Athina Onassis, the heir to a Greek shipping fortune, is gradually emerging from seclusion after her divorce several years ago which turns a focus back onto her family which has been blighted by early deaths, accidents, suicides and dramas.

  All the cliches about the curse of money which have haunted dynastic wealth like the Onassis and the Guinness family in Ireland, make it an attractive project for drama producers. Steven Knight, creator of Peaky Blinders, has an up and coming Netflix series looking at the 19^th Century House of Guiness starting withBenjamin Guinness – who is credited with the brewery’s early success. Along with their prosperity comes a tragic tale of seemingly endless misfortune for the family.

 In the Greek Onassis shipping family, Athina Onassis, 29 January 1985 2.50am Neuilly Sur Seine, was the only child of Christina Onassis and product of her fourth marriage; the only grandchild alive of Aristotle Onassis. Christina within 30 months in her early twenties lost her only brother to a plane crash and shortly after her mother Tina Livanos to a drug overdose, and her father Aristotle (still married to Jackie Kennedy) to ill health.  Christina then died aged 37, it is assumed because of heavy medication use,  struggles with her weight, stress and a turbulent emotional life. 

  Her daughter Athina was then 3 and then went to live with her father Thierry Roussel whom latterly she has been estranged from. Her marriage to a Brazilian showjumper was complicated by the two children they took in belonging to his former girlfriend who subsequently committed suicide.

  Aristotle Onassis’ marriage to Jackie Kennedy after JFK’s death, which shocked the American public and did not go down well with his two children, was also part of the saga. Never mind poor Maria Callas, Aristotle’s abused and bemused lover who was dumped when Jackie turned up.  [See previous posts: Maria Callas in Search].

 Athina Onassis has a 3^rd house Aquarius Sun square a 12^th house Pluto opposition a Taurus Moon, so she would feel trapped with both Plutonic parents outwith her control. She has a defensive Saturn in Scorpio in her 1^st opposition North Node and Algol in her 7th house, so relationships will be a challenge for her.

Wading through a handful of Onassis-related charts, Algol is a recurring presence in many. Maria Callas had Algol conjunct her Descendant. Jackie Onassis has Algol in her 7^th, (and her father Black Jack Bouvier had Algol conjunct his late Taurus Sun.)

  Both Aristotle Onassis and JFK had their Jupiter in Taurus conjunct Algol, as did Tina Livanos (Christina’s mother). Alexander Onassis (killed young in a place crash) had his Mars conjunct Alphard square Algol. Thierry Roussel, Athina’s father, has his Aquarius Sun opposition Alphard and Black Moon square Algol.

 Benjamin Guinness, 1 November 1798, who elevated Guinness to rarified heights of wealth, had his Jupiter in Taurus conjunct the North Node and Algol square Pluto. And subsequent generations of the Guinness family do appear to have had more than their fair share of accidental deaths and suicides.

 Algol is not specifically related to curses but it has more than a touch of ‘the heart of darkness’ about it. Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas with it in their 7^th house of one-to-one relationships would be attracted to men with a ‘dangerous’ aura, like moths to a flame.   

   Algol does have a positive side when it can harness  destructive powers to do good but it takes great strength of character not to be pulled into its darkness.

“Cursed be he above all others Who’s enslaved by love of money. Money takes the place of brothers, Money takes the place of parents, Money brings us war and slaughter.” Anacreon

 There are sadly no astrological titbits from the Greek tale of the Fall of the House of Atreus when grandfather Tantalus’s act of hubris initiated the curse. He offended the gods by serving them a stew made from his son Pelops’ flesh to test their omniscience. Bitter feuds, revenge, murder and mayhem followed down the generations. The curse is eventually lifted but it is  a potent tale of inherited guilt.

See previous post Algol – light in the heart of darkness.

25th March 2024

Clint Eastwood has gained another biography which promises to be “neither acquiescence nor denigration,” though whether he will welcome it personally given his dislike of any incursion into his private life is questionable.

  Shawn Levy, the author, according to a review, covers Eastwood’s sixty years in films without making any attempt to moralize about his character flaws and the reviewer goes on to say that as ‘problematic artists continue to become less mythologized and held more accountable, the works that chart their personal lives must somehow confront these aspects more productively, than mere reportage.’

 Eastwood was born 31 May 1930 5.35pm San Francisco, CA, into a middle class family, limped through school, worked in several dead end jobs, served in the army and  in his mid twenties landed a second lead role in the TV western Rawhide which ran for eight years and all else followed including the Spaghetti westerns and Dirty Harry. During the 1970s he also started directing as well as acting.

 His personal life seemed to be constantly in turmoil with several marriages, endless revolving romances and at least eight children; with well-publicized spats with wives as well as directors, of whom he would get four fired.

  He has a 7^th house Gemini Sun inconjunct Saturn in Capricorn, which in turn is opposition an intense 8^th house Venus and 9^th house Pluto square a 5^th house Uranus – defensive, self-doubting behind a disruptive and defiant exterior, opinionated. Venus Saturn types are often serial philanderers. He’ll be an innovator in the creative field with a 5^th house Uranus but also erratic and unpredictable emotionally. That trait would be exacerbated by his Leo Moon on the focal point of a T Square to Mars in late Aries opposition a South Node in Scorpio – women spark off his anger. His Chiron is conjunct his Descendant with Algol in his 7^th both of which might hint at partnership wounds and dramas.

  His filmic, creative Neptune is conjunct his Midheaven with Alphard closely conjunct his Midheaven as well. Alphard can give wisdom and artistic appreciation but can also lead to turbulence, lack of self-control, immorality.

 His lucky 8^th house Jupiter in Cancer sits midway of a tine between his Midheaven and Mars – so blessed in life with financial good fortune.

  His Harmonics are notable with a strong 22^nd, 15H, 13H, and 9H notable.

[Talent and good behaviour or a stable temperament do not tend to go together which is a problem when the fame culture idolises the person rather than their achievements. Astrologers tend to be invasive. probing into the whys and wherefores of a personality but character flaws while fascinating psychologically should not diminish appreciation of their output. ]

  Early astrology knew nothing of the outer planets. As they were discovered and added to the zodiacal lexicon, astrologers had extra tools for interpretation, expanded further by the addition of Chiron. In recent times Fixed Stars like Algol, Scheat, Alphard, have come back into vogue as helpful tools. And now asteroids are also coming to the forefront (despite Richard Idemon’s witty dismissal of them as ‘cosmic detritus’.

 My software lists 81 asteroids which is an overwhelming  number were they all to carry cogent information and raises a suspicion they could be used an an explanation for almost anything.

 Despite my Virgoan misgivings, I read with increasing appreciation a new ebook out on Pholus – Cults, Intoxication and the Divine by Ben Belinsky, the first of a series of four on the centaurs. The author explains that the major planets e.g. Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn etc have rulerships and a specific job description.  Whereas the centaurs of which Chiron was the first to be discovered, are identified with their narrative. Chariklo, Nessus and Asbolus are the others.

 Pholus was the guardian of a flask of wine, gifted by Dionysus, Greek god of fertility, religious ecstasy, ritual madness and drunkenness. When the divine legacy of Dionysus is released as the flask is opened it can lead to:- a mad stampede,  a volley of poisoned arrows, religious ecstasy or poetic inspiration. It takes us beyond the rational mind so the Pholus ‘experience’ can be transcendental, angelic or psychotic.

Pholus is connected to panic, herd mentality, fanaticism, (fan is a shortened version of fanatic), possession by a god or demon, ‘a religious maniac’, ecstasy, mass hysteria, intoxication by alcohol or drugs, a state of emotional excitement, elation, or exhilaration, the loss of sense of individuality in a mass or collective. Cults. Mobs. Mind-control. To enslave.

Atavism – the tendency of reversion. Those who “look backwards, feeling deprived of a real or imagined past” and relates it to the rise of populism.

Ancestral legacy – the wine that Pholus had guardianship of was gifted four generations before.

  The author Ben Belinsky, a practising London astrologer with a background in Jungian psychology and a degree in Comparative Religion, points up why Pholus is so relevant to our time.

 He quotes: Gustave Le Bon, ‘The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind’. “The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them.” “Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”

And Joost Meerloo, ‘The Rape of the Mind.’ “Logic can be met with logic, while illogic cannot – it confuses those who think straight. The Big Lie and monotonously repeated nonsense have a more emotional appeal… than logic and reason.”

  His insights into both Pholus and the present mindset in certain quarters are helpful. “In a cult, what we project onto the leader is our own sense of divinity, in other words our divine self. We become worshippers, devotees, they become our saviours, our protectors; in effect they become gods. And through them we achieve religious ecstasy.”

  Two thirds of the book are chart examples of which cult leaders are most illuminating. Jim Jones of the suicide cult has Pholus on his Ascendant. Marchall Applewhite of Heaven’s Gate (extra-terrestrials) had Pholus on his Midheaven. Timothy Leary, early advocate of psychodelic drugs also had Pholus on his Ascendant. Ron Hubbard, who invented Scientology as a smart way to make money had his Jupiter in Scorpio and South Node conjunct Pholus in a Water Grand Trine.

  Of the others I might have expected more obvious connections in Hitler and the Germany charts. Though both Hitler and the 1871 Germany chart has Pholus in the 5^th perhaps hinting at the Third Reich’s popularity through grandstanding displays of pomp.  

The USA 1776 chart has Pholus conjunct the South Node exactly which could point to the country’s reversionary need to hook into conspiracy theories, televangelists and populism. Donald Trump?  His Pholus is opposition his Saturn and exactly opposition his Venus/Saturn midpoint. Oddly enough his Pholus falls in the 5^th house of entertainment as well – so there may be a nugget of insight from that.

 Of the other charts, my slight impression is that Pholus in aspect to the Moon or Venus is a frequent occurrence amongst notables.

 Though the area is so new that much more research is needed.

  Ben Belinksy’s book is extremely readable, with gripping illustrations of the old myths and their modern relevance, and psychologically perceptive.

  It is, in a odd way, reassuring to be able to nail down the modern madness. Fandom of any variety – global, political or sporting – may not be arguable with but understanding its irrational kink does make it (marginally) easier to hack.

The ebook can be ordered from Amazon

See also: https://moonletter.co.uk/e-books/#pholus

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Celebrities with Pholus aspects: https://www.zanestein.com/celeb.htm

 The value of the global cryptocurrency market has reached $4tn for the first time after the passage of the US digital asset legislation – the so-called Genius Act. It marks “one of the most significant moves” towards mainstream adoption of crypto. It is a huge turnaround since 2022, when its value fell to about $800bn following the failure of crypto exchange FTX.

Trump who received hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funding from crypto executives has been behind support for a renewed push which investors predict will pave the way for Wall Street banks, money managers and other companies to invest in digital assets or create their own tokens. He is also preparing to sign an executive order to open up the $9tn US retirement market to crypto and other alternative investments.

 Critics warn that tying crypto closer to traditional finance poses grave risks in the event of another market crash. Democrat senator Elizabeth Warren said that the Genius Act “lacks the basic safeguards necessary to ensure that stablecoins don’t blow up our entire financial system”.

She also argued that the issuance of stablecoins by private companies risked “concentrating too much economic power in the hands of a few”.

The crypto industry — including groups such as Coinbase, Binance and Crypto.com — faced a series of lawsuits under former president Joe Biden’s administration. During the second Trump presidency, those cases have all been dropped.

 The ‘Genius’ Act was signed into existence on 18 July 2025, which puts the Saturn Neptune conjunction in Aries in the 5^th house of speculation in an over hopeful, stop-start square to Jupiter in the 8^th house of business finances, along with Venus in Gemini.  An ambitious Mars in Virgo sits beside the South Node which could suggests a tendency to build castles in the air rather than ensuring the foundations are well-established.

    Alphard sits on the Midheaven which is in the Hydra constellation, the single star in the neck of the Water Snake. It has also been called the heart of the snake. On the positive side it can give wisdom, musical and artistic appreciation but in negative mode can lead to turbulence, lack of self-control, immorality, revolting deeds and self-destruction. ‘The danger is marked if either Sun, Moon, Mars, Neptune, Ascendant or MC are linked up with this star.’ (Astrology King.)

    The Cancer Sun is also exactly conjunct Procyon bringing a promise of wealth, fame, and good fortune but with the warning that any enterprise created in haste will not last. There is a tendency to a hot temper and impudence. Rise and success are found with it, but a later fall from high position is also indicated. (Astrology King) Fixed star Scheat is also in the speculative 5th house close to Saturn Neptune which in its negative mode is associated with shipwrecks.

The Part of Fortune is also conjunct the Midheaven which promises luck and success. My sense would be (but don’t bet on it!) that some will do well and others will be ruined.

PS. I really cannot get my head round crypto so more knowledgeable types do feel free to comment.

PPS. I adore Scrat from the movie cartoon Ice Age who is endlessly hunting a runaway acorn. Seems fitting.

Austrian Felix Baumgartner, the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound in 2012 after jumping out of a balloon 24 miles (39 kms) up in the air over New Mexico and smashing the record for the highest ever freefall, has died in a paragliding accident in Italy. According to media reports, he suffered a cardiac arrest while still in the air.

 Born 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria, he had an Aries/Taurus Sun conjunct Saturn in Aries on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Neptune sextile Uranus, South Node, Jupiter (Pluto) – super-confident from Jupiter Pluto and adventurous from Jupiter Uranus, self-willed and self-reliant with a focal point Sun and Saturn. His Mars was in a danger-attracting square to Pluto. He found his singular path in life when he started skydiving in the military at 16. He said: ‘The air is where I am at home’, and has “born to fly” tattooed on his arm. At that point tr Pluto just into Scorpio was opposing his Sun and triggering his yod apex.

Over the course of his career he set 14 world records, becoming the first person to jump from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue, the Millau Viaduct in France, the Turning Torso skyscraper in Sweden and Taiwan’s Taipei 101. He also became the first man to fly across the English Channel in a wingsuit in 2003.

  His chart has been stressed in recent times with tr Neptune Saturn opposing his Uranus with tr Pluto trine; and the past two years tr Pluto square his Sun.  So he had come a full Pluto quarter cycle from his teenage revelation about his life’s direction.  Tragic but oddly fitting.

Connie Francis, the American singer, who was the best selling performer in the late 1950s/early 1960s after Presley and The Beatles, with Stupid Cupid, Who’s Sorry Now?, and Lipstick on Your Collar, has died aged 87.

  From 1964, her career was blighted by a catalogue of personal tragedies including three divorces, two miscarriages, rape, mental breakdown and the violent death of two close relatives. After being arrested for assault, she admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital, having earlier been committed twice by her father who considered her behaviour “erratic and self-destructive”. Although she never recaptured her earlier success, a few months before her death she enjoyed an unexpected renaissance on TikTok, when her 1962 B-side Pretty Little Baby went viral with 10 billion views.

  Her biggest regret she said was “to have allowed my father to control my personal life. He was tyrannical.”

 She was born December 12 1937 7.28 am in Newark, New Jersey with her musical talent appearing when she was an infant.

 Her Sagittarius Sun was conjunct her Ascendant and square a musical Neptune in a creative and can-be-neurotic opposition to Saturn in regretful Pisces. Her Chiron was in her 7^th house of marriage opposition her Sun and square Saturn and Neptune. She also had a super-confident Jupiter in Capricorn opposition an 8^th house Pluto.

  Her 3^rd house Aries Moon was trine Venus. This would relate to her brother George Franconero Jr, to whom she was close, who would provide support in childhood. He was an attorney who had testified against mob activity, refused witness protection and was murdered in 1981 by Mafia hitmen. At that point her Solar Arc Mars was trine her Venus and conjunct her Moon for yet another shock.

 Before then in 1974 she was raped at knife point in a motel bedroom. She courageously went public about the assault and sued the motel chain, but developed agoraphobia and was unable to leave her home to perform. She also suffered from paranoia and believed that people were trying to kill her. At that point her Progressed Mars was square her Sun and opposition her Neptune.

 The compensation she won from the motel chain paid for a course of cosmetic rhinoplasty, but one operation on her nose resulted in long-term damage to her vocal cords.

 Her career stumbled through the 1980s with frequent hospitalizations and disastrous stage appearances though she wrote a memoir Who’s Sorry Now? which became a best seller and she worked to help other victims of violent crime. Through the 90s and on till her retirement in 2018 she revived her career and headlined in Vegas once more.

  Apart from the central Saturn opposition Neptune square Sun, two other points of note in her chart. One was her 8^th house Pluto making her feel trapped but also giving her influence.  The other was an unaspected Uranus in her 5^th which would tend to act in bursts of high-voltage energy but being unintegrated in her chart could also be disruptive.

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 The CIA rides high on Trump’s hate list as he considers the agency the beating heart of a “deep state” that is working to undermine him. The agency’s track record of past screw-ups is not such as to inspire respect anywhere but a new book points to the risks of putting “the instruments of American national security in the hands of crackpots and fools.” The author Tim Weiner, says “I’m not known as a great defender of the CIA but neither am I a defender of willful ignorance.” He says appointing “a coterie of dangerously incompetent and servile acolytes to the highest positions of national security” will blind them to a coming attack.

 Made all the more likely since allies may now be reluctant to share sensitive information with the US, given Trump’s on-off bro-romance with Putin and others; and his appointment of those like Tulsa Gabbard, who have had Russian connections.

 The CIA, 18 September 1947 12 am Washington, DC, is showing signs of significant panic at the moment with Solar Arc Mars conjunct the Neptune. And Solar Arc Neptune Mercury just over the opposition to Uranus.

 Trump’s relationship with the CIA is beyond hostile with a composite Saturn, Sun, Mars, Pluto square Jupiter – and they don’t get much worse than that – which is under increasing strain in 2026 and the years thereafter.

‘Following two impeachments (and two acquittals), an insurrection and another election, Trump is bent on revenge. The new director has also moved aggressively to implement a purge at Langley. “He’s attempting to rid the CIA of its most experienced officers and to impose ideological purity tests. “Ratcliffe said explicitly from the get-go that he aimed to align the leadership of the CIA with the president’s view of the world. Since the president’s view of the world is largely based on falsehoods and imaginary enemies, I think this will be an extremely difficult task.”

 Trump’s relationship with John Ratcliffe, 20 October 1945, a Sun Libra with a Mutable T square, the present CIA director, whom Weiner describes as “a spineless person who will do whatever Trump tells him to do” has a cheer-leading composite Jupiter, Sun, Pluto, Alphard conjunction.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/15/tim-weiner-cia-trump

While I understand some scepticism about the men in grey suits in the state sector, costing a fortune, often incompetent and rarely held accountable, Trump and others’ obsession with the ‘deep state’ is a psychological curiosity. Maybe connected to his Pluto in the 12^th which will give him deep-seated suspicions as well as a desire to wield secret power himself.

 Trump’s relationship chart with the US Federal Reserve which also appears to be in his crosshairs is equally toxic with a composite Saturn Pluto square Mars; and an evasive Sun Mercury Neptune conjunction.

 What maybe has not been taken on board sufficiently is Trump’s total lack of Earth signs. The ’deep state’ may be dodgy in areas but it is the machinery of government, what keeps it ticking over. He has no understanding of the nuts and bolts of a functioning system – to which he is taking a wrecking ball at the moment.  What happens when it all falls down?

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The UK Secret Intelligence Services (MI6) for overseas spooks, 4 July 1909 has a Cancer Sun conjunct a smokescreening Neptune; with a highly-strung, mystical/secretive streak and connection-to-foreign-countries Uranus opposition Neptune square Saturn in self-reliant Aries. Plus a ruthless, ultra-determined Mars square Pluto.  The Solar Arc Mars square Pluto is rattling up the natal Neptune opposition Uranus – notably in 2026 – but the specific challenges extending on with a peak over the turn of this decade for an edgier than usual phase.

 The relationship with the CIA, which is power-struggling for the upper hand at best, is in turmoil through this winter into early spring 2026 – with much confusion and emotional upsets.

MI5, the UK internal security service, 7 October 1909, has relatively similar placings with a Libra Sun opposition Saturn square Uranus opposition Neptune, also with Mars square Pluto. It looks embroiled in heated arguments at the moment and into 2026 with the Solar Arc Mars square SA Pluto colliding with its Mercury; and a fractious tr Saturn opposing the Mars and square the Pluto across the winter – late September to late January 2026.

 The MI5 relationship with the CIA is if anything more fraught – and has been since the 2024 election with tr Uranus conjunct the composite Mars Algol and square the composite Neptune, which last continues through this winter into spring 2026 – with confusion and suspicion reigning. 2026 to 2028 look to be an all time low in relations with an undermining and separating tr Neptune Saturn opposition the composite Sun and conjunct the composite Uranus. There was never much love lost but what little there was is on the ebb tide.

Mars Earth plus Air appears to be a recipe for multiple marriages and enduring, pro-active careers according to two showbusiness types in the news. One is ‘motormouth’ Janet Street Porter, English broadcaster, journalist, writer, media personality, at one point a BBC executive and then editor of the Independent. The other is Billy Joel, American singer, songwriter, and pianist, nicknamed the “Piano Man” who has had a successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s.

 Janet Street Porter 27 December 1946 12.30am, is about to launch a one woman stage show called Off the Leash and has been touting herself as “the nation’s favourite pissed-off pensioner”. In an interview she talked about how she “hated” her mother, tried to kill her sister and cheated on her four ex-husbands. One commentator said of her: “She is one of the giants of British media, and has always stood out – a loud-mouthed, working-class woman in an urbane, upper-middle-class men’s world; an aesthete with a love of pop culture and opera, often dismissed as a philistine because she was born with neither silver spoon nor plum in her mouth.”

She has a short-fused Sun Mars BML in Capricorn in her communicative and journalistic 3^rd house, with Mercury in outspoken Sagittarius also there. Her Sun Mars are in a publicity-attracting square to Neptune in her 1^st. Her Neptune is trine North Node Uranus in Gemini trine an Aquarius Moon in her entertaining and romantic 5^th house. Turned into an influential, not-to-say bulldozer Kite with Moon opposition Pluto Saturn in Leo (square Jupiter). Her mother does not come well out of a Moon Pluto Saturn. And her impatient, argumentative Sun Mars in her 3^rd house of siblings probably explains why she once tried to push her sister downstairs.

  Four marriages and divorces and countless publicized affairs have culminated in a 26 year partnership with a restaurateur. Settled at last.  

Billy Joel, 9 May 1949 9.30 am New York, was born into a musically-inclined family with his parents splitting when he was young. He has admitted to suicide attempts in his 20s and problems with alcohol, drugs and depression. He has a Taurus Sun and Mars, as well as Venus as befits a singer (Taurus rules the throat). His Mars is in an intense and frustrating/trapped square to Pluto and his Venus is square Saturn in Leo. He has an Air Grand Trine of a 4^th house Libra Moon and Neptune trine Mercury in Gemini trine a 7^th house Jupiter in Aquarius.

   There is not much obvious in the way of similarities between their temperaments but it is interesting to see how the Mars Earth plus Air Grand Trine they share has worked out – both in career endurance and romantic musical chairs until they finally settle down.

Ingmar Bergman, the film director, was widely hailed as a genius for The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and Fanny and Alexander amongst many others.  Martin Scorsese said “it’s impossible to overestimate the effect that Bergman’s films had on people”.  Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen both proclaimed him “the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera.”

  Like all creative types he had his dark side with allegations (from himself) that he raped a former partner; an arrest for tax evasion and his youthful adoration for Hitler, whom he mourned when he died. Bergman first saw Hitler when he was 16, on a school exchange trip to Germany in 1934 and described him as “unbelievably charismatic.” Bergman’s father was pro-Nazi who believed that Hitler was the answer to the world’s problems. Bergan said “The Nazism I had seen seemed fun and youthful. The big threat were the Bolsheviks, who were hated.”

 Yet he underwent a seismic shock in 1946 – “When the doors to the concentration camps were thrown open, at first I did not want to believe my eyes,” he would say. “When the truth came out it was a hideous shock for me. In a brutal and violent way I was suddenly ripped of my innocence.” “My feelings were overwhelming and I felt great bitterness towards my father and my brother and the schoolteachers and everyone else who’d led me into it. But it was impossible to get rid of the guilt and the self-contempt.”

It changed the course of his life and career and thereafter  many of his films and stage productions dealt explicitly with the evil caused by the Nazi regime.

 Bergman was born 14 July 1918 12.15am Uppsala, Sweden, and had a quick witted, communicative 3^rd house Cancer Sun with an independent-minded Uranus in his 10^th, a charming Venus in Gemini on his Ascendant; and a dynamic Mars in Libra in his entertaining 5^th in an ultra-, can-be-ruthless square to a super-confident Pluto Jupiter conjunction in Cancer. Mars Pluto is a hint of his experience of his father as is his 4^th house filled with deceptive, can-be-neurotic Neptune, Mercury, Saturn in Leo.

 Bergman’s Saturn in Leo exactly conjunct Lilith was also conjunct Hitler’s 10^th house Saturn with Hiter’s MC conjunct Bergman’s 4^th house Neptune; with Hitler’s Moon Jupiter in Capricorn falling in Bergman’s 8^th – so there would be a deep, nebulous and father-issue connection.

   Hitler’s Chiron was also closely conjunct Bergman’s Pluto which could be allied to Bergman’s healing journey after his youthful idealism was shattered. In this combination Pluto can show a poisoned Chiron that what they think is good isn’t so. And (in this case unwittingly) Chiron can activate Pluto’s desire for self-transformation, reminding Bergman that his Pluto (= power) could be a force for evil and would hold him back.

 What interested me was what was going on in Bergman’s chart when his misplaced idealism (devotion) of Hitler flipped to total disillusionment.

 At that point tr Uranus was crossing his Ascendant setting him off on a new path and one where the views of others would not be so persuasive.  Tr Pluto was also wading its way through his 4^th house pulling him away from past family attitudes and father, having just made the disorientating conjunction to Neptune and then on to Mercury. Tr Saturn was also conjunct his Solar Arc South Node and Sun – also a separating aspect from father and unevolved attitudes.

 His relationship chart with Hitler at the point of his unwelcome realization had tr Uranus conjunct the composite Pluto for a total upheaval. Tr Saturn conjunct the composite Mars for anger. Tr Pluto moving into the composite 8^th aiming to conjunct the composite Saturn for a period of deep depression.