Carl Reiner, one of the towering greats of American comedy has died aged 98. He was best known as creator of the Dick Van Dyke Show which won 15 Prime Time Emmy awards, six of which went to him as writer and producer. He then collaborated with Mel Brooks on The 2000 Year Old Man, a largely improvised show in which a deadpan Reiner interviewed Brooks to reflect on what he’d seen in his two-millennia life. They remained friends to the end.
Reiner was born on March 20 1922 in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents, who took him every week to the movies. He entertained troops during WW11 and afterwards had his big break in 1950 in his TV debut as second banana in Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows.
He had a last degree Pisces Sun opposition Saturn square Pluto, a hint of his determined personality and upbringing in tough conditions through the depression. What softened the hard edges of that Saturn Pluto was Venus Chiron in Aries opposition Jupiter North Node in Libra square Pluto – so he could see light in darkness and vice versa. He also had an inspirational Fire Grand Trine of Mars in lively Sagittarius in a showbizzy trine to Neptune trine Venus Chiron. That was formed into an even more talented Kite by Venus opposition Saturn Jupiter. He’d be immensely hard-working as well as lucky.
Mel Brooks who latterly visited him regularly at home to swap jokes was born 28 June 1926. He’s also got a tough chart with a Sun Pluto in Cancer square Mars (Uranus), a testament to a childhood where his father died very young. he was bullied and learned to use comedy to protect himself.
Reiner had Mercury in Pisces conjunct Uranus trine Pluto and quincunx Saturn – quirky, punchy and serious. Brooks has Mercury in Cancer trine Uranus and trine Saturn – so not that dissimilar.
Two of a kind and now one gone. But a good life, fully lived.
David Starkey, the historian, an expert on the Tudors of 16th Century England, holds views on race which are equally stuck back in the ignorant past. Students and staff at Cambridge University have been campaigning for years to get him dropped for his racist views and his latest outburst saying there are “so many damn blacks” in Britain and Africa on a right-wing online discussion forum could see his honorary fellowship removed.
For years he’s been a regular contributor to The Moral Maze and Question Time as well as fronting popular history documentaries and clearly loves stoking up attention-grabbing controversies with his acerbic contrariness.
Born 3 January 1945 in Kendal, England, he has an ambitious Capricorn Sun opposition Saturn square Neptune which will make him oddly impractical and evasive for a Capricorn. What more likely marks out his individuality is his Sun on the focal point of a Yod to Uranus sextile Pluto which will give him problems modulating his ego-drives – half the time low in self-esteem and the other half bombastic and a blowhard especially with Uranus Pluto fuelling his need to stand out from the crowd.
Plus an argumentative Mercury in Sagittarius conjunct Mars and in an overly confident square to Jupiter. Sakoian & Acker remark that the Mars square Jupiter can be destructive because it uses collective power for self-aggrandisement. It can be hypocritical, extremist in views, constantly looking for windmills to tilt against.
His Yod is getting an almighty jolt right now from tr Uranus square Pluto knocking on one leg; and the Lunar Eclipse conjunct his focal point Sun. Last month’s Cancer Solar Eclipse opposed his Mars which is inflammatory. Plus he has a car-crash Solar Arc Sun square his Mars now and his Progressed Mars conjunct his Venus – his engine would be running extra hot.
He was an accident waiting to happen and should have been removed long since. The media are partly to blame since they love controversialists who can stir up noise. Heaven forfend that they should hold calm, reasoned discussions.
Ghislaine Maxwell has been arrested by the FBI in New Hampshire and faces charges of assisting Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minors by helping to recruit and groom victims known to be underage; and is also charged on two counts of perjury. Audrey Strauss, US Attorney for the SDNY said: “Maxwell lied because the truth, as alleged, was almost unspeakable.”
The full charges are stomach churning – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53268218
Born 25 December 1961 3.20pm Maison Lafitte France, she has her Capricorn Sun conjunct Mars and Mercury, all in the intense and can-be-sexual 8th house. Those planets trine a 4th house Uranus Pluto in Virgo, a hint of her erratic and unpredictable father and childhood. Her Leo Moon in the 4th points not only at her affection for her father but also at a need to live life the five-star way.
Her Jupiter in Aquarius is conjunct her Midheaven which usually indicates a high status in life, though it can also point to an inflated desire for importance. Her Jupiter squares onto Neptune which is unrealistic, can bring emotional excess, laziness and an unfulfilled life.
Her 9th house Saturn is undergoing its Second Return which is usually a sobering time for facing reality ahead. The triple conjunction of Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter are all moving through her 9th house, which rules legal matters. Tr Uranus is just into her 12th house for several years ahead which can be psychologically unsettling.
The June Cancer Solar Eclipse was opposition her Sun Mars for a crisis and a collision. And her Progressed Moon is exactly square her Mars now suggesting her arrest was a shock. Though oddly, tr Uranus is exactly square her Jupiter now which usually points to relief of tension. Maybe she was tired of hiding and running. Though it’s also opposition her Mercury/Pluto midpoint which suggests acute mental strain. And her Solar Arc Pluto is square her Midheaven which can bring downfall and disgrace.
Her Solar Arc Pluto is also just over the square to her Jupiter now which can give a surge of confidence but it can also lead to disputes with authorities. And her Solar Arc Jupiter will square her Mercury within months which is usually upbeat as well. So all quite strange astrologically. Maybe she’s hopeful her little black book of VIPs will protect her or give her a deal.
The December Sagittarius Eclipse will conjunct her Venus for an emotional upset with a truly difficult Solar Return from December 2020 having a trapped, scary 8th house Mars square Pluto.
2021 looks very highly strung and by 2022 she’s running into the buffers with her Solar Arc Saturn square her Mars. And 2022/23 will be exceedingly depressing with tr Pluto conjunct her Saturn. With a good deal of mental strain when her Solar Arc Mercury opposes her Pluto in 2022 as well.
Prince Andrew’s chart looks very nerve-stretched exactly now with tr Uranus opposition his 4th house Neptune and this week’s Lunar Eclipse conjunct his Saturn bringing chickens home to roost. He is anyway labouring through a career and reputation damaging two years with tr Pluto square his Midheaven. Followed by an emotionally devastating and aggravated 2022/23 as tr Pluto is conjunct his Mars Venus in Capricorn.
His relationship chart with Ghislaine is on red alert at the moment with the Lunar eclipse being conjunct the composite Mars (which is tied into Venus, Jupiter Saturn) – so quite a jolt. With the prospect of a major calamity now and on and off into 2021.
Though like her he has a reasonable amount of Jupiter in his case a year or two years ahead so he may slide out from under the worst of it.
This is a few random thoughts on the progression of women’s rights and following that gay rights to see if it makes any sense of this trans furore. Uranus Pluto aspects appear to play a significant part, either stirring up rebellion in advance of legislation or being at the centre of the action.
Pluto is about power and control – Uranus fights for freedom and tolerance.
In England, the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 was a giant step forward since before then women were regarded as their husband’s subordinate, could not own property in their own right and had no legal identity. The Act was made law in England as Pluto just dipped a toe into Gemini having been square Uranus during the years of political lobbying.
Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Suffragette movement in 1903 which advocated direct action and civil disobedience as the Uranus in Sagittarius opposition Pluto in Gemini was in place.
She was born 15 July 1858 9.30 pm Manchester and was a matriarchal Sun Cancer trine a courageously and vengefully determined Mars in Scorpio. Her Virgo Moon opposed Neptune and was trine Uranus; and she had an unyielding Saturn square Pluto. It’s not as descriptive a chart as I might have expected though her get-it-together 5th Harmonic is powerfully talented and ruthless. And her leaving-a-legacy 17H is inspirational, healing and uber-ambitious.
Really it was World War 1 and astrologically speaking tr Pluto through Cancer (1914 to 1938) which made the difference to women getting the vote. Pluto transformed the family, domestic life and women’s lives putting them more on a par with men. Gradually most countries in dribs and drabs started to give women the vote – with France being a laggard, waiting till 1944 (typical).
The sexual revolution of the 1960s with the free-ing of women’s sexuality came in the midst of the febrile Uranus Pluto conjunction in Virgo. It had been spurred into existence by the earlier writings of anthropologist Margaret Mead (a Sun Uranus opposition Pluto) and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. Oddly enough both their research was heavily questioned in later years but they managed to nonetheless to shift the zeitgeist.
The Sexual Offences Act in England in 1967, a surprisingly liberal piece of legislation decriminalising male homosexuality came with Uranus Pluto conjunction still in place.
The Stonewall Riots in 1969 New York which were a spontaneous and violent expression of protest against the USA’s attitudes towards gay rights, established a cohesive LGBT community for the first time. It broke out as Uranus just over the conjunction to Pluto put a toe into Libra, opening up a new view of relationship.
The Stonewall charity in the UK which campaigns for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and has been a vocal, some would argue divisive force in the trans debate was founded 24 May 1989 with the Uranus, Neptune, Saturn triple conjunction in Capricorn in place.
Bev Jackson, a co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front, said: “They [Stonewall] have chosen to prioritise trans people and have almost abandoned their original mission: protecting people who are same-sex attracted. “Almost 10,000 people have signed our petition – asking for calm, respectful discussion. Stonewall has stonewalled us every time.”
Academics have also accused Stonewall of censoring debate on gender identity and suppressing academic freedom. Many feminists believe hard-won rights for women should remain ring-fenced for those born into that gender, pitting former allies against each other in the battle for rights.
Which astrologically speaking takes us back to Uranus Neptune. See previous post on JK Rowling June 8 2020 below.
Mermaids, another UK charity, for parents of transgender children, was also set up in 1995 under the Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn. It has been criticised for advocating that puberty blockers can be given to 12 year olds who say they are trans gender and that such hormones are reversible which scientists dispute. And there has also been disquiet about their view that any child who declares they are trans must be treated as such without examining any possible underlying issues, such as frequently undiagnosed autism, depression or sexual abuse.
The transgender debate was undoubtedly spurred on by the Uranus Pluto square of 2012 to 2016, but the undercurrent of vehement hostility to any other viewpoint is almost certainly rooted in Uranus Neptune. It tends to adhere to opinions with an almost fanatical zeal even in the face of incontrovertible evidence that they are wrong or at least open to interpretation. Those who were born with that chart marker – the Generation Zers, 1995 to 2003, are the non-binary advocates.
The trans war as a cultural phenomenon is puzzling and will no doubt at some point give way to more moderate and inclusive debate which allows for other viewpoints.
Any thoughts welcome – as long as they don’t rant and rave, in which case they’ll disappear.
Add on: Uranus Neptune like all astro-combinations has a positive and negative side. In the past it has been associated with religious art and enlightened civilizations. It can be inspirational with high ideals and soaring vision. What it can lack is common sense. With no Earth grounding and no limits, it can rise to magnificent achievements; or it can foster irrational fanatical thinking, so extreme that it misleads. Uranus can be uncompromising in its forceful push for change and breaking with the past.
Heresy is part of the rebellious Uranus story, but so is fanatical repression: the Spanish Inquisition was set up under a Uranus Neptune. In 1989 with Uranus Neptune together in Capricorn fervent beliefs leading to fanaticism were clear in the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa (death threat) against Salman Rushdie. It was still in place in 1993 and 1994 when two extremist cults hit the headlines: the David Koresh fundamentalist cult at Waco in Texas was besieged by the FBI, and deaths ensued; and there were multiple suicides and murders among Solar Temple cult members in Switzerland and Canada, who believed they would be reincarnated on Sirius.
Pluses and minuses – just depends how it plays out.
The ongoing Huawei saga chops and changes in the USA with Trump blocking and then opening trade and Huawei sanction talks with China depending on the news cycle. Boris Johnson is expected to abandon plans to incorporate Huawei technology in the rollout of its 5G network, having faced strong opposition in the Conservative Party, as well as public disillusionment with Beijing because of the pandemic and now the Hong Kong clampdown.
There have been serious cybersecurity concerns because of the close connection between Huawei and the Chinese government with fears that it would allow Beijing global access for surveillance purposes. It is the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world and sells its products in 170 countries.
It was founded on 15 September 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, who was a military technologist with the People’s Liberation Army and because of his background he has been rewarded with Chinese government contracts.
If accurate, the Huawei chart indicates a rocky road ahead with a disruptive tr Uranus opposition Pluto in 2020/early 2021; a devastating Solar Arc Neptune square Pluto within months; and an undermining tr Neptune opposition Sun and square Uranus in 2021. 2022/23 it has tr Pluto square Jupiter for a confident push back but then runs into two poleaxing Solar Arcs in 2024 and 2025 of Pluto square Mars and then Saturn, which look devastating and destructive.
Ren Zhengfei, 25 October 1944, is a ruthlessly determined Sun, Mercury, Mars in Scorpio square Pluto trine Saturn. He’s struggling under similarly sticky and discouraging influences now and ahead with an upheaval from tr Uranus square Pluto this month onwards, and a sagging tr Neptune opposition his Sun/Pluto midpoint 2020/21; plus a blocked Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his Sun in 2025.
Meng Wanzhou, 13 February 1972. His daughter and CFO of Huawei was arrested in Canada in late 2018 on a US extradition request and has been indicted by the US DoJ on trade secrets theft charges. She could potentially face 10 years in prison.
Her chart has some highs and confidence surges ahead as well as a few panicky moments; but she looks in good spirit in 2022/23 with tr Pluto conjunct her Sun/Jupiter midpoint – so her immediate predicament may be resolved.
Another amuse-bouche on the subject of astro-twins. Novelist Dan Brown, now dubbed the Da Vinci Cad was born three days after Boris Johnson and shares many similar chart – and temperamental – features.
Brown, author of the mega-successful if much derided Da Vinci Code novels which generated even more cash as they turned into Tom Hanks blockbuster movies has been condemned by his ex-wife in a legal suit. She claimed that for years unbeknownst to her he “conducted sordid extra-marital affairs with women — one half his age — and to pursue a clandestine life.’ While she believed their relationship was ‘based on mutual trust, respect and honesty’, for years the author ‘engaged in a systematic pattern of deception and lies’, the suit adds.
Brown, born 22 June 1964, dabbled in the music business, became a teacher after he married Blythe who was 12 years older in his early thirties, had little success with his first three novels but his fourth, produced and marketed with his wife’s help, The Da Vinci Code, became one of the most popular books of all time, selling 100 million copies.
Despite public acclaim (much like Fifty Shades of Grey) the critics were uniformly scathing: “his ambition wildly exceeds his ability.” “Complaining that Brown can’t write is like complaining that crisps are crunchy. And you know what? It doesn’t really matter at all. The book is fun in its galumphing way.” “… terribly written book, which is nevertheless a page-turner and will make bucketloads of cash.”
Brown differs from Boris with an early Cancer rather than a late Gemini Sun, but he shares the social-butterfly Venus Mercury in Gemini, and the scattergun Mutable T Square of Saturn opposition Uranus Pluto square Mars in Gemini. And they both have that super-optimistic, not always realistic Jupiter in indulgent Taurus opposition Neptune. Ebertin describes the Jupiter Neptune combination thus: ‘Visionaries, dreamers, mystics, hypocrites, speculators – scandal which is caused through one’s own instability.’
If anything Brown is even more of a windmill in a storm than Boris with a Sagittarius Moon almost certainly tied in to his Mutable T Square.
The June Cancer Solar Eclipse is conjunct Brown’s Sun and North Node in Cancer and is also in orb to Boris’s late Gemini Sun and North Node – lighting up a crisis path ahead in the coming months. The December Sagittarius Eclipse will also cause upset to both as it is opposition their Venus Mercury and Boris’s Sun.
A surfeit of Gemini and Mutable does not lend itself to a settled life of ploughing the same furrow endlessly. Venus in Gemini especially with a pleasure-loving Jupiter in Taurus will also incline towards a wandering eye.
What is marginally strange is that both Boris and Brown and indeed Trump, who shares some of the same Geminian traits, have all done spectacularly well despite scorn being poured on their talents and having been found out as fantasists/and or somewhat lax in their relationship with the truth.
How do you budge a defiant and stubborn-the-nth-degree double Taurus with four planets in Scorpio and Jupiter in materially ambitious Capricorn? Use money as a leverage. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg who started as defiant in the face of criticism has been making more placatory noises since Facebook dropped in market value as more advertisers joined the boycott of the social network, tired of the inaction over racist and violent posts. To date mainly big name brands have pulled back although they only bring in 6 percent of the company’s total ad revenue last year – $4.2 billion out of the total $70 billion. More than 70 percent of Fb’s ad revenue comes from small businesses and it has yet to be apparent whether there will be a trickle-down effect. Sceptics of the boycott have suggested that the companies participating are using the effort to deflect attention from how their advertising budgets have been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Facebook said in a statement that it had invested billions of dollars in technology and employees to sort through content, and it had banned 250 white supremacist organizations from its core Facebook site and its photo-sharing site, Instagram.
Zuckerburg, 14 May 1984 Boston, MA, was always going to be facing a catastrophe now with tr Uranus opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint till early July, repeating in October and March of 2021; with a difficult opposition from the June Cancer Solar Eclipse to his Neptune, hinting that burying his head in the sand and evading issues wasn’t going to work. His Uranus in Sagittarius and Node in Gemini are also going to be triggered by this year and next’s Eclipses, so it’ll be a challenging time, forcing him to rethink his outlook. Tr Uranus is also this year opposition his Saturn/Pluto midpoint, another disaster-bringer, which will linger around till early 2021.
Nick Clegg, FB’s Communications Director, has also been under attack and his Capricorn Sun square Mars is being triggered by the Lunar Eclipse this week. He’s on a long slide of tr Neptune opposing his Pluto, then conjunct his Saturn and opposition his Uranus over the next three years – at the same time as transiting Neptune is eroding the foundations of his cosy relationship with Zuckerburg with the composite Sun Venus being dissolved by a transiting conjunction.
The FB 4 February 2004 chart is being severely shaken up by Solar Arc Sun conjunct Uranus now and a muddled and evasive Solar Arc Mercury conjunct Neptune. The December and 2021 Eclipses will rattle the FB Pluto with tr Neptune in square in 2021 and then conjunct the financial Venus by 2022 – so it could potentially be a financially damaging time.
However the FB IPO chart of 14 May 2012 looks in robust spirits with Jupiter and Sun picking up the transiting Pluto trine and across the midpoint 2020 to 2023. Admittedly there’s a financially problematic Solar Arc Jupiter square its Neptune in 2021 but it may well survive the onslaught in better shape than some might wish.
Mississippi has dropped the Confederate battle flag symbol from the state flag, the last remaining state to do so. A statewide referendum in 2001 voted overwhelmingly to preserve it despite 4 in 10 residents being black but opinion shifted after a white supremacist’s massacre of nine black parishioners at a church in Charleston, S.C. His manifesto was riddled with images of the Confederate battle flag. The recent killing of George Floyd pushed the issue to the top of the agenda.
Background for non-Americans (wiki) – the Confederacy existing between 1861 to 1865, was formed by secession of seven slave-holding states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas whose economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture, particularly cotton, and a plantation system that relied upon the labour of African-American slaves. Convinced that white supremacy and slavery were threatened by the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency the Confederate states rebelled which led to the American Civil War. In a speech known today as the Cornerstone Address, Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens described its ideology as being centrally based “upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition”. Lincoln was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer in 1865.
Mississippi, 10 December 1817, has a stellium of Uranus, Sun, Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury in Sagittarius. With all these planets being opposition Mars in Gemini square Pluto in Pisces, with Saturn also in Pisces. Highly-strung, self-righteous, opinionated, controlling, a malcontent prone to anger and hostility. Although heavily Mutable, it’s not an adaptable temperament with such an afflicted Pluto.
The American Civil War started with the North Node retrograding through Capricorn and was fought mainly under transiting North Node in Sagittarius. That keyed in with the chart of Robert E Lee, Commander of the Confederate Army, 19 January 1807 11.45pm Stratford Hall, VA, a Sun Jupiter in Capricorn whose Node was in Sagittarius at the same degree as the Mississippi Sun. His Sun Jupiter was conjunct the USA 1776 Pluto in Capricorn opposition Mercury in Cancer – so hooking into that fanatical streak in the USA temperament.
Moving ahead, Mississippi has a surfeit of Neptune transits to slog through in square to the Sun, then a financial-bubble-bursting square to Jupiter in 2021 and a devastating conjunction to the Pluto running into 2022 which will be a deflating time. With the additional woe of a confidence-denting Solar Arc Saturn square Jupiter, then a panicky square to Neptune, Mercury and a blocked opposition to Pluto between 2021 and 2023 – perhaps more economic than anything else.
Graham Linehan’s trajectory from much-loved comedy writer of Father Ted and the IT Crowd to a hated and permanently banned Twitter-ranter has bemused onlookers. He’s an outspoken liberal: a self-professed supporter of feminism, opponent of harassment of women in the gaming industry, a critic of Brexit who has spoken out about anti-Semitism. But he became embroiled in the trans debate after a 2013 episode of The IT Crowd was criticised for transphobic jokes and over the years has become more vociferous, some say bullying in defence of his position.
He wrote “I believe trans people – those unfortunate enough to suffer body dysphoria – are having their condition exploited and trivialised by abusive, controlling and authoritarian trans rights activists. And I think women and children are suffering because of it.” He says trans activism has aggressively shut down debates and is misogynistic and erasing women’s and children’s rights.
Born 22 May 1968 in Dublin, he’s a vocal and argumentative Sun Mars in Gemini; with Mercury also in communicative Gemini in an intense and obstinate square to Pluto and outspoken Uranus. He has a Fixed T Square of Venus in Taurus opposition Neptune square Jupiter in Leo – such a Fixed Jupiter can be self-righteous and intolerant of other views and Venus in Taurus tends to be unbudgeable over emotional matters.
He’s also got a problematic Yod of Pluto Uranus sextile Neptune inconjunct Saturn in Aries which does require maturity and self-discipline to operate at its full potential. Plus another Yod of Mercury sextile Saturn inconjunct Neptune – such a Neptune can be emotionally disorganized and self-defeating.
His Aries Moon may or may not be conjunct his Aries North Node and sextile his Sun Venus but it’s not that well integrated into his chart.
It’s not that I don’t agree with his generally stated views (not having seen any of his twitter tirades) but the mystery is why he has walked himself up a cul-de-sac which will over-shadow his career. It’s not that good fights don’t have to be fought – in protecting vulnerable women’s spaces and ensuring children aren’t pushed into irrevocable gender changes before they are mature enough to decide – but his strategies are clearly not working and volunteering to be in the middle of a twitter tornado is insane.
His Solar Arc Sun is exactly square his focal point Saturn this year which may bring a sobering reality and the need for a rethink. His Solar Arc Saturn has been moving across the conjunction to his Sun and Mars throughout this past seven-year battle which would tune up his need to argue every point. Over the next two years he’ll be slipping and slithering under Neptunian transits to various midpoints as well as one leg of his Yod. With tr Pluto trine his Uranus, also a Yod leg, from early 2021 to late 2022 – for more upheavals and also more personal insight. He may emerge as tr Pluto moves towards Aquarius to trine his Sun by 2024 a transformed personality.
