Surreal comedian Terry Jones, a driving force behind Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the movie The Life of Brian, has died. He was the most scholarly of the Pythons, writing books on Chaucer, presenting History Channel documentaries about gladiators, the crusades and barbarians. He was born 1 February 1942 11am Colwyn Bay, Wales with a bank clerk father. At Oxford University he met Michael Palin and started his performing career, which after Python success led onto directing two of the movies.
In 2005 he left his wife of 26 years to live with and eventually marry a Swedish student, who was 41 years his junior. In recent years he suffered from frontotemporal dementia that impaired his ability to communicate.
He was a charming and eccentric 11th house Sun Venus in Aquarius opposition a Leo Moon and Pluto in the performing 5th house with his Sun Venus in a confident trine to Jupiter as well. Certainly intense, attention-grabbing but never entirely sure what he wanted with a Full Moon and not an easy temperament. His Sun was also in a full-on, upfront square to Mars in heavyweight Taurus; with Saturn Uranus also in Taurus in an outspoken square to his Mercury and in a creative trine to Neptune.
He had erratic Uranus and extravagant Jupiter in his financial 2nd house, which led him to rollick through the Python millions forcing him latterly to agree to a stage appearance in 2014 for money which turned out to be an embarrassment.
Michael Bentine of the Goons, who preceded Monty Python in off-the-wall humour, was also a Sun, Venus and Mercury in Aquarius – 26 January 1922 3am Watford, England..
Luvvie land is all atwitter since a spawn of a revered acting dynasty went off reservation and blasted the new ‘woke’ culture on racism and sexism. Laurence Fox’s eruption on Question Time was not to the liking of the notoriously left-wing union Equity but he has gained sympathisers amongst those relieved that finally someone had the guts to say what they’ve been thinking.
Born 26 May 1978, his father James Fox is an actor as is his uncle Edward Fox and cousins Emilia and Freddie Fox. His uncle Robert and grandfather are/were theatrical agents. He’s best known for playing Detective Hathaway in Lewis for nine years till 2015 but has only appeared sporadically since and has dabbled in music with two albums without much success to excoriatingly bad reviews.
He’s a Sun Gemini with maybe an Aquarius Moon which latter might make sense of a controversialist. But what really lights his fuse is a Mercury in Taurus opposition Uranus square Mars (Saturn) in Leo – so he will be short-tempered, inclined to blurt out his opinions without much thought. He’s also got a pushily-confident Pluto square Jupiter (Venus) in Cancer.
He’s looking fairly wound up at the moment with a Solar Arc Sun square Pluto and a Solar Arc Pluto approaching the square to his Saturn over the next few months.
Climate change is no laughing matter but there is something deliciously funny about Greta Thunberg facing off Trump. Called the ‘tiny Swedish climate change demon’ by Australian cartoonist First Dog on the Moon, she has perfected her death stare for the denier-in-chief’s benefit. At Davos he is decrying ‘the prophets of doom’. She later responded saying the world “in case you hadn’t noticed, is currently on fire.”.
And their charts are a masterclass in synastry. Her deeply serious Saturn in Gemini opposition Pluto sits on top of and squelches his Sun Uranus opposition Moon. Her reforming Uranus opposes his Mars Ascendant for an explosive chemistry – with her unbudgeable Mars Venus in Scorpio square his Mars and on his IC. Her idealistic and tricky-to-pin-down Neptune opposes and undermines his 12th house need-to-be-in-control Pluto.
Their relationship chart has an argumentative and competitive composite Sun trine Neptune and opposition Mars with a downbeat square onto Saturn perhaps opposition the composite Moon; and Mars in a hostile, power-struggling conjunction to Pluto.
The fateful day is approaching at speed as Boris Johnson merrily hums ‘Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go.’ 11pm London time on January 31 is when the UK officially leaves the EU (give or take a transition period or several)
This puts the Saturn Pluto conjunction on the IC with Pluto in Capricorn exactly opposition the Midheaven, exact to within minutes of a degree. Uncompromising, unco-operative Uranus is close to the final degree Aries Moon in the 7th square Saturn Pluto for a sombre and unsentimental mood.
The Moon Uranus is also on the focal point of a T Square to MC opposition Saturn (Pluto). A final degree anaretic Moon in Aries will exhibit the most extreme attributes of the sign and house which will double or treble up with it being focal point – so hyper-sensitive and overly impulsive. It’ll veer between dither and delay and reckless action. What’s also odd is Moon in the 7th is dependent on partners, yet Uranus is the opposite. So there’s great ambiguity in the chart.
Mars is in a publicity-grabbing and impulsive but not too realistic square to Neptune and Venus.
On the UK chart tr Uranus is still sextile the Pluto until early February which looks too mild to cause this kind of disruption, but obviously not. There’s also confusion and uncertainty from tr Neptune square the Solar Arc Mercury; and Solar Arc North Node conjunct the 2nd house financial Neptune. The country isn’t half as gung-ho as the present No 10 resident and his mad Svengali adviser.
In typical braggadocio fashion Trump has gone for two celebrity lawyers to beef up his Impeachment defence team, though how much they will contribute isn’t clear.
Alan Dershowitz, 1 September 1938 11.28pm New York, over a long career has defended the likes of Claus Bulow and Jeffrey Epstein, cutting the latter a sweetheart deal that allowed him to treat a brief prison term as a home from home.
And Kenneth Starr, 21 July 1946 6.45pm Vernon, Texas, who led the impeachment process against Bill Clinton. A former political counsellor said of him: “Whether it was representing Big Tobacco, obsessing about President Clinton’s sex life or disgracing himself in the Baylor rape scandal, Ken Starr has always been on the wrong side of history, ethics, and common decency.” He resigned as president of Baylor University after an investigation found the university mishandled accusations of sexual assault against members of the football team.
Dershowitz has his opportunistic Jupiter opposition Mars in Leo close allied to Trump’s Mars in Leo and his Neptune square Trump’s Sun and Moon. Not ideal and can get overly intense with a power-struggling composite Sun, Pluto, Mercury in the relationship chart. That is being rattled by tr Saturn opposition the composite Sun late March; and square the composite Mercury Pluto mid March into April – so it could get stormy with vehement outbursts.
Dershowitz’s personal chart indicates a less than rapturous mood first week of February with tr Saturn square his Venus; followed by a ‘violent dispute’ into early March with high tension and unwillingness to bend to anyone else’s will; with a stuck tr Saturn opposition Pluto late March. His real catastrophes pick up from spring 2021 onwards which will see a series of disastrous looses and problems.
Kenneth Starr, born only a few weeks after Trump, is a Sun Saturn in Cancer, with three (nearly four) planets in the 8th so an intense personality, not always rational. He has a panicky-failure set of Neptunian sinkers in opposition to his Mars and square his Uranus from late February through April; and again September to late February 2021.
Of the other lawyers:
Pat Cippolone, 6 May 1966, a formidably tough Sun, Mars in Taurus opposition Neptune and trine Uranus Pluto, hasn’t much showing till late April but then he’s sagging badly on and off into 2021; with some triumphs in June. But out of sorts with Trump late March and April to June.
Pam Bondi, 17 November 1965, a Sun Neptune in Scorpio, is in trouble with Trump earlier from February 20th into March and beyond; and her personal chart is in a slump from late February through a series of disaster-prone influence through till April and worse in July – repeating on and off later.
Robert Ray, 4 April 1960, an Aries Sun trine Uranus and square Saturn in Capricorn, is slipping, sliding and losing concentration from late January right through February with tr Neptune conjunct his Mercury with a panicky dip mid February, some confidence boosts at the same time running into March; but disastrous influences June onwards.
The Royal foot has come down hard saying to Harry and Meghan, there is no halfway house. If you want out to earn from commercial activities, then you need to go – minus royal titles, no Royal duties, splitting Harry away from his military connections.
He looks panicked, uncertain and undermined as well as confused with tr Neptune square his Mars till late this month, then square his Solar Arc Saturn in February – with a conflicted tr Pluto opposition his Sun/Moon midpoint, on and off all year, putting a strain on his marriage and his mental state bringing inner turmoil. Tr Saturn will also make a blocked square to his Pluto in March, June and December. His Progressed Moon stays in his 8th till mid 2021 which is also a discouraging time of searching for new values and swinging from extreme to extreme. Tr Neptune then returns to oppose his Virgo Sun in 2021/22 which will be debilitating. Plus he has tr Saturn moving downwards through his 1st quadrant for a decade to come which is usually a less visible time but one in which unresolved psychological issues surface to be resolved – that especially in 2021/22.
Even Meghan looks shaken by the turn of events, not quite what she’d planned going by the statement of intent she and Harry had issued. Tr Neptune has been chipping away at her confidence and power since mid-December in opposition to her Sun/Pluto midpoint; and she looks grumpy and bad-tempered from exactly now ahead till late February and repeating on and off all year from tr Pluto opposition her Mercury/Mars midpoint. Late February and March, as well as October to January 2021 sees tr Neptune opposing her Mars/Uranus midpoint which Ebertin describes as: “cunning and deceitfulness, overtaxing strength.’ Her Progressed Moon is exactly now moving through her 8th house to stay till late 2021 which will be stressful financially as well as emotionally. She will have some luck where business finances are concerned in 2021 but thereafter for two years tr Saturn through her 8th will bring shortages and less generous support.
But she’s in a much more ambitious phase than Harry and aiming upwards for the next decade plus.
Their relationship chart has that awkward family-problem composite Moon square Saturn Pluto which is getting the tr Saturn separation-with-difficulty transits this year and tr Pluto bringing considerable pressure on their domestic and emotional life from late this March through till 2024.
It does rather beg the question of why the odious Prince Andrew has been left for so many years raking in personal money from his exotic connections while glad-handing round the world at taxpayer expense. Which may have given Meghan the idea she could do the same. Though with luck this kerfuffle will speed along his complete forced retirement from any such opportunities ahead.
++ Though not quite yet as he appears at the Queen’s side at church this morning. She really has a total blind spot about him. The first week of February might take the shine off her good feelings about him; with late March onwards into April bringing a worsening sense of uncertainty. The major blow up between them comes late May onwards. Prince William isn’t a fan and he’s putting more clear water between himself and his renegade uncle from late March onwards. Prince Charles is equally not a supporter and his relationship with his brother moves into uncharted territory after a huge upheaval from late March onwards. That is when tr Pluto starts to square Andrew’s Midheaven, on and off till late 2021, which is often a fall from grace – further!
“The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.” Plato.
William Barr, Trump’s Attorney General, written off by Nancy Pelosi as “rogue”, a proven liar and obfuscator over the Mueller Report and the FBI and now implicated in the Ukraine dirty dealings leading to impeachment, appears to be a fundamentalist Christian as well. Words fail me.
Prominent liberal Catholics warned he poses a threat to the separation of church and state and democracy, after he delivered a fire and brimstone speech recently to a Catholic University on religious freedom in which he insisted that “the traditional Judeo-Christian moral system” of the USA was under siege by “militant secularists” who were responsible for every sort of “social pathology”, including drug abuse, rising suicide rates and illegitimacy. He did not address the fact that many of the policies of the Trump administration are strongly opposed by the Vatican. One commentator said: “At least it helps me understand why Barr has been so willing to put his own reputation on the line to defend Trump so fiercely in every battle. Trump is Barr’s imperfect vessel in serving a much higher cause: the gospel.”
Barr has denied being a member of the ultra-conservative Opus Dei, though he has served on the board of its affiliate the Catholic Information Service, along with Leonard Leo, the man most responsible for putting Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the supreme court.
Salon remarked in outrage: “Bill Barr may be the most unvetted attorney general in history, which is strange since he had served as AG under George H.W. Bush and was well known in DC circles. How could he have been confirmed as the nation’s top law enforcement official when nobody knew that he was a far-right religious extremist on a mission to use the law and the executive power to enforce a moral code?”
Born 23 May 1950 in New York. He is a Sun Gemini in an expansive square to Jupiter in Pisces with Jupiter in a see-saw opposition to Saturn; with a stubborn Mercury in Taurus trine Saturn and Mars in Virgo and square Pluto (Moon) in Leo – not a man who easily changes his mind. His Venus in Aries opposes Neptune in trine/sextile to Pluto. It’s a chart that needs a birth time to anchor it since otherwise it’s all over the place.
His ‘seeking soul’ though can-be-unstable 7th Harmonic is strong and ruthless. His self-defeating 10H is also strong. Worryingly so is his leaving-a-legacy 17H which points to his influence extending long beyond his term, presumably through judges he has appointed.
He looks paralyzed and nervy 30 January to late February with tr Neptune square his Sun/Uranus midpoint; and worse from late February to late March with tr Neptune opposition his Mars/Saturn midpoint, which repeats October 2020 to late January 2021. Ebertin describes it as “waning powers, self-torment, a grievous loss.” Tr Pluto is also opposing his Uranus/Pluto midpoint from late February on and off till late 2021 which will be unstable and erratic; plus a dashed-hopes tr Neptune conjunct his Jupiter/Node picking up from late April. He also has a car-crash Solar Arc Mars opposition his Sun sometimes over coming months.
His Attorney General Term chart also has similar with tr Neptune square the Jupiter at 19 degrees Sagittarius from late March, on and off into early 2021 which tends to deflate ‘false happiness’ and puncture over confidence.
His synastry with Trump is good and bad with his Sun in Trump’s 10th furthering his ambitions and his Jupiter in Trump’s 7th for morale-boosting support. But Barr’s Mars in Virgo clashes with Trump’s Sun and Moon, so not all sweetness and light.
Their relationship chart is very locked together, for good or ill, with a composite Saturn Pluto tying together Sun, Mercury Venus to Neptune – certainly as a pair they have stratospheric ambitions with Neptune Pluto and won’t budge easy. Though again the composite Sun squares Mars which can be competitive/argumentative. The downhill slide between them starts late this February, running off and on into 2021 with tr Neptune dissolving confidence between them.
George Bernard Shaw (maybe) once remarked the UK and USA are divided by a common language. But there is also a grand canyon of a gulf between the attitudes on religion and politics. The UK may be a shambolic mess but Mad Hatterly weird scenarios such as above would be blown straight out of the water. Trump as ‘an imperfect vessel’ would have to be the understatement of the last two thousand years. How can people twist their brains round to this extent?
Justice John Roberts was sworn in at 2.11 pm today to preside over Trump’s impeachment by the Republican-majority Senate. There isn’t a high expectation that he will be impeached but the process could be damaging.
John Roberts has always been keen to uphold his justice position as being non-partisan and will not be relishing the prospect of having to dive into the political swamp. Born 27 January 1955 his Aquarius Sun opposes Trump’s Pluto; his Pluto is conjunct Trump’s Mars with his obsessively conscientious Saturn in square and his Mars opposes Trump’s Neptune; with his Neptune square Trump’s Saturn Venus – so very far from being a comfortable twosome. Trump’s stubbornness will meet its match in John Roberts.
Their relationship chart has an evasive, undermining composite Sun opposition Neptune tied into a Half Grand Sextile to a power-struggling Mars and Pluto; with a gritty, irritable composite Mars square Saturn. The composite Mars is being undermined by tr Neptune in square from January 30th to late February – so it won’t be a happy joint venture.
The swearing-in time is the start of the Senate trial and it provides a slightly directionless and very blocked (and underhand) chart – with Neptune in the 10th and the Sun, Saturn, Pluto in the 8th. Pluto etc in the 8th suggests a great deal of dirty power-playing out of sight. And Neptune was what bedevilled the Mueller Investigation, turning it into a damp squib.
Trump is flaring up and flying off the handle at the moment with a bad-tempered tr Uranus square his Mercury/Mars midpoint and tr Pluto opposition his explosive Mars/Uranus midpoint. The trial proper will start next week right on cue for him to pick up tr Pluto moving to opposes his Saturn and Mars/Node midpoint – which will be massively discouraging and frustrating – and that repeats July to mid August and late November to mid December. It only gets worse from late February as tr Pluto opposes his Sun/Mars midpoint and Mercury/Pluto until early July, which will put him under considerable mental strain – and that repeats late December 2020 till late January 2021, and again on and off till late 2021. That may not all be political since his physical and mental functioning appears to be worsening.
The present British Monarchy are in the line of Hanoverians which started when George 1 became King on 1 August 1714 JC. The name was changed to the House of Windsor to de-Germanise it during World War 1 on 17 July 1917.
If anything, the earlier chart works better though both have similarities.
The Hanoverian chart has a Leo Sun widely square Neptune in Taurus, Mars in late Cancer square Jupiter in Aries; and a stellium of Pluto, Saturn, Moon, Uranus, Mercury, Venus in Virgo. When the Abdication of 1936 occurred (and run up) tr Pluto in Cancer was zigzagging over the conjunction to the Mars; with tr Uranus in Taurus also criss-crossing the conjunction to the Neptune. The tr Saturn in Pisces opposition Neptune in Virgo was also twanging off the Uranus in Virgo. So clearly visible as a crisis and nervous meltdown.
Charles’ divorce from Diana in 1996 occurred with a panicky-failure tr Neptune opposition the Hanoverian Mars with tr Mars Venus conjunct the Mars; and at Diana’s death a year later tr Saturn was exactly in a depressing conjunction to the Jupiter.
Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation in 1953 saw tr Pluto just over the conjunction to the Leo Sun; with tr Jupiter square the Pluto. At Victoria’s Coronation in 1838 tr Pluto was conjunct the Jupiter.
The House of Windsor chart has the Sun at 24 degrees Cancer with Saturn Neptune Venus in Leo; Pluto (Moon) and Mercury also in Cancer; and Mars Jupiter in Gemini. At the 1953 Coronation Mars and Jupiter were in exactly the same degree of Gemini; at the 1996 divorce of Charles and Diana tr Neptune was on the debilitating opposition to the Sun with other near or near enough hard aspects. A downbeat time.
Both charts have hard tr Saturn Pluto aspects at the moment. Tr Saturn will be backwards and forwards opposition the Mars in Cancer in the Hanoverian chart and the Sun in the Windsor chart at the moment till the end of this month; and tr Pluto opposes those two planets on and off till late 2021. So there will be considerable challenges and pressure for change.
The last time tr Pluto in Capricorn opposed the Hanoverian chart Mars in 1773/1774 when George 111 was on the throne and the American Revolutionary War started which led to the breakaway of the US colonies. Nothing similar nowadays but still a time of great strain.
Both charts are nerve-stretched this year with tr Uranus hitting on their respective Neptunes; and both indicate 2021 as an undermining year with tr Neptune hard aspects to Venus on one chart and Mars on the other. The House of Windsor chart looks especially poleaxed in 2022 with Solar Arc Mars square Pluto in 2022; and Solar Arc Neptune Saturn square Venus in 2023/24. The Hanoverian chart has 2025 as the stumbling-block year with Solar Arc Saturn square Jupiter and Solar Arc Uranus mercury conjunct Mars.
One way and another it won’t be a comfortable ride ahead – though the Hanoverians have been around for three hundred years so there have been peaks and troughs before.
Diana had Saturn in late Capricorn in aspect to those sensitive Cancer planets on both charts; Andrew has his questionable Venus Mars in Capricorn also in aspect. Prince William, Kate and Meghan with their last decan Pluto also connect in a marginally uncomfortable way.
