoric” and a “public broadcaster [that] failed to ensure balanced and impartial coverage.” “Inflammatory language by the incumbent and his campaign was at times xenophobic and homophobic . . . In the run-up to the election, the public broadcaster became a campaign tool for the incumbent, while some reporting had clear xenophobic and anti-Semitic undertones.”

Duda, 16 May 1972, is a controlling and stubborn Taurus Sun closely conjunct the destructive Fixed Star Algol trine Pluto; with Moon Venus Mars in traditionalist Cancer. And Neptune on the focal point of a Yod making him escapist, preferring to live in his ivory tower than get his feet on the ground and face reality. His imaginative and neurotic Saturn in Gemini opposition Neptune will be rattled by this November’s Lunar Eclipse and by others through 2021, so he will be facing a few sharp checks.

  He certainly dislikes the EU, despite happily accepting many billions from Brussels. The relationship chart has an aggravated Uranus, Pluto, Mars opposition Saturn Sun.

  His Second Term chart like the first has an afflicted Mars, which has moved from an explosive square to Uranus for the 2015 chart – to a deeply frustrated, blocked and enraging Mars square Jupiter Saturn Pluto. If the 10am Swearing In time is about right. The Capricorn planets are in the 4^th for a mutinous domestic scene; with an angry and argumentative 7^th house Mars. Moon Neptune in the 6^th points to unemployment and health being key issues which prove to be a disappointment and won’t be handled with any competence.

    Duda is suffering from Covid at the moment but assuming he’s well enough to continue with his hand on the tiller, he’s facing a hugely disruptive 2021 with tr Uranus conjunct the Term 8^th house Uranus and square the Sun with tr Saturn adding its tale of woe on top. 2023 looks like his nemesis though it will be foreshadowed by a destabilizing 2022.

James Randi, the illusionist and magician turned paranormal sceptic, has died aged 92. He made a media career out of debunking healers, psychics, spoon benders, mind readers, fortune tellers, water dowsers, faith healers, lumping them altogether as fakes, frauds and cons.  He was co-founder of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), which despite its title was not a scientific organization. More of a propaganda movement, it had a damaging effect on parapsychology and retarded its development. Likewise astrology, which it attempted to blow out of the water by repeating Michel Gauquelin’s study showing that champion athletes are more likely to be born with Mars in certain positions in the sky. When the results of their study appeared to back up Gauquelin’s results, they fiddled their conclusions to prove the opposite.

  Randi was born 7 August 1928 in Toronto, Canada with an unverified time of 1.20 am. He had an entrepreneurial, attention-demanding Fire Grand Trine of a Leo Sun and Mercury trine Saturn in Sagittarius trine Uranus in Aries. A bulldozer Mars in Taurus (conjunct Algol) was square Venus Neptune in Leo. His Mercury was in an over-confident square to Jupiter in indulgent Taurus, so he’d over-promise. Not a subtle temperament.

   He made his name on television attacking and undermining spoon-bender Uri Geller, 20 December 1946 2.30 am Tel Aviv, Israel. Though Geller said he always regarded Randi as good publicity and it didn’t dent his career. It was more of a symbiotic relationship with Randi needing a windmill to tilt at. Protagonist and antagonist, one needs the other.

  Randi’s Sun was conjunct Geller’s 10^th house Pluto for an endless tussle.

   I would have to admit to a personal bias since I deeply disliked Randi. Not that there aren’t charlatans out there in the psychic field but in many ways he was as big a chancer as any of the flakes he puffed up his career exposing. I was in a TV chat show with him many years ago and sharply attacked his blanket denials of all matters paranormal and he completely deflated to the extent the show was never transmitted. I also tripped across him in the 1990s during a child sexual abuse campaign where he was on the ‘scientific’ board of the False Memory Movement, whose raison d’etre was to write off allegations of abuse as fantasy. The Memory Wars of the 1990s pitted dinosaurs whose careers were built on outdated theories of how the mind and memory work against trauma specialists generating a flood of new research. Randi was, for sure, not on an open-minded voyage of discovery about new evidence in science and did considerable damage.

ADD ON: The Sun, Baltimore on Saturday June 5, 1993 reported that a US Federal jury ruled that the “Amazing Randi”, a magician, defamed a Finksburg scientist by calling him a child molester and caused him to suffer humiliation, mental anguish, suffering and damage to his reputation because of the false statements.

 “The scientist’s lawyers sought to discredit Mr Randi by playing taped conversations of teen-age boys who called the magician’s home allegedly for sex.”      A copy of that tape is part of the court record. [ Byrd v Randi (Civil Action No. MJG-89-636 in the United States District for the Court for the District of Maryland.] Transcripts of the tape are also part of the court record in Geller v Randi, (Civil Action No 91-1014-SSH in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The transcripts are contained in Exhibit 40 to Exhibit U]. James Randi claimed that this tape sought to “blackmail” him.

Pope Francis has caused great excitement by saying that same-sex couples should be allowed to have “civil unions”. “Homosexual people have a right to be in a family,” he said in the film, which premiered this week. “They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or made miserable over it.” He took a similar stance when Archbishop of Buenos Aires and there is no indication of a doctrinal shift within the Church which regards gay relationships as deviant behaviour. And this despite some estimates that well over half if not up to 80% of Vatican priests are homosexual (not all practising).

  But it may also be that Francis is trying to shift the temperature of the debate towards liberalism in gradual steps.

  His Election chart, 13 March 2013 7.06 pm Rome, always did indicate an explosively divisive papacy with Mars Uranus in Aries sitting astride the Descendant.

   And he has faced massive problems in sorting out the Vatican’s tangled finances which he described as like “cleaning the Sphinx of Egypt with a toothbrush” – with indications from the recent unprecedented firing of Cardinal Becciu that he is losing patience with the speed of reforms. His efforts to tackle sex abuse amongst the clergy have also run into problems and not produced the results and transparency demanded by victims. Which again may be a reflection of intransigence within the Vatican. But he has been appointing cardinals who are on-side with his modernist views on a range of topics including on decentralizing power from Rome and who will elect his successor. So his legacy will live on.

  He is 83 now so he will not have the energy to take on the hundred-headed hydra that exists in the Vatican for ever. Tr Neptune is conjunct his papacy Venus this year and Sun in 2021/22; with a short-sharp-shock from Solar Arc Sun conjunct the Mars, exact in a few weeks but could have triggered early – either with this direct statement or even the firing of Becciu.

  Finances look a preoccupation in 2021/22 with tr Uranus opposition the 2^nd house Saturn with tr Saturn in square.  With another emotional upset in 2022 when the Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct the Moon.

  His personal chart, 17 December 1936 9pm Buenos Aires, Argentina, is being rattled emotionally by tr Uranus square the Venus this year and early next; and in 2021 square the 8^th house Moon; with tr Saturn conjunct from early 2021. He will feel isolated and thrown back on his own resources with an undermining tr Neptune square his Sun by 2022.

  His relationship chart with the Vatican is slipping and sliding with a disappointing tr Neptune conjunct the Venus and Sun in 2020/21; as well as tr Pluto opposing the Pluto and squaring the Uranus before this year end turning everything upside down.

  It must be a real test of his metal to survive in a hostile Vatican while trying to push through much needed reforms and corruption-cleansing against heavy resistance.

   The Vatican is heading for a radical change of direction but not until the middle of this decade (if the 11am start time is accurate) – when tr Uranus is conjunct the Midheaven and thereafter Uranus in Gemini will conjunct the Moon, Sun and Mercury more or less at the same time as the Solar Arc Uranus will conjunct the Vatican Pluto in 2029 for a radical upheaval. Before then it will follow a winding path with jolts, jangles, setbacks and arguments in 2021 as tr Uranus and tr Saturn collide with its Mars in Leo; and in 2022 tr Saturn damps down enthusiasm and confidence as it opposes Neptune and squares the Jupiter and Midheaven – with a couple of overly optimistic and financial bubble-bursting Solar Arcs at the same time.

A surprise result in the Bolivia election put progressive Luis Arce way out in front of the right-wing candidates supported by the police-military coup of 2019. As the economic minister for more than a decade under President Evo Morales who was forced to flee the country in 2019, Arce was deemed to be the mastermind behind Bolivia’s rapid economic resurgence with a three-fold GDP increase and extreme poverty reduced from 38% to 15%.

  After the 2019 coup, security forces massacred dozens of unarmed supporters of Morales/Arce’s party and charged regime opponents with “terrorism” and “sedition”. Racism against the indigenous majority became overt. The transitional government cosied up to the Trump administration, deported 700 Cuban doctors who were providing public healthcare, and signalled its intention to pursue the old policies of privatisation and austerity.

  Bolivia, 6 August 1825, will face considerable financial headaches in 2021 extending into 2022 with its Leo Sun catching the economically unstable tr Saturn square tr Uranus. It looks fairly log-jammed at the moment with tr Pluto opposition the Mars until late this December with a panicky, uncertain tr Neptune square the Saturn in early 2021.

  The Bank of Bolivia, 20 July 1928, looks on high alert and nervy in 2021 with Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Bank Mercury; but it is 2022/23 which will be the major challenges with a testing tr Pluto opposition the Cancer Sun in 2022/23 and an insecure and ‘shocking’ tr Saturn square tr Uranus hitting its Mars in 2022 as well.

 Luis Arce, 28 September 1963, in addition to grappling with multiple political problems ahead is also recovering from severe kidney cancer so may have health worries on top. He’s a charming Sun Venus in Libra with a pro-active Jupiter in Aries; and a used-to-hardship Saturn in Aquarius square Mars Neptune in Scorpio. His 2021 looks confused and uncertain with tr Neptune opposition his Mercury; and the tr Uranus square tr Saturn is rattling up his Mars Neptune which looks highly stressed; with a dead-halt Solar Arc Pluto square his Mars in 2022 at the same time as a confidence-dampening Solar Arc Saturn conjunct his Jupiter.

  He’ll have his work cut out  

The Spanish flu epidemic is the one most often mentioned as a comparison for Covid-19. Though the present death rate of just over one million is a blip against the 50 million plus who died of the flu in four waves between 1918 to 1920. The second wave was the deadliest though again that doesn’t look to be the case now. What exacerbated the spread of the influenza back then were troops returning from World War One.

   It took hold in March 1918 on a Saturn Neptune conjunction (in Leo) which is a classic epidemic signature. Both planets were still in Leo though not conjunct by the third wave in early 1919. The third wave was less severe than the second wave but still more deadly than the first. The fourth wave in spring 2020 was in isolated patches but still with high death rates.

  When it started to recede and then disappear in 1920 Saturn had moved from Leo into Virgo and was in an economically restrictive and unstable opposition to Uranus – the global recession of 1920/21 fitted the astro-pattern. And a similar effect will be repeated in different signs in 2021 as Uranus in Taurus squares Saturn in Aquarius.    What followed the recessionary dip was the Roaring Twenties with Neptune in Leo bringing a period of economic expansion and prosperity, most obvious in the USA, lasting until the 1929 crash and the Great Depression following.

  Nothing ever repeats exactly and the planets are in different signs but the parallels are interesting nonetheless. The Saturn Pluto conjunction which was the bringer of the plague this time round will separate by sign late this December and Saturn will move onto the square to Uranus for the economic pain which is undoubtedly coming in 2021.

See post on previous historic plagues: March 22 2020

ADD ON:
Previous Saturn Neptune conjunctions this century were in 1989 in Capricorn and in 1952 in Libra.

In the USA, the 1952 polio epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation’s history, and is credited with focusing public awareness on the need for a vaccine. Of the 57,628 cases reported that year 3,145 died and
21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis. The vaccine had an immediate effect and since 1982 there have been no domestically acquired polio cases in the UK.

 1989/90 saw a small spike in influenza deaths, a localised USA measles outbreak and more cholera deaths in Africa though not at pandemic level.

  Previous Saturn Neptune conjunctions in Aries were in 1703 and 1056. There was an outbreak of  Yellow Fever in New York in 1702 and smallpox in Quebec in 1703 – though they were localised epidemics. Easier in those days when travel was relatively  limited.

1703 had Saturn Neptune in Aries square Uranus in Cancer and trine Pluto in Leo – and was the opener of a century that ushered into the Enlightenment as well as expanding slavery.

 

 

Support for Scottish independence has risen to 58% in a recent poll, much of this due to disapproval of the Boris botch-up over the pandemic and Brexit in comparison to Nicola Sturgeon’s steadier approach. Though, truth to tell, the Covid situation in both countries isn’t dissimilar and much of what Sturgeon blames Westminster for, is part of her devolved health responsibility.

  Whether the numbers would stay that high faced with economic realities is moot – of customs posts at the border, additional tariffs for Scotland’s main export market, currency problems with no GBP backing, and all in addition to rebuilding after the financial hit of the past year, and without the Barnett top up from Westminster.

  The Act of Union between England and Scotland came into being on 1 May 1707 JC and has survived for over three centuries. So it will have been rattled by planetary influences again and again during that time. It’s a glued-together, enduring chart with a Taurus Sun square Pluto Jupiter and, if a start time of 12 midnight is assumed, has Pluto Jupiter and Uranus in the 8^th – so it won’t budge easily.

  Tr Uranus is now back in Taurus as it was in the 1930s just after the Scottish National Party was formed. And indeed as it was in 1853 when the “Home Rule” movement for a Scottish Assembly was first taken up. So the present unrest is following the pattern which questions the 1707 agreement. Two decades after the first Uranus Return in the 1870s tr Pluto in Taurus put additional pressure on the bond in a conjunction to the Act of Union Sun and square the Pluto. And it survived both of those heavyweight influences without dissolving.

  There are some jolts on the Act of Union chart this year into spring 2021 with tr Uranus square the Uranus, and more in 2023 when tr Uranus is conjunct the Act Sun and square Pluto; with a raft of setbacks, uncertainties and dissolving Solar Arcs between 2023 and 2026/8.

   It would look more likely, if it is going to happen in some shape or form, to be in the aftermath of tr Pluto moving into Aquarius in 2023/24 and more so when the Saturn Neptune conjunction in Aries happens in 2026/27.  By that time tr Pluto has been trine the UK 1801 Uranus in 2024/25 for an upheaval and a rebellion; and separating tr Saturn moves into the 7^th house of close relationships in 2026, joined by tr Neptune in 2027.

  By 2023 as well tr Uranus, will be on the final leg of a destabilising roller-coaster round the UK’s financial and political planets, which starts in 2021 and extends on. By 2023 tr Uranus will square the 11^th house Saturn which rules the legislature so there may well be changes to Westminster and other political centres. The UK will be shaken and stirred with increasing confusion almost throughout this decade with the Solar Arc Midheaven squaring the financial Neptune by 2024; and then in the latter stages of the decade tr Neptune square the Capricorn Sun.

  What will help to bolster morale though it may or may not affect a Scot-exit is tr Pluto in opposition to the UK Jupiter in 2024/25 and moving into the UK 5^th after mid decade, both of which will revive UK morale and dynamic ambition.

  There is a good deal of water to flow under many bridges between now and 2026 which could affect the outcome of an IndyRef – not at least of which in Scotland is the damaging spat between Sturgeon and Salmond and their respective supporters.

Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand PM has won a landslide victory in the general election and is projected to win a rare outright parliamentary majority. Her charisma carried her through her first term with a terrorist attack, a natural disaster and the pandemic, although she’s been criticised for not having a clear Covid-19 recovery plan. NZ is also, like elsewhere, in recession and the economy will be an uphill struggle ahead. 

  A while back the result looked as if it might be close but with her Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct her Pluto now she was on a winning streak. Plus tr Uranus is trine her Jupiter last month on and off throughout 2021 and into early 2022. So luck is on her side.

  Her Leo Sun sits in the NZ 10^th so she’s well-designed to boost the country’s ambitions and steer its direction; with her innovative Uranus changing NZ’s image as it sits in the NZ 1^st. There is a slight hint of finances being a foggy area for her with her Neptune opposition Venus falling across the NZ 2/8^th houses.

 Her relationship chart with NZ is powerful with a composite lucky, progressive Sun Jupiter conjunction square Pluto and Neptune – pushily confident together, with a hint of a slightly over-done aura of compassion.

 New Zealand is in for a tough time ahead there’s no doubt with tr Uranus in 2021 conjunct the Saturn and the Descendant – jolts, jangles, economic recession not letting up and trouble with neighbours. Plus the megaton tr Pluto conjunct the Capricorn Sun picking up from late February 2021 onwards, starting three to four years of colossal challenges as tr Pluto moves on to conjunct the NZ Mars and then square the Pluto. It’ll be one of the more testing phases in NZ’s history. With some downbeat patches later this year with tr Saturn conjunct Sun, Mars and square Pluto now till the end of the year.

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